The role of women on the Ethiopian stage

Abstract

Drama has been an important cultural form in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa for 90 years. There have been many important playwrights who have been influential in the socio-political as well as cultural development of the nation, and the state has consistently supported a range of theatrical activities – as well as censoring on occasion theatre it found too challenging. However, academic writing on Ethiopian theatre is still limited. This article explores a particular aspect of Ethiopian theatre tradition, namely the representation of women on the Ethiopian stage, and the issues surrounding the empowerment of women in Ethiopian theatre.

Keywords:

• Ethiopia
• theatre
• gender
• actress
• women
• empowerment

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Jane Plastow for the assistance she rendered to me by sending books very relevant to develop my article, and also for her contribution in shaping the form and content of the article. My warm and heartfelt thanks should also reach Dr Carli Coetzee for her editing, and her support towards finalizing my article.

Notes

Emperor Menilik II succeeded Emperor Yohannis IV and ruled Ethiopia from 1889–1913. He is recognized as the founder of modern Ethiopia who led the Ethiopian army towards the victory of Adwa by defeating the Italian army during World War I. See Milkias and Metaferia (2005).

Lij Iyyasu, the grandson of Emperor Menilik II was designated as heir to the throne by the Emperor in 1909. He remained as head of the Ethiopian state for seven years until he was deposed and imprisoned in 1916 through a coup led by supporters of Teferi Mekonnen – later to become the Emperor Haile Selassie. He is also known as Abba Tena Iyyasu, ‘Abba Tena’ being the name of his horse. Ethiopian leaders are always identified by putting the name of their horse as an adjective in front of their proper name. See Taffete 2004, 47–145.

Haile Selassie I (1892–1975) was born Lij Tafari Mekonnen and served as Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930–1975. He was noted for his statesmanship and for introducing many political, economic, and social reforms. He is the religious symbol for God incarnate among the Rastafari Movement (Adejumobi 2007, 184). He was deposed by Dergue, the military junta led by Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam months after the beginning of the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution. He died in prison and his dead body was retrieved from beneath Mengistu's office after the downfall of the Dergue.

Empress Zewditu, daughter of Emperor Menilik II, succeeded Lij Iyyasu after the coup in 1916 and died in 1930, two days after the defeat of her ex-husband by Teferi Mekonnen's (then heir to the throne) army on the battlefield. After a few months Teferi Mekonnen became Emperor Haile Selassie (Zewudie 2007, 114–37).

The school is named after Emperor Haile Selassie's wife ‘Menen’.

Tewodros (1818–1868) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855–1868. He is considered as the initiator of Ethiopian modernization. He committed suicide on 18 April 1868, so as not to surrender to the British Military Expedition that came to Ethiopia to free British personnel from the Emperor's captivity. His wife Empress Truwerk died a few days after her husband; Prince Alemayehu (the son of the Emperor and the Empress) was taken to England by the British military, died and was buried there. Queen Victoria was said to have been very considerate to the Prince (Pankhurst 2002, 97–135).

Right after the attempt to assassinate the fascist viceroy, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani on Yekatit 12 (19 February 1937) in Addis Ababa, black shirted fascists indiscriminately massacred Ethiopians, and sent intellectuals to prison (Campbell 2010, 185–275), including Seneddu Gebru (Pankhurst 1991, 75).

The Ethiopian Revolution erupted in 1974 as the result of the contradictions between the decaying feudalism and the uprooting of capitalism in Ethiopia. Haile Sellassie, who had been praised for four decades as a modernizer, faced strong opposition from Marxist-driven student movements in the early 1970s. The poverty stricken majority of the Ethiopian people gave support to the anti-monarchist student movement which led to the overthrow of the imperial regime. Dergue, the military junta, then took over power (Marcus 1994, 176–220), becoming one of the most dictatorial and brutal governments in the world.

Women performers were denied the right to pregnancy in 1950s with the belief that pregnancy would affect their beauty and continuity of performances. But with the struggle waged by Selamawit Gebresilassie and Telela Kebede the restriction was lifted in the 1960s (Gebresilassie, Interview, 13 November 2010).

Some of those recruited from traditional bars in Addis Ababa and Asmara for stage productions with low salaries used to run bar entertainment services alongside their artistic involvements (Plastow 1996, 103). In 1974 and 1975 theatre managers in Addis Ababa officially prohibited women dramatists from owning bars, and urged all to refrain from bar entertainment night programmes (Tesfaye Gessese, Interview, 10 February 2012).

The Eritrean case is reported as different. Matzke (2002, 39) notes ‘I enquired whether this did not have a comic effect, given that male cross-dressing is not found in long-established Eritrean performance forms, though part of the tradition for women. “There was no such thing as comedy”, Osman vehemently objected, “It was a serious show”’. For further details on Eritrean Theatre, see also Matzke (2003, 2007); Plastow (1997a, 1997b, 2004); Matzke and Plastow (2006).

Three distinguished expatriate professors, Robert McLaren, Peter Harrop, and Jane Plastow, are recognized by the department for their commitment to standardizing the theoretical and practical curriculum.