Religious, political and cultural influences on the first Ethiopian playwright, Teklehawariat Teklemariam and his play Fabula: Yawreoch Commedia

Abstract

This article analyses the first African literary play written in the Amharic language (1920/21 EC) Fabulla: Yawreoch Commedia (Fable: The Comedy of Animals) and the biography of the playwright Teklehawariat Teklemariam. Since Teklehawariat Teklemariam was born in Ethiopia, but at the age of 11 left for Russia to spend 15 years of his youth being educated among the Russian aristocrats, this article sets out to reveal the socio-cultural identity of the playwright as well as what European and Ethiopian cultural elements the playwright merged to craft his new hybrid theatre form. By doing so the article examines the evolution of Ethiopian theatre and the essential elements of which it is made up. To this end we will comprehensively follow the course of the playwright's life, the dominant religious, political, and cultural views that shaped his personality, and his views and beliefs about Ethiopian and European cultures. This article contributes to a better understanding of the formation and characteristics of Ethiopian theatre as well as the Ethiopian understanding of European cultures.

Keywords:

• Teklehawariat Teklemariam
• Fable: The Comedy of Animals
• Ethiopian theatre
• the battle of Adwa

Notes

1 The play text says the first edition was published in Hamle 1904, which translates as July 1912. The first edition of the play is dated Pagume 1913. Pagume is the 13th month of the Ethiopian calendar and translates as September 1921 (Plastow 2010, 138).

2 In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church one could become a deacon at an early age. The duty of a deacon is to assist the priests in the church sermons, mainly by reading extracts from the bible.

3 The battle of Adwa is one of many proud moments in Ethiopian history. The Italians were seeking to invade Ethiopia with a view to expanding their Eritrean colony. In a unique event in European colonial history, an African army defeated the Italian army which was forced to agree the present border between Ethiopia and Eritrea as binding.

4 South-east of the Abbay river (the Blue Nile), Shoa was comparatively insulated from the wars and politics of northern Ethiopia. Its successive rulers steadfastly worked towards the strengthening of the principality by conquering the neighbouring Oromo lands. It was as Shoan ruler that Menelik started the process of expansion that was to culminate in the creation of modern Ethiopia. In this, he was following a tradition of territorial expansion that had marked the Shoan kingdom since its inception.