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The Faculty Seminar Series at The Africa Institute (GSU) hosts Yonas Ashine Demisse, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University who will share his research titled, “Negotiated Political Modernity in Africa: Abolition and Manumission in Early 20th Century Ethiopia.” The seminar takes place on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 (12:00 noon – 2:00 pm GST) in The Africa Institute – Auditorium (location map). The seminar is open to all; register to attend.
The seminar explores the interaction between traditional manumission practices and modern international abolitionist approaches in early 20th-century Ethiopia. It shows that older normative attitudes to manumission, which were compatible with legal slave ownership, did not disappear when international pressures to abolish slavery stimulated the development of anti-slavery policies and legal reforms. Rather, the rationale of manumission was co-opted to serve a new abolitionist agenda expanding the already plural praxis of abolitionism in the region. The seminar will further deconstruct the argument in two parts.
Firstly, the research differentiates between the suppression of domestic slavery and the suppression of the slave trade, both deeply embedded in the state’s functioning. The traditional approach to manumission, rooted in the Law of Kings, didn’t sever relations between the freed and their former masters. As Ethiopia faced the choice of aligning with international abolitionist norms or colonial occupation in the early 20th century, a campaign for new anti-slavery measures ensued. The second part focuses on this campaign, asserting that Ethiopian abolitionists appealed to nationalist sentiments, tying the freedom, survival, and sovereignty of modern Ethiopia to the liberation of household slaves. Household manumissions were encouraged to safeguard the nation’s freedom from foreign dominance.
Despite firm laws against the slave trade and slavery, the persistent reliance on traditional manumission logic implied that pre-abolitionist social hierarchies endured until at least the 1970s. The research is grounded in a critical examination of the medieval legal source, the Law of Kings, and the 1924 abolitionist decree. It closely analyzes the writings of Ethiopian activists contributing to the Berhanenna Selam newspaper in the 1920s and 1930s. These activists were associated with the national antislavery NGO, Love and Service Association, advocating for abolition and domestic slave manumission.
In conclusion, the research argues that the abolition process in Ethiopia followed a unique path. International abolitionist ideas had to be negotiated with premodern methods of freeing slaves, aimed at advancing civilization and preserving the country’s independence. In negotiating abolitionism as part of Ethiopia’s political modernity, the slave trade and slave raiding were deemed aberrations and crimes, while household slave-owning persisted, provided that masters progressively manumitted slaves and adopted alternative forms of servitude. This conservative approach not only facilitated a gradual abolition process but also contributed to the suppression of slavery and its legacies in official discourse.
Yonas Ashine Demisse is an Assistant Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University. He is the author of Slaves of State and Intellectuals of Development: A Genealogy of Development in Ethiopia, Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR reviews) Kampala, Uganda, 2022, and co-author of “Implications of Protest and Reform for Domestic Governance in Ethiopia,” Journal of Asian and African Studies. 2021;56(5):988-1006. His research interests include political theory and historical and comparative politics of state-society relations in Africa and from Africa. Currently, Demisse is serving as Chairperson of the Department of Political Science and International Relations.
Matthew S. Hopper, Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow, The Africa Institute (GSU) and Professor of History at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His research focuses on slavery and abolition in the Indian Ocean world. Read more.
Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.
The seminar will be in English.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Click here to book your place.
The Faculty Seminar Series at The Africa Institute (GSU) hosts Yonas Ashine Demisse, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University who will share his research titled, “Negotiated Political Modernity in Africa: Abolition and Manumission in Early 20th Century Ethiopia.” The seminar takes place on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 (12:00 noon – 2:00 pm GST) in The Africa Institute – Auditorium (location map). The seminar is open to all; register to attend.
The Faculty Seminar Series at The Africa Institute (GSU) hosts Yonas Ashine Demisse, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University who will share his research titled, “Negotiated Political Modernity in Africa: Abolition and Manumission in Early 20th Century Ethiopia.” The seminar takes place on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 (12:00 noon – 2:00 pm GST) in The Africa Institute – Auditorium (location map). The seminar is open to all; register to attend.
The seminar explores the interaction between traditional manumission practices and modern international abolitionist approaches in early 20th-century Ethiopia. It shows that older normative attitudes to manumission, which were compatible with legal slave ownership, did not disappear when international pressures to abolish slavery stimulated the development of anti-slavery policies and legal reforms. Rather, the rationale of manumission was co-opted to serve a new abolitionist agenda expanding the already plural praxis of abolitionism in the region. The seminar will further deconstruct the argument in two parts.
Firstly, the research differentiates between the suppression of domestic slavery and the suppression of the slave trade, both deeply embedded in the state’s functioning. The traditional approach to manumission, rooted in the Law of Kings, didn’t sever relations between the freed and their former masters. As Ethiopia faced the choice of aligning with international abolitionist norms or colonial occupation in the early 20th century, a campaign for new anti-slavery measures ensued. The second part focuses on this campaign, asserting that Ethiopian abolitionists appealed to nationalist sentiments, tying the freedom, survival, and sovereignty of modern Ethiopia to the liberation of household slaves. Household manumissions were encouraged to safeguard the nation’s freedom from foreign dominance.
Despite firm laws against the slave trade and slavery, the persistent reliance on traditional manumission logic implied that pre-abolitionist social hierarchies endured until at least the 1970s. The research is grounded in a critical examination of the medieval legal source, the Law of Kings, and the 1924 abolitionist decree. It closely analyzes the writings of Ethiopian activists contributing to the Berhanenna Selam newspaper in the 1920s and 1930s. These activists were associated with the national antislavery NGO, Love and Service Association, advocating for abolition and domestic slave manumission.
In conclusion, the research argues that the abolition process in Ethiopia followed a unique path. International abolitionist ideas had to be negotiated with premodern methods of freeing slaves, aimed at advancing civilization and preserving the country’s independence. In negotiating abolitionism as part of Ethiopia’s political modernity, the slave trade and slave raiding were deemed aberrations and crimes, while household slave-owning persisted, provided that masters progressively manumitted slaves and adopted alternative forms of servitude. This conservative approach not only facilitated a gradual abolition process but also contributed to the suppression of slavery and its legacies in official discourse.
Yonas Ashine Demisse is an Assistant Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University. He is the author of Slaves of State and Intellectuals of Development: A Genealogy of Development in Ethiopia, Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR reviews) Kampala, Uganda, 2022, and co-author of “Implications of Protest and Reform for Domestic Governance in Ethiopia,” Journal of Asian and African Studies. 2021;56(5):988-1006. His research interests include political theory and historical and comparative politics of state-society relations in Africa and from Africa. Currently, Demisse is serving as Chairperson of the Department of Political Science and International Relations.
Matthew S. Hopper, Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow, The Africa Institute (GSU) and Professor of History at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His research focuses on slavery and abolition in the Indian Ocean world. Read more.
Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.
The seminar will be in English.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Click here to book your place.
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