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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | From independent chiefdoms to Abyssinian subjects: the Aari interpretation of conquest and colonization |
Author: | Naty, Alexander |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | Africa: rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione |
Volume: | 49 |
Issue: | 4 |
Pages: | 498-515 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
Subjects: | Aari history 1900-1999 |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/40760956 |
Abstract: | Drawing on Aari oral history and on information from the few scattered written sources, this paper presents an account of the conquest of the Aari people in the former chiefdom of Baaka by the imperial Abyssinian army during the late 19th century. The dramatic defeat of the Aari laid the basis for the establishment of unequal power relations between the local populations and the imperial Abyssinian soldier-settlers. The conquest resulted in the enslavement of the Aari and the exploration of Aariland and other neighbouring regions for ivory. The author discusses both the Aari and the Abyssinian State interpretations of the conquest and colonization. The Aari view their conquest as a consequence of a curse pronounced by the former king, Massa, after his sons had tried to kill him. The northern settlers hold a different interpretation. Their understanding of the conquest is based on economic and legal explanations contained in the idea of colonization. The paper is based on field research carried out among the Aari of southwest Ethiopia between 1988 and 1990. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French and Italian. |