March 11, 2021: This page is no longer being maintained at this location. Siân Echard, Department of English, University of British Columbia What distinguishes Ethiopia from other ‘mixed legal systems’, though, is the absence of a ‘genetic’ relationship with any one foreign legal system.Medieval Manuscripts on the Web (digitized manuscripts) Medieval Manuscripts on the Web While never attaining the dominant status of Roman law in medieval European practice, the survival and resilience of the Fetḥa Nagaśt in the subsequent evolution of the country’s legal and political system from the seventeenth century onwards has indeed been remarkable – including its ‘inspirational’ role acknowledged in twentieth-century modern codifications. The transfer of this Eastern Roman torso of law to the radically different social environment of Ethiopia may be ranked as one of the earliest systemic 'receptions’ in comparative legal history.
This study tracks the ancient Ethiopian Fetḥa Nagaśt (‘Law of the Kings’) to its origins, which date back to compilations of Roman-Byzantine law from the fifth to the ninth centuries, first translated from Greek into Arabic by Coptic Christian jurists in Egypt in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and into the classical Ethiopic language (Ge’ez) in the mid-seventeenth century. In addition, the high circulation rate of these two narratives, both orally and written, among the adherents of the Ethiopian Church makes them the legitimate materials to investigate the cultural significance of the Book of Enoch in the Ethiopian medieval literary production as well as the living Christian tradition of the country. The two narratives are selected particularly for they are among the category of Ethiopian texts that primarily, if not exclusively, focus on the eschatological dimension of human life. The main objective of this paper will be to investigate the influence of the book of Enoch on shaping the Ethiopian imagination of the Afterlife by taking two Ethiopian eschatological narratives, namely Ra’әyä Maryam (Revelations of Mary) and Mängädä sämay (The Way to Heaven). Whilst Matti Multiplex, with its three screens and 7D simulator, is read as a translocal space in which the global desires of Ethiopia’s aspiring middle class and the high-end, expat appeal of Bole Road collide.Īlthough Enochian studies is one of the flourishing disciplines in the field of Biblical studies, and hence the significance of the Ethiopic Enoch in recent development of the area, the cultural and textual significance of the Book of Enoch in the Ethiopian spiritual and textual tradition seems less established. Older cinemas, located near Piassa and Merkato will be associated with አራዳ ‘Arada’ prototypes and seen as enclaves of social and moral ambiguities, mimicking the spatial and symbolic characteristics of their locales. After briefly mentioning the post war developments and the state monopolisation of cinema under the Derg regime, the paper discusses the commercialisation of cinema and the social ambivalences created by built cinematic spaces which populate present-day Addis Ababa. During this era, alternative discourses shall be highlighted such as the Italian administration’s use of cinema as an instrument of subjugation and mass regimentation, and the subversive resistance perpetrated by Ethiopian spectators as they mocked projections of Italian prestige. After comparing early discourses positioning the cinema between modernising aristocrats and conservative clerics, the discussion then turns to the Italian occupation and the proliferation of both outdoor and indoor cinemas throughout Ethiopia. By presenting ethnographic research and comparisons of historical sources this paper offers new insights into the development of both the built cinematic space in urban Addis and the popular rural travelling cinemas of the Italian occupation (1936-41). This study casts a socially orientated analysis of the impact of the cinematic space since the introduction of cinematic technologies to Ethiopia as early as 1889 E.C.
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