Non-Semitic features are visible in every aspect of the grammar and lexicon of Ethio-Semitic languages(ES).Some scholars attribute this to pidginazation,a hypothesis which posits that ES originated from a Cushitic substratum and a Semitic suprastratum.The latter is assumed to have been brought by a Semitic group (or a wave of groups) who migrated from South Arabia into Ethiopia around 500 BCE. However, since the Ethio-Semitic group contains the most diversified languages of the Semitic family and has preserved core Semitic features, a counter-proposal which considers ES to be an autochthonous group has become standard these days. The short period of Amharic history does not prove the hypothesis that ES originated from a mixture of Semitic and Cushitic.Most of the non-Semitic features that contemporary Amharic exhibits are recent innovations.  Current Amharic lacks pharyngeal sounds as do the other South Ethio-Semitic languages with the exception of Shonke-Tollaha Argobba. The glottal sounds have also limited distribution in modern Amharic (MA). Old Amharic(OA)has these typical Semitic sounds. Current Amharic seems to be developing postpositions and is characterized by circumpositions. In OA the postpositional elements as relational items did not exist. Neither did circumpositions exist. OA is characterized by a mixed word order. A transitive clause in MA has unmarked SOV order. Relative clauses and adjectives must also follow their head noun. OA was not rigid in this regard. Although structures like those in modern Amharic are attested, we find a VSO order in OA. Relative clauses and adjectives may also follow the noun that they modify.  Because Amharic has been serving as a language of administration for over a millennium, it has developed unique polite forms for second and third persons. These polite forms underwent a number of fascinating changes throughout history. Except for third person, Amharic has preserved the Semitic personal pronouns. This book describes the historical grammar of Amharic which furthers our understanding of the changes that Ethio-Semitic languages underwent. The research is based on ancient manuscripts and grammatical works of different periods.

A Diachronic Grammar of Amharic: Grammatical Changes in Semitic

Girma A Demeke

The Red Sea Press, Inc.

Yohannes IV of Ethiopia: A Political Biography

Although no less illustrious, the Emperor Yohannes IV has been nonetheless featured far less prominently than both his predecessor (Tewodros II) and successor (Menelik II). This prodigiously researched, rigorously empirical, and analytically balanced biography resurrects him from relative obscurity. The book covers a staggering array of personalities, issues and events, often peppered with fascinating vignettes that poignantly illuminate the life and times of one of the most redoubtable and patriotic rulers of early modern Ethiopia. Prof. Gebru Tareke, Author, The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa I have followed the scholarly achievements of His Excellency Dejazmach Dr. Zewede Gabre-Sellassie since my first meeting with him in person in Oxford England in the early 60's. Although I have been told that he came from a royal aristocratic family, the person I met was but an aristocrat of scholarship. The present work is a fruit of a most thoroughly researched, well documented, and well written account of one of the most important modern Ethiopian Emperors, Yohannes IV (1872-1889.) Dej. Dr Zewede, was not only a scion of the Emperor himself but he has also researched every detail about the Emperor closely. More importantly Dej. Dr. Zewede was in his own right a first-rate scholar with impeccable knowledge of the language, literature, and history of Ethiopia. This magnum opus is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the modern complicated political and international history of the great Ethiopian nation and its tall stature and dignity among the nations of Africa and the world. Professor Ephraim Isaac, author of The Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church

Biographies & Memoirs

Zewde Gabre-Sellassie

Leaders & Notable People

Through a rare autobiographical act, Zara Yacob, who acquainted himself with the teachings of the Catholic Church introduced by Portuguese Jesuit missions in Sixteenth-century Ethiopia, becomes the first self-conscious founder of a philosophical tradition in Ethiopia. Indeed, it is a mild exaggeration to assert that it is Zara Yacob who gave the continent of Africa an original autobiography, something that was at that time confined to literate traditions outside of Africa. His treatise is a masterful example of self-presentation, clearly and powerfully expressed in a captivating literary style.

Zara Yacob: Rationality of the Human Heart

Teodros Kiros

Somaliland is "Africa’s best kept secret," according to South African academic Iqbal Jhazbay. Somaliland has earned this description owing to its extraordinary achievements in the 12 years since its declaration of independence. Despite being unrecognized and almost entirely ostracized by the international community, Somaliland has, following a brutal war with Somalia’s now defunct dictatorship, rebuilt much of its severely damaged infrastructure, repatriated half a million refugees and removed thousands of mines from the ground. In addition, Somaliland has maintained a comparatively decent human rights record and has made significant progress towards the establishment of a constitutional democracy. 
Rebuilding Somaliland: Issues and Possibilities is the fruit of an extensive research project initiated in 1998 by the former War-torn Societies Project (WSP), now WSP International, in partnership with a local institution, the Academy for Peace and Development. It aims to present a "self-portrait of Somaliland" and the challenges facing it at the turn of the century. This book also documents the animated, often controversial debates on the future direction that needs to be taken in such areas as: 
• Decentralization of government institutions • Media and political reconstruction • Regulating the livestock economy • Impact of the war on the family 
Functioning as more than records of research and debate, more than essays on post-war rebuilding, these contributions provide a unique insight into the future that the people of Somaliland want for themselves and for their children. As such, the essays are in many ways a blueprint for Somaliland as it seeks to regenerate itself into a peaceful, mature society that will earn the respect and recognition of the international community.

Rebuilding Somaliland, Issues and Possibilities

History

Project, War-torn Societies

Africa

Conversations with Eritrean Political Prisoners

In 2001, months after a devastating war with Ethiopia, a wide-ranging debate erupted within Eritrea over the conduct of leadership and the content of government policy, particularly around the 1998-2000 Border War with Ethiopia, which many thought could have been averted. Much of the criticism was directed at the president, Isaias Afwerki, who refused to implement a newly ratified Constitution or to permit the formation of political parties or to conduct national elections. This national conversation came to an abrupt halt in September when the government arrested its most prominent critics, shut down the private press, and smothered all public political discussion. This book revisits that debate through interviews with five critics—top government officials and former liberation movement leaders—shortly before they disappeared into the Eritrean gulag. Since then, none has been seen, heard from or accounted for. Nor has any been charged with a crime. As these conversations reveal, the speakers knew what was in store for them—arrest and indefinite detention. This is why they spoke with veteran journalist and long-time friend of Eritrea Dan Connell. This book not only opens a critical window onto that seminal moment; it signals the persistence of the dream of a democratic future for a remarkable nation whose promise has yet to be fulfilled.

Politics & Social Sciences

Dan Connell

Social Sciences

This important new book analyzes, through field research, the most relevant microcredit programs in existence in Eritrea. This African country recently completed a thirty-year war of liberation and lives today through an extraordinary period of construction of its own national identity. Committed to promoting and supporting microcredit initiatives, it seeks an active participation by women in the process of reconstruction and remains a country firmly committed to its own history and culture. Eritrea therefore constitutes an excellent case for observing and analyzing microcredit programs on a large scale, carried out in a very geographically varied land, with a high number of participants and a diverse population, in a postwar situation.  Today, as the concept of development has come under criticism, two issues have become central to discussions of how to change conditions of life in the poorest countries: gender and microcredit.  This book, based on extensive field research and interviews with both women participants in microcredit programs and with experts from the same programs and from international agencies and NGOs, is an important new contribution to the study and practice of ameliorating conditions for Third World women.   With an eye to the issue of female empowerment, the authors shed light on the great difficulties encountered in conducting microcredit programs in a social environment governed by ancient norms and traditions. They identify the strategies carried out by the various subjects involved, field agents and clients to further develop the possibilities of such programs. Rather than the point of view of World Bank or NGO experts, the authors valorize the point of view of the women participants, and in the words of the women themselves, they find suggestions for social change oriented toward the needs of the poorest people.  With extensive discussion of the varying theoretical approaches to microcredit, and with an extensive bibliography, the book is ideal for classroom discussion as well as for practitioners of microcredit projects.

Sharing Trust: Women and Microcredit in Eritrea

Business & Money

Francesca Zamperetti and Giovanna Franca Dalla Costa

Economics

This collection of essays explores several sites of racialized power, from scholarly works embedded in academic disciplines to “ethnic” museums and several race-based exclusionary political practices. The point of view is comparative--that of a woman of color feminist--and that of one born into a “red zone,” the world of urban Native America in the second half of the twentieth century. Arguing that the experiences of indigenous peoples--as subjects of museum display, anthropological investigation, and history writing, as well as those whose communities have provided both cultural commodities for mass consumption and exemplars for performative appropriation--often overlap those experienced by other racialized communities ( primarily within the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean), this work offers a wide-ranging analysis of several symbolic and political regimes of racial and gender power. Polemical in tone, the essays are each grounded in an historical consciousness specific to communities of color in the contemporary U.S.

From A Red Zone: Critical Perspectives on Race, Politics & Culture

Patricia Penn Hilden

This timely and unique book is an analytical study of post-liberation Eritrea. The work offers an extraordinary account of the events and developments that have taken place in the country’s politics, economy and foreign relations and of the things that have gone wrong since independence. By focusing on the economy, constitutional development or lack thereof, and foreign relations, the book illuminates objectively the internal and external difficulties and constraints the country faced in building a democratic society, viable economy, and sustainable foreign policy after liberation. Mengisteab and Yohannes insightfully demonstrate the structural and historical conditions and leadership patterns that account for the striking similarities between post-colonial Eritrea and post-colonial African states. The book makes an enormous contribution not only to the study of contemporary Eritrea but also to the comparative study of African politics and government. Since there is no work to date that treats the economy, politics and diplomacy of Eritrea from a comparative perspective, this timely book will go a long way in closing the gap in our understanding of post-liberation Eritrea, and the post-colonial African state as well.

Anatomy of An African Tragedy: Political, Economic and Foreign Policy crisis in Post-Indepence Eritrea

Kidane Mengisteab

Okbazghi Yohannes

This book details many striking features of Somali customary law. It is compensatory, for example, rather than punitive. Instead of being imprisoned or otherwise punished, law breakers are required to compensate their victims. A victim seldom fails to receive compensation, moreover, because every Somali is insured by near kin against his or her liabilities under the law. Being based on custom, Somali law has no need of legislation or legislators, hence is happily free of political influences. Even so, the author points out areas in the law that are in need of change. These do not require legislation, however; many desirable changes, such as ending restrictions on the sale of land and enhancing the status of women, are implicit in economic development. As for the Somali political system, not only is there no need to set up a democracy, the author clearly shows why any attempt to do so must inevitably produce chaos. This book by a trained and sympathetic observer shows how, viewed in global perspective, Somali law stands with the Latin and Medieval laws and the English common law against the statutory law that originated in continental Europe with the modern nation state. It explains many seeming anomalies about present-day Somalia and describes its prospects as well as the dangers facing it. Born in Zeist, the Netherlands, in 1933, Michael van Notten graduated from Leiden University in Law and was admitted into practice in Rotterdam. He later served with a New York law firm and directed the Institution Europaeum, a Belgium-based policy research organization. In the early 1990s, he became interested in the prospect of Somalia developing in the modern world of a stateless society, and for the next twelve years, he studied Somali customary law. A keen analyst of the intricacies of clan politics, he traveled fearlessly in war-torn Somalia. He died in Nimes, France, on June 5th, 2002

The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa

Michael van Notten

This memoir recounts the extraordinary story of man straddling two worlds a progressive lawyer and high-ranking official of the government of Emperor Haile Selassie who struggled for justice within an archaic system. Briefly stated, as Attorney General acting to advance progressive ideas in the context of an unreconstructed feudal society, the author was often involved in clashes. In the end the tension proved unbearable. The fact that he is Eritrean further complicates his position and eventually leads to his resignation and, after the overthrow of the Emperor in 1974, to joining the Eritrean freedom fighters. The story begins in the author s village of origin outside Asmara, the Eritrean capital. After a few years of elementary education, he begins his lifetime journey of adventure by traveling to Ethiopia, as a thirteen year old. Then he is off to England on a scholarship for university education, just about the time when the sun was setting on the British Empire, and African agitation for independence was beginning. While in law school the author is involved in anti-colonial student politics and, after graduation with a law degree, he finds himself in the thick of pan-African politics and, at the same time, in clandestine politics within Ethiopia. In December 1958, the author attended the All African Peoples Conference convened by President Nkrumah of Ghana, where leaders of political parties, liberation movements, labor unions and student and women s organizations participated. This was a defining moment for many young Africans orienting them towards the idea of African liberation and unity. It brought pressure to bear on African leaders, including Emperor Haile Selassie, to be on the side of unity and liberation; at least they paid lip service to it. It provided young Africans, like our author, with the moral and intellectual framework to work towards those goals. It also contributed to the author s decision to be involved in clandestine politics inside Eth

The Crown and the Pen. [Vol. 1]: The Memoirs of a Lawyer Turned Rebel

Bereket, H. Selassie

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the The Red Sea Press, Inc. publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by The Red Sea Press, Inc.