By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
The British and Foreign Bible Society
During the pre-war years under review, the British and Foreign Bible
Society was also active. It opened a new Addis Ababa headquarters on 13
May 1926, on which occasion the Regent, Ras Tafari Makonnen, emphasised
the importance of the Society’s work. He recalled that in former times
the Bible was only available in Ethiopia in Ge‘ez, and was hence “not
found in the hands of those who knew only Amharic.” Moreover, being
available only in manuscript form, and not printed, it was “extremely
expensive”, resulting in spiritual leaders often encountering “much
difficulty” in obtaining the Old and New Testament complete.
The availability of printed Bibles at low prices, he declared, had
given Ethiopians more than “mere ability to read. They are always glad,”
he explained, “to hear the Word of God , and rejoiced even to read it
in Ge‘ez, a language they do not understand. So it is apparent how much
greater is their joy to read it in the language they do understand,
namely Amharic. Since such has been the case with the Christians of
earlier days and with the teachers of recent days in their work, so
doubtless the Gallas who have come to Christ, have found
the light of
knowledge by reading the Bible printed in their language”.
Bible Society statistics indicate that 141,313 Bibles, Testaments, or
Portions of the Bible were printed between 1915 and 1935. They appeared
in no less than nine languages, namely Ge‘ez, Amharic, Ge‘ez and
Amharic combined, Tigrinya, Tigre, Sidamo, Gofa, Gudella, Gallinya, and
Kunama.
The number of Biblical texts printed in these two decades was almost
half as much again as those produced in the previous eight and a half
decades.
Out of a total of 141,313 texts printed between 1915 and 1935, no
fewer than 99,537 were in Amharic, 27,144 in Ge‘ez and Amharic combined;
7,812 in Ge‘ez, 7,500 in Tigre, 3,000 in Tigrinya, 3,000 in Gallinya,
1,070 in Kunama, and 750 each in Sidamo, Gofa, and Gudella. Such figures
indicate the diffusion of literacy, as well as that of the Christian
faith.
Bible Society figures indicate that, between 1915 and 1930, some
71,683 texts were distributed through its branches in Addis Ababa and
Asmara, while others entered the country through other, less important,
channels.
A further 59,509 texts were distributed in the last pre-war years,
1930-1935. Of these, 57,257 texts were diffused by way of Addis Ababa
and 2,252 by way of Asmara. Distribution from Addis Ababa comprised
2,913 Bibles, 4,127 Testaments and 50,217 portions.
Bibles Galore
In the quarter of a century or so preceding the Italian war the Bible
Society had thus printed, and distributed, almost a quarter of a
million texts in Ethiopian languages.
Early Libraries
The Ethiopian Ministry of Education established a National Library in
the 1930′s, which was open to the general public. According to the
memory of one person connected with it, who was interviewed thirty years
later, it had “over 1,000 books”.
A French bookshop was founded in 1930. Run by a French couple,
Monsieur and Madame R. E. Goyon, it reportedly had more than 1,000
books, and subscribed to the principal French, English and Italian
newspapers.
Christine Sandford: “Unprecedented Advances in Literacy”
The Nineteen Twenties, and especially the early Nineteen Thirties, in
Ethiopia appear to have witnessed unprecedented advances in literacy,
as well as in education. Mrs. Christine Sandford, an old-time English
resident of this period, claimed to have discerned a steady rise in
literacy. “It was quite remarkable to a resident of many years’
standing,” she notes, “that whereas in 1920 the boy on his household
staff who could read and write was a notable exception”, in 1935 “among
the same class there were few young men and boys who had not mastered
the elementary processes of reading and writing the Amharic script”.
This above statement seems to be confirmed by a British Board of
Trade Report, for 1932, which made the significant comment that the
level of Ethiopian education, though “not high”, was nevertheless
“higher than usual” in countries in a similar stage of economic
development. The Swedish missionary Eriksson, who was somewhat of a
Puritan, writing in the same year, agreed that “the number of people
able to read is definitely increasing,” but expressed the fear that
youngsters going to school “often acquire a love of town life; very few
find their way back to their villages.” He added that “the country
people reproach the missions” (whose work we have examined in some
detail in previous articles) “for drawing children away from their homes
and villages”.
Some Statistics
The educational position on the eve of the Italian Fascist invasion
of 1935-6 was further documented by the Greek author Adrien Zervos, a
useful compiler of facts. He states that Ethiopian Government at that
time employed some thirty foreign teachers, and that there were fourteen
schools in the capital, with a total enrollment of about 4,200. He adds
that there were about four times as many boys at school as girls.
Another, and useful, observer of this time, the Hungarian journalist
Ladislas Farago, recalled that the three most important Ethiopian
schools of this time – the Menelik, the Tafari Makonnen and the Menen –
had a joint enrollment of some four hundred students. His comment was
that this seemed “little enough”, but was “at least a beginning”.
Emperor Haile Sellassie, according to Farago, had expressed the hope
of having “at least thirty” similar schools in ten years’ time.
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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