By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
The Lazarist Press at Keren
A second missionary printing effort was made in the following decade
at Keren, then under Egyptian suzerainty. The French Lazarists installed
a small press there in 1879, and began printing missionary works. These
included a Psalter and Hymn Book, in Amharic; a Ge’ez-Amharic grammar,
and several religious works. Among the latter were books on Christian
Doctrine, the “Initiation of Christ”, a Life of Christ, and Spiritual
Exercises, all four in Amharic; also one work in Tigrinya, and another
in Ge’ez.
The press continued to operate after the Tripartite Treaty of 1884,
between the Emperor Yohannes, Britain and Egypt, which restored to
Ethiopia the Bogos province, in which Keren was situated. The
establishment can thus be considered the first press to operate on
Ethiopian territory. Subsequently, in 1888, the town fell to the
Italians, after which the missionaries published announcements, in both
Italian and Amharic, for the Italian military authorities. Some years
later, around 1900, the press was transferred to the Eritrean capital,
Asmara.
The Swedish Evangelical Mission
The Swedish Evangelical Mission had meanwhile founded their first
printing establishment at Monkulo, near Massawa, in 1885, but also moved
to Asmara, in 1895.
Three Other Presses at Massawa
The first secular press in Eritrea was the Italian Military Press at
Massawa, which was set up shortly after the port’s occupation by the
Italians in 1885. The press was imported from an Italian firm, which
also supplied a seventeen-year-old printer, with six or seven
assistants. Printing was entirely in Italian, and consisted mainly of
government regulations, and circulars of the military authorities. A few
books, however, were also produced.
The first commercial press in Massawa was established a few years
later, in 1990. It was the Tipographia e Libreria Italiana, which was
owned by an Italian business concern, A. Micheli and Co., and began
publishing “L’Eritreo”, a weekly administrative newspaper, in November
of the following year.
Another Italian press, set up almost immediately afterwards, was that
of the “Corriere Eritreo”, which was founded in Massawa in 1891, and in
the same year began issuing a weekly politico-commercial newspaper of
that name.
Early Students Abroad
Very few Ethiopians were educated abroad until the last half of the
nineteenth century. At last three foreign educated young men, two of
them half-castes, nonetheless acquired prominence during the reign of
Emperor Tewodros.
Spoke English and French “Fairly Well”
This Emperor’s principal interpreter was Mahadera Qal, who is
reported to have spoken both English and French “fairly well.” His
foreign education had begun in 1843, when he was taken to Paris by the
French traveller, Theophile Lefebvre. The latter introduced him to the
French Foreign Minister, M. Guizot, and to the Minister of Marine, Baron
Mackau, both of whom became his patrons. The young Ethiopian was placed
in a Jesuit establishment, the College Henri IV, where he remained for
three years.
Finding that life there did not suit him, he later made contact with
the British, who arranged for him to enter a Protestant College in
Malta. He later went to England, where each week he visited his old
friend Guizot, who was by then an exile, as a result of the French
Revolution of 1848. Later, in 1852, Mahadera Qal travelled to Egypt,
where he continued his studies with a certain Mr. Lieder in Cairo, and
did not return to Ethiopia until 1856, immediately after the Emperor
Tewodros’s coronation.
“Not a Single Englishman Would Have Escaped”
Mahadera Qal served Tewodros loyally throughout his reign, but was
later quoted as saying that the Ethiopian monarch should not have stayed
in Maqdala on the approach of the British, but should have taken to the
country, and harassed the invaders, as Abdel Kader had done in Algeria.
“Not a single Englishman,” he said, “would have escaped: everyone
without exception would have found their grave in our country.”
Mahadera Qal subsequently passed into the service of Emperor
Yohannes, for whom he conducted important business. General Gordon, the
British governor-general of the Sudan, records that he found him a
difficult man to deal with, and refers to him, in his memoirs, as “a
great scamp”.
Mercha and Beru Warqe
A couple of foreign educated half-castes were also prominent during
the reign of Tewodros, and later that of Yohannes. Mercha Warqe was the
son of an Armenian goldsmith by an Ethiopian mother, and was educated at
the Rev. Dr. Wilson’s Missionary Establishment at Bombay, India, and is
reported to have spoken both English and Hindustani well.
On returning to Ethiopia he founded a school for 70 boys, with the
help of funds from Bombay, but soon gave it up when these ran out. He
also served as an interpreter to visiting diplomatic missions, and
acquired some international publicity, when he was sent by Yohannes on a
two-man mission to England
Mercha’s brother, Berru, also known as Berru of Walqayet, was born
around 1832. While still a youngster he went to England, where he spent
three years in the house of a Norfolk clergyman. Fully conversant with
both English and Arabic, he acted as interpreter for both Tewodros and
Yohannes, and was well known to most foreign visitors to Ethiopia of the
time.
Foreign Educated at the Time of Tewodros
Increased contacts between Ethiopia and the outside world during, and
immediately after. the reign of Tewodros subsequently resulted in a
limited amount of study abroad. Several young Ethiopians travelled to
Europe in this period. One of the first was the Emperor’s son,
Alemayehu, born 1860, who was taken to England by the British at the
close of the Maqdala campaign, and was later buried at St. George’s
Chapel, Windsor.
A handful of youngsters were also taken abroad by Protestant
missionaries. One of the latter, Theophilus Waldmeier, reported in 1869
that there were then eight Ethiopian boys in two missionary schools in
Jerusalem, and several more at the Chrischona missionary institute in
Switzerland and other schools in that country, a total of a little over a
dozen.
The Ethiopian students at Chrischona included a small group of
Falashas, or Beta Esra’el, who had been converted to Christianity. They
comprised Mika’el Aragawi of Dambeya, Agaje Sachlu, Hailu Wassan, Gabru
Dasta, and two brothers from Assoso, Semani and Sambatu Danyel. There
were also two non-Falashas, Debtera Walda Sellassie of Hamasen, and W.
Schimper, the half-caste son of the German botanist of that name.
The ex-Falasha students, most of whom had earlier been at Bishop
Gobat’s school at Jerusalem, were looked after at the expense of an
Englishwoman, Mrs. E. Potts, of Hoole Hall, Chester, while the others
were supported by a Bishop. All were more or less under the guardianship
of the German Protestant missionary Martin Flad, who, before their
arrival in Switzerland, taught them German at his home at Kornall in
South Germany.
Mikael Aragawi
The best known of these students was Mikael Aragawi. who was brought
up by Mrs Flad from the early age of three. On completing his education,
in 1878, he was stationed at Kobela-Jenda, near Assoso, to run a school
for Falashas. In 1885 he returned to Europe, where he assisted Flad
with a new Amharic version of the Bible.
Several stories about Aragawi’s journey to Europe were told by his
friend and teacher Flad. On reaching Alexandria, in Egypt, he met, it is
said, a Chrischona brother, who arranged to pay his fare to Trieste.
Aragawi was so happy that he treated himself to a drive in a two-horse
carriage. The Arab driver asked him where he should take him. The young
Ethiopian replied, “Straight on”, and repeated this instruction whenever
he was asked his destination. After they had driven a good distance out
of town. the driver stopped. and asked the passenger if he was mad.
“No,” came the answer, “turn back and take me back to where we started.”
He got out he handed the driver a couple of francs. “Sir, it is not
two, but ten francs that I must receive,” said the driver. Aragawi was
obliged to pay, but, characteristically, had such a bad conscience that
he fasted for four days, taking only coffee and potato salad.
On reaching Ulm, in Germany, he was too late to catch his train for
Kornall, where Flad resided. Almost penniless, he lay down on a bench in
the waiting room. The watchman wanted to drive him out, but Aragawi
said: “I am an Abyssinian going to visit my father in Kornall. I know no
one here, so please let me sleep here.” The watchman agreed, and locked
him in the room. In the morning the official returned, woke him up, and
told him that the train for Stuttgart was about to leave. Out of
thankfulness Aragawi paid for him to have a cup of coffee, and gave him a
lecture all about Ethiopia, the Mission to the Jews and “the Good Lord
Jesus”..
Arriving in due course at Kornall in his Ethiopian dress the he was
taken for a Carnival Fool, it being Throve Tuesday, the day when the
Germans all wore fancy dress.
Later in the year, he went to England to visit Mrs. Potts, who had
financed the ex-Falasha’s education. Aragawi slept on the floor, instead
of on the comfortable bed provided for him, for he wished to remain
tough so as to be able to continue his missionary work.
After visiting the sights of London, including the Tower and the
Crystal Palace, he went to the British and Foreign Bible Society
bookstore, where the Bible was available in some 300 languages, he
exclaimed, “Of all the beautiful and splendid things I have seen in
London, the Bible House is the most beautiful and wonderful!”
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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