Cyber Ethiopia

Rural Crafts The Ethiopian people at an early date evolved handicraft production which met the everyday needs of the population. They worked in iron, making knives, swords, spear-heads, ploughshares and other agricultural implements. They span and wove both cotton and wool, producing excellent and often beautiful clothing. They preserved and tanned ox hides, sheep and other skins successfully, and manufactured shields and scabbards, and book covers, as well as saddles, bridles and halters for mules and horses. They also produced good quality pots and jars, wove attractive wicker baskets, manufactured useful articles of horn, and fashioned exquisite gold, silver and bronze ornaments and crosses. Illustrated Manuscripts Among the handicrafts which caught the eye of visiting authors were articles of apparel made from textiles and skins, carpets of many

colours, baskets of various shapes and sizes, illuminated manuscripts and parchments of distinction, beautiful drinking horns, fine jewellery, and knives, swords and spears of every description. The Ethiopian craftsmen, for the most part, produced only limited numbers of luxury goods. Markets, for much of the country's history, were not well developed. The arts, with some notable exceptions, received but limited encouragement from patrons. The country was largely rural, with the result that the division of labour was therefore small. The inhabitants in the main worked largely for themselves, and produced little more than was needed to meet their own requirements. They did not produce many of the highly refined articles which would have been produced had there been more patrons of the arts or a more extensive market. This picture is painted by two early nineteenth century French travellers to Ethiopia, Pierre Ferret and Joseph Galinier. "Each man," they wrote, "makes his own clothes and furniture; each family constructs its own house, grinds its own mill, kills its own cattle and sheep, produces its ownbread, oil, butter, wax and other articles of consumption." "Nearly everything in the shape of household wants." agrees the late nineteenth century British observer Augustus B. Wylde, "is furnished by the household them-selves. There are no manufactories in the country, no particular trades. The spinning for the ordinary clothes worn is done at home. Every householder is his ownbaker. butcher. tailor, brewer. They all do a little carpentry and building, and trades are nearly unknown." Misleading Such observations, though partly true, are also misleading. Notwithstanding the general self-sufficiency noted by those foreign travellers, there were, as we saw in previous articles, important groups of craftsmen, in particular blacksmiths, weavers and potters, but also jewelers and tanners, whose lives we have attempted to portray. Despite all this self-sufficiency in the country at large, there were also geographical areas of specialisation, and a significant, though limited, division of labour in the field of handicraft production. State and Church Such specialisation was furthest developed in the capital cities where the sovereigns - and in some instances the Church and nobility, exercised a considerable demand for handicraft goods. This was most apparent in the larger centres of population where there was also a considerable sale for a wide range of articles and in some cases in religious centres where the Church required certain types of goods, such as crosses and bells, and where ecclesiastical protection - the renowned system of Asylum - guarded the craftsmen from the ravages of war, and arbitrary seizure of property. The Division of Labour was furthermore greatly influenced by traditional attitudes to manual labour, particularly in relation to certain despised crafts, such as those of the blacksmith, the tanner, the potter, and the weaver, which restricted these occupations to particular classes of the population, in many cases minority groups or "submerged classes" of one kind or another. Capital and Other Towns The greatest specialisation in nineteenth century Ethiopia may be discerned, at places such as Aksum, Gondar, Ankobar, Adwa, Debra Tabor, Harar, Antalo and Harar, which, at one time or another were virtually capital cities with a large population or else places of considerable religious patronage and asylum. Gondar - and Ankobar At Gondar, for example, the French Saint Simonian travellers Esmond Combes and Maurice Tamisier observed the existence of specialised craftsmen not found elsewhere, among them tailors, butchers, millers and bakers, while another Frenchman, the illustrious Arnauld d'Abbadie stated that the craftsmen of the city included weavers, leather workers, makers of spears, swords and knives, saddle makers and sandal makers, book binders, scribes and copyists, parchment makers, workers in skin, sheath makers, goldsmiths, copper workers, makers of equipment for mule saddles and amulets, shield makers, carpenters, rifle stock makers, horn-workers, workers in straw, etc. Ankobar, when the capital of Shawa, also had its skilled workers, who were mainly in the King's employ. Combes and Tamisier, for example, report that the palace of Sahla Sellassie (1813-1847) was "full of weavers, carpenters, masons and other workers engaged in making gunpowder, repairing rifles, or working in gold, silver and ivory. His workshops produced magnificent cloth, bracelets, swords, shields and armguards." Antonio Cecchi A couple of generations later the notable Italian travelling geographer Antonio Cecchi recorded that the workmen of the town included tanners, saddlers, blacksmiths, metal workers, spear makers, joiners, wood-cutters and carpenters, masons, stone workers engaged in the manufacture of blocks of stone for grinding grain, dress makers, sewers, goldsmiths; charcoal burners, scribes, painters, minstrels, and physicians and surgeons of traditional type. Qorota, on the south-east shore of Lake Tana, was also an interesting place, as a town of asylum. The renowned German traveller Dr. Wilhelm Ruppell states that a number of artisans had settled there because the place was under ecclesiastic rule; sheltered by the relative safety the town had afforded, they had developed craftwork superior to that seen in other parts of the country. The low repute with which the blacksmith, the weaver, the potter, the tanner, and certain other professions wereheld resulted not only in the virtual monopoly of their work by particular classes of at least workers, but also obliged otherwise self-sufficient communities to rely on others for their supply of some of the most important handicraft goods. Thus, as the Frenchman Marcel Griaule explained in the early twentieth century, almost the only articles and services not produced by the typical family were iron utensils and pots and the specialist services of the weaver and blacksmith. It was in fact the life and work of such craftsmen and women that inspired us to choose the title of the present series of articles: "In Praise of Ethiopian Craftsmen". We have, however, now (in the next week or so, Dear Reader) to look at the technology of handicraft production! Cotton Textiles The production of cotton textiles was carried out in all parts of the country. Gondar, Adwa, Ankobar and Harar were, however, famous for particularly fine cloth. Ruppell stated in the early nineteenth century that Gondar was renowned for its cloth throughout Ethiopia, particularly for a silky thread which was used in the embroidery of women's clothes and for the hats worn by Muslims, while Combes and Tamisier noticed that the city produced the finest woven material. Adwa, observed the British traveller Henry Salt, was a great centre for both coarse and fine cloth, a statement echoed by the German observer Gerhard Rohlfs in the latter part of the century. The coarse cloth of Adwa, according to Salt, was "unrivalled in any other part of the country" and was made out of cotton imported via Massawa, while the finer material which was made from cotton grown on the low lands bordering on the Takaze River was thought "little inferior" to that of Gondar. Combes and Tamisier assert that the weavers employed by Sahla Sellassie in Shawa rivaled those of Gondar. Further to the East, the city of Harar was also renowned for the manufacture of textiles. The English traveller Richard Burton in the middle of the century declared that the robes and sashes of Harar were "considered equal to the celebrated cloths of Shoa," and, being hand woven, far surpassed "the rapid produce of European manufactories in beauty and durability as the perfect hand of man excels the finest machinery. Harari cloth was made of the fine long-staple cotton which grew plentifully in the hills around the city and was "as soft as silk" and warm enough for winter wear. Not that Harar enjoyed cold winters such as Burton had experienced in his native land! Typical Prices Typical nineteenth century prices for the above types of cloth deserve our attention. Let us quote them (if readers will forgive this digression - which would be useful in case they have a time-machine and want to go shopping in the past!) in the old Maria Theresa thalers, or dollars, then current throughout the country. In the first half of the nineteenth century Henry Salt stated that an ordinary piece of cloth woven from imported material and measuring 18 cubits by one and three-quarters was worth about one Maria Theresa thaler, while a piece made from locally grown cotton, if of a quality suitable,for the aristocracy might fetch as much as 12 thalers for a piece of 50 cubits or the amount needed for a dress. Ruppell a little later stated an average Ethiopian shamma, or toga, at Gondar cost about one and two-thirds of a thaler, while Burton said that at Harar a double length of good material measuring eleven cubits by two, with a border of bright scarlet, costabout eight thalers, and might be considered a fine present for a chief. A little later, in the 1880's, Cecchi gave the following prices for Shawa: A pair of trousers as worn by the rich: 1 thaler A pair of trousers as worn by the poor: half a thaler A shirt as worn by the rich: 1 or 2 thalers A shirt as worn by the poor: half a thaler A shamma as worn by the rich: 4 to 6 thalers A shamma as worn by the poor: 1 thaler A shamma as worn by the women (presumably of some status) 3 to 4 thalers Prices at the end of the nineteenth century and first decades of twentieth century, however, were decidedly higher.