Interview with Ethiopian Herald Sunday Group

The Rationale behind Teaching & Studying Ethiopian History,

Interview - RL Vol. XII No 291 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Chief Scout, Ethiopian Scouts & President, Lem Ethiopia

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Summary

         History helps us understand people and societies, the importance of history in our own lives, history contributes to moral understanding, history provides identity, studying history is essential for good citizenship and history is useful in the world of work. Some argue that history has been justified for reasons that Africans no longer accept – the history that was thought as if it were the narrative of its colonisers and rulers, but not of its people.

       Civic education, learning about and appreciating one's rights, duties, obligations and responsibilities as a citizen and the immediate rules, laws and governance structures within which one exercises citizenship is the first and fundamental step in citizenship. Nevertheless, we have narratives that our children must learn.

         Three thousand years ago, Axum was the seat of the earliest Ethiopian kingdom and one of the holiest grounds and traded with the world from the ports of Adulis and subsequently Massawa were the gateway of the Ethiopian Empire. One of the earliest holy mosques in the world is the holy Islamic faith centre, Negash built before many Muslim nations had a mosque. The Ottomans attempt to colonise Ethiopia were defeated buy Emperor Yohannes and Ras Alula. Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian army at Mequelle on 21 Jan 1986 and at Adwa on first of March 1896.

       Adwa has become a quintessential emblem and a pedestal for Pan-Africanism - an important political form of a religious Pan-Africanist worldview appeared in the form of Ethiopianism.

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See interview here or  https://www.academia.edu/37428133/Interview_The_Rationale_behind_Teaching_and_Studying_Ethiopian_History_RL_Vol._XII_No_291_MMXVIII