have for a long time been on the move in search of better opportunities.
Real or imagined differences in living standards, security, and freedom
force many women to leave their villages, small towns, and increasingly
their country of origin to destinations they see as places of opportunities
for personal and familial advancement. Ethiopian women's migration has,
over time, become more permanent, increasingly transnational, and deeply
transformative. However, one should avoid the risk of either homogenising
women migrants as an undifferentiated group of people for they are very
diverse, or equating migration, national and transnational, with advancement
as many fall through the cracks and are forced to eke out a living in
degrading, even violent, circumstances. There is therefore a need to develop
a differentiated, yet inclusive, and expansive framework and vocabulary of
social analysis to understand the nature, extent, significance, and enduring
consequences of Ethiopian women's migration and how migration informs
their view of themselves, their place in society but also the world, and their
relations to the state.

References and further readings

Baker, Jonathan. 1992. "The Gurage of Ethiopia: Rural-Urban Interaction and Entrepreneurship." In *The Rural-Urban Interface in Africa: Expansion and Adaptation*, edited by Jonathan Baker and Poul Ove Pedersen, 125-47. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A277421.

Ban Ki-Moon. 2013. "Secretary-General's Remarks to High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development." *United Nations – Secretary General Statements*, 3 October. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2013-10-03/secretary-generals-remarks-high-level-dialogue-international [archive].

Betemariam Berhanu, and Michael White. 2000. "War, Famine and Female Migration in Ethiopia, 1960–1989." *Economic Development and Cultural Change* 49, no. 2: 91–113. https://doi.org/10.1086/452492.

Bjeren, Gunilla. 1985. *Migration to Shashemene: Ethnicity, Gender and Occupation in Urban Ethiopia*. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.

Cassiers, Anne. 1983. "Mercha: An Ethiopian Woman Speaks of Her Life." *Northeast African Studies* 5, no. 2: 57-81.

de Regt, Marina. 2012. "Ethiopian Women's Migration to Yemen: Past and Present." *Chroniques Yemenites*, no. 17. https://doi.org/10.4000/cy.1853.

de Regt, Marina. 2016. *Research Report: Time to Look at Girls: Adolescent Girls' Migration in Ethiopia*. Geneva: Global Migration Centre of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. https://web.archive.org/web/20221124130258/https://snis.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2013_Grabska_Repo rt-Ethiopia.pdf.

de Regt, Marina, and Felegebirhan B. Mihret. 2020. "Agency in Constrained Circumstances: Adolescent Migrant Sex Workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia." *Journal of*
*Eastern African Studies* 14, no. 3: 512–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2020.1768467; https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rjeaxx/v14y2020i3p512-528.html.

Fernandez, Bina. 2020. *Ethiopian Migrant Domestic Workers: Migrant Agency and Social Change*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24055-4.

Mesfin Wolde Mariam. 1966. "Problems of Urbanization." In *Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Ethiopian Studies*, vol. III. Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University.

Pankhurst, Helen. 1990. "Women, the Peasantry and the State in Ethiopia: A Study from Menz." PhD diss. University of Edinburgh. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/19213.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1990. "The Role of Women in Ethiopian Economic, Social and Cultural Life from the Middle Ages to the Time of Tewodros." In *Proceedings of the First National Conference of Ethiopian Studies*, April 11–12, 1990, edited by Tadesse Beyene, Richard Pankhurst, and Ahmed Zekaria, 345–65. Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.

Shimelis Bonsa. 2003. "A History of Kistane Women's Migration to Addis Ababa Until 1974," in *Land, Gender and Periphery: Themes in the History of Eastern and Southern Africa*, edited by Bahru Zewde, 43–66. Addis Ababa: OSSREA.
Part 7

Women, Family, and Law
<figure><img src="image_49.png" /></figure>
Women, Property
and Inheritance in Ethiopia
 mid-18th to early 20th centuries)

"For men and women alike, land is the foundation for security, shelter, and livelihood, supports women's dignity and creates pathways to empowerment and economic opportunity."

Karol Boudreaux, Chief Program Officer, Global campaign “Stand For Her Land” March 25, 2019.

We have many books on land tenure in general, but few scholars have explored the gendered dimension of property holding, ignoring the fact that women were as equally important landholders as men. “Women and Property” was a theme first developed by the historian Donald Crummey, but until now, no one has followed up his innovative line of inquiry. This chapter focuses on the legal status of women in marital property arrangements and inheritances, which have been at the centre of feminist research in other historiographic traditions. Land was the primary form of permanent property that Ethiopian women possessed, although they could also own moveable assets, such as cattle. This chapter discusses how women dealt with property to show how rights secured by Ethiopian law empowered them from the mid-18th century until the beginning of the 20th century.

1. Methodological approach

These references are drawn from documents in Ethiopian churches and
monasteries photographed by the author. The title of the manuscript is given
first, followed by the name of the church and the digital exposure number.

1.1. *Primary sources: Property transactions*

The primary research base is land-related property transactions and land
registers recorded by professional scribes attached to churches and monasteries
in northern Ethiopia, in the former provinces of Bägemədər and Goğğam.
While many property transfer deeds are written on flyleaves or endpaper
<table><tr><td>Däbrä Marqos, Mäzgäb, # 191–275</td><td>Däbrä Marqos, Yärest Mäzgäb, # 262–359.</td></tr><tr><td>Däbrä-Wärq, Dersanä-Miqa’el, picture # 3892</td><td>Däbrä Wärq, Yärest Mäzgäb, # 6205–6294</td></tr><tr><td>Däbrä Sähay Qʷəsqʷam, Mäzgäb, # 019–201</td><td>Mähäl Zägé Giyorgis, Yärest Mäzgäb, # 033–578</td></tr><tr><td>Märtilä Maryam, Däqiqä Näbeyat, f. 194r-264v</td><td>Moťa Giyorgis, Yärest Mäzgäb, # 4089–6516.</td></tr><tr><td>Moťa Giyorgis, Wängel, picture # 4457</td><td>Moťa Giyorgis, Mäsehäfä Manakosat, # 4487–4500.</td></tr></table>

and margins of manuscripts, there are also manuscripts consisting exclusively of legal documents which are called *yürest mäzgäb* or “register of inheritance deeds,” which were separate from land registers usually accompanying church charters. Women and their property dealings appear throughout these manuscripts from about 1740 to 1974. Surviving texts record all forms of land-related property and social transactions one could imagine: leases, gifts, selling and buying, marriage endowments, inheritances, and legal dispute resolutions, to name but a few. Geographical coverage is limited to large towns with churches in both Bägemədər and Goğğam. While men appear frequently in these documents, references to women are also significant in number. These materials clearly represent a very small and privileged group of women with access to wealth and property, but they also provide material for a deeper analysis of women’s property rights. Little used as historical sources until now, these records reveal a glimpse of the lived experiences of women recorded there through which we can analyse their individual socioeconomic status. These preserved landed property records show that women were actively involved in a wide range of initiatives: they were administrators, church founders, family leaders, property owners, slave owners, bequeathers of land—all pursuits which frame the wider economic, social, and political landscape of the period under study.

## 1.2. *The argument*

Despite their political subordination, women in Ethiopian society have historically held greater autonomy than has been recognised to date. This argument can be illustrated in three ways. First, evidence in the landed property records themselves demonstrates that women throughout the period of this study were secure in their rights pertaining to landholding. While legally possessing such rights does not confirm that they exercised them in all circumstances, both men and women were recognised as holding those rights equally. Second, women routinely employed the prevailing landholding system to their own advantage and fully recognised the scope of their privileges in this regard. My study identifies two kinds of land transfer or property relationship in which women
Figure 24. Habtamu M. Tegegne, *A folio from the Mota register* (Yärest Mäzgäb, #4089). This manuscript page shows eight different texts. The scribe has distinguished each document from the others by the use of lined boxes. Four women, *wäyzäro* Däläläč, *wäyzäro* Säblä Wängel, *wäyzäro* Yätämägnu Terengo, and *wäyzäro* Alämnäš Gäbrä Hiwot, appear as parties to three out of eight land transaction documents included in this manuscript page.

<figure><img src="image_50.png" /></figure>

particularly participated actively: inheritances, and bequests involving adoption. However, inheritance and bequests do not exhaust the business dealings of women, who are depicted as parties to all kinds of property transfers and the implied social and economic transactions. In this context, women participated in transactions taking the form of land sales and purchases. Third, women's broad property rights mitigated their subordinate position in other areas of society in which gender inequality prevailed, thus offering them the means of acquiring economic security in old age, an independent source of money, a legacy for memorialising and spirituality, and economic independence beyond mere survival.

## 2. Women, wills and property

Ethiopian inheritance rules offer an institutional point of view on the socio-economic position of women. Although some women acquired their landed properties in the open market, most acquired land through testamentary bequests or inheritance gifts from friends, parents and other relatives. Ethiopian civil law decreed that women were to receive shares of both their parents' and husband's assets and estates. Some noble families appointed their daughters as preferred family leaders and heirs. Women's rights to inheritance were typically uncontested and universally respected throughout the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries.

### 2.1. Women, property, and family leadership

Ethiopian noblemen and noblewomen had developed a system of inheritance and family leadership or seniority known as the *aläqenät*. This system entitled
one child designated as leader to inherit the majority of the family estate and/or assets, while relegating any other children to the status of dehenät, or subordinate heirs, who shared the remaining amount. The will of Dāğğač* Haylu Āšäte, a cousin of Queen Məntəwwab (1730–1769) is an interesting case involving women and inheritance (see Source 68). Records of a dispute settlement shows that Haylu divided, in circa 1809, his property, including cattle in Bägemədər and Goğğam unequally among five heirs. His will stated that one of his two daughters, Adga, was to be married; the second, Merşit, was to become aläqa or family leader and principal heir, receiving two-thirds of the estate. As family leader, Merşit was also required to provide military service when called for. Haylu’s son Gošu was named a lesser beneficiary; along with Adga, he was to share the remaining one-third of the inheritance. But Haylu had excluded another son, Wäldä Täkle, from receiving any of his estate. Although Merşit had been given complete control over her share and had the authority conferred by her father, a violent struggle broke out with her less-favoured brothers after their father’s death. The conflict ended with reconciliation and a settlement which radically revised the original terms of the inheritance. Elder arbiters and relatives decreed that Merşit had to share the family estate more equitably with her brothers. This resulted in Wäldä Täkle, formerly disowned by his father, being readmitted into the family. As an instrument of potential inequality, the tradition of aläqenät* worked against the principle of impartial inheritance.

Source 68. Dāğğač* Haylu Āšäte

"Dāğğazmač* Haylu, when he died, gave the aläqpnät to wäyzäro* Mersit. (Her brother) Abeto* Gošu took her to court over this aläqenät, appealing to the judgment of dāğğazmač* Gugsa. abeto* Gošu lost the case. After this they were reconciled... And the agreement was that wäyzäro* Mersit, having assumed the aläqpnät, should allocate the land and cattle. (In the case of) a military campaign, wäyzäro* Mersit should campaign."

Crummey, Donald, “Three Amharic Documents of Marriage and Inheritance from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” in Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, University of Addis Ababa, 1984, edited by Taddese Beyene (Addis Ababa: IES, vol. 1, 1988), 316.

There are many other inheritance documents whereby women are declared as universal heirs, family leaders and property managers, even though their prominence went against the strong patrilineal preferences of Ethiopian law. These women played economic and administrative roles usually reserved for men, such as providing soldiers in the case of Meršit who became her family’s leader, or aläqa, not because there was no man to claim the title, but because her father preferred her over his sons. As a system of inheritance, aläqenät enabled Ethiopian noblemen and women to perpetuate their lineage and set rules
governing the relationship between their descendants and heirs. Although
Merşit was challenged by her brothers and ultimately agreed to share her
inheritance with them, her rights as Haylu's successor and principal heir was
confirmed, testifying that women's role as family leader was taken for granted
in Ethiopia at that time.

## 2.2. Women and illegitimate children

Women also drew up inheritance documents in favour of their daughters,
excluding illegitimate children from inheritance if they chose. The will of
Sehen, daughter of däğğazmač* Ayo, governor of Bägemədər during the 1740s
through 1760s, provides the best example. Dated from 1803/4, copies of her
will survive in the archives of three churches in Goğğam. Sehen appointed
her daughter Hirut Kenfu as universal heir with the power to “disinherit and
establish” her siblings and manage the family property. This is most likely
because Sehen owed her daughter a staggering debt of 500 wäqet (ounces)
of gold, 10 mules and an unknown number of cattle. The details of this will
vividly illustrate the considerable autonomy women had with regard to the
disposal of their property and the choice of heirs and successors.

Sehen ordered that her illegitimate children be excluded from the inheri-
tance and specifically requested that they refrain from disturbing Hirut. This
case affirms that although all children were theoretically entitled to share
equally in their parents' estates, parents could disinherit them at will, especially
illegitimate ones. Historically, Ethiopians appear to have been generous and
inclusive regarding the rights and entitlements of illegitimate children, but as
the case of Sehen's will demonstrates, this benign attitude was not universal.

Source 69. Wayzaro Sehen's will

"In the year of creation of the world, 7296 (1803/4), in the year of John (the Evangelist), in the reign of Emperor Gwalu [1801-1818], when smäyte* wäyzäro* Sehen, daughter of däğğazmač *Ayo, established the affairs of her house, she said "I have given the gult (land) which I acquired from my mother and my father to my daughter Kenfu Hirut. The reason for my gift is that a child inherits her mother's cattle; she (Hirut), in contrast, gave me whatever she had from the day of my youth until the time I was shorn as a nun. If there are bastards from among her brothers, they should beg her (for shares) and if she wishes to give them, let them take (receive) (...) Whoever she disinhibits, let him be disinherited and whomever she establishes, let him be established."

Habtamu Mengistie Tegegne, *Lord, Zega and Peasant: A Study of Property and Agrarian Relations in Rural Eastern Gojjam* (Addis Ababa: Forum for Social Studies, 2004), 151.

The cases of Merşit and Hirut reveal that women, regardless of other
gender and status inequalities, received property and assumed responsibilities
normally reserved for men. As a whole, provisions concerning the inheritance rights of daughters and wives could be justly described as liberal.

### 2.3. Dowry and marriage

In addition to testamentary bequests, the second most frequent means for women to acquire property was through marriage gifts. According to Ethiopian law, the bride's parents provided her dowry or personal property (ትሉት). It usually took the form of livestock, slaves, real estate or agricultural land. Her trousseau (συναίμα), consisting mostly of household items, jewellery and ceremonial dress, was contributed by the groom or his parents.

The marriage of the unnamed daughter of däğğazmač* Adäru and the unnamed son of ras* Wädajä during the first half of the 18th century is a good example of this practice. Adäru was a close relative of the famed Queen Məntəwwab and served briefly as governor of Goğğam during the 1750s. Wädajä was governor of Amhara from the 1750s through the 1770s. A document listing all the properties the new groom received through his marriage to Adäru's daughter is kept at the church of Däbrä Wärq.

As was typical, the newlywed couple's property comprised both moveable and permanent goods. According to the inventory, from his mother the groom received extensive lands in 25 localities across the province of Amhara, while from his father he received 500 cows, 100 pairs of oxen, 50 weapons, 200 wäqet of gold, 10 mules, 10 horses, and 10 swords, among other items. Unfortunately, we do not have any itemised records of the bride's dowry (or even her name). Throughout the marriage, this couple held and managed their properties jointly, as well as those they acquired over the years following their wedding.

It is also important to note that under Ethiopian law, husbands and wives could also inherit their deceased partner's assets. The best example is found in an early 20th-century will held at the church of Märțulä Maryam. The husband, liqämäkwas* Lemäneh, willed his land to his wife, wäyzäro* Yewagu, showing that he acknowledged and respected her right to the land. Noteworthy too is the fact that he did not insist she remain a widow, leaving her the right to choose whether or not to remarry. Additionally, the liberal Ethiopian practice of the time was that when a marriage ended in divorce, the wife was usually given back any land received from her parents.

### 3. Women and bequests

Thousands of bequests written at the initiative of women survive in church archives in Goğğam and Gondär, revealing women's will-making customs of the period. These female-authored testaments strengthen the argument that Ethiopian women enjoyed considerable autonomy. First, evidence from these records demonstrates that women were as familiar with the formulae and technicalities of making a bequest as their male counterparts. Regardless
of their social standing or marital status, they claimed the right to pass
property on to heirs of their choosing. These recorded female testators
included wives, unmarried women, and widows, the latter being slightly more
numerous. Second, land was the most common form of property transacted
in these testaments, although women did also bequeath household items and
other moveable assets. Third, these independently-composed documents are
concrete evidence that women could dispose of their own property as they
saw fit. Women made wills routinely without the need of male guardians or
representatives.

3.1. *Women, adoption and the choice of heirs*

Women named a wide range of beneficiaries in their wills, demonstrating that they were wholly free to determine their heirs and successors. As might be expected, most women named their children as heirs, but some designated their brothers and sisters instead. Two representative examples from the first half of the 20th century are found at the church of Märtulä Maryam. In the first, a woman named Yeneneš Gošu bequeathed all her lands to her brother, Tässäma, and sister, Yešumneš. In the second case, Terengo Kassa designated her brother Embi'alä Kassa as heir, despite the fact that her children should have been made heirs according to Ethiopian custom. Terengo even added a clause to the will disallowing her children and other siblings from inheriting any of her estate.

In some instances, women's heirs were their husbands, or vice versa; in other
instances, the relationship between testator and beneficiary is unclear. In a
will written during 1927/28 in the town of Moța, wäyzäro* Bezunäš registered
land with her husband, Fitäwrari Imeru, and declared him her heir. Imeru in
turn stipulated that Bezunäš would inherit his property, should she outlive
him. The couple likely composed their wills together and then registered
their lands, declaring each other heir with no stipulations, and no insistence
upon continued widowhood for Bezunäš if she were to survive her husband.
Naming one's spouse (or other non-blood-related individual) as one's heir
through technically "adopting" him or her as one would do with a child, was
an accepted though uncommon legal practice. It is reasonable to expect that
one instance of its use would be in cases where a couple had no children to
succeed them. These atypical cases show the degree of autonomy that women
exerted in both inheriting and bequeathing property.

Property was usually passed on according to general succession customs.
While most women passed their property to their biological children and/or
agnatic (male lineage) relatives, however, they did not do so exclusively. Legal
adoption could be employed to name non-traditional heirs, thus bypassing
customary inheritance practices that gave succession rights only to natural or
biological heirs. By this means, adopted children and others of the testator's
choosing were not only eligible to a share in an inheritance, but could also be
designated as *aläqa*, or family leader and principal heir. With adoption-related
inheritances, the distinction between so-called "natural" and "legitimate"
children became blurred. This is especially true for inheritances involving
slaves, who figure in a host of testaments found in the church archives of
Märțulä Maryam, Moța, Däbrä Wärq and Däbrä Marqos; many of these
documents were drawn up at the behest of women.

During the early 20th century in Märțulä Maryam, Yätämäññu Engeda
first freed and then adopted her slave, Tälčakolu, as one of her children.
Consequently, Tälčakolu was included as one of her heirs. In exchange,
Yätämäññu required that after her death Tälčakolu would pay for annual
anniversary masses and memorial feasts for her soul.

A similar testament was written by Bezabeš Kassa, widow of the priest
*aläqa*\* Rätta. As she was childless, Bezabeš freed and then adopted her three
named slaves in order to qualify them to legally inherit her land; the three
received property rights and benefits without any limitations, just as biological
heirs would have. Several other documents in Goğğam church archives
also describe women allocating or bequeathing property to their slaves. It
is revealing to find that women were predominant in cases where slaves
were adopted as surrogate children in order to be declared heirs. Moreover,
properties acquired and bequeathed in this manner were beyond the control
of testators' biological children and relatives.

The example of Bezabeš and others like her demonstrates the range of
practical choices and considerable personal autonomy available to women
concerning property disposal and also demonstrates the flexibility of Ethiopian
inheritance law at the time. The majority of women cited in the foregoing
examples could be regarded as local elite individuals but not high enough in
social stature to belong to the nobility. All of the documents discussed show
that transferring property outside the main lines of family descent was in fact
not out of the ordinary. Widows and childless women accounted for the largest
range of choice concerning heirs, naming not only their blood relations, but
also slaves and other non-related beneficiaries. As a whole, women were the
most active adopters of non-related heirs and therefore influential as givers of
land. Only in a very few cases are women identified as adoptees or receivers of
bequests from non-related testators.

3.2. *Purpose and timing of testamentary bequests*

The main purpose for drawing up wills was motivated by social and secular
concerns, rather than religious necessity. For men and women alike, age and
physical well-being largely determined the timing and content of their wills.
Although there are instances of wills written when testators were still in
good health and physically active, most women wrote their testaments during
old age and/or times of infirmity; whether married, unmarried, or widowed, they tended to defer will-making until there was anticipation of death or incompetence. They wrote wills for a wide variety of reasons, including the pressures of debt, lack of biological heirs, and to show love and affection to their preferred successors.

Many women categorically stated that they bequeathed their land because of debts of gratitude they owed to their adoptees and natural heirs. Two examples illustrate this motivation. The first is that of Terengo Kassa who, as seen before, left her land to an adopted brother, Embi'alä Kassa. Explaining the reasons for her bequest, Terengo stated that her brother had helped her and also acknowledged that she owed him 100 silver thalers. Likewise, the contents of Sehen's testament, also cited above, were motivated by both debt and gratitude, especially the enormous debt owed to her daughter Hirut. In fact, the debt alone may have been the main reason for drawing up the will as a form of guaranteed settlement.

Exclusionary wills were written when women sought to disinherit adopted children when the latter proved irresponsible, misbehaved, or failed to care for them. The 1932 will of wäyzäro* Kassayä Ali who lived in Moṭa is a case in point. Kassayä disinherited her former adopted children, aläqa Mängəstu and Webə Gətahun; in their place she adopted an unnamed male as her child and bequeathed her property to him.

Source 70. The Testament of Yäwärq Wuha Wäldä Her and the organization of commemorative feasts

"During däğğazmač Birru's däğğazmač (1840–1853), during the aläqenät of Fitäwrari* Merid (...) Yäwärq Wuha Wälättä she adopted Asfa (as her son) and bequeathed the land she inherited from her mother... She swore a binding oath when she adopted (Asfa) and bequeathed her land (...) upon her death he (Asfa) shall provide a commemorative feast for her. Again, lest she should change her mind Asfa Tässäma has received a guarantor."

Habtamu Mengistie Tegegne, *Lord, Zega and Peasant: A Study of Property and Agrarian Relations in Rural Eastern Gojjam* (op. cit.), 152.

For the most part, women used wills for the distribution of their worldly assets and settlement of material obligations. But equally important was the use of wills and testaments for religious purposes; that is, to ensure their eternal salvation. When the stated purpose of a will was religious, the major concern of such testaments was the organisation of funerals, anniversary masses and memorial feasts. An example of this form of inheritance is that of Yäwärq Wuha Wäldä Hør, who first adopted fitäwrari* Asfa and then bequeathed to him all the land she had inherited from her mother during the 1840s. Found in Märtulä Maryam church collections, the document of the bequest stated that
Yäwärq Wuha was to be taken care of during the remainder of her long life. She also stipulated that the cost of organising anniversary masses and memorial feasts in her honour was to be paid from the assets of the inheritance, now held by her adopted child Asfa. Several other women used their testamentary gifts to honour and memorialise themselves after death through similar provisions to fund memorial feasts and masses. In a document drawn at Märtulä Maryam, for instance, we read that a testator Tädal Tedu adopted ras Haylu, governor of Goğğam (1910–1932), and bequeathed her lands to him. In recompense, Haylu gave her 18 silver thalers for food and clothing. Additionally, Tädal’s land bequest was on condition that Haylu sponsor a memorial meal on the anniversaries of her death and funeral. Other women did not give particular reasons for their bequests.

## 4. Women, church land and the land market

### 4.1. *Women and church landholding*

Women could also hold rim\* lands distributed on behalf of churches by church founders and grantors. Although churches were always male-dominated spaces, women are also found listed among those serving the ecclesiastical establishment. Women were restricted from holding church office but found ways to work within religious and social constraints when it came to owning church-affiliated land. This role was evidently deemed acceptable by male administrators, as women appear in lists of landholders under church jurisdiction. The most important form of property women held under church jurisdiction was rim land and it would often be allocated in exchange for specific services, such as some liturgical tasks required or permitted to women. While laywomen typically did not participate personally in religious services and ceremonies, they could appoint qualified male proxies to provide those services on their behalf.

Besides holding land from churches, noblewomen from affluent noble families took on significant roles as church founders and benefitted materially from their investment in ecclesiastical communities. In this context, ruling-class women enjoyed much of the privilege and status of their male counterparts. Affluent noblewomen availed themselves of opportunities to engage in various forms of cultural patronage and were more highly regarded for doing so. They not only established ecclesiastical institutions, but made massive sustaining grants to them, which benefitted them, their families and the communities attached to the churches they supported. Queen Məntəwwab and her daughter Wälättä Əsra’el offer striking examples of the influence and power that independent upper-class women wielded in establishing churches and making significant tenurial interventions in Ethiopia’s landholding system. Both women possessed substantial holdings within the lands attached to Məntəwwab’s major foundation, the church of Däbrä Şähay Qʷəsqʷam,
founded during the 1730s and 1740s. Her daughter Wälättä Asra'el granted an immense amount of property to relatives and other members of the ruling class in Goğğam and Bägemədər, as well as establishing and endowing churches that could rival royal foundations churches in their size and wealth. She commissioned the building of Moṭa Giyorgis church during the late 1760s and endowed at least five smaller convents, including donating paintings and financing the copying of liturgical books and objects. Although her foundation and grants are recorded officially as having been given by her nephew Iyo'as, Wälättä Asra'el independently controlled the granting of extensive amounts of land. In this way, she and others like her were able to operate with almost as much effect and autonomy as male nobility.

## 4.2. Women and the land market

As we have seen, women's names appear throughout land transaction documents in church collections. These property records also show that women served as guarantors, usually on behalf of men rather than for other women. For the reason which is not evident in the documents themselves, women are more frequently recorded, it is interesting to note, as sellers rather than purchasers of land. As Crummey noted in his 1981 study, during the 18th and 19th centuries women chiefly sold land they had already acquired through their family connections. Crummey discovered that out of the 5,304 individuals registered in land transactions in Gondär between 1740 and 1850, 1,136 (just over 21 percent) were women. He further notes that 810 sales accounting for 42.3 percent of all the transactions "involved at least one woman." Thus far fewer women than men were independently involved in land transactions of sale or purchase.

## 4.3. Women's rights in property alienation

The disproportionately high number of men who purchased and sold land in these records should not suggest, however, that women exercised much less freedom than their male counterparts. Although this is an issue meriting further research, I argue that the numerical underrepresentation of women in land purchase and sale documents reflects instead the weakness of available sources. Land sale documents often omitted contextual details that may have been too familiar to the participants to warrant recording them. Whether land was acquired during marriage or later, one can assume that husbands required their wives' consent to sell, give away, or otherwise dispose of any jointly owned property. Women could thus have sales made by their husbands without their consent annulled. It is also logical to expect that many women probably recruited their sons, brothers, husbands, or other male relatives to act for them in land transactions for simple reasons of convenience and efficiency. But as we have seen, that did not preclude women acting autonomously
to initiate land transactions without male approval or supervision. Women routinely went to church registration offices to exert their rights and fulfil other criteria which were the same as for men—namely, that property sales and divisions were subject to customary Ethiopian inheritance laws.

## Conclusion

There is no doubt or debate that 18th and 19th century Ethiopian society was clearly patriarchal. However, sources used in this study contradict the usual historical assumption that women were passive, especially in land administration roles. In reality, their autonomy and personal agency exceeded that of women in many other cultures of that time. Ethiopian law gave women distinctly empowering property rights, but no more so than over landownership. They routinely and easily exercised those rights in drawing up binding legal contracts. While a married woman's landed property came under her husband's administrative control, she retained legal ownership; the husband could not sell it without her consent. A woman's freedom to bequeath was also an important element of Ethiopian inheritance law. Women had the liberty to choose their own heirs, whether or not they produced offspring, and could even use technical adoption procedures to bypass inheritance customs and laws in order to bequeath assets to whomever they chose.

## References and further readings

* Crummey, Donald. 1979. "Gondärine Rim Land Sales: An Introductory Description and Analysis." In *Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Ethiopian Studies, Session B*. April 13–16, 1978, Chicago, USA, edited by Robert Hess, 469–79. Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago Circle.

* Crummey, Donald. 1981. "Women and Landed Property in Gondärine Ethiopia." *International Journal of African Historical Studies* 14, no. 3: 444–65. https://doi.org/10.2307/217699.

* Crummey, Donald. 1982. "Women, Property, and Litigation among the Bägemədər Amhara, 1750 to 1850s." In *African Women and the Law: Historical Perspective*, edited by M. Jean Hay and Marcia Wright, 19–32. Boston: African Studies Center, Boston University.

* Crummey, Donald. 1983. "Family and Property amongst the Amhara Nobility." *Journal of African History* 24, no. 2: 207–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700021940.

* Crummey, Donald. 1988. "Three Amharic Documents of Marriage and Inheritance from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." In *Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, University of Addis Ababa, 1984*, edited by Taddese Beyene, vol. 1. Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.

* Crummey, Donald. 2000. *Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia: From the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century*. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Crummey, Donald, and Shumet Sishagne. 1991. "Land Tenure and the Social Accumulation of Wealth in Eighteenth-Century Ethiopia: Evidence from the Qwesqwam Land Register." *International Journal of African Historical Studies* 24, no. 2: 241–58. https://doi.org/10.2307/219790.

Habtamu Mengistie Tegegne. 2004. *Lord, Zega and Peasant: A Study of Property and Agrarian Relations in Rural Eastern Gojjam*. Addis Ababa: Forum for Social Studies.

Habtamu Mengistie Tegegne. 2009. "Rethinking Property and Society in Gondärine Ethiopia." *African Studies Review* 52, no. 3: 89–106. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20638951.

Habtamu Mengistie Tegegne. 2015. "Recordmaking, Recordkeeping and Landholding: Chanceries and Archives in Ethiopia (1700–1974)." *History in Africa* 42: 433–61. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26362125.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1979. "An Eighteenth Century Ethiopian Dynastic Marriage Contract between Empress Mentewwab of Gondar and Ras Mika'el Sehul of Tigre." *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies* 42, no. 3: 457–66.

*The Føthä Någäst: The Law of Kings*. 2009. Translated by Abba Paulos Tzadua from the edition of Peter Strauss. Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Faculty of Law.
<figure><img src="image_51.png" /></figure>
# Women and Education in Ethiopia
since the End of the 19th century

"Your gender shouldn't determine whether you get an education."

Tirunesh, 15, Ethiopia (cited in Yusuf Akinpelu, "Educate The Girl Child For The Nation To Prosper," October 30, 2107, posted by Akeem Alao on Edugist.org).

In most parts of the world, including Ethiopia, formal schooling has progressively become one of the main state institutions to shape individuals and social groups. School education is closely related to nation-state building and scholars have demonstrated how this process is gendered: nation-states have redefined gendered roles, reinforcing or transforming former ones, and schooling is instrumental in order to achieve this social, economic, cultural, and political reshaping. Decades of educational research has also demonstrated the different ways in which formal schooling fosters social reproduction, as well as social change. While reinforcing gendered divisions and hierarchies, schooling is also an opportunity for girls and women to improve their situation in society and to emancipate themselves. This chapter starts with a brief historical overview of girls' and women's education in Ethiopia. It then outlines some of its contents and aims, before giving some glances at the social effect of girls' and women's education on women's lives, work, and public participation.

## 1. A short history of the education of girls and women in Ethiopia
since the end of the 19th century

### 1.1. *Teaching "ladies" during the rule of Haylä Selasse (1930–1974)*

With the Orthodox Church school system and Koranic schools, Ethiopia has a century-old educational history. But these institutions, which trained clerics as well as laymen in the service of religious and political powers, were hardly open to girls and women, except for basic literacy and basic knowledge of scriptures. Therefore, before the end of the 19th century, very few women were literate, and most of them were from the nobility.
At the end of the 19th century, Protestant and Catholic missionaries provided school education to Ethiopian women. In the 1870s, Swedish missionaries started with schools for both boys and girls, in Massäwa and Geleb. Around 50 female students, mostly freed slaves and orphans, learned church history, catechism, general (European) history, geography, and languages (Amharic, Oromiffa, Swedish, and German), as well as sewing and basketry. Outstanding women were schooled there, such as Aster Gäno who translated the Bible into Oromiffa together with Onesimos Näsib. While the Catholic Lazarists also had a girls' school in Northern Ethiopia, the French Franciscan Sisters started providing school education for girls in their orphanage in Harar. In 1910, they opened a school in Addis Ababa, with separate classes for girls from lower and upper class families. The first group learned how to manage an average Ethiopian home, while the second learned academic knowledge, "refined" manners and skills, following the trends of what was expected from bourgeois and aristocratic ladies in Europe. In the 1920s, the sisters were running 10 schools, mostly in Eastern Ethiopia, teaching 357 female students. In 1924, the Swedish Evangelical Mission opened a girls' school in Addis Ababa. In 1936, they enrolled more girls than boys, 84 and 77 respectively. This testifies to a social demand for girls' schooling, at least in some sectors of Ethiopian society.

<figure><img src="image_52.png" /><figcaption>Figure 25. Les Missions Catholiques, *The Franciscan Sisters of Lafto and their students*</figcaption></figure>
1.2. *Teaching girls and women during the reign of Haylä Selasse (1930–1974)*

In 1931, the government opened the Empress Menen School. Conceived as a female counterpart of the Teferi Mekonnen School, which took in only boys, it accommodated around 80 girls from the Ethiopian nobility and expatriate families. The ladies learned Amharic, French, arithmetic, history, geography, drawing, cooking, and health care.

Source 71. The teachings given at Menen school

As Menen school's headmistress, the French Madam Garicoïx, said in 1935:

> “የምናስተምራቸውም ልዩ ልዩ ነገሮች ክዚህ ቀጥሎ ያሉት ናቸውዕ ልጆቹ በትምህርትና በጠባይ እየተሻሻሉ እንዲሔዱ ማበረታታት የ በምልካም አስተዳደግ መታዘዘንና ሥልጥንናን ማስለመድ በሥርዓት ማዘጋጀትንና ንጽሕናን ማስተማር የ ባማርኛ እንዲሠለጥኑ መድካም የ የውጭ አገር ቋንቋ እንዲያውቁ መጣጣርዕ ትዳር በዚያ ጊዜ ቤታቸው እንዲያስጠና በዕረፍታቸው ጊዜ የሚጠቅም ሥራ እንዲሠሩ የእጅ ሥራ ስፈት ባለሟያነት ማስተማር። ይህ ካለቀ በኋላ ግን ወጥ አሠራርና በሽተኛ ማስታመም እናስተምራቸዋለን።”

Berhanenna Sälam, August 10, 1931, 3.

*Translation:* "Here are the different topics we teach: we help them improve their instruction and behaviour, with a good education; we accustom them to obedience and good manners; we teach well-ordered organization and cleanliness; we work at refining their Amharic; we do everything to have them learn foreign languages. For their future in the home, we teach them sewing, so they can make their house attractive and spend their spare time doing useful work. After this, we teach them cooking and health care."

As in the missionary schools, the greatest attention was paid to moral education, good manners, and obedience. Before the Italian occupation, some high-class families sent their daughters abroad for further education. Such was the case of Sənəddu Gäbru, who studied in Switzerland, served as headmistress of Empress Menen School in the 1950s, wrote several literary works, and was the first woman elected to parliament. We can also mention Täblat Rädda, who studied in Khartoum and who wrote in 1926 a paper in defence of girls' education in the newspaper Bærhanənna Səlam.

After the liberation, the national school system was established in relation with Emperor Haylä Söllase’s nation-building and centralizing project. The mission schools were required to follow the national curriculum. They were, therefore, well integrated into the national system. Coeducation was the norm, except in some elite schools, both governmental and mission, which were single-sex. For instance, Teferi Mekonnen, Wingate and Saint Joseph were boys’ schools, while Menen and Saint Mary were girls’ schools. Compared with males, female students were very few. In 1959–1960, girls made up 22% of the student population at primary level and 7% at secondary level. In 1974, the proportions were 27% and 17%, respectively. At university level, girls were only 6% of the student body in 1974. The social background of female and male
students differed. While male students came from social classes ranging from the upper class to farmers' families, the social origins of schoolgirls were more homogeneous. Most of those who continued after primary education were of urban high-class or middle-class origin. The main reasons were that families were unwilling to send their daughters far from home for further schooling, or else they interrupted their education for marriage.

**1.3. Learning for the masses since the Därg period**

The Därg period was a turning point in education in general and in girls' education, in particular. The socialist outlook implied mass education. The policy was to spread basic education to all the population through the literacy campaign and the building of primary schools in every wäräda. The urban poor and farmers' girls and women were strongly encouraged to join literacy classes and attend primary schools. In addition, they were willing to get formal education. As a result, in 1991, girls represented around 40% of the student body at primary and secondary levels. This trend has continued until today and, now gender parity has almost been achieved at primary and secondary levels. Moreover, an affirmative action policy for women to join higher education facilitates their entrance at university level (Ministry of Education 2010).

**2. Forms of gender socialisation in schools**

Quantitative progress does not mean the end of male domination, and gender parity does not mean gender equality. Gender socialization in schools is pivotal to understanding the shaping, reproduction, and transformation of gender relations.

**2.1. From teaching how to be a good housewife to learning “women’s work”**

At first, girls' schooling aimed at making good wives and mothers of them. Within the modernisation theories framework that dominated educational discourses in the 1950s-1960s, the women's roles were to reform the family in society (i.e. the private sphere), while men's role was to reform the administration of the state (i.e. the public sphere). For instance, the contents of a home economics textbook were “human relations” (including especially “family life”), clothing and tailoring, childcare, hygiene, nutrition, health and domestic resources management. This school subject tailored especially for girls focused on the rationalisation of domestic tasks (house activities planning and accounting to maximise the management of resources, time and energy), on science (medicine and pedagogy), and on moral education (respect for family hierarchies, husband and wife sharing of decisions in the framework of pacified human relations). Women were to be “professional housewives,” the bearers and keepers of these domestic reforms (Ministry of Education and
Fine Arts 1971). Increasingly, starting from the 1950s, women were directed towards "women's work": nurses, teachers at the primary level, and secretaries, jobs which are extensions of women's roles in the family. To some extent, this trend has continued until today. While more and more school-educated women are entering the labour market, they are confined to women's work, and the most prestigious careers are reserved for men. Nevertheless, thanks to their school education, women are progressively and slowly entering male bastions and becoming lawyers, engineers, medical doctors etc.

## 2.2. *A gendered school socialisation: the stereotypes*

School socialisation is in itself gendered. In textbooks, females are less often represented than males and gendered stereotypes are numerous. Schematically speaking, women are pictured as docile, obedient, weak etc. and restricted to women's roles. On the contrary, men are characterised as courageous, with competitive spirit, and powerful. In class, teachers have tended to encourage males' participation rather than females, and have often considered boys more gifted than girls in academic achievements. These trends are slowly changing over time. For instance, some improvements are noticeable today regarding the representation of women in the textbooks. Moreover, the increased number of women teachers helps to correct the gendered biases in pedagogical relationships.

# 3. School education, women's work, and women's activism

## 3.1. *Changes are visible in urban areas*

School education has given rise to a new social group of women, who are visible in the public sphere: the urban middle-class women who are working in offices, in teaching, in nursing, and in administration. But some lower-class women with little formal education have sometimes managed to strengthen their positions to gain more autonomy. After the literacy campaign in the 1980s and with adult education programs today, thanks to their new literacy skills more and more women are opening little shops, working as health assistants etc.; they are also encouraging their daughters to continue furthering their education. Finally, one can also assume that literacy skills have brought changes to the daily activities of women, in a society where mastering reading, writing, and numeracy is more and more needed. In Ethiopia, as elsewhere, these everyday uses of literacy, which are less visible, need to be studied further by researchers.

## 3.2. *School-educated women, the voices of women's rights movements*

Lastly, while as in most parts of the world the higher spheres of political positions are still male dominated, school-educated women are today very active in Ethiopian civil society. Non-governmental organisations such as:
Source 72. A Text book for Home Economics for Grade 9 (1971)

"This text book is intended for the use of grade nine pupils in the secondary schools. Its main purpose is to help the pupils to understand and appreciate home and family life and to develop the skills needed in the home. They will thus be prepared for the task of achieving a strong and effective family life. The text helps to develop in them an appreciation of good management—the economic use of time, energy, money, and material and human resources—as the means of obtaining maximum efficiency in home activities. The pupils are shown the importance of good nutrition to good health, and are made aware of the fact that the maintenance of good health is an important factor in a happy life. It is hoped to awaken the interest of pupils in the care of children and to develop their love for children. The text also enables the pupils to recognize the aesthetic, hygienic and economic value of clothing.

The text covers the seven areas of home economics that are included in the "Curriculum Guide." The areas are:

1. Human Relations

2. Food and Nutrition

3. Clothing and Tailoring

4. Child Care and Development

5. Housing and Home Improvement

6. Home Management and Consumer Education

7. Health and Sanitation

Ministry of Education and Fine Arts, *Home Economics for Grade 9* (Addis Ababa: Division of Curriculum and Teaching Materials, 1971), 13.

the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), Progynist, Earuyan Solutions, or *Setawee*, to mention only a few, are struggling hard to get women's rights respected and women's opportunities expanded. One also has to highlight the dedication of many women teachers who, through the girls' clubs established in the secondary schools throughout Ethiopia, are working daily with their female students to give them confidence and, again, get their rights respected. The same can be said about the dedication of ordinary nurses and health workers who, in towns and in the countryside, are trying to improve health and protect the physical integrity of Ethiopian women. All these women use their school-education to improve women's conditions.

## Conclusion

School has a double aspect regarding gender. On the one hand, it reinforces gendered stereotypes and attitudes. On the other hand, it enables women to strengthen their position in society. Since the beginning of girls' education in Ethiopia, more and more girls have entered school and this trend is well confirmed today. It is therefore expected that girls will continue to use school-education to erode gendered inequalities and violence, and to bridge the gender gap. Nevertheless, such social transformation will not be the duty of
<figure><img src="image_53.png" /></figure>

ልጃገረዶች፡ በመኪና፡ ጽሕፈት፡ ትምህርት፡ ላይ፡

<caption>Figure 26. Ministry of Information, ትምህርት በአትዮጵያ (Education in Ethiopia)</caption>

women alone. Men and women should work together to make gender equality a reality. The educational system should be one of the social spaces to carry out this work.

**References and further readings**

Aleme Eshete. 1972. "Foreign Educated Ethiopians (1800–1889)." Unpublished manuscript. IES, MS 433, Addis Ababa.

Balsvik, Randi. 1985. *Haile Selassie's Students: The Intellectual and Social Background to Revolution, 1952–1974*. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press.

Bërhanənna Sälam, August 10, 1933.

Ethiopia Observer 2, no. 4. 1958.

Gennet Zewide. 1991. "Women in Primary and Secondary Education." in *Gender Issues in Ethiopia*, edited by Tsehai Berhane Sellasie, 89–98. Addis Ababa University: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.

Guidi, Pierre. 2018. "‘For Good, God, and the Empire.’ French Franciscan Sisters in Ethiopia 1896–1937." *History of Education* 47, no. 3: 384–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760X.2018.1427284.

Ministry of Education. 2010. *Education Sector Development Program IV (2010–2015)*. Addis Ababa: Federal Ministry of Education. https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ressources/ethiopia_esdp_iv.pdf [archive].
Ministry of Education and Fine Arts. 1971. *Home Economics for Grade 9*. Addis Ababa: Division of Curriculum and Teaching Materials.

Norberg, Viveca Halldin. 2015. *Swedes in Haile Selassie's Ethiopia, 1924-1952*. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute for African Studies. http://nai.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A279293 [archive].

Poluha, Eva. 2004. *The Power of Continuity. Ethiopia Through the Eyes of its Children*. Uppsala: Nordiska
Part 8

Women and Sports
<figure><img src="image_54.png" /></figure>
# The Long Road to Ethiopian Women's Participation in Athletics

"It was very shameful to wear shorts for sportswomen. As a result, most of us were attired in our long dresses for physical education classes, even in the inter-schools athletics competitions."

Haile Senaite, interviewed by Tamirat Gebremariam (Gebremariam 2013, 115).

Nowadays, all the medals, victories and world records harvested by women athletes account for such a big part in Ethiopian athletics that nobody would ever think about contesting their contribution. Yet this social acceptance and recognition has not always been so obvious. The obstacles to their success were so high and so numerous that it took decades for Ethiopian women to collectively overcome them. For decades, Ethiopian women were kept away from sports fields, and even more so from competitive events. This chapter explores the reasons why the conditions necessary for their success took so long to come together, to aggregate and thus enable them to collectively improve their sports level and to break through at the world level.

## 1. International contextualisation of the study

The obstacles faced by the Ethiopian women runners of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were two-fold: on a broader scale, some hurdles are related to the norms that ruled the participation of any women in the world trying to get involved in sports at that time. For instance, in 1967, when Tsegie took part for the first time in an international competition, women—not only in Africa but also in Europe and the USA—were simply not allowed to run distances longer than 800 m. So before even mentioning any constraint at the Ethiopian level, let alone any improvement to their condition at this level, let us contextualise their participation in sports inside the broader picture of women's rights in sports at world level.
**1.1. The Olympics and the traditional patriarchal mentality in sports**

Since its outset, modern sport has been conceived as the preserve of men, when
not a stronghold of manhood.

Facing patriarchal prejudices, women engaging in sports have been con-
fronted, not only with the same sporting requirements as men but also by a
series of additional gender-related barriers and obstacles including: claiming
the right to compete; getting recognition and then support from sports officials
at the local and national levels; gaining social acceptance to train full time
and to compete abroad, that is to say, to lead, at least for some years, a life
quite different from the traditional mother-spouse-housekeeper destiny. All
these hurdles, that no man had ever had to face, had to be overcome, one by
one. In Western Europe and North America, it took decades for the situation
to evolve significantly. As an indirect consequence, the history of women in
long-distance running appears, much more than men's history, as a cumulative
and collective progression of small steps, involving and connecting women of
several generations, countries and continents. The history of women in sport
takes the shape of a timeline, while for men raising the topic of their acceptance
in sports appears utterly incongruous.

Source 73. Statement of Pierre de Coubertin on women's participation to Olympiad (1912)

As early as 1912, Coubertin stated it clearly and bluntly when he had to oppose feminist claims demanding the opening of the Olympic Games to women: "An Olympiad with females would be impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and improper. (...) The true Olympic hero, in my view, is the adult male individual. (...) Their (women's) primary role should be to crown the winners."

Boulongne, Yves-Pierre, "Pierre de Coubertin and Women's Sport," *Olympic Review* 25, no. 131 (2000), 23-24.

**1.2. Women in distance running? “Not a very edifying spectacle”**

The running races of athletics have been at the core of this gender-related
struggle since the earliest decades of the 20th century. For a long time, women
were simply not allowed to compete in races longer than 100 m. When the
situation evolved, it was only to give them the right to run over 200 m.
In 1928, after harsh debates involving medical considerations and despite fierce
opposition from senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials, an
800 m race was introduced to the Olympics. At that time, Soviet women were
already racing almost double distance—1,500 m—and beating the 1913 world
record held by a Finnish girl called Lempi Aaltonen. But the IOC officials
had a distinctive sense of the position of women and they were shocked by the
image of one contestant in this first Olympic 800 m race collapsing on the track
at the finishing line. Collapsing after any competitive race is rather common
in athletics, but it was then considered as "Not a Very Edifying Spectacle" by
the sports press.

As a consequence, the 800 m race was withdrawn from the Olympic
programme in 1960 and from all other major competitions until another wave
of feminine advances shook the old patriarchal prejudices of our societies.

<figure><img src="image_55.png" /><figcaption>Figure 27. Hitomi Kinue (left) and Lina Radke (right) run the 800 m at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam</figcaption></figure>

Women's advances in society and running distances in athletics competi-
tions are thus correlated, the former making progress possible in the latter,
though in a rather indirect manner: new women's rights helped to change
the image of women in society, which in turn allowed some progression
of what was acceptable in terms of public demonstration of physical activ-
ity, partial nudity and expressions of effort, pain, and joy, involving social
conceptions of both femininity and maternity. Because they were entering
a men's sphere, women engaging in sports competitions were suspect—and
potentially revolutionary—on both issues. As a consequence, 800 m races were not reopened to women before 1954, access to the 1,500 m race was only acquired in 1969, racing over 3,000 m came in 1974 and the marathon in 1982, all of these advances being achieved in Western Europe and/or North America.

## 2. The Ethiopian context

### 2.1. *The traditional low-status, low-expectation social role of women in Ethiopia*

Traditional Ethiopian society expects women to be child-rearing, cooking, cleaning, and washing. These tasks are exclusively the responsibility of women, often performed without running water. Women in rural areas also play a key role in subsistence agriculture including care of domestic animals (sheep, goats and cows). Another problem for women is teenage pregnancy, usually going together with early marriage. In such conditions, engaging in sport has long been a very challenging decision, requiring not only a very strong personality, but also decisive support from at least the closest circle of relatives. An additional, more subtle problem is that girls have also been discouraged, indirectly, because of low expectations, especially in terms of professional careers. And competition has clearly been perceived as a men's preserve. In such a context, among the few girls who managed to engage in sport, even fewer went into competition. Finally, underrepresentation of women in sports can be attributed to the conflicting values of sexual beauty and sporting competence: beautiful women in Ethiopia are usually not expected to be thin, let alone skinny. So, women engaging in such an arduous path were commonly ostracised and needed to overcome a series of hurdles than no male athlete has ever faced.

One of the very first Ethiopian woman athletes, Tsigie Gebre Mesih, gives a good personal account of this situation, in the following chapter.

### 2.2. *Longer training for Ethiopian women to reach Olympic competition?*

In the men's category, Abebe Bikila started training properly only four years before winning his first Olympic gold medal. He was soon followed by several other male runners, as his sporting feats served as a source of inspiration and launched the construction of the Ethiopian culture of athletics, showing that it does not necessarily take long to "make a champion," nor to build a sports tradition at a national level. In the case of Ethiopian women athletes, the timespan between their first participation in an international competition (1967, Tsigie Gebre Mesih at the East African Championships in Kisumu, Kenya) and their first gold medal in the long-distance running event at a world-class competition (1992, Derartu Tulu in Barcelona Olympic Games)
stretches over 25 years. Why did it take decades for women to achieve what men did in a few years?

The main reason for this collective delay lies in the dual handicap, which characterises this population: they were women in a men's sector of activity (competitive sport), and they were women living in a traditional culture and society. Because the obstacles arising from this dual handicap involve mentalities and prejudices, which do not change radically overnight, it took several generations of active, bold and resilient female runners to reach the point where they just needed to train and compete as international athletes, and no longer needed to confront and overcome social resistance before training and competing like international athletes. This progress was not achieved before the early 1990s and the whole history of Ethiopian women athletics before this date is a long story of individual attempts to break a series of heavy constraints and to burst forth sporadically in some international competition before being going back to the harsh reality of their condition of standard Ethiopian women.

### 3. From physical education to the first professional female runners in Ethiopia

#### 3.1. *The first forms of physical education for girls in Ethiopia*

The first Ethiopian girls to get involved in modern sporting activities were the pupils of *Atege*\* Menen (or Mänän) school, a school established in 1931 and reserved for the girls of the nobility and the local economic elites. Like in the first boys' schools of the capital—the Mənəlik II School opened in 1908 and the Teferi Mekonnen School in 1925—most of the teachers were foreigners laying the foundations of a Western education in Ethiopia. In these schools, the young nobles of the capital, future leaders of the country, became familiar with forms of physical education which were modelled on the teaching in Europe. So they performed different types of physical activities. However, football games were restricted to boys, especially when the first matches opposed these young players and members of foreign communities in Addis Ababa: defending the honour of the host nation against the Armenians of the Ararat team, Greeks in Olympiacos, Italians in Juventus and Indians in the Indian Team was an utterly manly task.

Source 74. School physical activities during the years 1930–1935

Ladislas Farago describes these school physical activities during the years 1930–1935: "In the school, the gym display lasted an hour, they vaulted over parallel bars, did pull ups on the horizontal bar, performed physical exercises, played at tugs-of-war to finish off with a (...) football match."

Farago, Ladislas, *Abyssinia on the Eve* (New York: G. P. Plunamis Press, 1935), 170.
### 3.2. Italian sportswomen during the occupation

During the Italian occupation, sports activities played an important part in the fascist doctrine, as physical activities were intended to shape and strengthen the new empire. In this context, the political institutions of the Italian regime were in charge of promoting all kinds of sports and fostering the participation of both men and women.

Source 75. Physical activities and Fascism

*The function of physical activity was explicitly to "develop sport in its educational, agonistic and physical perfection functions, according to the racial postulate of the fascist doctrine."*

*Gli Annali Dell' Africa Italiana 28, no. 1 (Mondadori, 1940).*

But discrimination reigned and no Ethiopian was allowed to take part in the sports activities of the occupiers: they had to compete in their own activities, organised by a “Sports Office for the Indigenous.” Still, for the first time ever, Ethiopian populations were able to witness new sporting activities such as athletics, basketball, fencing, rock-climbing, boxing, cycling, motorcycling and car racing. Some other activities, already known in Ethiopia, such as wrestling, shooting and horse riding, were practised and organised by the Italians in very different ways to the traditional ones, in very specific environments and with strange attire. More surprising even, women were taking part in some of these activities, especially in fencing, horse riding, basketball and athletics.

Unfortunately, after the end of the Italian occupation, all modern sports, except football and boxing for men, disappeared from Ethiopia, with the notable exception of the School Sports Day, sponsored and attended by the Emperor. Seeing Italian women training and competing in diverse sport activities may have been inspirational for some Ethiopian women, but local society was still too traditional to value and foster feminine involvement in activities exposing their body publicly and distracting them from their conventional social roles.

### 3.3. Pioneers as social rule breakers

Overcoming the social prejudices related to femininity, maternity and the traditional roles and status of women in Ethiopian society has not been an easy game. The pioneers, presented in the following chapter, had to face strong opposition from their entourage, just to gain the right to start training. All of them had a strong personality. But this feature does not suffice and all of them also benefitted from some form of support from either their relatives or the political context in which they started daring to join in sports activities. Tsegie came from a wealthy urban background, submitting less to tradition and more open to Western influences. She grew up in Asmära, a very Westernised
city—at that time—compared to the standards of the region. In addition to that, she received support from her father, a sportsman and a member of the armed forces.

Other pioneers had to face harsh prejudice, mainly because they were becoming competent enough to beat men and challenge their symbolic dominating position: as a reaction, their femininity was questioned through comments and nicknames like “tomboy” (Asselefesh Adera) or “the man in disguise” (Derartu Tulu). Asselefesh, who was the first Ethiopian women to run a marathon—in Neuchatel 1989—also admitted to receiving the support of her father, who allowed her to go and play football in the streets of mid 1980s Addis Ababa. As the Därg regime was promoting gender equality, some female football teams emerged around that time, like the famous Etu Mela Michi team. But soon some coaches deterred Asselefesh from playing football under the pretext that it could “damage her femininity,” and oriented her towards athletics.

## Conclusion

Despite all the prejudices of traditional society, some dauntless Ethiopian girls of the 1960s to the 1980s managed to occasionally find their way over these cultural hurdles. But for most of them, it was a one-shot isolated case, and none of them achieved any major sports feat with enough symbolic significance to open the field to a collective change in the condition of women athletes. Such a drive would only occur in the early 1990s, with the breakthrough of another pioneer, Derartu Tulu, who was not only brave on the tracks, but also in social life where she faced and overturned many prejudices, opening and clearing the way for her younger family members—Tirunesh Dibaba and her sisters—and beyond them, for many young Ethiopian women athletes.

## References and further readings

* Boulongne, Yves-Pierre. 2000. "Pierre de Coubertin and Women's Sport." *Olympic Review* 25, no. 131: 23-26. https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll1/id/36808/rec/24 [archive].

* Bromber, Katrin. 2014. "Muscles, Dresses, and Conflicting Ideas of Progress Ethiopia. 1960-70." In *African Realities: Body, Culture and Social Tensions*, edited by Josep Martí, 171-90. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

* Gaudin, Benoit, and Bezabih Wolde, eds. 2017. *Kenyan and Ethiopian Athletics: Towards an Alternative Scientific Approach*. Montpellier: IRD Éditions; Addis Ababa: Centre français des études éthiopiennes.

* Tamirat Gebremariam. 2017. "Sports History of Ethiopia: A Case Study of Ethiopian Women Athletics." In *Kenyan and Ethiopian Athletics: Towards an Alternative Scientific Approach*, edited by Benoit Gaudin and Bezabih Wolde, chapter 1. Montpellier: IRD Éditions; Addis Ababa: Centre français des études éthiopiennes.
<figure><img src="image_56.png" /></figure>
Three Notable
Ethiopian Female Athletes

"Today, we see how dominant Africans are, and I think she (Derartu Tulu) was the one that opened the door, she was the one who heightened the belief that African women can be world leaders."

Elana Meyer, former South African runner, International Olympics Committee, in “Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu” (Legends Live On, S3 - EP5, video, 25:38, International Olympic Committee).

Although Ethiopia has become famous in athletics particularly in long-distance running organised at regional and international levels, there is a dearth of literature on the topic. There is little on the history of sport in general and even less on women in this field. This chapter is dedicated to the short biographies of three notable Ethiopian female athletes: Tsigie Gebre Mesih, Derartu Tulu and Merima Denboba. Though still alive, they are not actively competing anymore. These athletes performed during the period of Emperor Haylä Söllase I, the Därg and the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). They come from different parts of Ethiopia and have diverse socioeconomic and religious backgrounds, facts that allow the portrayal of the varieties of life experiences of Ethiopian women athletes. The study gives an insight into how women were perceived in society and into the changes and continuity in the gendered perspective of women’s involvement in sport.

Much information used for the biographies has been taken from interviews conducted with the three athletes by the researcher.

# 1. Tsigie Gebre Mesih

## 1.1. Childhood in Addis Ababa

Tsigie G/Mesih is one of the unsung living heroines. Daughter of Ato G/Mesih Betewelgne and wäyzäro* Alasäbu Täsfa-Mariam, both Orthodox Christians, she was raised in a reasonably well-off family. She was born in 1957, in Asmära (Eritrea) and her father was a fervent supporter for the union of Eritrea with
Ethiopia and a member of the *Mahbär Fəqər Hägär* (“Association for the Love of Country”). As a result, Tsigie’s family moved to Addis Ababa and she grew up in *däğğač* Wube säfär.

Tsigie attended Kälämäworqe Elementary and Junior School and her secondary education was in Bäyänä Märid and the John F. Kennedy School. The foundation for her athletics career was her participation in the Ethiopian Schools Inter-Athletics Competitions of 1966. During school competitions, the participants wore sports shirts and shorts coloured green, yellow or red depending on their performance. The green shirts were for competent male athletes, the red ones for proficient female athletes and the yellow shirts for the less successful male or female athletes. However, due to Tsigie’s extraordinary results, she always wore a red shirt indicating her top achievement. One Amharic magazine found in her private collection affirmed her astonishing achievement:

Source 76. An amharic newspaper's article on Tsigie G/Mesih

"The grade eleven student of John F. Kennedy, Tsigie G/Mesih, was selected as a superstar athlete of the year of the Ethiopian inter-school competition. In the competition she became the first in 100 m, 200 m, 400 m and relay running and she received three gold medals and one cup. Since she started to participate in the school competitions, she got twenty-seven gold and silver medals, a [wrist] hand watch and others..."

Amharic Newspaper found in Tsigie's private collection. The newspaper article was cut out by her father.

In school competitions, Tsigie won more than forty medals and eight cups. In addition, she received a number of certificates and rewards from Emperor Haylä Səllase I.

<figure><img src="image_57.png" /><figcaption>Figure 28. When Tsigie received awards from Ato Yednäqachäw Tasämma</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_58.png" /><figcaption>Figure 29. When Tsigie received awards from Emperor Haylä Śəllase, 1960s</figcaption></figure>

**1.2. Facing family opposition and criticism from society**

Her family, especially her father, was very disappointed at her sports activities. Therefore, when she had competitions, she used to go home after waiting until her father had fallen asleep.

Later on, seeing her success, her father changed his mind and became her supporter. He even started to buy magazines which spoke about her athletics achievements.

Source 77. Interview of Tsigie G/Mesih

Tsigie said, ሩጫ ስጀምር እንዲሁም ስወዳደር ከቤተሰቡና ከማህበረሰቡ ብዙ ተፅዕኖ ይደርስብኝ ነበር “When I started to take part in various athletics competitions there were a lot of challenges I faced, both from my family and from the society at large.”

Tsigie G/Mesih, interview by Tamirat Gebremariam, Debre Zeit, March 16, 2013.

The most problematic challenge to overcome at that time was wearing shorts and appearing in public areas (the stadium) for competitions. This was considered by society as breaching and violating cultural norms and religious canons. In 1970/71, in a meeting held at Täklä Haymanot wäräda in Addis Ababa, the administrator, grazmač Kebede Bayu, asserted that husbands should prevent their wives and daughters from wearing miniskirts.

Moreover, society thought and believed that if a woman participated in various sport activities, she might break her hymen because of hard physical activity whereas in traditional culture, an intact hymen at marriage was considered the proof of virginity. A female might also lose her femininity through sport and she might seem wändawände (“man-like”) in her behaviour. As a result, she might fail to please men and fail to secure a marriage proposal.
Source 78. Preventing women from wearing miniskirts (1963)

በተከለሐይማኖት ወረዳ የሚገኙ የዕድር ዳኛችና ሽማግለዎች ትናት አንድ ስብሰባ አድርገው አጓር ቀሚስ መልበስ ስለሚቀርበት ሁኔታ ውይይጥ ማድረጋቸው ተገለጠ። በዚህም ስብሰባ ላይ የተከበሩ ቀኛዝማች ወ/እማኳኤል ሙላቱ የምዕራብ ክፍል ማዘጋጃ በት ረዳት ክንቲባና ግራዝማች ክበደ ባዩ የተከለሐይማኖት ወረዳ ገዢ ተኝተዋል። በዚሁ ዕለት በተደረገው ስብሰባ ረዳት ክንቲባው ባደረጉት ንግግር ሰውነትን የሚያራቁት አጓር ቀሚስ ለብሶ መታየት ዘያፍና የጨዋነትን ባህልበየሚያራቁስ ክእገራችን ባህል ጋርም ያልተዛመደና ፈፅሞ የማይታወቅ መሆኑን ጠቅስዋል።…… . እንዳይላብሉ ብርቱ ምክር እንድትሰጧቸው ካሉ በኋላ……..ምክር የማኖቀበል ወይዘሮ የህግ እርምጃ የሚወሰድባት መሆኑን በማስጠንቀቅ እንድታስረዱ ብለዋል።

Meeting held in 1963 E.C. at Täklä Häymanot wäräda in Addis Ababa to prevent women from wearing miniskirts (Addis Zämän no. 221, Mäskäräm, 1963 E.C.)

**1.3. Professional training and career**

Despite all these challenges, Tsigie became a member of the Ethiopian National Athletics Team in 1968 and a member of St. George Athletics Club. Her coach, Ato Sora Järso, was a lecturer at Addis Ababa University in the Department of Health and Physical Education. With three other female athletes, Sänayet Täddässä, Atsädä Taddässä and Almaz Ejäta, she began her training. From the late 1960s, she started participating in international athletics competitions in the East Africa Athletics Championships, held in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Algeria in consecutive years. She became one of the first Ethiopian women to participate in the All-Africa Games and in the third All-Africa Games organised in Algiers (Algeria) in January 1978. In these competitions, Tsigie was awarded a bronze medal and a certificate. In the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, for the first time, two Ethiopian female athletes were included in the Ethiopian Olympic Team. They were Tsigie G/Mesih, and Ethiopia G/Eyesus and they opened a new era for Ethiopian female athletes. Even though it was splendid progress in the history of Ethiopian female athletics, however, before the Games began, Ethiopia and other African countries decided to boycott the Montreal Olympics.

**1.4. Becoming a coach**

In the late 1970s, she ended her career as a runner and took coaching classes in Ethiopia and abroad. In 1979, she attended a six-month course at the *Institute of Deutsche Hochschule für Korpekultur* (DHFK) in the German Democratic Republic.

In 1980, she became a short distance coach for the Ethiopian National Athletics Team. With other colleagues, she also developed youth projects and provided training in athletics in Oromiya, Beni Šhangul, Tegray and other regions. As a coach, Tsigie, produced a number of elite athletes like Zäwdè Häilä-Mariam, Sänayet Häilè, Abaynašh Aräga, Hiywote Sisaye, Wärqu Baru, Alämayähu Gudäta, Wätärä Gälälčha and others.
<figure><img src="image_59.png" /><figcaption>Figure 30. Diploma from Institute of Deutsche Hochschule für Korpekultur</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_60.png" /></figure>

THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
HERBERT AWARDS

Tsigie G/Mesih

THE WOMEN AND SPORT ACHIEVEMENT DIPLOMA

in promoting the development
and participation of women and girls in sport.

<figure><img src="image_61.png" /><figcaption>Figure 31. Tsigie G/Mesih, Diploma of “Women and Sport achievement” from IOC 2002</figcaption></figure>

1.5. *Life awards*

For her achievement in athletics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Tsigie from Africa “The Women and Sport Achievement Diploma” prize on 26 April 2002 for her contributions to the promotion of women and girls in sport in Ethiopia. It was publicised in their *Press release* dated 26 April 2002.
## 2. Derartu Tulu

### 2.1. *From a child tending cattle to physical education*

Ethiopia was originally considered as a country of only male competitors in the world of athletics, seeing as Ethiopian men dominated long-distance running. Some also asked, “Can the Ethiopian womb bear a female star athlete?” The athlete Derartu Tulu is a clear testimony that shows the Ethiopian womb does bear female athletes.

Derartu Tulu is the daughter of *Ato* Tulu Gämäčhu and *wäyzäro*\* Yäšhi Wägi, both Orthodox, and she was born on 21 March 1972 in Arsi-Bäqoji, into a large family of fourteen. She grew up in what was then a small agricultural village called Bäqoji, as a child tending cattle. Owing to her family's economic problems, Derartu went to school two years later than the normal starting age. Moreover, like many young Ethiopian girls she had difficulty in reconciling her schoolwork with assisting her mother in the household chores. Therefore, she was always late for school, which was far from home. Derartu began running unintentionally, when she ran to school to avoid a latecomer's punishment.

At an early age she rode horses, watched over cattle and ran with boys. She was unafraid, unlike the rest of the girls. At school, Sentayahu Eshetu, her physical education teacher, recognised her talent and encouraged her to enter a 400 metres race at the Bäqoji Elementary School. Though she was the only female racing, Derartu Tulu won the contest and beat all the boys, which boosted her confidence. Then people started referring to her as “The man in disguise.”

### 2.2. *From wärädä to national championships*

Once Derartu Tulu was recognised as the school champion, she was selected to run in the *wärädä* championships. She told the officials that she was sick at heart as her mother was not willing for her to enter any sporting activities. Indeed, her mother may have been influenced by an old pejorative Amharic saying “*ኪ* ከማጇት ወነድ ከአደባዎ” “*The place for a woman is the kitchen whereas the place for the man is a public square.*”

But her friends and coach did not listen to her; rather they convinced her to race at the *wäräda* championship. Then, Derartu won the 800 metres and 1,500 metres races.

She was then selected by the Arsi region to compete in the Ethiopian National championships in Addis Ababa. There, she finished the race in third position in the 800 m and 1,500 m races and then she became a noticeable athlete who attracted the interest of a number of top Ethiopian clubs.
Source 79. Interview of Derartu Tulu in 2009

Derartu Tulu recalls how she was selected to participate in wäräda championships:

> "A military car came to pick me up. I had never been outside Bäqoji back then and stepped into a car. Since the military came to arrest criminals, the children in our area thought that I had stolen something. I was shocked until they finally told me that I was selected for the district to run. I told the officials that I had heart sickness and that my mother would kill me if I went. (...) My mother wanted me to focus on household tasks and also my mother was disgusted with me for running at the sport ground."

Kayla Nolan, *More Than a Sport: Empowerment of Women through Running in Ethiopia* (Los Angeles: Occidental College, 2009), 20.

### 2.3. From Marämiya Sport Club to the Ethiopian national athletics team

When she was asked to join the Marämiya Sport Club, her mother did not support her, while conversely her father and sisters encouraged her to go for a second time to Addis Ababa.

Source 80. Interview of Derartu Tulu in 1989 EC (1997)

When Ato Abära Ayana first asked Derartu to join the Marämiya Sport Club in Addis Ababa, she replied: "I came to Addis Ababa for the championships without permission from my family so first I need to go back to Arsi to ask my family's willingness and then I will return to Addis Ababa." When Derartu returned to Bäqoji her mother was very upset and said: "How can you go away like a man?"

Unknown author, "interview of Derartu Tulu," Addis Zämän, Genbot 26, 1989 E.C.

Moreover, her father sold a few sacks of barley to send Derartu to Addis Ababa. However, her beginnings as a member of the Marämiya Sport Club were not successful due to her feelings of loneliness caused by the separation from her family and birthplace. As a result, the officials of the club ordered her to leave, but with the help of her coach she succeeded in remaining in the club.

After one year, Derartu was recruited to the Ethiopian National Athletics Team. She went to Norway in 1981 to participate in the six-kilometre race but finished the contest in 23rd position. However, she continued her efforts and became the first black African woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics. In the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, she won the 10,000 m race. Subsequently, she became a medalist in many international championships.

Generally, Derartu said: "I reached this stage not easily but rather by overcoming many challenges, I grew up in a rural area of Ethiopia, so I faced a lot of challenges from society and from my family especially from my mother. (...) (but) I became successful with the help of God, my great effort and my
commitment to being a good athlete. This helped me to achieve good results and also helped me to convince my mother."

<table><caption>Table 8. Derartu Tulu's Major achievements in Athletics</caption><thead><tr><td>Year</td><td>Venue</td><td>Country</td><td>Event</td><td>Time</td><td>Medal</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1990</td><td>Plovdiv</td><td>Bulgaria</td><td>10,000 m</td><td>32:56.26</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>1991</td><td>Antwerp</td><td>Belgium</td><td>Long Race (6.425 km)</td><td>20:27</td><td>Silver</td></tr><tr><td>1992</td><td>Barcelona</td><td>Spain</td><td>10,000 m</td><td>31:06.02</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>1995</td><td>Durham</td><td>England</td><td>5 km</td><td>20:21 min</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>1995</td><td>Gothenburg</td><td>Sweden</td><td>10,000 m</td><td>31:08.10</td><td>Silver</td></tr><tr><td>1997</td><td>Turin</td><td>Italy</td><td>Senior woman race (6.6 km)</td><td>20:53 min</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>2000</td><td>Sydney</td><td>Australia</td><td>10,000 m</td><td>30:17.49</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>2000</td><td>Vilamoura</td><td>Portugal</td><td>Senior woman race (8.08 km)</td><td>25:42 min</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>2001</td><td>Edmonton and Alberta</td><td>Canada</td><td>10,000 m</td><td>31:48.81</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>2004</td><td>Athens</td><td>Greece</td><td>10,000 m</td><td>30:24.98</td><td>Bronze</td></tr></tbody></table>

Source: Derartu Tulu Profile, International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). https://worldathletics.org/athletes/ethiopia/derartu-tulu-14259709 [archive] (2013); "Derartu Tulu," *Wikipedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derartu_Tulu.

### 3. Merima Denboba

Religion might have had a negative impact on female participation in physical education and sports competition because both the Muslim Holy Quran and the Christian Holy Bible order women to dress modestly without showing off their body. Islamic religious canons and dress rules prevented Muslim women from participating in sporting activities. Hashemi Faezeh, a member of the Islamic Republic's High Council for Women's Sports as well as Vice President of Iran's Olympic Committee, appealed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to order new stadiums only for Muslim female contestants. So, her appeal makes clear that religious rules also had an impact on Muslim women's participation in sports activities. In this part we will try to show the life of one prominent Ethiopian Muslim athlete, Merima Denboba.

#### 3.1. Growing up in Arsi in a supportive family and context

Merima Denboba was born on 21 August 1974 in Arsi, to *Ato* Denboba Ogèto and *wäyzäro*\* Fatuma Gulebè. She is one of the leading Ethiopian Muslim athletes and may be considered a groundbreaking athlete for her fellow Ethiopian female Muslim athletes.

Besides cultural and religious factors, the prevalence of ineffective physical education teachers was a factor in the low level of female student participation. They neither encouraged nor forced female students to engage or take part in physical exercise and training.
Source 81. Interview of Merima Denboba in 2013 (extract 1)

With regard to student participation in Physical Education when she was at school, she said: "Since I grew up in a rural part of Ethiopia as most rural women I and my friends faced cultural norms. As a result female student participation in physical education was too low during my stay at school. If a girl went on the sport field, she was considered by society as rowdy or untamed."

Merima Denboba, interview by Tamirat Gebremariam, Addis Ababa, April 25, 2013.

However, when Merima began athletics, she did not meet opposition from her family. Rather, they encouraged her to move forward in athletics. Regarding the challenges she faced due to her religion when she began athletics, she said: "At that time Ethiopian Muslims were not too strict on wearing *hijab* ("head cover") or *khimar* (to cover their cleavage or bosoms) and a woman did not have to cover from head to toe. It is a recent phenomenon so I did not face any opposition due to my religion."

Source 82. Interview of Merima Denboba in 2013 (extract 2)

"Most of my challenges came from the surrounding community; they considered me as a morally bankrupt or spiteful woman. As a result they separated their daughters from me because they presumed that I would make their daughters misbehave. As a result they made me feel lonely. Beside this they insulted me with bad words when I went to the sport fields የትፎም ስትዛር ዲቃሳ ይዛ ትመጣለች (She may bear an illegitimate child, a bastard)."

Merima Denboba, interview by Tamirat Gebremariam, Addis Ababa, April 25, 2013.

## 3.2. *A model for Ethiopian Muslim women athletes*

By overcoming discrimination, Merima, became a new role model for young Ethiopian women athletes in general, and female Muslim athletes, in particular. In both domestic and international competitions, Merima Denboba won many medals and cups. In domestic competitions, from 1988 to 2005, she got thirty-five gold, eighteen silver and seventeen bronze medals. In international competitions, from 1991 to 2008, Merima won fifty gold, thirty silver and twenty bronze medals. Furthermore, from 1991 to 2008 she obtained sixty-three gold, thirty-five silver and twenty-two bronze cups. Currently, Merima works as athletics team leader for the Ethiopian Bank Sports Club, her former athletics club.
<table><caption>Table 9. Merima's major achievements in athletics</caption><thead><tr><th>Year</th><th>Venue</th><th>Country</th><th>Event</th><th>Time</th><th>Medal</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1993</td><td>Tokyo</td><td>Japan</td><td>International Marathon Relay</td><td>4:19:12</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>1994</td><td>Valencia</td><td>Spain</td><td>Half Marathon</td><td>1:11:43</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>1995</td><td>Budapest</td><td>Hungary</td><td>5,000 m</td><td>15:47:03</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>1996</td><td>Sotteville</td><td>France</td><td>3,000 m</td><td>9:00:05</td><td>Silver</td></tr><tr><td>1997</td><td>Donna Sprint. Trento</td><td>Italy</td><td>5,000 m</td><td>15:11:71</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>1998</td><td>Athens</td><td>Greece</td><td>5,000 m</td><td>15:30:06</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>1999</td><td>Belfast</td><td>Northern Ireland</td><td>8 km</td><td>28:12</td><td>Silver</td></tr><tr><td>2000</td><td>Ala del Sardi</td><td>Italy</td><td>5 km</td><td>17:11:09</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>2001</td><td>Yecal</td><td>Spain</td><td>6 km</td><td>17:57:00</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>2002</td><td>Lisbon</td><td>Portugal</td><td>5,000 m</td><td>15:17:24</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>2003</td><td>Spanish Champion</td><td>Spain</td><td>10,000 m</td><td>31:47:53</td><td>Gold</td></tr><tr><td>2004</td><td>International De-Italica</td><td>Spain</td><td>6 km</td><td>21:42:71</td><td>Gold</td></tr></tbody></table>

Source: Merima Denboba Private Record, her results collected by her coach.

## Conclusion

The above biographies give a useful concrete and specific view of the cultural challenges and problems which have inhibited girls considering a career in athletics from the 1950s to the 21st century. Their common challenge was the traditional gender role reserved for females in society.

Families, except Merima's, strongly objected to their daughters being in involved in physical education and sports and appearing in public in competitions dressed in shorts. Interestingly, in the case of Derartu, it was her mother, who perpetuated this conservative role. Neighbours' attitudes also had a role in prohibiting girls from entering into physical activities. Except for Tsigie, poverty was also another challenge to overcome. Traditional religious views about women were another hindrance to female athletes. However, we note that Merima grew up in a period of tolerant, liberal Islam in Arsi. She did not experience so many religious prejudices stating that *hijab* and *khimar* in sports are “recent phenomena.”

These pioneering women athletes all became role models in encouraging other girls to follow in their footsteps, while some of them became coaches, helping to produce more successful female athletes.

## References and further readings

* Ethiopian Olympic Committee and Ministry of Culture and Sports Affairs. 1992. "Ethiopian Olympic Delegation 25th Olympiad, Spain, Barcelona." July-August, 1992.
International Olympic Committee. 2002. "IOC 2002 Women & Sport Trophy Winners." Press release, April 26, 2002. https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-2002-women-sport-trophy-winners [archive].

Makda Tekle Michael. 2005. "Women as Artists: The Lives and Works of Six Painters, 1990 to the Present." MA diss. Addis Ababa University.

*Mareha Sport* 2, no. 23, Tahsas, 1970 E.C.

Nolan, Kayla. 2009. *More Than a Sport: Empowerment of Women through Running in Ethiopia*. Los Angeles: Occidental College.

Talhami, Ghada H. 2003. *Historical Dictionary Women in the Middle East and North Africa*. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc.

Derartu Tulu, interview by Tamirat Gebremariam, Addis Ababa, April 28, 2013.

"Interview of Derartu Tulu," Youtube, accessed on 16 May 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqF/cRczoy.

Merima Denboba, interview by Tamirat Gebremariam, Addis Ababa, April 25, 2013.
<figure><img src="image_62.png" /></figure>
Part 9

Women, Sexuality
and Reproductive Health
<figure><img src="image_63.png" /></figure>
# Women and Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

"Because women and girls are not valued equally as human beings, they are treated as less than such. Female genital mutilation is one example of this that has to be stopped."

Waris Dirie, UN special ambassador against female genital mutilation, in United Nations, "United Nations Population Fund ambassador named woman of the year" (press release no. POP/689, November 12, 1998).

The issue of Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C) is of considerable importance in Ethiopia. It is generally regarded as a "social custom that has been practiced for centuries," but there are no comprehensive historical studies on the subject that cover the period from the past to the present. This chapter shows that it is difficult to trace the history of the issue since medieval times because of the gaps in the studies. Therefore, while the first and second parts of the chapter will provide an overview of the few historical studies that have been conducted on the medieval and modern periods, the third and fourth parts, devoted to the 20th century and beyond, will examine issues and trends due to the lack of historical research in comparison to the availability of more recent surveys and studies on FGM/C in contemporary Ethiopia.

The oldest written sources found on the topic confirm that it was practiced in Ethiopia as early as the Middle Ages. However, it took centuries for the government seconded by the African Union to demonstrate its commitment to bring FGM/C to an end through legislation, campaigns and concerted actions by government, international organisations and civil society. There is also evidence to show a link between child marriage and female circumcision, and both practices remain prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, although they have declined. However, these issues and their links are not addressed in this chapter because they have not been approached in any historical research. Nevertheless, the case of contemporary Ethiopia can be seen as a success and
lessons can be learnt from the policies put in place in order to reduce these practices. However, there has been a resurgence of these practices in some regions of Ethiopia in recent years. This historical overview shows how strong the traditions are and how debates on the issue have been on the political stage for centuries.

Source 83. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C)

The term “female genital mutilation” (also called “female genital cutting” and “female genital mutilation/cutting”) refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

WHO, *Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation. An Interagency Statement* (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2008).

Female genital mutilation or female genital cutting (FGM/C) is the terminology most generally used in international debates, and has been adopted by the UN and the Government of Ethiopia in its policy statements and laws.

In this chapter: we prefer to use the term “circumcision,” as we do not wish to stigmatise girls who have undergone the practice or hamper constructive dialogue within communities. In the Ethiopian context, the practice varies from clitoridectomy and/or excision to the more severe and risky form of infibulation practiced by the eastern pastoralist groups. The age of girls also varies, with the practice carried out shortly after birth in northern Ethiopia while in the south it is usually a precursor to marriage and among some southern groups was a collective rite of passage involving public celebration. (Young Lives, “Child Marriage and Female Circumcision (FGM/C): Evidence from Ethiopia,” *Policy Brief* 21, 2014.)

We also use the term “circumcision” in the chapter because the Ethiopian Church was using it in the Middle Ages to describe the practice as the feminine version of masculine circumcision.

# 1. The historical background of excision and debates in medieval Ethiopia in relation to circumcision

In the historiography, the circumcision of young boys in the Christian communities has long been understood as a Judaic custom, that underlies the Jewish roots of Ethiopian Christianity. From the 17th century onwards, circumcision and excision have been linked in literature and considered two sides of the same coin. This view is the result of a long process that we can trace from the 15th century in the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. At that time, the Christian king introduced a reform aimed at Christianising female mutilation, making it the female counterpart of circumcision. Thanks to the texts that document this moment, we can also identify excision practices within Muslim and “local religious” communities in the 15th century.
1.1. *The Christianisation of the FGM/C ritual during the reign of King Zär’ä Ya’eqob (1434–1468)*

At the end of the 15th century, King Zär’ä Ya’eqob, who was trying to reform Christianity, was faced with the question of female excision and circumcision. The debate is recorded in the *Mäshäfä Bärhan* or “the book of light,” which was written on his order to be read every Saturday and Sunday. The study here focuses on the homily dedicated for the second Sunday of each month that is related to the position of women within the liturgy, taking into account their menstruation and the separation of men and women during Mass. The issue of female circumcision is also seen as a practice to be abolished. At the beginning, when he heard that the Christian Tigrean people practiced female circumcision, King Zär’ä Ya’eqob condemned the practice stating that it was a Muslim and a “pagan” custom of the people living in the eastern and western parts of the country.

Source 84. The proclamation of King Zar’a Ya’eqob on Christian female genital circumcision (15th century)

> *After having described the practice of the female excision, almost similar to an infibulation, King Zär’ä Ya’eqob states: “The people of Tigre are, however, all following the Orthodox faith; they practiced it by ignorance, because the priests did not teach them to abandon (it): I proclaim, I, King Zar’a Ya’eqob, bearing the regnal name of Constantine, that no one perform from now on this stupid behaviour in all the countries of my kingdom. Therefore, our father, the patriarch, and our fathers, the metropolitans, forbade under excommunication to practice it on the genital organ of the woman: at the time of circumcision, the “flesh should not be cut with a blade and the genital organ should not be in contact with blood. We do not circumcise her as prescribed. At the time of her wedding, her husband does not open the seal of the woman’s virginity with his finger and does not open the genital organ of the lady with a blade, as God created her. The seal of the girl will be opened with the genital organ of the man married to her and the blade does not penetrate in her genital organ, except the day of her circumcision, as prescribed to Abraham.”*

Carlo Conti Rossini and Lanfranco Ricci, *Il libro della luce del negus Zar’a Ya’eqob (Mashafa Berhan)* (Louvain: CSCO [Script. Aeth.], 1964–1965), vol. 1, 91.

However, instead of fighting and eradicating it, the king found a way to Christianise the ritual. By looking forward and compiling various canonic texts of the Orthodox religion, the king succeeded in demonstrating that genital mutilation was an Orthodox ritual that has no gender, implying the idea that all Christians, male or female, had to be “circumcised.” If the debate implies that before his reign only the Tigreans practiced women’s excision, we can hypothesise that King Zär’ä Ya’eqob could have been the instigator for the generalisation of the practice of Christian female genital mutilation.
1.2. FGM/C and the question of Judaic influence in Ethiopian Christianity:
*A debate that started during the 16th century*

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese Alvares noted that circumcision of both men and women was practised on a religious basis, a fact that could confirm that the reform of King Zär'ä Ya'eqob had worked. However, he also mentions the fact that there was no specific ceremony.

Source 85. Remarks of Francisco Alvares on male and female circumcision during the 16th century

"Circumcision is done by anybody without any ceremony, only they say that so they find it written in the books, that God commanded circumcision. And let not the reader of this be amazed—they also circumcise the females as well as the males, which was not in the old laws."

Francisco Alvares, in Charles F. Beckingham and Georges W. B. Huntingford, *The Prester John of the Indies: A True Relation of the Lands of the Prester John, Being the Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Ethiopia in 1520* (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), 109.

From the 16th century, with the arrival of the Jesuits in the country, the question of Jewish influences in the Ethiopian Orthodox faith increased. Faced with accusations of the Jesuits, in 1555, King Gälawdewos adopted a different position when addressing his opponents who saw circumcision as being a Judaic practice. He justified the ritual as a traditional ancestral rite that had nothing to do with religion.

Source 86. King Gälawdewos' (1540-1563) proclamation on circumcision

"And as to the institution of circumcision, it is not that we are circumcised like the Jews, for we know the word of the teaching of Paul, fount of wisdom (...). We possess all the books of Paul's teaching and they instruct us as regards circumcision and as regards the prepuce. But the circumcision which we have is according to the custom of the country—like the scarification of the face (practised) in Ethiopia and Nubia (...). What we do is not for the observance of the laws of the Pentateuch but rather in accord with the custom of the people."

Edward Ullendorff, "The 'Confessio Fidei' of King Claudius of Ethiopia," *Journal of Semitic Studies* 32, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 173.

This debate continued in Ethiopian historiography until the 20th century, with two different camps opposing each other: the thesis of Jewish influences inherited from Egypt or Yemen and the thesis of a late interpretation of old canons during the 15th century, which justified the practice of an archaic Christianity.
## 2. The practices of FGM/C in modern times (17th–19th centuries)

For Manoel d’Almeida, all the inhabitants of the country were circumcised: “Jews, Moors, Christians and heathens.” James Bruce returned to the subject at the end of the 18th century. It seemed to him that the origin of “circumcision” went back to the people of *Agaazis* who brought the custom with them when they settled on the Tigrean Plateau. However, although it was an ancient practice, he also tried to show that it probably did not come from Egypt by locating the people who did not practise it.

### 2.1. Communities that practised excision (or not) at the end of the 18th century

According to James Bruce, the Falaša practised female excision, although not all Ethiopian communities had adopted it. For example, the Agäw communities living between Lasta and Bägemdär and those of Damot were not circumcised, nor were the Gafat people. He states that the Amhara were also not circumcised before the 10th century. He also claims that the Oromo people did not practise circumcision. The last groups listed are the lowland populations living to the west or southwest of the Ethiopian highlands, who were regularly the victims of slave raids and whom Bruce refers to using the pejorative term “Shankallas” which was then in use in the Christian kingdom. The location of these communities, which did not practise feminine circumcision, helped the author to establish that the custom did not come from Egypt.

Source 87. The origin of circumcision in Ethiopia according to James Bruce

> “The Abyssinians of Tigre say that they received it from Ishmael’s family and his descendants, with whom they were early connected in their trading voyages. They say also, that the Queen of Sheba, and all the women of that coast, had suffered excision at the usual time of life, before puberty, and before her journey to Jerusalem. The Falasha again declare, that their circumcision was that commonly practiced at Jerusalem in the time of Solomon, and in use among them when they left Palestine, and came into Abyssinia.”

James Bruce, *Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 & 1773* (Dublin: William Sleater, 1790), vol. 5, 26.

### 2.2. How FGM/C was performed in medieval and postmedieval Ethiopia
(16th–19th centuries)

At the end of the 15th century, according to King Zär’ä Ya’aqob, the Muslims and the “Pagans” who practised excision used the same methods. They performed the circumcision of young girls by cutting the genital organ (*harafa*) with a razor, leaving the blood to cover it, without even leaving a hole sufficient for urination. It was therefore a full ablation of the labia with total cauterisation
(Type IV). During their future marriage, the husband had to open the hymen of his wife with his fingers, making it look like the practice of infibulation.

In the Christian communities, even after Zär'ä Ya'əqob's proclamation, it was still a ritual that was not performed in a church or by a member of the clergy. In the 17th century, Job Ludolf, a German orientalist, states that the circumciser was a woman, and that the operation was performed on the eighth day after birth. At the beginning of 19th century, the missionary Samuel Gobat stated that the very same practice was still in use. F. Caillaud, a French naturalist who travelled to Ethiopia in the 19th century, also describes that what was prescribed in Zär'ä Ya'əqob's homily was almost similar to his own observations in Sennar. In the early 20th century, Enno Littmann, a German orientalist of the beginning of the 20th century, notes that in Təgre, the operation was performed between the ages of one and six years and that the excision of girls was a woman's duty.

### 3. The practices of FMG/C in 21st century Ethiopia

The few historical studies on this topic have been presented in the first and second parts of this chapter. This reinforces the fact that there is a general lack of historical research on the challenges faced by women in the contemporary period. This conclusion also applies to any health and medical research topic. The analysis of FGM/C in contemporary Ethiopia has only been approached through anthropological, sociological and development studies, making historical analysis difficult. Moreover, as historical studies are not complete in terms of chronological and geographical data, a comparison with the current situation is not possible. Therefore, the third and fourth parts of the chapter, rather than being a historical research, will present the situation of FGM/C practices in Ethiopia today, its impacts on women's lives, and the attempts of the government since 1979 to implement a legal framework to end the practice.

#### 3.1. Overview of the practice of FGM/C in 21st century Ethiopia

According to the Ethiopian Demographic Health Surveys, the prevalence of FGM/C in Ethiopia decreased from 80% in the 2000s, to 74% in 2005 and to 65% in 2016. The highest concentration of female circumcisions occurs in Somali (99%) and Təgre has the lowest prevalence (24%), followed by Gambella (33%). According to the 2013 UNICEF statistical overview report, FGM/C affected 23.8 million women and girls in Ethiopia.

Estimates by focus-group discussants in 1997 in EGLDAM 2008 show that infibulation is the most prevalent among the Somalis and Afars. Excision and clitoridectomy are practiced among the Amhara, with lower prevalence among the Tigreans and to a certain degree in the Southern Nation and Nationalities (SNNP). According to Boyden et al. (2013), clitoridectomy is
commonly practised among the Oromo. The age at which FGM/C is carried out varies across different ethnic groups. Female circumcision is done shortly after birth in northern parts of the country whereas it is associated with marriage in the southern part.

<table><caption>Table 10. Classification of FGM/C</caption><thead><tr><td>FMG/C TYPES</td><td>Definition</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Type I</td><td>Partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce (clitoridectomy).</td></tr><tr><td>Type II</td><td>Partial or total removal of the clitoris and the <i>labia minora</i>, with or without excision of the <i>labia majora</i> (excision).</td></tr><tr><td>Type III</td><td>Narrowing of the vaginal orifice with creation of a covering seal by cutting and appositioning the <i>labia minora</i> and/or the <i>labia majora</i>, with or without excision of the clitoris (infibulation).</td></tr><tr><td>Type IV</td><td>All other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, for example, pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterisation.</td></tr></tbody></table>

Source: World Health Organization (2008, 24).

### 3.2. *The practitioners*

According to UNICEF 2005, FGM/C is mainly carried out by traditional practitioners, which include local specialists, traditional birth attendants and older members of a community, particularly women. Pankhurst (2003) indicated that in the southern part of the country, female circumcision is performed by a caste group of specialist craft workers such as potters, smiths and tanners. The registered charity 28 Too Many 2013 country profile further showed that there is an indication of FGM/C being performed by health workers within a hospital/clinic setting, mainly in urban areas, which shows a trend towards the medicalisation of the practice in the country. Though medicalization decreases health risks associated with the procedure, it could result in misunderstandings surrounding the practice.

### 4. The current discourse for the perpetuation of the practice

In the focus groups EGLDAM conducted as part of the follow-up survey in 2007, as cited in 28 Too Many (2013), found the following reasons for performing FGM/C across different ethnic groups in Ethiopia. FGM/C is practised to suppress girls' sexuality among the Oromo, Amhara, Tigreans, Kulo/Dawro and other ethnic groups, to avoid difficult childbirth among the Amharas, for an easy penetration for males among Tigreans, to avoid being stigmatised among Oromo, Kebena and Kem ethnic groups, to prevent rape amongst the Afar and the Somali, for hygienic reasons by the Jebelawi and
Oromo and for aesthetic reasons among the Afar. As indicated in the country profile of 28 Too Many (2013), though FGM is not endorsed by religions in Ethiopia, some consider it a religious act. In general, FGM/C is a reflection of gender inequality and represents social norm tradition and is an expression of discrimination against women.

Source 88. Interview of an old woman in Təgre towards circumsicion

> *A grandmother of one of the Young Lives girls in Təgre, who had been married at the age of 19, expressed her cultural dilemma regarding circumcision as follows: "On the one hand, when I see some girls going around with boys, I think that it would be better to circumcise my granddaughter because then she would be calmer and wouldn't be seen with boys all the time. So, you can think even if circumcision has bad consequences, it is preferable. If a girl has an unwanted pregnancy, if she gives birth from an outsider, what can be done then? On the other hand, you also see girls who have been circumcised but are not disciplined. So, maybe it depends on the nature of the girls. Personally, my experience was very bad, so I think it has to be condemned."*

Young Lives, "Child Marriage and Female Circumcision (FGM/C): Evidence from Ethiopia," *Policy Brief* 21 (revised December 2014), 5.

### 4.1. *The medical and psychological impact of FGM/C on women*

FGM/C has no health benefits, but rather it has negative physical and mental health consequences. The WHO 2016 (p. 6–7) guidelines on the management of health complications from female genital mutilation specified the immediate, obstetric, sexual, psychological and long-term risks linked with FGM/C. Accordingly, the immediate risks include haemorrhage, pain, shock, genital tissue swelling, infections, urination and wound healing problems and death. Obstetric risks include caesarean section, postpartum haemorrhage, episiotomy, prolonged labour, obstetric tears/lacerations, instrumental delivery, difficult labour/dystocia, extended maternal hospital stay, stillbirth and early neonatal death and infant resuscitation at delivery. Sexual functioning risks include dyspareunia (pain during sexual intercourse), decreased sexual satisfaction, reduced sexual desire and arousal, decreased lubrication during sexual intercourse and reduced frequency of orgasm or anorgasmia. Psychological risks include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorder and depression. Long-term risks associated with FGM/C include genital tissue damage, vaginal discharge, vaginal itching, menstrual problems, reproductive tract infections, chronic genital infections, urinary tract infections and painful urination.
# 5. The tools to fight FGM/C and move towards changes

## 5.1. Type of actions to end FGM/C

"The most successful community-based initiatives take human rights as the basis for action and incorporate the key elements for change." (UNICEF, 2005: 23). According to UNICEF 2005, a number of community-based actions have been adopted to protect girls from FGM/C. The most successful community-based initiatives adopt human rights approaches and are participatory in nature and engage communities to define problems and come up with solutions by themselves through facilitating non-judgmental discussion/dialogue, creating awareness on the negative consequences of the practice, empowering groups to organise and undertake collective action and make public affirmation and dif- fuse the decision to other communities. Where the practice of FGM/C is linked to initiation, efforts have been made towards developing alternative rites of passage and creating alternative employment opportunities for traditional excisers. Other initiatives stipulated by WHO in 2008 include empowering girls and women through education and economic empowerment; enhancing the inclusion of boys; promoting culturally-sensitive education on FGM/C; addressing the health complications of FGM/C; conducting activities that promote public discussion and debate on FGM/C; taking legal measures in consultation with community and accompanied by information.

## 5.2. History of the government effort against FGM/C

Ethiopia has taken a number of measures against FGM/C and is a signatory to international human rights conventions, which serve as a basis for the representation of FGM/C as a violation of international human rights. As indicated by Boyden et al. (2013: 20), these include the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the 1998 organisation of African Unity Addis Ababa Declaration on Violence Against Women and the 2008 United Nations Interagency Statement on Elimination of FGM.

According to the organization 28 Too Many (2013), at a national level, since its inception in 1987, the National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia (NCTPE) has been creating awareness on the topic. The Ethiopian government has integrated anti Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs) into all the major policy and legal plans. The first step in Ethiopia was therefore to confirm in the 1995 Constitution the human and citizenship rights for women. In 2000, the Family Law confirmed women's rights and their equality with men. However, at that time, the banning of FGM/C was not clearly enshrined. FGM/C was criminalised in 2005 in Ethiopia and some communities have passed by-laws outlawing FGM/C. A National FGM Network was founded in 2002 and was officially launched in 2010. In 2013, FDRE Ministry of
Women, Children and Youth developed a “National Strategy and Action Plan on Harmful Traditional Practices against Women and Children in Ethiopia.” The strategy stipulated three strategic pillars that specifically focus on prevention, protection and provision with the aim of ending child marriage and FGM/C. The ministry recently developed a National Costed Roadmap to End Child Marriage and FGM/C through a combination of strategies that enhance empowerment of girls and their families and engagement of communities and strengthen systems and enabling environments and promote production of data and evidence.

Many governmental and non-governmental organisations, activists and the media have been conducting campaigns against FGM/C. Though the campaigns have been effective in raising awareness of communities, FGM/C is still prevalent in Ethiopia. According to 28 Too Many (2013), the challenges to end FGM/C is the changing patterns of FGM/C for example, from Type III infibulation to Sunna in Afar and Somali regions without change of social norms and eradicating the practice. According to Boyden et al. (2013), changing the timing of ceremonies associated with FGM/C and boys' circumcision ceremonies were used as concealment to circumcise girls in Oromia and Hawassa, respectively. The lack of evidence and girls' fear of stigmatisation by their communities for disclosing circumcision make it challenging to implement the law.

## Conclusion

FGM/C was officially banned in the Family Law which was adopted in 2005. But the application of this new legislative framework started later on, and the effort has not been replicated in the same way in all the regions. The government committed itself to achieving the national target to eliminate child marriage and FGM/C by 2025. With national and international mobilisation and support, FGM/C has significantly decreased over the past few years: the prevalence of FGM/C in 2016 stood at 65 percent, compared to 74 percent in 2005. However, FGM/C prevalence data reveal variation between regions and within the regions. The Ethiopian case offers an interesting focus for a comparative prospect regarding the achievements of the different tools currently adopted by activists and official authorities in order to bring this practice to an end, such as increasing access to health care, education and employment opportunities for girls. As stated in Young Lives Policy Brief 21 (2014), resistance to abandoning the practice still exists due to communities' belief in the importance and perpetuation of the practice and lack of options and opportunities for girls in forms of training, employment, education and social protection. Therefore, banning the practice may not bring the intended result, but rather may encourage underground practices and the key to ending the practice lies in engaging communities and girls themselves as well as all relevant stakeholders. We wonder if exhaustive historical studies
of FGM/C could bring new data about the alleged reasons, methods and trends related to the practice and therefore shed light on some possible solutions to bring it to an end.

## References and further readings

28 Too Many. 2013. *Executive Summary Country Profile*. FGM in Ethiopia. London: 28 Too Many, October 2013. https://www.fgmcri.org/media/uploads/Country%20Research%20and%20Resources/Ethiopia/ethiopia_country_profile_executive_summ ary_v1_(april_2021).pdf [archive].

Boddy, Janice. 1989. *Wombs and Alien Spirits. Women, Men and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan*. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Boddy, Janice. 1998. "Violence Embodied? Female Circumcision, Gender Politics, and Cultural Aesthetics." In *Rethinking Violence Against Women* edited by R. E. Dobash and R. P. Dobash, 77-110. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Boyden, Jo, Alula Pankhurst, and Yisak Tafere. 2012. "Harmful Traditional Practices and Child Protection: Female Early Marriage and Genital Modification in Ethiopia." *Development in Practice* 22: 4510-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2012.672957 [archive].

Bruce, James. 1790. *Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 & 1773*. Dublin: William Sleater. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54180.

Cailliaud, Frédéric. 1826. *Voyage à Méroé, au Fleuve-Blanc, au-delà du Fazoql, dans le midi du royaume de Sennar, à Syouah et dans cinq autres oasis; fait dans les années 1819, 1820, 1821 et 1822*. Paris: Rignoux. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k104932v.

Conti Rossini, Carlo, and Lanfranco Ricci. 1964-1965. *Il libro della luce del negus Zar'a Ya'eqob (Mashafa Berhan)*, vol. 1. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. Louvain: CSCO.

Derat, Marie-Laure. 2010. "La circoncision et l'excision en Éthiopie du xve au xviiiᵉ siècle: lectures d'un rituel." *Afriques*, no. 01. https://doi.org/10.4000/afriques.415.

Central Statistical Agency (CSA) [Ethiopia] and ICF. 2016. *Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2016*. Addis Ababa: Central Statistical Agency; Rockville, MD: The DHS Program - ICF. https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR328/FR328.pdf [archive].

EGLDAM (Ye Ethiopia Goji Lemadawi Dirgitoch Aswagaj Mahber). 2008. "Follow up National Survey on Harmful Traditional Practices in Ethiopia." Addis Ababa: EGLDAM.

Federal Negarit Gazetta of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 2000. "The Revised Family Code." *Federal Negarit Gazetta* Extra Ordinary Issue No. 1/2000 - The Revised Family Code Proclamation No. 213/2000. Addis Ababa, 4th Day of July 2000. https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4c0ccc052.pdf [archive].

Gobat, Samuel. 1834. *Journal d'un séjour en Abyssinie pendant les années 1830, 1831 et 1832*. Paris: J.-J. Risler.
Hirut Terefe Gemeda. 2000. *A Study of Female Genital Mutilation and Reproductive Health: The Case of Arsi Oromo*. Göttingen: Selbstdruck. http://repository.iifphc.org/handle/123456789/846.

Littmann, Enno. 1910. *Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia*, vol. 2: *Tales, Customs, Names and Dirges of the Tigre Tribes*. Leiden: E. J. Brill. https://archive.org/details/publicationsofpr02littiala.

Ludolf, Hiob. 1681. *Historia Aethiopica sive brevis et succincta descriptio regni Habessinorum, quod vulgo male Presbyteri Iohannis vocatur.* [*History of Ethiopia, or a Brief and Concise Description of the Kingdom of the Abyssinians, Commonly, though Eroneously, Called of Prester John.*] Frankfurt am Main: Johann David Zunner. https://books.google.com.et/books?id=G6kb1NXVekMC&pg=PP13#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth. 2013. *National Strategy and Action Plan on Harmful Traditional Practices against Women and Children in Ethiopia*. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Women, Children and Youth. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20181123130538/http://www.african.childinfo.net/clr/policy%20per%20country/2015%20Update/Ethiopia/ethiopia ht p_2013_en.pdf.

Ministry of Women, Children and Youth. 2019. *National Costed Roadmap to End Child Marriage and FGM/C 2020–2024*. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Women, Children and Youth. https://www.unicef.org/ ethiopia/media/1781/file/National%20Roadmap%20to%20End%20Child%20Mar riage%20and%20FGM.pdf [archive].

Moulin, Anne-Marie, and Margaux Herman. 2016. “Strategies and Tools Used against Female Genital Mutilation in Africa: An Overview.” *CFEE un œil sur la Corne*, April 15, 2016. https://cfee.hypotheses.org/820.

National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia. 2008. *Old Beyond Imaginings: Ethiopia Harmful Traditional Practices*. Addis Ababa: National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia.

Pankhurst, Alula. 2003. “Dimensions and Conceptions of Marginalisation.” In * peripheral People: Ethiopia’s Excluded Minorities*, edited by Dena Freeman and Alula Pankhurst, 301–34. London: Hurst.

Ullendorff, Edward. 1987. “The ‘Confessio Fidei’ of King Claudius of Ethiopia.” *Journal of Semitic Studies* 32, no. 1: 159–176.

UNICEF. 2005. *Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting*. Florence: UNICEF, Innocenti Research Centre. https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/fgm_eng.pdf [archive].

UNICEF. 2013. *Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Statistical Overview and Exploration of the Dynamics of Change*. New York: UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/media/85691/file/FGM_Report_Summary_English_%2023Aug2013.pdf [archive].

World Health Organization (WHO). 2008. *Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation. An Interagency Statement*. OHCHR, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNECA, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIFEM, WHO. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2008. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/43839 [archive].
World Health Organization (WHO). 2016. *WHO Guideline on the Management of Health Complications from Female Genital Mutilation*. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2016. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/206437/9789241549646_eng.pdf [archive].

Young Lives. 2014. "Child Marriage and Female Circumcision (FGM/C): Evidence from Ethiopia." *Policy Brief* 21 (July 2014, revised December 2014).
<figure><img src="image_64.png" /></figure>
# Women and Reproductive Health in Contemporary Ethiopia

"If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights, once and for all!"

Hillary Rodham Clinton, "Video Recording of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton Speaking at the United Nations Fourth Womens' Conference in Beijing, China," September 5, 1995, from *Clinton Digital Library*, Collection WJC-FL, Series Melanne Verveer's Subject Files, *video*.

No systematic study has been undertaken on the history of women and reproductive health in Ethiopia. Richard Pankhurst dedicated some articles to the history of diseases and traditional medicines. The introduction of some European traditions of medicine and medical practices in Ethiopia dates to the reign of Emperor Løbnä Døngøl (1508–1540), and they were introduced by missionaries, travellers, and members of diplomatic missions. Møniløk II (1889–1913) and Haylä Søllase (1930–1974) facilitated the promotion of some European traditions of medicine (Pankhurst, 1965).

On the contrary, many studies emerged on the topic in the last two decades, mainly focusing on women's challenges to access affordable, quality, and equitable reproductive health services and the government's efforts to address the problem. This chapter provides an account of the evolution of national health policies and strategies in contemporary Ethiopia, followed by descriptions of the situations of maternal health, abortion, syphilis, HIV/AIDS, child marriage, and family planning and their implications on the lived experiences of women.

## 1. The evolution of national health policies and strategies

The first national policy and strategy for health was formulated in 1963, aiming to reach rural areas by expanding a decentralised basic health services network and integrating preventive and curative services (Kloos 1998). Since
its founding in 1948, the Ministry of Public Health trained primary healthcare personnel in various aspects of healthcare services during the 1950s. The Ethiopian Red Cross Society established the first national nursing school in 1949 (Stommes and Sisaye 1980). However, this and subsequent plans failed to bring health equity between rural and urban areas. To address this gap, the Mengistu Hayle Mariam (Därg) regime (1974–1991), rooted in the 1978 Alma Ata declaration, emphasised the importance of primary healthcare.

The 10 years Perspective Health Plan from 1984/1985 to 1993/1994 focused on expanding and strengthening maternal and child health services, with community health agents and traditional birth attendants running community health services and advocating for essential health services at affordable cost. Although the Därg regime implemented various community programs and expanded the rural health service, it failed to revolutionise health services. Out of the slightly more than 5,000 trained community health agents and traditional birth attendants who were trained by 1984, only 30% continued their services in 1984 due to lack of remuneration, refresher courses, and supervision (Kloos 1998).

Following the Därg regime, Ethiopia enacted a series of Health Sector Development Programs (HSDP I, II, III and IV) from 1997 to 2015 and Health Sector Transformation Plans from 2015 to 2025. The government of Ethiopia launched “the Health Extension Program (HEP)” in 2003 under HSDP II with a philosophy that “if the right health knowledge and skill is transferred, households can take responsibility for producing and maintaining their own health” (MOH 2010, 14). At the heart of HEP have been health extension workers who had been trained by local government and deployed in pairs at health posts in local communities. There has been improvement during this period in terms of family planning services, for example, contraceptive coverage increased from the 1996/97 level of 4% to 25% in 2004/05. Building upon the successes and challenges of the successive Health Sector Development Programs (HSDPs) implemented over the last years, the government launched the five years Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP), which is part of the country’s GTP-II and the first phase of a 20-year health sector strategy titled ‘Envisioning Ethiopia’s Path to Universal Health Care through Strengthening of Primary Health Care.’

Ethiopia implemented the first Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP-I) from 2015/16 to 2019/20, which improved access to and utilisation of health services, reduced maternal mortality, and increased skilled birth delivery. However, there are significant challenges in addressing the unmet need for contraception, reducing maternal mortality, and disparities in service utilisation among people with different socioeconomic statuses. The second Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP II) covers the period from 2020/21—24/25 with a focus on top priority areas, including quality and equity of health
services, development of health workforce, information revolution, and health financing and leadership (MOH 2021).

Ethiopia's health policy is influenced by global health conventions, declarations, and global reproductive health discourses. Ethiopia is a signatory to international conventions/charters and declarations, including those arising from the 1987 Safe Motherhood Conference in Nairobi; the 1990 World Summit for Children; the 1994 ICPD; the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (MOH 2011, 17).

## 2. The burden on women in reproductive health

Source 89. Reproductive health

Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive systems and to its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. (...) Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in the human rights document.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), *Program of Action. Adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5–13 September 1994* (New York, 2004), 45–46.

### 2.1. Maternal mortality

Though few studies have been undertaken in the past, scrutinising Ethiopian hagiographies, Steven Kaplan (1986) noticed that medieval women faced health issues related to pregnancy, miscarriage, and death at delivery or soon after delivery. He emphasised the importance given to the problem of women's barrenness; a topic as well studied with more detail by Mersha Alehegne (2015) while uncovering the childhood of the saints.

Maternal mortality as a global health issue has only gained increased recognition over the past two decades and become part of international discourse on reproductive health and human right (see for example, the 1990 World Summit for Children, the 1994 ICPD; the 1995 World Conference on Women; the Fifth United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goal (MDG); Tessama et al. (2017) study on trends and causes of maternal mortality in Ethiopia during 1990–2013).
Source 90. Maternal death

Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes. Maternal deaths should be subdivided into two groups. Direct obstetric deaths are those resulting from obstetric complications of the pregnant state (pregnancy, labor, and puerperium), from interventions, omissions, incorrect treatment, or from a chain of events resulting from any of the above. Indirect obstetric deaths are those resulting from previous existing disease or disease that developed during pregnancy, and which was not due to direct obstetric causes, but which was aggravated by physiologic effects of pregnancy.

World Health Organization, *International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10)* (Geneva, 2004), 98–99.

There are many factors that affect the outcome of pregnancy, but it is most adversely affected by delays that occur in seeking, reaching, and receiving health care. Delays can occur when seeking care due to socioeconomic factors, individual and community perceptions of accessibility and quality of care, and cultural/traditional practices that restrict women from seeking healthcare. Delays in reaching care can occur due to the distance to reach healthcare facilities and the inability to afford transport costs, and delays in receiving care can happen due to inadequate facilities and poorly skilled staff and management (Thaddeus and Maine 1994).

The causes of maternal deaths vary with time. The proportion of maternal deaths due to unsafe abortion and infection have declined in the last decades due to improvement in laws, access to safe abortion and post-abortion care, and an increase in awareness about safe abortion. However, obstructed labour continues to be the major cause of maternal deaths, while hypertensive disorders and haemorrhages showed an increasing trend (Yifru and Asres 2014). Central Statistical Agency & ICF (2016) indicates that maternal mortality (MM) is decreasing. However, the current maternal mortality ratio is still high, with an estimated 412 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births for the 7 years before the 2016 EDHS survey. The EDHS 2000–2011 conducted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA 2012) showed differences in terms of maternal mortality rate between regions and between rural and urban women, and among women with different socioeconomic statuses. Somali, Afar, SNNP, Amhara, and Oromia are estimated to have a higher maternal mortality burden than the national average.

One of the most devastating events for women who survived maternal death is the occurrence of obstetric fistula, which occurs when the baby's head cannot pass through the birth canal after prolonged and obstructed labour. Fistula is an opening between the mother's vagina and bladder (vesico-vaginal)
or vagina and rectum (rectovaginal), or both (Donnay and Weil 2004, 71). Obstructed labour is the major cause of obstetric fistula, which can also be caused by other socioeconomic factors, including poverty, malnutrition, women's low status, early marriage, lack of health facilities, and female genital mutilation/cutting. However, fistula can be prevented if adequate care is available and effective prevention measures are undertaken (See for example, Rahwa 2014 & UNFPA & Engender Health 2003). Obstetric fistula can result in negative social, psychological, and physical consequences. The late Dr Catherine Hamlin (1924–2020) and her late husband were the first to discover women with fistula in Ethiopia and to officially open the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in 1974.

## 2.2. Abortion

*Source 91. Safe and unsafe abortion*

The definition of abortion varies from one source to another. According to the technical and procedural guidelines for safe abortion services in Ethiopia, abortion is the termination of pregnancy before fetal viability, which is conventionally taken to be less than 28 weeks from the last normal menstrual period (LNMP). If the LNMP is not known, a birth weight of less than 1000 gm is considered abortion.

Ministry of Health, Department of Family Health, *Technical and Procedural Guidelines for Safe Abortion Services in Ethiopia* (Addis Ababa, 2006), 5.

*Unsafe abortion is defined as* “a procedure for terminating an unintended pregnancy carried out either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards, or both”

WHO. *Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems* (Geneva: World Health Organization 2003) 12.

Unsafe abortion is one of the major causes of maternal deaths, although the proportion of maternal deaths occurring due to unsafe abortion has declined in Ethiopia. Unsafe abortion can also cause other complications, including haemorrhage, sepsis, and trauma to the cervix, vagina, uterus, and abdominal organs.

Ethiopia's laws on abortion have been changing over time from being too restrictive to semi-liberal. Part of the *Fəthä Nägäšt* content (Chapter XLVIII, Corporal and Spiritual Punishment for Fornication; VII–72) that dealt with abortion, as cited in Wada (2008: 20), states, “if a woman conceives and wants to abort the unborn child in her womb, she shall be beaten and exiled.” The 1930 Penal Code allowed no exceptions to abortion, and abortion was punishable by imprisonment. The 1957 Penal Code departed from the *Fəthä Nägäšt* and the 1930 Penal Code and recognised grounds on which abortion is performed, such as to save the life of the women and to preserve the physical and mental health of women. The enactment of the new criminal code in 2004 overturned
previous restrictive laws or positions on abortion. The revised criminal code of 2004 introduced major changes and allowed a woman to abort in cases of rape/incest, fetal impairment, to save the life of the woman and to preserve the physical and mental health of the woman (Wada 2008, 20). Although the abortion law in Ethiopia has been classified as ‘semi-liberal,’ it does not ensure access. There is need to focus attention from the content of policy to socioeconomic and political contexts that affect the relationship between abortion laws, policies, and access to health services (Blystad et al. 2019).

Abortion decision-making is an intra-subjective process that involves moral and/or religious dilemmas and considerations of health and safety. Though there is widespread condemnation of female premarital sex and moral sanction against induced abortion, young Ethiopian women still seek induced abortions, which could result in grave physical harm and social stigmatisation (Meselu et al. 2012). A study by Moore et al. (2016) further indicated that an estimated 620,300 induced abortions were performed in Ethiopia in 2014, and the annual abortion rate increased from 22 per 1,000 in 2008 to 28 per 1,000 among women aged 15-49 years in 2014. The proportion of abortions occurring in facilities increased from 27% to 53% between 2008 and 2014, and treatment for complications from induced abortion nearly doubled between 2008 and 2014, from 52,600 to 103,600. The proportion of women accessing post-abortion care (PAC) has also increased. The expansion of comprehensive abortion care, improved access to health care services, greater availability of free services, and increase in contraceptive use accounted for the improvement. Nevertheless, significant numbers of abortions continue to occur outside of health facilities under unsafe conditions: one-third of adolescent abortions are clandestine and thus potentially unsafe. Complications from unsafe abortions account for 19.6% of all maternal deaths (Tessema et al. 2017).

### 2.3. *A historical account of syphilis and HIV/AIDS*

Pankhurst (1975) dedicated one of his articles to the old-time treatment for syphilis (17th-20th centuries). In the course of his research, he mentioned epidemics and venereal diseases that were cured with hot water during the 1930s. He also mentioned that soldiers and merchants were the biggest spreaders of venereal diseases. Cases of syphilis were known at the end of the 1890s. Richard Pankhurst quoted a Shoan couplet recorded by Marcel Cohen: “ቂጥኝምብይዘኝ፡ለውሃ፡አወርዳለሁ፡ (“if I catch syphilis, I will go down to the hot water”). In 1949, Thorstein Guthe (1949) wrote a report for the World Health Organization (WHO) on venereal diseases in Ethiopia. In the 1960s, people used to believe that the best cure for syphilis was to have as many sexual encounters as possible to weaken the disease. From 1974 to 2000, some medical studies and reports were found on venereal diseases, especially on syphilis and some reproductive health issues.
The prevalence of syphilis had declined globally over the last three decades. No nationwide studies in Ethiopia show the prevalence and the epidemiology of syphilis among all and specific groups of the population. However, both available antenatal care-based sentinel HIV surveillance and individual studies on syphilis show inconsistencies in the prevalence of syphilis, with antenatal care-based sentinel HIV surveillance showing a decline of syphilis from 2.7% in 2007 to 2.3% in 2009; in 2012 and 2014 showing a slight increment of syphilis prevalence from 1.0% in 2012 to 1.2% in 2014 (Kebede et al. 2019).

HIV infection and syphilis are interlinked as the higher prevalence of one worsens the other. HIV/AIDS has been studied since the end of the 1990s along with other venereal disease studies, especially syphilis. HIV infections were first found in Ethiopia in 1984, and the relatively virulent HIV-1 is the major strain of the virus in Ethiopia. During the 1980s and 1990s, HIV/AIDS was mainly spread by commercial sex workers and truck drivers. Children, adolescents, and the general population were increasingly infected (Kloos 2001).

HIV prevalence varies based on age, sex, and geographical location. According to EDHS (2011), HIV prevalence among men aged 15-49 years is 1.0 percent, while among women aged 15-49 is 1.9 percent, and HIV prevalence is highest among women aged 30-34 years and men aged 35-39 years. According to a recent estimate by EPHI (2017), the adult prevalence of HIV in Ethiopia is estimated to be 1.13% in 2019, which falls under the category of an outbreak. The epidemic has been a threat to the social and economic fabric of the country, including voluntary social institutions such as *Adder* (a form of community-based funeral association) (Pankhurst and Mariam 2000).

Biological, social, and cultural factors put women and adolescent girls at greater risk of HIV infection when compared with men. Women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is increased through a culture of silence surrounding sex, women's economic dependency on marriage, violence against women, and power imbalance in gender. While men's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is increased through traditional notions of masculinity that expect men to engage in a wide range of risk-taking behaviour, to be well-informed and experienced about sex, to have a variety of sexual partners, to be self-contained and not to express their emotions and seek assistance when needed (Gupta 2000).

### 3. The issues of child marriage and family planning

#### 3.1. *Child marriage*

There is lack of a universally accepted definition for the age of marriage, as it can be defined socially and in terms of age. According to international human rights documents, childhood is regarded as lasting until an individual reaches the age of eighteen. The practice of child marriage violates a range of human rights, including those contained in the Convention on the Rights
Source 92. Example of Proclamations on Child marriages

> A child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.

UN General Assembly, *Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)*, art. 1, 1989.

> Child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys shall be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be eighteen years.

> *Organization of African Unity (OAU), African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child*, art. 21, 1990.

of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The previous Ethiopian family law, which was adopted in 1960, set the legal age for marriage at 15 years for girls and 18 for boys. The newly revised family law adopted in 2000 set 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for both girls and boys. The new law also states that marriage should be entered into with the full consent of the intending spouses (Federal Negarit Gazetta of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 2000). The practice of child marriage has shown a decline in recent years in Ethiopia. EDHS 2016 shows that the median age at marriage increased from 16.5 years in 2011 to 17.1 years in 2016, and the percentage of women who married before age 18 decreased from 63% in 2011 to 58% in 2016. There are not only differences in terms of the practice of child marriage between regions, but variation also exists in different localities within a region (Jones et al. 2016). However, COVID-19 seriously threatened the progress that has been made in the last decade, with 10 million additional girls at risk of child marriage globally (UNICEF 2021).

The main types of child marriage can be categorised as: arranged, abduction, and free choice. Arranged marriage can be performed at any time during childhood, and it includes promissory marriage, where a marriage is arranged while the foetus is in the uterus. Abduction is widely practised in the southern part of Ethiopia, where a high bride price is offered in the form of cattle or money to the family of the bride. Free-will marriage is becoming common in contexts where marriage occurs in late adolescence or early adulthood, mainly in urbanised areas (UNICEF 2016, 11).

Early marriage arrangement patterns change in line with the changing historical, political, and socioeconomic conditions. Early marriage was arranged for political alliance through dynastic intermarriage before 1941, and it was practised for economic reasons from 1941 to 1975, mainly to gain access to land. From the late 1980s to the present, it is practised for cultural and religious or sociocultural reasons such as societal desire to control girls' sexuality and maintain their purity, girls' wish to avoid the stigma directed at unmarried
girls, families desire to form social and economic alliances with other families
and to secure care and protection for their daughters (Alemante 2004).

Child marriage has negative social, psychological, and economic consequences for girls. It violates girls' basic human rights and results in unequal partnerships in marriage, which often end in divorce or separation. It also restricts girls' decision-making power and can increase the risks of maternal health problems and sexually transmitted diseases (UNICEF 2016).

Source 93. Education for ending child marriage

*Education is instrumental for ending child marriage and the Education Sector Development Programme V (ESDP V) 2015/16–2019/20 is clear on its merits:* “educated women are less likely to enter early marriage or early motherhood or contract HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases. Mothers who are literate are better able to understand health education and child developmental materials that directly impact the lives of their children.” ESDP V notes that despite progress, there remain some critical gaps in reducing gender disparity in primary and particularly secondary education and acknowledges that factors that influence demand for secondary education include child marriage and that the proportion of females in higher education needs to increase.

Ministry of Women, Children and Youth, *National Costed Roadmap to end Child Marriage and FMG/C 2020-2024* (Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 2019), 31.

Building upon previous measures to eliminate harmful traditional practices in Ethiopia, the Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth developed the National Costed Roadmap to End Child Marriage and FGM/C by 2025. The roadmap stipulated a comprehensive set of strategies, such as empowering girls and families; enhancing engagement of communities; strengthening systems; ensuring an enabling environment and disseminating data and evidence for informed policy and programmatic engagement. Despite these policies and strategies and laws against child marriage, communities continue to use different social tactics to perpetuate the practice. Combined initiatives that target to transform social and gender norms through continuous dialogue and interventions that aim to increase girls' education and use them as change agents remain pertinent.

## 3.2. Family planning

Family planning is vital in saving and safeguarding women's lives and meeting their practical and strategic needs. It is not only a matter of human rights but is also critical to empowering women, reducing poverty, and achieving sustainable development.

The Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia (FGAE) was established in 1966 as a volunteer-based association, and it is the pioneer in meeting the needs of modern family planning and other reproductive health services
Source 94. Family planning

Family planning is defined as the ability of individuals or couples to anticipate and attain their desired number of children, and the spacing and timing of their births. It is achieved through use of contraceptive methods and treatment of involuntary infertility.

Ministry of Health, *National Guideline for Family Planning Services in Ethiopia* (Addis Ababa, 2011), 25.

Family planning is also identified by other terms such as “fertility regulation,” “fertility control,” “planned parenthood,” “birth control,” and “contraceptive services.” Total fertility rate refers to the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her childbearing years if she bore children at the current age-specific fertility rates.

Central Statistical Agency (CSA) and ICF, *Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2016* (Addis Ababa: CSA; Rockville, Maryland: ICF, 2016), 77.

by targeting poor, under-served, youth and marginalised segments of the population in the country. FGAE provided its first family planning service from a single-room clinic that was run by one nurse. FGAE has a network of 8 branch offices, 7 higher clinics, 15 Medium SRH clinics, 13 youth centres, 10 sex-worker friendly clinics (SWFCs), and 1 gynaecology and obstetrics speciality clinic. Until 1982, a husband's signed consent was required by the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia to provide contraceptives to his wife. As a result, 16% of the women who requested contraceptives were not provided with the service. After the requirement of spousal authorisation was removed, utilisation of family planning services increased by 26% within a few months (Cook et al. 1987).

According to EDHS 2016, total fertility rate has continued to drop. Total fertility rate was 5.5 in 2000 and it dropped to 4.6 in 2016 (2.3 in urban areas and 5.2 in rural areas). Yet despite these impressive gains, modern contraceptive use is still low (35%). The survey further indicates that highly educated women and women living in Addis Ababa have lower fertility rates. Women mostly use injectables, followed by implants. Public sector (84%) followed by private medical sector (14%) were the most used sources for modern contraception. Facilities providing family planning services have expanded in terms of number and outreach in Ethiopia. Despite the improvements, over one-third of all contraceptive users (35%) discontinued the use of contraceptives within 12 months.

The above progresses have been made over the last two decades due to government integration of family planning as a component of the 16 health packages of primary healthcare and development of health infrastructure, and human resources for health. The government has also integrated UHC as a main objective of Ethiopia's five-year health sector transformation plan
and has implemented community-based health insurance (CBHI) in several *Woredas* or districts for people who are not employed in Ethiopia's formal economy. However, because family planning and maternal and child health-care are currently free through funding from external donors, they are not covered under community-based health insurance (CBHI). Further, women encounter barriers to accessing their preferred methods of contraception due to lack of supply, poor spousal communication, and inequitable fertility decision-making. This is further aggravated by healthcare workers' inequitable targeting of women for family planning promotion within the primary healthcare system. Despite prevailing and constraining gender and patriarchal order and resistance from husbands, women exercise their own agency by using silence as a strategy to use contraceptives without the knowledge of their husbands (Mjaaland 2014).

Conclusion

Ethiopia implemented the Heath Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP-I) from July 2015–June 2020, which resulted in reduction in maternal mortality, improved utilisation of contraception by married women, increased antenatal coverage, and access to safe abortion services and post-abortion care. During this period, Ethiopia implemented financial risk protection to increase access to essential health services through the provision of high-impact interventions free of charge; subsidisation of more than 80% of the cost of care in public health facilities, and implementation of community-based health insurance (CBHI) scheme (MOH 2021, 10). Despite these improvements, the unmet need for contraception remains high (22%) and the maternal mortality rate was 401 per 100,000 live births in 2017 (MOH 2021) and family planning is not integrated into community-based health insurance (CBHI). Furthermore, the existing harmful traditional practices continue to violate women's bodily autonomy and compromise their social and psychological integrity and constrain their choices and agencies. Therefore, given the importance of primary healthcare to achieve sustainable and equitable health services, investment in health care infrastructure and the development of a skilled, well compensated, and compassionate health workforce is critical. Moreover, government efforts should be backed by the involvement of civil society organisations to support domestic resource mobilisation efforts and ensure equity and quality in the delivery of health services. Civil society organisations also play a key role in holding the government accountable for its commitments/policies and their implementation. In addition, given that reproductive decisions are made within existing social and gender relations, it is essential to implement interventions that address social and gender norms and support women's empowerment by creating and reinforcing positive social norms,
engaging men and youth as active participants in health-seeking processes and promoting equitable couple's decision-making.

**References and further readings: Historical references**

Guthe, Thorstein. 1949. "Venereal Diseases in Ethiopia: Survey and Recommendations." *Bulletin of World Health Organization* 2: 85-137. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2553904/pdf/bullwh000646-0081.pdf [archive].

Kaplan, Steven. 1986. "The Ethiopian Cult of the Saints, a Preliminary Investigation." *Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde* 32: 1-13. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23076639.

Kaplan, Steven. 1997. "Seen but not Heard: Children and Childhood in Medieval Ethiopia." *International Journal of African Historical Studies* 30, no. 3: 539-53. https://doi.org/10.2307/220575.

Kaplan, Steven. 2003. "The Social and Religious Function of the Eucharist in Medieval Ethiopia." *Annales d'Éthiopie*, no. 19: 7-18. https://doi.org/10.3406/ethio.2003.1036.

Mersha Alehegne. 2015. "Regularity and Uniformity in the Ethiopian Hagiographical Tradition: A Particular Focus on Narrating the Childhood of Saints." *Aethiopica* 18: 145-62. https://doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.18.1.928.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1965. "Beginnings of Modern Medicine in Ethiopia." *Ethiopia Observer* 9, no. 2.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1967. "Some Factors Influencing The Health of Traditional Ethiopia." *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 4, no. 1: 31-70.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1975. "Old-Time Ethiopian Cures for Syphilis, Seventeenth to Twentieth Centuries." *Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences* 30, no. 3: 199-216. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/XXX.3.199.

Stommes, Eileen, and Seleshi Sisaye. 1980. "The Development and Distribution of Health Care Services in Ethiopia: A Preliminary Review." *Canadian Journal of African Studies* 13, no. 3: 487-95. https://doi.org/10.2307/484973.

*More contemporaneous studies*

Alemante Amera. 2004. "Early Marriage and Reproductive Health Problems in Eastern Gojjam: The Case of Machakel Woreda, Sostu Debir Shelel Peasant Association." MA diss. Addis Ababa University.

Blystad, Astrid, Haldis Haukanes, Getnet Tadele, Marte E. S. Haaland, Richard Sambaiga, Joseph Mumba Zulu and Karen Marie Molan. 2019. "The Access Paradox: Abortion Law, Policy and Practice in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia." *International Journal for Equity in Health* 18: 126-41. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1024-0.

Boyden, Jo, Alula Pankhurst, and Yisak Tafere. 2012. "Harmful Traditional Practices and Child Protection: Female Early Marriage and Genital Modification in Ethiopia." *Development in Practice* 22: 4510-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2012.672957 [archive].
Cook, Rebecca and Deborah Maine. 1987. "Spousal Veto over Family Planning Services." *American Journal of Public Health* 77, no. 3: 339-44. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.77.3.339.

Donnay, France, and Laura Weil. 2004. "Obstetric Fistula: The International Response." *Lancet* 363, no. 9402: 71-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)15177-X.

Gizachew Assefa Tessema, Caroline O. Laurence, Yohannes Adama Melaku, Awoke Misganaw, Sintayehu A. Woldie, Abiye Hiruye, Azmeraw T. Amare, Yihunie Lakew, Berihun M. Zeleke and Amare Deribew 2017. "Trends and Causes of Maternal Mortality in Ethiopia during 1990-2013: Findings from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2013." *BMC Public Health* 17, no. 160. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4071-8.

Guday Emirie. 2005. "Early Marriage and Its Effects on Girls' Education in Rural Ethiopia: The Case of Mecha Woreda in West Gojjam, North-Western Ethiopia." PhD diss. Georg-August University of Göttingen. https://d-nb.info/977834271/34[archive].

Gupta, Geeta Rao. 2000. "Gender, Sexuality, and HIV/AIDS: The What, the Why, and the How." *Policy Law Review* 5, no. 4: 86-93. https://www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/hivaids-policy-and-law-review-54-2000[archive].

Hempel, Margaret. "Reproductive Health and Rights: Origins of and Challenges to the ICPD Agenda." *Health Transition Review* 6 (1996): 73-85. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40608702.

Kindie Mitiku Kebede, Abateneh Dejene Derseh, Belay Alemayehu Sayih and Manaye Gizachew Ayele. 2019. "The Epidemiology of Syphilis in Ethiopia: a Protocol for Systematic Review and Metaanalysis Covering the Last Three Decades." *Systematic Reviews* 8, art. no. 210. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-019-1136-z.

Kloos, Helmut. 1998. "Primary Health Care in Ethiopia under Three Political Systems: Community Participation in a War-Torn Society." *Social Science and Medicine* 46, no. 4-5: 505-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(97)00194-9.

Kloos, Helmut. 2001. "HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia: The Epidemic and Social, Economic, and Demographic Impacts." *International Conference on African Development Archives* 25. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/africancenter_icad_archive/25/[archive].

Meselu Taye Kebede, Per Kristian Hilden, and Anne-Lise Middelthon. 2012. "The Tale of the Hearts: Deciding on Abortion in Ethiopia." *Culture, Health & Sexuality* 14, no. 4: 393-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2011.649495.

Mjaaland, Thera. 2014. "Having Fewer Children Makes it Possible to Educate Them All: An Ethnographic Study of Fertility Decline in North-Western Tigray, Ethiopia." *Reproductive Health Matters* 22, no. 43: 104-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0968-8080(14)43768-6.

Moore, Ann M., Gebrehiwot Yirgu, Fetters Tamara, Wado Yohannes Dibaba, Bankole Akinrinola, Singh Susheela, Gebreselassie Hailemichael, and Getachew
Yonas. 2016. "The Estimated Incidence of Induced Abortion in Ethiopia, 2014: Changes in the Provision of Services since 2008." *International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health* 42, no. 3: 111-20. https://doi.org/10.1363%2F42e1816.

Pankhurst, Alula and Damen Haile Mariam. 2000. "The IDDIR in Ethiopia: Historical Development, Social Function, and Potential Role in HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control." *Northeast African Studies* 7, no. 2: 35-57. https://doi.org/10.1353/nas.2004.0018.

Rahwa Mussie. 2014. "Negotiating Disrupted Lives – Living with Obstetric Fistula in Ethiopia." PhD diss. University of Oslo.

Rahwa Mussie. 2017. "Gender Difference in Experiences with and Adjustments to Infertility: The Case of Infertility Patients at Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia." *Ethiopian Journal of Development Research* 35-61. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ejdr/article/view/185305.

Thaddeus, Sereen, and Deborah Maine. 1994. "Too Far to Walk: Maternal Mortality." *Social Science and Medicine* 38, no. 8: 1091-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(94)90226-7.

Tsehai Wada. 2008. "Abortion Law in Ethiopia. A Comparative Perceptive." *Mizan Law Review* 2, no. 1: 20-27. https://doi.org/10.4314/mlr.v2i1.55618.

Yifru Berhan, and Asres Berhan. 2014. "Causes of Maternal Mortality in Ethiopia: A Significant Decline in Abortion Related Death." *Ethiopian Journal Health Science*, Special Issue 24: 15-28. https://doi.org/10.4314/ejhs.v24i0.3S.

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Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI). 2017. "HIV Related Estimates and Projections for Ethiopia." Addis Ababa. http://repository.iifphc.org/bitstream/handle/123456789/465/HIV_estimation_and projection_for_Ethiopia_2017%20.pdf [archive].

Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia (FGAE). https://fgaeet.org [archive].

Federal Negarit Gazetta of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 2000. "The Revised Family Code." *Federal Negarit Gazetta* Extra Ordinary Issue No. 1/2000 - The Revised Family Code Proclamation No. 213/2000. Addis Ababa, 4th Day of July 2000. https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4c0ccco52.pdf [archive].

Jones, Nicola, Emirie Guday, Tefera Bekele, and Elizabeth Presler-Marshall. 2016. "Surprising Trends in Child Marriage in Ethiopia." Research Brief. Addis Ababa: UNICEF Ethiopia; London: Overseas Development Institute. https://www.unicef.org/ethiopia/media/1506/file/Surprising%20trends%20in%20child%20marriage%20in%20Ethiopia.pdf [archive].

Marshall, Elizabeth Presler, Minna Lyytikainen and Nicola Jones, with Andrew Montes, Paola Pereznieto, and Bekele Tefera. 2016. "Child Marriage in Ethiopia— A Review of the Evidence and an Analysis of the Prevalence of Child Marriage
in Hotspot Districts.” Research Brief. Addis Ababa: UNICEF Ethiopia; London: Overseas Development Institute. https://www.unicef.org/ethiopia/reports/child-marriage-ethiopia [archive]

Ministry of Health (MoH). 2006. *Technical and Procedural Guidelines for Safe Abortion Services in Ethiopia*. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Health.

Ministry of Health (MoH). 2010. “Health Sector Development Programme IV, 2010/11 – 2014/15.” Final Draft. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Health. https://www.healthynewbornnetwork.org/hnn-content/uploads/HSDP-IV-Final-Draft-October-2010-2.pdf [archive].

Ministry of Health (MoH). 2011. *National Guideline for Family Planning Services in Ethiopia*. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Health. https://scorecard.prb.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/National-Guideline-for-Family-Planning-Services-in-Ethiopia-2011.pdf [archive].

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Ministry of Health (MoH). 2015. *Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP) 2015/16–2019/2020*. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Health. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20220709123339/https://www.globalfinancingfacility.org/sites/gff_new/files/Ethiopia-health-system-transformation-plan.pdf.

Ministry of Health (MoH). 2016. *National Reproductive Health Strategy. 2016–2020*. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Health. https://www.prb.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Ethiopia-National-Reproductive-Health-Strategy-2016-2020.pdf [archive].

Ministry of Health (MoH). 2020. *National Guideline for Family Planning Services in Ethiopia*. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Health. http://repository.iifphc.org/handle/123456789/1032 [archive].

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# Women and Prostitution

"(In history, it existed) varieties of prostitution and prostitutes, from the cultured and powerful Athenian courtesans of the fourth century, to the professional dancer performing at men's symposia, to the poor streetwalkers"

Hapelperin and Winkler (1990, 18).

Like many issues in the social history of Ethiopia, the study of prostitution in the country suffers from lack of adequate sources and studies. There are very few and scattered primary and secondary sources on the subject. There is also hardly any historical work on prostitution other than an article published by Richard Pankhurst in 1974. All the other studies on prostitution in Ethiopia are sociological and anthropological works and focus on current conditions only. They therefore lack depth in terms of time. Pankhurst's reconstruction is mainly based on the accounts of foreign travellers. He is, therefore, necessarily confined to the areas and times of the travellers, who mainly visited Northern Ethiopia. He leaves out the areas that were not visited by them. In terms of time also, the 19th and 20th centuries are covered more than earlier periods. To overcome this problem of sources, in this chapter, some linguistic materials have been used to examine prostitution in pre-20th century Ethiopia. Then, mainly based on Pankhurst's work, we consider the history of prostitution in Ethiopia until the end of the Italian occupation (1941). Finally, this chapter will provide a brief critical review of sociological and anthropological studies that have been conducted on the subject in Ethiopia after the end of the Italian occupation.

## 1. Prostitution in Ethiopia: a historical sketch

### 1.1. *A vague definition of a prostitute in pre-20th century Ethiopia*

There are indications that prostitution existed in Ethiopia as early as the Medieval and Gondärine periods. However, in pre-20th century Ethiopia, as in other rural or partially urbanised societies, being called "a prostitute" may not necessarily have depended on whether or not a woman actually sold sex. It might refer to the woman's relationship to men in general. For example, it might be enough that a woman is not officially tied to one man by marriage (or
that she had been widowed or divorced for a long time) for her to be suspected of prostitution. It might also be related to certain kinds of activities that are believed to be associated with selling sex. Typical of such activities is the selling of alcoholic drinks. However, they might also include other activities that are believed to bring many males into the house of a woman or that put a woman into the presence of many men. A woman who is not married, who runs a drinking place or who travels around as a singer, might thus be very easily linked to prostitution whether she also sells sex or not. In traditional Ethiopia, it is possible to argue that the term “prostitute” had a very wide application and connotation, so wide, in fact, that it appears to have included virtually everything that women might do if they were not married and were not part of households headed by men. It appears that it was only later, with growing urbanisation and commercialisation in the country, that prostitution was gradually separated from the many cultural and social manifestations with which it was associated. It is only in more contemporary times, that the term has been developed into the strictly cash-for-sex sense, as found today in the dictionary.

For example, in the traditional highland society of Ethiopia, terms which derived from the marital status of the woman, or more generally from her position vis-à-vis men like setana adari, galamota, fat, and qarre (or qirri) were used to denote or to describe a “prostitute.” Other terms which referred to the occupation or to the means of livelihood of the woman such as komarit, bala-mashata, atari, amarit (or azmarit) and ganbona also had the connotation of “prostitute.”

These connotations are illustrated by the Portuguese chaplain Francisco Alvares who stayed from 1520 to 1526 at the court of King Løbnä Døngøl (1508–1540). In his description of the royal camp, he mentioned the presence of the tents of the so-called prostitutes named “Amaritas,” a word translated at the beginning of the 20th century by the linguist Ignazio Guidi as a female minstrel or dancing girl.

Source 95. Prostitution in royal camps during the 16th century

Francisco Alvarez described “the tents of the prostitutes, whom they call Amaritas.” as living apart from the rest of the camp, near the lodging of strangers who came to “sell, buy and trade with the Prester’s court;” they were very numerous and most (an “immense number”) were “rich and well dressed.”

Francisco Alvares in Charles F. Beckingham and Georges W. B. Huntingford. *The Prester John of the Indies: A True Relation of the Lands of the Prester John, Being the Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Ethiopia in 1520* (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), 43.

Galàmota ቪለሞታ was the most popular or the most widely used term. The first mention of this word is to be found in the royal chronicle of King Iyasu I (1682–1706).
Source 96. Mention of a house of a prostitute in 1699

"On the 11th of *miyazya* [1699], the day after Palm Sunday, a fire broke out in the house of a prostitute and burned all the houses of the city in the *grabet* (left quarter) of Gondar."

Ignazio Guidi, *Annales Iohannis I, Iyasu et Bakaffa* (Louvain: CSCO, 1905), 187.

<table><caption>Table 11. Dictionaries are a way to study the word Galàmota by Bethlehem Tekola</caption><thead><tr><td>Sources</td><td>Definition</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>C. W. Isenberg, <i>Dictionary of the Amharic Language</i> (London, 1841), 170.</td><td>"whore, harlot, prostitute"</td></tr><tr><td>Ignazio Guidi, <i>Vocabulario amarico-italiano</i> (Roma, 1901), col. 421.</td><td>"whore, harlot or prostitute"</td></tr><tr><td>Wolf Leslau, <i>Comparative Dictionary of Ge'ez</i> (Wiesbaden, 1987), 727.</td><td>"prostitute" mah.az (p. 338: adultery, prostitution, lover, adulterer, prostitute), <i>zam-mâwit</i> (whore, harlot, prostitute, adulteress)</td></tr><tr><td>Desta Tekle Wold, Ya <i>Amarina Mazgaba Kalat</i> (Addis Ababa: Artistic Printers, 1970 E.C.), 266.</td><td>"(a woman)... who does not have a husband, loose, harlot, one who is not limited to one man..."</td></tr><tr><td>Kidanewold Kifle, <i>Mäs'hafä säwasiw wämäzgäbä k'alat hadis</i> (Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa, 1948 E.C.), 317.</td><td>"(easily) available, loose (woman) (...) <i>Bala-Mashata</i> that is the owner of a drinking place (...)."</td></tr></tbody></table>

Source: Pankhurst (1974).

Our sources indicate that the simultaneous uses of these words with "prostitute" include dictionaries prepared by Ethiopian writers as well as the foreign travellers whom Richard Pankhurst has quoted. Desta Teklewold puts *amarit* and *ganbona* together, which he defines as "singer, woman of melody, domestic servant, minstrel, (one who) insults people..."

There are, however, two exceptions that should be pointed out about the 19th and early 20th century period. One is that, in the areas that were brought under European rule, like Eritrea, prostitution in the real sense of the term was very well known. Secondly, the 19th century saw an increasing use of the Arabic term for prostitute, *sharmuta*, which indicates that full time prostitution might have started also near the coastal areas and along the main centres of trade. It is, however, largely in the 20th century, with the urbanisation of the country and the commercialisation of services, that prostitution appears to have appeared more clearly and specifically.

## 1.2. Gondär, other centres and prostitution in the 19th century

Whereas little information is found to establish the strict existence of prostitution before the 19th century, in the eyes of foreign travellers Gondär
appeared to have witnessed prostitution as a widespread profession. In his article Richard Pankhurst detailed the opposition raised by Emperor Tewodros (1855–1868) against the practice in Gondär of *däbtäras*, monks or lay cleric visiting *galämota* or the wives of others.

He also demonstrated that the practice of prostitution was also observed in other commercial towns, like Adwa, Däbrä Tabor, Qorața or Liče and mentioned some other testimonies, such as that by the Armenian priest Dimotheos, that showed that it was widespread in other parts of the country, in towns and military camps.

Richard Pankhurst also used the dictionaries of the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century to explain that prostitution was known in other regions like in Harar, in the Somali, Afar and Oromo regions by demonstrating that the word “prostitute” was known and used in all languages.

Richard Pankhurst, the sole author on the history of prostitution, indicated that ports and trade routes were important places for the activities of prostitutes, taking the example of the vicinities of Massäwa or of the Sudan borders. He also stated that prices for services ranged from a quarter to eight Maria Theresa dollars.

## 2. The history of prostitution at the beginning of the 20th century

### 2.1. *The development of urban centres and prostitution*

The development of urban settlements in Ethiopia, specifically the development of Addis Ababa into a permanent centre of government with the building of the Addis-Djibouti railway and the construction of roads that linked the capital to other parts of the country were important developments for the history of modern prostitution in Ethiopia.

Particularly, there were two characteristics of the early urbanisation of Addis Ababa (and to a limited extent of the other urban centres like Dire-Dawa and Adama) that are important for the history of prostitution. One is that virtually all the inhabitants of the towns were immigrants from the countryside. Due to the economic and social conditions at the time, however, female immigrants, particularly the unmarried ones, had little chance of employment outside of the service sector. Secondly, the town was always full of many temporary visitors and travellers. Many of these men were followers of the military governors of the provinces visiting the Emperor. There were also the followers of the *daja tani**, the lords who stayed in town hoping to receive appointments. These men at least partly depended on the services of the various eating, drinking and sleeping places in the town. It is, therefore, clear that hotel and bar businesses in the early decades of this century were dominated by women and that clients were mostly men who were away from their homes and from their families. These two elements appear to
have allowed the expansion of prostitution in the new towns, particularly in
the capital. In the early 1920s, the testimony of Mərab, quoted by Richard
Pankhurst, gives extensive details about the functioning of some drinking
houses that hosted prostitutes and clients. The researcher also provided more
testimonies dating from the 1920s to the 1930s about the concerns of officials
and intellectuals concerning the spread and location of “bawdy houses” and
“brothels” in the city. He mentioned the confusing uses of a Red Cross sign,
which was prohibited in the 1930s, shown outside drinking houses to publicize
prostitution activities.

## 2.2. *The Italian occupation of Ethiopia and the spread of prostitution*

The Italian occupation of Ethiopia brought about the increasing commercialisation and expansion of prostitution in Ethiopia. The fact that the number of Italian men and women who came to the country was imbalanced contributed to the situation. To meet the demand of a very large army, the colonial authorities encouraged divorced and single women to come to towns and set up bars and brothels. To satisfy the interests of their army, they even tried to import prostitutes from Europe. Quoting Poggiali as his source, Pankhurst states that the Italians imported some French prostitutes to the country. But soon, the French prohibited the act due to its implications for “French racial dignity.” Since using Italian women as prostitutes was strictly forbidden for reasons of prestige, the Italian army had to depend on Ethiopian women for sexual gratification.

<figure><img src="image_65.png" /><figcaption>Figure 32. L. Naretti, *Siflicicomio di Asmara*</figcaption></figure>

Both before and after the conflict, the Italians had a rather carefree attitude
towards sex with “native women,” somewhat contrary to their strict racial
policies in other matters. Before the conflict, the Italians made extensive use
of native women as local wives, called “madams” in Eritrea (see Source 97). In
fact, in addition to prostitution, what is called colonial *concubinage* (*madamato*),
a relationship between native women and foreigners, has been studied and
even has its own literature. The preparation for the invasion of Ethiopia also
brought about the expansion of prostitution in Eritrea. The coming of many
Italian soldiers and labourers to the colony created extensive demands for sex,
leading to considerable sexual violence by Italian men on local women. The
war had, in fact, a significant effect on Italian attitudes toward sex in Africa. One of the chief ways of attracting volunteers into the Italian army was the dissemination of pornographic literature and pornographic pictures displaying the tender, attractive bodies of Ethiopian women.

Source 97. The “madams”

*The “madams,” in the words of Pankhurst, “had become an integral scene (of colonial society in Eritrea) where there continued to be a chronic shortage of European women.”*

Richard Pankhurst, “Fascist Racial Policies in Ethiopia 1922–1941,” *Ethiopia Observer* 12, no. 4 (1969), 270–71.

The Fascist authorities sponsored the publication in Italy of numerous erotic or semi-erotic postcards showing the beauties of Ethiopian womanhood. Soldiers’ songs were composed about the charms of Ethiopian girls.

Source 98. *Facceta Nera*

“(...) official encouragement was given to the soldiers’ song *Facceta Nera*, which declared: ‘*Faccetta Nera bella abissinia*’ i.e. ‘Little black face beautiful Abyssinian,’ and told how she will be kissed by invaders.”

Richard Pankhurst, “The History of Prostitution in Ethiopia,” *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 12, no. 2 (1974), 173, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41965872.

As a result, following the occupation Addis Ababa had become the main centre of prostitution in Italian East Africa. Many Ethiopian women, single or divorced, were forced into the practice, some quite literally. Moreover, the effect of the war on family life was enormous for Ethiopians. Because of the war, many family breadwinners, almost always men, either lost their lives or joined the resistance movement. So, the war left many women without means of supporting themselves and their children. Given the fact that employment opportunities were virtually nil, many had to turn to the only alternative available to starvation: employment in the drinking houses and selling their bodies.

Source 99. Colonial domination of female bodies

*Babu Lali Bali, an Indian non-commissioned officer in the Indian Medical Department, described the situation: “Any Italian soldier could go into any native house and bring out any girl he liked. The parents who objected were beaten to death, sometimes. And if anyone filed a suit in the court, the judge would remark: ‘are you not proud that an Italian has taken a fancy to (sic.) your daughter or sister?”*

*New Times and Ethiopia News* (January 24, 1942), 3–4.
<figure><img src="image_66.png" /><figcaption>Figure 33. “Ufficio Postale.” Popular Postcard in Italia 1930s</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_67.png" /><figcaption>Figure 34. “Al Mercato.” Popular Postcard in Italia 1930s</figcaption></figure>

Very few women who were driven to prostitution out of desperation came out of it, even after the husbands of some of them returned home. Their intimate association with the Italians created a sense of uncleanliness and of
shame out of which they were unable to extract themselves. Many, therefore, continued as prostitutes. Consequently, the number of women who were engaged in prostitution increased dramatically. It was reported that by 1938 there were approximately 1,500 Ethiopian women involved, each occupying a house, as well as three brothels where 47 white women were reserved exclusively for Italian nationals.

Source 100. Italian occupation of Addis Ababa and the growth of brothels

Ladislas Sava, a Hungarian physician who lived in the city at the time, described the situation clearly: “(...) With the Italian occupation of the capital, two houses in the first two days and a great many afterwards, were converted into brothels under the supervision of an Italian commander... I several times witnessed the deportation of women to such houses with revolting violence, one girl being attacked by three or four armed soldiers of civilisation. A whole street near the former Town Hall, which they call now the Palazzo di Roma, was converted into a pleasure garden for Italian soldiery, where Abyssinian girls were kept close prisoners for the sensual delight of the enemy”

*New Times and Ethiopia News* (January 24, 1942), 3.

Among the distinctive contributions of the Italian period were the official efforts that were made to register and licence prostitutes as prostitutes. The main motive behind this registration and licensing was, of course, to control sexually transmitted or venereal diseases. The figures given above are, therefore, official figures about registered or at least "officially known" prostitutes. They are, therefore, likely to be underestimations of the actual number of women who were in the business.

Of course, the Italians did not fully succeed in their efforts to limit or eliminate venereal diseases. Both official and unofficial sources indicate that the Italian army was ravaged by these diseases. Medical supplies or treatments could not keep up with the rate of infections. For instance, a single record of cases over a period of 15 months showed that there were 11,000 new infections. Some of the diseases were so horrific that many Italian soldiers committed suicide upon learning of the nature of their infections, as was reported in newspapers, such as *New Times and Ethiopia News* (January 24, 1942).

It is significant, however, that prostitution as the business of selling sex as such, not just as a side business going with selling other things, was officially recognised and licensed during the Italian period. This is a very significant watershed in the history of this practice and marks a new phase in its evolution.
### 3. Sociological and anthropological works on prostitution in Ethiopia in the postliberation period

Prostitution has been an important and attractive topic for sociological and anthropological research in Ethiopia. Interest in the topic, which goes back to the 1960s, has increased by leaps and bounds since the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s.

#### 3.1. *Only a few themes in research*

In terms of themes, research on prostitution in Ethiopia has tended to be highly repetitive often focusing on “causes of prostitution,” “types of prostitution” and “consequences of prostitution.” There is often a tendency to focus on either the factors that drive women to “prostitution,” such as early marriage, or on the social problems that prostitution created. Very little effort has been made to explore the perspectives and experiences of women who are already in the sex business or to place prostitution in the context of wider socioeconomic conditions and processes (for exceptions, let us mention the works of Laketch in 1978, of Tekola in 2005, Selamawit in 2009 and Sehin in 2015). It appears that this was partly a result of lack of integration, i.e. research projects were often not related to each other or did not refer to each other much. In fact, most of the literature on prostitution has consisted of unpublished reports prepared for government or non-government agencies or small-scale studies by students to fulfil degree requirements.

#### 3.2. *Only a few integrative approaches*

In terms of methodological approach, most of the studies used either quantitative approaches, and more specifically, the case studies of often very small samples of prostitutes through questionnaire-based structured surveys, or qualitative methods which often involved interviewing small numbers of prostitutes. With very few exceptions, little effort has been made to integrate qualitative and quantitative approaches in a single study.

### Conclusion

Based on the work of Richard Pankhurst (1974) and some linguistic sources, this chapter provides a historical overview of prostitution in pre-20th century Ethiopia until the end of the Italian occupation (1941). There is no recent history of prostitution. The studies that have been conducted on the subject in Ethiopia after the end of the Italian occupation are mainly sociological and anthropological works that focus on current conditions only. A critical review of sociological and anthropological studies on prostitution in Ethiopia finds that research on prostitution in Ethiopia had tended to be highly repetitive both in terms of themes and methodological approaches, with little integration of research findings. Many writers and researchers who did work
on prostitution also focused on the institution of prostitution rather than the perceptions and experiences of the women who lived in it.

**References and further readings**

Akalou Wolde-Michael. 1967. "Urban Development in Ethiopia in Time and Space Perspective." PhD diss. Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles.

Baker, Jonathan. 1986. *The Rural-Urban Dichotomy in the Developing World: A Case Study from Northern Ethiopia*. Oslo: Norwegian University Press; New York: Oxford University Press.

Barrera, Giulia. 1996. *Dangerous Liaison: Colonial Concubinage in Eritrea, 1890-1941*. PAS Working Papers, no. 1. Evanston: Program of African Studies. https://africanstudies.northwestern.edu/docs/publications-research/working-papers/barrera-1996.pdf [archive].

Bethlehem Tekola. 2002. *Narratives of Three Prostitutes in Addis Ababa*. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University, Centre for Research and Training of Women in Development (CETWID). http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.4499.1127

Bethlehem Tekola. 2005. *Poverty and the Social Context of Sex Work in Addis Ababa: An Anthropological Perspective*. FSS Monograph, no. 2. Addis Ababa: Forum for Social Studies, 2005. https://www.fssethiopia.org/download/fss-monograph-no-2/.

Bethlehem Tekola. 2005. "Negotiating Social Space: Sex Workers and The Social Context of Sex Work in Addis Ababa." *African Study Monographs* Suppl. 29, no. 16: 169-83. https://doi.org/10.14989/68434 [archive].

Garretson, Peter. 1971. "A History of Addis Ababa from its Foundation in 1886 to 1910." PhD diss. University of London.

Laketch Dirasse. 1978. "The Socio-Economic Position of Women in Addis Ababa: The Case of Prostitution." PhD diss. Boston University.

Mayer, Hans. 1962. "Prostitution and Venereal Diseases in Addis Ababa." (Unpublished.) Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University.

Mayer, Hans. 1963. "The Problem of Venereal Diseases in Ethiopia." (Unpublished.) Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University.

*New Times and Ethiopia News*, January 24, 1942.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1969. "Fascist Racial Policies in Ethiopia 1922-1941." *Ethiopia Observer* 12, no. 4.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1974. "The History of Prostitution in Ethiopia." *Journal of Ethiopian Studies* 12, no. 2: 159-78.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1985. *History of Ethiopian Towns from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to 1935*. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner Verlag.

Sehin Teferra Ayele. 2015. "Agency and Sisterhood: A Feminist Analysis of Ethiopian Sex Workers' Experiences of, and Resistance to, Violence." PhD diss. SOAS, University of London. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00023793.
Selamawit Abebe Kelbisow. 2009. "I Am also a Mother. Examining the Childcare Challenges of Sex Workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia." Research Paper, Population Poverty and Social Development (PPSD). The Hague: Institute of Social Studies. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/6538 [archive].

Van Blerk, Lorraine. 2007. "AIDS, mobility and commercial sex in Ethiopia: implications for Policy." *AIDS Care* 19, no. 1: 79-86.

Van Blerk, Lorraine. 2008. "Poverty, Migration and Sex Work: Youth Transition in Ethiopia." *Area* 40, no. 2: 245-53.
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