Sven Rubenson (1921-2013)Author(s): Tsegaye Tegenu

Source: International Journal of Ethiopian Studies , Vol. 8, No. 1 & 2 (2014), pp. 187-191
Published by: Tsehai Publishers

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26554825

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Tsehai Publishers is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
International Journal of Ethiopian Studies

This content downloaded from

92.217.62.241 on Thu, 02 Dec 2021 23:32:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 In Memoriam

This content downloaded from

92.217.62.241 on Thu, 02 Dec 2021 23:32:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Sven Rubenson
(1921-2013)

Sven Rubenson, one of the few pioneers shaping modern academic

study of Ethiopian history died on October 27, 2013 aged 92. He
was Professor of History at Addis Ababa and Lund University and
researched on the political, diplomatic and military history of Ethiopia
during the period known as the scramble for Africa.
Sven Rubenson was born in 1921 in
Sweden. His parents emigrated to Jamestown
in North Dakota, USA, when he was
just eight months old. In 1930 the family
returned back to Sweden as a result of the
1929 Depression. At the age of 14 he became
interested in history and developed a strong
sense of justice. His lifetime commitment
to Ethiopia started when Italians occupied
the country in 1935. In his memoir draft he
wrote that “I was a teenager at the time and
Ethiopia was in a sense the “Vietnam of our
youth”. After the end of second world war he volunteered to work in
Ethiopia as a teacher. When he and his wife Britta arrived in Ethiopia
in February 1947, Sven had a bachelor degree in history, English and
pedagogy from Lund University.
Sven Rubenson was one of the few pioneers to shaping historical
profession as it emerged in Europe. Lund university from which he
received his education was a base for Weibullian group, a historical
school renowned in Sweden for methodological rigor and careful use
of evidences. Sven used knowledge of source criticism to stress the
difference between facts and fictions in writing history. Before him
The International Journal of Ethiopian Studies (ISSN: 1543-4133) is published two times a year by
Tsehai Publishers | www.tsehaipublishers.com | Copyright © 2014 | Volume VIII, Number 1&2

This content downloaded from

92.217.62.241 on Thu, 02 Dec 2021 23:32:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
188 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ETHIOPIAN STUDIES (VIII: 1&2)

Ethiopian history was recorded in a narrative format for the purpose of

informing future generations about events.
His experiences with teaching Ethiopian history started in elementary
and secondary schools in Entoto, Addis Ababa in the late 1940s. In 1950
he was relocated to Adwa to start a teacher training school and after
some years he left to Sweden for further study and in 1954 he earned his
master degree in 19th-century Ethiopian history. Soon he returned back
to his teaching position at Entoto school and in 1955 he was appointed
as vice-chancellor of Evangelical College in Addis Abba.
By 1958, when the Swedish Evangelical Mission no longer had any
use of him in their educational work, Sven began to be involved in the
higher education system of Ethiopia. In 1959 he accepted position as
Dean of Students at the Ethio-Swedish Institute of Building Technology.
In the same year he started to give series of public lectures on Ethiopian
history together with Pro­fessor Pank­hurst arranged by the University
College Extension. Since 1960 he took up a position as teacher of history
at the college and began involved in establishment of the Faculty of Arts
and department of history at University College, which later came to be
known as Haile Sellasie I University. Together with Professor Pankhurst,
Dr. Sergew Hable Sellassie and Professor Harold Marcus, they started
to teach Ethiopian and African history and in 1962 they established
the Department of History. These were the years when Ethiopia was
playing a role in the affairs of the African continent, at the Economic
Commission for Africa, and the Organization of African Unity.
Parallel with shaping historical profession, Sven participated in
the establishment of an Institute of Ethiopian Studies. In a letter date
February 13, 1958, he proposed to his Imperial Majesty Haile Sellassie I
a microfilming project with a budget of 33,000 Ethiopian dollar an­nual­
ly for three successive years. This included photographic equipment, a
microfilm reader and some 20,000 to 40,000 pages of microfilm per year.
This was when the birr was worth at least ten times as much as today.
Since the money was not granted, in February 1959 Sven approached
Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) for grant for the
same project but his proposal did not have much impact in Stockholm.
Constructing the collective identity of Ethiopians
Even if he could not receive grant Sven continued with his plan to
research about the past of Ethiopia. He had to travel all over the world

This content downloaded from

92.217.62.241 on Thu, 02 Dec 2021 23:32:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
IN MEMORIAM 189

in search for documents to account for the active foreign policy of the
Ethiopian Emperors in defending the sovereignty of their country. He
collected a total of approximately 1,000 letters and treaties from a large
archive in Europe, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to write 19th
century Ethiopian history based on original source materials. His book
on the Wichale Treaty (May 2, 1889) revealed the ulterior motives of
Italy to establish colonial protectorate over Ethiopia. Sven could not help
being involved both emotionally and intellectually when he wrote about
the biography of Emperor Tewodros. His famous book “The Survival of
Ethiopian Independence”, which took him twenty years to finish, is a
monumental work testifying to his effort to construction of the collective
identity of Ethiopians at period of modern sate formation. Professor Sven
Rubenson studied the social carrier and the symbolic codes of Ethiopians
unflinching defense of freedom. Survival” was the outcome of his
understanding of the cultural and civic symbols of Ethiopia.
Professor Sven Rubenson was restless and had a permanent curiosity
and search for Ethiopians past. He was a close friend of leading figures
in the state and the church in Ethiopia from the late 1940s to the late
1990s regardless of changes in regime or church leadership. He was
broad-minded and ecumenical with friends all over the world and with
different religious traditions. Sven Rubenson and Britta have five children
and 16 grandchildren. Four of their children are born in Ethiopia.

List of publications

Author
1960: “Some Aspects of the Survival of Ethiopian Independence in the Period
of the Scramble for Africa”, Historians in Tropical Africa (Salisbury, 1960);
also published in University College Review (Addis Abeba, 1961)
1964: Wichale XVII: The Attempt to Establish a Protectorate over Ethiopia (Addis Abeba,
1964); also pu­blished as “The Protectorate Paragraph of the Wichale Treaty”,
Journal of African History, V, 2
1965: “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Christian Symbol and/or Imperial Title”,
Journal of Ethiopian Studies, III, 2
1966a: “Modern Ethiopia”, Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, ed. Joseph
C. Anene and Godfrey N. Brown (Ibadan and London)
1966b: King of Kings Tewodros of Ethiopia (HSIU, Addis Abeba, and OUP, Nairobi)
1968: “Aspects of the survival of Ethiopian independence 1840–1896” in
Nineteenth-Century Africa, ed. P.J.M. Mc Ewan (OUP, London)

This content downloaded from

92.217.62.241 on Thu, 02 Dec 2021 23:32:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
190 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ETHIOPIAN STUDIES (VIII: 1&2)

1969: “The Adwa Peace Treaty of 1884”, Proceedings of the Third International
Conference of Ethiopian Studies, I [1966] (IES, Addis Abeba)
1971: “Eritreaproblemet, I. Eritreas tillkomst; II. Eritreas upplösning”, EFS-
Budbäraren, 1971, 11, 13, 14-15 [“The Eritrean Problem, I. The Genesis of
Eritrea; II. The Annulment of Eritrea”]
1976a: The Survival of Ethiopian Independence (Heinemann, London; Esselte,
Stockholm; AAUP, Addis Abeba, 1976, reprint 1978; Kuraz reprint 1991;
Tsehai Publishers, Los Angeles, 2003)
1976b: “Ethiopia and the Horn”, Cambridge History of Africa, V (Cambridge)
1979a: “The Genesis of the Ethio-Somali Conflict”, Proceedings of the Fifth International
Con­ference of Ethiopian Studies, ed. Robert L. Hess [1978] (Chicago)
1979b: “Kampen om magt og indflydelse på Afrikas Horn”, Etiopien och Somalia –
konflikten på Afrikas Horn, Kontakt, no.7, 1978/79, [“The Struggle for Power
and Influence in the Horn of Africa”, Ethiopia and Somalia—the Conflict in the
Horn of Africa]
1988: “‘The Last Unsolved Problem of Africa’ in Fifty Years’ Perspective”,
Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies [1984]
(printed IES)
1986: “Sweden and the Italo-Ethiopian war 1934-41”, La guerre d’Ethiopie et l’opinion
mondiale 1934-1941 [1984] (printed Colloques Langues’o, Paris)
1985a: “A Century Perspective of the Horn of Africa”, Proceedings of the International
Symposium on the Horn of Africa (IARS, Cairo)
1985b: “Sweden and the Italo-Ethiopian crisis 1935”, Scandia, 51, 1–2
1988a: “Voices from the Zemene Mesafint”, Proceedings of the Ninth International
Conference of Ethiopian Studies [1986] (Moscow)
1988b: “Andim bota indayizu indaynekku”, The Centenary of Dogali, eds Taddese
Beyene, Taddesse Tamrat and Richard Pankhurst [1987] (Addis Abeba,
1988) [“So that You Do Not Seize or Touch a Single Place”]
1990: “Meqdela revisited”, Kasa and Kasa, eds Taddese Beyene, Richard Pankhurst
and Shiferaw Bekele [1988] (Addis Abeba)
1991: “Conflict and Environmental Stress in Ethiopian History: Looking for
Correlations” [1988], Meddelanden från Nordisk Förening för Humanekologi,
VIII, 3–4 (Lund, 1989); also published in Journal of Ethiopian Studies,
XXIV
1998a: “Ethiopia and Imerina (Madagascar) on Trial 1895–1896” [1996], Scandia,
64, 1
1998b: “The Missionary Factor in Ethiopia. Consequences of a Colonial
Context”, The Missionary Factor in Ethiopia [1996] (Peter Lang, Frankfurt
a. M.)

This content downloaded from

92.217.62.241 on Thu, 02 Dec 2021 23:32:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
IN MEMORIAM 191

Editor
1975: Readings in Ethiopian History for University Students, ed., with Merid Wolde
Aregay (Addis Abeba)
1984: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, ed.
(AAU, Addis Abeba; SIAS, Uppsala; MSU, East Lansing)
1987: Correspondence and Treaties 1800–1854, ed., with Getatchew Haile and John
Hunwick, ACTA AETHIOPICA I (NUP, Evanston; AAUP, Addis Abeba)
1988: Markvårdens Historia i Medelhavsområdet, ed., with Anders Rapp, Svensk
Geografisk Årsbok 64 [The History of Soil Conservation in the
Mediterranean Region]
1994: Tewodros and His Contemporaries 1855–1868, ed., with Amsalu Aklilu, Merid
Wolde Aregay and Samuel Rubenson, ACTA AETHIOPICA II (AAUP,
Addis Abeba; LUP, Lund)
2000: Internal Rivalries and Foreign Threats, ed., with Amsalu Aklilu, Merid Wolde
Aregay and Samuel Rubenson, ACTA AETHIOPICA III (AAUP, Addis
Abeba; Transaction Publishers/Rutgers)

—Tsegaye Tegenu, PhD, Uppsala University

This content downloaded from

92.217.62.241 on Thu, 02 Dec 2021 23:32:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms