Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies

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The life of Yäkolo-tämari in Gondär as Reflected in

Contemporary Oral Poetry

Marshet Girmay Endeshaw

To cite this article: Marshet Girmay Endeshaw (2022): The life of Yäkolo-tämari in Gondär
as Reflected in Contemporary Oral Poetry, Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, DOI:
10.1080/23277408.2022.2109831

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23277408.2022.2109831

Published online: 20 Sep 2022.

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EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/23277408.2022.2109831

The life of Yäkolo-tämari in Gondär as Reflected in

Contemporary Oral Poetry
Marshet Girmay Endeshaw
College of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Gondär, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Oral poetry is an element of the cultural heritage of Gondär in Received 30 July 2021
Ethiopia. It formerly was a popular way for people to convey Accepted 23 June 2022
their inner thoughts, disappointments and observations.
KEYWORDS
Using this untapped oral poetry collected through interviews education; indigenous;
in the community coupled with a life history study, this ‘modern’; Gondär; oral
article attempts to analyse the lives and activities of yäkolo- poetry; yäkolo-tämari
tämari in the indigenous church education system in
Gondär. Oral poetry collected through interviews was
thematically categorised and analysed and was corroborated
by the literature survey. It is found that the life of yäkolo-
tämari is full of challenges that uplifted their dedication to
new heights. Compared to students of ‘modern’ education,
yäkolo-tämari encounters countless problems which affected
their lives and educational careers. Nevertheless, the life of
yäkolo-tämari is an ideal example of what it takes to achieve
a purpose in life. Despite its historic contribution as the
pioneer of education and knowledge production, traditional
church education is not adequately supported by
stakeholders. This historic institution is now endangered,
with the number of students declining over time.

Introduction
Indigenous knowledge is specific to a particular location and is evident in a
society’s day-to-day activities (Warren 1991). Education, agriculture, health
issues, natural resource management, and a variety of other topics are where
this knowledge is revealed. The traditional education system, such as the one
in the church, is therefore part of this theme (Tekeste 1990). Church education
has been part of the Ethiopian culture and way of life for a long time. Products
of church education have had both spiritual and secular roles in the country.
As the curriculum was/is comprehensive, it has produced many scholars who
have delivered secular functions coupled with religion in the country. According
to Kebede (2003), graduates of church education have won admiration for their
justice in public administration roles. Kebede also describes the unpaid role that
church education students have played in philosophy and creativity. This is the

CONTACT Marshet Girmay Endeshaw Marshetg5@gmail.com © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies is co-published by NISC Pty (Ltd) and Informa Limited (trading as Taylor & Francis Group)
2 M. G. ENDESHAW

issue with which I am most concerned, and I intend to address it by learning from
the life of yäkolo-tämari via oral poetry.
Yäkolo-tämari is a student of church education. The term yäkolo-tämari is
derived from the type of food those students used to eat. Kolo literally means
small round dough balls of roasted grain and eaten as provisions usually on a
journey. Thus, yäkolo-tämari is the one who used to eat roasted grain during
his educational career. It is of course a generic name which includes other
food types which are not usually regarded as luxuries, such as kochäro, dirkosh
and others. This implies that they have been suffering from a lack of sufficient
food for they depend on the community where the church is located. During
their door-to-door food begging, they invariably collect everything they have
been given ranging from processed to semi-processed and unprocessed food.
They collect grain on the harvest field that they sometimes sell for clothing
but usually roast it for food. Yäkolo-tämari is also called yä’abnät tämari [exemplar
student]. Abnät literally means model, patter, or fatherhood (Leslau 1976).
Yä’abnät tämari, therefore, is a church education student who is devoted to
being exemplary in his life and education as a philosopher and a teacher, who
also intends to produce an immense number of students under his tutorship.
Though women have been excluded from church education for various
reasons, the church has provided students with and without disabilities equal
opportunities. Church education has been the only safe sanctuary for students
with disabilities (Leslau 1976) since their community practises exclusion. Families
of children with disabilities1 face several cases of abuse from the community
owing to wrong perceptions of the causes of disabilities. After families have
repeatedly tried traditional medical treatments but without success, the church
has provided educational rehabilitation. The compounds of the church and mon-
asteries have served as the major centres for medical treatment. Some children
have been cured and others not, but there has been a constant service to the
church. Because families with children with disabilities were not in a position
to raise them confidently and properly, they rather chose let their children
spend a long time in churches or monasteries as long as they could see a sign
of improvement (Kebede 2003). Commonly, families of children with disabilities
pledge to God to hand them over to the church as lifelong servants if their health
is restored. Kebede (2003) further explains that if that happens, they continue
church education to serve God who restored their health properly. Those who
were not cured joined the church full-time as it was the only area of gainful
engagement for them.
The major successful traditional attempt at rehabilitation of the blind in Ethio-
pia was, for example, in the field of education (Mezmur 2011). The Ethiopian
Orthodox Täwahido Church (EOTC) provided almost all kinds of traditional edu-
cation for the blind except the art of writing. Blind students’ enrolment in ‘tra-
ditional’ church education depended on the competence and ability of the
individual. The first stage lasts between two and three years and qualifies
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 3

students for the next stages. For most non-blind students, the end of the first
stage is the completion of formal church education. In the case of the blind,
most of them go on to the more advanced stages and their success helps
them to achieve better social status and acceptance compared with people
with other disabilities (Bairu 1967). Even today, most of the choir leaders, märgẻ-
tas, are blind. Their students (mostly junior ones) are their caretakers as well.
Data for the study were principally found in in-depth interviews and life history
studies of yäkolo-tämari, key-informant interviews and observation in four
churches in Gondar which serve as centres of various specialisation. As key infor-
mants, elderly people who serve the churches on various committees were
selected and they provided most of the poems composed on the life of
yäkolo-tämari. Church education students themselves and the masters, märgẻtas,
in the churches also provided valuable information and substantiated the poems
by evidence. Märgẻta Pẻtros, one of my informants, also enriched my collection
of poems by providing me a bundle of verses from his memoir. The major
elements on which significant attention was placed in the selection of informants
were their age and level of participation in church matters, as well as their under-
standing of church education. Data were then categorised, collated, and analysed
carefully and systematically from many sources using a number of procedures.
Similar poems were thematically grouped and analysed as a result.
When it comes to the settings in which the poems were written, only the
elderly who have witnessed changes in the lives of church education students
and pupils in modern schools are qualified to claim authorship. They created
the poems in response to a paradox they noticed in the lives of students in
modern schooling. As elders have handed down knowledge through the centu-
ries, they have evidence to show that the lives of church education students differ
significantly from those who undergo modern education. They implicitly admire
the formers’ endurance and success with few resources.
I attended the certification ceremony of qenẻ students in Be’ata Lämariam
church, Gondar, where students are annually certified in qenẻ and interviewed
highly admired and recommended poets. I collected 10 verses from Märgẻta
Pẻtros on this day. In the church of Mädahnialäm, I conducted life history
research with five yäkolo-tämaris and collected more than 10 couplets. This
was finally corroborated by a handwritten manuscript composed of more than
20 poems granted by Märgẻta Pẻtros, who regrets the current deteriorating
status of church education and the life of yäkolo-tämari. Pẻtros willingly
handed me the copy of his manuscript for he understood the purpose of my
research and believed in knowledge sharing. However, I found that most couplets
are not in line with the purpose of the current study. As a result, I conducted a
theme-based filtration of the poems and removed more than 20 from the
entire collection that were redundant or irrelevant to the study. I studied the the-
matic categories of oral poetry, which are based on the topics and issues stated in
the poems collected, as well as extensive talks and interviews with informants.
4 M. G. ENDESHAW

Finally, I used 22 verses, 14 of which are divided into four themes: food and drink,
clothing and carpet, health and related issues, and general challenges. The
remaining eight verses are used throughout the discussion in the article.

Orality in Gondär
As Vansina notes, oral tradition of African societies is rich and complicated along
a long layer of time (Vansina 1985). A repository of literacy and knowledge, and
oral traditions play a pivotal role in the Ethiopian populace (Gelaye 1999). An
ideal example of this endeavour is the preservation of the stories of the lives
of students in the traditional church education. Ethiopia’s long written tradition
is a rich repertoire of continually recycling historical-mythical construction, in
legends and oral-written sources. It is also a country where a great number of
living oral cultures exist (Meckelburg, Dege-Müller, and Bustorf 2018). McCann
as cited in Alyou also appreciates the role of orality in peasant Ethiopia in docu-
menting and transferring the knowledge of the past to future generations (Alyou
2018). The oral tradition had been practised by many Ethiopians in their daily rou-
tines for many centuries. It continued after European missionaries visited Ethiopia
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This is evidenced in the role of an Ethio-
pian monk, Abba Gregory in providing oral data about Ethiopia to the German
scholar, Hiob Ludolf in the seventeenth century (Bahiru 2000). Oral traditions in
Ethiopia have been maintained the central position in the daily life of the
society vis-à-vis the expansion of modern education (Meckelburg, Dege-Müller,
and Bustorf 2018). It is thus sound to conclude that all socio-economic and pol-
itical discourses among the society have been conducted through orality.
Though orality has been marginalised in the methodology of Ethiopian studies
for a long time, the recent trend is promising. Evidence of orality gaining momen-
tum is the 18th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in Dire-Dawa in
2012, which has had a panel session on the methods and styles used in the
study of oral sources (Meckelburg, Dege-Müller, and Bustorf 2018). This was a
great start in that a large scholarly discussion was held on oral traditions, and
it was discovered that despite attempts by various scholars to employ oral
sources, there was a limitation in their usage. Jan Vansina, however, had strat-
egies in alleviating problems related to chronology and limited time depth,
and variations in different versions of the same events (Vansina 1985). Alyou’s
latest work, “Rural response to land reform through oral poetry” (Alyou 2018)
can witness how the issue is gaining traction in academia. My interest in orality
stems from my exposure to orality-rich communities in North Gondar as part
of a project developed by my department to collect and digitise oral tradition
and oral history. Furthermore, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s traditional edu-
cation is accustomed to using oral instruction (Challiot 2009). In Ethiopian
church education, all knowledge, regardless of grade level, is still transmitted
in oral forms (Mezmur 2011).
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 5

For political purposes it has served both the public and the government. Shep-
herds and indigenous poet musicians, Azemaris, are mostly employed as instru-
ments to reveal what is on people’s minds through oral poetry. The
government also inquires of the aforementioned bodies about the public’s per-
ception of its administration (Alyou 2018) and to introduce reforms accordingly.
Ruth Finnegan (1992, 46) thus pointed out that oral poetry, ‘ … besides serving
the people in their day-to-day activities such as working in the agricultural
fields and at home, religious as well as secular feasts and ritual ceremonies,
often takes the place of news among non-literate societies’. Finnegan further
states that at local level using oral poetry can take the place of the press, radio
and publication as a way of expressing public opinion and bringing pressure
to bear on authorities. Indeed, local poems and songs are used to report and
comment on current affairs, for political pressure, for propaganda, and to
reflect and influence public opinion. My informant, ato Kassa Shibeshi, told me
that it was the fashion of his generation to compose verse to convey a
message. Composing and singing oral poetry is a widely known and deeply
rooted form among the societies in Gondar. Kassa laments not documenting
and publishing it for greater usage. As ‘modern’ education spreads, people
began to draw parallels between the lives of yäkolo-tämari and ‘modern’ edu-
cation students in a worldly view. As a result, employing oral poetry to explore
the lives of yäkolo-tämari is deemed appropriate.

Life as yäkolo-tämari
Church education students have been travelling considerable distances in quest
of scholarships in other regions without informing or consulting their families in
order to avoid any impediments. Only a handful are fortunate enough to have
traditional schools of higher level (of zẻma2, qinẻ3, aquaquam4, and mätsähaf5)
close to their villages/hometowns where they can continue their studies in rela-
tive comfort while living with their families and surrounded by friends and rela-
tives (Mezmur 2011). My informant (kolo-tämari at the church of Be’ata Lämariam
in Gondar, Gäbrä’egziabhẻr Hailu) also added that the main reason for wandering
in search of schools and teachers is the heavy service demand from parents for
cultivation and cattle tending. The reason, according to Mezmur, is that the life
of comfort provided by one’s family and friends, or one’s town, is seen as an
impediment to the single-minded pursuit of learning. This is also accompanied
by ‘Holy-zealousness,’ a spirit of emulation and healthy rivalry that challenges
the younger generation to travel to new places, meet new people, and return
home highly and qualified like someone from the elder generation. When a tra-
ditional school student returns to his hometown after gaining the requisite edu-
cation, his purpose is to serve God as a priest or märgẻta, a choir leader, in his
locality. God has also his purpose for this man as far as to the position of
leading the church as a Bishop or Echägẻ (Habtämariam 1987).
6 M. G. ENDESHAW

As a result, they recall the bible scripture that advises avoiding a paranoid pos-
ition while considering continuing your education after deciding to leave home:
‘መጸሃፈሲራክ 6፡9 ‘መንፈሳዊና ስጋዊ ጠበብን ለመማርና ለመመራመር ባሰብህ ጊዜ ሁለት ልብ ሁነህ
አትሰማራ፤ በአንድ ሃሳብ ሁኖ እንደሚዘራና እንደሚያጭድ ገበሬ ሁን እንጅ’ [lit. Book of Sirach 6 ፡
9 ‘When it comes to learning and researching spiritual and physical wisdom,
do not be double-minded; Be like a farmer who sows and reaps with one
mind.’] Families hardly worry when their sons leave home when they find out
their whereabouts and understand that they went to attend church education.
Rather, they encourage students and make them stronger in their careers both
in the secular world and hereafter. Instead of worrying about themselves, they
entrust the care of their children to the Holy Trinity. Long-distance travel to
attend church education is considered by families as a pursuit of spiritual life
that God pleases, and that their child is under divine protection. The following
verse, recited by my informant ato Bazäzäw Maläfia, clearly explains this:

እንደ እናት እንደ አባት እንደ እህት እንደ ወንድም

አሉልህ ስላሴ በወዲያኛው ዓለም
[Like mother, like father, like a son and like daughter,
You have the Holy Trinity wherever you go.]

After departure from his family, the life of the student is entirely dependent on
the food that he begs door to door from the nearby community. There is brief
difficulty in adapting to the food type that he collects and eats from the local
community. He might lose weight and suffer from itching caused by reduced per-
sonal hygiene (Habtämariam 1987). He pays visit to his families during holidays,
especially in his first year on scholarship. This visit is a period of rehabilitation and
recovery. His family treats him well to improve his nutrition and hygiene in this
short period of vacation, which is usually not more than eight days. When he
decides to go back, his family never challenges him to stay for long or quit his
scholarship. Instead, the mother usually prepares all the necessary logistics and
the whole family accompanies him for a reasonable distance and then bids
him farewell.
As far as students’ acceptance during enrolment is concerned, they seem like
they are received as guest of honour who have come for a brief visit, not to join
church as a student. Before students decide where to go, they gather information
about the whereabouts of the best master, the name of the master and the
church where he is teaching. Then, they continue their journey looking for the
master and the church. The student understands his arrival by simply scanning
the environment and quietly listening to students’ voices in their peer teaching.
Meanwhile, when they noticed that a new student is coming, they all kindly rush
out and compete to warmly accept the ‘guest of God’ by receiving his akofada [lit.
satchel or knapsack made from straw matstick] and wash his legs. This is quickly
followed by partaking of the food in an atmosphere of friendly solicitude. It is
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 7

interesting to note that all the senior students should serve him at least one thing
so long as he spends the night in their little hut. According to my informant,
Märgẻta Pẻtros, if they understand that they will not have a share in this
service, then one washing his right leg the other washes the left. They in all
aspects made him feel at home.
Then, when the time for the guba’ẻ (its equivalence is class [lit. congregation])
approaches the next day, they kindly inform the master that a guest has already
arrived. The preliminary encounter between the student and the master com-
mences with inspective dialogue about the background and ambition of the
former to join the community. As a matter of formality, the master inquires
after the purpose of the visit and having been informed of the wish to learn
under his guidance, he gives the student formal permission to join the school.
The master then allocates him some nearby village where can beg until he is
better acquainted with the surroundings that are already shared among the
other students. Other students also assist the new student for a month or two
by sharing with him what they collect. Therefore, it is interesting to note that
the church school is not only a place to learn knowledge but also love and com-
passion. The student who has received all this warm acceptance and support to
adapt to the new environment is also expected to do the same for others.
The host communities are guardians of the students and the church. They, in
place of the students’ families, are responsible for providing the students food,
drink and clothing for free. Villages are allotted to students by casting lots.
Every student must accordingly keep within the boundaries of his allotted
village and refrain from straying into the domain of others. This rule is insisted
upon to minimise the fights and the bickering endemic to the begging
expeditions (Informant: Märgẻta Pẻtros). Most fights between students of
qenẻ6and students in other specialties have been caused partially by transgres-
sing the artificial boundary created for begging campaigns. Qenẻ students
show psychological supremacy over others, as well (Informant: Habtämariam
1987). On the occasions of great festivals, however, exceptions are made. They
are then informed of the location of the festival and are allowed to beg
without restrictions. The student is expected to repay the begging by being com-
mitted to his education and the church.
Gondarian kings were famous for sponsoring church education. The govern-
ment allocated 24 dawla7 grains for four well-known masters teaching at four
centres and provided food for students (Messing 1957). In 1947, the Ethiopian
government kept the tradition and allocated 100 birr (it is equal to 1.92 USD in
the current market) monthly salaries for leading masters and 50 birr (it is equal
to 0.96 USD in the current market) for their supporters. Ten birr (it is equal to
0.19 USD in the current market) was allocated per student per month in addition
to other unlimited support from the government (Mezmur 2011). The students in
return pray to the government and act as a protectorate. During the summer/
drought times when students struggle to find food, priests distribute food to
8 M. G. ENDESHAW

their spiritual children to feed them. In this way, they cope with the hard times
(informant: qẻs FäntẻTäshomä).
Yäkolo-tämari exercise a shared life. They live in a shared room, eat, work
and learn together, and are strongly unified. This is because they live in an iso-
lated location in and around the church, some distance from the community.
Thus, in social life, there is a distinction between them and the community.
The community considers them as a distinct group who are there to
provide church services for the community and they are determined to
protect them in return. For obvious reasons, yäkolo-tämari do not strive to
accumulate fixed property during their education life other than items that
they can use to provide basic services in their daily life, such as sticks, manu-
scripts, bottles for water, dried sheep’s skins used for sleeping and sitting, and
akofada and tanned sheepskin worn by traditional school students (Informant:
Märgẻta Pẻtros). All these items are used for eating, drinking and sleeping pur-
poses. Their life is full of challenges. The following poem recited by Märgẻta
Pẻtros, for example, explains how the life of the student attending church edu-
cation is hard compared to that of students attending modern education:

- የጥንት ተማሪ ቀጋ ለቀጋ (ችግር)

የዛሬ ተማሪ አልጋ ለአልጋ (ምቾት)
[A student in the past tangled with troubles,
While the one today walks in the bed of roses.]

Aspects of daily life of yäkolo-tämari

Life as a student of church education embodies extra duties not only for survival
but also for serving the immediate community. When it comes to their working
culture, they are primarily devoted to their education. However, they are
engaged in some activities that contribute to their survival in the church edu-
cation. Physically impaired and blind students also take part in some income-gen-
erating activities that do not demand their mobility. They provide constant group
work for the master during ploughing and harvest. They also provide similar ser-
vices to the community, when necessary, either during an emergency or for those
who are unable to collect their harvest for various reasons. Yäkolo-tämaris are
also known in the community for preparing ink from local materials and selling
it to scribes to generate money. They prepare various prayer books and manu-
scripts and provide them to the market (Informant: Märgẻta Misrak). Yäkolo-
tämaris also provide laminating services and prepare umbrellas from sälẻn [lit.
straw mat] and sell these to the market. They are mostly used by women mer-
chants on market days. Some of them instal the mats over their stalls which
helps them to protect their items from sunlight. Märgẻta Misrak witnesses that
these groups of students are also famous for painting and use their skills to dec-
orate manuscripts. Yäkolo-tämaris also have expertise in painting portraits of
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 9

saints and angels with descriptions and provide these to the market. They are
well-known for preparing traditional medicine, as well. Despite being tormented
by diseases, yäkolo-tämaris provide traditional medicines to the local people who
suffer from illness (Informant: Märgẻta Misrak). Only some of yäkolo-tämaris are
specialists but the local people believe that all of them have the knowledge to
cure disease. Because of the absence of modern health centres on one hand,
and due to their affordability and their effectiveness in aiding the sick on the
other, traditional healers are primarily chosen by the community.
In addition to this genuine medication service using herbs and other materials,
a few yäkolo-tämaris practise degemt [incantation], for people who believe that
there is magical guidance to elevate their business or to succeed in life. An incan-
tation, a spell, a charm, an enchantment, or a bewitchery, is a magical formula
intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can
be spoken, scribed, sung, or chanted. An incantation can also be performed
during ceremonial rituals or prayers. In the world of magic, incantations are
said to be performed by wizards, witches, and fairies. It is sometimes also
called acts of trickery and deception (Tylor 1958). When yäkolo-tämaris quarrel
with ordinary people, they are blamed that they use this magic to harm their
targets, even as far as claiming their lives. Thus, there is a tense relationship
between yäkolo-tämaris and communities that have experienced cases of
magic working, especially death magic. It is evident that magic is worked
against someone who then dies. My informant, qes Fäntẻ Täshomä, told me an
interesting story that can substantiate the above discussion.
I have attended big täzcar, a memorial feast for the death, where many people gathered. It
was prepared for a youngster who lost his life in an accident. All of his families were
emotional and furious to the maximum. It was organised in his forty days and is fresh in
the minds of his family. There were beggars outside the big tent including yäkolo-tämari
waiting for food and drink. One yäkolo-tämari was constantly urging those who were
serving attendants to provide them with food. They respond to him to stay there patiently
but he did not stop nagging them. The elder brother of the deceased came and talked to
him and was immediately turned to quarrel. He punched him again and again until bleed-
ing. He just moved away by saying ‘I will show you soon!’ The night was something that they
never have seen. The house was continuously stoned from an unidentified direction. Early in
the morning, the floor was shaking that caused the fall and break up of home properties.
The floor was cracked. To your surprise each move against each other and broken.
Because everything went out of control and they have lost all, one of the sisters of the
deceased has taken some properties to her home to survive at least a few but the
problem went along with. Her house was beginning to be stoned all night and another
mess at her home. She has invited the mayor to witness. It was finally resolved after a tire-
some search of that guy to give them pardon. He was found after they have paid a great
deal of scarification and have paid tribute to him and he forgave them to make the
public obedient.

The general public attitude to the magical practice of yäkolo-tämari is

somehow misleading. Not all yäkolo-tämari are involved in such an
10 M. G. ENDESHAW

undertaking, partly because this is not acceptable among the adherents of the
religion. Those who are caught practising it have already quit their religious
service to join the larger community. Abandoning their church education,
they start to live in the community and provide services at home.8 Some of
them are already registered as traditional physicians licensed by the govern-
ment.9 Others do not disclose themselves in the community but serve count-
less clients (Informant: Märgẻta Dibäkulu). All of them have a religious
background. Those in charge in the church are also said possess the magical
power to force the sky to rain or predict and prevent natural hazards that
would otherwise damage farmers’ plantations. Despite the absence of any
sound scientific explanations for such elaborate claims, the community
accepts that this knowledge is of great importance. This is the background
to the social mobility of people who are said to possess this power and knowl-
edge. They are respected people with considerable wealth arising from the
business they do with people who seek their service, mainly during harvest
seasons (Durkheim 1961).
Inside the school, there is a master-client relationship, which is culturally
imposed at will. As far as their ethics and behaviour in the church is con-
cerned, they are well-known for their absolute obedience to the master.
They wash the master’s legs, carry his belongings including manuscripts
and accompany him; they make everything in place in the gubaẻ place
before the master enters, and they ready his seat before his arrival. During
holidays, there are no classes and the master wanders from one church to
the next to deliver the expected service. A junior student is supposed to
accompany him to carry his tsenatsel (sistrum), stick (priest staff), and other
belongings (Wondmagegnehu and Motovu 1970). Able students are respon-
sible for taking care of blind students at the same school. They feed them and
wash their legs and clothes, and so on. They are their right hand that they
recognise. All of them are intimate and are considered families, not friends.
They respect and support each other. They call each other, ‘ጓዴ፤ ክንዴ’ [lit.
‘comrade and my right hand’] and abandon family names. According to
Mezmur (2011), they agree from the outset on a name change and adopt a
new one as camouflage so that their parents cannot discover their where-
abouts. Another important point worth noting is that there is labour division
among them. When one is away collecting food, the others fetch water and
prepare kolo. And when the one who has gone begging for food returns,
the other who remained in their small hut quickly receives the akofada and
let him sit and washes his legs.

Orientations and practices of yäkolo-tämari versus askuala

Large numbers of couplets have been composed by the community/elders con-
cerning the life of yäkolo-tämari in comparison with students in modern schools,
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 11

customarily named as askuala. Couplets are thematically analysed and presented

below.

Theme 1: Food and drink

- የጥንት ተማሪ ቁርሱ ጸሎት ያው በቁመት

የዛሬ ተማሪ ቁርሱ ብስኩት ያውም በወተት (Informant: Märgẻta Pẻtros)
[A student in the past would have a prayer as a breakfast
Whereas that of gets biscuit and milk for a breakfast]
- የጥንት ተማሪ ወጡ የተልባ ማጣፈጫ አልባ
የዛሬ ተማሪ ወጡ ቀይና ነጭ ያውም በግላጭ (Informant: Märgẻta Pẻtros)
[A student in the past would have stew made of linseed
The one today eats with a delicious stew]
- የጥንት ተማሪ የሚበላው ቆሎ ያውም ጦሙን ውሎ
የዛሬ ተማሪ የሚበላው ስጋ እንደባለጸጋ (Informant: Märgẻta Misrak)
[A student of the past eats kolo after a long fast
But, the one today eats like the rich]
- የጥንት ተማሪ ሲማር ውሎ ይበላ ለምኖ
የዛሬ ተማሪ ሲማር ውሎ ይጠብቀዋል ምግብ በስሎ (informant: Märgẻta Misrak)
[In the past, the student gets his food by begging
The one today gets it ready]

These couplets generally reflect on the hardships yäkolo-tämari face compared

to the well-to-do setting of students in the modern educational set-up. The
ideas presented also show the conversation, which is somewhat polemical,
between the two groups of students who are enrolled in two different
schools. It begins with comparing church education students (referred to as stu-
dents of the past) with modern education students regarding how to get break-
fast. For the former, it is their daily prayer served as breakfast, whereas modern
education students have biscuits with milk/tea. The implication is that church
education students are accustomed to conducting individual daily prayers
early in the morning just after/before the morning class. According to
Mezmur (2011), they do not have a regular and formal breakfast schedule;
they pray and continue their education without breakfast. Breakfast is not
common in the life of yäkolo-tämari. This is because of a shortage of food.
They have also adopted not eating breakfast because of the frequent fasting
seasons. They have habituated omitting breakfast. Even if they wish to eat, as
shown in the third verse, what is always available is roasted grain or kolo,
unlike modern education pupils who do not have to worry about their meals.
They even take this readily available food in the evening after a day of
fasting, as opposed to people who eat three times a day. When students
return from school in modern schools, they swiftly sit for a prepared dish. In
12 M. G. ENDESHAW

contrast to yäkolo-tämari, they eat injära with a meat stew. Before going to
school, children in modern education enjoy a snack of boiled milk. This is
because they live with their families whose responsibility it is to facilitate the
necessary conditions for their children to attend school, including proper nutri-
tion. Physiologically speaking, having sufficient food before school helps chil-
dren to comfortably and actively learn at school (Rogers 2017). However, this
does not work for students in church education. On the contrary, they
believe that all the hardships, including lack of enough food, give energy and
strength. This ultimately enables them to accomplish their scholarships
successfully.
In terms of theme, the successive couplets are not all that different from the pre-
ceding. It is about the sauces and stew used for eating injära.10 Students of church
education used tälba, ‘linseed,’ in different forms for eating injära, whereas children
in modern schools eat injära with a variety of stews made of meat. It can be pre-
pared as two types: alcha (pepperless wät) and käy wät, its opposite, which is of
course mainly available in rich families. Tälba has multiple purposes. Yäkolo-
tämari can use it for stew or simply mix it with water and use it for eating injära.
After mixing tälba with water, the dried injära or derkosh is much more palatable.
Its simplicity as a fast food is another reason to use it. The other reason tälba is a
daily item in the houses of yäkolo-tämari is its cheapness and abundance (Infor-
mant: Märgẻta Misrak). Compared to students in modern schools and those
living with their families, yäkolo-tämari have hardly any food choices.
From the preceding discussion, it is possible to conclude that yäkolo-tämari
experience severe food scarcity. They survive on the food provided by the
local community. They spend the entire day at school, sometimes in peer teach-
ing or in self-study. They all hurry into the village before the sun sets for a
begging trip. The master assigns their placements after a discussion with the
community to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Non-fasting foods are
kept in a separate case on fasting days. Upon returning from this task, everyone
sits down and begins filtration (Informant: yäkolo-tämari Hentsa Mariam Kinfä).
They put the same type of food on one plate, and the other type on the other
plate. They screen out cooked food from uncooked food and grains. They
finally eat the cooked food together and place the grains in the case. They
leave the leftovers from dinner to dry up and use it the next day to prepare
derkosh. Though life in the church school was and still is full of hardship, students
are not frustrated by it. Rather, it enhances their commitment and dedication in
the hope of a better future (Informant: Liqä Liqawnit Ezera Haddis).

Theme 2: Clothing and carpet

Theme two is devoted to clothing and shelter. In the following poems, recited by
my informant, Märgẻta Dibekulu, elders have tried to compare the clothing and
shelter of students of church education with that of students in modern schools.
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 13

- የጥንት ተማሪ ልብሱ ዳባ ምኝታው ገለባ

የዛሬ ተማሪ ልብሱ የሱፍ መኝታው ጥልፍ
[A student in the past wears daba and sleeps on the straw
Whereas that of today, wears European cloth and sleeps on a decorated bed]
- የጥንት ተማሪ ምንጣፉ አጎዛ ያውም ቀዝቃዛ
የዛሬ ተማሪ ምንጣፉ የጨርቅ እጅግ የሚሞቅ
[In the past, a student used cold sheepskin as a carpet
But, that of today use comfortable carpet made from linen]
- የጥንት ተማሪ የለው ጫማ አንዲት እንኳን ጎማ
የዛሬ ተማሪ ባለብዙ ጫማ ያውም ሹራባማ
[A student in the past had not shoe at all
Whereas, that of today have plenty of]

After joining the school, Däbälo, or ‘tanned sheepskin’ is the ‘new normal’ cloth
for a student. He only wears the cloth he brought from his family for a brief time.
From a remote place he collects kärkäha, or ‘bamboo’, which is used for different
purposes and exchanges it for other goods necessary for his study, such as sheep
skin (Habtämariam 1987).
The first couplet compares the cloth and sleeping place of both groups of stu-
dents. Church education students wear däbälo which is made from sheep’s skin.
According to informant Kassa Takele this is commonly used by yäkolo-tämari and
shepherds in the northern parts of Ethiopia. The preparation of däbälo is made by
experts in the field. Yäkolo-tämari use it over a piece of cloth inside. This is their
choice because it gives heat and protects them from the cold. This is also com-
fortable wherever they sit and sleep and it is weather friendly. As to yäkolo-
tämari Märhatsedek Dawit said, ‘we wear it and sleep over straw which is not
yet prepared for the mattress’. This means that they do not have any fixed prop-
erty in their small shared-living hut. Instead, they use light and mobile personal
belongings, including their clothing. This is because of a couple of reasons. The
first one is they do not have sufficient money to buy all the necessary items
during their stay at one church school. Second, there is a probability of shifting
schools as their specialisation demands an expert in that field. Thus, there is
no need to accumulate such fixed goods that require either selling or transport-
ing. The other reason is they are determined to lead a life of uncomfortable depri-
vation and hardship because God will consider this in their afterlife
(Habtämariam). On the other hand, those students in ‘modern’ schools are at
the other pole regarding clothing and where to sleep. Because they live with
their families, they wear western cloth although the quality differs according to
the economic status of their parents. Some do have extra clothes that they
wear on weekends. Others change at least twice in a week. They also sleep on
a bed or maybe on a mattress without a bed.
The second stanza in theme 2 explains the nature of the carpet they use in the
two contexts. In the former case, it is sheep’s skin used for a carpet even when it is
14 M. G. ENDESHAW

severely cold, whereas ‘modern’ education students are accustomed to using

western products at a comfortable temperature. It is possible to infer that
living room conditions are inconvenient for church school students, but the
opposite is true for students in modern schools. The impact on the students’
achievement is inversely proportional. Logically speaking, those who are in the
less convenient condition are unlikely to succeed but this is untrue practically.
This is evident in the real world. Church education students succeed in education
which enables them to become self reliant. Nonetheless, they invariably has a
poor earthly life due to the minimal salary from the church on the completion
of their education.
The next stanza is about wearing shoes, which is unusual for church school stu-
dents (Informant: yäkolo-tämari Gobẻ Yifru). However, students in modern
schools wear a variety of shoes. Some may have extra pairs; others may not. In
reality, church education students need to have shoes because they travel long
distances on foot to look for scholarships and food. However, it is considered a
luxury to think of owing shoes. Thus, the objective reality regarding these two
types of schools is that students adapt to life in each. In modern schools
almost all students, for example, have shoes. It is uncommon to go barefoot,
especially in urban schools. Church education students are universally seen bare-
foot. Thus, there is no peer influence regarding shoes or any kind of moral ques-
tion around the issue.

Theme 3: Health and related issues

- የጥንት ተማሪ ታሞ ቢተኛ የለው መዳኛ

የዛሬ ተማሪ ቢያጣ ጤና አለው ህክምና 11
[When a student in the past got ill,
He had no way to get well.
When that of today doesn’t feel better,
He gets treatment in a hospital corner.]
- የጥንት ተማሪ መንግስት አያውቀው አያስጠይቀው
የዛሬ ተማሪ መንግስት ያውቀዋል ይጎበኘዋል12
[A student in the past was neither known nor visited by officials,
Whereas that of today is known and addressed by government officials.]
- የጥንት ተማሪ ምንም ተስፋ የለው ልቡን የሚያጽናናው
የዛሬ ተማሪ አለው ብዙ ተስፋ ከልብ የማይጠፋ 13
[A student in the past never had a hope to comfort his heart,
Whereas that of today has a lot of hope that’s always in the heart.
For the government cares for what he wears.]

The three couplets above were discovered in Märgẻta Pẻtros manuscript. As the
first couplet in this theme shows when students in church schools face any
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 15

health problem and are bedridden, the chances of them being cured are slim.
They have no way to get well. They are afflicted by the lack of a well-balanced
diet and a terrible living environment; they have also experienced recurrent
health difficulties, particularly epidemic sickness. Other elements that could
cause such an illness include sanitation and hygiene. They consume locally
acquired water from a nearby spring due to a scarcity of clean water in the
area. They have also been suffering from nyctalopia, an eye ailment that
causes slow vision at night. It was a common ailment among a large number
of individuals (Mezmur 2011). It was resolved by assigning someone to lead
the person with this problem. When any epidemic disease occurs in a certain
village and a student is exposed to it, it spreads quickly across the church
but there is no panic. What they do, according to yäkolo-tämari Hentsamariam
Kinfä, is they quarantine the sick in a place relatively far away. The practice is
called qäsa. The same thing happens in the community where it is called
wäshäba bẻ (Informant: ato Kassa Shibeshi). Wäshäba means being isolated
and locked down for medication. It is the airiest and isolated. They get burnt
right after the recovery of the sick as a symbol of triumph over disease. The
responsibility of taking care of the afflicted is up to the remaining, in turn.
They use herbs and other traditional medicine for medication due to the
absence of health centres. They sometimes beat epidemics but are usually
beaten. When one gets sick and unable to move by himself, he cannot beg
for food. His friends take full responsibility to take care of him until either he
recovers or dies. When two or three people are bedridden, the remainder
share everything and provide selfless protection and treatment. In short,
yäkolo-tämari are often beset by both external and natural problems during
their scholarships. The most hurtful hardship is if one dies in this way and the
bad news does not reach his family. This is terrible for the mother who
awaits the return of her son, but he has departed forever. Abba Habtämariam
noted that only in rare cases do families hear the bad news when a friend of
the deceased comes back home, interrupting his education for health
reasons (Habtämariam 1987). A sick student may spend months or years visiting
various springs of holy water at the cost of great hardship for his family. Des-
pairing of the holy waters, he may proceed to the medicine men and the astrol-
ogers. During this time, those who have not heard of their about their children
for a long time may come and interrogate him to find out the reasons for their
disappearance. Kägna Azemach Yitebaräk recited the following couplets which
are chanted by families who lost their children in this way and have hardly
heard anything about their wellbeing:

ልጀ ሂዶ ነበር ቀለም ሊዘይድ

ቀለሙ ተደፍቶ ቀረ በመንገድ
[My son went to get an education,
The ink poured and he remained along the way.]
16 M. G. ENDESHAW

ተማሪ በሞተ በሰባት ዓመቱ

ተምሮ ይመጣል ትላለች እናቱ
[Seven years after his death a mother,
Says her student child will return educated.]

The second couplet from the health theme (theme 3), criticises the government
for its lack of attention of church education which is believed to be indigenous to
the nation. It was introduced into the country when Christianity was introduced
but expanded during the medieval period (Kalewold 1970). During this time, it
was sponsored by medieval kings. Food and drink were served in the palace
for church education students as an encouragement. A monthly salary was
allotted to masters (Habtämariam 1987). As time went on, in the dawn of the
twentieth century, western education was introduced without embedding the
indigenous antecedent that resulted in the marginalisation of the school. My
informant, Liqä Liqawint Ezera Haddis, regrettably noted that although it had pro-
duced an immense number of experts in various fields and helped to sustain the
country, it has lacked attention from successive governments. It has finally
resulted in a learning crisis that cannot easily be turned around. Conversely, a
huge amount of money is invested in western-oriented ‘modern’ education
which has consistently borne less fruit. The missing link is that, unlike the
western world, the indigenous education is not embedded in the one introduced
from abroad. The government not only allocates budgets to run ‘modern’ edu-
cation but also in some instances offers clothing and food to students (Täbäjä
2018). The last verse in this theme explains this fact. The government has gone
astray by ignoring the fact that at least some elements of church education
should be embedded in the new curriculum to meet the goals of education.
The last couplet in the theme under discussion explains the lost hope that a
church education student has. This is because of several reasons, including lack
of attention from the government. The only hope they have is Almighty God.
They, day and night, praise God through songs, prayers and in other ways. The
author observes that day in and day out they uninterruptedly sing to rehearse
and conduct self-study. My informant in the groups of yäkolo-tämari, Hentsmar-
iam Kinfä, told me that the ultimate hope he from the outset built upon is God.
He believed that God has predetermined his fate and at the end of the day would
bring something that deserves. He told me that his prayers are to give him what
God plans for him, not what he wants and he does not expect anything from the
government. After completing their education that they chose to specialise in,
however, they have a plan to establish a family and exercise life as easily as poss-
ible. However, according to my informant, Märgẻta Pẻtros, these days things are
changed and most of them aspire to get government jobs for better
payment. According to Mezmur, due to decreasing payments to churches, drai-
nage of students is high (Mezmur 2011). Students in modern schools have
hope in the future because they were/are government-sponsored and have
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 17

won the support of the government. They all trust that after completing their
education they will get government jobs and use their salaries to fulfil their
needs and wants and to help their families (Habtämariam). However, the truth
is that not everyone who passes through either modern or church education
will be successful in life.

Theme 4: General challenges

- የጥንት ተማሪ የድካሙ ብዛት ሲዞር ሲንከራተት

የዛሬ ተማሪ ከዚህ ሁሉ ነጻ እንዲያው ቀንጻ ቀንጻ (Informant: Aba Bayäw Shumät)
[A student in the past has a lot to wander,
Had a lot to ramble.
A student of today has no such a pain
And walks with grace.]
- ለጥንቱ ተማሪ ጸሃይ ትገባለች ጸሃይ ትወጣለች
ለዛሬ ተማሪ ምድር ትዞራለች ትንከራተታለች (Informant: qẻs Birhanu Tiruneh)
[For a student of the past, the sun sets and rises,
For a student of today,
The earth rotates and rambles.]
- የጥንት ተማሪ ፈተናው ብዙ ነው ማንም የማይችለው
የዛሬ ተማሪ ፈተናው በእርሳስ ችግርን ሳይቀምስ (Informant: Märgẻta Teumelesan)
[A student in the past had a lot of challenges,
That no one could sustain.
A student of today is only examined,
By pencil and with no pain.]
- የጥንት ተማሪ ቀጋ ለቀጋ (ችግር)
የዛሬ ተማሪ አልጋ ለአልጋ (ምቾት) (Informant: Märgẻta Teumelesan)
[A student in the past tangled with troubles,
While the one today walks in the bed of roses.]

The above four couplets explain the challenges that yäkolo-tämari suffer and how
life in modern schools is relatively simple. The second couplet is about the phil-
osophy of the western-oriented education regarding the rotation of the earth
around its orbit. From the point of view of yäkolo-tämari, this is something
that confronts God, the uninvestigated. This is about challenging the wisdom
of God. Throughout the day from sunrise to sunset yäkolo-tämari think about
God. The remaining couplets are devoted to the challenges of yäkolo-tämaris.
They have passed through immense challenges caused by their life orientation
and the nature of the school. They throughout the day wander and ramble for
a purpose.
When the student begged, the community was responsible for offering whatever
they had at home. The most common begging formula should be as follows: ‘ስለ
18 M. G. ENDESHAW

ስማ ለማርያም ስለ ቸሩ እግዚአብሔር’ [lit. ‘For the sake of the name of Mary, For the sake of
God the generous, please remember (to give me) my daily bread.’] However,
when days in the Ethiopian month have special significance, the begging
formula changes accordingly, though the mention of the Holy Virgin must
always come first. When a woman is engaged in doing home chores and a
yäkolo-tämari appears, she quits what she is doing and rushes to offer the
student food. If the student appears on a threshing floor and begs in the name
of the Virgin Mary, the farmer gives him some grain from his harvest. Then, the
student sells it at the market for clothes and other basics.
Challenges are worse during the summer. They struggle to get back to their
respective church because rivers they crossed are now swollen. Also, a student
may arrive back at the church school at night after hardships on his journey.
Without having enough rest, he quickly joins his comrades for study. After study-
ing a while, some seven or eight in the group eat their dinner outside because
their small hut does not have light. As Mezmur (2011) noted, they project the
summer will be tough, so that they make preparations to cope. They dry injära
and break it into a coarse powder with a pestle and store it. In this way, they
tide over the rainy season when the job of begging is rendered too difficult by
heavy rains, mud and swollen rivers.
Sometimes they might be gathered inside their little hut with a fire from wood
they collected around for dinner, but it is troublesome to keep it going for it is
frequently blown out. One of my informants, yäkolo-tämari Merhatsedek, told
me that
… once upon a time when I have been in a remote village as a beginner student I have a
case that I never forget. One night we ate dinner inside our small hut and were supposed
to light a fire under the dinner turn by turn. When a friend of mine Yared tried to light the
fire it was blown out now and then and we urge him to light it properly while eating.
One of us shouted to Yared to light and he annoyingly replied ‘so stop eating.’ Since
then, it became a subject of gossip in the church for long.

The dog versus yäkolo-tämari story is something worth mentioning. Dogs are too
harsh for church education students. They identify yäkolo-tämari in whatever
form and fight him to prevent him from reach the home. In return, yäkolo-
tämari use a needle at the tip of their stick to harm dogs when they are
barking (Informant: yäkolo-tämari Zäbirhan Täsfamariam). Elders believe that
this is why dogs consider yäkolo-tämaris their number one enemy. The most
serious challenge against yäkolo-tämari comes from dogs. It is a day-to-day
routine for students to conduct begging expeditions to collect food before
6:00 pm. It is common to see that a group of dogs that at other times do not
group together fight a yäkolo-tämari as one. A student is surrounded by multiple
dogs and must defend himself with his stick until the dogs go far away. When the
dogs refuse to leave him, he throws stones at them and injuring them. The dog
then emerges in front of the owner, displaying its pain by barking at an extremely
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 19

high volume. The proprietor is enraged and frequently states: ‘ባለቤቱን ካልናቁ አጥሩን
አይነቀንቁ’, [lit. ‘You may not attempt to harm the fence unless you belittle the
owner.’] Other times, the dog triumphs and injures yäkolo-tämari. Therefore,
because dangerous dogs are hurting many students, they sometimes use medi-
cine to eliminate them. My informant Liqä Liqawent Ezera memorised the follow-
ing poem witnessing that both are always on bad terms.

- ተማሪና ውሻ ምነው አይስማሙ

እስከ እድሜ ልካቸው አሉ እንደተዳሙ፡፡
ምን እነሱ ብቻ ፍጥረቱ በሙሉ
በዚችው በእንጀራ አይደለም ወይ ጥሉ፡፡
[Why do yäkolo-tämary and a dog are in unabated disagreement?
They are in bloody so long as they are in life
It is the bread that causes quarrel among everyone]
- እናቴ ባየሻ እህቴ ባየሻ
በቁራሽ እንጀራ ሲያባርረኝ ውሻ፡፡
[I wish my mother and sister see
When the dog attempting to catch me for a loaf of bread]
- ከእህት ከወንድምም ከእናት ካባት መርዶ
እጅግ ያሳዝናል ያኮፋ ባዶ፡፡
[It is the emptiness of akofada worse than
The bad news of the loss of a family]
- እንዲህ መከራ አይቶ ለፍቶ ለፍቶ የተማረ
ይኖራል በየትም እንደተከበረ፡፡
[Those who finish their education despite the challenges
Would have a successful life wherever with respect]

All the verses are about the historic hostility between the two. The first couplet is
about the continuous hatred between dog and yäkolo-tämari. The verse also
explains that it is a question of injära that always causes disagreement among
everyone on the earth. The dog barks against yäkolo-tämari when they appear
in front of the house begging for injära. According to the verse, the dog used
to fight yäkolo-tämari for protecting the house from giving injära that they them-
selves used to eat. The overwhelmed conflict among people around the globe
arguably is because of resources (Pammer and Killian 2003). The next verse is
heart-touching. It is about loneliness. A student wishes to have his family by
his side during this miserable time that the dog fights him for ‘a piece’ of
injära though it is relatively abundant in his family home. It is possible to infer
from the verse that his suffering to look for daily bread is happening as if he
has no one worrying about his life on the earth. This is followed by a verse
that explains how far worse having an empty akofada is than hearing the bad
news of the loss of his family. His family is his dearest possession in the world
but having an empty akofada means starving. He is wandering from door to
20 M. G. ENDESHAW

door and fighting against cruel dogs to look for his daily bread, but he at the end
finds an empty akofada. This is something bitter (Habtämariam 1987).
However, although there are challenges that seriously trouble their life, yäkolo-
tämaris strongly believe that there is a light at the end of a tunnel. The last verse is
about the great deal of satisfaction and accomplishments that they will achieve
at the end of the day if they cope with all the challenges and finish their edu-
cation. Some of them might be forced to interrupt their education in the
middle of the road. Health is the first reason for interruption (Kalewold 1970).
But such students ask for temporary leave and return when recovered and feel
that they can continue their education. The second reason is that they might
not be endowed with the right aptitude for this school. They spend years
without making the slightest progress and so will be forced them to look for
an appropriate field in life. Some of them also choose to embody Solomon’s
saying ‘All is Vanity!’ and thus abandon worldly life to devote themselves to spiri-
tual pursuits (Kalewold 1970).

Conclusion
In societies where the tradition of history documentation and recording in written
materials is not well developed, oral traditions and oral histories are of paramount
importance to reconstructing the history of these societies. In this article, an
attempt was made to provide a categorisation of Amharic oral poetry into
several themes. Accordingly, such themes were identified and a description and
analysis of selected couplets and their role as far as the life of yäkolo-tämari
were provided. In the couplets, elderly people in Gondar express their observations
on the deteriorating life of yäkolo-tämari and church education in general on the
one hand, and the visible differences in the treatment of students of ‘modern’ edu-
cation on the other. The couplets throw some light on the critical situations in
which yäkolo-tämaris are found and the immensity of the drain in resources and
student numbers in church education. The tradition of composing oral poetry
reveals the creative capabilities of the communities’ poetic tradition. In analysing
collected poems and couplets, it is found that yäkolo-tämaris have had countless
challenges in times of scholarship which have been documented in oral poetry.
However, yäkolo-tämaris generally cope with all the challenges and end their mis-
sions in success and triumphantly return to their home village. Their adventurous
scholarship life coupled with their literacy has the power to motivate others to
follow in their footsteps. They are the only ones next to the noble class who are
literate in their respective region.

Notes
1. Disabled children embraced by church education are children with a significant amount
of physical problems, mainly with vision and physical functioning.
 EASTERN AFRICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES 21

2. Zẻma bẻt deals with the hymn of St. Yared and his musical notations.
3. Qinẻ bẻt deals with highly elaborated, strict and multilayered form of Geez poetry that is
cryptic complex, profound and rich in allusion to religion, legend, history, law, social
custom and other philosophical arts of writing and speaking.
4. Aquaquam bẻt deals with the chanting of St. Yared with its typical kind of dance and
musical instruments.
5. Mätsähaf bẻt deals with the details of the Old Testament, the New Testament, Law, Gov-
ernance and other philosophical books.
6. Qenẻ literally means a literature verse of high quality predominantly applied in the Ethio-
pian Orthodox Tewahido Church and is one dominant school where many are enrolled.
7. It is a traditional unit to measure grain. It is equivalent to twenty qunnas (grain measure
appr. 100 kg.)
8. Informant: Märgẻta Solomon who had been serving in the church for long but now he is
single-mindedly engaged in providing this service and has made a business out of it. He
told me that he quit the church service for his colleagues were unhappy with him, as the
information was circulated that he had transgressed God’s law.
9. Informant: Märgẻta Dibäkulu who was once a servant in the church but has now aban-
doned his church service and serving the community at home as a registered traditional
physician.
10. Injära is Ethiopian traditional bread, invariably available in all people’s houses irrespec-
tive of wealth or social status.
11. Informant: Märgẻta Pẻtros
12. ibid.
13. ibid.

Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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