Qine Hermeneutics and Ethiopian Critical

Qiné Hermeneutics
and Ethiopian
Critical Theory
Qiné Hermeneutics
and Ethiopian
Critical Theory
Maimire Mennasemay
Qiné Hermeneutics and Ethiopian Critical Theory
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To Aläqa Maimire Tässäma and Waizero Yäwäyn-Eshät Rätta,
to whom I owe my knowledge of Amharic qiné
and
To Geneviève, to whom I owe an infinite debt of gratitude for putting up with

my long work hours during my research and writing of this book.
Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Preface xiii
1 Introduction: Intellectual Autonomy and Ethiopian

Emancipation 1
1.1. The concept of gädl 1

1.2. Whose mirror? 2
1.3. The conundrum of borrowed ‘development’ 6
1.4. Christianity, Islam, and development in Ethiopia 9
1.5. On the non-Ethiopianization of development 11
1.6. Gibbonism and Ethiopian Studies 15
1.7. De-Westernizing/de-Gibbonizing Ethiopian Studies 29
Notes 35
Part I Prolegomena to Critical Qiné Hermeneutics

2 Towards Qiné (ቅኔ) Hermeneutics: I 49
2.1. The qiné tradition of questioning 49

2.2. Qiné education 55
2.3. Zäybé and qiné hermeneutics 60
2.4. Andem and tirgum 63
2.5. Andem and the “four-eyed” scholar 71
2.6. The intellectual roots of Amharic qiné 73
Notes 76
3 Towards Qiné (ቅኔ) Hermeneutics II 83
3.1. Säm ena wärq: duality without dualism 83

3.2. Säm ena wärq, wärq (ewnät) and ewqät 87
3.3. Qiné and incompleteness 93
3.4. Qiné zäräfa 99
3.5. Lissan, quanqua, and säm ena wärq 104
3.6. Lissan and quanqua: the struggle for time 111
3.7. The telos of säm ena wärq 114
viii Contents
3.8. The Tabot: a zäybé of säm ena wärq logic 119

3.9. Mischaracterizing säm ena wärq 124
Notes 133
4 Qiné Hermeneutics, Surplus history, and Arnät 139
4.1. Mädämamät, mäsmat, and qiné hermeneutics 139

4.2. Qiné-analogue and nägär 147
4.3. Critical internal journey and “fusion of horizons” 151
4.4. Surplus History 159
4.5. Critical external journey and “fusion of horizons” 165
4.6. “Unity of wärq admas” and diatopical hermeneutics 170
4.7. Addis Andemta and Dagmawi Tinsa’e 176
Notes 185
Part II INTERLUDE: Reading Strategies in Critical

Qiné Hermeneutics
5 Antsar and Wistä wäyra Readings 195
5.1.Zäybé and hibrä qal as diagnostic concepts 195

5.2.Antsar reading 201
5.3.Wistä wäyra reading 206
5.4.Critical qiné hermeneutical readings of peasant rebellions 211
5.4.1. Who governs the government? 215
5.4.2. Religious language and lissan 218
5.4.3. Peasant rebellions and the surplus self 222
Notes 224
6 Qiné Hermeneutics, Non-tradition, and Utopianism
without Utopia 229
6.1.Utopianism and Qiné 229

6.2.Non-tradition and the utopian impulse 234
6.3.Utopianism and non-tradition 236
6.4.Ahmad b. Ibrahim (Grañ) and the utopian impulse 239
6.5.Tewodros and the utopian impulse 244
6.6.Awra Amba: Utopianism without utopia and “commoning” 247
6.6.1. Awra Amba, common economy, and living labour 251
6.6.2. Awra Amba as a critique of Gibbonism 257
Notes 259
Contents ix
Part III Critical Qiné Hermeneutical Readings

7 The Surplus History of Lalibela 267
7.1. The Chronicles of Lalibela and transcritique 267

7.2. Reality, fantasy, and action 272
7.3. The maxims of autonomy and equality 276
7.4. Epistemic autonomy and emancipation 278
7.5. The dignity of those who labour 285
7.6. From “power over” to “power with” the people 290
7.7. “Hurry up”: Mastering time and emancipation 292
7.8. Lalibela’s lesson: utopianism without utopia 294
Notes 296
8 The Surplus History of the Däqiqä Estifanos 300
8.1. The Däqiqä Estifanos 300

8.2. On standing upright 302
8.3. Bähig amlak or the rule of just law 304
8.4. Litigation with Ethiopia 307
8.5. Following one’s mind 309
8.6. Against resembling our rulers 311
8.7. Scaling one’s history 318
Notes 321
9 The Surplus History of Gada 325
9.1. That which is in gada more than gada 325

9.2. Remembering gada 330
9.3. Gada: an unfinished answer 340
9.4. Luba/butta: time as socio-political relation 344
9.5. Luba/butta: participation and constituent power 348
9.6. Gada and the de-fetishization of history 354
9.7. The moggaasa revolution: E pluribus unum 357
9.8. Moggaasa, historical wounds, and democracy 365
Notes 369
10 Indigenous Institutions and Surplus History 376
10.1. The question of indigenous institutions 376

10.2. Däbo: the unity of head and hand 377
10.3. Iddir and iqqub 386
x Contents
10.3.1. Iddir: Non-tradition as modernity 387

10.3.2. Iqqub: an economy of shared need 392
10.4. Iqqub lottery and lottocracy 398
10.5. Däbo, iddir, iqqub (DII): Recognition and civil society 407
10.5.1. DII and the issue of recognition 408
10.5.2. DII and “civil society” 410
10.5.3. DII as a critique of “civil society” 414
10.6. DII, NGOs, and interpassivity 417
10.6.1. DII against adaptive preferences 422
10.6.2. DII’s question: Is Ethiopia’s problem “poverty” or
“poor living”? 426
10.7. DII, public friendship, and citizenship 431
10.8. Conclusion: DII as silent rebellion 433
Notes 434
11 Conclusion: Qiné Hermeneutics and Ethioperspectivism 444
11.1. Intellectual awakening and the utopian imagination 444

11.2. Ethiopian critical theory and De-Westernizing knowledge 452
11.2.1. Ethiopian critical theory and “Becoming Ethiopian 454
11.2.2. On the possibility of Ethiopian critical theory 458
11.3. Ethiopian critical theory against the Zära Yacob syndrome 460
Notes 464
Select Bibliography 469

Index 482
ቅኔ)
Towards Qiné (ቅኔ 2
Hermeneutics: I
“አዲስ ቃል፣ አዲስ ዓለም”

“A new word, a new world”
An Amharic aphorism.
“He who by revising the old knows the new, is fit to be a teacher.”
Confucius, The Analects, 2.111
2.1. The qiné tradition of questioning
A seventeenth century Ethiopian text states,
The mind is a hidden good; it is the light of the soul, a fire producing
many thoughts; it accomplishes actions; it commands language; it is ratio-
nal; it controls secrete actions; it feeds and strengthens intelligence; it is
the honor of the body, the adornment of wisdom, setting it up rightly.2
Many of the ideas in this short and condensed paragraph are inherent to the
qiné tradition. Their meanings and implications will become clearer as I pro-
gressively unpack the practice of qiné hermeneutics. However, we could see
already in this short paragraph a résumé of the traditional understanding of an
intellectual endeavor that brings into play language, reason, action, the body,
50 Prolegomena to Critical Qiné Hermeneutics
imagination, and intelligence. This complex understanding of the life of the
“mind,” which does not exclude the “honor of the body,” is central to qiné
tradition. The idea that the “The mind is a hidden good” expresses the central
place gädl plays in qiné hermeneutics to disclose that which is the “hidden good”
or the wärq.
Amharic qiné is a form of poetic expression that developed at the intersec-
tion of Täwahedo Church’s Ge’ez sacred literature and the däbtäras’ literary
activities.3 However, the downward look of Amharic qiné replaces the upward
look of Ge’ez qiné and substitutes secular matters for otherworldly concerns. It
expresses a passion for critically reflecting on and interpreting earthly issues:
social practices, ideas, ideals, norms, hope, joy, love, work, injustice, power,
poverty, friendship, oppression, sorrow, death, and other aspects of human life.
Qiné is a rich and complex literary practice. There are different genres of qiné
called qiné bet (ቅኔ ቤት). Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam points out that there are
seventeen kinds of qiné bet, each with its own sub-genres, for a total of seven-
ty-eight.4 Each qiné bet has its own style, structure, and rhetorical tropes. Some
of the well-known qiné bet are gubae-qäna, zämlaqe, mibäzhu, wazema, selassie,
zäyieze, sahlie, mäwädis, and itanä mogär.5 Säm ena wärq (ሰም ና ወርቅ) or “wax and
gold” is the dominant trope of qiné tradition and has a considerable influence
in Ethiopia’s intellectual tradition.
Säm (ሰም) means wax, and wärq (ወርቅ) means gold. At first sight, one may say
that qiné articulates three elements: the säm or wax, the wärq or gold, and the
hibrä qal (ህብረ ቃል) or “harmonizer” or “bridge.” According to the mechanical
interpretation, the säm (the wax) expresses the apparent meaning; the wärq (the
gold) expresses the real meaning (“the hidden truth and good”) that is dissimu-
lated in the säm; and the hibrä qal is the “bridge” that connects the two and
provides the key for finding the wärq in the säm. Thus, säm ena wärq would be,
according to Donald Levine, “a form built of two semantic layers. The appar-
ent figurative meaning of the words is called wax; their more or less hidden
actual significance is the “gold.”6 Consider the following qiné:
ገኝ አልተቻለም በቂ የሆነ ሃብት / It is not possible to have enough wealth.

በጋብቻ ሆኖ የዘንድሮ ወረት7 / The season’s practice is marriage.
According to the mechanical interpretation, the hibrä qal would be bägabicha

(በጋብቻ, marriage), the säm would be yäzändiro wärät (የዘንድሮ ወረት, season’s prac-
tice), and the wärq would be that one increases one’s wealth through marriage.
This mechanical understanding of qiné establishes an external relation between
the wärq and the säm. Stripping away the wax with the hint gained from the
hibrä qal is supposed to reveal the gold. However, this mechanical
Towards Qiné (ቅኔ) Hermeneutics: I 51
understanding occludes the questioning that articulates the qiné. The qiné raises
important ethical concerns through the term wärät (ወረት), which functions as a
zäybé (ዘይቤ) or a symptom. Note that wärät means not only practice but also
wealth, investment, lust, infatuation or false love.8 As a zäybé, it points to the
presence of questions hidden in the qiné: What is love? What is marriage? What
is the right relationship between the two? And so forth. What is forgotten in
the mechanical interpretation is the fact that the presence of hibrä qal as a
bridge implies the presence of a gap within the qiné—hence the need for hibrä
qal or a bridge. The presence of the hibrä qal brings to our attention the neces-
sity of going beyond the simple bridging of the gap and examining the ques-
tions, ideas, and tensions that create and inhabit the gap if we to are to have an
adequate understanding of the qiné, that is, an understanding that accounts for
the gap and not merely bridges it without questioning it. The mechanical inter-
pretation takes the “gap” and the “bridge” implied by the presence of the hibrä
qal as non-problematic. This is an attitude that is contrary to the concepts of
the “hidden good” (wärq) and “gädl.” Disclosing the “hidden good” of the qiné
necessitates a “struggle” that discloses the gap as a symptom (zäybé) that must
be unpacked and transformed into a venue for understanding that which the
gap dissimulates as a mere interval but is necessary for the comprehension of
the qiné. We will see in this and the following chapters how qiné hermeneutics
meets this interpretative challenge.
To understand the mistake of the mechanical understanding of säm ena
wärq, one must consider the art involved in composing a qiné. Composing qiné
is a complex process that does not lend itself to the simplification of mechani-
cal understanding. The composition of the säm ena wärq of a qiné varies with
each qiné bet.9 Moreover, the type of zäybé—which means both a figure of
speech and a symptom—that enters into the composition of a qiné and of which
there are one hundred seventeen, gives each säm ena wärq a unique rhetorical
texture and interpretative complexity that escape the mechanical representa-
tion of säm ena wärq.10 I will examine some of the major zäybé below. No satis-
factory understanding of säm ena wärq is possible without considering its
historical and intellectual roots and the art that goes into composing and inter-
preting qiné. As we shall see, the mechanical understanding of säm ena wärq
reflects a total disregard for the historical and intellectual roots of Amharic
qiné. Let me first discuss, based on the practice of qiné masters, what the pro-
cess of qiné composition involves.11
A period of meditation and reflection known as qisäla (ቅጸላ) precedes a qiné
composition. During qisäla, the composer (and the interpreter, as we shall
see) explores the subject matter of the qiné through questioning (ጥያቄ, tiyaqé),
research (ምርመራ, mirmära), critique (ሂስ, hiss), tichit (ትችት, extended
interpretations or “commentaire de texte”), hatäta (ሐተታ, dialectical reasoning),
andem (አንድም, alternative interpretations), and tirgum (ትርጉም, alternative
meanings).12 He explores the tradition to find out if other qiné that bear on a
similar subject matter exist.13 If other composers have already treated the
topic, the composer raises questions as to the adequacy of these qiné in grasp-
ing the subject matter and explores new perspectives and formulations and
demarcates his qiné from the previous ones. The qiné composer does not limit
the formulation and understanding of the subject matter to the contours it
has in hegemonic knowledge. He investigates the issues pertinent to the sub-
ject matter from various perspectives (andem and tirgum, as we shall see) and
tries to grasp what escapes the hegemonic understanding of the subject mat-
ter or what the hegemonic understanding excludes or distorts. The effort to
bring to light the unsaid, the unheard, the unseen, the unknown, and the
unexpected of the subject matter is what drives the cogitation (ቅጸላ, qisäla)
that precedes qiné composition. The qisäla is indeed a period of gädl against
accepted ideas, interpretations, and understandings. During qisäla, the qiné
student or composer finds out how difficult it is to strike out in a new direc-
tion and open a new furrow of interpretation, and he is often driven to des-
peration.14 The qisäla period leads to new insights into the subject matter.
It is important to note that critical questioning and struggling with old and
new meanings are central to the qiné tradition. Solomon Gebre Ghiorgis writes,
In such a school [qiné school] discussion and asking questions is (sic) encour-
aged. Since the students in such an atmosphere throughout the Ethiopian
tradition have been trained to think rather than believe, they have been
dissenters more often than not. Since they tend to rely on reason rather
than on mere faith, they tend to be more philosophical than their counter-
parts the priests are. Indeed, it can be said that Ethiopian philosophy in its
true sense, i.e., philosophy based on primacy of reason, originated in the
kine [qiné] school. This is not more so explicitly illustrated in any other
book than in the Treatise of Zara Yaecob….15
Questioning is the active spirit that animates the qiné practice of composition
and interpretation. The qiné tradition of questioning involves transgressing the
given, the accepted, and the boundaries of meanings that the hegemonic order
establishes. It gives primacy to critical questioning over thinking. According to
the qiné tradition, thinking does not necessarily lead to critical questioning, but
critical questioning provokes gädl and critical thinking. In qisäla, raising the
right question is crucial, for the right question is indispensable for composing a
säm ena wärq that adequately articulates the subject matter.
A process of linguistic experimentation accompanies the period of qisäla. Its
purpose is to figure out the best way of expressing the insights the composer
gains during qisäla. To accomplish this, the qiné composer explores the various
possibilities that Amharic offers. The goal is to articulate the new insights in a
way that grasps the uniqueness, complexity, and richness of the subject matter
as succinctly as possible. Consequently, both composition and interpretation of
qiné require an awareness of the variation of meanings that emerge from differ-
ing uses of words and phrases and of the oscillations of meanings in different
contexts. The fusing and splitting of words, the use of elisions and phonological
contrasts, the etymology of a word, the inversion of words and statements, and
the tensions that certain ways of connecting words or statements create, are all
the focus of the attention of the qiné composer and interpreter.16 As we shall see
below, zäybé plays a crucial role in this complex articulation of meanings.
A qiné composer uses säm ena wärq to articulate critically experiences, ideas,
ideals, feelings, values, events, and social practices. Hegemonic understandings
of things are the sources of the säm, and the säm plays a key role as the raw
material in the production of the säm ena wärq and the wärq of the qiné. The
wärq is not accessible directly but through a labour of interpretation that trans-
forms the säm, its subject matter, and the säm ena wärq, and discloses that which
is in the qiné more than the qiné: the wärq. The wärq is ewnät (እውነት) “the true
and the good” that the qiné produces from its subject matter. The wärq, once
produced, retroactively throws light on the säm, brings out its limitations or
distortions, reorders the relation of the säm (the particular) to the wärq (the uni-
versal), and serves as a regulative principle for re-interpreting the subject matter
of the qiné in a way that brings out its universal aspect(s). Unlike the säm, the
wärq is universal because it is both true and good.
Qiné articulates säm ena wärq as a critical approach to social practices, beliefs,
ideas, and experiences such that we could distinguish between the universal
(wärq) and the parochial (säm), the true (wärq) and the false (säm), the right
(wärq) and the wrong (säm), the just (wärq) and the unjust (säm), the good (wärq)
and the bad (säm), goodness (wärq) and malevolence (säm). However, as we
shall see, the terms in each pair are not mutually exclusive nor are they abso-
lute; each pair signals something more than dualism. The aim of säm ena wärq
is to reveal hitherto unseen questions and meanings, trigger the emergence of
new ideas, and open up a space for critical reflections on questions of truth,
morality, justice, power, suffering, human agency, work, beauty, love, hope,
time, memory, emotions, actions, our relations to each other, our place in the
world, and the various issues that punctuate personal and social life. The säm
ena wärq approach intimates the presence of an ontology that serves as a touch-
stone for differentiating appearance (säm) from that which is wärq, or to
distinguish that which is immanent (wärq) in a subject matter from its empirical
existence (säm), without however committing itself to dualism.
Whereas Gibbonism has banished qiné’s critical hermeneutical tradition, the
epideictic use of säm ena wärq—formulations that praise or condemn persons,
generally those who are in authority—has survived as part of popular culture.
Säm ena wärq now exists in the simplified form of “double entendre” or pun.
In its simplified form, it is a popular means of expressing hope, disappoint-
ment, sorrow, anguish, joy, desire, or critique in a way that makes listeners
active participants in the subject matter the säm ena wärq articulates by forcing
them to interpret it to understand it. That is, even in its simplified form, säm
ena wärq retains its critical thrust, which is that authentic understanding and
self-understanding arise only through active interpretative labour. The epideic-
tic use of säm ena wärq is the stock in trade of the azmari (አዝማሪ)—popular
singers who compose their own lyrics and sing them accompanied by a kirrar
(ክራር, a six-string lyre) or masinqo (ማሲንቆ, a one-string bowed lute). I will call the
epideictic use of säm ena wärq “circumstantial qiné.” Circumstantial qiné has
penetrated deeply the linguistic imagination of Ethiopians such that the use of
puns to articulate and lubricate contradictory meanings is a widely appreciated
linguistic skill. It is an important popular channel for expressing subtly one’s
feelings. It also serves for making social commentary, including the criticism of
people in authority. However, circumstantial qiné is qualitatively different from
what the poet and playwright Menghestu Lemma calls “classical qiné.”17
Classical qiné is speculative, reflective, meditative, critical, and universaliz-
ing. Unlike circumstantial qiné, which is dualistic in its approach to practices,
ideas, and values, classical qiné is non-dualistic in the sense that its apparent
duality is a duality without dualism, as we shall see. Unlike circumstantial qiné,
composing classical qiné is grounded in qisäla and its indispensable practices of
questioning (ጥያቄ, tiyaqé), research (ምርመራ, mirmära), critique (ሂስ, hiss), tichit
(ትችት, extended interpretations or “commentaire de texte”), hatäta (ሐተታ, dialecti-
cal reasoning), andem (አንድም, alternative interpretations), and tirgum (ትርጉም,
alternative meanings). Classical qiné is, according to Liqä Siltanat Habtä
Mariam, a “way of philosophizing” that “opens the mind” and “appropriates
truth.”18 Aläka Imbakom Kalewold, the qiné scholar, draws our attention to the
depth, intensity, and complexity of classical qiné composition and interpreta-
tion by describing it as an intellectual activity that embraces “መማር መመራመር
ማወቅ መራቀቅ መጥለቅ መውለድ መፍጠር መፈልሰፍ” (mämar, mämäramär, mawäq, märaqäq,
mättläq, mäwläd, mäftär, mäfälsäf).19 That is, qiné is an intellectual activity that
embraces “learning, exploring, examining, knowing, abstracting, analyzing,
questioning, critiquing, philosophizing, and gestating or giving birth to new
ideas.” The influential qiné scholar Kebede G/Medhin compares classical qiné
composition and interpretation to the process of smelting, separating, ham-
mering, purifying, and producing gold from ore.20 Classical qiné uses säm ena
wärq formulations that have multilayered and multi-dimensional meanings
articulated through zäybé.
Circumstantial qiné is a condensed narrative; classical qiné is a condensed the-
ory or philosophy. In circumstantial qiné, the säm–wärq “dichotomy” refers to
elements that are mutually exclusive, in that the “ena” of säm ena wärq in cir-
cumstantial qiné has the function of wäyim, ወይም meaning “or.” In classical qiné,
on the other hand, the säm – wärq “dichotomy” is not a mere dichotomy
(wäyim, ወይም), but a way of formulating a question, a contradiction, an impasse,
or a “mystery” (misteer, ምስጢር).21 It articulates dialectical relations between the
säm and the wärq, which require interpretation to elucidate the meanings that
ena conjoins, puts in opposition, and articulates. The “ena” in the säm ena wärq
of classical qiné raises the necessity for critical reflection on and interpretation
of the säm ena wärq, the qiné that articulates it, and the subject matter to which
it refers. Often, the context is brought into play to have a more comprehensive
grasp in the composition or interpretation of a qiné. In this book, I use the term
qiné to refer to classical qiné only and its principal trope: säm ena wärq. I will
discuss säm ena wärq in the next chapter. I will discuss in the rest of the present
chapter some crucial elements of qiné practice—qiné education, zäybé, andem,
tirgum, the “four-eyed” scholar, and the intellectual roots of qiné—to prepare
the ground for an informed discussion of qiné and säm ena wärq.
2.2. Qiné education
Before proceeding further, I would like to consider very briefly the place of qiné
education in the intellectual tradition of Ethiopia. I do so for several reasons.
First, awareness of what is involved in qiné education saves us from the usual
reduction of qiné to a closed traditional culture or to a cultural “heritage” with
no future-oriented and emancipatory impulse and cognitive potential. Second,
it will help us see the misguidedness of the mechanical interpretation of säm ena
wärq, which I will discuss below (Chapter 3.9). Third, it discloses the reflexivity
and immanent critique that characterize critical qiné hermeneutics in the prac-
tices of qisäla (ቅጸላ), qiné nätäqa (ቅኔ ነጠቃ), qiné zäräfa (ቅኔ ዘረፋ), zäräfa mälash (ዘረፋ
መላሽ), andem (አንድም), and tirgum (ትርጉም).22 These are integral parts of qiné educa-
tion. Fourth, it prepares us for understanding the complexity and normativity of
qiné hermeneutics and helps us see why qiné education and its säm ena wärq
approach to life are highly placed in the moral scheme of traditional Ethiopia.23
Finally, it provides a stepping-stone for considering how the qiné intellectual
tradition could provide us with an approach that, first, enucleates the “wärq”
(critical questions, emancipatory ideas, ideals, and aspirations) of the Ethiopian
intellectual tradition and of past and present social practices, both temporally
and spatially (trans-regional or trans-ethnic); and, second, enables us to eluci-
date the “wärq” of Western (and other) intellectual traditions and social prac-
tices in terms of the “wärq” (critical questions, emancipatory ideas, ideals, and
aspirations) of the Ethiopian intellectual tradition and social practices.
In traditional Ethiopia, learning qiné is one of the last steps of a lengthy pro-
cess of education. Traditional Ethiopian education starts between the age of
four and five.24 The first stage consists of reading and writing lessons and rec-
itations of texts from the Bible. The overall curriculum of traditional educa-
tion covers the following: Biluy Kidan (ብሉይ ኪዳን) or the Old Testament,
consisting of forty six books, and Addis Kidan (አዲስ ኪዳን) or the New Testament,
consisting of thirty five books; säwasiw (ሰዋስው, grammar); zema, (ዜማ, tech-
niques and styles of religious chanting such as Tsomä-dägwa (ጾማ ደግዋ), Dägwa
Meiraf (ደግዋ ምዕራፍ), Qidassé (ቅዳሴ), and Zimaré, (ዝማሬ); liturgical hymns, commu-
nion songs, and musical notations and religious chants based on the mäwaseit
(መዋስዕት) of Saint Yared; aquaquam (አቋቋም, styles of religious dancing); the
Mätsahfä Mänäksot (መጽሓፈ መነክሶት, Book of Monks); gädl (ገድል) or hagiographies
of Ethiopian saints, the Mätsahfä Liqawint (መጽሓፈ ሊቃውንት) or writings of the
church fathers; and Märha Ewir (መርሓ ዕውር, Guide to the Blind); zämän aqotatär
˙ ˙
(ዘመን አቆጣጠር) or the computation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church calendar
(the Coptic calendar) for figuring out the days of fasts and feasts; history (ክብረ
ነገስት, Kibrä Nägäst and ታሪከ ነገስት, Tarikä Nägäst, the history of Ethiopian Kings);
jurisprudence (ፍትሓ ነገስት, Fetha Nägäst, the Book of laws and judgments); the
andem (አንድም) method of commentary; tirgum or the art of translation cum
interpretation; and Amharic calligraphy or qum sihuf (ቁም ጽኁፍ).25 To these one
could add the complimentary courses of estwat (ዕጽዋት, the knowledge of
medicinal plants and the comportment of animals) and kokäb qotära (ኮከብ ቆጠራ,
counting the stars or astrology).
There are four parts to the curriculum, organized in an ascending order of
difficulty. The first three cover matters that concern the Scriptures, zema (ዜማ),
the writings of the Church Fathers and Saints, and the last consists of the Mätsehaft
Bet (መጽሓፍ ቤት) covering advanced studies of theological and secular writings,
andem commentary and analysis, and the art of translation/interpretation (tirgum).
Qiné education takes place at the “third of the four stages of the traditional hier-
archy, sandwiched between religious music and theological philosophy.”26 Gen-
erally, students do not cover all the curriculum; they choose the field they
would like to specialize in, such as zema, qiné, calligraphy, translation, history,
jurisprudence, and so forth.27
One must also note the rational core of complimentary courses, especially
the ones dealing with plants and astronomy. Both express the interest in under-
standing the workings of nature, however “unscientific” their approaches may
seem. Indeed, the interest in understanding the workings of nature experimen-
tally manifests itself as early as the thirteenth century. One could see this in the
distinction that the Royal Chronicles of Lalibela make between knowledge “of
the bowels of the earth” and the “wisdom of men” (book knowledge) and their
claim that the former kind of knowledge and not the latter is necessary for the
construction here on earth of the heavenly Jerusalem that Lalibela saw in his
dreams.28 A similar experimental approach to the workings of nature is present
among some members of the fifteenth century heretical movement, the Däqiqä
Estifanos, particularly Abba Ezra and his disciples.29 In the case of the study of
animal behaviour, one sees the desire to reflect on human behaviour in light
of other kinds of behaviours that nature provides. It is in this tradition that we
find the kernel of the Ethiopian intellectual tradition’s approach to nature,
which, unlike the Western approach of “domination of nature,” considers
man’s relation to nature in terms of “working with and on nature”; it is an
approach that acknowledges the autonomy of nature.30
Qiné education takes place in a qiné bet (ቅኔ ቤት, which also refers, in addition
to denoting the different genres of qiné, to the school where students learn qiné.
Qiné learning has several pedagogical characteristics that one must take into
consideration to understand how its core and driving element of questioning
relates to creativity, reflexivity, immanent critique, distantiation, and transcend-
ing or resolving conflicting meanings with the use of zäybé, zäräfa, andem, and
tirgum.31 Qiné education has five major overlapping pedagogical moments. These
are qiné qotära (ቅኔ ቆጠራ), qisäla (ቅጸላ), qiné nätäqa (ቅኔ ነጠቃ), qiné zäräfa (ቅኔ ዘረፋ),
and zäräfa mälash (ዘረፋ መላሽ). While the first stage is propaedeutic, each of the
last four stages involves a struggle or gädl with new and old meanings, and with
various interpretations.32 They are also integral parts of the process of qiné
composition.
Since qiné education is always adapted to the student’s speed of learning,
the propaedeutic period—qiné qotära—could last from one to two years. Qiné
education includes sessions of discussion of and critical reflection on a hibrä
qiné (ሕብረ ቅኔ, an old qiné that serves as an exemplar) or on a qiné that the qiné
master or a student composes. There are distinctive styles of composition
and interpretation associated with the major qiné schools in Gondar, Tigray,
Gojjam, Wallo, and Shoa. The desire to have a comprehensive knowledge of
the ensemble of qiné traditions is one of the motivations that drive qiné stu-
dents to travel from one school to another. As Aläka Imbakom Kalewold
comments,
the serious student is not satisfied with merely graduating under one
master in order to compare and contrast various ways of kiné [qiné]. For
it is in the nature of things that not all teachers are identical twins in
knowledge or ability. Consequently, it is quite possible to see new lights
and fresh angles, to complement the teachings of one master with those of
a second or third. The saying goes: “the running stream goes farther than the
stagnant pool.”33
One must note in Aläka Imbakom Kalewold’s comments the intellectual open-
ness and curiosity that characterize qiné education and practice. The under-
standing of knowledge as a “running stream,” as the discovery of “new lights
and fresh angles,” and as a struggle or gädl against “stagnant” knowledge
expresses the dynamic nature of qiné education and practice. Qiné valorizes
questioning, inquiring, researching, comparing, contrasting, reflecting, critiqu-
ing, and struggling or gädl against inert or “stagnant” knowledge. Qiné educa-
tion develops a healthy, inquisitive, and open-minded approach to the world and
to claims about the world. As the historian Bahru Zewde points out, during the
crucial years of the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century,
during which Ethiopia was confronted with European powers intent on impos-
ing their interests and will on her, the graduates of the qiné schools of “St Mary
and Raguél churches of Entoto… [rose] to prominent positions in the bureau-
cratic and the intellectual life of twentieth century Ethiopia” and coped admira-
bly with the challenges of Ethio-Western relations, despite the fact that their
education was “traditional”: a testimony to the critical spirit, inquisitiveness,
and open-mindedness to the world that qiné education bestows.34 Certainly, qiné
education accounts for the well-known questioning disposition of the däbtära,
the lay intellectuals of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and their reputation of
being a thorn in the side of the arrogant, the pretentious, and the powerful. It is
in recognition of the critical and iconoclastic spirit of the däbtära that a radical
Ethiopian journal named itself Debteraw, also the penname of a radical student
leader.35
Practicing qiné composition is both an individual and, in qiné sessions and
qiné schools, a group activity. In qiné sessions, one composes a qiné (ጉባኤ ቅኔ,
gubae-qiné), recites it to the qiné master or/and the members of the group. The
qiné master invites the students to comment. Menghestu Lemma, the Ethiopian
poet, describes the activity:
Comments, however, are only too readily given, critics remonstrate vocif-
erously, the author of the poem under fire answers back, the master holds
the ring. He may agree with one critique or other or he may agree with
the author or he may differ from all, explaining their defects. Invariably,
he is expected to make some corrections in the work reedited, for as a
rule few compositions escape unmolested [….] A single word from him
may revolutionize the whole poem and thus make for an incredible superi-
ority of the corrected work over the original. This would spur the student
to greater efforts.36
What is crucial in this pedagogical practice is its questioning, critical, non-dog-

matic, and dialogical or dialectical approach to the issue at hand. Though qiné
practice treats in poetic forms its ontological, epistemological, metaphysical,
and ethical assumptions, it does not treat them discursively. However, ques-
tions that pertain to these matters are present in qiné practice. In practice, qiné
composition and interpretation call upon and valorize questioning, distantia-
tion (አንጻር ዘይቤ, antsar argument), reflexivity (hatäta, ሐተታ), immanent critique
(hiss, ሂስ), oppositional or contrarian thinking (tänätsatsari argument, ተነጻጻሪ
ዘይቤ), wistä wäyra analysis (ውስጠ ወይራ ዘይቤ), i.e., enucleating the hidden ques-
tions and problematics of an argument, explanation (ትንትና, tintina), extended
interpretations or “commentaire de texte” (tichit, ትችት), afrash argument (አፍራሽ
ዘይቤ), i.e., disclosing contradictions, and other kinds of zäybé that I will discuss
in the following section. The goal is to elicit the wärq of the qiné through a crit-
ical interpretation of the säm ena wärq and its subject matter.
Moreover, the practice of qiné gives a meticulous attention to language.
When Menghestu Lemma writes, “a single word… may revolutionize the whole
poem,” he brings out the importance the qiné tradition gives to the constitu-
tive, creative, performative, and critical power of language. The aphorism of
qiné origin—አዲስ ቃል፣ አዲስ ዓለም / Addis qal, addis aläm, i.e., “A new word; a new
world”—encapsulates an understanding of the constitutive, creative, and per-
formative power of language that informs qiné practice. In addition, the peda-
gogical practices of qiné education recognize and indeed put the emphasis on
the heterogeneous nature of things (ነገር, nägär) and the need for a dialectical
explanatory approach (hatäta, ሐተታ; tichit, ትችት; hiss, ሂስ) to understand them.37
Does the qiné master’s final word close this dialectic? No. On the contrary, it
“spurs” the student to “greater efforts” to explore the possibility of a better
composition or interpretation.
Qiné education requires a long-term commitment. According to Aläka
Imbakom Kalewold, “A hard-working intelligent student wishing to master all
branches of Ethiopian church education would not take more than thirty years
to do so. Occasionally one may even come across highly gifted individuals who
take only 25 or even 24 years to do the job.”38 The qiné student typically aban-
dons his home to go to a qiné school. He travels from one school to another, in
search of well-known qiné masters, to acquire knowledge of the particular
styles of the various qiné schools, to discover “new lights and fresh angles,” for, in
the words of Aläka Imbakom Kalewold, “the running stream goes farther than the
stagnant pool.”39
The traditional image of the qiné student is that of a poorly fed and poorly
clad young man, usually covering himself with sheepskin called däbälo (ደበሎ),
leaving his family and taking to the road in search of a qiné master. The qiné
student, traditionally called yäqolo tämari (የቆሎ ተማሪ), meaning he who eats
roasted grain, the staple of the poor, goes from house to house asking for food.
Rarely do even the poorest households turn down his entreaty.40 Indeed, there is
an implicit traditional obligation to give food to a yäqolo tämari. What is interest-
ing to note here is the rational kernel of this implicit traditional obligation: the
recognition that the qiné education of the young is valuable and that even poor
Ethiopians consider that they have the moral obligation to do what they can to
help a qiné student, whatever region he may come from. This practice, well
established in the Christian regions, reflects the high social regard given to qiné
knowledge.41 Traditional Ethiopian society’s respect for qiné shows itself also in
the fact that qiné masters transcend their regional identities. Qiné masters from
Shoa or Gojjam could settle and teach in Tigray or Wallo, or qiné masters from
Tigray or Wallo could settle and teach in Shoa or Gondar, and so forth. In all
cases, the people of the area where the qiné masters settle revere them.
The social value given to qiné knowledge in the Christian regions of Ethio-
pia is so high that one feels an implicit consensus that the support and promo-
tion of those who teach and learn qiné is a national responsibility that transcends
regional identities and conflicts.42 The commitment of qiné to the true and the
good (wärq), its relentless debunking of the given, its devotion to questioning
authority, and its implicit emancipatory telos are surely why qiné and its practi-
tioners are held in such high esteem. With this brief discussion of qiné educa-
tion, let me proceed with the meaning and role of zäybé in qiné composition
and interpretation.
2.3. Zäybé and qiné hermeneutics
The use of zäybé (ዘይቤ) is essential in classical qiné composition. The term zäybé,
sometimes also called mängäd (መንገድ, meaning way), has two interrelated mean-
ings.43 It means figure of speech; but it also means symptom, suggesting that
rhetorical tropes function in qiné as symptoms of the unsaid, unrecognized,
hidden, occluded, and repressed. Understood as symptom, zäybé is a signal of
the presence of more fundamental questions, processes, or meanings at another
level. Zäybé is the way (መንገድ, mängäd) that leads to the discovery of the unsaid,
unrecognized, unseen, unheard, hidden, occluded and repressed questions,
meanings, or processes. The types of zäybé that could be part of qiné are numer-
ous. Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam identifies more than a hundred zäybé.44 Here, I
will very briefly present the major ones. As there are no exact English equiva-
lents, the English translations give only the approximate meanings of these
zäybé. Though one could see a certain measure of homeomorphic equivalences
between zäybé and English rhetorical tropes and logical categories, zäybé often
have a different reach; they intersect with each other in diverse ways, and some-
times have meanings that do not have counterparts in English.45
Täläwach zäybé (ተለዋጭ ዘይቤ) alludes to indirect meanings; misät zäybé (ምጸት
ዘይቤ) refers to contraries. Antsar zäybé (አንጻር ዘይቤ) refers to distantiation, and
tänätsatsari zäybé (ተነጻጻሪ ዘይቤ) refers to expressions where each is in opposition
to the other or becomes the mirror of the other. Afrash zäybé (አፍራሽ ዘይቤ) means
contradiction or negation.46 Tässalqo zäybé (ተሳልቆ ዘይቤ) conjoins opposing terms
or expressions and looks for meanings in the crack between the two. It covers
contraries and, also, refers to the category of “non,” as for example in “non-
tradition” or “non-religious.” Säwigna zäybé (ሰውኛ ዘይቤ) denotes the anthropo-
morphic characterization of animals or objects; it also refers to what is specific
to human beings. Mäsiya zäybé (መስያ ዘይቤ) signifies the virtual or hidden dimen-
sion of reality—the unsaid, the unseen, and the unheard. The understanding
of the virtual here is different from the understanding of the virtual that one
finds in the expression “virtual reality.” The virtual that mäsiya zäybé (መስያ ዘይቤ)
refers to is as real as the actual. Throughout this book, I use virtual in the
mäsiya zäybé sense.
Tämssalit zäybé (ተምሳሊት ዘይቤ) compares similarities and dissimilarities, and
entsarawi gälätsa zäybé (እንጻራዊ ገለጻ ዘይቤ) is comparable to metaphor; it also
covers “double entendre” and catachresis. Afla zäybé (አፍላ ዘይቤ) is comparable to
metonymy. Qulqul zäybé (ቁልቁል ዘይቤ) designates something like synecdoche.
Given the role of polysemy and homonyms in qiné composition, afla zäybé and
qulqul zäybé have a wide range of use, mainly to express ideas economically.
Gädlo madän zäybé (ገድሎ ማደን ዘይቤ) expresses an affirmative by negating or deny-
ing its opposite. Gädlo madän zäybé intimates the idea of the negation of the
negation. Wistä wäyra zäybé (ውስጠ ወይራ ዘይቤ) alludes to the idea that there is
an invisible discourse embedded in the visible discourse. It intimates the idea
of symptomatic reading.
Related to wistä wäyra zäybé are säm läbäs zäybé (ሰም ለበስ ዘይቤ), wärqa wärq
zäybé (ወርቃ ወርቅ ዘይቤ), and libsä wärq zäybé (ልብሰ ወርቅ ዘይቤ). They form a class of
their own. Säm läbäs zäybé (ሰም ለበስ ዘይቤ) refers to statements that appear to be
säm in that their meanings appear to be transparent. Consequently,
understanding or interpreting them requires formulating a framework of
interpretation that discloses how the transparency of the säm functions as a
hiding or repressive mechanism. Wärqa wärq zäybé (ወርቃ ወርቅ ዘይቤ) indicates a
qiné that seems composed of wärq only. Wärqa wärq (ወርቃ ወርቅ) gives the impres-
sion that the wärq (the true and the good) is there in the open for everybody to
see. This zäybé points to the necessity of conducting a critique of spontaneous
consciousness, of the practice of accepting the given and the actual as true and
good. The idea behind this zäybé is that what appears to be self-evident may not
after all be self-evident once we release ourselves from its power to enchant,
fascinate, or blind us. Libsä wärq (ልብሰ ወርቅ) is a zäybé that one finds in a qiné
where the composer disguises the säm as wärq, requiring therefore a process of
unmasking or debunking what appears as wärq. Wistä wäyra zäybé, wärqa wärq
zäybé, libsä wärq zäybé, and säm läbäs zäybé play significant roles in the analysis
of beliefs, symbols, social practices, and dreams. Crucially, they point to the
idea of unveiling. In contemporary vocabulary, they have meanings that sug-
gest the ideas of de-mystification, de-reification, de-fetishization, and they inti-
mate the notion of ideology critique.
Zimd zäybé (ዝምድ ዘይቤ) is like analogy and requires unveiling the similarities
and dissimilarities of the compared as well as whether these similarities and
dissimilarities are trivial or essential. Zimd is a derivative of zämäd/ዘመድ, which
means relative or family member. It requires elucidating the origin, strength,
and weakness of similarities and dissimilarities to evaluate the comparison.
Filatsa zäybé (ፍላጻ ዘይቤ, filatsa means arrow) is comparable to an allegory and
requires developing a framework of interpretation to deliver its meanings.
Though Biblical stories are usually the source of allegories in qiné, the conun-
drums of development provide a fertile ground for new filatsa zäybé, the most
famous of which is Mamo Qilo in the story with the same title.47 Mäkäda zäybé
(መከዳ ዘይቤ) refers to qiné lines (sineñ, ስንኝ) that constitute the säm ena wärq
through a reversal of meanings when we move from one line to the other.
Residing in the gap between the lines of the qiné is a repressed or hidden mean-
ing. Working out the wärq then requires eliciting this repressed or hidden
meaning. Säm gäfi zäybé (ሰም ገፊ ዘይቤ), meaning pushing the säm, is a zäybé that
one finds in a qiné where the first line (sineñ) pulls in one direction and the sec-
ond in the opposite direction, with the meaning residing in the tension between
the contradictory säm of the two lines.48
It is important to note that two zäybé, namely, antsar zäybé (አንጻር ዘይቤ) and
wistä wäyra zäybé (ውስጠ ወይራ ዘይቤ), are indispensable elements of all zäybé. As
such, they serve as strategies of reading and as the site for the articulation of
other zäybé in the process of qiné composition and interpretation as well as in
the interpretation of social practices, processes, and events.
The above is a very brief presentation of zäybé. It is not exhaustive but illus-
trative. The zäybé signal the gaps, the absences, the tensions, the contradic-
tions, the repressed questions and meanings, and the hidden dimensions that
articulate the form and the content of säm ena wärq, the qiné and its subject
matter. They point to the presence of invisible or new questions and meanings
that require digging out. Qiné composers use zäybé for creating an economy of
expression—a highly valued characteristic of qiné. Zäybé give the composer and
the interpreter the means for grasping the complexity and richness of the sub-
ject matter of the qiné in the most succinct manner. Kebede G/Medhin, the
qiné scholar, points out that the role of zäybé in qiné composition and interpre-
tation is so important that one could describe it as “limitless” (ወሰን የለህ, wäsän
yäläh).49 Zäybé enable the composer and the interpreter to question, transgress,
explore, circumscribe, overcome, deconstruct, reassemble, and articulate the
multiple, contradictory, opposing, intertwined, repressed, overlapping, hidden,
and evolving questions and meanings of discourses, social practices, and expe-
riences. Zäybé thus offer the composer various means to break through the
conventional boundaries of significations, to create new constellations of
meanings, and to grasp the wärq of the subject matter of the qiné. The zäybé is
indicative of the linguistic subtlety required for the composition and interpre-
tation of qiné.
Composing or interpreting a qiné is as much a rhetorical activity as a herme-
neutical achievement. To interpret correctly a qiné and its säm ena wärq, one must
discern the kind of zäybé relations that the composer articulates explicitly or
implicitly, directly, or indirectly, between, and, often, in the polysemy of the terms
of the qiné to produce the wärq of the qiné. To bring out the powerful and creative
interpretative potential of zäybé, one must conjoin it with two powerful and cre-
ative practices in the arsenal of qiné hermeneutics, to wit, andem and tirgum.
2.4. Andem and tirgum
Abba Paulos Tzadua gives a succinct description of the andem (አንድም) approach.
He writes,
Where a sentence is complicated or its meaning was equivocal or unintelli-

gible, as happens very often, the professor would resort to the famous አንድም
[andem] system, interpreting the equivocal or obscure passage or sentence in
two, three, or even more different ways. These interpretations might be made
by inserting words, by dropping words, by changing a sentence from the negative
to the affirmative or vice versa, by changing the syntax of the sentence.50
Andem means “and one.”51 It precedes each new interpretation of the same
text, instead of saying, second, third, fourth, and so forth. According to Cowley,
The interpretation called the andem interpretation is that in which, after

the text has been interpreted once, a chain of successive comments is
given, as many as 10 or 15, each one being introduced by ‘andem’ (‘and
one’). …This is equivalent to saying that in addition to this meaning,
there is a commentary like this, and presenting the reader with a choice.
But in Amharic, it does not say ‘secondly’ or ‘thirdly’ but goes on saying
‘and one’ [andem], as many as 16 times.52
Note the active and creative role the interpreter plays in andem. What we dis-
cover in the andem tradition is what I have called in an earlier chapter “over-
reading.” What strikes one is the non-dogmatic nature of andem practice. The
interpreter develops “two, three, or even more different” interpretations of the
text. It suggests a practice where the interpreter tests or struggles (gädl) with
different interpretations of the subject matter to provide the best possible intel-
ligibility or meaningfulness to “equivocal or unintelligible…or obscure” texts. The
interpretative process in the andem tradition is radical, for it does not shun
“inserting words, … dropping words, … changing a sentence from the negative to the
affirmative or vice versa, … changing the syntax of the sentence.” The outcome
could be a text that “is transformed beyond recognition,” to use Sumner’s words.53
According to the andem tradition, the interpreter of a text introduces his first
interpretation and each of the subsequent interpretation by saying “andem”
(“and one”).
One could interpret this practice of counting in two ways. One could claim
that repeating andem (“and one”) for each additional interpretation or com-
mentary amounts to saying secondly, thirdly, and so forth, and thus consider
the succeeding commentaries in a linear fashion as following each other and
belonging to the same landscape of meaning. Such a linear understanding of
andem shortchanges its purpose, which is to produce differing novel interpreta-
tions, where each interpretation strikes out in a new direction and opens a new
horizon of meaning, thus excluding counting it linearly with the others. A lin-
ear understanding of andem interpretations represses the qualitative differences
among the various proposed interpretations and makes them appear as ele-
ments within the same interpretative horizon. It thus empties andem of its crit-
ical, speculative, and transformative dimension and reduces it to the banal act
of listing variations of the same interpretation.
The practice of referring to each commentary as andem (“and one”) indi-
cates that each new commentary or interpretation has an autonomous
standing that projects an alternative horizon of meaning. Each interpretation
requires a new count, i.e., “and one” or andem, because it opens a new perspec-
tive. The practice of andem introduces the necessity of considering and weigh-
ing differing and contradictory interpretations before one makes the judgement
as to which interpretation adequately grasps the matter at hand. Moreover, the
practice of andem (“and one”) intimates that there is no final interpretation,
that grasping the matter at hand in its totality is not possible, and that a new
andem is always possible, making every interpretation necessarily incomplete.
As we shall see, the idea of incompleteness is central to qiné hermeneutics.
Andem makes it possible to experiment with divergent and contradictory
interpretations and meanings; it thus offers a critical way of questioning and
thinking. It introduces a kind of reflexive, experimental, subversive, and
nomadic logic that challenges the authoritarian and immobile ontology of “is”
that is at the heart of Gibbonism and ‘development’ theory and practice in
Ethiopia: that “social science” is what Gibbonism says it “is”; that Ethiopian
reality “is” what “social science” says it is; that development “is” what the
“experts” claim it is. Andem breaks through the ontology of “is” and the stabil-
ity and linearity it spawns, subverts the idea of teleology, makes reality and its
interpretation processual, intimates qualitative changes as an alternative to
mere quantitative changes, and brings into play the possibility of going in unex-
pected directions or leapfrogging to new ideas. In addition, the practice of andem
rejects monism and dualism. The andem practice invites the interpreter to treat
what appears to be monist, dualist, or linear as zäybé.
The andem tradition bears within itself several critical ideas. A text on the
andem commentary states,
the disciple is accounted (sic) a genuine one if he breathes from the air his
master breathes, if he rests where he rests, and if he is found to preserve
the teaching as he has received it, without the slightest change, or differ-
ence of opinion. People call him a heretic if he interpreted the passage
according to the andem tradition, and then, with much explanation, mar-
shalled sufficient evidence and brought out what was concealed in the pas-
sage; they would give him a bad name; and rather than praise for his
scholarship, they would denigrate him… .54
This interesting passage juxtaposes two situations. It tells us that the student
who is unquestioningly faithful to the master’s teaching, who “breathes from
the air his master breathes,” is a “genuine” disciple. Conversely, some consider
the interpreter or the student who practices “andem” a “heretic,” give him a
“bad name” and “denigrate” him, even if his interpretation is accompanied
“with much explanation, marshalled sufficient evidence and brought out what
was concealed in the passage.” Whom to choose? The faithful disciple or the
practitioner of andem?
The andem tradition gives a non-equivocal answer to the question, “Whom
to choose?” The text on andem says, “The certification of being a scholar is
research (ምርመራ, mirmära), not learning (መማር, mämar) by itself.”55 The distinc-
tion that the andem tradition makes between “research” (mirmära) and “learn-
ing” (mämar) and the primacy it gives to the former as the criterion for “being
a scholar” gives us the answer. Whereas “learning” (mämar) refers to mastering
a given knowledge as if it were complete, “research” (mirmära) refers to ques-
tioning, searching, and critically examining the subject matter at hand, thus
conceiving knowing as a dynamic and critical process, and the produced knowl-
edge as always incomplete, for another andem is always possible, because there
is always something that is “concealed,” as the text puts it. In other words, the
tradition calls a “scholar” the one who practices andem and whose interpreta-
tion is accompanied “with much explanation, […] sufficient evidence and [who
brings] out what [is] concealed in the passage.” It does not consider a scholar the
faithful disciple who “breathes from the air his master breathes, [who] he rests
where he rests, and [who]… is found to preserve the teaching as he has received
it, without the slightest change, or difference of opinion.” Such a disciple limits
himself to “learning” what the master teaches him.
The andem tradition considers the practice of andem to be an activity that
liberates one from the “shackles of tradition” and enables one to “strike off in
various directions.” Thus, the text says,
While this is so, the reason that certain scholars were highly esteemed
and their fame duly noted, was that they were found to have burst these
shackles of tradition. They give their interpretation, while keeping the
grammatical form of the andem interpretation, or they leave that and
merely keep to the Ge’ez text, or they just follow the meaning; if they do
this, it means that they can strike off in various directions; similarly, when
they interpret independently of the grammatical form of the original, when
they want to separate out esmä (because) and kämä (as), they interpret in
an individual way. Furthermore, some interpret by following the general,
rather than the literal meanings. Alongside this, they interpret by telling sto-
ries, giving examples and adding explanations. They give a reason for the
utterance of each sentence; they quote verses as evidence for this; all in all,
they make careful comparisons, give each idea its proper place, reveal what is
obscure, explain similes, and so offer an explanation. This is what the andem
interpretation is like.56
The italicized terms in the above text indicate the presence in the andem tradi-
tion of a path-breaking, non-dogmatic, original, rational, and critical practice
of interpretation. In the above passage, we see the importance of the claim
that “The certification of being a scholar is research, not learning by itself.”
The passage notes that the scholars “were highly esteemed and their fame duly
noted” because they “burst [the] shackles of tradition” through their research by
providing interpretations backed by “sufficient evidence” and “much explana-
tion.” “They give a reason for the utterance of each sentence,” distinguish between
“esmä (because) and kämä (as),” and thus ground the practice of andem on
rational arguments.
One of the crucial outcomes of the rational argumentation in the practice
of andem is breaking the “shackles of tradition.” In pointing out that the scholars
were esteemed because they “have burst [the] shackles of tradition,” the qiné
intellectual tradition clearly shows that the critical labour of andem has priority
over and is more important than mere “learning.” The practice of andem liber-
ates the knower and knowledge from what the text calls the “shackles of tradi-
tion” affirming the idea that being a “scholar” necessitates going beyond mere
learning and requires opening a new path, a new direction, and a new horizon.
In “strik[ing] off in various directions,” in transgressing “the grammatical form of
the original” and established “literal meanings,” the andem practitioner opens
parallax views, critical alternatives, unforeseen options, novel meanings, and
possibilities of a new or more comprehensive understanding. It is precisely the
presence of such qualitative differences between the various interpretations
that the practice of prefacing each interpretation with andem (“and one”)
grasps. The practice of andem and of “strik[ing] off in various directions” pro-
mote conceptual innovations. The “strik[ing] off in various directions” is an
essential element of zäräfa in the quest to formulate a more comprehensive
säm ena wärq.
The andem tradition has complex exegetical methods that Cowley presents
quite exhaustively.57 He draws a parallel between the Ethiopian interpretative
practice of andem and the Jewish interpretative practice of middot and notes
that the “Jewish” and “Ethiopian rules” of interpretation are “generalizations
arising from actual engagement in exegetical debate, rather than expressions
of a philosophical interpretative system.”58 Cowley’s comment that the prac-
tice of andem is not an “expression of a philosophical system” is right. Never-
theless, it does not follow that such a philosophical system cannot be the
“unsaid” of the practice of andem. However, Cowley’s comment is helpful if
one reflexively operates an andem on it. It leads one to an observation that
brings out the specificity of säm ena wärq hermeneutics regarding the issue of
“method.”
The Western intellectual tradition puts a lot of emphasis on method, whose
iconic text is Descartes’s Discourse on Method.59 The qiné tradition does not have
a comparable text. In the social sciences practiced in Ethiopian Studies, method
determines the “scientificity” or the truth of “findings.” Method in the social
sciences is a standardized value-free, neutral, and universal tool for breaking
down human behaviour and social practices into discrete and monosemous
data. The goal is to subject these data to mathematical and statistical manipula-
tion for generating empirical generalizations that are assumed to have universal
validity. The säm ena wärq approach eschews this understanding of method.
Unlike the primacy of method in the social sciences, qiné hermeneutics puts the
emphasis on the idea that to understand a subject matter we need to use an
approach that is appropriate to the subject matter. This approach, which gives
primacy to the specificity of the subject matter over the universality of an
abstract method external to the subject matter, is the säm ena wärq. Säm ena wärq
aims to grasp the specificity of the subject matter it studies.
For qiné hermeneutics, “method” is something that unfolds in the very
practice of qiné’s treatment of its subject matter and not something that one
could detach and use to manipulate a subject matter externally. The qiné stu-
dent learns how to compose and interpret qiné and how to create and inter-
pret säm ena wärq through the practice of composition and interpretation of
qiné during which he learns how to handle zäräfa zäybé, hibrä qal, andem, and
tirgum in ways that disclose the specificity and individuality of the subject
matter he deals with. The qiné student does not learn a “method” in advance.
The “method,” which one should rather call the “ability,” emerges retroac-
tively from the practice of qiné composition and interpretation. Thus, method
in qiné hermeneutics is not an objective and neutral analytical mechanics one
imposes externally on the subject matter. To understand a subject matter is to
understand it in terms of its wärq—the truth and the good that the säm ena
wärq enucleates from its subject matter—and not in terms of a putatively
objective, value-free, and universal method that subsumes the meaning of the
subject matter to the horizon of the method. For qiné hermeneutics, wärq is
immanent to the subject matter and the “method” to produce it cannot be
externally imposed on the subject matter if we are to comprehend the subject
matter in its specificity and grasp its wärq. Indeed, to grasp the specificity of a
subject matter, “interpretations might be made by inserting words, by dropping
words, by changing a sentence from the negative to the affirmative or vice versa, by
changing the syntax of the sentence.”60
The qiné quest for an approach that grasps the specificity of its subject mat-
ter situates the interpreter and the interpreted in the world. That is, it does not
separate the understanding of the world from the understanding of the self
engaged in understanding the world. Consequently, it intimates that interpre-
tation is an activity that engages the moral responsibility of the interpreter for
the meanings and consequences of his/her interpretations. From the perspec-
tive of qiné hermeneutics, the social science understanding of method as a “sci-
entific” procedure that is external to the subject matter and is thus assumed to
be value-free and universally applicable is the equivalent of the practice of the
student who “breathes from the air his master breathes, … rests where he
[his master] rests, and … preserve[s] the teaching as he has received it, without
the slightest change, or difference of opinion.”61 That is, the practice of such
a method inhibits one from bursting through the “shackles of tradition”, be
it scientific or non-scientific, and “striking off in various directions.” It stifles
creativity. Moreover, from the qiné perspective, “method,” as understood in the
social sciences, absolves the knower from his/her responsibility for the implica-
tions of what he/she produces as knowledge in the name of “objectivity” or
“value neutrality.”
Finally, as Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam points out, we need to conjoin the
discussion of andem with that of tirgum (ትርጉም), which one may consider, in
some respects, as the equivalent of “translation.” However, tirgum has a wider
range of meaning than the English term “translation.”62 The tradition of the
andem commentary is deeply associated with the tirgum or translation of reli-
gious and theological texts from Ge’ez to Amharic. Tirgum is, in important ways,
a process of interpretation and composition and is intimately associated with
the practice of andem. Tirgum means translation of obscure, difficult, or foreign
texts, and clarification of “equivocal or unintelligible…or obscure” meanings.
The andem tradition identifies two kinds of tirgum or translation: “direct transla-
tion of what is read,” and the “interpretation of the meaning,” that is, “translation
which preserves the meaning only, without needing the text or keeping to its
grammatical form.”63 Recall here once again the andem process: interpretation
… by inserting words, by dropping words, by changing a sentence from the negative to
the affirmative or vice versa, by changing the syntax of the sentence.” The practice
of “translation which preserves the meaning only, without needing the text or
keeping to its grammatical form” requires conceptual innovations and concep-
tual engineering that make possible the broadening of the limits of the trans-
lated. It makes possible to “burst [through the] shackles of tradition” or established
knowledge. The practice of tirgum thus has andem dimensions.
The practice of tirgum suggests the critical hermeneutical idea of interpre-
tation as replacing one text by another where the latter is supposed to bring to
light the meaning or insight of the former, or as translating one idea into
another where the latter is supposed to make the former accessible.64 How-
ever, it is crucial to understand that tirgum is, unlike the Western
understanding of translation, neither a metaphoric substitute nor a mere
reflection of the original, for the result of tirgum could function as a supple-
ment that “strikes out,” in andem fashion, in a new direction. It could thus
situate us in a new horizon of understanding that discloses a new understand-
ing—a “secret” (ምስጢር, misteer), as Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam calls it—that
goes beyond the original.65 The andem tradition of “translation,” which works
“independently of the grammatical form of the original” or “interpret[s] by follow-
ing the general, rather than the literal meanings,” suggests that the outcome of
tirgum could break through the “shackles of tradition,” lead to the creation of
new concepts, and generate a completely new meaning. Where such is the
case, the new text created through tirgum has the same status as the original
and expands it beyond its literal translation.
Zäybé, andem, tirgum, and the surplus meanings that their practices produce
are of crucial importance for enucleating and developing the unarticulated, the
hidden, the unquestioned, the unexamined, and the unanswered dimensions of
Ethiopia’s intellectual traditions and their potentials and possibilities. Equally,
they are also important for interpreting the Ethiopian present, historical pro-
cesses and events, traditions, and social practices in ways that disclose their
unarticulated, hidden, unquestioned, unexamined, and repressed questions,
ideas, ideals, and possibilities. Moreover, the fidelity to and transgression of tra-
dition in the practices of zäybé, andem, and tirgum overcome the duality between
fidelity and transgression, between tradition and anti-tradition, and conse-
quently, between tradition and modernity. What zäybé, andem, and tirgum
show is that transgressions of Ethiopian traditions could arise from within fidel-
ity to Ethiopian traditions and that one could go beyond Ethiopian traditions
without deleting them. The zäybé, andem, and tirgum traditions offer a critique
of tradition internal to tradition, thus belying the Gibbonist idea, which informs
‘development’ theory, that Ethiopian traditions are stuck in an inertia of rest.
Our bond to Ethiopian history and traditions does not thus exclude submitting
them to zäybé, andem and tirgum and thus to a withering critique or hiss that
liberates them from the “shackles” of the hegemonic coordinates of interpreta-
tion and evaluation. Zäybé, andem and tirgum practices provide the ground for
rejecting the tradition-modernization dualism and offer an approach to Ethio-
pian traditions, history, and social practices that enable us to “burst the shack-
les” of Ethiopian traditions and history from within Ethiopian history and
traditions without erasing them in the name of “modernization.” In addition,
zäybé, andem and tirgum are indispensable for de-Westernizing Western knowl-
edge, for they could critically and creatively enable us to “burst” through the
“shackles” of Western knowledge and tradition, to “overread” or to produc-
tively “misread” them and “strike” out in new directions.
2.5. Andem and the “four-eyed” scholar
Speaking of an andem practicing scholar, the text states,
As we have explained above, this man, although he was blind, was known
as “four-eyed” because of the depth of his knowledge and the extent of
his researches. The certification of being a scholar is research, not learn-
ing by itself. To do research it is necessary to read, and because of this he
felt himself constrained to read so many books.66
Traditionally, calling a scholar “four-eyed” means that he knows The Old Testa-
ment, The New Testament, The Books of the Scholars (Fetha Nägäst Qerellas,
Yoahnnes Afä Wärq, Haymanotä Abäw, Mäsheftä Qeddaséeyat), and The Book of
Monks. “[T]hose who knew all four departments used to be called ‘four-eyed’
out of sheer amazement.”67 However, we could subject the above text to an
andem and tirgum considering the intriguing passage: “this man, although he
was blind, was known as “four-eyed” because of the depth of his knowledge
and the extent of his researches. […] To do research it is necessary to read, and
because of this he felt himself constrained to read so many books.” The con-
tradiction or, more precisely, the afrash zäybé in the claim that a “blind man”
reads “many books” gives blindness a positive power; it makes blindness a säm
ena wärq condition and a constructive force that drives andem in the sense that
it is what we do not know (blindness) and not what we know (the two-eyed
vision) that is the engine of questions, interpretations, and knowledge-production.
The positivization of blindness and its association with being “four-eyed” allow
us to consider the expression “four-eyed” as a zäybé that points to the impor-
tance of critique if one is to escape the “shackles” of what one could call “two-
eyed” knowledge, i.e., hegemonic knowledge, and to avoid the “epistemic
fallacy” that reduces reality to observables or säm.
According to the andem tradition, “the teachers of former times [those who
practice andem] were all ‘four-eyed’; the reason for this is that the scholars
“never felt that they had learned enough.”68 The association of “four-eyed” with
blindness, scholarship, and the incompleteness of knowledge (“…the scholars
never felt that they had learned enough….”) leads to the idea that understanding,
even if it is comprehensive, is always incomplete. It requires more than “two
eyes” to see this incompleteness. That is, being “four-eyed” means to have a
comprehensive understanding of a subject matter (based on research (mirmära,
ምርመራ) that recognizes simultaneously that one’s comprehensive understand-
ing is incomplete and has thus “blindness” as its inescapable dimension. From
this perspective, reality (ewen, እውን) is not fully given and is in some sense
always incomplete, and knowledge of reality is always incomplete, and further
research (ምርመራ, mirmära) is always indispensable. The tradition’s understand-
ing of the “four-eyed” scholar also intimates that one cannot grasp wärq and
knowledge (ewqät) by analyzing reality (ewen) only in terms of procedures that
reduce experience to the observable (säm), for the observable (the säm) is a
source of blindness. The consideration of the “four-eyed” scholar as a “blind”
researcher who reads “many books suggests that being “blind” is the default
position for a person immersed in the production of knowledge, insofar as the
questions that arise from what we do not know or arise from our blindness are
the ones that drive mirmära or research. The positivization of blindness through
the zäybé of being “four-eyed” grounds the belief that “the scholars never felt
that they had learned enough.” This implies the existence in the things we
study of distinctive, contradictory, divergent, and unexpected questions and
meanings, requiring hiss, tirgum, andem, hatäta, tintina, tichit, and mirmära to
understand more comprehensively what they are, how they came to be what
they are, how they interact, and how they change or could change. Necessarily,
such a quest brings into the picture the possibility of going beyond or resolving
differences and contradictions by developing a wider vision that encompasses
and articulates these differences and contradictions in new ways.
Zäybé, tirgum, andem, and the positivization of “blindness” point to the
necessity of recognizing the complexity, many-sidedness, and opacity of social
practices. They bring out the significance of examining various and contradic-
tory perspectives, and of developing a more comprehensive framework of
understanding capable of enucleating the hidden, the invisible and the inaudi-
ble in the actual, while at the same time acknowledging that the wärq thus
attained is always incomplete. Qiné hermeneutics affirms the necessity of
developing unorthodox directions and multiple perspectives to map out more
adequately the various dimensions—the different and the contradictory, the
familiar and the unfamiliar, the new and the old, the visible and invisible, the
given and the repressed—of the issue at hand. It reminds us that the hidden,
the contradictory, the different, the unsaid, the repressed, the marginalized, the
abandoned, the invisible and the inaudible could be the site of new and import-
ant questions and ideas, of the “hidden good,” in the words of a seventeenth
century Ethiopian text.69 Discovering and seeing the “hidden good” requires
being “four-eyed” and marshalling zäybé, andem and tirgum. When we take into
account the roles that zäybé, tirgum, andem, and the positivization of “blind-
ness” play in qiné hermeneutics, we can see how qiné hermeneutics offers ways
of interpreting social practices, understood capaciously, in ways that enable us
to “burst” through the “shackles” of hegemonic knowledge and “strike out” in
new directions.
The practice of zäybé, andem and tirgum and the notion of the “four-eyed”
scholar have given birth to a sophisticated understanding of “understanding” in
qiné hermeneutics. Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam identifies four kinds of “under-
standing” (አገባብ, agäbab) : first, ጠቅላላ አገባብ (täqlala agäbab) refers to comprehensive
or synthetic understanding; second, ዓቢይ አገባብ (abiy agäbab) refers to contradictory
or subversive or reflexive understanding; third, ደቂቅ አገባብ (däqiq agäbab) refers to
analytical or detailed or hair-splitting or inferential understanding; and fourth, ንዑስ
አገባብ (n’oos agäbab) refers to reductive or subtractive understanding.70
2.6. The intellectual roots of Amharic qiné
The origin of Amharic qiné is difficult to date. Written secular poetry or qiné in
Old Amharic appears to have begun during the reign of Emperor Amdä Seyon
I (1314–1344).71 By the fifteenth century, the writing of qiné in Old Amharic
becomes quite sophisticated, in that its composition shows more emphasis on
its “structural aspect.”72 The writing of qiné in Ge’ez, however, predates the
writing of qiné in Old Amharic and is associated with the composition of
religious hymns and verses. In the Ge’ez tradition, one could trace the sys-
tematic practice of qiné composition to at least the beginning of the sixth cen-
tury.73 Yared (505-571 AD), the Ethiopian saint who developed a system of nine
notations and three melodies for the sacred chants (ዜማ, zema) of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church, is credited also for systemizing the rules of qiné composi-
tion, which suggests that qiné was already being practiced. The fifteenth cen-
tury, considered by many as the “golden age” of Ethiopian Medieval literature,
saw a great flourishing of both Ge’ez and Amharic qiné.74
The Ge’ez qiné tradition considers its subject matters from theological and reli-
gious perspectives. Amharic qiné gradually discards the theological and religious
dimensions that characterize the Ge’ez qiné tradition and concentrates on earthly
matters: personal, political, and social. Already, by the seventeenth century Amharic
qiné has demarcated itself from religious issues and has shifted its focus from salva-
tion in the afterlife to the questions of suffering in the here and now.75 Amharic qiné
also harbors critical ideas on language, knowledge, history, truth, and reality from
a this-worldly perspective. However, the qiné tradition did not explicitly develop its
treatment of these issues into a theoretical or philosophical discourse.
To elicit and develop eventually the secular and theoretical ideas that implicitly
inform the practice of Amharic qiné, it is necessary to unpack its history and prac-
tice. To embark on this task, one needs to step back and briefly examine the
theological debates and interpretative practices that marked the intellectual
life of Ethiopian Christianity out of which Amharic qiné and its practices of
questioning, argumentation, hiss, hatäta, tintina, tichit, zäybé, andem, tirgum, zäräfa,
and interpretation emerge.76
From at least the rise of the order of St Ewostatewos (1273-1352) to the Council
of Boru-Meda (1878), major heretic movements and theological debates marked
Ethiopian Christianity. For example, the Stephanites, a fifteenth century religious
movement known as the Däqiqä Estifanos, refused to acknowledge the absolutism
of the power of the Emperor, opposed the state’s intervention in the internal
affairs of the Church, and rejected what they called the cults of Mary and of the
Cross.77 The Michaelites, another fifteenth century religious movement, cultivated
skepticism. They “held that the human mind could not get to know God” and
developed views that manifest Gnostic motifs.78 Out of the various and multiple
theological cum philosophical reflections of Medieval Ethiopia emerged eventu-
ally various doctrinal schools among whom took place intense theological debates
on the nature of Christ. Adepts of the Unction (Qibat ቅባት), the Grace (Tsägga ጸጋ),
Two Births (Hulät Lidät, ሁለት ልደት), and Three Births (Sost Lidät ሶስት ልደት) discussed
the relationship between the divine and the human in Christ with a great deal of
logical sophistication, zäybé, andem, hiss and tirgum.79 Does Christ have two natures:
divine and human? Alternatively, does he have only one nature? What are the rela-
tions between the divine and the human in Christ? Is he divine from eternity or
thorough grace? How many times is he born? Important Christological debates
took place under the reigns of Gelawdewos (1540-1559), ZäDengel (1603-1604),
and Fasil (1632-1167). At the Council of Boru-Meda (1878), the Täwahedo (mean-
ing “unity”) position was triumphant.80 According to the Very Rev. Liqä Siltanat
Habtä Mariam Werqneh, Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral of Addis Ababa, the
Täwahedo doctrine of “the Ethiopian Church maintains that Christ is perfect God
and perfect man…the divinity and the humanity continuing in Him without
mixture or separation, confusion or change.”81
I will not consider the above debates from a theological perspective, for
which I am not equipped.82 Rather, I will focus on the secular impact of some
of the ideas that emerged from these debates. Notable in this respect is the
formulation of the concept of “unity” as “without mixture or separation,” the
development of various kinds of argumentation, and the differentiation
between the four types of understanding, as we saw earlier. The secular per-
spective of Amharic qiné jettisons the religious conception of “unity” as a
“mystery” and adopts a secular conception of unity that recognizes it as a unity
of a thing or a state of affairs whose constituent elements are “without mixture
or separation,” making “unity” an internally tensioned appearance and reality:
an idea central to säm ena wärq wherein the “ena” is, as we shall see, the marker
of the notion of “without mixture or separation” and the tensions it generates.83
That is, any unity, be it the “unity” of an idea, a norm, an action, a social
practice, a social institution, and so forth, is fraught with constitutive tensions
arising from the “without mixture or separation” relations of its parts. It is a unity
of the same (“without separation”) and the different (“without mixture”).
The qiné conception of unity as “without mixture or separation,” of “unity” as
“the unity of the same and the different,” shorn of the Täwahedo religious idea of
“mystery” acquires a new meaning in secular Amharic qiné. It signifies an inter-
nally complex, contradictory, and internally tensioned, dynamic entity—what-
ever the entity is. This means that every entity is internally split, does not coincide
with itself, and its parts form a unity through the tensions and contradictions that
mediate them. This complex and dynamic understanding of unity percolates
into the secular culture of Ethiopia. One finds it in the Amharic concept of nägär
(ነገር), which, as we shall see, expresses the idea that a “thing” (understood capa-
ciously to cover ideas, norms, actions, social practices, discourses, relations, insti-
tutions, events, and so forth) is a “unity” in the qiné sense of “without mixture or
separation”: internally heterogeneous, complex, contradictory, and tensioned.84
One also finds this conception of “unity” in the complex concept of miknyat
(ምክንያት) which combines two ideas: cause (necessity) and reason (freedom). It is
this understanding of “unity” that the “ena” (and) of säm ena wärq encapsulates.
The secular conception of unity that gestates in Amharic qiné rejects dualism,
monism, and the understanding of unity as fusion, harmony, stability, and homo-
geneity. Henceforth, I use the word unity in the qiné sense of “unity” as an inter-
nally complex, contradictory, and internally tensioned, dynamic entity.
Tracing the secular ideas of Amharic qiné to its roots in Täwahedo Christianity
must also consider the culture of argumentation that flourished in the theological
debates that impassioned Ethiopian Christianity from the thirteenth to the nine-
teenth century (the last Council being that of Boru-Meda, 1878). The debates
exhibited sophisticated forms of reasoning on and subtle interpretations of the
meanings, differences, contradictions, interconnections, and implications of ባሕርይ
(bahriy, nature, substance, personality), አካል (akal, person or body), ሕላዊ (hilawi,
essence, mental, mind), ሥጋ (siga, flesh, associated with desire and transgression
and with the human condition), ነፍስ (näfs, soul), ውልደት (wildät, birth), ጸጋ (tsäga,
grace), እውነት (ewnät, truth), እውቀት (ewqät, knowledge), and ዕውን (ewen, reality).85
Note that these theological debates are often part of gädl (ገድል or hagiographic
writings on the saints, martyrs, and renowned monks of the Täwahedo Church).
The theological and religious debates and practices of critical interpreta-
tions from at least the thirteenth century onwards gave a boost to the art of
questioning, analysis, synthesis, critique, and opened an intellectual space for
the emergence and development of critical and dialectical forms of argumen-
tation and interpretation in Amharic. The practices of questioning, critique,
reflexivity, hair-splitting subtlety, and “rubbing” the subject matter until “blood
spurts out of it” and “arrive[s] at the life [wärq] it conceals” have permeated
Ethiopia’s secular culture and have given rise to different terms describing dif-
ferent modes of secular argumentation.86 Thus emerged various types of argu-
mentation such as qirqir (ክርክር, debate), chikchik (ጭቅጭቅ, abusive argumentation),
muget (ሙግት, litigation); and among the learned, hiss (ሂስ, critique/dialectics),
tichit (ትችት, extended interpretations or “commentaire de texte”), hatäta (ሐተታ,
critical interpretations), and tintina (ትንትና, analytical interpretation, exposition,
demonstration).87 The various types of argumentations led, as we saw earlier,
to the formulation of different types of understanding: ጠቅላላ አገባብ (täqlala
agäbab), ዓቢይ አገባብ (abiy agäbab), ደቂቅ አገባብ (däqiq agäbab), and ንዑስ አገባብ (n’oos
agäbab).88 However, each type of understanding is an incomplete understand-
ing, and thus open to further argumentation.
This tradition of subtle reasoning shows itself in the Ethiopian love of argu-
mentation and litigation that many observers consider a deeply ingrained char-
acteristic of Ethiopian culture, “the national sport of Abyssinia,” as Donald D.
Levine puts it correctly. Unfortunately, due to his disregard of the historical and
intellectual roots of argumentation in Ethiopia, he explains it by resorting to a
psychological reductionism—“oral aggression”—that assumes that the West-
ern individual’s psychological ontogenesis is universal.89 One could see the dan-
gers of dehistoricizing and psychologizing and the importance of considering
the historical and intellectual roots of argumentation in Ethiopia when one
compares the fascinating historically informed interpretation Amartya Sen
gives of the “Argumentative Indian” to Levine’s ahistorical, psychologizing,
and negative interpretation of the Argumentative Ethiopian.90
The different modes of secular argumentation that historically emerge from
the complex theological and religious disputes and practices of critical inter-
pretations of the Täwahedo tradition indicate the presence of crucial ontologi-
cal and epistemological assumptions. Though not elaborated in discursive
texts, these ideas are encapsulated in the practice of Amharic qiné and the com-
positions and interpretations of säm ena wärq. They lead, among others, to a
non-dualistic conception of säm ena wärq, of appearance and reality, to a dis-
tinction and interaction between wärq and ewqät (knowledge). I discuss these in
the following chapter.
Notes
1 Confucius, The Analects of Confucius, trans. Simon Leys (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997)
# 2. 11.
2 Claude Sumner, Classical Ethiopian Philosophy (Los Angeles: Adey Publishing Company,
1994), p. 186.
3 Täwahedo is the monophysite (some characterize it as miaphysite) branch of Christian-
ity practiced in Ethiopia. Ge’ez is the language of church writings and services. Däbtäras
are church affiliated lay intellectuals active in theological and secular debates, in writing
chronicles, composing, and interpreting qiné, and treatises on history and other secular
matters. They also work as teachers in traditional schools.
4 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት (Addis Ababa: Berhan ena
Selam Printing Press, 1962), pp. 176-183.
5 Alaka Imbakom Kalewold, Traditional Ethiopian Church Education, trans. Menghestu
Lemma (New York: Teachers College Press, 1970), pp. 26-7. I have retained his English
transcriptions of the terms. Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ
ትምህርት, op. cit., note 4, gives a more detailed and exhaustive discussion of the various
types and sub-types of qiné.
6 Donald D. Levine, Wax and Gold (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), p. 5.
7 Ngusse Nagaw Dagaga, የቅኔ አፈታት ዜዳዎች ና የምርጥ ቅኔዎች ስብስብ, Second edition (Addis
Ababa: Mega, 1993), p. 23 #49; p. 149 # 49.
8 የአማርኛ መዝገበ ቃላት (Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University, 1993), p. 402.
9 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 4, p. 208.
10 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 4, pp. 183-
205. I discuss zäybé in 2.3 below.
11 In this and the following chapter, I lean heavily on the following books for unpacking
and interpreting the qiné tradition. Alemayhu Mogess, ኢትዮጵያዊ ቅኔ (Asmara: Graphic
Printing Press, 1959); Alemayhu Mogess, ሰም ና ወርቅ, 2 vols. (Asmara, Graphic Printing
Press, 1953); Balambaras Mahteme Selassie, አማርኛ ቅኔ (Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing
Press, 1955 E.C.); Kebede G/Medhin, ሳይንሳዊ የቅኔ አፈታት ስልት (Addis Ababa: Birana
Matëmia Bet, 1992); Alemayhu Mogess, መልክዐ ኢትዮጵያ (Asmara: Graphic Printing Press,
undated); Alaka Imbakom Kalewold, ቅኔ ትምህርት ና ስለ ጥቅሙ, Proceedings of the Third
International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa, 1966); Melake Berhan
Admasu Jembere, ዝክረ ሊቃዊት (Addis Ababa: Tinsae Zegubae Printing Press, 1970); Liqä
Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት (Addis Ababa, Berhan ena
Selam Printing Press, 1963); Admasu Jembere, መጽሐፈ ቅኔ (Addis Ababa, Berhan ena
Selam Printing Press, 1963); Menghestu Lemma, መጽሐፈ ትዝታ (Addis Ababa, Berhan ena
Selam Printing Press, 1959); Alaka Imbakom Kalewold, Traditional Ethiopian Church Edu-
cation, trans. Menghestu Lemma (New York: Teachers College Press, 1970); Sergew
Hable Selassie, የአማርኛ የቤተ ክርስቲያን መዝገበ ቃላት ፥ ረቂቅ / Draft, 13 volumes (Addis Ababa,
1977 - 1990); Yitbarek Gidäy, የቅኔ ቤት ባህል ና የሕይወቴ ገጠመኝ (Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing
Press, undated); Ngusse Nagaw Dagaga, የቅኔ አፈታት ዜዳዎች ና የምርጥ ቅኔዎች ስብስብ, Second
edition (Addis Ababa: Mega, 1993); Birhanu Gebeyhu, የአማርኛ ስነ ግጥም (Addis Ababa:
Alfa Printing, 2003); Kebede Michael, የቅኔ ውበት (Addis Ababa, Mega Publishing, 1994);
Mengestu Lemma, የአማርኛ ግጥም ዓይነቱ ሥረቱ ሥርዓቱ, Journal of Ethiopian Studies I, 2 (1963),
pp. 133-51. Kidane Weld Kifle, መጽሐፈ ሰዋስው ወገስ ወመዝገበ ቃላት ሐዲስ (Addis Ababa: Artistic
Printing Press, 1978 E.C.). For a bibliographical essay on Amharic poetry, consult Getie
Gelaye, “Ethiopian Contributions to the Study of Amharic Oral Poetry,” in Stefan
Bruene and Heinrich Scholler, eds. Auf dem Weg zum modernen Aethiopien, Festschrift fuer
Bairu Tafla (Muenster: Lit Verlag, 2005), pp. 95-109. Aba Dawit, የቅኔ ምስጢር, (Entoto:
circa 1940). A handwritten monograph on the composition and interpretation of qiné.
Moreover, I have drawn from my own observations and experience as a person who
grew up in an extended family of qiné scholars.
12 I discuss these concepts below and the following chapter.
13 I say “he,” because, to my knowledge, composers of classical qiné are men. This is due
to the exclusion of women from qiné schools. However, Menghestu Lemma writes, “in
Gondar there have been poetesses [qiné composers] whose works are on record, they
dealt with love—as might be expected (sic) perhaps—and with other themes. But
women, as part of the general inequality between the sexes, were not allowed to take
full part….” Menghestu Lemma, “Appendix: Ethiopian classical poetry” in Alaka Imba-
kom Kalewold, Traditional Ethiopian Church Education, trans. Menghestu Lemma (New
York: Teachers College Press, 1970), p. 32.
14 Hiwot Teferra gives a wonderful description of the difficulties and despairs qiné stu-
dents experience during qisäla in her novel ኅሰሳ. Hiwot Teferra, ኅሰሳ (Addis Ababa:
Eclipse Printing Press, 2009).
15 Quoted in Claude Sumner, Classical Ethiopian Philosophy (Los Angeles: Adey Publishing
Company, 1994), p. 224. Italics added.
16 Kebede G/Medhin, ሳይንሳዊ የቅኔ አፈታት ስልት (Addis Ababa: Birana Matëmia Bet, 1992),
pp. 16-18. See also Birhanu Gebeyhu, የአማርኛ ስነ ግጥም (Addis Ababa: Alfa Printing, 2003).
17 Menghestu Lemma, “Appendix: Ethiopian classical poetry,” op. cit., note 13, p. 33.
18 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 4, pp. 173,
299.
19 Alaka Imbakom Kalewold, ቅኔ ትምህርት ና ስለ ጥቅሙ, Proceedings of the Third Interna-
tional Conference of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa, 1966), p. 136.
20 Kebede G/Medhin, ሳይንሳዊ የቅኔ አፈታት ስልት, op. cit., note 11, p. 7.
21 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 11,
pp. 168-171, 219.
22 I discuss these strategies of interpretation in this and the following chapters.
23 With regards to qiné, the expression “traditional Ethiopia” refers to the Christian
regions of central and northern Ethiopia.
24 Traditionally, the child is introduced to the Ge’ez/Amharic alphabet, (ፊደል, fidäl), at the
age of four years, four months, and four days.
25 Alaka Imbakom Kalewold, Traditional Ethiopian Church Education, op. cit., note 11; Liqä
Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 11; Cherenet
Abebe, መሰርአዊ የመጽሐፍ ቅዱስ አጠናን ዘዴ, (Addis Ababa: Foundational Bible Study, 2011); E.
Sylvia Pankhurst, Ethiopia; A Cultural History (London: Lalibela House, 1959); Girma
Amare, “Aims and Purposes of Church Education in Ethiopia,” Ethiopian Journal of
Education, 1 (1967), pp. 1-11. For a list of canonical books included in the curriculum,
see the Ethiopian Orthodox website. http://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/english/
canonical/books.html. Accessed 27/02/2013.
26 Menghestu Lemma, “Appendix: Ethiopian classical poetry,” in Alaka Imbakom Kale-
wold, Traditional Ethiopian Church Education, op. cit., note 13, p. 34.
27 Alaka Imbakom Kalewold, Traditional Ethiopian Church Education, op. cit., note 11; Liqä
Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 11. These two
books enumerate the various subjects that traditional Ethiopian education covers. An
examination of the curriculum indicates that the Ethiopian intellectual tradition covers
questions and matters that pertain to religious, human, social and existential affairs, as
well as to natural phenomena.
28 See Chapter 7.2 below.
29 Getatchew Haile, ደቂቀ እስጢፋኖስ በኅግ አምላክ, trans. from Ge’ez by Dr. Getatchew Haile
(Collegeville, MN. 2004), pp. 291-314.
30 See Chapter 7.4 below.
31 On zäybé, zäräfa, andem, and tirgum, see sections below and the next chapter.
32 I discuss these in this and the following chapters.
33 Alaka Imbakom Kalewold, Traditional Ethiopian Church Education, op. cit., note 11, p. 28.
Emphasis added.
34 Bahru Zewde, Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the early Twen-
tieth Century (Oxford: James Curry, 2002), pp. 21-22.
35 http://www.debteraw.com/?cat=9.
36 Menghestu Lemma, “Appendix: Ethiopian Classical Poetry, op. cit., note 13, pp. 34-5.
Emphasis added.
37 See Chapter 4.2 for discussion of nägär.
38 Alaka Imbakom Kalewold, Traditional Ethiopian Church Education, op. cit., note 11, p. 2.
39 Ibid., p. 28. Emphasis added.
40 For a brief description of the life of a qiné student, see Yitbarek Gidey, የቅኔ ቤት ባህል ና
የሕይወቴ ገጠመኝ op. cit., note 11; Aba Kidane Mariam Getahun, ጥንታዊ የቆሎ ተማሪ (Addis
Ababa: 1954, E.C.); Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op.
cit., note 11, pp. 288-297. A recent novel by a young and gifted Ethiopian writer nar-
rates dramatically the travails of the life of qiné students. Hiwot Teferra, ኅሠሣ (Addis
Ababa: Eclipse Printing Press, 2009).
41 Menghestu Lemma, “Appendix: Ethiopian Classical Poetry,” op. cit., note 13, pp.
33-38; Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 11,
pp. 275-280.
42 Ibid.
43 On zäybé as mängäd (መንገድ), see Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ
ትምህርት, op. cit., note 11, pp. 183ff. Sergew Hable Selassie, የአማርኛ የቤተ ክርስቲያን መዝገበ ቃላት
፥ ረቂቅ / Amharic Church Dictionary vol. 3, op. cit., note 11, pp. 138-141.
44 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 4, pp. 183-205.
45 For a brief and selective modern discussion of zäybé, see Ngusse Nagaw Dagaga, የቅኔ
አፈታት ዜዳዎች ና የምርጥ ቅኔዎች ስብስብ, Yeqiné Afatat Zedawochina Yemert qinéwotch Senseb, op.
cit., note 11, pp. 4-6; Birhanu Gebeyhu, የአማርኛ ስነ ግጥም, Yä Amariña Sinä gitim, op.cit.,
note 11, pp. 88-151; Alemayhu Mogess, መልክዐ ኢትዮጵያ, Mälkea Ethiopia, op. cit., note 11,
pp. 7-35.
46 አፍራሽ is derived from the verb ማፍረስ, which means to destroy.
47 “A qiné hermeneutical reading of Mamo Qilo.” Forthcoming.
48 Alemayhu Mogess, መልክዐ ኢትዮጵያ, Mälkea Ethiopia, op. cit., note 11, pp. 7-35.
49 Kebede G/Medhin, ሳይንሳዊ የቅኔ አፈታት ስልት, op. cit., note 11, p. 6; Berhanu Gebeyhu also
draws our attention to the same point, የአማርኛ ስነ ግጥም, op. cit., note 11, pp. 88-151.
50 Abba Paulos Tzadua, “Foreword,” The Fetha Nägäst: The Law of the Kings, Trans. Abba
Paulos Tzadua, ed. Peter L. Strauss (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University, 1968),
Abba Paulos Tzadua, p. xx. Emphasis added.
51 As we shall see in Chapter 4, the idea of “equivocal or unintelligible…or obscure” text
is extended to social practices or qiné-analogues or nägär, which are also “equivocal or
unintelligible…or obscure.”
52 Roger W. Cowley, “Old Testament Introduction in the Andemta Commentary Tradi-
tion,” Journal of Ethiopian Studies 12, 1 (1974), pp. 169-170.
53 Claude Sumner, Classical Ethiopian Philosophy (Los Angeles: Adey Publishing Company,
1994), p. 51. Emphasis added.
54 Roger W. Cowley, “Old Testament Introduction in the Andemta Commentary Tradition,”
op. cit., note 52, p. 170. Emphasis added.
55 Ibid., p. 165.
57 R.W. Cowley, The Traditional Interpretation of the Apocalypse of St John in the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 46-53; Roger W.
Cowley, Ethiopian Biblical Interpretation: A Study in Exegetical Tradition and Hermeneutics
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). As of now, these two books are the
most interesting and original study of andemta commentary.
58 Robert W. Cowley, Ethiopian Biblical Interpretation: A study in exegetical tradition and herme-
neutics, op. cit., note 57, p. 374.
59 Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy (Indianapolis:
Hackett Publishing, 1998).
60 Abba Paulos Tzadua, “Foreword,” The Fetha Nägäst: The Law of the Kings, trans. Abba
Paulos Tzadua, ed. Peter L. Strauss (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University, 1968), p. xx.
Emphasis added.
62 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 4, pp. 212-222
tion…,” op. cit., note 52, p. 171.
64 One finds a similar understanding of interpretation in Western hermeneutics. Charles
Taylor, “Interpretation and the Sciences of Man,” Philosophy and the Human Sciences, vol.
2 (Cambridge University press, 1988), pp. 15-57; Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth And
Method, Second, Revised Edition, Translation revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald
G. Marshall (New York: Continuum, 2004/2006); Paul Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the
Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation, ed. and trans.. J. B. Thomp-
son (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
65 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 4,
pp. 168-171, 219.
tion…, op. cit., note 52, p. 165.
67 Ibid., pp. 168-9.
69 Claude Sumner, Classical Ethiopian Philosophy, op. cit., note 53, p. 186.
70 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op. cit., note 4, pp. 210-1.
I was made aware of the following text on agäbab after I completed my manuscript:
Hiruie Ermias, The Issues of ’Aggabāb (Classic G ’ z Grammar) According to the Tradition
of Q ne Schools, PhD Dissertation in Ethiopian Studies, Faculty of Humanities at the
University of Hamburg, (2019).
71 Aleksander Ferenc, “Writing and Literature in Classical Ethiopic” in B.W. Andrzejew-
ski, S. Pilaszewicz, W. Tyloch, eds. Literatures in African languages: theoretical issues and
sample surveys (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 255-300.
72 Aleksander Ferenc, “Writing and Literature in Classical Ethiopic,” ibid., p. 273.
73 Ephraim Isaac, The Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahedo Church, (Trenton: NJ: The Red Sea
Press, 2012), p. 95 note. 10.
74 Aleksander Ferenc, “Writing and Literature in Classical Ethiopic, op. cit., note 71,
p. 268; Lanfranco Ricci, “Ethiopian Christian Literature”, in Atiya S Aziz, ed., The Coptic
Encyclopedia, vol. 3 (New York: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 975-9.
75 Aleksander Ferenc, “Writing and Literature in Classical Ethiopic” op. cit., note 71, p. 286.
76 In tracing the secular ideas of Amharic qiné to its roots in Täwahedo Christianity, I lean
on the Hegelian idea that the thought content of religion has implicitly an objective
theoretical drive. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on the philosophy of religion
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988). In exploring the intellectual roots of
Amharic qiné in the Ethiopian Church intellectual practices, I draw on the unpublished
hand-written 13 volume work of Sergew Hable Selassie, የአማርኛ የቤተ ክርስቲያን መዝገበ ቃላት
፥ ረቂቅ / Amharic Church Dictionary, Draft, 13 volumes (Addis Ababa, 1977-1990). Also,
see Kidane Weld Kifle, መጽሐፈ ሰዋስው ወገስ ወመዝገበ ቃላት ሐዲስ (Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing
Press, 1978 E.C.). Other works are cited below.
77 Getatchew Haile, ደቂቀ እስጢፋኖስ በኅግ አምላክ, trans. from Ge’ez by Dr. Getatchew Haile
(Collegeville, MN. 2004); Getatchew Haile, “Religious Controversies and the Growth
of Ethiopian Literature in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,” Oriens Christainus
65 (1981), pp. 102-136. See Chapter 8 below on the Däqiqä Estifanos.
78 Krzysztof Piotr Blasewicz, “Ethiopian Monasticism,” Warszawskie Studia Teologiczne,
XII, 2 (1999), pp. 31-46. Available at http://pwtw.pl/wp-content/uploads/wst/12-2/
B%C5%82a%C5%BCewicz.pdf. Accessed2/6/2012; Aleksander Ferenc, “Writing and
Literature in Classical Ethiopic,” op. cit., note 73, p. 268; Getatchew Haile, “Religious
Controversies and the Growth of Ethiopian Literature in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries,” op. cit., note 77, p. 102.
79 The discussion in the following sections partly draws on Abba Hailemariam Melese
Ayenew, Influence of Cyrillian Christology in the Ethiopian Orthodox Anaphora, Doctoral
Thesis, The University Of South Africa (2009); Getatchew Haile, “Materials on the The-
ology of Qab’at or Unction,” Ethiopian Studies: Proceedings of the Sixth International Confer-
ence 6 (1996), pp. 205-250; Getatchew Haile, “Religious Controversies and the Growth of
Ethiopian Literature in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,” Oriens Christainus 65,
(1981), pp. 102-136; Donald Crummey, Priests and Politicians: Protestant and Catholic
Missions in Orthodox Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), pp. 14-27; Aymro Wond-
magegneuh and Joachm Motovu, The Ethiopian Orthodox Church (Addis Ababa: Berhanena
Selam, 1970).
80 For a brief discussion of the term Täwahedo, see Sergew Hable Selassie, የአማርኛ የቤተ
ክርስቲያን መዝገበ ቃላት ፥ ረቂቅ vol. 4., op. cit., note 11, pp. 135-8.
81 Archbishop Mekarios et al., eds., The Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahedo Church Faith, Order of
Worship and Ecumenical Relations (Addis Ababa: Tinsae ZeGubae Printing Press, 1996);
Archbishop Gabriel, ትምህርተ ሃይማኖት ኦርቶዶክሳዊ (Addis Ababa: Addis Printers, 2001);
Mebratu Kiros Gebru, Miaphysite Christology: An Ethiopian Perspective (Piscataway, NJ:
Gorgias Press, 2010). According to Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, “the Ethio-
pian Church maintains that Christ is perfect God and perfect man, at once Unsubstan-
tial with the Father and with us; the divinity and the humanity continuing in Him
without mixture or separation, confusion or change. He is one and the same person both
in his eternal pre-existence and also in the economy, in which he performs the redeem-
ing work of God on behalf of man, from the indivisible state of union of Godhead and
manhood.” Doctrine of the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahedo Church (undated manuscript).
Also available at http://www.dskmariam.org/artsandlitreature/litreature/pdf/doc-
torinoftheethiopianorthodoxchurch.pdf. Accessed 21/5/2013; Abba Hailemariam
Melese Ayenew, Influence of Cyrillian Christology in the Ethiopian Orthodox Anaphora
(Pretoria: The University of South Africa, 2009), pp. 255-300; Italics added.
82 For a discussion of the theological aspect of this statement, see Abba Hailemariam
Melese Ayenew, Influence of Cyrillian Christology in the Ethiopian Orthodox Anaphora, He
writes, “the Christological position of the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahedo Church
(EOTC) should rather be termed as miaphysite Christology,” p. 11. See also pp. 178-217,
264-9.
83 The Täwahedo belief of “unity” as mystery relates to the “unity” of Christ as God and
Christ as man, and the “unity” of the Trinity. Abba Hailemariam Melese Ayenew, Influ-
ence of Cyrillian Christology…, op.cit., note 82. For a discussion of ena, see Chapter 3
below/
84 On nägär, see Chapter 4.2. below.
85 Abba Hailemariam Melese Ayenew, Influence of Cyrillian Christology in the Ethiopian
Orthodox Anaphora, op. cit., note 83; Getatchew Haile, “Materials on the Theology of
Qab’at or Unction”, op. cit., note 81; Harry Middleton Hyatt, The Church of Abyssinia
(London: Luzac & Co, 1928); Atiya S. Aziz, The Coptic Encyclopedia (New York: Macmil-
lan, 1991). For the Ge’ez-Amharic translations of these terms, see Kidane Weld Kifle,
መጽሐፈ ሰዋስው ወገስ ወመዝገበ ቃላት ሐዲስ (Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing Press, 1978 E.C.);
Sergew Hable Selassie, የአማርኛ የቤተ ክርስቲያን መዝገበ ቃላት ፥ ረቂቅ / Draft, 13 volumes (Addis
Ababa, 1977-1990).
86 I appropriate Emmanuel Lévinas’s characterization of the Talmudic practice of inter-
pretation with which qiné interpretation has in some respects a family resemblance. He
describes it as “… frotter pour que le sang en jaillisse est peut-être la manière dont il faut
‘frotter’ le texte pour arriver à la vie qu’il dissimule…” Emmanuel Lévinas, Quatre lec-
tures talmudiques (Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1968/2005), p. 102. Given the family
resemblance between andem and middot, such an appropriation is justifiable. Robert W.
Cowley, Ethiopian Biblical Interpretation: A study in exegetical tradition and hermeneutics,
op. cit., note 57, p. 374.
87 A telling example is the Fetha Nägäst—the Law of Kings—which gets its “prestige and
force from its religious sources” Adopted as the law of the land since 1563, it served as
a source of judicial principles and rules for the next five centuries, i.e., up to the regime
of Emperor Haile Selassie (1930-1974). According to the Fetha Nägäst, a judge must
have “intelligence, together with knowledge,” he must be “subtle enough to solve diffi-
cult and obscure cases”; also, he must be a freeman “because he who has no power over
himself has no power over others.” He must “speak clearly” and must “strive to think
for himself on the disputed questions.” The Fetha Nägäst thus uses secular and rational
criteria to specify the qualities of a good judge and the kind of evidence that is accept-
able. Despite its theological and religious roots and content, a rational conception of
interpretation and argumentation informs the Fetha Nägäst. The practice of Fetha
Nägäst is an aspect of the secular intellectual and cultural milieu within which Amharic
qiné developed. The internal link between the two arises from the fact that the practi-
tioners of Amharic qiné and the interpreters of the Fetha Nägäst shared the same intel-
lectual background: a church-based scholarly setting which has been for centuries the
locus of the transmission of qiné composition and interpretation. Abba Paulos Tzadua,
The Fetha Nägäst. The Law of the Kings, trans. Abba Paulos Tzadua, ed. Peter L. Strauss
(Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University, 1968), pp. xxi-xxix, pp. 249-51, 258-69.
88 Liqä Siltanat Habtä Mariam Werqneh, ጥንታዊ የኢትዮጲያ ትምህርት, op.cit., note 4, pp. 210-11.
See also Kidane Weld Kifle, መጽሐፈ ሰዋስው ወገስ ወመዝገበ ቃላት ሐዲስ (Addis Ababa: Artistic
Printing Press, 1978 E.C.). The following text on agäbab appeared on line after I have
completed this manuscript. Hiruie Ermias, The Issues of ’Aggabāb (Classic G ’ z Gram-
mar) According to the Tradition of Q ne Schools, PhD Dissertation in Ethiopian Studies,
Faculty of Humanities at the University of Hamburg, (2019).
89 Donald D. Levine, Wax and Gold (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), pp. 230-
1. Litigation is also an American “national sport” and one wonders if “oral aggression”
would be a satisfactory explanation for its omnipresence in American culture.
90 Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity
(London: Allen Kane, 2005).

Qine Hermeneutics and Ethiopian Critical

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Qiné Hermeneutics

ISBN: 978-1-59-907234-0 (Paperback)

Publisher: Elias Wondimu

A Catalog Record for this book is available from:

Printed in the United States of America

To Geneviève, to whom I owe an infinite debt of gratitude for putting up with

1 Introduction: Intellectual Autonomy and Ethiopian

1.1. The concept of gädl 1

Part I Prolegomena to Critical Qiné Hermeneutics

2.1. The qiné tradition of questioning 49

3.1. Säm ena wärq: duality without dualism 83

3.8. The Tabot: a zäybé of säm ena wärq logic 119

4.1. Mädämamät, mäsmat, and qiné hermeneutics 139

Part II INTERLUDE: Reading Strategies in Critical

5.1.Zäybé and hibrä qal as diagnostic concepts 195

6.1.Utopianism and Qiné 229

Part III Critical Qiné Hermeneutical Readings

7.1. The Chronicles of Lalibela and transcritique 267

8.1. The Däqiqä Estifanos 300

9.1. That which is in gada more than gada 325

10.1. The question of indigenous institutions 376

10.3.1. Iddir: Non-tradition as modernity 387

11.1. Intellectual awakening and the utopian imagination 444

Select Bibliography 469

“አዲስ ቃል፣ አዲስ ዓለም”

2.1. The qiné tradition of questioning

A seventeenth century Ethiopian text states,

ገኝ አልተቻለም በቂ የሆነ ሃብት / It is not possible to have enough wealth.

According to the mechanical interpretation, the hibrä qal would be bägabicha

2.2. Qiné education

What is crucial in this pedagogical practice is its questioning, critical, non-dog-

2.3. Zäybé and qiné hermeneutics

2.4. Andem and tirgum

Where a sentence is complicated or its meaning was equivocal or unintelli-

The interpretation called the andem interpretation is that in which, after

Speaking of an andem practicing scholar, the text states,

2.6. The intellectual roots of Amharic qiné

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