Film Session:
Ethiopian studies through image,
sound and beyond:
perspectives from
anthropological/ historical films
Convener:

Itsushi Kawase (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan)
The Aim:

A considerable number of academic films, particularly, ethnographic documentaries based on anthropological inquiry with the long-term field research have been produced centering on the variety of cultures in Ethiopia. The recent development of digital technology as well as the dramatic growth of visual anthropology conferences and scholarly networks has further facilitated the production and progress of methodology of anthropological films on Ethiopia. In addition, old films and archival footages on Ethiopia are discovered increasingly and treated as sources of historical and ethnohistorical studies. The film panel focusing both on anthropological and historical film was held for the first time during the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in 2007. Continuously, this panel will present latest anthropological films and archival films/footages. We invites scholars who are interested in integrating film as the practice of doing anthropology and exploring history, and have the interdisciplinary debate on :1.different audio-visual narratives to approach their anthropological subject. 2.historical viewpoints/analysis that can be derived from archival film/footage.
List of Films/ Presenters
A.
Anthropological Film

A1. Awura- Amba Zumra's Dream Land

(35min, 2010)
Tigist KEBEDE (Tromsø University)

We're in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. A community of about 400 people has emerged as one group with its own distinct identity marks such as work ethics, gender ideology, and religion. It is a community where members work together and share equally what they have produced at the end of the year. The leader and the founder of the community is Zumra Nuru. Awura-Amba was his childhood dream and his life philosophy and the life style of the Awura-Amba community is depicted in the film. It focuses on the life of Tirusew and her family. What does it mean to be Awura-Amban? How are days divided in this village? Who is Zumra Nuru? In a nutshell, the film narrates the previous social status of Awura-Amba as a marginalized group and now as a model.

A2. The Gadaammojjii ceremony in Boorana

(60min, 2012)
Chikage OBA-SMIDT (Mekelle University)

In this film, I will show the rituals done in the Gadaammojjii ceremony. Through using visual data, I will suggest a new approach to the ritual studies.
The Gadaammojjii ceremony is one of the rite of passage related with the Generation Set System called gadaa among the Boorana. It is the final important ceremony in the life of man. It is so called the retirement ceremony. After this ceremony, it is forbidden for man to do the typical activities of man, such as going to the battle field, digging land, hunting the wild animals, etc.
As the film will show, there are two hidden aims in the Gadaammojjii ceremony. First, it is the occasion that people communicate to their God called Waaqa. We will witness that people often pray to Waaqa for piece, rain, productivity of livestock, while they sing songs and say blessings in the film. Second, it is also the moment of the alternation of generations. We would see several rituals which symbolically show the social power sifts from father to his sons. Although we can clearly understand such hidden messages of the ceremony, people often practice the rituals in the ceremony which are too strange to understand its meaning not only for outsider but also insider of the society. People know how to do the ceremony. But they normally do not know the definite reason why they have to practice the ritual according to the way which already has determined. We would be perplexed to interpret the rituals which we will witness in the film.
In this presentation, I would like to point out three points of view for studying the ritual. First, I will suggest that we should not seek the concrete meaning of rituals. Ethnologists who have studied the rituals have tried to interpret the “strange” rituals by using several frame works, such as symbolism, metaphor, metonymy, etc. we should give up to believe that there is the real meaning of ritual. I suggest that the rituals are a sort of device for inspiring people to interpret something. Ethnologist can describe only the interpretations constructed among the local people.
Second, we should observe the materials which often appear in several rituals. In the case of Boorana, we will see the many goods especially for the ceremony, such as kallacha, aba, aadu, oloolo, siike, kabadu, irro etc. we also would notice the several plants appeared at the important moment in the rituals, such as elegamsa, meesa, kalaala, qunbi, dannisa, archume, etc. In addition, we would often see the materials from livestock which are milk, butter, intestines, blood, skin, mess, navel, etc. Each material has each meaning given by people in daily life. We should know such cultural meanings of those materials. I would like to suggest those materials have related each other and constructed the meaning of rituals among people.
Third, we should think about the “Body traditions”. There are the mechanisms which can realize the repetition of activities as rituals. Although there is no concrete interpretation of the rituals among local people, the meanings of ritual have been vaguely constructed and preserved through the ritual practices which have repeated.

A3. When Spirits Ride Their Horses

(28min, 2012)
Itsushi KAWASE (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan)

Zar is the possession cult widely spread in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. In Gondar, the possessed body of the Zar spirit medium is referred to as YäZar Färäs ‘the horse of Zar'. In this rhetoric, spirit possession can be understood as the spirit riding the body of the spirit medium. Participants of Zar are described as ammwmwqi (literally meaning ‘the one who warms up the space’) or anqasaqaš (‘the one who shakes and wakes you up’), while the body of the medium, through which the spirit departs, is described with a word that best matches ‘coldness’. The ceremonial space must be ‘warmed up’ by the dance, music, and various kinds of smells, such as those of incense, roasted coffee beans, and perfumes, to awaken the spirit’s power. Spirit possession takes on almost sensuous overtones.
The film portrays one woman in Gondar who devotes her life to Zar spirits and explore the sensory quality of the interaction between her, participants of the ceremony and various spirits including Seyfou Tchengar, who is said to be one of the most powerful spirits in the region. The film also explores the syncretic aspects of the ceremony through showing the interplay of religions in a multiphonic scape.

A4. Zar cult: a singular journey between Islam and Christianity in Tänta, Wällo

(2 films, 10 min. each)
Makeda Ketcham (Film Director, Associated researcher at the French Center of Ethiopian Studies, Addis-Abeba)

Two short films of ten minutes each will be presented, they portray two different kinds of ceremonies, which are a testimony to religious practices intertwining Zar cult, Islam and Christianity in Wällo. The first film is Baraka (Blessings) by Sheikh Saïd Muhammed, shooted during the annual celebration for the Muslim Zar ‘Adal Moti’, the main Zar of MENEN DESTA. The second one, shooted during a Zar cult ceremony, is a possession by Zar ‘Adal Moti’. These films were shooted in 2008 in Tänta, Wällo, during my research in anthropology and visual anthropology on the Zar cult. The Wällo region is particularly interesting as it provides a historical context and territory where Islam and Christianity are ambiguously related. My research with a family of Tänta focused on its relationship with their surrounding land, society and religious practices. I have demonstrated how through the power and fall of the ancestors of this family, and through the influence of Islam and Christianity, community behaviors have been generated up to today. My research and films shed an unusual light on the heterodoxy of Wällo.

B.
Historical Film/
Footage

B1. Sidamo: Northeast Africa, South Ethiopia. Burial of a high dignitary and two women of his kin

Sophia THUBAUVILLE (Frobenius-Institut, Germany)

The film illustrates the burial of a high Sidamo dignitary and two women of his kin. We are shown the construction of the burial site, followed by several stages of the mourning ceremony. First the participants of the ceremony arrive at the mourning site, then a tree is erected as a memorial for the deceased. For the late women figures made of large pots and cloth are made. The film ends with the completion of the dignitary’s grave and the final stages of the mourning. The film is only one of around 60 16mm films that have been recorded by researchers of the Frobenius-Institute in south Ethiopia in the 1950s and have been digitized in 2011. Some of the films had been distributed by the German Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) or the Encyclopaedia Cinematographica, but most of them have been unpublished.

Recorded by: Elisabeth Pauli /Frobenius-Institut
1954/55, color,10:45 min.

B2. Presentation of historical film materials by Hugues Fontaine

The presentation of short historical films/footages below will be done by Hugues Fontaine.


*Fêtes du couronnement de la Reine Zaoditou, 1917 (13') courtesy Albert Kahn Museum, Paris.

*Addis-Abeba 1917 (7') courtesy, Établissement de Communication et de Production Audiovisuelle de la Défense(ECPAD), France.

*La Mission Charles Michel-Côte. Éthiopie, Soudan 1920 (29') - courtesy Albert Kahn Museum, Paris.

*L'Abyssinie au temps de Menelik (10') - courtesy Archives françaises du film, France.

*Le nouveau Négus, 1928 (1'46) - courtesy Albert Kahn Museum, Paris.
The Temporal Program (The venue of the film session will be announced on this website soon.)
Oct 30 14:30-
17:30

Opening Remarks by Itsushi Kawase

Film Presentation & Discussion

A1. Awura- Amba Zumra's Dream Land
A2. The Gadaammojjii ceremony in Boorana

Oct 31 10:00-
12:00

Film Presentation & Discussion

A3. When Spirits Ride Their Horses
A4. Zar cult: a singular journey between Islam and Christianity in Tänta, Wällo
14:30-
17:30

Film Presentation & Discussion

B 1. Sidamo: Northeast Africa, South Ethiopia.
Burial of a high dignitary and two women of his kin
B 2. Presentation of historical film materials by Hugues Fontaine
Nov 1 10:00-
12:00

Film Presentation & Discussion

A1. Awura- Amba Zumra's Dream Land
A2. The Gadaammojjii ceremony in Boorana

14:30-
17:30

Film Presentation & Discussion

A3. When Spirits Ride Their Horses
A4. Zar cult: a singular journey between Islam and Christianity in Tänta, Wällo
Nov 2 10:00-
12:00

Film Presentation & Discussion

B 1. Sidamo: Northeast Africa, South Ethiopia.
Burial of a high dignitary and two women of his kin
B 2. Presentation of historical film materials by Hugues Fontaine