HST 597L Special Studies
"Ethiopia and the Horn
(Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti)"
Professor Solomon Getahun
Mondays, 6:30-9:30pm
This course explores the sub-region in light of the history of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the oldest nations and a country that has never been colonized. It is also one of earliest and oldest Christian nations which also became one of the first to accept Islam. Such oddities coupled with maritime trade, migration and wars made the country in particular and the Horn of Africa in general a melting pot as well as a center of competing ideologies and nationalisms.
Throughout the semester, we will study the evolution and development of the Ethiopian state since the earliest times to the present. While doing so, we will critically examine the role of competing interests such as the rise of Europe (Portugal and Spain) and the Ottoman challenge of the 16th century and its impact on political developments in the Horn of Africa, the legacies of colonialism, Cold War politics, globalization and the rise of ethno-nationalism, and religious fundamentalism in the making and unmaking of the states in the Horn of Africa.
"Ethiopia and the Horn
(Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti)"
Professor Solomon Getahun
Mondays, 6:30-9:30pm
This course explores the sub-region in light of the history of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the oldest nations and a country that has never been colonized. It is also one of earliest and oldest Christian nations which also became one of the first to accept Islam. Such oddities coupled with maritime trade, migration and wars made the country in particular and the Horn of Africa in general a melting pot as well as a center of competing ideologies and nationalisms.
Throughout the semester, we will study the evolution and development of the Ethiopian state since the earliest times to the present. While doing so, we will critically examine the role of competing interests such as the rise of Europe (Portugal and Spain) and the Ottoman challenge of the 16th century and its impact on political developments in the Horn of Africa, the legacies of colonialism, Cold War politics, globalization and the rise of ethno-nationalism, and religious fundamentalism in the making and unmaking of the states in the Horn of Africa.
