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Philosophy Faculty Publications
Title
Return to the Source: Asres Yenesew and the West
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Publication Source
Diogenes
Abstract
The opposition of traditional scholars to the proliferation of modern schools is a fact known to all those who are familiar with the difficult beginning of Ethiopia’s modernization. Besides the opposition of the nobility and the church hierarchy, traditional clerical scholars known as debteras had used all their influence to convince the country of the perilous nature of Western education. Emperor Haile Selassie and those who supported him often had to battle energetically to neutralize their opposition. To the youngsters sent to Western schools before and soon after the Italian invasion of 1935, the opposition of the debteras appeared as a pathetic attempt to stop what was unstoppable, namely, the march of the long-awaited modernization of Ethiopia. They easily figured out that the debteras’ ignorance of the modern world and the anger over the loss of their traditional influence aroused the resistance. Some such defense of the traditional schooling betrayed the most stubborn form of traditionalism, which was nothing else but a wrongheaded endeavor to shield Ethiopia from the benefits of modernization in the name of tradition and the status quo.
Inclusive pages
60-71
ISBN/ISSN
0392-1921
Copyright
Copyright © 2014, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies
Publisher
Sage Publishing
Volume
59
Issue
3-4
Peer Reviewed
yes
eCommons Citation
Kebede, Messay, "Return to the Source: Asres Yenesew and the West" (2014). Philosophy Faculty Publications. 42.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/phl_fac_pub/42
COinS
Comments
Permission documentation is on file.