New Sources for the Social and Economic History of Ethiopia: The Case of the Archives of Maqale Madhane-Alam Church

Abstract

In the past, and to a degree still today, the northern Ethiopian Orthodox churches were the major and, often, the sole depositories of manuscripts and documents dealing with property transactions of private persons. All kinds of property ranging from slaves to residential sites to houses to land to coffee are treated in these documents. In the case of Mädhäné-Aläm church in the town of Mäqälé, which will be explored in this paper, private transactions in livestock were also recorded besides the familiar transactions in land. This paper will explore the economic and social function of livestock in early twentieth century Ethiopia based on the valuable records of the Madhane-Alam church. Another purpose of this paper is to call for the use of property documents in church archives in the study of the social history of Ethiopia. Property documents help to counter the bias of narrative accounts which commonly deal with social elites and practically ignore ordinary people. Thus, church archives which are our only source of information on ordinary farmers can help us to broaden the evidentiary basis of Ethiopian history which until recently rested primarily on narrative sources.