Ethiopia: A Cultural History

Description:

Foreword by Rev. Canon John A. Douglas. First edition. A fascinating work on the history of Ethiopia by English women's rights campaigner and socialist activist Sylvia Pankhurst. Written during her time as guest of the newly reinstated Emperor Haile Selassie, this charming and thorough history covers the development of Ethiopia from it's Arabic influences and the development of the Ethiopic church, to the Italian occupation, the resistance, and the reconstruction efforts following the war. Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) was the daughter of Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst and grew up surrounded by both British and Foreign campaigners and academics. She spent much of her life campaigning for women's suffrage and for various socialist and anti-fascist causes, and would eventually become estranged from her mother over disagreements over the suffragist response to the outbreak of the First World War. Later in life she would become highly involved with the Ethiopian cause against the Italian occupation, and following the war published the weekly The New Times and Ethiopia News which would be contributed to by anti-colonialists, African nationalists, and the newly developing Rastafari movement. She died in Addis Ababa aged 78, she received a full state funeral at which Haile Selassie named her 'an honorary Ethiopian'.

Condition

8vo, orig. cloth, gilt title to spine. Front hinge cracked but firm, some spotting/marking to top edge of text block. Vg. Inscribed by the author 'To Louis Haber, with all good wishes, from the author, E. Sylvia Pankhurst 8th November 1955'. Haber contributed articles on Ethiopia to various journals.