The book tackles the enigmatic question on Ethiopia's failure to modernize. The enigma springs from the absence in Ethiopia of the major deficiencies invoked to explain underdevelopment.

Indeed, Ethiopia, a country with a long history of survival and independence, defined by a form of pristine Christianity colored with African traits, remains an enigma. With an imperial system based on conflict as well as the connivance between centripetal and centrifugal forces, a land-holding system supporting fluid yet stratified social classes, a cultural life combining a written tradition with folk thinking, nationalism with ethnicity and, what is more, a country which successfully resisted all the major invading forces of history, including colonialism, to the point that it was compared to Japan, Ethiopia had all the necessary prerequisites for a successful transition to modernity.

By combining sociological and political analyses with philosophical inquiries, the book attempts to explain how Ethiopia was driven into a wrong track through various historical detours, delays, indecisions, and uprootedness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MESSAY KEBEDE is currently working on the relevance of African philosophy to issues of development. He has taught philosophy for many years at Addis Ababa University, and currently teaches at the Department of Philosophy, University of Dayton, Ohio.

CATEGORY
History, Politics, Philosophy/AFRICA