ECAS 2015 – présentation de l’ouvrage “Photos as Historical Witnesses” durant notre panel

Nous sommes heureuses d’annoncer que Wolbert G. C. Smidt, enseignant-chercheur à l’Université de Mekelle en Ethiopie, présentera son dernier ouvrage – Photos as Historical Witnesses. The first Ethiopians in Germany and the first Germans in Ethiopia, the history of a complex relationship – lors de notre panel “Histoires des photographies contestataires / contestées – Histories of Contestatory/Contested Photographs” (ECAS, panel #83, le 10 juillet à l’Université de Paris 1-Sorbonne, salle D634, de 14h00 à 15h30).

Voici une courte description de l’ouvrage :

“This volume presents historical images and texts documenting the history of German-Ethiopian relations, as a result of many years of research. Some of the material was unknown to historians so far and captures crucial historical moments. Ethiopians travelled to Germany at a surprisingly early time, such as Abba Gorgoryos, the co-founder of Ethiopian Studies in Germany, residing in Gotha in 1652, or former Oromo slaves in the early 19th century. Germans also migrated to Ethiopia, whose Ethiopian-German descendents played sometimes an important role in cultural exchange, politics and diplomacy over generations.”

With an introduction by Richard Pankhurst.

Publisher: Lit Verlag
Publication Date: July 2015
Pages: 144
Language: Deutsch, English, Amharisch

Dejjazmach Meshesha Werqé, le premier ambassadeur éthiopien en Allemagne, 1907

Wolbert Smidt is Associate Professor in Ethnohistory at the Department of History and Heritage Management and PhD Coordinator in History and Cultural Studies, Mekelle University. He was an assistant editor of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Hiob Ludolf Centre of Ethiopian Studies, Hamburg University, and is an associated academic member of the French Centre of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Abeba (CFEE), and since recently also of the Forschungszentrum Gotha of Erfurt University, and was a guest scholar at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He did research in historical anthropology, with a focus on a wide range of sources from oral tradition to historical photography in private collections, and the history of research and thought. His research focus lies on socio-cultural traditions of northeast African societies, including visual anthropology, legal anthropology, the anthropology of space and territory and oral historiography, with extended field research mainly in Tigray and archive research especially on historical images, maps and local biographies.

Plus d’informations sur le parcours de Wolbert G. C. Smidt ici