The book excavates the critical concepts and interpretative procedures of qiné hermeneutics with a view to enucleate an Ethiopian critical tradition that could meet the intellectual, social, and political challenges of the modern world. It conducts a critical internal journey into Ethiopia’s intellectual traditions and elucidates the emancipatory ideas that gestate in them. It uses these as a guide to conduct a critical external journey into the borrowed Western social sciences that are dominant in Ethiopian studies. The text critiques, deflects and reworks this borrowed knowledge from the perspective of the emancipatory aspirations and ideas that the critical internal journey discloses. The book argues for an approach—Ethioperspectivism—that ensures the epistemic autonomy of Ethiopian studies. Ethioperspectivism symphonizes the outcomes of the internal and external journeys to produce knowledge on Ethiopia that is rooted in Ethiopian history and intellectual traditions and is committed to the emancipatory interests of Ethiopians.

Acknowledgements
Preface

1 Introduction: Intellectual Autonomy and Ethiopian Emancipation

1.1. The concept of gädl
1.2. Whose mirror?
1.3. The conundrum of borrowed ‘development’
1.4. Christianity, Islam, and development in Ethiopia
1.5. On the non-Ethiopianization of development
1.6. Gibbonism and Ethiopian Studies
1.7. De-Westernizing/de-Gibbonizing Ethiopian Studies
Notes

Part I. Prolegomena to Critical Qiné Hermeneutics

2 Towards Qiné (ቅኔ) Hermeneutics: I

2.1. The qiné tradition of questioning
2.2. Qiné education
2.3. Zäybé and qiné hermeneutics
2.4. Andem and tirgum
2.5. Andem and the “four-eyed” scholar
2.6. The intellectual roots of Amharic qiné
Notes

3 Towards Qiné (ቅኔ) Hermeneutics II

3.1. Säm ena wärq: duality without dualism
3.2. Säm ena wärq, wärq (ewnät) and ewqät
3.3. Qiné and incompleteness
3.4. Qiné zäräfa
3.5. Lissan, quanqua, and säm ena wärq
3.6. Lissan and quanqua: the struggle for time
3.7. The telos of säm ena wärq
3.8. The Tabot: a zäybé of säm ena wärq logic
3.9. Mischaracterizing säm ena wärq
Notes

Part II. INTERLUDE: Reading Strategies in Critical Qiné Hermeneutics

5 Antsar and Wistä wäyra Readings

5.1. Zäybé and hibrä qal as diagnostic concepts
5.2. Antsar reading
5.3. Wistä wäyra reading
5.4. Critical qiné hermeneutical readings of peasant rebellions
5.4.1. Who governs the government?
5.4.2. Religious language and lissan
5.4.3. Peasant rebellions and the surplus self
Notes

6 Qiné Hermeneutics, Non-tradition, and Utopianism without Utopia

6.1. Utopianism and Qiné
6.2. Non-tradition and the utopian impulse
6.3. Utopianism and non-tradition
6.4. Ahmad b. Ibrahim (Grañ) and the utopian impulse
6.5. Tewodros and the utopian impulse
6.6. Awra Amba: Utopianism without utopia and “commoning”
6.6.1. Awra Amba, common economy, and living labour
6.6.2. Awra Amba as a critique of Gibbonism
Notes

Part III. Critical Qiné Hermeneutical Readings

7 The Surplus History of Lalibela

7.1. The Chronicles of Lalibela and transcritique
7.2. Reality, fantasy, and action
7.3. The maxims of autonomy and equality
7.4. Epistemic autonomy and emancipation
7.5. The dignity of those who labour
7.6. From “power over” to “power with” the people
7.7. “Hurry up”: Mastering time and emancipation
7.8. Lalibela’s lesson: utopianism without utopia
Notes

8 The Surplus History of the Däqiqä Estifanos

8.1. The Däqiqä Estifanos
8.2. On standing upright
8.3. Bähig amlak or the rule of just law
8.4. Litigation with Ethiopia
8.5. Following one’s mind
8.6. Against resembling our rulers
8.7. Scaling one’s history
Notes

9 The Surplus History of Gada

9.1. That which is in gada more than gada
9.2. Remembering gada
9.3. Gada: an unfinished answer
9.4. Luba/butta: time as socio-political relation
9.5. Luba/butta: participation and constituent power
9.6. Gada and the de-fetishization of history
9.7. The moggaasa revolution: E pluribus unum
9.8. Moggaasa, historical wounds, and democracy
Notes
 

10 Indigenous Institutions and Surplus History

10.1. The question of indigenous institutions
10.2. Däbo: the unity of head and hand
10.3. Iddir and iqqub
10.3.1. Iddir: Non-tradition as modernity
10.3.2. Iqqub: an economy of shared need
10.4. Iqqub lottery and lottocracy
10.5. Däbo, iddir, iqqub (DII): Recognition and civil society
10.5.1. DII and the issue of recognition
10.5.2. DII and “civil society”
10.5.3. DII as the critique of “civil society”
10.6. DII, NGOs, and interpassivity
10.6.1. DII against adaptive preferences
10.6.2. DII’s question: Is Ethiopia’s problem “poverty” or “poor living”?

"Maimire’s enlightened exposé of Ethiopian critical philosophy highlights the andmta and moggassa tenets, respectively of the qine and gada traditions. These dynamic intellectual heritages are systemic to internal social, political, and economic practices. They offer, he emphatically argues, strategic, independent and forward-looking interpretations that are emancipatory." --Tsehai Berhane-Selassie, Ph.D. Author of Ethiopian Warriorhood: Defence, Land and Society 1800-1941 (James Currey Press; Oxford, 2018)

"We have had glimpses of the rich and complex Ethiopian intellectual tradition through the work of Enrico Cerulli, Edward Ullendorff and Donald Levine. It is however, in this massive book (well over 400 pages) that we have an in-depth enquiry into the philosophy and practice of Ethiopian intellectual tradition, that of Quine--a hermeneutic that contains emancipatory dialectic of knowledge. This book, exhaustive as it is, touches only one aspect of Qiné: Seména werk (commonly translated as wax and gold). The author uses the Qiné hermeneutics as a tool to interpret and analyse the practices and visions of high- profile personalities from the archives of Ethiopian history, such as Lalibela (end of 12^th century) Zara Yacob and the Stephanites (mid 15^th century) Ahmed B. Ibrahim (16^th century), Tewodros (mid 19^th century) as well as the Gada institution.

Its central message is that if Ethiopians are to think critically and steadily on Ethiopian conditions from their own history and social practices, they need to retrieve the Qiné. Written by one of the most intriguing philosophers of our time, Qiné Hermeneutics is a crucial input in any discussion on the role and meaning of education for the self and for the society at large. Let us hope that it is soon translated into Amharic."--Tekeste Negash, Ph.D., Author of Rethinking Education in Ethiopia (Nordic Africa Institute, 1996)

"Maimire Mennasemay has skillfully taken on a Herculean task in writing about qiné hermeneuticsand Ethiopian critical theoryand their application to contemporary Ethiopia. He parses the absence of inquiry into Ethiopia’s “intellectual tradition,” and demonstrates why imported ideas and concepts have dominated the country’s present-day dialog about modern needs and aspirations. To accomplish this, Maimire traces an intellectual history of the country, interpreting literary texts within sacred and secular traditions and assessing their use of säm ena wärq in revealing and contesting power structures. From Ethiopian history, he finds “Utopian surpluses” that may well be rel­evant to the Ethiopian pursuit of democracy and prosperity (or at least improvement in “poor living”) and have the potential to enliven the nation’s meeting head on present-day challenges. Of special note is the “Ethioperspectivism” emanating from three indigenous institutions: däbo, iddir, and iqqub (DII). The DII paired with the mog­gaasa perspective of a universally shared political identity or citizenship holds the promise of a new approach to economic and political discourse and action for Ethiopians. The vocabulary of philosophy and sociology plus Amharic terms elucidate this wax and gold treatise. In making his way through the layers of wax necessary to reach his denouement, Maimire has established a new gold standard for describing Ethiopian intellectualism." --Theodore Vestal, Ph.D., Author of The Lion of Judah in the New World: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and the Shaping of Americans' Attitudes toward Africa (Praeger, 2011)

Maimire Mennasemay (PhD) has taught critical theory, world views, and ethics in the Humanities/Philosophy Department of Dawson College. He is currently a scholar in residence at the same institution. He is a founding and still active member of S.P.A.C.E: an academic project committed to developing trans-disciplinary activities that articulate the sciences, philosophy, the Humanities, and the Arts. He was the book review editor of Labour, Capital and Society / Travail, Capital et Société for a number of years and still is a member of its editorial team. He was also a member of the editorial staff of the former Horn of Africa, and is currently a senior editor of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies. His Publications are in the area of Ethiopian Studies, hermeneutics and critical theory. He has authored Language, Theory, and African Emancipation (University of Liverpool) and published in the Canadian Journal of Modern African Studies, North East African Studies, Horn of Africa, International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, and Africa Today. He has contributed chapters to edited books.