Abstract Through an ethnographic approach, this article takes a contemporary look at Orthodox image production and, in particular, at how the terms “traditional” and “modern” are employed by Ethiopian image producers. The unrelenting insistence on what makes an image “correct” and “traditional” signals a deeper need for legitimacy. The discourse presented in this article attributes to past tradition a value which is just as much a critique of the present as it is an idealization of the past. The panorama of Ethiopian Orthodox image practices is not only riddled with tensions surrounding titles, hierarchy and purity, but colored by nostalgia, showing growing concern about the decline of Orthodoxy.

Abstract What makes Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity attractive to southern Ethiopians? Aari in the South Ethiopia Regional State formerly rejected Orthodoxy as the religion of their northern Ethiopian conquerors. Attempts made under the empire to convert Aari remained without lasting success. In recent years, however, Orthodoxy has gained followers among conservative Aari. I explain Orthodoxy's attractiveness in the light of the rapid post-1991 growth of Protestantism and the corresponding decline of the indigenous Aari religion. Contrary to the derelict institutions of the indigenous religion, the Orthodox Church is felt to have spiritual authority and to afford a viable ritual community. And while conservative Aari reject Protestantism as excessively egalitarian, individualist, and puritan, Orthodoxy resonates with them for placing value on hierarchy, mediation, and feasting. For conservative Aari, Orthodoxy thus offers an answer to the Protestant challenge. Becoming Orthodox allows conservatives to defend and rearticulate moral and spiritual values which have long guided them, while also accessing the prestige of a religion Aari associate with northern elites. This shows that understanding the attractiveness of Orthodoxy in contemporary southern Ethiopia requires appreciating the imperial history of south–north relations and the post-1991 history of religious liberalization.

Abstract There was a historical and political intimacy between the Ethiopian Tewahido Orthodox Church (EOTC) and the Ethiopian state until their relationship was profoundly modified after the 1974 Revolution and the secular rupture connected to that. This was followed by political reforms by successive governments, which have had a leveling effect on the religious field. The country's religious minorities—Muslims and Protestants—have been engaged in recognition politics progressively attaining rights on par with the EOTC. This rebalancing is perceived to have come at the expense of the EOTC—from the decoupling of the Ethiopian nation from Orthodoxy, a continuous decline in the number of members of the Church, to a feeling of being persecuted and the siege mentality connected to that. While responding to these external challenges, the EOTC has also experienced internal rifts that pose existential threats not only to maintain its historically constituted hegemony but also continue to exist as a united church. This contribution critically appraises the political journey of the EOTC in the long longue durée and with a relational lens, i.e., from its trajectory from being at the center of the Ethiopian state and an established religion, to the various external and internal challenges the Church has faced in the context of the process of state reformation and how it has sought to regain and maintain its hegemony, or at least negotiate its decline through the deployment of various strategies.

Abstract Many Orthodox Christians and Sufi Muslims in Ethiopia put Salafis and Pentecostals in the same category. Because both denounce the intercessory powers of otherworldly figures, like saints and awaliyya, some claim Salafis are “like Pentes.” Some refer to the similar mediation practices of Sufis and Orthodox Christians to paint Pentecostals/Salafis as other, as foreign. This article explores how these discursive parallels play out in practical interactions in Gondar, Ethiopia, a historical center of Ethiopian Orthodoxy with a sizable Muslim minority. In some ways, Orthodox-Pentecostal relations mirror Sufi-Salafi relations because of similarities in Orthodox and Sufi mediation practices. However, the Sufi–Salafi boundary is relatively porous due to the detachability of Sufi practices of intercession from more encompassing practices like salat and Ramadan. Pentecostal–Orthodox boundaries are more robust in part because the intercession of Saints infuses all levels of Orthodox practice. This boundary becomes particularly sharp in the context of funerals.

Abstract When faced with the problem of setting up their colonial troops in Somalia, the Italians adopted a rigid quota system. According to the Regulations of the Royal Colonial Corps of Somalia of 1906, only 10 percent of the available positions were reserved for Somalis. Another 20 percent of the troops was reserved for “people of other races,” whereas the remaining 70 percent had to be made up of “Arab” soldiers from Yemen and the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. When other colonial armies, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, were unable to reach such percentages, they filled the gaps in their ranks with a large number of “foreigners.” This article looks at why this situation arose and how these men were recruited, investigating the world of transnational enlistment in an area stretching from Benadir to the southern Red Sea. The phenomenon is analyzed through the prism of labor and mobility history, two approaches that allow us to grasp aspects and characteristics that military history alone would be hard-pressed to bring to light. The article argues that for many men, being a soldier was not a life-long choice but rather a form of stopgap employment in a system that suffered from a chronic labor shortage. This strong labor shortage sparked fierce competition among the colonial powers, which, to secure the required manpower, inevitably had to compete with other colonial powers by offering more desirable contracts. Taking advantage of the greater ease of movement and the high demand for work, some inhabitants of this region had an edge in negotiating their terms of service.