In retrospect, the judgment of the early students appears misplaced and irresponsible. True, the debtera had a major weakness, which was that they opposed Western schools without suggesting any other alternative. They were totally unable to tell how Ethiopia could modernize without adopting Western rationality, science, and technology, the very virtues that the traditional knowledge had, if not condemned, at least ignored. More yet, the debtera did not seem to understand how necessary modernization was for the maintenance of Ethiopia’s independence. Especially after the dreadful episode of the Italian occupation, which made palpable the dependence of Ethiopia’s survival on rapid modernization, the defense of traditionalism could not be characterized as nothing other than foolish blindness.
Granted these legitimate criticisms, granted also that traditionalism was incompatible with survival, the fact remains that the condemnation of the opposition of the debtera was singularly one-sided and hardly clever. Notably, it missed the core message of the opposition, to wit, that the zeal to appropriate Western knowledge and know-how may result in the loss of the very independence that it wants to protect.
Such is the vigorous message that emanates from one of Asres Yenesew’s books titled Useful Advice.1 Asres––a senior cleric and a leading scholar of the Ethiopian Church––lived at a time when Haile Selassie was forcefully pushing for the spread of modern education to the detriment of traditional schools. Undoubtedly, Asres was traditionalist with all the fibers of his soul. For instance, he literally accepted the biblical story of the creation of man and the Earth and, as we shall see, his arguments are often biblical. He believed in the magical power of certain plants against devilish forces.2 What cannot be taken away from him, however, was that the need to benefit and empower Ethiopia fully inspired his traditionalism. He was sincerely convinced that the best weapon against the marginalization of Ethiopia by Western powers was the revival of some core traditional beliefs.3
The Traditional Intellectual
Written with essentially children and youngsters in mind, Asres’s Useful Advice contains, as the title indicates, analyses of some dangerous developments and recommendations on how to neutralize them, all drawn from the stock of traditional beliefs. It is a defense of tradition, but less to shield tradition against external contaminations than to present it as the best antidote against ominous developments. It is a plea for a return to the source in the face of dangerous trends. Explaining why he wrote the book, Asres alludes to his concern about what he saw and observed and his “obligation to present his reflections to the public.”4 His attempt to counter threats leads him not only to defend tradition, but also to reveal the deep meanings of some of its beliefs, which meanings appear today quite revolutionary in light of the extensive endeavor to denounce Eurocentrism and weaken its grip on third-world intellectual productions.
In direct connection with his felt obligation to write, Asres underlines the social function of intellectuals and writers. He compares the writer to an army intelligence officer: a people without intellectuals are unable to protect themselves, just as “an army without intelligence is likely to surrender to the enemy before it undertakes anything.”5 To make the parallel clearer, he adds that a people without intellectuals are like a bee that is unable to find flowers: “just as a bee cannot make honey unless it absorbs the nectar of flowers, so too a people without intellectuals cannot achieve knowledge, diligence, and progress.”6