💭 The university is now one of the only places in the world where students can learn Ge’ez
Tens of thousands of ancient Ethiopic manuscripts – maybe more – have collected dust for over a century because they are written in what is now a rarely studied language, Ge’ez.
But a new course at the University of Toronto is teaching a new generation of students to understand the ancient Semitic language so that one day they can access this long-lost trove of knowledge.
This week, Professor Robert Holmstedt of the department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations welcomed 25 students and members of Toronto’s Ethiopian community to the first day of an introductory course on Ge’ez, which like Latin, is only used in religious services, in this case for the Ethiopian Orthodox and Catholic churches.
With this course, U of T becomes one of the only places in the world where students can learn the fundamentals of Ge’ez. The program came about through several significant donations, including from The Weeknd, the Ethiopian community and the Faculty of Arts & Science.
Department chair Professor Tim Harrison has said that he hopes, with continued support, U of T will eventually add more courses and be positioned to launch the first Ethiopian studies program in North America.
Since the subject is so rarely taught, Holmstedt had to invent course materials and revise one of the only Ge’ez textbooks in English, the 40-year-old Introduction to Classical Ethiopic: Ge’ez by Thomas O. Lambdin. Ge’ez is a window into an ancient culture and offers insights into other Semitic languages, he said.
“I like giving students access to things that 99.5 per cent of the world doesn’t have access to,” he said. “It’s part of advancing our knowledge and the pursuit of truth. This is the very nature of the university. We can’t leave this behind.”
Michael Gervers, a history professor at U of T Scarborough, helped launch the course with a $50,000 donation and a call to Toronto’s Ethiopian community to contribute.
The call was answered and the donation matched by none other than Toronto native and Grammy-award winning artist Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. The Weeknd.
The campaign for the language course has a $200,000 goal and has received support from the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Bikila Awards organization, a local Ethiopian community group named after Olympic marathoner Adebe Bikila.
On Monday, just as he had promised, Gervers sat in on the class, hoping to be one of the first to learn the language at U of T.
Although he has been studying ancient Ethiopia for 40 years – he has swung from ropes to explore rock-cut monasteries in Ethiopia and created a database of tens of thousands of photographs of Ethiopian art and culture – Gervers does not know the language.
Amharic-speaking students helped him with his pronunciation when he was asked to recite a letter of the alphabet.
The course’s first students included members of the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities, students with an interest in Ethiopian culture, medievalists and students in comparative linguistics.
Before any of the students can uncover the secrets of ancient Ethiopic texts, they must learn the basics. In their first class, they were introduced to Ethiopic letters and to the present tense of verbs like “to sit.”
Hours of memorization come next. Holmstedt urged his students to carry a ringlet of flashcards so they can learn the alphabet on the go.
“Walk around campus memorizing words instead of looking at your phone,” Holmstedt said.
Gervers said he hoped the Ge’ez course would be the first of many classes that would form the basis of an Ethiopian studies program at U of T. He has proposed a graduate-level course in the history of Ethiopia.
“Ethiopia is usually left out of the curriculum because it’s so different,” he said. “There is no point of entry through European languages like English, French, Spanish or Italian.”
The campaign will need additional funding to add further courses in Ge’ez – and even more to kickstart Ethiopian studies.
For many students in the course, the subject isn’t only academic.
Sahlegebriel Belay Gebreselassie, a third-year undergrad in international relations and political science, has an “intimate personal connection” with the class.
“It’s a part of learning my history, my language,” he said.
The Weeknd is donating $1 million to hunger relief in Ethiopia amid the ongoing conflict between the government in Addis Ababa and the Tigray region.
The conflict has resulted in the deaths of thousands and the displacement of more than two million people, according to N P R. Last month, the New York Times obtained an internal U.S. government report that said Ethiopian officials are “leading a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing” in the Tigray region.
The singer announced his donation via Instagram on Sunday morning and encouraged others to give, too.
“My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction,” The Weeknd wrote. “I will be donating $1 million to provide 2 million meals through the United Nations World Food Programme and encourage those who can to please give as well.”
His post also included striking images of children from the region.
Both of The Weeknd’s parents immigrated to Canada from Ethiopia, and The Weeknd grew up speaking Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia.
This is not the first time The Weeknd has aided a humanitarian cause. In June 2020, he donated $1 million to COVID-19 relief, giving $500,000 each to MusiCares and the front-line hospital workers of Scarborough Health Network in his hometown. That same month, he gave another $500,000 to the racial justice causes Black Lives Matter, National Bailout and Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights camp. In August 2020, The Weeknd also donated $300,000 to Global Aid for Lebanon to help those affected by the Beirut explosion.
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