Decolonial Embodied Historiography: Female Performing Bodies, Revolutions and Empires in Ethiopia a DISSERTATION SUBMITTED to T
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Decolonial Embodied Historiography: Female Performing Bodies, Revolutions and Empires in Ethiopia A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Surafel Wondimu Abebe IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Michal Kobialka – Co-Adviser Dr. Rachmi Diyah Larasati – Co-Adviser November 2018 © Surafel Wondimu Abebe 2018 i Acknowledgements My special gratitude goes to Ethiopian female artists. I had the privilege to think with and be inspired by some of these women. My curiosity about female performers’ history of resistance began in the 1990s when I had informal conversations with artist Asnakech Worku (1935-2011) and Telela Kebede at the foyer of the Ethiopian National Theatre. I always treasure Professor Rachmi Diyah Larasati’s multifaceted generosity. I came to graduate school due to her. She became my professor, mentor and co-advisor. Without the critical social and intellectual spaces that she created to students of the global south, I would not be able to survive the challenges of graduate school and strive to become a better human being. I also owe a very deep sense of gratitude to my co-advisor Professor Michal Kobialka who nurtured my intellectual growth through close mentorship and critical scholarship. Working with Professor Kobialka was a rare opportunity, a rewarding challenge, and an honor. A big thanks to him! Two of my committee members, Professors Margaret Werry and Shaden Tageldin also shaped the ways in which I developed my dissertation. As a DGS of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, as my professor, and as the chair of my committee, Professor Werry taught and guided me through graduate school. I thank her very much. Professor Tageldin gave me ample opportunity to learn from her extraordinary qualities. I wish to record my gratitude to her. She is endowed with humility, magnanimity, and meticulous critical reading and conversation. Professors Richa Nagar and Zenzele Isoke of the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota spared their precious time to read some parts of ii my dissertation. Professor Nagar also gave me chances to participate in workshops and seminars she organized. The classes I took with Professors Cindy Garcia, John Mowitt, Alice Lovejoy, and Timothy Brennan also opened multiple epistemic avenues for me. My residency at the Center for Humanities Research (CHR), University of Western Cape (UWC) was a generative space where I conversed with young African scholars and Professors like Premesh Lalu, Heidi Grunebaum, Suren Piley, and Patricia Hayes. Those engagements informed my dissertation writing in various ways. I give thanks to all! Since my dissertation is a result of various encounters, I want to pay tribute to some of my mentors, colleagues and/or friends who opened new intellectual and social possibilities for me: Assistant Professor Belayneh Abune, Dr. Luleadey Taddese, Mahlet Abraham, Bethelhem Mamo, Meles Yemane, Netsanet Gebre-Michael, Meseret Abeje, Dr. Biniam Sisay, Semeneh Ayalew, Haregewoin Assefa, Ekram Mohammed, Yewilsew Shitie, Lealem Mersha, Dr. Elizabeth Wolde Giorgis, Dr. Mousumi R. Chowdhury, Dr. Zelalem Teferra, Dr. Fikru Gebrekidan, Professor Geri Augusto, Professor Anthony Bogues, Professor Shiferaw Bekele, Dr. Tekalign Woldemariam, Dr. Shimelis Bonsa, and Dr. Yonas Ashine. Semeneh and Dr. Shimelis have been my constant interlocutors. I cannot imagine success in a graduate school without a spirit of friendship, intellectual and emotional support that fellow students share. Hence, I want to give special thanks to Virgil Slade, Dr. Rita Kompelmakher, Bryan Schmidt, Hyo Jeong, Misha Hadar, and Erin M. Washington. I would like to particularly thank David Melendez, Jacob Rorem, Kalkidan Alemayehu, and Hanna Wodajo for sharing ideas and copyediting different parts of my project. Dr. Wade Haynes was my inspiration. iii I would not have reached here without the abundant social and artistic experience that I had with my friends in Ethiopian diaspora communities and East African artists in Minnesota. I am extremely grateful to have these brothers and sisters: Yohannes Zerihun, Abeba Kebede, Aster Desta, Rahel Assefa, Aleme Feleke, Sara Motbaynor, Aregawi Alamirew, Finote Tibeb Literary Art Center, Rhythmic Literature, Ananaya Dance Theatre, Seble Demissie, Zekarias Nigatu, Mignote Kifle, Dawit Nigatu, Meron Getnet, Abebech Taddese, Awgichew Teferi, Worknesh Belayneh (Etaba), Bizu Asfaw, Yodit Mekuria, Genet Abate, Johnny Tona, Bekele Adamu, Mesfin Gizaw, Daniel Goshu, Gash Solomon Deressa, Otto Ujulu, Gash Zewdie Hailu, Zemenay Zerihun, Tsigereda Missikir, Mimi Letta, Behailu Derso, Abraham Begizew, Abraham Teferi, Dagne G. Cafu, Kalkidan Alemayehu, Hanna Wodajo, Beko (Dilla), Haymanot Debebe, Yosef Assefa, Rekik Abayneh, Solomon Haile (DJ Solo), Dawit Olana, Efrat Amsalu, Mesfin Negia, Befikadu Moreda, Wubeshet Jigsa, Kiyar Siraj, Fasil Mesfin, Nebiyu Kidane, Petros Haile, Ahmed Ismail, Redeat Tibebu, Jenber Assefa, Edom Kassaye, Mihret Sibhat, Wagari Hirpa, Hayat Ali, Biruk K Desta, Jillo Abduljebar and other friends. I would like to acknowledge various institutions that gave me financial and intellectual assistance. The Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) awarded me the ICGC-Mellon Fellowship that fully sponsored my second year study, fourth year field research, and my two-month residency at CHR, UWC. Dr. Karen Brown, Director of ICGC and her team were generous enough to also provide me with a pre-dissertation research grant (2014) and a research assistant position (2017-2018). I iv highly appreciate Dr. Lou Bellamy and Sara Bellamy for allowing me to work with them as an August Wilson Fellow at Penumbra Theatre that gave me scholarship for my first year study. I also thank the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance that awarded me teaching assistantship and various fellowships. I am fully indebted to these great-hearted brothers and sisters – Temesgen Afework, Mestawet Aragaw, Aweke Imiru, Selam Ayele, Dr. Esayas Bekele, Tesfaye Gebrehana, Bitseat Siyoum, Alemayehu Taddesse, Martha Getachew, Adanech Woldegabriel, Alemtsehay Wodajo, Abebe Feleke, Tewodros Legesse, Tesfaye Sima, Berehane Nigussie, Yonas Hagos, Gizachew Eshetu, Girum Zenebe, Abebaw Melaku, Tewodros Tessema, Yimer Daud, Azeb Worku, Meaza Worku, Selamawit Seid, Lule Ashagarie, Fasil Yitbarek, Dr. Negash Belay, and Feven Berhe, to name but a few. I also thank my families for being co-travelers with me. I particularly appreciate my brother Kirubel for his great kindness. I would like to acknowledge the following institutions and individuals who allowed me to engage with their archives and embodied memories: Institute of Ethiopian Studies, National Archives and Library, National and Hager Fikir Theatres, Ethiopia Radio and Television, my friend and research assistant Fitsum Woldemariam, Aselefech Ashine, Alganesh Tariku, Getachew Debalqe, Mer’awi Si’tot, Associate Professor Tesfaye Gessesse, Dr. Hailu Habtu, Dr. Hiruy Abdu, Dr. Kindeneh Enideg, Tekle Desta, Kuribachew Woldemariam, Firegenet Alemu, Yetnayet Lakew, DJ (National), Melese Woldu, Abdi Negash, Elias Sime, Bewiketu Siyoum, Brook Abdu, and Abera Minuyelet. v Dedication To Emuye, Mami, Tereza, Mahlet, Hemen, Heran, and Baba vi Abstract This dissertation is about the struggles of Ethiopian female performers like Telela Kebede, Asnakech Worku, and Merry Armde. It examines the resistance that women artists enacted on inter/national stages, in the nightclubs of red-light districts, and in their everyday lives. Ethno/national discourses take Hegelian and Rankean historiography for granted making identity politics the only avenue to citizenship/subjectivity. Deployed to create a neoliberal structure of belonging, this politics obfuscates multiple articulations of freedom particularly feminist struggles in the past and closes off epistemic and embodied multi-genre possibilities in the present (1991-2018). Using performance as a mode of thinking, as an object of analysis and as a site of struggle, my dissertation probes into the staging of a ‘burden of history’ that moves around in Ethiopian historiography just as an issue of longue durée. I argue that history needs to be interrogated as a colonial/modern discipline and profession. Then, I re-singularize the 1974 Marxist revolution to show how Ethiopian female performers articulated their desires in collaboration with male revolutionaries such as the prolific playwright and thinker Tsegaye-Gabre-Medhin. Though he staged Ethiopian socialism (negritude) to create possibilities, Tsegaye rendered female performers as ‘impure’ bodies that ‘obliterated’ the socialist progress because they had nightclubs in the red-light districts. These women fought to change their condition enacting tactical resistance on and off stage by expanding the notion of the performative and the political. In order to complicate the notion of ‘abject’ body, the dissertation genealogically looks into the emergence of the raced, classed, gendered, sexualized, commodified, and dis/abled female bodies at the beginning of the twentieth vii century. Ethiopia’s position as un-colonized yet colonized country (in terms of coloniality of power) informed participation of performance in the invention of dangerous liaisons and translations of governmentality. Nevertheless, female performers negotiated empires’ (global-local) spatial segregation through multiple performances as other women of red-light districts joined the resistance