Icons of Devotion/Icons of Trade Creativity and Entrepreneurship in Contemporary “Traditional” Ethiopian Painting

Icons of Devotion/Icons of Trade Creativity and Entrepreneurship in Contemporary “Traditional” Ethiopian Painting Neal Sobania and Raymond Silverman ksum is one of Ethiopia’s major tourist destina- tions. Although only a small town in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, it is the spiritual home of the ALL PHOTOS BY RAYMOND SILVERMAN AND NEAL SOBANIA Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) and rich in ancient monuments. Archaeologically it has been occupied since c. 350 bce. Later, c. 100–600 ce, it is where the capital of the Aksumite empire once stood, and Afrom where it dominated an area from the highlands of northern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea to the Red Sea and at times beyond. Its fine architectural stonework is plainly evident in the elite residences, tombs, and the carved stelae that dot the landscape. Coins of copper, bronze, and gold reveal the roots of an exceptional metalworking tradition, while works of stone and clay, including figurative sculpture, are evidence of a fine sculpture tradition. Not long after the introduction of Christianity to the region in the early fourth century, Aksum became a recognized center for the production of paraphernalia associated with the church. Today the production of metal objects, from censers, sistra, and horns to processional, hand, and neck crosses, continues to thrive. So too does a tradition of religious painting—illumi- nations in manuscripts, icons on wood, and large paintings on cloth destined for the walls of churches. A tradition that has been practiced for the better part of 1500 years, the paintings of the EOC have both taught and sustained the Christian faith. For those who could not read or write—which for many centuries was, and still is, the condition of most Ethiopians—the teach- ings of the church have been presented in pictorial narratives grounded in the Orthodox faith. Today, more often than not, paintings cover the walls of Ethiopian churches, and sometimes the ceilings as well (Fig. 1). Scores of metalworkers and painters in Aksum and the sur- rounding region remain prolific producers of such objects. Parishioners and church officials purchase and commission paintings and other religious paraphernalia directly from artists in their homes, and at religious festivals, where artists sell their work (Sobania and Silverman 2006). At the same time, the dozen or more tourist shops in Aksum are also full of their met- alwork and paintings, often displayed and sold alongside much (opposite) P1 aintings on the walls, including the T rinity, older objects. The range of souvenirs for visitors is extensive. Adam and Eve, and the Crucifixion, with various There is archaeological material—primarily stone and clay figu- saints painted on the ceiling in the Church of the rative sculpture and metal coins associated with ancient Aksum, Four Animals (Arbaat Ensesa) in Aksum. 2001 26 | african arts SPRING 2009 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar.2009.42.1.26 by guest on 27 September 2021 10A17_AMM401_p26-37.indd 26 11/21/2008 10:52:39 AM SPRING 2009 african arts | 27 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar.2009.42.1.26 by guest on 27 September 2021 10A17_AMM401_p26-37.indd 27 11/21/2008 10:52:52 AM by the tourist industry as a cultural heritage destination and a place for adventure travel, this trade has rebounded and is once again on the verge of flourishing.2 Today, while a significant por- tion of artistic production in Aksum is still destined for use in the region’s churches, the more lucrative market for the town’s many painters and metalworkers is the foreigners who come to visit the historic town. Some of their products are also sent for sale to the tourist shops of Addis Ababa. Like many artists and artisans in Africa who originally were trained and participated in traditions that were primarily directed towards local communities, but later found other audiences for their work, Ethiopian painters, as well as metal and wood workers, participate in both of these markets. Although what they paint, carve, or fabricate is the same as what they have always produced, is what they make then art, artifact, or commodity? The recent observation of Ruth B. Phillips and Christopher Steiner, that art, artifact, and commodity should not be seen as 2 The inside of an distinct and separate categories, but must be “merged into a sin- Aksum tourist shop. 1997 gle domain where the categories are seen to inform one another rather than to compete in their claims for social primacy and cultural value” (Phillips and Steiner 1999:16), corresponds well and occasionally pre-Aksumite culture—some of it authentic, with the new directions in the spiritually grounded visual tra- some fake, but all illegal to export. Religious objects are ever- ditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This observation is present, especially crosses of all shapes and sizes—neck crosses, most relevant in the context of the phenomenon we are study- hand crosses, and processional crosses of bronze, copper, iron, ing, where ecclesiastical objects function within the framework and silver. Visitors can also find a wide variety of paintings on of categories Phillips and Steiner have set forth.3 Though the new cloth, leather, or parchment, or on wood—primarily diptychs pieces being produced—be they icons, mural paintings, manu- and triptychs of various sizes—as well as jewelry—both used and script books, crosses, vestments, or a range of other objects—are new. Household objects include baskets as well as items of wood, purchased by visitors and taken home as souvenirs, artifacts, or from headrests and coffee trays carved in Ethiopia to masks from works of art, some of them are also purchased by parishioners, as far away as Ghana (Fig. 2). Many of these items are pastiches priests, and nuns for use in local churches. These works carry the or innovations created specifically for visitors to Ethiopia, such same symbolic and communicative qualities—the same “social as miniaturized grave posts from the Konso in the far south of primacy and cultural value”—as works produced solely for local the country, wood headrests decorated with beadwork, wood use in years past. For Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, these relief carvings of scenes of rural life, as well as religious paintings objects continue to have the same significance and are imbued on animal skin or set in elaborately carved wood cases. with the same spirituality they have always had, even with their Prior to the twentieth century, the liturgical objects and paint- recent appropriation by the souvenir market. ings were produced for local use in churches, or in the case of The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a monastic tradition said metal jewelry, for individuals as adornment. The first shift in this to have begun in the late fifth and early sixth centuries with the localized production came when Emperor Menelik II (r. 1889– arrival of nine Syrian monks, each of whom founded a monas- 1913) began giving gifts of paintings to diplomats and other impor- tery (Munro-Hay 2006:131–58). Marilyn Heldman has argued tant visitors to his court. The most significant change, however, that it was in such monasteries, which once dotted the Ethio- came with the expansion of tourism in Ethiopia during the second pian landscape, that the earliest objects used in worship were half of the twentieth century. Two events in the early 1960s created first created. These practices were later refined in the royal courts an entirely new market for the makers of ecclesiastical art as well (Heldman 1998; Silverman and Sobania 2004:352–53). Royal as household objects. One was the founding of the Organization court production came to an end with the overthrow of Emperor of African Unity in Addis Ababa in 1963, which brought diplomats Haile Selassie in 1974, although remnants of a monastic pattern from across the continent and around the world to its headquar- of production are alive and well in the countryside that sur- ters in the capital. The other was the creation and marketing to rounds certain religious centers.4 This article looks at one such tourists of the “Ethiopian Historic Route” by the Ethiopian Tourist religious center, the town of Aksum, and considers the produc- Organization and Ethiopian Airlines about the same time.1 The tion of icons, including the carved wood cases in which these nascent trade in art and artifacts was dramatically curtailed dur- are painted.5 It does so by focusing on two exceptional individu- ing the reign of the Derg government (1974–1991), whose anti- als who have each played a significant role ensuring the survival Western politics discouraged foreign travel to Ethiopia. Further of these vibrant traditions—one a traditional church painter, challenges to the tourist trade came with the tensions that arose the other a successful local entrepreneur. Each in his own way following Eritrea’s independence in 1993 and the border war that is committed to upholding and maintaining the high quality of erupted in 1998. Over the past decade, with Ethiopia promoted painting and icons for which Aksum is known. 28 | african arts SPRING 2009 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar.2009.42.1.26 by guest on 27 September 2021 10A17_AMM401_p26-37.indd 28 11/21/2008 10:52:56 AM An Artist’s Workshop whom are daughters, he has ensured this by sending all of them Aksum is home to many painters, but Berhanemeskel Fisseha to both public and church school. Indeed, three of his sons are (b. 1947) is arguably the leading “traditional” painter currently now deacons in the church.9 working in northern Ethiopia.

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