XIVth International Conferences of Ethiopian Studies

The Opening Day, 14th ICES - 2000 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The XIVth International Conference was held from 6 -11 November 2000 in Addis Ababa under the auspices of Addis Ababa University and the administrative responsibility of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. The Conference coincided with the Golden Jubilee of the University in which it figured as one of the major events of the celebration that lasted over a period of two months. The main venue was the School of Graduate Studies, where the registration, opening, closing and plenary sessions were held. The regular panel sessions wee held in the Faculty of Technology at Amist Kilo.

As shown in the pre-registration forms sent out to all colleagues, the themes of the Conference were the following:

 

Participants

There were 268 scholars pre-registered following our initial circular in December 1998. Of these, 249 had sent in their abstracts for inclusion into our booklet, which was published. There were another 13 people, who applied late for participation and were accepted. The total number of participants expected was, thus, raised to 281. In addition, there were 137 people registered as observers. The breakdown of both the expected, and actual number of participants and observers by country is as shown below:

Country
Participants

Observers

Expected
Participated

Australia

1

Austria

1

1

1

Belgium

2

1

-

Canada

3

5

1

Czech

-

-

1

Denmark

-

-

1

Ethiopia

112

79

71

France

12

8

5

Germany

40

26

11

Greece

-

-

1

Ireland

-

-

4

Israel

10

6

1

Italy

10

14

6

Japan

10

8

3

The Netherlands

4

5

-

Nigeria

-

-

1

Norway

6

8

6

Poland

3

2

-

Portugal

3

2

-

Russia

3

4

1

South Africa

1

1

-

Sweden

6

5

6

Switzerland

1

1

3

Trinidad and Tobago

1

-

-

United Kingdom

12

12

3

United States

23

14

11

Total

262

201

137

The level of participation by Panels is as follows:

Panel
Expected
Presented

History (1)

43

35

History (2)

39

30

Anthropology (1)

30

24

Anthropology (2)

21

13

Linguistics

29

20

Literature

25

20

Religion and Philosophy

16

12

Law and Politics

18

17

Development and Environment

28

18

Education and Fine Arts

13

12

Total

262

201

 

The total number of people in attendance is 338, which stands as one of the highest in the history of the Conference. This is excluding students and other members of the University community who attended most of the sessions free.

The conference program includes six plenary sessions in which five of the eight categories of themes were assessed in terms of their developments through the years and their future directions. These include History, Linguistics, Literature, Development, and Anthropology. History and Development took entire mornings whereas the other four took only 1:30 hrs of each morning. All were well attended and received.