The Amhara land and the Amhara people are endowed with a wide range of infinite spiritual and material resources. These resources have attracted the attention of many writers ranging from the ancient Greek writers to contemporary writers, from domestic to foreign writers. The records about the Amhara land and people can also be found in several religious and secular writings.
The Amhara land and the Amhara people have attracted the attention of the global community for various reasons. The Horn of Africa, where the Amhara people live in, is one of the most geopolitically important places in the world. Its proximity to the Red Sea, being the source of the Blue Nile River, and the presence of rivers that contribute a large portion of the Blue Nail water, are some of the reasons that have attracted the attention of the world. In addition, since ancient times, it has been a place where cross-border trade randomly called as ‘SIRARA’ had flourished, and its contribution to the economy and culture has been significant. These days, the Amhara land and people continue to be a center of economic focus, as it is a place where various agricultural products are widely produced and where many precious minerals are found.
The Amhara people possess numerous artistic, cultural, and historical treasures. Among the artistic treasures are literature, painting, sculpture, traditional and modern music, dance, theater, film, and different handicrafts. Among the cultural aspects are the age-old resources of weddings, mourning and funeral, mediation, justice, child rearing, education, friendship, “Mahiber”, “Equb”, land management, beauty care, environmental care, architecture, gender, medicine and treatment, agricultural production, nutrition, clothing, and so on. The Amhara people have also a history of establishing a state and strengthening a country dated back several centuries.
Although identifying, collecting, analyzing, and utilizing the culture, history, language, and other values of a community requires a coordinated effort from all research and education professionals, there is still no institution in Ethiopia that operates at an institutional level concerned with the issues of the Amhara land and people. Hence, this demands an immediate intervention; cooperation and synergy to build a certain organization or institutions that cultivate, organize and operate efforts of the Amhara people and investing the effort back to the prosperity of the people.
Based on this, institutionalized activities for the overall development of the Amhara region and the Amhara people are a priority. It is not only a privilege but also an obligation to preserve and manage in an organized manner all the material, spiritual, cultural, religious, social, historical, contemporary, man-made, and natural resources and issues that define the Amhara land and the Amhara people, so that they can be used by both the current and future generations, and to properly understand and preserve our value and pass them on from generation to generation. This Institute of Amhara Studies was established on March, 2022, through a survey and workshop to fulfill this cherished and obligatory responsibility.
Vision
To see a globally recognized center of excellence in the issues of the Amhara land and people by 2035.
Mission
One of the mission of the institution is to create awareness, train and produce qualified professionals to research, study, utilize and preserve the culture, traditions, history, art, psychology, man-made and natural resources, and scientific contributions of the Amhara people. Another mission of the institute is to serve as a platform for researchers, scholars, and professionals in various fields to collaborate and freely exchange ideas.
Objectives
General Objective
To systematically study, investigate, document and utilize the social, economic, political, historical and natural issues of the Amhara land and people.
Specific Objectives
- To design and provide educational programs that focus on the social, economic, political, historical and natural issues of the Amhara land and people;
- To conduct research and study on the social, economic, political, historical and natural issues of the Amhara land and people;
- To establish a journal and publish the results of research and study on the social, economic, political, historical and natural issues of the Amhara land and people in educational journals;
- To establish a comprehensive library and archive that will contain books, manuscripts and other documents and printed materials related to the Amhara land and people;
- To providing consulting services on social, economic, political, historical and natural issues of the Amhara land and people;
- To make Amharic the language of science;
- To teach and train interested individuals the various languages of our country in the Ethiopic script (in Amharic letters);
Motto
Devoted to serve the community!
The values of the institute
- Excellence: the institute will maintain high professional standards in all its activities.
- Non-partisanship: the institute will be free from ideological, religious, political and other partisanship.
- Beneficial: the institute will be a beneficial institution by providing useful and relevant insights for short and long-term policy formulation and other affairs of the Amhara people.
- Autonomy: the institute achieves its goals independently of any political or administrative influence, regardless of the various supports it receives from the community and various organizations.
- Nationalism and internationalism: the institute, which has a structure consisting of national and international intellectuals, conducts collaborative work with Ethiopians living both at home and abroad on issues of the Amhara people in a way that creates an intellectual alliance.
- Commitment: the institute works with full commitment to achieve the goals set forth in its objectives.
- Sustainability: the institute coordinates various entities to carry out activities that benefit the public on a sustainable basis.
Description of the institutional structure of the Institute of Amhara Studies
The Institute of Amhara Studies is accountable to the President of the University of Gondar. The President, in turn, directs, supervises, and manages the Institute through the Board of Directors, who are accountable to the President of the University. The members of the Board of trustees are elected by the President of the University and are composed of individuals who support and uphold the values and objectives of the institute, both within and outside the University and also both within and outside the country. They may also be institutions, as appropriate. The number of members will range from 7 to 11.
Centers under the Institute of Amhara Studies
This center is accountable to the director of the institute. It is a center that provides training in a different and broader way than the current training provided by our country’s higher education institutions regarding the issues of the Amhara land and the Amhara people. It is also a center that provides training in a collaborative manner by designing new curricula that are relevant to the times. The center also focuses on and extensively studies the contributions of the Amhara people to our country and the rest of world.
The center, in collaboration with various educational institutions and departments, organizes training and programs on Amhara people’s issues and provides them to all clients from all over the world at certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Accountable to the director of the institute, this center carries out research and development activities to study, document, and utilize the culture, history, language, and other indigenous issues of the Amhara people.
It is a center where researchers and scholars from all over the world, policymakers, national and international development agencies, and others who wish to study the issues of the Amhara people can find organized and accessible research and other related articles. This center also conducts research and studies in partnership and collaboration.
This center is accountable to the director of the institute. The main task of this center is to organize and publish academic or non-academic articles that focus on the issues of the Amhara people, making the articles accessible to the world, and to publish the results of research and studies that will preserve the existence of the Amhara land and people. In the process, it will establish an independent, popular educational magazine/journal.
This center organizes research and corrective feedback to identify all types of publications that convey distorted and incorrect information about the Amhara land and people.
This center is accountable to the director of the institute. It is the center for public and international relations of the institution. It is also a platform for the art, music, dance, theater and cinema of the Amhara people and a center that coordinates, organizes and manages this platform.
In addition, this center will be responsible for leading and organizing various events organized by the institution.
This center is accountable to the director of the institution. It works to establish libraries and archives that deal with the issues of the Amhara people, to properly preserve books, magazines, ancient texts, and other printed materials for future generations, and to promote and focus on the reading culture of the people.
In addition, the center will establish a museum, which will serve as a source of information for researchers, a place of identity preservation for successive generations, and a school of learning and source of evidence of their culture and history.
Partners
- Governmental organizations,
- Non-governmental organizations,
- Charity organizations,
- Investors and developers,
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Dr. Bezabih Tesfahunegn
- Tel (phone): +251944711180
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Amhara.Studies@uog.edu.et
alemyebeza@gmail.com - Director of the Institute