The art of ancient writing

The Nephilim were offspring of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men”. According to records, with the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the Nephilim, a phenomenon was created in the world.  

“They became pregnant, and they bore great giants, whose height was 35 meters and who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured humankind”. This text was taken from the book of Enoch (Metshafe Henock), an ancient scripture believed to be translated into the local language during the Axumite period, part of Ethiopia's ancient treasures.

The book was a contribution by ancient brana (parchment) writers who wanted Ethiopians to know the mystery behind the fallen angles. It is not only this but books which talk about the cosmos and various planets such as Atard (mercury), Zohal (Venus), Mers (Mars), a design of rocket, the stars, the existence of the immortal people, the mis-creatures of the world, the

wondering souls and many more are also kept recorded in old brana books. Books that philosophized about the universe, literature, herbs, in effect offering answers to wide variety of questions, are at the same ancient brana books written by ancient writers. Most of these books have been stolen, lost or destroyed during conflict across time or have been taken abroad by foreigners. Some of these books are also locked in places which are not accessible to people. As a consequence a large part of the younger generation looks to be locked out of their own history for many years.

Where are these books now? Who translated them? are some of the questions that are worth exploring .

The truth is that most of these books have been discarded as unnecessary and/or are out of sight. The current generation is detached from its indigenous  knowledge which is part of what many proudly proclaim to be Ethiopian civilization. This generation is unable to retrace its history and what the ancestors have passed down  to it. But, even when these ancient books are accessible, most of them are written in Ge'ez language, an old language still in use in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Fittingly, the interpretation work is not at all that easy. As it stands at the moment, having a working knowledge of Ge'ez is not enough to do interpretation work; rather one has to know the writings (calligraphy) of those times. Since they preferred symbols to express a sentence rather than writing the whole word, some of the symbols include for human beings symbols which looks like a foot of a camel, or some dots with different colors, lines and patterns are an integral part of these ancient writings, an interpreter should master the craft to do the job. This is what is termed as Ethiopian calligraphy. 

This knowledge is now endangered. The digitalized generation seems not to care about what is going to happen to this sort of indigenous Ethiopian knowledge. Many writers from the older generation are passing away. Ethiopian education system, which did not seem to have any meaningful place for ancient knowledge, is not doing enough to save these ancient writings, specifically the Ge'ez language. Ethiopia is undergoing a rapid urbanization process and, as far as such stock of knowledge is concerned many agree that it is dying out even in the countryside. It is not easy to acquire the knowledge and preserve it. There is a struggle one has to pass through to know the craft of brana writing. Starting from the preparation of brana, the paints and acquiring the art of the writing needs patience and commitment. To add insult to injury, after a tough learning process, the contemporary market for ancient calligraphic art is not encouraging.

Despite all the trouble, one man looks determined not to let this art die out. His name is Liqe Gubae Fekadeselassie Tefera. So far he has published a book entitled “Tintawi Yebrana Metsahift Azegejajet” (ancient brana books preparation) in Amharic. According to Fekadeselassie, traces of inscriptions in Geez language are found sine the second century. But after 340 AD, during the reign of King Ezana, such writings were not in contemporary letters but rather in slightly modified alphabets. Up to the six century, the letters in Ge'ez evolve across time until it was interrupted by Yodit Gudit.  Around the 10th century, with the coming of the Zagwe dynasty to power, the language seems to have revived again, with the discovery of King Lalibela’s writings by using the same language. After Zagwe, and with the coming of medieval kings, the writing reached its peak, especially during the reign of King Amdetsion. In fact, historical evidence shows signs of literature competitions using this very language around the end of the 13th century. Many books were written and during the reign of his son, King Dawit, painting made of gold are said to have transformed the calligraphy art one step further. One of the writers during that time, Aba Giorgis the Gascha, who wrote books such as Digua, even had the privilege to teach the royal family. 

The continuity was not interrupted during this time, until, of course, the war with Ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi a.k.a. Gragn (the left-handed) Mohamaed. King Libne Dingil, who fought Gragn, could not save the great number of churches and books from Gragn. Even though this process was again revived by King Tsertse Dingil, the coming into power of King Susenyos and the Catholicization of the king lost focus on the literature, the book details.

The coming of the Gondarian period and King Fasil helped the literature to evolve. Different styles on the writings started to be noticed. Some of the different styles  were named after their areas of origin such as Gondar, Hayiq, Debrelibanos. Zena Markos and many writers also started to come with different styles. They started beautification, and adding different symbols which led to the 17th and 18th century emergence of the art as yekum tsihfet.  Fekadeselassie became immersed when talking about the writings and knowledge. He shows some of the writings he did in Ge'ez using brana and feels sad about it understanding how the glory of the art has fallen.

Born in Addis Alem, he studied the church teachings starting from the basic alphabets, dawit (psalms), qine, and as he and his friends use to leave their home to seek knowledge, he also followed his teacher and went to Gojam to learn digua. Fekadeselassie started going from place to place to get the best knowledge, and he went to Washera to study qine, and went to Gondar to learn Akuakuam. 

It was that time that his love for the alphabet started; more than five decades ago. When he was in Gojam and Gondar, he started picking up the writings. Learning was tough for him since the teachers were secretive especially in preparing the paints. He learned how to be patient and humble. It took him years to study hand in hand with his other education lessons. Through time, he learned the art of making paints, reed pens, brana. More than all these preparations, painting is one of the difficult things to grasp, he says. There is a difficult chemical composition and there is an order of items that are added to prepare the paint. He learned how to prepare more than seven colors but the dominant one for writing is black and brown colors. Since this was a secretive knowledge even black has seven types which differ with the composition.  

To make paints there are different chemical compositions, and many paints are mixed; the process is highly complicated, he attests. Some of the plants that are used in paint preparation include tsid (coniferous trees), kitikita, kentef, marijuana leaves, etse sabeq, agaros, gofia, keret and strawberry, he explains. There are paints which are produced with only one plant such as ameraro. After it is collected and it has to be roasted until it becomes black. After that it is crashed and mixed by using water by adding a little eret (aloe vera) or enbuay or marijuana leaves. With the making of these paintings, they prepare different colors too. For example, to prepare green color, it is enough to add marijuana leaves juice on, or to prepare yellow lemon is added on red ink. To make it sticky eret  is used.

Knowing all these, he started writing books such as meraf, tsomedigua, gis, ziq, digua but he never uses it for commercial purposes; just for his own intellectual satisfaction. Apart from that the ancient knowledge also had a mechanism to prevent the written materials from being damaged by animals and insects. According to Fekadeselassie, it was the education system which made people creative, taught them humility and made them to philosophize about the universe. They learned what solitude means, and not to depend on foreign books and knowledge but their own. “This is not scribbling down. It is just like paintings. One has to combine imagination and art,” Fekadeselasie told The Reporter. 

There were many competitions during the reign of different kings. And the competition was not about the content but rather the beauty of the writings and this tradition continued up to Emperor Haileselassie. The kings had their own writers and the then royalties also wrote letters and certificates by adding different patterns. Brana writings were also presented as gifts, even Emperor Haileselassie’s gifts that were found in UCLA were brana writings. 

Starting from the 1950’s, Fekadeselassie studied about Ethiopian calligraphy and finally his studies were printed with the help of Addis Ababa University Press. Nevertheless, the book attracted mainly foreigners. This for him shows how the writings have declined not only in urban parts of Ethiopia but also in rural village of Ethiopia. He says that it is not only the coming of the printing machines which worsened the case, rather the government did not know the value of this art. He remembers working for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism before the ministry fired more than 70 of the writers saying they were of no use. The new policy which actually banned the exportation of any kind of brana books from Ethiopia also discouraged many brana writers since their market is abroad. 

This trend also discouraged writers such as Aba Enbakom Achenef, an expert at Authority for Research and Conservation of Heritage, not to produce new materials. Born in Lasta, he followed the difficult route in hunting for knowledge where his destiny took him to Gondar and also to the famous Washera in Gojam where he studied in different churches. His mentor, Kidane Mariam in Debretabor in Abune Aregawi Church, taught him how to work on brana, prepare the paints, and for him, he showed him the was. He knew how to prepare using skins of sheep, goat, cattle, deer, sesa. Talking about the preparation of brana, it has to be washed and soaked in water for a couple of days before it dries. After that, it is stretched and smoothened by using knife and stone called meramememia. 

Depending on the size of the book, the brana then is wrapped. Before the writing, it will be compiled or binded. To protect the cover after writing they make coverage called digus using leather and fire. The preparation of paints, for example, differs from area to area. Around the Amhara Regional State where Aba Enbakom was born there is a grass type called kunduchima and trees such as kitikita, olive and embacho which are mixed to make a black paint. They use water made of roasted barley. He says, it takes up to two years to produce good paint. The writing pen like instrument is made of sharpened bamboo tree called shenbeko.

He worked professionally for a couple of years. While he was teaching in Dawuint, at Abune Estinfase kirstos monastery, his writing were mostly in the underground. He says that in that neighborhood many such writings were directly associated with black magic and this discouraged him from pursuing his writings and to focus only on preparing brana. He came to Addis Ababa by leaving everything behind. He says that in ancient Ethiopia, the writers used to make a lot of money. The writers also deserved that payment since they prepare huge books by using up to 400 animals skin. They passed the rules of the writings from generation to generation. Some of the writings are very technical, requiring deep knowledge of the phonetics. Each letter has to be studied by the writers carefully because with the alphabets there are different meanings.

“I met a writer from Worota town who prepared two sinkisars (synaxarium). The work took more than twenty years. Even though he offered it at 30,000 birr (quite cheap for such work), there was still no one who was willing to buy from him,” Aba Enbakom explains. He says if it was foreigners they would buy him in millions of birr.  “Even though this is a law to preserve the branas,  it is also discouraging for the writers,” Aba Enbakom says. This is discouraging him not to write. For now he is focused on restoration of 400 brana books that are in the center. 

People such as Alemu Haile, interpretor and translator at the authority, say that decline in production of new brana books is not the only concern. He is currently trying to translate these books. The question for Alemu is not only protecting books but also passing them to this generation and making sure that the continuity of the knowledge is uninterrupted. For him the establishment of Ethiopian brana organization during Emperor Haileselassie's rule, which was dissolved after the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), came to power, supported writers to be part of the bigger picture.

In the organization, brana books were produced and many books from different areas were microfilmed in this institution. More than ten thousand of these books were microfilmed but according to Alemu, the overall number of such books in Ethiopia could be as high as quarter of a million. Alemu says that it is not only religious books but ancient law, literature, people settled in various part of nation were all subject matters covered in brana books. “People associate the books only with the church. That is wrong,” he argues. 

“The old generation is dying out before passing on the knowledge. Now everyone is engaged in deconstructing the writings and the repetition in alphabets without knowing the purpose,” Alemu says. According to Alemu, this phenomenon is country-wide since the students who want to study this craft, mostly found around the countrysides, are now unable to muster support they need.

Source: Reporter