Bulatovich, A.K.: From Entoto to the Baro River. An Account of the Journey in the South-Western Regions of the Ethiopian Empire in 1896-1897

Title

Ot Entoto do reki Baro. Otchet o puteshestvii v iugo-zapadnye oblasti efiopskoi imperii v 1896-1897 gg., Sankt-Peterburg 1897

From Entoto to the Baro River. An Account of the Journey in the South-Western Regions of the Ethiopian Empire in 1896-1897

Keywords

Summary

After the introduction and the first two chapters, consisting of a recollection of Bulatovich’s trips to Ethiopia between 1896 and 1897, the book proceeds as an essay on the geography, ethnography, and history of Ethiopia. Individual chapters are dedicated to the Oromo, Sidama, Negro and Amhara peoples. The final chapters are devoted to the Ethiopian state system and the Ethiopian church. The appendixes include 1) The equipment used during the trips; 2) A description of the wounds inflicted by a 3-lined rifle; 3) A brief dictionary of Gimira and Madibis words; 4) Notions about trade in Ethiopia. The author makes an effort to reduce the distance between Ethiopia and Russia, stressing their common grounds (for instance, Christianity). He also insists on Ethiopia’s potential to become a coloniser of its own in the inner African regions, to the detriment of European powers.

Bio

Aleksandr Bulatovich was a Russian explorer, military officer and, since 1903, a monk known as “Hieromonk Antonii”. Born in a noble family of the Orel region, he attended the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum, prior to serving in the Hussar Leib Guard regiment. He travelled to Ethiopia four times (1896-1897; 1897-1898; 1899-1900; 1911) as a member of official missions of the Russian empire (for instance, the Russian Red Cross mission and the first Russian diplomatic mission). Despite being in service at the time of his travels (with the exception of the last one), he often extended his permanence in Ethiopia in order to visit the country of his own accord, becoming very close to Menelik II. For his work in Ethiopia, he was awarded a silver medal by the Russian Geographical Society. In 1903 he took his vows, and in the following years he experienced problems with the authorities because of his proximity to the imiaslavie movement. His last trip to Ethiopia was aimed at establishing a Russian Orthodox monastery. After serving in WW1, he returned to the family estate living as a hermit until 1919, when he was murdered. About Ethiopia he also wrote With the Armies of Menelik (1900).

Sources

M. K. Mirzeler, Reading Ethiopia through Russian Eyes: Political and Racial Sentiments in the Travel Writings of Alexander Bulatovich, 1896-1897, “History in Africa”, 2005 (32), p. 281-294;

E. Chach, N.S. Gumilev i A.K. Bulatovich: puteshestviia v Efiopiiu v kontekste serebrianogo veka, in Orientalizm/Oksidentalizm: iazyki kul’tur i iazyki ikh opisaniia, Moskva 2012, p. 226-240.

A.F.