Abyssinia’s Samuel Johnson, ETHIOPIAN THOUGHT IN THE MAKING OF AN ENGLISH AUTHOR; Wendy Laura Belcher; Ethiopia

Introduction, Wendy Laura Belcher

Structure of the Book

"The first chapter lays out the ancient basis for the Habesha’s claims for exceptionality, from their ancient empires through their early modern ones. Chapters 2 through 8 focus on how Habesha discourse circulated in Johnson’s fiction. These chapters describe the multiple conflicting sources of Johnson’s translation A Voyage to Abyssinia; how Habesha religious thought discussed in it may have enabled some of Johnson’s religious beliefs; how Johnson’s tragedy Irene is indebted to the Habesha royal woman who appear prominently in the literature about the Habesha; and how  Abyssinia’s Samuel Johnson Johnson’s “oriental tales,” including Rasselas, are energumens through which other voices speak. Throughout, the metaphor of possession allows us to eschew antiquated questions about Johnson’s “intentions” or ill-advised attempts to diagnose his texts’ “authenticity” and enables us to focus on the power of African discourse to animate the English canon".

See also:

The Glory of the Kings, or the Kebra Nagast: A Translation of the Medieval African Text about the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon


The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros: A Seventeenth-Century African Biography of an Ethiopian Woman


Princeton Ethiopian Miracles of Mary Project


Early African Literature: An Anthology of Written Texts from 3000 BCE to 1900 CE


Belcher: Perspective on ancient Ethiopian texts, Princeton University


Priests, scholars gather to celebrate Princeton’s Ethiopian manuscripts, Princeton University

Video: Women's Intimacies in an Early African Text – Wendy Laura Belcher