The Anglo-Ethiopian Society

Lecture - HYBRID - Slavery and Abolition in Ethiopia, ca. 1920-1942

Alexander Meckelburg

Thursday 18th July 2024

18:45 BST, Ethiopian Community in Britain, 2a Lithos Road, London NW3 6EF - Public event (all welcome)

With the event also being broadcast online, starting at about 19:00 BST

Note - Register for the online event on Eventbrite and you'll be emailed a Zoom link shortly before the event.


The abolition of slavery in Ethiopia is often framed within the context of Ethiopia's bid for membership in the League of Nations, driven by modernization aspirations. Western perspectives, particularly from British and Italian observers, tended to blame the nascent Ethiopian state's institutional weaknesses and bureaucratic inefficiencies for its inability to suppress the slave trade. However, this narrative frequently overlooks the internal domestic, logistical, and institutional challenges that Ethiopia faced in its efforts to abolish slavery.

This presentation rethinks these views by focusing on the complexities of slavery and anti-slavery in Ethiopia, drawing from ongoing research on the transformation of abolitionism. It explores the bureaucratic, political, and social achievements in the context of anti-slavery efforts. Additionally, it highlights the interplay between internal reforms and external pressures, shedding light on the broader implications for Ethiopia's historical trajectory and international relations.

Alexander Meckelburg is a historical anthropologist and a post-doctoral fellow with the Department of History at University College London. He is actively involved in the ERC-funded project “African Abolitionism: The Rise and Transformations of Anti-Slavery in Africa (AFRAB)”. Previously, he served as an editorial assistant with the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica and was a research fellow at the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies at the University of Hamburg. Alexander has also been a visiting researcher at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi and the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University, where he was affiliated with the ERC-funded project “SLAFNET: Slavery in Africa, a Dialogue between Europe and Africa”. His research interests include labour, slavery, migration, and the trajectories of citizenship in the political history of Northeast Africa. His recent works have been published in the Law and History Review and the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of African History. Currently, he is co-editing a special issue on “Slavery and the Slave Trade in Ethiopian Studies” in the Supplement to Aethiopica Series (Harrassowitz).


Please reserve your place soon to avoid disappointment.

Eventbrite Tickets - Slavery and Abolition in Ethiopia, ca. 1920-1942 by Alexander Meckelburg


Unable to attend the event in person? Register for an online ticket to be sent a link to a Zoom broadcast of the live event.

Eventbrite Tickets - Slavery and Abolition in Ethiopia, ca. 1920-1942 by Alexander Meckelburg - Online Event


First Published in News File Spring 2024

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