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First plans for the South Omo Research Center
(excerpt from a contribution by Prof. Ivo Strecker
to the Sociology, Ethnology Bulletin of Addis Ababa University, March
1992)
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Students and staff of Addis Ababa University with some of their
hosts at the border of Ethiopia and Kenya, 1990 |
When in December 1990 the students and staff of the Addis Ababa
M.A. programme in social anthropology went on an excursion to North
and South Omo, somewhere along the road a pun was created: someone
said that although there were many splendid sights to be seen we were
not just "sight-seeing" but rather "site-seeing". That is, we went to
look at sites where the students might later do the fieldwork which is
required for their training as anthropologists. Part and parcel of the
"site-seeing" was to have a good look at the practical side of things
such as the accessibility of different places, availability of food
and housing, health hazards and so on.
Also we were to see whether it might be possibly to establish a
permanent fieldbase for the M.A programme at Jinka in the future. Some
of us had already been meeting in the past with other anthropologists,
administrators and employees of various ministries and
non-governmental organisations and had discussed the need for a
"Museum of South Omo Cultural and Natural Heritage" at Jinka. I had
been a member of this group, and together with Dr. Makonnen Bishaw in
May 1990 I had sent a circular asking people whether they would like
to join an informal group or network of friends who would support the
planning and eventual building of a museum at Jinka. Furthermore, at
Jinka a first committee for the museum had meanwhile been established,
and it was one of the most important tasks of our excursion to meet
with members of this committee.
There is no room here to relate all the details of our stay at
Jinka, of the hospitality offered to us, of the many discussions we
had, of the many plans we made... let me only tell that one night
under the light of the stars we held a kind of "potlatch" where we
founded the "Society of Friends of the Museum of South Omo Cultural
and Natural History" heaping smaller and larger notes of birr and
dollars on top of each other saying "let them give birth to more and
let them be the cornerstone for the museum and the first field-base of
the M.A. programme in social anthropology!".
Once we had founded the "Society of Friends", the next step was to
sum up the many things we had discussed and come up with a coherent
concept for the project at Jinka. This was done later after we had
returned from our excursion and had further consulted members of the
Addis Ababa University, the Ministry of Culture, some Embassies and
scholars from abroad. In these discussions a broader concept had
emerged which included not only a museum but other facilities as
well.
Although, as I have said, the concept had emerged, it was not
until, in the midst of turmoil and civil war in Ethiopia, Anania
Admasu, then assistant administrator of South Omo, came to Addis
Ababa, visited the Department of Sociology, and sat down to formulate
with us the text which follows below:
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