Ethiopian Research Council 2021
In discussions and research about the Ethiopian World Federation, Incorporated, Norvin Bey Isra-El (a former student of Dr. Asante) and I discovered that Malaku Bayen founded the Ethiopian Research Council at Howard University in Washington D.C. nearly three years before the Ethiopian World Federation, Incorporated in 1934.
On February 6th,
2020, I reached out to Dr Molefi Asante by phone to get his input of the
history of the council since we discovered he was a former board member. On
that call Dr. Asante gave us the “ok” to restart the council in words, “you
should do that”. He also gave the name of an Ethiopian Professor that may also
be interested.
History
The
Ethiopian Research Council (ERC) was founded in 1934 in Washington, D.C. by a group
of Ethiopian and American professionals and scholars. The Council is the
brainchild of Dr. Melaku Bayen, a surgeon, one of the twelve founding members
& the guiding light of ERC strategies until his death; he was the first
Ethiopian to graduate with an Medical Doctorate from an institution in the USA.
The distinguished Professor William Leo Hansbury was elected as the first
Director of the Ethiopian Research Council in 1934 while the suave William
Steen handled the day to day affairs of the ERC as Executive Secretary
demonstrating his unusually outstanding skills in administration and public
relations as well as his love of Ethiopia and Ethiopian causes. Professor
Hansbury's was a distinguished professor of history at Howard University, who
received the coveted Haile Selassie I Prize in Literature (then the African
equivalent to the European Noble Prize) in 1963. Before he died in 1965, he
completed a manuscript on ancient Ethiopian history which was later published
by Howard University Press in 1974 under the title Ethiopia: The Pillar of
Civilization. Professor Hansbury was the founder of the African Studies Program
at Howard, which later became the first Black Studies Department in the United
States and the world.
Past Leadership
Dr. Wossene Yifru assumed the leadership of the Ethiopian
Research Council in 1989 and convened to Conferences in 1990 and 1991 which
were well attended by Ethiopians and Ethiopianist scholars all over the world.
Dr. Wossene's contributions to ERC include his publication as Editor three
informative & beautiful issues of Henok, Journal of ERC both in Amharic and
English. During his tenure as Director, Dr. Wossene's was assisted by several
outstanding Board Members and Advisors including Dr. Hailu Fullas, Professor
Ford, and many others.
ERC former Officers & Board Members:
The members of the Board of Directors included internationally
known scholars, administrators and educators including:
Dr. Mulugeta Agonafer, Professor Molefi Asante, Mr. William B.
Davis (deceased),
Dr. Peter Garretson, Professor Karenga, Distinguished Professor
Harold G. Marcus, (deceased), Ato Fasil Gebre Mariam, Ato Aberra Moltot, Ms.
Imani Nyah, (Woletta Selassie), Professor Richard Pankhurst (deceased), Dr.
Fikre Tolossa, and
Dr. Wosene Yefru, Dr Hailu Fullas, Director-
Professor Ashenafi Kebede, deceased
Former Director
The last Director/Coordinator of the Ethiopian Research
Council was internationally known scholar/ethnomusicologist Professor Ashenafi
Kebede, who also served as Director of the Center for African American Culture
and Professor of Ethnomusicology, African & Afro-American Studies, both at
The Florida State University. Though renowned in Ethiopia as the
Founder/Director of the National (Yared) School of Music, which has graduated
practically all the living performing musical and music educators of Ethiopia,
he was internationally known as an ethnomusicological scholar, the first person
to receive the Ph.D. degree in his field from the famed Wesleyan University
(1971, Middletown, Connecticut); the first African to conduct the famous
Hungarian State Orchestra (1967). He has also served in several prestigious
positions at the international level serving as the UNESCO Expert to The
Government of Sudan where he founded the Sudanese Institute of Music, Dance and
Drama, and Chairman of the Teheran International Conference on Music Education
in the Countries of Africa & Asia organized by UNESCO.
Purpose of ERC
The Ethiopian Research Council has the unique purpose of disseminating information on the history, culture, civilization, and diplomatic relations of Ethiopia in ancient and modern times. Ethiopia is the seat of one of the oldest living civilizations in the world. It possessed civil and social institutions of a high order of development long before Europe had emerged as a nation state, and in the heyday of the Classical Age it was universally regarded as one of the greatest and most powerful nations of the earth. Believing that the culture of this ancient and long-lived nation deserves a wider currency than contemporary thought and scholarship have accorded it, the Ethiopian Research Council (ERC) has set itself to the performance of the following important task:
(a) An annual convention.
(b) Publication of the journal Ethiopia's Morning Star.
(c) Ethiopian Research Council Awards & Honors.
(d) Working with educational institutions in Ethiopia and abroad, ERC
encourages and assists talented Ethiopian youths to get access to higher
education abroad.
For Additional information,
write or contact: moorziontp@gmail.com
