Hybrid Images

Photographs of Haile Selassie (r. 1930–1974) can be seen today on the streets of Addis Ababa and in books, museums, and photo agencies around the world; they have gained as well a new life on the Internet, partly through Rastafarianism activism. While the reign of this King of Kings has been widely depicted in photographic images, particularly in countless portraits (Hirsch and Perret 1995, Perret 1995), Haile Selassie was not the first Ethiopian ruler to exploit photography. Foreigners had brought this medium to the court of Yohannes IV (r. 1872–1889), but it was his successor, Menelik II (r. 1889–1913), who was the first to make extensive use of photography (Pankhurst 1994). A glimpse at his portraits reveals that they were laid out carefully and seem to reflect a triumphant political power (Fig. 1–3). How can these documents be deciphered, beyond the mere observation that these scenes took place, beyond the Barthesian “it-has-been” (Barthes 1980)?In the second half of the nineteenth century, the advent and development of photography opened new worlds to viewers, who became able to visualize themselves, their communities, and the world beyond through growing numbers of images (Schwartz and Ryan 2003). Inspired by postcolonial theory's critique of colonial discourses and representations, a number of writings since the 1980s have emphasized the power relations conveyed by photographs taken during this period of rising colonialism, when cameras were used worldwide in a context of cultural, economic, and political inequality and domination. Photography came to be used as an instrument of cultural imperialism, producing symbols of colonialism which stimulated its expansion (see for instance Schwartz 1996, Landau and Kaspin 2002, Palma 2005, Ama Asaa Engmann 2012).Nevertheless, researchers have recently emphasized the plural quality of what we call photography (Rouillé 2005) and the need to take into account the environment of a photograph's creation and the visual culture from which it stems, so as to apprehend how these shape the production, use, and interpretation of images. A photograph implies a “floating chain of signifieds” that can be deciphered in different ways or ignored by viewers (Barthes 1964:44); its meanings can't be anchored, a feature that facilitated its appropriation by different visual cultures. Disseminated rapidly throughout the world since its invention, this medium was in fact appropriated locally in myriad ways. We know photography was used as a vehicle of symbolic power during the colonial period, but recent studies have enriched this debate by moving away from the Euro-American center of gravity (see Pinney and Peterson 2003). Several authors have shed light on the conditions for the appropriation of the technology in distinct African regions (Geary 1988, 1991; Triulzi 1995; Ouédraogo 2002; Nimis 2005), or on the appropriation of the images themselves, whose meanings change in accord with different ways of seeing, such as in the multiple uses and lives of a 1913 photograph of Sheikh Amadou Bamba in Senegal (Roberts and Roberts 2003).Ethiopia occupies an exceptional place in the history of African colonization: following the resounding victory of Menelik II's army against Italy in 1896 at the Battle of Adwa, the country defended its independence right up until the invasion by Mussolini's troops in 1936. It became an international symbol of resistance to colonization and entered the international system of sovereign nation-states through diplomatic exchanges. As a warrior-king and nation builder, Menelik II had gained heroic status globally, notably in the black world (Hill 2008:28).If photography had been used as a tool of symbolic power by European colonialists, how might the government of an African country have used this same medium against colonialism and to defend its independence? Could it use images to inscribe Ethiopia as a recognized nation in a global “image-world” (Poole 1997), that is, in the realm of images circulating among Africa, Europe, and the United States? In other words, to what extent did the Ethiopian court recognize the communication function of photography and the power of its images? What publics were targeted, and how did Ethiopians convey narratives through the pictures? This raises the question of the visual culture used for encoding and deciphering photographs. Interrogating the power attributed to such images requires tracing their itineraries through time and space; considering the uses, values, and meanings accorded to them; and wondering about the possible responses of their viewers (Freedberg 1989).At the end of the nineteenth century, photographic portraits of Menelik II began to be reproduced in Ethiopia and abroad in books and newspapers, as well as on coins, medallions, stamps, advertisements, and even objects such as glasses. Most of the images were based on about twenty princeps portraits identified so far. Along with the king, the majority of the dignitaries of the Ethiopian court seem to have posed for photographers from the 1880s on, including the queen, Taytu; the official writer of the court and Minister of the Pen, Gabre Selassie; and the Archbishop abuna Matewos. Beyond the court, the main chiefs of the country were also photographed by visitors or when they came to Addis Ababa. During Menelik's time, foreigners alone took the pictures, inasmuch as photography became an Ethiopian practice only after World War II (Gérard and Pankhurst 1998). Until the beginning of the twentieth century, all were amateurs and included individuals from France, Italy, and Switzerland, either employed by the court1 or traveling through Ethiopia, particularly after the famed Battle of Adwa. Although the photographers were all foreign, fragments from travel accounts give an idea of the balance of power around the camera and of the agency of the court in the way photography was conceptualized and put to use.The Introduction of Photography to the Culture of the Ethiopian Court. The composition of portraits photographed at the court suggests that they were carefully staged. The position of the bodies, the way the personages interact in group portraits, the costumes, regalia and props—crown, carpets, shash (headscarf), kabba (cape), qamis (striped shirt), gofer (lion's skin worn over the shoulders), weapons and shield—all seem to have been chosen to display symbols of power. Traveler accounts support this idea of political stagecraft: photographs of the dignitaries were not spontaneous and couldn't be “taken,” or “stolen,” as no photographer was allowed to operate freely inside the gebbi (the palace),2 and pictures of the royal family only resulted from the king's orders. Though all the king's photographers were foreigners, their biographies reveal that they were all trusted men—at least at the time when they were taking court pictures. Each of them made long stays in the country and mastered the Amharic language, which facilitated the establishment of trust and intimacy between them and the figures they photographed. Léon Chefneux (1853–1927) and Alfred Ilg (1854–1916) were among the first to introduce a camera to the court in the early 1880s, and both became photographers and advisers to the king. We may argue therefore that court actors maintained control of the images, despite their dependence on foreign operators, thereby containing the potentially predatory aspect of the photographic gaze (Sontag 1977).A photograph can't be considered a mere reflection of reality, nor is its perception a “natural” phenomenon. A photographic portrait is an encoded item that requires the intervention of a photographer, ideally the cooperation of the people being portrayed, and finally an act of deciphering by its viewers. The use of cameras raised questions when it was introduced in Ethiopian societies, as in other parts of the world. In their writings, travelers described how people were sometimes suspicious and reluctant to be photographed in the region in the 1800s, an attitude at times interpreted as an association of capturing an image with witchcraft (Soleillet 1886:97–98). The introduction of photography at Menelik's court also provoked concern. The biographer of Alfred Ilg relates how, several times after his arrival at the court in 1879, the Swiss engineer was obliged to explain to the king the principal laws of optics, because priests saw photography as an instrument of the devil: they had warned Menelik II against this instrument because it had the capacity to dramatically reduce the size of a person, a group, or a city, and to put it in black and white, and upside down (Keller 1918:35).3 Having apprehended the operations of a camera, the king is said to have later responded to critics that photography resulted from divine materials: light and silver (Vanderheym 1896:116).The king's interest in the new medium is corroborated by the Though is no that became a did king of the a later (Geary Ethiopian king, in of his reproduced portraits, posed with a camera in his (Fig. We can the as a of the to the new inasmuch as all the court portraits, such as and were the political culture of the have how of in the nineteenth in and the United from its symbolic association with and its values, such as and (Rouillé to Menelik's interest in and new and the way the introduction of photography to the court from this The king's interpretation of photography as the of divine was a of it was a way to the new to the of the court, inasmuch as the images in Ethiopian the to the development of Ethiopian to foreign and images, by for a and (see for instance between early photography and the in Ethiopia is by other of its the first photographer to a in Ethiopia, at Menelik's court in with his the of the of The King of Kings that the photographer at his and a later a in Addis Ababa took the official of of his Menelik We can a between his as a images in the of a and the culture of the court until this time, were in the of The of images and during the same period at the court may explain the appropriation of photography by the Ethiopian We can shed light on the of the new by on the of the visual in such as Menelik's which was the of the king and his by a Selassie The the of foreigners at the court, nor the introduction of but his extensive of the of court the of they were or the of their the of the was a for and and a of and we may argue that the photographic medium was by a political culture that to the on the and to and on the The to the visual in political may have facilitated the introduction and of photographic the communication function of the photographs implies the the dignitaries to convey through in a political photographs can be only of images had been after the 1896 Battle of (Keller The photographer, Alfred was by the king around this same time to and Minister of in of his against The photo to have been made to the idea of victory and in the the king was with and a skin laid his and his (Fig. The of was by his his gaze at the camera, the of the and the of light and This a to and may to royal and its which was during the second of the nineteenth of has which took on after the Battle of of Menelik's official we can also an between the interest by photography and the to images from abroad have emphasized how Ethiopian foreign from European books, and images were for their and The of images by Ethiopians is not well partly because the practice is not in 1997), but images and for their of the of them was a an of the in a used as a royal by the Ethiopian court in the and (see for instance Menelik's foreign The for the of a from beyond the that the of it was when a the royal in image is not in Addis but the in the of the of in reveals that King Menelik II a number of in an with the in for an on of a of to be on the of the of a royal The and the of the scenes depicted were chosen by the king with the of an Ethiopian were by way of Ethiopian and European partly through in including a of the and a by the In of these European the were to Ethiopian and the of were to be with and the of the in The king also that his portrait be included in of the scenes and to this end the his The may have been a in which foreign were to Ethiopian visual in a considered of appropriation to and the of such a and the in we may argue that Ethiopian it because of the to new and because of its potentially Although this had been nor of such a can be today in the royal the their with other of life of an photograph in an and the possible it to is no of photographs been in the royal during Menelik's so the use and function of these documents is to of to reveal the and environment in which such images a political which was to the The introduction of photography at the court had an on as were used as to the on the of the main royal during Menelik's The court gained new of images, and the of In to foreign Menelik II introduced new to the court by to in were among the first a that the to this by the was among been to Italy, in his long and his to Ethiopia, may have of the first to use photographs as for portraits, by the of the at the of of were in Ethiopian since the main of were of the royal family and the portraits of the of since the century, and became from the end of the and so they were depicted in an attitude of a such as of the for also scenes with have how the Ethiopian was at times depicted in in ways that with visual and they have to the political at times to such images, for instance during the reign of and II (r. (see of these reveal the of figures to be in In the for was depicted with a in portraits this was an in the history of Ethiopian and until the end of the nineteenth century, portraits of of the royal family and of dignitaries the were identified by In the nineteenth century, portraits became and and the of photographs to the practice and new used photographs as to Menelik II in the main in the royal the king's and parts of his in ways that were The photo of Menelik II a camera in his (Fig. the for several scenes is depicted or his (Fig. The photograph was only reproduced in the being to the environment by being encoded with other in and so as to be through a new The camera in the was by objects in a such as the (the of or by objects interpreted by priests of today as a of in or a in The images were in which an of interpretation to the who to the of the Ethiopian also took with the composition of the images, the in the photograph beyond the when a portrait of the king was the the of the new and its to make the Ethiopian visual The took control of the images by considering photography not as an but as a to the idea of between the image and the for were in may have been to introduce with the or of the king, particularly in with royal In a the use of photographs change the practice of the Ethiopian inasmuch as the of images was a practice in their and The use of photographs as was an but not a a way to such that figures became the of of The of Menelik's court in during his of the court in of but also in of as portraits were to scenes in for in the of at Menelik the and the court writer Selassie (Fig. by and Swiss and the was by the of the of had been (Pankhurst and the to be the center of an to the also of the principal by Menelik in the of and were at the court by the same group of and the of in the court and of the by the can to the the of the at Addis Ababa at the end of Menelik's the king was depicted several times on the the of the a at the center of the that the of its in the and attitude of a but as of a of (Fig. The of this and is but it may to a of of which of by of the The may be a call for a both to the personages and to the through a of in a context by the of the king's Menelik II had several beginning in and and to his from the this was until his in the of the same a the king by his the queen, and the chiefs of the portraits from for a from a (Fig. possible interpretation of the is that it to the main of the Ethiopian the or the of the King (see in the century, the was a of and the It has as a the of the of to and the of a Menelik who became the of the royal The became a of the and culture of Ethiopia and was by the Ethiopian in the nineteenth and twentieth II was for the in the of the as a a and a be to of the the context of a period, the as a suggests the of the a group of through a from a of and the images the and the between the and the world. function as visual of the royal the that the king was by and by the so that as an between and the and were in with the to the time and place of Menelik's of the The context the life that these images and how they may have The portraits and group scenes from a period at the end of the of the first of the twentieth century, a time for royal power because of the king's and the of a as the made by Menelik II for his of the were in ways the of political inasmuch as the of the and Addis Ababa to them to either by or during official of the time that and also in the to for political or of to the The images, which were from by were only during long and in (see and the and their viewers down in of This of display and (Roberts and Roberts to their in of the these images from the and they were images were also to the king's political for and viewers to their political viewers about royal they had a We can that the of the time had with which to and that the meanings were through the of during the may about the of from photographs in of the of the documents on viewers. The introduction of to portraits may have been a way to the of the but also to different the of the the and the time of the reign and the time of the royal It may have been a way to not only to viewers, but also to the idea of an between the political depicted and the to an between also a of the king and his in the place, the function of these images as of royal the main foreign were at times to the court inside the royal the of the around the and its political Though foreigners had to these scenes and to other of documents seem to have been for an international photographs as of were among the diplomatic between Ethiopian and foreign since the nineteenth is no of Menelik II his photographic portrait to European during his photographs of the king were used as for the creation of images at a symbolic to the In not long after Menelik II was King of Ethiopia and Italy a at the Ethiopian of Italy was in the of the country partly in for and the Ethiopian government was a of which in the a over the In Menelik II the to the foreign of political independence was with the of and the first of was in (Fig. an facilitated by the to colonial in the of had the Ethiopian system was in and the were only in a which their use in the international creation was a way for the country to its independence by its through in the international diplomatic This provoked in and Italy, which of for political the were at the of The first Ethiopian were also in in with with the and the were from the same photograph of the king in and with a This from the of only of the and were in but it to the way was on as well as in during the 2003). and the of the king with the of the country and symbols of a of of such pictures to an Ethiopian nation worldwide of these symbols resulted in from the of foreigners at Menelik's court, Alfred Ilg and the power of these images and their abroad was made in Menelik's official on the were seen as Ethiopian the world. the of a an all through the of a portrait on a and has been in that of on a with other in The way the Ethiopian court with the and for the pictures to this The new Ethiopian were a way to an with the for of in the or King used in the is, the of image in also inasmuch as official portraits of Ethiopian seem to images of power in the world at the end of the nineteenth of the later portraits of for from in the with a and a and a (Fig. is to the portrait of the of the (see The with the portrait is even in the official portrait of the of Kings (r. (Fig. were used to in with foreign and the use of a new of was a way for the to take its place the international visual of in The rapidly growing around the Ethiopians other to the world and for that Menelik II not only photographers to his court, but also foreign and travelers had been to the country following victory at in which with the of During the of the first official to Ethiopia, by in a photograph was taken of the court which was a later in It the main dignitaries of the court posed in as and around the king and his who to his (Fig. The was and the in in of the camera were well that they were an through photography. for the the Ethiopian dignitaries may have to the the of this group portrait in of the of the United was also symbolic of the of Ethiopian (see As diplomatic between Ethiopia and foreign following the Battle of Adwa, photography Ethiopia and facilitated the of an with the country whose victory had brought such saw the royal portraits as to Ethiopia to the of the world. The images in a but way the independence of the its political and the of its political power. We may argue that the was considering the in European of the time, or from the beginning of the twentieth that Ethiopia, such as such as for or even the with of the European (Fig. documents the by the Ethiopian king, whose and were considered to a to a images and the Ethiopian king as a an in the of Ethiopia as an international sovereign at a time of colonization of and of photography in the of the Ethiopian court at the end of the nineteenth in a of foreign and images. The of the and the capacity of the medium to be reproduced the to or such images when to to the new ways of Ethiopian on the quality of which can't be to a The court of Menelik II was an foreign new for The of different of and images allowed the court to its and the idea of its to both in Ethiopia and The images became of the with which Ethiopia to the political and in the of and defend the of the

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Colonialism · Context (archaeology) · Painting · Photography · Political science · Politics · Portrait · Power (physics) · Reign · Visual arts · African history and culture studies · History · Law · Photography and Visual Culture · Visual Culture and Art Theory

• Des objectifs royaux

  Open Access•Annabelle Lacour•Photographica•2021

  Add to list

• Emperor Menilek II and the Art of Manuscript Illumination

  Earnestine Jenkins•Northeast African Studies•2018

  Add to list

• Vision, Race, and Modernity

  Deborah Poole•Vision, Race, and Modernity•1997

  Add to list

• Photography

  Steve Edwards, Steven Edwards•Photography•2006

  Add to list

• Photography’s Other Histories

  Jo-Anne Driessens, Michael Aird et al.•Photography's Other Histories•2003

  Add to list

• Les îles de la mémoire

  Open Access•Claire Bosc-Tiessé•Les îles de la mémoire•2008

  Add to list

• The Geography Lesson

  Open Access•Joan M Schwartz•Journal of Historical Geography•1996

  Add to list

• A Saint in the City

  Peri M Klemm•Nka Journal of Contemporary…•2004

  Add to list

• Images and EmpiresVisuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa

  Paul Stuart Landau, Deborah Kaspin et al.•Images and empires•2002

  Add to list

• Painting Ethiopia”

  Raymond A Silverman•African Arts•2004

  Add to list

• A Saint in the City

  Allen F Roberts, Mary Nooter Roberts•African Arts•2002

  Add to list

• Old Pictures, New Approaches

  Christraud M Geary•African Arts•1991

  Add to list

• Contemporary Ethiopian Painting in Traditional Style

  Elisabeth Biasio•African Arts•2009

  Add to list

• Fantasia of the Photothèque

  David Prochaska•African Arts•1991

  Add to list

• Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia

  Gebru Tareke, Bahru Zewde•African Studies Review•2003

  Add to list

• Anthropology and Photography, 1860‐1920

  Open Access•Christraud M Geary•Museum Anthropology•1994

  Add to list

• Imagined communities

  Benedict Anderson•Imagined communities•1991

  Add to list

• Ethiopia Photographed

  C Clapham•African Affairs•1997

  Add to list

• Under Imperial Eyes, Black Bodies, Buttocks, and Breasts

  Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann•African Arts•2012

  Add to list

• Rhétorique de l'image

  Roland Barthes•Communications•1964

  Add to list

• King Menelik's Nephew

  Robert A Hill•Small Axe A Caribbean Journal of…•2008

  Add to list

• Images and Empires

  Misty L Bastian, Paul S Landau et al.•The International Journal of…•2003

  Add to list

• Images from Bamum

  Raymond A Silverman, Christraud M Geary•The International Journal of…•1989

  Add to list

• Fotografia e Storia dell'Africa

  John Thornton, Alessandro Triulzi•The International Journal of…•1998

  Add to list

• Imperial Legitimacy and the Creation of Neo-Solomonic Ideology in 19th-Century Ethiopia

  Open Access•Donald Crummey•Cahiers d études africaines•1988

  Add to list

• The Seen, the Unseen, the Invented

  Open Access•Silvana Palma•Cahiers d études africaines•2005

  Add to list

• Prowess, Piety and Politics

  Donald Crummey, Reidulf Knut Molvaer•The International Journal of…•1995

  Add to list

• Anthologie de la photographie africaine et de l'océan Indien

  Open Access•Nicolas Menut•L Homme•2001

  Add to list

• The Power of Images

  David Freedberg•The Power of Images•1989

  Add to list

• Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

  Anthony Reid, Benedict Anderson•Pacific Affairs•1985

  Add to list