Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ethiopia

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This page is to discuss General strategies, Hierarchy, tasks, and all around general issues. For more specific discussions, go to the talk pages of the specific sub-pages (i.e. /History, /Geography, /Linguistics, /Culture, /Resources, /Key articles, /Transliteration, etc.).

Contents

[edit] Jijiga

I just looked at the page for the city of Jijiga and was surprised how much the description cited by Nega Mezlekia differs from my own personal observations of the city. While he is quotes as saying "on a vast, unmitigated plain, with no greenery in sight except for the occasional cactus bush…”, I can assure anyone that the region surrounding the town is actually quite green and full of farm land. In fact when we landed our helicopters there we had to be careful of the corn fields and mud pits. It is one of several very productive agricultural regions between Dire Dawa and the Somali boarder. I know that we should not cite our ourselves when attempting to make an article accurate, but having been there I can’t help wishing to correct this one. As it is already an article with unsourced statements, would it be prudent of me to add my own observations? Does anyone have any suggestions? Quintman 02:07, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name

Just noticed that the uncapitalization of the "P" in project actually redlinks Wikipedia:WikiProject Ethiopia, but that typing that into the search bar takes you directly here. I would just move the page, but I don't really feel like moving all of the sub-pages & talks and I'm not sure if that's really that much of a problem. — ዮም (Yom) | contribsTalk 06:43, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Good

Good idea. Badagnani 09:08, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

What's this in reference to? — ዮም (Yom) | contribsTalk 02:59, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image

If anyone could find a free image (e.g. a blank map w/o political borders or a full one with place names) of N. Ethiopia & Eritrea and Southern Arabia (i.e. Yemen and s. Saudi Arabia), it would be greatly appreciated. I need it to top off GDRT, which I've basically just finished adding to. Of course, if you could find a free image of an inscription as well, that'd be even better, but I'm not expecting that much. ዮም (Yom) | contribsTalk 02:59, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Long self-fulfilled. — ዮም (Yom) | contribsTalk 03:16, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Key articles

Take a look at Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Work via Wikiprojects, & consider how our existing articles should be graded according to what is already there. (I know I've mentioned elsewhere my pick of 5 key articles, but it'd be nice to sort out 20-30 key or vital Ethiopia-related articles & grade them accordingly.) -- llywrch 03:24, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I'll provide a list around that number (outside of the 5 higher priority key articles) tomorrow afternoon (night UTC) based partially on the existing Key Articles. — ዮም (Yom) | contribsTalk 05:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Creating Ethiopian Geography articles

Just a note to everyone that I've hacked out an example of my personal campaign to create an article for every notable administrative unit & city/town in Ethiopia. I'm limited by what the material available to me, but you can review my efforts at the woredas & (indirectly) towns linked to at List of woredas in the Benishangul-Gumaz Region. Feedback welcomed. -- llywrch 01:30, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, my work has been proceeding slowly -- but another Wikipedian has been adding stubs for various towns, & apparently attempting to poke me into speeding up my work. (Just a warning in case you stumble across one of these other articles -- I don't know how many there are, & several lack any links.) -- llywrch 22:56, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
Update: I posted a question on the creator's Talk page about his work, & it was deleted; I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe someone else will have better luck getting an answer from him. -- llywrch 02:54, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

I have never entered anything into Wikipedia before. However, I was responsible for surveying Sof Omar as part of the British Expedition to Ethiopia in 1972. I have an extensive collection of photographs of the cave and notes relating to the history of its exploration as well as survey notes. The expedition explored other karst areas in Bale, Dira Dawa and Tigre. The only other cave of significance was Nur Mohammed. I can start the process of adding this to the site, but I need help in negotiating the editing process and of course time! --Dave Catlin 14:00, 22 July 2006 (UTC)Dave Catlin

First, I have to saythat you are making a very generous offer by wanting to share your collection! Keep that in mind as I write the following:
  1. Take care that your text contributions are based on printed, accessible matertials. If you have published your findings, go ahead & cite them for your contributions. (Further information at WP:CITE). The reason for this peculiar requirement is that too many people either make up information out of whole cloth & try to slip it into Wikipedia, or that when pressed for their sources sometimes we find out that what "they know to be indisputable fact" is actually something a friend heard from another friend who heard it on tv or radio. And often these are the very ones who become unpleasant to the people who do know what are indisputable facts.
  2. Pictures, drawings, maps are not as controversial -- as long as they can be submitted under a free license (examples being the GPL or Creative Commons). Actually, a better place for submitting these materials might be commons.wikipedia.org, where all of the free image & sound files can be submitted & used by not only English-language Wikipedias, but those in other languages, such as German, French, Polish -- & Amharic.
  3. I did a bit of snooping, & was surprised that I could not find a Wikiproject that concentrated on geology, geomorphology -- or caves. They would be especially useful in a case like yours where you want to share a lot of descriptive information.

Like I said above, don't let my words above scare you off. I eagerly hope to see some of your contributions here on Wikipedia, & if there is anything I can help with, please let me -- or anyone else in this Wikiproject -- know. -- llywrch 00:54, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your kind offer of help. Someone also kindly helped organise the references I added relating to the history of the exploration. I found a typo, but cannot find how to get the reference text back. Also I have other reference to add. Please explain how I can find the text for the references. Dave Catlin

Help Please: I have loaded a Sof Omar image into the system (Safari_Straight.JPG) but it comes out far too big. How can I reduce the size.--Dave Catlin 04:34, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Image size is something I'm always struggling with, too. The answer lies at Wikipedia:Extended image syntax -- which I keep a link to on my User page. -- llywrch 20:05, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] People of Ethiopia

We need to create an article about people of Ethiopia, just like Armenians or Georgians. I propose to the article Ethiopian People. Please make your suggestions. ThanksLdingley 20:50, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

It'll be a little difficult, as there are multiple Ethnic groups (the major ones have an article). Perhaps something could be done under Demographics of Ethiopia? — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 21:10, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
Well, we could mention all the ethnic groups of Ethiopia. Take a look at Armenians, the peoples page should be design for Ethiopians similarly. It’s true that Ethiopia has many ethnic groups (so goes Russia but go to Russians) but there should be a page about people of Ethiopia or Ethiopians. Let me know. Ldingley 21:48, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Need help

Hi, i just started the article People of Ethiopia. I will start adding more information, mainly from books and other available sources. I think we should have separate article for People of Ethiopia and include all ethnic groups there. Please advice and make your suggestions. Thanks. Ldingley 22:11, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Sure. Check out Languages of Ethiopia, as there's an ethnic group for every language (though not in all cases vice versa). — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 02:55, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
There's also a list at Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region. Although incomplete, I have been working on it. -- llywrch 17:13, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Here's a list of almost all ethnic groups and numbers for speakers and self-identified members of the ethnic group as according to the 1994 Ethiopian census (I've made links for all so we know which ones - almost all - need articles):

Source (by Grover Hudson, a well-known linguist of Ethiopian languages)

Table 2. Mother-Tongue Speakers of Ethiopian Speech Varieties and Members of Ethnic Groups , Ordered by Number of Mother-tongue Speakers (1994 Census) C=Cushitic, N=Nilosaharan, O=Omotic, and S=Semitic

---------------------   ---------------------   --------------------
Ethnolinguistic group   Mothertongue speakers   Ethnic group members 
Amara S                 17,372,913              16,010,894
Oromo C                 16,777,975              17,088,136
Tigraway S              3,224,875               3,284,443
Somali C                3,187,053               3,139,421
Gurage S                1,881,574               2,290,332
Sidama C                1,876,329               1,842,444
Welayta O               1,231,674               1,268,445 - note Welayta language
Afar C                  965,462                 972,766
Hadiyya C               923,957                 927,747
Gamo O                  690,069                 719,862
Gedeo C                 637,082                 639,879
Kafa O                  569,626                 599,146 - note Kingdom of Kaffa
Kambaata C              487,654                 499,631 - note Kambaata (language)
Awi C                   356,980                 397,494 - note Awngi language
Kulo O                  313,228                 331,477
Goffa O                 233,340                 241,818
Bench O                 173,586                 173,149 - note Bench language
Ari O                   158,857                 155,065 - note Aari language
Konso C                 149,508                 153,407 - note Konso language
Kamir C                 143,369                 158,225 - Kamir people or Khamir/Hamir/Xamir
Alaba C                 126,257                 125,894
Gumuz N                 120,424                 121,481
Berta N                 116,084                 118,670 - note Berta language
Koyra O                 103,879                 107,586
Timbaro C               82,803                  86,499
Yemsa O                 81,614                  165,770
Nuer N                  64,907                  64,527
Basketo O               57,805                  51,089
Mocha O                 54,894                  53,846
Male O                  53,779                  46,458
Me’en N                 52,015                  52,808 - note Me'en (language)
Gidole C                50,328                  54,339
Konta O                 48,987                  49,625
Anywak N                45,646                  45,656
Hamer O                 42,838                  42,448
Maraqo C                36,612                  38,093 - another name for the Libido people
Qabena C                35,783                  35,065
Burji C                 35,731                  46,552 (watch out for Burji dynasty)
Gawada C                32,698                  33,945
Dasenech C              32,064                  32,014 (properly Daasanach or Ðáasanač)
Sheko O                 24,106                  23,772
Saho C                  22,759                  23,258 (i.e. Irob)
Harari S                21,283                  22,884 - note Harari language
Dizi O                  21,075                  21,888
Dorze O                 20,782                  28,969
Mello O                 20,151                  20,181
Shinasha O              19,734                  32,660 (also called Boro, neighbors of the Gumuz and Berta)
Suri N                  19,622                  19,616
Oyda O                  16,597                  14,059
Majangir N              15,152                  15,329 - note Majang language
Nyangatom N             14,177                  14,201
Mao O                   13,657                  16,226
She O                   13,116                  13,164
Argobba S               10,860                  62,912 - note Argobba language
Zayse O                 10,172                  10,842
Fadashi N               8,715                   7,323
Tsamay C                8,621                   9,699
Zergula O               7,625                   390
Chara O                 6,932                   6,976
Mossiya C               6,624                   9,205
Dime O                  6,501                   6,189
Bodi N                  4,570                   4,685
Arbore C                4,441                   6,622
Nao O                   3,656                   4,004
Mursi N                 3,278                   3,254
Kachama O               2,682                   2,735
Kunama N                1,883                   2,003
Kemant C                1,650                   172,324 - at Qemant (properly Kemant or Kimant people)
Koma N                  1,435                   1,522
Ganjule O               1,390                   1,142
Mer O                   989                     1,195
Shita N                 301                     290
Gamili N                144                     184
Guagu N                 103                     165
Kwama N                 99                      140
Gebato N                78                      67
Mabaan N                25                      21
Other langs             139,047                 110,555

Kind of funny how there's a "She people," "Male people," "Mer people," and "Dime people." Also, does anyone know why Hamer is at Hammer? The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica has it at Hamär (by our translit, Hamer). — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 21:46, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

About the spelling of Hamer/Hammer -- I guess that's how the person who created the article spelled it. If there's no gemination of the "m", then it should be fixed. (Nice list, BTW.) -- llywrch 05:22, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
I think a move is in order, then, as there doesn't seem to be gemination (the Encylopaedia Aethiopica has always marked it in my experience). Hopefully you can use this list (along with the "debub.net" site I referred you to earlier) to complete your SNNPR list, as most of the above are from that area (and thanks for fixing my spelling mistake). — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 08:14, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I found the Debub.net site quite useful with its maps -- I can always use more maps. :) Are these spellings the ones we should standardize on? If so, I'll start helping with the work. -- llywrch 01:12, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
No, the spellings above were those of Grover Hudson. I was just quoting him directly. I guess I'll go through them and use standardized spellings throughout where possible. Some can be cross-checked with the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (e.g. I found out that "she" and "mer" would by "Shé" and "Mér" using our transliteration system), but we may have to make a guess for some of them (a copy of Amharic version of the 1994 census would be great so that we could see the original fidel characters, but I don't think that's possible). — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 01:20, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

I attempted to do a similar project on the German wikipedia, listing all Ethiopian ethnicities together with their language, religion and region. Maybe it is of any help to you. Have a look at: de:Liste der Ethnien in Äthiopien. If you have any information about the smaller groups, I'd be interested to learn about it. Could for instance the Mabaan with only 21 members be considered a seperate ethnicity, or are there maybe more of them in other countries? -- Bamse 02:29, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

First, that's a nice table of ethnic groups on de.wikipedia, Bamse -- very well laid out. Now to your question about the Mabaan: from their article at the Joshua Project (a website about various ethnicities in the world maintained by an Evangelical Christian group), it appears that the Maaban are native to neighboring Sudan, & a few have crossed the border into Ethiopia looking for new places to live. An interesting point is that the Joshua Project entry states that 3400 Mabaan live in Ethiopia, while Hudson's information is that only 21-25 live in Ethiopia. -- llywrch 17:22, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
Great table, Bamse. I can't really think on a way to improve on it for the English version, except maybe adding 1984 census data (which I don't have access to right now). Regarding the Mabaan and others, most of those groups are in the Southwest, and live in bordering countries like in Sudan and Kenya, as Llywrch said. Interesting data, Llywrch. I wonder where they got their numbers from, since that's a pretty large disrepancy. Perhaps they merged peoples with similar languages into the group? Either way, where did you get the religious data from Bamse, Joshuaproject or elsewhere? — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 18:36, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. The religious data I took from wikipedia and the sources listed in "Literatur". I am not sure what to do with "traditional" which does not tell me much. Are there more specific terms that I could use instead? What are they? Another problem is the map. The one I use now includes present day Eritrea and has a bit low resolution. Maybe somebody could teach me how to create a good looking thumb from the pdf-source file. -- Bamse 02:24, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
I am trying to find some information about the small groups in the 1994 census (see: de:Liste der Ethnien in Äthiopien). Maybe somebody could point me in the right direction. Specifically I am looking for: Gobato/Gebato/Gabato (anything), Kwama (relation to Komo), Gamili (anything), Shita (anything), Zergulla (relation to Zayse), Ganjule (Religion), Konta (anything). --Bamse 08:38, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

According to this press release from the Walta Information Center, an official study has determined that there are 56 nationalities who speak 45 different languages in the SNNPR. -- llywrch 00:18, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I have a comment on Awngi. This is the name of a language, not of an ethnic entity. The people speaking that language call themselves Awi (these are the Agaw of Gojjam). This little misnomer I have seen in other places, too, like Bamse's list on the German site. If I find time, I might start an entry for the Awi people (well, I just did). Any links pointing to the Awngi people should be redirected to the Awi people. There is now an entry for the Awngi language. I have now changed the name to Awi in the above list, with a note pointing to the Awngi language. Landroving Linguist 18:02, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Another issue: What does it mean that the Shinasha are associated with Gumuz and Berta? Except that these peoples live in the same political region, they have nothing in common. The Shinasha speak an Omotic language, while Gumuz and Berta belong to the Nilo-Saharan family. Also the cultural difference is considerable. I would suggest to strike that comment. -- Landroving Linguist 21:59, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Either Yom (whom I guessing compiled the original list) or a later editor (which would be me, since I know I made some edits to it) relied on a published source that mentioned that while discussing something else. For most of these ethnic groups (especially the ones in the SNNPR) information is little more than incidental comments or footnotes in the usual authorities, which do not receive the same attention in fact-checking that other parts of the book do. As a result, some very odd information will seep into Wikipedia, & we can only hope that experts either point this out -- or fix it. (BTW, I changed that note from "associated w/" to "neighbors of"; in either case, it will help the next Wikipedian with identifying them & make it a little easier to research them.) -- llywrch 20:58, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. Certainly the Shinasha can be considered as neighbors of the Gumuz. It would stretch things to call them also neighbors of the Berta, since these live south of the Abay, while the Shinasha are north of the river. While about it: The Ethnologue lists the Shinasha as Boro, which is the self-name of the group. I once talked to a Shinasha man, and he assured me that they don't mind being called Shinasha, but truly call themselves Boro. Is there any party line on ethnic denominators in this project? I would always advocate for using the self-names of all groups. -- Landroving Linguist 16:08, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Controversy over the race of Ethiopians

Please take a look at Controversy over the race of Ethiopians and the AfD at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Controversy over the race of Ethiopians. --Ezeu 10:42, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed deletion

I just stumbled across Damotra, a novel in Amharic which has been tagged with a PROD notice (basically, someone intends to do a speedy delete unless someone else objects). Does anyone here have any knowledge of this book or its author -- either so we can argue to keep it or agree to delete it? (I'll admit my ignorance, but I also know that the average printing of a book in Amharic would not be very large in size.) -- llywrch 20:14, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

This I'm not to sure about. Although I've heard of neither, the author and newspaper seem on the safe side of notability (all edited by Shiferaw - a relative, friend or Moges himself?), but the book does not seem to be very notable. A google search shows 300 hits, almost all of which seem to be from Wikipedia and its mirrors. Asking Shiferaw to help establish its notability seems to be the best way to go about it (and if he doesn't respond, we can delete it since it's such a sub-stub). — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 04:36, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] and another article

Stumbled across another stub, Queen eyleuka of Ethopia, wife of an "antediluvian" king Borsa. Never heard of either of them; a quick look thru the online version of the Kebra Nagast also fails to mention them. (This is the only contribution of this one editor.) Is this a likely hoax. & subject to speedy delete? -- llywrch 20:26, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Not sure if it's a hoax, but it sounds more like the article is about Napata, Kush or Meroe, from the wording "Antediluvian." Of course there was no Emperor Borsa, and probably not ever a king (since no Nile kingdoms would have existed in Ethiopia outside of the Solomonic kingdom that we wouldn't have known about). Let's WP:PROD it and ask its editor to clarify. — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 04:28, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] And still more articles

I guess someone is sifting thru the biography stubs, because I've found that several articles about Ethiopian mucicians have been prodded. These include: Aragaw Bedaso, Dawit Yifru, Tamrat Desta, & Zelalem Mekuria. I know next to nothing about contemporary music in Ethiopia; is there some objective rule of thumb that can be used to say which are notable performers & avoid this in the future? -- llywrch 07:47, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

A good question. Anybody know how this is done for other genres or cultural areas? I looked around a little and couldn't find anything. Could there be a minimum threshold, like at least one listed recording by a musician or at least two listed songs by a songwriter? — MikeG (talk) 15:01, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] About Gambela

I dont thick gambela is a city first. Gambela region came about first... and the major city was named gambela... gambela is first and foremost a region. The capital is then named after the region.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nolawip (talkcontribs) 03:08, 13 September 2006

[edit] Tagging talk pages and assessing articles

Wikipedia Assessments within AWB. Click on the image to see it in better resolution
Wikipedia Assessments within AWB. Click on the image to see it in better resolution

Hi. If you still have work to do tagging talk pages and assessing articles, my AWB plugin might be of interest to you.

The plugin has two main modes of operation:

  • Tagging talk pages, great for high-speed tagging
  • Assessments mode, for reviewing articles (pictured)

As of the current version, WikiProjects with simple "generic" templates are supported by the plugin without the need for any special programatic support by me. I've had a look at your project's template and you seem to qualify.

For more information see:

Hope that helps. If you have any questions or find any bugs please let me know on the plugin's talk page. --Kingboyk 12:35, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I need some help on the language

Okay, I know this seems bizarre, because I've written a fair share of the articles on Ethiopia, I admit that I have no ability in the local languages. But I've encountered some pairs of geographical terms that I need help with as I work on the woreda articles. What do the following words mean:

  • "Tahtay" (as in the woreda Tahtay Maychew) -- is it the same word as "Tach" (as in Tach Gayint)?
  • "Laelay" (as in the woreda Laelay Adiyabo) -- is it the same word as "Lay" (as in Lay Armacho)?

I suspect that these correspond to the English "Upper" & "Lower" (as in, for example, "Upper Silesia"), but if so I have no clue which would be which. (And if I guessed, I know I would get it backwards; I still confuse my left & my right sometimes.)

One more word is "Zuria", as in "Bahir Dar Zuria"; I'd assume that "Zuria" means "Great" or "Greater" (as in "Greater London Area/Region"). Thanks in advance. -- llywrch 23:20, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

"Taḥtay" is Tigrinya for "below" while "Tach" is Amharic for below (I'm guessing on the Tigrinya, it's something like Taḥit in Ge'ez and Taḥat in Arabic), with the pharyngeal "ḥ" lost in Amharic and the "t" going to "ty" and then to "č." The same goes for the word "above," "Lay" (Amharic) and "La`ilay" (also spelled "Laelay"), where it's the loss of pharyngeals that makes the difference. As for "Zuria" (properly "Zuriya," but I think "Zuria" is a more common transliteration), the root "Z-R-Y" means "round," with "Zurya" meaning "surrounding area," which could be translated by "Greater." The first two can be translated as "Upper" and "Lower" since that's the style in English (as opposed to "above" and "below"). — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 02:04, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
Great. Since it's easier for me to change the transliteration at this stage, Yom, which versions would you prefer I use -- "La'ilay" vs. "Laelay", "Zuria" or "Zurya" or "Zuriya"? -- llywrch 02:48, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
I would also like to point out that La`ilay is also good Amharic, but the form Tahtay is not Amharic. I don't know much about Tigrinya. ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 12:28, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
In the case of Laelay vs. La'ilay , I think the better accuracy of La'ilay warrants the use of the latter even if Laelay is more common ("e" is often used to represent sixth order vowels on pharyngeals). As for Zuria vs. Zuriya (the latter being the direct transliteration), there's little gain from the extra "y" in terms of accuracy (it simpily makes clear that the "i" does not represent a pharyngeal or glottal stop, which most English readers wouldn't assume anyway), and the former is much more preferred, so I would go with "Zuria." — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 16:32, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Somali clan anon

Hello all, Since I know that everyone loves dealing with Somali clan issues, I thought I'd let you know that 172.159.143.107 (talk · contribs) has been making some recent modifications I'm not qualified to judge, such as changing the most populous clan in various woredas in the Somali Region from Darod to Hawiye. - BanyanTree 13:23, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

I noticed that yesterday, & at first glance it appears that the anon may be correct: the Hawiye clan territory does lie in the middle of the Somali Region, between the two major rivers (the Shabelle & the Ganala Dorya). I'm not about to change it back until I can find a citable source -- I've been using a variety of maps for this information, & I'd rather escalate this potential dispute to using better authorities than to Just Another Edit War. -- llywrch 19:17, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Smart move. Good to see again; it's been a while. Cheers, BanyanTree 00:14, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 15:00, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] new pages

Hi again. I noticed that you all are keeping track of your new articles. In order to share the Ethiopia-specific contributions with the more general page over at Wikipedia:Africa-related regional notice board/New articles, I wonder if anyone would mind if I created a subpage at Wikipedia:WikiProject Ethiopia/New articles that could be transcluded both to the main project page here and to the AFR subpage? Cheers, BanyanTree 17:35, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] add articles from Category:Ethnic groups in Ethiopia to Wikipedia:WikiProject Ethnic groups?

Hi,

I wonder if it's OK for me to add articles from Category:Ethnic groups in Ethiopia to the WikiProject Wikipedia:WikiProject Ethnic groups? I'd also be adding that category to Category:Ethnic groups categories. I'll watch this page for about a week for a response; if I don't hear anything I'll go ahead and do it... Thanks! --Ling.Nut 02:09, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I have started developing this page

Environmental issues in Ethiopia need to add all environmental issues, like missing lions, and ethiopian wolf issue, etc.--Halaqah 23:39, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 19:59, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Abune Tewophilos

The article Abune Tewophilos contains no references and as been tagged as such since December 2005! I tried to find information on google but it is hard to find anything beyond the bare bones. If someone from this project has reference material, can you please add it to the article. If nothing has happened within a reasonable time frame I will remove all the material I can't find a reference for, which won't leave much! So please help if you can. -- Qarnos 08:30, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Augh! This is one of those topics where an online search won't find anything, & it'll take the right library with the right periodicals & a lot of searching to fix this. I'm going by my gut here, but I suspect most of this article is sccurate -- so perhaps hold off for a little while longer until we can find the right person to do the necessary footwork? -- llywrch 22:05, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
You might want to ask Sendeq. He's a deacon in an Ethiopian Orthodox Church in New York and is very knowledgeable about these sorts of things. He may not be able to provide references, but he'll at least be able to check it for accuracy and POV. — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 01:00, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] language request template

Is there an Ethiopian language request template, similar to {{Burmese}}? Chris 07:51, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

No, but I'll make a quick one right now for Ge'ez. From now on, you will be able to use {{Ge'ez}} for Ethiopian and Eritrean articles. — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 03:21, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! Chris 03:42, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Ahmad Gragn & the Somali people

Just dropping a note that I added some material from the Futuh to Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi which suggest that he might not be Somali. (I don't consider this original research; I'm just reporting what the book says.) I thought people might want to know about it ahead of time before the fireworks start. -- llywrch 00:01, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bilateral relations discussion

I would like to invite you all to participate in a discussion at this thread regarding bilateral relations between two countries. All articles related to foreign relations between countries are now under the scope of WikiProject Foreign relations, a newly created project. We hope that the discussion will result in a more clean and organized way of explaining such relationships. Thank you. Ed ¿Cómo estás? 18:00, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Girma Yohannis Iyasu

I just stumbled across this article, & while it seems to be plausible (I know that Iyasu V had issue, some of whom were used as figureheads during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia), is this person legit? By this, I'm asking whether anyone inside or outside of Ethiopia has even heard of him. If he's an otherwise well-known kook (or can actually trace his ancestory back to Lij Iyasu), I'd consider him notable; if we have an entry on Emperor Norton, then Girma deserves his entry in Wikipedia. I can't reach one of the sites in the External links section & the other goes to Angelfire (not the most reliable source to begin with) -- where I'm immediately redirected to another page. Sadly, I can foresee all sorts of people desparate for attention creating their own fictional web pages to claim that they are the "rightful heir of" (insert your choice of country here), & then claiming that they deserve an entry in Wikipedia. -- llywrch 22:37, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I Have Pictures

Im new at Wiki so i guess i will just create an extra heading Here (under Image), you can move it if need be. Anyway, i just got back from Ethiopia for the second time and have about 4000 to 5000 pictures. Many of those pictures include stuff from the Museum of Ethiopia that may be helpful. I basically took a picture of Everything in the museum. 5000 Pictures = Roads, buildings, Lakes, birds, landscapes, Monuments, People...A little bit of everything. Unfourtunalty none of it is from the historical route. I was only in Addis/Ziway/Awassa/Langano/Debre Zeit/Meta Abo. About 4000 of these pictures are of my friends and family but im sure you could use the rest of them. Contact me via email and i can upload them to a select site. asten@astenb.com Beyoku 06:11, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

We're happy to use any pictures you want to share; our thanks in advance!. Upload them over at commons.wikimedia.org, so that the Wikipedias in every language can use them -- including Amharic & Tigrinya. Please make sure that you select a GPDF or Creative commons license; other licenses may result with the deletion of these files.. If you have any questions, contact me & I'll be happy to answer them the best I can. -- llywrch 23:36, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tigrinya-National Scout Association of Eritrea

Can someone who speaks Tigrinya render "National Scout Association of Eritrea" and "Be Prepared", (the Scout Motto), into Tigrinya? Thanks! Chris 14:36, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help:Multilingual support (Ethiopic)

I have used the text at am:Wikipedia:Can't see the font? to create the local Help:Multilingual support (Ethiopic). Please change any links appropriately. Thanks, BanyanTree 21:35, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Graham Hancock

Ugh. I just found someone cited this book as it were a reliable source in an article & replaced that with a far more acceptible one. Then again, quotingany one of Mengistu's speeches would be a far more reliable source than Hancock's popycock. Should we, as a WikiProject, consider an appropriate punishment for those misguided fools who insist on citing his book? ;-) -- llywrch 00:45, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Amharic interface for wikipedia available in 'my preferences'

Greetings,

The Amharic interface is mostly available for this Wikipedia (and all Wikimedia projects) now, by going to 'my preferences' and selecting 'am - አማርኛ' from the drop-down 'language' menu. Most of the few remaining messages should also become available in Amharic in the near future. ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 15:11, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Judaic Ethiopia

On the history of Ethiopia page there is a section called Judaic Ehtiopia directly before the Axum period.

Presumably this is referring to the Myth that the Ethiopian Kings were descendants of the Queen of Sheba and David. There is absolutely no historical evidence for this. I propose that the early history of ehtiopia be reexamined. Particularly with refrance to Tadesse Tamrats "Church and State in Ethiopia". The origin of the falasha Jews in Ethiopia is uncertain but is misleading to suggest in the article that there is a Judaic history. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bean42 (talk • contribs) 11:22, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

It isn't our job to "reexamine" anything here; if you want to conduct original research, please go to Wikiversity. Otherwise, all you have done here is offer yet another uncited (and definitely disputed, I might add) P-O-V. Til Eulenspiegel 12:24, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
There are two points here to consider: (1) History of Ethiopia is in bad need of a total re-write, due in part from its origins as an article in the 191 Encyclopaedia Britannica, & in part because of a long-overdue pruning; (2) that the culture of Ethiopia displays ancient Judaic influences is undeniable, but when & how these came to be is still very much in dispute (see, besides Tadesse Tamrat's excellent book the anon mentioned above, Edward Ullendorff's Ethiopia and the Bible). -- llywrch 20:02, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Claims that Ethiopia is POV

Please be advised that User:Strothra, who claims there are POV issues with the article Ethiopia, has just created a Wikipedia:Peer review/Ethiopia/archive1 page you may wish to know about. Til Eulenspiegel 17:50, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

There were several articles on Ethiopia that pointed to the non-existent article Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which was deleted a while back for a copyright violation, I believe. I changed those pages to point to the non-existent Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Ethiopia) and added a link to that page from the general Ministry of Agriculture page (which lists ministries of agriculture for many goverments). There are a lot of reference to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in various Ethiopia articles, so please create at least a stub there if you know something about the ministry. Thanks! RainbowCrane | Talk 20:54, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Category talk:Unknown-importance Ethiopia articles

I just discovered this page, & my reaction is...WTF? Does anyone have an objection if I nominate this page for deletion? -- llywrch (talk) 04:36, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

The talk page? No, although the category should be kept so that we can easily track down any untagged (or partially tagged) articles. — ዮም | (Yom) | TalkcontribsEthiopia 19:14, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
I've seen (in other discussion pages) some complaining about indesciminate addition of "WikiProject" templates -- & plastering WikiProject Ethiopia on category talk pages seem to be a good example of what people complain about. Should we decide that Category pages should not have these templates? -- llywrch 22:08, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is there someone with a subscription to Highbeam research? I want to know the name of the third hijacker of Ethiopian 961

I found this: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-64680823.html

It gives names of two of the hijackers, but the third only has his given name. I want to know his surname too.

So, does someone with a subscription to Highbeam work here? WhisperToMe (talk) 11:18, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

  • Someone found the name. Thanks! WhisperToMe (talk) 01:06, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Did Ethiopian Airlines ever release a conclusive victim and survivor list of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961?

Did Ethiopian Airlines ever release a conclusive victim and survivor list of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961? I have never seen one?

If the list has country info for each passenger that would be good. WhisperToMe (talk) 01:40, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Ethiopia did not exist at the time of Adwa"

We have a new user who has edited the introduction to the article "Ethiopia" pushing the POV that there was no Ethiopia at the time of Adwa and that it was only "invented" later. He claims this is the "academic consensus" therefore he writes as if this POV were indisputable, citing a few fringe historians who assert this view, like a book called "The Invention of Ethiopia". Now is the time to find what the real majority of reputable scholars say about this. So far today, nobody but myself has challenged him on this, is everyone offline today? Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 00:12, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Update: The wording seems to be resolved now to everyone's satisfaction, thanks to Yom for mediating... ! Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 20:51, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ethiopian Navy Incident

Would someone mind taking a look at this article, it has no sources and is very vague, for someone who doens't know about the topic (like myself) it's impossible to tell if it's about a real event or it is just completely made up. Clarification would be appreciated. Guest9999 (talk) 17:44, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Proposal to consolidate African country WikiProject banners

Template:AfricaProject was recently modified, and now contains individual parameters for all countries in Africa (see usage notes). Since project-specific assessment for all African countries can now be accomplished through the template, a proposal has been made at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Africa to consolidate all individual African country WikiProject banners.

Comments or suggestions would be most welcome. Thank you, Black Falcon (Talk) 23:27, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Draft Guidelines for Lists of companies by country - Feedback Requested

Within WikiProject Companies I am trying to establish guidelines for all Lists of companies by country, the implementation of which would hopefully ensure a minimum quality standard and level of consistency across all of these related but currently disparate articles. The ultimate goal is the improvement of these articles to Featured List status. As a WikiProject that currently has one of these lists within your scope, I would really appreciate your feedback! You can find the draft guidelines here. Thanks for your help as we look to build consensus and improve Wikipedia! - Richc80 (talk) 21:22, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Repeated Blanking out mention of 1984 Ethiopian Famine from Africa

There is an ongoing problem at the article Africa with an editor who wants to blank out all mention of the Ethiopian famine in 1984, in which almost a million Africans perished, for obviously political reasons because the facts are inconvenient and make Marxism-Leninism look bad. This cannot be tolerated and the continuous edit warring needs to stop. Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 12:49, 8 June 2008 (UTC)