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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2012
The title of the present article is taken from a Chaha sentence given below that describes the importance of the äsät in the life of the Gurage, whose country is situated in the south-west of Addis Ababa. Indeed the äsät, or the banana-like plant, known as Ensete edulis, provides the staple food of the Gurage diet. The root, the stem of the leaves, and the trunk provide substance for bread; the leaves serve as wrapping material, as base-stands for pots, as load-carriers, and as fuel; the dried leaves are made into small plates for serving chopped meat; and the fibre serves as rope. For some of the Gurage dialects I collected as many as thirty names for the different kinds of äsät, some of these kinds being used as medicines for various forms of illness. The äsät is a frequently recurring theme in the Gurage folklore, folktales, proverbs, and riddles.
ÄSÄT, LÂME DU GURAGE
Le titre de cet article est tiré d'une sentence Chaha qui décrit l'importance de l'äsät dans la vie des Gurage, vivant dans une région située au Sud-ouest d'Addis-Abbeba.
Äsät, ou Ensete edulis, est une plante ressemblant à la banane; elle est le produit de base de l'alimentation des Gurage; on emploie aussi ses feuilles et sa fibre. Elle est également utilisée comme médicament et elle fournit un thème qui revient fréquemment dans le folklore gurage, contes, proverbes, énigmes, etc.
Deux textes décrivant l'importance de l'äsät et le mode de culture de la plante sont donnés en Chaha et en Eza, dialectes des Gurage de l'Ouest, avec les traductions anglaises.
page 281 note 1 In Amharic ǝnsät, in Chaha äsät, in Eža ässät.
page 281 note 2 Shack, William A. calls his book: The Gurage: A people of the Ensete Culture (Oxford University Press, 1966).Google Scholar
page 281 note 3 For the äsät, see Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agriculture in Ethiopia, compiled by Huffnagel, H. P. (Rome, 1961), pp. 283–93Google Scholar; William A. Shack, op. cit.; Simmonds, N. W., ‘ Ensete Cultivation in the Southern Highlands of Ethiopia; A Review ’, Tropical Agriculture, xxxv (1958), 302–7Google Scholar; Simoons, F. J., ‘ Some Questions on the Economic Prehistory of Ethiopia ’, Journal of African History, vi (1965), 1–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Smeds, E., ‘ The Ensete Planting Culture of Eastern Sidamo, Ethiopia ’, Acta Geographica, xiii, no. 4, 1955.Google Scholar
page 281 note 4 Out of 267 Chaha riddles that I collected, twenty-three deal with the äsät (see ‘ Chaha Riddles ’, Rassegna di studi etiopici, xxi [1965], 27–93, Index under ‘ äsät ’).
page 281 note 5 The following texts exist for Chaha: Leslau, W., Ethiopic Documents: Gurage (New York, 1950)Google Scholar; ‘ The Farmer in Chaha Song ’, Africa, xxxiv (1964), 230–42Google Scholar; ‘ Chaha Riddles ’, Rassegna di studi etiopici, xxi (1965), 27–93Google Scholar; Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background. II. Chaha (University of California Press, 1966).Google Scholar
page 281 note 6 This is the first text in Eža.
