Zera Yakob's philosophy

Abstract

There is a need to read Zera Yakob's philosophy by relating it to a contextualized interpretation
of how he came to write this philosophy. There is a need to produce plausible references and
accounts to demonstrate he wrote the Hateta. He wrote at a time when the Ethiopian
Orthodox faith was being assaulted by Portugese Jesuits. Philosophers such as Claude
Summner, Charles Vernharn and others claim that his philosophy is on a par, if not even better
in many ways to the work of the so†called European philosophers. The claim that that the work
was actually written by Italian Jesuit D'Urbino rather than Zera Yakob appears to be a
fabricated account. What is important is not to be distracted by these claims, but move on to
explore the subtelty of Zera Yakob's original philosophy by re†reading the Hateta with the
perspective of how new philosophical methodologies and insights are included or revealed in
it or can be extrapolated from it. Ethiopian philosophers must deeply get immersed in
excavating the originality of Ethiopian philosophy, that some philosophers claim is so deep that
Ethiopia is indeed the originator of the philosophy of harmony that will save the world.