Donald Crummey Imperial Legitimacy and the Creation of Neo-Solomonic Ideology in icth-Century Ethiopia* Scholars have devoted considerable attention to the role of ideology modern societies Starting with the history of Western Europe since the i8th century they have expanded their investigations into the wider world Shils Johnson 1968 Geertz 1964 Lichtheim 1967 There is considerable agreement that ideology is powerful force in the contem porary world and that its analysis requires subtlety and sensitivity Geertz has strongly articulated this case and in his studies of Indonesia led the way in demonstrating how it might be realized However in spite of his working with deeply historic culture Geertz shares the view that ideology is peculiarly force of the modern world and he has little to say about its historical functioning in the societies he has studied This is the task taken up in the present paper with reference to Ethiopia and the latter half of the i9th century Geertz 1964 notes that The function of ideology is to make an autonomous politics possible by providing the authoritative concepts that render it meaningful the suasive images by means of which it can be sensibly grasped This function was no less important in pre-capitalist polity than in contemporary one The notion of truly traditional systems in which the partipants act as men of untaught feelings ibid. is mythic All pre-capitalist polities required support Ideologies in such context consisted of vaguer stock of ideas than is the case with modern ones Moreover they were largely latent under normal cir cumstances but could play powerful role in times of change and stress No less than modern ones pre-capitalist ideologies were manipulated by

Cahiers tudes africaines XXVIII-i ig88 pp 13-43