My doctoral research at King's College London focuses on a remarkable text from Ethiopia, the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob. The Ḥatäta has fascinated and puzzled alike on account of its philosophical depth, beauty and apparent historical singularity. It has been called the ‘jewel of Ethiopian literature’, and served to demonstrate, in the words of Claude Sumner, that “modern philosophy, in the sense of a personal rationalistic critical investigation, began in Ethiopia with Zera Yacob at the same time as in England and in France”. But it has also been denounced as a fake and a  forgery, and for the last century has been the subject of a highly controversial scholarly - and political - debate. 

Two talks I gave on the subject, at the Princeton-Bucharest seminar in early modern philosophy, and at Addis Ababa University, are available here. I also discussed similar topics with Justin Smith-Ruiu on his podcast 'What is X?'.

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