6 - Military Training in Sports, Horsemanship and Hunting

Summary

From childhood, sporting activities gave physical prowess and mental agility to farmers committed to sustain the military system. They learned war-like strategies and leadership. Hunting (aden), for instance, enabled youth to kill wild beasts, some of which were thought to represent hostile human beings, and therefore the enemy. In the process they underwent rituals similar to rites of passage, and passed from childhood towards adulthood. They also learned notions of leadership and bravery, and became acquainted with faraway hunting grounds and people in the Ethiopian landscape. Horsemanship brought them skills like handling weapons and executing battlefield manoeuvres. Later in life excellence in these led them into adult military duties, and thereby into fulfilling society's expectation of proving their worth as community leaders. Such self-trained rural farmers formed the chewa fighting force, whose members, as noted earlier, were recruited and promoted to senior positions so as to be on constant standby for military action in the Ethiopian politico-military system, if necessary at all seasons of the agricultural cycle.

CHILDHOOD GAMES

Boys’ childhood games developed aspects of leadership, such as sharp wits and a politico-militaristic sense of obedience, loyalty and self-sufficiency, as well as the ability to move in political society. Peers played games throughout the year as part of everyday and seasonal life, with strict rules preventing adults playing violent games with children. There were huge regional and even local variations and the players adopted them to local practices, but generally the wet season games trained the young in mental agility, witticism, military skills and politics, while the dry season ones helped them develop physical prowess.

Boy children learned team formation (budin), control and humility, and made lifelong friends. Even nominating their team leaders and dividing into random parties of equal numbers, regardless of their social positions, especially ‘master–servant’ status, taught them correct conduct. Team leaders, ‘fathers of the team’ (budin-abat or ambel), cultivated the capacity to develop patron–client relationships while interacting with the players with a sense of self-censorship, communal responsibility and propriety.

Responsible parents encouraged children by firing their ambitions and supporting them in their games. Among the Tigre, Amhara and Oromo of the nineteenth century they deliberately prepared the conditions for their boys’ participation.