Discovering Eritrea's Past: Select Documents from the Works of the Pioneers

This book is an introduction to the historiography of Eritrea which was initiated by Werner Munzinger and Leo Reinisch, two explorers from central Europe, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Five select documents in translation are presented to show how they approached the linguistic, legal, historical and cultural studies of the country. Their scientific publications testify to the richness of the society's tradition, the favourable climate, the multiple languages, the multifarious ethnic groups, the friendly inhabitants and the easily accessible geographical location. Subsequently numerous other European researchers followed their lead, whose contributions together with the national documents from church archives and notables' chronicles became part of the development of Eritrean historiography.