During the 20th century, church-based healers had to contend with a rapidly changing social and political environment shaped by successive state-led efforts to transform Ethiopian society. These transformations, including the introduction of western education and medicine, began with the westernising initiatives of Menelik II (1889-1913), and continued through successive post-Menelik governments. Here, Assefa Negwo investigates how churchbased medico-magical healers struggled to maintain their medical traditions in the face of these transformations.
