An Ancient Tongue Finds Its Voice Again

For more than two thousand years, empires have risen and fallen across Ethiopia. Monarchs ruled, were overthrown, and replaced by generals, who themselves gave way to ideologues. Through it all, one of the world’s oldest written languages—Ge’ez—gradually faded from public life.

Once widely spoken across the region, Ge’ez today survives primarily in the sacred rituals and scriptures of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The last time the language had an official place in the country’s education system was under the Derg, the Marxist military junta that ruled from 1974 until its collapse in 1991. During that era, Ge’ez was taught alongside European and regional languages such as French, Italian, Arabic, and Amharic, the latter still the country’s official language.

But when the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power in 1991 and reorganized the country under an ethnic federalist model, Ge’ez was quietly pushed out of classrooms. No longer spoken and now absent from modern education, the language lost its footing as a literary and academic medium.

Yet, it never disappeared entirely. The church remained its strongest guardian. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church—guardian of the Garima Gospels, the world’s oldest known illustrated Christian manuscripts, written in Ge’ez in the 4th or 5th century—continued to use the language for liturgy, scripture, and instruction in traditional church schools known as AbinetTimhirt Bet.

Meanwhile, Ge’ez manuscripts attracted growing interest in Western academic circles. Universities such as Princeton, Yale, the University of Toronto, and Cambridge’s digital library embarked on ambitious efforts to study and digitize ancient Ethiopian texts. Within Ethiopia, however, only the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University pursued similar efforts. Outside academic circles, the National Archives and Library of Ethiopia, alongside monastic libraries, are among the few repositories holding significant Ge’ez collections.

This imbalance—between international enthusiasm and domestic neglect—has long troubled scholars and clergy alike. Frustration simmered for years. A rich intellectual heritage written in Ge’ez lay dormant, largely inaccessible to the very nation from which it sprang.  That discontent helped spark a revival.

In May 2018, Bahir Dar University, located in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, launched the country’s first formal Ge’ez language studies program under its Faculty of Humanities.

Initially offering a postgraduate degree with an inaugural class of 32 students, the program has since expanded to include undergraduate studies in regular, extension, and winter sessions.

“We began by enrolling students who already had informal training in Ge’ez, mostly through the Church,” said Waltenigus Mekonen (PhD), dean of the Faculty of Humanities. “They came to formalize and deepen that knowledge within a modern academic setting. Now, students with no prior background are joining our regular program.”

Today, the university hosts three undergraduate cohorts and more than a hundred students in the bachelor’s track, with similarly strong enrollment in its postgraduate program.

“The demand is enormous,” Waltenigus said.

What sets Bahir Dar’s program apart, he adds, is its total immersion: Ge’ez is not just the subject—it is the medium. All coursework, discussions, and exams are conducted entirely in the language.

“From start to finish, every aspect of the program is delivered in Ge’ez,” he said. “It is designed in Ge’ez, by Ge’ez, and for Ge’ez,” he added.

That approach contrasts sharply with the ancient language program at Addis Ababa University, where instruction is conducted in English and Ge’ez is taught as a subject rather than as a medium of expression.

At Bahir Dar, the aim is more ambitious: to resurrect a dormant national heritage—not only for study but for use.

A New Frontier

Pleased with the success of the undergraduate and master’s programs, Bahir Dar University is now setting its sights higher. Plans are underway to launch a doctoral program in Ge’ez studies—a move scholars hope will help unlock the deeper, untapped potential of Ethiopia’s ancient language.

A consultative meeting to draft the PhD curriculum was held on March 28th bringing together stakeholders from across academia, the church, and various government ministries. Representatives from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as the Ministries of Education, Health, and Culture and Tourism, participated in the session, which centered on a needs assessment presented by the university.

“The Ge’ez language, being a repository of profound and ancient national wisdom, holds within it a wealth of knowledge,” said Waltenigus, in his opening remarks. “The aim of this meeting—and the ultimate goal of the PhD program—is to extract and realize that wisdom in meaningful ways.”

According to Waltenigus, the envisioned program is not simply about deepening linguistic expertise. It is about equipping scholars with the tools to decode historical knowledge, apply scientific methodologies, and spark technological innovations based on insights embedded in centuries-old manuscripts.

A persistent concern among experts, echoed at the meeting, is Ethiopia’s tendency to sideline its own ancient manuscripts—allowing them to gather dust or be shipped to foreign museums—due in part to a lack of trained professionals who can study and interpret them. That frustration fuels the university’s urgency.

“The reality is that Ge’ez is no longer a living, spoken language. And when a language isn’t spoken as a mother tongue, it’s considered dead,” said Waltenigus. “But for thousands of years, it has recorded Ethiopia’s history, philosophies, and ancestral knowledge across disciplines. We now need experts who can use that language not just as a subject of study, but as a tool to generate innovation that benefits society.”

The PhD curriculum, still in development, is being designed to attract candidates from diverse fields—including education, architecture, management, medicine, and history—with the goal of integrating indigenous knowledge into applied sciences. The university hopes that scholars trained in Ge’ez can help bridge traditional wisdom with modern problem-solving.

One of the most promising initiatives is Bahir Dar University’s medicinal research center, Hosaena, which focuses on mining Ge’ez manuscripts for potential breakthroughs in traditional medicine. Several projects are underway to identify treatments and manufacturing processes encoded in centuries-old texts.

The program is also actively cataloging church-held manuscripts and conducting field explorations to recover inscriptions from ancient sites. It has begun translating more than a dozen volumes of ZenaMewael, the daily imperial chronicles written in Ge’ez, into Amharic. Two of those translations are expected to be published within the next few months.

Still, Waltenigus is clear about the program’s priorities: “Translation is important, yes, but it is not the centerpiece of our mission. This curriculum is not just about learning the language—it’s about mobilizing the knowledge embedded in it to drive development and social progress.”

If all goes according to plan, Bahir Dar University expects to complete the final preparations for its doctoral program by July and admit its first cohort in the upcoming academic year.