Paper short abstract:

The paper wants to reconstruct the history of Indian educators in Ethiopia and inquire the historical as well as individual reasons why they moved and still move to the African country.

Paper long abstract:

The history of Indians in Ethiopia is much different from the history of Indians in the rest of the continent, especially the rest of East Africa. While in other East African countries Indians were predominantly dukawalla, traders, who had followed the Arab trading routes, in Ethiopia Indians have been closely associated with formal education since the times of Emperor Haile Selassie. When secondary schools were established in the 1940s, Haile Selassie had not only Indian advisors, but Indian teachers arrived in large numbers. Around six decades later, when a similar fast expansion took place in the higher education sector, Ethiopia turned again to India as one of the possible source countries for recruiting university lecturers. While the employment of academics from other contemplated countries like Cuba and Nigeria stayed low for various reasons, Indian academics were ready to come and today they still arrive in large numbers.

The paper wants to reconstruct the history of Indian educators in Ethiopia and inquire the historical as well as individual reasons why they moved to the African country.