Best ethiopia history books according to redditors

Hahle Selassie also made some real progress in ending slavery in Ethiopia, though he hadn't quite finished by the time Italy invaded. He passed several transition type laws, such as children of slaves being born free and forbidding slaves from being bought and sold, with his memoirs indicating that he meant these as interim steps to eradicating slavery within the borders of Ethiopia. Source: The Rape of Ethiopia.

Few months ago, there was a similar question at War College, though related to Uganda, see thread How does the Ugandan Army compare to its neighbors?

I agree with your conclusion that African Wars - like II Congo War - are usually discussed from the geo-political POV, very rarely from military POV. Exceptions are rather rare, regardless if it's about pre- or post-1990s, and so also in the case of such wars like that in Rwanda, or the I and II Congo Wars. For example, while there are dozens of books, and thousands of studies and articles about Rwanda, all I know - without a single exception - are dealing with the genocide of 1994. Until recently (see below) there was not one about military history of the Rwandan Civil War, 1990-1994. Similarly, books like those by Prunier are 'well known', while those discussing military campaigns appear 'non-existing'.

Now, instead of explaining whys and hows, let me come to the point, i.e. offer you a few reading tips. Since you've explicitly requested 'post 1990 Africa', in your place I would start with John W Turner's Continent Ablaze. Yes, about 95% of that book is about pre-1990s, i.e. 'classic African wars', and post-1990s chapters are limited to those about Angola, actually. Furthermore, a lot of Turner's work is based on little else but reporting by BBC's Foreign Monitoring Service and similar 'sources'. But, you'll learn a lot about most of reasons for post-1990s wars. Plus, it's one of less than a handful of books covering African wars one can find in libraries of such places like Sandhurst, so I would describe it as a 'good starter'. If nothing else, it's going to help you find out what wars do you want to follow closely.

Casual search around the internet might bring you to various books by Al J Venter, a veteran South African author of works like War Dog, Gunship Ace, or Barrel of a Gun. These are including a great deal of 'episodes' related to South African mercenaries in places like Congo, Sierra Leone, Angola etc. Al was in all of these places, and is personally befriended to most of crucial actors, and thus simply 'unbeatable' in regards of 'details'. What one might miss in his books though, would be for these stories to be put within their geopolitical and military context, i.e. a slightly better organization of all the data they're presenting. But then, that's simply a matter of taste.

Still, if you follow 'Al's trail', you might stumble into a small South African publisher titled 30 Degrees South - and thus find out this has published a number of titles penned by Eeben Barlow.

Clearly, while Barlow is well-known (or at least 'Executive Outcomes' is going to ring plenty of bells here, so I'm sure), his top military planners and tacticians like Roelf van Heerden and Andrew Hudson remain entirely unknown in the public - although at least the latter has published a number of his own titles, mostly via 30 Deg South (just check their website).

Further search for the latter might bring you to a series of books published in cooperation between 30 Deg South and Helion Publishing (UK) since some 6-7 years and appropriately titled 'Africa@War'. They've released about 25 titles so far. Of course, majority of these went into 'classic' topics from the 1960s-1980s - i.e. those related to South Africa, Rhodesia, Portuguese campaigns in the Guine, Angola, or mercenaries in the Congo etc. But, meanwhile they've brought out quite a number of titles about 'other' African wars out, and especially those about conflicts since 1990s - including such like Somalia, US Intervention, 1992-1994, or the much postponed AMISOM.

Guess, this is the point at which I must beg admins for some more of their understanding (perhaps even some 'sympathy'), then because of my own involvement the following is going to appear as another post full of 'shameless self-advertising'. Namely, I do happen to have researched quite a lot about modern-day African wars (often with help from kind people like Andrew, Al and many others) and so I have joined the gang of Africa@War and published several titles in that series, often in cooperation with my Swiss friend Adrien Fontanelaz. That's how an entire series of books explaining the military history of conflicts related to the II Congo War came into being, including:

• Wars and Insurgencies of Uganda, 1971-1994 (story of the Ugandan military build-up through 1960s and 1970s; the Kagera War of 1978-1979, and of various insurgencies of the 1980s and 1990s, some of which in turn were instrumental for the following volume)
  
  
• The Rwandan Patriotic Front, 1990-1994 (wars in Ugandas proved crucial for what happened in Rwanda of the early 1990s; namely, already Museveni's NRA was heavily dependent on hundreds of Rwandan Tutsis, who in turn created the Rwandan Patriotic Front and invaded Rwanda in 1990, launching a civil war that... well, is de-facto still going on, 'but', kind of 'culminated' with the genocide of 1994)
  
  
• Great Lakes Holocaust: I Congo War, 1996-1997 (in 1996, Rwanda, followed by Uganda, launched an invasion of the then Zaire, eventually toppling US/French-supported dictator Mobutu Sese-Seko; this is the story of that conflict), and
  
  
• Great Lakes Conflagration: II Congo War, 1998-2003 (in 1998, Rwanda and Uganda launched their second invasion of the DR Congo, this time attempting not only to topple President Kabila, but also establish themselves in control over immense mineral wealth in the east of that country; this in turn prompted a counter-intervention by Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia - and even Libyan-sponsored Chad, plus few other countries; what is next-to-unknown is that this war kind of 'faded away' not only because of highly-published series of major clashes between Ugandans and Rwandans related to distribution of the loot, but especially because the Congolese began applying the same strategy upon Rwandans, which Rwandans used to apply on the Congolese, early during that war).
  
  I did originally intend to follow-up with a third volume on the DR Congo since 2003, but sad point is: as much as they are praised by all of their readers, the latter remain very limited in numbers. My understanding of the reasons is that these books are neither sensationalist, nor discussing usual topics like mass suffering of civilians, but rather dry military histories of conflicts in question. And since majority of potential readers cannot imagine - just for example - Zimbabweans deploying their adaptation of Rhodesian 'Fire Force tactics' in the centre of the DR Congo of 1998, they never come to the idea that there are any kind of books discussing such topics. Unsurprisingly, I doubt we've sold more than 500 copies of any of these titles, which in turn means they simply do not pay. For similar reasons, I dropped the idea of preparing similar volumes on topics like Sudan or Chad, just for example. Slightly more successful was the Libyan Air Wars mini-series (3 titles); that might eventually 'provoke' me to ready a title (or two) on 'Libya since 2011' (there're certainly enough sources and info, especially thanks to research by Arnaud Delalande). We'll see...
  
  Fans of obscure (indeed: often enough 'weird') air forces and their (frequently: 'colourful') aircraft have found the two-part study African MiGs slightly more interesting (indeed, even the library at Wright Patterson should have a copy of each). Except for discussing acquisitions and operational history of its title, it's also providing - often quite lengthy - summaries of local air forces at wars, so also those since 1990 (just for example, I do not know any other book discussing COIN ops by the Ugandan People's Defence Force/Air Force against Lord's Resistance Army since 2000). 'Bonus', if you like: Volume 2 ends with a big appendix providing a detailed ORBAT of 23 African air forces as of 2010 (with exception of Mozambique and Mali, not much changed ever since).

Here's the rough outline of what we know as historians of Africa:

1. The spread of Christianity to the northern part of modern-day Ethiopia--really Tigray today--came via Aksum. The key convert is believed to be King Ezana (sorry about wikipedia), whose stelae are still around, likely sometime in the 340s. The conversion of Ezana and his early linkage to the Arian Christians and the Copts is where Frumentius the Syrian, who was apparently his tutor, comes in. His converstion was very likely prompted by the connection to Egyptian Christian traders as well as the Roman Empire's embrace of the faith. It appears to have spread from the port at Adulis, but Ezana took it in for much the same reason that rulers of Swahili towns and empires in West Africa initially accepted an eclectic Islam--trade. The comment made about the connection between the Ethiopian Church and the Egyptian one by ServerofJustice is absolutely correct. (Ezana's focus on trade primacy is also shown by his destruction of the rump of Meroë around 350.) It is to this that Ethiopia traces its Christianity, although during centuries of isolation between Aksum and Ethiopia they apparently did not consult Alexandria. At that time the specific link between King Solomon and the court was not made.
   
   
2. Christianity remained, for a very long time, the faith of the elites; the "rediscovery" of Solomon and Sheba was part of a political consolidation in the 14th century. The faith's exclusivity was a problem because, as CaisLaochach points out, Islam was a likely contender. In fact it did make inroads into parts of the kingdom, as a creed that spoke to "common" people in a feudal system. At various times, Ethiopian rulers acquired Muslim subjects or even Muslim subordinates; that problem never went away. Christianity remained the faith of the elites in part because the kingdom became insular after the rise of Islam and the loss by Aksum of Adulis around ?750. Eventually, the rise of the Solomonids in 1270 brought with it a re-orientation of biblical history in the form of the Kebre Negast within a century or so that fleshed out the "story" of Sheba after Solomon. The reality was that Aksum collapsed in the 8th century and we really don't know much about how it became Zagwe Ethiopia, or if it truly did; it's possible Ethiopia is an only loosely-related, new political formation that "wrote backwards" and claimed Aksum ex post facto, going so far as to enthrone its emperors (negusa negast, or king of kings) there. We do know that one Christian elite gave way to another, and the state shifted southward somewhat, changing its focus from trade to feudal mixed-pastoralism. In that space, a centralizing religious focus was very useful: to defy the Solomonids was to defy God on some level. Ethiopia also wasn't alone: Christian kingdoms with Islamic subjects also existed to the west in the Nile Valley (known as the "Nubian Kingdoms" collectively) as late as the 1400s. Those collapsed not via conquest, but because their populations became so overwhelmingly Islamic and dependent on trade with Muslims that the elites simply converted.
   
   
3. The Portuguese basically saved Ethiopia from the fate of Islamic conquest from Adal, once they "discovered" the true root of their Prester John mythology and the forgotten Christian kingdom in Ethiopia in 1520. The emperor at that time requested Portuguese help against Adal and its Ottoman ally (the latter fresh off its conquest of Egypt and the Holy Places of Islam in 1517) but aid didn't arrive until 1540. The conflict that culminated in the battle of Wayna Daga (1543) won by an Ethio-Portuguese force over a Somali/Adal-Ottoman one, and the naval confrontations at the Protuguese harbor of Diu (several really) saved Ethiopia from being overrun. The Portuguese however quickly wore out their welcome, and Jesuit missionaries came to see Ethiopian Christianity as almost heretical. They made no shortage of attempts to convert Ethiopian courtiers and the emperors themselves. Father Lobo's experience at this moment, when they were actually given to the Ottomans by their Ethiopian "hosts" on the expectation they would be killed, is recorded in A Voyage to Abyssinia and it makes for some delicious "wtf" reading. Yes, Father Lobo really thought the Portuguese and then the Papacy should organize a full-scale invasion of Ethiopia. I'm not even kidding. From the Ethiopian side, conversion to Catholicism would have been a devastating refutation of the basis of their political legitimacy internally, and it could not be allowed. Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity as a closely-held faith only later spread actively to the general population, much as was the case with Islam in the western Sahel and Sudan. I don't know the details of the way that appeal was made, though, or whether it was truly gradual; it was never really victorious, and Islam is still quite prominent today. My recollection is that the sources aren't very frank about it but I'll have a look again when I'm back in my library.
   
   
4. That era's Ethiopia was really only the northern third or so of today's Ethiopia-Eritrea matrix. Only with the 1870-1890 conquests of Menelik II of Shoa did it take its current shape and extent. Yes, at that time it incorporated a lot of additional non-Christians, many of whom converted later and some likely under duress. "Colonists" weren't interested in Ethiopia is a confusing comment, though--do you mean that colonial powers weren't ever interested? Tell that to General Baratieri, defeated at Adwa on March 1st, 1896. It was after that military victory by an African state over a European one that more people began rediscovering Ethiopia's "white past" and trying to justify the exception to the colonial tide.
   
   See, for example, Harold Marcus, A History of Ethiopia upd. ed., (2002); Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopians: A History, (2001); and a variety of histories of Christianity that treat it in chapters. General histories of Africa, including Robert Collins's and Kevin Shillington's, also spend time with Ethiopia and do so fairly well for overviews.
   
   [Edit: I tried to clarify a few things. I typed this in a very stream-of-consciousness way, so I apologize.]

My suggestion: a book on the madness and wonder of 19th century African exploration. Specifically The White Nile, one of the great reads of the last century.

Not only may some of the men bring to mind Sir Malcolm, but the tale of Mr. and Mrs. Baker may remind one of the stern stuff of which (some) Victorian Englishwomen were made.

In fact, I think I'll now read Baker's own memoir.

I can't find Alexander Moore. Did you mean Alan Moorehead? https://www.amazon.com/White-Nile-Alan-Moorehead/dp/0060956399

i read a wonderful book about a guy travelling in yemen and ethiopia, it was about his experience with khat and the culture there, it's a very social communal bonding plant and has a long history of usage.

another racist policy related to immigration, rather than the actual plant i'm guessing.

Eating The Flowers Of Paradise

Sorry that it took me 5 days to make this reply, but I honor my promises (thanks to /u/nixons_nose). So here are the other books:

• The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat, written by the famed Polish correspondent Ryszard Kapuscinski, is about the waning days of the last Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie I (also known as Ras Tafari). This is a really compelling read.
  
• Another book on Emperor Haile Selassie, King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia offers a more complete and balanced view of the Emperor. Must be read along with Kapuscinski's book.
  
• Gebru Tariki's The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa tells us of the rise and fall of the socialist dictatorship that replace Selassie's empire, the Derg and Mengistu eras.
  
• Tom Cooper's Wings over Ogaden: The Ethiopian-Somali War, 1978-1979 chronicles a little-known episode of the Cold War era (I'd use "saga" over "era", it sounds better.), the Ogaden War. Nice to see books on African wars, because they are usually ignored and overlooked. Must-read.
  
• Lastly, for a general history of Ethiopia, this book fits the bill: Harold Marcus' A History of Ethiopia Updated Edition.
  
  I hope these books will help you. ;)
  
  EDIT: Added bullets and a link.
  
  
  

I read A History of Modern Ethiopia in a class I was taking on North-East Africa. I'd never really read any history about anywhere in Africa (beyond the slave trade), so I found the book really interesting.

I suggest picking a country or time period you're more interested in. I've read more book about the horn of Africa; For example

The Oromo of Ethiopia: 1570-1860

or The Conquest of Abyssinia: Futuh Al Habasa This one is pretty interesting because it is actually written by someone that witnessed these historical events.

Ibn Battuta is a Berber who lived in the 14th century and travel through west Africa, north Africa and the horn of Africa. He wrote about his travels, you might want to look into him.