The Hatata Inquiries - Two Texts of Seventeenth-Century African Philosophy from Ethiopia about Reason, the Creator, and Our Ethical Responsibilities

The Hatata are two extraordinary texts of African philosophy composed in Ethiopia in the 1600s. Written in the ancient African language of Gəˁəz (Classical Ethiopic), these two texts advocate for the rights of women and rail against slavery and warfare. They offer ontological proofs for God and question some biblical commands while reframing others. One states that his exploration of reason has led him to abandon Christianity. The two texts put reason above belief, desire above asceticism, love above sectarianism, and the natural world above the human. They explore the nature of being as well as the nature of knowledge, the human, ethics, and the human relation with the divine. Delighting in the language and contradictions of Psalms, they advise on right living. They are remarkable examples of something many assume doesn’t exist: early written African thought. This accessible English translation of the Hatata essays, along with extensive footnotes documenting the cultural and historical context and the work's many textual allusions, enables all to read it and scholars to teach with it. The Hatata Inquiries are essential to understanding the global history of philosophy, being among the early works of rational philosophy.