Religion and sacred legitimacy in imperial state formation under Yohannes IV, 1872–1889, Ethiopia

This paper explores the structural function of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity as a site of political legitimacy and state formation during the reign of Emperor Yohannes IV (1872–1889). Moving beyond historiographical oppositions that frame the Church's descriptive ecclesiastical history against the secularist and materialist histories of the state, the paper introduces theorizations of religion as a dominant governance infrastructure via Max Weber's types of authority, Bourdieu's theorizations of symbolic power, and the historical sociologies of state centralization. Building upon the seminal contributions of early investigators into the field of nineteenth-century sacral politics, this paper argues that state formation during the reign of Yohannes IV was carried out based on Solomonic ideology. Using a range of imperial chronicles, decrees, and contemporary missionary literature and accounts, the paper argues that while the institutional processes that included the formalization of religious standardization at Boru Meda (1878) and the socialization of battlefield symbolism helped to institutionalize imperial rule to battle internal and external enemies in the country and abroad. They also contributed to the institutionalization of the center/periphery divide. In doing so, the paper illuminates the structural paradox of sacred authority.