Prof. Dr. Hewan Semon Marye

Hewan Semon Marye is a historian interested in the modern political and social histories of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. Her principal research focuses on re-emerging messianic traditions that have connections and parallels in the pre-modern period. She is also interested in the cultural developments, music, arts, and literature of the region, and has experience translating fiction and nonfiction from Amharic to English and vice versa. Her teaching profile involves sociolinguistics and anthropological studies, introductions to the political history of the wider African continent, and media studies.

As a fellow at CEMES, Marye works on the long history of messianic traditions in Ethiopia. Mixing historical, philological, and ethnographic research, her project aims to examine whether the person-centered messianism in the medieval Ethiopian apocalyptic text Fǝkkare Iyäsus is part of a larger ideological phenomenon that places Ethiopia as Verus Israel, a concept codified in the medieval text Kǝbrä Nägäśt. Her project directly aligns with the core mission of CEMES by examining how these ancient, text-based eschatological narratives are revitalized to navigate contemporary sociopolitical challenges.

https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/en/ethiostudies/team/hewan.html