Galata Waaqayyo Gooftaa Machaa [ገለተ ዋቀዮ ጎፍታ መጫ, Praise God, the Lord of hosts]. 2nd edition (reprint). Edited by Ingeborg and Martin Nordfeldt. Addis Ababa: Nigdii Publishing House, 1959/60 (1952 A.M.).
Source: Dietrich Wassmann collection, Hermannsburg
Remarks on the second edition (1952 A.M. = Sept. 1959 ‒ Sept. 1960)
a) Staffan Grenstedt, Longstanding Relations in a Process of Change: The Swedish Evangelical Mission in Ethiopia 1898‒2015 (Uppsala: Narin, 2024), p. 130 reads [DIVA Portal]:
“In 1956 the missionary conference delegated to Rev. Torsten Persson and Rev. Allan Stefansson to find out how to make a reprint of the Oromo hymnbook, which was out of stock. […] We can conclude that the Amharic language policy of the government after the Decree on Missions in 1944 was strict and the missionaries were struggling to provide relevant and accessible literature in […] Oromiffa.” (Emphasis added)
b) According to Grenstedt, Longlasting Relations, p. 266-67, Rev. A. Stefansson left Ethiopia for good in 1957, and Rev. T. Persson left Addis Ababa in 1959 to begin a new work in Backo. It therefore appears that submitting the print proof was one of Rev. Persson’s last acts in Addis Ababa—or that this had already been done by someone else (from YDCS?). Backo might have been a better place to store the Oromo hymnals than the YDCS compound.
c) Is there any information about Nigdii Publishing House
[alias “Nigdit”? Or a pseudonym?],
which dared to print an Oromo book in the capital in 1960
[i.e., a few months before the coup attempt of
the Neway brothers in December 1960]?
Remarks on the first edition (1935)
a) The first edition was printed in Addis Ababa in 1935 [1927 A.M.; based on Onesimos Nesib‘s work].
b) S. Grenstedt, Longstanding Relations, p. 74 reads [DIVA Portal]:
With the help of Onesimos the liturgy had been translated into Oromiffa already in 1927. It was appreciated by the people to have it in their own language. Owing to the Italian censorship of literature the SEM planned to move the printing press from Asmara to Addis in 1927. Several manuscripts, both in Amharic and Oromiffa, were then waiting to be printed. Rev. Martin [Nordfeldt] furthermore revised and enlarged Onesimos’ hymnbook in 1935 and included the order of divine service in Oromiffa. The hymnbook had then been out of stock for 10 years. […; emphasis added]
- [footnote no. 120:] Martin Nordfeldt in MT [= Missionstidning] 1925, no. 16, p. 229; in MT 1926, no. 16, p. 222‒23; in MT 1926, no. 12, p. 173; in MT 1927, no. 2, p. 19. Nordfeldt letter to Dahlberg 1927.04.11. EFS-A [SEM Archives]/ EI a 278 (Swedish); Gusti Söderström 1947, III, p. 21‒24; Arén 1999 [Envoys], p. 301‒04, 330. Minutes of missionary conference June 10‒15, 1927, §§ 11, 18, 21. M. Nordfeldt “Missionsläget i Galla” in Varde ljus! 1927, p. 48. M. Nordfeldt in MTBB [= Missions-Tidning Budbäraren] 1935, no. 37, p. 433; Nils Nilsson in MT 1926, no. 11A, p. 156‒58; in MT 1927, no. 17, p. 244; M. Nordfeldt in MT, 1927, no. 22, p. 324‒25 […]
Cross-references
Galata Waaqayyo Gooftaa Machaa (1959/60)
- Index of songs (in Qubee)
- Front material (in Qubee and with English translation)
- Liturgical part (in Qubee and with English translation)
Galata Waaqayyo Gooftaa Machaa (1935)
Sköld, Stina. “When the Revised Oromo Hymnbook Came to Lakamte [1935],” in […] Onesimos Nesib Anthology, pp. 247‒49. [Read online]
Further study
» Did Onesimos use traditional melodies for his spiritual songs? [Read online]