(1) Published Sources
1.1 By Gebru Desta as the sole author
Gäbru (Käntiba). Yaamäreñña säwasew märi [A short guide to the Practical Amharic Grammar]. Addis Ababa 1922/23 [1915 A.M.]. [Libris catalogue]
1.2 By Gebru Desta as assistant
Epistolae Apostolorum Domini nostri et Salvatoris Jesu Christi: Aethiopice et Amharice [Epistles of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in Ge’ez and Amharic]. Basel: C. F. Spittler, 1878. [Printed at the request and by the expense of the BFBS at the Mission Press in St. Chrischona]. [Bonn University]
1.3 On Gebru Desta
“First Call for Abyssinia! Ambassadors Congratulate America on Part in War and Bespeak Attention to Trade Opportunities,” The New York Times, 1919.08.10, X3. [Mainly quoting Gebru Desta; view online]
(2) Published Letters
2.1 Published in Smidt, Deutsche Briefe (1869-78)
- Gobaw Desta to Martin Flad (Massawa, end of 1877)
- Gobaw Desta to Martin Flad (Azezo, May 1878)
2.2 Published in Smidt, Deutsche Briefe (1878-89)
- Gobaw Desta to Flad (Imkullu, September 1880)
- Gobaw Desta to St. Chrischona (Balli, December 1885)
- Gobaw Desta to St. Chrischona (Dar es Salaam, March 1888)
2.3 Published in Bairu Tafla, Ethiopia Records
- Gobau Desta to Alfred Ilg (Dar es Salaam, Nov. 1888)
2.4 Published in Records of the British and Foreign Bible Society
[work in progress]
2.5 Published in Missions-Tidings (Swedish Evangelical Mission)
- Gobaw Desta to Påhlmann (Aden, July 1890)
2.6 Published in Shell, Children of Hope
- Gebru Desta to
2.7 Published in Persson, Onesimos Nesib Anthology
- Gebru Desta to
» View most of the above mentioned letters online
(3) Manuscripts and other archive materials
3.1 Addis Ababa, Institute of Ethiopian Studies
Gäbru (Käntiba). “Yäkäntiba Gäbru Dästa yäheywät tarik” [Käntiba Gäbru Dästa’s autobiography, written in the late 1930s]. Addis Ababa, Institute of Ethiopian Studies. Ref. Code: Manuscript 1682.
3.2 St. Chrischona, Archive (Library)
Gobaw Desta, English CV (for admission at St. Chrischona), written in Jerusalem, 1871.04.12. [View online]
3.3 Staatsarchiv des Kantons Basel-Stadt
Auszüge aus den Protokollen des Comites in Jerusalem
3.4 Wuppertal, Archives of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM)
File M 263: “Desta Gobau [1887‒89].” Archives of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM), Wuppertal, Germany.
3.5 Hermannsburg, EL4M Mission Archive
File AE 4.33-II: “Gäbru Desta,” ELM Mission Archive, Hermannsburg, Germany.
3.6 Swedish Evangelical Mission Archives
Gobaw to Påhlmann, 1890.07.09 (original?)
3.7 Cory Library
Gäbru Desta . Ref. Code:
3.8 Other Archives
(?) Any relevant files in Jerusalem / Weinheim / Basel / Korntal or Stuttgart / Addis Ababa / etc. (?)
(4) Secondary Literature
4.1 Amharic
Dawit Gäbru. Käntiba Gäbru Dästa, Yäʾiṭyopya qərs [Käntiba Gäbru Dästa, Ethiopia’s Heritage]. Addis Ababa 1992/93. [1985 A.M.]
- Copy for sale at Mereb Shop.
4.2 English
Bahru Zewde. Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century. Oxford: James Currey, Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa Univ., 2002. [See p. 42-47]
Bairu Tafla. “Four Ethiopian Biographies,” Journal of Ethiopian Studies 7, no. 2 (1969): 1–31.
- On Käntiba Gäbra Dästa, see p. 22–31 [View on JSTOR (subscription barrier)]
⸻. Ethiopian Records of the Menilek Era: Selected Amharic Documents from the Nachlaß of Alfred Ilg 1884‒1900. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000.
⸻. “Gäbrä Ǝgziʾabəḥer Dästa,” in Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 2, edited by Siegbert Uhlig, p. 606‒07. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005.
“Gebru Desta” articles by Paul E. Balisky, respectively Dishaye Menberu in the Dictionary of African Christian Biography.
Shell, Sandra Rowoldt. Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa. Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 2018.
- See index, s.v. Liban Bultum. [Google Books]
Solomon Getahun. History of the City of Gondar. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2004.
Ullendorff, Edward. “Some Amharic and Other Documents from the Eugen Mittwoch Nachlass,” in Studia Aethiopica et Semitica, edited by Edward Ullendorff, p. 135‒58. Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1987.
- See p. [View ONLINE / Archive.org]
4.3 German and Swedish
Bauerochse, Ernst. Ihr Ziel war das Oromoland: Die Anfänge der Hermannsburger Mission in Äthiopien. Münster: Lit, 2006.
Flad, Johann Martin. 60 Jahre in der Mission unter den Falaschas in Abessinien: Selbstbiographie. Preface and closing remarks by Friedrich Flad. Gießen and Basel: Brunnen, 1922.
- See p. 312, 321‒22, 332‒38, 341‒44, 356. [Frankfurt Univ. Library]
Harms, Hans Otto. “Kentiba Gebru Desta,” Die Hermannsburger Mission: im Jahre 1971: 69‒77.
- Cf. Arén, Envoys, p. 415, n. 31 and H.O. Harms in Lebendiges Erbe.
Leijonhufvud, Erik. Kejsaren och hans hövdingar [The Emperor and his chieftains]. Stockholm: P.A. Norsted & söners, 1948.
- For an account of life in Ethiopia after the Italian occupation, see p. 116‒21.
Rosen, Felix. Eine deutsche Gesandtschaft in Abessinien. Leipzig: Veit, 1907.
- See p. 296‒97, 432 (picture taken in April 1905). [Archive.org]
Smidt, Wolbert G.C. “Deutsche Briefe von Äthiopiern aus der Protestantischen Mission: Vom Fall des Téwodros bis zur Unterwerfung des Königs Minílik (1869 bis 1878),” Orientalia Parthenopea 8 (2008): 9‒56. [View at Academia.edu]
⸻. “Deutsche Briefe von Äthiopiern aus der Protestantischen Mission: Von der Reichseinigung unter Yohannis IV. bis zur großen Hungersnot (1879 bis 1889),” Orientalia Parthenopea 9 (2010): 9-52. [View at Academia.edu]
Waldmeier, Theophil. Erlebnisse in Abessinien in den Jahren 1858 – 1868. Bevorwortet von Dr. L. Krapf. Basel: Spittler, 1869.
- See p. 3, 19, 46, 130. [View online]
Cross-references
Gebru Desta, Selected Letters