Since July 1872, there were two Oromo students at St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission’s Training Institute.
Krapf’s letter to Gerhard Rohlfs
English version (German original printed in Bursik, Wissenschaft, p. 175-77):
Korntal, 16 July 1872
[…] Only two weeks ago, on the arrival of two Oromo youths who had enrolled at the Pilgrim Missionary Institution on Chrischona near Basel, I received letters from Dr [Wilhelm] Schimper [p. 176] (dated 30 April), some of which were addressed to me and some to his son Wilhelm [alias Engdashet Schimper jr.], who is in training at this institution. […]
I am currently working mainly on the Ge’ez, Amharic and Oromo languages. As we have 10 Abyssinians in our institution at Chrischona, I can always get help easily when I run into language difficulties. I currently have an Abyssinian here [in Korntal] with whom I am revising the Amharic translation of the Old Testament. The revised version will then be printed on our Amharic press on Chrischona after 5000 copies of the New Testament were printed last year.
I am also currently printing the Psalter in Ge’ez and Amharic (in columns) on the press and, at the same time, organising the printing of Genesis in the Oromo language after the Psalms and the [p. 177] Gospels of Luke and John have been printed in this language.
Now that we also have Oromos at the centre, it is much easier for me to translate the Old Testament scriptures. I have finished the New Testament, although it still needs a thorough revision before it can be printed, which cannot happen because I have not yet been able to raise the printing costs for the New Testament in Oromo. [Emphasis added]
Bio-Bibliographies in Debrunner, Presence and Prestige
Debrunner, Presence, p. 322, lists two Oromos
(with reference to Flad, Michael Argawi, p. 15):
- Tchekten, the former chief butler of Emperor Tewodros II, and
- his [anonymous] friend,
two extraordinary persons, big and strong, are mentioned as being at St. Chrischona […], but the Chrischona records are otherwise silent about these two.
References
(1) Sources
Staatsarchiv des Kantons Basel-Stadt
(?) Wochenberichte der Pilgermissionsanstalt, 1844-83 [Weekly Reports], Ref. Code: PA 653a B. 5.2
(2) Literature
Bursik, Heinrich. “Wissenschaft u. Mission sollen sich aufs innigste miteinander befreunden’“. Geographie und Sprachwissenschaft als Instrumente der Mission – der Afrikareisende Johann Ludwig Krapf.” M.A. thesis, Vienna Univ., 2008. [View Krapf’s letters online]
Debrunner, Hans Werner. Presence and Prestige: Africans in Europe; A History of Africans in Europe before 1981. Basel (Switzerland): Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1979. [View chapter 9 online]
Flad, Friedrich. Michael Argawi: Ein mutiger Bekenner und Zeuge und den Falaschas in Abessinien. Edited by W. Sidler. Basel: Brunnen, 1952. [View online]