In this book, Tsehai Berhane-Selassie seeks to reclaim a topic that, for several decades, has been the almost exclusive domain of politicians vying for state power in Ethiopia. Her subjects are members of the self-trained, yet profoundly prolific and adaptive, group of warriors that Berhane-Selassie calls chewa. She contends that chewa were not simply the foot-soldiers of empire or soldiers of fortune, as many people have previously suggested. Rather, she argues that chewa and their warriorhood tradition were first and foremost products of a set of socially inscribed and culturally mediated ideals and principles of local origins. Specifically, Berhane-Selassie underscores the important role that the principle of defence of land and of country played in the organization and propagation of this group of warriors in the Ethiopian region over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The author structures her discussion around a host of seemingly disparate yet interconnected themes: tradition and history, ecology, military training and sportsmanship, symbols and rituals of power and protest, and war. These themes are derived from evidence that she gathered from conversations she has had over years with family members and interviews she conducted at multiple sites. In addition, the book utilizes a wide range of written sources, including nineteenth-century European traveller accounts, memoirs, and autobiographies to explore her central themes.

Berhane-Selassie's aim in this book is to accomplish several interrelated objectives all at once. First, the study seeks to understand the social and cultural factors that had contributed to the rise and sustenance of the category of Ethiopian warriors in the contemporary period. Building on that insight, the book attempts to decipher the forces that contributed to the enduring alliances and partnerships between chewa warriors and the Ethiopian state, particularly after the late nineteenth century. In doing that, Berhane-Selassie challenges the widely held view of the last many decades that has tended to portray members of chewa either as disgruntled and rebellious individuals or as tribute-thirsty warriors of the state.

From Berhane-Selassie's discussion, it is clear that most chewa grew up as ordinary members of local societies. Interestingly, warriorhood was one of the only pathways available that helped young men to escape in adulthood from two dominant socially constructed categories — namely the local and the ordinary. Hunting typically served as the warrior's first preoccupation. It was also one of the practices that helped future chewa to acquire fresh skills, build networks, secure greater recognition within the community, and learn how to work as a member of a team, as a subaltern, and as a leader. Berhane-Selassie explains the varying importance of these practices. Central to her study is nonetheless a point that is suggested but not necessarily explicit. That is, these warriors acted with a kind of commitment and conviction toward defending land and country, both as individuals and as a group, and it is this orientation that ensured and justified their existence across space and time. That was also the reason, Berhane-Selassie argues, that they invariably lent their support to, and worked with, the state and its leadership. She elucidates that perspective by placing these warriors front and center in the wars that Ethiopia fought with outside forces, most notably Italy, first in 1896 and again in 1935–41.

Berhane-Selassie does not spend a great deal of time and space on overarching theoretical and conceptual issues. That does not mean, however, that she ignores some of the contentious issues in Ethiopian studies. In fact, an important linchpin of the book, as noted in the Introduction, was Berhane-Selassie's dissatisfaction and disagreement with the oft-repeated views pertaining to the nature of the Ethiopian state and to state-society relations. Similarly, Berhane-Selassie is critical of the still dominant trend in the scholarship that positions the state and its policies as key to understanding the Ethiopian past. Clearly, this study lends weight to social, cultural, and symbolic forces in a manner that is consistent with recent trends in Africanist literature. Conversely, it shies away from drawing lessons from, or making comparisons with, similar or related phenomena in other parts of Africa and the rest of the world. Some readers may take these omissions more seriously than others. I understand the desire to summarize and integrate the broader contours of Ethiopian history. But in doing so, the author occasionally loses her focus and her voice. Nevertheless, Ethiopian Warriorhood represents a significant contribution to the scholarship.