Sacred Spaces: Travel Writing and Translation

This section examines the function of descriptions of one of the most sacred sites of Ethiopia, the Churches of Lalibela, and consequent translational and historical issues and cross-cultural clashes. The first descriptions were written in Latin and printed also in the language of the first travellers, the Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries, followed by nonreligious explorers, archaeologists, architects, and armies of invaders. Lalibela is the core of Ethiopianism and mysticism, and featured as such in travel guides. It is interesting to see how the sense of sacred spaces shifts in meaning in colonial and imperialistic expansions. The sacred space, therefore, registers variation in representation and translation, as the evaluative paradigm ranges from architectural wonders, superstitious practices, and places of worship described in guidebooks targeting global tourism. The adoption of a comparative approach is reinforced by current trends in cultural iconography and topo-dynamics. The research is a spinoff of a wider project on sacred spaces and Ethiopia, in the light of the recent systematic destruction of Coptic churches by Islamic terrorists in Egypt.