Levine’s Wax & Gold

Published in 1965, Donald Levine’s Wax and Gold is as much thoughtful as it is fascinating to read. Comprised of seven chapters, Levine not only aspires to understand the use and prevalence of wax and gold, a linguistic tradition of double entendres and deliberate ambiguities, he also uses it as a metaphor.

In aspiring to do the latter, Levine’s insightful book seeks to explore mid-to-late-twentieth-century Ethiopian society on the same two levels as wax and gold, using modern sociology and psychology to understand our country’s vague, hierarchical and often uncritically accepted societal relations.

Although the book mainly explores the education, socialization as well as the hierarchical traditions of Amhara society, pigeonholing this work as a mere ethnographic work should be avoided. As the underlying sentiment of Levine’s work is anchored in what has since become a well-accepted premise. One that has time and time again held that the rationale behind innovation and the rationale behind tradition might, in some instances, be more similar than different.

This is particularly relevant in a country like ours; where the building blocks of our traditional culture, like the importance given to hierarchy, social status and deference, also plays an important role in modern Ethiopian life.

Whether it is how we treat the downtrodden in our society (as well as our authority figures) or how we continue to view education and voice social criticism, Levine’s work not only shows us how certain cultural traits have persisted on the national stage; but also how they have thrived in contemporary Ethiopia.

It is because of its acute, sensitive and deliberate nature that this book is an excellent starting point for any critique that wishes to understand contemporary Ethiopia and explore its persisting attitudes towards modernization, tradition, hierarchy and the treatment of different sections of our society.