The Addis Ababa University and Bahir Dar University signed a collaborative agreement on Nile research project. The agreement facilitates strengthening mutual cooperation concerning the thematic research project entitled “The Nile/Abay Quest in the Ethiopian Popular Imagination and Ecclesiastical Scholarship and Art.”

The thematic research is aimed at collecting indigenous views, reflections of the popular imagination, explanations and conceptions about the Abay River, Flagship River in the world.

The initiation of the thematic research was made by a team of scholars at Addis Ababa University who had the intention to collaborate with other higher educational institutes in the country especially those who are situated in proximity to the Nile basin in Ethiopia. Naturally Bahir Dar University, being close to the source of the Nile, is the ideal partner in this venture.  Dr. Mersha Alehegne, the Principal Investigator of the project stated, “The signing of the collaborative agreement gives an official dimension to the cooperation between the two research teams established by each university. It also helps pull our limited resources and to be more effective in research activities.”

On the occasion of a general project meeting held on 1’s December, 2016, members of the thematic project, the Abbay (Nile) Quest in the Ethiopian Popular Imagination and Ecclesiastical Scholarship and Art, launched the second phase of their research project. Registered as one of the thematic research projects of Addis Ababa University since October 2015, the project aims at cultivating and amassing indigenous views, and reflections of the popular imagination, explanations and conceptions concerning the Abbay/Nile River.  It is an umbrella research project, which encompasses three sub-thematic research fields: Abbay as Expounded in Ethiopian Popular Imagination, Narratives and Music; Abbay in Ethiopian Ecclesiastical Scholarship: Orature, Literature and Art; and the Place of Abbay at the Ethiopian Imperial Court.