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Ethiopia and Eritrea Returned Peace Corps Volunteers collection
2016C48
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Title: Ethiopia and Eritrea Returned Peace Corps Volunteers collection
Date (inclusive): 1947-2018
Collection Number: 2016C48
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: English and Amharic
Physical Description:
14 manuscript boxes, 4 oversize boxes
(11.6 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, speeches and writings, notes, reports, pamphlets, newsletters, photographs, slides, artifacts, teaching materials,
and other printed matter relating to political, economic, cultural, educational and social affairs of 1960s Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Creator:
Ethiopia and Eritrea Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Boxes 7 and 17 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of the collection is open for research;
materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the
collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2014 with increments in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
[Identification of item], Ethiopia and Eritrea Returned Peace Corps Volunteers collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title],
Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Ethiopia and Eritrea Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (E&E RPCVs) was organized in 1991 at the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
(RPCVs) Conference to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Peace Corps.
According to the organization, E&E RPCVs became a non-member Not-for-Profit Corporation, incorporated in the state of New
York, and led by a Board of Directors. Its stated purpose is "exclusively for charitable and educational purposes that include,
to promote world peace and understanding, particularly among the peoples of the United States, Ethiopia and Eritrea; to inform
and educate the general public about other countries, particularly Ethiopia and Eritrea; to promote opportunities for achieving
sustainable economic development and the relief of poverty in Ethiopia and Eritrea, by providing volunteers, equipment, services
and financial resources which are needed to further this purpose."
E&E RPCVs is an affiliate of the umbrella organization of National Peace Corps Association (NPCA). Some of E&E RPCVs past
and ongoing activities include:
-Through the RPCV Legacy Program, launching an effort to pursue projects to address the great needs in Ethiopia and Eritrea
-Creating its own publication,
The Herald
-Through its enCORPS, they have offered short-term, expenses-paid, volunteer opportunities for RPCVs in Ethiopia and Eritrea
-Participating in a peace initiative during the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea from 1998-2000
-Maintaining a current database of all those who served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia and Eritrea since 1987
-Sending thousands of books to both Ethiopia and Eritrea
Peace Corps Volunteers teachers had great impact, directly (sponsoring and adopting students) and indirectly (through empowerment),
on the Ethiopian and Eritrean students of the 1960s and 1970s. The various reunions of the RPCVs are evidence that most of
the relationships that began then continue todate. The PCVs engagement with the students include activities such as: helping
to create student newsletters, drama clubs, and various other clubs.
Members of the 1960s and 1970s E&E RPCVs were in Ethiopia and Eritrea when the political wind was changing. Some examples
of those changes are:
1) The first cohort PCVs arrived in Ethiopia in September 1962 - two months before Eritrea was annexed and became Ethiopia's
fourteenth province. During their training, the PCVs took courses in Amharic (Note: Amharic is only one of many languages
spoken in Ethiopia, however, it is the official language of Ethiopia) and yet, the PCVs were sent to places where the students'
first language was not Amharic.
2) There was a coup d'état in Ethiopia in 1960. Its implication and impact was not directly felt, but it was simmering.
3) In 1961, the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) was formed and had started its armed struggle for the independence of Eritrea,
against Ethiopia.
4) The students' adulation of PCVs in the early 1960s had changed by the late 1960s, partially due to various world movements
in 1968 (in Mexico, France, etc.), the Vietnam War, and other world events.
5) A military committee known as "The Derg" overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia in 1974. Its slogan was "Ethiopia
Tikdem" or "Ethiopia First." In the E&E RPCVs collection, there are student essays on what "Ethiopia Tikdem" means to them.
Scope and Content of Collection
Correspondence, speeches and writings, notes, reports, pamphlets, newsletters, photographs, slides, artifacts, teaching materials,
and other printed matter relating to political, economic, cultural, educational and social affairs of 1960s Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The incremental materials include Debbie Bulger's self-published autobiography, correspondence between family members, a monkey
hair fly whisk, and baby beads.
The collection is organized by the E&E RPCV member who donated the material, and then into the following subgroupings, if
applicable: Office File, Correspondence, Speeches and Writings or Writings, Subject File, Printed Matter, Micellaneous, Photographs,
and Oversize Materials.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Peace Corps (U.S.)