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The Negus Society Addis-a-Seeba (1936 2005)

Carnival cultures often reflect their own local traditions, folk customs and local historical events in performance.
In the context of the thematical project series Spectacle, Pleasure Principle or the Carnivalesque? the mode of the carnivalesque was analysed to distinguish it from the carnival. The third chapter refers also to the actual tradition. The example of the "the Negusgesellschaft Addis-a-Seeba" (Nebus Society Addis-a-Seeba) in it’s origins alludes to a political incident and transfers this into a ritual that links perceptions of foreign culture with a context of regional experience and in this hybrid combination elucidate the relationship of the "self" and the "other".
The Negus Society in Seewen, Switzerland, active during the pre-Lenten Carnival period, has a complex story, one that seems somewhat exotic through the use and adaptation of simplified role definitions but actually relates to a historical gesture of international reconciliation. The custom celebrates the Negus Negesti, the King of Kings. Negus Negesti was the title held by the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. The ruler of Abbysinia (now Ethiopia) was banished during the fascist occupation under Mussolini. Haile Selassie spoke at the League of Nations in Geneva to call attention to the illegal occupation, but his appeal was ignored by the majority of delegates. The people of Seewen demonstrated more sympathy for the oppressed ruler. The figures of the Negus Negesti and members of his court government became protagonists in local Carnival rituals in 1936. During the 1960s, the custome was revitalized and performed with increasing frequency. Seewen has celebrated the "Cult of the Negus" since the 1930s. Photos and texts from the archives of the Negus Society documenting the history of the custom have been compiled for this exhibition.
(archive material: Negusgesellschaft, Seewen, thanks to Karl Weber)
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