Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity presents the work of fifteen contemporary Ethiopian artists and essays on Ethiopia's artistic traditions by twelve scholars from various countries and academic disciplines.

One of the principal goals of this volume is to introduce some of these traditions via the lives and works of individuals who create the objects - baskets, paintings, jewelry, woodwork, sorghum-stalk models, pottery, textiles, and fiber, wood, and gourd containers - that are central to the physical and spiritual well-being of the communities in which they live. The essays in this volume give primacy to the people who make objects, as opposed to the objects themselves.