There was a time when almost all progressive Ethiopians condemned the Ethiopian Orthodox church believing it to be partly responsible for the country’s under- development. Indeed, there would not have been Ethiopian civilization without the Ethiopian Church. The major contributions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to Ethiopian civilization include the fields of architecture, art, music, education, poetry, literature, law, theology, liturgy, philosophy and medicine.
Before the conversion of Ethiopia to Christianity in the 4th Century A.D. and during the reign of Emperor Ezana, paganism was rampant in Ethiopia. Judaism co-existed with paganism having been introduced to Ethiopia a few centuries earlier by the Queen of Sheba (according to the Kibre Negest). In the beginning of the Christian era, all the emperors of Ethiopia, including Ezana in the early part of his life, were pagans. According to Ezana’s first inscriptions which he engraved when he was a pagan, he offered to his god Mahram 100 cattle and 60 prisoners for helping him defeat his enemies in a battle. The 60 prisoners were offered as human sacrifice.
Pagans in Axum and its vicinity worshiped serpents as their gods and offered them human sacrifice. Legend has it that the first Ethiopian king and god was half-serpent and half-human to whom people sacrificed young girls and animals. His name was Arwe. According to the Bible, the serpent is the other manifestation of the Devil.
When Christianity became the official religion of the state, paganism and its practices were abolished. Churches and monasteries were constructed on some of the sites where serpents were worshiped and human lives sacrificed. Though Judaism was competing with paganism, it was only Christianity which had a lasting effect on Ethiopian politics, history and culture. Since the conversion of Ezana to Christianity in the 4th Century A.D., Christianity and the Ethiopian state became fused. Unlike some countries where Christianity mushroomed among the common folks and struggled hard to work its way up to the rulers, in Ethiopia, it was the other way round. The rulers of Ethiopia accepted Christianity first and played missionary roles themselves by promoting and imposing it upon their subjects. This made it easier for Christianity to spread without any persecution of Christians.
The early translation of the Bible into Geez also facilitated the rapid growth of Christianity. Even though it is believed that the old Testament was translated into Geez before the birth of Christ, some scholars like I. Gudi suggest that the last translation of the Bible (both the old and New Testaments) was in the 6 Century A.D.. The Ethiopian Church accepts a total of 81 books as canonical from both testaments contrary to the Western churches which accept only 66 books. We should feel proud that the Ethiopian church is independent in many other ways including its liturgy, theology and music.
The first architectural edifices built under the influence and by the inspiration of Christianity were churches and monasteries on the outskirts of the Axumite kingdom between the 6th and the 7th Century A.D. The locations were at Danga (now Northern Eritrea, at that time a part of the Ethiopian kingdom), on the trade routes from Axum and Adulis into the Beja land and the Nile Valley, further South near Aratou. There were also other sites close to Danga.
According to The Gedle Tsadkan. (the deeds of the saints), the nine Syrian monks who found their way to Ethiopia from the Roman Empire and 62 Ethiopians built a number of fabulous monasteries. Among these are the intriguing monasteries of Debre Damo, Debre Halle Luya, Debre Pentelewon and the Church of Aba Gerima.
All the unique churches of Ethiopia including the famous Cathedral of Axum Zion, the monasteries of Debre Sina, Debre Libanos and Kusquam in Gonder were erected by the saints of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The most wonderful church edifices among them are the eleven monolithic churches of Roha hewn from a solid rock. These churches built by Emperor Lalibela towards the end of the 12 Century are interconnected by subterranean passages. What is most amazing about them is that they were designed to symbolize both the earthly and heavenly Jerusalem. For instance, Bete Mariam symbolizes Gethsemany, Bete Medahne Alem, the tent of the Ark, Bete Golgotha, the Holy Sepulcher. While Bete Gebriel represents the road to heaven, Bete Libanos, the Cherubims which carry God’s throne, Merqorewos, hell and purgatory, and Bete Ammanuel, the heavenly Jerusalem. Architecturally, and in their artistic design, these churches are counted among the great wonders of the world.
The Ethiopian Church has created fine decorative designs with high artistic values. According to a Western observer who paid a visit to St. Gebriel Church one of the rock hewn churches of Lalibela a decade or two ago, inside the sanctuaries the serried arches and the neat interlacing of the vaulted roofs realistically bearing upon the main structure were arranged in perfect symmetry with the sure touch of genius.
Church inspired Ethiopian paintings manifest themselves in many forms. The churches which were constructed in different centuries ever since the conversion of Ethiopia to Christianity exhibit diverse ceiling and mural paintings which reflect coptic influence as well as other unique Ethiopian features. A number of churches such as those in Debre Damo have paneled ceilings decorated in a variety of motifs. Many theological books including the biographies of Ethiopian and foreign saints have been illuminated with the strokes of the ancient masters. Such books, in addition to their literary merit, have great artistic significance. Some of the illustrations and the pictures on magical prayers are equally interesting to the student of art.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has indeed produced a host of artists who excelled in secular paintings as well. In fact, all Ethiopian traditional artists originated from the Church. Twentieth Century Ethiopian painters such as Afework Gebre-Yesus, Agegnhuwork Engeda, Emaelaf Hiruy, Ale Felegeselam, Afework Tekle, and even the surrealist Gebre-Kirstos Desta whose father was a priest with knowledge of book binding, have been influenced and inspired by the decorative arts and paintings of Ethiopian Church.
The contributions of the Ethiopian Church in the fields of music, education, poetry, dance and liturgy are also significant. The father of all these was Saint Yared who lived in Northern Ethiopia in the 6th Century A.D. Yared lived during the reign of Emperor Gebre Meskel (534-548 A.D.). Even though he was a pious Christian who prayed, fasted and built churches like every Ethiopian emperor, he was also promoter of culture. He is remembered for holding the ceremony of the coronation of Ethiopian emperors in the church, unlike his predecessors.
Emperor Gebre Meskel and St. Yared were great friends. Yared was the cultural consultant of the Emperor. Gebre Meskel and his courtiers often listened to Yared while he sang divine-inspired hymns at Axum Zion Church. Gebre Meskel especially loved to listen to Yared. One day, according to tradition, Gebre Meskel was so deeply immersed in Yared’s hymns that he subconsciously pierced Yared’s feet with his spear. Yared too, being lost in his own melody, did not realize that blood was oozing from his wounded foot until he finished singing.
The depth and richness of the music which Yared created still puzzles Westerners. He had the ability to capture the sweetest sounds of birds, animals and humans alike. He invented musical notation which incidentally the West did not develop until the late 13th Century, seven hundred years after Yared. Yared encouraged Ethiopian priests to dance by swaying in a certain fashion in honor of God, accompanied by the sounds of drums and sistrums, and by the movements of the mequamia (stick). Yared’s music and dance have survived throughout the ages like Ethiopian independence, and still remain intact. It is the same hymns which the priests of Axum Zion cathedral used to chant 1400 years ago that present day Ethiopian priests sing in every Orthodox church. The liturgy of the Ethiopian Church was also elaborated by St. Yared. He labored hard to prescribe the ritual for public worship which is valid to this day.
The same Yared who created Ethiopian Church music and dance also laid the cornerstone of Ethiopian education. His curriculum was based on his philosophy of education. He believed that every human being is capable of learning if his mind is ignited properly. However, he recognized that learning is a dynamic process. He classified education into three levels: elementary, secondary and higher, which is equivalent to Western college.
In addition, St. Yared was a great poet in his own right and developed Ethiopian poetry known as Qine. Qine has twelve forms of versification or models for writing poetry, beginning from gubae qana and ending with itane moger. All Amharic and Tigringa speaking poets use some of these verse forms. Saint Yared’s poems were profound in content and fine in form. According to tradition, he was transported to heaven to learn some divine melody by heart and brought it down to earth.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has also been a source of Ethiopian history and historians. Its priests and scholars not only wrote the chronicles of Ethiopian emperors and recorded Ethiopian history for the past 1500 years, they were also biographers of saints recording the deeds of saints (gedloch). The Kibre Negest and Senqsar (The Synaxarium) are two remarkable books which deal with the history of Ethiopian emperors and the lives of the saints of both Ethiopian and Coptic churches.
These learned men not only wrote their own books, they also translated valuable books from Hebrew, Greek and Arabic. Some of these books, lost in the original languages, have existed only in Geez. A case in point is the Book of Henok which has been translated from
Geez into many other European languages. Both the original and the translated books which have been preserved by the church inspite of the burning of thousands of other priceless books by religious fanatics and savage Europeans, bear a tremendous literally value.
Having had an upper hand in the Ethiopian government, the Church introduced the Fetha Negest (the judgment of kings) which had been the standard book of Ecclesiastical and Civil Law, as recently as the reign of Emperor Theodros, or even emperors Menelik and Haile Selassie, directly or indirectly. Whoever studies Ethiopian law in a university will have had to examine The Fetha Negest for this was the basis of Ethiopian Civil Law.
That the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has its own kind of liturgy and theology is a fact. Many Ethiopian Emperors were well-versed theologians. Some of them, such as Zera Yacob, author of Metsihafe Birhan wrote a number of theological books and loved to enter into public discourse on religious discussions.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church did not provide us only with emperors who were philosophers. Its legacy includes philosophers who originate among the common folks, such as Zera Yacob and his students who, several centuries ago, wrote Hateta Zere Yaqob (the thesis of Zera Yacob), a book which covers a wide range of subjects such as autobiography, theology, logic, ethics and even hygiene.
The valuable books of traditional medicine which we possess today, and which Western doctors wish they were translated into European languages, were passed on to us by the doctors of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Our calendar system, which is based on astronomical calculations and which we use to this day, is the contribution of the Church. The various ancient crosses with different shapes and sizes are great works of art which international museums crave to exhibit. The Ethiopian Church has produced all the important scholars and writers of these century. Afework Gebre-Yesus, Gebre-Hiwot Baikedagn, Alemayehu Moges, Teklesadic Mekuria, Zemenfesqedus Aberha, Hiruy Wolde-Selassie, Mekonnen Endalkachew, Mahtemeselassie Wolde-Meskel, Yoftahe Negussie, Haddis Alemayehu, Abe Gubegna, Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin, Mengistu Lemma, and all the lexicographers including Aleka Kidanewold, Aleka Desta and Ato Tessema, these are the fruits of the school of the Ethiopian Church.
Numerous Ethiopian singers (I’ll bet even Tilahun Gessesse), received their vocal training in the Church while they were deacons in their boyhood. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, most of all, has indirectly contributed to Ethiopia’s independence. Ethiopian soldiers and
emperors drew from the Church faith and conviction to die for their country and religion. They prayed to their God in the Church every time before they went to a war, and carried with them the Ark of The Covenant to the battle front, believing that the God who dwells in it would help them to defeat their enemies. For instance, Emperor Menelik II, his queen Taitu and many Ethiopians believed that it was the invisible St. George who helped them defeat the Italians in 1896 at the Battle of Adwa when the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant and Empress Taitu were praying ceaselessly until the end of the War.
The contributions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church are immense indeed. It suffices to say that every person who can read and write Amharic and Tigrigna owes something to this church.
_________________________ Fikre Tolossa, Ph.D., is Assistant Dean of Faculty at Columbia Pacific University and producer of Ethiopian TV in San Francisco, CA. He is also adjunct professor of film and ethnic studies at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California.
The question of self-identity is significant in this age of ethnic consciousness and revolt. Today Ethiopia is in the throes of ethnic rivalry. Both self-identity and national identity have become troublesome questions in the Ethiopian context. Unfortunately, Ethiopian intellectuals have paid little attention to these issues.
Let me make a provocative assertion. I argue that you and I are not ‘real’ Ethiopians. In my opinion, a `real’ Ethiopian is one who was born in Ethiopia, and raised on Ethiopian culture. The `real’ Ethiopian is unexposed to Western culture and civilization.
If you have attended English, German, French, or any school in Ethiopia based on the Western model of education, then you are a `hybrid’ of Western culture and mentality with elements of “Ethiopianism” in you. If you lived or attended school outside Ethiopia, you are more Westernized than those who have attended schools in Ethiopia.
Of course, you can argue that there is no such thing as pure Ethiopian culture and ideology. True. Throughout her history Ethiopia has had cultural intercourse and ethnic affinity with neighboring African, Arabian and Minor-Asian peoples. I am addressing this issue in relative terms.
When you entered the first grade in the Western model of education you started being alienated from the languages, cultures, values, customs and mentality of the Ethiopian people. When you moved to grade two, you moved away two steps from the world outlook and tradition shared by most Ethiopians. When you completed grade twelve, there is a gulf of twelve years between you and them, thus making you and them strangers to each other. The higher our achievement in the system of Western education, the greater our detachment from the masses of
the Ethiopian people.
Did Western education alienate us from our roots? In many ways. I think it made us look down upon our culture and worship Western science and technology. Hollywood movies made us the mental slaves of the `American way of life.’ In our teens we all wished to go to the “wonderful” America and “enjoy” life. We aspired to be Western men, generally ignorant and contemptuous of our roots.
You and I perhaps born in Ethiopia are able to speak a bit of one or two Ethiopian languages. Our facial mask is black (if you admit that you are black). These factors alone do not qualify us to be natural or real Ethiopians since it is neither color nor language alone which determine one’s nationality. A black man raised on French culture could some times be more French than the uncultured white Frenchman. A white man raised by and on Ethiopian culture, shaped by traditional Ethiopian
thoughts, manners, customs, and speaking one or more Ethiopian languages could be more Ethiopian than you and me. A case in point is Tegist, Derartu, Lensi, and Kelbecha Gadissa. These sisters and brothers are white. They say that they were abandoned in a Shoa village by their white parents, probably American Peace Corps volunteers, when they were kids. They were raised by Ethiopian peasants. They speak only the Oromo language. Confined to rural Ethiopia all their lives, they were not exposed to Western education or civilization. Apart from the color of their skin, they are the same in everyway with the other Ethiopian peasants of the Oromo nationality. I dare say they are more natural or real Ethiopians than you and me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they prove to be more natural or real Oromo than an Oromo intellectual who has been trained in the West.
What are some of the features of the ‘hybrid-Ethiopian?’ In extreme cases, the ‘hybrid-Ethiopian’ tends to be ignorant of Ethiopian history and civilization.
He or she negates and disdains Ethiopian culture as backward. By Ethiopian civilization I mean the civilization of all the peoples of Ethiopia, including the Oromos, the Amharas, the Tigreans, the Afars and all the rest. For the ‘hybrid’ Ethiopian culture is feudal and primitive. The only thing which he or she perhaps likes and admires is the food. If he or she ever misses Ethiopia, it is probably because of those delicious dishes.
There are plenty of everyday facts which distinguish the `hybrid.’ He or she appreciates the guitar more than the kirar and the violin more than the masinko. He or she prefers Bach’s compositions to St. Yared’s hymns. He or she will talk to his or her children in English, French or German than in his or her native tongue. Instead of visiting the Obelisks of Axum, which Europeans and Americans ironically value highly, the `hybrid’ would rather fly to Paris and New York to watch the Eiffel
Tower and the Empire State building. He or she would visit the Vatican than the wonderful monoliths of Lalibela. He or she would rather marvel at the Niagara Falls than the Blue Nile Falls (tis essat). Of course not all `hybrid-Ethiopians’ manifest these extremes.
Am I saying Western education is evil? Not so. What I am saying is that we are brainwashed to adore and worship everything Western and look down upon everything that is ours. I am saying that we have been misguided in our education which put little emphasis on knowledge about our own culture, history, religion, music, medicine, art and literature. Certainly if these subjects were offered at schools from the Ethiopian perspective along with Western education, Ethiopian intellectuals would not have been ignorant or alienated from their roots.
Whether you and I think that we belong to the Amhara, Oromo, Tigre, Eritrean,
Gurage, Afar or Somali nationality, we don’t have lots of things in common with the `real’ members of these nationalities. Even our language is mixed with foreign phrases. How many of us can speak an Ethiopian sentence without borrowing from English, French, German or Italian? How much of the cultural values of the different Ethiopian nationalities do we know with any depth? How much of our tradition do we practice? How much of the psychology and history of our people do we know? Look at the way we dress and live. How many of our countrymen in Ethiopia strut in a Pierre Cardin or Armani suit or dress?
No matter how conscious we are now becoming about our roots and ethnicity, we have been uprooted from them over all those years of schooling and living abroad. For these reasons, I cannot claim to be a `real’ Ethiopian. I might say I am a proud Ethiopian to an American or European. Whether I admit in this case the truth about my nationality or not, I am not a `real’ Ethiopian. I am hybrid-Ethiopian. If you can read these passages, so are you… Believe it or not!
_____________________ Dr. Fikre Tolossa is Assistant Dean of Faculty at Columbia Pacific University, and Producer of Ethiopian TV based in San Francisco. He is also adjunct professor of film and ethnic studies at Sonoma State University in Cotati, California.
President George Bush on November 5 recognized Dr. Mekonnen Meshesha of Boston, Massachusetts, as “The 606th Daily Point of Light” for the Nation. Dr. Meshesha, a native of Ethiopia, helps to resettle and support African refugees in his community.
Dr. Meshesha, age 37, began his voluntary efforts in 1979 at Boston’s Ethiopian Family Center. He has offered his home, his time, and his service to refugees in his community struggling to assimilate into a new culture. His generosity and caring are exceeded only by his passion and determination to help those less fortunate than himself.
Dr. Meshesha volunteers countless hours as a counselor, translator, leader and role model for Ethiopian and other African community groups. He is available to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most of his work is done in the field: in the courtroom on behalf of Ethiopians unable to defend themselves in English, in the hospital translating for those unable to express themselves in English, or at a local jail counseling incarcerated refugees.
President Bush salutes Mekonnen Meshesha for his volunteer efforts and for exemplifying his belief that, “from now on in America, any definition of a successful life must include serving others.”
From The White House office of the Press Secretary
November 5, 1991
Amidst prayers, and religious ceremony, Mo Anbessa, Ethiopians for Constitutional Monarchy, held its first public meeting in Addis Ababa on November 18 at the former Haile Selassie I Theater (renamed National Theater by the Derg). The playing of the old “Ethiopia Hoy” national anthem for the first time in 17 years brought tears to the crowd.
After an opening address by the meeting chairman, Dr. Getachew Mekasha, detailing the aims and objectives of Mo Anbessa, prominent residents of Addis Ababa, church leaders, students, farmers and workers took turns in taking the floor to speak.
At meeting which lasted for four hours, the speakers focused attention on the burning issue of national unity in the face of the threat of disintegration.
The speakers stressed the role of the monarchy as a precious historic legacy worth preserving, and its value as a symbol of unity in its new proposed form. Atse Amha Selassie’s announcement about his intention to return to Ethiopia soon, carried by the VOA, heightened expectation.
The theater which has seating and standing room capacity of only 2000 had to turn away a crowd twice that number because of lack of space. In order to satisfy public demand, Mo Anbessa is now planning an open air meeting possibly at Meskal Square in the near future.
The meeting have passed several resolutions in the form of recommendations to the transitional government for implementation. The resolutions called on the transitional government to facilitate Atse Amha Selassie’s early return; and enumerating the benefits that occur from the Emperor’s return, the resolution pointed out among other things, that it will add greatly to the confidence building process to attract foreign investment and tourism, apart from greatly encouraging
the home-coming of the many thousands of Ethiopians now living abroad, and the return of real peace and stability to the country in general.
The meeting also called on the transitional government to name a commission immediately to enquire into the circumstances of innocent victims of the Derg, and catalog all its crimes against humanity, and violations of civil and human rights for future reference and the benefit of posterity.
A suitable monument was recommended to be erected in memory of all the victims. In particular, the meeting called on the administration to remove the remains of Emperor Haile Selassie, whose where abouts was reported to have been located, to a more suitable site, and rebury it with due honor in the presence of all the members of the royal family, and world leaders.
The event received full coverage in national media.
The Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF) is actively seeking diplomatic recognition. It also made it clear by preventing the German Ambassador to Ethiopian from visiting Asmara that it wants foreign relations directly and not through embassies in Addis Ababa.
The EPLF has the blessing of President Meles Zenawi who said late in October that foreign countries could deal directly with the Eritrean provisional government.
An EPLF delegation led by its acting minister of foreign affairs and politburo member, Mohammed Sayed Bary, and other EPLF officials recently visited East African countries and Egypt.
Egypt is expected to establish diplomatic relations with the separatist Eritrea soon. Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Omar Moussa, said in September that his government wants the “establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.” An Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, Mohammed Abd al Walid, was in Asmara late October. He announced that Egypt (itself a recipient of aid from the U.S. and Europe) pledged aid to Eritrea. Mr. Walid also announced that Egypt will establish a permanent diplomatic post in Asmara soon.
Other nations in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria and Iran are expected to take the same move, while Israel is firmly committed to a united Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement advising Germans not to travel to Eritrea, saying that the embassy cannot guarantee their consular protection in Eritrea cannot because EPLF is cooperating with embassy officials from Addis Ababa.
The EPLF has systematically stripped Eritrea of any trace of the former regime. The battlefields around Dekemhare, Ghinda and Keren have been meticulously cleaned of debris. The word `Ethiopia’ has been effaced from every public building. Ethiopian Airlines, whose daily flights from Asmara to Addis Ababa are fully booked until next year, have had their Asmara office and airport installations painted in the blue and green of the Eritrean flag.
While the EPLF insists on a separate international telephone code, such acts of symbolic chauvinism are gradually giving way to a pragmatic acceptance that the future viability of an independent Eritrea will be largely dependent on its economic integration with northern Ethiopia. The EPLF envisages the possibility of a trading block incorporating Djibouti, Eastern Sudan and northern Ethiopia, the natural hinterland for Massawa which, like Assab, will become a free port for goods in transit. The Addis Ababa authorities are also keen on regional integration: on September 20, they lifted visa requirements for Sudanese and Djiboutians.
Grandoise talk of a separate currency, or of Eritrea as the future Taiwan of the Red Sea, is hardly shared by the head of the newly created Department of Economic Planning and Coordination, Haile Wolde Tinsai, who has more pressing and prosaic problems. The EPLF alleges that bank records show that 500 million birr on deposit in Asmara were transferred to Addis Ababa prior to May. Eritreans are still able to draw only small sums of birr from the few banks offering a limited service. A 150 million birr donation from the Ethiopian government to the EPLF, announced in early September, temporarily eased their financial predicament, but Eritrea remains desperately short of foreign exchange. Eritrea’s annual fuel bill put at around US$40 and $60 million is required immediately to resurrect Asmara’s rudimentary industrial infrastructure. Remittances from Eritreans abroad cover only a fraction of total financial needs. The most significant source of investment capital – from Eritrean residents in Ethiopia – will remain largely inaccessible until current doubts over the devaluation of the birr are lifted. The EPLF has not, as widely believed, devalued the birr in Eritrea; nor could it, as it has no leverage over Ethiopian banks.
The EPLF’s representatives in Addis Ababa, Haile Menkarios, is excluded from negotiations between the Finance Ministry, the National Bank of Ethiopia and the International Monetary Fund over the conditions for future aid to Ethiopia. While World Bank project aid may be earmarked for Eritrea (a feasibility study for upgrading Assab’s facilities is continuing), until the referendum the EPLF will remain dependent on Ethiopia’s good offices for links with international institutions. Eritreans did not join the 10-member Ethiopian delegation at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meeting in Bangkok. As yet, Western governments are distinctly cool about committing consuls to Asmara.
Any international aid will be largely devoted to agriculture. The EPLF plans widespread privatizations, with foreign investment actively sought in developing tourism and exploiting proven mineral resources, notably copper. British Petroleum and Amoco both bid successfully for oil concessions along the Danakil coast from the Ethiopian government in March 1989, and are now in the process of renegotiating their mineral rights with the EPLF.
The EPLF will retain the free services of its troops until after the referendum, thus minimizing the its expenditure and avoiding an aggravation of either unemployment or growing income disparities. These are all the more evident as property prices spiral upwards and well-heeled, educated exiles return from Saudi Arabia, Europe and the United States.
