Ethiopia was settled by peoples from two of the main lineages of human ancestry: the Hamatic peoples and the Semitic peoples (named after Ham and Shem, sons of Noah). A third line, the Cushitic ethnic groups, is found particularly in the south and south-west. There are now at least 64 languages spoken in Ethiopia, and perhaps 80 different ethnic groups. The largest are the Oromo and the Amhara peoples. Other large ethnic grups include ethnic Somalis, Tigryans, and Gurages. Some of them are spread over national borders, so not all are Ethiopian citizens.
Ethiopia, Cush, Nubia, and other ancient African civilisations merge into each other in traslations of Old Testament scripture, travellers' tale, and myths. 'Ethiopia' - mentioned several times in the Bible and in Greek literature - became a metaphor for remoteness, or plenty, or simply a land of unknown dark-skinned peoples. The name 'Ethiopia' derives rom the Greek for 'burnt faces'. 'Abysinia', as Ethiopia was commonly known by outsiders until the mid-twentieth century, probably derives from the word which Ethiopians use to describe themselves: habesha.
The Ethiopians' national literary epic, the Kebra Negast, tells the story of the Queen of Sheba travelling from Ethiopia to meet King Solomon of the Jews in Israel almost 1,000 years before Christ. She then returned to Ethiopia and bore a son, Menelik I, from whom Ethiopian Emperors used to claim descent. This rich brew of myth and fable makes the actual early history of present-day Ethiopia almost impossible to trace. But from the last 2,000 years, parts of Ethiopia can offer a history, with artifacts, recorded events, and travellers' accounts.
When did 'Ethiopia' come into existence, and where was it? Can it
be called one of the most ancient name? Many Ethiopians are proud that
the name of their country and its settlelments are scattered in most ancient
of historical documents. Others suspect that history has been manipulated
to serve the interests of those in power, and that most of the territiories
of today's Ethiopia bear little, if any, relation to the ancient civilisations
of the Red Sea.
The Empire of Axum
Ethiopia's natural wealth and strategic location led at the time of Christ to the rise of and important Red Sea trading and military empire, with its capital at Axum in present-day Tigray. The ancient civilisations of northern Ethiopia dominated the Red Sea region for almost a thousand years from 200 BC. A naval power developed, and Axum's traders and travellers, using the port of Adulis on the Red Sea, reached as far abroad as Egypt, India, and China. Exporting ivory, rhinoceros horn, and spices, and importing metal and cloth, Axum grew wealthy and powerful through trade and conquest.
Today, Axum is most famous for its archaeological ruins: obelisks, tombs, and palaces, and the claim by the Orthodaox Church that Axum is the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant-the chest containing the ten comandments engraved on stone and handed to Moses by God.
Axum's tallest standing obelisk, 23 metres high, probably a huge
gravestone, is carved from a single piece of rock. With windows and doors
on ten 'storeys', it looks like the world's first skyscraper. With half
a dozen others, it has remained standing through the centuries and withstood
the rumbling of tanks and shelling during the Italian invasion of 1935
and the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s.
Lalibella: Built by Angeles
Christianity was introduced into Ethiopia in AD 341. In the Middle Ages the Orthodox Church built hundreds of rock-hewn churches. The greatest are found near the village of Roh in the Wollo region of the central highlands. Beginning in the twelfth century, workmen and pries-kings constructed a fantastic complex of churches, monasteries, baptismal pools, and secret tunnels. Ethiopian ledgen says that the whole massive undertaking was inspired by a dream of King Lalibella, and built with the help of angeles.
The churches are almost invisible until one stumbles upon them through an ordinary-looking Ethiopian town. Carved into the hillside, each of the churches is interconnected by a series of labyrinthine passages, stairways, and openings carved in the red rock. On a cool Sunday morning, the austere chants of some of the 45 priests of Lalibella rise echoing from the subterranean places of worship. Deep drum beats resonate from the recesse of the churches. Worshippers from the town and surrounding villages kneel to kiss the rock itself and, wrapped against the cold in traditional thick, white, gabi blankets, murmur prayers to the walls.
Skeletons of famous monks are sill stored in crevices in the rocks.
Inside the gloom of the churches, frayed embroidereis shroud the inner
sanctum from prying eyes and tourist' cameras. Sunlight pierces the open
windows in shafts, and pigeons flutter noisily in the countryards. Indian
swastikas and Jewish Stars of David are carved side by side on the walls,
striking evidence of Ethiopias' position at the crossroads of human beliefs.
The Movable Monarchy
After the almost monastic period of King Lalibella, dynasties came and went, capitals rose and fell, and power shifted from the northern Tigrayans to the central Amharas and back. Society oscillated between anarchy and feudal monarchy, closely associated with the Orthodox Church. Literature and philosophy flourished. There was no fixed capital, but the seat of power was effectively wherever the king and his army happened to b camped.
Islam had filtered into Ethiopia from Arabia since the time of the
Prophet Mohammed, and its strongholds were naturally towards the east of
Ethiopia. From the mercantile city of Harar, Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim ELmGhazi,
nicknamed Gragn ('The Left-Handed'), rose up against the Christians,
and over-ran much of the country, burning churches and looting gold wherever
he went. His armies, demanding conversion to Islam or death, reached as
far north as Axum. But travellers' tales of Ethiopia's Christian Empire
had filtered out to Europe. In response to Lebna Dengel's appeal, the Portugese
sent a group of musketeers, who contriburted to the defeat and death of
Gragn in 1543.
The Coming of the Oromo
At about the same time as the Christian Empire was under attack from
the east, the South was being overtaken by the Oromo people. They spread
north, east, and west throughout the sixteenth century, and penetrated
the Amhara areas as far north as Wollo and Gojam. Gragn's former power
base, Harar itself, was attacked until a peace agreement was signed in
1568. The Oromo region today makes up the heart of Ethiopia. The conquests
and subsequent settlement of Oromos all over Ethiopia have been described
by one sociologist as 'the making of modern Ethiopian society'. Rather
than ruling the people of the areas they invaded, the Oromo tended to intergrate
and inter-marry. Today, they are the most numerous ethnic group in Ethiopia,
and one of the largest tribes in Africa.
The Rise and Fall of the Empire of Gonder
As Ehtiopia recovered, reduced in power and territory after 16 years of civil war, the Emperors moved further north and west, close to Lake Tana. A new capital was formed at Gonder in 1636, which became the first fixed capital of Ethiopia since Lalibella. A series of rulers built solid palaces and castles in the city, and some finely decorated churches still stand testimony to the zenith of Ethiopia's renaissance.
The Gonderine empire itself began to collapse in the late 1700s,
and Ethiopia disintegrated into an amalgamation of principalities controlled
by warlords. From the mid-nineteenth century, two unifying leaders, Tewodros
II and Yohannes IV, started to pull Ethiopia together again.
Enter the British
Tewodros II tried to gain support for his reforms and technical schemes by writing to Queen Victoria. When his letters went unanswered, he imprisoned a British consul and several missionaries. This led to a British military expedition, which stormed his mountain stronghold at Magdala in 1868, where Tewodros, crying 'I shall never fall into the hands of the enemy', shot himself in the mouth with his pistol. The British force then proceeded to loot the libraries of the palace and church nearby, taking hundreds of manuscripts back to England. Few have been returned from the British Museum to this day.
Yohannes IV, a chief from Tigray, succeeded in holding the expansioniest forces of both Egypt and Italy at bay, but was killed in battle against the Sudanese Mahidist armies in 1889. Power then reverted to the Amhara line, from the central region of Shoa, and Emperor Menelik II was crowned.