At least by 1,000BC Ethiopia, Eritrea and what is southern Yemen were part of a large empire known as the Sabean Kingdoms. The connections of Ethiopia and Arabia should not be surprising as the distance between the East African horn and Southern Arabia is minimal. In fact recent linguistic study indicates that the Semitic languages of Arabia and the Middle East may well be a branch of a larger Ethiopian language group. It is also well known that this Eastern Horn-Arabian route was used for millennia by the earliest homonid migrants who later populated Asia. The people of Sabea were probably a mixture of East Africans and their Southern Arabian descendants who had long populated the region. Saba had a very matrifocal society with a host of female dieties. According to the Kebra Negast, a holy book of Ethiopia, it is said that Makedda herself created a dictate stating "only a woman can rule." Polyandry, the practice of taking more than one husband by a woman, and tracing one's kinship based upon matrilineal descent was common. The earliest known Arabian temple was at Marib (in Southern Yemen), capital of Saba, and was called Mahram Bilqus, "precincts of the Queen of Saba." The Arabs called this woman, Bilqus or Balkis; in Ethiopia, Makedda (also Magda, Maqda and Makera), meaning "Greatness." Years later, the Jewish historian Josephus, referred to her as "Nikaulis, Queen of Ethiopia." She is the celebrated Queen of Sheba of the Bible who is described as "black and comely." Located in a strategic location, Saba flourished as a trading community in goods from Asia as well as Africa. Even coffee drinkers trace the original cup to Ethiopia's Kefa region. Pictured above are the ruins of Marib, built between the 1st and 2nd Millennium BC. (Photo and Information Courtesy of Yemeni website and African Presence in Early Asia ed. by Ivan Van Sertima)

Saba/Sheba was a center of astronomical wisdom. In Saba/Sheba the Queen or King was chief astronomer and astrologer. Spiritual religious life involved reverence of celestial bodies such as the sun and moon. The holy Ka'ba of Islam for instance, which the Arabian prophet Muhammad would incorporate into his new religious system, was first said to be a meteorite brought there by Sabeans or Ethiopians. The goddess who dwelt in the sacred black stone was given the title Shayba who represented the Moon in its threefold existence - waxing, (maiden), full (pregnant mother), and waning (old wise woman). The diety Shams was associated with the sun. But the primary Sabaean Moon god was Ilmukah or Ilumguh, identified at times with the god Sin of Assyrian-Babylonian mythology. Sin was portrayed as an old man with a sky blue beard, the color of lapis lazuli, and a turbaned head. Wearing a crown shaped like a full moon, Sin rode a crescent moon-boat from which he navigated the night sky. Also called "He Whose Deep Heart No God Can Penetrate", he dispersed evil and inspired his believers with dreams and prophecies. Another moon goddess worshipped by the Sabaeans was Astarte, or Ashtar, whom they called Astar, which means "womb." The giver and destroyer of life, Astar was Queen of Heaven and Mother of all Deities. Arriving from heaven as a ball of fire, and accompanied by a lioness, she was pictured with horns, and a disc of the sun above her forehead. The obvious similarities of Astar to Isis and Hathor, and in the case of the lioness Hathor's dual role as the lioness Sekhmet the "fiery Eye of Ra," are near impossible to miss. The Kebra Negast of Ethiopia tells of Makedda telling the Hebrew king Solomon of her kingdom's varied spiritual system. (Photo and Information courtesy of Yemeni website and The Kebra Negast, translated by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge)

Ancient Abyssinia: Askum

There is not much known on the early origins of the Askumite (Axumite) kingdom. Certainly the Eastern horn of Africa had been well known during dynastic Egypt as the land of Punt. Roman and Greek sources indicate that an Axumite kingdom was thriving by the first century AD; the city of Adulis is frequently mentioned because it had become one of the most important port cities in Africa. Ethiopian history however places Askum as an ancient city, and the home of the Queen of Sheba. Its great prominence in the region comes around the 1st century AD. In the second century AD, Aksum acquired tribute states on the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea, conquered northern Ethiopia, and then finally conquered Meroitic Kush. The downfall of the Nubian powers led to the swift rise of Aksumite imperial power. The Aksumites controlled one of the most important trade routes in the world and occupied one of the most fertile regions in the world. Aksum lay directly in the path of the growing commercial trade routes between Africa, Arabia, and India. As a result, it became fabulously wealthy and its major cities, Adulis, Aksum, and Matara, became three of the most important cosmopolitan centers in the ancient world. An indication of this cosmopolitan character can be found in the fact that the major Aksumite cities had Jewish, Nubian, Christian, and even Buddhist minorities. View the great Axum stelae. At over 74ft. it is the largest obelisk in the Nile Valley: twice as large as any in Nubia and Egypt. (Photo and Information courtesy of The African Ark and History of Africa )

Ancient Abyssinia: Christian Ethiopia

By the 4th Century AD the religious system of Christian Rome had conquered Egypt and Syria. During this period a Syrian Christian philosopher and his two sons arrived at port in Askum. Rome and Askum were engaged in a battle over the supremacy of the sea trade routes at the time. Upon reaching port the ship is seized and the philospher and crew are killed. The two Syrian youngsters are spared and became servants of the royal family during the reign of King Ella Amida. Though it is uncertain how, they succeed in converting the royal family to Christianity. It was through one of these Syrian servants, Frumentius, that Christianity came to be Ethiopia's state religion. Frumentius later becomes in Alexandria, the first Bishop of Askum. Amida's successor Ezana also converts to Christianity. Ezana is responsible for the conquest of Nubia (Meroitic Kush). But Nubia does not convert to Christianity upon Ezana's conquest. Rather Nubia's conversion begins in 542AD when two missionary groups set out to gain converts to their cause. One group was the Monophysites, under the patronage of Emperor Justinian, and the other was the Melkites, under the patronage of the Empress Theodora. Through some crafty political manuvering, the Monphysites manage to reach the Nubian kingdoms by 580AD they had accepted Coptic (Egyptian) Christianity. Christianity flourished in the Nubian kingdoms mostly among the royalty and the monks; it is unknown whether the general populace fully embraced the religion. Under pressure from their northern Muslim neighbors, the Nubian Christian kingdoms fall one by one to Islam---the last in 1504. This is significant as for centuries to come the greatest threat to Ethiopia shall be their Muslim neighbors to the north. Pictured above is a Coptic Christian priest. (Photo Courtesy of The African Ark)

Pictured above is Lalibela Church or Beit Giorgis (House of George). According to local tradition, God instructed King Lalibela to build 11 churches the like of which the world had never seen, and dispatched a team of angels to help him complete the monumental task. The king is said to have constructed the 11th-century church, Beit Giorgis (House of George), after a fully armored Saint George appeared on horseback and admonished him for not having consecrated a shrine to him. Christian monks still show visitors the legendary "hoof marks" of Saint George's steed. Lalibela's masterwork is now often cited as the "eighth" man-made wonder of the world. (Photo and Information courtesy of The African Ark)

Nestled into the foothills of the Simien Mountains, some 100 miles south of Aksum, lies the city of Gondar, a former royal capital with a past of political intrigue. This past is tied in with the arrival of the Portuguese, whose Jesuit fighters Ethiopia enlisted to help roll back the devastating Islamic conquests of the 16th century. The Portuguese also persuaded Ethiopian King Susenyos to impose Catholicism as the state religion, an act that ultimately resulted in his ousting and the massacre of many Portuguese by Ethiopian Christians. His son, Fasilidas, established Gondar as his capital in 1632, and it remained the seat of imperial power for 200 years. Fasilidas's square, two-story castle with a turret at each corner, inspired by a mixture of Ethiopian and Portuguese design, remains the central attraction of the royal compound. Although it endowed Gondar with many beautiful buildings, Fasilidas's rule also marked the start of a long and violent string of successions, often through poisoning or parricide, and aggravated by bloody struggles for power by feuding regional lords. One of Gondar's principal rulers was Queen Mentewab (1730­1799). The palace she had built for herself came to be the kingdom's finest example of "Gondarian style" architecture, embodying the best of Portuguese, Indian and Ethiopian influences. Her two-story, 350-square-meter palace in the fortified compound of Qwesqwam was complemented by a church.(Photo and Information courtesy of Gondar website and The African Ark)

Within Ethiopian churches are elaborate paintings depicting Christian themes, saints, kings, etc. Not a single space of the ceilings and walls of the churches are not covered with pictures of some kind. Pictured above is ceiling painting Debre Berhan Selassie Church in Gondar Ethiopia. The eyes are said to follow you about the room. (Photo and Information courtesy of The African Ark)

The legacy of Ethiopia has had a great affect on the Black world. The European nation of Italy, eager to acquire its own colonial holdings, targeted Ethiopia whose location on the Red Sea made it a choice spot for control. After breaking the Treaty of Whicale, Italy declared war on Ethiopia in 1895. One year later the Ethiopians, under Menelik II, defeated the Italians at Adowa thus becoming the first African nation to repel European colonization. The news of this African state under an African king defeating a European army spread like wildfire. Everywhere throughout the Black Diaspora, in Africa, the West Indies, South America, Europe, and North America, Ethiopia became a symbol of power, freedom, and redemption. In November 1930 Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Haile Selassie I, Power of the Holy Trinity, 225th Emperor of the Solomonic Dynasty, Elect of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Emperor Haile Selassie declared his monarchy the oldest continuous monarchy in the world tracing his descent back to the union of Solomon and Sheba. Africans around the world watched in pride as European royalty presented themselves, even bowing, at his elaborate coronation. A strong connection with Ethiopia, Ethiopianism, became common around the Black Diaspora. When in 1935 Italy sought to once again conquer Ethiopia, blacks everywhere---from the United States to South Africa----rallied behind the nation's aid. Ethiopia thus has become one of the most well known ancient cultures of Africa. Pictured above are Selassie and Queen in traditional coronation garb. (Photo courtesy of Rastafari Ring)

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