Intro

On Nationalism

Surprise Still Pending

Speechism

Ethiopianism

Arif Wear

NYU Habeshas

Amadou's Reminiscing

Kimo's Korner

A Hazardous Peace Of Mind

Hi My name is...

Aman Mchugh

Poetry: Rahel Hailu

In your AREA

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by No-Diggity-Sunshine

It's often the case that those of us who grow up in communities of our own (be it racial, or national) possess a sense of self few others outside of the community circle can understand. We are the guardians of our histories, cultures, and traditions. Our patterns of social structure, religion and 'societal norm' tell stories of growth and development unique to us as a people. Few of us have the "luxury" to question our value systems, because few of us ever have the chance to experience anything different from what we already know. The minority of us coerced to abandon our previous ways of life to exist in new, unfamiliar environments cannot help but reflect on our past ways of life. We are the ones forced out of our enclaves of tradition. We struggle to balance what it is that we do know and hold dear, while at the same time, trying to absorb the different lifestyle our new environment. As an Ethiopian living in the United States, I often reflect on the perspective and worldview I left behind after I moved away from my birthplace; a local perspective that would seem altogether inappropriate had I decided to bring it with me without a few nip and tucks here and there.

Yet the extent to which the name of my home is not an unfamiliar sound to the ears of many Americans often surprises me. Ethiopia, with all its history and past glory, is special to me for reasons any other person would think to mention for their own country: it was my home, the place where I grew up. My family lived there, as well as my friends. We spoke a common language, we ate a certain food, we went to schools that taught us our history, and our culture. It was all that we knew.

One of the first things I realized on my arrival to the US however, was that there were others in this country that like me, identified with Ethiopia but clearly for not the same reasons. For example, not only were their families not Ethiopian, but they grew up in societies that had nothing to do with, or barely acknowledged the existence of the country itself. These individuals, the majority of whom are of African descent, still seem to harbor a sense of connection towards a place one would expect them to know nothing about, and in a sense, know anything about, since their perception is not shaped by the actual country itself, but rather by the small bits of our long history that managed to leak into the West for various reasons.

This Western influenced perception of Ethiopia has various names, but it is most often referred to as Ethiopianism. As an ideology, Ethiopianism has become most popularly known through the Rastafarian belief system, which has recently been popularized through the spread of reggae music. Rastafarians have for years made clear associations with their current position in the Caribbean and their perception (through the use of biblical text) of Ethiopia as being their original homeland. Yet "while the present-day Rastafari Movement is undoubtedly the most conspicuous source of contemporary Ethiopianist identifications, the culture of [Rastafarians] obscures the wider historical range and scope of Ethiopianist ideas and identifications among African peoples in the Diaspora and on the continent," (Dread History). These so-called 'identifications' span generations and centuries, beginning almost prior to the 16th, on the eve of slavery's introduction to the New World.

At its most basic definition, Ethiopianism is a 'black religious reaction to pro-slavery propaganda,' (Wer War). Strains of Ethiopianist thought are readily seen in the study of the writings of the few, elite slaves around the New England and Mid-Atlantic States who managed to garner an education from their masters. These slaves were often subjected to religious instruction, including exposure to a wide range of literature (including the Bible), in which several references are made to 'Ethiopians'. It is interesting to note, that since the 8th century BC, Hellenic writers had long referred to those with dark, or 'burnt' faces as Ethiopians, so that it soon became a racial terminology often used by Europeans to describe Africans. Thus, due to the Western literary and 'cartographic' thought that they were most influenced by, early black writers such as Jupiter Hammon and Phyllis Wheatley are often found referring to themselves as 'Ethiops', using the word 'Ethiopian' as a generic term to describe all people of African descent (Scott, 13), regardless of geographic orientation.

Yet it was not only for their own 'racial categorization' black intellectuals opted to use the word 'Ethiopian'. At a time when blacks in the New World were taught to hold themselves inferior to their white masters, one can only imagine the appeal of an African country that was made favorable mention to and held in high esteem in the Bible. For instance, in Isaiah 43:3, it is seen that the God of Israel promises to offer the kingdoms of Egypt, Seba, and Ethiopia, "the wealthiest and strongest of all Israel's neighbors," as ransom for the Hebrew exiles in Babylon (Scott, 14). Additionally, specific verses in Jeremiah, as well as 2 Kings, make reference to Ethiopia and her 'mighty warriors'. According to the author William R. Scott in his book The Sons of Sheba, slaves who attended religious services taught by other educated slaves were often struck with the impression that Ethiopia was:

"A fertile region located on the southern frontier of Egypt that abounded in precious metals, exercised extensive economic and military power, and was ruled by a black and stalwart race of people who periodically threatened Israel's security. Moreover, the Scriptures seemed to predict that the African's ancient glory attained in the upper reaches of the Nile would one day be restored, for in the Book of Psalms it was prophesied that "Princes shall come out of Egypt and Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God," (Scott, 14)

One can imagine the astounding impact the discovery of biblical Ethiopia had for blacks in the West. Serving as a way to alleviate the mental pressure of the harsh conditions they were forced to exist in, it led many, despite their West African heritage, to identify their lost, 'home country' as Ethiopia. According to the scholar Albert J. Raboteau, the early black "discoverers of biblical Ethiopia […] looked to that ancient civilization as an exemplar of a glorious African past,"; a belief altogether not too dissimilar from the common American claim of descent from Greco-Roman civilization. He explains, "A fictive Nilotic ancestry enabled degraded African-Americans to identify themselves as descendants of a noble race with a glorious history," (Scott, 15), and thus, lay in place the foundation of the African American 'spiritual' connection towards Ethiopia.

This Ethiopian 'connection' spread from the American mainland towards the Caribbean islands soon after the Revolutionary war, as British Loyalists fled with their churched slaves over to where the plantation system was very deeply rooted. There, the new slave arrivals stimulated a truly 'independent, black religious tradition', and under George Liele, an ex-slave from Georgia, founded the first Abyssinian church in 1783, where the members called themselves 'Ethiopian Baptists' (Dread History). Yet the Abyssinian Church movement was not only unique to the West. Indeed, at the same time the movement was taking shape in the Caribbean, Ethiopianist churches had begun spreading across both Southern and Central Africa, brought about by African American missionaries who serviced those areas, using Ethiopianism as an "ideology [to link] African Americans to their African brothers and sisters" (Dread History).

While stress on Ethiopianist rhetoric and imagery remained somewhat constant in African-American culture (although, of course, with slight fluctuations depending on location of those who were concerned, and the consequent state of race relations), it was not until 1896 that Ethiopianism resurged in a tidal wave of what some blacks believed to be self-fulfilling prophecy. Reports from East Africa came "that a large Ethiopian force led by the Emperor Menelik II had routed an invading Italian army at Adwa in the Abyssinian highlands, marking the first time in modern history that Africans had defeated a European power in war," (Scott, 21). Black newsletters and editorials in the US immediately buzzed with the news, praising "the Ethiopians' courageous fight against Italian imperialism," and deeming "their victory as 'advantageous to blacks all over the world.'" The Battle of Adwa, while reconnecting African Americans to an Ethiopia that was more than what was written about in the ancient texts, served to also " bolster the mythic status and redemptive symbolism of Ethiopia" (Dread History). As the only remaining uncolonized African nation, many looked towards it as a source of black liberalization. Thus, Ethiopianism became the inspiration for black activist movements in the post World War era, the most prominent of which being that of the UNIA, a movement spearheaded by the Jamaican Marcus Garvey.

A skillful orator that has inspired many nationalist movements, Garvey is famous for employing Ethiopian rhetoric into his speeches that stress the country as a beacon of African superiority to white culture. Espousing the belief of "every nation to their own vine and fig tree," Garvey, under the cry of 'Africa for Africans' held that repatriation to the Continent was the only way for the black redemption. He is quoted as saying,

"...since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out (late though it be) to see our God through our own spectacles. The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? Let him exist for the race that believe in the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. We Negroes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God -- God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the one God of all ages. That is the God in whom we believe, but we shall worship him through the spectacles of Ethiopia," (Wer War).

The word Ethiopia, in this case, is clearly being used by Garvey to represent all of Africa and Africans, as he called "upon the universal Ethiopian race to awaken and cast off its chains," (Scott, 22). The UNIA movement spread from places as diverse as Harlem, New Orleans, London, Cape Town, Lagos, Havana, Kingston and Panama; and according to Garvey, represented the thoughts and aspirations of the 'awakened Negro'. Garvey, in one of his many business ventures, started the Black Star Line, a black owned shipping company initially set up to trade goods but eventually provide transportation back to Africa for blacks in the New World. Although he was not the only one to employ Ethiopianist rhetoric into his speeches, he was the only one in that era that managed to galvanize a solid, black mass movement out of it.

It is said that Ethiopianism reached its peak in the early 1900's. In a speech before leaving for the US, Marcus Garvey had included the words "Look to Africa for the crowning of a Black king; he shall be the Redeemer," in his farewell address. Soon after in a highly publicized coronation event, the Prince Regent in the Ethiopian court Ras Tafari was crowned as Emperor Haile Selassie I. Referring to himself as the Lion of Judah and claiming descent from the Queen of Sheba and Solomon, his coronation as Emperor seemed to signal "to a generation of African Americans [already] much effected by Ethiopian symbology and race oppression that the promised day of universal black resurgence was imminent," (Scott, 22). Thoughts of a new world order were foremost, and in 1935, when threats of a second Italian invasion in the country were discovered, thousands marched and petitioned for the right to fight on Ethiopia's behalf against the 'fascist assault'. Although it was during the Depression, pro-Ethiopian activists worked diligently for the cause, despite the emergence of black 'Ethiopian' hustlers in places like Harlem who "duped many sympathizers of their nickel and dime contribution to the Abyssinian relief," (Scott, 210). The columnist Arthur P. Davis charged that he regularly encountered,

"…someone with an unpronounceable and unspellable name who is willing lecture on the customs, habits, and goings-on in the fair empire pf Abyssinia…I don't know where all these Ethiops are springing from so suddenly, but it seems to me that some of them have suspiciously Southern accents underneath their tortured and exotic phraseology," (Scott, 210).

Yet although history has proven the ushering of a new Ethiopian emperor to the throne as the signal of the immediate black redemption to be untrue, the 'majestic' coronation of Haile Selassie I is still the backbone which still upholds current Ethiopianist trends, as particularly manifested in the belief systems of Rastafarianism.

As a black religious movement, Rastafarianism has its roots in Jamaica. Based on "the ensuing interpretation of the Solomonic symbols by which Ras Tafari took possession of a kingdom […], it transformed Ethiopia into an African Zion" for many in the Diaspora. Haile Selassie's claim to biblical lineage had for many generations been used by Ethiopian monarchs throughout history. Based on the legend of Sheba and Solomon, the myth that the ancient Ethiopian queen birthed a son from the then King of Israel, that later ruled as King Menelik I was often used to legitimize one's claim to the Ethiopian throne. The ensuing interpretation by those in Jamaica who had a long, spiritual connection with the Continent is not surprising. The Maroons for example, had for years before Haile Selassie's crowning lived in Jamaican societies where 'African cultural pride, identification, and resistance' were stressed. As run-away slaves who built strong communities in the deep of Jamaica's interior, they are known to have strong connections to their African heritage, and thus in a sense, had already laid the foundation for which principles of Rastafarianism is built on.

A religion that is based on "Afrocentric reading of the Bible, communal values, a strict vegetarian dietary code known as Ital, a distinctive dialect, and a ritual calendar devoted to, among other dates, the celebration of various Ethiopian holy days" (Dread History) and dreadlocks, Rastafarianism has now been extremely popularized with the spread of reggae music, leading many to mistakenly assume Bob Marley, a charismatic musician who propelled the genre into the world's attention, to be the sole exemplar Rastafari culture. Although this is clearly not the case, reggae's popularity has resulted in the spreading integral Rastafari beliefs (such as the divinity of Haile Selassie, as well as the teachings of Marcus Garvey of repatriation) across the world. In 1955, the Emperor Haile Selassie set aside a land grant for 'black peoples of the West' in an area of Ethiopia called Shashamane. It is a place where a community of Rastafarians who moved back to the continent now reside, although the average Ethiopian may not necessarily understand why. For Ethiopians, it is a peculiar concept to hear of the worship of the Emperor as a god. While some may even despise him, those who advocated his controversial rule in Ethiopia never usually raise him above anything other than the status of a man, albeit an emperor. Why anyone else would is generally considered bizarre. Thus, although Ethiopia is to some what any other place would be to it's citizens, history…and the consequent shaping of one's perception and world view, has transformed the country into a symbol of hope and black redemption for many in the Diaspora. As a result of the mental and psychological trauma experienced by many as victims of slavery and racism, Ethiopia's appearance in the Bible, as well as its ability to shrug off European encroachment and colonialism, has served as a reason for many people in the West to believe that they were not inferior to whites by virtue of their race, and thus sparked many black religious, and political, movements.

Works Cited
Scott, William R. The Sons of Sheba: African Americans and the Italo-Ethiopian War. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1993.
Dread History. < http://educate.si.edu/migrations/rasta/rasessay.html > December 10, 2001.
Wer War Marcus Garvey? < http://www.in.tu-clausthal.de/~wallner/marley/m_garvey.html> December 10, 2001.