This article is based on an address Professor Richard Pankhurst delivered on 9 September to the Ethiopian Community in Britain and explores the eventful last two millennia of Ethiopia’s rich history.
Ethiopia is now celebrating the New Millennium: it is a significant event which causes us to look back, and focus, on the last 2000 years of Ethiopian history. This is on any showing a long historical period – much longer than those with which many historians are normally concerned.
It is difficult to cover 2000 years in little more than 20 minutes, that is 100 years per minute- if my mathematics is not wonky!
Let us look at the beginning of Ethiopia’s First Millennium. The political formations which we know today were still in their infancy. Few historical documents for that time are extant. We know however that in the far north of the country the people around Yeha had half a millennium earlier erected a huge temple, probably dedicated to worship of the Sun and Moon – a temple which exists, and impresses tourists, to this day.
By the beginning of the First Millennium the Aksumite empire was beginning to emerge – and an unknown Egyptian merchant or bureaucrat was about to write his famous work: the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. It stated that the ruler of Aksum was “acquainted with Greek literature” – whatever that meant; and recorded information on the region’s foreign trade. Aksumite exports then consisted mainly of ivory, while imports included textiles, manufactured goods, such as knives and axes, and a few luxury items, among them olive oil and wine.
This commercial picture was confirmed half a millennium later, around 500 AD, by Kosmos, a Greek-speaking trader from Egypt. In his book, the Christian Topography, he also tells in some detail how the Aksumites obtained gold from the people around the source of the Blue Nile, who spoke an entirely different language.
Aksum, and the nearby Red Sea port of Adulis, handled extensive exports of both ivory and gold.
The Red Sea coast of Africa – we should recall – had for centuries been linked to the outside world by the all-important Trade Winds. These at various seasons of the year blew from north to south, south to north, east to west, and west to east. They thus linked the Ethiopian region by sea with Egypt and the Mediterranean world on the one hand, and with India and the East on the other,
The Half Millennium between the Periplus and the Christian Topography witnessed the rise of the Aksumite Kingdom. A major African civilisation it was unique in having its own written language, Ge’ez; stone inscriptions describing the victories of its armies, its own currency (in gold, silver and brass), and its famous obelisks.
The second largest obelisk, you may remember, was looted by Fascist Italy in 1937, but has now – after much agitation – at last been returned. A UNESCO contract for its re-erection has been signed – and the stels’s re-erction is expected within the forthcoming Millennium Year, or shortly thereafter. But this, I feel, is not enough: the time has come to re-erect the other obelisks – so that the world can see them as the ancient Aksumites wished them to be seen, standing proudly towards the sky.
But I am not considering only Aksum; the same principle applies to the numerous obelisks of southern Ethiopia: in the Silte area of Gurage, and elsewhere. Like all Ethiopia’s antiquities, they must be treated with respect – and be preserved at all costs. Action must also be taken to preserve the old buildings of Addis Ababa – which are crumbling into disrepair, as well as historic buildings throughout the length and breadthe of the entire country But to return to Aksum: Its rulers, most notably Ezana produced numerous inscriptions, describing their expeditions; to the snow-covered peaks of the Samen mountains, to the torrid land of Meroe, in the Sudan – and across the Red Sea to Yemen.
Aksum in its day became the most important commercial entity between the Roman Empire and Persia.
The First Millennium also witnessed two important events on the religious side.
The first, in the early fourth century, was the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of Aksum. You will recall the story of the two young Syrian boys, Frumentius and Aedesius, who were ship-wrecked off the Aksumite coast, and were taken to the King – whose son, perhaps Ezana was later converted to Christianity. He it was who issued very interesting coins. The first bore the symbol of the Son and Moon. These were later substituted by the Cross of Christ.
Ethiopia thus became one of the very first Christian countries in the World.
The second event, in the early seventh century, was the coming of Islam.This took place, according to Islamic tradition, when the first followers of the Prophet Mohomed were being persecuted in Arabia. Pointing across the Red Sea he is said to have counciled them to seek asylum in Habsesh, i.e. Abyssinia – which he declared a land of righteousness. They accordingly fled to Aksum, whose ruler, King Armah, refused to return them to their persecutors – and declared, in a famous phrase that he would not do so, even if he was offered a “mountain of gold”.
Ethiopia thus enjoyed a unique position in the history of Islam.
As the First Millennium proceeded, Christianity and Islam both prospered – and expanded further and further into the Ethiopian interior.
Churches and monasteries were founded in the north, and Muslim mosques and sultanates in the east. Traditional religions nevertheless held sway in the south and west, where the Oromos in particular developed the Gada system of government by age-groups – a system which, some say. might be worth copying in other countries!
Ethiopias’s Second Millennium, which has now passed, was scarcely less important than the first. Information on this latter Millennium is, however, more plentiful than for the First – and therefore more difficult to summarise – but this we must do.
One of the more important events of this period was the shift of political power, at the end of the First Millennium, from Aksum to Lasta; the emergence of the Zagwe dynasty – and the excavation of the remarkable rock-hewn churches of Lalibela – sometimes referred to in the tourist literature as one of the Wonders of the World.
Power later shifted once again – from Lasta to Shawa, in the late 13th century, which witnessed the rise of the so-called Solomonian dynasty, as well as the institution of nomadic, or moving, capitals.
This period coincided with the emergence of Muslim amirates in a wide curve of the country from the Afar desert in the north to mountainous Bali in the south. This development was accompanied by the rise of Harar, a major centre of Islamic culture, and a number of other Muslim towns – currently being studied by the French Centre of Ethiopian Studies, in Addis Ababa.
Our knowledge of Ethiopian civilisation at this time rests heavily on the Ethiopian Royal Chronicles, which begin with that of Emperor ‘Amda Seyon in the early 14th century, with the somewhat briefer histories of the Muslim amirs – and with the chronicle of Imam Ahmd ibn Ibrahim, better known as Gragn, recently published in English translation. No less important is the great travelogue by the Portuguese prelate Francesco Alvares, who gives us our first eye-witness account of the remote Christian state which Europeans conceived – entirely unjustifiably – as the mysterious Kingdom of Prester John.
* * *
The middle of the Last Millennium, i.e. from 1500 onwards, opened an important new phase of Ethiopian history. This was characterised by the coming of fire-arms, which gave an advantage to the rulers of the coast over those of the interior, and contributed to the victories of Gragn. This period also witnessed the northwards advance of the Oromo people – who thereafter play an increasingly important role in Ethiopian state affairs.
Changes in the Ethiopian balance of power led meanwhile to yet another shift of the imperial capital – this time from Shawa to the Lake Tana area – and ultimately, in the early 17th century, to Gondar, which remained a capital for over two centuries. This period witnessed a major resurgence of Ethiopian Christian – and Muslim – culture; an unprecedented development of urbanisation and of the division of labour, with the emergence of professional occupations not previously known in the country. This period is stereotyped not only by the famous Gondar castles, but also by so-called Gondarine art, which marked a departure from the old Byzantine models – and was characterised by a significant Ethiopianisation of Ethiopian art.
Gondar, however, subsequently declined in what Ethiopian historians call the Era of the Masafent, or Judges – a Biblical reference to an era of chaos. For Ethiopia this too meant an era of disunity and conflict, and cast a deep shadow which to some extent remains with us to this day.
The Era of the Masafent, and the collapse of central government in Ethiopia, largely over-lapped with the Industrial Revolution in Britain – and the great unleashing of industrial and military power which it produced. From Britain industrialism spread rapidly to Western Europe -and to other parts of the world – including, most significantly, Egypt, which began to develop rapidly in the first part of the 19th century under Mohomed Ali.
Ethiopia, by contrast, remained disunited – and lacked access to the sea. The country was unable to exploit the new technology – either to build up its military strength to resist external aggression, or to develop educational, medical and other innovations to benefit of its own people.
It is in this context that Emperor Tewodros’ attempt at unification was important – even though it failed. The British captured Maqdala, in 1868, and looted all its treasures, restoration of which is currently demanded by AFROMET, the Association for the Return of Ethiopian Maqdala Treasures.
The Egyptians meanwhile were penetrating into Ethiopian territory, in the north, east, and west, while the British established themselves across the Red Sea at Aden, and the Italians at Massawa. Ethiopia, unable to benefit from the Industrial Revolution, was being left behind in the struggle for modernisation – and was indeed crumbling in face of the Imperialist Powers who were pushing further and further into the Horn of Africa.
Despite such technological backwardness Emperor Yohannes succeeded in repulsing Egyptian aggression at the battles of Gundet and Gura, in 1875-6, Ras Alula crushed an invading Italian force at Dogali in 1887; Yohannes defeated the Sudanese Dervishes in 1889 – but was killed at the end of the battle.
Such Ethiopian victories, today largely forgotten, pale beside Emperor Menelik’s resounding achievement at Adwa in 1896.
That victory opened an important new era: the Era of Modernisation. This era witnessed Menelik’s establishment of the first bank, the Jibuti railway, the first Ethiopian currency since Aksumite days, the first modern school – and much else.
Such developments, historically speaking, set the stage for later technological innovations: the coming of the radio, the aeroplane, television, highways and sky-scrapers, the internet, etc.
This is the era in which we live today as we enter the Third Millennium.
Governments in Ethiopia come and go, but it would be difficult to imagine one committed to abandoning the cause of progress.
(Originally published in Capital newspaper)
Richard Pankhurst 
Leave a Reply