More Unique Ethiopia Stuff - March 2007

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007
Subject: The Trumble Travels - More Unique Ethiopia Stuff - March 2007

This TTT focuses on some of the unique stuff related to Ethiopia and has less human interest kinds of stuff.

As mentioned in a previous message, Ethiopia was never colonized like the rest of Africa; therefore it has avoided some of the western colonial influences that have impacted other nations. Amharic is the main language in Ethiopia and has its own special alphabet. Ethiopia uses the Julien calendar which consists of twelve 30-day months plus a 13th month of 5 or 6 days (depending on whether it is a leap year or not). Ethiopia is also on a slightly different year. In Ethiopia it is 1999 and September 11 is the beginning of a new millennium (Y2K-ET anyone?)

Time is counted in 12 hour chunks of time with 1:00 coinciding with 7:00 am on the time-keeping system I’m used to (so, a “9 to 5” job would be a 3:00-11:00 job to an Ethiopian). So, if American Idol is on at 8:00 in the evening, that would be 2:00 to an Ethiopian (as a bit of a side note, did you know that there is an “Ethiopian Idol” and “West African” Idol and maybe others?).

Ethiopia is the headquarters of the African Union (kind of like the United Nations but just for Africa). Addis Ababa also has many embassies from other countries.

The Coptic Church claims more adherents in Ethiopia than any other church or religion. The Scriptural cannon that they use includes all of the Bible that we use plus the Apocrypha plus several additional books like Enoch and Jubilees. The Ark of the Covenant is supposedly in Coptic hands at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. Coptic Christians follow dietary rules that have similarities to those found in Judaism.

Legend has it that the Queen of Sheba was impregnated by Solomon. The son she bore, Menelik I, became the first Emperor of Ethiopia and thus the line of Ethiopian Emperors was thought to descend from Solomon. In 1930, the 225th Emperor in this line, Haile Salassie I was crowned.

Something I learned on this trip was the connection between Ethiopia and Rastafarians (think Jamaica, Bob Marley, dreadlocks, and reggae music). Rastas believe that Haile Selassie I, is the messiah and part of the Trinity. At the time he was the only independent black head of state. Ethiopian Emperors since 980 B.C. had the titles King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Anyway, he was seen to be the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Some even believe Melchizedek and Jesus to be previous incarnations of Selasisie. Before taking his new name as emperor he was known as Ras Tafari Mokonnen. This is where the name “Rastafari” comes from.

Rastas believe that Ethiopia is Zion and you can sometimes see the colors of the Ethiopian flag (red, gold, and green) in their clothing. Haile Selassie I did not claim to be the messiah. He died in 1975 which is problematic if you believe him to be the messiah (not all Rastas accept the fact of his death).

Sources for my information include the following sites:

http://www.answers.com/topic/ethiopian-orthodox-tewahedo-church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Sheba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafari_movement

Amharic Stuff




A Coptic Church


Coptic Christians with a Coptic church in the background.

African Union Stuff

Embassy Stuff

A place where we stopped for a coffee. Also pictured is Dawit, Compassion Ethiopia Country Director, his wife, and Habtu.