Ethiopian Church Research Articles

How Churches Can Become Trapped by Violence and Hatred: The Example of Italy in Ethiopia

During the Italian occupation of Ethiopia between 1935 and 1941 there was an outbreak of brutal and violent attacks on the Ethiopian church. These attacks were supported by many in the Italian church and were described as a Crusade, with no condemnation of them from the papacy. The two churches come from very different geographical locations and cultural backgrounds, and this has led to periods of warm relations, but also to examples of aggressive evangelism and hostility. The situation at the start of the Second World War aggravated aggressive tendencies. They are a warning to the churches of how easy it is to slip into violence and hatred.

Unique bird diversity in an Ethiopian church forest

AbstractToday, most of Ethiopia’s church forests are small forest patches surrounded by a degraded and anthropogenically modified landscape, mostly arable land. Nevertheless, these forest islands may still provide valuable habitats for typical forest species. It remains questionable whether these habitat remnants provide sufficient resources for forest species to successfully reproduce and persist in the long run. In this study, we assessed bird species based on point-counts in and around Tara Gedam Church Forest in northern Ethiopia. We observed birds in typical natural evergreen Afromontane forest (forest interior and forest edge) and in anthropogenic habitats, the semi-natural shrublands, agricultural land, and Eucalyptus tree plantations. We assigned ecological and behavioural characteristics to each of the bird species observed. Our results point to a specific bird community restricted to the forest interior and characterized by forest generalists and forest specialist birds. Along the forest edge, a mix of forest generalists and species of the open landscape can be found, creating mixed communities with high species overlap. The highest number of species was observed at the forest edge and in semi-natural shrubland, where both, open-land and forest species were found. On the other hand, the total number of species in the forest interior was comparatively low, with insectivorous and frugivorous typical forest species. Our results underline the fact that even small forest remnants are important for the conservation of forest species, which do not evade surrogate forest habitats.

By the Waters of Babylon: Ethiopian Orthodox Enculturation in a Rastafari Context, 1965–1980

ABSTRACT: Postcolonial Jamaica provided a surprising new avenue for mission for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. A new religion, Rastafari, refocused its practitioners not only away from England but also sought to chart a cultural course independent of Cold War competitors. Many Rastafari sought connection with the 'Zion' they identified with Ethiopia. As Caribbean Rastafari interacted with the Ethiopian Church, Rastafari were challenged by finding an Ethiopian Church that did not accord with their expectations. The Ethiopian Church, especially through Archbishop Yesehaq (Mandefro) struggled to navigate a foreign context with little institutional or financial support. Yesehaq's interactions with Rastafari (and most curiously with his spiritual son, Reggae artist Bob Marley) demonstrates the complexities of mission in a specific context. The Orthodox-Rastafari interaction challenged the limits of what Orthodoxy could assimilate. It also challenged Orthodoxy's new Caribbean members who could not simply cast away the tight web of relationships and culture in which they lived. Thus, demonstrating that mission rarely implicates doctrine and institutional forms alone, but also involves a web of social and cultural contacts. Navigating this web often benefits from the presence of empathetic and energetic pastors such as Archbishop Yesehaq and suffers in their absence.

Eastern and Western Influence in Wall Paintings of Abuna Yemata Guh Church (Ethiopia)

The rock-hewn church Abuna Yemata Guh, situated in the Gheralta Mountains of the Ethiopian Tigray region, houses one of the best preserved and least studied wall paintings of medieval Ethiopia. The pictorial program is dated to the second half of 15th century, by stylistic and iconographic characteristics. In fact, no well-proved date has been suggested so far. This research seeks to bridge the existing scholarly gap by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the iconographic and stylistic attributes of the paintings. It also considers the historical backdrop of the church, identifying key conduits of cultural influence. Furthermore, the study incorporates a scientific examination of the pigments employed in the paintings of Abuna Yemata Guh, comparing them with those found in other Ethiopian churches. The artistic motifs found within the paintings of Abuna Yemata Guh indicate an amalgamation of influences, notably drawing from Osman and Goan Christian art traditions. Additionally, traces of the iconographic style seen in the Roman icon Salus populi romani are evident, with a copy of this icon only arriving in Ethiopia after the 1570s. Consequently, the most plausible timeframe for the execution of the wall paintings falls within the latter part of the 16th c.

Monuments of Ethiopian Church Architecture in the Geralta Region: Materials of Field Research in Autumn 2020 in the Tigray Region (Ethiopia)

The article, based on the results of field research in the fall of 2020, focuses on four churches in the mountainous Gärʽalta district in central Tǝgray. This strategically located most important role in the history of the Ethiopian state and region. There are many hard-to-reach rock-hewn churches that were centers of monastic activity. Gärʽalta’s many rock-hewn churches are well represented in the scientific literature. The focus of the work is three rock-hewn and one built churches, little studied in terms of analyzing their architectural plans and forms: Arbaʽǝtu Ǝnsǝsa (Mikaʼel) Gundo, Abunä Zärʼa Buruk, Kidanä Mǝḥrät Yaʽid, Maryam Pappasäyti. The article puts forward proposals on the typology of monuments, their dating; features characteristic of the architectural tradition of the historical period and, on the contrary, unique, inherent in the churches. Special attention is paid to the works of religious painting found in the interiors of these churches. Arbaʽǝtu Ǝnsǝsa (Mikaʼel) Gundo combines the features of two types of temples: traditional three-aisled basilicas and “open” plan basilicas. Abunä Zärʼa Buruk is an open plan temple. Kidanä Mǝḥrät Yaʽid characterizes the roughness of the forms, while retaining the common features of the three-nave plan. The temple at Pappasäyti continues to a certain extent the tradition of building church buildings in caves or in close association with rock formations. Additional relevance of the work is given by the fact that data collection in the course of field research immediately before the armed conflict in the northern Ethiopian region of Tǝgray started.

Ethiopian Church Art: Painters, Patrons, Purveyors

Ethiopian Church Art: Painters, Patrons, Purveyors

Soy İddiaları, Kralları ve Kilise ile İlişkileri Bağlamında Zagwe Hanedanlığı

Etiyopya ulusal efsanesinin konu edildiği Kebra Nagast’a göre Zagwe Hanedanlığı, Tanrı’nın yasasını çiğnemek suretiyle İsrail soyuna ait olan tahtı ele geçirmiş, Aksum Krallığı ve Süleyman Hanedanlığı arasında ara bir dönem oluşturmuştur. Taht meşruiyetinin tamamen soyu öncelediği bu koşullarda Zagwe Hanedanlık soyu için de ata hikayeleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Nitekim halk arasında Kebra Nagast’ın anlatısına ekleme bir tarzda onların da Kral Süleyman’ın soyundan geldiğini konu eden hikayeler bulunmaktadır. Bununla birlikte Zagwe Hanedanlığının da Musa ve Harun soyundan geldiklerine dair bir söylenti Arapça kaynaklarda yer bulmuş, bunun ötesinde o dönemdeki Necaşîler din adamı olarak tanımlanmışlardır. Zagwe Hanedanlığının üyelerine bakıldığında rivayetleri destekler mahiyette onların din ile yakın bir ilişki içinde olduğu görülmektedir. Yemrehanna Kristos, Presbyter John’u anımsatırcasına “Kıssis Kral” unvanıyla anılmakta, onun ardından gelen Harbay, Lalibela ve Nakuto Laab ise Etiyopya kilisesinin azizleri arasına girmektedirler. Çalışmamızda Zagwe Hanedanlığı’nın soylarına dair söylemler ve onların birer dini figür olmaları analiz edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Süleyman-Makeda birlikteliğine benzer bir hikâyenin de Musa ve Kuşlu bir kadın için anlatıldığı kaynaklarda görülmüştür. Buna göre Musa peygamber Mısır’ın güneyine gitmiş ve Kuşlu bir kadınla evlenmiştir. Ancak Musa peygamberin soyunun Zagwe Hanedanlığıyla bağlantısı bulunmamaktadır. Bu noktada soy söyleminin yer aldığı kaynakta Musa, Harun ve Tabot’un bir arada zikredilmesi bunun Bakara Suresi’nin 248. ayetinden esinlenme ihtimalini ortaya çıkarmıştır. Zira bu ayette Tabot, hükümdarlık alameti olarak sunulmakta ve onun içinde Al-i Musa ve Al-i Harun’a ait kalıntılar bulunmaktadır. Dolayısıyla bu söylemin, bu dönemde sıklıkla başvurulan bir tarz olarak hanedanlığa meşruiyet kazandırma amacıyla yapılmış bir modelleme çabası olabileceği tarafımızca dile getirilmiştir. Zagwe Hanedanlığına dair elimizdeki bilgiler, kralların sayısı, ne zaman iktidara geldikleri, nasıl yıkıldıklarına dair kesin bilgiler vermemektedir. Bununla birlikte bu hanedanlıktan sonra, hatta Zagwe karşıtı bir iktidar zamanında yazılmış olan Gadl’lere bakıldığında onların -taht gaspçılıklarını saklı tutmakla beraber- azizleştirildikleri görülmektedir. Bu noktada çalışmamızda onların gadlerinden ve onlara dair yapılan modern çalışmalardan yararlanarak hanedanlığa dair -olası hükümdarları çerçevesinde- bilgi verilecek, Kissis- Kral olan Yemrehanna Kristos başta olmak üzere hanedan üyelerinin aziz kabul edilmelerine değinilecektir. Günümüzde Lalibela adıyla bilinen şehre isim veren kralın hayatı ele alınarak onun bu bölgede yaptırdığı kiliseler hakkında bilgiler verilecektir. Etiyopya kilisenin başı kabul edilen abunalık makamının hanedanlık zamanındaki durumu ve dolayısıyla Zagwe hanedanlığın Mısır’daki Kıpti kilisesi ve İslam yönetimiyle ilişkisi tasvir edilmeye çalışacaktır. Ayrıca onların aziz kabul edilmelerindeki en önemli etkenlerden birisinin Mısır’daki siyasi, dini otorite ve koşullar karşısında almış oldukları pozisyon olduğu öne sürülmüştür. Nitekim kilisede ayin yöneten, Etiyopya Kilisesi’ni bağımsızlaştırmaya çalışan ve kayaları oyarak “Yeni Siyon”u inşa etmeye çalışan bu krallar, soy olarak Musa ve Harun’un halefleri olmasa da icraat olarak onlar gibi din ve siyaset erkini tek kişide buluşturan kişiler olmuşlardır.

“Africa's First Woman Press Photographer”: Mabel Cetu's Photographs in Zonk!

“Africa's First Woman Press Photographer”: Mabel Cetu's Photographs in <i>Zonk!</i>

Armeno-Aethiopica in the Middle Ages: Geography, Tales of Christianization, Calendars, and Anti-Dyophysite Polemics in the First Millennium

Research for this article had the purpose of exploring medieval Armenian–Ethiopian connections. The investigations revealed three main contexts where Ethiopia and Ethiopians feature in the Armenian sources of the first millennium, without necessarily implying real-life encounters. Firstly, the earliest Armenian texts locate Ethiopia and discuss the genealogy of its people in line with the biblical account of the Diamerismos, as well as notions based on Eusebius of Caesarea’s Chronicle translated into Armenian from Syriac in the fifth century. Each author, then, interpreted this information according to his narrative needs or the purpose of a given composition. The discussion of these sources reveals the circulation of classical and Hellenistic notions on Ethiopia and the Ethiopians in Armenian, too, such as the confusion between Ethiopia, Arabia, and India, as well as anthropological or spiritual features attributed to Ethiopians already by classical authors. Secondly, the article analyses a series of calendrical treatises, starting with one authored by the seventh-century polymath Anania Širakac‘i, that passed on a short tale about a sixth-century gathering of scholars in Alexandria in order to determine the date of the Easter and establish tables for its calculation in the future. An Ethiopian wise man Abdiē was part of this international endeavour too, according to this tradition, and his presence marked Ethiopia as part of the eastern Mediterranean learned world, with its own cultural traditions. Armenian language hemerologia also preserved month names in Gǝʿǝz, reproduced in the Appendix. Thirdly, the article draws attention to a completely new way of viewing Ethiopia in ninth- to eleventh-century Armenian anti-dyophysite (antiByzantine) treatises where the Armenian Church and its doctrines or ritual practices were imagined as part of a vast, non-dyophysite orthodox world that included the Ethiopian Church. Intriguingly, this argumentative technique, formulated in terms that one may callanti-colonial ante litteram, may be traced among Coptic and Syriac polemicists as well, a subject of research that would benefit from further analysis.

Sacred church forests as sources of wild pollinators for the surrounding smallholder agricultural farms in Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

Remnant natural forests act as a source of wild pollinators that are potentially relevant for crop pollination for sustaining the food production system of smallholder farms. In the Ethiopian highlands, sacred forests scattered within agricultural landscapes harbour wild pollinators. The contribution of wild pollinators to crop pollination services to surrounding smallholder agricultural farms is largely unknown. In this study, we empirically assessed the effects of Ethiopian church forest habitats on crop flower visitation by pollinators on smallholder farms in Lake Tana basin, Ethiopia. Crop flower visitation rates were recorded in 72 crop fields along distance gradients within a 1500 m buffer zone around 15 church forest patches. We constructed cross-validated generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) to fit the crop flower visitation rates with fixed effect explanatory variables (distance from forest, forest patch size, forest age, forest functional diversity index, forest proximity index and crop type) that are known to potentially influence pollinator visitation in crop fields. Total flower visitation rates decreased with distance to the forest patches across an agricultural landscape. Visitation rates increased with increasing forest patch size, functional richness, proximity index, and age of church forest patches. Overall, we found that the rate of crop flower visitation varies with pollinator-dependent crop types and wild pollinator groups. An in-depth understanding of the forest biodiversity, cultural value, food security nexus enables the promotion of ongoing church forest stewardship in local and regional policies.

دور المطارنة المصریین فی التاریخ الإثیوبی (1635-1699) دراسة وصفیة من واقع بعض النصوص الجعزیة

يتناول البحث الدور الديني والسياسي للمطارنة المصريين الذين رأسوا الکنيسة الإثيوبية الأرثوذکسية في الفترة من(1635-1699م)، وترجع أهمية تلک الفترة إلى عودة الکنيسة الإثيوبية إلى کنف الکنيسة القبطية الأرثوذکسية، بعد تخلص إثيوبيا من محنة التحول إلى المذهب الکاثوليکي، وبداية عصر الفوضى في التاريخ الإثيوبي، وتهدف الدراسة إلى أن: دراسة دور المطارنة المصريين خلال الفترة (1635-1699م)، والوقوف على الإسهام الديني والسياسي لکل منهم من واقع بعض النصوص الجعزية، واعتمادا على ما ذکرته المصادر العربية والأجنبية، باستعمال المنهج الوصفي التاريخي، ثم المنهج النقدي المقارن للنصوص التاريخية التي تعتمد عليها الدراسة، وخلصت الدراسة إلى: الدور الديني والسياسي للمطارنة المصريين فرض نفسه على تدوين تاريخ إثيوبيا، وکان موقف المطارنة المصريين من الجدل الديني حول طبيعة السيد المسيح متغيرا، اعتمادا على الحاکم وقناعاته، وقد کان ظهور الدور التشريعي لهم محدودا في فترة الدراسة، وکان تداخل الدورين السياسي والديني للمطارنة المصريين في تاريخ إثيوبيا حتميا، وکانت رغبة الحاکم في إضفاء الشرعية على حکمه وقراراته السياسية تدفعه للاستعانة بالمطران المصري، لإضفاء صفة الشرعية الدينية على القرارات السياسية المختلفة کضمانه لقبول الشعب الإثيوبي بها. Abstract The research deals with the religious and political role of the Egyptian Bishops, who headed the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from (1635-1699), and the importance of that period is due to the return of the Ethiopian Church to the Coptic Orthodox Church, after Ethiopia ridded of converting to Catholicism. The beginning of the chaotic era in Ethiopian history. The study aims to: Study the role of Egyptian bishops during the period (1635-1699), and to identify the religious and political contribution of each of them from the reality of some of Ge’ez texts, and based on what Arab and foreign sources stated, using the descriptive method, and the study concluded: the religious and political role of Egyptian Bishops imposed itself on the codification of the history of Ethiopia, The Egyptian Bishops' position on the religious debate over the nature of Christ was changing, depending on the ruler and his convictions, and the appearance of their legislative role was limited during the study period, the overlap of the political and religious roles of Egyptian bishops in Ethiopia's history was inevitable, and the governor's desire to legitimize his rule and political decisions prompted him to use the Egyptian bishop, to legitimize various political decisions as a guarantee of acceptance by the Ethiopian people.

Крест как символ культурной идентичности Эфиопии

The article deals with the semantics and symbolism of the cross in the culture of Ethiopia. It is shown that the special forms and various functions of the cross are associated with the canonical ideas of the ancient Eastern Ethiopian church and its influence on the social and private life of the Ethiopian society. The typology of the main forms of the cross is traced, the development of ornamental decoration in the context of religious and everyday life, including in the bodily practices of tattooing, in the decoration of traditional textiles. The cross is interpreted as a sign of cultural and regional identity. Commission of church crosses is seen as a manifestation of personal piety. The most significant are religious ceremonial crosses associated with worship, as well as hand crosses for personal blessing, which are common not only in the church, but also in family life. Thus, the cross is one of the most important signs of ethnic selfidentification in modern Ethiopian culture.

Royal Names in Medieval Ethiopia and their Symbolism

Abstract Millenarianism, widespread among Christians in general, was also deep-rooted in the flock of the Ethiopian Church. Several ideas of that kind occur in Ethiopic written sources. In particular, they appear in the treatise composed in Gəʿəz language probably around the 16th–17th centuries AD. This work bears a title Fəkkare Iyäsus (“The Explication of Jesus”) and is dedicated to the last days of the World. Eschatological ideas about the appearance of a righteous King from the Orient became popular among the Ethiopian Christians and are well attested in royal chronicles. Chiliastic aspirations were prevalent during the period of political disintegration in the late 18th – mid-19th centuries AD known as the “Epoch of the Judges”. The strong expectation for a graceful and powerful reign encouraged some clergymen to make prophecies. This tendency was manifested in the Ethiopian royal historiography and especially in royal onomastics.

Fragility and Resilience: Church History and Myth in Nineteenth-Century Ethiopia

The growth of a myth of ancient origins pertaining to the church and monastery of Märṭulä Maryam and the exploration of its content and context form the central focus of this study. Material related to the church’s apparent ancient origin provides appropriate data through which to illustrate at once the themes of historical fragility and resilience. Märṭulä Maryam consolidated its mythical history by suppressing the memory of its actual founder, thus altering the tradition of the church itself. This study will demonstrate that efforts to completely erase the memory of Märṭulä Maryam’s founder and its original history were wholly in vain. Such acts of suppression inevitably leave indelible traces of the true past, not to mention the fact that its actual history is well secured within the records of other Ethiopian churches, as well as in those of Märṭulä Maryam itself.

The Place of Christianity in the Critical Debates of Africana Religious Studies

Abstract The massive accession to Christian faith in postcolonial Africa is leading to the ongoing creation of distinctively African forms of Christian thought and practice that differ in significant ways from those of the West—a trend anticipated by developments in Black American Christianity. Africana religious studies has been imagined as a field that would “generate credible scholarship on indigenous African religious traditions,” yet the rise of African Christianity raises questions about what constitutes indigeneity. If the Ethiopian church represents “Africa indigenously Christian,” do these more recent developments suggest Christianity indigenously African? Can Christianity be considered indigenously African? Is there a need for Africana religious scholarship to reassess the widespread notion of Christianity as a cultural product of the West and an imposition alien to Africana peoples? If so, what does the rise of African Christianity indicate about both the nature and structure of Christianity, understood as an Africana religion?

The Relationship between Human Flourishing and Religious Support in Ethiopian Evangelical Churches

Sequential explanatory mixed research was conducted among Ethiopian evangelical churches to discover the relationship between religious support and human flourishing. Data were collected from members of five of the largest evangelical churches in five major cities of Ethiopia, using Religious Support Scale and Flourishing Scale, followed by focus-group discussions and structured interviews of church leaders of these five churches. Descriptive statistics and simultaneous multiple regression indicated that religious support contributes to psychosocial well-being for church members. This finding is supported by the ensuing qualitative data analysis, which showed the understanding and contribution of church leaders toward well-being.

(Un)locking the church doors: regime legitimacy and political (de)mobilisation of churches in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Drawing upon research including personal interviews with Ethiopian church leaders and examination of Ethiopian laws and constitutions through three consecutive governments over the period 1930–2012, this contribution examines the motivations and strategies by which successive authoritarian governments in Ethiopia have mobilised or demobilised Christian churches. The contribution argues that in contexts of low economic development, the political salience of churches comes not only from their ability to (de)legitimise governments, as argued in previous works, but also from churches’ valuable resource mobilisation capabilities and international connections. The contribution explores how successive authoritarian governments in Ethiopia have balanced these political and economic considerations in deciding whether to politically mobilise or demobilise the country’s influential Orthodox and Protestant churches and details the legal and policy tools used by governments to manipulate churches’ political capacities.

Māryām Nāzrēt (Ethiopia): The Twelfth-century Transformations of an Aksumite Site in Connection with an Egyptian Christian Community1

The monument known as Māryām Nāzrēt in Ethiopia, near the city of Mekelle, has often been visited but has hitherto remained hermetic. A fresh investigation has identified the main monument as a massive cathedral erected atop a long-pre-existing Aksumite structure. This unique monument is surrounded by satellite hermitages, among which the one at Golegota shows remains of a small church sharing common architectural features with the cathedral. Cross-referencing these remains with information provided by a written document enables to ascribe the construction of this cathedral to the twelfth-century Metropolitan Mikāʾēl. Named by the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria among Egyptian monks, the Metropolitan was head of the Ethiopian Church. Māryām Nāzrēt was most certainly the episcopal seat in the twelfth and thirteenth century, during the reign of the Zāgwē dynasty, and hosted an Egyptian Christian community. At the crossroad of documented history and particular architectural trends, of contemporaneous developments in Ethiopian liturgy and church building, the paper deals with ecclesiastical and regal interaction in the region of Mekelle in the twelfth century.

Hagiography as Source: Gender and Conversion Narratives in The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church

Drawing on the work of Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, this essay proposes utilizing hagiographies from the The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church, a fifteenth-century Ethiopian collection of saints’ lives, to explore various aspects of conversion. Other scholars employ a similar approach when analyzing hagiographical literature found in medieval Europe. While acknowledging that these texts do not provide details about the historical experience of conversion, they can assist scholars in understanding the conception of conversion in the imagination of the culture that created them. This essay specifically focuses on the role of women in conversion throughout the text and argues that, although men and women were almost equally represented as agents of conversion, a closer examination reveals that their participation remained gendered. Women more frequently converted someone with whom they had a prior relationship, especially a member of their familial network. Significantly, these observations mirror the patterns uncovered by contemporary scholars such as Dana Robert, who notes how women contributed to the spread of Christianity primarily through human relationships. By integrating these representations of conversion from late medieval Ethiopia, scholarship will gain a more robust picture of conversion in Africa more broadly and widen its understanding of world Christianity.

The Mystical Correspondence Between The Epoch Of The Hijra And The Biblical Year Of Creation Supported By A Tradition Mentioned By Abu Al-Fadl And Abd Al-Qadir Baduni

The connections between astronomy and timekeeping are longstanding. One approach to the teaching of Astronomy is it can serve as a unique platform to illustrate the advancement of science from ancient times along with the strong interrelation between science and religion. Here we chose to describe the influence of astronomical measurements that led to the determination of calendars with emphasis on the Islamic epoch: During the second century the Ethiopian Church placed the world’s year of creation (YOC) at exactly 5500 years before the Incarnation, thus expressing the view that it is related to the first day of the second half of the sixth millennium since their believed to be the YOC. The Ethiopian Church also believed that the astronomical visualization of the sky in the YOC which placed the vernal equinox and the newmoon in the same day, repeated itself in the year 5500. In a previous work we showed that “Astronomical coincidence" is a notion originated from Jews who believed that the YOC, Exodus, and the building of the Temple were mystically connected by similar rare newmoon events relative to the vernal equinox. Here we show that the founders of Islam believed in a similar mystical coincidence, explicitly that the 16th of July, 622 AD,- the epoch of the Islamic calendar-, is exactly the day in which the 6000th lunar year started after the biblical creation based on the number of solar years from creation as determined by Eusebius. We show that our astronomical calculations are in accordance with a tradition mentioned by Abu al-Fadl and Badauni.