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    History of Ethiopia and The Horn 3

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    Amir sabir
    The document provides an overview of the major religions in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, including indigenous religious practices, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and current religious demographics. It notes that indigenous groups had belief systems focused on a supreme being and spirits, while also discussing the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the region. Specifically, it outlines that Christianity became the official religion under King Ezana in the 4th century AD, while Islam was introduced through early Muslim refugees in the 7th century and spread through coastal trade routes.

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    History of Ethiopia and The Horn 3

    Uploaded by

    Amir sabir
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    The document provides an overview of the major religions in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, including indigenous religious practices, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and current religious demographics. It notes that indigenous groups had belief systems focused on a supreme being and spirits, while also discussing the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the region. Specifically, it outlines that Christianity became the official religion under King Ezana in the 4th century AD, while Islam was introduced through early Muslim refugees in the 7th century and spread through coastal trade routes.

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    History of Ethiopia and the horn 3

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    The document provides an overview of the major religions in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, including indigenous religious practices, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and current religious demographics. It notes that indigenous groups had belief systems focused on a supreme being and spirits, while also discussing the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the region. Specifically, it outlines that Christianity became the official religion under King Ezana in the 4th century AD, while Islam was introduced through early Muslim refugees in the 7th century and spread through coastal trade routes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    65 views3 pages

    History of Ethiopia and The Horn 3

    Uploaded by

    Amir sabir
    The document provides an overview of the major religions in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, including indigenous religious practices, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and current religious demographics. It notes that indigenous groups had belief systems focused on a supreme being and spirits, while also discussing the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the region. Specifically, it outlines that Christianity became the official religion under King Ezana in the 4th century AD, while Islam was introduced through early Muslim refugees in the 7th century and spread through coastal trade routes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    History of Ethiopia and the Horn

    Amharic tutorial class

    @berhanu 18
    Religion and Religious Processes

    Indigenous Religion

    Distinctive mark of indigenous religion is belief in one omnipotent, omniscient, eternal or transcendental
    Supreme Entity, but special powers are attributed to natural phenomena that are declared to be sacred.
    Vicars (parsons and diviners) who officiate over these rituals & propitiate spirits are held in a lot of
    respect as intermediaries between society and spirits.

    👉Among indigenous religious groups, Oromo Waaqeffannaa is one. The Waaqeffata have believed in
    existence of one supernatural power called Waaqaa. 1

    👉Among the Hadiya the Supreme Being is known as Waa, 1

    👉The Wolayta called God as Tosa & spirit as Ayyana including Tawa Awa/Moytiliya (father‟s spirit)

    👉Kafa called the Supreme Being as Yero; spirit as Eqo 1

    👉The Nuer believe that God is spirit of sky or Kuoth Nhial (God in Heaven) creator, but Nuers believe in
    coming of God through rain, lightning & thunder and rainbow is necklace of God. 1

    Judaism

    Judaism is the world’s oldest monotheistic religion, dating back nearly 4,000 years. Followers of Judaism
    believe in one God who revealed himself through ancient prophets. The history of Judaism is essential to
    understanding the Jewish faith, which has a rich heritage of law, culture and tradition.

    The history of the Jews in Ethiopia goes back for millennia. The largest group claiming to be historically
    Jewish are the Beta Israel, also known as Ethiopian Jews.The Beta Israel lived in northern and
    northwestern Ethiopia, in more than 500 small villages spread over a wide territory, alongside
    populations that were Muslim and predominantly Christian.[9] Most of them were concentrated mainly
    on what are today, North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Wolqayit, Tselemti, Dembia, Segelt, Quara,
    and Belesa. They practiced Haymanot religious practices, which are generally recognized as an Israelite
    religion that differs from Rabbinic Judaism. Beta Israel appear to have been isolated from mainstream
    Jewish communities for at least a millennium. Beta Israel’s customs have developed against modern
    Jewish practice, yet align perfectly with rituals from the time of the Second Temple, described in the
    Dead Sea Scrolls.
    Christianity

    Evidences show that Aksumite King Ezana (r. 320-360 AD) dropped pre-Christian gods like
    Ares/Hariman/Maharram/war god, Arwe (serpent-python god), Bahir (sea god) & Midir (earth god) and
    embraced Christianity. Instrumental in conversion were Syrian brothers, Aedesius & Fremnatos
    (Frementius). When Fremnatos (also called Kasate Birhane by locales) visited Alexandria, Patriarch
    Atnatewos (328-373), appointed him first Bishop of Ethiopia under title Aba Salama. This made
    Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) subservient to Coptic in Egypt until full independence i.e. consecration
    of its own patriarch, Abune Baslios was achieved in 1959.

    Islam

    Islam was founded by Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). When his teachings faced opposition from the
    Quraysh rulers, Aksumite king Armah Ella Seham/Ashama b. Abjar in Arabic sources gave asylum for the
    early followers including his daughter Rukiya & her husband Uthman and his future wives Umm Habiba
    and Umm Salma led by Jafar Ali Talib from 615-628 A. D. Armah refused to return them to persecutors
    and is said to have declared,” If you were to offer me a mountain of gold I would not give up these
    people who have taken refuge with me.” Accordingly, there has grown a tradition, chiefly in Arabic
    sources and among

    Ethiopian Muslims, that the Aksumite king Ahmed al-Nejash was converted to Islam. As a result of these
    early peaceful contacts, Islam was introduced to the Horn of Africa not through Jihad, but through trade
    routes. It was well established in Dahlak/Alalay Islands on Red Sea by beginning of 8th century. By the
    beginning of 10th century, the Muslim community on islands developed a sultanate. At about the same
    time other places on the Red Sea coast were settled by the Muslims. It was from these coastal centers
    that Islam gradually spread among the predominantly pastoral communities of the interior, largely
    through the agency of preachers and merchants.

    Religion in Ethiopia (2007)

    Ethiopian Orthodoxy (43.5%)

    Islam (33.9%)

    Protestantism (18.6%)

    Traditional faiths (2.6%)

    Roman Catholicism (0.7%)

    Others (0.7%)
    3Apart from these, societies in Ethiopia and the Horn developed indigenous knowledge systems that
    embraced social, religious, political, economic and environmental values. This includes the knowledge,
    skill and practices in the fields of governance, peace and social order, education, production and
    reproduction, rehabilitation of the destitute, resource management and disease protection. In the past,
    recognition and utilization of indigenous knowledge in response to social, economic, and political crisis
    proved success in time and space. Taken in totality, indigenous knowledge enabled many peoples to live
    sustainably within their local environments for many thousands of years. Among the bulk of indigenous
    knowledge of peoples were the values of peace and practices in maintaining it. In many cultures, the
    application of indigenous knowledge enabled members of a society to anticipate conflict and social
    disorder. Accordingly, they had mechanisms to ease the social consequence pre-hand.

    For long, such knowledge-enabled societies to configure balanced utilization of resources,

    establish social harmony, self-help associations, and support the needy members for better live.
    Retroactive mechanism of problem solving includes urgent response to fundamental problems such as
    conflict, drought, famine, resource depletion, soil exhaustion, production failure, and other underlying
    problems. Among others, the most dominant practice in the aspect of peace and order was conflict
    resolution.Peoples in Ethiopia and the Horn practiced a number of conflict resolution mechanisms.

    Among others, some of them are Shemgelenna among the Amhara, Yajoka among the Gurage, Seera
    among the Kambata, Gumaa among the Oromo, Makabanto among the Afar, Gudu’emale among the
    Sidama, Dayad among the Somali, Bayto among the Tigray people and others. These wisdoms worked
    effectively for centuries with less cost because first they were part of the culture and values of peoples
    that they espoused in common. Secondly, such conflict resolution mechanisms emphasis on inter-
    connectedness governed by a principle "I am because we are," emphasis on restoration, forgiveness and
    reconciliation instead of punishment. It also emphasizes people-to-people peace building and promote
    local 3ownership of the peace.

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