Monday, December 14, 2015

Ethiopian Culture!

Multi-Media



Ethiopia’s history and culture has been shaped by its rich traditions, and religious backgrounds.  Ethiopia is one of the oldest formed countries in Africa, located in The Horn Of Africa. Ethiopia is mentioned twice in the bible, in the stories of Philip and in the story of Solomon and The Queen of Sheba.  These stories have helped shaped Ethiopia as a primarily Christian nation. Solomon is rumored to be one of Ethiopia’s first missionaries, in him bringing Christianity back to Ethiopia through Sheba.

   Ethiopia remains traditionally religious even in today, with the same customs and backgrounds. They have managed to stay this way as a country through their religious practices remaining the same. The primary religion in Ethiopia is Christianity with many sects to it. There are however; many who practice Islam in Ethiopia as well. The branches of Christianity in Ethiopia are Ethiopian Orthodoxy, Protestant, and Catholicism. Ethiopian Orthodoxy is the largest group in Ethiopia; this also proving Ethiopia is a largely traditional country. Ethiopian Orthodoxy derives from traditions, and remains to be the oldest and largest.

   One of the roots that show the tradition remained of Christianity being the center of Ethiopian culture is the Aksum Kingdom dating back to 4th century AD. The Aksum Kingdom is what claimed Ethiopia’s religion to be Christianity and has primarily remained a Christian nation ever since. The king Ezana was converted when two Christian Syrians came to spread the gospel to him, thus him making Christianity the official religion.  Although Christianity has remained prevalent through Ethiopia, there have been hiccups in the past and wars with Islam.

   Islam came into Ethiopia when Muslim’s were sent by Mohammed to the country to settle and spread roots. The two religions started out peacefully in Ethiopia, and didn’t have problems for a little bit of time. Things changed in 1528 when a Muslim violent leader Ahmed Gragn destroyed churches and wanted to spread Islam through Ethiopia with force, and make it the primary religion.  This war against Christians wreaked havoc at this time, and destroyed the peace and tradition of Ethiopia for a brief period. Although, Ethiopia continues to be a sound traditional country today, they have had their past struggles in order to keep their traditional values alive. This past war was one of Ethiopia’s struggles. This war cost many valuable monuments from The Aksum Kingdom to be lost, but the remains can still be found in Ethiopia today. In today’s time for the most part Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia live peacefully amongst one another. Most Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia live in different areas of the country, and most Muslims in Ethiopia are Sunni.

  Ethiopia’s past is what keeps it alive as a traditional nation. For instance; it’s myths of religious stories are what keep Christianity as such as major part of the culture. These myths include, Solomon, Sheba and Solomon’s supposed son and The Ark Of The Covenant, The legend of Prester John, and the biblical story of Philip. Christianity has been so spread through Ethiopia, because of its access being in The Horn of Africa. Unlike other African nations, Ethiopia has easy access and was used heavily as a trade center. Ethiopia being used as a trade center is what helped Christianity spread, through European missionaries coming through, and the influence of Ethiopia already being a Christian nation, other people coming in made it even more prevalent.

  Ethiopia holds pride in it being a country that has stayed true with its past and religious traditions. Ethiopia has not changed much as a nation in Africa, and remains with its traditional culture. This traditional culture is placed in their music, and art. Ethiopia’s value with the Christian faith shows in their religious themed art work, and music. Ethiopia is known for its stain glass, and art about Christianity. Ethiopian music has also remained traditional in its taste. The same instruments have been used for years, and the same religious stories are told through them.
https://youtu.be/O1B9f3aOAVg  This link provides insight on Ethiopian style of music
   Ethiopia has also been able to stay as a whole country and intact with their culture by never really being colonized and changed. Ethiopia only had a brief encounter with colonization when Italy was in the country for a short amount of time. Ethiopia didn’t have kingdoms or hierarchy when The African Scramble was happening, so they were able to keep their countries borders whole and were also given the region of Ogaden. This however; became an issue with Somalia who wanted this territory back as theirs.

    A struggle of keeping Ethiopia’s sacred values of culture alive has been Ethiopia’s border issues with countries. Ethiopia has had few conflicts, but the ones it has been with are a few of its border countries. Like most African Countries, they have all mostly had struggles with one another in defining borders and regions. The Somalia conflict led to tensions with the two countries over borders. Eventually Somalia was given this territory back just to keep the tensions settled between Ethiopia and Somalia. This conflict did change borders in Ethiopia, but the people have remained to stick with Ethiopian customs, rather than Somalian ones.

   Another issue among borders with Ethiopia and Ethiopia trying to remain whole as a country with less border issues is the one with the country of Eritrea. In short, Eritrea wanted to secede from Ethiopia and be its own nation. This problem of Eritrea wanting to secede caused a major war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Obviously Ethiopia takes pride in staying a nation and traditional, so this caused big problems of a border war. This war was recent and raged from the 2000-2009. Eventually, other nations got involved and each country had to pay each other compensations for the damages done. Eritrea and Ethiopia still to this day have conflicts and tensions. This problem between Eritrea and Ethiopia poses as a threat to keeping Ethiopia solid as a nation, and is an issue of security.

  In conclusion, Ethiopia’s history is what has made it the country it is today. It has remained traditional in its beliefs because of the nation’s past. Christianity has made its mark on Ethiopia; it has influenced their art and music. Christianity has influenced almost every ounce of the nation Ethiopia is today. Ethiopia has had its struggles in remaining intact with its wars in the past, and border issues, but despite these things has remained primarily the same as a country. Ethiopia is known for being a country today as strong in its roots and traditional culture.


 
 
Link to my video presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2obOIGaImY

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