Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Ethiopia

BBC (2013)

Film Review

Prior to a 1974 coup that deposed Emperor Haile Selassie, his ancestors had been ruling Ethiopia continuously since 950 BC. With Emperor Fasilidis defeating Portuguese invaders in the 16th century and Menlik thwarting Italy’s attempt at conquest in 1896, the African country also enjoys the distinction of escaping European colonization.

Archeologists have found signs of human development dating back 4 million years in the northern Ethiopian highlands. When the first Europeans arrived, Ethiopia was the only country on the continent using ox-drawn plows (dating from 2,000 BC).

Tradition holds that Menlik I (975-950BC), Ethiopia’s first king, was the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Queen McKakla). It’s still claimed that Menlik brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, where, too sacred for publicly viewing, it’s preserved to this day in a sacred Aksum shrine. Judaism was Ethiopia’s official religion until it converted to Christianity in the 4th century AD.

A huge thriving city-state in the first century AD, Aksum once ranked alongside Rome and Persia as a major world power. See Urban Life After the Fall of Rome

Coffee was first cultivated in Ethiopia in the 9th century AD, and it’s always been an important source of frankincense, which grows wild there.

Most of the film concerns art historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford’s search for proof that Ethiopia’s emperors are descended from Solomon and Sheba. In northern Ethiopia, he finds evidence in the form of inscriptions written in Greek, Darian (common Ethiopian language) and Sabian (Yemenite language spoken in the region the Queen of Sheba came from); a 500 BC temple (contemporaneous with the Old Testament prophets) containing an altar for animal sacrifice; and a second 500 BC temple with an incense burner inscribed in Sabean.

To this point, there’s no alternative explanation for the country’s conversion to Judaism between 1500 and 500 BC nor for its widespread use of Sabean (long designated an official Ethiopian language).