Three Thousand Years of Ethiopian History (or, Demolishing Myths about Ethiopian History) (original) (raw)

An Ethiopian friend once joked that no matter what question you ask an Ethiopian, the answer always begins, “Well, three thousand years ago . . . “ When I repeat this witticism to other Ethiopians, however, I rarely get a smile. History is a serious matter in the highlands of East Africa. Most Habesha (the name of a particular group of peoples of the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands) have a highly elaborated discourse about their centrality to global history. As it turns out, they are right. My argument in this chapter is a double one: the historical record indicates not only that the Habesha have been central to all of human history but also that they have been engaged for millennia in convincing powerful outsiders to recognize and respect them. Dwelling at the intersection of immense religious and technological differences and surrounded by powerful empires—Egyptian, Roman, and Byzantine, to name just a few—the Habesha responded to this liminality by making costly investments in broadcasting their own achievements and singularity. However, since so much of the early research on Ethiopia was dismissive or outright racist, I have written this chapter to set straight some matters for the lay reader. I look at the origin of human beings and the Punt, D'MT, Aksumite, and Solomonic empires.