Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
November 24, 2006
Avert an East African Islamic Terror Volcano – Break down fake ‘Ethiopia’!
When all the world focuses almost exclusively on Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Israel, forgetting at the same time the Darfur Drama, and tolerating the existence of the African Hitler, President Al Bashir of Sudan, critical developments take place in Somalia and Abyssinia, a country falsely called Ethiopia. The next rendezvous of the Islamic Terror is with Abyssinia.
By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
A bogus-state plunged in ethnic tyranny, underdevelopment and starvation
Abyssinia, do not call it ‘Ethiopia’ if you please, the reasons are to be found in this article, has all it takes to present the rest of the world one of the nastiest surprises we have ever had: an Islamic Revolution that will pressurize over Sudan, Yemen, Kenya, and Egypt.
The country is an amalgamation of African ethnic groups that underwent various regimes that were all imposed by a dominant and analphabetic ethnic group, the Semitic Amharas. They do not represent more than 20% of the entire population of Abyssinia but tyrannize the Oromos (42%), the Ogadenis (10%), Sidamas and other Southerners (10%), and the multi-split Afars (8%), who are dispersed among three states, namely Abyssinia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. The post-communist era American policy in Abyssinia was not relevant of deep understanding of the Horn of Africa area and of the dangling dangers: they supported a Semitic Tigray (12%) president, pushing them to establish a larger Semitic basis of rule by forming a most unsolicited alliance with the Amharas.
The concept was definitely ill-fated: replacing a ruling dictatorial group represents 20% of the country population with an alliance of totalitarian groups that correspond to less than 1/3 of the entire population does not change much this situation at the helm of the country in question. The equation 32% vs. 20% does not democratize enough a country! Even worse, the attempted alliance that was kept for so many long years in power despite undemocratic elections, dictatorial practices, serious violations of Human Rights, and complete disregard for socioeconomic progress and market liberalization (no Stock Exchange and no foreign bank in Abyssinia) consist in a non representative regrouping of two Semitic ethnic groups (originating from Yemen), leaving the overwhelming Kushitic majority (Oromos, Ogadenis, Sidama and Afars) out of power and out of the cultural frame of Semitic Abyssinia.
Under the guidance of French and English colonialists, the Semitic Amharas found a disreputable cultural – political trickery to demonstrate that Abyssinia is not an ethnic tyranny: they falsely renamed the country ‘Ethiopia’, after a name that relates to the Kushitic (not the Semitic) past of the country. Even worse for the Amhara-Tigray tyrants of Abyssinia, the most glorious pages of the Kushitic past of the Oromos took place in today’s Sudan, which was the land in the south of Egypt that the Ancient Geeks and Romans were calling ‘Ethiopia’. If Sudan was not a Pan-Arabist tyranny but a properly developed nation, Sudan would have already been named ‘Ethiopia;, and the Amhara obscurantist and idiotic ruling class would have no chance to opt for the name of ‘Ethiopia’.
How an Amhara-Tigray tyranny, with all the cultural stamps of Semitic past (the successive Axum, Lalibela, Gondar kingdoms of Abyssinia), can insist on naming the country after a name that relates to identity of the local oppressed Kushitic majority?
How would it have looked, if Hitler renamed in 1939 Germany as ‘Israel’?
The ethnic – linguistic – cultural dimension of the Abyssinia predicament is not the only existing; the religious dimension gains momentum, as recent developments in neighboring Somalia are being interpreted as the only possible way to outmaneuver and ultimately bring down the Amhara - Tigray Christian Monophysitic tyranny.
Abyssinia is divided into three religious groups, Muslims, Christians, and animists; this is utterly schematic and definitely simplist.
First of all, Animists are known for use of idolatrous cults and practices; there are some animists in Abyssinia indeed. But the traditional Oromo religion, or Code of Wisdom and Belief, Waaqeffanna to name it in the Oromo language, is known for no use of icons, idols, statues and divine representations of any kind! It is an authentic African system of transcendental faith that would be described within political context as ‘the antipodes of fanaticism, egotism and extremism’.
Second, Christians in Abyssinia belong to various denominations. You have Monophysitic Amhara fanatic and obscurantist monks who remind us the Librarian of the monastery in the famous novel ‘The Name of the Rose’ by Umberto Eco; they are renowned for murdering Christian monks and priests who had great trouble traveling in Abyssinia in the 18th and the 19th centuries! And you have Oromos who accepted Catholicism and Protestantism due to the missionaries who preached there over the past 200 years.
Third, and this is more important, you have Muslims and Christians, among almost all the ethnic groups in Abyssinia; there are many Amhara and Tigray Muslims who of course represent the lowest social class of these ethnic groups, being also oppressed because of their religion.
Finally, Abyssinia is not made out of 6 ethnic – linguistic groups but consists of about 15 to 20 combined ethnic – linguistic – religious groups: a real multi-division that can become explosive when the ruling class is not representative and democratic.
This lets us understand the current Abyssinia Volcano; the political power is shared among the Christian Amharas and Tigrays, so it reflects less than 20% of the entire population of the country, with the Muslims amounting to about half the combined Amhara – Tigray Semitic population (32% of the entire population of Abyssinia).
The Real Lava of the Abyssinia Volcano
Afars and Ogadenis are predominantly Muslim; and as such they are the most exposed to contacts and exchange of ideas with the Somali Islamists who are guided by Al Qaeda. There have always been channels of communication among the Ogadeni and the Afar Muslims and the other Abyssinian Muslims, the Amhara Muslims, the Tigray Muslims, the Oromo Muslims, etc. As the Abyssinian Muslims in their entirety have been oppressed continuously by the Christian Amhara group, the radicalization spread from Somalia would demonstrate to them that the only way for the Muslim majority of the country to get rid of the oppression of that group is the alliance with the Somali Islamists and Al Qaeda. This choice would put an end to the concern for national independence and emancipation, and will drive the entire country to the brink of abyss. Signs of Islamic radicalization have been noticed over the past year throughout Abyssinia.
If America does not help the Oromo majority to secede, form an independent country, kick the Amharas out of Addis Abeba, which is a fake name for the Oromo city of Finfinne, soon the world will be taken by surprise by the new Islamic Volcano explosion, this time much worse than the supposedly marginal Somalia. When the Islamic extremism will make a basis in Abyssinia, no containment policy will be able to be successful throughout Africa. It will be the End.
The present article does not only reveal a potential danger; it also analyzes and the historical past of the Kushitic and the Semitic groups of Ethiopia / Abyssinia, and consists in a Plead for the establishment of at least two countries in the area of present day Abyssinia:
Kushitic Oromo Ethiopia / Semitic Amhara Abyssinia
It is only natural that the sovereign people of Oromo tries to outline its own past, its own links with the Khammitic peoples of the African Antiquity in an effort of National History that is certainly and by definition different than that of the Semitic, Yemenite, Abyssinian Axum, the original state from which originate the Amhara and the Tigray ethnic groups of Abyssinia. We specify here that the term Kushitic represents a subdivision of the Khammitic peoples, as the Slavic group is a subdivision of the Indo-European peoples.
In addition, it is only ‘recently’ that the Oromo country was included within the borders of the modern Abyssinian state within which the Oromos consist in the main, central ethnic, national, racial, linguistic, cultural and societal group.
If the Khammitic past and present of Oromos is different than that of the Axumite Abyssinians, if the Khammitic cultural identity of the Oromos is different than that of the purely Semitic Amhara, if the Oromos of today’s Abyssinia want to form an independent country, this must be taken immediately into consideration.
1. History as a Discipline of the Humanities
History as modern discipline of the Humanities is based on a) facts and evidence and on b) interpretations of facts and evidence. But more than all the rest, History is a matter of Conception, Perception, Theoretical Approach, and – quite unfortunately but very unavoidably – Conceptual Manipulation of data. When one reaches this level, one asks oneself how far one can go in ‘re-establishing’ and ‘representing’ (to ourselves in our present time) the past. One wonders up to what extent one should go far from events or even distort reality! The reason of these questions is that others did it first, did it earlier, did it extensively, and did it in a very disastrous way.
If the French and British colonial Historians distorted to so terrible extent History and they did it in order to promote misunderstanding, hatred, wrong perceptions, wars and permanent underdevelopment, what matters if you misconceive or misinterpret a detail in your effort to set up a Historical system that will serve as basis for Democracy, Human Rights, Progress, Development and Fraternity of Peoples? This is the question. And the real answer depends on what philosophical school the Historian belongs to. Philosophy of History is a vast field whatsoever, already developed by several great peoples of the Ancient Orient.
2. Ancient Egypt is already a totally African – Khammitic – Civilization
To be more precise and start approaching the subject itself, I should ask the following academic question. What does it matter if you make a ‘mistake’ when considering and concluding that the modern Oromos are the descendants of Ancient Egyptians, if this theory helps Oromos and other Khammitic peoples of Eastern Africa establish a fully accredited democratic and free system, within which Human Rights, Equity, Fraternity, and Respect for the ‘Other’ will prevail, and from which progress and development will emanate?
I mean if an alternative historian makes a mistake, the criminal colonial scholars, historians and diplomats have already made so many mistakes on purpose, they diffused them, and even they applied the negative consequences of so many – worse – mistakes that we cannot compare either in terms of error analysis (just a wrong evaluation of data is ‘innocent’ if compared to the perverted willingness and intention to diffuse something that you already know it is wrong) or judging upon results (democratic societies instead of colonial Third World type tyrannies of all sorts).
As a starting point, we should examine the relation between Egypt and Meroe – Oromo within the Khammitic – Cushitic context. Many Oromo ask the question: “Are we direct descendants of the Biblical Cush to which Egypt was connected too”? These are forms of colonially imposed falsehood that have penetrated their mind? Your question is typical of colonial impact!
Colonial Historians and schools of History try to make of Ancient Egypt a rather ‘mythical’ subject, based on Ancient Greek and Roman mythologies of Ancient Egypt, misconceptions and misunderstandings that the Colonial Historians need for their ideological forgery. They want to make of Ancient Egypt a kind of ‘detached’ subject, related to European history only in terms of Exodus, of ancient Greek and Roman ‘visits’, of Jesus’ crossings, and of Alexander’s coronation.
Ancient Egypt is not the falsified and forged ‘Ancient Egypt’ of the misleading Colonial Historians and Orientalists.
And more than that, Ancient Egypt is Africa, fully, totally, completely, overwhelmingly, unadulterated Africa.
We certainly say that Egypt as civilization starting with Narmer, the first pharaoh of the first dynasty, and the introduction of the Hieroglyphic writing around 2950 BCE (the famous ‘palette’ of Narmer bears his name as first testimony of Ancient Egyptian scripture, and can be visited at the Cairo Egyptian Musem), is a Khammito-Semitic product, because of the Semitic emigration – through Canaan to the Nile valley decades before the reign of Narmer – that resulted in a certain intermingling we have been able to attest at the linguistic level in the form of vocabulary, and at the archeological level in several pottery techniques and patterns. And this is true! But, one must never forget that within this Khammito-Semitic mixture, the Khammitic part is absolutely preponderant and overwhelming.
Of course, it would be wrong to delete entirely the Semitic presence and role in Ancient Egypt, but it would be equally wrong to think that Semites and Khammites contributed to the formation of Ancient Egyptian civilization to the same extent!
Egypt is Khammitic with some Semitic touch; this would be the correct evaluation of the situation.
3. Egyptians are not Semitic
When it comes to Culture, Thinking, Mentality, Behaviour, Weltanschauung, (mainly Khammitic) Egypt differs from the Semitic Akkad, Assyria and Babylon totally. In the same way Egypt has been the top Khammitic contribution to the World Civilization, Akkad – Assyria –Babylon has been the unmatched, archetypal and paradigmatic model of Semitic legacy in the History of the Mankind.
Neither Hebrews or Jews, nor Aramaeans or Phoenicians, nor Arabs, did they influence and determine the Human Mind as much as the Akkadian – Assyrian – Babylonian, Mesopotamian Cradle did.
The differences between the Khammitic Nile Civilization and the Semitic Mesopotamia are at times dramatic, astounding and bewildering.
All this is essential as an introduction, since modern pathetic and ludicrous nationalistic beliefs – diffused by the Colonial intellectuals and academia in a way to serve the criminal colonial purposes – mixed with backward Islamist and extremist non-sense influenced the average mind and the poor, low level, local ‘academia’ in Egypt up to the point of diffusing the aberration that Egyptians are a Semitic people.
The forgery about the Semitic nature of the Egyptians served the purpose of Colonial powers to diffuse Pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism in order to alter the real face and the true characteristics of the Egyptians, who are not Semitic. It also served the purpose of the Islamic extremism and its false version of Arabo-centric, Islamo-centric, Hedjazo-centric ‘history’.
De-personifying totally Egypt and the Egyptian Civilization, Colonialism and Islamism are the two aspects of the same coin, that of disaster, poverty, diseases, underdevelopment, analphabetism, barbarism, misery and sickness for today’s dictatorial and tyrannical Egypt.
So, what matters first is the absolute perception of Ancient Egypt as an authentic African phenomenon.
To the aforementioned one should add the Khammitic – Kushitic nature of Ancient Ethiopia, i.e. Sudan, that had first capital at Napata and second capital at Meroe.
4. Ancient Egyptian influences spread throughout Africa
The subject of Egyptian influences spread throughout Africa is nor very pleasant to European, Colonial historians, who try to minimize the radiation of Ancient Egypt, and to falsely increase that of Ancient Greece and Rome. To show that Egypt and Kush / Meroe radiated for millennia down to Mali, Senegal, Cameroon, and Ghana, at a moment we know that the Ancient Greek culture did not expand outside the Mediterranean but for a short period after the invasions of Alexander the Great, would be shocking for the mistaken Greco-Romano-centrism of Sorbonne.
That is why Europeans do not favour a decisively necessary Egyptological –Africanist rapprochement that would help a lot by means of many inter-disciplinary dissertations. They do not push European students to do so, they divert African students attempting – quite naturally – to advance in this field, and they defame any supposedly ‘revolutionary’ approach highlighting Ancient Egyptian influences throughout Africa. In this regard, it is essential laud the difference made by several American universities and scholars, notably Prof. Martin Bernal, famous author of ‘Black Athena’, a vast research and voluminous book that detects the Egyptian origins and character of Ancient Greece, and many others, who are often accused of Afro-centrism!
5. The Nubians – another group
Let’s get to the point! In Ancient Egypt since the Dawn of History, except the Egyptians, lived other local peoples, notably the Nubians. Nubians are not Khammitic – Kushitic at all; they belong to the so-called Nilo-Saharic group that is much smaller than the big families, the Semitic, the Indo-Europeans (Japhethic), the Khammitic, the Turco-Mongolian / Uralo-Altaic, the Dravidians, the Malay, the Bantu, and others.
We have very few words of Ancient Nubian saved as written in Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic texts; it is difficult to establish a language continuity between Ancient Nubian and the modern Nubian dialects, the likes of Kinzi and Fudjeki (in Egypt), as well as of Halfawi, Mahas, Sukkot, and Danglawi (in Sudan). We simply consider the continuity as plausible.
6. The Desert is Satanic for the Ancient Egyptians
An Egyptian expansion in Africa means always ‘expansion’ alongside the Nile. Almost nothing more! Certainly Egyptians controlled the oases of the Western Desert, Siwah, Kharga and the like, but they never reached the Libyan South-western confines where the Garamanteis of the Ancient Greek texts dwelled. Of course, Egyptians crossed the Eastern Desert, either for trade and communication needs (there were harbours in the Egyptian Red Sea coast) or for goldmines exploration and precious stones’ extraction needs. But the desert was for the Ancient Egyptians the realm of Seth, the Satanic force that cut Osiris, lit. ‘the Well Being’, into pieces, and that will be exterminated by Horus, an archetype of Messiah / Mahdi, at the end of Time. Ancient Egyptians spent the night in the desert only in cases of serious reason and ultimate need.
Egyptian expansion in the south meant occupation of Sudan; the bolder Pharaoh in this regard seems to have been Thutmosis I, the father of the illustrious Queen Hatshepsout, who campaigned until Kurgus, where he had a fortress built at a distance of approximately 1500 km from Aswan, which was the southernmost point of Egypt.
Of course, there was always the famous African trade of Egypt, the abundant and exquisite merchandises one could find at the Customs Office that was located at Elephantine (Abu in Ancient Egyptian), a 1 km long island in Aswan! Through many references and texts, we are able to understand that they came throughout Africa, the Red Sea coast, the Horn of Africa area, as well as the faraway confines of Sahara.
7. The Blemmyes – Bedja are still there!
But all this trade was effectuated most through intermediaries, Nubians, Kushites of the Sudan, and several tribes of the desert the most famous of which were the ancestors of the present day Bedja, who are identified with the Blemmyes of the Greek and Latin sources, as well as with the Berehi or the Medjiay of the Ancient Egyptian texts.
8. Ancient Egyptians living in the Desert
Of course, what consists in the regular and average day-to-day life is at times totally interrupted. We know very well that at a period of upheaval, Egyptians rejecting the imposed form of rule and administration used to move to the desert. Opponents to the Ptolemaic rule started staying longer in the desert before returning in order to rebel and impose a revolutionary, democratic form of state at Thebes. Control in Upper Egypt was frequently lost for the pharaohs of Alexandria, and the Romans faced challenges there as well!
This mass movement towards the desert shows that basic characteristics of the Egyptian mind had changed by that late period. In earlier periods, such an attitude would be unthinkable! This mass movement, a genuine social phenomenon of Ptolemaic Egypt, gave later birth to the religious phenomenon of anachoretism, the departure of Christian monks from the valley and the ensuing residence in the desert!
9. Ancient Egyptians moving to Kushitic ‘Ethiopia’ (Sudan)
Is it possible that Egyptian rebels of the Ptolemaic times moved towards the south? Well, the answer is certainly ‘yes’. But south means ‘Ethiopia’, not today’s Abyssinia but today’s Sudan. The Meroitic state of Ethiopia had relatively good relations with both, the Ptolemaic dynasty and the Upper Egyptian rebels. There were two buffer zones, where neither Egyptians, nor Meroitic Ethiopians, but Nubians were in majority, one comprised within the other; Dodekaschoinos (a 12 schoinoi long area) was the northern part of Triakontaschoinos (a 30 schoinoi long area). Financial and security control was at times assumed jointly by Meroe and Egypt (or later Meroe and Rome) either in Dodekaschoinos or in Triakontaschoinos. Did these Egyptians move even further in the south to the area of present day Oromo land? We totally ignore. But it is sure that in these later periods Egyptians were not afraid of the Kushitic / Meroitic ‘Ethiopians’ in the same way they had been earlier, when in the 3rd and the 2nd millennia ‘Kas’ (Kush) meant for the average Egyptians the people who practices continuously black magic.
10. Ancient Ethiopia is today’s Sudan: Kushitic period
Similarly, at the times of the Kushitic period (850 – 525 BCE), the ancient rulers of Napata in Sudan never controlled as much in the south as the area of Khartoum. This is only normal, since the main interest was to move to the north, and control Egypt (as Shabaka, Shabataka, Tahraqa and in the beginning of his reign Tanutamon did), not to invade the militarily and geo-strategically useless jungle of Africa! This is the famous ‘Ethiopian’ dynasty of Manetho.
Dealing with the vast area of Sudan, and attempting to understand its geo-strategic, geopolitical, geographical and environmental challenges throughout History is a puzzle. In several areas of Sudan today the desert reaches the Nile! The famous ‘valley of the Nile’ becomes nil! All the major Kushitic and Meroitic monuments of Sudan lie today in the desert! This characterizes the various Christian monuments of Sudan, Dongola Agouza, al Ghazzali, high places of the historical African Christianity that is more abundantly documented in Sudan than in Abyssinia!
But in the Antiquity, the pyramids of Nuri and Napata, the vast necropolis of Meroe (Bagrawiyah), the magnificent palatial city at Mussawarat as Sufra, the four temples at Naqah, at a distance of 35 – 40 km from the Nile, and Basa, the ‘lost’ marvel of Ancient Ethiopia – that has nothing to do with a state ruled from Addis Abeba – in the middle of the present day wasteland ‘Butana’, were all surrounded by green lands!
11.Ethiopia and the ‘Island Meroe’ have nothing to do with Abyssinia!
Suffice it to state the Ancient Greek term ‘Nesos Meroe’, and the similar term in Latin ‘Insula Meroe’, i.e. ‘Island Meroe’! How can an inland desert place like that be called ‘island’? Well, the ancient authors had their good reasons!
As we all know at the area of Khartoum the Nile is bifurcated into the White Nile and the Blue Nile, with the latter coming down from the Abyssinian mountains in the east – southeast. After they merge, the united Nile is formed and takes the northeast direction until meeting its affluent Atbara (Ancient Greek and Latin ‘Astabaras’). Atbara river flows from the Abyssinian mountains as well, and its sources are not far from the lake Tana that is the source of the Blue Nile. So, the piece of land that lies between the Blue Nile, the united Nile and Atbara is almost an island since the distance between the sources of the Blue Nile and those of Atbara is very small, and perhaps in the Antiquity it was even smaller!
12. When the Kushitic state was destroyed twice in 65 years, Kushites migrated to the South!
What was certainly a tremendous shock for the Kushitic people of Ancient Ethiopia, the citizens of the rulers of Napata and Thebes (the pharaohs of the 25th dynasty of Egypt), was the ‘bad luck’ Egypt brought to their Qore (‘king’ in Ancient Kushitic and Meroitic)! In 671, 669 and 666 BCE, Taharqa and Tanutamon were defeated by the Assyrian emperors Assarhaddon and Assurbanipal, who definitely invaded and annexed Egypt. Kush was limited again in the south of the present day border between Sudan and Egypt.
But, in 590 BCE, Psammetichus II, despite the pressure of the Babylonian Nabukadnezzar (who was present in Judea, ready to invade Jerusalem and to deport the Jews to Southern Mesopotamia), arranged a big expedition – based on Phoenician, Aramaean, Jewish, Greek, Lydian, Carian, Lycian and Libyan mercenaries, attacked and destroyed Napata (2000 km in the south of Sais the capital of Psammetichus II at the area of Delta), probably because he was afraid of rumours that the Kushites were still the favourite option of the Theban priests, who despised the pharaohs of the 26th, ‘Libyan’, dynasty!
Even worse, in 525 BCE Cambyses, the Achaemenidian Shah of Iran, after invading Egypt, pursued his campaign reaching as far as Napata, and destroying again the Kushitic capital! At that moment, Cambyses was at a distance of no less than 4000 km far from his capital! Two attacks within 65 years from the north could not be easily accepted by the Kushites, who certainly counted on the geographical distance as an advantage in their defense! So, they transferred their capital to the south! The went more than 500 km further on alongside the Nile, up to the area of the aforementioned ‘Insula Meroe’, i.e. the present day Butana, in an effort to isolate themselves and to ensure the defense of their country from the only place an attack could be expected: the North!
This testifies – in addition to archaeological evidence from Axum and other places in the Abyssinian plateau – to the fact that in the area of present day Abyssinia there was not a sizeable and strong state that would challenge Meroitic Ethiopia around 500 – 450 BCE, when the transferal took place.
13 Kushitic mass movement and migration within Kushitic ‘Ethiopia’
What we can note at this point is a Kushitic mass movement – of course within their own country, ‘Ethiopia’, that is present day Sudan! Whereas for the period 850 – 500 BCE the bulk of the population seems concentrated between today’s Abu Simbel and Karima (Napata), and becomes progressively scarce beyond Karima, for the next period (450 BCE – 370 CE) the most populated area seems to be present day Butana, around the new capital Meroe (Bagrawiyah), and population becomes scarce between the fourth and the fifth cataracts, being again dense between the second and the third, which is the part of the country that borders Egypt.
14. Meroitic expansion and trade
Until the beginning of the Christian era, we cannot raise the subject of Meroitic – Ethiopian expansion far beyond Khartoum in the south. By that time, Meroitic Ethiopia had its pivotal place in the trade between East and West, i.e. between China - India and Alexandria – Rome. Especially critical was Meroe for the African trade with Egypt (by that time a Roman province), and for long the African elephants had been elevated in Meroe and thence transported to Ptolemais Theron, the Egyptian Ptolemaic and Roman colony at the Sudanese Red Sea coast (today’s Suakin), and shipped to Alexandria.
The trade enhanced the exchange of ideas, beliefs and faiths. The rock relief at Djebel Qeili (southeastwards of Khartoum) testifies to an unbelievable diffusion of Iranian Mithraism that was until that moment completely unknown in the area of Meroitic Ethiopia. At the same time, we attest Indian influences on the Semitic Axum that was about to rise, thanks to the rich trade of Adulis, the Red Sea port of call at the area of Massawa.
The fact that we must wait until a so late period for a significant expansion of Ethiopian Meroe far in the ‘south’ is a sign that the jungle was receding and that meteorological conditions were changing the environment and the Meroitic Ethiopian habitat.
The famous text of the Periplus of the Red Sea makes a hint that there was a trade road between Axum and Meroe or other places further in the west or south of Axum, but it is definitely inconclusive evidence.
15. The Abyssinian invasion of Ethiopia and the destruction of Meroe
Life seems to continue calm until the christianization of Axum, mythologized through the story of Frumentius, and of the Roman Empire. By 350 Christians started having the upper hand in Egypt, but the north was earlier and more densely christianized than the South. Then, an event of major importance occurred, namely the Axumite Abyssinian Semitic invasion and destruction of the Kushitic Ethiopia and Meroe (by king Ezana – 370 CE). It is only then that started the royal Abyssinian propaganda about Axum being supposedly ‘Ethiopia’!
It is necessary to stress the point that the New Testament reference to an Ethiopian prince traveling in Judea reveals the endeavours of a Sudanese highness from Meroe, visiting his neighboring country (Roman Empire), and showing an interest in the newly diffused belief. The guy had nothing to do with Abyssinian Axum…..
When Ezana destroys Meroe, we testify to dramatic changes in the area of Ethiopia indeed. This is actually one of the mysteries that tantalized the specialists until now.
16. Christianization of Egypt and Eastern Africa
In the Egyptian south, Ancient Egyptian cults and forms of religion and culture persist, gradually weakened, until Justinian prohibited (540 CE) the religious activities and services at the last Egyptian shrine, notably the temple of Isis at Philae (5 km in the south of Aswan).
Not only Egyptian cults survived as late as 540 CE, but also Nubian cults had survived until the second half of the 5th century, notably at Talmis (present day Kalabsha) where was the epicenter of the cult of Maluli (in Ancient Greek and Latin Mandulis), the main Nubian god. But what happened after 370 in the south of Triakontaschoinos is very strange. One could surmise that, as in Egypt and in Nubia, so in Ethiopia, i.e. Sudan, a Christian culture stratum would supersede the immediately pre-Christian stratum. But this did not happen!
All the land in the south of the second cataract (at the area of today’s Wadi Halfa) seems to have been deserted. Many sites have been completely abandoned, whereas in the rest the local population seems very scarce. This characterizes the entire valley of the Nile at the area of Sudan from Wadi Halfa to Khartoum! The inhabitants of that vast area seem to have been reduced by 75 to 90%, if we compare the latest Meroitic period (250 to 370) with the so-called Qustul and Ballana culture that follows the destruction of Ethiopia by Ezana, the king of Abyssinia, and precedes the establishment of the independent Christian kingdoms of Sudan, Nobatia and Makkuria!
Of course, it is well known that by that time the bellicose but little kingdom of Axumite Abyssinia extended around Axum and Adulis, the rich port of call at the present day Eritrean Red Sea coast. King Ezana may have annexed parts of Meroitic Abyssinia that were adjacent to his kingdom, possibly part of the Butana desert, the land between the present day Sudanese – Eritrean borders and the united Nile from Shendi to Atbara, but that is all! We have every reason to believe that the invasion of Ezana did not reach as far as Napata (Karima) in the north, and there was not any real need for something like that. Engulfed in decay, Ethiopia collapsed entirely after the destruction of its capital, Meroe.
On the other hand, as early as the end of the 4th century CE Axumite Abyssinia did not control areas in the center, the south, the west and the east of present day Abyssinia. Lake Tana seems to have been beyond the southern border of Ezana.
17. Kushitic mass movement and emigration to the south
How can we interpret these facts? It seems that the end of the 4th century CE in Sudan heralded a major Exodus of Kushitic populations of Ethiopia abandoning Meroe, their destroyed capital and other locations. The Kushitic masses were still practicing typical forms of Meroitic religion and cult evolving around the central figure of the Lion-headed god Apademak, variations of Amun, and several types of Isis – Hathor.
The emigrating Kushitic – Meroitic masses had no reason to move into the already christianized Roman Empire (here I mean Egypt as a Roman province), and could not possible undertake an advance towards the Axumite heartland of Abyssinia that would rather be perceived as an attack, if we take into consideration the fact of Ezana’s earlier expedition and invasion of Ethiopia.
18. 4th CE Kushitic Exodus heading towards the present day Oromo country
Consequently, the only direction the Kushitic mass exodus may have taken is that of areas the Abyssinian king Ezana could not reach, areas that were neither covered by African jungles, nor characterized by desert, areas leading to places of possible shelter. The direction must have been towards the juncture of the two Niles, i.e. present day Khartoum, and further on alongside the Blue Nile towards present day Al Gedaref in Sudan and the Benshangul province in present day Abyssinia.
The dramatic repercussions that this historical exodus’ diagram implies go certainly beyond imagination, since at this very moment this approach consists still in an early interpretational scheme. It is historically plausible, but it takes a lot of effort and studies until it becomes an absolutely established conclusion. A lot of work is in this regard necessary to be carried out towards the completion of the decipherment of the Meroitic Hieroglyphic and Cursive scriptures; furthermore, comparisons and linguistic research must take place with respect to both, Meroitic and Oromo. In addition, History of Religion and Social Anthropology have a great role to play in terms of comparative research.
Ending this very long article, I think that I rather made a diagram of answer than I truly answered this serious question. I want here to close this contribution by stating two things.
A. The Kushitic Exodus I refer to is not the last emigration from the area of historical Ethiopia, i.e. present day Sudan. But it is the most important one. Another significant exodus, although more limited in terms of figures, seems to have taken place a few centuries after the case we studied; but it is another subject.
B. If at the term of many related researches the historical connection between the Kushitic Meroe / ‘Ethiopia’ and the people of Oromo is established, then certainly an independent country, populated by Oromo people, having Oromo as official language, and reassessing the Historical – Cultural Heritage of the Kushitic Meroe / ‘Ethiopia’, would have fully pledged right to the name ‘Ethiopia’. People moving to another place bear always their name, even if they first forgot it.
19. A Kushitic Oromo independent country could be called ‘Ethiopia’
Then, in case of an independent Oromo country, the Kushitic Oromo state should be called Ethiopia, leaving the Semitic name Abyssinia to the Amhara and the Tigray peoples. But this should be reflected in its language, culture, and education.
It is not permissible that a Semitic state, having a Semitic official language, as well as a typically Semitic (Gueze-Christiano-centric) culture and education is called ‘Ethiopia’, usurping in this way monuments that belong to the land of Sudan, and Kushitic culture and heritage of which a line of continuity comes down to the currently oppressed in Abyssinia Oromo people.
