The Bogus-Ethiopian Millennium of Ignorance and Aberration

Within a few days the totalitarian colonial state of Abyssinia, comically self-styled as ‘Ethiopia’, will inaugurate the macabre ceremonials of the supposedly Ethiopian Millennium. This is not Ethiopian, and certainly not a Millennium by any means.

Why this anachronistic and dysfunctional, dictatorial entity celebrates the beginning of the third millennium on September 11, 2007?

The correct term: the Gueze Millennium of the Abyssinians

We will briefly analyze the falsification of the name, before presenting an enumeration of miscalculations that led the Abyssinians assume that 2000 years separate us now from the birth of Jesus.

The people who believe this fallacy are the Amhara and Tigray tribes that are the descendents of the Axumite Abyssinians; their Semitic origins have been retraced in Pre-Islamic Yemen, where epigraphic evidence informs us about the tribe of Habashat that in various successive waves during the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BCE migrated from there to Africa, across the Bab el Mandeb straits.

All pre-Christian remains the Habashat / Abyssinians left in Africa (exclusively unearthed in today’s Eritrea and the Tigray northernmost province of Abyssinia) bear witness to an absolutely Semitic Yemenite – non African – Culture, Religion, Language and Scripture; we could comfortably call it the Yemenite Annex on African soil. This would not be the only; according to the Periplus of the Red Sea, an Ancient Greek text written in the times of Emperor Nero by an Alexandrian Egyptian merchant and captain who had traveled extensively throughout the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, the entire East African coast from the Horn of Africa (Cape Guardafui – in Ancient Greek Akroterion Aromaton, the Cape of Perfumes) down to Rhapta (approx. Dar es Salam, in today’s Tanzania) was named Azania. Azania was a Yemenite colony absolutely controlled by the Sabaean King, and Yemenites had practiced – according to the aforementioned text – mixed marriages, and learned the local language in order to implement their policies more efficiently.

Contrarily to Azania, ‘the Other Berberia’ (in the area of today’s Somaliland) was a locally ruled oligarchy, and Axumite Abyssinia was an independent kingdom mostly active around Adulis, the harbour and port of call in the area of today’s Massawa. In the middle of the 1st century CE, Axum was always overshadowed by Ethiopia, the great Kushitic kingdom of Meroe in the area of today’s Northern Sudan that was bordering with the Roman province of Egypt.

Gueze

Gueze was the official language of Axumite Abyssinia, and it was written in a syllabic scripture in two variants. With the Christianization of Abyssinia, Gueze became a holy language and scripture for the Christened Abyssinians. As Gueze is the antecedent of the modern Abyssinian languages Amharic and Tigrinya, modern scholars had it easy to decipher through Gueze the Ancient Yemenite scripture and languages, Sabaean, Himyarite, Qatabanic, Hadhramawti, etc., due to the vicinity of the two linguistic groups. One could compare the difference between Ancient Yemenite and Gueze to that between Doric and Ionian in Ancient Greece.

Quite contrarily, Abyssinian Gueze was very, very different from the Hieroglyphic Meroitic scriptures that the Ancient Kushites, the ancestors of Modern Oromos and other Kushitic Ethiopian peoples, used to write their Annals, religious and administrative, votive and literary texts that we have not yet been able to fully decipher due to the scarcity and the brevity of bilingual texts, Meroitic and Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

Completely different cultures: Kushite Ethiopian and Axumite Abyssinian

As a matter of fact, the two cultures, Kushite Ethiopian and Axumite Abyssinian, were strikingly different, as the Kushites had and still have genuine African conceptual models and theoretical patterns, affined to Universal Order and Justice (Maat for Ancient Egyptians), and to Intertwined Eternity and Creation (Heracleopolitan Ogdoad), Substance and Emanation (Ra and Osiris), and Masculinity and Femininity (Shu and Tefnut), whereas the Abyssinians are identical to the Semitic thought as manifested among Assyrians, Babylonians, Aramaeans, Hebrews, Phoenicians, Yemenites and Arabs.

Soon, after the Christianization of Axumite Abyssinia, the country rose to importance due to the (Eastern) Roman – Sassanid Persian rivalry that shaped the world politics for four consecutive centuries before the rise of Islam. The Christianization of Abyssinia is a matter of foreign impact. We are mostly based on the story of Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia (Adriatic coast of Italy), who lived in the second half of the 4th century and became known for his Latin translations of Eusebius of Caesarea and Origen. Rufinus narrated (Historia, x. 9) the story of Frumentius and Edesius, two young Phoenicians who had attempted to travel with their uncle Metropius to India. Rufinus had lived in Alexandria before settling in Rome, and quotes Edesius as his own source. According to this story, on their return trip, their ship was captured by pirates off the African coast, and everyone on board was put to death except the two children. They were sent as captives to the king of Axum, only to later appointed as tutors to the Crown Prince of Axum, whom they converted to Christianity. We have no reason to question the story as it reflects correctly the Red Sea navigation context.

Christianization of Abyssinia: the Coptic Egyptian Impact

The Christianization of Abyssinia was a case of foreign impact not only as preaching but also in terms of administrative connection to the already existing ecclesiastical hierarchies. Frumentius had a success in preaching but he had not been consecrated as a bishop; as the closest Patriarchate was that of Alexandria, he sailed to Egypt (Meroitic Ethiopia was rather in turmoil, and rather unfriendly to Christians) where he met Athanasius, the Patriarch of Alexandria, who immediately realized that Frumentius would make the best bishop of Abyssinia and therefore sent him back to establish the first episcopal see and baptize king Ezanas of Axum. This is mentioned by Athanasius himself writing to Roman Emperor Constantine.

Top spiritual authority of the Abyssinians: always an Egyptian!

Frumentius became rather known as Kesate Birhan (Revelation of Light) and Abba Salama (Father of Peace), and also as Abouna (Father), which is the title to designate the supreme governor and spiritual leader of the Abyssinian Coptic Church. Ever since the days of Frumentius and Athanasius, the Ethiopian Hierarchy is subject to the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria. This dependence on the Coptic Church is regulated by one of the Arabic canons found in the Coptic edition of the Council of Nicaea. A delegate from this patriarch, chosen from among the Egyptian bishops, governs the Abyssinian Church, being called ‘Abouna’ in remembrance of the Frumentius’ days. All-powerful at the spiritual level, Abouna is not involved in administrative matters as he is always viewed as a foreigner. The administrative authority is vested in the Etchagué, who also has jurisdiction over the regular clergy.

With the connection to the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Abyssinia started participating in the Christological disputes of those days, and Constantine II wrote to Ezana in favour of the Arian bishop Theophilus, which is a sign that Abyssinia was already integral part of the Christian world. Frumentius is said to have first translated the New Testament to Gueze, although this must have been a very brief work.

Claims that Abyssinia "was the second-oldest Christian country on earth" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/sep/02/escape.ethiopia?page=2) are at least irrelevant and nonsensical in the History of the Christian Church. However, the newly Christianized state soon declared war on Ethiopia and attacked Meroe from the south, which was the most secure frontier for the Kushitic kingdoms over millennia.

Brief and partly occupation of Ethiopia by the Abyssinian king Ezanas

Abyssinia occupied only a small part of Ethiopia (the SE confines of the vast state) and for very brief time; soon afterwards, Ezanas’ state lost control of the SE confines of Ethiopia (the area between Port Sudan, Atbara, Bagrawiya, Shendi and Kessala in today’s Sudan), and the Meroitic state was supplanted by many small states that were in turn superseded by the rise of three Kushitic Christian states in the area of today’s Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt (Nobatia in the North, Mekkuria in the center, and Alodia in the area of today’s Khartoum).

For reasons related to Axumite royal propaganda and political ideology within the context of the then known world, the Axumite Abyssinian kingdom used the name of Ethiopia (Kush) to justify its own conversion to Christianity. By identifying the country with the Biblical Kush (Ancient Egyptian and Meroitic: Kas, Ancient Assyrian: Kus, and Mat Kusi), Ezanas tried to project the lights of Biblical prophecy on the event of his christening; the effort consist in an absolute misinterpretation of the Psalms’ verse that, if prophetic and eschatological of character, has rather to be correlated with the Kushitic peoples’ expectations and the role of Messiah as Ultimate Liberator at the End of Times.

Abyssinian royal propaganda and modern colonial needs

As the Axumite royal propaganda’s point was critical, and on it hinged the Christianization of the country, its hegemony in the Horn of Africa area at the times of the Roman – Persian confrontation in the 6th century, and its opposition to the risen force of Islam (after the 7th century), the name of Ethiopia was used now and then by various kings and dynasties who formed several subsequent states following the collapse of Axum. But it was always a historical aberration, as the Abyssinians have always been very different from the Kushitic Ethiopians, and never did Abyssinia rule Ethiopian territories and populations except that brief period after Ezanas’ victory over Meroe (360 – 370 CE).

During the three centuries between Abyssinia’s Christianization and the rise of Islam, the Coptic Church of Abyssinia pursued policies always approved by the Monophysitic Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria. Whereas the clashes between the Coptic and the Greek Patriarchates in Alexandria reflected the respective backgrounds (Egyptian and Greek/Macedonian), the former influenced Nobatia and Abyssinia, whereas the latter had some bearing on Makkuria. In Abyssinia, missionary monks coming later (in the sixth century), mostly from Egypt, completed the work of Frumentius by establishing the Coptic monastic life in the Abyssinian highlands. Medieval Abyssinian traditions speak of these missionaries as the nine saints; they are the abbas Alé, Shema, Aragawi, Garima, Pantalewon, Liqanos, Afsi, Gougo, and Yemata. The interconnection between religion, politics and diplomacy was great, and one Axumite king, Caleb, contemporary with these nine saints, organized an expedition against the Jewish / Nestorian kingdom of Yemen that was a key ally of the Sassanid empire of Iran. The exploit was undertaken to help the Roman front in Syria and Cappadocia, but it was finally outmaneuvered as the Sassanid imperial army invaded Yemen (as Oman had already been Iranian province), kicked the Abyssinian army, and finally annexed Yemen. However, Caleb was canonized as St. Elesban, which highlights how close the Christian religion was to Abyssinian politics.

The Ethiopian Calendar is Coptic, Egyptian

When in the middle of the 20th century the Amhara monarchy that had meanwhile expanded again over many Kushitic Ethiopian nations decided to ultimately replace ‘Abyssinia’ by ‘Ethiopia’as official state name, there were many who considered the effort as a typical Abyssinian fraudulent propaganda and historical falsification. Yet, this conclusion is not accurate; the last decision was a subtly submitted idea, and its sponsors were the traditional European colonial powers, France and England. Only then, the Gueze Calendar became Ethiopian Calendar, without of course ceasing to be an absolutely Coptic Calendar according to which the years start on September 11 (except the leap years that start on September 12). The Coptic Calendar is an offspring of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar, slightly modified and synchronized with the Julian Calendar.

Why the Gueze Calendar was not modified after the calculations made by Dionysius Exiguus, and why the Abyssinians still accept the earlier calculations of Annianus of Alexandria, we will analyze in the next article.

In reality, the subject concerns only the curiosity of Western readership and the Abyssinian minority that rules tyrannically the Eastern African country where the outright majority is made of Kushitic Ethiopian peoples, the Oromos, the Ogadenis, the Sidamas, the Afars, the Shekachos and others, who are totally unrelated to the bogus-Ethiopian, Gueze Calendar and to the ensuing erratic ‘millennium’.