"Axum"--Say What?

A bit of explanation on the blog title is warranted, of course...If you grew up American, I can guess what sorts of phrases and images might come to mind when you hear "Ethiopia"-- starvation, horribly emaciated children, and the concomitant lame junior high jokes. That about summed up my impressions of Ethiopia until I began reading more of the history of this ancient country. It's quite humbling to discover that this country, which many would have trouble finding on a map today, is in fact a historical giant with a long and rich history.

Here are a few fascinating facts I've discovered about Ethiopia: it's the oldest continuously Christian country in the world; legend has it that the Ark of the Covenant ended up in Ethiopia; it is the only country in Africa to have kicked out a colonizing country (Italy in the 1890s); it was quite fertile until 1960s and 70s when horrible mismanagement of the land led to widespread famine.

Most fascinating to me was something I came across in a book called "There is No Me Without You," (thanks, Gayll!) which tells the story of Ethiopian adoption and the orphan crisis there. The author, Melissa Fay Greene, writes that "Third-century CE Persian writings named the world's four great kingdoms as Rome, China, Persia, and Axum." Axum is the historical name for "the highland Ethiopian kingdom of the Amhara people...the dominant Red Sea power, builder of castles and massive stone monliths, minter of gold, silver, and copper coins."

I hope this doesn't sound like we're trying to verify the pedigree of our future children! I found about all of this after we had already decided on Ethiopia, and found it very interesting, especially in light of commom impressions Americans share of the country.

So there you have it--Axum, the historical name for Ethiopia.