Building Ethiopia

While looking at the pictures of Ethiopia (and reading the Kebra Negast), it struck me how isolated they were, and yet how many other cultures influenced theirs. Not only did they influence Ethiopian culture, but Ethiopians also took whole chunks of "defining" images from other cultures. For example, many of the architectural elements are directly borrowed. There was one church that was strikingly similar to Greek (and to some extent Roman) temples, like the Parthenon. Another Ethiopian church adopted Mosque-style ornamentation. Although other cultures have borrowed building styles, it is striking that in Ethiopia they would borrow from other religions' architecture for their own religion's architecture. When Christians began building churches, they borrowed from the style of building used for government purposes in the Roman Empire. They would not have taken the temple plan because it would come with too many cultural associations.

The Kebra Negast seems similar to the borrowing of architectural elements. It takes stereotypical, or well-known images in Christianity and creates a new book with them. In the process, some of the stories are a bit jumbled and changed. For example, the Holy Trinity is part of God's plan from the beginning in the "Genesis" part of the Kebra Negast, where as the Bible does not allude to Jesus or the Holy Spirit until much later. But what is startling is that these elements of other cultures have such a seemingly large impact on Ethiopian culture. However, by "impact", I don't mean that these other cultures always profoundly change Ethiopian culture. I mean that they leave a very bold stamp of identity on Ethiopian culture—it's as if they were writing the stereotypical "--- was here" on Ethiopia.

However, this is not the only way Ethiopia is influenced by other cultures. It seems that because they are isolated, all the information they get about other cultures either comes through telephone-like, in small trickles, or in single, bold statements. Thus the emphasis on the possession of metal crosses and crowns. Missionaries who went to Ethiopia would probably bring crosses to immediately identify them. Some might have brought elaborate-looking crosses in order to "wow" the people they were trying to convert. Ethiopia is not so hard to get to that they never have contact with other cultures, but it is far enough away that other cultures' symbols (like the mosque-style architecture) do not have many cultural associations. Therefore, because of their relative isolation, Ethiopia is able to take aspects of other cultures that they find have surface-appeal, and without cultural baggage, easily incorporate them into their own culture.