Ethiopia and Egypt: ever been a single country?

Bereket Gebru

Remarks by Egyptian officials about relations with Ethiopia have generally turned peaceful and diplomatic since the ascendance of President Abdul Fattah El Sisi. There have recently been positive reports coming from the Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry stating that he dismissed calls to strike the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) sternly, saying there was "no room to talk about this" especially given the historical ties that connect Egypt with the people of Ethiopia. He reportedly pointed out that it is not plausible for Egypt to stay in confrontation with Ethiopia throughout the life time of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Other reports state: “Minister Sameh Shoukry stated that Egypt is not dealing with the dam on the basis of suspicion, doubt and exaggerated risks."

A couple of weeks back, the foreign minister said that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has become a reality and that it is "pointless to bury our heads in the sand by not acknowledging a tangible physical reality." He added that not recognizing the GERD would serve no purpose.

While going through these readings, I realized that the media has reduced Ethio-Egyptian relations to just remarks surrounding the Nile. It sure has been quite a while since we read or heard of other sorts of state relations between the two countries. That brought my attention to the Egyptian foreign minister’s remarks that raised the historical ties of the two people as the reason for there being no room to talk about striking the GERD.

My findings about the historical ties between the Egyptian and Ethiopian people, however, have surpassed any level of grandeur that I expected. The Negro, a 1915 book by W.E.B. Du Bois claims that the two people actually lived under a single country. It states: “The ethnic history of Northeast Africa would seem, therefore, to have been this: predynastic Egypt was settled by Negroes from Ethiopia.”

The historic claim adopted by the book explains the departure of a single country into Egypt and Ethiopia as well. “Before the reign of the first recorded king, five thousand years or more before Christ, there had already existed in Egypt a culture and art arising by long evolution from the days of paleolithic man, among a distinctly Negroid people. About 4777 B.C. Aha-Mena began the first of three successive Egyptian empires. This lasted two thousand years, with many Pharaohs, like Khafra of the Fourth Dynasty, of a strongly Negroid cast of countenance. At the end of the period the empire fell apart into Egyptian and Ethiopian halves, and a silence of three centuries ensued.”

The book also narrates the general perceptions about Ethiopia by the people of the Mediterranean. “The most perfect example of Egyptian poetry left to us is a celebration of the prowess of Usertesen III in confining the turbulent Negro tribes to the territory below the Second Cataract of the Nile. The Egyptians called this territory Kush, and in the farthest confines of Kush lay Punt, the cradle of their race. To the ancient Mediterranean world Ethiopia (i.e., the Land of the Black-faced) was a region of gods and fairies. Zeus and Poseidon feasted each year among the "blameless Ethiopians," and Black Memnon, King of Ethiopia, was one of the greatest of heroes.”

"The Ethiopians conceive themselves," says Diodorus Siculus (Lib. III), "to be of greater antiquity than any other nation; and it is probable that, born under the sun's path, its warmth may have ripened them earlier than other men. They suppose themselves also to be the inventors of divine worship, of festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifices, and every religious practice. They affirm that the Egyptians are one of their colonies."

The story continues explaining that the Egyptians themselves, in later days, affirmed that they and their civilization came from the south and from the black tribes of Punt, and certainly "at the earliest period in which human remains have been recovered Egypt and Lower Nubia appear to have formed culturally and racially one land."

The book also states that a separate and independent Ethiopian culture finally began to arise during the middle empire of Egypt and centered at Nepata and Meroe. Widespread trade in gold, ivory, precious stones, skins, wood, and works of handicraft arose. The Negro began to figure as the great trader of Egypt.

This new wealth of Ethiopia, states the book, excited the cupidity of the Pharaohs and led to aggression and larger intercourse, until at last, when the dread Hyksos appeared (and conquered Egypt), Ethiopia became both a physical and cultural refuge for conquered Egypt. The legitimate Pharaohs moved to Thebes, nearer the boundaries of Ethiopia, and from here, under Negroid rulers, Lower Egypt was redeemed.

The constant reference of Egyptians, the Sudanese and Ethiopians continues in the book as it goes on to narrate that “from the fifth to the second century B.C. we find the wild Sudanese tribes pressing in from the west and Greek culture penetrating from the east. King Arg-Amen (Ergamenes) showed strong Greek influences and at the same time began to employ the Ethiopian speech in writing and used a new Ethiopian alphabet.”

As depicted in the book, the history and power of Ethiopia has also been closely linked with its interaction with the people of the region. “While the Ethiopian kings were still crowned at Nepata, Meroe gradually became the real capital and supported at one time four thousand artisans and two hundred thousand soldiers. It was here that the famous Candaces reigned as queens. Pliny tells us that one Candace of the time of Nero had had forty-four predecessors on the throne, while another Candace figures in the New Testament.”

“It was probably this latter Candace who warred against Rome at the time of Augustus and received unusual consideration from her formidable foe. The prestige of Ethiopia at this time was considerable throughout the world. Pseudo-Callisthenes tells an evidently fabulous story of the visit of Alexander the Great to Candace, Queen of Meroe, which nevertheless illustrates her fame: Candace will not let him enter Ethiopia and says he is not to scorn her people because they are black, for they are whiter in soul than his white folk. She sent him gold, maidens, parrots, sphinxes, and a crown of emeralds and pearls. She ruled eighty tribes, who were ready to punish those who attacked her.”

The Romans continued to have so much trouble with their Ethiopian frontier that finally, when Semitic mulattoes appeared in the east, the Emperor Diocletian invited the wild Sudanese tribe of Nubians (Nobadæ) from the west to repel them. These Nubians eventually embraced Christianity, and northern Ethiopia came to be known in time as Nubia.

In a historic account of Ethiopia’s ties with the Middle East and the establishment of the Axumite Empire, the book finally comes to the part of history that I am familiar with. “The Semitic mulattoes from the east came from the highlands bordering the Red Sea and Asia. On both sides of this sea Negro blood is strongly in evidence, predominant in Africa and influential in Asia. Ludolphus, writing in the seventeenth century, says that the Abyssinians "are generally black, which [color] they most admire." Trade and war united the two shores, and merchants have passed to and fro for thirty centuries.”

“In this way Arabian, Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences spread slowly upon the Negro foundation. Early legendary history declares that a queen, Maqueda, or Nikaula of Sheba, a state of Central Abyssinia, visited Solomon in 1050 B.C. and had her son Menelik educated in Jerusalem. This was the supposed beginning of the Axumite kingdom, the capital of which, Axume, was a flourishing center of trade.”

After going through these facts, it appears that Ethiopians and Egyptians are actually a lot closer than I thought they ever were. I also feel now like the Nile is just a figment of the bulk of historical and social ties that have kept these people tied to each other. I would say that it would be nice to publicize these deep running connections in the region by involving historians and developing a forum for cultural and public diplomacy between the state to flourish.

Source: Waltainfo