#a history of modern ethiopia

[whitesalmanrushdie]

The Ethiopian Student Movement went through various phases of evolution, starting as a cultural and intellectual forum of an élite and growing into a mass revolutionary movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It had two distinct components: the external and the internal. The story of the movement was one of steady radicalization. Both objective and subjective factors contributed to this end. The country’s worsening situation, more specifically the deteriorating condition of the peasantry and the urban masses, provided the objective basis of the radical motivation. The escalation of government repression only succeeded in inciting students to ever bolder challenges to authority. Repression and opposition both grew in an ascending spiral, until they had their final resolution in the crescendo of the Revolution of 1974. On the subjective level, various influences worked on the students to give them a sharper perception of their society and a more radical formulation of their ideas of changing it. Beginning in 1958, the advent of scholarship students from other countries in Africa had a clearly invigorating effect on Ethiopian university students: the impact was immediate and cogent. The unsuccessful coup in 1960 had a similar eye-opening effect. Although the students had greeted it with a mixture of expectancy and caution, its contribution in exploding the imperial mystique was considerable. Following in the footsteps of the rebels, the students amplified and deepened the latter’s challenge to imperial authority. Finally, the Ethiopian University Service (EUS), initiated in 1964, whereby students spent a year in the countryside, mainly teaching in secondary schools there, served as a bridge between campus and society, bringing students into direct contact with the people whose life they wanted to change. The EUS also provided a medium for closer rapport between university and high school students. ... As was the case with the opposition in general, 1960 was a turning-point in the students’ expression of views and ideas. Before that time, student activities tended to be geared more towards their own intellectual growth and the enrichment of campus life. After that, we notice greater efforts being made to reach out to society. The Debating Society is a good example of the first phase. Started in 1961, the poetry contests, which were held on College days, typify the second. The poems were characterized, above everything else, by political critique and social satire. In 1962, the entries so offended the authorities that the poets were suspended and the members of the executive council of the student union, the University College Union (UCU), were expelled. The really militant phase of the student movement started in the mid-1960s. The emergence in 1964 of a radical core known as the ‘Crocodiles’ was crucial in this respect. The Crocodiles proved true to their name, often staying under cover, rarely occupying posts in the union leadership, but instead preferring to advance their ideas and programmes through front figures. The students’ uncompromising opposition to the regime, as well as the beginning of acceptance of Marxist ideas, is traceable to this period. Both the brave achievements and the fatal blunders of the Ethiopian Student Movement are ultimately attributable to this group.

-Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia

Student politics seemed to play a large role in the Ethiopian revolutionary movement, which might come as a surpriese to anyone involved in student politics nowadays. Figured it'd be worth including this (long) quote on how the student movement there began and a brief characterization.

[leroibobo]

mosque of the companions in massawa, eritrea. it was reportedly built by companions of the prophet muhammad who fled to africa due to persecution they faced in mecca. it possibly dates to 620-630 ce, which would make it the oldest purpose-built mosque in the world. however, some of the current structure was most likely built in the late 7th-9th centuries, as the mihrab and minaret as we know them hadn't been developed at the time.

[baebeylik]

Illuminated Manuscript. Ethiopian. 14 or 15th century CE. Written in the Geez language. Inspired by Byzantine style but incorporating the local Amhara culture.

Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

[spacelazarwolf]

saw a post that gave me an eye twitch so i’m gonna break it down and analyze it bc i feel like it exemplifies a lot of what’s wrong with gentile discourse on i/p rn.

1. yeah, it is awful that zionist institutions and leadership use jewish trauma to justify why diaspora jews should unquestioningly support the current state of israel, regardless of the atrocities it commits against palestinians.

2. "israel is not your bube who survived the shoah" i don't know how to explain to you how fucking callous this sentence is.

3. for better or worse, israel did save jewish people. nearly a million jews from the swana region and 24,000 from ethiopia fled there after experiencing extreme violence and discrimination. you really think america or europe would have taken in a million black and brown jews? have you seen the current state of immigration?

4. "how do you argue with someone when their idea of israel is so rooted in their family trauma?" you don't. you validate their fears, make them feel heard, and then you offer them alternatives. the vast majority of diaspora support for israel is based in fear of persecution and eradication. if you offer real, legitimate solutions for the safety of diaspora jews, i guarantee you will be a thousand times more successful than just screaming at them and telling them "who fucking cares about your holocaust survivor bubbe????"

5. "how do you possibly tell them that the holocaust isn't relevant?" you don't, because it is. nearly 500,000 holocaust survivors moved to or were sent to israel after the shoah. some did not have a choice of where they were sent, some tried to go back to where they were living before but had no money and gentiles had taken their houses and belongings so they had nowhere to go, many faced violence upon trying to return to their hometowns in the form of pogroms, several countries turned them away. you cannot say the holocaust is not relevant to the current israeli population because gentiles in the diaspora are the reason they're there.

6. "i'm so tired of centering jewish identity in discussions over a nation state." are you stupid? genuinely, are you stupid? do you really not see how jewish identity and the history of the jewish people factor into a state with a fucking star of david on the flag that was founded after a genocide of 6 million jews that the rest of the world didn't want to deal with? seriously? no, jews in the diaspora are not responsible for the actions of the israeli government. we aren't more loyal to israel than we are to wherever we're living. but to say that israel has nothing to do with the jewish people is frankly laughable.

7. "how do you say that without sounding invalidating? like that just sounds horrible and antisemitic." that's because it is. you are being horrible and antisemitic.

edited to add: NUCLEAR SUPERPOWER?????????????????????????????? HELLO??????????????????????????

so please for the love of fuck educate yourself on the history of the jewish people and the history of the state of israel before making stupid ass posts like this. israel didn't manifest out of nowhere, it didn't come from "jewish supremacy" it came from hundreds of thousands of jews who were at their wit's fucking end with antisemitism in the diaspora, and from britain's colonization and imperialism paired with it's complete and total disregard for anyone who wasn't racially and culturally white. the monster that is modern day political zionism is a creation of the world's own making. people have been posting a lot about hamas being a response to 70+ years of israeli occupation, violence, and apartheid, but don't seem to understand that israel is a response to 3000+ years of persecution, expulsion, and genocide. the massacres and terror committed by hamas don't take into account the wellbeing of palestinians, and the oppression and violence perpetuated by the israeli government don't take into account the wellbeing of jews in israel or in the diaspora.

nothing will change if gentiles in the diaspora do not take responsibility for the rest of the world's role in the creation of israel. research your country, learn about how they treated their jews (not just during the holocaust but from the moment there were jews in your country), talk to your local jewish population, ask how you and organizations you are part of can help keep the diaspora safe for jews. because as an american jew, i don't want to move to israel. the government is borderline fascist, non ashki non orthodox jews are often seen as second class citizens, i don't speak the language, and my life is here. a lot of diaspora jews feel this way. but every time i see another group of nazis at a rally or get another bomb threat at my synagogue and look to see which country would be safest to move to as a trans person and as a jew, the only answer is israel, which is exactly what zionist institutions and leadership are counting on. if you want that to change, you and your community have to change it.

[rotzaprachim]

one of the things I think a lot of goyim esp western based don’t clock about Jews is that a lot of the places we lived before mass immigration to the US&west and the creation of the state of Israel not only often pretty violently killed or expelled us, but were and are sights of continual warfare and dislocation that was and continued to be fucked up by external and internal conflict, by the direct actions of the British ottoman French American and Russian imperialisms….. Jews only became a “western” people through the acts of violent dislocations from our homelands we’d often lived in for hundreds and thousands of years.

We lived in Afghanistan. We lived in Yemen. We lived in Iraq. We lived in Serbia. We lived in Bosnia & Herzegovina. We lived in Belarus. We lived in Ethiopia. We lived in Algeria. We lived in Morocco. We lived in Syria. We lived in Iran. We lived in Kurdistan. And we lived in Ukraine. We often have complicated histories with these places, varying extents to which we identified with them or with the nationalisms that drew their borders, but we lived there, and in so many ways, from our language to stories to food, we carry them with us and are hurt by the loss of their memory in our lives, pushed into the diaspora of the diaspora. None of this justifies the often profoundly violent antisemitisms we found there, nor should it allow for simple rounds of flag waving - our communities were almost always older than the modern states, and many institutionalized Jewishness as something irreconcilable from the modern National Citizen. But we lived there. Inextricably we are a part of their history, just as they are a part of us.

Any simplistic takes about how Israeli jews should just LEAVE AND GO HOME without understanding the contexts of why that isn’t possible not only whitewashes histories of violent antisemitism but also the CURRENT ongoing realities in many of the countries we lived in, and it comes off not only as callous to Jews but to the people who continue to live there, after our links were severed. Any antizionism that doesn’t seriously reckon with these histories is incomplete. “Why don’t you go back to where you came from?” The American goy asks. I think of my friends and community. To Odessa? Or to Baghdad? To Aleppo? Or to Herat? YOU TELL ME.

[dresshistorynerd]

Roughly 10 Cool Historical Queer Figures More People Should Know About

Part 1 - From Ancient Era to Early Modern Era

In spirit of Pride Month here's some snippets of queer history I think are interesting.

I've been working on a series of deep dives into interesting historical queer figures, but I haven't had the time to continue my list after the first entry about Julie d'Aubigny. I do want to continue with it, but I came to the realization that I will never have to time to do all the cool and interesting figures in depth, since there's too many, so I decided to do a list with brief descriptions about some of my favorite figures who are not that well known. Some of them are more well-known than others but I think they all deserve more acknowledgement.

I was able to trim down the number of figures to (roughly) 20, which was still too many for one post, so it's two posts now. They are in chronological order, so this part is set mostly before Victorian Era and the second part will be from Victorian Era onward.

This list is centered around western history (but not exclusively) because that's the history I'm most familiar with, though it's definitely not all white, since western history is not all white. I will be avoiding using modern labels, since they are rarely exactly applicable to history, rather I will present whatever we know about these figures' gender, sexuality and relationships. If there's information about what language they used about themselves, I will use that. Often we don't know their own thoughts, so I will need to do some educated guess work, but I will lean towards ambiguity whenever evidence is particularly unclear. If you are the type of person who gets angry with the mere suggestion there's a possibility that a historical gnc person might not have been cis, I encourage you to read my answers to related asks (here and here) first before sending me another identical ask. Try to at least bring some new arguments if you decide to waste my time with your trans erasure.

1. Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum (latter half of 2400 BCE)

Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum were ancient Egyptian royal servants, and possibly the first recorded gay couple in history known by name. They shared the title of Overseer of the Manicurists in the Palace of King Nyuserre Ini. They both had a wife and children, but they (along with their families) were buried together in a tomb. The tomb decorations show them similarly as other afterlife couples.

2. Marinos the Monk (c. 5th-8th century)

Marinos the Monk was born as Marina somewhere in eastern parts of Byzantine Empire, likely in the Levant. He was from a wealthy Christian family, possibly Coptic. Assigned female at birth his widowed father planned to marry him off and go to a monastery himself, but he convinced his father to take him with him dressed as a boy named Marinos. His father agreed and they were accepted as monks. After his father died many years later, he continued his life as a male presenting monk. Later he was accused of fathering an illegitimate child with a daughter of an innkeeper, which was not possible, but he didn't revoke the accusations, instead he begged for the abbot's forgiveness for "his sins". Marinos was banished from the monastery and became a beggar. For 10 years he raised his alleged illegitimate child as a father, until he was allowed to return to the monastery and do penance. Only after his death the abbot and the monks discovered his genitals and his inability to father children and were distraught for punishing an innocent man for 10 long years. The real father was discovered and along with the innkeeper and his daughter they all came to honor Marinos' grave and ask his forgiveness. He was canonized as a saint for his sacrificial selflessness, modesty and humility and honored across the Mediterranean from Ethiopia to France.

3. Mubārak and Muẓaffar al-Saqlabi (c. 10th - 11th century)

Mubārak and Muẓaffar were co-rulers of Taifa of Valencia in Muslim Spain. Al-Saqlabi means literally "of the Slavs", which in Al-Andalus was a general term for enslaved northern Europeans, as the two had been enslaved as children. They were in the service of another al-Saqlabi, a chief of police, and they worked they way up as civil servants till a local military coup in 1010, which resulted in them becoming the emirs of Taifa of Valencia. English language sources often describe them as "brothers" and "eunuchs", which gives the "historical gal pals" trope a concerning twist, but contemporary Muslim sources wrote fawningly about their passionate love, trust based on equality and mutual devotion. There was a popular genre of homoerotic poetry in the Islamic world at the time and poems in that genre were written about celebrating Mubārak and Muẓaffar's relationship. In 1018 Mubārak was killed in a riding accident and Muẓaffar shortly after in an uprising.

4. Eleno de Céspedes (1545 – died after 1589)

CW: genital inspection

Eleno was born in Andalusia, Spain, to an enslaved black Muslim woman and to a free Castillian peasant. He was assigned female at birth, given name Elena, and branded as a mulatto born to a slave. She was freed as a child and married to a stonemason at 15-16 years old. When pregnant, her husband left her and died a while later. Later Eleno testified that his intersex condition became externally visible, while he gave birth, and he became a man. He left his son to be raised by a friend and traveled around Spain. After he stabbed a pimp and ended up in jail, he started presenting as a man and openly courting women. Eventually he taught himself to be a surgeon with the help of a surgeon friend.

When he married María del Caño, his maleness was questioned and he was subjected to genital inspection multiple times and it was agreed by doctors that he had definitely male genitals, possibly also female genitals. After a year of marriage the couple was accused of sodomy. Eleno was tried by the Spanish Inquisition and subjected to more genital inspections, during which no penis was found. He claimed that his penis had been amputated after an injury. He defended himself in the trial by arguing that his intersex condition was natural and he had become a man after his pregnancy, so his marriage was legal. He was sentenced only for bigamy, since he had not confirmed that his husband was dead and punished as a male bigamist with 200 lashes and 10 years of public service to care for the poor in a public hospital. His fame attracted a lot of people wanting to be healed by him, which which was very embarrasing for the hospital so he was sent away and eventually exonerated from his charges.

7. Chevaliére d'Éon (1728-1810)

Charles d'Éon de Beaumont was born to a poor French noble family. In their 20s they became a government official and at 28 they joined the secret spy network of the king, Secret du Roi. They became a diplomat first in Russia and later in Britain while they used their position to spy for the king. Rumors circulated in London that they were secretly a woman. While in London they had a falling out with the French ambassador, accused him of attempted murder and published secret diplomatic correspondence. They were instead accused of libel and went into hiding. After the death of Louis XV in 1774 and the abolishment of Secret du Roi, d'Éon negotiated with the French government of the end of their exile in exchange for the rest of the secret documents he possessed. D'Éon took the name Charlotte, claimed she was in fact a cis woman - she had pretended to be man since a child so she could get the inheritance - and demanded the government to recognize her as such. When the king agreed and included funds for women's wardrobe, she agreed and returned to France in 1777. After that she helped rebels in the American War of Indepence - was not allowed to ]go and fight too, ghostwrote her not super reliable memoir, offered to lead a division of female soldiers against the Hasburgs in 1792 - was for some reason denied, attended fencing tournaments till 65 years old and settled down for the rest of her years with a widow, Mrs. Cole. After her death a surgeon reported that she had male primary sex characteristics, but fairly feminine secondary sex characteristics, like round breasts, which might suggest she had hormonal difference/was intersex in some way.

8. Public Universal Friend (1752-1819)

Public Universal Friend, or The Friend or PUF, was born as Jemima Wilkinson to Quaker parents in Rhodes Island, USA. Jemima contracted a disease in 1776, gained intense fever and almost died. The Friend claimed that she did die and God sent the Friend to occupy her body. The Friend didn't identify as man or a woman, and when asked about the Friend's gender, the Friend said "I am that I am". The Friend didn't want any gendered pronouns or gendered language to be used about the Friend. The Friend's pronouns, according to the writings of the Friend's followers, were "the Friend", "PUF" and possibly he. First recorded neo-pronouns perhaps? The Friend also dressed in androgynous/masculine manner.

The Friend started a bit cultish religious society disavowed by mainstream Quakers, The Society of Universal Friends, which I can only describe as chaotic good. The Friend first predicted a Day of Judgement would come in 1780 and when 1780 came and went, the Friend decided it was New England's Dark Day in 1780 and they had survived survived the Judgement Day so all was good then. The Friend preached for gender equality, free will, universal salvation (Jesus saved everyone and no one will go to hell) and abolition of slavery. The Friend persuaded any followers to free their slaves, which is probably the most chaotic good thing a potential cult leader can do with their influence over their followers, and several freed black people followed the Friend too. The Friend advocated for celibacy and was unfavorable towards marriage, but didn't think celibacy or rejection of marriage were necessary for everyone else, so it feels more like a personal preference. Many young unmarried women followed the Friend and some of them formed Faithful Sisterhood and took leadership positions among the Society.

The Society of Universal Friends tried to form a town for themselves around mid-1780s, till in 1799 the Friend was accused of blasphemy. The Friend successfully escaped the law two times. First the Friend, a skilled rider (what's a gender neutral version of horse girl?), escaped with a horse, then after an officer and an assistant tried to arrest the Friend at home, women of the house drove the men away. Third time 30 men surrounded the Friend's home at night, but a doctor convinced them that the Friend was in too poor health to move but would agree to appear at court. The Friend was cleared for all charges and even allowed to preach at the court.

9. Mary Jones (early 1800s–1853)

Mary Jones' origin is unknown, but she was an adult in 1836 in New York, USA. She was a free Black person, who preferred to present as a woman. She was sex worker by trade and used a prosthetic vagina. As a side hustle she would steel her customer's wallets, and usually they wouldn't tell anyone because it was 1830s and inter-racial sex and prostitution were illegal and everyone was repressed. Smart. Get your coin, girl. However after one of her more shameless customers discovered his wallet with 99 dollars inside had been replaced with a different man's empty wallet and contacted the police, she was arrested. The police discovered she had male genitals and when they searched her room they found several more stolen wallets. She appeared in court in her female presentation and when asked about her dress, she said that prostitutes she had worked with encouraged her to dress in women's clothing and said she looked better in them. They were right and she had since presented as a woman in her evening profession and among other Black people. She was convicted for grand larceny and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Later she continued to present as a woman and practice sex work, for which she was arrested for two more times.

10. George Sand (1804-1876)

George Sand was pen name of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, a French Romantic writer. Amantine was high-born with a countess as a grandmother. George wrote about themself with alternating masculine and feminine language, using feminine language when talking about his childhood, but masculine language often other times. Their friends also used both masculine and feminine terms about them. Victor Hugo for example said about them: "George Sand cannot determine whether she is male or female. I entertain a high regard for all my colleagues, but it is not my place to decide whether she is my sister or my brother." George preferred men's clothing in public, which was illegal for those seen as women without a permit, but they didn't ask for permissions. They alternated between masculine and feminine presentations. They were outspoken feminist, critic of the institution of marriage, committed republican and supporter of worker's rights. They were married at age 18, had two children and left their husband in 1831, but legally separated from him in 1835. They had many affairs with men and some with women, at least with actress Marie Dorval. Their most notable relationship was with Frédéric Chopin, but they fell out before Chopin's death.

[sarafangirlart]

Andromeda’s race/ethnicity and why it’s not inaccurate to interpret her as black/African

Now you’ve seen how I draw my babygirl as Afro Palestinian Egyptian so you know where I personally stand on the subject. However, my interpretation isn’t the only one, ancient authors, from mythographers to historians to poets to playwrights, have proposed various different locations for Andromeda’s homeland, often times contradicting each other, what I’m trying to do here is correct some misinformation as well as argue that even if Andromeda isn’t black/ethiopian, she still wouldn’t be considered white or ethnically European.

I would like to reiterate like I did with my Hephaestus/Aphrodite post that I’m not a mythology or history expert, I just read a lot. So do your own research and come up with your own conclusions.

Let’s go.

The etymology of “Aethiopia”

Aethiopia means "of burned face" which yes is pretty racist be modern standards but basically means that its inhabitants are dark skinned, so even if you go by sources that it isn’t in Africa, the inhabitants still wouldn’t be white or Greek.

Location of the Kingdom

You’d hear the statement that the Aethiopia in mythology is not the same as Ethiopia the modern country, which is true. You’d also hear that it’s a completely fictitious location, that’s only partially true, while Aethiopia existed mainly as a mythological location (mentioned as early as the Iliad) that didn’t stop ancient historians, mythographers and poets from placing it in real locations or calling pre-existing nations Aethiopia. It’s hard to pick which one is more “accurate” bc they all contradict each other, not only that, but these writers didn’t actually visit these locations and ancient ppl weren’t as well versed in geography as we are today so they’d be weirdly vague or confusing about these locations, I mean just look at an ancient map and you’d see what I mean.

So personally, I think you can go with any version you personally prefer, the options are quite limitless, she could be from the Arab peninsula, the Levant, North Africa, Persia, hell maybe even India if you are like Ovid.

Andromeda’s genealogy

(I just realized that these are the Waterson kids color palette while writing this lmaooooooooo)

Yes Andromeda is descended from Zeus (no family tree can escape that man lol) and she’s also the great granddaughter of Poseidon, which adds a whole new layer to the fact he tried to kill her.

Now for a bit of history: The Trojan war (which didn’t happen irl obviously) was dated as taking place in the 12th or 13th century BCE by some ancient writers, that war happens a few generations after Perseus’s story, which means that Egypt was in the New Kingdom era, also called the Egyptian Empire, when Nubians (who would be considered black by today’s standards) were a very important part of society, even becoming Pharaohs. Ancient Egypt was a lot more diverse than modern ppl give it credit for, there were multiple ethnic groups living there. Not to mention that you can’t get more Egyptian than being descended from the god of the Nile River lol

Libya is (obviously) the personification of the region of Libya, not the modern country Libya, but the general area in North Africa west of Egypt. The name Libya comes from the Libu, a berber tribe. So once again, even if Andromeda wasn’t black, even if you interpreted that her kingdom is placed in Asia, she’d still be of African decent.

Cassiopeia is a tricky one, her origins are obscure, she’s called a nymph by Nonnus, while Stephanus of Byzantium (a very late source) states she’s from Ioppa and that the city takes its name from her. However, Ioppa/Jaffa was identified as Andromeda’s home much earlier in Periplus attributed to Scylax, which was composed in the late fourth century bc.

Conclusion

You can make Andromeda black it’s ok. Ancient writers couldn’t agree on her country’s location but we can still speculate. Anyways ummm… I think that’s it? Maybe I’ll add to this if I find or remember more interesting information.

Have a great day.

[ptseti]

"THERE IS NO GROUP THAT EVER CAME INTO AFRICA THAT MEANT ANYTHING GOOD FOR AFRICANS" -Dr John Henrik Clarke.

“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” - From 'THINGS FALL APART' 1958, written by Chinua Achebe and was translated into Italian, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Russian, Swiss, Flemish and other languages.

According to historian, Dr John Henrik Clarke, "every group of people that came into Africa meant nothing good for the Africans… and the very first thing each and every one of these groups did was to declare war on African culture…" What followed was the bastardization of African spirituality and ways that held the societies together for millennia before there was a Greece or Rome or before "the first European learnt to wear a shoe or live in a house that had a window." Or as Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan put it, "Before there was Rome, Greece, Jerusalem or Mecca… Before there was a Jehovah, Jesus or Mohommet" (Muhammad ibn Abdul'Mutallib).

It most be noted that the first Hebrew to ever come into existence was a Chaldean from Ur, known as Abram in 1675 BC. Before then, their was no concept of a Jehovah or Jesus, whatsoever, and no Hebrew as a tribe, the world over, from as far as history revealed. By this time, the 82 pyramids in Kemet, and the over 203 pyramids in Meroe, the smaller Nsude pyramids in Udi highlands were already built. The Africans had their own spirituality through which they connected to the non-material world, through which they learnt science like iron smelting, as well as which herbs could heal what sort of disease, agricultural practice, astrology, alchemy, mining for useful minerals from the earth and so on.

Most of Africa were connected to the worship of a deity, Ptah. This was over 5000 years before the first Hebrew came into existence, it was thousands of years before Greece or Rome came into existence and before any Abrahamic religions (which are Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity and Islam etc) came into the knowledge of anyone at all. Abram, the father of it all had not even come into existence.

In kemet, there was a belief that if one died far away from the Nile, one would not resurrect in the afterlife. Hence Kemet became the place of high culture for all tribal nationalities along the Nile from its source through modern day Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia Sudan etc. Abydos was a city of pilgrimage where most Africans, who could, travelled up the Nile, through the Sahara (Which was not a desert until about 5000 years ago, as archeological discoveries indicated), to worship and commune with other Africans. Osiris later become the god in Abydos while Memphis became the home for Ptah, after several foreign invasion from across the Mediterranean and the sands of Arabia.

Most of the magicians in Kemet came from Gao, a city-state of the Soudan(west Africa then). African regions and cities had their own gods and it was necessary to pay homage to the god of a land when visiting or passing through as a sojourner, merchant or gypsy. By this time, Arabian peninsula was the colony of Africans (Study from 'From Babylon to Timbuktu', 'The African Origin of Major Religions, Herodoctus, and Strabo's geographica).

{[IMAGE: The 'inner circle' of the Mossi people. Not every king on the throne rose to the societal status, necessary to attend this gathering. The first shattering effect on this 'inner circle' began when the Arabs arrived west Africa in the 7th century CE, while extending the trans-saharan trade routes through the desert.]}

[probablyasocialecologist]

As used, the term ‘precolonial’ Africa and the distortions it represents cannot illuminate our understanding of Africa and its history. More importantly, it is wrong to think of colonialism as a non-African phenomenon that was only brought in from elsewhere and imposed on the continent. Africa has given rise to a rich tapestry of diverse colonialisms originating in different parts of the continent. How are we to understand them? For example, if ‘precolonial Morocco’ refers to the time before France colonised Morocco, it must deny that the 800-year Moorish colonisation of the Iberian Peninsula, much of present-day France and much of North Africa was a colonialism. For, if it were, then ‘colonial Morocco’ must predate ‘precolonial Morocco’. I do not know how any of this helps us understand the history of Morocco. Similarly, a ‘precolonial’ Egypt that refers to Egypt before modern European imperialism would also deny Mohammed Ali’s colonial adventures at the head of Egypt in southern Europe and Asia Minor. Was ancient Egypt part of some precolonial formation? That strains credulity. To conceive of the history of Africa and Africans in terms only, or primarily, of their relation to modern European empires disappears the history of Africans as colonisers of realms beyond the continent’s land borders, especially in Europe and Asia. It is bad enough that the term distorts the history of African states’ involvement in overseas provinces. It is worse that it misdescribes the evolution of different African polities over time. The deployment of ‘precolonial Africa’ is undergirded by a few implausible assumptions. We assume either that there were no previous forms of colonialism in the continent, or that they do not matter. We talk as if colonialism was brought to Africa by Europe, after the 1884-85 Berlin West Africa Conference. But it takes only a pause to discover that this is false. African history is replete with accounts of empires and kingdoms. By their nature, empires incorporate elements of colonisation in them. If this be granted, Africa must have had its fair share of colonisers and colonialists in its history. When, according to the mythohistory (the founding myth of the empire) of Mali, Sundiata gathered different nations, cultures, political leaders and others to form the empire in the mid-13th century, he did not first seek the consent of his subjects. It was in the aftermath of their being subdued by his superior force that he did what Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century insisted all rulers should do if their rule is to escape repeated challenges and last for an appreciable length of time: turn might into right. Ethiopia, another veritable empire, is a multinational, multilingual, multicultural state whose members were not willing parties to their original incorporation into the polity. Whether you think of the Oromo or the Somali, many of their successor states within Ethiopia are, as I write this, still conducting anticolonial struggles against the Ethiopian state.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Daniel Greenfield

The Associated Press recently made headlines by falsely claiming that the Israeli campaign against Hamas “sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history” and was even worse than “the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II”.

The Washington Post argued that “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza” while The Wall Street Journal contended that it was “generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.”

That’s all the more impressive since even accepting the Hamas casualty figures (tainted and inflated numbers in which there are no terrorists, only civilians, and fighting age men are really children) as the media does, this is still probably one of the least violent conflicts in the region.

In 2016, the Washington Post described the Syrian Civil War, with a possible 250,000 deaths, as “the most destructive conflict in the region”. In 2020, the UN had called the Yemeni Civil War, with 150,000 deaths, “the most destructive conflict since the end of the Cold War”.

And then there’s the current phase of the war in Sudan (which the media is currently uninterested in) in which 15,000 people have been killed over the course of last year, as part of a larger conflict that may have claimed as many as 2 million lives.

The Tigray War in Ethiopia over the last three years (which you may have missed because the media chose not to hysterically cover every single bomb dropped and protesters stayed home knitting instead of blocking traffic) may have cost the lives of between 80,000 to 600,000 people.

(El Pais, Spain’s newspaper, which did report on Ethiopia’s civil war, described it as “the deadliest of the 21st century” and then had to pivot to argue later that Israel was worse in, “25,000 deaths in Gaza: Why the destruction of this war exceeds that of other major conflicts”.)

In reality, every significant war and civil war in the region had a much higher death toll than the Hamas war: including the Iraq-Iran War with an estimated 500,000 to 2 million deaths. And in nearby Africa, the Congo War has been blamed for 6 million deaths since 1996.

How does the media justify arguing that 25,000 is more than 2 million?

There are plenty of statistical gimmicks available to anyone who wants to argue that 2 + 2 is really 5. Media “analyses” that claim that Israel’s campaign against Hamas is the deadliest and most destructive, and might even be worse than WWII, adjust their claims accordingly.

As the author of every dubious research study knows, to get the results you want, you manipulate your parameters. Media analyses selectively compare Israel’s campaign to battles, rather than wars, they narrowly focus on very specific timetables, they try to estimate per capita rather than gross figures. But drawing a circle around a particular area and going per capita works both ways. The Hamas attack of Oct 7 killed 10% of the population of Kibbutz Be’eri making it far worse per capita than anything in Israel’s response to those atrocities.

But statistical fudging is all in where the line is drawn to achieve a particular agenda.

For example, the New York Times declares that, “Gaza Deaths Surpass Any Arab Loss in Wars With Israel in Past 40 Years”. Of course the last major Arab-Israeli war took place 50 years ago.

The 40 year figure is based on the Lebanon War, but the actual numbers for that war vary wildly from the thousands according to Israel, 10,000 according to the CIA, 18,000 according to Lebanon and 30,000 according to Arafat and the PLO.

While the media at the time emphasized the highest estimates, in order to criticize the Israeli campaign against the PLO, they now use lower estimates to attack the Gaza campaign.

[whitesalmanrushdie]

Aight im realizing that, for my last quote from the Ethiopian history book, I either need to post an entire chapter or summarize it myself SO

I gotta reccomend taking a look into the history of the Derg for any commie nowadays; I think the main takeaways are

The importance of the national question for any revolutionary movement; the Derg (due to its background as a non-communist organization) failed to deal with the multiethnic nature of Ethiopia, which in spite of the similarities of pre-revolutionary Ethiopia and Tsarist Russia sets it apart from the Soviet Union.

How useless the internicine ideological debates,splits, etc our movement carries on are; a multitude of marxist orgs existed in Ethiopia, all more-or-less limited to small circles of intelligentsia and students; political power was, generally speaking, left to the military. Much of the marxist debate-club stuff even occurred publicly, being added into the public discourse through newspapers; BUT because political power rested with the military, they were able to sweep aside any opposition, even as they took part themselves in the marxist ideological environment that dominated Ethiopia at the time. The movement that rose to the top wasn't the one with the purist or most correct line - it was the one which actually commanded production and the military.

Bahru Zewde is very clearly a liberal, but I still think I'd recommend his book ("A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1991") to marxists - an Ethiopian comrade recommended it too lol

[thelonelyjew]

I really hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to start an argument with this, I genuinely want your opinion. Do you think Israel should exist? Do you think it can exist peacefully? I'm a Jewish kid, I support Palestine and think the genocide needs to stop, but I feel like some (obviously not all) of the criticism of Israel feels a little bit antisemitic. Like I've seen people saying that zionists control a bunch of things internationally and in the us government, and that sounds very similar to antisemitic conspiracy theories. I'm sorry for asking you this, I just don't know who to ask. My mom is really sensitive about this because she's been bullied for being Jewish. And my friends aren't quite as politically aware, so they don't understand the history and just keep being like "why did the us ever support Israel to begin with?" and they certainly don't understand where zionism came from so I can't have actual conversations with them

So if you have anything to say, or any resources, anything you think I should read, that would seriously be really helpful

This ask contains several complicated questions so I'll break it down and do my best to present not just my opinion but also what I understand to be the context and the alternatives, and what factors shape my thinking.

Do I believe the state of Israel should exist? On one level, I don't believe any states should exist. All modern nation-states are built on some amount of violence and ethnostates especially all require some amount of erasure of groups outside the national group being enshrined in the national mythology. This is not unique to Israel; Atatürk's "One nation one language one flag" policy continues to be the basis of Turkish aggression against and denial of Kurdish cultural existence for example. The ongoing Tigrayan genocide is part of the legacy of Amharic supremacy in the statecraft that went into the building of the state of Ethiopia. Every nation-state has a dark history casting a long shadow. For more context on this topic, Worshipping Power by Peter Gelderloos is a good read.

As far as alternatives, the proposals of Murray Bookchin, what he calls Social Ecology, and the Democratic Confederalism proposed by Abdullah Öcalan are promising. Other historical examples of alternatives past and present include the Haudeosaunee Confederacy, the Caracol model of the Zapatistas, peasant cooperative experiments seen in Makhnovchina during the Russian revolution and in revolutionary Spain in the 30s, and of course the Democratic Confederalist experiment in northeastern Syria aka Rojava.

The Rojava model is especially relevant because, while westerners tend to make armchair pronouncements about what ought to happen in the Middle East based on extremely flawed and limited knowledge and a deeply ingrained cultural bias (read Orientalism by Edward Said for more on that), there are experiments in pluralistic multicultural democracy that originate from within the region that are much more relevant. It's always so wild to me to hear Zionist apologia in the form of the question, "well what else could we ("we?") possibly support if not a two-state solution or an only-Israel 'the only democracy in the Middle East™️' solution?" When practically right next door there is a thriving 10-year experiment in radical democracy in an area with more ethnic, religious, and language groups than you can count on one hand, in an area where some people from those groups were brutally murdering each other less than a decade ago and now are having to find ways to patch up society and function in peace and with respect and self-determination for all groups there. That seems very relevant as an example but I almost never hear anyone mention it and Palestine together, despite historically the movements supporting each other.

As far as antisemitic conspiracy theories, I think you're right about that. I know a lot of people, even well-meaning people who have not fully examined their internalized antisemitism, will talk about US support for Israel as if Israel is controlling US politics and that is why there is so much military aid being sent, or they will talk about American support for Israel as if it's the result of Jewish influence in politics. On no other topic do Jews hold this amount of sway. Jews tend to support immigration reform and universal healthcare and yet we don't have the power as a tiny voting bloc to get those passed. No, the US supports Israel because it's an investment. Israel is essentially a weapons research and development laboratory for the US. The Israeli economy is overwhelmingly dependent on its military development and exports. A good source for this is the documentary film, "The Lab" directed by Yotam Feldman, an Israeli Jew himself, who goes into great detail on the role that Israel plays in weapons development for not only the US but also dictatorships in South America.

The other big source of American support for Israel is based on religion but not the Jewish religion. Evangelical Christians are by far the most powerful religious group in US politics, and they believe that Jews being returned to the holy land is a necessary component of triggering the war of Armageddon and bringing about end times etc. They are not our friends; our role in their teleology is to die to bring about the salvation of (a relatively small number of) Christians. This group is represented by powerful televangelists like John Hagee, whose organization Christians United For Israel describes itself as America's largest pro-Israel group. Not only are not all Jews Zionists and not all Zionists Jews; there are more Christian Zionists in America (30 million according to Tristan Sturm) than there are Jews in the entire world (less than 17 million according to Sheskin and Dashefsky data for 2023.)

Antisemitism absolutely still exists and is a real problem, and the conflation of critique of Israel with antisemitism makes genuine antisemitism much harder to address. Israeli propaganda deliberately inflames the reasonable and justified fears of Jewish people and directs them at a relatively powerless target rather than at the systems that endanger all of us.

I would argue that the state of Israel itself is antisemitic. Not only does it aggressively promote the old antisemitic narrative that conflates Jewish identity with Zionism, it has been instrumental in the displacement and destruction of so many Jewish communities and traditions that had been existing for centuries. I just finished reading My Father's Paradise, by a Kurdish Jew whose father's family was forced to relocate to Israel shortly after his bar mitzvah, the last ever to happen in the ancient Aramaic-speaking Jewish community of Zaxo in northern Iraq. It captures a poignant glimpse of how it feels to be the last surviving native speaker of your childhood language, and the role Israeli statecraft played in dooming many Jewish communities of the diaspora to that fate.

And here's maybe my hottest take: even if there were no genocide of Palestinians to worry about, I would still be anti-Zionist because I think Zionism is inherently anti-Jewish. Most of Jewish life has happened in the diaspora for the last several millennia, yet Zionism is an anti-diaspora ideology that sees our lives, our homes, our diverse sub-cultures and languages and spiritual practices as inferior, broken, not worth preserving let alone continuing. Modern Zionism is, by Hertzl's own admission, a settler-colonial project intended to shape Jewry into the mold popular among European nations at the time, and thereby win the respect of Christendom by playing their game on their terms and excelling. In short The national project of Israel is manufacturing whiteness for Jews.

But the truth is that for as long as there has been political Zionism, there have been Jewish anti-Zionists, as evidenced by folk songs like the century-old "Oy Ir Narishe Tsionisten" ("Oh You Foolish Zionists") re-popularized by Daniel Kahn, whose music is also associated with a Yiddish cultural revival among young diaspora Jews.

There's a lot more I could ramble on about and more books I could point towards but this is already very long and I'm no expert on the subject, just a very tired Jew who has been at this for a long time now. I'll leave you with a link to a good article about the recent wave of campus protests and incidents of alleged, and sometimes actual, antisemitism among them:

[baebeylik]

Processional Cross. Ethiopian. 1500 CE.

A wooden cross credited to the Stephanite Monastic Order. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Gunda Gunde Gospels. An Ethiopian work of scripture written in Ge’ez. 1540 CE. Stephanite. Housed in the Walters Art Museum.

[dream-in-fall]

The theory of Lesley and Maud (part two.) Horsemen of the Apocalypse (does the series speak metaphorically about modern problems?) Who owns the Crown, Scales and Sword?

It is necessary to read the first part.

Modern problems of the Tigris River: (as well as other great rivers)

1.The Tigris River plays a crucial role in agriculture and providing people with food. But in recent decades, the river has been drying up. This leads to a lot of troubles, including famine of the poor people. The horseman of the apocalypse Famine gets a tool - Scales. In his hands, the Scales are desecrated and become a symbol of unfair measure and restrictions.

2.There are a number of problems between countries that actively use the river. These problems require wise solutions and peace agreements. But unfortunately, the countries continue to exchange mutual accusations about the irrational use of the river. This does not solve the pressing problems, but only exacerbates the conflict. (In S1E2 shows a scene in Africa where War came - this is a real conflict problem concerning the Nile River and the inhabitants of Egypt and Ethiopia.) The Horseman of the Apocalypse War receives a Sword, in her hands the sword symbolizes the weapon of war.

3.Due to the drainage of rivers, there is a shortage of clean fresh water. In addition to drying out, there is the problem of direct pollution from coastal factories, oil refineries and landfills. Citizens have to use polluted water. Thousands of people suffer from poisoning every year. (Lesley visited Africa Nile River), and Des Moines in America (Mississippi River.) The horseman of the apocalypse Pollution gets the Crown. The desecrated crown is a symbol of unholy domination and control.

I write entertainment content, but these problems are real and their scale cannot be overestimated! Great rivers are dying from pollution, drying up and wasteful use!

4.So, after the three horsemen of the apocalypse have been defeated by the three virtues (three children), the divine weapons return to the deliveryman. He will return the items to the owner, but who is the owner and who gave the packages to Lesley? We know that the sword was lost and several persons including God and angels, asked Aziraphale about this sword. So the sword wasn't in heaven.

5.Okay, here's the classic Justice Tarot card:

You can see she has Scales a Sword and a Crown. Scales in its true meaning symbolizes balance and justice. The Sword is a symbol of mind and law, it is able to separate truth from lies. The Сrown is a symbol of recognized divine authority. Is God in GO "Justice"? Or is it another character?

6.I assume Lesley will give these tools to his wife. If his wife really is the prototype of the goddess of justice. A bit of history - Initially, only Scales was associated with the goddess Maat, the goddess of justice. (She was putting a feather on the scales to weigh a human heart at the posthumous trial.) As the centuries passed, she became an independent figure and received a Sword and a blindfold (a symbol of impartiality.) In medieval Europe, she received the throne, and the blindfold was replaced by a Crown.

Here's my theory. Lesley is the spirit or prototype of the Great Divine River (Tiger, Nile, Lethe or all of them) Maud is the prototype of Matelda, the priestesses who keeps knowledge and fulfills holy vows. She is probably a goddess who acting the duties of a fair judge. Lesley and Maud are neutral characters, they don't belong to heaven or hell. I really hope they will appear in the third season. And I also hope to see a court scene in the third season. (it was a long way..)

[blackhistorystoryteller]

This is a message to my black brothers and sisters

Learn about your history

Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in Africa; the emergence of Ethiopian civilization dates back thousands of years. Abyssinia or rather "Ze Etiyopia" was ruled by the Semitic Abyssinians (Habesha) composed mainly of the Amhara and Tigray, the Cushitic Agaw. In the Eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian highlands and more so the lowlands was the home of the Arab-descended Harari that founded Sultanates such as Ifat and Adal and the Afars. In the central and south were found the ancient Sidama and Semitic Gurage, among otheres. One of the first kingdoms to rise to power in the territory was the kingdom of D'mt in the 10th century BC, which established its capital at Yeha. In the first century AD the Aksumite Kingdom rose to power in the modern Tigray Region with its capital at Aksum and grew into a major power on the Red Sea, subjugating South Arabia and Meroe and its surrounding areas. In the early fourth century, during the reign of Ezana, Christianity was declared the state religion. Ezana's reign is also when the Aksumites first identified themselves as "Ethiopians", and not long after, Philostorgius became the first foreign author to call the Aksumites Ethiopians.[The Aksumite empire fell into decline with the rise of Islam in the Arabian peninsula, which slowly shifted trade away from the Christian Aksum.[citation needed] It eventually became isolated, its economy slumped and Aksum's commercial domination of the region ended.The Aksumites gave way to the Zagwe dynasty, who established a new capital at Lalibela before giving way to the Solomonic dynasty in the 13th century. During the early Solomonic period, Ethiopia went through military reforms and imperial expansion that allowed it to dominate the Horn of Africa.

How did Ethiopia Resist Imperialism?

Ethiopia, formerly Abyssinia, is one of the world’s oldest countries. Dating to around 400 BCE, the region is documented in the in the King James Version of the Bible as the Kingdom of Axum. Along with Rome, Persia, and China, Axum was considered one of the four great powers of the era. Throughout the millennia of its history, the willingness of the country’s people—from farmers to kings—to come together as one, coupled with its geographic isolation and economic prosperity, helped Ethiopia score decisive victories against a series of global colonialist forces.

Ethiopia is considered “never colonized” by some scholars, despite Italy's occupation from 1936–1941 because it did not result in a lasting colonial administration.

Seeking to expand its already considerable colonial empire in Africa, Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1895. In the ensuing First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895-1896), Ethiopian troops won a crushing victory over Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896. On October 23, 1896, Italy agreed to the Treaty of Addis Ababa, ending the war and recognizing Ethiopia as an independent state.

On Oct. 3, 1935, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, hoping to rebuild his nation’s prestige lost in the Battle of Adwa, ordered a second invasion of Ethiopia. On May 9, 1936, Italy succeeded in annexing Ethiopia. On June 1 of that year, the country was merged with Eritrea and Italian Somalia to form Africa Orientale Italiana (AOI or Italian East Africa).

Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie made an impassioned appeal for assistance in removing the Italians and re-establishing independence to the League of Nations on June 30, 1936, gaining support from the U.S. and Russia. But many League of Nations members, including Britain and France, recognized Italian colonization.

It was not until May 5, 1941, when Selassie was restored to the Ethiopian throne, that independence was regained.

Ethiopia's ability to resist being swept up in the "Scramble for Africa" can be credited to the stability of its longstanding imperial government, beginning with the Abyssinian Empire in the 13th century, and lasting into the late 20th century, with the exception of a brief Italian occupation during the 1930s. King Menelik II, the Emperor during the period of rampant European exploration and colonization in Africa, was careful to cultivate an alliance with the smaller surrounding kingdoms of North Africa, and with European powers including Italy and Russia. When Italy began to turn the sights of their imperial ambitions toward Ethiopia, the Ethiopian military became the only African kingdom able to successfully resist the military might of European colonial power, using Russian-supplied weapons to defeat the Italian invading force at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. In the aftermath of the battle, in exchange for permanent recognition as an independent empire, Menelik II granted Italy the right to claim the neighboring territory of Eritrea under their imperial umbrella.

Ethiopians have a history of taming lions.

Many Emperors kept pet lions including Halie Selassie. Occasionally visitors like Kwame Nkrumah could pet one of the lions!

This practice of keeping lions is said to date back thousands of years to the Axumite period.The descendants of the Royal Lions currently live in the Addis Ababa zoo.

Meet his imperial majesty, the King of the Jungle.

And if, with his thick, shaggy mane Challa seems to have something of a frisky regal air about him - it's because he knows that he is a genuine blue blood.Challa is a direct descendant of Mochuria and Mollua - royal lions, which the late Emperor Haile Selassie kept as pets. The Emperor's practice of keeping pet lions is said to date thousands of years back to the Axumite period.Years ago in Ethiopia, Lions were pets to the people, some were used like donkeys, some like dogs kept at home. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia had lions he kept as pets, while some Ethiopians could even ride on them. These were not wild lions, they grew up with humans and became domesticated.They didn't go after human blood or other animals, lions roamed around the streets of Ethiopia and live was beautiful with them. Ethiopia is in East Africa, it's a rugged, landlocked country split by the Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia is a place of ancient culture, they believe and still hold on to ancient affairs.

Any lion that goes wild was immediately hunted killed, they were only killed if they kill a human and not animals like goats and chickens. They forbid killing and eating of any lion because lions were pets used in different palaces.

Ethiopia as a country had its origin in about 980 B.C., which makes it one of the oldest nations in the world.

Due to this very long history and an unmatched diversity of people and cultures, the country has often been described as a “museum of peoples”. With such a highly diverse population, Ethiopia houses an intricate tapestry of language and ethnic groups.

Also nicknamed the “Land of 13 Sunshine’s”, Ethiopia is often described as one of the most enthralling and enchanting places in the world – and definitely in Africa.

Ethiopia may not be the first place any traveller think of when planning or booking a next holiday, but it may just as well soon be the case. As African country Ethiopia can boast about having been at peace for at least the previous 15 years or more years and its economy is consequently one of the fastest growing in the world.

With the added bonus of an astounding diversity of landscapes, mixture of cultures and history that tracks back to when homo sapiens first started to raise itself up onto two legs, a traveller suddenly may look forward to a surprising and breath-taking travel destination.

But talking about planning and holiday dated, you probably didn’t know that this unique nation even has its own calendar?

This is but one of a myriad fascinating facts about the country, of which a number are discussed in this article. Looking at the country’s ancient and statutory history, its religion, culture, people and natural phenomena, here are at least 44 random but fascinating facts that you can ponder in anticipation of a visit to this eastern African country in the near future:

Fact number 1 – The oldest people in the world probably lived here.

Fact number 2 – Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and the only African country that could evade colonial rule.

Fact number 3 – Ethiopia was one of the first African forces to achieve a significant victory over a European colonial power.

Fact number 4 – Ethiopia has a rich history of rulers, including emperors and queens.

Fact number 5 – Ethiopia is perceived to be the diplomatic capital of the African continent

Fact number 6 – Ethiopia is the country with the second highest population in Africa, and with almost 1,5 % of the world population.

Fact number 8 – Ethiopia has the most orphans in the world.

Fact number 10 – Addis Ababa is the highest capital city in Africa.

Fact number 11 – More than 200 dialects are spoken by the peoples of the country.

Please like and share so others can see, drop your comments below and let me know what you think.

[evilwickedme]

Hey, next time we can ask you questions for free - you reblogged something about how people don't understand what Zionism is. I thought I did, but now I'm pretty sure I don't, and for obvious reasons I am having trouble finding reliabe information on it on the internet. What IS modern Zionism?

There were several rounds of foreign powers conquering and colonizing ancient Israel, causing several rounds of diaspora to match.

The history of the Jewish people goes back 3500+ years. Our creation myth, if you will, starts with Abraham, but our existence as a people starts with the story of exodus. Returning to the place where Abraham and his descendants made their home. That is where we start.

From then on, there has always been an Israelite, later Jewish, presence in our ancestral home. And yet so many of us were spread across the world. Over 2000 years ago we were settled in Italy and in Persia; some of us made it all the way to China and Ethiopia. We were no strangers to religious persecution - from Haman to the inquisition. Christians hated us, Muslims either tolerated us or persecuted us. And always we prayed, prayed to return to rebuilt Jerusalem.

In the 19th century, following the enlightenment, countries began to emancipate Jews. They lifted nearly every law that forced us to live apart, to look different. Many Jews took the opportunity to join western society, becoming indistinguishable from Christians. During this same time period was the rise of race science. The fear of Jews didn't go away. We were among them.

This is how racialized antisemitism was born. No longer could you stop being a Jew by converting to another religion; being Jewish was in your blood.

Frankly, Jews have always believed this to some degree. But this is what leads us, eventually, to the Holocaust.

It was already before this that we saw the signs. Racialized antisemitism was spreading throughout the world - not just in Europe, but in the US and MENA as well. Nationalist movements were popping up all over the place. It became clear that these nationalist movements excluded Jews. Thus was born Zionism: the natural result of thousands of years of yearning for our homeland, the natural result of antisemitism, the natural result of 3500 years of history.

Zionism initially wasn't necessarily about returning to Israel, strangely enough. But that aspect was rather quickly abandoned. As it was, throughout our history whenever there was a pogrom some groups of Jews would leave for Israel. Following the rise of racialized antisemitism, pogroms were happening throughout eastern Europe, and as Zionism spread, more and more Jews were doing aliyot - traveling in large groups to Israel. The Arab population - then still considered simply one part of the ottoman empire - did not approve, and several pogroms were committed against the local Jewish population, whether they were new arrivals or, like my own recent ancestors, had been living in Israel the entire time. And yet they kept coming.

Jumping ahead. What the Zionist dream would look like was not necessarily universally agreed on, but following the atrocities of the Holocaust and the world wide fall of the British empire an awkward decision of the holy land was proposed and agreed upon in the UN. It was understood that Zionism was not, as is presented now, racism. It was a move by an indigenous population to have self determination.

The Jews agreed to the plan. The Arab population did not. War broke out between Israel and every neighboring country, but Israel won. In 1948, a year after the UN resolution, Israel declared independence. 75 years later, we're still here.

In the 90s it looked like piece with the Palestinians would finally happen. Tragically, following terrorist actions from both Palestinians and Israelis, especially the assassination of itzhak rabin, the peace talks failed.

What is modern Zionism? That depends which Jew you ask. Some will say it's violent colonialism. Some will say it's racism. Some will say it's blind support for any action the Israeli government takes.

That is, frankly, bullshit. There are definitely Zionists who are violent, Zionists who are racist, Zionists who support the Israeli government. But there are also antizionists who are violent, who are antisemitic, who are blind supporters of Hamas. Claiming that that is representative of every Palestinian is ridiculous, as is so often parroted on this website. Practically every Israeli leftist who spent the last eight months protesting our government is a Zionist.

I will tell you what Zionism is to me. Zionism, to me, is the end of the Passover Seder, where we have, for 2000 years, called for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It is praying at the western wall. It is Jewish existence in our homeland. It is self determination and land back for an indigenous population.

I am tired of apologizing for my existence. I am tired of saying "antizionism isn't antisemitism!!!" when so many antizionists refuse to unpack their antisemitism. I am tired of pretending Judaism wasn't always calling for our return to this homeland.

It is incredibly easy for outsiders to say that the only solution is a one state solution. But the truth is most Israelis *and* most Palestinians do not support it, because there is simply so much bad blood between us. Where did this cycle of violence begin? People who say 1948 do not understand how long the Jewish view of history is. The cycle of violence began during the first time Israel was conquered by a foreign power. The cycle of violence began when the Islamic empire colonized the entire middle east. The cycle of violence began during the rise of racialized antisemitism. The cycle of violence began when Jews illegally settled in Israel. The cycle of violence began when Arabs committed pogroms. The cycle of violence began when the war of independence broke out. The cycle of violence began when Israel conquered the west bank and Gaza strip in the six day war.

To me, the cycle of violence starts 3500 years ago, when the Israelites said, "we will not be slaves". To me, Zionism began when we spent 40 years in the desert, trying to reach what would be, for the next 3500 years, our home.

I cannot separate modern Zionism from that.