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Gondar Timqat: The Persistence of Christian Tradition in Ethiopia
| Article
# : |
10430 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1993 |
2,496 Words |
| Author
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Hailu Habu
Hailu Habtu is lecture in African history in the Department of
Black and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College of the City
University of New York. |
Christian Ethiopian legend states that when the Ethiopian queen Makeda--also called Azeb and known through Scripture as the fabled queen of Sheba (Kings and Chronicles) and queen of the South (New Testament)--spent time in Jerusalem, she bore Solomon a son, Menelik I. Menelik plays the major part in one of the most significant events in the Abyssinian royal epic.
In the tenth century B.C., Menelik traveled form Ethiopia to Jerusalem to see his father. Solomon instructed his courtiers to send their firstborn sons to accompany Menelik on his return journey. One of those sent was the son of Zadoq, the high priest. Menelik and Zadoq's son hatched a ruse by which they placed a replica of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies and spirited away the real Ark to Ethiopia. Graham Hancock, a British journalist, has investigated this legend. Hancock claims that he has gathered compelling and substantial evidence that establishes that the Ark is indeed in the sanctuary of the Church of St. Mary of Zion at Axum, Ethiopia.
Hancock's claim and his 1992 book, The Sign and the Seal, led to headlines last summer. Apparently puzzled by the publicity surrounding the issue, an Ethiopian traditional scholar wrote an Amharic review of the book in Ethiopian Review, a Los Angeles-based monthly magazine, under the sardonic title The Not-Lost Is Found.
For many Christian Ethiopians, also known as Abyssinians, Hancock's book does little more than confirm their deeply cherished belief that they have possessed the Ark of the Covenant since Menelik's time. It does, nonetheless, raise a few other interesting points. Graham suggests that the Ark of the Covenant is the work of man, but that its blueprint is divine. He attributes that divine origin to Moses' initiation into the sacred sciences of the ancient Egyptians. He further identifies similarities in the Tapeth festival of ancient Egypt and Ethiopia's annual Timqat procession.
In the Tapeth festival, a procession of the Egyptian deities proceeds to the Nile River. In the Timqat celebration, finely and colorfully covered gilded chests known as tabots are carried in procession to near by water. Each is considered a replica of the Ark of the Covenant--the casket in which the Bible says Moses placed the two tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments--and venerated as if it were the Ark itself. Held in mid January, Timqat is perhaps Ethiopia's most colorful religious holiday. It is celebrated in Gondar, Addis Ababa, Lalibela, Axum, and every city or village in Christian Abyssinia.
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