Southern Cross


 * Southern Cross
 * by Jonathan I. Edelstein
 * 21 October 2001

Axum ... The first century BSE was a period of resurgence for the Axumite kingdom. There was constant border warfare with the Egyptians to the north, but the fall of the Sassanids and the disunity of the Arabian peninsula provided an unparalleled opportunity for expansion to the east and south. By 30 BSE [742 CE], Axum's moribund trade with the Arab world was undergoing a revival from both the ancient port of Massawa and the new one at Djibouti. A generation later, the Axumite empire had expanded to include much of the Horn of Africa and some of the upper Nilotic peoples. Merchants and missionaries ranged farther still; recent discoveries of Axumite coins in Persia and India make clear that Axum was an integral part of the Indian Ocean trade network...

... The union of Ethiopia under a single monarchy, and the expansion to the south, also precipitated a religious revival. Under the Second Solomonid dynasty, which took power during the early first century, monasteries were erected throughout the highlands and endowed with gifts from the royal treasury. The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela also date from this period...

East Africa ... The frustration of Arab expansion to the north did not cure the restlessness that had been awakened by the prophets of the second century BSE. Not content to fade into obscurity like other failed conquerors, the Arab kingdoms focused their attention to the south.

The first Yemeni and Omani traders may have landed on the East African coast as early as 50 BSE [722 CE], and the first permanent settlements appeared soon after the beginning of the new era. Some of the Arab colonies were entirely new, but most of the early settlements consisted of merchant enclaves in coastal market towns under the nominal protection of a local king or tribal leader. By about SE 75 [847 CE], Arab dhows plied their trade as far south as Sofala and the Comoros Islands, and there were rumors of riches still further south...

... The Arabs of East Africa were a diverse and often fractious lot. Even in the cities where Arabs ruled directly, it was rare for any one nationality or religion to be in the majority, and this was even more true of the merchant quarters of Bantu towns. So although Yemenis and Omanis might attack each other's ships and caravans, neither could dislodge the other from the African trade or prevent them from spreading their faith among the coastal kingdoms. As news of the wealth of the African trade spread, they were joined by Muslims from the Hejaz and Nejd, Christians from Ethiopia, and Nestorians and even Ananites from Persia. By the early second century, caravans of gold, ivory, amber and slaves came to East African ports to be shipped throughout the Arab world and India...

... Not surprisingly, the religions of the East African coast developed markedly syncretic tendencies, with elements of local tradition being subsumed into monotheistic ritual. The Ethiopian Christians in particular adopted drums and dancing as a common part of their ritual by the end of the first century, a practice that was later imitated by other syncretic Christian sects including the famous "Dancing Saints."

In the interior, the process of syncretism was reversed. As caravan stations and trading posts grew into market towns and ultimately into cities, the inland tribes learned of the new religions from the north. Their teachers, however, were merchants rather than holy men, and were often unsophisticated in matters of faith. What passed into their knowledge tended to be ritual rather than philosophy, and even that was often understood as magic. Moreover, rather than a few remnant traditions being absorbed into monotheism, it was the monotheistic rituals that were subsumed into native religion. Symbols such as crosses found their way into traditional ceremonies, and Christian saints and Arab prophets were adopted as gods or divinized ancestors. Among some southern African tribes, this combined with the idea of the mhondoro -- an ancestral spirit briefly returned into a living body -- to form the notion that Moses, Jesus, Anan ben David and other holy men were all incarnations of the same prophet...

... The Mandaeans of Yemen, who were pioneers of the inland trade, had perhaps the greatest impact on the religion of the highland tribes. By the second century, baptism in "living water" -- a flowing stream or river -- was a common feature in coming-of-age ceremonies, and was sometimes practiced in other ceremonies involving the life cycle or as a form of ritual cleansing. The first records of members of African secret societies wearing distinctive white clothing date from this time, and persons marked for these societies also refrained from circumcision or ritual scarification as a method of retaining their potency...