Page 46 - DinQ 223 Sep 2021

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T T h e A b a y c a s e
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Who Owns the Nile?
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Ethiopia, Egypt, and
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By ANDREW CARLSONN Ethiopia, Egypt, and King Solomon in 900 B.C.E. A roman-
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By ANDREW CARLSON
tic relationship produced a child, Me-
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the Historical Struggle
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Part Two the Historical Struggle nelik I, the first in Ethiopia’s Solo-
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for the Nile’s Waters
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for the Nile’s Waterss monic Dynasty.
The river’s limited navigability only
increased its mystery. The Blue Nile Ethiopia and Egypt have had a
River descends 4501 feet in 560 miles long relationship of both harmony When Menelik became an adult,
from Lake Tana in the Ethiopian high- and discord, the latter the result of despite his father’s wish that he be-
lands through a deep gorge with croco- religious issues and access to Nile come the next King of Israel, he es-
diles, hippopotamuses, and bandits to water, among other factors.
the Sudan border and the savannah.
Despite the efforts of scores of in- Ethiopia’s first well docu-
trepid adventurers, the Blue Nile in mented government was in Ak-
Ethiopia was not successfully navigated sum, a city-state that controlled a
until 1968 by a team of British and large empire from the Ethiopian
Ethiopian soldiers and civilians highlands across the Red Sea to
equipped by the Royal Military College Yemen. From 100 until 800 C.E.
of Science. Aksumites participated in Mediter-

Further south up the White Nile in ranean and Indian Ocean trade.
the lakes and rivers of Burundi,
Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and The cultural relationship be-
Uganda, the Egyptian cultural influence tween Egypt and Ethiopia was in-
is less pronounced, due to the Sudd, a stitutionalized when the Aksumite
gigantic and impassable swamp which King Ezana converted to Christi-
absorbs waters from the equatorial lake anity in 330 C.E. For 16 centuries
tributaries. The Nile River historian (until 1959) the Egyptian bishop of
Robert O. Collins reports that “no one the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
passed through this primordial bog” was appointed by the Egyptian pa-
until 1841. triarch in Alexandria, often under
the influence of the Egyptian gov-
Not until the 20th century did it
become clear that the Nile is part of a ernment. The source of the Nile became the Gihon,

vast river system with dozens of tribu- Ethiopians were profoundly
taries, streams, and lakes, stretching influenced by the Middle East, caped to Ethiopia with the Ark of the
from the Mediterranean Sea to the re- even writing their state and geogra- Covenant—the cabinet which con-
mote mountains of Burundi, in tropical phy into Bible stories. The source
central Africa, and to the highlands of of the Blue Nile became the Gi- tained the tablets of the ten command-
Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa. ments given by God to Moses on
hon, one of the four rivers that Mount Sinai. Menelik stored the Ark
Spanning more than 4,200 miles, it flowed from the Garden of Eden. on an island in Lake Tana—into which
is the longest river in the world. It has The 14th century C.E. myth of na- the Gihon flows—before it was moved
also become clear that the volume of tional origins connected Ethiopia’s to Aksum, where many Ethiopians be-
water which flows through the Nile is rulers to the Old Testament. In lieve the Ark remains to this day. An-
relatively small—a mere two percent in this legend the Queen of Sheba
volume of the Amazon’s and fifteen (Makedda), journeyed north from other Ethiopian legend is that Mary
percent of the Mississippi—and mostly Ethiopia to Jerusalem to meet and Jesus stayed a night on that same
(86%) from Ethiopia. island (Tana Cherquos) during their

“ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር ” ድንቅ መጽሔት ሚያዝያ 2013

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““ኢትዮጵያያ ለዘላለምም ትኑርር ” ድንቅቅ መጽሔትት ሚያዝያያ 20133

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46 DINQ magazine September 2021 Happy Ethiopian New Year 3
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