ETHIOPIAN EMPIRE 1: THE QUEEN OF SHEBA and KING SOLOMON

Did the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel really meet and what kind of relationship did they share Welcome to the Sankofa Pan-African Series—please if you haven't already take a moment to click the subscribe button Thank you Now the Ethiopian Empire also known as Abyssinia encompassed the region of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea it came into some form of formal existence around 1270 AD with the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty ruled the empire until 1974 when the monarchy under Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in a Therefore the Ethiopia we know today is one of the oldest nation-states in the world the only Black African nation to have successfully resisted a Marxist coup e scramble for Africa by colonial powers during the 19th century Ethiopia was the only country to resist colonization ultimately succumbing only very very reluctantly briefly under Italian occupation in 1935 but was liberated during World War II prior to tha Italy had attempted an invasion of Ethiopia in 1896 but was defeated by the Ethiopian forces which only succeeded at that time in capturing Eritrea Ethiopia has served as a source of pride and inspiration for Africans and people of African descent worldwide as illustrated by the works as far back as Phyllis Wheatley the remarkable woman I've already covered in a previous episode so if you haven't watched it yet make time to do so and please elp share word about her video and others in this series with your friends and their contacts now another way to appreciate the role of Ethiopia as a source of pride to Africans and The reception of medieval Ethiopian texts reflects the engagement of Africans in the diaspora own as the Kebra Nagast or the Glory of Kings it is a chronicle of Ethiopia's royal lineage and it records a version of the seduction of the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon now unlike the biblical version the Kebra Nagast is prevalent among continental Africans as well as some Africans in the diaspora because it explains how the act of the covenant came to Ethiopia With the descendants of Solomon and Sheba I will come to you—the act of the covenant and Ethiopia in a later episode so keep an eye out for it—anyway the Kebra Nagast records how the ac The covenant then came to be in Ethiopia through the son of the queen of Sheba and the king s name was Menelik the First and now while the story of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon e bible does not acknowledge any romantic relationship between the two of them but the Kebra Nagast explicitly does and in fact some biblical scholars do as well acknowledge the fact that Sheba is actually part of Ethiopia rather than having some biblical scholars attempt to place the Queen of Sheba’s kingdom somewhere in the southern part of Arabia Please review the notes on 1 Kings chapter 10 verse 1 in the 2003 edition of the Quest Study Bible of Sheba travels to Jerusalem to meet Solomon seeking to test his renowned wisdom as recounted in the Kebra Nagast a version of the story markedly different from the biblical account and wisdom however the night before her return journey home Solomon tricks her into sleeping with him and gives her a ring so that if she should become pregnant the child might be recognized Use it to identify himself in Ethiopia it is believed that the child born as a result of The liaison between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was Menelik I the first Solomonic emperor of Ethiopia now the popularity of this version of the Sheba and Solomon tale among Africans is responsible for the belief held by many African Americans and Rastafarians who still cling to the idea of Ethiopia as the promised land thank you very much for being a Part of this episode of the Sankofa Pan-African Series—please help us sustain this series by sharing our videos with your friends and contacts and don’t forget to give us a thumbs up f you like the video see you next time when we'll be exploring whether the act of the covenant is truly in Ethiopia and how we got there