The Uterus of the World

Prior to coming to Ethiopia, I had only two associations with the country – starving children and long-distance runners. I hadn’t envisioned the lush, green, mountainous environment of our home in southern Ethiopia. I also didn’t know what to expect before heading off on our journey to the north with Erin’s parents. And I was equally surprised by what I found.

We all study ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome in our world history classes from school. But who’s ever heard of Axum? Who ever thought that ancient civilizations (as opposed to distinct tribal groups) even existed in sub-Saharan Africa? Axum was a powerful empire whose prime lasted over 600 years, from the 1st century AD to the 7th. The stelae (or obelisks) of Axum are huge and rival those in Egypt in size and grandeur. Legend has it that sometime around 1000 BC, the Queen of Sheba (from Ethiopia) visited King Solomon of Israel and bore a child named Menelik who later became emperor of Ethiopia. Ethiopians believe that somewhere around that time, the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia and now sits in a cathedral in the town of Axum. A solitary monk guards the Ark and is the only person alive who can see this hidden treasure (although a few years ago, some Polish guy made a run for it and hopped a fence to get a peak but was unsuccessful). Axum’s model of a large unified civilization set a precedent for Ethiopia that continues to this day. The center of Ethiopia has moved and the rulers have hailed from different tribes, but the concept of Ethiopia is old and lasting. In the 12th and 13th King Lalibela constructed 11 rock-hewn churches. Each church is carved out of one giant stone in the mountainside, a true architectural feat that was so impressive that we all couldn’t believe we’d never heard of them.










Later, around the 17th century, Ethiopia’s hub became a town called Gondar. A set of kings constructed beautiful castles in Portuguese style. These castles sit in a quaint mountain village where you almost feel like you are in Europe as opposed to Africa. And eventually, the capital became Addis Ababa (literally, “new flower”) in the late 1800s. The Italians occupied Ethiopia for 5 years around the time of World War II but were eventually defeated and Ethiopia remains one of the only countries in Africa never colonized. With this strong history as a unified country comes much Ethiopian pride that is apparent in the culture to this day.











Our trip eventually took us to the National Museum in Addis Ababa, where the remains of Lucy sit. Lucy is the skeleton of an ancestor to our species homo sapiens that was discovered in northeastern Ethiopia in the 1970s. She provided a pivotal link to map our evolution. Interestingly, this discovery is not the sole claim to fame for Ethiopia in archeological terms. The Great Rift Valley spreads from north to south across Ethiopia and south into Kenya, and over the last 15 years, as Ethiopia has become a stable country for scientists to do their work, more and more discoveries are made in the area where Lucy was found.





By the end of our trip, we were convinced that Ethiopia was much more than just a land of famine and long-distance runners. More than just a land of mountains and deserts, and poverty and tropical diseases. It’s importance in the evolution of our species cannot be overstated. Its importance as a dominant empire in Africa for centuries is also remarkable. For the Ethiopian millennium a few years back, a symbol was made to commemorate the occasion. It looks like a coffee bean, but has a double-meaning, we’ve been told. It also represents a uterus (or woman’s womb). The museum guard who finally revealed this hidden meaning happily informed us, “Ethiopia is the cradle of mankind…the uterus of the world.” I hope you all get a chance to learn more or someday visit this magnificent country. Although the metaphor of a uterus is a little much.