2008 is the "Ethiopian Millennium." In conjunction with this historic demarcation, the Department of Africana Studies at Wayne State University will present two lectures on the African civilization of Ethiopia. Dr. Saheed A. Adejumobi, professor of Global African Studies and History at Seattle University and the author of The History of Ethiopia, and Mark Shapley, adjunct lecturer in the Department of Africana Studies at Wayne State University, will be the featured speakers on two programs on Feb. 28. The first presentation will occur at 12:30-3 p.m. in the Student Center Building, in room 289. The second program will occur at 7-9:30 pm in the Bernath Auditorium in the Adamany Undergraduate Library.

Ethiopia has had a recorded history and a thriving civilization of more than 3,000 years. Adejumobi will discuss particular aspects of this ancient and contemporary history, including how commerce and religion (Orthodox Coptic Christianity and Islam) were woven together into ideas of national identity and citizenship that were foundational to the Ethiopian nation-state. Mr. Shapley's lecture will consider the contemporary history of Ethiopian religions, including the changing cultural, political and economic relationships between Ethiopian Jewish and Orthodox Christian communities, as well as the present state of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. His research has been documented on film, and clips from this work in progress will be shown.

Adejumobi's book also explores the idea of Ethiopianism as an Afro-Atlantic literary-religious tradition that emerged out of the shared political and religious experiences of Africans from British colonies during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Ethiopianism linked Africa historically to the ancient classical era, challenging the then prevailing idea that the continent had no history prior to the arrival of European colonizers in the mid-19th century.

Proponents of Ethiopianism argued that the African nation was one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world and claim that some of the first examples of organized religious festivals, solemn assemblies, and other forms of worship evolved in Ethiopia. By the 19th century when Ethiopia was one of the few nation-states under African control, and many people of African ancestry embraced it as evidence of the black capacity for self-rule.

In particular, the "Ethiopian" tradition in the United States found expression in slave narratives, exhortations of slave preachers, and songs and folklore of southern black culture, as well as in the sermons and political tracts of the urban elite. In the latter case, "Ethiopianism" often embraced Black Nationalist and pan-African dimensions that called for association with the African continent through a physical or allegorical "back to Africa" movement.

Cosponsors for this Black History Month event are the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Black Student Union. Both programs are free and open to the public.

For more information call the WSU Department of Africana Studies: 313-577-2321.

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