Every
scholar is inquisitorial and curious to find out why a strong, courageous and
warrior tribe would drift away from the Hills of Abyssinia to the Ugandan Eastern grasslands.
Iteso
are the famous section of the Ateker people whose origin is from the Habesha
people of the Solomonid Dynasty in the historical Abyssinia Empire
(present Ethiopia and Eritrea).
The
Monarchy was so vast covering Southern Egypt, Eastern Sudan, Yemen and Western
Saudi Arabia from 980 B.C. to its collapse in September 1974 due to a coup led
by Mengistu Haile Mariam of the Derg committee who jailed and murdered king
Haile Selassie.
Ethiopia
(Abbysnia), an empire that was founded by the Ethiopian people known as the Aksumites
they lived in the Ethiopian highlands.
The
first 10th century kingdom to rise to power in the territory was the
Aksumite Kingdom of the Tigray Region with its capital at Aksum. The
second was Zagwe dynasty with a capital at lalibela. The Zagwe dynasty
gave way to the Solomonic dynasty in the 13th century.
During
the Solomonic period Ethiopia went through military reforms and imperial
expansion that made it to dominate the Horn of Afrika.
The
Greeks also conquered Abyssinia and Renamed it ‘Ethiopicas’ the name of
their Greek god. There were also a lot of inter-tribal and inter kingdom wars
in Ethiopia at this 13th century and due to this kind of battles the
cattle keepers sought refuge a way.
Cattle
keepers (Ateker people) as often couldn’t be huddled in an urban settlement
with cattle, goats and sheep they decided to move away from Abyssinia to a
larger land for their animals, enough pastures and above all access of water
for the large flocks since it was always dry in the desert.
So
what's the origin of this famous Ateker Iteso people,
Solomon's
fame spreads until the Queen of Sheba hears about him. She's so intrigued that she comes to Israel to test his wisdom with
some tough questions. She shows up in Jerusalem with a huge entourage and
camels bearing gold and spices and jewels to give to Solomon.
According to the Bible (1st Kings 10, the purpose
of her visit was to test Solomon's wisdom
by asking him to solve a number of riddles. It’s believed that King Solomon
Answered all the questions well, but had told the queen not to break the
promise and falter the rules of his Kingdom.
When Queen Sheba
was about to leave, one night she was thirsty and was looking for water in the
palace she found King Solomon who took her and its believed she left Israel
when she was pregnant. Many Jewish, Christian,
and Muslim traditions tell about a marriage between Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church teaches that their son was the first great
king of Ethiopia, Menelik I.
Menelik
the Ist was the first Emperor of
Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century national
epic in the 10th century BC he is said
to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of
Ethiopia, so named because Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel and of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba.
He
was conceived when his father Solomon tricked his visiting mother, the Queen of
Sheba, into sleeping with him. His mother raised him as a Jew in her homeland
and he only traveled to Jerusalem to meet his
father for the first time when he was in his twenties. While his father begged
Menelik to stay and rule over Israel, Menelik told him that he wanted to return
home (Abyssinia). Thus, Solomon sent many Israelites with him, to aid him in
ruling according to biblical standards.
The
origin of Iteso is tagged to history of Menelik the 1st who was a
Jew and a cattle keeper whose father was Solomon and the Mother was queen of
sheba. Thats why we are called the Israelites of Africa.
#Emuria
Koliai
King Menelik II
No comments:
Post a Comment