Culture of Ethiopia
The country's Afro-Asiatic-speaking majority adhere to an amalgamation of traditions that were developed independently and through interaction with neighboring and far away civilizations, including other parts of Northeast Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and Italy.
By contrast, the nation's Nilotic communities and other ethnolinguistic minorities tend to practice customs more closely linked with South Sudan or the African Great Lakes region.
[2][3] In the North, traditional string instruments include the masenqo, a one-string bowed lute; the krar (also known as kirar), and a large ten-string lyre.
The dita (a five-string lyre) and musical bows (including an unusual three-string variant) are among the chordophones found in the south.
Trumpet-like instruments include the ceremonial malakat used in some regions, and the holdudwa (animal horn; compare shofar) found mainly in the south.
Rural churches historically used a dawal, made from stone slabs or pieces of wood, in order to call the faithful to prayer.
A long-standing popular musical tradition in Ethiopia was that of brass bands, imported from Jerusalem in the form of forty Armenian orphans (Arba Lijoch)[5] during the reign of Haile Selassie.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Ethiopian popular musicians included Bizunesh Bekele, Mahmoud Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete, Hirut Bekele, Ali Birra, Ayalew Mesfin, Kiros Alemayehu, Muluken Melesse and Tilahun Gessesse, while popular folk musicians included Alemu Aga, Kassa Tessema, Ketema Makonnen, Asnaketch Worku, and Mary Armede.
He helped to popularize the use of Sem ena Worq (wax and gold, a poetic form of double entendre) in music (previously only used in qiné, or poetry) that often enabled singers to criticize the government without upsetting the censors.
Popular musicians from Ethiopia include internationally renowned and recognized artists such as the Los Angeles–area expatriate Aster Aweke, The Weeknd and Teddy Afro, who is often accredited with the fusion of Rastafarian styles into mainstream Ethiopian music.
Éthiopiques producer Francis Falceto criticizes contemporary Ethiopian music for eschewing traditional instruments and ensemble playing in favor of one-man bands using synthesizers.
Harvard University professor Kay Kaufman Shelemay, on the other hand, maintains that there is genuine creativity in the contemporary music scene.
[7] In a 1964 ethnographic study, a Hungarian sociologist visiting Ethiopia recorded one hundred and fifty variations of Ethiopian dance using videos and photos.
Traditionally, the dance has been said to mimic rattlesnake shedding its skin due to the rapid and intensely controlled shaking of the upper body.
Some forms of eskista also mimic a bird-like style that emphasizes both stiff and fluid neck movements which is characteristic of the Ethiopian dances in most parts of the country.
For example, the Gurage region is known for its dances that incorporate a running-like motion in which the feet rapidly step in front of the other while staying in place.
The Wolayta people are also known for their uniquely southern dance that focuses on the controlled toss of the waist and hips as the feet are held widely apart for a strong base.
When going to church, women cover their hair with them and pull the upper ends of the shawl about their shoulders reproducing a cross (meskelya), with the shiny threads appearing at the edge.
A variety of designer dinner dresses combining traditional fabric with modern style are now worn by some ladies in the cities.
This exhibition aims to invite the interested public to discover documentary photographs of people and their hairstyles taken by German anthropologists during their field trips to southern Ethiopia between 1934 and 1971.
[10] The photographs and accompanying information of these forms of body art in Ethiopia was also published online, with an exhibition catalog for free download.
One or more servings of wat are placed upon a piece of injera, a large sourdough flatbread, which is 50 cm (20 inches) in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour.
Additionally, throughout a given year, Orthodox Christians observe numerous fasts (such as Lent), during which food is prepared without any meat or dairy products.
One monk called the generosity of Kaldi "the Devil work" and tossed to the fire, generating aromatic odor.
The legend told that Kaldi lived in 850 CE, commonly associated with belief of starting coffee cultivation in Ethiopia in the 9th century.
Print media, because of high poverty levels, low literacy rates, and poor distribution outside of the capital, serve only a small portion of the population.
[13] Languages from the Nilo-Saharan phylum are also spoken by the nation's Nilotic ethnic minorities, who are concentrated in the southwestern parts of the country.
The best known philosophical revival was in the early modern period figures such as Zera Yacob (1599–1692) and his student Walda Heywat, who wrote Hatata (Inquiry) in 1667 as an argument of existence of God.
Unlike most Sub-Saharan African countries, Ethiopia has ancient distinct languages, Ge'ez and Amharic which dominated political and educational aspects.
In spite of the current political instability in the country instigates endangering cultural heritage of these works, some improvements are made for preservation in recent years.
