Fesseha 1

*Ethiopia's 5000 Year History, from Noah until the EPRDF*, Fesseha Yaze Kassa, AD 2011

translated and annotated by Ras Feqade, AD 2021.

## Chapter 1 - Noah and Ethiopia

It was when Noah was in his 500th year of age that he begat Shem, Ham and Japheth. In the era of Noah's life, by reason of humankind's evil work, when they greatly offended their God, He was obliged to destroy them from the face of the Earth. However as Noah had been found being a perfectly good man, it being the Creator's fine accord that he might be saved from the water of destruction, he was commanded to work a boat.

And the boat being 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high, having three decks with doors and windows, Noah took his wife, his children and his children's wives, and likewise all kinds of animals in pairs, and sheltered in the boat.

After this the valleys of the Earth having exploded, the windows of heaven being opened, when Earth was drenched in the Water that came down for 40 days and 40 nights and all creatures were destroyed, Noah's boat waited when it floated hither and thither, and when the Water had finished destroying everything, by its going while it dried up from upon the Earth, the boat rested upon a mountain called "Ararat". Noah and his spouse Madame Aykel, and likewise his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, including their wives, and additionally animals, proceeded from the boat. Noah, rejoicing greatly at his surviving including his family, offered praise and sacrifice for his God. And the Creator was pleased by Noah's sacrifice.

[According to the Ethiopian canon (*Kufale*) Noah's wife was named Emzara. The tradition in the Arabic *Kitab al Magall*, the Syriac *Cave of Treasures*, and the Ge'ez *Conflict of Adam*, names her Haykel, Syriac for 'temple'.]

And after this Water of destruction, God determined Water of destruction not to destroy humankind again. And for firmness of this Word, He stretched the rainbows of clouds on Heaven. And meaning because of the Word of mercy He made between Him and humankind, He placed His covenant sign in Heaven.

When the Holy Scriptures confirm the realities located above, various authors of our country moreover, by making a basis both the Holy Scripture, and the legend, the historical documents found at various times and the assemblies around us, language, culture, faith, and likewise the historical places found til today, by all continuing on each of their parts, they reach it to the edge of Noah's matter.

And it is when we continue separating these points closely that we know to distinguish the way of our history's origin. "He placed His covenant sign in Heaven" says the Holy Scripture. Yared Girma Haile, in his book called "History of Gonder" and published in AD 2007, continues it moreover quoting other references.

"Noah, rejoicing at his surviving including his family, offered sacrifices for the Creator. And the Creator, rejoicing in Noah's sacrifice, wished him to inherit the land He held up for Adam and Eve. In pointing out His entering the covenant that says 'I won't destroy humankind henceforth', and placing His bow in a cloud for confirmation of His Word, He commanded him to go to the source of the Gihon, 'Abemelech' meaning Lake Tana, in the place where it is believed Adam and Eve would live before they lived in Jerusalem, being expelled by the sin they committed. And Noah, quitting Shem and Japheth, took Ham and came to Ethiopia /Africa/," he says.

Being that Noah, on the basis of the Holy Bible's information, was aged 500 years when he begat his three sons, when Earth was drenched in the Water of destruction moreover he had fulfilled 600 years. On this basis as we saw in our Preface, that humankind's history was determined as 5500 years is beginning from Adam. And as we saw in our Introduction, we have said ten generations are counted from Adam to Noah. The ninth is Lamech. Therefore from Adam until Lamech 1656 years have passed. And within this, when Noah survived the Water of destruction, as he had fulfilled 600 years, that he continued Life like new, is 3836 BC.

[Fisseha and his source Yared do not adhere to the canonical story of *Jubilees* (*Kufale*) and Enoch (*Henok*), part of the Ethiopian canon. *Kufale* relates, as do most Ethiopian histories earlier than this one, that Ham departed Shinar for Africa with his four sons after the Tower of Babel collapsed, adding that his youngest son Canaan 'squatted' within the inheritance of Arphachsad, refusing to continue to the Nile with the others. Traditional Ethiopian histories state that Ham continued with his son Kush to the source of the Nile at Lake Tana where he became the first Emperor of Ethiopia, but they make no suggestion of Noah himself accompanying them, which seems to me a more recent and radical assertion. Still less can it be stated confidently that Adam and Eve had ever lived in Ethiopia, or in Jerusalem. *Kufale* and *Henok* describe Mounts Sinai, Zion, Ararat, and the Garden of Eden as four holy places facing each other. The Garden itself, I feel, would thus have been located where the Rub al Khalid desert is now, and from there they were expelled westward to approximately where Mecca is now.

The famous figure of 1656 years is derived from the Masoretic text of Genesis calculating from Adam to the flood. However the 1308 years in *Kufale* is more reliable, agreeing incidentally with the Samaritan Pentateuch, which reflects the text before Rabbi Akiva's Masoretic alterations. By my calculations based on *Kufale*, this places the flood in 2755 BC. The date in Fisseha's actual text is "3844 BC" but as this is counting from a different calculation for Christ's birth, it designates the year 3836 BC in the western calendar. His figure of 3844 BC is clearly derived by subtracting the 1656 years he assumed elapsed until the flood, from 5500 BC when he assumes Adam began - whose beginning in my calculation would be dated to 4063 BC.

Per *Kufale*, Noah was born 707 years after Adam, Shem was born 1207 AA, Ham 1209 AA, and Japheth 1212 AA.]

Noah spent 100 years completing his boat work. (And there are those who extend it to 120 years). Because it was when Noah was a 500 year old youth before the Water of destruction that his three sons were born, and because it was said "his sons' wives also entered the boat together", we are informed that his sons had reached adulthood.

[*Defloratio* has Noah spending more precisely 78 years working on the Ark. *Kufale* leaves this open, indicating only that it was completed in the year preceding the flood.]

After the Water of destruction, when Noah and his spouse, and likewise his three sons including their wives, proceeded from the boat, Shem was a 130 year old adolescent. His dark skinned son Ham was a 120 year old preadolescent. It is believed that Japheth was a 100 year old lad. Noah lived as chief of his family around 350 years from 3836 BC until 3492 BC. And his livelihood was agriculture.

[As we can see from the information in *Kufale*, at the time of the flood Shem was about 101, Ham 99, and Japheth 96 years old. Genesis merely indicates they were around 100 years old, but it is not known how Fisseha derived his specific figures. Noah is agreed to have lived 350 more years after the flood, or until 2405 BC. Note the text reads 3500 BC, which would designate 3492 BC in the western calendar.

My position is that Noah and his wife and sons were all of the pure Adamic and Sethite lineage, and were all of a dark red hue, as indicated by the meaning of "Adam". It seems self evident to me that the variation of the modern 'yellow','black' and 'white' complexions is due to their entering with the three spouses of Shem, Ham and Japheth aboard the Ark, in accordance with God's Will, as He says all peoples and complexions are the way He made them to be, and we are all to be one human race with no supremacy on external appearances.]

And after the Water of destruction, when the Creator allowed Noah and his families to fill the Earth, when Shem and Japheth took two continents and were multiplied, what is believed is that Noah came taking his spouse and one son Ham. And this is said, while it is thought alongside writers who believe that "the boat rested on that Ararat mountain". In the following future chapters we will continue holding this belief until we reach one conclusion. And the reason, it is if the boat rested on the Ararat mountain of Asia, that Noah can come here taking Ham. But if it rested on the Ararat mountain of Ethiopia, it is because we can see that Ham and Noah remained here, Shem and Japheth being dismissed and escorted away. But for whatever, for the time let us journey holding to what says he came quitting Shem and Japheth, and taking Ham.

[Fisseha's suggestion that Ararat where the Ark landed could be in Ethiopia, elaborated further below, is in my estimation even more recent and radical than the suggestion that Noah and his wife travelled with Ham to Ethiopia, as traditional Ethiopian histories give no hint of this, and agree that Ararat is in Armenia, whence the plain of Shinar, ie Mesopotamia, was then settled, as do the traditional histories of all other nations.]

When Noah was living in this country, his spouse Madame Aykel died on him. And it was in the land called "Chilga", found to the western side of Gondar, and at a distance of 37 kilometres from the city, that she died.

Within Chilga, and at the place where it is known that the grave where Madame Aykel was buried was, a large tree having grown in it until today, the "Qemant" peoples reach their prayers on it. And the monument of her grave is found until today within Chilga /Aykel/.

And at the origination of this story, the capital of Chilga until today is called as it was named by its name "Aykel". Mr Yohannes Woldemariam, in his book called "History of the World" and published in 1944, describes "In Ethiopia 25 children (tribes) of Ham ruling successively" and reveals "the source of the Qemant nation descending and staying inherited from Ham; that the foundational derivation of the word Qemant came from 'Kem Hent' meaning 'Thou Ham'".

And for that matter, these peoples who live in Chilga and Aykel and the area, are found holding the culture, religion, language etc. of Ham, without infiltrating and mixing. And their Sabbath day is Saturday.

When we return to the story of Noah, and the book previously mentioned called "History of Gonder" moreover tells us thus: "Noah, after his spouse died and he buried her, living the little remaining era (according his description at 850 years, according to this book at 950 years), when he died at the present Gonder city, a spring bursting upon his grave healed plenty of people. And then that it might be a remembrance to Noah, God, thinking in a palace, allowed Noah's grave monument to be built. And this is the Fasil Tower built by King Fasiledes in a later era." (We shall see it when we reach the era of the Fasil Tower's miraculous construction.)

[*Kufale* unambiguously has Noah dying on Mt Lubar in the mountains of Ararat, meaning Armenia, in 1659 AA, calculated to mean 2404 BC. The *Defloratio* tradition confuses him with his fourth son Barwain or Janus born after the flood, and has him living several hundred more years. However it has Noah ruling a colony in Italy, apparently at Genoa, from 2447 until 2414 BC, when he left it to Gomer. Noah presumably then returned to Ararat where he died ten years later. Other than what is mentioned by Fisseha, I know of nothing corroborating Noah himself or his wife having been in Ethiopia at any time.]

When Noah led his family for 350 years 3836-3492 BC, living when he administered Ethiopia in a similar description, and when he died, his son Ham being substituted continued leading, ruling the family and the land.

Noah's son Ham staying when he administered beginning from 3492 BC, when he died, his son Kush being substituted was sent forth his practice of administering from 2779-2537 BC. The tribe of Ham who was one of Noah's three sons, went multiplying and spreading in the land of Africa.

[These dates have been converted to the western calendar by subtracting 8 from each of them. Fisseha here has Noah as first ruler of Ethiopia, more precisely for 344 years, followed by Ham ruling for the next 713 years, then Kush for the following 242 years. How this was calculated is unclear. The 1959 *History of Ethiopia* by Tekletsadek Merkuria begins enumerating the first, Hamite dynasty in Ethiopia with Sebtah or Sapita, but mentions his paternal lineage as being Kush, Ham and Noah. The 1944 *History of the World* by Yohannes Woldemariam states: "*Ham, crossing from Asia by the Bab El Mendeb, came and entered in Ethiopia. And this happened in the year of the world 2787, or 2713 BC (=2705 BC). Ham ruled 78 years in Ethiopia, and went again to Asia, and saying 'I shall seize Syria', he fought with the children of Shem and died in war. But his children crowned their elder brother Kug [sic] over them, and inherited Ethiopia...*" The traditional Ethiopian kinglist, as presented by then Ras Tafari to Charles Rey in 1927, indeed has Ham ruling Ethiopia first for 78 years, followed by Kush for 50 years. This anecdote of Ham not dying in Ethiopia, but leaving it to Kush and ultimately dying in combat in Syria, is borne out by other ancient accounts.

*Kufale* fixes the fall of the Tower of Babel in 1639 AA, which is 2424 BC by my calculation, and indicates Ham and his sons departed Shinar for Africa soon after that. The settlement of Canaan can be deduced to have occurred by 2417 BC by the Sumerian *Lugalbanda* epic stating that Enmerkar, ie Nimrod, built a wall against the Mar-tu (Amorites) in his 50th year (counted from the *start* of the Tower). *Defloratio* more specifically has 'Oceanus', ie Misraim, arriving at the Nile in the 15th year of Nimrod, ie. 2409 BC (counted from the Tower's fall), and mentions Ham as departing Egypt to teach magic to the 'Telchines', while saying Cush was established in Ethiopia by the 18th year of Nimrod, 2406 BC.

Bar Hebraeus and Michael the Syrian relate an ancient tradition that Misraim ruled Egypt as "Panophis" for 68 years. This information also appears in the *Kitab al Magall* (as "Firnifs") and *Cave of Treasures* (as "Puntos"). If Misraim as 'Oceanus' or 'Pontus', probably corresponding to Wahkare Khety, began his reign in 2409 BC, he thus ruled Egypt until 2341 BC. Ham's 78 years as Emperor of Ethiopia seem to be counted from the fall of the Tower, before he actually arrived there, meaning he held the title until 2346 BC when he left Ethiopia to Kush. Putting all sources together, we may infer that it was at this time that Ham descended to Egypt, where he took over from his son Misraim 5 years later as "Eupipaphius", ie Neferkare Kheti I, (or simply Kheti, derived from his name Khem or Ham) ruling there 46 or 48 years, before continuing his sojourns and eventually being beheaded in Syria. While Kush had arrived in Ethiopia in 2406 BC (per *Defloratio*), we can say he was accompanied by his father, and did not rule there himself until 2346 BC, continuing 50 years until 2296 BC, when he was succeeded by a certain Habassi.]

When "Noah" is mentioned, the sign of the Covenant arises together. Within the book that has the title "History of the resurrection of Ancient Ethiopia", and written in 1994 by Leading Chief A.M. Belay, when a thing saying thus is included; side by side with proving having witnessed the situation of the Covenant and the rainbow with our flag, we are benefited by it because it has sufficient proof of the land that Noah et al trod and the water they drank, etc. The writer is who in the Derg era sat in the rock box in "Dengola", the ancient coronation city of Ethiopia, and who, in the later era finding a document written in the "Suba" language, took it to America and by translating it piecemeal, was able to write over six large books. And when we select and see what went with our matter:

"In 4000 BC the King of Kings of Ethiopia who would rule Ethiopia's territories and Africa in full including Asia, decreeing a law that is for the administration of all the peoples and countries he would rule, they were divided in three parts, and sending forth the proclamation that has twenty eight articles, and having them written on parchment in the alphabet of the 'Suba' language, he made it to be shared for everyone.

In this proclamation, in the proclamation's third section, what was decreed about a flag says thus:

Article 22 "Our Everliving God said thus for our father Noah and his children, for us, and likewise for all creatures: This is the sign of the Covenant that I make forever between Me and you. I have made My bow in a cloud. And the sign of the Covenant shall be between Me and Earth. At the time I veiled a cloud from upon Earth, the bow will be seen in a cloud.' And I today by will of my Everliving God, being a limit on my fathers' throne, on the land they trod, on the land where they rested, on the water they tasted and used, hang on a place of height and wave for you this signal standard of Love that is forever, that is between people and government. Its being green, yellow, blue color, is a sign of revealing that we have the green earthly, the yellow a flower of love, the blue moreover the heavenlies' spiritual member. It has been decreed by law that he who seeing or hearing this standard did not honour and believe us, to live as a slave."

Article 23 "Anyone can hang, before him or behind him, a flag revealing the King of Kings. However before his doing it, he has to show and submit the color to the King of Kings. If he hangs it without knowing this, making it come down from government has been decreed in your law, if it doesn't come down, that he be killed."

Article 24 "It has been decreed in your law that the banners of the Emperor's /the King's/ peace corps and war army go holding before and behind them, a folded banner that reveals how many kings are beneath the King of Kings."

Article 25 "He must place a star shape made from gold, silver and bronze upon the flag pole. It has been decreed that he who hung a flag without doing this be hanged in a square."

[If this means the Suba language of Kenya and Tanzania, there do seem to be suggestions this language had its own ancient alphabet, but I have not examined this further. The quoted source does not identify which Ethiopian Emperor would have left such a Constitution, and his improbable date of 4000 BC offers no help. It is surprising to me that the national flag colors are not described as green, yellow and red, as might be expected, but green, yellow and blue. The only modern nation with such a flag is Gabon.]

We have hastened this much by a source that made a basis in language, culture, nationality, historical places, documents found in writing, legendary informations pertaining to Noah. If we said 'It's not enough', let us go to our own additional effort, and we will pass assembling and strengthening secular and spiritual writings, that seem not to interconnect and know each other, however were suitable.

After Noah completed his boat work, detailed and wide-reaching commands reached him from the Creator. And within these, "Thou wilt take take for thee making seven each males and females from clean animals, and two each males and females from unclean animals, and seven each males and females from bird of heaven, that it might remain for seed upon Earth" (Genesis 7:1-4) When this analysis is found settled, on the other side moreover, as the then doctor, now professor Lapiso Gedlebo who was main history expert at the Ethiopian Nationalities Study Institute, settled it in his scholarly book he named 'Ethiopia, a Cradle of History', "Seven mammals are found in Ethiopia that are not found in the other world, in any spot, or on the planet called 'Earth', in any country and continent." It is correctly like that. Including walia, red fox, hartebeest, gelada baboon are here. (A walia always having horns like that, both going and coming swimming the Red Sea, seems difficult for it. Lest it be said a person came taking them, no tribe exists that comes driving gelada baboons.) And it is in this land that other animals are found that cannot go forth from the country. Let this professor Lapiso's 1991 study say "While Ethiopia has 239 kinds of mammals and 832 bird species, among the seven mammals and 24 birds are found only in the land of Ethiopia", yet after that time moreover while new animals, birds, and plants were found, at the present time when it is confirmed, on the basis of transnational statistical informations, that 31 wild mammals are found only in Ethiopia, from within these seven are found within the Semien mountains National Park. And from the 24, the 13 birds are found settled on that Ras Dejen mountain, that was a dwelling for walia et al, and sat in first place from Ethiopia, 4th in Africa, whose height was 4620 meters.

When writers describe the Ras Dejen, that was the high mountain from within the Semien mountains, it's by saying "Chief of mountains, summit, vanguard of chiefs, shield, built naturally, that is, was, and lives on, whom none violates nor dilutes, living firmed up everliving."

Maybe it's not proper for us to say if the mountain's name is Ararat. The Ararat mountain of Thana is enough. And if it be the great Book, it surely said the water rose fifteen forearms upward, and said mountains were covered, yet nothing else came forth.

But in any case, the conditions, in the appearance we saw, connect properly, yet are not passed thus. And they are former conditions that resembled these, who call this country naming her a 'mystery'. Outside of saying the remainder who called Noah an aegis are animals, what else can be said?

[There are not a few countries with an even greater number of endemic species, so this argument is hardly persuasive. For my part, it seems to me the flooded regions need only have covered the greater Middle East to eliminate the rest of humanity, who had not yet made any lasting settlements outside this region by that time; as such it was not really necessary for Noah to collect any exotic species, as is commonly portrayed by those who interpret the flood as having been global.]

You and I have no problem in us. A chapter being given for each of them, when the histories briefly outlined being flushed out after a few pages are overturned toward one item, there is no need because we are persuaded which Ararat mountain Noah's boat rested upon. And now it doesn't delineate us yet. We will wait until the story delineates us. However the scramble of history is quite reflected alongside the foreigners (we won't say all but alongside most). Much has been called to persuade that Noah's boat rested on the Ararat mountain of Asia. Until today news is heard saying "We found a splinter of the boat". It has continued to be said beginning from former times. Their second proof is only the mountain's name and its height. They cannot persuade us counting another thing. But what we have counting is not the age of a board. It's a thing that was, is, and will live. There is no other thing with them or with us being connected with Noah's history. Apart from what is with us and not with them. From the number of stout scrambles of history the world has seen, this is also one.

Our thesis is continuing related to the story of Noah. If we continue pushing them in the number we formulate them, it is not proper that it be interpreted in hatred. We are leaving our path. Alongside them Noah's boat doesn't rest, and it is thought that it cannot rest, in the country of blacks. Alongside them black is always black. Darkness. It is a source only of trouble and sorrow. Their eyes are bloodshot when they see being the owner of a fine history. But they believe Ham who was one of Noah's sons had a dusky hide color. And if that be, until he was found being black, if he be owner of any kind of thing, they want him to remain being anything. They connect all the thing with color. Let it not remain if we raised about color, let us pass seeing how they colored us.

[With all due respect, the traditions placing Mt Ararat, and the Ark, in the region of Armenia, are ancient and unanimous among all accounts by all nationalities; thus the suggestion that these ancient traditions were motivated by any racial impetus to slight Ethiopia, is scarcely credible. As explained above, it may be deduced that Ham, his parents and brothers were all of the same color, namely dark red, and that it is rather to the 3 wives of Noah's sons that we owe our modern diversity in hues, just as Jah intended it.

The remainder of this chapter continues in a similar theme, but makes no new points essential to my purpose of comparing details of ancient post diluvian history, so I have not endeavored to translate it.]

* Chapter 2