Kebra Negast

For class on Wednesday, we have to read an excerpt from the book Kebra Negast. This excerpt tells the story about the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The story goes something like this. The Queen of Sheba had heard of the wisdom that King Solomon possessed. She decided to travel to him and figure out where he got all of his wisdom from. After finding the king, he said to the Queen that his wisdom comes from the Lord. With this, the Queen of Sheba stopped worshipping the God of the Sun and started worshipping the Lord, the creator. She then went back to her homeland, which is Ethiopia, and spreads the worship of the Lord throughout the country. Here is a link to the complete, but shortened version, of the story. (There are other details to the story, but they are not relevant.) So, how does this story change one's perspective on Ethiopia?

For me, personally, because of my lack of knowledge of Ethiopia, this story has changed my perspective of the country immensely. I never knew that they had so much of a strong religious history. This religious history shows me how much of a religious influence a queen had on her nation. She was able to convert many of her citizens to the religion that she was practicing. It shows me the amount of respect and trust that her citizens had for her. Then I think about how my perspective of Ethiopia would change, if this story was not real. After thinking about it, I feel that my perspective would not change. Even if the story isn't true, the mere existence of the story shows their respect in the queen, because of her role as the main character of the story.