Russians were fascinated with what they saw as exotic brothers in the faith, and Ethiopians took advantage of Russian help and were inspired by various features of modern Russian statecraft.
Russia and Ethiopia, both multiethnic empires with traditionally orthodox Christian ruling elites, from the nineteenth century developed a special relationship that outlived changing geopolitical and ideological constellations. These unceasing government interferences into clerical affairs led to the development of reformist movements that became a shelter for conservative opposition. In turn, the EPRDF arrested the Derg’s Patriarch, who fled into exile and was replaced by a new head who shared a common origin with the new secular leaders. The Derg incarcerated and executed a Patriarch and nominated a new higher clergy who accepted revolutionary ideas.
After the cutting of its historical umbilical cord to the Egyptian Coptic Church, the Ethiopian Church was forced to follow and adapt to political changes in Ethiopia. Therefore, the nationalization of the Ethiopian Church was its main challenge in the first half of the twentieth century. But quite quickly it became clear that without organisational changes in the clergy and the Church’s complete submission to secular political authority, it could not continue playing this role. Without going far back into history, this chapter starts at the end of the nineteenth century to show that the Church was instrumental in the unification of the kingdom andits dependencies around a common reinstated Christian identity. Today Orthodox Christians represent more or less one half of the Ethiopian population, concentrated in the northwest but also widely disseminated throughout the urban networks of the state structure. Abstract: For centuries the Christian Orthodox Tewahedo Church of Ethiopia was considered the dominant framework through which Ethiopia could be understood. Published in: Gérard PRUNIER and Eloi FICQUET, editors, 2015, Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia: Monarchy, Revolution and the Legacy of Meles Zenawi.
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