Religions and politics in Ethiopia

Abstract

Writers on Ethiopian history normally reiterate a phrase to be said was written to King David around 1000BC (BCE); which reads: "Ethiopia shall reach out her hand unto God." Politics and religion used to be synonym. In the history of Islam the first hijrah was that to Ethopipia 1430 years ago, The Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church was founded early fourth century. History of Ethiopia is rich of religion dominated by Islam and Christianity. However, Ethiopia today is the epicenter of Christianity and Muslims are said to be, at least by the government, "a big minority". This paper studies the history of religious ideas and assesses its impact on the current political set up of the country. There are 83 ethnic groups in Ethiopia but religion played the main political balance. When democracy was introduced in 1994 the sward of monarchical epoch and religion seemed lost ground. On this aspect of the study, the paper will evaluate the relationship between monarchy and religion in Ethiopian political system and how democratization has transformed that relation.