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REVISIONING SHEBA: A SEARCH FOR THE GODDESS IN THE ETHIOPIA AND YEMEN © 1998. All rights reserved. When I was in the fourth grade, my history teacher made a shocking remark in class. She stated that none of us were native to the United States. All of us had ancestors in other countries. She then began asking each of us in turn, where our ancestors were from. I sat stunned in my chair.
I was one of two black children at St. Andrews Catholic School. The school was located in a small Southern town in the state of Virginia. What could I say? How would I answer her question? Did I want to tell everyone that my ancestors were slaves? Did slaves even have a country?
No one in my family ever mentioned being from anyplace other than Virginia. I could say that I don't know where my ancestors came from. I was so busy trying to find my roots, that I heard nothing that any of the other students said. Not only did I not know where I was from, I wasn't going to know where anyone else was from.
"Miri, where are your ancestors from?"
"Ethiopia", I heard a voice that sounded somewhat like mine say.
"Thank you. Gerald, where are your ancestors from?"
She went on around the room, oblivious to the fact that I had never heard of Ethiopia until I heard myself say it in that moment. I went home and told my mother that I thought we were from Ethiopia. Her response was a bit mystifying. She asked me, "So who do you think you are? The Queen of Sheba?"
I responded like any ten-year-old girl from the south would respond, "Yeah, maybe, I am."
Who was the Queen of Sheba, anyway? What did she have to do with Ethiopia? Why did I think that I was from there? Where was Ethiopia?
Many years went by before I thought about my ancestry again. This time I was living in New England. I had been married and divorced and was currently trying to make it in the world of showbiz. Some friends suggested that we should go to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner.
I walked in and was seduced by the aromas coming from restaurant. I was mesmerized by the people who worked there — they were all beautiful, and they all looked so familiar, yet I knew none of them. Apparently, they felt the same way about me, as they tried to greet me in what they thought was my native tongue: Amharic.
As far as I know, these were the first Ethiopians that I had met. While I was in college, I had met other students from West Africa. I had felt no connection to them. But to the people who ran this restaurant and greeted me as if they knew me — I felt not only connected, but as if I had finally come home.
Many years later I moved to San Francisco and began developing a relationship with a casual acquaintance that I had known while back in Boston. She, like me, was new to San Francisco, so we were learning our way about the town together. Since moving to San Francisco, she had decided to convert to Judaism. One weekend in January, I found myself attending Shabat services at a local Temple. A black Gospel choir was performing in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and on Sunday the rabbi and cantor were to participate in Sunday services at the Church. All of these activities were to promote good relationships between blacks and Jews. What, I wondered, did black Jews think of this? I had heard of black Jews who lived in New York and Chicago. They had asked to make alyah to Israel as a way to remove themselves from the racial tension that they often felt in the United States.
As Chanukhah approached, my soon-to-be-Jewish-convert invited me to a benefit walk/run that the Jewish Community Center was having in order to raise money to send Chanukhah gifts to Ethiopian Jewish Children, who had been in Israel only a few months. They had been part of Operation Solomon, a secret airlift mission, in which fourteen thousand Ethiopian Jews had been flown from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv.
Not unlike most of the Jewish world, I met the news with humor and denial. Black Jews? Then I saw the faces and read the stories and once again, just like the time I walked into the Ethiopian restaurant, I felt a sense of coming home, of finding some aspect of myself that had been buried and long forgotten. These people were part of who I was. Far from looking like the descendants of Solomon and Makeda, as their history claims them to be, they looked like my people, who had made a long journey home.
With my attachment and fondness for Ethiopia explained, I struck out in search of solving my next identity crisis. Yemen. While I lived in Florida, I had developed a huge interest in metaphysics. High on my list was the Kabalah: Jewish mysticism. While browsing in my favorite bookstore, I had stumbled upon a book that simply said Jewish Mysticism.I opened it and immediately began reading. It took me several seconds to realize that the book was in Hebrew and that I couldn't read Hebrew. I bought the book and put high upon my bookshelf.
Thanks again to my almost converted friend, I began to take Hebrew classes, so that I could finally make a stab at reading that book. In my class, I met a woman who was interested in Israeli folk dancing. One night I went dancing with her and, as had happened with the Ethiopian restaurant and the faces of the Ethiopian Jews, when I heard the music of Israeli culture, I felt that I was making another step towards discovering who I was.
I fell madly in love with the music and dancing of the Jews from Yemen. Up until the moment I began dancing, I had never heard of Yemen and I had no idea where it was. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Yemen and Ethiopia were neighbors, who shared a common history and a common queen: the Queen of Sheba.
Makeda, as she is called in Ethiopia and Bilqis, as she is known in Yemen, was a rich and very powerful woman. Her queendom included what today is called Ethiopia, Yemen, the Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and parts of southern India.
...in the 11th and 10th centuries B.C.E, [Makeda] owned a fleet of 73
ships and a caravan of 520 camels which traded with places as far afield as
Palestine and India. Makeda ruled Ethiopia and Yemen for 31 years from her
capital a few kilometers outside of modern-day Axum, which according to
Ethiopians was known as Sabea (Philip Briggs, A Guide to Ethiopia, 1995,
p.26.). Much has been written around the relationship of the Queen and the Israelite King, Solomon (ca. 1000 BCE). Briefly, I will summarize the many myths and stories surrounding their relationship. Bringing with her spices of frankincense and myrrh, as well as gold and an entourage that included servants and beasts, the Queen of Sheba set forth from her queendom to the North in order to visit Solomon. He was reputed to have been the wisest man alive. She wanted to test his wisdom. That is the more romantic notion of the visit. The practical side of this trip was probably to insure trade routes. It was rumored that Solomon was trying to find a new route to India via the Red Sea. This journey took place early in the queens' reign, when she was around the age of 22 (Briggs, p 27.). The story goes like this:
Sheba arrives in Solomon's kingdom. He welcomes her warmly. The two exchange presents, negotiate regarding trading routes and country borders. In short, they discuss everything from poetry to the military. Solomon falls in love with Makeda. He wants to make love to her, but she refuses. He tricks her into sleeping with him by preparing a farewell feast for her that is seasoned with very spicy foods. He then tells her that if she takes anything of value from him during the night, she must sleep with him. During the night, the queen takes water to quench her thirst from the spicy feast. As she drinks, Solomon confronts her and asks her what could be more valuable to a king in an arid land than water?
In the Ethiopian story, the queen conceives a child and names him Menelik. Twenty years after his birth, Menelik travels to visit Solomon and is royally received. Menelek brings with him a ring that Solomon had given to Makeda. Solomon tells him that the ring was not necessary, since Menelek looked exactly like the Queen.
Menelek stays with his father for awhile and then decides that it is time to return to his mother. The king sends scholars, teachers and advisors back to Ethiopia. Among this group was the son of the High Priest, who brought with him, unknown to Menelek, the Ark of the Covenant (which is another story). Thus begins the Solomonic dynasty in Ethiopia that lasted until Halie Salassie was asked to resign in 1974.
In the Yemeni story, the queen returned without having conceived a child. She does, however, abdicate her throne to her brother and declare that from that time on the succession of the royal line will be through the male. There are many variations on the story of Sheba. Time and space do not allow for their discussion in this article.
HOW THE QUEEN OF SHEBA GOT HER THRONE AND LOST HER POWER
Once upon a time, in the land of Sheba, there lived a horrible dragon, which loved to feast upon the flesh of young girls. The people of the land were terrified for they never knew when or where the dragon would strike next. One day a brave warrior, who had a daughter of his own, decided that he would battle the dragon in order to rid the land of this terrible beast and thereby save his daughter from any possible threat.
He went into battle and fought with the dragon. He emerged victorious! To show their appreciation, the people of the land decided that this man should be King. And so it was that he ruled until his death. Upon his death the reign was passed on to his daughter, Makeda.
From there the story is the same as previously mentioned. Makeda makes her journey to Solomon. When Solomon insists on sleeping with the Queen, she says no and then offers her handmaiden in her stead. Not satisfied with this, Solomon prepares the spicy feast and tricks the Queen into drinking the most valuable resource in his kingdom: water. Menelekis thus conceived.
The dragon part of this story is not recorded in historical texts, but it has been passed down through the oral tradition of the culture.
From the feminist perspective, the dragon is seen and defined as a symbol of women's culture and wisdom. The death of the dragon is the end of the matristic dynasty. Due to the fact that the king had only a daughter, Makeda ascends to the throne.
Therefore, Makedas queendom is already patriarchal during her reign. The fact that she is subsequently, tricked, seduced or otherwise coerced into having sex with Solomon and then gives birth to a male child can be viewed as a further attempt to squelch any remaining chance for the re-emergence of women's power.
Language contains and maintains cultural elements that clearly depict the queendom as matristic. For example, the ancient language of the Makedas queendom would have been Geez. "...Geez, is closely linked to ancient South Arabian, and the script is based on ancient South Arabian letters". (Joachim Chwaszcza, ed., Insight Guides: Yemen, 1992, p. 84.). Geez is the parent language of a modern Ethiopian language called Amharic. Both languages are Semitic/Cushitic. Semitic words have three letter roots. The root of Sheba is Sh, B(v), and a (ah). The following is an example of the type of linguistic analysis to be used.
Shabat or Sabbath (the first is a Hebrew word for the seventh day of the week, the latter its Christian counterpart, both mean, a day of rest), Sabbatical (an extended period of rest), Shavua (Hebrew word meaning week, which is related to the Hebrew word for the number seven — sheva). The roots of these words would be the same as for Sheba. Therefore, linguistically the words would be related.
According to Ethiopian Jewish tradition Sabbath or Shabat is not a day or a number, but the name of the daughter of God. In the Ethiopian Jewish book, entitled Teezaza Sanbat (Commandment of the Sabbath), we are told of the creation, but primarily the book is focused on the greatness and glory of the Sabbath of Israel, her adventures, acts, punitive expeditions and intercession with God. She is described as the daughter of God, a divine princess, to whom all angels pay homage and who is exceedingly loved by God Himself (Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, 1978, p.261.).
Applying feminist hermeneutics to this linguistic analysis, I posit that contained within this story, as in many fairy tales and legends, is a code that reveals and expresses the powers that women once held in the pre-patriarchal Ethiopia. Patai continues this discussion of Sabbath by quoting the text of Teezaza Sanbat, "Sabbath means: I am God. It is not the day, but I."
So in the tradition of the Ethiopian Jews, the direct descendants of Solomon and Makeda, Sheba is actually a word for God. Therefore the kingdom or queendom of Sheba is the land of God or actually Goddess.
There is more, much more to study before the code of the stories and legends surrounding Sheba are understood. It is worth noting that Makeda is actually an historic figure. In western tradition, she is first noted in the Bible in the first book of Kings. In rabbinical tradition the Queen of Sheba is demonized as dark and therefore evil and she is seen as evil and likened to Lilith. In Yemen, on the outskirts of the city of Marib, there still stands the remains of a Temple dedicated to the worship of the moon.
When I was ten and decided that I was from Ethiopia, I never realized the amazing journey that I would have before me: the journey to discover my heritage and to find a link to the re-discovery of a matristic society. I believe that an ancient memory stored in my genetic tissue triggered the recognition. No mom, I don't believe that I am the Queen of Sheba, but I do believe that she and I are of a like mind.
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