ETHIOPIA:THE OLDEST PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST - Onyeji Nnaji
Those piles of ruins which you see in that narrow valley watered by the Nile, are the remains of opulent cities, the pride of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. ... There a people, now forgotten, discovered while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences. A race of men now rejected from society for their sable skin and frizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil and religious systems which still govern the universe (Count Volney). Because of the position of Ethiopia in the Bible story as one remarkable black nation with ancient history, it becomes almost impossible to see any other nation as being of more ancient than Ethiopia. Ethiopia suddenly became the yardstick for the analysis of the Negro race. And with the influence of Christianity in the inner part of Africa, the adherents were provided with bold pictures of the cradle of the human race. Ethiopia became seemingly hallowed, glorious and heaven-like-home to the listeners