The department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in partnership with the Inter Faith Commission of South Africa (NICSA) convened the celebration of the Ethiopian Christen Movement. The purpose of the event was to celebrate the emergence of the alternative, indigenous African religious movement in the continent.
The Ethiopian Church was mostly born out of the reawakening of Black Americans and the Caribbean African diaspora in the late 18th Century.
The deputy minister reminded the meeting that Amongst the early Ethiopian Church of South Africa disciples, are our own renowned activists like Charlotte Makgomo Mannya-Maxeke; the Reverend Tile – founder of the Thembu Church; AS Le Fleur of the Griqua Church, Rev Engenas Lekganyane of the St Engenas ZCC; MM Mokone of the Witwatersrand Ethiopian Church and many others, who came together in 1909, in alliance with the traditional leaders, to form the South African National Congress led by Reverend Walter Rubusana.
The establishment of the Ethiopian church is a major mile stone in the history of the evolution of the indigenous Africa organization and leadership on the continent.
As Dr Mathole Motshekga puts it in his Concept paper on the “Commemoration of the Ethiopian Movement”:
“The African spiritual awakening or revival of the second half of the 18th Century in North America, and the 19th century in the Caribbean archipelago, and later in Africa, led by the Wesleyan brothers, gave birth to the spirit of Ethiopianism - meaning African Redemption - based on Psalm 68:31 which says that ‘Princes shall come out of Egypt and Ethiopia shall again stretch out her hands to God.
“This philosophy of African Redemption gave rise to the Ethiopian, which is African Church. The term “Ethiopian or African Church” does not refer to a single denomination but a myriad of churches, including the Ethiopian Church of South Africa, Congressional, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Zionist and Apostolic Churches etc. which were formed by the African clergy that broke away from missionary churches because of racism which justified the triple challenge of slavery, colonialism and racism - later apartheid.”
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