“Ethiopia, Thou Land of Our Fathers!” From Ethiopianism to Pan-Africanism

Abstract

The Universal Ethiopian Anthem of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, from its opening lines “Ethiopia, thou land of our fathers, thou land where the gods loved to be” to its conclusion that “Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand” in the final verse, gives a glimpse at the influence Ethiopianism had on emerging Pan-Africanism in the early twentieth century. The following article will trace this influence in order to show how widespread and profound it was. It will also show how Ethiopianism was not only a mere forerunner of Pan-Africanism that ceased to exist once Pan-Africanism was in place, but that Ethiopianism constitutes a whole religious cosmology, in which pan-African unity plays a central role, that has survived the twentieth century and is now most visibly upheld and still developed within the Rastafarian movement.

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