Tony Robinson TV - Olly Steeds TV - Graham Hancock - Gates of Hell - Christianity: A History TV - World War II: The Complete History TV - Bono - David Attenborough - Haile Gebrselassie - Doris Lessing - George Galloway - Haile Selassie - Gus Casely-Hayford TV - Evolution of Evil TV - Dictators’ Rulebook TV - Earth’s Great Rivers TV - Africa with Ade Adepitan TV - Damian Lewis: Spy Wars TV - African Renaissance: When Art Meets Power TV -
160,000 years ago some of the first modern humans ... roamed this area in north-eastern Ethiopia. Man on Earth with Tony Robinson: Triumph of the Homo Sapiens, Channel 4 2009
Just how close to extinction homo sapiens came has recently become shockingly clear. ibid.
The incredible diversity that there was among hominids before homo sapiens finally won the day. ibid.
During its history the climate has fluctuated wildly. ibid.
The social brain: the ability of groups of humans to form contacts and cooperate with each other. ibid.
Neanderthals: they’d evolved down a different branch of the human family tree. ibid.
One pocket remained in Gibraltar. ibid.
The Ethiopian monks ... say they are safeguarding artefacts that arrived with the Ark of the Covenant two thousand years ago. Mystery Investigator: Olly Steeds: Ark of the Covenant, Discovery 2010
According to Ethiopian Christians the original Ark or the Covenant is here in a small chapel in the Cathedral of St Mary of Tsion. It’s watched over by one man called the Guardian. Whose sole purpose in life is to protect it. ibid.
Every single church in Ethiopia contains a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. Graham Hancock, author The Sign and the Seal
4In one of Earth’s most dangerous places lies a final gateway that may lead us to the heart of Hell itself: Erta Ale. In the remote barren reaches of Ethiopia is a volcano that according to local legend is linked to the Origin of the Universe and as old as Creation itself. Gates of Hell
Here at Lalibela in the Ethiopian highlands is one of the most extraordinary religious sights in the world. Carved out of the rock itself – they call it the Jerusalem of Africa. Kwame Kwei-Armah, Christianity: A History: Dark Continents, BBC 2009
During the 1930s the Italian Air Force used aircraft and poison gas to subdue the forces of Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia. World War II: The Complete History: A Time of Legend, History 2000
Ethiopia didn’t just blow my mind; it opened my mind. Anyway, on our last day at this orphanage a man handed me his baby and said, ‘Would you take my son with you?’ He knew, in Ireland, that his son would live, and that in Ethiopia, his son would die. Bono
We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that’s what’s happening. Too many people there. They can’t support themselves – and it’s not an inhuman thing to say. It’s the case. Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view about the planet it’s going to get worse and worse. David Attenborough
Many people know that Ethiopia is poor. When I break a world record, maybe people get to know something else about Ethiopia, something good. We can’t make planes or cars, we don’t have the materials. We do what we can. Haile Gebrselassie
Over the plains of Ethiopia the sun rose as I had not seen it in seven years. A big, cool, empty sky flushed a little above a rim of dark mountains. The landscape 20,000 feet below gathered itself from the dark and showed a pale gleam of grass, a sheen of water. The red deepened and pulsed, radiating streaks of fire. There hung the sun, like a luminous spider’s egg, or a white pearl, just below the rim of the mountains. Suddenly it swelled, turned red, roared over the horizon and drove up the sky like a train engine. I knew how far below in the swelling heat the birds were an orchestra in the trees about the villages of mud huts; how the long grass was straightening while dangling locks of dewdrops dwindled and dried; how the people were moving out into the fields about the business of herding and hoeing. Doris Lessing, Going Home
George Orwell said that the ultimate obscenity would be when one half of the world could watch the other half starving to death on television.
Amazingly in 1984, of all years, that nadir was reached in Ethiopia. George Galloway, article Daily Record 18th July 2011, ‘Apocalyptic Vision of 1984 is Back’
I, Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people, and the assistance promised to it eight months ago, when fifty nations asserted that aggression had been committed in violation of international treaties.
There is no precedent for a Head of State himself speaking in this assembly. But there is also no precedent for a people being victim of such injustice and being at present threatened by abandonment to its aggressor. Haile Selassie, address to League of Nations 30 June 1936, re Abyssinian Crisis & Second Italo-Abyssinian War
These are the moments when Ethiopia’s kingdom came to an end. In February 1974 the Ethiopian military rose up in revolt … A coup that brought to an end one of the world’s oldest continuous kingdoms. Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s1e2: Ethiopia, BBC 2010
A dynasty that claimed it could trace its roots back thousands of years. ibid.
Ethiopian Muslims made common cause with Ethiopian Christians. ibid.
Mussolini drops mustard gas on Ethiopia. Evolution of Evil s1e7: Mussolini: The Father of Fascism, ZDF 2015
It is time to build an empire … Mussolini orders his generals to burn Ethiopian villages and to use poison gas on civilians. Dictators’ Rulebook s1e3: Benito Mussolini, National Geographic 2018
As the Blue Nile leaves its sacred beginnings, it transports its rich waters across Ethiopia. Its banks are some of the most fertile land in Africa. Earth’s Great Rivers II: Nile, BBC 2018
Ethiopia: It’s just so hot; it’s unrelenting. Africa with Ade Adepitan III, BBC 2019
Ethiopia is currently working to double its road network. ibid.
This is the story of how MOSAD sent undercover agents into enemy territory to secretly repatriate the lost tribe of Israel. It’s one of the most daring rescue missions in the history of espionage. Damian Lewis: Spy Wars s1e8: Exodus, History 2009
Tigray region, Ethiopia: This ancient tribe of over 80,000 Jews were the descendants of those who had fled Jerusalem more than 2,500 years ago … in an enclave of around 500 villages … Operation Brothers: and smuggle their Jewish brethren from the refugee camp to the Sudanese coast. ibid.
Africa: one of the fastest growing regions in the world. The youngest continent where six in ten people are under twenty-five. With hundreds of different ethnicities and some 2,000 languages, Africa is the most culturally diverse place on Earth. African Renaissance: When Art Meets Power I: Ethiopia, BBC 2020
An empire with a distinctive story of faith, devotion, and resistance of European colonisers. A midwife of African liberation. Ethiopia: a country which has a proud 3,000 year history. ibid.
Axum: 120 obelisks … an elaborate feat of engineering. ibid.
Haile Selassie: arguably the most complex and the most flawed figure in modern African History … His reign would span the most dramatic decades of the twentieth century: two world wars, invasion, revolution, all of which embroiled his fiercely independent nation … Was he almost doomed to fail? ibid.
In 1935 Italy invaded: as a spoil of victory, the Italians seized one of the famous Axiom obelisks. ibid.
Here [UK] he built a remarkable relationship with the British left which rallied against the brutal fascist occupation of his country. ibid.
This is Afewerk Tekle’s famous Triptych, The Total Liberation of Africa, and it’s awe-inspiring. ibid.
In the 1990s Ethiopia held multi-party elections again. The economy modernised, food security improved and Ethiopia started to regain its place in the world. ibid.
A thriving fashion and contemporary arts scene. ibid.