Ethiopia is the oldest Christian nation in Africa where Christian beliefs and art representing these beliefs have flourished for centuries. When Christian missionaries came into Ethiopia--a country with its own spiritual practices--missionaries converted the masses to Christianity by allowing traditional aspects of African talismanic designs to augment Christian beliefs.
In Ethiopia, when people are sick or anxious, they may commission a scroll from a priest or shaman. The scrolls are drawn on goat skin or parchment paper and can be as long as the height of the person who commissions the scroll. The cleric creates a scroll of alternating symbolic images and text prayers, which are believed to ward off evil spirits and restore good health. The scrolls represent a powerful union of medicine through art and prayer. Scroll images range from angels to lions to abstract talismanic designs and patterns. The patient looks at the scroll and recites prayers, and by doing so enters into a healing state.
Scrolls are used in various ways. Some people may hang a scroll in the entrance of their home to scare off evil spirits. Similarly, a pregnant woman who is experiencing a difficult pregnancy may roll up a scroll at night and sleep with it under her pillow or wear it as a long medicinal necklace in the daytime.
Few scrolls from the 18th and 19th century survive today. One reason for their obscurity and disappearance may be the belief system built around scrolls. Some fear that since scrolls represent a private prayer book of sorts, their owners could be vulnerable to having an evil spirit cast upon them. In this vein, the faithful may have been encouraged to dispose of a scroll when done with it. In addition, various political regimes in a quest for control have ordered the destruction of anything that could be viewed as "black magic," fearing the power of the religious scrolls. Furthermore, many of the remaining older scrolls, with their rich colors and elaborate detail, have found their way to the black market, making it difficult to catalogue them in museums. Most of the images I have reproduced in my work are catalogued in the Museum of Oceanic and African Studies in Paris, France, where every effort was made to keep them in their truest form.
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