The All Time Diva... Queen Sheba Body Like Beyonce and a Voice like Riba, huh?

           This week for our religious studies class we had to analyze the Kebra Negast reading. It was titled “The Queen of Sheba and her only Son Menyelek”. We can clearly see that this reading was going to be related to King Solomon and Ethiopia. The reading basically shows the connection between Queen Sheba and her relation to the Israelites and to Christianity. One of the themes that I noticed has been a motif throughout the course of the class and was also most certainly part of the reading was how religious articles and readings may be taken as propaganda. This may be a different form of propaganda than what is usually seen as propaganda. In this case it deals with the Kebra Negast reading as a vehicle of nationalistic unity by using a very literal way of translating the bible to fit Ethiopia and its belief in being the “new Israel”. Many may say that this is a farfetched assumption and that we should take the Kebra Negast reading for what it is, However using the article “ The Role of Religion in Constructing National Unity”, we can clearly see that religion can be used to propagate a sense of national unity throughout a nation. https://lumail.lawrence.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=7b79f7ea20b248599e42d083a30c4f5e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.landofsixpeoples.com%2fnews401%2fnc40119.htm. The article states, “ In developing national unity, a nations fundamental values need to be considered as well. Although modern nations aim for religious neutrality, the religious values embraced by the majority are central to the life of the entire society. People often find in religion the answers to essential questions regarding life, death, human values, and the meaning of living together”, showing that nations use religion to feel unity and to believe in the same moral values. It is important to note that the propaganda behind the reading only tries to unite Ethiopia under one sense of ideals.