ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book shows that the concept of race was conspicuously absent from the Ethiopian-European encounter. This point is of special significance to scholars of Africa and its diaspora, who are well aware of the disastrous effects of racial prejudice in the making of the Atlantic world. Ethiopia's contacts with Europe developed on the basis of complex considerations and an advanced understanding of both regional and transregional dynamics. The role of Ethiopians as initiators finds a particularly meaningful confirmation in the behavior of pilgrims in Jerusalem. Whereas both Ethiopian and European clerics operated in the city, the former were the first to pierce the frontier between worlds and journey to the other side. The Ethiopian-European encounter unfolded before this epochal intellectual transformation and the ensuing crystallization of modern racial categories.
