ABSTRACT
The Church in Africa south of the Sahara has acquired and added to the many Christian verbal transmogrifications that came originally from the north. In its turn, it has produced its own eccentric ecclesiastical etymology, of which, perhaps the most striking example is the story of Ethiopianism. This evocative expression in African Christianity is best approached chronologically. It is convenient to divide Ethiopianism into four periods: from 1611 to 1871; from 1872 to 1928; from 1929 to 1963; and after 1963. The period from 1872 to 1928 may be called the classical period of Ethiopianism because it was at this time that it exercised its greatest political influence and was most widely noticed in the European, American, and African press. Europeans in South and Central Africa and their sympathizers abroad noted the proliferation, in numbers and doctrines, of independent African Churches.
