WHAT IS THE KEBRA NEGAST?

Christianity in Africa has taken many forms and has traditions and books that are unfamiliar to most of us in the United States. Black Heritage is as varied as it is interesting. 

From http://www.kebranegast.com/

"The Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings), is an account written in Ge'ez of the origins of the Solomonic line of the Emperors of Ethiopia. The Kebra Negast is one of the oldest text of linage in Africa and is at least seven hundred years old, and is revered by many Ethiopian Christians and Rastafarians. Just as the Tarikh Ul Sudan is for Islamic history. Not only does it contain an account of how theQueen of Sheba met Solomon, and about how the Ark of the Covenant came to Ethiopia with Menelik I, but contains an account of the conversion of the Ethiopians from the worship of the sun, moon, and stars to the current Tewahedo Church (Ethiopian Orthodox Church)"

You should also look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kebra_Nagast 

BLACK INFLUENCE ON EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND EARLY ETHIOPIAN ADOPTION

There is a strong indigenous religious tradition in Africa, but like other parts of the world, two of the major religions, Christianity and Islam, have had a strong influence. This post will focus on Christianity. 

From Introduction to Black Studies by Maulana Karenga

"Th[e] concept of African presence and critical participation in Christianity in its formative years calls forth names like Origin, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Plotinus, and Augustine. These were all North Africans and are often raised to impose both racial and religious modesty on Whites who deny the multicultural origin of the faith. The issue, however, is whether these early teachers of Christianity and the fathers of the Church were simply in Africa or also of Africa. By this I mean, did they draw on African views and values or did they work within the Western Asian and European worldviews and value systems? Furthermore, evolution of Christianity in Ethiopia has a long and rich history starting small in the early 4th century and a national religion in 325 C.E. (AD) with its embrace by Emperor Ezana." 

From: Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch

"The most remarkable and exotic triumph of Miaphysite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miaphysitism) cause around the Byzantine Empire was far to the south even beyond Nubia, in Ethiopia. The origins of Christianity in this remote and mountainous region are not clear, beyond the mysterious self-contained story of the Book of Acts of an encounter in Judaea between Philip, one of the first Christian leaders in Jerusalem, and a eunuch servant of the  'Queen of Ethiopia', who was fascinated to hear that the Jewish prophesy had been fulfilled in the coming of Christ. The first historical accounts are from the fourth century, and make it clear that Christian approaches came not southwards from Egypt but from the east across the Red Sea, via Ethiopia's longstanding trade contacts with Arabia and ultimately Syria. It was a Syrian merchant, Frumentius, who is credited with converting Ezana, the Negus (king or emperor) of the powerful northern state of Aksum.... Ezana has left a surviving inscription in Greek announcing his renunciation of his status a son of the Ethiopian war god, putting himself under the care of the trinity."