Eritrean:
So I was walking on the street this random guy game & started talking to me in Indian or something.
I was like "excuse me" he goes like aren't u Indian? I said no I'm African. he Smh
That makes me mad Even at my school I go to Black school but they think I'm Indian or mixed w/ white. We have d/t hair & choclate color but why most people don't get that?

Eritrean:
So I was walking on the street this random guy game & started talking to me in Indian or something.
I was like "excuse me" he goes like aren't u Indian? I said no I'm African. he Smh
That makes me mad Even at my school I go to Black school but they think I'm Indian or mixed w/ white. We have d/t hair & choclate color but why most people don't get that?

For over two millenniums, the word 'Habesha' and its numerous variants (Habashat, Habasa, Habesh, Habeshi, Abesha) have been used to name geographical pockets of territory and people extending from the Arabian Peninsula to the furthest limits of the Horn of Africa region. Although the word is of great antiquity, there is no consensus on what it actually means. In order to understand why this is the case, we must first look back at its origins.

Most of the earliest inscriptions mentioning Habesha deal with wars, alliances and peace treaties among rivaling Yemeni kingdoms - this reference below is no different:

"Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and Himyar had called in the help of the clans of Habashat for war against the kings of Saba; but Ilmuqah granted ... the submission of Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and the clans of Habashat."

This inscription tells us that Shamir of Dhu-Raydan, who is almost certainly the Himyarite king Shamir Yuhahmid, requested assistance from the Habashat clans to go to war with Saba, a rivaling Yemeni kingdom. The inscription also credits Ilmuqah, who was the Sun God that most inhabitants on both sides of the Red Sea worshiped, for granting them victory over their Sabaean rivals.

According to Dr. Eduard Glaser, a renowned Austrian epigraphist and historian, Habeshas were originally from Southeastern Yemen who lived east of the Hadhramaut kingdom in the modern district of Mahra. He believed the etymology of Habesha must have derived from the Mahri language which means "gatherers" (as in gatherers of incense). He asserted that the Mahrites and their language should be regarded as the descendants of the people and speech of ancient Habeshas.

While it may be a stretch to claim who the direct descendants are based on scant Sabaean-Himyaritic inscriptions made two thousand years ago, Dr. Glaser seems to be right in claiming the original Habeshas were from Yemen. In fact, the earliest mention of the word Habesha in the Horn of Africa was only in the 4th century CE by the Aksumite king Ezana.

After conquering neighboring kingdoms and territories on both sides of the Red Sea, Ezana styled himself as:

"Ezana, king of Aksum, and of Himyar, and Kasu, and Saba, and Habashat, and Raydan, and Salhen and Tsiamo, and Beja, the King of Kings".

PRESENT DAY HABESHA PEOPLES CONSIST OF:
The Amhara, the Tigray-Tigrinya, the Tigre, the Gurage and the Harari. Together, the Amhara, Tigray and Gurage peoples make up about 41.5% of Ethiopia's population (c. 33.6 million Amhara, 5.5 million Tigray, 1.8 million Gurage), while the Tigrinya and Tigre combined make up 85% (55% plus 30%, respectively) of Eritrea's population (c. 5 of 5.9 million).

Ersan:
[b][/b]Interestingly, only horn Africans think they're not "black" [b][/b]but on a general scale everyone knows they are to an extent. At least by people's understanding of what "black" is.

That being said its obvious that their phenotypes differ, like that of Dravidians and Aryans, both Caucasian, they do not look anything like. They don't look like most other Africans. I have always felt Ethiopians were particularly unique, their eye shape ensures that you can always pick them put of any crowd no matter how diverse.

Hati13:

I'm Ethiopian.

Bro, most Horn Africans consider themselves black. Even those who don't consider themselves are black. DNA doesn't lie.

Ersan:


Do you have a theory about why Ethiopians have those distinctive eyes? I feel it's similar to that of Indians, is there any possibility of admixture between you and them?

Hati13:

No, we hadn't mixed with Indians, but we had extensively mixed with other peoples like Arabs, Bejas and many others. Habesha people(Amhara, Tigray, Gurage, Harar, Bihir-Tigray and Tigris(the last two are found in Eritrea) speak Semitic languages, but large percentage of their DNA is Cushitic. On average, 60-70% Cushite and 30-40% Semite.

Note that, not all Ethiopians look the same. Ethiopia is home to 80 ethnic groups, so we are very much diverse.

Our mixing isn't because of slave trade, rather those Semitic speaking people settled here around 2nd millennium BC and another again around 500-400 BC and mixed with the locals in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. There were also another mixing with Semitic and Cushitic speaking peoples throughout the 1st and 2nd millennium A.D, but not like the mixing before them.

Ersan:


Yeah I know you're diverse. My point is I can distinguish an Ethiopian from every other horner. Like I said you have this round dark hued eyes, I don't know if it's restricted to a particular ethnic group but most Ethiopians I've met have it. I know you don't all look the same.

For instance, I was watching this chef, Marcus Samuelson and I just knew this man has to be of Ethiopian descent and amazingly he was. That's how recognizable you lot are.

It's almost like the Somali noble forehead phenomenon. It's mind boggling how most of them have it.



It's confusing when you say habesha cause my people are known by some as habesha. We also share the same language family but that's as far as our similarities go. There was a scholar that proposed a connection between us but I always believed it to be poppycock because I feel our singular connection to ancient Egypt makes more sense.

Hati13:

From which country are you?

I ask, because I'm curious since your people are also called Habesha and may have connection with Ancient Egypt.

Ersan:


I'm a hausa nigerian. In early days, arabs referred to us as habesha in their literature.

Eritrean:
So I was walking on the street this random guy game & started talking to me in Indian or something.
I was like "excuse me" he goes like aren't u Indian? I said no I'm African. he Smh
That makes me mad Even at my school I go to Black school but they think I'm Indian or mixed w/ white. We have d/t hair & choclate color but why most people don't get that?