Before the cross: Reimagining the forgotten gods and goddesses of Ethiopia

Artist Talk: This artistic display features four Ethiopian art-style drawings depicting reimagined polytheistic gods and goddesses from the Axumite Empire, accompanied by traditional Ethiopian children’s songs. The work explores the erasure of Ethiopia’s polytheistic heritage, suppressed by Christianity through centuries of resistance and iconoclasm.
Using the Akashic Records—a metaphysical archive of collective spiritual knowledge—I channel insights about these deities into my artwork. The creative process becomes both a spiritual practice and a reclamation of ancestral narratives, bridging the unseen and the tangible. The drawings invite viewers to honor the echoes of Ethiopia’s forgotten gods, explore their own spiritual creativity, and blur the boundaries between art and the sacred.