© The Trustees of the British Museum

How are Orthodox Christianity and sport linked within Ethiopian culture?

Created in the late 1940s by an Ethiopian priest, this watercolour painting from the British Museum’s collection depicts two teams of men playing the native stick-and-ball game Genna.

Traditionally played at Christmas, Genna uses curved wooden sticks to strike a wooden ball. According to Ethiopian legend, it was first played by shepherds in celebration of the birth of Jesus. Thereafter, this sport became associated with the Christmas season and religion.

The Christian connection is most obvious from the four angels the priest painted at the top of the painting looking down onto the men playing Genna. Originally part of a book of images, paintings like this one were later used as models for mural paintings.

There is a military connection too: it is painted on Italian military paper – likely a book of military papers – possibly a remnant of Italy’s occupation of East Africa during World War 2.

While this piece may not capture hockey in the modern sense of the game we know of today, its existence shows how religion and sport came together within Addis Ababa culture.