Ethiopian Playwright Banna Desta Releases Audio Drama Set in the Aksumite Empire

Playwright Banna Desta has brought an often-overlooked ancient African civilization to life in her latest work: a compelling audio drama about an increasingly tyrannical queen and her scheming twin sons.

“As well as wanting to entertain the audience, because the play is very funny, I wanted to add another dimension to people’s understanding of Africa,” Desta tells the BBC.

“I wanted to write about a time when the continent was not affected by colonialism and there were prosperous societies,” he says.

The Abyssinians is set in the 5th century in the Aksumite Empire, also known as the Kingdom of Aksum.

Aksum was a wealthy and influential monarchy that at its peak spread across what is now northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, southern Saudi Arabia, and western Yemen. It lasted almost 1,000 years, approximately from 100 BC to 960 AD

It was there that Christianity first came to Africa and where the continent’s first coins were minted.

It was at the heart of a trade network between India and the Mediterranean and its ships controlled the Red Sea trade through the port of Adulis and the inland routes of northeast Africa.

In the 3rd century, it was considered one of the four great powers of the world, along with Persia, Rome and China.

“I feel like Aksum is completely excluded from that picture. Ethiopia is a cradle of civilization, and yet I feel like it’s never really included in our understanding of global history,” Desta says.

She chose that part of the world and that period of history because of her personal connections. He was born in the United States, to a mother from Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, and a father from Eritrea, the same areas that were at the heart of the ancient Aksumite empire.

“Actually, the impulse was simply wanting to learn more about a pre-colonial era, and I thought a wonderful place to start was my own heritage and ancestral lineage.”

The Abyssinians, released by Audible and directed by Shariffa Al, is Desta’s first audio work. It is a tragicomedy that mixes historical facts with the author’s imagination.

The play “is also really about how people maintain their humanity in periods of immense change,” Desta says.

It tells the story of a monarchy at a crossroads in history.

Queen Yodit must decide which of her twin sons, Kaleb or Negus, should succeed her to the throne, just as she faces social and economic upheaval and conflicting beliefs about religion and rights. There is also romance.

“Queen Yodit is… complex, majestic, cunning, raw, sensual and compelling,” says Danielle Deadwyler, the Bafta-nominated film star who played the role.

The character of Yodit was loosely inspired by the real Queen Yodit, or Judith, who reigned at a time different from the period in which the play is set.

He is a figure shrouded in mystery due to a lack of historical records and conflicting folklore about who he was.

Some consider her dictatorial and instrumental in the fall of Aksum, says Desta, who traveled to Ethiopia as part of her research for the play.

“I thought she was a good starting point for that type of character,” Desta says.

“I think a lot of times female leader characters have to be very ‘on point,’ and I love the idea of ​​a woman being a tyrant in this period of history.”

Writer James Baldwin once said that artists are “emotional or spiritual historians,” and those words resonated deeply with Desta as he wrote the play.

“I wanted to explore the full spectrum of human emotions: the characters’ private feelings, the things they struggle with as human beings that have nothing to do with their public roles,” he tells the BBC.

Queen Yodit was a character that Desta felt didn’t have much love in her life.

“A lot of their reactions to the world come from that place where they don’t value her as a partner and they don’t necessarily feel like they have a place or that they’ve chosen to be a leader,” Desta says.

Another female character written to break stereotypes is Makeda, played by Arsema Thomas from the famous Bridgerton spin-off, Queen Charlotte.

She is sent to work as a servant in the royal household to pay off her father’s debts. But she is also someone “who can think for herself, can think beyond her station in life and is a global thinker.”

Despite being set in an ancient world, The Abyssinians’ dialogue and dry humor make it feel modern and relevant.

Queen Yodit, especially, likes to make a sarcastic comment right in the middle of a serious moment.

The production features an original Ethio-jazz score by DA Mekonnen, an Ethiopian-American musician, and Andrew Orkin, and features Ethiopian-born multi-instrumentalist Kibrom Birhane.

“The score parallels and complements the tone of the work,” Desta says, “because I feel like a lot of Ethiopian music has that ancient quality and jazz has that kind of contemporary feel.”

Tony winner André De Shields described being in The Abyssinians as an “opportunity to return to one’s own ancient culture” and an illustration of the “power of art to transform lives.”

It was crucial for Desta to have actors from the black diaspora play the characters.

The cast also includes Zainab Jah, who in 2021 won the best actress award for Farewell Amor at Fespaco, Africa’s largest film festival.

Chukwudi Iwuji, who began his acting career at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the United Kingdom, and Phillip James Brannon, best known for his roles on Broadway and the film Contagion, also star.

“The talent was amazing,” Desta says, “I know that doesn’t happen to a lot of early playwrights, so I’m especially grateful.”

Desta’s next goal is to bring The Abyssinians to the stage with, wait for it, the same cast.