DID YOU KNOW that the Ethiopian Orthodox Saint Abba Niqolawos, ቅዱስ ፡ ኒቆላዎስ ።, is the original character of what has been recently elaborated as “Santa Klaus” (Niklaus/Nicholas)?
He was an Oriental man from Mira, in the current Turkey, and his body rests in Bari, South Italy, in a place very near to the Ethiopian Church of that city. Abba Niqolawos is traditionally known in Bari as “The Black”, and depicted as a black man in traditional icons and statues. Surely, he wasn’t white and had nothing to do with Lapland, reindeers and white snow.
His life is commemorated in Ethiopia on 10th Tahsas (19th of December). He is recognized in the Ethiopian Synaxarium as a child prodigy, that was filled with deep righteousness and wisdom since his very first days of life, and also as a very powerful worker of miracles.
The idea of Santa Klaus bringing gifts at night is an elaboration of the orthodox tradition concerning his life. It is said, in fact, that during night he thrown 3 balls full of gold into the house of a poor father, so that he could give his daughters in matrimony and avoid to make them prostitutes for survival. The saint is still traditionally depicted with these 3 balls of gold, which in modern times were transformed into the “night gifts” of Santa Klaus. The Ethiopian Synaxarium also tell us that he was one of the 318 fathers of Nicea that fought against the heresy of Arius, so His Majesty spoke about him also, when He prayed:
“May God who helped the 318 Fathers of the council of Nicea enlighten and help us all.”
As they have done with Christ, the present day Santa (Satan) character is another example of white-washing colonial education, trying to adulterate the African spiritual roots, set a carnal culture of white supremacy and keep Africa and East under exploitation and denigration.
“Even this triumphant ticker-tape parade (in Manhattan), though, could not match the rapturous welcome given to the emperor by a jubilant crowd of African-Americans when he visited a Baptist Church on 138th Street in Harlem. The pastor of the church, Reverend Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., greeted Haile Selassie ‘in the name of the 700,000 Afro-Americans of New York City, men and women of every faith, belief, and disbelief’. Powell extolled the emperor as ‘the symbol around which we place all our hopes, dreams, and prayers that one day the entire continent of Africa shall be as free as the country of Ethiopia.’ A 200-voice choir then sang the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Handel’s ‘Messiah’; the emperor was visibly moved when he heard the refrain ‘and he shall reign forever and ever’.”
