THE KEBRA NEGAST has been novelized. The novel's author, Anna Morgan, has an article from the National Post reprinted in the Sudan Tribune. Excerpt:

It was over 20 years ago that I wandered into the Ethiopian Church in Jerusalem and became interested in the connections between Ethiopia and Israel. The incredible history of two ancient kingdoms -- both known for their tremendous achievements -- intrigued me.

My interest led me many years later to the Israel Association of Ethiopian Jewry, where I met Shula Mola, one of the Beyta Yisrael. The story she told me formed the basis of my recent work of historical fiction, Daughters of the Ark.

The book begins in ancient times, when King Solomon ruled over the Israelites and Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, governed over the Ethiopian Axumite kingdom. However, the second and third parts of the novel take place in modern times.

As I wrote the book and travelled back and forth to Ethiopia, I couldn't help but wonder how a place with such a rich cultural heritage had become so poor --how a country that had once attracted immigrants was now a place that so many people were so anxious to leave.

Legends abound as to how Jews arrived in Ethiopia in the first place. Some look to an Ethiopian cultural narrative called the Kebra Negast for answers. That epic tale attributes the Jewish presence in Ethiopia to Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, who made a trip from Axum, the centre of ancient Ethiopia's great civilization, to Jerusalem, the capital of the Israelite Kingdom in 961 BCE.