A few years ago I stumbled upon an article that said that something like a third of Ethiopians are Christians.Being in Africa,and so close to Saudi Arabia,I was stunned to see this.I know there are a good number of Christians in central Africa,thanks to French and Belgian colonization but they're found in Ethiopia too.
It's actually about two thirds. They are fiercely proud of being the home of the Ark of the Covenant.
First of all, Eritrea (where Meb Keflezighi hailed from) became independent from Ethiopia in 1993, after a long war. But Eritrea is culturally very closely related to Ethiopia.
When Meb was born, Eritrea was part of Ethiopia, under the horrific communist Derg dictatorship. Since he left Eritrea with his family when he was 12 years old (in 1987), he never resided in an independent Eritrea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meb_Keflezighi
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea are majority Christian, but with a large and growing muslim population. The traditional Ethiopian Church is the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, from which the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church split and received autocephaly with Eritrean independence in 1993.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrean_Orthodox_Tewahedo_Church
Both of these “Tewahedo” (”One Nature” of Christ) churches are not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, bring considered “Non-Chalcedonian” and “monophysite”. They are often called Oriental Orthodox Churches. However, there are some moves to try to reunite the two families of Churches.
https://www.svots.edu/content/beyond-dialogue-quest-eastern-and-oriental-orthodox-unity-today
In the United States, immigrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt, etc. especially those who cannot find or easily attend an Oriental Orthodox Church of their nationality, or who no longer understand their languages, often may be received into an Eastern Orthodox Church (e.g., Orthodox Church in America, Greek, Serbian, Antiochian, etc.)
I therefore do not know whether Meb is a Eastern Orthodox or a Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Christian. But he is an Orthodox Christian either way.
They were there, and Christian, long before the French, British, and Belgians came to Sub Saharan Africa...
the infowarrior
The history of Christianity in Ethiopia goes back about 1500 years.