Which African country was formerly called Abyssinia?

Ethiopia, and it is the only African country never colonised - which is not for want of attempts. Italy invaded in 1895 and was comprehensively defeated at Adwa in 1896 by Menelik II's army, the first time an African state had beaten a European power in a set-piece battle, and the shock of it reverberated well beyond Africa. Italy returned in 1935 with aircraft and mustard gas and held the country for five years, which Ethiopia counts as an occupation rather than a colonisation.

It has its own everything. Its own alphabet, Ge'ez script, still in use; its own calendar of thirteen months, running seven to eight years behind the Gregorian; its own clock, starting the day at dawn rather than midnight; and one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, adopting the faith in the fourth century. The rock-hewn churches at Lalibela are carved downward out of solid stone rather than built.

It is also, on current evidence, where our species began. Some of the oldest anatomically modern human fossils come from the Omo valley and Herto, and Lucy - the Australopithecus skeleton that reshaped understanding of upright walking - was found in the Afar depression in 1974. Ethiopians call her Dinkinesh, which means you are marvellous.