Yetiyôpya-ou-Afäriqara

JAÑ AMHARA: SAWAA / SHAWAA / SHEWA / SEWAA / SHOA / SCIOA:

History of the provinces of Ethiopia: Part 3

የኢትዮጵያ ክፍል አገር ታሪኮች

Shewa (ሸዋ)

የሸዋ ታሪክ

Towns and Notable regions: Addis Ababa, Nazret, Debre Birhan, Menz, Tegulet, Merhabete, Ankober, Minjar, Moret, Selale, Welkite.

Located in central Ethiopia that today also includes the modern capital, Shewa is not only situated geographically in the exact center in Ethiopia, but it has also served been the political centre of Ethiopia throughout various times in history, particularly in recent Ethiopian history, as well as in Medieval Ethiopia. Due its territory shrinking and expanding throughout various periods in history, Shewa today is amalgamated by various people, primarily the Amhara, Oromo Gurage, Argobba and others. The Amhara traditionally inhabit the bulk of north, central and eastern highlands such as Menz, Merehabete, Bulga, Minjar and Yifat. The region remained the southernmost extension of the Amhara territory, establishing royal cities such as Tegulet, Debre Birhan and Ankober that served as the capitals of Ethiopia since the 14th century but because of its southern proximity, following the Islamic Adal invasions and subsequent Oromo migrations in the 16th century, Shewa was isolated and cut off from the rest of the empire. The Oromo, settling there in the 16th century, occupy much of the west and south, The Gurage inhabit the south-west, approximately 100 km south-west of Addis Ababa but significant amounts live in the capital and other urban centers, as well as other groups such as the Zway, who inhabit the area surrounding Lake Zway, and the Argobba, a Muslim group closely related to the Amhara who inhabit the north-east part of Shewa in Aliyu Amba and Wollo but whose language is dying and have now mostly assimilated to speaking Amharic and Oromiffa. As a result, the people of the politically dominant region were not homogenous, particularly from the 19th century as most of the royal aristocrats, military leaders, and innovators who held much of the higher positions were ethnically diverse, composing of nobles of Amhara, Oromo, and Gurage ancestry.

Historical Antiquity: The kingdom was known by a variety of names in historiography such as Shoa, Shawa, Sawa and Schoa. The Etymology is unclear, but researchers Donald Levine believe it is linked with Sheba, the land of which the legendary Queen of the same name. The first recorded presence of the province dates to the 9th century, when the Makhzumi dynasty established the Muslim Sultanate of Shewa at Walalah, in the eastern escarpments. One of the oldest Muslim dynasties in the Horn of Africa, the Makhzumi are thought to be the first precursor to the various future Islamic states and peoples that would inhabit the surrounding area such as Ifat, Hadiya, Adal, and the Harla. Christian presence is just as old. When Axum began to decline , it simultaneously began to expand southward. According to Ethiopian records, when Gudit, a Jewish Queen who laid waste to several Churches and destroyed the Axumite empire, the last Axumite Emperor Dil Naod fled as a boy with his Christian followers south to Menz for safety in 910 AD. His descendants thus established a Christian enclave in Shewa. T There’s however a surrounding confusion of the simultaneous use of the name Shewa by the Islamic Sultanate and the Christian region at the approximate same time. The Muslim Shewa principality were probably restricted to the lowland areas east of the Ethiopian plateau escarpment, while the North and Western parts were securely Christian dominated. The latter would function to be one of the key critical areas in forming the base of the Ethiopian Empire. Many authors have attempted to describe Shewa’s role in Ethiopia as only starting from the 19th century by Menelik, in reality that is far from the truth. The province served as the geo-political center of the country from late 13th to 16th century, an age that is commonly described as Ethiopia’s “golden era”. The emperors of the age heiled from the province and established several capital cities such as Debre Birhan, Tegulet, and the famed city of Barara (Near Entoto, modern Addis Ababa), building castles and ruins that remain existing today.

Historical and Archeological evidence of Christian presence in Shewa is attested to 12th to the construction of Adadi Mariam, thought to have been built in the 12th century. An arabic source states the Amhara came into conflict with the Werjih people , a Muslim pastoralist people who inhabited the east lowlands around Waj (east of Lake Zway in southern Shewa) in 1129. The latter excerpt is also the first time the Amhara is written in any written source. Further Christian in Shewa is further attested by “stele cultures in the Soddo region (Tiya), the tradition of crowning Ethiopian kings on Mt Menagesha north of the Wechecha Range believed to date back to medieval times, the royal protection of the Menagesha Forest (western slopes of the Wechecha Range) which started with Zara Ya’eqob (reigned 1434-1468), the monastery on Mt Ziqwala founded in the 12th century, and – last but not least – the network of royal churches (Enselale, Ginbi, Ejersa and others) – many presumably dating back to the 15th/16th century – which had been discovered in south Shoa in the 1960s and 1970s as well as recently.” Ancient staeles have also been found in Efrata and Gedem in the northern tip of Shewa similar to those found in Tiya, Gurage kilil but archaeological research about these mystereious sites is lacking.

Politics:

In 1270, a young prince from the Amhara province (modern day Wollo) named Yekuno Amlak claimed ancestry from one of the descendants of Dil Naod who settled in Shewa generations earlier. This claim was important. According to Ethiopian Christian legend, all of the previous emperors were descended from Menelik I, the offspring of King Solomon and Makeda (the Queen of Sheba). The current Emperors of the time, the Zagwes, although canonized as Saints by the church, were regarded as usurpers (not being descended from Solomon).Yekuno Amlak gained a massive number of support primarily from Amhara and Shewa, the former of which was his homeland and the latter of which would serve as his and his descendants political base. Rallying these forces, he deposed the last Zagwe ruler and crowned himself Emperor. Thus from then on the Solomonic Amhara line would ascertain power for most of the next 700 years up until the fall of Haile Selassie. Yekuno Amlak’s grandson Amda-Seyon greatly expanded the peripheries of the Christian Empire, incorporating many of the Islamic states in the eastern lowlands, and engaged with Ifat led by the Walashma dynasty who deposed the Makhzumis in the 12th century, defeating several coalitions of armies sent against him. His empire was consisted of a large extensive multi-ethnic domain, stretching from Bogos in the Eritrean coastal highlands to as far south as the Omo river, incorporating of dozens of smaller kingdoms and territories that were given a degree of self-autonomy as long as they submitted tribute.

The Christian emperors would continue to engage in conflict with Ifat and other Muslim lowland states for the next two centuries, the results of which the Christians were mostly victorious but could not properly consolidate power over these territories, and were constantly faced with rebellions, travelling from campsite to campsite. The struggle reached its climax during the early 16th century. Adal, which had succeeded Ifat as the dominant Muslim state in the Horn. Relocating from Ifat, which was situated in the lowlands of eastern Shewa further east beyond the Chercher mountains in Harer, Adal grew in power and challenged the Christian Empire once again, revitalized under Imam Ahmed Gragn. With the aid of Ottoman Muskets, Arab foot soldiers and new firearms the Adalites managed to ransack much of the Christian provinces, first conquering the frontier territories, and then into the heart of the highland empire itself. Shewa, alongside, Amhara, and Angot were particularly devastated, where several churches including the famous monastery of Debre Libanos itself were ransacked and burnt. Almost ¾ of the empire was conquered until they were finally defeated by the combination of Portuguese and Ethiopian forces under Emperor Gelawdewos in 1541. Afterwards, both Christian Ethiopia and Adal were left severely weakened from the wars. This was subsequently taken advantage of by onsuening Oromos, who started their migratorial raids into the empire as early as 1529 when they approached Bale. Gradually after the Adalite wars had concluded they started to advance further to the frontier provinces such as Fetegar and Dawaro, which because of the previous wars were devastated and deep in poverty and as a result were easily overrun. Soon the Oromo had penetrated deep into Shewa, Amhara, and Angot, of whom the Tulama, Wallo, and Raya and Yajju clans had settled in respectively. The regions were already weakened from the devastation of Gragn. By the mid-to-late 16th century, Ethiopia’s political base had shifted away from Shewa into the North-West regions north of Lake Tana in what is now known as Begemeder and Simien, where in 1632 Emperor Fasilides founded his new capital Gonder. As central power shifted towards the Lake Tana region, it limited its political sphere to Begemder, Gojjam, Tigrai and Lasta. As a result, all the previous frontier provinces were lost and Shewa was left at the mercy of the Oromos who had already well established themselves in the highlands, its former capitals of Debre Birhan, Tegulet and Barara left desolate and abandoned. As a result, Shewa became isolated from the rest of the Empire; this isolation however would ultimately became an integral key and unique characteristic of Shewa’s political case that would define its history up until the 19th century and formulate its eventual rise back to political influence.

The Amhara in Shewa, like in Wollo, were dominated by the surrounding Oromos. They were largely confined into living in the steep gorges, while the Oromo preferred to live in the grassy plains. The exception however was Menz. Menz, a historic region in the northern tip of Shewa was virtually almost the only district in the province that was not occupied by the Oromo. Due to its steep altitude where the feared horsepower and cavalry of the latter, (which had proved so decisively successful in their other conquests), were unable to penetrate the steep hills and high altitude of Menz and were repelled. It was from Menz where the Christian Amhara first set out on the counter offensive. A native noble by the name of Negusie/Negasi Kristos claimed paternal Solomonic descendance from the father of Emperor Susenyos. Gaining followers, Kristos sought out to re-expand and claim territories that were lost during the Oromo migrations and set out from his base in Menz, rejuvenating morale amongst the Christian Amhara in the surrounding regions, warring against the Oromo in Yifat and Wollo. He succeeded in establishing and his successors such as Sebastyenos, Amha Iyasus and Asfaw Wesen would continue the policy of reinvigoration and re-conquest of Shewan Amhara clout, establishing an autonomous state and a title unique to the rulers of Shewa known as the Meridjazmatches. Unlike in Wollo, where the Amhara were completely under domination under the Wollo Oromo rulers and used Islam to consolidate control and opposition against central rule in Gonder, the Meridazmatches had bolstering success, asserting primacy and re-incorporating control over regions such as Antsokyana, Debre Birhan, Efrata, Merhabete, and Ensaro in the North and eventually recaptured the Central areas such as Bulga, Asagirt, Bereket up to the Kesem river. Virtually an independent state, Shewa was heavily isolated. Its isolation however, proved to be a blessing in disguise in the long run as, bound by the Bashilo river that served as a buffer between it and the Wollo Oromo, Shewa was unaffected by the unstable political turmoil that had been throwing over in Gonder known as the Zemene Mesafint. It was able to grow immensely while central rule continued to be in severe decline. Its power reached its zenith peak during the reign of Sahle Selassie (1813-1847). Sahle Selassie not only reconquered all of the Amhara territories, but also consolidate much of the Oromo into his empire, establishing alliances with many of the groups such as the Abichu Oromo of whom he often employed and served him as subjects, and even declared himself “King of the Gurages”. Shewa’s wealth also benefited immensely from trade, where trade caravans on the Ifat escarpments prospered. He grew into a powerful enough position to abandon the title of Meridazmatch and declared himself Negus or King of Shewa, a title never used simultaneously during the rule of an Emperor since the Bahr Negash. His son, Haile Melekot succeeded him, but immediately during his rise was the simultaneous rise of the infamous shifta, Ras Kassa.

A warrior from Qwara, west of Gondar, Kassa defeated all of his rivals and provincial lords and declared himself Emperor Tewodros, seeking to abolish the anarchical state that the Zemene Mesafint brought and to unify all the provinces together under one rule. This prospect threatened the self-autonomous state of Shewa, who enjoyed their freedom. Tewodros in turn, saw Shewa’s independence as a threat to the unity of Ethiopia. After a brief struggle, Tewodros successfully conquered Shewa, shortly after of which Haile Melekot died of illness and kidnapped his son prince Sahle Maryam (the future Menelik), thus effectively bringing Shewa back into the mainland, uniting the country’s highland provinces and ending the Zemene Mesafint. Apart from the rebellions of Sahle Selassie’s other sons Seifu and Haile Mikael, the province did not trouble Tewodros again, whose time was mostly consumed in pacifying rebellions in Wollo and Gojjam. The adolescent prisoner Menelik, despite being a natural claimant to the throne and of royal lineage (and therefore a threat), was treated relatively well by Tewodros. His fondness of the teenager went to the extent of aligning a marriage between him and Tewodros’s daughter Princess Altiyech, (a proposition well received amongst Menelik’s relatives who sought to tighten Shewa’s lineage closer to the Gonder dynastic line and unite the two dynasties). After 10 years however, Menelik escaped from his prison at Magdala with help from one of the queens of Wollo, Werkitu and fled to Shewa. Greatly angered especially at his desertion of his daughter, Tewodros was enraged but was too consumed with several rebellions in Gojjam, Begemder, Wollo and Agewmeder to take action. He soon met his end following conflict with the British, who invaded his fortress of Meqdela. After he died, 4 claimants of the 4 most powerful regions to the throne remained, Ras Kassa Mercha of Tigray (Emperor Yohannes IV), Wagshum Gobeze of Lasta, Ras Adal of Gojjam and Menelik II of Shewa. The youngest of these, Menelik was eager to assert his claim but he was dissuaded by his uncle Ras Darge, as the former 2 were in a more powerful position momentarily Wagshum Gobeze crowned himself Emperor Tekle-Giorgis, but was shortly defeated by Ras Kassa and himself became Emperor Yohannes, transferring political power to Tigray for the first time.

Unlike his predecessor, Yohannes permitted the provincial rulers to keep their title and gain a degree of self-autonomy so long as they swore allegiance. He quickly gained the submission of the other leaders, with the exception of Menelik and a tense hostile power struggle existed between the two leaders for over a decade. Menelik was eager to take the throne himself, however he recognized he was no match for the Emperor. Instead, he pursued his predecessors policy of Shewan expansion and went to expand his base further south and west, where he found himself competing with the ambitions of his provincial rival Ras Adal, now Negus Tekle-Haymanot of Gojjam. The two were eager to consolidate control of the rich province of Kefa, which contained plenty of natural resources and manpower and further into the Gibe States. The two rulers sent out their chief commanders Ras Gobena and Ras Derasu respectively, both of whom were Oromos to quell each other, which resulted in Gobena forcing Derasu to surrender. Enraged, Tekle Haymanot confronted Menelik personally and the two fought at the Battle of Embabo. The Shewan forces, under the leadership of Ras Gobena was victorious over the Gojjame forces. The battle was resulted in Menelik gaining control of the Gibe states in the south-west, and beginning of which Shewa would begin to gain dominance over the rest of Ethiopia. The threat of Menelik’s Shewa continued to loom over Yohannes until he was killed fighting against the Mahdist Sudanese in the battle of Metemma in 1889. Now as Emperor, Menelik would pursue his policy of expansion and reunification that his predecessor Tewodros had started. Already in the 1880s, Menelik had subjugated the rule of the territories south and west of Shewa, first expanding its rule towards the Oromo and Gurage, seeking to restore its territories once held that were lost during the Muslim Adal and Oromo invasions. Once they ventured out to gain tribute, the response was varied. Ras Gobena, an Oromo himself had carried out most the conquests himself along with his Shewan Oromo army, and the Abichu Oromo had also previously allied themselves with the Kings of Shewa. But the Arusi and Karayu Oromo had resisted bitterly, engaging in long lasting wars with Shewan forces led by Ras Darge that lasted a decade and led to mass violence and desolation. Response to the request of submission to Shewa is what ultimately decided them and its ruler’s fate. Aba Jifar, who submitted peacefully to Menelik managed retain autonomy of Jimma and accumulate massive wealth until his death, as did the Leqa Nekemte rulers of Welega who prospered and later even married within royal family but those who resisted were left desolate. The Gurage too, had met with mixed reaction. The Northern Gurage, also known as the Soddo-Kistane (or Aymelel), had submitted peacefully to Meneliks forces as early as 1877, and their land was left untouched and were permitted to retain a degree of self-autonomy ruled by its shums, but the Western Gurage, largely composed of the Sebat Bet (Cheha & Enemor), Qabena and Welene had resisted fiercely. Led by Hassan Injamo of Qabena, the resistance was reputed to be so fiercely great that in one battle killed 1/3 of Shewan forces until his forces were finally defeated by the cavalry of Gobena. He then ventured out to capture Harer, which had been under Egyptian control. His forces easily defeated the Harari forces in the Battle of Chelenqo. Eventually Menelik gathered further and further out until he reached as far south as Lake Stephanie and east to the Ogaden, where he subjugated the rule of the Welayta (led by King Tona, had proved particularly difficult), Sidama, Keffa, Gedeo and various other ethnic groups (often with persistent difficulty), making the country amalgamated of many ethnic groups not seen since the time of Amda Tseyon in the 14th century and even beyond, finalizing Ethiopia’s official political borders.

Many interpret Shewa's dominating position as an extension of ethnic Christian Amhara supremacy over non-Amhara peoples of Ethiopia. However, the matter of fact is that many members of the aristocracy that heiled from the region came from non-Amhara backgrounds, and thus reflected a position of regional supremacy rather than ethnic, a phenomenon frequently found in Ethiopian history. Many of the other Christian Tigrean, as well as non-Shewan Amharas of other regions such as Gonder, Gojjam and Wollo often resented the domination and meddling of Shewa in their affairs such as taxation and appointing of Shewan officials in non-Shewan districts. I.e, the rebellions of Gojjam in the 1950 was sparked by dissatisfaction of the appointed governor of Gojjam, Ras Inqu Selassie. Shewa continued to dominate the political quarters of Ethiopian politics until the end of Haile Selassie's reign, and its historical, cultural and political significance in modern Ethiopian history and culture has been greatly reduced and forgotten.

Individuals:

Emperor Menelik

Negus Sahle Selassie

Negus Haile Melekot

Negasi Kristos

Ras Gobena

Ras Abebe Aregay

St. Tekle Haymanot

Emperor Amde-Seyon

Emperor Zara Yaqob

Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin

Sources:

1) Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2 (JULY 1971), pp. 107-125

2) BARARA, THE ROYAL CITY OF 15TH AND EARLY 16TH CENTURY (ETHIOPIA) MEDIEVAL AND OTHER EARLY SETTLEMENTS BETWEEN WECHECHA RANGE

AND MT YERER – RESULTS FROM A RECENT

3) Italian Local politics in Northern Shawa and its consequences 1936-41 - Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2 (December 1995), pp. 1-13

4) JOURNAL ARTICLE

ISLAMIC PRINCIPALITIES IN SOUTHEAST ETHIOPIA BETWEEN THE THIRTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES (PART 1)

5) Military Elites in Medieval Ethiopia - Merid W. Aregay

Source: Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1 (June 1997), pp. 31-73

6) Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 36.

7) Amhara—The Cultural Background - Wax and Gold: tradition and innovation in Ethiopian Culture. By LevineDonald N.. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1965

8) Preliminary notes on the Stelae of Efrata and Gidim of northern Shoa - Tekle Hagos@ሳሙኤል በቀለ