By Fikre Tolossa
“The Tigreans had Aksum, but what could that mean to the Gurage? The Agew had Lalibela, but what could that mean to the Oromo? The Gonderes had castles, but what could that mean to the Wolayita?” Meles Zenawi
When I read the above statement made by the President of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia, Ato Meles Zenawi, in an interview with Professor Donald Levine (ER, September 1992). I started wondering whether it had some germs of truth. I asked myself, “In spite of their differences, don’t all Ethiopians have a sense of togetherness, some objects of pride which they share and common factors which bind them together or unite them, such as history, religion, culture, language, geography, socio-economic and political life? My answer to this question was in the affirmative.
For the sake of clarity, I will divide the peoples of Ethiopia into their two major component parts: Semitic and Hamitic, and see how they relate to each other. I will take the Tigre, the Amhara and the Gurage as examples of the Semitic group; the Oromo, the Somali, the Afar, and the West Sidama or Ometo as examples of the Hamitic. When we observe these groups closely, we realize that they are directly or indirectly related to each other.
The Tigre, the Amhara and the Gurage share the same ancestors. They are close relatives, so to speak. Northern Ethiopia, the original home of the two major Semitic Ethiopians, the Amhara and the Tigre, however, had been inhabited by Hamitic Ethiopians for at least three thousand years before the South Arabians, the other ancestors of the Tigre and the Amhara, immigrated from South Arabia to Northern Ethiopia, to what we today call Tigre and Eritrea.
The indigenous inhabitants of Tigre and Eritrea 4000 years ago were Hamitic Ethiopians. The Agew and the Beja, for instance, are the descendants of such Hamitic Ethiopians. Not only these Hamitic Ethiopians had their own civilizations built on kingdoms, according to some experts of African history, they were also the forefathers of the Pharaoes and the founders of the Egyptian civilization. Whether this is a fact or myth, one thing remains true. These Hamitic Ethiopians had their own civilization and a close relationship with the ancient Egyptians and the South Arabians. These Ethiopians had formed governments, wrote in their own alphabets and built stone houses, altars and statues. They worshiped their own and foreign gods and were engaged in commerce. According to Sergew Hable Selassie in his book, Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270. they exported to Egypt rare minerals such as Lapis Lazuli, electrum, silver, eye cosmetic known as kool (in both Ethiopian and Egyptian languages), gold, gold dust and antimony, as well as animals and their byproducts. Moreover, they exported to Egypt wood and wood byproducts such as incense, myrrh, balsam, boomerangs, ebony, gums, cinnamon and frankincense.
At least some time before 1000 BC, these Hamitic Ethiopians started mixing with people of Semitic stock from South Arabia. The Semitic settlers brought with them the products of their own civilization including agriculture, irrigation system, architecture, language and religion and blended them with those of the indigenous Hamitic peoples of Ethiopia. The blending of these two Hamitic and semitic peoples and their civilizations gradually created the ethnic groups that eventually evolved as Tigreans, Eritreans and Amharas, and formed the civilization of Ethiopia, with Aksum as its center. The word “Aksum” is a further evidence to the blending of the Hamitic and Semitic peoples of Ethiopia, for it is made up of both Hamitic and Semitic terms. “Ak” or “aku” in Hamitic or the Agew language, according to J. Tubiana (quoted by Sergew Hable Selassie) means “water.” Sum “which is closer to the Amharic” shum,” in Ge’ez and Tigrigna means “chief.” The literal translation of “Aksum” is, therefore, “The Water of the Chief.” It is said that to this day, there is a place not far from Aksum known as “Mai Shum” in Tigrigna and Ge’ez, meaning the water of the chief, referring to a water well. The fact that the word “Aksum” consists of Kushitic and Semitic terms proves and symbolizes the blending of the two Hamitic and Semitic civilizations and of the two racial groups which make up the majority of the peoples of Ethiopia.
Since Aksum is the cradle of Ethiopian civilization consisting of both Hamitic and Semitic elements, every architecture and each work of art in Tigrai, is therefore, the result of the mixing of both Hamitic and Semitic civilizations. Hence, both the Hamitic and the Semitic peoples of Ethiopia, including the Agew, the Beja, the Welayita, the Afar, the Oromo, the Somali, the Gurage and the Amhara, have every reason to be a part and a parcel of the Aksumite civiliza tion and to be proud of it. By the way, the Welamo (the plural of Welayta) have a special reason to relate to both the Gondere and Aksumite civilizations: Their first dynasty is supposed to have originated from Damot, near Gojam, during the reign of Yekuno Amlak around the year 1268; and their second dynasty, from Tigrai during the reign of Amde-Tsion were Mikael and Girma respectively. (G.W.B. Huntingford, History of the Galla of Ethiopia ) This chapter of the Welaita history is obviously overlooked by Ato Meles Zenawi.
The mixing of the indigenous Hamitic Ethiopians and the South Arabian immigrants, as mentioned above, resulted in the evolution of the peoples of Tigrai and Eritrea. The Amhara and Gurage belong to the two ethnic group. As I indicated on my article on Amhara contributions to Ethiopian civilization, the Amhara are the offshoots of the Tigreans, for they originated from Tigrai with their Emperor Dil Ne’ad, the last Aksumite emperor. Running away from the persecution of the Zagwe usurper, Mera Tekle Haimanot, in the 11th Century, Emperor Dil Ne’ad and a number of his people found their way to central Ethiopia and settled in Lasta, Gagn, Gonder, Gojam and Shoa. When they spread Amharic at the court of the Zagwe emperors and it was spoken by the imperial family and their soldiers from various ethnic groups, the Amhara started being identified with it.
During their 800 years of “exile” outside Tigrai and Eritrea (formerly known as Baher Medir), the Amharas never forgot their original home, Aksum, Their emperors considered their dynasty as the continuation of the Solomonic Dynasty. They returned often to Aksum to be coronated in accordance with the tradition of their ancestors, the Tigrean emperors. Both the nobles and the common Amharas considered Aksum as the cradle of their civilization and as their holy city to which they went on pilgrimage whenever they could. What is more, in the same way as their Tigreans ancestors, the Amhara used Ge’ez as the language of their literature and liturgy. To the present day, the Amhara share with their Tigrean ances tors the same history, religion, church music, liturgy, culture, literature, customs, food, art, secular pentatonic music, clothes, agriculture, architecture, etc.
Contrary to Ato Meles Zenawi’s assertion, the Gurage too, have every reason to be proud of the Aksumite civilization or Northern Ethiopian civilization, because, according to G.W.B. Huntingford and other scholars, they originated in the 15th Century from Gura, Tigrai under the leadership of the Tigrean Azmach Sebhat who went to the south on a military expedition. The word “ge” means near. Gurage means near Gura, the area which still exists in Eritrea by that very name. Even if we disregard this version of the origin of the Gurage, there are other reasons why the Gurage could relate themselves to Aksum. Though their language, Guragigna, is not the same as Tigrigna, both Guragigna and Tigrigna belong to the same Semitic family. Those Gurages who were not Islamized share the same religion as the Tigre. They belong to the same Orthodox church of the Tigreans and consider Aksum as their holy city. Their priests speak and pray in Ge’ez. They celebrate the same holidays as the peoples of Tigrai and Eritrea. Both peoples share a number of cultural traits. Even the Hamitic Agew had a number of things in common, including religion, with the Tigre, Amhara and Gurage.
One of the descendants of the ancient Hamitic peoples of Ethiopia, the Agew, as pointed out earlier, were participants of the Aksumite civilization. Later, (between the years 1030 and 1270) when they were in power after having overthrown the Solomonic Dynasty, they became dominant once again. Their emperors, however, did not totally uproot their Aksumite heritage. They pursued Aksumite politics, religion and culture in central Ethiopia. Like the previous emperors and empresses of Aksum, they subscribed to the legend of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. They were the adherents of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and as such, they practiced the liturgy and observed all the religious holidays including Meskel, Timket, Kedus Yohannes and all the days of the saints.
Some of their emperors were canonized as saints, the same category as Aksumite and, later, Amhara emperors. Their ecclesiastical language was Ge’ez. Their clergy were trained by the same traditional schools which educated the Tigre and Amhara clergy. Like Aksumite emperors, Zagwe emperors built churches in Aksum and Roha. The rock-hewn churches of Lasta and Lalibela, for instance, exhibit similarities with Aksumite architectures and were erected under their influence. For Orthodox Christian Oromos, Gurages, Welamos, Sidamas, Amharas and Tigreans, they are considered to be the second Jerusalem, and as such, a holy place of pilgrimage upto the present time. Since the Amhara held key positions in the Zagwe government during the reign of Lalibela the Great at the zenith of the Zagwe civilization, Lalibela occupies a special place in their hearts.
The Hamitic peoples of Ethiopia including the Oromo, the Somali, the Afar, the Sidama and the rest are related to each other and to the Semitic peoples as well, directly or indirectly. The Hamitic peoples share in common every Hamit ic heritage attributed to them. They share the same origin of language and religion. They also share the same history, economic and cultural life.
According to Oromo and Somali traditions of origin the earliest home of both the Oromo and the Somali was South Arabia until both of them migrated to Somalia. As a matter of fact, one version of the origin of the word “Oromo” is said to have been derived from the name of a tribal leader who was the son of Omer of Ghellad from Arabia, who crossed the sea to Berbera and settled in Africa. The Somalis, too, somehow trace their origin in Arabia. An important Somali tribe, the Ishaak, for instance, claim that they are the descendants of an Arab Sheik, Ishaak Ibn Ahmed, who arrived in Somali land between the 11th and 15th century. He married an Abyssinian woman and had four children who created the Habr Toljaala, an important Somali confederacy. The sons of the Abyssinian woman who established their own clan were Mohammed Abokr (Ibran), Ibrahim (Sambur), Musa Abokr (Jaalo) and Ahmed (Toljaalo). Thus in the veins of one of the most important Somali tribe flows a drop of Abyssinian (Tigre/Amhara) blood.
Regardless of whether the Oromos and the Somalis had migrated to Somalia from Arabia, it has been established by scholars that both of them had found themselves together in Somalia one time or another be it as friends or foes until the Oromo were driven from there under the pressure of Islam at least by the 12th Century. Both the Oromo and Somali had to live together in Ethiopia as well. As a matter of fact, the Arsi and Borena Oromos intermixed with the influential Somali tribe, the Geraa or Garre. The Bah Girei, one of the two tribes of the most important family of Southern Somalia descends from an Oromo mother. The Oromo and Somali now live together mainly in the Ethiopian provinces of Harer, Bale and Arsi sharing the same religion, economy and culture, using the same tools, and wearing more or less the same dresses, ornaments and hair styles as those of their Afar and Saho relatives and neighbors.
The Oromo did not mix and live together only with the Somali and the Afar the past 500 years. They also mixed with and influenced the Amhara, the Sidama, the Bale, the Gafat, the Hadiya, the Gurage, the Damot and many other peoples. Their impact particularly upon the Amhara religion, language, culture, politics and history was immense. The Oromo outnumber every ethnic group. The Amhara are next to the Oromo in number. Nevertheless, almost every Amhara has some Oromo lineage way down her or his genealogy. In Gojam, a person without an Oromo lineage is considered to be not a “real” Gojame. This holds true even for the Gojame nobles. Dejazmach Tulu, the governor of Damot around 1700, who was married to Woizero Welete Selassie, one of the daughters of Atse Iyasu I, was an Oromo, Dejazmach weld Abib, who was appointed as the governor of Gojam in 1745 during the reign of Atse Eyasu II, was another Oromo. His son, Dejazmach Yosedek, married Princess Welete Israel, the daughter of Etege Mentewab and Grazmach Iyasu. She mothered Ras Hailu and Ras Goshu, the two prominent rulers of Gojam. The Oromo rulers of Gojam claimed Abyssinian royal blood lineage through her.
Negus Tekle Haimanot, the descendant of Ras Hailu and Princess Welete Israel, was conscious of his Oromo background. After he was crowned Negus in 1881 by Emperor Yohannes IV, he fought against Menelik for power and territory. Though he lost the Battle of Embabo to Menelik, he became Menelik’s friend the rest of his life, remembering Menelik’s mercy capon him as a prisoner of war. The Gondere civilization would have been different without Oromo participation. Ever since the days of Emperor Susenyos (1571-1632) who appointed them to key government positions, the Oromo have taken part in building Gonder as administrators, soldiers, and clergymen. Hence, their affiliation with and pride in the Gondere civilization.
Regarding religion, a significant number of the so-called Amhara Christians exercise the indigenous Oromo religion, including the Atete, Borenticha, Irecha and Awulia rituals. As far as language is concerned, Amharic is heavy-laden with Oromo vocabularies, proverbs, sayings and tales. The Amhara have adopted the Oromo way of life to a great extent in the spheres of warfare, horsemanship, agriculture, clothing, handicraft, hair dressing, social relationships including the method of child adoption called Gudifecha and Mogassa, to mention just a few. Besides mixing with the Amhara common folks, the Oromo intermarried with the Amhara nobles and ruled Ethiopia for centuries as dejazmaches, rases, princes, kings, emperors and empresses. As a matter of fact, Ethiopia has been enriched by the Oromo, who, pumping fresh blood into the veins of the Amhara and introducing a rich and diverse culture among the rest of the ancient peoples of Ethiopia, strengthened to an immeasurable extent the demographic, political, linguistic, social and cultural dynamics of Ethiopia.
Reciprocally, the Amhara have exposed the Oromo to their language, culture, and religion so that some of them were converted to Christianity speaking Ge’ez and Amharic and leading the life-style of the Amhara. The Oromo language has been enriched by Amharic words, proverbs, sayings and folk tales which cry for a deeper examination.
An obvious Amhara Christian influence on the Oromo is the celebration of Meskel (the holiday of the founding of the True Cross) and Timket (Epiphany). Meskel is celebrated not only by the Oromo and the Amhara alike, but by many other Ethiopians including the peoples of Sidama, Kefa, Mao and Janjero. Timket is observed by numerous Ethiopians, except Muslims, who appreciate and enjoy each other’s songs and dances. A number of sacred places, however, are frequented by both Christian and Muslim Oromo and Amharas as well as other Ethiopians. These sacred places include Mt. Zuqualla, the Church of St. Gabriel in Kulubi and the tomb of Sheik Hussein in Bale.
Surrounded by the Somali, the Oromo, the Saho and some Eritrean ethnic groups, the Afar have kept their Ethiopian identity for ages. Like their fellow Tigreans, Amharas and Somalis, some of them claim their ties with South Arabia. According to both the Adoimara (commoners) and the Asaimara (nobles) traditions, they (the commoners and nobles) descend from an intermarriage of the indigenous Afar people with Yemeni Arabs. At the same time, I.M. Lewis mentions in his book, People of The Horn of Africa, that the Asaimara also descend from immigrant Abyssinians (Tigre/Amhara) of the Ethiopian highlands.
Whereas northern Afar tribes were associated with Tigrai and Eritrea, the Anfari of Aussa dealt with Central Ethiopia. In an attempt to create a good relationship with the leaders of the Aussa, some of the Amhara emperors sought to get married with them. The common Amhara merchants were engaged in salt trade with the Afar for a long time. The Afar and the Somali have a number of things which they share in common. Their physical features are the same. Both are predominantly Muslim. Their economy depends on camels, sheep and goats. Many of them are nomads. They share the same territories. Their tools and weapons are the same. Their food, dresses and hair-styles are the same. Their application and techniques of circumcision is the same. Both the Afar and the Somali practice sorcery to combat illness and use amulets to keep away diseases and evil spirits.
In the same way as the Afar, the Sidama people have attested once again to the fact that they are Ethiopians by refusing to be tagged by their ethnic names in these sad days of ethnic madness. And the Sidama people have a very good reason for not denying their being Ethiopians.
Among the segments of the Sidama populace, let us, for instance, take the most important ones, such as the Kefa, the Kembata, the Janjero, the Welamo, and the Hadiya. All of these peoples have direct or indirect lineage with the two major Semitic groups of Ethiopians, namely, the Tigreans and the Amhara.
The last king of the Keffa, Tato, claimed descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. According to the tradition of the Kefa people, their ancestors came from Tigrai. Their original language was Tigrigna until they learned the Keffa language. The Kembata, too, believe that they have some Abyssinian blood and that their first king had been a member of the Solomonic Dynasty. The Welamo, as mentioned earlier, traced two of their three dynasties from Damot during the reign of Yekuno Amlak towards the second part of the 13 Century, and from Tigre during the time of Amde-Tsion in the 16th Century. Two of their first kings had Tigre and Amhara names: Girma and Mikael, as I indicated earlier. The Janjero ruling family, the Mwa, claimed that they were of Abyssinian origin and that they came from Northern Ethiopia. Since the beginning of the 14th century upto the rise of Ahmed Grang and the Oromo, the Hadiya were tributary to Abyssinia, which means that they were influenced by the Tigre/Amhara religion, culture and politics.
The peoples of Sidama, sharing the same religions, speaking the same Kushitic languages which have been enriched by each other’s vocabularies, and having existed under the same pre-industrial feudal order specializing in agricultural products unique to them such as Inset and coffee, and trading with each other for mutual benefits, have evolved into a homogeneous unit over a long period of time. At present, this background which they share in common has not only created in them a sense of unity and togetherness, but also a sharp awareness of Ethiopianism as a reaction to the current ethnic division which attempts to tear them asunder thus threatening the very existence of each one of them. That is why they have now allied themselves under the Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Coalition which believes in Ethiopian unity based on equality.
Though each Ethiopian ethnic group exhibits its own unique features, which are a blessing in disguise because they contribute something to the formation of multi-ethnic Ethiopia, yet, the same ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, social, historical, political, economic and geographical backgrounds which the various peoples of Ethiopia share in common, create in them feelings of unity and make them appreciate the cultural products achieved by them individually and collectively. That is why the Gurage can appreciate and be proud of the Aksumite civilization. That is why the Oromo can consider the civilization of the Agew at Lalibela as their own. That is why the Welamo could relate themselves to the civilization at Gonder and elsewhere. And this is reciprocal.
As far as autonomy was concerned, the states at the periphery had their own kingdoms and sultanates. The center, for the most part, needed only recognition and tributes. As long as these two were fulfilled, the center was satisfied. Whenever the periphery refused to pay tributes, the center took measures. Though some ambitious individuals waged wars to seize power from the center, and even though the peoples of the periphery rebelled some times against “central” injustice, they did not deny the fact that they were Ethiopians. This assertion was proved in 1896 at the Battle of Adwa when imperialist Italy waged war against Ethiopia, during the scramble for Africa. Ethiopians from both the center and the periphery understood the implications of Italy’s aggression and fought bravely to defend their motherland.
Aksum, as aforementioned, was built by both Semitic and Hamitic Ethiopians. It is therefore the pride of all Ethiopians. To question what the Gurage have to do with Aksum is to deny their historical contributions and to attempt to deprive them of a pride they share with other Ethiopians. The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were built predominantly by the Hamitic Agew as well as other Ethiopians including the Amhara and Tigre so that Christian Oromos and others would not go as far as Jerusalem for worship. For the Christian Oromo, Lalibela is their Jerusalem. For the non-Christian Kushitic or Hamitic Oromo, the churches of Lalibela are symbols of their pride, for they were envisaged and materialized by the Hamitic Emperor Lalibela. It is probably by realizing this among other reasons that the Hamitic Ahmed Grang who had destructed so many other churches previously, spared the churches of Lalibela from annihilation. Lalibela is the pride of all Ethiopians. To question whether the Oromo care for Lalibela is to suggest that the Oromo are foreigners.
The peoples of Ethiopia have been so much interwoven over the past 6000 years racially, ethnically, religiously, psychologically, linguistically, historically, culturally, socially, geographically and economically, that no force can tear them asunder easily. The peoples of Ethiopia, regardless of their ethnic background, are kinsmen. The common factors which they share together can bind them yet tightly.
While the Marxist stand on the question of nationalities (which is the driving force behind Ato Meles Zenawi’s ethnic program), looks impressive as a theory, it is too simplistic and too narrow to be applied on the Ethiopian reality. The relationships of Ethiopians to each other are too sophisticated to be categorized too narrowly. The unique peoples of Ethiopia will find a unique solution to ethnic conflicts or any other problems which they encounter while striving to strengthen their unity based on equality and while attempting to build their impoverished nation.
(Fikre Tolossa, Ph.D., is Assistant Dean of Faculty at Columbia Pacific university in San Rafael, CA and Associate Editor of Ethiopian Review.)