Tedla Hailé, and the Problem of Multi-Ethnicity in Ethiopia

Tedia Haue, and the Problem ofMultiEthnicity in Ethiopia Richard Pankhurst Addis Ababa University Ethiopia, a multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic country, has, since time immemorial , faced problems inherent in its multi-ethnicity. Contacts between different peoples, presumably speaking entirely different languages, date back to the beginnings of Ethiopian history. The possibly first-century inscription of an unknown monarch, seen at the port of Adulis by the Egyptian traveler Kosmos Indikopleustes, in the early sixth century, tells of his victories over various alien peoples, among them the Bèga.1 Fighting against the latter was subsequently reported, in early fourth century, in an inscription of the Aksumite King Ezana. It states that six of the enemy kings were taken prisoner, together with their numerous followers, and were fed and looked after for several months, before being resettled on new land2—an operation which, we may presume , must have involved no small transcending of linguistic barriers. The question oflinguistic diversity found later expression, in the early sixth century AD, when Kosmos reported that merchants from Aksum, when obtaining gold from the inhabitants in territories to the southwest, had resort to what economists term "dumb commerce" or "silent trade." They did so, Kosmos expressly states, because the languages of the two parties were "different and interpreters are hardly to be found."3 To obtain international comprehension, the rulers of Aksum, on the other hand, made use ofboth Greek and Sabaean, or South Arabian, in addition to the local language, Ge'ez, on their inscriptions and coins.4 Little is recorded about ethnic and linguistic problems and policies in medieval Ethiopia. It is, however, known that Amharic developed around this time as the lesanä negus, or "language ofthe king."5 It was thus the tongue used at court, and®Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 5, No. 3 (New Series) 1998, pp. 81-96 81 82 Richard Pankhurst presumably for most government affairs. Garrisons of probably largely Amharicspeaking soldiers from the central state were, however, established, particularly during the reign of Emperor Zär'a Ya'qob (1433-1468) in many peripheral, or semi-peripheral, non-Amharic-speaking areas. These included Hamasén,6 Tegray, Bali, Hadeya, and Ifat.7 Troops from non-Amharic-speaking areas, among them Damot, were on the other hand inducted into the monarch's service.8 Many soldiers , it may be assumed, married women of the local population. Not a few individuals from the peripheral areas, frequently speakers of other languages, entered imperial employ over the centuries. A notable example was Awra'i Uthman, a Bälaw from the northwest of the empire, who became a foUower of Emperor Lebna Dengel (1508-1540), and later ofthe Muslim warrior Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, better known as Gran, or the left-handed.9 There were also a significant number of dynastic marriages between ruling families with different linguistic, and even religious, backgrounds.10 As far as language was concerned, Ge'ez, the language of church, ecclesiastical literature, and the liturgy, was then, as for many centuries previously, the language also of church education, and hence a unifying factor among churchmen from all over the realm. Amharic, however, remained the lesanä negus. Both languages thus served an integrative role. Letters to foreign potentates, on the other hand, were sometimes written in Arabic, as well as Ge'ez. One, or the other, or both, of these languages also appeared on some of the earliest royal seals.11 The northward expansion of the Oromo, or Oromo, to some extent introduced their language, now termed Oromifa, to the Ethiopian body politic. There is reason to believe that Emperor Susneyos (1606-1632) learned the language during his contacts with the Oromo,12 and the same was probably true of Emperor Iyasu I (1681-1706) and Emperor Bäkaffa (1721-1730), both ofwhom found refuge for a time among the Oromo, and made use of Oromo contingents in their armies.13 The Oromo language later gained considerable prominence at the then capital , Gondar. The Scottish travelerJames Bruce reported that during the reign of the half-Oromo Emperor Iyo'as (1755-1769), "nothing was heard at the palace but Galla," and that "the king himself affected to speak...