Place:Tigray, Ethiopia

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NameTigray
Alt namesTigraisource: NIMA, GEOnet Names Server (2003-) accessed 13 November 2003
Tigraysource: Wikipedia
Tigray Kifle Hågersource: Getty Vocabulary Program
Tigresource: Webster's Geographical Dictionary (1984) p 380
TypeRegion
Coordinates13.5°N 40.833°E
Located inEthiopia
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan people. Formerly known as Region 1, its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray is the fifth-largest by area, the fifth-most populous, and the fifth-most densely populated of the 11 regional states.

Tigray's official language is Tigrinya, similar to that spoken in Eritrea just to the North. The estimated population as of 2019 is 5,443,000. The majority of the population (c. 80%) are farmers, contributing 46% to the regional gross domestic product (2009). The highlands have the highest population density, especially in eastern and central Tigray. The much less densely populated lowlands comprise 48% of Tigray's area. 96% of Tigrayans are Orthodox Christian.[1]

Tigray is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, the Amhara Region to the south and the Afar Region to the east and southeast. Besides Mekelle, major towns include Adigrat, Aksum, Shire, Humera, Adwa, Adi Remets, Alamata, Wukro, Maychew, Sheraro, Abiy Adi, Korem, Qwiha, Atsbi, Hawzen, Mekoni, Dansha, Adi Gudom, Sheraro, Indabaguna, Mai Tsebri, and Zalambessa.

The government of Tigray consists of the executive branch, led by the president; the legislative branch, which comprises the state council; and the judicial branch, which is led by the state supreme court. In early November 2020, a conflict between the Tigray Region, involving the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian federal government began, in which Eritrea took part on the side of the federal government, rapidly escalating into the Tigray War and destabilizing the region.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

3rd millennium to 1st century BC

Tigray is often regarded as the cradle of Ethiopian civilization. Its landscape has many historic monuments. Three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in Ethiopia through the Red Sea and then Tigray.

Given the presence of a large temple complex and fertile surroundings, the capital of the 3,000-year-old kingdom of Dʿmt may have been near present-day Yeha. Dʿmt developed irrigation schemes, used the plough, grew millet, and made iron tools and weapons. Some modern historians, including Stuart Munro-Hay, Rodolfo Fattovich, Ayele Bekerie, Cain Felder, and Ephraim Isaac consider this civilization to be indigenous, although Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's dominance of the Red Sea. Others, including Joseph Michels, Henri de Contenson, Tekletsadik Mekuria, and Stanley Burstein, have viewed Dʿmt as the result of a mixture of Sabaean and indigenous peoples.[2] The most recent research, however, shows that Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language spoken in Tigray, Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in ancient times, is not likely to have been derived from Sabaean. There is evidence of a Semitic-speaking presence in Tigray, Eritrea and northern Ethiopia at least as early as 2000 BC.[3] It is now believed that Sabaean influence was minor, limited to a few localities and disappearing after a few decades or a century, It may have represented a trading or military colony, in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.[2]

After the fall of Dʿmt in the 5th century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller, unknown successor kingdoms. This lasted until the rise of one of these polities during the first century BC, the Aksumite Kingdom, which succeeded in reunifying the area and is, in effect, the ancestor of medieval and modern states in Eritrea and Ethiopia using the name "Ethiopia" as early as the 4th century.

1st to 10th century AD

The Kingdom of Aksum was a trading empire rooted in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. It existed from approximately 100–940 AD, growing from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period c. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD.

According to the Book of Axum, Axum's first capital, Mazaber, was built by Itiyopis, son of Cush. The capital was later moved to Aksum in northern Ethiopia.

The Empire of Aksum, at its height, at times extended across most of present-day Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The capital city of the empire was Axum, now in northern Ethiopia. Today a smaller community, the city of Axum was once a bustling metropolis and a cultural and economic hub. Two hills and two streams lie on the east and west expanses of the city; perhaps providing the initial impetus for settling this area. Along the hills and plain outside the city, the Aksumites had cemeteries with elaborate grave stones, which are called stelae, or obelisks. Other important cities included Yeha, Hawulti-Melazo, Matara, Adulis, and Qohaito, the last three of which are now in Eritrea. By the reign of Endubis in the late 3rd century, Aksum had begun minting its own currency and was named by Mani as one of the four great powers of his time, along with China and the Sassanid and Roman empires. It converted to Christianity in 325 or 328 under King Ezana and was the first state to use the image of the cross on its coins.

11th to 19th century AD

In the 14th century the Tigrinya-speaking lands (Tigray-Mareb Melash) were divided into two provinces, separated by the Mereb River, by the newly enthroned Amhara emperors. The governor of the northern province received the title Bahre Negash (Ruler of the sea), whereas the governor of the southern province was given the title of Tigray Mekonen (Lord of Tigray). The Portuguese Jesuit Emanuele Baradas's work titled "Do reino de Tigr", written in 1633–34, states that the "Reino de Tigr" (Kingdom of Tigray) extended from Hamasien to Temben, from the borders of Dankel to the Adwa mountain. He also stated that Tigray-Mereb Melash was divided into 24 smaller political units (principalities), twelve of which were located south of the Mereb and governed by the Tigray Mekonen, based in Enderta. The other twelve were located north of the Mereb, under the authority of the Bahre Negash, based in the district of Serae.

The Book of Aksum, likely written and compiled before the 15th century, shows a traditional schematic map of Tigray with the city of Aksum at its center, surrounded by the 13 principal provinces: "Tembien, Shire, Serae, Hamasien, Bur, Sam’a, Agame, Amba Senayt, Garalta, Enderta, Sahart and Abergele."

During the Middle Ages, the position of Tigray Mekonnen ("Governor of Tigray") was established to rule over the area. Other districts included Akele Guzay (now part of Eritrea), and the kingdom of the Bahr negus, who ruled much of what is now Eritrea and Shire district and town in Western Tigray. At the time when Tigray Mekonnen existed simultaneously with that of Bahr negus, their frontier seems to have been the Mareb River, which is currently constitutes the border between the Ethiopian province of Tigray and Eritrea.

After the loss of power of the Bahr negus in the aftermath of Bahr negus Yeshaq's rebellions, By the unsettled Zemene Mesafint period ("Era of the Princes"), both designations had declined to little more than empty titles, and the lord who succeeded them used (and received from the Emperor) the title of either Ras or Dejazmach, beginning with Ras Mikael Sehul. Rulers of Tigray such as Ras Wolde Selassie alternated with others, chiefly those of Begemder or Yejju, as warlords to maintain the Ethiopian monarchy during the Zemene Mesafint.

In the mid-19th century, the lords of Tembien and Enderta managed to establish an overlordship of Tigray. One of its members, Dejazmach Kahsay Mercha, ascended the imperial throne in 1872 under the name Yohannes IV. Following his 1889 death in the Battle of Metemma, the Ethiopian throne came under the control of the king of Shewa, and the center of power shifted south and away from Tigray.

20th century

In 1943, open resistance broke out all over southern and eastern Tigray under the slogan, "there is no government; let's organize and govern ourselves". Throughout Enderta Awraja, including Mekelle, Didibadergiajen, Hintalo, Saharti, Samre and Wajirat, Raya Awraja, Kilte-Awlaelo Awraja and Tembien Awraja, local assemblies, called gerreb, were formed. The gerreb sent representatives to a central congress, called the shengo, which elected leaders and established a military command system. Although the first Woyane rebellion of 1943 had shortcomings as a prototype revolution, historians agree that it involved a fairly high level of spontaneity and peasant initiative. It demonstrated considerable popular participation and reflected widely shared grievances. The uprising was specifically directed against the central Shoan Amhara regime of Haile Selassie I, rather than the Tigrayan imperial elite.

Ethiopian Civil War

After the February 1974 popular revolution, the first signal of any mass uprising was the actions of the soldiers of the 4th Brigade of the 4th Army Division in Nagelle in southern Ethiopia. The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, or the Derg (Ge'ez "Committee"), was officially announced 28 June 1974 by a group of military officers. The committee elected Major Mengistu Haile Mariam as its chairman and Major Atnafu Abate as its vice-chairman. In July 1974, the Derg obtained key concessions from the emperor, Haile Selassie, which included the power to arrest not only military officers but government officials at every level. Soon both former Prime Ministers Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold and Endalkachew Makonnen, along with most of their cabinets, most regional governors, many senior military officers and officials of the Imperial court were imprisoned. In August 1974, after a proposed constitution creating a constitutional monarchy was presented to the emperor, the Derg began a program of dismantling the imperial government in order to forestall further developments in that direction. The Derg deposed and imprisoned the emperor on 12 September 1974.


In addition, the Derg in 1975 nationalized most industries and private and somewhat secure urban real-estate holdings. But mismanagement, corruption, and general hostility to the Derg's violent rule, coupled with the draining effects of constant warfare with the separatist guerrilla movements in Tigray, led to a drastic fall in general productivity of food and cash crops. In October 1978, the Derg announced the National Revolutionary Development Campaign to mobilize human and material resources to transform the economy, which led to a Ten-Year Plan (1984/1985-1993/1994) to expand agricultural and industrial output, forecasting a 6.5% growth in GDP and a 3.6% rise in per capita income. Instead per capita income declined 0.8% over this period. Famine scholar Alex de Waal observes that while the famine that struck the country in the mid-1980s is usually ascribed to drought, "closer investigation shows that widespread drought occurred only some months after the famine was already under way". Hundreds of thousands fled economic misery, conscription, and political repression, and went to live in neighboring countries and all over the Western world, creating an Ethiopian diaspora.

Toward the end of January 1991, a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) captured Gondar, the ancient capital city, Bahar Dar, and Dessie.

Postwar

John Young, who visited the area several times in the early 1990s, attributes this delay in part to "central budget restraint, structural readjustment, and lack of awareness by government bureaucrats in Addis Ababa of conditions in the province", but notes "an equally significant obstacle was posed by an entrenched, and largely Amhara-dominated, central bureaucracy which used its power to block government-authorised funds from reaching Tigray". At the same time, a growing urban middle class of traders, businessmen and government officials emerged that was suspicious of and distant from the victorious EPRDF. From 1991 to 2001, the president of Tigray was Gebru Asrat. In 1998, war erupted between Eritrea and Ethiopia over a portion of territory that had been administered as part of Tigray, which included the town of Badme. A 2002 United Nations decision awarded much of this land to Eritrea, but Ethiopia did not accept the ruling until 2018, when a bilateral agreement ended the border conflict. The text of this agreement has not been publicly availed.

21st century

From 2001 to 2010 the president was Tsegay Berhe.

2020 administrative reorganisation

Between 2018 and 2020, as part of a reform aimed to deepen and strengthen decentralisation, woredas were reorganised, and new boundaries established. As smaller towns had been growing, they had started providing a larger range of services, such as markets and even banks, that encouraged locals to travel there rather than to their formal woreda centre. However, these locals still had to travel to their local woreda centre for most local government services - often in a different direction. In 2018 and 2019, after multiple village discussions that were often vigorous in the more remote areas, 21 independent urban administrations were added and other boundaries re-drawn, resulting in an increase from 35 to 88 woredas in January 2020.

Tigray War

Following the 2020 Tigray regional election, the TPLF launched attacks on the ENDF Northern Command headquarters in Mekelle on 4 November, marking the beginning of the Tigray War. Ethiopian troops as well as Amhara militia advanced through southern Tigray, while Eritrean troops occupied border towns in northern Tigray. Amhara militias took over parts of western Tigray.

Warfare, the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia, and a locust outbreak all contributed to an emergency food situation in the region in January 2021. Two million people faced food shortages; the situation was particularly dire in Shire Inda Selassie, where there are 100,000 refugees. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network said parts of central and eastern Tigray are likely in emergency phase 4, a step below famine.

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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Tigray Region. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.