Tigrayans

Tigrean

Tigray girls
Regions with significant populations
Ethiopia	4.80 million
Germany	c. 33,000
Sweden	c. 20,000
Norway	c. 13,500
United Kingdom	32,400
Canada	10,220
Netherlands	c. 7,500
Italy	c. 4,600
Denmark	c. 3,000
Australia	2,794
Finland	1,235
Languages
Tigrinya
Religion
Christianity (96%) Islam (4%)

The Tigrayans (Tegaru) are an ethnolinguistic group living in Tigray Region of Ethiopia. They speak the Tigrinya language, a spoken language like the Ge’ez language that was spoken in late antiquity.

There are about 4.5 million Tegarus living in Ethiopia, according to the 2007 census, most of them in the Tigray Region. Over 90% of Tegarus are Christians. The great majority are Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, and minorities of Muslims, Beta Israel, and since the 19th century, Protestants and Catholics mainly in Agame. Most Tegarus are traditionally agriculturalists, practicing plough agriculture (cultivating teff, sorghum, millet, wheat, maize, etc.) and also keeping cattle, sheep and goats (but usually without stock-breeding), and in many areas bees Some Tegaru groups have a strong local identity and used to have their own traditional, quite autonomous self-organization, sometimes dominated by egalitarian assemblies of elders, sometimes by leading families or local feudal dynasties. In some areas the meritorious complex played a considerable role in achieving a social status, which led to the creation of local honorary titles and social institutions, and, historically, to an active involvement in the warfare of Christian Ethiopia; through this, even the sons of simple peasants could rise considerably in the state of hierarchy.

The daily life of Tegarus are highly influenced by religious concepts. For example, the Christian Orthodox fasting periods are strictly observed, especially in Tigray; but also traditional local beliefs such as in spirits, are widespread. In Tigray the language of the church remains exclusively Ge’ez. Tegaru society is marked by a strong ideal of communitarianism and, especially in the rural sphere, by egalitarian principles. This does not exclude an important role of gerontocratic rules and in some regions such as the wider Adwa area, formerly the prevalence of feudal lords, who, however, still had to respect the local land rights.

Etymology

Ancient blocks with Sabean inscriptions.

The first possible mention of the group dates from around 525 AD in Adulis, in which period manuscripts preserving the inscriptions of Cosmas Indicopleustes contain notes on his writings including the mention of a tribe called Tigretes.

History

Main article: History of Ethiopia

Mekelle palace of Emperor Yohannes IV (emperor of the whole Ethiopian Empire).

Gold coins from Axum era.

The King Ezana's Stela in Axum, Tigray Region

The first possible mention of the group dates from around the 8th to 10th centuries, in which period manuscripts preserving the inscriptions of Cosmas Indicopleustes (fl. 6th century) contain notes on his writings including the mention of a tribe called Tigretes. A Portuguese Map in the 1660 shows Medri Bahri consisting of the three highland provinces of Eritrea and distinct from Ethiopia. The Bahre-Nagassi ("Kings of the Sea") alternately fought with or against the Abyssinians, which did not comprise of Tegarus and Eritreans, and the neighbouring Muslim Adal Sultanate depending on the geopolitical circumstances. Medri Bahri was thus part of the Christian resistance against Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi of Adal's forces, but later joined the Adalite states and the Ottoman Empire front against Abyssinia in 1572. That 16th century also marked the arrival of the Ottomans, who began making inroads in the Red Sea area. Bruce noted "They next passed the Mareb, which is the boundary between Tigre and the Baharnagash". James Bruce in his book published in 1805 located Tigré (a region based arbitrarily by James Bruce on the Language of Tigrinya) between Red Sea and the Tekezé River and stated many large governments, such as Enderta and Antalow, and the great part of Baharhagash were part of Tigré region based on the language of Tigrinya.

Aksum was an important participant in international trade from the 1st century AD (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea) until circa the later part of the 1st millennium when it succumbed to a long decline against pressures from the various Islamic powers leagued against it.

By the beginning of the 19th century Henry Salt (Egyptologist), who travelled in the interior of Abyssinia, like James Bruce into three distinct and independent states. These three great divisions(based arbitrarily on Language) are Tigré, Amhara, and the province of Shoa.

The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: Bassantin – Bloemaart, Volume 4. Published in 1835 pp. 170 Google Books</ref> By the time Henry made his travel to Abyssinia the seat of the empire, Gondar, was ruled by Gugsa of Yejju, an Wollo commander who ruled from 1798 up to 1825 as enderase to the powerless emperors with Solomonic dynasty.

Demographics

The Obelisk of Axum in Axum, Tigray region

The Ezana Stone records negus Ezana's conversion to Christianity and his subjugation of various neighboring peoples, including Meroë.

Tegarus constitute approximately 6.1% of the population of Ethiopia and are largely small holding farmers inhabiting small communal villages. They are also mainly Christian and members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (approximately 96%), with a small minority of Muslims, Catholics and Protestants. The predominantly Tegaru populated urban centers in Ethiopia are found within the Tigray Region in towns including Mekelle, Adwa, Axum, Adigrat, and Shire. Populations of Tigrayans are also found in other large Ethiopian cities such as the capital Addis Ababa and Gondar as well as abroad in the United States.

The Tegarus are, despite a general impression of homogeneity, composed of numerous subgroups with their own socio-cultural traditions. Among these there are the Agame of eastern Tigray, mentioned in the Monumentum Adulitanum in the 3rd century; the autonomous Senadegle and Meretta of Akkele Guzay in Eritrea; the Hamasenay, agriculturalists in Hamasen and cattle herders in Humera; the egalitarian Wajjarat of south-eastern Tigray. Many others, sometimes numbering only a few thousands and scattered over several districts, could be listed. Usually they define themselves through common descent, but in some cases also as a political confederacy uniting different groups (such as the Shewatte Anseba on the north-western borders of the Eritrean highlands). Assimilation processes, which still continue, have led to the inclusion of other ethnic (sub-)groups. For example, Agaw settlers in Seraye, the Adkeme Malga became Tigrayans several centuries ago; some Bilin villages near Keren now also belong to the Tigrayans.

Yohannis IV of Mekelle, emperor of the Ethiopian Empire (r. 1871–89).

The subgroups are composed of descent groups and lineages. Often these are called "Deqqi-...", sometimes also "Ad...", after a common ancestor, such as the Deqqi Tesfa of the western lowlands of Seraye or the Ad Deggiyat, a name for the Seazzega dynasty of the Mereb Melash. In addition, there are ancient, more vague group-designations above the level of subgroups, used by elders as identity-markers: Agaziyan (descendants of the Agazi) for the inhabitants of Agame and Akkele Guzay, and Sabawiyan for the people of Aksum and Yeha.

The decline of the Tegaru population in Ethiopia during Haile Selassie's reign – in particular in districts of the former Tigray province, which are given to the present-day Amhara Region, like Addi Arkay (woreda), Kobo (woreda) & Sanja (woreda) – is likely to have been as a result of Haile Selassie's suppression and systematic persecution against non-Amhara ethnic peoples of Ethiopia (in particular, his immense systematic persecution of Tegarus). For example, on the 1958 famine of Tigray, Haile Selassie refused to send any significant basic emergency food aid to Tigray province despite having the resources to; as a consequence, over 100,000 people died of the famine.

Later on, the Mengistu Haile Mariam-led brutal military dictatorship (Derg) also used the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia as government policy (by restricting food supplies) for counter-insurgency strategy (against Tigray People's Liberation Front guerrilla-soldiers), and for "social transformation" in non-insurgent areas (against people of Tigray province, Welo province and such). Due to organized government policies that deliberately multiplied the effects of the famine, around 1.2 million people died in Ethiopia from this famine where majority of the death tolls were from Tigray province (and other parts of northern Ethiopia).

Religion

Main article: Religion in Ethiopia

Orthodox Church in the woreda of Hawzen

Tegarus are mostly Christians, with an Oriental Orthodox majority and a Catholic minority. Tegaru Muslims are virtually all Sunni, though a minority of Ahbash followers also exists.

History

[[File:Balaw Kalaw (metera), stele axumita 02.JPG|thumb|left|Sun and crescent emblems on the Hawulti Before the coming of Christianity, most Tegarus followed a pagan religion with a number of deities, including the sun god Utu, and the moon god Almaqah. Some tribes however practiced Judaism. The most prominent polytheistic kingdoms were the Kingdoms of D’mt and early Aksum.

Christianity

[[File:Church Our Lady Mary Zion Axum Ethio.jpg|thumb|left|The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, which claims to contain the Ark of the Covenant is located in Axum]] Christianity has been the predominant religion of the region since antiquity, when the Aksumite king Ezana converted to Christianity in the late 3rd century and declared it the state religion.

Islam

Islam was introduced to the area early on, when the Prophet Muhammad's companions found refuge in the Aksumite Kingdom. While some of Muhammad's companions returned to the Arabian peninsula, some stayed back as refugees and converted a number of people to Islam. These new converts were called Jeberti meaning “the elect of god”. Today, the Muslim community, is concentrated mainly in urban areas. Many Jeberti in Eritrea claim that they are a separate ethnic group from other Tegarus in the area and consider their native languages to be both Arabic and Tigrinya, and are thus treated as a separate ethno-religious community.

Culture

Tegarus are sometimes described as “individualistic”, due to elements of competition, jealousy and local conflicts. This, however, rather reflects a strong tendency to defend one's own community and local rights against—then widespread—interferences, be it from more powerful individuals or the state. Tegaru communities are marked by numerous social institutions with a strong networking of character, where relations are based on mutual rights and bonds. Economic and other support is mediated by these institutions. In the urban context, the modern local government have taken over the functions of traditional associations. In most rural areas, however, traditional social organizations are fully in function. All members of such an extended family are linked by strong mutual obligations. Villages are usually perceived as genealogical communities, consisting of several lineages.

A Tigrayan woman pouring traditionally brewed coffee from a jebena during a coffee ceremony

A remarkable heritage of Tegarus are their customary laws. In Tigray, customary law is also still partially practiced to some degree even in political self-organization and penal cases. It is also of great importance for conflict resolution.

Tegaru is closely related to Amharic and Tigre, another Afroasiatic language spoken by the Tigre as well as many Beja. Tigrinya and Tigre although close are not mutually intelligible. Tigrinya has traditionally been written using the same Ge'ez alphabet (fidel) as Amharic, whereas Tigre has been transcribed mainly using the Arabic script. Attempts by the Eritrean government to have Tigre written using the Ge'ez script has met with some resistance from the predominantly Muslim Tigre people who associate Ge'ez with the Orthodox Tewahedo Church and would prefer the Arabic or the more neutral Latin alphabet. It has also met with the linguistic difficulty of the Ge'ez script being a syllabic system which does not distinguish long vowels from short ones. While this works well for writing Tigrinya or Amharic, which do not rely on vowel length in words, it does complicate writing Tigre, where vowel length sometimes distinguishes one word and its meaning from another. The Ge'ez script evolved from the Epigraphic South Arabian script, whose first inscriptions are from the 8th century BC in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Yemen.

In Ethiopia, Tigrinya is the third most spoken language. The Tegarus constitute the fourth largest ethnic group in the country after the Oromo, Amhara and Somali, who also speak Afro-Asiatic languages.

Tigrinya dialects differ phonetically, lexically, and grammatically. No dialect appears to be accepted as a standard.

T'ihlo dish

Cuisine

Tegaru food characteristically consists of vegetable and often very spicy meat dishes, usually in the form of tsebhi (Tigrinya: ፀብሒ), a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread. As the vast majority of Tegarus belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (and the minority Muslims), pork is not consumed because of religious beliefs. Meat and dairy products are not consumed on Wednesdays and Fridays, and also during the 7 compulsory fasts. Because of this reason, many vegan meals are present. Eating around a shared food basket, mäsob (Tigrinya: መሶብ) is a custom in the Tigray region and is usually done so with families and guests. The food is eaten using no cutlery, using only the fingers (of the right hand) and sourdough flatbread to grab the contents on the bread.

Regional dishes

T'ihlo (Tigrinya: ጥሕሎ, ṭïḥlo) is a dish originating from the historical Agame and Akkele Guzai provinces. The dish is unique to these parts of both countries, but is now slowly spreading throughout the entire region. T'ihlo is made using moistened roasted barley flour that is kneaded to a certain consistency. The dough is then broken into small ball shapes and is laid out around a bowl of spicy meat stew. A two-pronged wooden fork is used to spear the ball and dip it into the stew. The dish is usually served with mes, a type of honey wine.

Notable People

• 
  Ras Alula (Abba Nega) of Tigray, commander of the Battle of Adwa
• 
  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the first ever African Director-General of the World Health Organization
• 
  Tegaru politician Meles Zenawi, the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
• 
  Debretsion Gebremichael, President of Tigray Region (Acting).

• Meles Zenawi – Former Prime Minister of Ethiopia
• Yohannes IV - Emperor of Ethiopia born in Tembien, Ethiopian Empire
• Debretsion Gebremichael – Vice-President of Tigray (Acting as president).
• Gebrehiwot Baykedagn – was an Ethiopian doctor, economist, and intellectual.
• Aba Estephanos – Ethiopian religious revolutionist born to the east of Axum, founder of the Däqiqä Əsṭifanos monastic order
• Saint Yared – Ethiopian saints create the sacred music tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
• Sebhat Gebre-Egziabher – Ethiopian writer
• Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher – world-renowned environmental scientist
• Kinfe Abraham – Tegaru-Jewish, former president of Horn of Africa Democracy and Development
• Gebregziabher Gebremariam – runner who won 5 times in the World Cross Country Championships
• Werknesh Kidane – runner who won a gold medal in the 2003 World Cross Country Championships
• Abeba Aregawi – runner and gold medalist of world, world indoor and European indoor
• Tsgabu Gebremaryam Grmay – road cyclist one time African time trial champion
• Siye Abraha – leading the UN Development Programme's security sector reform in Liberia
• Abune Mathias – "His Holiness Abune Mathias I, Sixth Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Archbishop of Axum and Ichege of the See of Saint Taklehaimanot.
• Tedros Adhanom – The Director General of World Health Organization
• Arkebe Oqubay - is a senior Ethiopian politician, a Minister and Special Advisor to the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn.
• Gebrehiwot Baykedagn – was one of the pioneer Ethiopian doctor, economist, and intellectual.
• Yohannes IV – Emperor of Ethiopia
• Atse Baeda Maryam – Emperor of Ethiopia son of Ras Mikael Sehul
• Mikael Sehul – Ras of Ethiopia
• Haile Selassie Gugsa – Dejazmatch from Ethiopia
• Wolde Selassie- Ras of Ethiopia
• Ras Alula (Abba Nega) – 19th Century Ras of Ethiopia
• Sara Nuru – (mother from Axum) winner of the fourth cycle of Germany's Next Top Model
• Ras Mengesha Yohannes – Ras of Tigray.
• Hayelom Araya – Ethiopian General of the army
• Miruts Yifter – athlete who won two gold medals in the 1980 Moscow Olympics
• Abune Paulos – Former Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
• Aman Andom - first post-imperial President of Ethiopia
• Kiros Alemayehu - Kiros was a prolific songwriter and singer. He popularized Tigrigna songs through his albums to the non-Tigrinya speaking Ethiopians.
• Eyasu Berhe - was an Ethiopian singer, writer, producer and poet, as well as a member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).