Abba Seru Gwangul was a chieftain of the Yejju Oromo

Yejju Oromo

Yejju Oromo is a tribe of the Barentu branch of Oromo people. They are one of the northernmost tribes of the Oromo people, which is the second largest ethnicity in Ethiopia....

, an ethnic group of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. He came to control Begemder

Begemder

Begemder was a province in the northwestern part of Ethiopia. There are several proposed etymologies for this name...

 and parts of Wollo

Wollo

Wollo was a historical region and province in the northeastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Dessie. The province was named after the Wollo Oromo, who settled in this part of Ethiopia in the 17th century...

, and his heirs were significant warlords of the Zemene Mesafint

Zemene Mesafint

The Zemene Mesafint was a period in Ethiopian history when the country was rent by conflicts between warlords, the Emperor was reduced to little more than a figurehead confined to the capital city of...

. Abba Seru Gwangul claimed to be a descendant of an Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 named Omar, who had served in the armies of Ahmad Gragn.

The Scottish

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 explorer James Bruce

James Bruce

James Bruce was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile.-Youth:...

met him in 1770, and recorded a vivid description of this man in his account of travels in Ethiopia.