Kingdom of Kaffa
Encyclopedia
The Kingdom of Kaffa was an early modern state located in what is now Ethiopia
, with its capital at Bonga
. The Gojeb River
formed its northern border, beyond which lay the Gibe
kingdoms; to the east the territory of the Konta and Kullo peoples lay between Kaffa and the Omo River
; to the south numerous tribes of the Gimira people, and to the west lay the Majangir
people. The native language, also known as Kaffa, is one of the Omotic group of languages.
Kaffa was divided into four sub-tribes, who spoke a common language Kefficho
, one of the Gonga/Kefoid group of Omotic languages
; a number of groups of foreigners, Muslim
traders and members of the Ethiopian Church
, also lived in the kingdom. There were a number of groups of people, "but with the status of submerged status
", who also lived in the kingdom; these included the Manjo, or hunters; the Manne, or leatherworkers; and the Qemmo, or blacksmiths. The Manjo even had their own king, appointed by the King of Kaffa, and were given the duties of guarding the royal compounds and the gates of the kingdom.
The land where this former kingdom lay is mountainous with stretches of forest. The land is very fertile, capable of three harvests a year.
, but Bonga retained its importance.
During the 16th century, all of the territories north of the Gojeb River were lost to the Oromo
migrations. Also in the later 16th century, the Emperor of Ethiopia
Sarsa Dengel
convinced the kingdom to officially accept Christianity
as its state religion. As a result, the church of St. George was dedicated at Baha
; the building preserved a tabot
bearing the name of Emperor Sarsa Dengel. Over the following centuries the influence of the Ethiopian government grew weak, and Christianity more or less disappeared, although the church of St. George was used as a "male house of ritual of George" until late in the 19th century when Christian practices were reintroduced.
Beginning with Gali Ginocho (1675 - 1710), the kings of Kaffa began to expand the borders of their kingdom, annexing the neighboring small Gimira states of She, Benesho and Majango. The neighboring state of the Welayta
under their control in the reign of Tato Shagi Sherocho (1775 - 1795), who extended the boundaries of his kingdom as far as the Omo to the southeast and almost to the confluence of the Omo and the Denchya
to the south. It was during the reign of King Hoti Gaocho (1798-1821), that the territory of the Kaffa kings reached its maximum. According to Orent, the traditions of the Kaffa people relate that he ruled far and wide, conquering wherever he went, even as far afield as Wolleta and Kambaata. "To this day," concludes Orent, "some people still talk about the time that their ancestors defeated all their enemies and sat at the foot of a famous tree in Wolliso and decided not to go farther into Shoa province."
The last Kaffa king, Gaki Sherocho
, resisted for months the combined armies of Wolde Giyorgis, Ras Damisse, and King Abba Jifar II
of Jimma
, until he was captured 11 September 1897, and was first sent to Ankober
, then to Addis Ababa
. Kaffa was then held as a fief by Wolde Giyogis until 1914. During his visit to Kaffa in 1897, Alexander Bulatovich
had the opportunity to study the culture of the inhabitants, describing them in his book With the Armies of Menelik II, emperor of Ethiopia, identifying a number of practices in common with the more familiar Amhara people
.
The inhabitants suffered greatly from slave-raiding in the reign of Iyasu V, and the region almost became uninhabited. During the reorganization of the provinces in 1942, the former kingdom was enlarged by the addition of a number of other kingdoms from the Gibe region to become Kaffa Province
.
s (MT) and salt blocks called amoleh were used as currency (as in the rest of Ethiopia) as late as 1905, which circulated at a rate of four or five amolehs to 1 MT.
The economy was based on exports of gold
, civet
oil, and slave
s. Crops raised included coffee
and cotton
However, according to Richard Pankhurst
, the amount of coffee exported was never large: he cites an estimate for its production in the 1880s at 50,000 to 60,000 kilograms a year. Livestock was raised, and honeybees kept in barrels (called gendo) which were hung in trees.
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...
, with its capital at Bonga
Bonga
Bonga is a town in southwestern Ethiopia. Located southwest of Jimma in the Keficho Shekicho Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region upon a hill in the upper Barta valley, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1,714 meters above sea level...
. The Gojeb River
Gojeb River
The Gojeb River is eastward-flowing tributary of the Omo River in Ethiopia. It rises in the mountains of Guma, flowing in almost a direct line its confluence with the Omo at....
formed its northern border, beyond which lay the Gibe
Gibe region
The Gibe region is used to indicate a historic region in modern southwestern Ethiopia, to the west of the Gibe and Omo Rivers, and north of the Gojeb...
kingdoms; to the east the territory of the Konta and Kullo peoples lay between Kaffa and the Omo River
Omo River
The Omo River is an important river of southern Ethiopia. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and empties into Lake Turkana on the border with Kenya...
; to the south numerous tribes of the Gimira people, and to the west lay the Majangir
Majangir
The Majang people, or Majangir, live in southwestern Ethiopia and speak a Nilo-Saharan language of the Surmic cluster. The 1998 census gave the total of the Majangir population as 15,341, but since they live scattered in the hills in dispersed settlements , their actual total number is undoubtedly...
people. The native language, also known as Kaffa, is one of the Omotic group of languages.
Kaffa was divided into four sub-tribes, who spoke a common language Kefficho
Kafa language
Kaffa is an Afroasiatic language spoken in Ethiopia around Bonga in the Keficho Shekicho Zone. The language is also called Kafi nono.- Further reading :...
, one of the Gonga/Kefoid group of Omotic languages
Omotic languages
The Omotic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic family spoken in southwestern Ethiopia. The Ge'ez alphabet is used to write some Omotic languages, the Roman alphabet for some others. They are fairly agglutinative, and have complex tonal systems .-Language list:The North and South Omotic...
; a number of groups of foreigners, Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
traders and members of the Ethiopian Church
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the predominant Oriental Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All...
, also lived in the kingdom. There were a number of groups of people, "but with the status of submerged status
Caste system in Africa
Countries in Africa who have societies with caste systems within their borders include Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Algeria, Nigeria, Chad, Ethiopia, and Somalia....
", who also lived in the kingdom; these included the Manjo, or hunters; the Manne, or leatherworkers; and the Qemmo, or blacksmiths. The Manjo even had their own king, appointed by the King of Kaffa, and were given the duties of guarding the royal compounds and the gates of the kingdom.
The land where this former kingdom lay is mountainous with stretches of forest. The land is very fertile, capable of three harvests a year.
History
The Kingdom of Kaffa was founded approximately c.1390 by Minjo, who according to oral tradition ousted the Mato dynasty of 32 kings. However, his informants told Amnon Orent, "no one remembers the name of a single one." The first capital Bonga was either founded or captured by Bon-noghe; it was later replaced by AnderacchaAnderaccha
Anderaccha is a town in southwestern Ethiopia. Located in the Keficho Shekicho Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, at the confluence of the Guma River with the Gichey, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1629 meters above sea level...
, but Bonga retained its importance.
During the 16th century, all of the territories north of the Gojeb River were lost to the Oromo
Oromo people
The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...
migrations. Also in the later 16th century, the Emperor of Ethiopia
Emperor of Ethiopia
The Emperor of Ethiopia was the hereditary ruler of Ethiopia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1974. The Emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country...
Sarsa Dengel
Sarsa Dengel
Sarsa Dengel was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...
convinced the kingdom to officially accept Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
as its state religion. As a result, the church of St. George was dedicated at Baha
Baha
Baha may refer to:-Given name:* Baha Akşit, Turkish physician and politician* Baha Araji, Iraqi politician* A...
; the building preserved a tabot
Tabot
Tabot , is a Ge'ez word referring to a replica of the Tablets of Law, onto which the Biblical Ten Commandments were inscribed, used in the practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Tabot can also refer to a replica of the Ark of the Covenant...
bearing the name of Emperor Sarsa Dengel. Over the following centuries the influence of the Ethiopian government grew weak, and Christianity more or less disappeared, although the church of St. George was used as a "male house of ritual of George" until late in the 19th century when Christian practices were reintroduced.
Beginning with Gali Ginocho (1675 - 1710), the kings of Kaffa began to expand the borders of their kingdom, annexing the neighboring small Gimira states of She, Benesho and Majango. The neighboring state of the Welayta
Welayta people
Wolayta is the name of an ethnic group and its former kingdom, located in southern Ethiopia. According to the most recent census , they number 1.7 million people or 2.31 percent of the country's population, of whom 289,707 are urban inhabitants...
under their control in the reign of Tato Shagi Sherocho (1775 - 1795), who extended the boundaries of his kingdom as far as the Omo to the southeast and almost to the confluence of the Omo and the Denchya
Denchya River
The Denchya River is a river of southern Ethiopia. It is a south-flowing tributary of the Omo River, entering it on the right bank at ....
to the south. It was during the reign of King Hoti Gaocho (1798-1821), that the territory of the Kaffa kings reached its maximum. According to Orent, the traditions of the Kaffa people relate that he ruled far and wide, conquering wherever he went, even as far afield as Wolleta and Kambaata. "To this day," concludes Orent, "some people still talk about the time that their ancestors defeated all their enemies and sat at the foot of a famous tree in Wolliso and decided not to go farther into Shoa province."
The last Kaffa king, Gaki Sherocho
Gaki Sherocho
Gaki Sherocho was the last king of the Kingdom of Kaffa in what is now Ethiopia. He is usually called by the Kaffa "Chinito", the diminutive of Taten Chini ....
, resisted for months the combined armies of Wolde Giyorgis, Ras Damisse, and King Abba Jifar II
Abba Jifar II
Moti Abba Jifar II was King of the Gibe Kingdom of Jimma .-Reign:Abba Jifar II was the son of Abba Gomol and Queen Gumiti...
of Jimma
Kingdom of Jimma
The Kingdom of Jimma was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged in the 19th century. It shared its western border with Limmu-Ennarea, its eastern border with the Sidamo kingdom of Janjero, and was separated from the Kingdom of Kaffa to the south by the Gojeb River. Jimma...
, until he was captured 11 September 1897, and was first sent to Ankober
Ankober
Ankober is a town in central Ethiopia and one of the capitals of the former kingdom of Shewa. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, Ankober is perched on the eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian Highlands 40 kilometers to the east of Debre Birhan, with a latitude and longitude of ,...
, then to Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
. Kaffa was then held as a fief by Wolde Giyogis until 1914. During his visit to Kaffa in 1897, Alexander Bulatovich
Alexander Bulatovich
Alexander Ksaverievich Bulatovich tonsured Father Antony was a Russian military officer, explorer of Africa, writer, hieromonk and the leader of imiaslavie movement in Eastern Orthodox Christianity.-Biography:...
had the opportunity to study the culture of the inhabitants, describing them in his book With the Armies of Menelik II, emperor of Ethiopia, identifying a number of practices in common with the more familiar Amhara people
Amhara people
Amhara are a highland people inhabiting the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26% of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census...
.
The inhabitants suffered greatly from slave-raiding in the reign of Iyasu V, and the region almost became uninhabited. During the reorganization of the provinces in 1942, the former kingdom was enlarged by the addition of a number of other kingdoms from the Gibe region to become Kaffa Province
Kaffa Province, Ethiopia
Kaffa was a province on the southwestern side of Ethiopia; its capital city was Jimma. It was named after the former Kingdom of Kaffa.Kaffa was bordered on the west by Sudan, on the northwest by Illubabor, on the north by Walega, on the northeast by Shewa, on the east by Sidamo, and on the...
.
Economy
In Kaffa, Maria Theresa ThalerMaria Theresa thaler
The Maria Theresa thaler is a silver bullion-coin that has been used in world trade continuously. Maria Theresa Thalers were first minted in 1741, using the then Reichsthaler standard of 9 thalers to the Vienna mark. In 1750 the thaler was debased to 10 thalers to the Vienna Mark...
s (MT) and salt blocks called amoleh were used as currency (as in the rest of Ethiopia) as late as 1905, which circulated at a rate of four or five amolehs to 1 MT.
The economy was based on exports of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, civet
Civet
The family Viverridae is made up of around 30 species of medium-sized mammal, including all of the genets, the binturong, most of the civets, and the two African linsangs....
oil, and slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
s. Crops raised included coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
and cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
However, according to Richard Pankhurst
Richard Pankhurst (academic)
Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst OBE is a British academic with expertise in the study of Ethiopia.-Early life and education:...
, the amount of coffee exported was never large: he cites an estimate for its production in the 1880s at 50,000 to 60,000 kilograms a year. Livestock was raised, and honeybees kept in barrels (called gendo) which were hung in trees.
Further reading
- Werner Lange, History of the Southern Gonga (Southeastern Ethiopia). Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1982.