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Alula, ‘The Son of Qubi’: a ‘King's Man’ in Ethiopia, 1875–1897*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Haggai Erlich
Haggai Erlich
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
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Extract

Ras Alula played a significant role in the political history of northern Ethiopia during the period between the Egyptian invasion in 1875 and the Italian defeat at Adwa in 1896. Alula became well-known in Ethiopia and Europe for his role in shaping his country's relations with its African neighbours and with European powers. But his role in the internal history of Ethiopia was no less significant. This son of a peasant managed to avoid the restricted local agrarian social ladder by becoming the best general of the Tigrean emperor Yohannes IV (1872–89). As the ‘king's man’, Alula's power was based on his position in the court and on the province (Eritrea) over which he was appointed. But the leading Tigrean families rejected him. When Yohannes died and Eritrea was lost to the Italians, Alula became the most powerful champion of Tigrean independence from the new Shoan emperor, Menilek II. A Tigrean court seemed to be his only opportunity to maintain his position of a ‘king's man’, without which he would have to return to the local agrarian social ladder. After four years of resistance to the new Shoan hegemony, Alula submitted to Menilek and was rewarded with the long-desired position of ‘the king's man’. His recognition of Menilek may be regarded as a fatal blow to Tigrean independence.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 1974 , pp. 261 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 Berkeley, G. F., The Campaign of Adowa and the Rise of Menelik (London, 1902Google Scholar: new edition, London, 1935), 13.

2 A collective interview in Manawe, Feb. 1972. Interview with Fitawrari Bayyana Abreha, a descendant of Alula; Aksum, Feb. 1972.Google Scholar For Alula's humble origin see among many other written sources: Rossini, C. Conti, ‘Canti popolari tigrai’, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie (Strassburg, 1906), song 155, note I;Google ScholarDe Lauribar, P., Douze ans en Abyssiniè (Paris, 1898), 693;Google ScholarMartini, F., II Diario Eritreo (Florence, 1946), II, 411;Google ScholarMantegazza, V., Gl' Italiani in Africa (Florence, 1896), 349;Google ScholarThe Daily News, 10 Feb. 1887.

3 Many sources are contradictory concerning Alula's date of birth. Hill's suggestion of 1847 seems to be most likely. Hill, R., A Biographical Dictionary of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (Oxford, 1951; London, 1967).Google Scholar

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5 The most senior title, just below that of Negus (king)—comparable to ‘Duke’ (and like it given only by the emperors). For this title and others see Glossary in Ullendorff, E., The Ethiopians (London, 1960).Google Scholar

6 All formally military titles which unlike Ras and Negus might also be awarded by other officials; see Ullendorff, loc. cit., for definitions.

7 Ruler of the sub-province of Agame.

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11 A Ge‘ez manuscript in the church of Dabra Berhan Sellase, Adwa. The relevant paragraph is ‘Seyumana beta Mangest’. This was sent to me by a school teacher, in Adwa, Gigar Bazzabbeh.

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13 Fasolo, L'Abissinia, 204–5. The distinction between the military and administrative spheres is rarely a clear one in Ethiopia, although in principle most informants are eager to point it out.

14 According to recorded oral tradition, Yohannes visited Alula in Hamasen in 1884. Alula ordered his talented lieutenant, Blatta Gabru (also of humble origin) to leave his court, because he suspected that if the emperor saw him he might take him to his court. See Kolmodin, J. A., Traditions de Tsazzega et Hazzega (Rome, 1912–1916), no. 271.Google Scholar See Levine, Wax and Gold, chap. 5 and especially p. 163: ‘Outstanding personal properties of various sorts often enabled Ethiopians of low birth to rise to high positions. The emperors and great lords conferred honours on those who served especially well in military expeditions, whatever their origins. Menelik's promotion of two Galla prisoners to rank as his highest generals is a famous case in point’

15 F.O. 78/3806, Egerton to Salisbury, 26 July 1885 (quoting Mason Bey, the Egyptian-employed American).

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18 A Geʿez manuscript of 95 pages by an unknown author in the church of Manawe. The priests there were kind enough to let me photocopy it in Maqalle, in Feb. 1972. Additional pages were found later in Abiy Addi. It was then translated by Mr R. Cowley of Maqalle.

19 Alula's origin is not referred to in this detailed manuscript.

20 Douin, Histoire du Khédive Ismail, 1085.

21 Kolmodin, Traditions, no. 268. See also Ministère des Affaires Etrangères [MAE] (F) Mass. 4. Raffray to MAE, 16 Mar. 1880.

22 In Feb. 1878 (see Manawe MS.; Gentile, L., L'Apostolo dei Galla (Torino, 1916), 345;Google ScholarValle, Pietro, ‘Abissinia, schizzo storico’, Rivista Militare Italiana, July 1887) and again in July 1882, MAE (F) Mass. 4. Alula to Raffray, Ware Illu 14 Hamle 1874 (20 July 1882).Google ScholarMakurya, Takla Sadeq, Yaityopya, 58.Google Scholar For Alula accompanying Yohannes to raid the Galla see BM. Add. MSS. 51304, Winstanley to Gordon, 20 Mar. 1879.

23 Premier monk of the realm. This was Echage Tewoflos.

24 Manawe MS.

25 Lamlam, Yaʿase Takla Giyorgisenna, f. 20 bis.

26 See Alula's various letters in Giglio, C. (ed.), L'Italia in Africa; Etiopia-Mar Rosso (Rome, 1966), vol. V.Google Scholar

27 Manawe MS.

28 Interview with Wayzaro Yashashwarq Bayyana of Abiy Addi, a great grand-daughter of Alula, Feb. 1972; Fitawrari Bayyana Abreha, a descendant of Alula, Aksum, Feb. 1972.

29 Matteucci, P., In Abissinia (Milan, 1880), 233.Google Scholar

30 F.O. 406/I, Hewett to Admiralty 7–20 Jan. 1884.

31 Cf. Levine, Wax and Gold, 163: ‘A self-respecting man of noble family would resist marrying his daughter to a commoner or person of dubious parentage no matter how high a rank the latter obtained. For the Abyssinian nobility did form a self-conscious status group with a certain hereditary base.’

32 Winstanley to Gordon, 22 May 1879, BM Add. MSS. 51304; Winstanley, W., A Visit to Abyssinia (London, 1881), 11, 224–5;Google Scholar Matteucci, In Abissinia, 231, Vigoni, P., Abissinia (Milan 1881), 181.Google Scholar

33 Matteucci's letters in Cosmos, V (1879), 189, 258.Google Scholar

34 Manawe MS.

35 For details see Erlich, H., ‘A Political Biography of Ras Alula, 1875–1897’ (Ph.D. thesis, London University, 1973), 61–190.Google Scholar

36 See Erlich, ‘Ras Alula’, 15–18, 20–4, 33–4, 36–8, 42–3, citing inter alia Kolmodin, Traditions, nos. 238–65; Makurya, Takla SadeqYaityopya, 57, 58.Google Scholar

37 'Abidīn Archives [A.A.], Soudan 3–6, in S. Rubenson's collection, Institute of Ethiopian Studies [IES]: Dabbāb to Tawfīq, 1882, N.D.; see Takla Sadeq Makurya Yaityopia, 58, 59; Wylde, A. B., '83 to '87 in the Soudan (London, 1888), I, 51passim.Google Scholar

38 Guerra, Ministero della, Storia Militare della Colonia Eritrea (Rome, 1935), 192.Google Scholar Dabbab was killed by Alula in a battle near Adwa on 29 Sept. 1891.

39 Military title of intermediate seniority.

40 The Eritrean land system was analysed in Nadel, S. F., ‘Land Tenure on the Eritrean Plateau’, Africa, XVI (1946), 1–21, 99–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 Kolmodin, Traditions, no. 271; Annales de la Congregation de la Mission (1885), 250.Google Scholar

42 See Erlich, ‘Ras Alula’, 139–54.

43 See an example in Wylde, '83–'87, 1, 51, 337.

44 In Nov. 1887, Alula told the British envoy Portal, ‘The Italians should come to Saati [a water point on the Massawa–Asmara route] only if he [Alula] could go as Governor to Rome’. Portal, G. H., My Mission to Abyssinia (London, 1892), 81.Google Scholar

45 ‘With you’, Alula told the Italian officer Mulazzani in July 1896, ‘I have made a great problem over a small piece of land, arid, sandy and of no value’. Archivio Storico del soppresso Ministero dell'Africa Italiana [A.S.MAI] 3/17–136: Mulazzani Report, 26 July 1896; Conti Rossini, Italia, 465.

46 For the historical developments see Caulk, R. A., ‘Yohannes IV, the Mahdists, and the colonial partition of northeast Africa’, Transafrican Journal of History, I, 2 (1971), 25 ff.;Google Scholaridem, ‘Firearms and Princely Power in Ethiopia in the Nineteenth Century’, J. Afr. Hist. XIII (1972), iv, 622–23;Google Scholar Erlich, ‘Ras Alula’, 191–249.

47 Shuqayr, Naʿūm, Taʿrīkh as-Sūdān al-qadīm wal-ḥadīth (Cairo, 1903), 486–7;Google Scholar also Ohrwalder, J., Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp (London, 1892), 268.Google Scholar

48 F.O. 406/1. Hewett to Admiralty 7–10 Jan. 1884.Google Scholar

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50 A.S. MAI 3/7–47. Memo on Bahta Hagos, 1 Jan. 1895.Google Scholar

51 Wylde, A. B., ‘An Unofficial Mission to Abyssinia’, Manchester Guardian, 14 May 1897.Google Scholar

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53 According to the Manawe MS. Yohannes, on his dying bed, thus ordered Alula: ‘O my beloved and faithful one, behold your son, this Ras Mängäša. Protect your trust which I have handed over to you.’ And to his son [Mangasha] he said: ‘My son, behold your father, Ras Alula, do not reject his counsel, nor transgress his commands.’

54 On 28 Nov. 1889, Sebhat Aragawi wrote to that effect to the Italians. (A.S. MAI, ‘Diarii Informazioni’ Sebhat to Baldissera 28 Nov. 1889). Sebhat then joined hands with an envoy of Menilek (Seyum ‘Abba Gubaz’) and fought against Alula and Mangasha in Dec. 1889 (see Erlich, ‘Ras Alula’,263–6). Mangasha himself submitted to Menilek in March 1890 when the new emperor came to Maqalle (Conti Rossini, Italia ed Etiopia, 27) though Alula fiercely opposed this step (Manawe MS.); see below, note 76.

55 A.S. MAI 3/6–72 Baratieri to MAE, 12 Mar. 1890.

56 See Rossini, Conti, Italia, p. 17, n. 2;Google ScholarPankhurst, R., ‘The Great Ethiopian Famine of 1889–1892’, University College Review, 1969, 90–103;Google Scholaridem, Economic History of Ethiopia 1800–1935 (Addis Ababa, 1968), 227 ff; Mercatelli, L., ‘Nel paese di Ras Alula’, Corriere di Napoli, 13–14 May 1891.Google Scholar

57 According to many reports in ‘Diarii Informazioni’, 1889.

58 ‘As a matter of fact’, wrote an Italian visitor, ‘Tigre is but a corpse that only the strong character of Alula makes walk’. Mercatelli, ‘Nel paese’.

59 Early in Sept. 1891, Dabbab Ar'aya managed to persuade Mangasha to abandon Alula. He thus wrote to the Italians, ‘The conditions of peace between me and Mangascia were that Ras Alula must remain our servant, as we are sons of Kings’. A.S. MAI Archivio Eritrea 55/A, Debeb to Gandolfi, 6 Sept. 1891.

60 Erlich, ‘Ras Alula’, 277–306.

61 Ibid. 303–6.

62 Ibid. 309–17. Also various reports by Baratieri in A.S. MAI 3/6–42.

63 A.S. MAI 3/6–42, Baratieri to MAE 23 May 1893, 30 June 1893 (quoting Mangasha to Baratieri, 19 May 1893).

64 A.S. MAI 3/6–42, Baratieri to MAE 23 May 1893. Sabelli, Luca dei, Storia d'Abissinia (Rome, 1936), III, 386.Google Scholar

65 A.S. MAI 3/6–46, Salsa to MAE, 30 July 1894: Diario Informazioni del mese di guglio, 1894; Rossini, Conti, Italia, 99.Google Scholar

66 A.S. MAI 3/6–46, Baratieri to MAE, 5 July 1894.

67 Wylde, A. B., ‘An Unofficial Mission to Abyssinia’, Manchester Guardian, 14 May 1897.Google Scholar

68 In Apr. 1895 it was rumoured (though hardly to be credited) that Alula would replace Makonnen as the governor of Harrar. (F.O. 403/221, Jopp to India Office, 24 Apr. 1895). Late in Mar. 1895 it was rumoured that Ras Mika'el and Wag-shum Berru would participate in a military expedition commanded by Alula. (Capucci to MAE, late Mar. 1895, in C. Zaghi ‘L'Italia e l'Etiopia alla vigilia di Adua’, Gli Annali dell'Africa Italiana, 1941, 545 A.S. MAI 3/7–49, Cappucci to MAE, 28 Apr. 1895).

69 A.S. MAI 3/6–46, Salsa to MAE, 9 Oct. 1894, ‘Diario del mese di settembre’.

70 ‘It is exactly for that’, wrote Capucci from Addis Ababa, ‘that the King keeps him in case he should need him. They are all convinced here that Ras Alula is a kind of a great bogey to us’. A.S. MAI 36/17–168, Capucci to Traversi, 17 Oct. 1894.

71 A.S. MAI 36/17–164, Traversi to MAE, 4 Sept. 1894.Google Scholar

72 ‘Keen on active life Ahila started being tired of the easy life in Addis Ababa… but Menelik wants to keep him close by’ (Traversi to MAE, Ibid.).

73 Di Gennaro, E. in La Tribuna, 15 Dec. 1895.Google Scholar

74 Wylde, A. B. ‘An Unofficial Mission to Abyssinia’, Manchester Guardian, 20 May 1897.Google Scholar

75 For Alula's role in Adwa see Erlich, ‘Ras Alula’, 337–9.

76 In 1890, when Mangasha went to submit to Menilek, Alula's reaction was thus described by the author of the Manawe MS.: ‘When Ras Alula heard that he [Mangasha] had gone into the throne-room of the King [Menilek], spiritual zeal seized him and he sorrowed greatly … and he said, “Where is the country of Yohannes, and where is his resting place? Where will be found the traces of his path?” He further said, “I will not pay homage to him [Menilek], and I will not bow down to the glory of his kingship, because he is … house of the King.”’

77 Territorial fief; land held free of tribute (Ullendorff, The Ethiopians, Glossary).

78 Manawe MS.

79 A.S. MAI 3/17–136, Mulazzani Report, 26 July 1896.

80 A.S. MAI 3/17–136, Lambertini to M.d.G., 22 Sept. 1896; Wylde, A. B., ‘Unofficial Mission to Abyssinia‘, Manchester Guardian, 21 05 1897.Google Scholar

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82 Makurya, Takla Sadeq, Yaityopia tarik, 48.Google Scholar

83 Walda-Sellase, Heruy, Yaheywat tarik (Addis Ababa, 1914 EC), 47.Google Scholar

84 According to an Italian journalist sent to Tigre in Mar. 1891 to make contact with Alula, the Ras told him in their meeting at Manawe, ‘This country is ours, and if we submitted to Menelik this is because we became very few after Metemmah…. I have my master who is the son of King Giovanni [Yohannes], why should I look for another in Scioa?… Tigre cannot be a servant of Scioa, because our people are soldiers, while the Shoans fight only against people armed with spears’, Mercatelli, L., ‘Nel paese di Ras Alula’, Corriere di Napoli, 13–1405 1891.Google Scholar