Tigrayans

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 majority of Tigrayans trace their origin to early Semitic-speaking peoples whose presence in the region dates back to at least 2000 BC, based on linguistic evidence (and known from the 9th century BC from inscriptions).[18]

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.[19] A Portuguese Map in the 1660 shows Medri Bahri consisting of the three highland provinces of Eritrea and distinct from Ethiopia.[20] That 16th century also marked the arrival of the Ottomans, who began making inroads in the Red Sea area.[21] Bruce noted "They next passed the Mareb, which is the boundary between Tigre and the Baharnagash".[22][23][24]

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 Ethiopia, divided the Ethiopian region, like James Bruce into three distinct and independent states.[25][26] These three great divisions (based arbitrarily on Language) are Tigre, Amhara, and the province of Shoa.[25] Henry considers Tigre as the more powerful state of the three; a circumstance arising from the natural strength of the country, the warlike disposition of its inhabitants, and its vicinity to the sea coast; an advantage that has secured to it the monopoly of all the musquets imported into the country.[27] He divided the Tigre kingdom into several provinces as the centre where it was considered the seat of the state being referred as Tigre proper a region around Adwa. the other Provinces of this kingdom includes Enderta, Agame, Wojjerat, Tembien,and Shire. the border between Tigre and the kingdom of Medri Bahri/Baharenegash was the Mareb River though sometimes Medri Bahri incloude some parts of Shire.

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.

Tigrayans 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 Tigrayans populated urban centers in Ethiopia are found within the Tigray Region in towns including Mekelle, Adwa, Axum, Adigrat, and Shire and in Eritrea are Asmara and Keren. 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 Tigrayans 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.[11]

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.[11]

The decline of the Tigrayans 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 Tigrayans). 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.[28][29][30]

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).[31][32][33] 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).[34][35][36]

Tigrayans speak Tigrinya as a mother tongue. It belongs to the Ethiopian Semitic subgroup of the Afroasiatic family.[37]

Tigrinya is closely related to Amharic and Tigre, another Ethiopian Semitic language spoken by the Tigre as well as many Beja. Tigrinya and Tigre, though more closely related to each other linguistically than either is to Amharic, are however 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. 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 Tigrayans constitute the fourth largest ethnic group in the country after the Oromo, Amhara and Somali, who also speak Afro-Asiatic languages.[38]

Tigrinya dialects differ phonetically, lexically, and grammatically.[39] No dialect appears to be accepted as a standard.

Orthodox Church in the woreda of Hawzen

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

Christianity

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 Tigrayans since antiquity.

Tigrayans sometimes described as “individualistic”, due to elements of competition, jealousy and local conflicts.[41] 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. Tigrayans 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.[42] Villages are usually perceived as genealogical communities, consisting of several lineages.[11]

A remarkable heritage of Tigrayans 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.[17]

Cuisine

T'ihlo dish

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

Tigrayans 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.[19] As the vast majority of Tigrayans 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.[43][44]

• de Waal, Alexander (1991). Evil days : thirty years of war and famine in Ethiopia. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1564320383.
• Young, John (20 April 2006). Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia: The Tigray People's Liberation Front, 1975-1991. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-02606-2.