Tigrayans

Tigrayans

ተጋሩ
Total population
c. 7 million
Regions with significant populations
Ethiopia	7,070,260
Languages
Tigrinya
Religion
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (96%) Islam (4%)
Related ethnic groups
Agaw Tigrinya Tigre Afar Amhara Beja Beta Israel Gurage Harari Oromo Saho Somali and other Ethiosemitic and Cushitic peoples [1]

Tigrayans (Tigrinya: ተጋሩ/ትግራዎት) are an ethnic group native to the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia.^[2][3][4] They speak the Tigrinya language.

The daily life of Tigrayans 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. Tigrayans' 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.^[2]

Ancient blocks with Sabean inscriptions.

History[]

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).^[5]:57

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.^[6] A Portuguese Map in the 1660 shows Medri Bahri consisting of the three highland provinces of Eritrea and distinct from Ethiopia.^[7] That 16th century also marked the arrival of the Ottomans, who began making inroads in the Red Sea area.^[8] Bruce noted "They next passed the Mareb, which is the boundary between Tigre and the Baharnagash".^{[9]:229, 230[9]:171[9]:128[dubious – discuss]}

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.^[10][11] These three great divisions (based arbitrarily on Language) are Tigre, Amhara, and the province of Shoa.^[10] 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.^{[11]:378–382} 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, , Tembien,Hamasien and Shire.

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.

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. Huge Populations of Tigrayans are also found in other large Ethiopian cities such as the capital Addis Ababa and Gondar, There are also some immigrant Tigrayans in neighboring Country Eritrea as well as abroad in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.

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 cattle herders in Humera; the egalitarian Wajjarat of south-eastern Tigray.

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

.

The decline of the Tigrayans population in Ethiopia is caused by the 1958 famine of Tigray. Over 100,000 people died of the famine.^{[12][13]:26, 27[14]}

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).^{[15][16][13]:43} 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).^{[13]:44[17][18]}

Language[]

Tigrayans speak Tigrinya as a mother tongue. It belongs to the Ethiopian Semitic subgroup of the Afroasiatic family.^[19]

Tigrinya is closely related to Amharic and Tigre (in Eritrea commonly called Tigrayit), another East african Semitic language spoken by the Tigre as well as many Beja of Eritrea and Sudan. 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 and Tigre. 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.^[20]

Several Tigrinya dialects, which differ phonetically, lexically, and grammatically from place to place, are more broadly clasified as Hamasien (Eritrean) or Tigray (Ethiopian) dialects.^[21] No dialect appears to be accepted as a standard.

Religion[]

Orthodox Church in the woreda of Hawzen.

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

History[]

Before the coming of Christianity, most Tigrayans 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[]

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.

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 in Eritrea. Today, the Muslim community, is concentrated mainly in urban areas. Many Jeberti in Eritrea claim that they are a separate ethnic group from the Tigrinya people in the area and consider their native languages to be both Arabic and Tigrinya, and are thus treated as a separate ethno-religious community.^[22]

Culture[]

Tigrayans sometimes described as “individualistic”, due to elements of competition, jealousy and local conflicts.^[23] 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.^[24] Villages are usually perceived as genealogical communities, consisting of several lineages.^[2]

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.^[25]

Cuisine[]

T'ihlo dish

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

Typical Tigrayans drinking Siwa

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.^[6] 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.^[26][27]

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.^[28]

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

• 

  Politician Meles Zenawi, the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

• 

  Debretsion Gebremichael, President of Tigray Region (Acting).

Notes[]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• 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.