2 - Unification and Independence 1855-1896

Summary

The man who represented the first effective response to both the internal and the external challenge - to the squabbling princes as well as to the ‘Turk’ - was Kasa Haylu, who, on his coronation in 1855 as Emperor Tewodros II, inaugurated the modern history of Ethiopia. Kasa became Tewodros largely by dint of his own personal qualities: his sense of mission, his military skill and valour and his extraordinary intelligence. He was essentially a self-made man. Kasa the shefia (bandit) became Tewodros the emperor. Although his career was initially formed within the politics of the Zamana Masafent y finally he proved to be its antithesis.

Yet it would be drawing too idealized a picture if we ignored his family background in discussing Kasa's rise to power. It was this background which gave him both his territorial base on the Ethio- Sudanese border - Qwara - and a taste of conventional politics. Kasa was related, if at a considerable distance, to Dajjach Maru of Dambya (south-west of Gondar), one of the leading participants in the Zamana Masafent. Maru in turn was a relation by marriage to both the Yajju dynasty and Dajjach Webe Hay la-Mary am of Semen. Ironically, though perhaps not surprisingly in the context of the period, it was fighting against these relatives that Maru met his death at the Battle of Koso Bar in October 1827. But his name survived in the fief which was grudgingly given to Dajjach Kenfu Haylu of Dambya by the Empress Manan Liban, mother of the Yajju Ras Ali II. The fief was known as Ya Maru Qammas (literally ‘ What has been tasted by Maru’, a collective name for the scattered possessions of Dajjach Maru, which included Qwara). Kasa himself, who went to Qwara after the Battle of Koso Bar, was sometimes called Kasa Maru. In Qwara, Kasa grew up in the family of Kenfu of Dambya, who was developing a reputation as a stalwart defender of the Ethiopian frontier against Egyptian encroachment.