Read on Twitter
Thread on the history of the term "amhara":
I'm going to be citing a blog post written by my grandfather Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam. I really didn't want to identify my relation to him just due to the fact I don't want this to reach people who don't follow me but this situation
I'm going to be citing a blog post written by my grandfather Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam. I really didn't want to identify my relation to him just due to the fact I don't want this to reach people who don't follow me but this situation
is way too dire for me to worry about that rn. I also think it's important to mention in the interest of full disclosure so I'm not accused of being biased. You can google him if you want to learn more about the source. This blog is in amharic so I'll translate the main points
Here is the link to the blog post in full if you want to read it anyway https://mesfinwoldemariam.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/%e1%8b%a8%e1%8a%a0%e1%88%9b%e1%88%ab-%e1%8c%89%e1%8b%b3%e1%8b%ad/
He discusses the history of the term amhara and how it meant something completely different from what it means today. He cites different dictionaries written by different academics from decades ago, I'm going to copy the full quotes and then paraphrase the meaning
‹‹የተመረጠ፣ ነጻነት ያለው ተውልድ፣ … ዐም ሕዝብ፣ ሓራ ሔር የወጣ ጨዋ፣ ነጻነት ያለው ወገን ወይም አሸናፊ፣ ድል ነሺ ዋና አለቃ ማለት ነው፤ / kesate birhan tesema defines it as, "chosen, born free, victorious" basically someone with status
ዐም ሕዝብ፣ ሐራ ነጻ በተገናኝ ነጻ ሕዝብ ገዢነት እንጂ ተገዢነት የማይስማርው ማለት ነው፤ ዐማራነት ዐማራ መሆን ተገርዞ፣ ተጠምቆ፣ ማተብ አስሮ የሚኖር ነው፤ aleka desta teklewold, "the owner, rather than the owned, the conqueror, rather than the conquered"
የአባ ዮሐንስ ትግርኛ/አምሐርኛ መዝገበ ቃላት ውስጥ አምሐራ ‹‹የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ ስም ነው፤›. የሚል ነው፤ this is from a writer named yeab yohannes, and is taken from his amharic-tigrigna dictionary, it simply translates to "the people of ethiopia"
በነጻነት የመኖርን ጸጋ ከእግዚአብሔር በቃል ኪዳን ላገኘው ከየነገዱና ከየጎሣው በጋብቻ፣ በልደትና በኅብረተሰባዊነት ተዋህዶ አንድ ፍጹም ሙሉ ዘር ለሆነው የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ የተሰጠ የኅብረ ነገድ ወይም የኅብረ ብሔር አጠቃላይ የባሕርይ መታወቂያ/
ስያሜ እንጂ የአንድ ጎሣ ስም አይደለም፡፡ from nibre ed ermias, im paraphrasing here btw, "someone who lives freely, in the word of God and through marriage or birth. a mix of different tribes and people, rather than being from one tribe"
As you can see, none of these definitions mention the people of a particular area, the general consensus at the time seemed to mean someone in the aristocracy
Haile Selassie, for example, by lineage was mostly Oromo, his mother being fully Oromo and his father being part. However, Haile would have identified himself as amhara according to the definition of his time because of his status as nobility.
There were several governors from Welayta, Gamo, Sidama, Amhara, Gurage, Tigray, Oromo etc who, bc of their noble status assimilated into the culture of "mehal ager" where mostly Amharic is spoken, this is also how amharic became the main language in cities all over ethiopia
Amharic as a language unites people of several different backgrounds who live side by side and are often brother and sister, it does this without threatening the existence of the countless other languages spoken in Ethiopia that make it the vibrant country it is.
One might wonder how amhara came to define an ethnic group then. The short answer to that is when tplf came to power, all the history books used in schools were rewritten with a revisionist narrative. Students in oromia learn a different history than those in amhara and etc
For the most part, these books were written to frame amharic speaking people from gonder, gojam, wollo, and shewa as "amhara" and claiming that they were the oppressors of everyone else, every aristocrat, every monarch, suddenly became associated with all amhara
Before this, people from those regions would identify very strongly with the region they came from "im gondere" "im gojami" etc rather than amhara, often times they were very territorial and historically these former kingdoms have indeed fought each other
Of course, the sinister intentions of TPLF is obvious here and unfortunately it has worked, and as we can see today, their impact on the country has been long lasting as an entire generation of youth has been raised with this twisted narrative.
I am honestly unsure of what the best path forward is right now, but I now it does not involve impoverished people of different backgrounds attacking each other based on bloodlines. We should be criticizing those in power, rather than assigning blame to a whole ethnicity,
of which the overwhelming majority are living in poverty and hold no type of power at all. I would also like to reiterate that Ethiopia has not had an "amhara" ruler since Menelik so it makes this narrative even more ridiculous
Lastly, I love every single Ethiopian from the bottom of my heart. I am hurt over the death of Haacaaluu Hundeesaa as he was one of my favorite Oromo singers. I am wishing his fans well and I pray that the perpetrators are found. I also hope that the unrest does not result in
any more death than it already has.
