Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EMPEROR TEWODROS
After the fallout of Gonder, Ethiopia existed only as a cluster of separate and feuding fief-
doms. That was until the mid-19th century, when a unique man dreamt of unity.
Kassa Haylu, raised in a monastery and the son of a western chief, had first been a
shifta
(bandit) after his claim to his deceased father's fief was denied. However, he eventually be-
came a Robin Hood figure, looting the rich to give to the poor. This gained him large num-
bers of followers and he began to defeat the rival princes, one after another, until in 1855
he had himself crowned Emperor Tewodros.
The new monarch soon began to show him-
self not just as a capable leader and strong ruler
but as a unifier, innovator and reformer as well.
He chose Maqdala, a natural fortress south of
Lalibela, as his base and there he began to for-
mulate mighty plans. He established a national
army, an arms factory and a great road network,
as well as implementing a major program of land reform, promoting Amharic (the vernacu-
lar) in place of the classical written language, Ge'ez, and even attempting to abolish the
slave trade.
But these reforms met with deep resentment and opposition from the land-holding
clergy, the rival lords and even the common faithful. Tewodros' response, however, was
ruthless and sometimes brutal. Like a tragic Shakespearean hero, the emperor suffered from
an intense pride, a fanatical belief in his cause and an inflated sense of destiny. This would
eventually be his downfall.
Frustrated by failed attempts to enlist European, and particularly British, support for his
modernising programs, Tewodros impetuously imprisoned some Britons attending his
court. Initially successful in extracting concessions, Tewodros overplayed his hand, and it
badly miscarried. In 1868 large, heavily armed British forces, backed by rival Ethiopian
lords, inflicted appalling casualties on Tewodros' men, many of them armed with little
more than shields and spears.
Refusing to surrender, Tewodros played the tragic hero to the last and penned a final dra-
matic and bitter avowal before biting down on a pistol and pulling the trigger.
Philip Marsden tells the ultimately tragic tale of
Emperor Tewodros II in his beautifully executed
book on Ethiopia,
The Barefoot Emperor
.
