Akkele Guzay

Akkele Guzay was a province in the interior of Eritrea until 1996, when the newly independent government of Eritrea consolidated all provinces into six regions. Akkele Guzay's population was predominantly followers of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church. Traditionally being part of the "Kebessa" (Highlands in Eritrea), it is the locality of the town of Dekemhare. The province is now mostly part of the Southern Red Sea Region and Debub (Southern) Region.

History

Akkele Guzay is one of the most ancient regions of Eritrea, with an inscriptional record going back to at least the 9th century BC, in Epigraphic South Arabian, the earliest example of the script in the world. It was part of the Kingdom of D'mt that would evolve into the Kingdom of Aksum. [Fattovich, Rodolfo, "Akkälä Guzay" in von Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. "Encylopaedia Aethiopica: A-C". Weissbaden: Otto Harrassowitz KG, 2003, p.169.] Its name has been connected by some to the "Gaze" of the Monumentum Adulitanum (which later medieval Greek notes in the margins associate with the Aksumite people [Stuart Munro-Hay, "Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity". Edinburgh: University Press, 1991. Page 187 in PDFlink| [http://www.dskmariam.org/artsandlitreature/litreature/pdf/aksum.pdf online version] |838 KiB ] ). [L. P. Kirwan, "The Christian Topography and the Kingdom of Axum" in "The Geographical Journal". The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), 1972. p.173.] If the note regarding the Gaze is accurate, it would connect the name of Akkele Guzay to the Ag`azyan or Agazi (i.e. Ge'ez speakers) of the kingdom of D'mt in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia who later became the Tigray-Tigrinya and Tigre. This connection has been rejected by linguists in modern times, however, due to the lack of the middle voiced pharyngeal fricative in the triliteral root, which is usually preserved in Tigrinya (the main language in Akkele Guzay). [A. F. L. Beeston, "Review: Excavations at Aksum: An Account of Research at the Ancient Ethiopian Capital Directed in 1972-74," in "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London". School of Oriental and African Studies, 1992.] Instead, the name may be connected with the Agwezat clan conquered by the 4th century King Ezana of Axum and the "Agaze" (unvocalized 'GZ, referring either to a person or a group) of the Hawulti at Matara. Along with Agame in Ethiopia, it was a main center of Aksumite culture (second only to Western Tigray, where the capital was located), with a distinct sub-culture that separated the two regions from that of Western Tigray (Shire, Axum, Yeha), Central Eritrea (Seraye, Hamasien, and Adulis), and frontier areas in northern Eritrea and Central Ethiopia. [Stuart Munro-Hay, "Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity". Edinburgh: University Press, 1991. PDFlink| [http://www.dskmariam.org/artsandlitreature/litreature/pdf/aksum.pdf Online version] |838 KiB , pp.36-37.] [Rodolfo Fattovich, "Some Data for the study of Cultural History in Ancient Northern Ethiopia" in "Nyame Akuma". Newsletter of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists in America, May 1977, pp.6-18.] During medieval times, Akkele Guzay was part of a larger province of Bur in Ethiopia, which also included Agame, some northeastern Afar lowlands, and the Buri peninsula; Akkele Guzay and Agame were part of "Upper" (La'ilay) Bur, while the lowlands were further distinguished as "Lower" (Tahtay). ["Bur" in von Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. Encylopaedia Aethiopica: A-C. Weissbaden: Otto Harrassowitz KG, 2003.]

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