Battle of Embabo

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Embabo
partof=


caption=
date=June 6 1882
place=Embabo, Ethiopia
result=Shewan victory
combatant1=Shewan army
combatant2=Gojjame army
commander1=Menelik II of Ethiopia
commander2=Negus Tekle Haymanot
strength1=
strength2=
casualties1=
casualties2=

The Battle of Embabo was fought 6 June, 1882 between the Shewan forces of Menelik II of Ethiopia and Tekle Haymanot. The Gojjame forces under Negus Tekle Haymanot were defeated. This is one of the three battles (along with Chelenqo and Adwa) which Donald Donham lists that led to Shewan supremacy over the rest of Ethiopia. [Donald Donham, "Old Abyssinia and the new Ethiopian empire: themes in social history" in "The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia" (Oxford: James Currey, 2002), p. 23]

Background

South of Gojjam, across the Abay River, and southwest of Shewa, lay the fertile Gibe region and the gold deposits beyond. Both polities craved control of these resources in order to assert dominance over the rest of Ethiopia. Of the two, the Gojjame had the earlier start and better position: as early as 1810, a large volume of luxury trade passed North through Gojjam (and its major market at Boso) to the coast of the Red Sea, far more than passed east through Shewa to the coast. King Bofo of Limmu-Ennarea maintained good relations with the contemporary governor of Gojjam. [Mohammed Hassen, "The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History 1570-1860" (Trenton: Red Sea, 1994), pp. 133-138] A letter survives from his son Abba Bagibo to Dejazmach Goshu Zewde, seeking an alliance against a mutual foe. [Mohammed Hassen, "The Oromo", pp. 176-180]

The armies of Shewa and Gojjam had clashed earlier in 1882. The Shewan was led by Ras Gobana Dacche, and the Gojjame by Ras Darrasu; Ras Gobana had forced his opponent to surrender the tribute he was bringing back to his ruler. Humiliated, Negus Tekle Haymanot exchanged angry words with peer, which resulted with the two potentates leading their armies to face one another at Embabo near the Guder River. [Ref Ethiopia|Marcus-1995|pages= p. 69]

The Battle

The battle began at 10:00am with the Gojjame cannons firing at the enemy. The guns of both sides did little damage, and soon were inoperable. After a volley of rifle fire, soldiers on both sides charged and engaged their opponents in what Harold Marcus describes as "a fierce day-long battle of hand-to-hand combat, with both kings participating as ordinary soldiers." [Marcus, "Menelik II", p. 69] Late in the afternoon the Gojjame center collapsed, and Tekle Haymanot was wounded then captured. The troops under his son, Ras Bezzabbeh, surrendered and were taken prisoner. Although Ras Darrasu continued to fight, a cavalry charge led by Ras Gobana on his flank ended their resistance, and the battle was over.

"In victory Menelik was prepared to be magnaminous," Marcus notes. Menelik allowed the common soldiers to return to their farms and plough their lands before the rainy season. Tekle Haymanot and his son were given medical treatment and given accomindations according to their rank. [Marcus, "Menelik II", p. 70] For his vital role in the conflict, Menelik awarded Ras Gobana the governorship of the Gibe region, making the Ras potentially the most powerful man in Shewa -- after Negus Menelik. [Mohammed Hassen, "The Oromo", p. 199]

However Emperor Yohannes IV, their overlord, was outraged at his two vassals openly at war with each other and marched to Were Ilu, just inside Menelik's borders, where he demanded the release of Tekle Haymanot and his family. There the Emperor hammered out a compromise: Yohannes would take Agawmeder from Negus Tekle Haymanot and Wollo from Negus Menelik; Menelik would surrender the arms he captured to Yohannes' lieutenant Ras Alula Engida; and a peace was cemented with several dynastic marriages, including Negus Menelik to the daughter of a noble family from the Emperor's own domain, Taitu Betul. [Ref Ethiopia|Henze-2000|pages= pp. 150f]

Notes