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Emperor yohannes - the most courageous leader of Ethiopia?Source : Medrek Shanqo Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:21 pm Post subject: This is what I found in Ethiopianreview.com A so called Tecola Hagos writes: Emperor Yohannes - the most courageous leader of Ethiopia As far as I am concerned, Ethiopia had never seen the likes of Emperor Yohannes IV for valor, foresight and statesmanship, generosity, and commitment to the Faith. It is to the great credit of Yohannes and his devotion to the Ethiopian Church that created such long lasting harmony among a contentious and divided Ethiopian Church of his time. It is his great leadership at the conference held at Boru Meda that set the practical guidance and the theological ideology that allowed successive generations of the Faithful to worship and glorify in harmony within a single Ethiopian Mother Church, God and the Christ, along with Saint Mary to this day thereby avoiding a division of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church between the Tewahdo and Tsega schisms. Emperor Yohannes devoted all of his energy to restore Ethiopia to her old glory, trying to recover all of her lost territories both in the Western frontiers and the Red Sea Coastal territories. The following are the four major battles fought by Emperor Yohannes IV and his illustrious Commander, Ras Alula in defense of Ethiopia. Check out this site, http://www.ethiopianmuslims.net/Islam_in_Ethiopia/Islam_in_Wallo%25Yohannes.htmIt is what had happened to moslems in Ethiopia. This king was a monster, he makes Mengistu look a saint. "The Muslims of Wallo in particular posed not only an obstacle to the establishment of a religiously homogeneous society, but also a direct political problem since "… they constituted practically a foreign state in the midst of the Christian heartland ... not only were they actively engaged in the propagation of Islam but were also persecution and forcibly converting the local Christians" "In the spring of 1881 both Yohannes and Menilek overrun Wallo. In November 1882 they left Boru Meda on a campaign against the Muslims of Qallu who had fled to the lowlands and, having marched as far as Dawway, they returned to base after two months, i.e., in early 1883. Many 'Ulama' of Dawway were killed in the course of the resistance against imperial campaign. Among them were Shaykh Abbuye, a son of Abba Assiyya, Shaykh Habib, Shaykh Muhammad Bashir and Shaykh Ahmad Din. All these prominent leaders of the local Muslim community died on 24 Muharram 1300 A.H./ 5 December 1882. In early 1886 about 20,000 men and women who had refused to renounce Islam were massacred on the plain of Bakke in Qallu ." Read the rest from the site... Debretsion Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:39 pm The problem with Gumames is their addiction for their self-created and self-perpetuated lies and innuendos about people they fear and envy, in this case,the heroic people of Tigray and their legendary sons who created the state of Ethiopia from scratch. Afar is by and large part of old Tigray(as far as Awash). NB: Even the brits who ruled Eritrea in the 40s wanted to recreate Abay Tigray, which included all of Afar, most of Agew, Semien, Tigray proper and Mereb Millash. As For yohannes, Afar was his own land, no different from Endeta or Akele. The beautiful girl that he married- who had Afaran and Tigrignan ancestry, was perfectly as Ethiopian- Tigrayan as he himself was. Arawit, why you think this is big deal is all in your head.The difference is he was ahead of his time, who cared less for someone's Ex-religion or class -origin. .. His only fault is, appointing a Gumamean, mIin-Yiluk, for Shewa, while the shewan balabats begged him not to do that. Now remember this: Afrar including all the sea coast as far Suakin, was part of Enderta, Agga-ame and Digsa (in Akeleguzay) . the Turks only controlled some coastal enclaves and Mitswa. Piazza, Like everything else in East Africa where everyone has their little side to every story, this topic is no different. As far I`m concerned, Ahmed Garag (not Gragn or Guri) was more or less of Zeilan-Turkic descent. Basically he was a Trukish puppet, and he was run by Turks from Aden. His troops were Arabs, Balkans , Turks and Somalis, who were like himself, Turkish subjects. Ahmed Garg's invasion was simply a cintinuation of the hundreds- of- years- long Turkish war against the great Habesha people. Habeshas were the only people in the middle east and NorthEast African Region -( like Serbs in Europe), who fouight Turks for 400-years. My Conclusion: .... For Somalis who were Turkish Subjects at that time, claiming Garag as theirs makes no sense at all. It is ridiculous to say the least. ...And as for the Ankoberite story tellers, .. so-called scholar(on paper), their calling "Garag an Ethiopian" is no different from their 75-year-long futile claim of the Solomonoid dynasty of all the Habeshan Kings to be of Ankober creation. ..In the future, I`ve no dought that they will make an attempt to convince us 'Weyane was... an Ankober creation. Democrat Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 1:50 am Post subject: By posting on this forum, I am solely responsible for the content of my post and agree to the rules, term and conditions. We have to really fair in judging Yohannes about his policy concerning Islam in Ethiopia. Emperor Yohannes was not a fanatic. He was an ethiopian nationalis. The moslems were at that time threatening Ethiopia. The crimes of Ahmed Gragn, who burnt and destroyed ethiopian churches are simply savage. Most ethiopians was forced to accept Islam as the new religion. They were forced to discard their millenia old faith- the Orthodox Christianity and be converted to Islam by Ahmed Gragn. Ahmed Gragn burnt many houses with christians in them. The presen day ethiopian moslems were christians until 1550. It is just around 1550 that Islam became widespread in Ethiopia. Yohannes was not against Islam as such. But he wanted to see a one-relgion state. He chose Christianity over Islam because of his background. Emperor Tedros had also the same problem with Islam. So did Menelik and Haile Selassie. Comparing what Ahmed Gragn did to Ethiopia with what Yohannes did to moslems of his time, we find Yohannes was fair. Yohannes reacted to what Ahmed Gragn did. Ethiopian moslems must show us that they are not instruments of foreign moslem countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others. We sometimes doubt the patriotism of ethiopian moslems. Ethiopian christians have always stood for Ethiopia. They founded and defended Ethiopia. Yohannes was just doing that - defending Ethiopia from such evil people as Ahmed Gragn, who was in the service of a foreign power. Go to Source of article |