Slavery in Ethiopia

[3][4] The abolition of slavery became a high priority for the Haile Selassie regime which began in 1930. International pressures forced action, and it was required for membership in the League of Nations.

After the Italians were expelled, Emperor Haile Selassie returned to power and officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, by making it a law on 26 August 1942.

[12] In the 6th century, Greek traveler Cosmas Indicopleustes indicated that most slaves were brought from the Aksumite hinterland of Sasu (ostensibly the areas of present-day Fazogli Sudan[13]) and Barbaria (Somaliland) regions.

The king answered him angrily, saying, 'It is not when I am bitten by hyenas and dogs, sons of vipers and children of evil which trust not in the Son of God, that I return to my capital; and if I return before I have ravaged the land of Adal, may I become like her who bore me, my mother; may I not be called a man but may I be called a woman"[16] A medieval Ge'ez ecclesiastical account gives a picture of the commercial exploits: "[The Muslim traders] did business in India, Egypt, and among the people of Greece with the money of the king.

He gave them ivory, and excellent horses from Shäwa and red, pure gold from Enarya... and these Muslims... went to Egypt, Greece, and Rome and exchanged them for very rich damasks adorned with green and scarlet stones and with the leaves of red gold, which they brought to the king"[17] Ivory was a valuable trade commodity in the kingdom since ancient times, with the Takaze, Barka, and Ansäba rivers, and other regions being rich in elephants and other wildlife.

Emperor Bakaffa subsequently ordered the banishment of all black slaves in Gondar and proclaimed that anyone found with one in their houses should receive a severe punishment.

The chronicles condemns the Welajoch and states that they were murderers who had seized wives in the presence of their husbands, and virgins in front of their mothers and their "wickness was known to the whole world."

[27] Before the imperial expansion to the south Asandabo, Saqa, Hermata and Bonga were the primary slave markets for the kingdom of Guduru, Limmu-Enaria, Jimma and Kaffa.

[28] The merchant villages adjacent to these major markets of southwestern Ethiopia were invariably full of slaves, which the upper classes exchanged for the imported goods they coveted.

[29] The primary source of slaves for the southern territories was the continuous wars & raids between various clans and tribes which has been going on for thousands of years, and it usually follows with large scale slavery that was very common during the battles of that era.

For instance, the Great Famine of 1890-91 forced many people from the Christian north (modern-day Tigray and Eritrea) as well as southern Ethiopia to even sell their children and, at times, themselves as slaves to Muslim merchants.

[35] In southern Ethiopia the Gibe and Kaffa kings exercised their right to enslave and sell the children of parents too impoverished to pay their taxes.

[47] The most prominent slave trader was Khojali al-Hassan, "Watawit" shaykh of Bela Shangul in Wallagi, and his principal wife Sitt Amna, who had been acknowledged by the British as the head of an administrative unit in Sudan in 1905.

Khojali al-Hassan collected slaves – normally adolescent girls and boys or children – by kidnapping, debt servitude or as tribute from his feudal subjects, and would send them across the border to his wife, who sold them to buyers in Sudan.

Arabia, Persia, India and Egypt were full of slaves from Ethiopia, specifically from the southern non-Christian provinces who, upon converting to Islam, made "very good Moors and great warriors".

[56] Mainly consisting of young children, they led the most privileged lives and commanded the highest prices in the Islamic global markets because of their rarity.

He declares: Zeila seems to have been the southernmost port frequented by Arab merchants, whose chief center for these regions, however, was Aden, where the commercial, and also the climatic conditions were more favorable.

[61] The conquests of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi resulted in even more considerable numbers of Ethiopian slaves being sold to the Middle East.

According to Richard Pankhurst, almost all of the Ethiopians captured by Imam Ahmad were subsequently sold to foreign merchants in exchange for firearms and cannons.

A Portuguese Jesuit reported that Adal managed to sell "thousands" of Abyssinian slaves to traders from across the sea such as Arabs, Turks, Persians and Indians.

In 1543, Emperor Gelawdewos finally defeated the army of Adal and killed its leader, with the help of a small contingent of Portuguese soldiers, Menas and two other high-ranking captives were eventually ransomed in 1544.

[64] A Jesuit missionary reported an instance in where a Muslim merchant broke this law and was subsequently executed: Gelawdewos also launched a number of campaigns into Adal territory in which he freed Christian slaves that had been seized in previous conflicts.

[66][67] After the Oromo migrations, the Ethiopian Empire had lost control over most of its pagan southern territories, allowing them to became targets for slave raiding by the local Muslims.

A French agent in Arabia noted that blacks from West Africa made up the largest contingent of slaves as the traffic from Ethiopia had become very difficult.

[68][69] Beginning in the 19th century, the British backed by their superior naval power, pursued an anti-slavery campaign along the Red Sea and contributed much to significantly reducing the export of slaves from Africa into Arabia.

After the completion of the Suez Canal, abolishing the slave trade in this region was subordinated to the political imperative of safeguarding the transportation lines from the British Raj.

[75][74] In Sub-Saharan Africa, the slave relationships were often complex, with rights and freedoms given to individuals held in slavery and restrictions on sale and treatment by their masters.

[2] Initial efforts to abolish slavery in Ethiopia go as far back as the early 1850s, when Emperor Tewodros II outlawed the slave trade in his domain, albeit without much effect.

[78] According to Chris Prouty, Menelik prohibited slavery while it was beyond his capacity to change the mind of his people regarding this age-old practice, that was widely prevalent throughout the country.

[85] Habte Giyorgis Dinagde and Balcha Abanefso were originally slaves taken as prisoners of war at Menelik's court who ended up becoming powerful members of the government.