Tessema Nadew

Ras Bitwoded Tessema Nadew (died 10 April 1911; horse name Abba Qamaw[1]) was an Ethiopian military officer and politician who on 28 October 1909 was proclaimed as Ethiopia's future Balemulu Enderase (Regent Plenipotentiary)[note 1] to Lij Iyasu, upon the latter's appointment as heir to the throne by Emperor Menelik II.

Fatansa appealed in vain to Kumsa Mereda of Leqa Nekemte and Abba Jifar II of Jimma (who both by that time had accepted Ethiopian suzerainty over their lands) for assistance, as his forces' shields and spears were no match for the imperial army, which was well armed with modern firearms.

[6][3] A noted warrior, he fought in the Battle of Adwa in 1896, Tessema was also assigned together with other generals to neutralize the Afar people and prevent them from helping the Italians during the course of the First Italo-Ethiopian War in 1895–1896.

[8] In March 1898, on Menelik’s orders, Tessema led a large Ethiopian army (with a Russian contingent[9]) from his base in Gore, Illubabor, to join the French soldier Major Jean-Baptiste Marchand at Fashoda in the Sudan.

He made, however, Fitawrari Haylu with eight hundred men and three Europeans move further to the confluence of the White Nile and the Sobat rivers, where they planted Ethiopian and French flags.

[1] The new regent-designate found his authority undermined by Empress Taytu who tried to manipulate power and consolidate her own position while paralyzed Emperor Menelik was still alive.

It took a coup d'état engineered by a group of aristocrats and the head of the Imperial Bodyguard to convince Ras Tesemma and Habte Giyorgis to decisively limit the influence of the Empress by forcing her resignation in March 1910.

Despite these developments, the imperial government continued to falter: administrators were unwilling to make decisions because Tessema himself might be overthrown, and foreign affairs likewise suffered.