A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN DAWRO, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

In many patriarchate societies of Africa, women were highly dominated in every aspect of life. Even in our contemporary world, there are few public figures that traversed the male domination. In spite of such dominance, women have had a better socio-political and economic status in some medieval kingdoms like Dawro, and the role and wisdom of prominent women in such kingdoms needs further investigation. The oral history of Dawro explicitly reveals that women had almost equal status with men. They had the right to choose their own counterpart as well as hold public office by competing with men except the office of king which was an absolute power vested on men. On the other hand, there was a unique office for women to act as the head of the king’s treasury. Similarly, in Dawro indigenous religion, every clan have their own male deities and Mariaminto is a ‘female’ deity for women. This kind of gender equity emanated from the unique Dawro socio-political system. It was introduced at the beginning of the 16th century by a famous King Adeto Erashu and it was further developed and reshaped by the active involvement and advice of the famous Dawro Queen Bale during the reign of her son, King Erashu Hallalla. In the Dawro indigenous political system, women had an equal chance to compete for political office, except the office of kingship. There was also a separate office, Tomosogenne (king’s treasury officer) for women who spun cotton, Shalwua, the local currency and currency of other neighboring kingdoms. Hence many spinners under the leadership of Tomosogenne spun more cotton in order to boost the economic powers of various Dawro kings. It is reported that there were many female public officials in the Dawro political system including Genne Bale, Genne Shoshote and many others who worked more for the glory of the kingdom, while few of them added fuel for the decline and fall of the state. According to Dawro elders, the most prominent one was Genne Angelate Gabe, a female Worrabba (regional ruler) in Tocha. Above all her other pursuits, she was credited with separating her region from Dawro and finally peacefully surrendering it to the invading force of King Menelik (18891913) in the second half of nineteenth century.
Keywords: Indigenous administration, women, Dawro, Ethiopia