Chercher (province)

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Chercher (sometimes spelled Charchar) [1] was a province in Hararghe (eastern Ethiopia) now part of Oromia Region, Ethiopia. [2] [3] Also known as Ittuu and West Hararghe, Chercher is the name given mainly to the eastern escarpment highland areas of Oromia state's West Hararaghe Zone, where the chains of Checher or higher mountains rise and extend inland from the Great Rift Valley in its northwest[ citation needed ]. The capital of the former Chercher province was Chiro. [3]

Contents

Etymology

Chercher may originate from cer, the Harari word meaning “a cliff that creates a deep gorge.” [4]

History

Ancient dolmen from the Middle Bronze Age is found in the region. [5] Archaeologists in Chercher also discovered tumuli from the 8-11th century. [6] The ruins are attributed to the Harla people in the district of Doba located in modern east Oromia. It was home to the people of Doba region prior to the Oromo invasions. [7] [8] [9] According to tradition the ruins of Sharif Ahmed mosque, who was a chief of Harla is found in the Doba district of Chercher. [10] Chercher was a significant area for the ivory trade, as the Harla people hunted elephants in the region. [11] In the fifteenth century it was part of the Adal Sultanate. [12] In the 1500s, amidst the Oromo invasions, the Barento effectively took control of the area, as a result numerous denizens reportedly fled towards the Red Sea. [13] Barento subclan Ittu had occupied the Chercher region from the Harari people and likely also Harla. [14] [15] According to Silt'e tradition, by 1560 most of their population had also vanished from Chercher. [16]

British deputy W.C Barker in 1842 states Chercher was a full day expedition from Harar city and was inhabited by the Oromo people. [17] According to nineteenth century French trader Charles-Xavier Rochet d'Héricourt, numerous coffee growers resided in the Ittu region of Chercher, from where they would subsequently transport their products to Abyssinia or Harar. [18] The chronicle of the Emirate of Harar from the nineteenth century suggests that a Malak was present in Chercher, indicating that the Emirate held some degree of authority in the area. [19] From 1883 to 1885 the Shewan forces under Menelik attempted to invade the Chercher but were defeated by the Ittu Oromo. [20] In 1886 the Abyssinians of Shewa also suffered a defeat at the Battle of Hirna against the forces of Harar Emirate in the Chercher region. [21] [22] Twentieth century Ethiopian writer Afevork Ghevre Jesus describing the Abyssinian annexation of this region states: [23]

In the Past, the dominion of Abba Danaw [Menelik II] had for its feet Wällo and for its navel Shewa; then it began to expand itself and to stretch its left wing toward Kaffa. The horse of Abba Danaw aiming its head toward Charchar [Eastern Harar], it didn’t sweat, the sun didn’t burn him, the desert didn’t cause him to sweat, the descents didn’t tire him, the slopes didn’t hold him back and he started to fly, to thunder and to pass saying: “the land is not enough for me, the lowlands are narrow.'

In the early 1900s, the former Ifat rebel leader Talha Jafar passed his later years in Chercher as the appointed governor of Wadessa during the reign of Lij Iyasu. [24] In the year 1923 regent Ras Tafari appointed Fit′awrari Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam as governor of Chercher, a year later governor Tekle Hawariat founded the town of Chiro (known then under its old name Asebe Tafari.) and the new capital of the province. [3] In the early 1970s, Chercher became the initial location where the Oromo Liberation Front began its armed struggle. [25] [26]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Akyeampong, Emmanuel (2 February 2012). Dictionary of African Biography. OUP USA. p. 289. ISBN   978-0-19-538207-5.
  2. ↑ Gnamo, Abbas (23 January 2014). Conquest and Resistance in the Ethiopian Empire, 1880 - 1974 The Case of the Arsi Oromo. Brill. p. 292. ISBN   978-90-04-26548-6.
  3. 1 2 3 Zewde, Bahru (2002). Pioneers of change in Ethiopia : the reformist intellectuals of the early twentieth century. Oxford, Athens, finfinee: Oxford University Press, Ohio University Press, Addis Ababa University Press. pp. 57–64. ISBN   9780821414460. OCLC   46992008.
  4. ↑ Cherchar. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
  5. ↑ Joussaume, Roger (2014). Mégalithisme dans le Chercher en Éthiopie. Éditions de Boccard. p. 7. ISBN   978-2-7018-0354-8.
  6. ↑ Chekroun, Amelie. Espaces musulmans de la Corne de l’Afrique au Moyen Âge. Centre français des études éthiopiennes.
  7. ↑ Joussaume, Roger (2014). "Chapitre II. Les cistes dolméniques ou daga kofiya". MEGALITHISM IN CHER IN ETHIOPIA. Annales d'Éthiopie Hors-Série / Special Issues. French Center for Ethiopian Studies. pp. 37–96. ISBN   978-2-8218-8263-8.
  8. ↑ History of Harar and Hararis (PDF). Harar tourism bureau. p. 27.
  9. ↑ Perspectives Des Études Africaines Contemporaines Rapport Final D'un Symposium International. Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission. 1974. p. 274. ISBN   9783794052257.
  10. ↑ Braukamper, Ulrich (2002). Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia. Lit. p. 120. ISBN   9783825856717.
  11. ↑ Lata, Fayisa. A History of Habro Woreda, 1941-1991 (PDF). Haramaya University. p. 21.
  12. ↑ Pradines, Stéphane (7 November 2022). Historic Mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa From Timbuktu to Zanzibar. Brill. p. 127. ISBN   978-90-04-47261-7.
  13. ↑ Ben-Dror, Avishai (23 August 2018). Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian: Colonial Experiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Harar. Syracuse University Press. p. 19. ISBN   978-0-8156-3566-6.
  14. ↑ Abir, Mordechai (28 October 2013). Ethiopia and the Red Sea The Rise and Decline of the Solomonic Dynasty and Muslim European Rivalry in the Region. Taylor & Francis. p. xvii. ISBN   978-1-136-28090-0.
  15. ↑ Ittuu. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
  16. ↑ Braukämper, Ulrich. Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia Collected Essays. Lit. p. 65.
  17. ↑ Barker, W.C. Extract Report on the Probable Geographical Position of Harrar; With Some Information Relative to the Various Tribes in the Vicinity (PDF). Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). p. 243.
  18. ↑ d'Héricourt, Charles E. Xavier Rochet (1841). Voyage sur le côte orientale de la mer Rouge: dans le pays d'Adel et le royaume de Choa (in French). A. Bertrand. pp. 95–96.
  19. ↑ Garad, Abdurahman (1990). Harar Wirtschaftsgeschichte eines Emirats im Horn von Afrika (1825-75). P. Lang. p. 83. ISBN   978-3-631-42492-6.
  20. ↑ Slikkerveer, Leendert (28 October 2013). Plural Medical Systems In The Horn Of Africa: The Legacy Of Sheikh Hippocrates. Taylor & Francis. p. 123. ISBN   9781136143304.
  21. ↑ Caulk, Richard (1971). "The Occupation of Harar: January 1887". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 9 (2): 10–11. JSTOR   41967469.
  22. ↑ Asnake, Gossa. A HISTORY OF HIRNA TOWN FROM ITS FOUNDATION UP TO 1991. Addis Ababa University. p. 93.
  23. ↑ Yates, Brian (2020). The Other Abyssinians The Northern Oromo and the Creation of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1913. University of Rochester Press. p. 71. ISBN   978-1-58046-980-7.
  24. ↑ Ahmed, Hussein (1989). "THE LIFE AND CAREER OF SHAYKH TALHA B. JA'FAR (c. 1853-1936)". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 22. Institute of Ethiopian Studies: 23. JSTOR   41965976.
  25. ↑ Clapham, Christopher (25 October 1990). Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia. Cambridge University Press. p. 216. ISBN   9780521396509.
  26. ↑ The Birth of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

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