Akele Guzai (
Tigrinya: ምድረ ቡር) was a province in the interior of
Eritrea
Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...
until 1996, when the newly independent national government consolidated all provinces into the
Northern Red Sea and
Debub (Southern) regions.
The province was bordered on the west by
Seraye,
Hamasien to the northwest,
Tigray
The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...
to the south and the Afar lowlands to the east.
History
Akkele Guzay is home to an inscriptional record going back to at least the 9th century BC, the earliest use of the
Geʽez script
Geʽez ( ; , ) is a script used as an abugida (alphasyllabary) for several Afroasiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan languages, Nilo-Saharan languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It originated as an abjad (consonantal alphabet) and was ...
.
Akkele Guzay's name has been connected by some to the ''Gaze'' of the
Monumentum Adulitanum (which later medieval Greek notes in the margins associate with the
Aksumite people). If the note regarding the Gaze is accurate, it would connect the name of Akkele Guzay to the
Ag`azyan or
Agazi (i.e.
Geʽez
Geez ( or ; , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Today, Geez is used as the main liturgical langu ...
speakers). This connection has been rejected by linguists in modern times, however, due to the lack of the middle
voiced pharyngeal fricative in the
triliteral
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowel ...
root, which is usually preserved in
Tigrinya (the main language in Akkele Guzay).
The name may be connected with the
Agwezat clan conquered by the 4th century King
Ezana of Axum
Ezana (, ''‘Ezana'', unvocalized ዐዘነ ''‘zn''), (, ''Aezana'') was the ruler of the Kingdom of Aksum (320s – ). One of the best-documented rulers of Aksum, Ezana is important as he first adopted for his country the religion of Chris ...
, and the ''Agaze'' (unvocalized 'GZ, referring either to a person or a group) of the
Hawulti at
Matara. Along with
Agame
Agame () is a Provinces of Ethiopia, province in northern Ethiopia. It includes the northeastern corner of Tigray Region, Tigray, borders the Eritrean province of Akele Guzai in the north, Tembien Province, Tembien, Kilte Awulaelo, Kalatta Awlalo ...
in Tigray, it was a main center of Aksumite culture, with a distinct sub-culture that separated the two regions from that of Central Tigray (
Shire
Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...
,
Axum
Axum, also spelled Aksum (), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire.
Axum is located in the Central Zone of the Tigray Re ...
,
Yeha), Southern Eritrea (
Seraye,
Hamasien, and
Adulis
Adulis (Sabaic, Sabaean: 𐩱 𐩵 𐩡 𐩪, , ) was an ancient city along the Red Sea in the Gulf of Zula, about south of Massawa. Its ruins lie within the modern Eritrean list of cities in Eritrea, city of Zula. It was the emporium (antiquit ...
), and frontier areas in northern Eritrea and
Lasta.
After the decline of the
Kingdom of Aksum
The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...
, the districts of Akele Guzai were under the control of the Christian
Zagwe Dynasty
The Zagwe dynasty () was a medieval Agaw monarchy that ruled the northern parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It ruled large parts of the territory from approximately 1137 to 1270 AD, when the last Zagwe King Za-Ilmaknun was killed in battle by the ...
, confirmation of this can be seen in a land grant by King
Lalibela in the monastery of
Debre Libanos near
Senafe. During medieval times, most of Akele Guzay was apart of the larger province of
Bur, which also included
Agame
Agame () is a Provinces of Ethiopia, province in northern Ethiopia. It includes the northeastern corner of Tigray Region, Tigray, borders the Eritrean province of Akele Guzai in the north, Tembien Province, Tembien, Kilte Awulaelo, Kalatta Awlalo ...
in Tigray, some northeastern
Afar lowlands, and the
Buri Peninsula; Akkele Guzay and Agame were part of "Upper" (La'ilay) Bur, while the lowlands were further distinguished as "Lower" (Tahtay).
Akele Guzai became an administrative unit in the mid-19th century after the decline of the Bur province. Ruled by various Tigrayan lords such as
Mikael Sehul,
Wolde Selassie and
Sabagadis Woldu, Akele Guzai would regain its independence in the 1880s.
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
spread in the province through
Wube Haile Maryam's alliance with French missionary
Giustino de Jacobis, leading to widespread conversions in villages like
Segeneiti and Digsa. In the late 19th century, local Catholics resisted Ethiopian taxation, briefly aligning with the
Khedivate of Egypt
The Khedivate of Egypt ( or , ; ') was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and expulsion of Napoleon Bonaparte's forces which brought an end to the short- ...
. After Ethiopia's victory at the
Battle of Gura, Rayya Oromo soldiers settled in the region and intermarried with the local women.
Conflicts with Tigray's
Mengesha Yohannes led to the local elite collaborating with the Italians, though leaders like
Bahta Hagos would later rebel. Under Italian rule (1898–1941), Akele Guzai expanded to Zula Bay, with its capital at
Adi Keyh. After the end of Italian rule, the province was divided into four sub-provinces: Segeneiti, Dekemhare, Addi Keyh, and
Senafe. In 1995, Akele Guzai lost its provincial status and became part of Eritrea's Debub zone.
[Fattovich, Rodolfo, "Akkälä Guzay" in von Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C''. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz KG, 2003, p.169.]
References
{{coord missing, Eritrea
Former provinces of Eritrea
History of Ethiopia