Embet Ilen

Embet Ilen (c. 1801-1851) was a woman important in Eritrean politics. There is little known about her early life. Her father, for example, is named as Aite Hagos in Historical Dictionary of Eritrea, but named as Ayte Fisseha in Traditions de Tsazzega et Hazzega. I: Textes Tigrigna, while A Biography of Ras Woldemichael uses both names alternately. She was married off to Ayte Solomon, who ruled much of the highlands around Asmara. Ayte Solomon attacked a neighboring district and was defeated, and Embet twice tried to avenge his defeat but was herself defeated both times. However, she then entered into an alliance with the ruler of Tigray, Shum-Agame Subagadis, who subdued highland Eritrea and appointed her as the governor of all the highlands around Asmara. After Shum-Agame Subagadis died, Dejjazmatch Wubé, who ruled the northern provinces from 1831-1855, became her ally. Ayte Solomon died around 1837. In the late 1840s she retired and became a nun. Subsequently her old enemy Kantiba Woldegaber visited her, and after he left from visiting her he was murdered. His relatives blamed her, and she fled from them into a neighboring subdistrict. But people there were afraid her enemies would attack them and so extradited her with two of her grandchildren, who were tortured to death. This was one of the reasons for her son Ras Woldemichael's hatred of the highlands around Asmara for the next thirty years. Aside from Ras Woldemichael, she also had a daughter and another son by Ayte Solomon, as well as two more children from political liaisons after Ayte's death.