Ennarea

The mysterious beginning

As the Hinnario people, how the indigenous Gonga of Ennarea refer to themselves, made no use of a script one have to reconstruct Ennarea's history with oral and foreign sources. The first (foreign) source mentioning Ennarea is an Aksumite document found in Debra Dimakir, which tells us that

“(the) legendary Aksumite king Digna-Jan led 150 priests carrying 60 consecrated tablets from Axum to Amhara and then accompanied 180,150 soldiers to Innarya”, which were said to have been a month’s journey from Amhara” ^[3].

Ennareas early history was probably closely linked with its northern neighbor, the kingdom of Damot: An early 19th-century document regarding the early history of Damot and Ennarea attests a political union of these two kingdoms under Moti Lami, the king of Damot.^[4]

Rise and peak of power

It appears that since the late 14th century (around the same time when Kaffa was founded in the south) Ennarea gained nominal independence from its northern neighbor, although it remained in close contact with it. While Damot was soon annexed by the Ethiopian Empire Ennarea developed to the most important kingdom of the non-Muslim south, displacing Damot as one of the biggest gold and slave mines and degrading Kaffa and Bosa to tributaries. However, the Empire in the north became immense powerful too by defeating the Muslim sultanates of the southeast (Ifat) under king Yeshaq. In the praising song of Yeshaq we learn that even the powerful Ennarea had to pay a tribute to the Empire, mostly consisting of gold, slaves and cattle.

Decline, fall and aftermath

The kingdoms downfall happened in the 17th century. During this time, not only the Oromo weakened the economic situation of Ennarea by cutting it off from the Ethiopian empire, but also Seka and the Kaffa kingdom broke free from their vassalage, while the latter even started attacks on the dying kingdom. The last tato of the kingdom of Ennarea was Sisafočči. Under his rule the kingdom was finally overrun by the Oromo, in particular the Sadača federation ^[5]. After its destruction the royal family fled to the west. The kings tried to rebuild a kingdom in Kaffa territory, but were in the end defeated.^[6] After the Kaffa-Hinnario wars the remaining Hinnario people were incorporated into the Kaffa kingdom. Not only in Kaffa but also in the former Ennarea territory they vanished from history because of cultural assimilation, slavery, epidemics and the political repression after the area got conquered by the Imperial troops ^[7]. Today only a tiny community lives in the former Kaffa territory.^[8]

Economy

Lange described Ennarea's economic situation in its golden age like this:

“The pre-16th century Hinnario state (was) a rich slave state, completely exploited of its natural and human resources for the benefit of foreign overlords.” ^[9]

Indeed, like many other Sub-Saharan kingdoms, Ennarea became enormously rich by trading with North Africa, in particular the Ethiopian empire. The most important trading goods were slaves and gold, both were recorded to be of extraordinarily high quality. Coffee was not exported until the time of Limmu Ennarea in the 19th century.^[10]

Like the other Gonga people the Hinnario cultivated the ensete, commonly known as the “false banana plant”. It was not only used for food but also for producing toys and clothes. Beside the ensete all the Gonga people harvested sweet, white and adscho-potatoes, black yams, teff and later, according to the Sheka people with the Oromo migrators, pumpkins. ^[11]

Orthodox Christianity

Christianity found its first way into Ethiopia with the conversion of the Aksumite Empire under king Ezana in 340 AD (Not how popularly believed in 333 AD)^[12]. As the document found in Debra Dimakir proves relations between Ennarea and Aksum one can assume that Christian influences came to Ennarea already since these ancient times. However, it probably took no deeper roots there because the distance between Ennarea and the Christian lands in the north was way too big. After the fall of Aksum and the succeeding Zagwe dynasty however the Ethiopian Empire began to expand its influence and therefore its Christian religion to the south. When exactly the kingdom was Christianized for the first time is impossible to say, but the first mention of a Christianization was under Abuna Takla Haymanot in the early 14th century. However, Christianity disappeared pretty fast and should remain disappeared for over 200 years. In the end of the 16th century, tato La’Ašohni sent a request to emperor Sarsa Dengel to get converted, but the request was rejected by the Imperial court officials because of economic reasons. After La’Asohni his son Badančo sent a request as well. However, this time the emperor accepted the request (Though mostly to have a Christian buffer state against the invading Oromo forces). So the kingdom of Ennarea converted, and Badančo provided every convert with precious gifts. Expectedly, a high amount of people converted, but this golden age of Christianity was only for a short period. Only some decades later (Roman Catholic) emperor Susenyos sent a large number of priests to rebuild the “very much declined Christianity” of Ennarea. These efforts were pretty fruitless, and in the end, only the Noble class remained Christian until its very end ^[13]. Ennarea probably played the role of a filter of Christian influences from the north upon the other Gonga people, especially Kaffa and Seka. ^[14]

Roman Catholicism

For the first time it came into the lands with priests which were sent by emperor Susenyos I. Their biggest success was probably the conversion of the ruling tato, which is known to us as Emana Krestos. After his rule one can assume that Catholicism vanished as a religion, but remained in the heads of the Noble class as some kind of elite status. In the end Roman Christianity played only a minor role in the kingdoms history and it’s doubtful that it had any significant role in the culture of the average Hinnario people ^[15].

Islam

Islam played no role for the Hinnario people until the kingdoms fall in the early 18th-century ^[16]. After that, however, it gained significant importance and therefore became the state religion of the succeeding Limmu-Ennarea kingdom. Today the area is largely Muslim with Islam being an important part of the local identity.

King List

This list was created by Werner Lange by combining written sources with oral ones^[17]: