Tigray-Tigrinya people

The Tigray and Tigrinya are an ethnic group that lives in Ethiopia and Eritrea in the northern highlands of Abyssinia. In Ethiopia, they are now referred to as " Tigray " in Eritrea they are called " Tigrinya ".

There is no single self-identification of foreign peoples, the members of this people in Ethiopia as in Eritrea with the word Habesha were called ( " Abyssinian " ), but which also includes other linguistically and culturally related ethnic groups such as the Amhara.

Their language is called Tigrinya and is one of the Ethio - Semitic languages ​​. It is just like the Tigray and Amharic languages ​​from precursor of the old Ethiopian ( Ge'ez ) emerged. In addition to the language are the Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and the mostly rural lifestyle more common characteristics.

Dissemination

The Tigray - Tigrinya live in the northern part of the highlands of Abyssinia, in the Ethiopian region of Tigray and in adjacent areas of Eritrea.

In Ethiopia live according to the census of 2007, approximately 4.5 million Tigray. These account for 6.1% of the total population and by the Oromo, Amhara and Somali the fourth largest ethnic group in the country.

In Eritrea, Tigrinya are the largest ethnic group with a share of up to 50 %. With a total population of about 5 million, these are around 2.5 million Tigrinya.

From half to one million foreign Eritreans are most Tigrinya. In Germany live about 25,000 Tigrinya, the U.S., approximately 200,000 and 60,000 in Italy. One can speak of a tigrinischen Diaspora, especially in the Sudan and Yemen were the targets, but also Western countries as mentioned above.

History

The ancestors of the Tigray / Tigrinya went well from the connection between the centuries before the Christian era Eritrea immigrant southern Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula and living there kuschitischsprachigen ethnic groups, especially the Beja and Agau (these are still living in the southern parts of Tigray ), out. In this province was once the center of the kingdom of Aksum (1st - 8th century), in which trained a Hellenistic- South Arabian - Ethiopian culture. To 325 AD the Aksumite king Ezana was converted to Christianity and then rose Christianity as the state religion. Economic basis of cosmopolitan Aksum were agriculture and trade ( with the Romans and also with India and Persia ).

In later Christian Ethiopian Empire, the Tigray state were supporting people together with the Amhara and put a few emperor or ruler (especially the King of Kings Yohannes IV, Regent Mika'el Sehul ).

End of the 19th century, parts of the Tigrinya -speaking area of Italy colonized as part of Eritrea. During the Italian occupation of Ethiopia 1936-41 large parts of the Ethiopian Tigray in Italian East Africa were annexed to Eritrea. After the end of the occupation and the return Haile Selassie came in 1943 in Tigray to the Woyane rebellion in which peasants and nobles and smaller pastoral peoples such as the Rayya and Azabo turned against the central government.

A common ethnic identity of the Tigrinya speaking people formed out until the second half of the 20th century. Traditionally, Tigrinya - speakers refer to as Habesha ( " Abyssinian " highlanders ) as well as residents of their geographic region (eg Agame ). As a " Tigray " only the area around Aksum and Adwa was called from this geographical name the language name " Tigrinya " and the name of the entire province of Tigray was initially derived. In Ethiopia, mainly the Tigray People's Liberation Front ( TPLF ) promoted the idea of ​​a unity of all ethnic Tigrinya - speakers. The creation of an ethnically defined region of Tigray after the takeover by the TPLF / EPRDF in 1991 reinforced these tendencies. In the meantime, especially younger urban residents identify as members of an ethnic group " Tigray ", on land and in the elderly this idea, however, has not been fully enforced. In Eritrea, which was connected after the Second World War and the end of Italian rule in Ethiopia, Tigrinya, the first were considered because of their cultural proximity to other Ethiopian ethnic groups as loyal; the Eritrean independence movement was initially rather worn by Muslim ethnic groups. However Tigrinya dominated, established in the 1970s Eritrean People's Liberation Front ( EPLF ), which was usually allied strategically with the TPLF. In 1991, the TPLF and the EPRDF coalition led by her was instrumental in the overthrow of the Derg military regime and thus took power. In the same year, the EPLF Eritrea brought completely under their control, and in 1993 she was able to cry out as non- Tigrinya the independence of the State of Eritrea with full support of Tigrinya.

Economy and Politics

Now as then, agriculture and livestock is the livelihood for the majority of Tigray and Tigrinya population.

In Ethiopia, Tigray since the takeover by the TPLF / EPRDF have a dominant political role. The reigning since 1991, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and other important personalities are Tigray. The EPRDF initiated a certain democratization of Ethiopia and reformed the administrative divisions of Ethiopia towards an " ethnic federalism " of their own regions or states grant unto the Tigray and other ethnic groups in place of the old province.

In Eritrea, there is a one-party system since independence under the Eritrean People's Liberation Front or arising from their Popular Front for Democracy and Justice. Some critics accuse the Popular Front in addition to general repression also a dominance of Tigrinya and marginalization of other ethnic groups.