Menz

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Menz or Manz (Leslau transliteration: Mänz) is a former province of Ethiopia, located inside the boundaries of the modern Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region. William Cornwallis Harris described Menz as lying "westward" of Gedem but between that former province and Marra Biete.^[1]

Donald Levine explains that Menz was divided into three parts: Mama Meder in the center; Lalo Meder in the south; and Gera Meder in the north.^[2] Further, he defines its boundaries as "the Mofar River in the south, the Adabay and Wanchet rivers in the west, the Qechene River in the north, and in the east a long chain of mountains which pour forth the waters that drain across Manz and which divide it from the lowlands of Efrata, Gedem, and Qawat."^[3] This would roughly equate to the modern woredas of Gera Midira Keya Gebriel and Mam Midrina Lalo Midir.

Manz formed the core of the autonomous Ethiopian state of Shewa. Negasi Krestos, a leading warlord of Menz, extended his power to the south by conquest, proclaimed himself ruler of Shewa, and defeated all of his rivals.^[4] Menz afterwards retained its identity as a subregion of Shewa. During the reign of Haile Selassie, Menz was incorporated into the province of Shewa, although it retained its conservative nature.

An example of Menz's conservatism is illustrated by the attempted revolt of Mesfin and Merid Biru, two brothers and sons of one of Ethiopia's largest landowners. Following the Ethiopian Revolution, in January 1975 they slipped away from Addis Ababa to organize a rebellion among peasants in Menz. Although this was not the center of their family's vast landholdings, it was only in Menz that they could obtain peasant support. Because of the area's isolation they could sell to the peasants their own interpretation of the events. They told the peasants that the Derg government was dominated by Moslems who would destroy the Ethiopian Church and take away land from Christians. As proof, the brothers played tape recorded statements of alleged government declarations broadcast over Radio Ethiopia which stated as much. Despite that their effort was doomed, it wasn't until October 1975, that security forces were able to finally track down Mesfin and Merid and kill them.^[5]

[edit] References

^ Cited in "Local History in Ethiopia" (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 3 June 2008)
^ Donald N. Levine, Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopia Culture (Chicago: University Press, 1972), p. 28
^ Levine, Wax and Gold, n.13 on p. 289
^ Levine, Wax and Gold, pp. 31f
^ Marina and David Ottaway, Ethiopia: Empire in Revolution (New York: Africana, 1978), pp. 87f