Abba Seru Gwangul

Abba Seru Gwangul (died 1778) was a chieftain of the Yejju Oromo, an ethnic group of Ethiopia.[1] He came to control Begemder and parts of Wollo, and his heirs were significant warlords of the Zemene Mesafint. Abba Seru Gwangul claimed to be a descendant of an Arab named Omar, who had served in the armies of Ahmad Gragn.[2]

The Scottish explorer James Bruce met him in 1770, and recorded a vivid description of this man in his account of travels in Ethiopia.[3]

Notes

  1. ^ Alexander Murray describes Gwangul as chief of the "Bertuma Galla", of whom the Yejju were a subgroup. (Murray's preface to James Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1805 edition), vol 3 p. 7
  2. ^ Chris Proutky, Empress Taytu and Menelik II: Ethiopia 1883-1910 (Trenton: The Red Sea Press, 1986), p. 28n
  3. ^ J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), p. 110 n.2
Preceded by
none
Chiefs of the Yejju Oromo Succeeded by
Ras Ali