Abba Seru Gwangul

Abba Seru Gwangul (died 1778) was a Wara Seh chieftain from Yejju, an ethnic group of Ethiopia. The Wara Seh began to have prominence with the emergence of Gwangul who was elected by a council of elders of present day Gubalafto. He came to control Begemder and parts of Wollo, and his heirs were Enderases (Regents) of the Ethiopian Empire and 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.[1]

The Scottish explorer James Bruce met him in 1770, and recorded a vivid description of this man in his account of travels in Ethiopia.[2]

Abba Seru Gwangul had numerous children including Dejazmach Welle, Dejazmach Kormi, Abeto Yimer, and Woizero Aster. With his wife Woizero Gelebu, daughter of Ras Faris of Lasta and Salawa, Abba Seru Gwangul had Ras Ali, Ras Aligaz and Woizero Kefey.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ Chris Proutky, Empress Taytu and Menelik II: Ethiopia 1883-1910 (Trenton: The Red Sea Press, 1986), p. 28n
  2. ↑ J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), p. 110 n.2
  3. ↑ Molla Tikuye, The Rise and Fall of the Yajju Dynasty 1784-1980, p. 201.
Preceded by
none		 Chief of the Yejju Succeeded by
Ras Ali