Slavery in Ethiopia existed for centuries, going as far back as 1495 BC and ending in 1942. There are also sources indicating the export of slaves from the Aksumite Empire (100–940 AD). The practice formed an integral part of Ethiopian society. Slaves were traditionally drawn from the Nilotic groups locally known as Shanqella. War captives were another source of slaves, though the perception, treatment and duties of these prisoners was markedly different. Religious law banned Christian slave masters from taking Christians as slaves, however many Muslim Ethiopian slave traders took part in the Arab slave trade. In what is now Ethiopia, the Abyssinian Church justified slavery with its version of the Curse of Ham, a belief possibly adopted from medieval Jewish and Muslim scholars which would later find its way to the western world.
The abolition of slavery became a high priority for the Haile Selassie regime which began in 1930. International pressures forced action, and it was required for membership in the League of Nations. During Italian occupation, the temporary government issued two laws in October 1935 and in April 1936 which abolished slavery and freed 420,000 Ethiopian slaves. After the Italians were expelled, Emperor Haile Selassie returned to power and officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, by making it a law on 26 August 1942.Hanibal Goitom, "Abolition of Slavery in Ethiopia" On Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress February 14, 2012Christine Whyte, "‘Everyone Knows that Laws Bring the Greatest Benefits to Mankind’: The Global and Local Origins of Anti-Slavery in Abyssinia, 1880–1942." Slavery & Abolition 35.4 (2014): 652-669. Ethiopia later ratified the 1926 Slavery Convention in 1969. Following the abolition of slavery in the 1940s, freed slaves were typically employed as unskilled labour by their former masters.
History
Aksumite Empire The Ethiopian-Eritrean region, strategically located between two major trade routes, served as a significant center for the slave trade. It had access to the Red Sea in the east and the Nile Valley in the west, which connected it to a global market for slaves over many centuries. Additionally, this region supplied slaves to the Hellenistic and Roman worlds due to its connections to Mediterranean trade. The areas between the Aksumite and Sudanic empires, situated in the Nilo-Saharan region, were often targeted for raids and the capture of slaves. The port of Adulis was renowned as a hub for the slave trade from as early as the 1st century by Pliny the Elder. Excavations at the Aksumite site of Matara uncovered a human skeleton still wearing shackles. In the 6th century, Greek traveler Cosmas Indicopleustes indicated that most slaves were brought from the tribes of the conquered regions named in the Monumentum Adulitanum.
Medieval era Emperor Amda Seyon's conquests resulted in a significant number of slaves. His chronicler frequently noted the capture of numerous prisoners during his military expeditions: "He went to the country of Hadiya and killed [many of] the people of that land and the rest he made captives with their king, great [men] and small, men and women, old and young, and transported them into his kingdom." The terms used by Amda Seyon's chroniclers in describing his successes clearly indicate that slave-raiding was an important by-product of many of his campaigns: "At this time Gemaldin the king of the Moslems came to the king with many gifts and said, 'I pray you, O king, return to your capital, since you have appointed me your (ruler), and I will do your will. For behold, the land of the Moslems is now ruined. Leave what remains (in) the country and do not ravage it again, that they may work for you by trading, because I and all the Moslem peoples are your slaves.' The king answered him angrily, saying, 'It is not when I am bitten by hyenas and dogs, sons of vipers and children of evil which trust not in the Son of God, that I return to my capital; and if I return before I have ravaged the land of Adal, may I become like her who bore me, my mother; may I not be called a man but may I be called a woman" A medieval Ge'ez ecclesiastical account gives a picture of the commercial exploits: "[The Muslim traders] did business in India, Egypt, and among the people of Greece with the money of the king. He gave them ivory, and excellent horses from Shäwa and red, pure gold from Enarya... and these Muslims... went to Egypt, Greece, and Rome and exchanged them for very rich damasks adorned with green and scarlet stones and with the leaves of red gold, which they brought to the king" Ivory was a valuable trade commodity in the kingdom since ancient times, with the Takaze, Barka, and Ansäba rivers, and other regions being rich in elephants and other wildlife. The kings organized systematic elephant hunts and entrusted the tusks to their commercial agents.
In the 14th century, the Muslim scholar al-Umari described the slave trade and the interactions between Islamic principalities and Christian highland kingdoms, noting that castration was practiced in a certain place called Washlu, south of Christian Ethiopia. The castrates would then heal in the Muslim principality of Hadiya before being sold at high prices in Arabia, where eunuchs were greatly valued. This division of labor between Washlu, a pagan place, specializing in castration, and Hadiya, specializing in healing, François-Xavier Fauvelle noted it "was motivated less by economic rationality than by the common hypocrisy that allowed Christians and Muslims to collaborate in a practice whose operation they preferred not to see."
The Ethiopian Christian state was at around this time established contact with another "black" people known as the Shanqellas, who lived around the lower stretches of the Blue Nile. Similar to the baryas, the country of the Shanqellas would become the target of frequent slave raids by the Abyssinians. According to a fifteenth-century soldier's song of Emperor Yeshaq I, the Shanqellas were forced to pay tribute to the Abyssinians. At around this time, a code known as the Fetha Negest (The Law of the Kings), was translated into Ge'ez and had begun to serve as the traditional law for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. Based on this law, freeborn Christians were of free status and off limits, while non-Christians captured in war could be enslaved. Slavery was therefore caused by unbelief, and yet the conversion of pagan slaves to Christianity subsequent to the establishment of the right of ownership by masters did not extinguish slavery. In this way, the code provided the ground for a religiously justified exclusion and enslavement of non-Christians and Christians whose slavery was caused by previous unbelief.
During the reign of Sarsa Dengel, many pagan southern peoples had converted to Christianity to avoid further slave raids. Among those who requested conversion were the Gafat people in the former district of Shat in Damot; Sarsa Dengel granted their request in 1581. Similarly, the people of Ennarea had requested to be converted, which Sarsa Dengel also accepted in 1587. During the Oromo migrations of 16th century many indigenous peoples made into Gabaros (serfs).Richard Pankhurst The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. The Red Sea Press (1997) pp. 35–300Paul Trevor William Baxter, Jan Hultin, Alessandro Triulzi. Being and Becoming Oromo: Historical and Anthropological Enquiries. Nordic Africa Institute (1996) pp. 253–256 The Oromos adopted the Gabaros in mass, adopting them to the qomo (clan) in a process known as Mogasa and Gudifacha. Through collective adoption, the affiliated groups were given new genealogies and started counting their putative ancestors in the same way as their adoptive kinsmen, and as a Gabaro they are required to pay their tributes and provide service for their conquerors.Paul Trevor William Baxter, Jan Hultin, Alessandro Triulzi. Being and Becoming Oromo: Historical and Anthropological Enquiries. Nordic Africa Institute (1996) pp. 254 such as in Damot, where according to Bahrey, the Boran clan surrounded the province "enslaved the men and carried off the livestock".
Susenyos I would conduct six major slave raids against the Shanqellas on the western lowlands, which resulted in the capture of many slaves both female and male. His chronicler deprecatingly describes the color of the slaves as "black" and not "red like the normal people". Susneyos would come into the possession of vast numbers of black slaves whom he relocated to the Gondar area. According to Manuel de Almeida, many of these slaves would be appointed to the "highest offices" of the court, and that the Emperor trusted him more than his free born subjects. Almeida quotes that the Emperor once declared that the only men who were faithful to him were the ones he "created and made from dust".
Gondarine period Further slave raiding against the western Shanqellas took place under Emperors Fasilides, Yohannes I and Iyasu I. As a result, Gondar and others parts of the Christian empire had a considerable slave population, mostly from Shanqellas and other "blacks" from the far west. James Bruce states every department was "full of them" and that boys and girls were taken in by the king and "instructed early in the Christian religion". Many of these slaves became soldiers, these slave troops were known as the Welajoch. The Welajoch, like many other slave troops in history, soon gained significant political power. After Dawit III's death in 1721, the “black” servants at the palace had attempted to seize power. Emperor Bakaffa subsequently ordered the banishment of all black slaves in Gondar and proclaimed that anyone found with one in their houses should receive a severe punishment. However, the Welajoch ignored the command and began to pillage the countryside. The chronicles condemns the Welajoch and states that they were murderers who had seized wives in the presence of their husbands, and virgins in front of their mothers and their "wickness was known to the whole world." Baffaka then dispatched a force and ambushed the Welajoch just south of Gondar. Many were killed and those that were captured were banished. The chronicler states that this victory led to much rejoicing in Gondar, whose citizens he claims, would have all been victims had the Welajoch succeeded.
Anestasyos launched an expedition against the Tulama in Shewa, where he was said to have captured thousands of Oromo slaves.
18th to 20th centuries