Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam

Adal Tessema was born on the eleventh of March 1847 at the Gojjam province of north-western Ethiopia, the son of Tessema Goshu of the Gojjami Solomonic nobility — of the Gondarine-line descended from Emperor Tekle Giyorgis I of the late eighteenth century — and Woizero Wassero of the Damot district. He was raised at the Gojjami court of his father at Mota.

He received the classical Ge'ez and Amharic literary education of the Gojjami Solomonic nobility under the monastic clergy at the Dima Giyorgis and Debre Werk monasteries — the principal Gojjami ecclesiastical centres of the period.

He was confirmed Ras of Gojjam by Emperor Yohannes IV (placed in this archive) on the twenty-eighth of February 1875 — and held the principal Gojjami Rasship across the consolidation of the Yohannes imperial state.

He was elevated to the Negus of Gojjam by Yohannes IV on the twentieth of January 1881 — at the principal post-1881 Boru Meda Council settlement of the Yohannes imperial state — and was crowned at the Cathedral of Debre Werk by Abuna Lukas of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

He commanded the principal Gojjami column at the Battle of Embabo of the sixth of June 1882 against the Shewan forces of Negus Menelik II — at the conclusion of the principal Shewan-Gojjami succession dispute of the Yohannes imperial period. He was defeated at Embabo and captured by the Shewan forces.

He transferred his allegiance to Menelik II at the conclusion of the Yohannes IV reign in March 1889 — and was confirmed in his Negus title of Gojjam by Menelik II at the principal post-1889 Solomonic dynastic settlement.

He commanded the principal Gojjami column at the Battle of Adwa on the first of March 1896 — and led the principal assault that captured the Italian artillery position at Mount Raio on the western flank of the engagement.

He died at Debre Markos in the Gojjam province on the tenth of January 1901 of complications of a long illness, at fifty-three.

He is honored here as the founder of the modern Gojjami kingship.