Yohannes IV

Kassai Mercha was born on the eleventh of July 1837 in Tembien, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. He took the throne as Emperor Yohannes IV after the death of Tewodros II at the Battle of Magdala in 1868, prevailing in the succession struggle over the Shewan candidate Sahle Maryam — who would later become Menelik II.

His reign ran from 1872 to 1889, through the most concentrated period of European and Mahdist pressure on Ethiopia in its history. He defeated the Egyptian invasion at the Battle of Gundet (1875) and the Battle of Gura (1876) — the latter the largest battle ever fought between an African and a non-African army to that point in the nineteenth century. He defeated the Italian expedition at the Battle of Dogali in 1887.

His final campaign was against the Mahdist forces of Sudan, which had been raiding the Ethiopian highlands through the late 1880s. He met the Mahdist army at Metemma — also known as Gallabat — on the ninth of March 1889. He led the Ethiopian charge in person. The Ethiopian army was winning the engagement when Yohannes was struck by a bullet during the pursuit phase. He died of the wound on the field. He was fifty-one.

His head was reportedly taken by the Mahdists to Khartoum as a trophy. His successor Menelik II — who had not arrived at Metemma in time to engage — succeeded peacefully to the imperial throne and would, seven years later, defeat the Italians at Adwa.

Yohannes IV is the Ethiopian emperor whose continuous warfare across seventeen years of his reign held the Egyptian, the Italian, and the Mahdist incursions at bay long enough for Menelik to inherit a sovereign state.

He is honored here as the emperor whose three wars in three directions preserved Ethiopian independence into the Adwa generation.