Rivalries over Revenue from Zege Coffee among Local and International Powers from 19th Century to 1935

Abstract

Though there is a lack of clear historical corroboration, on how and when coffee was introduced to the peninsula, sources attributed its beginning to the founder of Zege Monastery, Abba Betre Maryam. Before it began to serve as an international trading item, the peninsula's coffee had been used for local consumption as a stimulant beverage. At least from the last decade of the 19^th century onwards, however, coffee has been a dominant cash crop in Zegie peninsula. In the first three and a half decades of the 20th century, its lucrative revenue attracted the interest of both local and international powers. On the one hand, there were national and international coffee merchants who visited Zege purely for commercial cause. On the other hand, there were people who had aspired to make political profit as well. Ostensibly Ras Teferi, the later Emperor Haile Selasie I and Ras Hailu, governor of Gojjam province (1902-1932) entered to the rivalry as concerned authorities to maintain peace and order in the peninsula. Obviously the two rulers had opposite interests; Ras Hailu to keep hold of his hereditary regional power and the emperor to consolidate central authority by getting rid of regional lords.

Until its culmination upon Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1935-1941), the struggle for Zege peninsula's coffee revenue between the Italians in Eritrea and the British in the Sudan was part of the colonial effort each with a political aspiration to bring the Lake Tana region under their dominion. Relying on all the relevant sources, the article traces the roots and course of competition for revenue fetched from Zege peninsulas' coffee and its trading activities.