Information AboutAdowa |
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Located in northern Ethiopia, south of Asmara, Eritrea and between Axum and Adigrat , Adowa is a center for agricultural markets. The town is also home to some notable Church es, while Abba Garima Monastery , founded in the Sixth Century and known for its Tenth Century Gospels , lies nearby. As of 1994, the town had a population of 24,519. HISTORY According to Richard Pankhurst, Adowa derives its name from ''Adi Awa'' (or ''Wa''), "Village of the Awa"; the Awa are an ethnic group mentioned in the anonymous inscription that once stood at Adulis . 1 Despite this claim of antiquity, Adowa only acquired major importance following the establishment of a permanent capital at Gondar . As the traveller James Bruce noted, Adowa was situated on a piece of "flat ground through which every body must go in their way from Gondar to the Red Sea ." 2 By 1700, it had become the residence for the governor of Tigray province, and grew to overshadow Debarwa , the traditional seat of the Bahr Negus , as the most important town in northern Ethiopia. Its geographical importance also led to Adowa being the site of the final battle of the First Italo-Abyssinian War , where Shewa ruler Menelik II fought for Ethiopia's independence against Italy . Menelik led the Ethiopian Army to a decisive victory against the Italians, which ensured an independent Ethiopia until the Italians invaded again on the eve of World War Two . A frequent target of attacks by the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front during the Ethiopian Civil War , Adowa permanently passed into their control in March 1988 . NOTES # Richard R.K. Pankhurst, ''History of Ethiopian Towns: From the Middle Ages to the Early Nineteenth Century'' (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982), p. 192. # Pankhurst, ''Ethiopian Towns'', p. 194. |
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