GOBANA DACHI

Gobana Dachi (1821-July 1889) was a conquering general who expanded the Ethiopia of Menilek II (reigned as emperor 1889-19131) to the south and west.

Gobana was an aristocratic Galla chief from Shawa. His earlier career is obscure, but he played an important role from 1864 onwards, when he rebelled against a pretender to the throne. When in 1865 Menilek escaped from prison in Maqdala, and took power as Negus, or king, of Shawa, Gobana voluntarily supported him, received the title of Dajazmach, and became his military commander.

Gobana’s power was reinforced by the acquisition of more than 1,000 Remington rifles from the army of Emperor Yohannes IV [reigned 1872-89], which passed through his territory in 1876. During the subsequent two years, he reconquered the territories around what is now Addis Ababa, which had been autonomous since 1855. In 1878 Menilek raised Gobana to the position of Ras, enhancing his fame among the Galla people. Gobana marched south and west, subjugating the Guragé region, and mech of what is now western and southwestern Ethiopia – comprising Mecha, Jimma, Goma, Géra, Leqa, and Walaga, all of which were separate kingdoms – but he could not take the kingdom of Kaffa.

Ras Gobana was a good marksman and an excellent horseman, as well as an extremely diligent man. He was a Christian, but was suspected of being sympathetic to the traditional Galla religion. He was so powerful and popular that the Galla recognised him as their sole ruler, which aroused the suspicions of Menilek, who restricted him to the governorship of Walaga. In 1885 Gobana defeated the Sudanese Dervishes (members of a Muslim religious fraternity) on his western boundary, and advanced as far as the borders of Fazoguli, on the Blue Nile, in what is now the Sudan. He died suddenly in July 1889, a few months after Menilek became emperor.

BAIRU TAFLA