41965903

Institute of Ethiopian Studies
ETHIOPIAN PLOW AGRICULTURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Author(s): Donald Crummey
Source: Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 16 (July 1983), pp. 1-23
Published by: Institute of Ethiopian Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41965903
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ETHIOPIAN PLOW AGRICULTURE

IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY *
Donald Crummey
Modern Ethiopia consists largely of a plateau which rises abruptly from

Red Sea coastlands. The plateau levels off around 2,000 meters and maintain
altitude for hundreds of kilometers to the south, occasionally interrupted b
gorges or mountains. The Rift Valley divides it into two major segments, e
and western. We will devote our attention to the northern half of the western s
ment. Perhaps as early as the fifth millenium before Christ there arose her
tinctive agricultural complex, marked by plow-cultivated cereals.2 This co
endured later to form the basis of a classical civilization, whose origins lay
first millenium B.C., and which reached the peak of its development in the Aks
period, covering most of the first seven centuries of the Christian era. Sti
the same agricultural system underpinned the more southerly Abyssinian ki
with its Solomonic dynasty which emerged in the late thriteenth century and s
ed until 1974. In important respects it still shapes daily life. The peasants o
volutionary Ethiopia till with ox-drawn plows, sow the seed of a peculiar and ric
varied collection of plants, cultivate, harvest and process their food as thei
cestors have done since times of great antiquity. Not that the system was chang
and refused innovation. The sheer variety of cultivated plants indicates lon
intense experimentation, while about three centuries ago red cayenne pep
(Capsicum), a native of America, assumed a central place in cuisine,3 and
same time, or a little later, maize and haricot beans entered the stock of cul
Finally changing external demands have affected the decisions made by cult
in many ways.
Considering the ongoing importance of agriculture in Ethiopia, it is a

spicuous failure of the historical literature dealing with the country not to
treated the subject seriously, or at any great length.4 This paper attempts to re
to that failure by an examination of Ethiopian plow agriculture in the earl
mid-nineteenth century. This is the earliest period for which we have much ma
of a precise nature, yet it comes before the ostensibly modernizing era of the la
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The paper emphasizes the social dime
of agriculture, looking first at the social and economic setting, where it st
the importance of property relations, the complementary activities of pasto
and artisanry, and the opportunities and demands of trade. The paper then
siders crops, technology and yields. It also looks at division of labor, and
briefly to consider food and nutrition. It argues that the relations of lande
perty and the predatory activities of the country's rulers formed major ob
to the wellbeing of the cultivators. The paper depends almost entirely on t
counts of European observers, since Ethiopian sources touch no more clos
agricultural questions than the bare recording of land sales or the receipt of gov
ment revenues.5 Occasionally European observers lead us to expect a greater

of administrative records than we possess.6 However, nothing leads us to e
anything remotely resembling estate records.
Ethiopian plow agriculture overrode ethnic boundaries, recognizing only

ecological limits. When agriculture began in the northwest highlands Kushitic
speakers dominated the area. Subsequently Semitic speech came to prevail. Today
speakers of such Kushitic languages as Agw and Oromo and of the Semitic
languages, Amharic and Tegrea, all participate in the same system. As do
adherents of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and still other religious beliefs. The
agricultural system described below is not the preserve of any ethnic group.
European observers project a complex picture of Ethiopian agriculture. On

the one hand, they tended to almost lyrical descriptions of the fertility of the culti-
vated highlands. The Frenchmen, Ferret and Galinier, declared: "...nowhere is

the soil more fertile, nowhere does the plowed furrow more generously repay the
laborer's pains."7 Their countryman, Lefebvre, went so far as to judge that "...the
fertility of the soil is... such, that yields are much higher than in Europe, in spite
of all our agricultural science."8 And the Englishman, Graham, talked of "...an
abundant return... tt9 On the other hand, they saw the instruments and techniques
of the Ethiopian farmers as primitive and backward.10 At a deeper level they port-
rayed a rich system subtly adapted to a highly varied ecology. This system was
geared primarily to the production of cereals, and secondarily to pulses. Unfortun-
ately, the observers were vague on productivity and generally insensitive to the
peasants as a class. As a result, while most travellers described the banquets of the
Ethiopian nobility, none described a peasant diet, making it difficult to form judgments about their overall well-being. Nonetheless, except for the eastern highlands
of Eritrea,11 and other areas immediately affected by war, the images tend to be
positive. Hardy yeomen lurk on the fringes of our portraits of the southern province of Shawa, and nowhere does a cowed, abject, and exhausted peasantry confront us.
The Ethiopian highlands lie within the tropics. The portion of it with which
this paper deals runs from roughly 9N to roughly 16N. However, the combination
of altitude and rainfall patterns permits the cultivation of crops more typical of
the subtropics and temperate zones, such as wheat and barley. Three ecological
factors shape agriculture in this area: altitude, rainfall, and soils. Ethiopian plow
cultivators exploit terrain from a little over 1000 meters (3500-4000 ft.) in altitude
up to the limits of cultivation above 3000 meters (11,500 feet).*2 Control works
out from the central zones which lie at about 2000 meters. Some of the large cultivated plateaux lie as high as 9000 ft., few dip below 6000. However, very few plateau
dwellers live more than an hour from either mountains or deep valleys, and many
cultivators actually inhabit valleys rather than open plateaux. This gives the individual cultivator access to a wide range of altitude zones, valley dwellers tilling
high up the surrounding hillsides, plateau dwellers descending regularly, sometimes daily, to the warm valleys. The property system is sufficiently flexible to permit
this. The result is that although the individual cultivator will concentrate effort on
the production of the particular cereal most adapted to the land of his primary
holding, he will also grow a considerable variety of supplementary crops, each
equally well adapted to other environments. The lower limit of Ethiopian agriculture is determined in part by culture, Ethiopians expressing a strong preference
for their cool highlands; in part by opportunity since few of the lowlands contained
within the highlands fall below 1000 meters; and in part by the upward limit of
malaria.13
- 2 -
Ethiopian highlanders divide their environment into three major zones: qwolla.
wyna dga and dga. Qwolla lies roughly from 3000-5500 feet; wyna daga between
5500 and 8000 feet; and dga from 8000 feet to the upward limit of cultivation.
However, such objective definition does no justice to what are just as much social
and cultural categories as they are physical ones. Ethiopian highlanders place a
very low value on the qwolla and tend to shift their perceptions to suit their current
standpoint, always seeking to identify themselves with some form of daga.14 Few
European observers perceived the complex totality of the environment exploited
by Ethiopian farmers,15 although most make concrete observations which go
beyond simple categories.
Rainfall is normally ample in the highlands although it falls off markedly

from south to north. Addis Ababa receives about 1200 mm p.a. while Asmara gets
about 500. In our area it is also markedly seasonal, concentrating between the latter
half of June and mid-September. Again this seasonality is more pronounced as

one moves north, Addis Ababa receiving some 55% of its rainfall at this time,
Asmara 74%. 16 Some places, notably parts of the highlands of Shwa, receive
sufficient rainfall in a second season, about February and March, to permit an
extension of the growing year. Recent events have shaken confidence in the reliability of rainfall in the highlands. The years 1972 and 1973 saw severe drought
followed by famine, and drought recurred in 1979 and 1980. These droughts have
brought a fresh appreciation of the historical record, and in particular of the great
disaster of the early 1890s when drought and disease combined to kill people and
animals in very large numbers. They have also brought a fresh appreciation of
the less spectacular, but endemic, aridity, affecting the cultivated areas of Lasta
and the eastern parts of the Tegr plateau. Thus, it is clear that water shortage can
be a problem for the Ethiopian cultivator, sometimes with deadly conseqences.

Nor is shortage the only problem which can occur. For example, in 1818 the English
adventurer Nathaniel Pearce noted that heavy rains caused serious crop damage. 17
Ethiopian farmers deal with two basic soil types: heavy black cotton, and
reddish-brown loam.18 The latter is the easier to work but the crop inventory con-
tains items suitable to the former, and to various intermediate soil types. These
soils may both be found even within quite small areas.19
Ethiopian cultivators also worked within a social environment which affected
them. They formed the base of a complex and hierarchical social order, the superior
members of which lived largely off surpluses extracted from the cultivators. Nine-
teenth century European observers could not refrain from describing this social
order as "feudal," and with some justification. Both society and agriculture were
profoundly affected by property relations. On the one hand Ethiopian property
relations guaranteed Christian cultivators inalienable and effective rights to the
soil, but on the other hand also required that those same cultivators pay substantial
sums in rent and tribute to their rulers.20 Moreover, in most parts of the area under
consideration non-Christian cultivators had no such rights, and found themselves
liable to greater rent payments.21 Broadly speaking in the eastern areas now known
as Wllo, where Oromo speech had been introduced in the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries, the situation tended to the reverse, the once-Christian populations
existing in a serflike relation to their Oromo overlords, while the ordinary Oromo
cultivators enjoyed a more autonomous relation to these same overlords.22 Islam
was common amongst many of the Oromo groups.
- 3 -
Not surprisingly the European observers failed to grasp the intricacies of

Ethiopian property relations, but they adequately understood their meaning for
the cultivators. Just as nature could be capricious and unreliable, so too social
relations constantly threatened the cultivator with insecurity. Hoben's depiction
of peasant land rights as they obtained in the 1960s stresses the extent to which
the holdings of individual peasant households shifted through time.23 We have
no means of testing the applicability of his observation to the peasants of a century
earlier since our sources are silent on this matter. However, the sources do speak
of the insecurity of peasant surpluses, of the fluctuating, and at times onerous,
demands which they met for rent and tribute. Pearce noted that "the poor, in gene-
ral, sooner or later, content themselves under their oppression rather than complain... In fact the peasants or labouring people, in all parts of Abyssinia, never
know when their persons or property are safe..."24 Rppell pointed out that cultivators had to pay a regular tithe, and, in addition, "a completely arbitrary, imposed
cattle tax" determined at the ruler's discretion.25 Lefebvre also claimed that there
were customarily regulated taxes in kind, but noted that they could easily be
augmented by being levied several times a year instead of only once.26 And
Graham sounded the same tone of arbitrariness when writing of Shwa, a province generally presented as the outstanding example of order and prosperity in
the Ethiopia of our period. Holders of property, he claimed, are obliged to pay
a certain fluctuating tribute to the governor, according to the will and option of
that great officer of the state." And he went on to state that the king of Shawa
continually pressed his governors for tribute, so that "these offerings fall hard
upon all classes..."27 Hoben has suggested that the cultivator was liable to pay
some 20% of totl production in rent, whereas John Bruce stresses that the arbitrary
nature of feudal exactions was a more significant feature than their absolute level.28
I am inclined to side with Bruce, particularly since the historical evidence inclines
to strongly in that direction, but would further suggest that 30% might be as accurate
a figure for the total level of surplus extracted from the peasants.29
In addition to nature and property relations other factors moulded the agrarian
world of northwest Ethiopia. The tillers of the soil shared their environment with
pastoralists; they patronized, and were dependent on, craftsmen; and they participated in markets which transferred their produce from region to region, from
province to province, and in some casses abroad.
Few twentieth century commentators have remarked on pastoralism as a

complement to agriculture in the Ethiopian highlands. The contemporary view
is rather to juxtapose a highland culture, Christian in religion and resting on farm-
ing, against a lowland culture, Muslim in religion and pastoral in lifestyle. The
conflict between these two cultures is then presented as a major theme of Ethiopian
history.30 There is plenty of justification for this view, which is an accurate summary of the dominant modes of the two areas, yet one consequence of it has been
to lose sight of the pastoralists of the highlands. In this respect, the nineteenth
century travellers saw more clearly, and their accounts contain a reasonable number
of passing references to these folk whom they call zlan , or, in the case of Shwa,
ablam. They report the existence of pastoralists and their herds of cattle throughout the highlands: in Tegr;31 in Gojjam;32 in Shwa;33 and most especially in
the Lake Tana area.34 Large herds of cat tie were observed in Wgra, a highland
province to the north of Gondr, and in Dmbya and Fogra to the south of the
city, on the north and east sides of the lake. Several travellers also connect the
herds of Dmbya and Wgra by transhumance. Later travellers west of the lake
report zlan with their herds there, and an Italian anthropologist tells of a pattern
of transhumance linking the herds of Fogra to the highlands near Dbr Tabor
in the east.35 Finally the legal traditions, which Arnauld d'Abbadie collected probably in the 1840s, noted that, along with weavers and potters, the zlan did not
inherit agricultural lands; and we have an eighteenth century record of a conflict
between the pastoralists, in this case said to be the king's herders, and one of the
Tana monasteries.36 Butter was a major component of the Ethiopian diet, and
a major export commodity. The peasants themselves kept cattle, primarily as
draught animals, and undoubtedly supplemented their own supplies of butter
through trade and tributary arrangements with the zlan. Such evidence as we
have claims that the zlan were Christian in religion and spoke Amharic as their
native language, although in Tegr this was presumably Tegrea.37 One source
suggests that many of the herders of Fogra belonged to families emanating from
Lasta and Tegr.38
Artisanal activities were an additional dimension to the agrarian world of
northwest Ethiopia. On the one hand all cultivators found themselves regularly
in need of the services of artisans. Artisans produced peasants' clothes in their role
as weavers; as smiths they produced the peasants' plow shears and other tools;
as potters they produced the peasants' cooking and water pots; and they performed many other services for the peasants and for the other classes in their roles as
tanners, builders, metal workers and the like. Moreover, except for a few workers
with skills highly prized by the ruling class, such as gold and silver smiths or gun-
smiths, none of the artisans could sustain themselves by their metier alone and
were quite dependent on access to farm land to supplement their incomes. Thus
artisanry and agriculture were deeply intertwined. The great bulk of the artisans
were adherents of minority religions, generally Islam or Judaism, and as such had
no rights to agricultural land. Consequently, as cultivators they had to rent land
from Christians and to act as tenants for the same. None of the travellers of our
period fully appreciated the pervasive role of crafts, nor the extent to which artisans
were also tillers, but the insights of twentieth century research do much to ilumnate
their scattered notes.39
Trade, on the other hand, received a lot of attention from the travellers. Two
dimensions to trade are pertinent here: internal and external. First we will consider
internal trade, the more neglected topic. Markets played an important role in the
lives of cultivators. A network of markets covered northwest Ethiopia in such a
way as to place no peasant more than a few hours' journey from one. Most peasants
had access to several. The markets took place weekly and served social and administrative needs as well as economic. For our purposes the most important role
played by the markets was transferring agricultural commodities. This they did
from producer and from region to region. No peasant household was self-sufficient,
even in agricultural produce, and exchanged its surpluses to meet its needs. This
exchange was generally direct, since the economy had no pervasive medium of
exchange. Maria Theresa thalers were the most widely accepted true currency, but
their use was restricted to large transactions in major markets. More normally salt
bars in a standard form known as amol served as currency.40 They circulated
alongside cloths and beads. However, the normal form of exchange was direct
barter of one surplus commodity for another.
- 5 -
Households had to engage in exchange for various reasons. Cuisine demanded

a range of spices beyond the capacity of any household to produce. Culture encouraged the use of a wide variety of cereals. And salt was an absolute necessity.
We have already noted the need of peasants for the products of craftsmen. A great
deal of work is required before we adequately understand the mechanisms whereby
the transfer of commodities took place and how individual peasant households
fitted into the scheme. Meanwhile let us note a couple of European observations
on the regional transfers of agricultural commodities. Rppell has interesting detail
on the exchange of barley from Semn for salt from Tmbn.41 Combes and
Tamisier report a variety of transfers, although claiming that internal trade was
"peu florissant." They talk of the exchange of fine cloths, animals, coffee, and
tanned skins from Amhara to Tegr for salt and cloths. Agw country sent honey
and cattle to Gondar; Semn traded barley to neighbouring Wgra for wheat.42
European observers paid particular attention to the exports of the highlands,
and made most of their observations at Massawa their main point of entry to the
region. Abir summarizes their information, and the general view, with the judgment:
While northern and central Ethiopia produced hardly any exportable
commodities, southern and southwestern Ethiopia were the source of
musk, ivory, gold, and the slaves for which Ethiopia was famous
throughout history. 43
This is inaccurate and misleading. While gold, ivory, and slaves caught the eye of
observers, and undoubtedly contributed substantially to the total value of Massawa 's trade, noithern and centrai Ethiopia, the area with which we are concerned,
did proluce exportable commodities and also contributed substantially to the total
value of Massawa's exports, all of which emanated from, or passed through the
Ethiopian highlands. We have three readily accessible accounts which allow estimates of the value of Massawa's imports from the interior, and which allow us to
make some distinction between those imports which emanated from the plowcultivating northern highlands, and those which simply passed through it en route
from a point of origin further to the south. Those accounts are by Rppell (early
1830s), Ferret and Galinier (early 1840s), and Heuglin (1861).
Rppell suggests that the total value of Massawa's imports from the interior
was $208,500 of which some $31,500 worth (or 15% of the whole) emanated from
that part of Ethiopia with which we are concerned, and which took the form of
wax, leather and hides, butter, and honey and cereals. The cereals were worth $6,000
and were consumed at Massawa.44 Ferret and Galinier give a list of the average
price per kilo and average quantity of Massawa's exports to other Red Sea ports,
from which we can calculate a total value of $ 122,481 for Massawa's exports, of
which some $77,272, or some 63% of the whole, emanated from the plow-cultivating
regions of Ethiopia. Particularly significant is that the two largest commodities,

by value , were honey and wheat, the former of which was collected, and the latter
cultivated, by peasant farmers. Other notable goods from the highland farming
areas were wax, mules, cowhides, and cotton cloths.45 Finally Heuglin suggests
a total value of exports in the region of $316,000 of which at least $147,000 or 47%
was produced by our area. Leading commodities contributing to the total of $147,000
would include butter, animals for slaughter, wax, coffee, spices, mules, and honey.46
- 6 -
However, by his account cereals were worth only $500. These estimates are to be
taken only as vague indications since we cannot assume their accuracy, even for
the periods of which they speak, not to mention the years which lie between them.
Moreover, an accurate estimate of the trade emanating from the area with which
we are concerned would also have to include estimates from other centers: notably
from Mtmma which monopolized the trade to the Sudan, and from the more
southerly Red Sea ports like Tadjurra, which tapped Shwa. Nonetheless, even
the crude figures to hand suggest that the plow highlands contributed to the region's
export trade, and that this trade impinged on the cultivators.
We have direct information about the impingement of trade on the plow high-
lands. Several sources note that Sra and Hamasn, today parts of Eritrea, were
deeply involved in the supply of cereals to Massawa, as well as honey and butter.47
The bulk of the butter at Massawa, however, came from the Soho, a pastoral people
far more peripheral, geographically, politically, and socially to the Ethiopian polity
than the zlan of whom we earlier spoke.48
The export trade, however it impinged on the cultivators, was the least of the
external factors moulding their activities. Their own local exchanges brooked larger
in their daily lives; as did their relations with their artisan neighbors. Relations
with pastoralists also affected many cultivators. All the farmers were profoundly
aifected by politics and the relations of landed property. And they all faced a
constant struggle with the forces of nature.
Ethiopian agriculture was directed overwhelmingly to the production of cereals
and pulses. Vegetables played a small role. Coffee and cotton were the principal
non-food crops. Unfortunately, the sources for our period say too little of these
crops, especially of the manner of their cultivation, to be of much use.4 Ethiopian
farmers grew indigenous cereals, as well as cereals with a provenance elsewhere in
Africa, and in the Middle East. Tf (Eragrostis teff) loomed very large in the consciousness both of Ethiopians and of European observers. However, wheat and
barley were also grown in large quantities; as was sorghum in such widely differing
forms as masellj (white), zangada (red) and durra, to inention only a few; also such
millets as doh'en, or pearl millet, and dagusa, or eleusine; and finally maize. Tf
holds a double attraction. It is the cereal most preferred by Ethiopians themselves
for the production of their basic food, enjra (thin pancakes made from fermented
flour). Particularly in its grayish-white varieties tf carries high prestige, in much
the way that white bread did in Europe. As a cereal unique to Ethiopia it attracted
much attention from foreigners. However, these two facts have combined to mislead
many into thinking that te/ accounts for the greatest share amongst the grain production of Ethiopian farmers, and that it is the cereal consumed in largest quantity
in Ethiopian food.50 Probably neither of these claims is true. Simoons, following

an Italian account, suggests that barley holds this place, followed by tf and then
sorghum in its different varieties.5 On the other hand, the production of cereals
varies from region to region according to altitude, soil and rainfall, and 'ef is the
leading cereal in many parts of the country. It does particularly well in the welltravelled wyna dga regions, whereas barley flourishes higher up, in areas perhaps
less likely to catch the eye of passing observers.
The following is a partial list of cereals and the general areas in which travellers
observed them growing in the period down to the 1860s.52 I have also included
occasional general comments. References to rye, oats, and many particular varieties
of sorghum are too rare to warrant inclusion here.
t f: Eragrostis teff : of the major nineteenth century sources, only Heuglin
(223) identifies it as Eragrostis , while Graham (269), Lefebvre (II, B, 93),

and Cecchi (I, 449) classify it as Poa : "everywhere, except in the coldest
portions..." (Plowden, 29); between 6500' and 8500' (Heuglin, 223);

Bogos (Steudner [1862], 70); Hamasn (Katte, 42; Heuglin, (125); ir
(Ferret & Galinier, I, 508; II, 92; Lefebvre, I, 91); sold in Entkab
market, Semn (Riippell, II, 20); Jnda in Dmbya (Heuglin, 390); Far
on the Shwa border with Afar (Cecchi, I, 157).
barley: generic name in Amharic, gbs : 12 varieties (Lefebvre, I,

245); "in the coldest protions" (Plowden, 29); between 5-12, 000 (Heuglin,
223); Bogos highlands (Heuglin, 99); northern border of Hamasn

(Heuglin, 124); Diksa (Annesley, II, 507); NNW of Adwa (Lefebvre, I,
245); Semn (Rppell, II, 19); near Dbr Tabor (Heuglin, 308).
wheat: send in Amharic: 7 varieties (Lefebvre, II, 92); 5-12, 000
(Heuglin, 223) NNW of Adwa (Lefebvre, I, 245) ; ir (Ferret & Galinier,
I, 508); Semn (Rppell, II, 19-20); near Dbr Tabor (Heuglin, 308);
Tagulat (Cecchi, I, 449).
masella : Sorghum : Diksa in Akal Guzay ("juwarry," Annesley, II,
507; identification of juwarry and masella by Graham, 269); lowlands
up to 5500 (Heuglin, 223); lowlands, qwolla (Cecchi, I, 450); NNW of
Adwa (Lefebvre, I, 245); Fnja and Jnda in Dmbya (Heuglin, 278, 390).
[This is a contradictory set since Diksa is well above 5500; as is the

Lefebvre reference; and Dmbya is over 6000'.]
zngada : wyna dga (Cecchi, I, 450).
durra'. Sorghum, aethiopicum, S. durra: lowlands, qwolla (Ferret &

Galinier, II, 286; Steudner, 117); higher areas near Bogos (Steunder [1862],
70); Hamasn ((misunderstanding for tf, Katte, 43); south of Aksum
(Ferret & Galinier, II, 92); Tkzze Valley (Ferret & Galinier, I, 508;
II, 102); Dmbya (Heuglin, 295); Far on Shwa border with Afar
(Cecchi, I, 157).
pearl millet (doh'en): Pennisetum typhoideum : hot lowlands, qwolla
(Heuglin, 223; Steudner, 119); Bogos, lowlands (Heuglin, 99); around

Krn (Steudner [1862], 70).
dagusa: Eleusine coracana : "unique to Ethiopia" (Ferret & Galinier,
II, 286); 3 varieties (Lefebvre, II, 92); 4500-6000 ft. (Heuglin, 223); lowlands, qwolla (Ferret & Galinier, II, 286); wyna dga (Steudner, 119);
valleys^ (Plowden, 30); Bogos (Steudner [1862], 70); Hamasn (Heuglin,
125); ir (Ferret & Galinier, I, 508); Tkzz area (Ferret & Galinier,
II, 102); Jnda in Dmbya (Heuglin, 390).

- 8 -
maize: Zea mays , ybahr maella in Amharic: 500-7000 (Heuglin,

223); qwolla (Steudner, 119); valleys (Plowden, 30).
Pulses played a secondary
culture, since they fitted into
nutritionally they provided a
daily intake. In their varieties
role of very great importance in Ethiopian agria cycle of crop rotation with the major cereals; and
very sizeable proportion of the ordinary person's
they were almost as rich as the cereals, but, being
much less prestigious, they received less notice from travellers. To a degree, modern
observers have made up for this neglect. The Russian, Govorov, impressed by the
immense variety shown by cultivated peas in Ethiopia, argued that the country,
together with Afghanistan, holds title to being the pea's place of original domestication.53 Lemordant was more restrained, but still argued that Ethiopia was an
important center of secondary diversification for cultivated broad beans, lentils,
peas, and chick peas.54 And Westphal, in a detailed survey, provided rich illustration of Lemordant's claim.55 Nineteenth century observers inform us of the follow-
ing pulses, which are listed more or less in order of their present importance.
lentils: Ervum lens ; messer in Amharic (Graham, 269; Heuglin, 224;

Lefebvre, II, B, 93 ; Cecchi, I, 450).
chick peas: Cicer arietinum ; Member a in Amharic (Graham, 269;

Heuglin, 224; Lefebvre, II, B, 93; Cecchi, I, 450).
peas: Pisum sativum ; atr in Amharic (Graham, 269; Heuglin, 224;
Lefebvre, B, II, 93; Cecchi, I, 450).
beans, "broad beans" (Huffnagel, 471), "horse beans" (Simoons,

219): Vicia faba; baqla in Amharic (Graham, 269; Lefebvre, II, B, 93;
Cecchi, I, 450).
? haricot: Phaseolus vulgaris , adngwar ? This is a slightly problematic
case. The Amharic (and Tegrea) adngwar is testified to by all autho-
rities (Graham, 270; Heuglin, 224; Lefebvre, II, B, 93; Cecchi, I, 451);
but they disagree on its meaning. The most aberrant authority is Graham,
who calls it a capsicum. Cecchi also confuses things by classifying it
amongst the oil-producing plants. The leading modern authority, Westphal

( Pulses in Ethiopia , 159-60, 215-16), has the Amharic cover both cowpea
(Vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedalis) and haricot (Phaseolus vulgaris ),
both of which he reports to be widely cultivated in modern Ethiopia.
Two sources from the 1840s report haricots: Lefebvre and Braun. The
latter's identification is particularly convincing [Alexander Braun,
"Bemerkungen ber die Flora von Abessinien," Flora , XVII (1841), 271.
Since haricot is an American domesticate, this suggests an introduction
by the Portuguese in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, along with
capsicums and maze.
"pulse":56 Faba vulgaris ; atr bahri in Tegrea (Heuglin, 224).

A kind of lentil used as fodder, also the food of poor people; Lathyrus
sativus ; gwaya in Amharic (Heuglin, 224, who also notes another variety
in Tegrea, ayn atr [eye of pea"] Cecchi, I, 451).
- 9 -
Lists are dry, and we know practically nothing of how the travellers gathered
their material. However, occasionally we get glimpses. Beke, who by this time had
spent over eigtheen months in the country, and who had travelled fairly extensively,
one day noted in Gojjam a field of "regular English peas - I did not know there
were such things in the country."57
Pulses and cereals did not exhaust the repertoire of the Ethiopian farmer,
who could also draw on other plants. He might grow peppers (Capsicums), onions,
and garlic and a variety of other herbs and spices to season his food, while several
plants provided oils in which to cook it. Butter was used to cook feasting dishes,
but its use was prohibited during fasting periods: Wednesday and Friday of each
week, in addition to Lent and other extended fasts. As a result there was a high
demand for plant oils which was met by the cultivation of nug,ss safflower,59
sesame,60 and linseed.61
Finally three other vegetable crops are mentioned by more than one nineteenth
century source: pumpkins and gourds;62 an indigenous root crop resembling the
potato;63 and an indigenous cabbage or kale.64
The principal tool of the Ethiopian cultivator was, and is, the ox-drawn plow.
As plows go this is a simple instrument, consisting of a well-chosen, naturally
shaped beam with long upward projecting handle and short downward projecting
shear.65 The shear normally has a small iron tip which is used to cut into and break
the ground. However, the plow does not turn the ground. It requires considerable
effort to work, since the plowman supplies most of the downward force.66 Proper
preparation of a field required as many as four passages. Every farmer had his own
plow. We have no information at all about the distribution of plowoxen in our

period, but if later times are anything to go by, they would not have been equally
distributed among the peasants:67 poor peasants lacking them altogether, and
consequently renting them; middle peasants owning enough to till sufficient land
to be autonomous; and rich peasants owning enough to rent them to others.
Subsidiary tools included: an iron-tipped digging tool which could also be adapted
for chopping, called dwoma. The dwoma was particularly useful in preparing land
too steep to plow. There were several other chopping tools. The farmers used long
whips to drive their oxen; harvested their crops with small, iron bladed sickles;
and used large wooden forks to toss grain when winnowing it. In all, the armory
of tools was limited.68
Technique also was modestly developed. Both terracing and irrigation were
used; and, although not integrated into even modestly elaborate hydrological
systems, sme irrigation works represented a fair degree of communal labour.
Gravity' alone was the moving force in irrigation. However, simple irrigation could
have great local impact, and travellers in Shwa, Semn, and Tegr note that three
crops of cereals could be wrested from irrigated land; although one observer claim-
ed that rainfed crops were much preferred to irrigated ones.70 Most commonly
farmers used irrigation to cultivate patches of onions and chillies near rivers. In
some areas considerable effort went into developing proper drainage.7! Ethiopian
farmers did not fertilize their fields through the use of dung (much of which was,
burned as fuel), or other devices, although they did make considerable use of fallow-
ing, after which they might burn off the vegetation and turn in the ashes.72 The
- 10 -
real key to the productivity of Ethiopian agriculture seems to have lain with the
careful development of crop types, their adaptability to quite particular ecological
niches, and to crop rotation.
Considering the importance of crop rotation, it is disappointing how little

our historical sources deal with it. Graham, the most generally informed of all
observers, although not the most penetrating, remarked that a regular, and rather
inflexible, system of crop rotation operated in Shawa, varied only in its adjustments
to local peculiarities and not in its long term functioning: "...altogether," he believed, "indicating the very small advancement made by the Abyssinian in the art
of agriculture."73 Notwithstanding the perversity of this judgment, he does provide
some useful information : in the lowlands he noted a rotation of tf maela , cottn
(sic!), oil, and wheat; in the highlands an alternation of barley and wheat, with
the introduction of an additional fallow year in particularly cold areas. A highland
variant to cope with the unsuitability of wheat in certain areas was a rotation of
peas, beans, and barley. Beke reports the following systems of rotation: chickpeas,
t f or wheat, maela , fallow; the same thing on red earth with addition of linseed
(tlba) following the maela.74
in Yjju: tf ' maela alternation without fallow.
in Dmbya: tf, chickpea alternation without fallow.
in Blsa: t f, maela , chickpeas without fallow.
in Bagmder: barley with fallowing alternate years.

in Endrta: tf ' maela , barley with fourth year fallow.
Lefebvre's information is much less precise, but may most successfully catch the
underlying spirit when he reports that cereals are generally followed by the larger
legumes, and that fallowing is also used.75
In any case, whatever the precise details, it is clear that Ethiopian cultivators
had developed a system finely tuned to the environment, one which permitted
centuries of continued cultivation at levels of yields which amazed nineteenth
century observers. This appears the more strongly when we consider what other
stresses these same cultivators placed on that environment. Demands for fuel led
to a dearth of trees. Impressions gleaned from the nineteenth century travellers
suggest a situation not very different from today's: a landscape denuded of trees
except for church yards and towns. Moreover, since very ancient times solid erosion
caused by the run-off of rainfall has operated at a sufficiently high level to sustain
the fertility of Egypt. And yet the Ethiopian highlands appear to have enjoyed
much the same settlement patterns and forms of soil exploitation that they now
have, which means that at least parts of the highlands have sustained agriculture
for several thousand years. They seem also to have supported a steadily growing
population, although this important subject has received only meagerest atten-
tion. Stitz suggested in 1974 that the population of Shwa had doubled since
the thirteenth century.76 Only in the northeastern fringes of the highlands are
there signs of a crisis which might be considered cumulative in origin, the
result of a breakdown in the system.
- 11 -
Unfortunately, observers couched their reports of yields in terms of the amount
of cereal produced in relation to that sown. As a result modern comparisons are

rendered difficult. Only one observer, Lefebvre, gives an estimate of productivity
by area, when he claims that in Tegr a team of oxen could produce some 3000
kilograms of cereal per year.77 The sources give widely fluctuating figures, some
hardly within the realm of sobriety.78 For example, Beke claims returns on dagusa
of 1:400, and in general places his estimates above 1:100. The other reporters are
more restrained. Unfortunately, none of them gives us the circumstances for which
their estimates apply, preventing us from reconciling their variations. I have tabulat-
ed their information in Table I. To give it context we should note that the Italian,
Lusana, reported yields from Wgra in the 1930s as follows: for wheat a return
of 1:12 in good years, and 1:5 or 1:6 in a bad one; for barley he claims 1:10
or 1:12.79 On the other hand, Rppell, on a visit to the western lowlands of

Bgmder, reports the kaum glaubliche" number of kernels on ears of durra at
1600, and taking into account lesser ears on each plant, talks of a yield for one
plant of 1:2000.80 Modern estimates of yields are sketchy, and reflect enormous
variations from locale to locale and from year to year. However, they suggest levels
of productivity which compare reasonably with those obtained elsewhere: t f yield-
ing some 6 to 10 quintals per hectare on average; barley giving 8 to 10, which is
below the figures reported by Simoons for Iran (10), Turkey (11), and the
U.S.A. (14); wheat returning near 8, compared with Iran at 8, Turkey at 10, and
the U.S.A. at 11; sorghum at 8 to 10 compares tolerably with the Sudan (7), and
Near East as a whole (10) and the U.S.A. (12). 81 (see Table II)
The vast bulk of the agricultural labor in Ethiopia was performed by a free
peasantry. It is a moot point whether this peasantry can be construed as serfs. They
were assuredly not slaves, nor did slaves play a very sizeable role in agriculture.
Only in Shwa do our sources note slaves as a significant facet of social life, and
there they were largely attached to the royal palace where they performed menial
tasks.82 Elsewhere we have no notes of slaves tilling or sowing, except possibly
as members of a household. The only forms of gang labor in the countryside were
the occasional gatherings of peasants to perform corve tasks, such as plowing.
Not until the twentieth century do we get many comments about slaves, especially
in the area around Lake Tana. As yet no one has critically scrutinized these comments, most of which were made by Italians, who readily turned them to political
purposes.83 Setting aside exaggeration and politically inspired polemics, we have
two alternative explanations for the discrepancies between our sources: either the
twentieth century observers uncovered a long ignored dimension to social relations;
or there was a marked increase in sub-servience in later nineteenth century Ethiopia.
Either is quite possible. The latter has been remarked for many other parts of Africa.
All members of the peasant household played significant roles in agriculture.

Men alone did the plowing and sowing. Women and children did the weeding.
For some crops this was an extremely important task, and a very burdensome one.
In some cases, it involved a secondary breaking of the ground after it had been
plowed.84 Most sources assign the task of reaping to men, although two sources,
both of them pertaining to Tegr, assign it to women.85 Men did the threshing
and winnowing, generally using oxen to trample the grain,86 although, again, one
of the sources for Tegr (Rppell) also assigns threshing to women. After threshing,
the produce of the fields came under the exclusive purview of the women. A variety
- 12 -
TABLE I
Yields of cereals and pulses according to nineteenth
Ferret &
Beke Lefebvre* Cecchi d'Abbadie** Galinier
1:100
to
1:15,1:20
1:30
1:40
1:150 1:60 in wd***
Dmbya
wheat 1:20 to 1:15 to l:30wd 1:40 1:14 to
1:30
barley
1:80
1:20
1:7,
1 :10d***
1;i6****#
to
1:16
i:20wd
1:10
1:3 to
l:4d
dagusa
msela
1:200
:400
1:100
1:40
chickpeas
:45
to
1:160
:50wd
1:100
1:10 1:12
average
lentils
horse
beans
:10wd
1 :6d
Information applies to Tegr

** Information applies to Dmbya
*** Wy nu daga
**** dga
***** My note may be inaccurate.
- 13 -
TABLE II
Yields according to modern authorities in qui
Simoons Hujfnagel Westphal

t
if
10-12
3-30 6.1
average
barley
7-8
10-15
8.6
wheat
3-5
6-13
7.6
dagusa
10-12
2-4
10
5.1
sorghum 14-15 8-10 8.6
of storage devices were used, the most elabo

some distance from the villages. These wer
gathered food for the armies, whose activi
of the peasants of our period.87 Women, assi
of female slave, prepared the food by grin
also had to gather firewood and fetch wate
assisted in gathering firewood, in weeding, i
and in guarding the ripening crops.88
In completing this round of tasks the pe

natural and some special. The caprice of w
The travellers also comment frequently on
visited the eastern and southern parts of our r

were sufficiently important to appear in the t
so devastating that a local governor in Erit

obligation to pay taxes. He achieved lasting f
self paying on their behalf.90 However, he
he recouped his losses by raiding his neigh
wild animals also threatened fields.91 Plants th
well. Animals were less successful. Rinderp

casionally swept through the cattle populati
ing agricultural activities which depended
ever, by far the cruelest pests were the rulers
Warfare was endemic throughout the nin

armies were involved. Major campaigns inv
and equal numbers of followers and hanger
- 14 -
the peasants. In areas to which the armies laid claim they supplied themselves by
billetting, levies, and requisitioning. In enemy territory, and in areas deemed rebellious, they plundered with abandon. Indeed plundering played a major role in
military strategy. Armies tended to avoid confrontation, so that invaders found
themselves trying to bring their quarry to pay by cutting their supplies and their
support. In effect the peasants were the battleground, and their food was seized
to feed the armies.93 The travellers persistently reported that warfare damaged
substantial areas for long periods of time. Most notorious was Wgra, a fertile
plateau lying to the north of Gondr, whose depopulation as a result of warfare
was commented on by all travellers who passed through it.94 Travellers also mentioned depopulation of parts of ir and Gojjam as a result of war.95 Occasionally
they touch a note of skepticism in passing along these reports,96 but, in general,
it seems unlikely that they were wholly without foundation. At the least people
thought that warfare made them miserabl.
Nor was warfare the only way in which social relations adversely affected
peasant well-being. We have already noted that rent and tribute accounted for a
substantial proportion of the peasants' production. Custom and sumptuary law
applied to tj, a fermented drink made from honey. The brewing of this beverage
was reserved to the nobility. The nobility also had a virtual monopoly on the
slaughter and consumption of beef. Raw meat played a central role at the nobles'
banquets, while peasants ate very little animal protein. Most of what they got came
in the form of the butter in which they cooked their food, outside of fasting periods,
and in an occasional chicken. Otherwise the peasants ate cereals and pulses, mostly
in the form of breads, pancakes, sauces, and beer. Beer was an important nutritional source. While this diet would appear to be low on vitamins, some of which
would be supplied by the peppery sauces, and perhaps not complete in protein,
at least two features are worthy of note : t f is extremely rich in iron, while Ethiopian
strains of barley are high in protein. For the nineteenth century we have only the
vaguest judgments of the size or quality of the peasant diet. Salt judged that ...as
for the lower class, I believe that they rarely get sufficient, even of the coarse teff
bread of which their food almost entirely consists."97 Salt would appear to use
"teff" here as generic for cereal, since the French travellers, Combes and Tamisier,
noted: "The Abyssinians prefer tf to all other cereals, and only great people are
rich enough to feed off it every day."98 Fiad made a similar observation with respect
to the Flasha, suggesting that their "chief food" is tf bread, but that the poorer
classes" mostly eat cakes of chickpeas or bread made from sorghums (msela or
durra ) or a mixture of barley and eleusine.99
Class position must have affected diet in quite significant ways. The Ethiopian
nobility and their hangers-on enjoyed an abundance of the fruit of the cultivators,
along with large amounts of meat, beer, and mead. Peasant house-holds subsisted
on a modest diet of cereals and pulses. Peasants were liable to see their food taken
from them, whether on the stalk or in store, while the nobility creamed off the
abundance of good years through extra impositions, and shielded themselves from
lean years by further pressure on their subjects. The nobles were parasites, an extra
burden on a class of cultivators with a remarkable record of agricultural innovation
and husbandry.
- 15
NOTES
1. This paper was originally presented at the Intercong

Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in Amsterd
embodied in the paper was supported by the Graduate
gram of the University of Illinois, and by the National
2. C. Ehret, "On the Antiquity of Agriculture in Ethio
161-77. Very little archeology pertinent to this subject
3. H.P. Huffnagel, Agriculture in Ethiopia (Rome: FA

Ethiopia. Peoples and Economy (Madison, 1960), 111.
4. Richard Pankhurst is an honorable exception to this stricture: An Introduction to the
Economic History of Ethiopia (London, 1961); and Economic History of Ethiopia 1800-1935
(Addis Ababa, 1968). However, the balance of both his books fails to do justice to agriculture.
5. D.Crummey, "Gondarine Rim Land Sales: An Introductory Description and Analysis,"
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Ethiopian Studies (Chicago: University

of Illinois, 1979), 469-77; R. Pankhurst, Tax Records and Inventories of Emperor Twodros
of Ethiopia (1855-1868) (London, 1978).
6. N.Pearce, The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pear ce (London, 2 vols., 1831), II, 96; ibid.
"A Small but True Account of the Ways and Manners of the Abyssinians," Transactions
of the Literary Society of Bombay , II (1820), 50-51; C.T. Beke, "A Diary Written During
a journey in Abessinia in the Years 1840, 1841, 1842, and 1843...," British Museum,
Additional Manuscripts 30251, p. 29, entry of January 26, 1842.
7. A. Ferret and Galinier, Voyage en Abyssinie dans les provinces du Tigr , du Semen et de
VAmhara... (Paris, 3 vols., 1847), II, 395.
8. T. Lefebvre, Voyage en Abyssinie xcut pendant les annes 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843...
(Paris, 6 vols., 1845-48), III, 253.
9. D. Graham, "Report on the Agricultural and Land Produce of Shoa," Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, NS, XIII, Part I (Calcutta, January-June 1844), 254. See also W.C. Plowden,
Travels in Abyssinia and the Galla Country with an Account of a Mission to Ras Ali in 1848
(London, 1868).
10. Ferret and Galinier, Voyage , II, 396; Lefebvre, loc. cit . ; Graham, loc. cit.; M.T. von Heuglin
Reise nach Abessinien , den Gala Lndern, O st- Sudan und Chartum in den Jahren 1861 und 1862
(Jena, 1868), 223.
11. W. Rppell, Reise in Abessinien (Frankfurt-am-Main, 2 vols., 1838-40), II, 305; A. von Katte,
Reise in Abessinien im Jahre 1836 (Stuttgart, 1838), 38-43.
12. H. Steudner, "Herrn Dr. Steudner's Bericht-Reise von Adoa nach Gondar. Dec. 26, 1861 January, 1862", Zeitschrift fr Allgemeine Erdkunde , NF, XV (Berlin, 1863), 83.
13. V. Stitz, Studien zur Kulturgeographie Zentralthiopiens (Bonn, 1974), 207-12.

14. F. Simoons, Northwest Ethiopia ; Stitz, Studien , 54-58.
15. C.-E.-X. Hochet d'Hricourt, Voyage sur la cte orientale de la mer Rouge... (Paris, 1841),
293; Heuglin, Abessinien , 220.
16. Mesfin Wolde-Mariam, An Introductory Geography of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa, 1972), 62-63.
Addis Ababa was not founded till the later 1880s and is an anachronistic point of reference
for the paper.
17. Pearce, Life and Adventures , II, 258-79 passim.

18. Lefebvre, Voyage , III, 254.
- 16 -
19. Mesfn, Geography , 75-77; Stitz, Studien , 59-60.
20. A. Hoben, Land Tenure among the Amhara of Ethiopia (Chicago, 1973), and J.W. Bruce,
"Land Reform Planning and Indigenous Communal Tenures: A Case Study of the Tenure
'Chiguraf-Gwoses' in Tigray, Ethiopia" (unpublished SJD dissertation, University of
Wisconsin, Madison, 1976), are excellent studies of property.
21. Accademia d'Italia, Centro Studi per l'Africa Orientale Italiana, Missione di studio al lago
Tana , vol. II, V.L. Grottanelli, Ricerche geografiche ed economiche sulle poplazioni
(Rome, 1939).
22. Arn. d'Abbadie, Douze ans de sjour dans la Haute-Ethiopie (Abyssinie). Tome Second.
Introduction , dition et notes par Jeanne-Marie Allier (Vatican, 1980), 199.
23. Hoben, Land Tenure.
24. Pearce, Life and Adventures , I, 339-40.
25. Riippell, Reise , II, 31.

26. Lefebvre, Voyage, I, xlvii.
27. Graham, "Report," 261. Observers continued to talk of arbitrariness well into the twentieth
century: J. Duchesne-Fournet, Mission en Ethiopie (1901-1903) (Paris, 3 vols., 1908-09), I,
265; Grottanelli, Ricerche , 112-113.
28. Hoben, Land Tenure , 77: Bruce, "Land Reform Planning."

29. D. Crummey, "Abyssinian Feudalism," Past and Present, No. 89 (Nov. 1980), 115-38; and
ibid. "State and Society: Nineteenth Century Ethiopia," pp. 227-49 in D. Crummey and
CC. Stewart(eds.), Modes of Production in Africa. The Precolonial Era (1981).
30. Taddesse Tamrat. Church and State in Ethiopia 1270-1527 (Oxford, 1972); Merid Wolde
Aregay, "Southern Ethiopia and the Christian Kingdom 1508-1708 with Special Reference
to the Galla Migrations and their Consequences," unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of
London, 1971.
31. Pearce, Life and Adventures , II, 96.
32. Lefebvre, Voyage , II, 292.

33. The Journals of C.W. Isenberg and J.L. Krapf Detailing their Proceedings in the Kingdom of
Shoa and Journeys in other Parts of Abyssinia in the years 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 (London,
1843), 157, 276-77 ; C.W. Isenberg, Dictionary of the Amharic Language (London, 1841), 203,
abelam; and Ant. d'Abbadie, Dictionnaire de la langue Amaria (Paris, 1881), 506, abelam ;
and 700 zalan.
34. Rppell, Reise , II, 136, 203; E. Combes and M. Tamisier, Voyage en Abyssinie , dans le Pay
des Gallas , de Choa et d'I fat (Paris, 4 vols., 1839), III, 334-35; Ferret and Galinier, Voyage
II, 255; Plowden, Travels , 257-58; Heuglin, Abessinien, 203, 296.
35. Duchesne-Fournet, Mission en Ethiopie , I, 133, 136, 141, 148; Grottanelli. Ricerche , 89-9
See also A. Lusana, L'Uoghera e l'Alto Semien," Gli Annali deW Africa Italiana , I, (1938),
176; and ibid. L'Acefer e il Mecci," loc. cit., 615.
36. Vatican Library, Caru Abbadie , cartone XVIII, f.396r; and Bibliothque Nationale (Paris),
M ss. Ethiopien-Abbadie 68, f. 11 Ir.
37. Ferret and Galinier, Voyage , II, 256-57 ; Heuglin, Abessinien , 203; Grottanelli, Ricerche , 89.
38. Combes and Tamisier, Voyage, III, 335.

39. Grottanelli, Ricerche, 7, 137, 149 et seq' and Simoons, Northwest Ethiopia , Ch. 10.
- 17 -
40. M. Abir, Ethiopia. The Era of the Princes. The Challenge of Islam and the Re-unification of
the Christian Empire 1769-1855 (London, 1968), 44-49.
41. Rppell, Reise, I, 391.

42. Combes and Tamisier, Voyage , IV, 104.
43. Abir, Era of the Princes , 51.

44. Rppell, Reise , I, 193. But see the criticism by C.T. Beke: Letters to the Foreign Office and
to the Board of Trade respecting the Commerce and Politics of Abessinia and other parts of
Eastern Africa (London, 1861), 8.
45. Ferret and Galinier, Voyage , II, 426-29. Ferret and Galinier give their values in francs which
I have converted at their exchange rate of $MT1=F5. 5. SeeG. Malcat, Les voyageurs
franais et les relations entre la France et VAbyssinie de 1835 1870 (Paris, 1972), p. 38, n.3,
for two exchange rates, one at $MT1 = F5.24.
46. Heuglin, Abessinien , 56-58. The percentage would be 50% if we could be confident of the
provenance of 512,000 worth of skins. These skins would be the third most valuable export
of the plow highlands, if, indeed, they came from there.
47. Rppell, Reise , I, 345; Combes and Tamisier, Voyage , IV, 105, 189.
48. Ferret and Galinier, Voyage, II, 427; Lefebvre, Voyage, II, 40. G. Sapeto notes that the
Habab, who lived to the north of the Shoho, also engaged in the butter trade: Viaggio
e Missione Cattolica fra i Mensa, i Bogos e gli Habab... (Rome, 1857), 333.
49. Quite the best account is in Graham, "Report," 270-71; but see also Rppell, Reise, II, 225;
Ferret and Galinier, Voyage, II, 401; Heuglin, Abessinien, 224; C. Johnston, Travels in
Southern Abyssinia (London, 2 vols., 1844), II, 320; A. Cecchi, Da Zeila alle Frontiere del
Caffa (Rome, 3 vols., 1885-1887), I, 450.
50. For example: G. Annesley, Voyages and Travels to India , Ceylon, the Red Sea , Abyssinia,
and Egypt, in the years 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806 (London, 3 vols., 1809), III, 230;
and Huffnagel, Agriculture in Ethiopia, 471.
51. F. Simoons, Northwest Ethiopia, 87, Table 2, reading only for the provinces of Eritrea,
Amhara, and Shoa. See also Stitz, Studien, Beilage VII.
52. All references are to sources previously cited, except Steudner (1862), "Bericht des Herrn
Dr. Steudner and Dr. H. Barth ber seine Reise von Djedda bis Keren," Zeitschrift fr
Allgemeine Erdkunde, NF, XII (Berlin, 1862), 46-73. The references to Lefebvre are to the
"Notice sur le commerce de la Mer Rouge et de l'Abyssinie," Note B, at the end of volume
II. Of the sources Heuglin and Graham were most inclined to give Latin names, Heugl n
the more accurately by modern reckoning.
53. L.I. Govorov, "The peas of Abyssinia. A contribution to the problem of the origin of cultivated peas" [article originally in English], Bulletin of Applied Botany, of Genetics and Plant
Breeding [periodical title and most of contributions in Russian], XXIV, 2 (1930), 420-31.
54. D. Lemordant, "Contribution l'ethnobotanique thiopienne", Journal d'agriculture tropicale et de botanique appliqu, XVII (1971), 26-29.
55. E. Westphal, Pulses in Ethiopia, Their Taxonomy and Agricultural Significance (Wageningen,
1974), Centre for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation, Agricultural Research
Reports 815.
56. E. Westphal with J.M. C. Westphal-Stevels, Agricultural Systems in Ethiopia (Wageningen,

1975), 229. Westphal gives Vicia faba as the Latin name.
57. Beke, "Diary," British Museum, Add. Mss. 30251; entry for 15 Oct. 1842.
- 18 -
58. Guizotia aby ssinica: noted by Graham, 270; Heuglin, 223; Lefebvre, II, 92; and Cecchi, I,
451, who also notes that nug was eaten, after it had been rendered into a paste.
59. Carthamus tinctorius , suf in Amharic: noted by Graham, 270; Heuglin, 223; Lefebvre, II, 92,
who incorrectly identifies it as sesame; and Cecchi, I, 451.
60. Sesamum indicum , sdli' in Amharic: noted by Graham, 270; Heuglin, 223; and Cecchi, I, 451 ,
who also notes that, like nug , sesame was also eaten when rendered into a paste.
61. Linum usitatissimu , tlba in Amharic: noted by Heuglin, 224, 389, who gives the Amharic
as "talwa."
62. Cucurbita lagenaria (Westphal, 211, gives C.pepo ) bahr qel in Amharic (Graham, 270, wh
notes the Amharic as qel); and Cucurbita maxima or C. pepo (Westphal, 211), dubba an
weshesh: noted by Heuglin, 224.
63. Coleus edulis (Westphal, 210) or C. tuber osus (I. Guidi, Vocabolario amarico-italiano [Rom
1901], 676), dennech in Amharic: noted by Heuglin, 224; and Lefebvre, II, 93, who, however,
identifies it incorrectly as "potato" of Solanum tuberosum ; as do G.W. Graham and R.P
Black, Report of the Mission to Lake Tana 1920-1921 (Cairo, 1925), 111. See also Plowden, 30,
64. Brassica carinata (Westphal, 207) or B. juncea ? (Simoons, 219), gommn in Amharic: note
by Heuglin, 224; and Lefebvre, II, 93.
65. Lefebvre, Voyage , III, 255; Rppell, Reise, I. 312; Ferret and Galinier, Voyage, II, 39
Sapeto, Viaggio , 332.
66. Graham, "Agriculture," 265.
67. D.F. Bauer, "For Want of an Ox...: Land, Capital, and Social Stratification in Tigre,
pp. 235-48, in H.G. Marcus (ed.), Proceedings of the First United States Conference o
Ethiopian Studies (E. Lansing, 1975).
68. Graham, "Agriculture," 266; Cecchi, Da Zeila , I, 462; Lefebvre, Voyage , III, 255.
69. Graham, "Agriculture," 264; see also Stitz, Studien , 329-46, for keen insights into th
irrigation systems of Shwa in recent times.
70. Pearce, Life , I, 200. For irrigation in Gojjam see C.T. Beke, "Journal of Travels in Southe
Abyssinia... 10 Oct. 1841 - 14 June 1843," British Museum, Additional Manuscripts 3024
42. On three crops per year, see: T. von Heuglin, Reisen in Nord- Ost- Afrika. Tagebuch eine
Reise von Chartum nach Abyssinien... unternommen in dem Jahre 1852 bis 1853 (Gotha, 1857
86; Heuglin, Abessinien , 221; Annesley, Voyages, III, 125; Cecchi, Da Zeila, 186.
71. Rppell, Reise, II, 30.
72. lbid.' Cecchi, Da Zeila, I, 449; Lefebvre, Voyage, III, 253.

73. Graham, "Agriculture," 262. Modern observers supply more information: Simoons, Northwest Ethiopia, 73-74; Huffinagel, Agriculture, 143-44; Westphal, Agricultural Systems, 93-98;
Stitz, Studien, 284-88.
74. C.T. Beke, "Miscellaneous papers of Dr. Beke...," British Museum, Additional Manuscripts
30254, 28 .v
75. Lefebvre, Voyage, III, 255.

76. Stitz, Studien , 224-26.
77. Lefebvre, Voyage, III, 256.

78. Sources for yields are: Lefebvre, loc. cit.; Vatican Library, Carte Abbadie, cartone XVIII,
f. 131v; Beke "Miscellaneous papers, BM, Add. Mss. 30254, ff. 28v - 29r; Cecchi, Da Zeila,
I, 452; Ferret and Galinier, Voyage, II, 399; Rppell, Reise, II, 30.
- 19 -
79. A. Lusana, "L'Uogher e l'Alto Semien," Zi Annali dell' Africa Italiana , I, 1 (1938), 165-66.
80. Rppell, Reise , II, 154.
81. Wcstphal's figures are the most recent and are taken from an abstract published in 1970 by
the Central Statistical Office of the Imperial Ethiopian Government. Westphal, Agricultural
Systems , App. 1 (p. 232). Huffnagel's (. Agriculture , 181 et seq.) rest on more precise, but perhaps less generalizable, observations; and Simoons' ( Northwest Ethiopia , 88-89) rest on Italian
accounts of the 1930s.
82. S. Ege, "Chiefs and Peasants. The Socio-Political Structure of the Kingdom of Shwa abou
1840", unpublished Hovedoppgave dissertation, U. of Bergen, 1978.
83. Rppell (Reise, II, 26, 29) is typical of many nineteenth century observers; Raffaele di Lau
(Tre Anni a Gonder) [Milan, 1936] more typical of the earlier twentieth century. Di Laur
claims that 20% of the population of Gondr town was slave. He does not particularly
associate slaves with agriculture, but see Lusana, "Uoghera," 175.
84. Annesley, Voyages , II, 506.
85. To men: Graham, "Agriculture," 290; Lefebvre, Voyage , III, 255; Cecchi, Da Zeila , I, 449.
To women: Annesley, Voyages , III, 232; Rppell, Reise , I, 336. Rppell's is a particularly
circumstantial account.
86. Graham, "Agriculture," 267.

87. Pearce, Life and Adventures , I, 206-209.
88. Additional information on the division of labor may be found in: Lefebvre, Voyage , III,
255; Graham, "Agriculture," 266, 290; Cecchi, Da Zeila , I, 448-49; Rppell, Reise, II, 52.
89. Pearce, Life and Adventures , I, 92, 108; also Pearce to Salt, 14 Nov. 1812 in Valentia Letters,
British Museum, Additional Manuscripts 19, 397, f. 100; Rppell, Reise , I, 32-83; Rochet,
Voyage , 235-36; Beke, "Diary," BM, Add. Mss. 30, 252, 222.
90. J.Kolmodin, Traditions de Tsazzega et Hazzega (Uppsala, 1914), Chapter 86, page 63 of
the translation.
91. Rppell, Reise , I, 327.

92. Johnston, Travels, II, 158-59; Lefebvre, Voyage , II, 186; R. Pankhurst, "The Great Ethiopian
Famine of 1888-1892: a New Assessment," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied
Sciences , XXI (1966), 95-124, 271-94.
93. The sources are rich, detailed, and quite circumstantial. I hope soon to deal with this subject
more fully. Meanwhile, see such accounts as those by: Pearce, Life and Adventures', Plowden,
Travels', d'Abbadie, Douze Ans dans la Haute-Ethiopie (Paris, 1868); M. Parkyns, Life in
Abyssinia (London, 2nd. ed., 1868). See also Rppell, Reise, II, 292, for a graphic account.
94. S. Gobt, Journal of a Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia in Furtherance of the Objects of
the Church Missionary Society (London, 2nd ed., 1848), 27; Rppell, Reise , II, 72; Combes
and Tamisier, Voyage , II, 19, 22, IV, 34; Heuglin, Nord-Ost , 60; Steudner, "Bericht," XV
(1863), 101.
95. Rppell, Reise, II, 264; Combes and Tamisier, Voyage, II, 285-86.
96. Lefebvre, Voyage, I, 65; Beke, Journal," BM, Add. Mss. 30, 248, 76.
97. Annesley, Voyages, III,
could be prepared see
teresting information
also Cecchi, Da Zeila,
153-54. For a description of the many different ways in which food

Lefebvre, Voyage , III, 276-79. Grottanelli, Ricerche, 125-28, has inon the amount of food eaten by a peasant household in the 1930s. See
I, 429.
.98. Combes and Tamisier, Voyage, IV, 308.
99. J.M. Fiad, The Falashas (Jews) of Abyssinia (London, 1896), 15. See Cecchi, Da Zeila,
I, 428, for similar comments on Shwa.
- 20 -
APPENDIX
Roster of the domesticated food plants

mentioned by the principal nineteenth century sou
This roster is compiled from the summary lists contained i
A. Cecchi, Da Zeila alle Frontiere del Caffa (Rome, 3 vo
Capt. Graham, "Report on the agricultural and land pr

Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, XIII, Part I (Calc
M. Th. von Heuglin, Reise nach Abessinien , den Galla-Ln
in den Jahren 1861 und 1862... (Jena, 1868), 223-4; Th.
excut pendant les annes 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843 p
(Paris, 6 vols., 1845-8), II, "Note sur le commerce de la

Note B, pp. 92-3.
Under each source the Latin label is noted first, then its European vernacular equivalent, then
the Amharic, which is italicized. Where a source omits one or two of these terms, that too is noted,
However, my notes from which the roster has been compiled are incomplete on European vernacular
terms.
Cecchi Graham Heuglin Lefbvre

Cereals.
wheat
Triticum
vulgare:
Triticum:
sindi. sindi azazee , sendie ,

aboolsee , sendie. adja.
zoh congumber H. also
mentions
einkorn.
barley
orzo:
hexastichon:
gheps. barley: gebs. gueupse.

gebs,
zuzul kupsoo,
mooga.
t f Poa abyssinica: Poa Eragrostis: Poa abyssinica:

tief.
sorghum
oats:
tief.
tef
Sorghum
thef.
Zea
vulgare: mais [sic]: Bschelmais: gros millet

zengada , mas hi lia, machilla.
mashilla. plus many
varieties which
he describes,
all classed
as Zea mais :
waggare,
gorondjo,
yakkun ehliel,
tehara kit ,
kultatoo ,
zungada,
atchara,
koliey,
tattare,
tikureta,
eff ailash.
- 21 -

millets Eleusine Eleusine: Eleusine indica:
tocussa:
dagusa.
Pennicellaria
Dohren. Arabes":
ourita.
maize Zea mais: Zea mais:

bahr mascilla. maila bahcari.
other
cereals
Avena
pullens
oats:
oats:
gerama.
deurmosa.
Pulses.
chickpeas
ceci:
arietinum
scembera.
gram:
shumbra. Lathyrus :
simbera.
lentils
lenticchia:
lens:
messer. vetch: mezer. messeur.

missur.
peas
atar.
pea:
allur.
beans
fave: faba: vulgaris: fves:

bakel.
bean:
bakkela. ater bahceri.

others
guaja.
ainater.
adongouar.
adagora
Oil Plants.
(Tegre).
nug
nug.
oil
plant:
noog. nuk. nougue.

saff
lower
Suf. oilplant : uf.

lorf [sic]
- 22 -

sesame
salit. oilplant: salit . souf [sic].

sulleit.
linseed
Linum
Linum:
usitatissimum
lint
talwa.
telba.
tulliah.
Miscellaneous
vegetables.
pumpkins
and
gourds
Zucca.
pepo:
dubbah. pumpkin : duba ,

zucca : Cucurbita
kill. lagenaria :
gourd:
zafferano : Khul.
baharkill. C.I.:
used for hops:

gesho.
root
Labiat
crops
denits. denniche.
cabbage
cavoli:
pinards:
aloma.
mustard Sinapis nigra: Sinapis:

mustard:
sennafetch senafit.
peppers
pepi:
red
berberri,
tameesh ,
geviega,
unkerdad.
onions
onio
sun
garlic:
neds sengurt.
- 23 -

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Institute of Ethiopian Studies

ETHIOPIAN PLOW AGRICULTURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

ETHIOPIAN PLOW AGRICULTURE

Modern Ethiopia consists largely of a plateau which rises abruptly from

Considering the ongoing importance of agriculture in Ethiopia, it is a

to that failure by an examination of Ethiopian plow agriculture in the earl

ment revenues.5 Occasionally European observers lead us to expect a greater

Ethiopian plow agriculture overrode ethnic boundaries, recognizing only

European observers project a complex picture of Ethiopian agriculture. On

vated highlands. The Frenchmen, Ferret and Galinier, declared: "...nowhere is

geared primarily to the production of cereals, and secondarily to pulses. Unfortun-

Rainfall is normally ample in the highlands although it falls off markedly

half of June and mid-September. Again this seasonality is more pronounced as

be a problem for the Ethiopian cultivator, sometimes with deadly conseqences.

consideration non-Christian cultivators had no such rights, and found themselves

Not surprisingly the European observers failed to grasp the intricacies of

Few twentieth century commentators have remarked on pastoralism as a

their scattered notes.39

Households had to engage in exchange for various reasons. Cuisine demanded

on the regional transfers of agricultural commodities. Rppell has interesting detail

regions of Ethiopia. Particularly significant is that the two largest commodities,

in Ethiopian food.50 Probably neither of these claims is true. Simoons, following

(223) identifies it as Eragrostis , while Graham (269), Lefebvre (II, B, 93),

portions..." (Plowden, 29); between 6500' and 8500' (Heuglin, 223);

barley: generic name in Amharic, gbs : 12 varieties (Lefebvre, I,

223); Bogos highlands (Heuglin, 99); northern border of Hamasn

(Heuglin, 223) NNW of Adwa (Lefebvre, I, 245) ; ir (Ferret & Galinier,

up to 5500 (Heuglin, 223); lowlands, qwolla (Cecchi, I, 450); NNW of

[This is a contradictory set since Diksa is well above 5500; as is the

durra'. Sorghum, aethiopicum, S. durra: lowlands, qwolla (Ferret &

pearl millet (doh'en): Pennisetum typhoideum : hot lowlands, qwolla

(Heuglin, 223; Steudner, 119); Bogos, lowlands (Heuglin, 99); around

II, 102); Jnda in Dmbya (Heuglin, 390).

maize: Zea mays , ybahr maella in Amharic: 500-7000 (Heuglin,

lentils: Ervum lens ; messer in Amharic (Graham, 269; Heuglin, 224;

chick peas: Cicer arietinum ; Member a in Amharic (Graham, 269;

Lefebvre, B, II, 93; Cecchi, I, 450).

beans, "broad beans" (Huffnagel, 471), "horse beans" (Simoons,

? haricot: Phaseolus vulgaris , adngwar ? This is a slightly problematic

case. The Amharic (and Tegrea) adngwar is testified to by all autho-

who calls it a capsicum. Cecchi also confuses things by classifying it

amongst the oil-producing plants. The leading modern authority, Westphal

latter's identification is particularly convincing [Alexander Braun,

capsicums and maze.

"pulse":56 Faba vulgaris ; atr bahri in Tegrea (Heuglin, 224).

plow. We have no information at all about the distribution of plowoxen in our

Considering the importance of crop rotation, it is disappointing how little

in Bagmder: barley with fallowing alternate years.

legumes, and that fallowing is also used.75

there signs of a crisis which might be considered cumulative in origin, the

result of a breakdown in the system.

Unfortunately, observers couched their reports of yields in terms of the amount

of cereal produced in relation to that sown. As a result modern comparisons are

or 1:12.79 On the other hand, Rppell, on a visit to the western lowlands of

All members of the peasant household played significant roles in agriculture.

Yields of cereals and pulses according to nineteenth

Beke Lefebvre* Cecchi d'Abbadie** Galinier

1:150 1:60 in wd***

Information applies to Tegr

Yields according to modern authorities in qui

Simoons Hujfnagel Westphal

sorghum 14-15 8-10 8.6

of storage devices were used, the most elabo

In completing this round of tasks the pe