Forceful Annexation, Violation of Human Rights and Silent genocide: A Quest for Identity and Geographic Restoration of Wolkait-Tegede, Gondar, Amhara, Ethiopia
1. Introduction
Ethiopian history has been studied and written by both foreign and local scholars for many centuries. Some of the writers were purely scholars while others were travelers documenting their trip experiences. These writers have extensively defined the boundaries of the many administrations, languages, cultures, traditions, faiths and other characteristics of Ethiopia. These factual documentations were especially true of Northern Ethiopia. It’s also essential to note that these historical documentations were done in several European languages as well as Amharic and Geez.
One of the many areas described by writers ever since the 14th century is the area surrounding the Tekeze River and the people of Ethiopia on both sides of the 4th largest river in Ethiopia. One of the notable regions and the interest of this article is the locality and the people of Wolkait-Tegede in historical Gondar, Ethiopia. Historical documents and maps dated from about 1434 to 1991 show that Wolkait-Tegede were pars of the Gondar province of Amhara. Despite the availability of a mountain of evidence to support this fact however, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has annexed the Wolkait-Tegede region into historical Tigray region in 1991. In fact during its bush days, it was in 1979 when TPLF entered Wolkait-Tegede and declared the land as part of its newly coming “Greater Republic of Tigray”.