The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
Today's date is: 5/12/2025
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| 91 adopted a more peaceable and dutiful behaviour, pay taxes, and are suffered to enjoy their own government' .(1) He presented a picture of the Jewish settlements in those high mountains which, but for the absence of the Agau language, has scarcely changed to this day: The language of Lamalmon [now known as the pass of Wolkefit] is Amharic; but there are many villages where the language of the Falashas is spoken. These are the ancient inhabitants of the mountains who still preserve the religion, language and manners of their ancestors, and live in villages by themselves. Their number is now considerably diminished, and this has proportionally lowered their power and spirit. They are now wholly addicted to agriculture, hewers of wood and carriers of water, and the only potters and masons in Abyssinia. In the former profession they excel greatly and, in general, live better than the other Abyssinians; which these, in revenge, attribute to a skili in magic, not to superior industry. Their villages are generally strongly situated out of the reach of marching armies, otherwise they would be constantly rifled, partly from hatred, and partly from hopes of finding money. (2) As he neared the capital, Bruce again saw 'several small villages, inhabited by Falasha, masons and thatchers ofhouses, employed at Gondar'.(3) In Bruce's time the size of the Agau population, like that of the Falashas, was diminishing under the impact of Amhara rule and its tendency to assimilate minorities. The two main areas of Agau and Falasha settlement were in the Semien mountains and in the region of Gondar and Lake Tana, which was also known as Lake Dembea. While he was in the latter area, heading, as he thought, for the source of the Nile, Bruce found that 'the language here is Falasha, though only used now by the Jews who go by that name: it was anciently the language of all the province of Dembea',(4) though 'it has now given place to Amharic'. (5) Again, as he travelled further south he reported that 'there are distant places towards the Jemma on the side of the Nile where they speak ... Falasha'. (6) Here he is referring to the headwaters of the Blue Nile, the Little Abbai river, in which region remote Falasha villages are still to be found. (1)Travels, vol. 1, p. 486. |