tigray

Tigray Province, formerly known as Agame, is a historical province of northern Ethiopia that exists in the present day Tigray Region. It encompasses most of the territories of Tigrinya-speakers (and a few minority groups closely linked with them) in Ethiopia; Tigray is separated from the northern Tigrinya territories by the River Mereb, now serving as the state border to Eritrea.The great majority of inhabitants are Orthodox Christians (95.5% in 1994), with the exception of a small, but important Muslim subgroup (Jeberti) and a few Catholics (mainly Irob). Protestantism is only a very recent urban phenomenon. Despite a general impression of ethnic and cultural homogeneity, there are a few ethnic minorities, especially at the borders of Tigray, belonging to a non-Tigrinya groups, such as the Saho-speaking Irob at the north-eastern border to Eritrea, the Raya Oromo in the south-east (mostly speaking Tigrinya today), the Agaw-speaking H̬amta in Abergele north of Wag, a few Kunama in the Habesha Kunama woreda east of Humera, and scattered peripheral groups in the western lowlands, such as the Chare of the Sellim Bet (related with the Gumuz) and Tukrir in the Humera area. Some of these groups have adopted Tigrinya as their first language.
Tigray's administrative capital is Mekelle. Administratively, Tigray was divided into four, later six zones (zoba), which replaced the former awrajjas in 1991 (names with number of inhabitants of the four original zones in the year 2005 with their capitals): Western Zone (ca. 1 million inhabitants; Humera), Eastern Zone (ca. 800,000 inhabitants; Adigrat), Central Zone (ca. 1.3 million inhabitants; Aksum), Southern Zone (ca. 1.2 million inhabitants; Maychew); in a recent administrative reform some of these were split and first a North-Western Zone (Enda Selassie Shire) and later a South-Eastern Zone (Mekelle) were created.
Tigray went through numerous administrative changes in the course of its history. In 1991 Tigray was radically reshaped. During the reign of Haile Selassie I and also the following Derg period, Tigray did not yet encompass Welqayt (until 1991 having been part of Begemder), while Enderta in eastern Tigray extended over large Afar areas including the salt plains, which were given to Afar kəlləl. Still in the 1930s the regions south of Enderta, i.e. Wajjarat and Angot, formed the separate governorate called "Southern Tigray". Modern Tigray is the result of a merger of diverse historical northern provinces (with Tigrinya and Agaw speakers), which were often independent from each other.
At the mid of Haile Selassie's rule of Ethiopia (in 1941 and 1943), Welkait, Tselemti, Raya (i.e. Lasta & Wag) and some other provinces (which all were mostly inhabited by Tigrayan people) were taken away from the governance of the old Tigray Province and they were given to Begemder and to Welo provinces. One of the reasons why Raya (Lasta and Wag) was given to Wollo was because Haile Selassie's son Crown Prince Amha Selassie was appointed as the governor of Wollo. Welkait and some other provinces were given to Begemder since there was armed rebellion in Tigray against Haile Selassie's rule (so it was part of the effort to divide and rule Tigray). Therefore, until the 1995 administrative reorganization, Welkait was part of Begemder province and Raya Azebo was part of Wollo. Welkait was then split into two parts once ethnic federalism was established in Ethiopia (in 1995). One of the two parts, which now turned to have Amhara ethnic majority went to the new Amhara Region's North Gondar Zone. The other (which kept the old name), still had a majority of Tigrayan ethnic people (over 90% Tigrayan ethnic people) so it was returned to the governance of the new Tigray Region (like it was for most of the 3000 years history of Ethiopia, before Haile Selassie changed it in 1941/1943).

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