Woyane rebellion

Woyane rebellion
ቀዳማይ ወያነ

Location of Tigray (1943) in red. Eritrea was under British administration at the time
DateMay – November 1943[2][3]
Location
Tigray Province, Ethiopia
Result

Ethiopian victory

  • Revolt suppressed
Belligerents
 Ethiopia
Supported by:
 United Kingdom[1]		 Woyane rebels
Commanders and leaders
Ethiopian Empire Haile Selassie
Ethiopian Empire Abebe Aregai		 Yeebio Woldai
Negusse Bezabih
Gugsa Mengesha
Hailemariam Redda
Casualties and losses
200 killed[4]
375 wounded
33 missing		 Several thousands[5]

The Woyane rebellion (Tigrinya: ቀዳማይ ወያነ, romanized: k’edamay Weyane, lit. 'first Woyane') was an uprising in the Tigray Province, Ethiopia against the centralization process from the government of Emperor Haile Selassie which took place in May–November 1943.[6][3] The rebels called themselves the Woyane, a name borrowed from a game played locally between competing groups of young men from different villages, which connoted a spirit of resistance and unity.[7] After nearly succeeding in overrunning the whole province, the rebels were defeated with the support of aircraft from the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force.[8][9] Out of all the rebellions that engulfed Ethiopia during Haile Selassie's rule, this was the most serious internal threat that he faced.[10]

  1. ^ Alex De Waal (September 1991). EVIL DAYS 30 YEARS OF WAR AND FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA An Africa Watch Report (PDF). p. 55.
  2. ^ Alex De Waal (September 1991). EVIL DAYS 30 YEARS OF WAR AND FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA An Africa Watch Report (PDF). p. 55.
  3. ^ a b Omna Tigray. "Info Deck – WOYANE". Omna Tigray.
  4. ^ Abbay, Alemseged (1998). Identity Jilted, Or, Re-imagining Identity?: The Divergent Paths of the Eritrean and Tigrayan Nationalist Struggles. The Red Sea Press. p. 52.
  5. ^ Abbay, Alemseged (1998). Identity Jilted, Or, Re-imagining Identity?: The Divergent Paths of the Eritrean and Tigrayan Nationalist Struggles. The Red Sea Press. p. 52.
  6. ^ Alex De Waal (September 1991). EVIL DAYS 30 YEARS OF WAR AND FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA, An Africa Watch Report (PDF). Human Rights Watch. p. 55.
  7. ^ Gérard Prunier (2010). "The 1943 Woyane Revolt: A Modern Reassessment". The Journal of the Middle East and Africa. 1 (2): 187–195. doi:10.1080/21520844.2010.507456. S2CID 154025316.
  8. ^ http://www.jstor.org/stable/181225 Killingray, David. “'A Swift Agent of Government': Air Power in British Colonial Africa, 1916-1939.” The Journal of African History, vol. 25, no. 4, 1984, pp. 429–444. Accessed 16 July 2021.
  9. ^ https://tand-tesfana.webs.com/The_Origins_Of_TPLF-Aregawi.pdf Aregawi Berhe, 2004. The Origins of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. African Affairs, 103/413, 569—592. Accessed 16 July 2021.
  10. ^ Alex De Waal (September 1991). EVIL DAYS 30 YEARS OF WAR AND FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA , An Africa Watch Report (PDF). Human Rights Watch. p. 55.