Adigrat

Tradition attributes the origin of the name Adigrat, which means "the country of farmland", to the then popular Tigrayan chief Akhadom. Adigrat seems to have been under cultivation for a long time. It has a settlement history dating back at least to the 14th century.[5]

Adigrat appears on indigenous maps of the northern Horn of Africa in the 15th Century under the name Agame.[6][7]

Adigrat became the center of the Tigrayan chief, dejazmach Kafle Wahid, the viceroy of atse Fasilides during the first half of the 17th century.[8]

Adigrat emerged as the political capital of Tigray when dejazmach Sabagadis Woldu of Agame assumed the governorship of the region in the period 1822-30. Sabagadis set up some palaces, churches, and markets. This increasingly attracted both natives and foreigners to establish permanent residences and a few shops in the town. Adigrat was an important market center for salt, which was mined in the Afar districts of Areho and Berale in eastern Tigray. However, it declined after the death of its patron, Sabagadis, in 1830. It was repeatedly attacked, sacked, and plundered by the lowlanders and political rivals of Sabagadis.[5][8] Samuel Gobat had joined countless Ethiopians in fleeing there for safety in the days immediately after Sabagadis' death.[9]

When the missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf passed through Adigrat in April 1842, "almost the whole is in ruins", and observed that a nearby village, Kersaber, was "much larger than Adigrat."[10] In the late 1860s the town had a rural appearance and much of it is still under cultivation today.

During the First Italian-Abyssinian War, the Italians occupied Adigrat on 25 March 1895 and used it as a base to support their advance south to Mek'ele. General Antonio Baldissera refortified the settlement after the Italian defeat at the Battle of Adowa, but Emperor Menelik II insisted on its surrender at the beginning of the peace talks that concluded the war; Baldissera was ordered to evacuate Adigrat, which he did 18 May 1896. Augustus B. Wylde a few years later described Adigrat as having a Saturday market of medium size.[11]

Lazarists introduced perhaps the first modern school of northern Ethiopia in Adigrat at the turn of the 20th century. However, like most Ethiopian towns, Adigrat increased its commercial and administrative importance during the period of the Italian occupation. The Italians introduced the first elements of modern infrastructure, including stronger fortresses, restaurants, residential houses, a health center, schools, roads, piped water, an electric generator, etc.[4]

The Italians again occupied Adigrat at the beginning of the Second Italian-Abyssinian War 7 October 1935. The Italians were met there on the 11th by Ras Haile Selassie Gugsa, who had been courted by the Italians to ignite a widespread defection of the Tigrayan aristocracy; instead, he had been soundly defeated a few days before by Dejazmach Haile Kebbede of Wag, and presented himself to the invaders with only 1200 followers. Anthony Mockler notes that despite the fact the young Ras shook Ethiopian morale, "this was the first and last open defection to the Italians of an important noble and his men."[12]

In 1938, there were shops and hotel-restaurants (“Bologna”, “Piemontese”, “Centrale”). There was also a post, telephone and telegraph office, a health post and a Catholic Apostolic Prefecture.[13]

Adigrat was captured by rebels in the Woyane rebellion 25 September 1943, forcing the Ethiopian government administrators to flee to neighboring Eritrea. By 1958 the city was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as a First Class Township.[9]

During the 1970s, Agazi Comprehensive High School, and together with the town's Catholic junior high school, became centers of anti-government dissent.[14] The presence outside of town of a large military base, served as a focus for protesting students, and also as a source for their hopes of a military coup.

Street scene.

Adigrat's dependence on merchandising and trade meant that the Derg's imposition of commercial and transport restrictions was strongly felt and resented.[14] Under the Derg business licenses became progressively more difficult to get, and traders' trucks were requisitioned for the transport of war-related materials to army bases in Eritrea. Permits of travel were required; convoys were introduced by 1976; and the road links to Asmara were virtually broken, largely by the ELF, by the late 1970s.

During the first years of the Ethiopian Civil War, the fledgling Tigrayan People's Liberation Front drew support from these groups.[9] Derg forces took Adigrat during Operation Adwa in the summer of 1988. The same day that the Third Revolutionary Army was crushed at Battle of Shire, 19 February 1989, government troops and officials evacuated Adigrat.[15] According to Africa Watch they caused widespread destruction in the town before they left.[9]

In May 1988, Adigrat was bombed from the air by the Ethiopian Air Force.[16]

A pharmaceutical factory which became operational in 1997, was set up in the town.

During the 2020-2021 Tigray War, attacks were carried out on Adigrat by the joint Ethiopian and Eritrean armies, including aerial bombardments. On 19 December 2020, an EEPA report stated that 16 civilians were killed while trying to stop Eritrean and ENDF soldiers from robbing the Addis Pharmaceutical Factory.[17] On 19 December 2020, Catholic Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin of Adigrat has been reported safe in his residence. The Apostolic Nuntius to Ethiopia, Archbishop Antoine Camilleri, expressed “solidarity with Bishop Medhin who was missing in the assembly because of the situation in his diocese where the war is hard hit.”[17]

Adigrat has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). The overall climate throughout the year is mild and dry. The annual rainfall ranges between 400 and 600 mm, with most of the rain falling in the rainy season (June up to September).[20]

Tihlo is a dish unique to Adigrat and the wider Eastern Tigray. It is prepared by kneading barley flour into softballs and preparing a meat stew with berbere, an Ethiopian spice, onions, tomato paste, water, and salt.[26] The dish is eaten using a fork-shaped twig, which is unique in Ethiopian cuisine.

The beles, a cactus pear, grown in Adigrat is considered to be of high-quality.[27]

The city is renowned for its white honey and tej, an Ethiopian honey-wine.