Coalition For Tigray

History and disposition of the Tigray people

Origin and culture

The Tigray people, also known as Tigrayans, are an ethnolinguistic group native to northern Ethiopia, primarily in the region of Tigray. Their language, Tigrinya, is one of Ethiopia’s major languages and is closely related to Geʽez, the ancient Semitic language that forms the foundation of Ethiopian written and liturgical tradition.

Tigrayans have a deep cultural heritage rooted in faith, family, and agriculture. Many are adherents of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, whose early centers of worship were established in the Tigray highlands. The region is known for its distinctive rock-hewn churches, its music and poetry, and its long-standing traditions of communal cooperation and self-reliance.

History of Tigray

Tigray is one of the oldest centers of civilization in Africa. It was home to the ancient Kingdom of Dʿmt (10th–5th century BCE) and later became the heartland of the Aksumite Empire (1st–8th century CE). Aksum was a major African power—one that minted its own coins, traded with Rome and India, and adopted Christianity centuries before much of Europe.

From these early foundations, the people of Tigray maintained a strong sense of identity through centuries of change, empire, and internal conflict. Their region produced scholars, warriors, and leaders who shaped Ethiopian history. Yet, as the political center of Ethiopia shifted southward over time, Tigray’s influence diminished and its people faced increasing marginalization.

Marginalization and Inequality

The marginalization of the Tigray people has been a deliberate, long-term project carried out by successive Ethiopian governments. Across centuries, rulers used policy, violence, and control over language, education, and resources to weaken Tigray’s autonomy and suppress its people. This was never the result of neglect, it was strategy.

After the fall of the ancient Aksumite Empire, which had its heart in Tigray, power in Ethiopia gradually moved south. This shift was not natural or neutral. It was the result of deliberate political moves by later rulers who wanted to centralize power far from Tigray’s influence. The region that had once defined Ethiopian civilization was rebranded as a threat. Its history of independence, literacy, and self-rule made it a target for containment.

  • During the Era of Princes (Zemene Mesafint, 18th–19th centuries), imperial factions intentionally kept Tigray divided. Alliances were broken, and rivalries were encouraged so that no single Tigrayan leader could challenge the emerging southern power base. When Emperor Menelik II took power in the late 1800s, he solidified this arrangement. His administration redirected trade routes and investment southward, taxed Tigray heavily, and excluded it from national decision-making. This was not oversight—it was calculated policy to ensure that Tigray remained weak and dependent.
  • Under Emperor Haile Selassie (1930–1974), the suppression of Tigray became even more deliberate and structured. The emperor dismantled regional governance and replaced local authority with direct rule from Addis Ababa. He banned the use of the Tigrinya language in schools and government offices, forcing education and administration into Amharic. Tigrayan schools were shut down or placed under strict state control, limiting access to education and silencing local culture. Economic development was withheld; infrastructure projects and public investment concentrated in the center and south, leaving Tigray impoverished by design.
  • When famine struck northern Ethiopia in the 1950s and again in the early 1970s, the imperial government actively concealed it from the world. Tens of thousands died while the regime suppressed information and blocked outside aid. This was not bureaucratic incompetence—it was a political choice to let hunger weaken a region viewed as defiant. The state also used direct military force to maintain control: imperial planes bombed Tigrayan towns during local uprisings in the 1940s and 1960s. These attacks were meant to intimidate civilians and crush resistance, making clear that the empire would answer dissent with punishment.
  • The Derg military regime (1974–1991) continued this policy through open warfare against civilians. The junta branded Tigrayans as enemies of the state and launched bombing campaigns that destroyed villages, burned crops, and targeted marketplaces. During the 1980s famine, the Derg deliberately blocked food aid to rebel-held areas and used starvation as a weapon of war. Entire populations were displaced through forced “resettlement” programs designed to break social structures and collective identity. Every one of these measures was intentional, coordinated, and aimed at annihilating Tigray’s resistance and independence.
  • The EPRDF government (1991–2018), led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) after the fall of the Derg, marked a turning point. For the first time in modern history, Tigray was no longer marginalized by the state. The new federal constitution recognized Ethiopia as a multi-ethnic federation, restored regional self-governance, and allowed Tigrayans to develop their language, culture, and economy freely. Education and infrastructure improved dramatically, and for nearly three decades, Tigray participated fully in the country’s political and economic life. However, resentment against this newfound equality grew in some political circles. Over time, anti-Tigrayan narratives took root, portraying Tigray’s role in national leadership as domination. These sentiments would later be used to justify renewed exclusion and hostility after 2018.

When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, the deliberate targeting of Tigrayans returned as state policy. Tigrayans were purged from the army, civil service, and diplomatic corps. Businesses were seized, and citizens were detained simply for being Tigrayan. State media and officials described Tigrayans as “enemies within,” preparing the public for what came next.

When war broke out in November 2020, this dehumanization became the framework for systematic persecution. The federal government and its allies imposed a complete blockade on Tigray cutting off electricity, telecommunications, transport, banking, and humanitarian aid. Food and medicine were withheld, resulting in mass starvation. Hospitals, schools, and farms were deliberately targeted. Civilians were killed, women were subjected to widespread sexual violence, and entire communities were displaced. These were not unintended outcomes of conflict; they were deliberate tools of control and punishment.

Understanding this truth is essential. The suffering of the Tigray people was not born from neglect or natural hardship. It was engineered through state policy—repeatedly, systematically, and consciously. Recognizing this is not an act of division; it is an act of honesty. Only by acknowledging that Tigray’s marginalization was deliberate can any foundation for justice and genuine peace be building trust between the Tigrayan people and state institutions.

Source/book recommendations on the history of Tigray

  • The Tigray I Aspire To: A personal reflection by a Tigrayan author on identity, culture and the struggle of the Tigray people.
  • War on Tigray: Genocidal Axis in the Horn of Africa: A Tigrayan-centred analysis of the 2020-22 conflict, arguing for the deliberate targeting of Tigrayans.
  • Tigray: The Hysteresis of War: Book 1: Focuses on the war in Tigray from a perspective attentive to the destruction of Tigrayan society and identity.
  • Greater Tigray and the Mysterious Magnetism of Ethiopia: Broad history of the Tigrinya‐speaking peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea, focusing on Tigray’s long-term role and challenges.
  • The Essential Guide to Tigrinya: The Language of Eritrea and Tigray Ethiopia: A language book that supports cultural roots of Tigrayans via the Tigrinya language, strengthening identity through language.
  • Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia: The Tigray People’s Liberation Front, 1975‑1991: Analyses the TPLF’s origins and the Tigrayan peasant mobilisation, placing Tigrayan perspective centrally in that history.
  • A Political History of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (1975‑1991): A detailed political history of the TPLF from primary Tigrayan actors.
  • The Tigrayan Electrician: Memories of My Father and His Belo: Memoir that gives a Tigrayan family’s view of their society, work, and how the conflict affected them.
  • Sweeter Than Honey: Ethiopian Women and Revolution: Testimonies of Tigrayan Women: Collection of testimonies from Tigrayan women about their experiences in revolution and conflict directly from Tigrayans.