Métemma

Metemma (Amharic: መተማ), also known as Metemma Yohannes, is a town in northwestern Ethiopia, on the border with Sudan. Located in the Semien Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Metemma has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 685 meters above sea level. Across the border is the corresponding Sudanese village of Gallabat. According to the British diplomat Hormuzd Rassam, who travelled through Metemma in November 1865 on his diplomatic mission to Emperor Tewodros II, "Metemma" comes from the Arabic for "the place of cutting, or termination – indicating the end of the Muslim provinces", although at the time the settlement was better known as Suk ul-Gallabat ("The market of Gallabat"). Metemma hosts an airport (ICAO code HAMM, IATA ETE). The town traces its origins to the 18th century, when a colony of Tukrir from Darfur finding the spot a convenient resting-place for their fellow-pilgrims on their way to Mecca and back, obtained permission from the Emperor of Ethiopia to make a permanent settlement there. However Hormuz Rassam records a different account, stating "within the last century" (i.e., the 18th century) the rulers of Metemma were in constant war with their counterparts at Er-Rashid and constituted their armies with slaves taken from Kurdufan and Darfur. These foreign conscripts eventually revolted and killed the "so-called Arab chief", making one of their own number ruler. Lying on the main trade route from Sennar to Gondar (some 90 miles to the east by south), Metemma/Gallabat grew into a trade center of some importance. The Scottish explorer James Bruce (who called the town Hor-Cacamoot) travelled through the town in 1772. This location not only made the settlement a major marketplace, but also a major slave market in the 19th century. Richard Pankhurst has published estimates of the number of people sold in this market during the 19th century that range between 10,000 and 20,000. By 1881, European visitors reported that the Emperor Yohannes IV had ordered the slave market closed.