- Gaki Sherocho
Gaki Sherocho (died 1919) was the last king of the kingdom of
Kaffa (6 April 1890 -10 September 1897 ) in what is nowEthiopia .In January 1897, Emperor Menelik II sent out three armies under the leadership of Ras
Walda Giyorgis (who was appointed ahead of time governor of Kaffa),Dejazmach Demissew Nassibu , and DejazmachTessema Nadew to conquer Kaffa. KingAbba Jifar II of Jimma supported the Ethiopian forces with his own troops. Ras Walda Giyorgis attacked Gaki Sherocho's kingdom fromKonto to the southeast, which was not as strongly fortified as the Jimma-Kaffa boundary along theGojeb River . [Ref Ethiopia|BahruZewde-2001|pages= pp. 65f]Against an army of 31,000 men, 20,000 armed with rifles, king Gaki Sherocho could marshal about 300 obsolete firearms. Despite this, according to historian Harold Marcus, he called up all men between the ages of eight and 80 "for what was to become a guerilla struggle against overwhelming outside forces." He took the precaution of burying his crown on
Mount Butto , trusting in the legend that the kingdom would not fall as long as this royal symbol remained in Kaffa. [Ref Ethiopia|Marcus-1995|p. 185]Upon the fall of his capital
Anderaccha , Gaki Sherocho fled into the wilderness of his kingdom, where he was able to elude capture for nine months. Chris Proutky claims that he was able to do this because he was "loved by his people"; Bahru Zewde, on the other hand, describes him as despotic and states that this quality led to his downfall. [Proutky, "Empress Taytu and Menilek II: Ethiopia 1883-1910" (Trenton: The Red Sea Press, 1986), p. 204. ISBN 0-932415-11-3; Bahru Zewde, p. 66.]Captured
11 September , Gaki Sherocho was brought in silver chains (forged out of silver looted from his own treasury) toAddis Ababa , where he lived in captivity for the rest of his life. [Bahru Zewdu, p. 66.] Ras Walda Giyorgis had forced informants to reveal the location of the crown. [Marcus, "Menelik II", p. 186.] Werner Lange writes that the former king died atAnkober , perhaps from poisoning. [Lange, "History of the Southern Gonga" (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1982), p. 215.]Notes
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