1.1 Archaeological evidence since the 8th century

3The archaeological material cultures reveal advanced acquaintance with handicraft skills before the advent of Christianity in Mänz-Šäwa. The excavation of the Tumulus (a mass grave) in Mänz revealed refined pottery works and jewellery made of different minerals including stones that can be dated between 8th and 10th century CE. The clothes found in the Tumulus show the cotton-making skill in this period in Šäwa. In fact, it is impossible to identify the division of labour from the uncovered material cultures of the Tumulus of Mänz.

Figure 18. Derese Ayenachew, Decorated pottery from a Tumulus in Mänz.

1.2 Šäwan traditions on spinning and pottery-making skills

4Nevertheless, the Šäwan legends and written historical sources mostly attribute the spinning and pottery-making skills to women. Spinning is taken as a divine gift to women because the Virgin Mary herself is portrayed in Ethiopian paintings as being the most skillful woman at spinning. An Ethiopian folk song that was probably inspired by the Bible admires the spinning skills of a woman, where she is called “the virtuous woman.” This able woman gathers wool and flax to make clothes with her hands for her family. The folk song is chanted annually by boys of the village in the month of August, in the middle of the rainy season at the end of Ethiopian year. They remark that women are to be praised for “spinning the cotton into thread as fine as the spider’s web” and in return she rewards them with her famous round (elliptical) bread. The analogy between the thread and the spider web is to mention the finest skill that a woman is able to do. As we will see below, the finest spun cotton was made for kings and the nobility in the Šäwa kingdom in the early 19th century.

1.3 From Gondär to Šäwa (17th–18th centuries)

5Numerous handcraftsmanship establishments developed during the rise of the kingdom of Šäwa at the end of the 17th century. The chronicles of the kingdom of Šäwa and of King Mənilək II relate similar anecdotes about the transformation of agricultural tools and the territorial expansion that had been facilitated due to the handcraftsmen who had been brought from Gondär at the beginning of the 18th century. The first migrant group comprised war captives, soldiers who had been sent from the king of Gondär to Šäwa on a punitive military expedition because the Šäwa ruler, mar’ed azmač Abyye (1733–1745) refused to pay the annual tributes. The chronicles of Šäwa and Mənilək II narrate that the soldiers were arrested and they were well treated by mar’ed azmač Abyye. Learning of the good treatment of the captured soldiers by mar’ed azmāč Abyye, the craftsmen from Gondär would have migrated to Šäwa, where they were openly received. There, they would have been granted land for their permanent establishment. This story marked the beginning of the expansion of handcraftsmanship in the kingdom of Šäwa.

2.1 The handicraft women at the court of King Śahlä Śǝllase (1813–1840).

6The handicraft women had a particular privilege in the kingdom of Šäwa and enjoyed liberty notably during the reign of King Śahlä Śǝllase (1813–1840). European travellers describe different activities of handcraftsmanship. Accordingly, there were two important centres of handicraft women during of the reign King Śahlä Śǝllase. These were royal handicraft centers in the towns of Ankobär and Däbrä Berẖan and at Mäntǝq Fälaša community monastery. The travellers describe not only the type of the workshop products and the locations of handicraft centres but also, more interestingly, some of them mention precisely in their account the gender division of labour at the court of Śahlä Śǝllase. Primarily, the handicraft women seemed to be qualified in spinning and pottery-making. They were called “wise women.” Johnston, a British traveller in 1840 in the kingdom of Šäwa, remarked that the spinning was an art practised by the women in Ankobär and describes his observation; some spinners were working at the town of Alyu Amba.

7He describes the action of spinning as the result of the interaction of the body and mind of a woman. Besides, he relates that the quality of the thread production depended on the speed of the spinning in time and space. The fast spinners would produce the finest thread and the slow spinners produced the second-degree thread. Accordingly, the quality of the cloth was determined by the quality of the thread.

2.2 The division of the workshop: “the royal and the ordinary spinning women”

8The account of the Protestant missionaries Isenberg and Krapf, who were at the court of King Śahlä Śǝllase between 1839 and 1841, describes the unique place of handicraft women in the capital city of the kingdom, Ankobär. According to them, there was a particular workshop in a royal spinning “factory” that was staffed only by women. There were six hundred women organised into a workshop that was headed by a woman.

9This workshop had two subdivisions of cotton-spinning according to the types of products. These were thin and thick thread spinners. As Johnston explains, two hundred women were recruited for their fast-spinning ability and four hundred were probably slow spinners. In his account, Krapf describes the two hundred fast spinners who fabricated the best quality of thread for the consumption of the king and the nobility. The second type, which Krapf calls the “ordinary,” is probably the four hundred slow spinners, mentioned by Johnston, producing ordinary thread for the soldiers and other officials of the court of King Śahlä Śǝllase.

2.3 The status of the spinning women

10Krapf underlines that these women were free compared to the other slave women workers at the court of the king. These women used to work for ten months and then, in July and August, they returned home in the rainy season. Besides, these women had the right to own property that was paid as a salary by the king. The oral tradition in Ankobär locates the spinning workshop south of the church of Ankobär Giyorgis in an area called Fätay Amba (Spinning hill).

Figure 19. Spinning in a modern painting

2.4 The mechanisation of cloth making

11It is worth mentioning here that the spinning materials also observed by European travellers in the early 19th century would give us an idea about the mechanisation of cloth making in Ethiopia. This hand mechanical thread helped women to work easily and produce more within a short time.

Figure 20. King Śahlä Śǝllase wearing a homemade gabi

2.5 The legacy and the link between Gondär and Ankobär

12After his trip from Gondär in 1957, W. Leslaw remarked that women were engaged in pottery and men in weaving. However, he did not say who performed the task of spinning among the Fälaša: “ሴቶች ደግሞ (…) የሸክላ ዕቃና የእህል ማስቀመጫ ይሠራሉ፡፡(…) ገንቦ፣ ማድጋ፣ ጋን፣ድስት፣ ወጭት፣ ጉሽጉሻ፣ ሞድግ የመሳሰለውን ሁሉ ነው፡፡” (“The tasks of women are (…) pottery making, and seed storage. (…) pot, gušguša, moged and the like”). Likewise pottery-making continues to be among the duties of the women in Mäntəq Gədam, near Ankobär the descendants of the Fälaša of Gondär.