Remembering unique Eritreans in  contemporary history

A

short biography

Of

Dejazmatch Bahta Hagos of Segeneity

Compiled and edited from the internet

By

Emnetu Tesfay

                  Stavanger, Norway                                                                                                           2012

Introduction

This is a collection of biographical data of Dejazmatch Bahta Hagos from Wikipedia and other electronic sources. I have formulated a short biographical sketch of Bahta Hagos who is one of Eritreas legendary military heroes.  In Eritrean history, he is well known for his resistance against foreign invasion. He was born in the mid-1800s in the town of Segeneiti, Akele Guzay region.

 “Bahta, Bahta of Segeneiti, master of the Italians, master of Segeneiti. Could a lion be born to a woman?’’ This was part of a song which told the boldness of an Eritrean hero whose revolt in december 1894 brought on an independence struggle against early colonialism.

Degiat Bahta became frustrated and could not accept the conduct of the Italian colonial government and their soldiers. In the evening of 14 december 1894, he began his revolt against the Italians. After gathering his people at the market, Degiat Bahta issued a call for resistance and said, “The Italians curse us, seize our land. I want to free you. Let us drive the Italians out and be our own masters.”

Following that, Degiat Bahta, with his brother Sengal and his son Ghebremedhin, cut telegraph wires north to Asmara and arrested Lieutenant Giovanni Sanguineti, a new Italian resident at Segeneiti. On hearing the news, Baratieri, the Italian general and governor of Eritrea, who was in Keren supervising dealings with the Mahdists, telegraphed Asmara ordering major Petro Tosselli to march his battalion down to Segeneiti. Degiat Bahta Hagos (whose horse was also known as Aba T’mer) was killed while fighting against the Italian Colonial Army on december 19, 1894. Because of his influence at the time, after his death, the Italian colonial government banned his burial fearing that his grave would become a source of further rebellions. However, his body was secretly interred in a grave by his loyal friend, Soquar Bahro Digsa, in Halay and later moved to Segeneiti in 1963. Following Eritrean independence in 1991, his remains were again interred in December 2007 with full honours in recognition of his struggles.

 Below is a scanned copy of Djazmatch Bahta Hagos’s biography written in tigrinja language. The book is in paperback format with 125 pages and contains all necessary information from early childhood to his death. The author of the book is Azmatch Ghebremichael Girmu and ato Berhane Abraha is named in the cover book as sponsor. The book is published in 1997 by MBY. I took the liberty of scanning the book and make it available to researchers online.

Further reading

TEKESTE, Negash (1986): No Medicine for the Bite of a White Snake: Notes on Nationalism and Resistance in Eritrea, 1890-1940, University of Uppsala. ISBN 91-7106-250-5 MELLI, B (1899): La colonia Eritrea dalle sue origini fino al 1. marzo 1899, Luigi Battei. (Italian) BERKELEY, G. F.-H (1902): The campaign of Adowa and the rise of Menelik. Reprint, Negro University Press. ISBN 0-8371-1132-3