Tukrir

In Ethiopia and Eritrea, the terms Tukrīr (Amharic) and Tukrir (Tigrinya[lower-alpha 1]) are used to designate persons of West or Central African origin. The terms derives from the city and kingdom of Takrūr that thrived on the lower Senegal River in the eleventh century. The place was well-known to Arab geographers, and an inhabitant of Takrūr or of West Africa in general was called in Arabic a Takrūrī (plural Takārīr or Takārna) from the 14th century onward. The nisba al-Takrūrī was a common surname for one of West African descent. The Ethiopian terms are derived from the Arabic.[1]

The Tukrīr primarily inhabit the western edge of the Ethiopian Highlands. They are overwhelmingly Muslim. They are mainly Fulani and Hausa in origin from the region of the former Kanem–Bornu Empire. There were two major periods of immigration from West Africa to Ethiopia. The first coincided with the Fula jihads that lasted from 1804 until 1842; the second with the Scramble for Africa, when West Africa was colonized by Europeans between 1885 and 1914.[1]

In the 19th century there was a Tukrīr sheikhdom with its capital at Metemma, sometimes owing tribute to Ethiopia and at other times to Egypt. It ended up dominated by Fur from the nearby Sultanate of Darfur.[1] It sided with the Mahdists during the Mahdist War against Ethiopia (1885–1891) and disappeared with the Mahdists' defeat.[2][3]

The term Fallāta (from Fulani) has largely replaced Takārīr in the Sudan as a term for immigrants from West Africa.[4]

Notes
  1. Also Tǝkwǝrir, plural Täkwarir

References
  1. Wolbert Smidt, "Tukrir", in Siegbert Uhlig and Alessandro Bausi (eds.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Vol. 4: O-X (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010), pp. 998–1000.
  2. 'Umar Al-Naqar, "Takrur: the History of a Name", The Journal of African History 10:3 (1969), pp. 365–374, at 366.
  3. Arthur E. Robinson, "The Tekruri Sheikhs of Gallabat (S. E. Sudan)", Journal of the Royal African Society 26:101 (1926), pp. 47–53. JSTOR 716806
  4. P. M. Holt (1965). "Fallāta". In Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume II: C–G. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 767–768. OCLC 495469475.
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