Negasi Krestos

Who was Negasi Krestos?

Negassie or Negasi Krestos was the ruling prince of Shewa, an important Amhara noble of Ethiopia. Although the official account is that his father Lesba Qal was a male-line great-grandson of Prince Yaqob, son of Emperor Lebna Dengel, and thus descended in male line from the Solomonic dynasty, other versions are known of his ancestry. Abir records two other traditions collected in the 1840s: one is that his mother, Senebeit, was a woman of imperial descent and his father a rich landowner from Menz; another is that Senebeit was the daughter of one Ras Faris, "who with many other followers of Emperor Susenyos escaped into Menz."

After fighting the Wollo and Yejju Oromo north of Menz, he subdued the Oromo living in the district of Yifat, which came to replace Menz as the center of the Shewan lordship. His further conquests included the districts of Debdabo, Mengist, Makfud, Doqaqit and Asundabe. Through these he succeeded in establishing an autonomous state of Shewa by the end of 17th century.