Gaki Sherocho

Who was Gaki Sherocho?

Gaki Sherocho was the last king of the Kingdom of Kaffa in what is now Ethiopia. He is usually called by the Kaffa "Chinito", the diminutive of Taten Chini.

According to Amnon Orent's informants, Gaki Sherocho had many more fields cleared from the jungles during his reign than any of his predecessors, and that he organized the districts of Kaffa to destroy the wildlife that harmed the crops and livestock. The tradition also reports that he ruled with an iron hand, and traveled widely in the countryside to enforce his laws.

In January 1897, Emperor Menelik II sent out three armies under the leadership of Ras Walda Giyorgis, Dejazmach Demissew Nassibu, and Dejazmach Tessema Nadew to conquer Kaffa. King Abba Jifar II of Jimma supported the Ethiopian forces with his own troops. Ras Walda Giyorgis attacked Gaki Sherocho's kingdom from Konto to the southeast, which was not as strongly fortified as the Jimma-Kaffa boundary along the Gojeb River.

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. A more pragmatic tactic is recorded by Alexander Bulatovich, who visited Kaffa and met with some of the Ethiopian participants: destroying the grain supplies. "Knowing very well that the Abyssinians during campaigns supplied themselves exclusively with the provisions of the region under attack," wrote Bulatovich, "Tato Chenito [Gake Sherocho] issued an edict which prohibited producing any crops, even planting. He hoped that the lack of provisions would force the Abyssinians to retreat, and that only the Kaffa, who were used to it, could nourish themselves."