Gojjam

Gojjam (Ge'ez ጎጃም gōjjām, originally ጐዛም gʷazzam, later ጐዣም gʷažžām, ጎዣም gōžžām) was a kingdom in the north-western part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Debre Marqos. This region is distinctive for lying entirely within the bend of the Abbay River from its outflow from Lake Tana to the Sudan. Gojjamis believe that they are the original people mentioned in the Bible as the river Guihon/Gihon (Nile) encircling the land of Cush extending to the ancient kingdom of Meroe. At the fall of Meroe by the Axumite King Ezana (4th Cent. AD). Gojjam (Guihon) became a kingdom and letter join the rest of the present kings of Ethiopia having their own kingship up unto the coming of Menlike II of Shoa in the late 19th century who reduced it to a province. (Stigma By Muse Tegegne 1993 Geneva).

The name Gojjam was given to the inhabitants resistance to accept the doctrine of Alexandrian Church in the past keeping their own version of the ancient testament. respecting the books like "Teezaze Senbet", the Book of the death of Moses, the Book of Enoch and that of the Psalms in Geez/Ethiopic version. (Stigma M.Tegegne).

Gojjam's earliest western boundary extended up unto the triangle extending to ancient Meroe in Sudan. By 1700, Gojjam's western neighbors were considered to be Agawmeder in the southwest and Qwara in the northwest. Agawmeder, never an organized political entity, was gradually absorbed by Gojjam until it reached west to the Sultanate of Gubba; Juan Maria Schuver noted in his journeys in Agawmeder (September 1882) that three months prior "the Abyssinians considerably advanced their frontier towards the West, effacing what was left of the independent regions." Gubba acknowledged its dependence to Emperor Menelik II in 1898, but by 1942 was absorbed into Gojjam. Dek Island in Lake Tana was administratively part of Gojjam until 1987.