Below is an excerpt from an e-mail from Ato Tesfaye Yemane regarding one of the families in the mehaber, the Moja’s. We will post a more comprehensive and more inclusive history of the Abo family as soon as possible. Please stay tuned.
The Moja ancestor’s name is called Abiyae Gebru. Abiyae is described in Aleqa Desta Teklewold’s first Amharic dictionary as “The name of a Shewa Balabat in the 1800s”. He had many children, but those known to us are :
1. Ayeleworq Abiyae Gebru (Konjit Abenet, Emama Azalech Gobena, Col. Tigeneh….)
2. Woletegiorgis Abiyae Gebru
3. Aba Fetaw Abiyae Gebru(Gen. Samuel, Tayech, Surafel, Beniyam, Gashe Kebede..
For your info, they are also doubly related to us through Germamae’s second marriage.
Woletegiorgis married Dejazmatch Germamae (a Menzae and the right hand man and advisor to Emperor Menelik II) and had three children: viz., Woizero Zelekaworq (who, in turn, had 18 children and Emodish is the second oldest child – Ababa Tiliqu’s mother- who lived in a convent in Jerusalem and died there in the 1940s),Fitawrari Manyahelehal (Enkenyelesh Shiferaw’s great grandfather) and Fitawrari Semu-Negus (Childless).
Woletegiorgis and Germamae divorced and each got remarried. Woletegiorgis (the Moja) had a daughter called Altayeworq (Zeleka’s, Kassa’s, Tabor’s and Chereka’s grandmother) and Germamae (the Menzae) had 5 children, viz., Dejazmatch Mekuria, woizero Medemdemia, woizero Tattereworq (forgot the others for now!).
Geta Ato Birru is the brother of Emodish on her father’s side but he grew up as a Moja and his descendants were always considered as members of our family and the famous Dejazmatch Aba woqaw Birru (who is an enemy of Negus Teferri – before he was crowned as Emperor Haile Selassie) brought up Ferew’s father Gashe Bekele and others. So as you can see Geta Ato Birru is not a Moja but related to some Moja’s and thus his descendants became inseparable members of the Moja family.