Jamila Ali Damacoo: The Hidden Mother in Ethiopia’s Imperial Narrative

 

⭐ Jamila Ali Damacoo: The Hidden Mother in Ethiopia’s Imperial Narrative

TC Press Cultural Ecology Series — Continuation

Author/ Contributor: Temesgen Muleta-Erena

History often remembers power but forgets the people who shaped it. Among these forgotten figures stands Jamila Ali Damacoo, a woman whose identity was rewritten inside the machinery of Ethiopia’s imperial state. Her story is not only personal — it is a window into the broader pattern of Oromo erasure within official historiography.

Jamila, born to Ali Damacoo of the Yejjuu Oromo, carried a lineage deeply rooted in Oromo cultural identity. Her mother, Qixxoo Hussein, embodied a mixed heritage: Silxee on her maternal side and Yejjuu Oromo on her paternal side. The name Qixxoo itself means “equal” in Afaan Oromo — a symbolic reflection of balance and dignity.

Jamila was not alone in this heritage. She had a junior sister, Munaa Ali, who shared the same ancestral roots. Together, Jamila and Munaa represent a family whose identity was shaped by Oromo values, yet later obscured by imperial narratives.

According to author Tesfaye Gebre’ab, whose research includes a detailed interview on OMN with journalist Fiqaaduu (VOA Afaan Oromo), Jamila’s original name and identity were replaced with Yeshimebet — the name officially recorded as the mother of Emperor Haile Selassie. This renaming was not accidental; it was part of a systematic pattern of assimilation within the imperial court.

The pattern extends further. Haile Selassie’s father, Ras Makonnen, was born Mekonnen Guddisa, tracing his lineage through Fitawrari Woldemikael Guddisa, a noble family of Oromo origin. Both maternal and paternal lines reveal a clear Oromo heritage — yet official imperial narratives reframed these identities to fit the Solomonic mythos.

This rewriting served a political purpose: to reinforce centralized legitimacy by absorbing Oromo ancestry into a highland Christian imperial identity. Jamila’s transformation into “Yeshimebet” is one example of how personal identity became a tool of state narrative construction.

Tesfaye Gebre’ab’s work — including the OMN interview — helps restore these erased histories. It reveals how Oromo lineage shaped the imperial establishment, even as the state attempted to conceal it. Jamila Ali Damacoo’s story is therefore not only about one woman; it is about the broader struggle for historical truth, cultural recognition, and the dignity of remembering.

Her name, her lineage, and her story deserve to stand in the open — not hidden behind the architecture of empire.

 

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