What is "gojjam"

Gojjam ( Ge'ez ጎጃም gōjjām or Goǧǧam, 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 to the Axumite King Ezana (4th century AD). Gojjam (Guihon) became a kingdom and later joined the rest of the kingdom of Ethiopia having their own kingship up to the coming of Menlike II of Shoa in the late 19th century, who reduced it to a province. (Stigma By Prof. Muse Tegegne 1993 Geneva).

The name Gojjam was given to the inhabitants due to their resistance in accepting the doctrine of the Alexandrian Church in the past, keeping their own version of the ancient testament, and respecting 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 to ancient Meroe in Sudan. By 1700, Gojjam's western neighbors were 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 in three prior months "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.