ARTICLES

1.

by Kofi Darkwah

in writing the history of a centraltLsed state the
tendency has been to see things almost exclusively from
the point of view of the central authority; what happens
within the units or the provinces composing the state Is
generally considered In relation to the position, powers
and privileges of the central authority; it is in the
context of the centre that the importance of events in
the provinces are assessed.

Writers on Ethiopia have not been an exception in
this, although, infact, Ethiopia was never a centralised
state in the sense in which, for example, Dahomey in the
nineteenth century was.  Nevertheless, the imperial aut-
hority has been made the pivot around which the history
of Ethiopia has been written and whatever references have
been made to the provinces and to what may be considered
as purely provincial history have been incidental.  And,
in so far as the era of the mes_afint is concerned, these
incidental references have been made with the purpose of
showing the extent to which the central authority was in
decline and was therefore incapable of exercising control
over the provinces.  The impression is given that without
the imperial authority nothing really worth knowing about
could happen within the provinces.  Thus when, for a num-
ber of reasons, the imperial authority fell on a period
of decline and was, for nearly a hundred years, no longer
in a position'to play a dominant role in the Empire, his-
tory, as it were, ceased to be made.  One only has to open
any of the standard history books on Ethiopia to appreciate
the point which is being made here.  The period from about
1769 to the advent of Tewodros to the imperial throne in
1855 is invariably dismissed in at most a couple of para-

Dr. Kofi Darkwah is a Research Fellow in African
History.

ARTICLES

graphs In the existing history books,'  These few para-
graphs merely labour the point that the central Imperial
authority was in decline and that In the provinces the
period vas marked by Incessant internecine wars.  History,
as it were, starts to be made again from 1855 when a man
of great military acumen fought his way to the imperial
throne and the central authority again started to play
a dominating role throughout the empire.  This approach
to the history of the Empire cannot be of much help for
an understanding of the era of the mesafint.  It would
seem that a change in approach and a shift in the area
of inquiry are necessary if we are to appreciate fully
the events of the period as well as the significance of
the era of the mesafint in the general course of the
history of Ethiopia.  Serious attention should be given
to a study of the provinces with a view to finding out
precisely what was happening within each of the provinces
during the era of the me_s>afilrrt.  There can be no doubt
that a study of the provinces will offer- a more detailed
and a clearer picture of developments in the Empire during
this period than a study of the imperial authority as such
can do.

The one hundred or so years covered in this paper

constituted a period of frequent warfare within the
provinces.  These wars- have been seen as reflecting a
state of anarchy in which no positive developments could
have taken place.  There can be little doubt that the
frequency of the wars made life rather difficult for the
individual inhabitants of the provinces.  But the wars
of the period can also be seen as the outward manifesta-
tion of a positive development through which the provinces
were able to save the Empire from total collapse in the
face of real and serious dangers.

1,  Over the past five years a few provincial studies

have appeared but these are mostly anthropological:
The only serious historical studies of the provinces
known to the present writer are Dr. M. Abir's Ph.D.
Thesis which has now been published under the title
TJieJEraof ^he Princes, Longmans 1968, and

Kofi Darkwah; The' BJherTS~tEe~Kingdom of Shoa, Un-
published London Ph.D. Thesis, 1966.

rTS~E~

ARTICLES

This paper attempts to do two things: the first
is to give an indication of a major development which
took place in the provinces during the period under
consideration and of which the wars of the period, it
has been suggested, were the outward manifestation; that
is to say, territorial expansion, centralization and con-
solidation of provincial autonomy.  Secondly, it attempts
to show how as a result of this development, and contrary
to popular belief, the provinces were able to preserve
the territorial integrity of the Empire at a period when
the central imperial authority was not in a position to
lead the Empire against the dangers which threatened her
unity and her very existence as an empire.

For the purpose of this paper two principal dangers
which faced the empire in the period under review will be
considered.  The first was the occupation by the Galla of
more than half the territory of the medieval empire and
the entry of the Galla of the central plateau into the
court and into the politics of the Empire with all its
political and constitutional implications.  The second
danger was the attempt made by Muslim Egypt to occupy
parts of the territory of Christian Ethiopia in the West,
North-west, (Metemma district), North (the Bogos area)
North-east (Massawa region).

The Galla conquest had significant religious and
cultural implications for the Amhara.2  At the time of
their conquest the Galla were adherents of their own
traditional religions knd in their drive had killed off
Christian Amhara and destroyed churches.  They did. not
care a straw for eithef the church or the monarchy,
institutions which werfc the embodiment of Amhara civili-
zation.  On settling d<bwn the Galla tended to adopt Islam
rather than the Ethiopian Christianity.  This was parti-
cularly so with the Gaila of the central plateau, the
Wollo, the Raja and th^ Yejju.  Islam was adopted as n
protective weapon against Christian Ethiopia.3 
With

2.  The word Amhara is used in this paper to cover both
the Amharic and Tigrean speaking people of Ethiopiar.

3.  Antonio Cecchi:  pa Zeila alle Frontiere del Caffa

Roma 3.886, Vol. II  pp.55-60.

ARTICLES 

4.

muslim states ringing the Christian Empire in the North,
North-west, and East, the adoption of Islam by the Galla,
particularly those in the heart of the Empire, presented
a great danger to all that the Amhara held dear.  This
fact was realised by the Amhara princes but for the most
part neither the Emperor nor any other prince was in a
position to deal with the situation.

The Scottish traveller James Bruce who visited
Ethiopia between 1768•and 1773 describes a state of
incessant warfare in the Empire.^  It should be noted
that these wars were by no means meaningless; they re-
flected a constitutional struggle at two different levels.
At the national level it was a struggle between the impe-
rial authority on the one hand and the provincial nobility
on the other hand.  The issue in this contest was the
proper relationship between the Amhara nobles, traditional
rulers of the provinces, and the central government as
personified by the Emperor and his court.  For the most
part the nobles had the upper fcand in this contest and
provincialism got the better of imperial centralisation.
The struggle which went on at fhe national level may be
considered as a magnification of that which took place
at the provincial level.  In the provinces, at this period,
an incessant contest was being fought between the provin-
cial chiefs on the one hand and the petty chieftains of
the various units which constituted the individual pro-
vinces.  In this as in the national struggle the issue
was one of centralization by the provincial chiefs as
against the separatist,tendencies of the districts.
This is.not surprising for a provincial chief needed to
have the whole of his province united behind him before
he could confidently enter the constitutional struggle
against the imperial authority and hold his own against
other provinces.  la the provinces, however4, unlike at
the national level, it was the forces of decentrali-
zation which lost the contest.  Within therprovinces

4.  James Bruce:  Travels to discover.ihe Source of the

Nile in the years 1768-1773^  Edinburgh
8 vols. l«04.  ; ;

See also Kofi Darkwah: "A New Approach to Ethiopia

in the l8th and 19th Century" Research
Review, Vol.3 No.3  1967. pp.45"17?^

ARTICLES 

5.

therefore the era of the mesafint was marked by terri-
torial expansion, centralization and the consolidation
of provincial autonomy by the provincial chiefs.  In
this way provinces of varying strength and size emerged
which, on their own initiative, stood up against the
forces which threatened their traditional* Amhara culture
with destruction.

One such province was Shoa.  A centre of the

Empire from at least the l^th Century, Shoa was over-
run by the Galla and by the beginning of the l8th
Century was almost completely lost to the Christian
Empire.  Yet Christianity and the Amhara population
were not annihilated.  A few Amhara families managed
to escape and took refuge in mountain fastnesses in the
district of Manz.  By a process which cannot be detailed
in this paper, the surviving Amhara, under the leadership
of a local family, gradually defeated the surrounding
Galla and by the 1840's a powerful and well administered
kingdom had emerged in the Southern half of the medieval
Empire.5  Among the reasons advanced by the most enligh-
tened rulers of Shoa to justify their expansionist policy
was the regaining of the lands which were lost to their
ancestors and the re-establishment of the Amhara culture
in the re-conquered lands.6  Although this may sound
ethno-centric it became an established policy of the Shoan
dynasty to foster the revival of Amhara culture in the
conquered Galla districts.  This was done in two ways;
first, by the conversion or rather a campaign for con-
verting the Galla to the Ethiopian Christianity.  This
enabled the church to educate the converted Galla in all

5.  For details of this development see Kofi Darkwah:

The Rise of the Kingdom of Shoa 1813-1889.  London
Ph.D. Thesis July 1966.  See also Art. Cit. in
Research Review  cit. pp.47-52.

6.  Harris, W.C.: The Highlands of Ethiopia, London 1844
Vol.Ill p.37.  Journal of Isenberg and
Krapf. London  1843, pp.179-80.

Libro Verde No.XV Etiopia. Doc. 95 Menelik al Re
Umberto I, Entotto 28 e;henbot, I1 anno 20 del nostro
regno.  (« 4/6/1885).

ARTICLES 

6.

aspects of Amhara civilization.  In this connection it
should be remembered that until the reign of Menelik II
(I889-I913) when education of the western type was intro-
duced into the Empire, education in all its aspects was
the exclusive domain of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
And the church was the repository of Amhara culture.
Secondly, by planting Amhara colonies among the Galla
and encouraging closer association between the two peo-
ples so that the process of assimilation might be
facilitated.7  The success of the policy of "Amhari-
zation" of the Galla was rather slow and must not be
over-emphasized.  Yet it can be said with a reasonable
degree of confidence that by the 1850s when Tewodros
revived the imperial authority and enabled it to assert
her influence far and wide, the danger which the Southern
Galla had presented to the Empire had been neutralized as
a result of the Shoan expansion.  Indeed Shoan conquest
of the Galla provinces continued with increased vigour
during the time when Menelik was king of Shoa (1865-1889).
By the time this expansion became an imperial policy with
the accession of Menelik to the imperial throne in 1889
nearly three-quarters of the Galla provinces had already
been re-conquered by the "province" of Shoa and the
Southern Galla were no longer a danger to the continued
existence of the Empire.  Here then is an example of a
situation in the period under review where a "province"
of the Empire, on its own initiative, and at a time when
the imperial authority was moribund, worked to save
Ethiopia from a danger which could well have led to the
complete collapse of the whole Empire.

On the centre of the plateau between Shoa in the
South and the province of Amhara in the North were the
Wollo, the Raya and the Yejju Galla.  The danger which
they presented to the unity of the empire was in a sense
greater than that presented by the Southern Galla.  In
the first place the Central Galla were more thoroughly
Islamised than those in the South.  Moreover, the Central
Galla became identified with the imperial family through

7,  Sellassie, Guebre:  Chronique, du regne de Menelik II,
roi des rois d'Ethiopie.  (Edt. and trans, by Maurice
de Coppet).  Paris 1930-32.  Vol.1  pp.281-2.

ARTICLES 

7.

marriage.  It was in this that the greatest danger lay.
Upon the advice of his mother, the Empress Mentuab, the
Emperor Iyasu II (1730-50) married the daughter of one
of the Galla chiefs of the central plateau.  The object
of this unprecedented move war probably to gain, in the
Galla, allies against the separatist tendencies of the
traditional Amhara chiefs.  On the death of Iyasu II the
heir to the throne was not only a half-Galla but also a
minor whose Galla mother, Waizero Wobit,° acted as the
regent.  As was to be expected, the regent depended on
her Galla relatives for her government appointing Galla
to posts both in the provinces and at the court.  The
Scottish traveller James Bruce who was an eye witness
to some of these events remarks that the appointment of
the Galla to positions of influence was "observed with
great discontent by the old families (i.e. Amhara
families) which were the strength of the crown in former
reigns".9  From this time until the defeat of Ras Ali by
Tewodros II in 1853-4, the Emperors became, in the words
of the Chronicles "little more than Galla puppets".  This
is by no means an exaggeration, for the title of Ras, the
third highest title in the Empire besides Negusa Nagast
(Emperor) and Negus (King) fell to one of the dynasties
of the Yejju Galla.  And for more than fifty years members
of this family exercised political power in Gondar and
were indeed the real and effective rulers of what was left
of the Empire until the last of them, Ras Ali II, was over-
thrown by Kassa of Quara who later became Emperor as Tewo-
dros II.  It will be an interesting study to examine the
nature and the extent of the contribution made by the
Galla of the central plateau to the weakening of the impe-
rial authority.  Scholars are likely to disagree on the
causal relationship between Galla predominance and the
separatist tendencies of the Amhara nobles; what is cer-
tain however is that the one intensified the other.

A brief analysis of the political situation in the

Empire at the time of Brucefs visit indicates to what
extent the Galla were in control of affairs.  Of the five
most important political personalities in the Northern

8.  Bruce:  op. cit. Vol. IV  p.148.
9.  Bruce:  op. cit. Vol. IV  p.l47.

ARTICLES 

8.

half of the Empire, the Emperor was half-Galla;
Powussen, the governor of the province of Begemder
was a Galla, so were Fasil, governor of Godjam, and
Gusho governor of the province of Amhara in which
the imperial capital, Gondar, was situated.  Only
the governor of Tigre, Mikael Sehul was Hot a Galla.
Besides, all the important court officials as well
as the imperial troops were all to a.man Galla.10
It is no surprise that the Chronicles refer to the
Emperors of this era as little more than Galla pup-
pets.

"Amhara" opposition to Galla dominance over
the affairs of the Empire was led by the Northern
province of Tigre.  Indeed no other province could,
in the circumstance of those times, do this, since
they were all firmly controlled by Galla chiefs.
Thus while Shoa was turning the tide against the
Southern Galla, Tigre was vigorously resisting the
influence of the Galla of the central plateau over the
Emperors.

It would seem that next to Shoa Tigre was the

province which achieved the highest degree of success
in the process of expansion and centralization which
went on in the provinces.  Here as in Shoa, a local
dynasty, claiming to be a branch of the imperial family
established a fairly strong and prosperous "Rasship".
Unlike Shoa, however, Tigre did not become an indepen-
dent kingdom because it did not possess the'advantages
which enabled Shoa to cut off the ties which had sub-
ordinated her to the imperial authority.  Another
reason for Tigre's inability to assert her independence
was the "unpatriotic" activities of certain ambitious
members of the Tigrean ruling dynasty.  An example of
this is found in the shifting alliances which Wube made
with powerful interests both within and outside the
province in his bid to secure the governorship of

10.  Bruce:  op. cit.  Vols. 4, 5, 6 •*•  passim*

Russel, Michael: Nubia and Abyssinia.  London 1833.

pp.145-160.

ARTICLES

9.

Not only did Wube seek military support from the French
agents on the coast but also he married the daughter of
Has All, the effective Galla ruler of the Empire, in
order to win the Ras! support against his rival Saba-
gardis in Tigre.  Once he had achieved the governorship,
however, Wube turned against Ras Ali and followed the
traditional Tigrean policy of resistance to Galla pre-
dominance in the affairs of the Empire.H

At the time of Bruce's travels in Ethiopia the
governor of Tigre, Ras Mikael Sehul, was perhaps the
most powerful single governor in the Empire.  And he
personified Tigrean abhorrence of Galla rule at Gondar.
An able warrior and a shrewd politician, he would stop
at nothing in his determination to weaken and eventually
eliminate Galla hold on the imperial authority.  If it
suited his purpose he would not hesitate to sacrifice
his closest ally, and in fact twice in a period of six
months Ras Mikael contrived the murder of two Emperors
and a number of Galla chieftains.12  By playing off the
Galla governors, on whom the Emperors depended for the
maintenance of their position, against one another,
Mikael succeeded in making himself indispensable to the
Emperors of his time.  Nevertheless, his efforts to re-
place the Galla governors with men who had no Galla
blood in them were only partially successful, and when
he died the Galla were still firmly in control of affairs
at the imperial court.

Mikael, Sehul !s anti-Galla policy was inherited by

his 19th century successors as governors of Tigre.  Walda
Selassie  (l80G~l6) Sebagadis (1825-31) and Wube (1831-53)
all offered the Galla dominated imperial government at
Gondar an extremely doubtful support and on many occasions
were indeed more of enemies than of supporters.  This is
reflected in the many revolts which broke out in Tigre
against the imperial government.  Walda Selassie of Tigre
was engaged in hostilities with the Ras of Gondar "who is,
called Gougousa" among other reasons, because "hehas made

11.  C.M.S. Archives:  CM/044 Krapf to D. Coates. 28/2/1842,

12.  Bruce:  0Pi_cit.  Vol. 4  pp.158-190.

ARTICLES 

10.

a king who is not orthodox in the faith" ^ Walda
Selassie's successor as governor of Tigre Sebagadis
was almost constantly at war with Ras Gugsa and later
with Gugsa's successor,, Ras Mariam.  And Wube while
he was only the governor of Semen, even before he be-
came the ruler of the whole of Tigre, had left no
doubt as to his dislike of Galla predominance at Gon-
dar.  In March 1830, for example, while Ras Mariam's.
messengers were in Tigre treating for peace with
Sebagadis, Wube of Semen set off on an expedition
against the Ras at Gondar.l4  The C.M.S. Missionary,
Samuel Gobat who was an eyewitness to some of these
events points out in his Journal that "there has almost
always been war between the House of Googsa and that of
the Governors of Semen, during more than thirty years".
He also remarks on the ruins that he saw "... of several
villages (in Semen) desolated by Ras Googsa about twenty
five years ago".15  As governor of the whole of Tigre,
therefore, Wube merely continued the traditional policy
of the ruling house not only of Semen but also of Tigre
against the Galla.

Tigrean resistance to Galla domination at Gondar

appears to have reached a climax around 1842 when in
alliance with Go3jam, Wube marched on Ras Ali's capital
at Debra Tabor and was reported to have defeated the
Ras in battle and to have induced the Abun to invest a
non-Galla called Yohannes with the royal title while
Wube himself assumed the title of Ras.16  This Tigrean
victory turned out to be an anti-climax for in the sub-
sequent encounters Ras Ali defeated the Tigreans, re-
placed Yohannes with a man of his choice and forced Wube

13.  P.O. 1/1 f.155-6. no date: Ras Welled (i.e. Walda)

Selassie to George III.

14.  Samuel Gobat:  Journal of a frhree Years1 Residence

in Abyssinia  etc. London.  1834•  p.bb.

15.  Samuel Gobat:  op. cit.  p.76, 78.

16.  C.M/044.  Krapf to Coates, quoted above.

ARTICLES

11.

to flee from Gondar to Tigre. • Such-was the state of
affairs when about 1852 an Amhara upstart called Kassa'
from the district of Quara  (Kwara) began successfully,
to fight his way to the Imperial throne, defeating all
the proYlncial governors, both Amhara and Galla, and
for the first time in. over a hundred years initiated
positive measures by which Galla domination at the
Imperial Court was to be progressively destroyed.

The eitrusion of the "Amhara" from positions

of power both at the court and in the provinces by the
Galla was not the only danger which faced the. Christian
empire during the era of the mesafint.  Perhaps even
more serious was the threat whTch~Muslim Egypt offered
to the territorial integrity of the Empire,  Egypt's
imperial ambitions in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden
coasts dated back a number of centuries, • In the 12th
century, for example, in her bid to control the Red Sea
trade Egyptian soldiers conquered South-Western Arabia
in 1174.  It has even been said that "in some sense
Somali and the North Kenya coast down to the Tana River
can be considered as part of an Egyptian sphere until
after the coming of the Portuguese",17  It was, however,
not until the early decades of the 19th century that
Egyptian territorial ambitions were directed at the in-
land frontiers of Ethiopia.  The revitalization of deca-
dent Egypt by Muhammad All and the imperial aspirations
of that ruler manifested themselves first in the conquest
of Sudan and later in fruitless adventures in Syria.
They were also to endanger the peace on the" frontiers
of Christian Ethiopia,

Muhammad All's schemes of conquest were said to
have included among others the control of the source
of the Nile which gave life to Egypt,18  in pursuance
of this objective All pushed his Sudan conquest along
the Blue Nile as far as beyond Sennar.  In their gradual
encroachments the Egyptians came into collision with "the

17.  G. Mathew in Oliver and Mathewj

Africa.  Vol. I.  p.III

18.  Dye, W. Mac E. :

nia.  i860.  p.120,

ARTICLES 

12.

Ethiopians from Cassala in the West to Massawa in the
North East.  Throughout the reign of Muhammad All fron-
tier incidents between Egypto-Sudanese soldiers and the
Ethiopians were frequent,19  Indeed the border struggle
continued into the second half of the century not only
in the West.and North-West but also in the northern and
eastern frontiers of Ethiopia.  It was not until 1884
that the first serious official attempt at settlement
was made between the two countries with Britain as a
sort of guarantor.20

Throughout the first half of this long struggle

the Ethiopians fought under no central direction for
the central authority, it will be remembered, was mori-
bund.  Ethiopian resistance therefore became a duty
which fell on the shoulders of the governors of the
frontier provinces which were directly threatened.  One
province or rather district which stood up vigorously
against the Egyptians was the north-western frontier
district of Quara.  Here, no less than in Shoa or in
Tigre, the process of conquest and centralization which
was such a feature of provincial development during this
period led to the consolidation of the power of the local
ruling dynasty.  It was this local dynasty which offered
the leadership that was needed in the resistance to
Egyptian encroachment.  One of the better known among
the local rulers of the first half of the nineteenth
century was Dedjatch Kenfu, whose youthful brother or
nephew, Kassa, the future Emperor Tewodros II, threw
himself body and soul into the struggle against the

19.  For details of this frontier struggle see M.
Abir: "The Origins of the Ethiopian-Egyptian
border problem in the 19th century". 
Vol. VIII, No.3> 1967.

J.A.H.

20.  For Ethio-Egyptian frontier struggle in the

second half of the century see among others Dye,
Mac.  op« cit.;  F.O. Confidential Print Nos.
3203 and 4249.

ARTICLES

1.3.

Egyptians. 1  The effect of these struggles on the
development of Kassa's Ideas must be noted in passing.
In the'first place it brought home to him the urgent
need for national unity; he realized clearly that not
until Ethiopia could present a united front against
the Egyptians she stood In danger of be coining a prey
to her northern neighbour.  Secondly, Kassa's religious
sentiments were sharpened and he became an inveterate
enemy of the Muslims,  It was these experiences which
determined Kassa, if ever he had the opportunity, to
re-unite and strengthen the divided Empire and to lead
his Christian soldiers In a crusade against the Muslims
not only in Egypt but also in the Holy Land.  As Emperor
therefore Kassa/Tewodros's relations with Muslim Egypt
were the worst In the history of modern Ethiopia.22  As
a result of the resistance offered by the rulers of the
district of Quara Egypt was kept at bay In.the north-
west and'her attempts at territorial acquisition in this
area met with no success.

It was not only Quara which was forced by the

necessity for self-preservation to resist Egyptian
encroachments on the frontiers of the Christian Empire.
Wube, the ruler of Tigre (18J1-53) also opposed the
Egyptians vigorously in the Bogos area.  This area was
to become crucial in the Ethio-Egyptian border struggle
during the 1870s and the l880s.  In the 1830s and l«40s
Wube consistently resisted not only Egyptian encroach-
ments but also attempts by French Roman Catholics to
establish missions in t}he Bogos region.  In 1844 for
Example Wube succeeded \±n driving away the Egyptian and

irklsh soldiers from fiogos to Massawa and threatened

invade the port of Massawa.23  Although Wube!s

For Kassa's early life see among others Henry Dufton;
Narrative of 

^§

^

PP • 120-22

ween Kassa and Dedj Kenfu see Sven Rubenson:

PP.25-26 and

',0. Confidential Print; No.4249.
!.O. Confidential Print, No.320,3.

ARTICLES

successes against the Egyptians were not as  spectacular
as those of the rulers of Quara, his resistance  consi- .
derably weakened Egyptian advance against Ethiopian in
the north and postponed  large scale confrontation bet-
ween the  two states for at least  thirty years; by then
Ethiopia had  come under an effective  central  government
. i C D W VC  U C UW f ti  g,U VGX  '11111(5X11/
and was  therefore able  to vet
sist successfully  the Egypt-
ian attacks in the 1870s.

In conclusion It may be said  that the era of the

mesaflnt witnessed  interesting developments in the Empire
of Ethiopia,  On the one hand  the Imperial authority  as
a result  of a combination of related  factors  sank 'to its
nadir.  On  the other* hand  the provinces passed  through a
period  of positive  achievement in the form of  territorial
expansion, centralization and consolidation of provincial .
autonomy.  The degree  of autonomy  and  the extent of cen-
tralization, however., varied from one province  to another.
It was  this development which took place, in the provinces
that enabled  them to withstand  pressures and dangers which
directly  threatened  their individual  existence.  In pre-
serving  their Individual existence  in the face of  these
dangers,  the province Ironically  saved  the Empire  from
total collapse, for  their very  continued  existence  as
semi-Independent units of the Ethiopian Empire made it
possible  for a re-unification  to take place when in the
9th century  the Imperial  crown fell
second half of
into  the hands of able persons

the