Tselemti: History
Tselemti, a Tigrinya speaking district, just as originally the adjacent Tellemt, was part of Gondar Teklay Gizat in the mid 20th C. (and before that, it was part of the Kingdom of Axum where its capital city was Axum). Since the beginning of the Zagwe dynasty c.900 AD. until the 1995 constitution ratification, Tselemti was part of Begemder province. Tselemti was then split into two parts once ethnic federalism was established in Ethiopia (in 1995). One of the two parts which had turned up to have a majority Agaw and Amhara ethnic group living in it, was given to the new Amhara Region (this province is called Addi Arkay woreda, which is a Tigrinya name). The other, still had a majority of Tigrayan ethnic people (over 90%) so it was returned to the Tigray Region, as it had been for most of the 3000 years history of Ethiopia, before Haile Selassie changed it in 1941/1943.
The decline of the Tigrayan population in Ethiopia during Haile Selassie's reign – in particular in districts of the former Tigray province, which are given to the present-day Amhara Region, like Addi Arkay, Kobo and Sanja – is likely to have been as a result of Haile Selassie's suppression and systematic persecution against non-Amhara ethnic peoples of Ethiopia (in particular, his immense systematic persecution of Tigrayans). For example, on the 1958 famine of Tigray, Haile Selassie refused to send any significant basic emergency food aid to Tigray province despite having the resources to; as a consequence, over 100,000 people died of the famine (in Tigray province).
In 2020 woreda Tselemti became inoperative and its territory belongs to the following new woredas:
Tselemti(new, smaller, woreda)
Dima woreda
May Tsebri town