Yshamu Senbetie

Father's name: Isias Senbetie

Mother's name: Elmanesh Bruk

Year of birth: 1929

Place of birth: Belessa-Maware, Gondar

Region in Ethiopia: Wegera

Main occupation in Ethiopia: Midwife

The language of the interview: Amharic

Yshamu Senbetie, agriculture, childhood, midwife, medicines, childbirth, umbilical cord, childbirth customs, equipment for childbirth, razor, wedding, coffee, bandage, bones, umbilical cord, menstruation house, massage, fractures, medical treatment, circumciser, foreskin, pus, pain in throat, sunstroke, cold, fever, governmental position, wheat, murder, policemen, prison, arresting, trial, execution, brining to justice, escape, city, village, jail, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Emperor Haile Selassie, Derg, Belessa-Maware, Wegera, Gondar, Ambover, Teda, Senbetia, Sudan.

Summary of the testimony:

Yshamu describes her family tree. Her father died at a young age, requiring her mother to go out to work. Yshamu and her siblings ran the house and took care of the land. In addition to the housework, Yshamu helped the men with the work in the fields.

Due to financial difficulties, the family moved to the village of Senbetia, where they lived for six years before eventually returning to Belessa-Maware. Yshamu got married there in an arranged marriage at the age of 16.

Yshamu describes how her mother taught her to deliver babies when she was 15, and how she used to join and help her at childbirths. After she gave birth herself, Yshamu began to deliver babies alone, without her mother’s help. Yshamu describes various childbirths she witnessed. She describes the preparations for childbirth and the equipment required. She explains how the midwife calculated the due date and how she cut the umbilical cord. She also talks at length about the family and communal customs observed before, during, and after the birth.

Yshamu also treated broken limbs in children, adults, and animals. She describes the medicines, massages, and bandages she used to heal fractures. She also relates how she treated pus in the throat caused mainly from sunstroke or colds. She describes treatments for illnesses that were common in the area, such as anklis and watet, which caused high fever and swelling. She explains her role as a circumciser – what she used to do, what tools and medicines she used, the customs connected to the event and what they did in cases of various complications. In addition to all of her other jobs, Yshamu worked in a governmental position known as aysema. This mainly entailed collecting local taxes from residents to buy wheat to make bread, which the government then sold. The income was invested in the area.

Yshamu relates how her husband was murdered in the village of Teda and describes her unwavering fight to bring the murderer to justice. Among other things, she travelled to Gondar to file a complaint at the main police offices. When she refused to abandon her fight for justice, the Christian residents of the city of Teda complained that she was disrupting their lives. She was arrested. Yshamu escaped on her way to court and continued working to catch her husband’s killer. The main suspect in the murder ran away from his home. Yshamu pursued him through various villages. She eventually found him and ensured he was brought to trial. He was imprisoned for murdering her husband. When the Derg party came to power, the murderer was executed.