Dobe'a

The Dobe’a were pastoralists of northeastern Ethiopia, based at Manadeley between Enderta and Lake Ashenge. Their communities were led by twenty-four chiefs, half of whom customarily waged war while the others kept peace.

During his reign from 1468 to 1478, Emperor Ba’eda Maryam broke their resistance, built a church and ordered many converts to settle and farm. In the 1520s Francisco Álvares still found Manadeley a thriving market, although drought and Emperor Lebna Dengel’s gold dues were impoverishing the region.