Ethiopia has over 80 ethnic groups and approximately 30 million sheep, one of the largest populations in Africa. The country has more than fourteen local sheep breeds, with several producing wool suitable for textile applications. The indigenous wool-producing breeds include Washera, Menz, Farta, Tikur, and Wollo.

The Bernos is a traditional dark wool cloak worn by Amhara men in the Ethiopian highlands. It has a large point on one side of the shoulder designed to keep a rifle in place. Wealthier men of Menz wore it as a sign of status. Today it is worn during traditional ceremonies and special occasions. The Gabi is a thicker, warm garment made from four layers of fabric, worn by both men and women, mainly by the Amhara in cold high-altitude regions. Clergy and elderly people wear it frequently. Amhara women spin the yarn together and present the finished Gabis as gifts to their husbands.

Ethiopian wool fibre from indigenous breeds has been studied by Ethiopian researchers. Liyew and Adamu (2023) found that the wool fibre from Washera, Menz, Farta, and Tikur breeds has good fibre yield and moisture regain properties, making it suitable for manufacturing wool products including rugs, socks, sweaters, quilts, and mattresses. The wool fibre yield for Washera males was 89.29 percent. For Menz males it was 88.29 percent. For Farta males it was 73.33 percent. For Tikur males it was 81.74 percent.

Sitotaw, Woldemariam, and Tesema (2020) investigated the physical properties of wool fibre from Menz, Wollo, Farta, and Tikur breeds. The results revealed that these properties are significantly different from each other. The wool fibre from Ethiopian sheep breeds is suitable for textile production and should be classified based on breed for different textile applications. Sitotaw, Tesema, and Woldemariam (2021) found that fineness and strength of wool fibres varied significantly within each breed and among breeds. Ethiopian sheep wool fibre is suitable for numerous types of classical and technical applications, including suits, blankets, shirts, and carpets.

The rinderpest virus entered Ethiopia in 1887 after Italian forces landed in Eritrea with infected Indian cattle. The virus spread through the northern provinces of Tigray and Shewa before moving south. It killed approximately 90 percent of the country's cattle population and decimated wild buffalo, antelopes, and giraffes. The sources confirm that sheep and goats died in massive numbers as well.

An estimated one third of the Ethiopian population died from starvation following the loss of livestock. The rinderpest virus does not infect humans. The people starved because their cattle died, their sheep died, their goats died. The oxen that pulled ploughs were gone. The animals that fertilized crops with dung were gone. The food supply collapsed.

An Ethiopian poem from the 1890s documents the devastation. The poet writes: "I came from there to here without seeing an ox." The line has a double meaning: "I came from there to here over dead bodies." Families sold their children into slavery. Smallpox broke out. Starving people ate the skins of decomposed cattle, then leaves and roots, then animal dung. Lions, leopards, and hyenas began attacking and killing people in broad daylight.

The Borana people of southern Ethiopia call the rinderpest pandemic ciinna tiittee guuracha — "the extermination of cattle whose corpses were covered by swarms of black flies." For the Borana, whose economy was based entirely on cattle, the pandemic was "the worst time in Borana history, which we do not want to be reminded of, but which we also cannot forget."

After the conquest of Ethiopia in 1935, the Italian fascist government planned a "demographic colonization" of the country. Haile M. Larebo, an Ethiopian scholar, has documented this extensively. The fascist objective was to divert Italian migration from the Americas to the newly conquered Ethiopia. This would solve Italy's "surplus population" problem while providing cheap materials for Italian industry and a protected market for Italian products.

Mussolini boasted that Italy had finally joined the ranks of the "satisfied" nations and had "at last got an empire of her own." Fascist leaders spoke of moving 6,250,000 Italians within a short period. Marshal Pietro Badoglio declared it was "not an exaggeration" to envisage the shipment of one million settlers within a year. Haile Selassie's private estates were confiscated for the establishment of agricultural colonies. Black Shirts remaining in Abyssinia were to be the first colonists.

The Italians introduced the rinderpest. The rinderpest killed the cattle, the sheep, the goats. The famine killed an estimated one third of the Ethiopian population. The Italians then planned to move their own settlers into the depopulated land. Mussolini's government confiscated Haile Selassie's private estates for agricultural colonies. Black Shirts were designated as the first colonists. The disease cleared the land. The settlers were meant to take it.

The plan failed. By June 1940, no more than 400 peasants had settled in Ethiopia. Only about 150 had brought their families. When the British forces came to the aid of Ethiopian patriots, Mussolini's East African empire crumbled in less than three months. The settlers abandoned their farms and were repatriated to Italy as paupers. The land remained Ethiopian. The sheep remained Ethiopian. The wool remained Ethiopian.

Ethiopia's textile industry did not collapse. It redesigned itself. The Gabi and the Bernos are still worn. The wool from indigenous sheep is still processed by small-scale enterprises into rugs, socks, sweaters, quilts, and mattresses. The Lemlem project, founded by supermodel Liya Kebede, trains women weavers and produces hand-woven garments for international markets. The wool is grown in Australia, spun in Italy, and woven in Ethiopia. This is not ideal. But it is not extinction.

The Ethiopian government's industrial strategy focuses on cotton, not wool. The industrial parks are built for foreign investors to process cotton for export. The wool sector receives little attention. The Gabi and the Bernos survive without government support. They survive because Ethiopians still wear them. They survive because the women who weave them still teach their daughters. The industry is not dead. It is ignored by policy but alive by choice.

The Macina sheep is an indigenous breed from the Inland Delta of central Mali. It is raised by the Fulani people. The breed produces wool. The Inland Delta of Mali is the only area in Sub-Saharan Africa where wool is traditionally produced on a significant scale.

The wool is traditionally woven into specific categories of textiles. The Niger Bend region spanning Mali and Niger was "the foremost center of technical and visual diversity in West African treadle-loom weaving traditions." The primary wool textiles include the Kaasa, a heavy wool cover that changed significantly in appearance over the 20th century, and the Arkilla, a ceremonial marriage cover that maintained the same design for centuries. Other products include Mopti blankets, carpets, tweed, and felt.

The textile system is intimately linked to the Fulani people who own the sheep. The knowledge is encoded in animal husbandry, material practice, and visual language simultaneously. The Fulani consider wool production important enough that castrated males contribute significantly to their flock numbers.

The rinderpest virus reached the Senegal River by 1891, sweeping through the Sahel corridor that includes the Inland Delta of Mali. The impact on the Macina sheep population specifically is not quantified in the available sources. The broader Sahelian pastoral systems collapsed. The virus was not an act of God. It was an act of war. The Italian army imported infected cattle to feed its campaign against Ethiopia. The virus escaped. It spread across the continent. The Macina sheep were part of that destruction.

The French colonial administration launched specific interventions between the 1920s and 1940s to industrialise the Macina sheep. Wilson's 1981 analysis in the journal Textile History outlines these attempts. The French sought to upgrade local Macina sheep for increased wool production by selection or cross-breeding with Merinos. They attempted to increase goat wool production by crossing imported Angora goats with local goats. They tried to increase pelt production by crossing the local long-haired Black Moor sheep with Karakul (Bokhara) sheep.

A French veterinary student named Georges Hugaud submitted a 1934 thesis titled "Le mouton du Macina, son amélioration en vue de la production lainière" (The Macina Sheep, Its Improvement for Wool Production). The thesis proposed methods for increasing wool yield through cross-breeding with European Merinos.

The attempts failed. The Merino, bred for European climates and intensive management, could not tolerate the environmental conditions of the Inland Delta. The Fulani traditional system of pastoral management did not conform to the industrial model the French attempted to impose.

The French left. The Macina sheep remained. The wool is still woven into Kaasa and Arkilla by Fulani weavers. The garments are still produced, not at industrial levels, but at the level of community, tradition, and survival. The French industrial model failed. The Fulani knowledge system did not.

Today, no industrialisation of Macina sheep wool exists in Mali or Niger. The government strategy in Niger focuses exclusively on meat and live animal exports, not wool processing. The cotton industry dominates the textile sector in both countries. The wool sector receives no policy attention. The Kaasa and Arkilla continue to be woven because the Fulani have not stopped. The industry is not dead. It is ignored by policy but alive by choice.

The Macina sheep population was estimated at 1 million head in 1947, which grew to 2 million by 1985. The most recent available data for Macina sheep in Mali is from 2015, showing a population of 2.9 million head. The sheep recovered. The weavers continued. The wool is still there. The knowledge is still there. The garments are still there.

References

· Liyew, E.Z. & Adamu, B.F. (2023). Wool fiber yield and moisture regain of four Ethiopian sheep breeds. Tropical Animal Health and Production.
· Sitotaw, D.B., Woldemariam, A.H., & Tesema, A.F. (2020). Physical properties of wool fiber from four Ethiopian indigenous sheep breeds. The Journal of The Textile Institute.
· Sitotaw, D.B., Tesema, A.F., & Woldemariam, A.H. (2021). Investigation of wool fiber fineness and strength from pure and cross-breed sheep. Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics.
· Larebo, Haile M. The Building of an Empire: Italian Land Policy and Practice in Ethiopia, 1935-1941.
· Tiki, Waktole & Oba, Gufu. (2009). Ciinna-the Borana Oromo narration of the 1890s Great Rinderpest epizootic. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 3(3), 479-508.
· Wilson, R.T. (1981). Livestock production in central Mali: Attempts to produce raw materials of animal origin for the French textile industry during the colonial period. Textile History, 12, 104-117.
· Gardi, Bernhard and Gilbert, Michelle. (2021). Arkilla, Kaasa, and Nsaa: The Many Influences of Wool Textiles from the Niger Bend in West Africa. The Textile Museum Journal, 48, 24-53.
· Slow Food Foundation. Mouton de Macina - Arca del Gusto.
· Statistic (2025). Niger Sheep Market Report 2026.
· Agriculture and Market News Service (Niger). (2021). Recensement National du Cheptel. Republic of Niger.