The Plant-Eating Hermit and the Fall of Ras Mikael Sehul: An 18th-Century Ethiopian Deep Cut

TL;DR:

In the crowded, violent theater of 18th-century Ethiopian politics, a single obscure act of religious theater changed the course of a civil war. The episode — a holy man from the valley of Waldubba confronting Ras Mikael Sehul with a prophecy that compelled the warlord into a disastrous field campaign — is recorded in James Bruce’s monumental Trav…