The historical and language maps of Western Tigray speak for themselves, there is no need to "doctor" them – A rebuttal to Professors Shiferaw Bekele and Dagnachew Assefa (Addis Ababa University)

Two professors of Addis Ababa University (AAU) have stated that the maps produced in our publication “Western Tigray in 109 historical and 32 ethno-linguistic maps (1607-2014)” (Nyssen 2022) have been  “doctored”. On 13 April, the Andafta YouTube channel posted a video, which has received more than 100,000 views. It holds a one-hour interview with Professor Dagnachew Assefa, in Amharic. In the interview, Prof. Dagnachew brings up our work and quotes its evaluation by Prof. Shiferaw, an emeritus Professor of History at AAU: "For example, Professor Shiferaw Bekele told me there is one known professor who is insidious. He is called Professor Jan Nyssen, Ghent University, Belgium. This man takes maps, doctors them, changes them and changing some of the narratives, in a very careful manner. He [Professor Shiferaw] has sent me the maps, where he [JN] has changed them, he [JN] is doing his work." Hence, the conclusion of the work, i.e., that the claims of long-standing Amhara dominance over Western Tigray (Welkait and surrounding districts) are not supported by historical facts, would be based on “doctored” maps. Let us see the accusation in detail and revisit the historical maps.