In Ethiopia, individuals who started as shifta have risen to the level of warlord or Emperor thus legitimizing the concept of shifta itself. Two nineteenth-century shiftas, Kassa Hailu[8] of Gondar and Kassai Mircha of Tigray, became respectively, Emperor Tewodros and Emperor Yohannes in the later 19th century. Thus the shiftas formed the military elite and became the core of the resistance, using their military skills against the Italians.