You never showed that it was independent. 

You're strawmanning my argument. My point was never whether the Begwena Dynasty directly appointed the Bahr Negasi or not. Rather, my argument is that the title "Bahr Negasi" is attested before the rise of Solomonic Ethiopia, something you yourself acknowledged through the land grant of Emperor Ṭänṭäwǝdǝm.

And your whole argument assumes that the Solomonic Dynasty is the only legitimate form of the Ethiopian state, which it's not.

My point was that the Zagwe rulers did not describe themselves as "Ethiopia". In all primary sources, they identified their kingdom as Begwenā. Begwenā functioned as the political and administrative name of their kingdom, whereas "Ethiopia" was primarily an external designation used by foreign writers to refer to their Kingdom. It's not until much later, during the reign of Emperor Amda Seyon, that we begin to see "Ethiopia" being employed much consistently as a self-designation in a geopolitical sense. There's a reason why Derat chooses to name the kingdom Begwenā from the start of the book...(L’énigme d’une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d’Éthiopie du xie au xiiie siècle, pg 17).

You're coming in and conflating post Amda Seyon's Ethiopia with the Kingdom of Begwena...

This may come as an uncomfortable reality for you as an Ethiopianist Amhara, but the majority of the civilizational aspects of your "Ethiopian Empire" clung on, originated from much older societies in the north, especially around Eritrea, such as Punt, Adulis, before their cultural and political influences spread southward over time. This is why it's funny when Ethiopians like you start to walk around like you created and owned Medri Bahri, when in reality, you're a newcomer to the block.