Gedeo people

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Gedeo
Total population
986,977 (2007 census)
Guji Oromo, Sidama, Welayta

The Gedeo are an ethnic group in southern

Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) is named for this people. They speak the Gedeo language, which is one of the Cushitic languages
.

Overview

According to the 2007 Ethiopian national census, this ethnic group has 986,977 members, of whom 75.05% live in the SNNPR and 24.84% in adjacent parts of the

Oromia Region. Almost one in sixteen—6.24% -- live in urban areas.[1]

Culture

The culture of the Gedeo is distinguished by two features. The first is the baalle, a tradition of ranks and age classes similar to the

Cushites.[4]

History

The origin of the Gedeo is not well known. Tadesse Kippie Kanshie mentions one story in which the Gedeo trace their origin to the aboriginal tribe called Murgga-Gosallo, perhaps the earliest people to have lived in the area.

exogamous.[5] To these seven clans specific roles were attributed, which meant only a given clan or sub-clan contributed members from its ranks for the role of leadership while other clans or sub-clans performed duties associated with ritual, traditional medicine, etc. Accordingly, the Aba Gada used to be chosen from the Logoda and Henbba'a clans.[8]

Incorporation into expanding Ethiopia empire in 1895 led to numerous social upheavals. In areas where the Gedeo "submitted peacefully" local administration was not disturbed, but in those that required military action, military governors ruled and at times became feudal lords. The incorporation seriously affected their socio-economic, political and cultural autonomy. For instance, the Gedeo were barred from using their baalle tradition in their day-to-day lives, except in religious rituals, leading to social disintegration, and loosened the social ties amongst the different tribes. Those who fought against the Ethiopian empire had their land confiscated and were reduced to

Ethiopian Church. The landlord also controlled the social life of a gabbar, requiring them to seek his permission before proposing a marriage for his children or to send his children to school.[5]

However, one authority holds that the greatest administrative action that changed the lives of the Gedeo was during the 1920s when measurement of land through qallad (a rope or leather thong about 66–67 meters long) was introduced. The process of measuring land brought many hitherto unoccupied lands, and formerly forested areas that had been under the control of the traditional authorities, into the hands of the national authorities. This forced the ordinary Gedeo to abandon their traditional lands where they grew ensete (as the landlords claimed rist and maderia rights over measured lands), and towards peripheral areas in search of unoccupied and forested lands. This migration led to assimilation of different clans, eliminated traditional no-man's zones and encouraged clearing of forested areas for the purposes of growing mixed coffee and ensete.[9]

Protestant missionaries arrived in the early 1950s. They established two churches, the Ethiopian Kalehiywot Church and Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekaneyesus. Of these, the Ethiopian Kalehiywot Church attracted the bulk of the Gedeo population and exerted a far-reaching influence. The missionaries found their evangelical work quite easy, for they had only to substitute the Christian God for the Mageno, the Supreme Being of the Gedeo. Moreover, before the Christian missionaries arrived there was virtually no formal education among the Gedeo. The handful of government schools were in the towns. The missionaries quickly identified this gap and used it to their advantage, establishing Bible and elementary schools. Gedeo were so eager to learn how to read and write, that elementary schools had to offer evening classes for the adults, lit by kerosene lamps. As Tadesse Kippie Kanshie writes, "These schools not only taught religious cadres but also cadres of change."[5]

The landlords, well aware of the consequences, were vehemently opposed to any education of the Gedeo, and worked against the efforts of the missionaries, by limiting their movement in the countryside in various ways. While the missionaries relied on the help of their converts to circumvent the effect of these limitations, the local elites also struck against them. Some, such as Murtti Obese, one of the first converts to evangelize to the Gedeo south of

Hagere Mariam woreda, and Tesfaye Argaw was murdered while on a similar mission in the lowlands.[5]

Related to this was the effort of the Gedeo to regain their lost rights. In the 1950s, Gedeo elders were selected and presented a petition to

agricultural collectivization on the Gedeo. In response, farmers clashed with government soldiers in 1981 near Rago-Qishsha.[5]

Politics

Besides the baalle system, before their conquest by the Ethiopian Empire in the 1890s, the Gedeo lived in a federation of three territories called Sasserogo, or "three Roga". These Roga, Sobbho, Ributa and Rikuta, shared one Aba Gada, which was similar to the Oromo office, and every eight years was passed to a new office holder in the next age set at a ceremony also known as baalle. According to Gedeo tradition, all leadership positions from Aba Gada at the top down to the office of Hyiticha were assumed at the baalle ceremony, while specific roles were held by specific clans or sub-clans.[8]

When boundary lines were drawn between the new SNNPR and Oromia administrative units during the

Wenago, was given to the SNNPR. The local Guji Oromo were dissatisfied with this arrangement, and unsuccessfully appealed the decision to the office of then Prime Minister. This led to violent clashes in Hagere Mariam woreda between the Guji and Gedeo in April–May 1995. The federal army attempted to intervene between the two to stop the fighting, but only succeeded in becoming the target of Guji militants.[12]

Gedeo-Oromo clashes

Main article:
Gedeo–Oromo clashes

Conflict between the

Guji Oromo and the Gedeo people in Gedeo Zone since 2018 led to Ethiopia having the largest number of people to flee their homes in the world in 2018, with 45000 newly displaced people.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b "Census 2007" Archived February 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, first draft, Table 5.
  2. G.W.B. Huntingford
    , Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1954), p. 210
  3. ^ Asebe Regassa Debel, "Ethnicity and inter-ethnic relations: The 'Ethiopian experiment' and the case of the Guji and Gedeo", Master's thesis in indigenous studies, University of Tromsø (2007), pp. 49f
  4. ^ Debelo, Asebe Regassa. Ethnicity and inter-ethnic relations. The ‘Ethiopian experiment’and the case of the Guji and Gedeo. MS thesis. Universitetet i Tromsø, 2007
  5. ^
    ISBN 90-804443-6-7
  6. ^ Asebe Regassa Debelo, "Ethnicity", p. 43
  7. ^ Asebe Regassa Debelo, "Ethnicity", p. 57
  8. ^ a b "Ethiopian Village Studies: Adado, Gedeo", CSAE: Ethiopian Village Studies, June 1996 (accessed 18 November 2009), p. 2
  9. ^ "Ethiopian Village Studies: Adado, Gedeo", p. 4
  10. ^ Asebe Regassa Debelo, "Ethnicity", p. 51
  11. ^ Asebe Regassa Debelo, "Ethnicity", p. 49
  12. ^ Asebe Regassa Debelo, "Ethnicity", pp. 73-78
  13. ^ "Ethiopia tops global list of highest internal displacement in 2018". Relief Web. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gedeo_people&oldid=1192140400"