Gedeo (people)

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The Gedeo are an ethnic group that lives predominantly in southwest Ethiopia in the Gedeo Zone of the region of the southern nations, nationalities and peoples . According to the 2007 census, there are 986,977 Gedeo in Ethiopia. They speak the Gedeo language , which belongs to the Kushitic branch of the Afro-Asian languages .

history

The history of the Gedeo is closely linked to that of the Oromo , especially the Guji-Oromo . With the Guji-Oromo they are also said to share the common tribal father. The Gedeo people, like other peoples of southern Ethiopia, were peacefully brought under the control of Menelik II . However, they later suffered from settlers from the northern regions of Ethiopia who took their land. The climax of the reaction to northern rule was in 1960 when the farmers of Gedeo rebelled against the government, killing hundreds of settlers. However, the uprising was suppressed by the hard hand of Haile Selassie's government .

Ethnic conflicts between the Guji-Oromo and the Gedeo in the Gedeo zone since 2018 resulted in Ethiopia registering 1.4 million newly displaced people in 2018.

Culture

The Gedeo culture is characterized by two characteristics. The first is the Baalle , a tradition of ranks and ages similar to the Oromo Gadaa . The system consists of seven classes that extend over a period of 10 years and form a 70-year cycle. It is believed that the Gedeo acquired the practice from the Guji-Oromo, with whom they historically had a close relationship. On the other hand, their agriculture is based on the cultivation of Ensete , as are their neighbors, the Sidama , whose language is closely related to theirs .

religion

The majority of the Gedeo are Christians. There are also Muslims and followers of other religions among them.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eshettu Tesfaye Retta: History From Below: Politics of Resistance Among Gedeo during Imperial Ethiopia, 1958-1960 . In: Global Journal of Human-Social Science Research . November 20, 2019, ISSN  2249-460X ( socialscienceresearch.org [accessed August 4, 2020]).
  2. ↑ Ethiopia tops global list of highest internal displacement in 2018 - Ethiopia. Retrieved on August 4, 2020 .
  3. ^ CF Beckingham and GWB Huntingford, Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1954), p. 210
  4. ↑ 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