Sidamo (province)

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Map of the provinces in Ethiopia; to the south was Sidamo

Sidamo ( Amharic ሲዳሞ , or Sidama ) was a province in the southernmost part of Ethiopia . Their capital was Yirgalem or after 1978 Awassa .

It was named after the Sidamo or Sidama ethnic group in southern central Ethiopia. Before it was incorporated into the Abyssinian Empire , the Kaffa Kingdom was the largest political state that ruled the region.

After decades of political division, Sidamo Province was surrounded by Gamu-Gofa to the west, Shewa to the north, and Hararghe Province (later Bale ) to the north and east . A small strip of land in the south-east of the province bordered the colony of Italian Somaliland , and on the southern border of Sidamo was British East Africa (later Kenya ).

history

The province of Sidamo generated substantial income from extensive coffee cultivation . Therefore, power was handed over to noblemen who were loyal to the emperor, including Dejazmach Balcha Safo , who ruled the area several times before the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1936–1941 .

After the end of the Italian occupation, the provinces of Borana and Wolayta - named after the Borana ethnic groups - Oromo and Wolaytta - were annexed to Sidamo. This was part of the general reorganization that Emperor Haile Selassie I undertook after his return from exile.

In 1960 there was a revolt of the Gedeo in Sidamo , who turned against the reorganization of the tax system and described it as repressive. The revolt was brutally suppressed. The rebellious peasants were mostly only equipped with spears and swords and met well-equipped sovereigns and government troops. The Gedeo rebels were defeated in several attempts; an arbitration commission headed by Afa Negus Eshate Gada not only blamed the sovereigns, but also fined the Gedeo elders - who had led the revolt.

In the Ogaden War of 1977/78 Somali troops advanced to the south-east of Sidamo, which they claimed as part of "West Somalia" and wanted to join a Greater Somalia .

Division after 1991

With the ethnically -föderalistischen reorganization of administrative divisions of Ethiopia after 1991 the northwestern part was of Sidamo the Southern Nations allocated (SNNPR), while the largest, inhabited by Borana and other Oromo groups of the province part of Oromia was .

The current Sidama Zone in the SNNPR covers only a small part of the area of ​​the former province. Another part within the SNNPR today is the Gedeo Zone . The areas belonging to Oromia became the Borena zone there ; According to some sources, part of it has since become a separate zone as the Guji Zone , named after the Guji-Oromo .

A small part in the extreme southeast of the former province, according to some reports, became part of the Liben zone of the Somali region . This area continues to be disputed between Oromia and Somali.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia , second edition (London: James Currey, 2001), pp. 129, 133.
  2. ^ Paul B. Henze: Layers of Time (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 237f.
  3. ^ Bahru Zewde, A History , page 218.
  4. ^ Gebru Tareke: The Ethiopia-Somalia War of 1977 Revisited , in: International Journal of African Historical Studies 33, 2002