Sidama people
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The Sidama (Ethiopic: ሲዳማ) people of southern Ethiopia are an ethnic group whose homeland is in the Sidama Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia. They number 2,966,474 (4.01% of the population) of whom 149,480 are urban inhabitants, the fifth most populous nation in Ethiopia. [1]
Their language is called Sidaamu-afoo. A majority of the Sidama people practice native African religions. It was only in the 1960s that European missionaries came to their region, and very few embrace Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, so less than half of them are Christian. Only a small fraction of the population are Muslim.[2]
The Sidama preserved their cultural heritage, including their traditional religion and language until the late 1880s during the conquest by the Oromo kingdoms and later by Emperor Menelik II.[2] Before this, the Sidama had their own well-established administrative systems that dated at least to the 9th century, though it was made up of a loose coalition of Sidama kingdoms. These kingdoms extended into the Gibe region. As a result of marginalization and since the language does not have its own alphabet, very little has been written on Sidama issues. Many were not able to attend school until after the Derge regime came to power in 1975.
Today, the Sidama area has only a small number of schools, and inadequate health services, though primary education has increased recently.[3] Some Sidama politicians have complained that Sidama doesn't have regional autonomy in the country and asked for the government to give the Sidama people their own region. However, with the SNNPR being a condensed region with the most ethnic groups concentrated in a small territory, carving out boundaries that historically never existed and are often violently disputed between ethnicities in order to give autonomy to the more than 40 ethnic groups is virtually impossible.
Nearly 95% of the Sidama live a life centered around agriculture. An important staple food is the wesse plant, or Ensete. Other crops are also grown and they breed cattle. Perhaps the most important source of income is coffee, and the area is a major contributor to Coffee production in Ethiopia, producing a high percentage of export coffee for the central government, second only to the Oromia region. The Sidama farmers have been affected by hunger caused by declining world market prices for coffee, despite supplying the popular coffee chain Starbuck's with the majority of their coffee products from the region. (coffee crisis according to the pretext of the central government)[4].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Census 2007", first draft, Table 5
- ^ a b S. Y. Hameso, Trevor Trueman, Temesgen M. Erena 1997
- ^ "Primary education in Ethiopia", Jimma Times
- ^ Jean Ziegler, The empire of shame
