Gurage people: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 11: | Line 11: | ||
}} |
}} |
||
'''Gurague''' is an [[ethnic group]] in [[Ethiopia]]. According to the 2007 national census, its population is 1,867,377 people (or 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia), of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers. This is 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia, or 7.52% of the [[Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region]] (SNNPR).<ref name=2007-census>[http://www.csa.gov.et/pdf/Cen2007_firstdraft.pdf "Census 2007"], first draft, Table 5.</ref> The Gurague people inhabit a fertile, semi-mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia, about 150 miles southwest of [[Addis Ababa], bordering the [[Awash River]] in the north, the [[Gibe River]] (a tributary of the [[Omo River|Omo]]) to the southwest, and |
'''Gurague''' is an [[ethnic group]] in [[Ethiopia]]. According to the 2007 national census, its population is 1,867,377 people (or 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia), of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers. This is 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia, or 7.52% of the [[Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region]] (SNNPR).<ref name=2007-census>[http://www.csa.gov.et/pdf/Cen2007_firstdraft.pdf "Census 2007"], first draft, Table 5.</ref> The Gurague people inhabit a fertile, semi-mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia, about 150 miles southwest of [[Addis Ababa], bordering the [[Awash River]] in the north, the [[Gibe River]] (a tributary of the [[Omo River|Omo]]) to the southwest, and [Lake Zway]] in the east. The Gurague nation consists three dialectically varied subgroups, Northern, Eastern and Western, but the largest group within the Eastern subgroup, known as the [[Silte people|Silt'e]], voted unanimously in 2000 to abandon Gurague identity because of it's islamic culture and was granted a separate special administrative unit within SNNPR by the EPRDF government.<ref>Vaughan, Sarah. [http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/605/2/vaughanphd.pdf ''Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia'' (Chapter 7)]. PhD Dissertation. Edinburgh, Scotland: University of Edinburgh, 2003.</ref> |
||
==Description== |
==Description== |
||
Revision as of 19:06, 19 June 2011
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Languages | |
| Gurague language, Amharic | |
| Religion | |
| Islam, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Amhara • Oromo • Somali • Tigray • Tigre |
Gurague is an ethnic group in Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, its population is 1,867,377 people (or 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia), of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers. This is 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia, or 7.52% of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR).[1] The Gurague people inhabit a fertile, semi-mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia, about 150 miles southwest of [[Addis Ababa], bordering the Awash River in the north, the Gibe River (a tributary of the Omo) to the southwest, and [Lake Zway]] in the east. The Gurague nation consists three dialectically varied subgroups, Northern, Eastern and Western, but the largest group within the Eastern subgroup, known as the Silt'e, voted unanimously in 2000 to abandon Gurague identity because of it's islamic culture and was granted a separate special administrative unit within SNNPR by the EPRDF government.[2]
Description
According to the historian Paul B. Henze, their origins are explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Aksumite Empire, which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other.[3]
The Gurague languages do not constitute a coherent linguistic grouping, rather, the term is both linguistic and cultural. The Gurage people speak a number of separate languages, all belonging to the Southern branch of the Ethiopian Semitic language family (which also includes Amharic). The languages are often referred to collectively as "Guraginya" by other Ethiopians (-inya is the Amharic suffix for most Ethiopian Semitic languages).
Gurague, also known as Guragie or ጉራጌ, is written with the Ethiopic alphabet. The Gurage subset of Ethiopic has 44 independent glyphs.
There is no general agreement on how many languages or dialects there are, in particular within the West Gurage grouping.
The following are listed as separate languages by Ethnologue: Soddo (Kistane), Inor, Mesqan, Mesmes, Silt'e (not strictly speaking a Gurague language since the people do not consider themselves Gurague), Zay, and Sebat Bet Gurague. Sebat Bet (or Sebat Beit), in particular, is best understood as a grouping in itself; the term means literally "Seven Houses," and refers to seven specific Western Gurague groups and lects. Silt'e is more closely related to Amharic than it is to Soddo.
As the Gurague people are surrounded by speakers of Cushitic languages, these languages have influenced the Gurague languages perhaps even more than they have other Ethiopian Semitic languages. For example, the East Gurague languages have a ten-vowel system characteristic of the neighboring Cushitic languages rather than the seven-vowel system common to most other Ethiopian Semitic languages, including the West Gurague languages.
Over 50 % of the Gurague claim allegiance to Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, an Oriental Orthodox church related to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and another 40 % are adherents of Islam.[citation needed]
According to the 1994 Ethiopian census, self-identifying Gurague comprise about 4.3 % of Ethiopia's population, or about 3 million people.[4]
The Gurage live a sedentary life based on agriculture, involving a complex system of crop rotation and transplanting. Ensete is their main staple crop, but other cash crops are grown, which include coffee and chat. Animal husbandry is practiced, but mainly for milk supply and dung. Other foods consumed include green cabbage, cheese, butter, and roasted grains, with meat consumption being very limited (also used in rituals or ceremonies).
The Gurage, the writer Nega Mezlekia notes, "have earned a reputation as skilled traders".[5] One example of an enterprising Gurage is one Tekke, whom Nathaniel T. Kenney described as "an Ethiopian Horatio Alger, Jr.":
- he began his career selling old bottles and tin cans; the Emperor [Haile Selassie] recently rewarded his achievement in creating his plantation by calling him to Addis Ababa and decorating him.[6]
Notable Gurage
- Berhane Mariam Sahle Sellassie, author of Shinega's Village(in Chaha dialect using Roman alphabets), The Afersata, the Warrior King, Firebrands in English. Sectarianist, he worked hard to teach the world how much he hates Gurague Muslims. Beshir, the criminal character he created in The Afersata is arson suspect.
- Professor Berhanu Abegaz, a chemist specializing in medicinal plants, William and Mary College, USA; the founder of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia, and the AAU and University of Botswna postgraduate degree programs in chemistry.[7]
- Dr. Berhanu Nega, PhD in economics; elected mayor of Addis Ababa
- Degif Petros Banksira, a Semitic languages professor at MIT and author of, The Morphology of Chaha. His mathematical methods to study linguistics as regards to Chaha is praised, therefore new approach to study Ethiopian semitic languages.[8]
- Abba (Father) François Markos, Catholic priest, social worker, and educator[9]
- Mahmoud Ahmed, singer
- Dr. Yacob Haile-Mariam - NSU professor of Business Law, former Senior Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
- Gebreyesus HaileMariam - author of Gurague and Their Culture
See also
Notes
- ^ a b "Census 2007", first draft, Table 5.
- ^ Vaughan, Sarah. Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia (Chapter 7). PhD Dissertation. Edinburgh, Scotland: University of Edinburgh, 2003.
- ^ Henze, Layers of Time (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 112.
- ^ Ethiopia: A Model Nation of Minorities (accessed 6 April 2006)
- ^ Nega Mezlekia, Notes from the Hyena's Belly (New York: Picador, 2000), p. 227.
- ^ Kenney, "Ethiopian Adventure", National Geographic, 127 (1965), p. 582.
- ^ http://www.arkat-usa.org/get-file/23171/
- ^ Book review
- ^ Ato Assegid Negash. "François Markos". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
References
- Shack, William, 1966: The Gurage. A People of the Ensete Culture, London – New York – Nairobi: Oxford University Press.
- Shack, William,1997: "Hunger, Anxiety, and Ritual: Deprivation and Spirit Possession among the Gurage of Ethiopia" in Food and Culture: A Reader (pp. 125–137). Ed. Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik. New York: Routledge.
- Worku Nida 2005: "Gurage ethno-historical survey". In: Siegbert Uhlig (ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Vol. 2: D-Ha. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 929-935.