Unit two

Peoples and Cultures in Ethiopia and the Horn

Asfaw Kasa (PhD)
Academic Year 2023
 Unit Learning Objectives
• Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able
to
• Identify pieces of evidence for Ethiopia and the Horn as a
cradle of mankind
• Explain neolithic revolutionary changes in Ethiopia and the
Horn
• Spell out settlement patterns and economic formations of the
peoples of the region
• Describe religion and religious processes
t
• Who are we? Why are we here?
• Where did we come from? What is our place in the universe?

• What is the purpose of our lives? Is there a purpose to our

lives?
• What happens aftter death?
• Which region is considered the cradle of mankind?
• What is the marked difference between revolution and
evolution?
 Human Evolution

How do you think human beings came to being?

The cradle of mankind (Ethiopia and the region of the Horn)
Early civilizations such as food production, making tools, religion
These developments contributed to social evolution, economic
formation, socio-cultural and political settings
Human evolution is a fraction of history (gradual and natural
process, 4.5 billion b.p.)
 Cont…

• Between 3 and 1 billion years b.p., the earliest life appeared

• (Blue green algae, small plants, fishes, birds, small beings)

• Primates branched 800million b.p., some primates (pongidae)
• Others developed into hominidae (human ancestors)

• East African Rift Valley (Humanity)

• The discovery of biological and cultural evolutions (Lower
Ommo and Middle Awash)
 Cont…

• These evidences were discovered by Ethiopian and foreign

scholars.
• Chororapithecus was the name of fossil discovered at Anchar,
10 million b.p.
• Ardipithicus ramiduskadabba(5.8-5.2 million b.p.)

• Ardipithicus ramidus (4.2 million b.p)

• Other Australopithecines discovered at Belohdelie (3.6 million
b.p.)Australopithecusafarensis (3.3 million b.p.)
 Cont…

• Australopithecus Afarensis (Lucy, Dinkinesh) dated 3.18

million b.p., Australopithecus Anamensis discovered at Lake
Turukana, Australopithecus Garhi dated 2.5 million b.p.
discovered at Bouri, Genus Homo emerged around 2-2.5
million b.p
• The development of human brain became the main feature of
genus homo
 Cont…

• Evidences of Genus Homo discovered in Ethiopia and the

Horn, Homo Habilis 1.9 million b.p. (Lower Omo)
• Homo Erectus 1.6 million b.p (Melka-Kunture, Konso Gardula
and Gadeb), Africa, the homeland of Homo Erectus and spread
into the rest of the world)
• Homo Sapiens (knowledgeable human beings) two forms of
Homo Sapiens
 Cont…

• Archaic 400,000 years b.p. and Sapiens 100,000 b.p.)

• Fossils discovered at Kibish Lower Omo are the oldest
modern Homo Sapiens (195,000 b.p.
• Homo Sapiens idaltu (160,000 b.p.
• Cultural evolution (technological changestransformed socio-
economic transformation on human lives)
 Cont…

• Stone age, Bronze age, and Iron age

• Stone tools (the first human tools)
• Three modes of stone tools named after the name of their
discovered place
• Olduwan, Achulean, Sangoon

• Mode 1 (crude, mono-facial, direct percussion)

 Cont…

• Mode 2 (bifacial, pointed, convex features, indirect

percussion)
• Mode 3 (flexible, finest form of production by the use of
obsidian). Examples of these stone tools were discovered in
Ethiopia and the Horn.
• Fossilized animal bones dated 3.4 million b.p.
 Cont…

• The oldest evidence of stone tools in the world

• At Dikika in 2010, the discovery of artifacts suggest that
Olduwan tools
• Made and used by Homo habilis dated 2.52 million years b.p
discovered near Gona and at Shungura in Afar
• Homo erectus used Acheulean tools dated 1.7 million years
b.p
 Cont…

• The invention of fire and the beginning of burial practices by

Homo erectus, Acheulian tools discovered at Kella in Middle
Awash, aged over a million years old
• Sangoon tools were produced by Homo sapiens dated back
300,000years b.p
• Discovered at Gademotta in central Ethiopian Rift valley
• Dated back 200,000 years b.p
 Cont…

• Other sites include Gorgora, Ki’one, Yabello in Ethiopia, and

Midhidhishi and Gudgud in Somalia
• The subdivisions of use of stone tools include
• The Paleolithic, the mesolithic, and and the neolithic
• The old stone age between 3.4 million years and 11,000 b.p

• Developed language, used caves as shelter made up of stone,

wood, bone, furs
 Cont…

• Prepare food and clothing using skin materials

• Sex-age based division of labor, able-bodied male as hunters
of fauna, children and women as gathers of flora
• The middle stone dated back between 11,0000 and 10,000 b.p
• It was transitional period between Paleolithic and neolithic
stone ages
• The new stone age dated back between 10,000 and 6,000 b.p
 Neolithic Revolution

• The new stone age was the period of

• The transformation of human beings into seddentary life
• The domestication of plants and animals
• Teff, Dagussa, Nug, Inset, etc.

• Cultural evolution includes polished axes,

• Grinding stones ceramics, beads, stone figures
 Cont…

• And animal remains in sites including Emba-fakeda, Aqordat

and Barentu in Eritrea,
• The Gobodara provided us agricultural stone tools
• Around Lalibela, domesticated cattle, chickpeas, vegetables

• Stone tools for cutting grasses, domesticated animals at Laga

Oda near Chercher
• Domesticated cattle at lake Basaka near Matahara,
 Cont…

• Other sites for domestication of animals outside Ethiopia and

Horn include
• Playa napata and Kado in the Sudan, Cyrenaica in Libya,
Futajalon in West africa
• Nidamawa and Zebu cattle in due course expanded into
Ethiopia and the Horn
 The Peopling of the Region

• Marked by ethnic and linguistic diversities 90 languages and

200 dialects
• Two language super families of Ethiopia and the Horn
• The Afro-Asiatic and the Nilo-Saharan; the Afro-Asiatic super
family further subdivided into
• Cushitic, Semitic, and Omotic.
 Cont…

• Four branches of Cushitic including

• Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southern
• Two branches of Semitic such as north and south further
divided into two
• S Transverse and S Outer

• The Nilo-Saharan super family

 Factors affecting language classification

• Classification is not static, factors including

• Population movement, war fare, trade religion processes
• Territorial expansion, urbanization, etc
• Death of language and in danger of extinction are problems
• Settlement pattern (the distribution of people across the landscape)
• Settlement in northeast Africa can be dense and sparse (extensive
highlands and lowlands)
• Environmental, socio-economic and political processes
 Cont…

• Shaped and reshaped the spatial distribution of peoples in the

region
• The Cushitic and Semitic people had inhabited the area between the
Red Sea in the east and Blue Nile in the west since early times
• They dispersed to different directions
• The Cushites evolved to be the largest lingustic group in Ethiopia
and the Horn and spread over wide areas from Sudan to Tanzania
 Cont…

• The semitic people settled north, north central, northeastern,

south central and eastern parts of Ethiopia.
• The majority of omotic people have inhabited southwestern
part of Ethiopia along Omo river basin.
• The Nilots are largely settled (the Ethiopian Sudanese border)
• The Chari-Nile family inhabited as far as southern Omo.
 Economic Formation

• Two forms of livelihood (agriculture and pasturalism)

• What factors affected economic activities of Ethiopia and the
Horn? (topographic features and climatic conditions)
• The Eastern lowland region is characterized by pasturalism.
• Which people mostly practice pasturalismin Ethiopia and the
Horn? Mixed farming is the livelihood of the majority of
population of the region
 Cont…

• Sedentary agriculture started since 10,000 among the Cushites,

semites, and omotic.
• Omotic people of north of Omo practiced mixed farming and
trade and Omotic people of southern Omo practiced
pasturalism and fishing
• Metallurgy and weaving are famous among many omotic
groups
 Cont…

• In the western lowlands, pasturalism, hunting, shifting

agriculture, and fishing.
• Along Ethio-Sudanese border, sorghum, millet, cotton and
others have been cultivated.
• Cattle have high economic and social value maong the Nilotic
people. Berta and other Nilots practiced trade and social
contacts with northern Sudan
 Religion and religious Processes
• Four forms of religious practices in Ethiopia and the Horn

• Indigenous religion, Judaism, christianity,and islam

• Indigenous religion includes a variety of religious beliefs and

practices, native to the local people and practiced since ancient times

• One supreme being is the distinctive mark of indigenous religion.

• Special powers have attributed to natural phenomenon (sacred).

 Cont…

• Spiritual functionaries
• Preside over rituals, soothe divinities, are held in a lot of
respect, and considered as intermediaries between society and
spirits.
• What is Waqeffanna? Based on The existence of one supreme
being called waqa.
• Ayyana is the spirit through which the power of Waqa is
manifested.
 Cont…

• Oromo’s thanks-giving festival is known as Irrecha.

• Birbo is a new year of Oromos, Revered oromo experts who
have the power to maintain link between Ayyana and believers.
• Qallu male and Qallitti female, Galma the ritual house of Qallu.
• Senior Qallu is called Abba Muda to which pilgrimage is made
• The pilgrimage is made by Jila or makkala to get consecration
 Indigenous Religion among Hadiya People
• The supreme being among Hadiya people is Waa. The Hadiya
clan who has the power to send rain in times of drought is
worqimene.
• Boyamo (father of five Hadiya clans), Itto or Albaja from
bimado (spiritual leaders)
• These beliefs are followed largely by inhabitants of Boshana
and Misha.
• The sky God of Kambata people (Negitaor Aricho/magano)
 Cont…

• Religious leaders are known as Magnancho in Kambata.

• Mageno, supreme being of Gedeo people and their thanks-
giving ceremony called deraro.
• Waaq/waqh, worship of Konso religion, Diban, (sky God)
supreme being of Agaw of Gojjam
• Waq/Goita, supreme deity of sections of Gurage.
 Cont…

• Bozha, thunder God, Damwawit, health godess

• The common deity of Gurage and Yem is called Abba at Enar
(Henar)
• The sky God of Yem called Ha’o.
• So’ala clan, top in religious duties and in charge of the most
important deity called Shashokam.
 Cont…

• The couriers of religious function in each village called

Magos.
• Docho, the spirit-cult of Kontas
• Toso, God of Walayta
• Mitta, the sacred place where annual worship of spirits
performed (at the end of may and beginning of june)
• The time when the first fruit, teramo/Pageta/Dubusha offered