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Ethiopia Oromo Migrations and Their Impact
In the mid-sixteenth century, its political and military
organization already weakened by the Muslim assault, the
Christian kingdom began to be pressured on the south and
southeast by movements of the Oromo (called Galla by the
Amhara). These migrations also affected the Sidama, Muslim
pastoralists in the lowlands, and Adal. At this time, the
Oromo, settled in far southern Ethiopia, were an egalitarian
pastoral people divided into a number of competing segments
or groups but sharing a type of
age-set
system (see
Glossary) of social organization called the
gada
system (see
Glossary), which was ideally suited for warfare. Their
predilection toward warfare, apparently combined with an
expanding population of both people and cattle, led to a
long-term predatory expansion at the expense of their
neighbors after about 1550. Unlike the highland Christians
or on occasion the lowland Muslims, the Oromo were not
concerned with establishing an empire or imposing a
religious system. In a series of massive but uncoordinated
movements during the second half of the sixteenth century,
they penetrated much of the southern and northern highlands
as well as the lowlands to the east, affecting Christians
and Muslims equally.
These migrations also profoundly affected the Oromo.
Disunited in the extreme, they attacked and raided each
other as readily as neighboring peoples in their quest for
new land and pastures. As they moved farther from their
homeland and encountered new physical and human
environments, entire segments of the Oromo population
adapted by changing their mode of economic life, their
political and social organization, and their religious
adherence. Many mixed with the Amhara (particularly in
Shewa), became Christians, and eventually obtained a share
in governing the kingdom. In some cases, royal family
members came from the union of Amhara and Oromo elements. In
other cases, Oromo, without losing their identity, became
part of the nobility. But no matter how much they changed,
Oromo groups generally retained their language and sense of
local identity. So differentiated and dispersed had they
become, however, that few foreign observers recognized the
Oromo as a distinct people until the twentieth century.
In a more immediate sense, the Oromo migration resulted in
a weakening of both Christian and Muslim power and drove a
wedge between the two faiths along the eastern edge of the
highlands. In the Christian kingdom, Oromo groups
infiltrated large areas in the east and south, with large
numbers settling in Shewa and adjacent parts of the central
highlands. Others penetrated as far north as eastern Tigray.
The effect of the Oromo migrations was to leave the
Ethiopian state fragmented and much reduced in size, with an
alien population in its midst. Thereafter, the Oromo played
a major role in the internal dynamics of Ethiopia, both
assimilating and being assimilated as they were slowly
incorporated into the Christian kingdom. In the south, the
Sidama fiercely resisted the Oromo, but, as in the central
and northern highlands, they were compelled to yield at
least some territory. In the east, the Oromo swept up to and
even beyond Harer, dealing a devastating blow to what
remained of Adal and contributing in a major way to its
decline.
Data as of 1991
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