Gurage

Gurage is an ethnic group in Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, they number 1,867,377 people (or 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia), of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers.^[2] The Gurage people inhabit a semi-fertile, semi-mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia, about 150 miles southwest of Addis Ababa. Their homeland extends to the Awash River in the north, the Gibe River (a tributary of the Omo) to the southwest, and to Lake Zway in the east. The Gurage ethnic group has usually been said to consist of three distinct subgroups, Northern, Eastern and Western, but the largest grouping within the Eastern subgroup, known as the Silt'e, have not necessarily considered themselves to be Gurage, and in a referendum in 2000 they voted unanimously to break away from the Gurage Zone within the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, forming their own autonomous region.^[3]

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.^[4]

The Gurage 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).

Gurage, also known as Guragie or ጉራጌ is written with the Ethiopic alphabet. The Guragie 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 Gurage language since the people do not consider themselves Gurage), Zay, and Sebat Bet Gurage. 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 Gurage groups and lects. Silt'e is more closely related to Amharic than it is to Soddo.

As the Gurage people are surrounded by speakers of Cushitic languages, these languages have influenced the Gurage languages perhaps even more than they have other Ethiopian Semitic languages. For example, the East Gurage 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 Gurage languages.

Over 50 % of the Gurage 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.

According to the 1994 Ethiopian census, self-identifying Gurage comprise about 4.3 % of Ethiopia's population, or about 3 million people.^[5]

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".^[6] 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.^[7]

Ensete

The ensete or “false banana plant” has a massive stem that grows underground and is completely involved in every aspect of Gurage life. It has a place in everyday interactions among community members as well as specific roles in rituals. (For example: uses of Ensete would be wrapping a corpse after death with it, or after birth, the umbilical cord being tied off with an ensete fiber.) Historically, westerners have nicknamed the Gurage "The People of the Ensete", since they are the only people in the world to cultivate ensete as a crop.

Strangely enough, the nutritional value this plant contains as their primary food source is not considered to be of much importance. The plant can be prepared a number of different ways, and the practical uses of ensete in Gurage culture are varied. In addition to this plant, a few cash crops are maintained and livestock is raised (though mainly for milk and fertilizer). A normal Gurage diet consists primarily of kocho, a thick bread made from ensete, and is supplemented by cabbage, cheese, butter, and grains. Meat is not consumed on a regular basis, but usually eaten sparingly during a ritual or ceremonial event.

Quotation

Ensete is totally involved in every aspect of the daily social and ritual life of the Gurage, who, with several others tribes in Southwest Ethiopia, form what has been termed the Ensete Culture Complex area... the life of the Gurage is enmeshed with various uses of ensete, not the least of which is nutritional.^[8]

Notable Gurage

• Dr. Berhanu Nega, PhD in economics; elected mayor of Addis Ababa
• Mahmoud Ahmed, singer
• Dr. Yacob Haile-Mariam - NSU professor of Business Law, former Senior Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
• Yeshimebet Ali, mother of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia
• Br. Gen. Tesfaye Habtemariam, receipient of the medal for bravery

See also

• Soddo language
• Sebat Bet Gurage language

Notes

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.

External links

• Gurage Research blog
• Gurage and Silte Research Group
• The Gurage People – Carolyn Ford with SIM in Ethiopia
• Facts about Gurage
• GeoHive