The Oromo Tribe in Ethiopia

The Oromo are a native African ethnic group found in Ethiopia and to a smaller extent in Kenya. They are the largest single ethnic group in Ethiopia, at 32.1% of the population according to the 1994 census, and today numbering around 40 million.

The Oromo are one of the Cushitic speaking people living in Eastern and North Eastern Africa. Cushitic speakers have occupied parts of north-eastern and eastern Africa for as long as recorded history.

Oromo people are found mainly in Ethiopia (99%), but are spread from as far as:

• Northern Ethiopia (southern Tigray Region)
• Kenya (mainly northern) 
• Even as far south as Lamu Island

The Oromo characterize one of largest of the Cushitic groups occupying the Horn of Africa. Their physical features, culture, language and other confirm clearly the fact that they are native to this part of Africa.

Existing information indicates that the Oromo lived as a community of people for thousands of years in East Africa (Prouty at al, 1981).

Bates (1979) asserts, “The Gallas (Oromo) were a very ancient race, the indigenous stock, possibly, on which most other peoples in this part of eastern Africa have been grafted”.

It is possible that they have existed for a longer period of time side by side with their northern Semitic-speaking neighbors.

During the 16th century, following the wars between the kingdom of Ethiopia and the neighboring Sultanate of Adal, which resulted in the exhaustion of both states, Oromos moved north into their territories.

The Ethiopian monk Bahrey, writing in 1593, credited the Oromo achievement to the existence of too many non-fighting classes in the ruling Ethiopian hierarchy, as opposed to the Oromos, whom he illustrated as having a homogeneous warrior class.

He also affirmed their spread (as result of their inhospitable homeland) into northwestern areas such as:

• Arsi
• Shewa
• Welega
• Gojjam 
• Hararghe
• Wollo