The Berta (Bertha) or Funj or Benishangul are an ethnic group living along the border of Sudan and Ethiopia. They speak a Nilo-Saharan language that is not related to those of their Nilo-Saharan neighbors (Gumuz, Uduk). The total population of Ethiopian-Bertas in Ethiopia is 208,759 people. Sudanese-Bertas number around 180,000.
Their origins are to be found in Sennar in eastern Sudan, in the area of the former Funj sultanate (1521-1804). During the 16th or 17th century, they migrated to western Ethiopia, in the area of the modern Benishangul-Gumuz Region. "Benishangul" is an Arabicized form of the original name Bela Shangul, meaning "Rock of Shangul". This refers to a sacred stone located in a mountain in the Menge woreda, one of the places where the Berta originally settled when they arrived to Ethiopia.[3]
Their arrival in Ethiopia was marked by strong territorial conflict among the diverse Shangul communities. For this reason, and for protecting themselves from slave raids coming from Sudan, the Shangul communities decided to establish their villages in naturally-defended hills and mountains, amidst rocky outcrops. Due to this harsh topography, houses and granaries were raised over stone pillars. German traveler Ernst Marno described Shangul architecture and villages in his Reisen im Gebiete des Blauen und Weissen Nil (Vienna, 1874). The Shangul of Benishangul were incorporated into Ethiopia only in 1896.
After conflicts and raids receded during the 20th century, the Shangul people moved to the valleys, where their villages are located today. During the 19th century, the area of Benishangul was divided in several sheikhdoms (Fadasi, Komosha, Gizen, Asosa), the most powerful of which was ruled by Sheikh Khoyele at the end of the 19th century.
Customs
Two Berta in the mid-19th century
After several centuries of influence by the Arabic-speaking regions of Sudan, the Berta are now mostly Muslim and many speak fluent Sudanese Arabic. Due to their intermarriage with Arab traders, some Berta were called Watawit -the local name for "bat", meaning that they were a mix of two very different groups. However, they still have traditional customs that are similar to those of their Nilo-Saharan neighbors. For example, there still exist ritual specialists called neri, who have healing and divination powers. They are the ones who know how to deal with evil spirits (shuman). Rain-making rituals are also found among the Berta, as among other Nilo-Saharan and Nilotic communities.
In their wedding ceremonies, music is played by males with large calabash trumpets (waz'a).[4][5][6] The groom arrives to the wedding on a donkey and carrying a bang (throwing stick) in his hand. After the wedding, the husband has to build a hut and live in his wife's village for a year or more, tilling his father-in-law's land. Divorce is accepted. The Berta practice scarification, usually three vertical lines on each cheek, which they consider to be symbols of God (each line is interpreted as the initial letter of Allah, the Arabic alif).
Most Berta are mixed farmers also involved in raising livestock, trading, beekeeping, and coffee cultivation.[7] Their staple food is sorghum, with which they make porridge in ceramic vessels. They also make beer with sorghum. Beer is prepared in large ceramic containers called awar and is'u. Working parties play an important role in Berta society. When somebody wants to build a house or cultivate a field, he calls his neighbors for help and provides beer and food.
Most Berta practice Islam, often including traditional customs.
Andersen, T. 1993. "Aspects of Berta phonology". Afrika und Übersee 76: 41–80.
Andersen, T. 1995. "Absolutive and Nominative in Berta". In Nicolai & Rottland (eds.): Fifth Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium. Nice, 24–29 August 1992. Proceedings. (Nilo-Saharan 10). Cologne: Köppe, pp.36–49.
Bender, L. 1989. "Berta Lexicon". In L. Bender (ed.): Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics (Nilo-Saharan 3). Hamburg: Helmut Buske, pp.271–304.
González-Ruibal, A. 2006. Order in a disordered world: the Bertha house (Western Ethiopia). Anthropos 101(2): 379–402.
Triulzi, Alessandro. 1981. Salt, gold and legitimacy. Prelude to the history of a no man’s land. Bela Shangul, Wallagga, Ethiopia (ca. 1800-1898). Naples: Istituto di Studi Orientale.
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. The languages extend through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa: from Algeria to Benin in the west; from Libya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the centre; and from Egypt to Tanzania in the east.
Benishangul-Gumuz is a regional state in northwestern Ethiopia bordering Sudan. It was previously known as Region 6. The region's capital is Assosa. Following the adoption of the 1995 constitution, the region was created from the westernmost portion of the Gojjam province, and the northwestern portion of the Welega Province. The name of the region comes from two peoples – Berta and Gumuz.
The Eastern Jebel languages are a small subfamily belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subgroup of Nilo-Saharan. They are spoken in the hills of An Nil al Azraq province in eastern Sudan
Berta proper, a.k.a. Gebeto, is spoken by the Berta in Sudan and Ethiopia. As of 2006 Berta had approximately 180,000 speakers in Sudan.
The languages of Ethiopia include the official languages of Ethiopia, its national and regional languages, and a large number of minority languages, as well as foreign languages.
Fazogli, also known as Fazughli, Fazoghl or Fazokl, was a historical province in what is now the border region between Sudan and Ethiopia. It was established by the Funj after their conquest of the kingdom of Fazughli in 1685 and was continued in Turco-Egyptian Sudan and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It lay between the Blue Nile and the Sobat River, and included the mountains in the modern Asosa Zone of the Ethiopian Benishangul-Gumuz Region. The west slope of the hills drains the White Nile.
Sillok (Aka) is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Sillok people of Sudan. It is spoken by around 300 people in Blue Nile state, specifically on Mount Silak, southwest of the Ingessana hills.
The Gumuz are an ethnic group speaking a Nilo-Saharan language inhabiting the Benishangul-Gumuz Region in western Ethiopia, as well as the Fazogli region in Sudan. They speak the Gumuz language, which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family. The Gumuz number around 250,000 individuals.
Ingessana are the members of an African ethnic group of Sudan who speak the Gaam language. They live around the Tabi Hills, southwest of Ad-Damazin and northwest of Kurmuk in the Blue Nile Province. The capital of the Ingessana area is Bao, and the government offices are in Soda.
Assosa is a zone in Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia. This Zone was named after the Assosa Sultanate, which had approximately the same boundaries. Assosa is bordered on the south by the Mao-Komo special woreda, on the west by Sudan, and on the northeast by the Kamashi. The largest town in this zone is Assosa. Its highest point is Mount Bambashi, located in the woreda of the same name. The majority ethnic group in the zone is the Berta people.
Kurmuk is a town in south-eastern Sudan near the border with Ethiopia. Kurmuk is inhabited by the Uduk and Berta peoples.
Mao-Komo is a woreda in Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia. Because it is not part of any zones in Benishangul-Gumuz, it is considered a Special woreda, an administrative subdivision which is similar to an autonomous area. The southernmost woreda in the Region, Mao-Komo is bordered on the west by Sudan and South Sudan, on the north by the Assosa Zone, and on the east and south by the Oromia Region. Towns in this woreda include Tongo, which has a weekly market. The Tongo refugee camp, housing 12,483 displaced people from Sudan and South Sudan, is also located in Mao-Komo.
The Kwama, are a Nilo-Saharan-speaking community living in the Sudanese-Ethiopian borderland, mainly in the Mao-Komo special woreda of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region in Ethiopia. They belong, culturally and linguistically, to the Koman groups, which include neighboring communities such as the Uduk, Koma, and Opuuo. Although they traditionally occupied a larger territory, they have been forced to move to marginal, lowland areas by the Oromo from the 18th century onwards. In some villages Kwama, Oromo and Berta live together. The Kwama are often called "Mao" by other groups, especially by the Oromo. The people who live in the southern area and near the Sudanese borderland often call themselves "Gwama" and use the term "Kwama" to refer to those living further to the south and in Sudan. These other "Kwama" are usually known by anthropologists as Koma or Komo. In recent years, many people belonging to this ethnic group have been resettled by the Ethiopian state in order to provide them with clinics and schools.
Komo is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Kwama (Komo) people of Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan. It is a member of the Koman languages. The language is also referred to as Madiin, Koma, South Koma, Central Koma, Gokwom and Hayahaya. Many individuals from Komo are multilingual because they are in close proximity to Mao, Kwama and Oromo speakers. Komo is closely related to Kwama, a language spoken by a group who live in the same region of Ethiopia and who also identify themselves as ethnically Komo. Some Komo and Kwama speakers recognize the distinction between the two languages and culture, whereas some people see it as one "ethnolinguistic" community. The 2007 Ethiopian census makes no mention of Kwama, and for this reason its estimate of 8,000 Komo speakers may be inaccurate. An older estimate from 1971 places the number of Komo speakers in Ethiopia at 1,500. The Komo language is greatly understudied; more information is being revealed as researchers are discovering more data about other languages within the Koman family.
The Berta languages, or Funj, traditionally considered dialects of a single language, are Gebeto, Fadashi, and Undu. They are either a small family of their own, or a primary branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family.
Gaam (Gaahmg), also known as Ingessana, (Me/Mun) Tabi, Kamanidi, or Mamedja/Mamidza, is an Eastern Sudanic language spoken by the Ingessana people in the Tabi Hills in Blue Nile State in eastern Sudan, near Ethiopia. It was considered an isolate within Eastern Sudanic until the other Eastern Jebel languages were discovered in the late 20th century. Dialects are Soda (Tao), Kukur (Gor), Kulang, Buwahg (Buek).
Gumuz is a dialect cluster spoken along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. It has been tentatively classified within the Nilo-Saharan family. Most Ethiopian speakers live in Kamashi Zone and Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, although a group of 1,000 reportedly live outside the town of Welkite. The Sudanese speakers live in the area east of Er Roseires, around Famaka and Fazoglo on the Blue Nile, extending north along the border. Dimmendaal et al. (2019) suspect that the poorly attested varieties spoken along the river constitute a distinct language, Kadallu.
The Kingdom of Fazughli was a precolonial state in what is now southeastern Sudan and western Ethiopia. Oral traditions assert its establishment to refugees from the Nubian Kingdom of Alodia, after its capital Soba had fallen to Arabs or the Funj in c. 1500. Centered around the mountainous region of Fazughli on the Blue Nile and serving as a buffer between the Funj sultanate and the Ethiopian empire, the kingdom lasted until its incorporation into the Funj sultanate in 1685.
Alessandro Triulzi is an Italian historian, Africanist and since 2011 Emeritus Professor of African History and former Vice Director of the African and Arab Studies Department at the Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale" at Naples. He studied Political Science at the Sapienza University of Rome for a Master's degree in 1966 and obtained a PhD in History at Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois in 1981. Triulzi performed field work among the Ashanti people in Ghana (1969), and the Berta and Oromo people in Wallaga, West Ethiopia. He worked in Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea during 1970–1973, and again in Ethiopia during 1985–2005.
Khojali al-Hassan, was the Shaykh of Bela Shangul in Wallagi in the first half of the 20th century. Initially a traditional local ruler in Sudan, he became an autonomous tributary ruler under the Empire of Ethiopia after 1903. He became internationally known as a major player in the slave trade between Ethiopia and Sudan, a trade that attracted attention from the League of Nations.
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