 | This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies.(August 2019) |
 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 29,000 (1994 est.) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Ethiopia | |
| Languages | |
| Dorze | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Gamo, Dizi, Yem |
The Dorze are one of the Gamo communities inhabiting the Gamo Highlands in southern Ethiopia. They speak the Dorze language, an Omotic tongue.
According to Ethnologue , the Dorze numbered 29,000 individuals (1994 census), of whom 9,910 were monolingual. [1]
They primarily live in the southern parts of the country, though some have migrated to Addis Ababa and other regions. Many reside in villages near the cities of Chencha and Arba Minch.
They speak the Dorze language, an Omotic tongue.
Weaving is a primary profession for a number of Dorze. Traditional Dorze textiles are colourful. [2] [3]
They are known for their traditional weaving of huts made out of local bamboo. [4] The huts can last up to 80 years. [5]
Their polyphonic multi-part vocal music features a sophisticated use of hocket.
Dorze people originally adhered to traditional African religions. Most are members to the faith of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. [5] [6]
 | This section may be confusing or unclear to readers.(August 2019) |
Communities of Dorze people live on the peripheries of Addis Ababa, mostly in the Burayu and Sebeta areas. A group of Dorze people had a conflict with some Oromo people. This issue got an immediate attention among the Qeerroo who are active in Ethiopian politics in recent years. The incident occurred as the Qeerroo were organizing themselves for the reception of the Oromo Liberation Front leaders, on the 14 and 15 September—following political reform by prime minister Abiy Ahmed. This little conflict between the Dorze and Oromo people grew to a full-blown attack on the whole population of Dorze as the Qeerroo returned from the reception. The result was a universal massacring: killing the men and children with machetes, a ruthless raping of the women in front of their husbands and children, targeting specifically Dorze (and some Gurage) people living around Addis Ababa, on the 16 and 17 September 2018. Independent media sources called the killing a case of ethnic cleansing. [7] In the Burayu area alone, the media has reported that 23 people have been killed, more than 500 have been injured and over 15000 people have been displaced. [8] [9] [10] Other sources citing data from the police have confirmed that more 60 people have been killed. [7]
Oromia is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa (Finfinne).
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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.
The Oromo Liberation Front is an Oromo nationalist political party formed in 1973 to promote self-determination for the Oromo people inhabiting today's Oromia Region and Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. The OLF has offices in Addis Ababa, Washington, D.C., and Berlin, from which it operates radio stations that broadcast in Amharic and Oromo.
Sebata Hawas, also spelled Sabbataa Awaas, is a woreda in Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Part of the Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Finfinne, Alem Gena is on the southwest by Southwest Shewa Zone, on the northwest by Walmara, on the north by Burayu, on the northeast by the city of Addis Ababa, and on the east by the Akaki. The Awash River defines this woreda's boundary with south west Shewa Zone. The towns in Sebeta Hawas include Sebeta Hawas (Town), Awash Melka, and Tefki. The town of Sebeta was separated from this district.
The Gamopeople are an Ethiopian ethnic group located in the Gamo Highlands of southern Ethiopia. They are found in more than 40 communities, including Chencha, Bonke, Kucha, Garbansa, Zargula, Kamba, Dorze, Birbir, Ochello, Boroda, Ganta, Gacho Baba, Eligo, Shella, Kolle, Dita, Kogo and Daramalo.
The 2014–2016 Oromo protests were a series of protests and resistance first sparked on 25 April 2014. The initial actions were taken in opposition to the Addis Ababa Master Plan, and resumed on 12 November 2015 by university students and farmers in the town of Ginchi, located 80 km southwest of Addis Ababa, encircled by the Oromia region. The plan was to expand the capital into the Oromia special zone, leading to fears that native Oromo farmers would lose their land and be displaced. The plan was later dropped but protests continued, highlighting issues such as marginalization and human rights. Mulatu Gemechu, deputy chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, expressed to Reuters: "so far, we have compiled a list of 33 protesters killed by armed security forces that included police and soldiers but I am very sure the list will grow". Protesters demanded social and political reforms, including an end to human rights abuses like government killings of civilians, mass arrests, government land seizures, and political marginalization of opposition groups. The government responded by restricting access to the internet and attacking as well as arresting protesters.
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The Oromia–Somali clashes flared up in December 2016 following territorial disputes between Oromia region and Somali region's Government in Ethiopia. Hundreds of people were killed and more than 1.5 million people fled their homes. The conflict ended in 2018.
Burayu is a town and woreda in Oromia Region, Ethiopia, located in the Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Finfinne in the Oromia Region, directly adjacent to the Oromo and national capital Addis Ababa. With the growth of the capital in recent decades and urban sprawl, the town has faced considerable economic and demographic pressures; its population leapt from around 10,000 in 1994 to an estimated 150,000 two decades later, as people, including many from the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, migrated from the countryside looking for work, and residents of Addis Ababa pushed outwards seeking cheaper housing.
The Burayu massacre was a series of communal clashes which occurred in the vicinity of the Ethiopian town of Burayu, in the Oromia Region, on 14–16 September 2018. Individuals from the Oromo and Dorze ethnicities fought in and around Burayu, a town in Oromia Region which is located near the northwest boundary of Addis Ababa, the federal capital. Different sources cite number of civilians killed both from Oromo and non-Oromo ethnicity.
A October 2019 Ethiopian clashes was a civil unrest that broke out in Addis Ababa, on 23 October 2019 and swiftly spread to entire Oromia Region after activist and Director of Oromia Media Network, Jawar Mohammed reported on his Facebook page around midnight, on Tuesday. In his post, Jawar has said that his house was surrounded by police officers and that they tried to withdraw his security guards from their posts. His VIP security detail was assigned to him by the government once he arrived from the US. According to official reports, 86 people were killed, 76 were killed by Communal violence, while 10 were security forces of Ethiopia.
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The Hachalu Hundessa riots were a series of civil unrest that occurred in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, more specifically in the hot spot of Addis Ababa, Shashamene and Ambo following the killing of the Oromo musician Hachalu Hundessa on 29 June 2020. The riots lead to the deaths of at least 239 people according to initial police reports. Peaceful protests against Hachalu's killing have been held by Oromos abroad as well. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found in its 1 January 2021 full report that part of the killings were a crime against humanity, with deliberate, widespread systematic killing of civilians by organised groups. The EHRC counted 123 deaths, 76 of which it attributed to security forces.
Music and politics have been closely intertwined throughout the history of Ethiopia.
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Following the 2018 dissolution of the ethnic federalist, dominant party political coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, there was an increase in tensions within the country, with newly resurgent regional and ethnically based factions carrying out armed attacks on military and civilians in multiple conflicts throughout Ethiopia.
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Since the 1990s, the Amhara people of Ethiopia have been subject to ethnic violence, including massacres by Tigrayan, Oromo and Gumuz ethnic groups among others, which some have characterized as a genocide. Large-scale killings and grave human rights violations followed the implementation of the ethnic-federalist system in the country. In most of the cases, the mass murders were silent with perpetrators from various ethno-militant groups— from TPLF/TDF, OLF–OLA, and Gumuz armed groups.
The 1995 Ethiopian Federal Constitution formalizes an ethnic federalism law aimed at undermining long-standing ethnic imperial rule, reducing ethnic tensions, promoting regional autonomy, and upholding unqualified rights to self-determination and secession in a state with more than 80 different ethnic groups. But the constitution is divisive, both among Ethiopian nationalists who believe it undermines centralized authority and fuels interethnic conflict, and among ethnic federalists who fear that the development of its vague components could lead to authoritarian centralization or even the maintenance of minority ethnic hegemony. Parliamentary elections since 1995 have taken place every five years since enactment. All but one of these have resulted in government by members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political coalition, under three prime ministers. The EPRDF was under the effective control of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which represents a small ethnic minority. In 2019 the EPRDF, under Abiy, was dissolved and he inaugurated the pan-ethnic Prosperity Party which won the 2021 Ethiopian Election, returning him as prime minister. But both political entities were different kinds of responses to the ongoing tension between constitutional ethnic federalism and the Ethiopian state's authority. Over the same period, and all administrations, a range of major conflicts with ethnic roots have occurred or continued, and the press and availability of information have been controlled. There has also been dramatic economic growth and liberalization, which has itself been attributed to, and used to justify, authoritarian state policy.
Media related to Dorze people at Wikimedia Commons
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