Bustorf EAE4 Selti

ENCYCLOPAEDIA
AETHIOPICA
Volume 4
O–X
Edited by
Siegbert Uhlig
Editorial Board
Baye Yimam
Alessandro Bausi
Donald Crummey
Gianfranco Fiaccadori
Gideon Goldenberg
Paolo Marrassini
Ewald Wagner
2010
Harrassowitz Verlag • Wiesbaden
Publication of this book was supported by a grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
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th
early 4 cent. A.D.,
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Editorial team (Hamburg):

Maria Bulakh
Dirk Bustorf
Sophia Dege
Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner
Alexander Meckelburg
Denis Nosnitsin
Thomas Rave
Wolbert G.C. Smidt
Evgenia Sokolinskaia
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Sélti
Ewald Wagner, “Selt’i-Verse in arabischer Schrift aus the highland areas ÷énsät cultivation is predom-
dem Schlobies-Nachlaß”, in: SegBodLes 363–74. inant, while in the lower regions cereals have
Lit.: Eeva H.M. Gutt – Hussein Mohammed Mussa,
Silt’e–Amharic–English Dictionary (with Concise Gram- more importance. ÷Cat and ÷bärbäre are the
mar by ERNST-AUGUST GUTT), Addis Ababa 1997; Ernst- most relevant cash crops. Some written sources
August Gutt, “The Silte Group (East Gurage)”, in: (e.g., Cecchi 1888: 123f.) describe the involve-
Robert Hetzron (ed.), The Semitic Languages, London ment of some S. and Wélbaräg traders in slave
1997, 509–34; Id., “Studies in the Phonology of Silt’i”,
trade. Since the 19th cent. merchants are engaged
JES 16, 1983, 37–73; Id., “On the Conjugation of the Silt’i
verb”, ibid. 19, 1986, 91–112; Wolf Leslau, Etymological in trans-regional trade, especially in ÷coffee, on
Dictionary of Gurage, Wiesbaden 1979, vol. 1, 961–1032; the caravan route crossing their territory to con-
Id., “Arabic Loanwords in Selti”, Aethiopica 2, 1999, nect ÷Sidamo province and ÷Šäwa. During the
103–23. 20th cent. many people from the area migrated
Eeva Gutt to Addis Abäba and other towns in southern
Ethiopia. In the capital they, together with the
Sélti ethnography Gurage, make up one of the most important
The term S. (Fs1 ) is (1) an older variant of migrant groups. They are specifically known as
the modern ethnonym “Sélte” (Fs3 ) which entrepreneurs in the Märkato (÷Addis Kätäma)
includes all speakers of the S. language, and it is and Arada areas.
(2) the name of a major subgroup, the Summus The Chronicle of ase ÷ŸAmdä Séyon men-
Sélti (‘Eight [districts of] S.’) or “S. proper”. tions an entity allied to this emperor by the
Oral tradition derives the names S. and Sélte name of Sältagi/Séltähi, which can be interpreted
from the alleged Summus Sélti ancestor “gän as Sélti/e-ge [‘land of S.’] (MarAmdS 100, 213).
Sélti” (gän[za], ‘ruler of a territory’). Today’s Braukämper identifies the “East-Gurage” as the
Sélte include the major subgroups of Azärnät, only people related to the Hadiyya sultanate who
Bärbäre (÷Énnäqor), Alióóo, Wuriro, Mälga did not adopt a Cushitic language. According to
(÷Wélbaräg) and Summus Sélti. The great ma- his reconstruction, in the 17th cent. their home-
jority of the population is Muslim. Until the land was located in the highland of ÷Cärcär
second half of the 20th cent., collective designa- (BrHad 90, 184). According to oral tradition,
tions which included all major subgroups were today’s Sélte consider themselves descendants of
“Ade(y)a” (from ÷Hadiyya [sultanate]), “Islam” warriors of Arab, or even Šarific, descent who
and “East ÷Gurage”, the last being primarily a joined ÷Ahmad b. Ibrahim al-Ëazi and his suc-
linguistic category also including ÷Wälane and cessor amir ÷Nur b. Mugahid. In the wake of
÷Zay. They were widely considered to be part of the ÷gihad, ancestors, such as, e.g., haggi Aliye
the Gurage. However, after the fall of the Därg Umär, šayò Nasrallah (÷ŸAbdannasir), šayò
in 1991 a political movement formed, claiming Bärkälle, imam ÷Íidi, Kabir Hamid and Nur
an independent ethnic identity
of the “Sélte”, as they now called
themselves. Ten years later the
identity discourse resulted in the
administrative secession from the
Gurage zone and the establish-
ment of a “Sélte zone” (for the
earlier administrative division s.
also ÷Hayqoóó-Butagira). The
S. language area reaches from
the edge of the Gurage highlands
up to the lowlands West of Lake
Zway and from the area around
the Har Šäytan crater lake, south
of ÷Butagira, up to the lowlands
of Sankura, bordering to the
country of ÷Allaaba.
The Sélte practice mixed ag- The hadra mosque of the Alkäso zawiya, Sélti; photo 2004, courtesy of the
riculture and cattle breeding. In author
607
Sélti
Yusuf, are said to have migrated with their folks cent., Haruna gošte and šayò “Wälle”; in the 20th
into the province of ÷Wäg. There, they settled cent., Alkäso šayò) and by political and military
on the slopes of the highlands and intermingled alliances (÷Gogot) of two or more groups, in-
with the local population, the so-called Ïära (cp. cluding sometimes not only S. speakers but also,
Bustorf 2006). e.g., ÷Mäsqan and Allaaba. A famous alliance,
The Oromo migration into and through Wäg active between 1936 and the early 1940s, was the
during the 17th cent. and constant conflicts with so-called Sélti/e Gogot. It united all major sub-
the ÷Libido drove the S.-speaking groups far- groups of the Sélte and, under the leadership of
ther west into the highlands. In the 19th cent. imam Sugato Zäyni, could dominate neighbour-
scarcity of land and frequent conflicts with the ing ethnic groups.
neighbouring Gurage, especially with the war- Src.: fieldnotes by the author 2003, 2004, 2005; Antonio
riors of agäz Hamdeno of ÷Geta and damo Cecchi, Fünf Jahre in Ostafrika, Leipzig 1888, 123f.;
MarAmdS 100, 213.
Mägänas of ÷Gumär (the latter mentioned in Lit.: Abdulfätah Huldar, #Fqzy (#M_1\y &!y
Cecchi 1888: 111–28), forced them to leave most YFs3y Ww-y K<l!y +Ws (Islam bäýityopya énna
of the highland areas (except Mugo, Énnäqor yäsélte hézb tarikénna bahél, ‘Ethiopian Islam and the
and Alióóo-Wuriro) to the Gurage and to expand History and Culture of the Sélte People’), Addis Abäba
their territory to the pastoralist areas in the east 2000; Id., YFs3|My -A=_y uKnMc,y &!y n#M_1\_
|My Wsb!!y &;KMy \(:gIMy !FH`p' (Yäséltennät
and south-east. This again brought them into béherawi mäggäläcawoóó énna läýityopyawinnät héllé-
conflict with the ÷Arsi, Libido, Leemo- and wénanna édgät yabäräkkätut astäwaìéýo, ‘National
Šaašoogo-Hadiyya. Expression of Sélteness and the Contribution, which
Sélteland was subdued by Ménilék’s troops They [the Sélte] Made to the Being and Development of
Ethiopianess’), Addis Abäba 2002; Abraham Hussen –
for the first time in 1879. The earlier marriage of Habtamu WändÉmmo, (Ts11y <#<y H!N<y Bw-y
the daughter of the Summus Sélti chief azma[ó] Y!r?|My (?(>y i-:HA-y +Ws!y K<l (Bäíéltiñña
Qälbo with néguí ÷Íahlä Íéllase facilitated a qwanqwa tänagari hézb yäýazärnät bärbäre òébrätäsäb
comparatively amicable relation between the bahélénna tarik, ‘The Society, Culture and History of the
leading families and the new rulers. In the course Séltiñña Language-speaking Azärnät-Bärbäre’), Addis
Abäba 1983 A.M. [1990 A.D.]; BrHad 183–94 et passim;
of the further Ethiopian conquest, Sélte warri- Dirk Bustorf, “Ase Zäýra YaŸéqobs Kinder. Spuren der
ors, such as, e.g., azma Ormora Gona, became Vorbevölkerung von Sélte-Land”, Aethiopica 9, 2006,
important allies of the Ethiopian empire, notably 23–48; Id., Die Sélte: Geschichte, Geschichtserzählung und
in the campaigns against the Libido (e.g., 1879) Geschichtsbewusstsein eines muslimischen Volkes im südli-
chen Äthiopien, Ph.D. thesis, Universität Hamburg 2009;
and against King ÷Tona of Wälaytta in 1894. Id., “Imam Sugato Zäyni: a War-lord of the Selt’é Gogot”,
In the 19th cent. the history of the S. speakers in: PICES 16, 70–81; Nishi Makoto, “Making and Un-
was characterized by Islamic revitalism fuelled making of the National-State and Ethnicity in Modern
by an intensified contact with Muslim centres, Ethiopia: a Study on the History of the Silte People”,
especially in Wällo, the rise in popularity of the African Study Monographs, Supplementary Issue 29, 2005,
157–68; DÉnbäru Alämu et al., QQMz YL=Oy -h:A-y
÷Islamic brotherhoods and opposition towards K<ly +Ws!y <#< (Gogot. Yägurage béòeräsäb tarik,
the expanding Christian empire. The leaders bahélénna qwanqwa, ‘Gogot, the History, Culture and
of the six major subgroups in 1881 joined the Language of the Gurage People’), Wälqite 1987 A.M.
gihad of ÷Hasän Éngamo of Qabeena against [1994/95 A.D.], 48–52; Rahmeto Hussein, The History
of Azernet-Berbere until the Expansion of Shoa during
Ménilék and started to reinforce Islam amongst Menelik II, Senior Essay, Department of History, Addis
their own people. The integration of Sélteland Ababa University 1984.
into Ménilék’s empire after Hasän Éngamo’s de- Dirk Bustorf
feat in 1889 was followed by the settlement of
÷näftäñña families and the foundation of the
first ÷kätäma “S.” (south of today’s Qébät) and Šémagällä
Wélbaräg. The family of ras ÷Kaía Òaylu, who Š. (%xKn , also Šémagälle, Wäld Šum, lit. ‘son of
was related to the leading Qälbo clan, was enti- a leader’) is the designation of a sociopolitical
tled with huge lands in the western S. area. group among ÷Tégre-speakers and the ÷Bilin.
During most of their history the Sélte had Š. is derived from a term in Ethio-Semitic lan-
no common political or judical body above the guages which means ‘elder’ (÷Šémagélle), but
councils (dämbus) of the different major sub- also connotes a regular leading social role within
groups. Supra-tribal integration mainly was con- gerontocratic structures. Among the Tégre and
ducted by certain Islamic leaders (e.g., in the 19th sociopolitically related groups such as the Bilin
608

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ENCYCLOPAEDIA

Editorial team (Hamburg):

Bibliografische Information Der Deutschen Bibliothek:

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek:

© Otto Harrassowitz KG, Wiesbaden 2010

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