Gibe (Region)

The Gibe region designated a historic area in the southwest of present-day Ethiopia, west of the Gibe and Omo Rivers, and north of the river Gojeb. Here once lay the kingdoms of the Oromo and Sidama: Gera, Gomma, Garo, Gumma, Jimma and Limmu - Ennarea.

In the north the Gibe region bordered on the settlement area of ​​the Macha Oromo tribe.

Until the mid -1500s, this area was part of the Sidama kingdoms Ennarea, Hadiya, Janjero and Kaffa, which were under the Solomonic dynasty. With the arrival of the Oromo and the concomitant destruction of Hadiya, isolation of Janjero and reduction of the areas of Ennarea and Kaffa, the region was, however, divided. In Gibe the Oromo came under the cultural influence of the Kingdom of Kaffa, from which they (also known as Moti in all kingdoms except Limmu - Enerea, where for historical reasons, the king was known as super A ) as well as the demarcation of their states by the concept of hereditary monarchy barriers took over.

These barriers consisted of palisades or dead hedges, which extended for miles. Between these barriers and those of the neighboring Kingdom of a neutral strip was ( called moga ), which was not maintained and was inhabited only by robbers and bandits. The individual kingdoms could be only at guarded gates or enter kella. These duties were collected.

The economy of these kingdoms was based on the export of gold, coffee, slaves, and the civet musk. G.W.B. Huntingford explains that slaves were captured in raids on the Macha tribe in the north and the Sidama kingdoms of Kaffa and Janjero. He also presents evidence to show that every year 7,000 people were sold to Ethiopia or abroad.

Between 1886 and 1900, the Gibe region was just like the rest of southwestern Ethiopia almost completely annexed after a series of conquests by generals of Emperor Menelik II. Through skillful diplomacy succeeded the Kingdom of Jimma to delay this fate until death whose king Abba Jifar II.