Sidama people

The Sidama or Sidamo in the narrow sense are an ethnic group that lives in the Sidama Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region in southwest Ethiopia.

Their language is also called Sidama and belongs to the hochlandostkuschitischen languages. According to 2007 census, living in Ethiopia nearly 3 million Sidama. They make up 4% of the total population and are the fifth largest ethnic group in the country. More than 95 % of them live in rural areas.

In addition, " Sidama " also used as a collective term for all the peoples of the Cushitic language group in Ethiopia, with the exception of the Oromo, Somali and Afar. The Oromo used this term for all other ethnic groups, including Somali or Amhara.

Almost 85 percent of the Sidama live from agriculture. An important staple food is the Banana Family Wesseling ( Ensete ), along with other foods are grown and cattle kept still. As a source of income for coffee cultivation plays an important role. 2003 were Sidama coffee farmers as a result of the decline in world market prices for coffee ( " coffee crisis " ) affected by hunger.

The introduction of the new administrative structure of Ethiopia with the creation of ethnically defined regions has changed the relationship between the Sidama and neighboring ethnic groups. So it was from 1992 to conflicts with the Guji - Oromo around the area of Wondo Genet; the previously allied with the Guji Sidama approached in other Oromo groups and Wondo Genet wanted the Oromia region allocate while it wanted to integrate the Sidama in their zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region ( SNNPR ). The area of SNNPR was eventually largely slammed. Oromo children in Wondo Genet have since been taught in schools in Sidama, which further breeds resentment among the Oromo. The Sidama joined in the course of these disputes with the Hadiyya, Kambaata and Wolaytta together, against which they fought earlier.