Sidamo Province
Sidamo ( ሲዳሞ, or Sidama ) was a province in the southern part of Ethiopia. Their capital city was Yirgalem or after 1978 Awassa.
She was named after the ethnic group of the Sidamo or Sidama in south-central Ethiopia. Before inclusion in the kingdom of Abyssinia, the Kingdom of Kaffa was the largest political state structure that dominated the region.
After decades of political division was the Sidamo Province in the west of Gamu - Gofa, (later Bale) and in the North of Shewa and in the north and in the east of the province of Hararghe. A small strip of land in the southeast of the province bordering on the colony of Italian Somaliland, on the southern border of Sidamo was British East Africa (later Kenya).
History
With extensivem coffee-growing province of Sidamo yielded abundant revenue. Therefore, the power of nobles who were loyal to the Emperor, passed, including Dejazmach Balcha Safo, 1936-1941 which repeatedly ruled the area before the Italian occupation of Ethiopia.
After the Italian occupation in 1942 were the provinces of Borana and Wolayta - named after the ethnic groups of the Borana Oromo and Wolaytta - affiliated with Sidamo. This was part of the general reorganization that Emperor Haile Selassie I undertook after his return from exile.
In 1960 a revolt took place in the Gedeo Sidamo, who opposed the reorganization of the tax system and designated it as repressive. The revolt was brutally put down. The rebellious peasants were mostly equipped only with spears and swords and met with well-equipped sovereigns and the government troops. The Gedeo rebels were defeated in several attempts; an arbitration commission of inquiry headed by Afa Negus Eshate Gada said to blame not only the rulers but took the elders of the Gedeo - who had led the revolt - with fines.
In Ogadenkrieg 1977/78 Somali troops advanced to the South-East of Sidamo, which they claimed as part of " Western Somalia ," and wanted to annex to a Greater Somalia.
Division after 1991
With the ethno- federalist reorganization of administrative divisions of Ethiopia after 1991 the northwestern part of Sidamo of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples ( SNNPR ) region has been allocated during the largest inhabited by the Borana and other Oromo groups part of the province became part of Oromia.
Today's Sidama zone in the SNNPR comprises only a small part of the area of the former province. Today Another part within the SNNPR is the Gedeo zone. Belonging to Oromia regions were there to Borena zone; According to some sources, a portion of which was meanwhile as Guji zone for independent zone, named after the Guji - Oromo.
A small part in the extreme southeast of the former province was reportedly some of the Liben Zone of the Somali Region. This area is still disputed between Oromia and Somali.
Dispute with Starbucks
A legal dispute between Ethiopian coffee farmers and Starbucks loaded 2007 the reputation of Starbucks as a fair trading partner. Although paid Starbucks farmers a higher than average price, but the Ethiopian farmers wanted by a legal name protection of the growing region as a trademark Sidamo but more control over distribution and thus a higher price erhalten.Starbucks did not sign a license agreement and prompted about the Coffee Association National Coffee Association of USA ( NCA) the contradiction of the name of protection. A close connection to the NCA is composed by Dub Hay, vice president of Starbucks and responsible for global purchasing, who works as a lobbyist for the NCA at the same time. The NCA had initially achieved by judicial protest that the Patent Office has rejected the Ethiopian request. As a result of the threat of reputation loss Starbucks had the three Ethiopian coffees Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe recognized as trademarks in June 2007 and signed a licensing, distribution and marketing agreement