Wellega & Illubabur belongs to Damot not to Oromia

By ABRAHAM Taye

Wellega & Illubabur belongs to Damot not to Oromia

PART 1 : Oromos’ expansion is responsible for the genocide of Gafat population

The current Wellega and Illubabar are not lands of Oromo rather they were part of the Damot kingdom once its Gafat population and rulers evicted to Gojjam by the Oromo aggression. In the 16th Century, the Gafat inhabited a long stretch of territory on the bank of the Abbay River, extending from the Wellega river in the northern Shewa into eastern Wellaga (historical Damot), up to the Didessa river, and beyond. Southwards, their area of settlement extended as far as the headwaters of the Awash river: lakes Chala and Zway. The available earlier data indicate that the Gafat had inhabited a substantial portion of this territory in the previous two centuries.

From 1574-1606, the Gafat were increasingly exposed to the pressure of the northwards migrating Oromo. Unable to resist their onslaught decisively, large numbers of Gafat left their ancestral homelands and migrated across the Abbay into Gojjam, taking with them many of their place names ( including the term Damot, which now came to designate a town north of the Abbay ). Once in Gojjam, they were incapable of resisting the Christian kingdom, but instead looked toward them for protection. Overtime thus the Gafat became loyal and inconspicuous subjects of the Christian empire. This development culminated in the linguistic and cultural annihilation by Amara, which was virtually complete by the mid-20th century, a process that began 150 years during the visit to the area by the Scottish explorer James Bruce in 1769. Those Gafats who did not take part in the trans-Abbay exodus, but remained in their erstwhile homes and were fortunate enough to survive the Oromo invasion, were rather quickly assimilated , thus disappearing from history as a distinct ethnic groupGafats, now confined in Gojam speaking Amharic used to occupy a large area, are close relatives of Gurage. Study of their language revealed that it’s a family with Sodo and Sebat Bet dialects of Gurage. In Chaha, Sebat Bet gurage, just southwest of Welkite near Gubrye town, there is a region called Gafat.

The main reason many of the people were wiped out was because of the “depopulation” or i.e. “Genocide” that took place in the 16th century that is painstakingly recorded by the Portuguese such as Alvarez, Bermudez and Arab Ayyan. The Amhara, Argoba, Gafat, and Gurage people occupied much of the North, South, west and central Ethiopia that is why they speak Semitic language because of living together in common boundaries in ancient times. It is the Cushitic invaders Oromo occupying Illubabur & Wellega and bloking the Gojjam Amhara from the rest of Southern, Shewa and Gurage land.

In a related story the Mislee Oromo tribe occupied the present time Gibe and Jimma towns in the period between1554- 1562.This area was known as Enarya land of the Southern nations as currently called. Untill this point we can conclude that expansion of the Oromo towards west and North West Ethiopia Oromonized the areas by large.The expansion not only changed names of Damot to Wellega, Enarya to Jimma, but also resulted in extermination of the Gafat Damot population.

When to redress the crime done to the Gafat? The Gafat people should be given back their land in Wollega and Illubaur or monetary compensation. These people did not leave Damot of their will or even peacefully, they were mass murdered, their women raped, children castrated. It is a crime of genocide made by the Oromo they should redress the Gafat people before they claim Minilik. Not all, the few moron Oromos should learn it is typically referred to as genocide no survivor is left after their horrendous holocaust of the Gafat and Enarya tribes.

If the former boundary is not violated by the Oromo the possible Semitic region map will be mixing Southern nations such as Gurage land with Amhara land as Illubabur , wellega and Jimma were part of their land before the Orommo aggression.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ifat.png

This part 1 approves the Oromo aggression and genocide in the west and North West Ethiopia

By ABRAHAM Taye

Assimilation of Central and southern Ethiopians by Oromo( to be continued)