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People of Ethiopia ኢትዮጵያውያን
Total population
78 million (est.)
Regions with significant populations
Ethiopia    75,067,000 (July 2006 CSA est.) Western Europe and North America United States 72,000[1] United Kingdom 20,000[2] Italy 13,000[1] Canada 12,000[1] Sweden 11,000[1] Australia 11,000[3]
Languages
Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromigna, Guaragigna, Somali
Religion
Christian 61.6% (Ethiopian Orthodox 50.6%, Protestant 10.1% (P'ent'ay and Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso Church), Catholic 0.9%), Muslim 32.8%, Traditional 5.6%.[4]

Ethiopia's population is highly diverse. Most of its people speak a Semitic or Cushitic language. The Oromo, Amhara, and Tigreans make up more than three-fourths of the population, but there are more than 80 different ethnic groups within Ethiopia. Some of these have as few as 10,000 members. English is the most widely spoken foreign language and is taught in all secondary schools. Amharic was the language of primary school instruction but has been replaced in many areas by local languages such as Oromifa and Tigrinya.

[edit] Origins

Human settlement in Ethiopia dates to the beginnings of the human species. On one hand, homininan skeletons commonly known as Lucy and Selam have been discovered in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and assigned dates as long ago as 3.2 million years, while less complete Australopithecus remains of approximately the same age have been recovered from the Omo River basin in southern Ethiopia.

Another prehistoric, although more recent, event that some locate in Ethiopia is the emergence of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Some scholars (such as Igor Diakonoff and Lionel Bender) have proposed Ethiopia as the Urheimat of this language family, because its national boundaries include representatives from all but one of the subgroups of this family and has very diverse groups in close geographic proximity, a factor often considered a telltale sign for a linguistic geographic origin.

There are many theories regarding the beginning of the Ethiopian civilization. One theory which has existed for many centuries in the Ethiopian legends and Ethiopian Orthodox Church states that it was founded by Semitic-speaking Sabaean migrants from Yemen and Western Saudi Arabia in the past.^{[citation needed]} Another theory, which is more widely accepted today locates its origins in Africa, while acknowledging the influence of the Sabeans on the opposite side of the Red Sea.^[5] At a later period, Ethiopian civilization was exposed to Judaic influence, of which the best-known examples are the Qemant and Ethiopian Jews (or Beta Israel) ethnic groups, but Judaic customs, terminology, and beliefs can be found amongst the dominant culture of the Amhara and Tigrinya.^[6] Indian alphabets have been claimed as the example used to create the vowel system of the Ge'ez abugida.^[7]

[edit] History

Main article: History of Ethiopia

Around the 8th century BC, a kingdom known as D'mt was established in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital at Yeha in northern Ethiopia. After the fall of D`mt in the 5th century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms, until the rise of one of these kingdoms, the Aksumite Kingdom, ancestor of medieval and modern Ethiopia, during the first century BC, which was able to reunite the area.^[8]. They established bases on the northern highlands of the Ethiopian Plateau and from there expanded southward. The Persian religious figure Mani listed Axum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his time.^[9] It was in the early 4th century AD that a Syro-Greek castaway, Frumentius, was taken to the court and eventually converted King Ezana to Christianity, thereby making it the official state religion.^[10] For this accomplishment, he received the title "Abba Selama" ("Father of peace"). At various times, including a period in the 6th century, Axum controlled most of modern-day Yemen and some of southern Saudi Arabia just across the Red Sea, as well as controlling northern Sudan, northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Somalia.^[11]

The line of rulers descended from the Axumite kings was broken several times: first by the Jewish or pagan Queen Gudit around 950^[12] or 850.^[13] It was then interrupted by the Zagwe dynasty; it was during this dynasty that the famous rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were carved under King Lalibela, allowed by a long period of peace and stability.^[14] Around 1270, the Solomonic dynasty came to control Ethiopia, claiming descent from the kings of Axum. They called themselves Neguse Negest ("King of Kings," or Emperor), basing their claims on their direct descent from Solomon and the queen of Sheba.^[15]

During the reign of Emperor Yeshaq, Ethiopia made its first successful diplomatic contact with a European country since Aksumite times, sending two emissaries to Alfons V of Aragon, who sent return emissaries that failed to complete the trip to Ethiopia.^[16] The first continuous relations with a European country began in 1508 with Portugal under Emperor Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father.^[17] This proved to be an important development, for when the Empire was subjected to the attacks of the Adal General and Imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi (called "Grañ", or "the Left-handed"), Portugal responded to Lebna Dengel's plea for help with an army of 400 men, who helped his son Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule.^[18]. However, when Emperor Susenyos converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of deaths.^[19] The Jesuit missionaries had offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on June 25, 1632 Susenyos' son, Emperor Fasilides, declared the state religion to again be Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and other Europeans. ^[20][21]

All of this contributed to Ethiopia's isolation from 1755 to 1855, called the Zemene Mesafint or "Age of Princes." The Emperors became figureheads, controlled by warlords like Ras Mikael Sehul of Tigray, and later by the Oromo Yejju dynasty.^[22] Ethiopian isolationism ended following a British mission that concluded an alliance between the two nations; however, it was not until the reign of Emperor Tewodros II, who began modernizing Ethiopia and recentralizing power in the Emperor, that Ethiopia began to take part in world affairs once again.

The 1880s were marked by the Scramble for Africa and modernization in Ethiopia, when the Italians began to vie with the British for influence in bordering regions. Asseb, a port near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, was bought from the local Afar sultan, vassal to the Ethiopian Emperor, in March 1870 by an Italian company, which by 1890 led to the Italian colony of Eritrea. Conflicts between the two countries resulted in the Battle of Adowa in 1896, whereby the Ethiopians surprised the world by defeating the colonial power and remaining independent, under the rule of Menelik II. Italy and Ethiopia signed a provisional treaty of peace on October 26, 1896.

The early 20th century was marked by the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I, who undertook the rapid modernization of Ethiopia — interrupted only by the brief Italian occupation (1936–1941).^[23] British and patriot Ethiopian troops liberated the Ethiopian homeland in 1941, which was followed by sovereignty on January 31, 1941 and British recognition of full sovereignty (i.e. without any special British privileges) with the signing of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement in December 1944.^[24]

[edit] Languages

Main article: Languages of Ethiopia

Amharic 32.7% (Official Language), Oromigna 31.6%, Tigrinya 6.1%, Somali 6.0%, Guragigna 3.5%, Sidamo 3.5%, other local languages; Arabic, English (major foreign language taught in schools), Italian (only spoken by white minority).

[edit] Genetic studies

Ethiopians are also among the most genetically diverse people in the world. A recent study based on cluster analysis that looked at a combined sample of Amhara and Oromo found that they share 62% of their genome with Caucasians, 24% with sub-Saharan Africans, 8% with Austro-Melanesians, and 6% with East Asians.^[25]

Most Y-chromosome haplotypes in Ethiopia are of E3b or one of its derivatives. It exists at its highest level among the Oromo, where it represents 79.5% of the haplotypes, and it is also found at 45.8% among the Amhara. The haplogroup is thought to have originated in Ethiopia or elsewhere in the Horn of Africa 26,000 years ago, and is mostly characterized by E3b1 (M78), which arose later in north-eastern Africa and then back-migrated to eastern Africa.^[26] Middle Eastern haplogroup J, characterised by the mutation 12f2a, is also found frequently in the Amhara and Tigray people. It exists at levels of about 35% among the Amhara, of which about 33% is of the type J-M267, almost all of which was acquired during Neolithic times or earlier, while 2% is of the derived J-M172 type representing admixture due to recent and historic migrations.^[27]

Unlike their Y-DNA, Ethiopians' mtDNA is more typical of sub-Saharan Africans, leading researchers to conclude that "Caucasoid gene flow into the Ethiopian gene pool occurred predominantly through males. Conversely, the Niger-Congo contribution to the Ethiopian population occurred mainly through females."^[28]

[edit] Population and geographical spread

[edit] Ethnographic subdivisions

Oromo 32.1%, Amhara 30.2%, Tigray 6.2%, Somali 6.0%, Gurage 4.3%, Sidama 3.4%, Wolayta 2%, Afar 2%, Hadiya 2%, Gamo 1% (smaller groups are listed at Category:Ethnic groups in Ethiopia) .

[edit] Religion

Christian 61.6% (Ethiopian Orthodox 50.6%, Protestant 10.1% (P'ent'ay and Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso Church), Catholic 0.9%), Muslim 32.8%, Traditional 5.6%.^[4]

[edit] Diaspora

• Ethiopian American
• Ethiopians in the United Kingdom
• Ethiopian Australian

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• E. Sylvia Pankhurst, The Ethiopian People. Their Rights and Progress. Woodford Green, Essex: New Times & Ethiopia News 1946.
• Edward Ullendorff, The Ethiopians: an introduction to country and people. London: Oxford University Press 1960, ²1965, ³1973 (ISBN 0-19-285061-X), ⁴1990 (Wiesbaden: F. Steiner; ISBN 3-515-05693-9).