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Goffa or Gofa are an
Omotic The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region. The Ge'ez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have com ...
ethnic group indigenous to
Omo Valley The Omo River (also called Omo-Bottego) in southern Ethiopia is the largest Ethiopian river outside the Nile Basin. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and it empties into Lake Turkana on the border with Kenya. The ...
located in
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
's
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (often abbreviated as SNNPR; am, የደቡብ ብሔር ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦች ክልል, Yädäbub Bḥer Bḥeräsäbočna Hzboč Kllə) is a regional state in southwestern E ...
. According to 2007 census there are 363,009 ethnic Goffa in Ethiopia, which make up around 0.49% of the country's total population. Traditional language of the Goffa is the Goffa language, which belongs to the Omotic branch of the
Afroasiatic languages The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
.


Gofa

The term Gofa originated from Gosha's
mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...
Goffe and the heroic
King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Goba (meaning brave, strong
warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have been p ...
) while he was ruling the Gofa region. According to the elders, there were three historical perspectives on the naming of the Gofa people. One perspective is associated with Gofa patterns of settlement: from ancient times the name Gofa was given to people who settled in the
mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...
s. The second perspective is that the name Gofa derives from a powerful warrior
leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
, originally named Kawo Gooba, which gradually became Gofa. There is also the third account from elders that the name Gofa is the original name of the people in the first
homeland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...
, Gibe, which is derived from the line of the
ancestral An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...
line of descent. This claim is further supported by the
genealogical Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
structure of the Gofa people.


website

http://www.snnprsgofazone.gov.et/


History

There are two perspectives about the origin of the Gofa people. The first perspective is that some
clans A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...
() are just native to the land, and call themselves "Bita Tusi", literally meaning "emerged out of the land itself". These clans include Goshana, Kalata, Gamo Maala, Hirara, and Maka. The other perspective states that there are also clans / from the neighboring areas and settled in the area. This movement extended up to Bubula in the upper
Gibe River The Gibe River (also Great Gibe River) is by far the largest tributary of the Omo River in Ethiopia and typically flowing south-southeast. The confluence of the large Gibe River at with the smaller Wabe River forms the even larger Omo River. Cons ...
. These clans include Galo-Malla, Walayta Malla, Boroda-Malla, Ayka, Fastigara, Enigara etc. From the above two perspectives one can conclude that, however differently clans explain their origins in various ways, both groups settled in the area for a long period of time and identified themselves as Gofa. According to the second perspective the first
homeland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...
of Gofa was Bubula and Gibe in the upper valley of the
Omo River The Omo River (also called Omo-Bottego) in southern Ethiopia is the largest Ethiopian river outside the Nile Basin. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and it empties into Lake Turkana on the border with Kenya. The ...
. It is said that at a certain time in the past, from this original land the people moved towards Southern part following the Omo River basin. Immediately after they moved southward following the Omo River, they found their first settlement at Wurki, in today's
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...
western part of Demba Gofa. There are several reasons cited as the cause for their southward movements. One of the pushing factors is unsuitable natural environment in the previous settlements. Besides, the search for suitable natural environment:
pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...
and
fertile Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertilit ...
land can be sited as the pulling factors towards their current settlements. There are also various groups who come to the Gofa area from the surrounding
ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
groups. Informants mentions Shasha, Kolta, Zulu Kalacha, Waysara, Woide Dargintha, Woide Yallo, Layma and Tsanga Darara as the second settlement places of the Gofa. In most cases, the southward movement of the people was made under the leadership of their respective Kawo, the independent leaders of different Gofa chiefdoms/
kingdoms Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
, following the mountainous chain under the leadership of their Kawo until Kencho Gerera. Kencho Gerera is now located in Geze Gofa woreda between Berza and Kencho
kebele A ward ( am, ቀበሌ; om, Araddaa; ) is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia: a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. It is part of a district, itself usually part of a zone, which in turn are grouped into ...
s. The southward movement of the Gofa was not
peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...
ful. This was mainly because the most fertile favorable land chosen by the Gofa nationality to settle was not empty; there were settlers in the land. So, the contradicting interest necessitates some sort of conflicts between the one that opted to occupy the land and the previous settlers of the land. As most of the elders agree, others occupied the current Gofa – land. When the expanding Gofa nationality tried to occupy the land
confrontation Confrontation is an element of conflict wherein parties confront one another, directly engaging one another in the course of a dispute between them. A confrontation can be at any scale, between any number of people, between entire nations or cult ...
occurred. The others attempted to resist the expansion of the Gofa. However, since the expanding Gofa nationality were led by a unified command of the Kawo (literally king), they have the advantage to take most of the land. It is argued that there were continuous conflicts and disputes that resulted in the eviction of the others. On the conflict events between the expanding Gofa and the resisting inhabitants, two brothers of Buraqa led the movement of Gofa. The one who become the successor of his father become one of the powerful Kawo called Kawo Gaamo Buraqa.


Culture and society

As it widely believed by the elders, the Gofa
nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...
has two ancestral forefathers which are derived into two ancestral lines. The two ancestral clans are called Maala and Dogala. These two clans further subdivide into various groupings, called . Some of the groups or under Maala include Goshana, Ayka, Maka, Kalata, Borodamaala, Golomala, Buyla, Gaamo-maala, Sili-maala, Lontso-maala, and others. The groups or under Dogala include Zutuma, Worze, Gawuraro, Ayfarso, Amari, Gudarti, Muquriti, Sachi, Sawa, Ganji, etc. The Gofa call their
father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
"Aawa" and their
mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...
"Ayye". Daughters are called and sons .
Male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...
sibling A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separat ...
s are called and
female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...
siblings . The Gofa
kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
system in general follows the bifurcate collateral type; father's brother and mother's brother are differentiated as and , and from each other by the terms and respectively. Likewise, mother's sisters and father's
sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...
s are differentiated from each other by the terms and respectively. Father's father is called and father's mother as , while mother's father is and mother's mother takes the name .


References

*Ethnohistory and Ethnography Study of Gofa Nationality by Markos Tekle and Walelign Tadesse, 2011 G.C. *History of Gofa Nationality by Belayneh Gebremariam, 2005 E.C. *Fleming, H.C. 1973. "Recent Research in Omotic Speaking Areas" Proceedings of the first
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Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
n Studies.
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. {{authority control Ethnic groups in Ethiopia Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region Omotic-speaking peoples