Country: Ethiopia
Group: Gurage
Date: 11/20/2020
Team: Thomas Chia (lead), Arisha Khan, Alexa Hager
Content Warning: slavery
Approximate Time Period: 1500-1942
The Gurage in Ethiopia have faced forced labor in the 16th century as they acted as serfs during the Oromo expansion. Besides this, no information could be found regarding the group experiencing forced labor, therefore I will rate the information found a 1.
Living in the fertile, semi-mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia, the Gurage people make up about 2.7% of the nation’s population (Abegaz, 2005). The Oromo expansion of the 16th century absorbed many indigenous groups of the kingdoms which were previously part of the Abyssinian empire (Pankhurst, 1997). In this transition, many Gurage were converted to Gabaros (serfs) while the native ancient names of their territories were replaced by the names of the Oromo clans who conquered them (Pankhurst, 1997). Besides this, we could not find any other information regarding the group doing forced labor in the country.
Sources
- Abegaz, B. (2005). Ethiopia: A Model Nation of Minorities. 3. Retrieved November 20, 2020 from http://www.ethiopianreview.com/pdf/001/Ethiopia.Census Portrait.pdf
- Pankhurst, R. (1997). The Ethiopian borderlands: Essays in regional history from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. Lawrenceville, N.J: Red Sea Press.