The Origins of the Galla and somali

Abstract

This study presents a reconstruction of the origins and major movements of the Galla and Somali of Northeast Africa which departs from most of the previous literature on the subject. The traditional view has been that the Galla occupied most of the Horn of Africa until the Somali, beginning about the tenth century, swept south and south-west from the shores of the Gulf of Aden driving the Galla before them. The pressure of the Somali has also been considered the major impetus to the Galla invasions of Ethiopia in the sixteenth century. It is the thesis of this paper that both the Galla and the Somali originated in southern Ethiopia, that the Somali expanded to the east and north much earlier than the Galla, and that the Galla lived only in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya until their migrations began about 1530.

Genetic Signatures Reveal High-Altitude Adaptation in a Set of Ethiopian Populations

“…Alternatively, it is possible that we observe selection on BHLHE41 in the Oromo due to recent gene flow followed by selection for the variant, causing its frequency to increase. Unlike the Amhara, records point to a recent (∼500 years) settlement of the Ethiopian highlands by the Oromo population (Lewis 1966; Hassen 1990). This recent estimate would support the scenario of selection aided by gene flow.…”

“…The Amhara, Tigray, Oromo, Afar, and Anuak samples were collected at altitudes of 1,829 m, 1,695 m, 1,758 m, 400 m, and 500 m, respectively. Though the samples were not collected at extremely high altitudess, the Amhara and Oromo populations have been residing in regions of Ethiopia higher than 2,500 m for many generations (Lewis 1966; Hassen 1990; Alkorta-Aranburu et al 2012). The Tigray individuals were chosen, so that they had both parents and all grandparents living at greater than 2,000 m. Using these five populations, we performed five selection scans without correcting for admixture and another five selection scans after correcting for admixture.…”

“…Alkorta-Aranburu et al (2012) assume 5,000 years as a reasonable estimate for the Amhara high-altitude settlement in Ethiopia. In contrast, the estimates of when the Oromo settled in regions of high altitude are far more recent at approximately 500 years (Lewis 1966; Hassen 1990). Part of the analysis from Alkorta-Aranburu et al (2012) shows that genome-wide genetic differentiation between the high- and low-altitude Amhara or between the high- and low-altitude Oromo is almost negligible as measured by principle components analysis (PCA) and F ST analyses (see fig.…”

The Technical Style of Wallaga Pottery Making: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Oromo Potters in Southwest Highland Ethiopia

“…Before the sixteenth century, the Oromo lived in different parts of present-day central-southern Ethiopia, specifically in Sidamo and Bale (Almeida 1954;Braukamper 1986;Lewis 1966;Hassen 1990;Huntingford 1969). Before the Oromo moved into the region, the area was sparsely inhabited by various Nilo-Saharan and Omotic-speaking groups including the Agadi, Masango, Kaza, Mao, Shuluk, and Gabato (Habte 2007;Ta'a 1986;Tujuba 1994).…”

Distribution of Blood Groups in the East African Somali Population

“…This Somali expansion, which came ultimately to en compass an area from the Awash valley in Ethiopia to the Tana river in northern Kenya, took place during some 900 years between the 9th and 20th centuries. How ever, it has been argued that the linguistic and other evidence point to the presence of the Somali in much the same region as they now occupy for a considerably longer period [Lewis, 1966], and that the process of Somali expansion has been exactly in the opposite direction from west in the southern Ethiopian highlands to East and North.…”