Gurage people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2,867,377 (2007 census) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Gurage Zone | |
| Languages | |
| Gurage | |
| Religion | |
| Islam, Christianity, traditional faith | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
The Gurage people are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, its population is 6,867,377 people, of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers. This is 5.53% of the total population of Ethiopia, or 9.52% of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR). The Gurage people traditionally inhabit a fertile, semi-mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia, about 125 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa, bordering the Awash River in the north, the Gibe River (a tributary of the Omo River) to the southwest, and Lake Zway in the east. In addition, according to the 2007 Ethiopian national census the Gurage can also be found in large numbers in Addis Ababa, Oromia Region, Dire Dawa, Harari Region, Somali Region, Amhara Region, Gambela Region, Benishangul-Gumuz Region, and Tigray Region.
The languages spoken by the Gurage are known as the Gurage languages. The variations among these languages are used to group the Gurage people into three dialectically varied subgroups: Northern, Eastern and Western. However, the largest group within the Eastern subgroup, known as the Silt'e, identify foremost as Muslims. In 2000, the Silt'e, refusing to identify as Gurage, voted overwhelmingly for the establishment of a separate special administrative unit within SNNPR by the EPRDF government.
According to the historian Paul B. Henze, their origins are explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Kingdom of Aksum, which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other. However other historians have disputed this, according to Ulrich Braukhamper, the Gurage people may have been an extension of the ancient Harla people.
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