Oromo people
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Ethiopia
|
25,488,344 (2007 census) |
 Kenya
|
227,674 (2009 census) |
 Australia
|
2,030 |
| Expatriates | unknown |
| Languages | |
| Oromo · Amharic · Tigrinya | |
| Religion | |
| Islam ~ 50%,Ethiopian Orthodox ~ 33%,Protestants and Traditional Religions | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Afar · Agaw · Amhara · Beja · Saho · Somali · Tigray · Tigre · Sidama people and other Cushitic peoples. | |
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The Oromo people (Oromo: Oromoo; Ge'ez: ኦሮሞ; ’Oromo) are an ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia, who are also found in northern Kenya and Somalia. They are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa, at approximately 34.5% of Ethiopia's population according to the 2007 census, while other estimates place them at around 40%. With an estimated total Ethiopian population of over 102 million, the number of Oromo people exceed 35 million in Ethiopia alone.
Oromos speak the Oromo language as a mother tongue (also called Afaan Oromoo and Oromiffa), which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. They were referred to as Galla through much of the history, a pejorative term. The word Oromo appeared for the first time in 1893, then slowly became common in the second half of the 20th century.
The Oromo people subscribed to their Traditional Religion, had the gadda system of governance in their medieval history which consisted of elections of their leaders, and they were targeted by Oromo and Sidama rulers as well as other neighbouring states, and were one of the main source of Ethiopian slaves exported for centuries and through about the start of the 20th century, The Oromo people became Christians or Muslims over the centuries, while some retained their traditional beliefs. They have been one of the parties to historic migrations, and wars particularly with northern Christians and with southern and eastern Muslims, in the Horn of Africa.
The origins and prehistory of the Oromo people is unclear, in part because Oromo people lacked a written script, relied on oral traditions and did not write their own history prior to the 16th-century. Older and subsequent colonial era documents mention Oromo people as Galla, but it was written by members of ethnic groups or missionaries generally hostile and at war with them. Anthropologists and historians such as Herbert S. Lewis consider these indirect literature as "full of distortions, biases and misunderstandings".
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