10 Facts about the Dorze people of Ethiopia

Arba Minch, Gamo Gofa Zone, Ethiopia Photo credit: Nacho Gutiérrez — **Arba Minch, Gamo Gofa Zone, Ethiopia**
Photo credit: Nacho Gutiérrez

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The Dorze people of Ethiopia are indigenous to the Gamo Gofa Highlands in the Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples Regions (SNNPR). Oral traditions of the Dorze indicate that their society originally consisted of 25 clans who came from different areas but eventually became a united group and settled in the Gamo Gofa Highlands.
The population of the Dorze people in Ethiopia is estimated to be around 30,000. They mainly reside in the areas of the Omo River banks to the highlands of Lake Abaya, in villages near Chencha and Arba Mich, located in the South Omo Zone of the SNNPR. They also reside in other regions and cities within Ethiopia, most notably in Shiro Meda, Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia’s Dorze population speaks an Omotic language known as Dorze, a language that belongs to the Afro-Asian family of languages.
Before the introduction of Abrahamic religions, the Dorze people’s traditional belief was in a Supreme Being and creator, Tawa. The traditional belief also included diviners, such as Maro, who possesses divine powers to solve problems and serves as a mediator between humans and Tawa. Additionally, the traditional beliefs also consisted of gods or goddesses whose spirits can dwell in stones, animals, and more (Atlas of Humanity).

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5. In Ethiopia, Dorze people are highly renowned for their weaving skills. Weaving is a primary profession for most Dorze people across Ethiopia. Traditionally men are the weavers while women help with the spinning and delivery of bundles of raw cotton, which is later carried up to the lowlands for spinning and dyeing. A clothing material traditional to the areas of Arba Mich is the Denguza which comes in various sizes, from a thin scarf to larger pieces for making jackets and shirts (Lucie, 2014).

The Dorze people are known for their black, yellow, and red denguza pattern. — The Dorze people are known for their black, yellow, and red *denguza* pattern.

6. Additionally, Dorze people engage in small-scale farming on subsistence agriculture. In their farmlands, the Dorze people grow cereals. They also have their own little gardens around their huts where they cultivate enset (false banana ), coffee, vegetables, spices, fruits, and tobacco.

7. The Dorze are also known for their unique huts that resemble giant beehives. Traditional Dorze huts are woven from bamboo and thatched with straw or split bamboo pieces. Another unique element of the traditional style huts is their transportability and longevity, lasting 60 to 80 years (AllAfrica, 2020).

8. The Dorze people typically settle less serious conflicts through the elders in the community and halakas. The Halakas are honorable community members chosen by local leaders and serve a limited term in office, but they retain their title for life. This title of honor comes with a great price as members chosen to be Halakas are requires to spend money on feasts and gifts during their initiation. If a candidate refuses to accept the honorable community title, the Dorze believe that the divine would punish the individual.

9. In the Dorze culture, events like funerals are important public occasions. One traditional way the Dorze people express grief is by standing before the family who is mourning their loved one and hitting one’s chest and crying ‘Tana Woda,’ which means that you would give your life for the person who has passed away. Additionally, people would also pull out some of their hair, but they only pretend to do so if they are not related to the person (Sugar & Olmstead, 1973).

10. The celebration of Meskel is also an important festival among the Dorze ethnic group. Meskel is a festival that commemorates the founding of the true cross by St, Helena in the fourth century. During Meskel, Unmarried girls usually gather each evening in public meadows to dance and sing songs. New brides typically walk down the famous Bodo marketplace wearing a white cap and a glob of butter over the white cap. The skullcap of butter signifies her acceptance into her husband’s clan. Later in the ceremony, older women take the lump of butter from the girls’ heads and transfer them onto their female relatives (Sugar & Olmstead, 1973).