Oromo

The Oromo were Cushitic-speaking pastoral peoples of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, rather than a single kingdom. Their gadaa system organized leadership in eight-year terms.

From about 1530, as war weakened Ethiopia and Adal, Oromo groups expanded north. According to the monk Bahrey, early raiders entered Bale and returned home after each raid. Oromo later settled new lands and founded kingdoms in the Gibe region; Jimma's king Abba Jifar I converted to Islam in 1830.