Kambaata

The Kambaata are a Cushitic people of the south-central Ethiopian highlands, whose language, Kambaatissa, belongs to the Highland East Cushitic group alongside the closely related Hadiyya and Sidama tongues and counts the Tembaaro, Alaba and Qabeena dialects.

They first enter the written record in the chronicles of the Ethiopian emperor Yeshaq I, who reigned from 1414 to 1429, and their incorporation into the Christian Ethiopian realm in this period left the province largely Christianized. The Kambaata organized themselves into the kingdom of Kembata, ruled by kings titled Woma; the first, Hamlmal, founded the ruling Oyeta clan, and a later king, Dagoye, enlarged its territory.

A settled monarchical order is documented from the sixteenth century. The Woma kept court on Mount Hambaricho, where the Kambaata deity Abba Sarecho was believed to dwell and where the annual Gifata festival was celebrated.