Cushitic

The Cushitic group includes the Somali and Afar herders of the lowlands, the Oromo, Sidama and Agaw of Ethiopia, and the Beja nomads of the Eastern Desert, speakers of languages of the Afroasiatic family. In the tenth century the Beja were Christian; Arab migrants later brought them Islam.

From about 1415 the Sultanate of Adal, ruling Harar, Zeila and Berbera, fought the Christian emperors of Ethiopia, and the war of 1529—1543 exhausted both sides. After it the Oromo, governed by the gadaa system with its eight-year terms, moved north out of the lands around Lake Chew Bahir and Lake Chamo.