Gamo

The Gamo highlands of southern Ethiopia were organised into local communities called dere, each possessing its own political and ritual life. From the sixteenth into the nineteenth century, these settlements maintained a landscape of divided authority rather than one central Gamo capital. Hereditary leaders known as kawo stood alongside holders of the halaqa title, while public assembly grounds provided places to settle disputes, discuss common affairs and recognise leaders.

The cultivated highlands supplied a material foundation for these institutions. Enset, or false banana, was both food and a valued part of household culture, requiring extensive work to grow and process. Weaving added a specialised craft to farming and livestock keeping. Communities were connected through markets, kinship and relations between their leaders, while retaining distinct local identities. The highlands' history combined cooperation within each dere with connections beyond it, giving the Gamo a shared cultural world that accommodated considerable variation in the authority and ceremonies of individual settlements.