Jibat

Jibat rises in the highlands of southern Ethiopia, in the country of the Hadiya, where hills and valleys link farming villages with pastures. The highlands grow enset, barley and beans, and the slopes carry cattle and sheep. Local tradition holds the summit as the site of a castle built by the fifteenth-century Ethiopian ruler Zara Yaqob, a memory of royal building that gave the mountain its place in regional stories.

The wider southern highlands were home to diverse communities and political traditions. From the late sixteenth century Oromo groups moved into parts of the south-western highlands, and new political formations developed among the Oromo and their neighbours. Trade and tribute linked the mountain country to the Ethiopian court, and the local lords managed farmland and labour through their own councils and alliances.