Siltʼe people


The Siltʼe people are an ethnic group in southern Ethiopia. They inhabit today's Siltʼe Zone which is part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region. Siltʼe denote their origin to the city of Harar. A considerable number of Siltʼe live in Addis Ababa, Adama and other cities and smaller urban centres of southern Ethiopia where they make a living, e.g., as merchants or keepers of petty shops. In the countryside, the Siltʼe practice mixed farming and cultivate ensete.

Name

The term Siltʼe is the modern ethnonym of the speakers of the Siltʼe language. The modern ethnonym Siltʼe was chosen in memory of this ancestor and as a reminiscence of the old Islamic sultanate of Hadiyya or Hadiya the Silte people claim a historical relation to.

Subgroups

Today's Siltʼe comprise the following major historical sub-groups: Azernet, Berbere, Alichcho, Wuriro, Melga and Siltʼi. The name Siltʼi is derived from the alleged ancestor Gen Siltʼi.

Identity

Until the second half of the twentieth century the Siltʼe were considered as being part of the Gurage. Silte people are also called Adere by the neighboring Arsi-Oromo which might indicate the relationship to the Harari who live miles away from where the Silte people are inhabiting. The two ethnic groups share somewhat similar language and the same religion. Other designations were Islam or East Gurage.
After the fall of the Derg regime in 1991 a political movement formed to establish an independent ethnic identity for the Siltʼe, as they now called themselves. Ten years later, the Siltʼe were successful in obtaining an administrative independence from the Gurage Zone in the creation of the Siltʼe Zone.

Religion

The great majority of the Siltʼe population is Muslim making up 99.48 the population followed by Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity at 0.52%.