Abstract:
This study assessed the history of Kambata and Hadiya relation from 1890s to 1990s.
Ethnicity can lead people to go back to their own culture as a last resort for resisting the
pressure of the modern life and the repressive successive states governed them. On the other
hand, the class manipulation and mobilization of the ethnic sentiments for purely narrow and
self-serving interests of a small minority of the elites who continuously struggle for positions
and some other ethnic maneuvers. Thus the Kambata and Hadiya Ethnic groups relationship
characterized and highly dominated by the Christian highland kingdom relation with the
agrarian society of Kambata in which paid tribute to the. As a result the nomadic Hadiya
group inherited the practices of agriculture led sedentary way of life .In addition to the above
characteristics, the geographical proximity and the language familiarity exposed them to be
administered within the same provinces and sub provinces from 1903-174 .That was why the
Christian missionaries established both spiritual and secular institutions to serve as one
community and enabled them to be highly facilitated their socioeconomic relation. Culturally,
one ethnic group shares others‟ language, religion, wedding, mourning ceremonies, dressing
style, hair style, feeding style and others with other ethnic groups. Iddir, iqub and mahber are
the natural outgrowth of a common historical background and the process of assimilation and
acculturation among the diverse ethnic groups in Kambata and Hadiya. The Kambata had
experienced a process of special ethnic relation with Hadiya and other neighboring peoples
since the medieval period due to population migration and movement. This occurred because
of the wars of Christian highland kingdoms and change of climate and demographic factors
such as migration due to population pressure, famine and land degradation in the north. The
Kambata and Hadiya had substantial interactions through local trade route. The Cushitic
speakers of this two peoples shared long boarder, live together; moreover culturally highly
assimilated than others.
