The Basketo people are an Omotic-speaking ethnic group whose homeland lies in the northwestern part of the

South Ethiopia Regional State The South Ethiopia Regional State (Amharic: ደቡብ ኢትዮጵያ ክልላዊ መንግስት) is a region in southern Ethiopia. It was formed from the southern part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) on 19 A ...

(SERS) of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. The Basketo Zone is named after this ethnic group. According to the 2007 Ethiopian national census, this ethnic group has 78,284 members, of whom 99.3% live in the SNNPR.2007 Ethiopian census, first draft
, Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (accessed 6 May 2009) The Basketo cultivate

ensete ''Ensete'' is a genus of monocarpic flowering plants native plant, native to tropical regions of Africa and Asia. It is one of the three genera in the banana family, Musaceae, and includes the false banana or enset (''Ensete ventricosum, E. vent ...

and, additionally, tuber roots,

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...

and vegetables. They also keep domestic animals in small numbers. Traditionally, the Basketo were organized as a segmentary clan society headed by a divine king, the ''kati''. The ethnic religion of the Basketo knew a duality of the sky-god Tsosii and the

earth-mother A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmological role of a creator- and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, a ...

Qacharunde. When they were united with the other ethnic groups by King Menilik II in 1893 many of them converted to

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

. The Basketo were conquered for the Ethiopian empire by Ras Welde Giyorgis in 1893.

Notes

Sources

* Azeb Amha and Dirk Bustorf: "Basketo". In: ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica''. vol. 1. Wiesbaden 2003. pp. 499f. * Eike Haberland: "Die Basketto und verwandte Stämme". In: ''Altvölker Süd-Äthiopiens''. Stuttgart 1959. pp. 189–226. Ethnic groups in Ethiopia Omotic-speaking peoples {{ethiopia-ethno-group-stub

See also

Notes

Sources