“Aspect of Ethnic Interaction and Integration in Gondar: The Case of the Qemant(c. early14thcentury–first decade of 21st century”1)

Abstract

For several centuries, ethnic interaction and integration have been common features in Ethiopia and the Horn, like in the rest of the world. Consequently, various ethnic groups have been wholly or partly integrated into the dominant group around them. The people of Qemant, who now live in the Chilga and Kerker areas of North Gondar Zone of the Amhara National Regional State in Ethiopia, are among these ethnic groups, who, after more than seven centuries of interaction with their Christian- Amhara neighbors and the state, have become almost entirely integrated. This study, therefore, seeks to show how this integration has come about in a gradual, but steady interaction. It reconstructs the history of Qemant interaction and integration from the early 14th century, the time when the Qemant came into firsthand contact with the Solomonic state, up to the 2007 national census which excluded the Qemant from the list of ethnic groups of the country and triggered a movement that demanded recognition and self-administration for them.The study uses a wide variety of literature: books, theses, dissertations, traveler and missionary accounts, articles, and census reports.Oral traditions are also majorcorpusesof substantiating the study. Qualitative research method has beenemployed to analyze and synthesizethe information gathered from these sources.The study revealed that through centuries of continuous and complex interaction with the state and larger units of societies around them, the Qemant survival, as a distinct identity, has now come under serious challenge in and around Gondar.