Gojjam(Ethiopia): peopling, Christianization, and identity

Gojjam is the home of Cushitic, Nilo-Saharan, Semtic and Omotic peoples and languages. The present pattern of settlements and religion is the result of a long socio-economic and political process and developments that mainly happened between thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The coming and settlement of Christian Amhara in particular had reconfigured the settlement pattern of the former settlers: the Gummuz and the Agew. The process of incorporation of Gojjam was preceded and coincided with the settlement of monks. During the sixteenth century, a new wave of migration and settlement had radically changed the composition and number of the population. During this period, Damot, Gafat and Oromo had made important settlements. The cumulative effect of the process has made Gojjam to look like small Ethiopia. This paper, based on published and unpublished sources, attempted to fill this gap as it has tried to identify the basic patterns of habitation, evangelization, interaction, integration and a variety of institutional features and linkages focusing on the period between fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Further, the essay has tried to discuss and show how Christianization and settlement of migrants speaking many different languages from different areas had transformed Gojjam into a distinctively Christian region.