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The Gurage people are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group in Ethiopia.〔G. W. E. Huntingford, "William A. Shack: The Gurage: a people of the ensete culture"〕 According to the 2007 national census, its population is 1,867,377 people, of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers. This is 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia, or 7.52% of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR).〔("Census 2007" ), first draft, Table 5.〕 The Gurage people traditionally inhabit a fertile, semi-mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia, about 125 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa, bordering the Awash River in the north, the Gibe River (a tributary of the Omo) to the southwest, and Lake Zway in the east. In addition, according to the 2007 Ethiopian national census the Gurage can also be found in large numbers in Addis Ababa, Oromia Region, Dire Dawa, Harari Region, Somali Region, Amhara Region, Gambella Region, Benishangul-Gumuz Region, and Tigray Region.〔Table 3.1 on (2007 Ethiopian Regional States Census Data )〕 The languages spoken by the Gurage are known as the Gurage languages. The variations among these languages are used to group the Gurage people into three dialectically varied subgroups: Northern, Eastern and Western. However, the largest group within the Eastern subgroup, known as the Silt'e, identify foremost as Muslims. In 2000, the Silt'e, refusing to identify as Gurage, voted overwhelmingly for the establishment of a separate special administrative unit within SNNPR by the EPRDF government.〔 ==Description== According to the historian Paul B. Henze, their origins are explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Aksumite Empire, which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other.〔Henze, ''Layers of Time'' (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 112.〕 The majority of the inhabitants of the Gurage Zone were reported as Muslim, with 51.02% of the population reporting that belief, while 41.91% practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, 5.79% were Protestants, and 1.12% Catholic. According to the 1994 Ethiopian census, self-identifying Gurage comprise about 4.3% of Ethiopia's population, or about 3 million people.〔(Ethiopia: A Model Nation of Minorities ) (accessed 6 April 2006)〕 The Gurage live a sedentary life based on agriculture, involving a complex system of crop rotation and transplanting. Ensete is their main staple crop, but other cash crops are grown, which include coffee and ''chat''. Animal husbandry is practiced, but mainly for milk supply and dung. Other foods consumed include green cabbage, cheese, butter, and roasted grains, with meat consumption being very limited (also used in rituals or ceremonies). The Gurage, the writer Nega Mezlekia notes, "have earned a reputation as skilled traders".〔Nega Mezlekia, ''Notes from the Hyena's Belly'' (New York: Picador, 2000), p. 227.〕 One example of an enterprising Gurage is one Tekke, whom Nathaniel T. Kenney described as "an Ethiopian Horatio Alger, Jr.": ''He began his career selling old bottles and tin cans; the Emperor (Selassie ) recently rewarded his achievement in creating his plantation by calling him to Addis Ababa and decorating him''.〔Kenney, "Ethiopian Adventure", ''National Geographic'', 127 (1965), p. 582.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gurage people」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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