Gurage is a zone named for the Gurage people, an Habesha Ethiosemitic-speaking ethnic group whose homeland lies in this zone. Most parts of this area are heavily eroded, which required farmers to protect their enset fields with stone and soil bunds. During the 1930s, about 20% of the land in Gurage was covered with natural forests, which has since been almost completely cut down. According to the historian Paul B. Henze, the Gurage people origins are explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Kingdom of Aksum, which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other.
However other historians have raised the issue of the complexity of Gurage Peoples if viewed as a singular group, for example Ulrich Braukhamper states that the Gurage East people may have been an extension of the ancient Harla people. Indeed, there is evidence that Harla architecture may have influenced old buildings (pre-16th c.) found near Harar (eastern Ethiopia), and the Gurage East group often cite kinship with Harari (Hararghe) peoples in the distant past. Many historians believe that Gurage peoples may be a complex mixture of Abyssinian, Harla, and other groups which migrated and settled in that region for differing reasons.
The Gurage live a sedentary life based on agriculture, involving a complex system of crop rotation and transplanting. They are known as hard workers and as a model of good work culture in the whole Ethiopia. Ensete is the main staple food, but other cash crops are grown, which include coffee and khat, both traditional stimulants. 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".
About the stamp
The stamp is part of a large series of definitive stamps depicting the Golden-backed Woodpecker (Dendropicos Abyssinicus), issued on January 12, 1998.
References
Gurage People - Wikipedia
Gurage Zone - Wikipedia
Sender: Adam Wole (direct swap)
Sent from Addis Ababa (Addis Ababa / Ethiopia), on 23.12.2017
Photo: Pierre Vallee
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