AMHARA PEOPLE

The people of Amhara have lived in the central highland of Ethiopia for a very long time. They are believed to have descended from the people who came to Ethiopia many centuries ago from southern Arabia. These people were believed to have lived and mixed up with the Agau and other people in the region.

Most of the Amhara people have been traditional farmers. They grow crops like Tef, Barley, Wheat and well rear cattle. The lost of influence by the powerful Axum empire made the Amhara people to grow in influence. Their political and cultural influence grew very great. This influence led to their establishment of powerful kingdoms like Lasta, Amhara, Gojjam and Shewa. Their political and social influence helped them to play a very important role in the spread of Christian Ethiopian culture in the Ethiopian Empire.

The influential nature of the Amhara speaking people made it possible for Amhara language to spread as the official language of Ethiopia. The language is spoken by more than half of the people in Ethiopia. The language belongs to the Semitic family of languages. It is written in a modified form of the GE’EZ script, with consonants that take the different forms according to the vowels that go with them. There is more oral literature (traditional stories, praise poetry) of leaders and important men in the language. The writing of Amhara was developed mainly in the 20th century. The development of the language has progressed for a long time. Presently Amhara language is widely used in writing now in Ethiopia. Books, novels, plays etc are written in Amhara.

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