| Kingdom Of Kaffa |
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Kaffa was divided into four sub-tribes of the Sidamo People , who also spoke a language called Kaffa, one of the Gonga group of Sidamo Language s; a number of groups of foreigners, Muslim traders and members of the Ethiopian Church , also lived in the kingdom . There were a number of groups of people, "but with the status of submerged status", who also lived in the kingdom; these included the ''Manjo'', or hunters; the ''Manne'', or leatherworkers; and the ''Qemmo'', or blacksmiths. The ''Manjo'' even had their own king, appointed by the King of Kaffa, and were given the duties of guarding the royal compounds and the gates of the kingdom. The land where this former kingdom lay is mountainous with stretches of forest. The land is very fertile, capable of three harvests a year. ECONOMY In Kaffa, Maria Theresa Thaler s (MT) and salt blocks called '' Amoleh '' were used as currency as late as 1905 , which circulated at a rate of four or five ''amolehs'' to 1 MT. The economy was based on exports of Gold , Civet oil, and Slave s. Crops raised included Coffee and Cotton . Livestock was raised, and Honeybee s kept in barrels (called ''gendo'') which were hung in trees. HISTORY The Kingdom of Kaffa was founded approximately c. 1390 by Minjo. The first capital Bonga was either founded or captured by Bong-he; it was later replaced by Anaracha , but Bonga retained its importance. During the 16th Century , all of the territories north of the Gojeb River were lost to the Oromo migrations; however, the Kaffa kings compensated for this by annexing the neighboring small Gimira states, and in the later 18th Century brought the neighboring state of Walamo under their control. Also in the later 16th century, the Emperor Of Ethiopia Sarsa Dengel convinced the kingdom to officially accept Christianity as its state religion. As a result, the church of St. George was dedicated at Baha ; the building preserved a Tabot bearing the name of Emperor Sarsa Dengel. Over the following centuries the influence of the Ethiopian government grew weak, and Christianity more or less disappeared, although the church of St. George was used as a "male house of ritual of George" until late in the 19th century when Christian practices were reintroduced. The last Kaffa king, Gaki Sherocho , resisted for months the combined armies of Walda Giyorgis, Ras Damisse, and King Abba Jifar II of Jimma , until he was captured 11 September , 1897 , and was first sent to Ankober , then to Addis Ababa . Kaffa was then held as a fief by Walda Giyogis until 1914 . During the reorganization of the provinces in 1942 , the former kingdom was enlarged by the addition of a number of other kingdoms from the Gibe region to become Kaffa Province . NOTES |
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