The Kwegu are an ethnic group that lives on the western banks of the Omo River in the newly formed South Ethiopia Region. Some members of the Kwegu also live on the eastern banks of the river among the Mursi. Previously they were hunter-gatherers, but today they are engaged in a mixed economy of hunting, farming, beekeeping, and fishing.
Demography and Population Based on the Ethiopian 2007 housing and population census,Central Statistical Agency (2007): Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. the total population of the Kwegu is 1,974, of which 1,595 live in the Nyangatom district, whereas the remaining live in different regions and areas of Ethiopia. Of the total population, 1,435 are rural residents, whereas the remaining 539 are urban residents.
They are known by different names among their neighbors. For instance, they are called Muguji by the Kara, Nyidi by the Mursi and the Surma, Yidi by the Bodi and Baachá by the Amhara.Lewis, J & Woodburn, J 2007. Report on Hunter-Gatherer Societies in South and Southwest Ethiopia. From a Kwegu perspective, these terms are often viewed as pejorative expressions attached to them by their neighbors and imply that they are poor people or a group of low-status minorities identified with hunting or honey gathering. For instance, the meaning of the Mursi name for the Kwegu, Nyidi, is "poor or cattleless people". The name Muguji implies the place where they first settled during their migration to the region. Although their neighbors called them by these different names, Kwegu is their preferred name for themselves.
Location Administratively, the Kwegu live in Nyangatom district. They share an administrative district with the Nyangatom and the Murle peoples of the Lower Omo Valley.Temechegn Gutu. (2019). Where Did You Take our River? Development, Dispossession and the Feeling of Insecurity among the Nyangatom, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia. MA Thesis, KU Leuven This valley is a vast semi-arid region of Southwest Ethiopia with some unique features of biodiversity and a large number of distinct, indigenous agro-pastoral and fishing communities.Avery, Sean. "What Future for Lake Turkana." African Studies Centre. Oxford: University of Oxford (2013). https://www.mursi.org/news-items/what-future-for-lake-turkana More specifically, the Kwegu live on the bank of the Omo River and are known as riverine people. The Omo River is the largest water body available to the Kwegu; it flows southwards starting from the Ethiopian highlands and turns into Turkana Lake on the Ethiopia-Kenya border. The Kwegu use boats to cross the river, not only being skillful users of boats, but also expert boat builders.Woodhead, Leslie (1982). "The Kwegu: Disappearing World. With David Turton, Anthropologist". Granada TV. Retrieved April 30, 2021. It is the only means of transportation that connects the Kwegu with their Mursi neighbors.
Based on the location of their settlements, the Kwegu can be classified into three groups: southern, central, and northern Kwegu. The southern settlements are near the Kara, Nyangatom, and Hamar peoples, the central settlements are close to the Mursi people, and their northern settlements are near the Bodi people.
Kuchuru is the largest Kwegu settlement with 120 households. This village is located at about 400 meters above sea level and 42 km from the administrative center of the Nyangatom district, Kangaten.
Language The language of the Kwegu is known as KweguSouth Omo Research Center and Museum (2017). Museum Directory and it belongs to the southeast Surmic group within the Surmic languages of the Nilo-Saharan language family. It is unique among the other Surmic languages due to the Kwegu's long history of contact with neighboring Omotic language speakers. Kwegu's vocabulary and grammar is primarily influenced by the Karo and the Mursi languages. Specifically, Kwegu shares 36% of its lexicon with the Mursi language and it has borrowed many words and some grammatical features from the Kara language.
Their language is unwritten and is considered an endangered language. Its use among Kwegu adults is declining, and many of them use the Mursi, Bodi or Karo language. The residents of Kwegu's southern villages also speak the Nyangatom language. The Kwegu are therefore multilingual and can speak the languages of their neighbors.
Livelihood In terms of livelihood, the Kwegu engage in various subsistence activities such as hunting, fishing, gathering, cultivation and beekeeping. Hunting is an everyday activity across all of the Kwegu villages. Although today they make a living in a variety of ways, the Kwegu define themselves and are defined by their neighbors as hunters. By comparison to other economic activities, they attach substantial cultural weight to hunting activities. Although their hunting activities are mainly based on trapping, sometimes they use guns acquired through trade with neighboring groups. Buffalo, kudu, hippopotamus, elephants, rhinoceros, and eland are among the hunted animals.
There is, however, substantial variation in subsistence across the different villages. For instance, nowadays the residents of the north and central villages have started to use slash and burn cultivation and riverbank and flood retreat cultivation after learning these from the Mursi and the Kara. The Kwegu use the fertile soil and silt provided by the Omo River to cultivate crops of sorghum, maize, and cowpeas.
The residents of the southernmost part of their territory raise goats and sheep, activities which they learned from the Nyangatom. Honey is viewed as another special product of the Kwegu. It is used both as a gift for bond-partners and as a commodity to obtain cash on the market. Fishing is another source of livelihood, providing the Kwegu with a diet rich in protein. As they do not breed cattle, the contribution of livestock to their subsistence is limited,Turton, David. (1973). The Social Organization of the Mursi: A Pastoral Tribe of the Lower Omo Valley, Southwest Ethiopia. Doctoral Dissertation, University of London. but the relationship that they sustain with the Mursi enables them to get access to milk.
Origin and History
The Kwegu consider themselves and are considered by their neighbors as the first people settling the area around the Omo River. According to Mursi oral traditions, the Kwegu occupied the Omo area long before the Mursi arrived. Likewise, the Karo say that the area where they have been living on the east side of the Omo River was previously occupied by the Kwegu. However, the Kwegu's assertion that they were the first inhabitants of the area does not imply that they have never lived elsewhere. The limited literature on the Kwegu suggests that they originated and migrated from other areas.
One origin myth indicates that they migrated from Arbore, an area to the east of the Omo River currently occupied by the Arbore people. During their migration from Arbore, the Kwegu initially settled on Muguji mountain. Being on the mountain, they were able to see the Omo River and sent a group of young people to visit the river and see if it is a good place to settle on. The young people were sent in different directions to bring information to help them select a location to settle. One of the groups went to the Nakwa area, and others to the Kuchuru area. Some of them stayed, whereas the others returned to Muguji mountain and informed the community about the Omo River, Nakwa, and Kuchuru areas.
Another origin myth indicates that the Birayle area, northeast of Arbore in the Bana-Tsemay District of the South Omo area, was their place of origin. The Kwegu left this location to avoid recurrent conflicts with neighboring communities. During their migration from Birayle via Arbore, they crossed the Omo River and settled in the Kuchuru area. While crossing the Arbore area, they were joined by the Baada, one of the Kwegu clans that according to this source claims its origin from Arbore. Other sources, however, argue that the group migrating with the Kwegu from Arbore was the Woreba clan, whereas the Baada clan was from areas currently occupied by the Bodi and Bacha.
A final origin myth indicates that the Kwegu came from different groups and locations. The Kwegu ancestors migrated to their present area primarily from the east, particularly from the Arbore area. Hunger forced them to leave the Arbore area, and a fish-eating bird guided them to a place called Mugunya, the last Hamar village, before crossing the Omo River. Other Kwegu clans are thought to come from the northern areas, fleeing an illness that Lewis and Woodburn suggest was sleeping sickness.
Further sources suggest different histories for the migration of the various Kwegu clans. Ynintso (2016) mentioned that the Garshma clan descended from the Aari (an agricultural Omotic-speaking people living to the northeast of the Kwegu) and first settled at a current village called Marsha on the Omo River's eastern bank before migrating to Kuchuru, a place across the river. The Woreba clan is believed to have descended from the Arbore people and first settled in Mugunya, Nakure, and Woreba area in what is today Dus village. Due to conflicts with the Karo, the Woreba clan relocated from Dus to Galgida in the Nyangatom area in the late 1980s. The Baada clan is thought to have descended from the Bodi and Bacha groups further north; they first lived at the Makule area, joined the Garshma clan at the Qalo area, and finally relocated to Kuchuru with them. Matsuda (2008) indicates that the Duuyu and Adara groups migrated from the Mursi, the Baada from the Bodi, the Dukule from the Aari, and the Woreba from the Arbore. Although these accounts vary slightly in terms of the names of the original migrants and whether they represent clans, the presentations of the ethnogenesis of the Kwegu are relatively consistent with each other.
Inter-Ethnic Relations Over sixteen different ethnolinguistic groups exist in the South Omo area. They belong to three language families: Nilo-Saharan (Bodi, Kwegu, Murle, Mursi, and Nyangatom ethnic groups), Omotic (Aari, Banna, Bashada, Dime, Hamar, Karo, and Maale ethnic groups), and Cushitic (Arbore, Birayle, Dassanech, and Tsamai ethnic groups). Their subsistence systems vary considerably and range from agriculture and pastoralism to hunting-gathering.Council of Nationalities (May 2009). Profile of South Nations, Nationalities and Peoples. Hawassa In this diverse region, the history of multiple forms of intergroup relationships and interactions can be observed.
The Kwegu have had a long history of interactions with the Mursi, Karo, Nyangatom, Hamar, and Bodi people. Kwegu relationships with more powerful ethnic groups in their immediate neighborhood are very important, especially as a way to ensure their security. The relationships with Kwegu residents of different areas (South, Central and North) do not appear to be as important as their relationships with neighboring ethnic groups that provide protection.