Culture

OROMO, the largest ethnolinguistic group of Ethiopia, constituting more than one-third of the population and speaking a language of the Cushitic branch of the Afro -Asiatic family. Originally confined to the southeast of the country , the Oromo migrated in waves of invasions in the 16th century CE. They occupied all of southern Ethiopia, with some settling along of the Tana River in Kenya; most of the central and western Ethiopian Provinces, including the southern part of the Amara region; and farther north, the Welo and Tigre Region near Eritrea. Wherever the Oromo settled in those physically disparate areas, they assimilated local customs and intermarried to such an extent that much of their original culture cohesiveness was lost. They were ethnolinguistic group in Ethiopia.