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Mao is a collective identity referring to the Omotic-speaking Anfillo and the ethnically-related but Nilotic-speaking Hozo, Sezo, Ganza and Bambasi communities living in scattered, multiethnic villages in Ethiopia’s western borderlands with Sudan and South Sudan. The traditional economy relied on cultivating millet and other staples on periodically-fallowed plots; hunting and gathering were important secondary activities.  Political leadership ranged from village councils of elders to chiefdoms encompassing a number of villages. With increasing contact with settled Oromo farmers, some Mao communities adapted plow-based agriculture and aspects of the national political structure, including a land-based governance system of farmers’ associations with elected leadership.

The beginnings of ethnohistory in western Wellegga

Peoples of Dar Fung

The importance of Mao in Ethiopian history

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Author	Title	Publication Date
Bender, M. Lionel (Marvin Lionel)	The beginnings of ethnohistory in western Wellegga	1975
Cerulli, Ernesta	Peoples of Dar Fung	1956
Fleming, Harold Crane	The importance of Mao in Ethiopian history	1984
Grottanelli, Vinigi L.	Mao	1940
Meckelburg, Alexander	Culture Summary	2019

Mao

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