BY STAFF REPORTER
The Konso people, residing in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ State, about 600 kms south of Addis Ababa, are known for their distinctive religious and cultural traditions including their unique funerary rituals involving elaborate music and dance.
Konso people speak Afan Konso, one of the Eastern Cushitic languages of Ethiopia and occupy a rugged country formed as a result of early Miocene volcanism which created the basaltic hills.
The Konso cultural landscape is located in a dry, hilly environment at the edge of the Rift Valley in southern Ethiopia. It has always been a relatively isolated area of the country, where life has remained largely unchanged for at least 400 years.
As to a document from Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritages, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Konso have a history of at least 500 years old terrace agricultural system and water conservation techniques which they developed as a response for the dry environment. The terraces are very extensive and are made using dry stone techniques contouring the hills.
These terraces are culturally maintained. Their traditional towns are located at strategic locations and surrounded with multiple rings of dry stone walls. The social organization and cultural life of the communities in these town resolve around a ward system and common spaces, connected to each other, where all cultural activities take place.
Konso are famous for their carved wood statues called wagas, which memorialize important people in the community. The wagas are often arranged in groups and erected on graves or at the entrances of the maze-like paths that lead to Konso villages.
The people live in closely-packed communities of wood-and-mud built, thatched dwellings from which they travel out to their fields of millet on a daily basis.
The local chief’s hilltop ‘Palace’ comprises a collection of dome-shaped thatched rooms, with covered meeting and work areas, all surrounded by a heavy wooden ‘stockade’ with narrow gates. In nearby forest clearings, collections of anthropomorphic statues are maintained, one group of them kept under a pagoda-style shelter.
Konso are agricultural people growing mainly finger millet and corn. They also cultivate coffee, cotton and soja bean. The Konso have adopted a terrace agricultural system and the core Konso area is characterized by extensive dry stone terraces.
Unarguably, anyone who visits the area is captivated by the view of the landscape witnessing hundreds of years of persistent human struggle to harness the hard, dry and rocky environment, and which at last has resulted in the beautifully outlined rows of dry stone terraces that could attain a length of several thousands of Kilometers.
The landscape demonstrates the shared values, social cohesion and engineering knowledge of the communities. The site also features anthropomorphic wooden statues – grouped to represent respected members of their communities and particularly heroic events – which are an exceptional living testimony to funerary traditions that are on the verge of disappearing. Stone steles in the towns express a complex system of marking the passing of generations of leaders.
As studies indicate, among Konso people, numbers are important. For instance, while number 2 represents, a woman, 3 signifies man. Likewise, number 5 indicates marriage, 6 the death of a woman. Number 9 implies the death of a man and 3 and 5 considered as are good numbers, whereas 6 and especially 9 are very bad numbers that are thought to bring misfortune.
Other interesting cultural features of Konso is that all their animals, even chickens are given personal names and dogs and monkeys are considered very humanlike. A good dog (or even a monkey) will be buried like a human, wrapped in a skin and buried with a grave marker.
With regard to adornments, waist ornaments, rings and beaded jewelry are passed down from mothers to their daughters. Beaded jewelry signifies a woman’s status. Girls wear strands of beads around their waist while mothers wear two strands on each ankle and grandmother one strand.
The number of blue beads in the anklets indicates the gender of their children. Men also use beads with young boys wearing white beads or cowry shells for protection and men of high ritual status donning dark blue transparent glass beads.”
During ceremonial rites /Ritual adornment: – When a new mother and her baby come out of seclusion, the mother puts on a long skirt that reaches below her knees, formed of a large skin which is wrapped around the woman, and not cut away anywhere.
The mother also puts on a black goat-skin as a cloak. Women’s skirts are traditionally made of leather in three flaps.
Konso people are also known for stones/stelae erections and wood cravings of anthropomorphic wooden statues that represent the daed to commemorate the transfer of generation responsibilities conducted ritually, and as grave makers. This puts them among the last living megalithic people on Earth, documents remarked.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on June 27, 2011 has added the ‘Konso Cultural Landscape of Ethiopia’ to its World Heritage list.
The Ethiopian Herald December 10/2020
