Post-Medieval States in Southern Ethiopia: A History of Dawro

Like many African countries, the study of the Post- medieval periods and the preceding remote unrecorded past is hardly an easy task. Ethiopia is not an exception. It was more challenging and difficult one in the southern part of the country. In Southern Ethiopia a relatively high number of the societies preserved and transmitted their history, culture, Social values and customs from generation to generation in different ways including oral traditions. Hence oral historiography was and still is our major source of the study of history of many societies in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular. This is also the case in Dawro where oral tradition played a pivotal role in the study of history. Oral tradition, however, needs special attention and a careful appreciation of its limitations for the validity and credibility of the oral data and it became the major task of a Historian in order to study the history of many Medieval and Post-Medieval societies and states in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular.