Talk:Gurage

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The comments on child rearing practices seem alarmingly general and arguably racist. I looked around the web to see if they might have been cut-and-pasted from an anti-Semitic tract. The closest thing I found was that they may come from Hunger, Anxiety, and Ritual: Deprivation and Spirit Possession Among the Gurage of Ethiopia William A. Shack Man, New Series, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Mar., 1971), pp. 30-43 On their own merits or lack thereof the comments should be deleted. That they are from a 35 year old "study" is even more reason.

"...who are uniquely known for their work ethic and skill as traders." This line looks to me like it is simply reinforcing a stereotype that would be controversial in a lot of other settings. I'm not familiar with the group and don't know what would be the most accurate way of restating this information, but it might deserve some editting. Paul Hope 18:41, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

I had brought that up with the editor who originally included the statement. It is a widely held view (within Ethiopia, perhaps a universally-held view), and there are numerous stories about various Gurage individuals who started with nothing, e.g. shining shoes for a living in Addis Ababa, saved whatever money they didn't send back to their familes, and became wealthy (singer Mahmoud Ahmed would be one example). Nevertheless a stereotype (even a positive one) is still a stereotype (I'm sure there are lazy Gurage as with any other group of people). Since the view is so closely associated with the Gurage, I'm thinking it should be somehow mentioned, but also re-worded to show that this is a very broad brush with which to paint an entire ethnicity. But I can't think of a good way to re-write it, myself. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 20:06, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
I made a change that I thought might improve it a bit, but you sound much more informed. Does the new sentence do the truth justice? Paul Hope 21:46, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
Well, someone would probably still point out "Commonly believed, by whom?" But right now I can't think of a better wording. I went ahead and removed Mahmoud Ahmed, he was an example of a different scenario, i.e. shining shoes for a living, but again that is so common it probably bears mentioning as well. Hopefully I can come back and give it some more attention. Thanks, -- Gyrofrog (talk) 09:18, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
Found a cite that confirms Gyrofrog's comment (although not quite sure how to work it into the article):
"Out host, Tekka, was of the Guragé, [the] hardest-working people in Ethiopia and maong the oldest. An Ethiopian Horatio Alger, he began his career selling old bottles and tin cans; the Emperor recently rewarded his achievement in creating his plantation by calling him to Addis Ababa and decorating him." (Nathaniel T. Kenney, "Ethiopian Adventure", National Geographic, 127 (1965), p. 582) -- llywrch 20:25, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

ok, now someone needs to write an article on the guragigna language.

Gringo300 05:25, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Check the list of languages in the Ethiopia article - at least one is a dialect of Guragigna, though I can't remember which. But you're right, we need one for Guragigna language. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 05:49, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
There is in fact no "Guragigna" language; "Guraginya" is just a generic term used to refer to all of these languages. The Gurage people speak a number of languages, some of them more closely related to at least one non-Gurage language (Harari) than to each other. There is no general agreement on how many languages (as opposed to dialects) should be distinguished, and this is changing as there is more work done on some of them, but there are at least four. Fourteen of the languages listed on the Ethiopian Semitic languages page are Gurage languages. I'll work on articles on some of these languages at some point. Mike Gasser 16:08, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

I fixed the section on languages, but I notice there's a little disagreement between the current Ethiopian Semitic languages page and the current Ethnologue entry, which seems more correct to me. I used Ethnologue's list of languages. Later I'll add something about literature since a few Gurage novels have appeared in the last few years (in Sebat Bet Gurage (Chaha dialect)). Mike Gasser 00:19, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Silt'e

I fixed some of the places where the Silt'e were included among the Gurage. According to Vaughan, although it was assumed by other Ethiopians (including other Gurage) and non-Ethiopians for 100 years, the Silt'e themselves, for whom their religion (Islam) was a defining feature, have not felt a part of a larger mainly Christian Gurage ethnicity. In any case, they are now "officially" a separate ethnicity, with their own zone within SNNPR, separate from the Gurage zone (which includes both of the other Gurage sub-groups). So we need a separate article on the Silt'e people and also need to clean up this article since it seems to be based heavily on the Shacks' work, which is apparently mainly (or only?) concerned with the Sebat Bet Gurage. -- MikeG (talk) 00:30, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

The comment about child rearing does not seem to have evidence.

[edit] Comment moved from article

I've moved the following comment from the article to the Talk page. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 04:46, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

your portrayal of the gurage people as being very stingy is offensive to those of us who love the gurage culture. The fact that you have picked out only a very negative aspect of the culture from the wide range of choices in the culture pool is very strange —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 137.146.156.100 (talk • contribs) 04:07:38 (UTC)

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