Weyto people

The Weyto people are a group of hippopotamus hunters who lived in Ethiopia around Lake Tana. They were known to speak the Weyto Language, which became extinct at some point in the 19th century.[1] According to the 1994 national census, 1172 individuals were reported belonging to this ethnic group; it was not an ethnic choice in the 2007 census.[2]

Due to their diet on hippopotamus meat, the Weyto have been considered a outcaste people by neighboring groups. Enrico Cerulli linked them to two other outcaste groups of Ethiopia with similar names and live primarily as hunters: the Watta or Manjo of the Gibe region and former Kingdom of Kaffa; and the Watta amongst the Borana people.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Ethnologue Report for Weyto
  2. ^ 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Amhara Region, Vol. 1, part 1, Tables 2.10 (accessed 9 April 2009)
  3. ^ Enrico Cerulli, "The folk-literature of the Galla of Southern Abyssinia", Harvard African Studies, 3 (1922), pp. 200-214