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 an 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