[6] Barento are one of the two main moiety of the Oromo people in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia.
The Barento people thereafter expanded to the eastern regions now called Hararghe, Arsi, Wello, and northeastern Shawa.
The Borana people, empowered by their Gadda political and military organization expanded in the other directions, regions now called western Shewa, Welega, Illubabor, Kaffa, Gamu Goffa, Sidamo and in the 16th-century into what is now northern Kenya regions.
[6] The Borana and Barento groups are sometimes referred to as two early era moieties of the Oromo people.
[7] The Barento Oromo people in Arsi, Bale and Hararghe regions abandoned their traditional religions in the 9th century, when they were converted to Islam.