Sidamo Province

It was named after an ethnic group native to southern Ethiopia, called the Sidama, who are located in the south-central part of the country.

With its extensive coffee plantations, Sidamo was a province with abundant revenues and assigned to its rule were nobles loyal to the Emperor, such as Dejazmach Balcha Safo, who governed it at different times before the Italian occupation.

Following the liberation of Ethiopia from Italy in 1942, the provinces of Borana and Welayta, created from conquered states of that name, were merged into Sidamo.

[2] Sidamo was the scene of a revolt of the Gedeo people in 1960 who objected to a reorganization of the taxation system, which they believed was oppressive.

The revolt was brutally suppressed; as Bahru Zewde notes, "Armed mostly with spears and swords, the peasants confronted a well-equipped enemy composed of land-lords and government troops."