Who Are the ‘True’ Mao? A Contested Identity in Mao Komo Liyu Wäräda

Abstract

Mao Komo Special District (ləyu wäräda)3 is the southernmost administrative unit of Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, bordering both Sudan and South Sudan. It was created after a referendum was held between the two Regional States Oromia and Benishangul Gumuz, which took place on the 2nd of July 1995 (Ethiopian Herald, 25/07/1995).4 In 1996, the district administration was established (Mao Komo development association, 2003, MK 002). As the name indicates, it is a territory where Mao and Komo, who are recognised Ethiopian peoples, are titular groups, i.e. “indigenous nations and nationalities” (Benishangul Gumuz Regional State Revised Constitution, 2002, article 2). The term Nations, Nationalities and Peoples is defined as “a group of people who have a large measure of common culture or similar custom, mutual intelligibility of language, belief in a common or related identities and who predominantly inhabit in a contiguous territory” (Benishangul Gumuz Regional State Revised Constitution, 2002, Article 39:8; cf. Constitution of The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 1994, Article 39:5).