Kingdom of Janjero - Overview

Overview

Although one of the Sidamo kingdoms, until its conquest in 1894 Janjero was "isolated, and had little to do with its neighbors, its rivers being very difficult to cross. Although first visited by Europeans in 1614, until the late 1950s this region remained poorly known to outsiders. As a result, its people were said to have preserved a number of "customs so barbarious and strange that there cannot be any more so."

Some of these alleged customs are as follows:

• The king had the right to take persons of either sex from their homes to either be sold into slavery, or to work for him.
• Maize had been grown in Janjero prior to the late 19th century, but a king forbade its further cultivation because "the cobs were better covered than he, and the 'beards' were like human hair."
• Human sacrifice was allegedly practiced until the Ethiopian conquest.
• If a man was wounded in war, his relatives killed him to prevent it being said that he died at the hands of the enemy.
• When a new king came to the throne, all victims of leprosy and ringworm were sought out and taken to a "hospital" on the other side of the Jimma Gibe River, where they were beheaded.