The Konso
Currently numbering around 350,000 people, the Konso (also known as Xonsita) are a Cushitic ethnolinguistic group living in the arid, mountainous highlands of southwestern Ethiopia. They are renowned for their highly sophisticated agricultural terracing, fortified walled villages, a complex system of social organization, and unique cultural traditions. The Konso are divided into nine patrilineal exogamous clans. However, all clans live in intermixed settlements. Settlements are located on hilltops and are heavily fortified with multiple rings of stone walls.
Largely owing to the extensive centuries old but still actively maintained agricultural terracing (covering a total area of 230km2) and the walled settlements, the Konso Cultural Landscape was inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2011 as an outstanding example of human ingenuity in carving out a sustainable livelihood in an otherwise hostile environment. The relation of the stone terraces and the fortified settlements to the complex system of social organization illustrates, according to the UNESCO, “an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement and land-use”.
Want to know more? Come to ZEF and visit the photo exhibition. Ground floor, lobby.
