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During the centuries of expansion and consolidation of the Ethiopian Empire, particularly leading up to and during the feudal rule of Emperor Haile Selassie I, a rigid hierarchy emerged. The dominant ruling class (primarily the Shewan Amhara elites) expanded southward, subjugating various indigenous nations. In the imperial lexicon, the authentic names of diverse ethnic groups were replaced or weaponized as derogatory pejoratives tied directly to low-status manual labor, serfdom, or social castes. Here is a breakdown of how the specific ethnic groups and others—were systematically classified into pejorative job categories within that feudal framework:
AGAME:
• AGAMEA:
Weaponized Regional Identity: "Agame" is originally the name of a historic district in eastern Tigray, but the feudal system weaponized it into a deeply derogatory class slur across urban Ethiopia.
• Synonym for Menial Labor: Due to severe poverty and forced migration, the name was stripped of its cultural roots and used by the ruling elite to denote the absolute lowest class of manual day laborers, water-carriers, and domestic servants..
WOYTO/WAYTO:
• Extreme Untouchability: The "Woyto" were treated as rituallly polluted social outcasts and untouchables by the feudal highlanders, completely banning them from landownership, intermarriage, and shared spaces.
• Stigmatised Occupation: Their ethnic name became a derogatory slur synonymous with "unclean gluttons" because they survived by hunting hippopotamuses and consuming meat that violated dominant religious dietary taboos.
Forced Manual Labor: When wildlife laws destroyed their hunting economy under Haile Selassie, the feudal system permanently relegated them to the lowest tiers of manual day labor, stone-crushing, and papyrus weaving
• Gurage (Associated Job: Porter / Manual Laborer)
Following the conquest of Gurageland, the implementation of the repressive neftenya-gabbar (feudal landlord-tenant) system forced massive numbers of Gurage people to migrate to Addis Ababa for survival. In the feudal lexicon, the proud name "Gurage" became completely synonymous with a human porter or day laborer. People in urban centers would literally yell out the name "Gurage" when they needed someone to carry heavy goods on their backs.
• Wollamo / Welayta (Associated Job: House Servant / Domestic Slave)
The authentic name of the Welayta people was corrupted into "Wollamo" by the feudal administration. Because the region had historically been heavily raided for the domestic slave trade, the term "Wollamo" was weaponized in imperial society as a deeply humiliating slur synonymous with unskilled house servants, maids, or submissive menial laborers.
• Dorze (Associated Job: Weaver)
The Dorze people, famous for their complex architectural huts and expert cotton weaving, migrated heavily to urban centers. In the feudal hierarchy, their ethnic identity was structurally flattened so that "Dorze" became the generic, low-caste word for a weaver (Shemane). Manual craftsmanship was socially stigmatized by the landed feudal nobility, pinning the entire ethnic group to this specific manual occupation.
• Gudella / Hadiya (Associated Job: Menial Servant / Latrine Cleaner)
The Hadiya people were systematically referred to by the derogatory misnomer "Gudella" in feudal times. In the lexicon of the ruling elite, the word was used as a pejorative to denote the lowest tier of domestic servants, often associated with highly stigmatized, undesirable house cleaning chores and sanitation work.
• Janjaro / Yem (Associated Job: Backward / Subhuman Laborer)
The Yem people had their identity buried under the derogatory imperial name "Janjaro" (which acoustically and socially associated them with apes or monkeys in the minds of the feudal elite). It was used to mock their language and culture, reducing any laborer from that region to the status of an uncivilized, primitive worker unfit for high society.
Feudal Lexicon and Caste Terms
• Falasha (Beta Israel) (Associated Job: Blacksmith / Potter)
The Ethiopian Jews, who call themselves Beta Israel, were stripped of land rights by medieval decrees. They were forced into crafts like blacksmithing and pottery. The feudal lexicon labeled them "Falasha" (meaning "landless wanderers" or "exiles"), which carried a severe social stigma of being Buda (evil-eyed individuals who supposedly transformed into hyenas at night).
• Galla (Oromo) (Associated Job: Serf / Peasant Tenant)
The Oromo, the largest ethnic group in the country, were universally referred to by the highly derogatory term "Galla" throughout the expansionist and Haile Selassie eras. In the neftenya landlord structure, the term was economically synonymous with a "tenant-serf" (Gabbar)—someone whose sole purpose was to till the land and hand over the majority of their harvest to an absentee feudal lord.
• Shanqella (Associated Job: Chattel Slave / Plantation Laborer)
This was a broad, highly racist umbrella term used by the highlanders to describe Nilotic and socio-historically marginalized groups along the western borderlands (such as the Gumuz, Berta, or Mao peoples). In the lexicon, "Shanqella" was directly synonymous with a slave. Even after the formal, legal abolition of slavery under pressure in the 20th century, the word remained a toxic slur for anyone relegated to the most grueling, forced agricultural labor.
The Legacy of the Lexicon
This linguistic system served a specific structural purpose: it reinforced the myth of cultural and class superiority of the ruling feudal elite. By turning ethnic identities into specific descriptions of low-status manual labor, the imperial system justified its economic exploitation and land-grabbing practices, a historical wound that heavily influences modern Ethiopian ethnic politics.
