.jpg) A Dizi girl | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 36,380[1] (2007, census) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Ethiopia | |
| Languages | |
| Dizin | |
| Religion | |
| Animism |
Dizi (also known as theMaji) is the name of an ethnic group living in southernEthiopia. They share a number of somatic similarities with certain culturally (but not always linguistically) related peoples of south-western Ethiopia, which include theSheko andNao, theGimira (She,Bench,Mere), the Tsara, theDime, theAari and certain sub-groups of theBasketo people. A. E. Jensen has gathered these groups under the label of the "ancient peoples of southern Ethiopia".[2] They speak theDizin language (part of theOmotic languages).
Before their forced incorporation into the Ethiopian Empire in the 1890s, based on their own statements and the evidence of numerous abandoned terraced hillsides, the Dizi are estimated to have numbered between 50,000 and 100,000. However, as Haberland observes, the imposition of an outside authority and its misrule led to a massive depopulation due to the abuses of thegebbar system, slave-raiding, "famine, disease and a growing sense of hopelessness and resignation, engendered by a total absence of justice. These things not only caused the number of Dizi to shrink (in 1974 there were probably scarcely more than 20,000) but shook their whole culture to its roots."[3]
The 2007 Ethiopian national census reported that 36,380 people (or 0.05% of the population) identified themselves as Dizi, of whom 4,968 were urban inhabitants. TheSouthern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region is home to 98.9% of this people.[1] They are the majority of the inhabitants of theMajiworeda, and have notable minorities in the neighboringMeinit andSurma woredas.
