“Haralla”- The Legendary People of Eastern Ethiopia

By Afendi Muteki

Whenever you travel in the countrysides of East Ethiopia, you would see ruins of ancient buildings. If you ask about these remnants, the local people would tell you that their builders were the “Haralla” people. In oral traditions of the peoples of East Ethiopia (Oromo, Harari, Somali and Afar), it is said that the “Haralla” were a tall and gigantic race.  The Ittu Oromos who occupied the western part of the Harar Pltaeu say that a “Haralla” farmer would till a plot of land located around Asebot town while his house was located further south around Belbelti town; so each day, he had to travel a distance of more than 200 kilometers on his two ways trip.

It is said that the “Haralla” were eradicated by disasters because of their disobeying God’s order. The Ittu oral tradition tells us that when a “Haralla” used to marry a woman, breads would be spread on the path that links the bridegroom’s house with the bride’s home. The people invited for the wedding ceremony would wash their hands with milk. These inhuman acts of unconditional extravagance have displeased God so that He sent his rage up on the corrupted “Haralla” people. Earth quake, volcanic eruptions and drought attacked their land. On that, the “Haralla”, the legendary race of extra ordinary length, ceased to exist on the surface of the earth.

One account of the eradication of “Haralla” people is associated with the volcanic eruption happened around Metehara town in ancient times. It said that the “Basaqaa” lake which is found closer to the Metehara town was created when a nearby volcano was erupted on a huge crowd of “Haralla” people who were holding an extravagant weeding ceremony on the spot.

Once, the “Haralla” legends and the gigantic race itself have never been considered a realistic case by the scholars.  But recent studies show that the legendary people of “Haralla” were the original inhabitants of the land that stretches from East Shoa to Jijjiga. The scholars add that even though the disaster stories were modified and composed to fairy tales, the annihilation of the “Haralla” by other neighboring population was a true phenomenon. For scholarly approach on the “Haralla” people and their legends, the book of Professor Ulrich Braukamper which is titled “Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia” (see photo) is an awesome reference. 


By Afendi Muteki
November 20/2012

Harar, Ethiopia