Also called Amara-burji, the ultimate origin of the Burji is traced near a place called Liban in northern Ethiopia around the sixteenth century. It is widely believed that at one time the Burji were part of the Amhara peoples of Ethiopia. This view is borne out by various factors, one of which is similarity between the names; one is known as Amhara and the other as Amara. There is also considerable linguistic affinity between the Burji and the Sidama who are related to the Amhara. With which the Burji language has over 41% lexical similarity. Ancient Burji were agricultural people who lived around the Gara Burji in Ethiopia. Their territory was to the east of river Galana Amara and south-east of Lake Abaya. To the west, across the Galana Amara was the Konso country, to the north the Darasa and to the south and south-east the Boran. The Amara-Burji are divided into two main groups - The Burji and the Gubba. The Amhara tribe live in the extreme north-western corner of Ethiopia next to them is the Gubba tribe. It is difficult to establish any cultural and linguistic affinity between the Gubba tribe in the north and the Gubba in Gara Burji. Towards the end of 16th Century, triggered off by a misunderstanding between the Burji and the Boran, from Liban the Burji moved in a westerly direction and settled at a place called Abuno which they have strong sentiments about. From Abuno the Burji moved to Barguda. Just before their final settlement on the mountain, the Burji separated into two groups at a place called Mure. One group composed of the Qarado, Yabbi and Umma clans came in through Wollo, while the Gamayo, Karama, Annabura and Woteish came through Sara. In 1895, before the abysynian conquest of the burji in 1896 Cardinal Gugliemo Massaja estimated the Burji population at a million and a half whereas another historian Vittorio Bottego estimated the population of the Burji in 1895 at 200,000.

Burji language (alternate names: Bembala, Bambala, Daashi) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Burji people who reside in Ethiopia south of Lake Chamo. There are over 49,000 speakers in Ethiopia, and a further 36,900 speakers in Kenya. Burji belongs to the Highland East Cushitic group of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. The language has the SOV (subject–object–verb) word order common to the Cushitic family. The verb morphology distinguishes passive and middle grammatical voice, as well as causative. Verbal suffixes mark the person, number, and gender of the subject. The New Testament was published in the Burji language in 1993. A collection of Burji proverbs, translated into English, French, and Swahili, is available on the Web.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Burji community arrived in Kenya from Yavelo Province, Ethiopia, courtesy of the then-commissioner of the Marsabit District in northern Kenya. To encourage farming in his administrative area and feed the colonists and inhabitants -the Borana, Rendille and Gabra- who were predominantly pastoralists, the British colonial official decided to ask his Ethiopian counterpart to send a few Burjis, renowned for their farming and entrepreneurial skills, to initiate farming in Marsabit. Experience had shown that the local communities could not rely exclusively on livestock as their sole source of livelihood. The British Consul at Mega in Ethiopia agreed to the request and sent a few Burji to Kenya, where an administrative post was set up in Marsabit to oversee the growing of crops. But the British action, well intentioned as it may have been, helped create a minority community in Marsabit that is now suffering marginalization. The Burji numerical strength is too inferior to counter discrimination by Kenyan authorities or the dominant neighboring communities who still consider the Burji to be alien in the region. The 1978 National Housing and Population Census deliberately eliminated the Burji as a distinct people identifiable by history and culture by coding their ethnicity as “other.” In the 1989 National Housing and Population Census the community was given recognition and coded, only to be arbitrarily dropped again in 1999 for unexplained reasons. That the government has institutionalized discrimination against the Burji community is indisputable. The history of Kenya in the last century is characterized with systematic marginalization of the ethnic minorities and indigenous communities culminating in injustices, inequalities, and even some denial of constitutional recognition. The precedent upon which these and other exclusionary government policies were built was the 1969 post-independence inaugural development paper, “Sessional Paper Number 10 On African Socialism and its Application in Kenya,” which divided regions upon the punitive colonial legacy of high-potential and low-potential area. This dichotomy set the pace for economic marginalization of the Burjis, who were in essence farmers occupying pastoralist land. “One of the problems was to decide how much priority we should give in investing in less developed provinces,” the paper states. “To make the economy grow as a whole as fast as possible, development money should be invested in areas where it will yield the highest increase in net output.” According to Institute of Economic Affairs director Duncan Okelo, this trend favored areas with abundant natural resources, good land and rainfall, transport and power facilities, and people receptive to and active in development; it excluded least-endowed areas.

The Burji Farmers of the Desert: The Expert Agriculturalist
A long time ago, in the 16th Century, Burji and their cousins Borana and Konso lived happily in Liban in Southern Ethiopia. Because of the close bond that existed between them they are sometimes spoken of as “the three brothers” or “companions in fate”. Together, they carried out an annual sacrifice for the well-being of the land. The cousins took turns to provide a sheep for the purpose. They prepared their sacrificial sheep in advance, by preserving it in a special place for it to fatten. One day, during the Borana’s turn to provide the sacrificial sheep, the Konso did something that would change the relationship between the three cousins forever. The night before the sacrifice took place, the Konso stole the Borana’s special sheep, ate it, and threw the bones in front of the Burji's door. This made it look like the Burji had stolen the sheep. The next day the annual sacrificial ceremony did not take place; instead a joint meeting was called to investigate the theft. The Burji did not come to the meeting because he was the Liban elder and also because he had a clear conscience. The affair grew into a serious conflict and finally, the angry Borana drove the Burji and Konso out of Liban. Before they were driven out, however, important spiritual ceremonies had to be done under the Gada order, whose origins were in Liban. They each declared separate activities for their clan’s survival. They then set off to their new settlements in different areas of what is today referred to as northern Kenya.

Burji Zone is one of the zones in the South Ethiopia Regional State of Ethiopia. In August 2023 Burji special Woreda got zonal status upon the formation of South Ethiopia Region. In 2011, the Segen Area Peoples Zone was established, which includes Burji woreda and the 3 former special woredas surrounding it. It is named for the Burji people, who have their homeland in this zone. Burji is bordered on the east and south by the Oromia Region, on the west by the Konso Zone, and on the north by the Amaro Zone. The administrative center of Burji is Soyama. Burji has 86 kilometers of all-weather roads and 20 kilometers of dry-weather roads, for an average road density of 80 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this zone has a total population of 155,681, of whom 76,439 are men and 79,241 women; with an area of 1,128.40 square kilometers, Burji has a population density of 97.35. While 11.27% are urban inhabitants, a further 12 individuals are pastoralists. A total of 29,690 households were counted in this woreda, which results in an average of 5.24 persons to a household. The three largest ethnic groups reported in Burji were the Burji (80.15%), koore (15.38%) and the Konso (1.03%); all other ethnic groups made up 3.44% of the population. Burji was spoken as a first language by 76.31% of the inhabitants, 15.38% spoke Oromiffa, 5.39% Koorete, and 1.07% Konso; the remaining 1.85% spoke all other primary languages reported. 42.8% were Protestants, 35.82% of the population said they were Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 20.93% were Muslim. In the 1994 Census this woreda had a population of 108,331 in 20,409 households, of whom 53,190 were men and 55,141 women; 11.47% of its population were urban dwellers. The four largest ethnic groups reported in Burji were the Burji (84.54%), the Koore (11.75%), the Konso (1.3%), and the Amhara (1.06%); all other ethnic groups made up 1.35% of the population. Burji was spoken as a first language by 80.47% of the inhabitants, 13.81% spoke Oromiffa 3.9%Koorete, 0.87% Konso, and 0.66% spoke Amharic; the remaining 0.29% spoke all other primary languages reported. 42.71% of the population said they were Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, 24.05% were Protestants, 18.05% practiced traditional religions, and 14.29% were Muslim. Concerning education, 24.19% of the population were considered literate; 14.48% of children aged 7-12 were in primary school; 1.62% of the children aged 13-14 were in junior secondary school, and 1.01% of the inhabitants aged 15-18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning sanitary conditions, about 3% of the urban houses and 9% of all houses had access to safe drinking water at the time of the census; 39% of the urban and 6% of the total had toilet facilities.

Back in the 16th century, three Cushitic communities had settled in a place called Liban, in Southern Ethiopia. They were the Burji, the Borana and the Konso. All had good relations and were so closely affiliated that they were referred to as “Companions in Fate”. To ensure their continued friendliness, prosperity, and the fertility of their land, all three communities performed an annual sacrifice to the gods. Each community took a turn providing a sheep to be slaughtered. If the first year’s sheep was provided by the Burji, then the following year’s would be provided by the Borana, and thereafter the Konso on the third year. This process went smoothly for several years. Then came another year when it was the Borana’s turn to provide the sacrificial sheep. In preparation for the annual ceremony, they fattened a sheep and kept it in a special pen away from the others. Everything was ready for the ceremony, until the day they woke up to find the sheep gone! A search party was sent out and they found its bones outside the Burji compound. Chaos ensued. The Konso and the Burji pointed fingers at each other, but neither of them was prepared to take the blame. A meeting was called to discuss the matter, but the Burji refused to show up. They knew they were innocent, despite what the evidence suggested. What had really happened was the Konso had crept into the Borana compound and stolen the sheep, but as they were unwilling to admit to their crime, the conflict was never resolved and the bond between the three cousins was broken. After this debacle, the three communities decided to go their separate ways. The Burji trekked south into Kenya and settled in the northern region of the country. Other communities in the area were pastoralists, so the agricultural Burji were the first to permanently settle in the towns we know today as Moyale and Marsabit. They soon realised that food was scarce in these areas due to the arid climate. The pastoralist communities had been relying only on their livestock as livelihood, but it wasn’t enough to sustain them throughout the year. Luckily, the Burji were highly skilled farmers. Even in a dry area such as Northern Kenya, they were able to start and sustain lucrative farms. By 1926, they were the sole suppliers of labour in farms, as well as major food suppliers in the area. In honour of the Burji’s agricultural prowess, Marsabit was named after a prolific Burji farmer called Marsa. The name Marsa-bet translates to Marsa’s home. Bet means home in Amharic, the language which the Burji spoke while in Ethiopia. To this day, the Burji still pronounce their county’s name as Marsa-bet. We salute these skilled agriculturalists for their contribution to Kenya’s prosperity.