Kara

The name Kara has fish eating as a meaning. Members of the nationality live in Dus/Nawnlopi, Dero, Kadodkoch and Nalukutir, Qorcho, Lebuck and Qolo localities of Hammer district. In addition to these they live together with The Hammer in different localities of The Hammer District. They have similarities with the nationality in language, elderly arbitration, marriage order and dancing according to evidences. Area of living of the nationality is valley with lowland climate. Before its settlement in Benna and Hammer districts they settled at Atula. And they settled at Asle according to folklore.
However; as there was high shortage of water , they were forced to settle at Keske on the banks of Omo River. The main reason for coming to their present settlement is to survive from shortage of water. They had seen a cow who travelled along and drank water from Omo River. They had seen it urinate a lot unusually. Then The Karas traced its trace for enduring the water shortage they faced.
Some evidences show their origin is in Benna, they moves and settled at the banks of Omo River. When The Karas reach the banks of Omo River the nationality who lived there were The Kwegu. The new settlers who moved from Benna were divided into two. The first one settled this side of the river. The second one settled at an area of the bank suitable for agriculture by crossing the river at the opposite direction. When Karas moved from Benna they were not alone. Parts of the society called Besheda were with them. But because of exhaustion Beshedas remained at Argude locality around Dimeka.
The Kara nationality who moved from Benna and settled at the banks of Omo river has ten tribes in general. They are Qogo, Gershima, Eshipha, Angosula, /Gasi/ , Kalaza,Gorshibdo, Dirita, Dingolo, Dangar and Bitiola.
The mother tongue of the nationality Kara Opo is one of the South Omotic Languages. Kara Opo means the tongue of the Kara or Kara language. It is similar to the languages of Hammer and Benna nationalities. Their main livelihood is agriculture and cattle rearing. They also produce sorghum, haricot bean, maize and cucumber.

Cultural Administration System

The cultural administrative structure of the society has three administrative and spiritual parts. They are Kati, Arti and Gana. The leader of the cultural administration is Kati. Kati together with the Arti perform cultural order to protect the nationality from epidemic. When members of the nationality march to battle Kati blesses and performs cultural order for them to return in victory. As Arti is spiritual leader he uproots a plant, everybody spits on it and throws it into Omo River to perform cultural order for the rain to come and to be protected from epidemic in the area. After this cultural ceremony rain rains. There would be no more disease, according to the belief of the nationality. When he performs cultural ceremony he doesnt eat anything except milk and honey.
Gana is representative of Arti. He works in replacing Arti in his absence to do cultural orders. Phalbit is an assembly led by the elderly /Zonza/. Its duties are to present cases to the Kati for final decision.
There is another assembly based on age and competency. It is called Phaas and has six to eleven members. Members of the assembly have titles called Phalher, Karaborkota and Sali. Members of the assembly are identified with this title sit on Borkota /seat/, hair style and the place they were given at the assembly. For the transition from one step to the other there are different cultural ceremonies. In order to protect disagreements not to become conflict, it has its own cultural system to resolve. When individual or group conflicts occur Donzas and Phalbits move to reconcile. They perform different cultural orders for reconciliation.