Kaffa was a province on the southwestern side of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

; its capital city was Jimma

Jimma

Jimma, also Jima, is the largest city in southwestern Ethiopia. Located in the Jimma Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of . The town was the capital of Kaffa Province until the province was dissolved. Prior to the 2007 census, Jimma was reorganized administratively as a...

. It was named after the former Kingdom of Kaffa

Kingdom of Kaffa

The Kingdom of Kaffa was an early modern state located in what is now Ethiopia, with its capital at Bonga. The Gojeb River formed its northern border, beyond which lay the Gibe kingdoms; to the east the territory of the Konta and Kullo peoples lay between Kaffa and the Omo River; to the south...

.

Kaffa was bordered on the west by Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

, on the northwest by Illubabor

Illubabor Province

Illubabor was a province in the south-western part of Ethiopia, along the border with Sudan. The name Illubabor is said to come from two Oromo words, "Illu" and "Abba Bor". "Illu" is a name of a clan, and "Abba Bor" was the horse name of Chali Shone, who founded the ruling family of the area when...

, on the north by Walega

Welega Province

Welega was a province in the western part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Nekemte. It was named for the Welega Oromo, who are the majority of the population within its boundaries....

, on the northeast by Shewa

Shewa

Shewa is a historical region of Ethiopia, formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire...

, on the east by Sidamo

Sidamo Province

Sidamo was a province in the southern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Irgalem, and after 1978 at Awasa. It was named after an ethnic group native to Ethiopia, called the Sidamo, or more particularly, Sidama, who are located in the south-central part of that country...

, and on the southeast by Gamu-Gofa

Gamu-Gofa

Gamu-Gofa was a province in the southern part of Ethiopia, named after two of the ethnic groups living within its boundaries, the Gamo and the Goffa. First incorporated into Ethiopia by Emperor Menelik II in the 1880s , its capital was first at Chencha, then around 1965 the capital was moved to...

.

History

This province came into existence as a result of Proclamation 1943/1, which created 12 taklai ghizats from the existing 42 provinces of varying sizes. A comparison of the two maps in Margary Perham, The Government of Ethiopia shows that Kaffa was created by combining the former kingdoms of Kaffa, Jimma

Kingdom of Jimma

The Kingdom of Jimma was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged in the 19th century. It shared its western border with Limmu-Ennarea, its eastern border with the Sidamo kingdom of Janjero, and was separated from the Kingdom of Kaffa to the south by the Gojeb River. Jimma...

, Gera

Kingdom of Gera

The Kingdom of Gera was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged in the late 19th century. It shared its northern border with the Kingdom of Gumma, its eastern border with the Kingdom of Gomma, and was separated from the Kingdom of Kaffa to the south by the Gojeb River...

, Gomma

Kingdom of Gomma

The Kingdom of Gomma was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged in the 18th century. It shared its northern border with Limmu-Ennarea, its western border with Gumma, its southern border with Gera, and its eastern border with Jimma...

, Limmu

Limmu-Ennarea

The Kingdom of Limmu-Ennarea was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged in the 19th century. It shared its eastern border with Jimma, its southern border with Gomma, and its western border with Gumma. Beyond its northern border lay tribes of the Macha Oromo...

 and Janjero

Kingdom of Janjero

The Kingdom of Janjero was a tiny kingdom located in what is now Ethiopia. It lay in the angle formed by the Omo and the Jimma Gibe Rivers; to the west lay the Kingdom of Jimma and to the south the Kingdom of Garo...

, with the 1935 provinces of Guraferda, Benesso, Maji, Shewa Gimira, Goldiya, Konta

Konta

-Location:Konta is connected to Jagdalpur and Vijayawada by National Highway 221. It is near the state border with Andhra Pradesh. Nearest airport is Hyderabad International Airport.-External links:*...

, Kullo

Kullö

Kullö is a locality situated in Vaxholm Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 539 inhabitants in 2005....

. As a result the Kingdom of Kaffa, which had been conquered by Menelik II of Ethiopia in 1897, contributed the name to the new province, while the Kingdom of Jimma

Kingdom of Jimma

The Kingdom of Jimma was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia that emerged in the 19th century. It shared its western border with Limmu-Ennarea, its eastern border with the Sidamo kingdom of Janjero, and was separated from the Kingdom of Kaffa to the south by the Gojeb River. Jimma...

, an old rival to Kaffa, contributed the capital city.

With the adoption of the new constitution in 1995

1995 Constitution of Ethiopia

The current Constitution of Ethiopia, which is the supreme law of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, was adopted by the Transitional Government of Ethiopia in December 1994 and came into force in August 1995. The constitution was drawn up by the Constituent Assembly elected in June of that year.The...

, Kaffa became part of the Oromia

Oromia Region

Oromia is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia...

 and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Regions.