The origin of the Gedeo is not well known. Tadesse Kippie Kanshie mentions one story in which the Gedeo trace their origin to the aboriginal tribe called
Murgga-Gosallo, perhaps the earliest people to have lived in the area. Another Gedeo tradition traces their origins to one Daraso, who was the older brother of Gujo the ancestor of the
Guji Oromo, and Boro ancestor of the
Borana Oromo, two pastoral groups who live to the east of the Gedeo; this tradition may have its origins in an
Oromo practice of mass adoption of indigenous ethnic groups, known as . Daraso is said to have had seven sons from two wives, from whom were descended the seven Gedeo clans: Doobba’a, Darashsha, Gorggorshsha, Hanuma, Bakarro, Henbba’a and Logoda. These are organized into two classes or "houses": (the senior) to which the first four belong and (the junior) to which the last three belong. The comprises more than twenty-five sub-tribes while the consists of ten sub-tribes, all of which are
exogamous.
Protestant missionaries arrived in the early 1950s. They established two churches, the Ethiopian Kalehiywot Church and Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekaneyesus. Of these, the Ethiopian Kalehiywot Church attracted the bulk of the Gedeo population and exerted a far-reaching influence. The missionaries found their evangelical work quite easy, for they had only to substitute the Christian God for the
Mageno, the Supreme Being of the Gedeo. Moreover, before the Christian missionaries arrived there was virtually no formal education among the Gedeo. The handful of government schools were in the towns. The missionaries quickly identified this gap and used it to their advantage, establishing Bible and elementary schools. Gedeo were so eager to learn how to read and write, that elementary schools had to offer evening classes for the adults, lit by kerosene lamps. As Tadesse Kippie Kanshie writes, "These schools not only taught religious cadres but also cadres of change." Nevertheless this defeat led to government persecution of local Protestants. Church leaders were accused of inciting the people against the feudal government and church gatherings were banned. Further, government authorities forcibly resettled Gedeo in
Adola, Hagere Mariam (Bule Hora) and other Guji Oromo territories located far from the homelands of the Gedeo. While the
fall of Emperor Haile Selassie at first led to improved conditions, such as
land reform, but these improvements did not last. Cheating and deceiving had become "normal" ways used by most town merchants in dealing with Gedeo peasants. They were told by
Political Commissars when to harvest, when to sell and whom to sell to, and these officials eventually tried to enforce
agricultural collectivization on the Gedeo. In response, farmers clashed with government soldiers in 1981 near Rago-Qishsha. ==Politics==