State created for the Oromo people under a system of ethnic federalism by the revolutionist Ethiopian regime in the early 1990s. The state is the nation's most populated.
Oromo, an Afroasiatic dialect chain written in Latin characters and the most widely spoken Cushitic language, is spoken by 83.5% of the people.
Upon the overthrow of the dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, the Oromo language was institutionalized as the region's official language and a medium of instruction in elementary schools.
The Oromia region was dominated by the Marxist Oromo Liberation Front (since outlawed and labelled a terrorist organization). Revolutionary/secessionist forces still plague the region and it has become a perennial center of protest and insurrection.
The federal government moved the nation's (and Oromia's) capital of Addis Ababa to Adama in 2000 mainly to spite (and perhaps out of fear of) these secession forces. Protests brought the regional capital back to Addis Ababa on June 10, 2005.
The capital of Addis Ababa is called 'Finfinne' (water source) in Oromia.
