The area of Macha is a high plateau with undulating hills and some of the higher mountain ranges. Traditionally Macha hardly move below 1500 meters above sea level, since there is a risk of sleeping sickness and malaria would exist[citation needed].
History
The Macha came in the second half of the 16th Century as part of the general expansion of the Oromo in the area south of the Blue Nile. The Ethiopian monk Bahrey most important chronicler of the Oromo hikes called the Macha and Tulama as subgroups of the Borana and mentions various clans and lineages of Macha [citation needed].
The establishment of Macha in their present territory seems to be done in small groups and not by larger segments, so that the same clan names are present on a number of places in the area.[citation needed].
The Macha originally had a common Gadaa system with Tulama whose center (chaffe) was south of present-day Addis Ababa. But in the late 16th century, Macha established their own Gadaa with chaffe in Odaa Bilii / Tute Bisil upper Gibe Valley. A man named Makkoo Bilii called there, the independent Gadaa of Macha. In their lore, and Macha Tulama make mutually responsible for this break.
In 1963
, Macha and Tulama Self-Help Association was established mainly by Oromo, but also by members of other ethnic groups in southern Ethiopia. This was first engaged mainly local issues and the promotion of local development began, but soon also for political and cultural freedoms for all Oromo use. As a result, it was banned 1967. In 1994, a successor organization was founded, which was banned in 2004 again. The Macha are the westernmost Cushitic Horners of the Horn peninsula.
