The Agaw were historically one of the founding members of Ethiopia, and they lived in northern and central Ethiopia, as well as Eritrea and the surrounding areas. Internally, the Agaw (Central Cushitic) language families are divided into four branches: Kemant (Western Agaw), Xamtanga (Eastern Agaw), Bilin (Northern Agaw), and Awngi (Southern Agaw).
The Agaw farmers started cultivating at their global center of agricultural origins in the third millennium (3000 to 2001) BC. The ancient Agaw experimented with local wild plants, creating novel cultigens like teff and finger millet, and they also adapted crops from other regions, creating new types of wheat, barley, sorghum, sesame, niger seed, lintees, okra, flax, and finger millet (Murdock, 1959). They also experimented with plants from throughout the world in an effort to find new cultivators. As a result, Ethiopia’s central highlands are now among the world’s major centers of cultivation, along with China and India.
It appears that the Agaw domesticated the donkey and subsequently figured out how to mate it with the horse to create mules (Murdock, 1959, 182-183). Many good mules and ponies were produced by the residents’ breeding of mare horses and donkey stallions. Furthermore, the Agaw people’s distinctive horse culture encompasses a wide range of activities, including riding, threshing, plowing, breeding, transportation, and the use of horses in marriages, funerals, and religious events.
There are several traditional organizations and customs that are specific to the Southern Agaw (Awi) people. These include the Agaw Horse Riders’ Association, which promotes social welfare, peacemaking, celebration, and recreation; the Head of Water, which manages irrigation water resources and resolves conflicts between individuals in the water industry; the Agaw Horse Riders’ Association, which escorts horse riders during festivities and presents decorated horses to distinguished guests.