Ever since Bushe and Maldia, the ancestors of the Sidama nation, settled in Teelamo, the epicentre of the Sidama civilization and nation building, as they returned back from Dawa in search of better lands for cattle herding and sedentary farming, the society lived in peace and tranquillity albeit minor ethnic conflicts from neighbouring tribes for control of grazing lands. However, the situation changed drastically when the Abyssinian army invaded the southern nations immediately after the 1882 Berlin Conference of the western nations that decided to divide Africa among themselves. The Abyssinian army supplied with rifles and other modern weapons by these rival western colonizing powers, marched towards the south between the late 1880s and the beginning of the 20th century for control of the vast fertile land and other resources owned by the peoples of the free southern nations. These nations waged bitter armed struggle against the occupying forces of King Minelik during this period