KAFFA, a town in the Crimea. See Theodosia.

KAFFA, or Gomara, a little-known region to the south of Abyssinia in Africa, forming a cool elevated tract between the basins of the Sυbat on the west and the Juba on the east. Some of its mountain summits, among which is Mount Mata Gera, are believed to be over 12,000 feet high. Kaffa is held to be the native home of the coffeeplant, which grows in wild profusion on the mountain slopes. The chief town is Bonga, described as one of the largest towns in Ethiopia, in 7° 12' N. lat. The inhabitants, largely belonging to the race of black Gallas, are said by Beke to be Christians, and to speak a language cognate with the Gonga tongue, spoken in a portion of Damot, on the northern side of the Abâi. The French traveller Abbadie, who visited Kaffa in 1843, was the first European explorer. Dr Beke gives a description of the habits of the people in the London Geographical Journal for 1843; as also does Dr Krapf in his Travels, <L ’ c., in Eastern Africa (1860).