Promoting and Developing Oromummaa

By Asafa Jalata | 10 December 2012

Introduction

As any concept, Oromummaa has different meanings on conventional, theoretical, and political, and ideological levels. Although the colonizers of the Oromo deny, most Oromos know their linguistic, cultural, historical, political, and behavioral patters that have closely connect together all of their sub-identities to the Oromo nation. There is a clear conventional understanding among all Oromo branches and individuals on these issues. The Oromo national movement has gradually expanded the essence and meaning of Oromummaa. The colonization of the Oromo and the disruption of their collective identity and the repression and exploitation of Oromo society have increased the commitment of some Oromo nationalists for the restoration of the Oromo national identity and the achievement of statehood and sovereignty through developing the intellectual, theoretical, and ideological aspects of Oromummaa. In other words, some Oromo nationalists and their supporters have started to further develop the concept of Oromummaa as a cultural, historical, political, and ideological project for recapturing the best elements of the Oromo tradition, critically assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Oromo society, and for formulating a broad-based program of action to mobilize the nation for social emancipation and national liberation.


In this paper, I argue that the critical and thorough comprehension of all aspects of Oromummaa is necessary to build a more united Oromo national movement. First, the paper introduces the conventional meaning of Oromummaa through identifying and explaining the major cultural and historical markers that differentiate the Oromo from their neighbors and other ethno-national groups. Second, it examines how Ethiopian settler colonialism has slowed the full development of Oromummaa by suppressing the Oromo national identity
and culture, by killing real Oromo leaders and creating subservient or collaborative leadership, and by destroying and outlawing Oromo national institutions and organizations. Third, the piece illustrates how Oromo diversity can be recognized and celebrated within a democratic national unity. Fourth, it explores the concept of national and global Oromummaa as history, culture, identity, and nationalism. Fifth, the paper
demonstrates how expanded Oromummaa can serve as the central and unifying ideology of the Oromo national movement for social emancipation and national liberation.

The Essence and Meaning of Conventional Oromummaa

Oromummaa as the total expression of Oromo peoplehood developed from the historical, cultural, religious, and philosophical experiences of Oromo society. As a self and collective schema, Oromummaa encapsulates a set of fundamental beliefs, values, moral codes, and guiding principles that make Oromo society different from other societies.2 Oromummaa has been built on personal, interpersonal, and collective connections that the Oromo “have to an historically shaped form of knowledge that emerged out of the Oromo experience of several centuries of life and living (jiruf jireenya);” it has been also evolved from the moral codes and guiding principles of Oromo society, and has “served as a mechanism that built Oromo society in the past and left its unique mark upon the people, and their environment.”3 The Oromo belief systems and cultural principles have been encoded in and expressed by Afaan Oromoo; therefore, the Oromo language has been the main carrier of the essence and features of Oromo culture, tradition, and peoplehood. Since the Ethiopian colonizers had failed to destroy this language and replace it with that of their own, they could not successfully suppress Oromummaa that has survived in scattered forms and underground for more than a century.

However, they have prevented the Oromo from developing independent institutions that would allow them to produce and disseminate their historical and cultural knowledge freely as we shall see below. To objectively and clearly discus about conventional Oromummaa, we need to know the historical, cultural, religious, linguistic, geographical, and civilizational foundations of Oromo society. Currently our knowledge of Oromoness is very limited and fragmented. For generations, the Oromo have mainly transmitted their history through oral discourse. Since the colonization of Oromo society, Oromo scholars and others have been discouraged or prohibited by the Ethiopian colonial state from documenting Oromo oral traditions; therefore, adequate information is lacking on this society. Due to the dominant role of oral history, Oromo historiography requires a thorough and critical study of oral traditions. The Ethiopian colonial state has suppressed the production, reproduction, and dissemination of the intellectual knowledge of the people. To deny the opportunity of self-knowledge to the Oromo people in general, the youth in particular, the Ethiopian colonial institutions and their knowledge for domination have been imposed on Oromo society through colonial education and other institutions, such as the media and religion.

For most Ethiopian and Ethiopianist scholars, Oromo history began in the 16th century when the Oromo were actively recapturing their territories and rolling back the Christian and Muslim empires. The Oromo had at that time a form of constitutional government known as gadaa. Although we have limited knowledge of Oromo history before this century, it is reasonable to think that this people did not invent their government system just at the moment they were defending their country from the Christian and Muslim empire builders. During the 16th and 17th centuries, when various peoples were fighting over economic resources in the Horn
of Africa, the Oromo were effectively organized under the gadaa institution for both offensive and defensive wars. The gadaa government organized and ordered society around political, economic, social, cultural, and religious institutions. We do not clearly know at this time when and how this institution emerged. However, we know that it existed as a full-fledged system at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

During this century, the Oromo started to live under one gadaa republic with a strong democratic leadership and a national defense army. Today, almost all Oromos recognize and express proud in the gadaa system and its democratic principles. Gadaa as the main institutional emblem of the Oromo national character marks Oromo national culture and identity at all levels; Oromo cultural, historical, and behavioral patterns have been marked by the indigenous democracy of the gada system. This system has the principles of checks and balances (through periodic succession of every eight years), and division of power (among executive, legislative, and judicial branches), balanced opposition (among five parties), and power sharing between
higher and lower administrative organs to prevent power from falling into the hands of despots. Other principles of the system included balanced representation of all clans, lineages, regions and confederacies, accountability of leaders, the settlement of disputes through reconciliation, and the respect for basic rights and liberties.

There are five miseensas (parties) in gaada; these parties have different names in different parts of Oromia as the result of the population growth and the establishment of different autonomous administrative systems. All gadaa officials were elected for eight years by universal adult male suffrage. The system organized male Oromos according to age-sets (hirya) based on chronological age, and according to generation-sets (luba) based on genealogical generation, for social and political and economic purposes. These two concepts – gadaa-sets and gadaa-grades – are important to a clear understanding of gadaa. All newly born males enter a gadaa-set at birth, which they will belong to along with other boys of the same age, and for the next forty
years they will go through five eight-year initiation periods; the gadaa-grade is entered on the basis of generation, and boys enter their luba forty years after their fathers.

All Oromo branches were organized in age-sets and generational sets to defend their collective interest from external and internal enemies. In Oromo society, knowledge and information have been mainly transmitted from generation to generation through the institutions of family, religion, and gadaa. Young Oromos are expected to learn important things that are necessary for social integration and community development. They learn appropriate social behavior by joining age-sets and generation-sets. From their families and communities and experts, they learn stories, folk tales, riddles, and other mental games that help acquiring the
knowledge of society. As age-mates, they share many things because of their ages; members of generation-sets also share many duties and roles because of their membership in grades or classes.

The balancing of the domains of women and men and maintaining their interdependence have been a precondition for keeping peace between the sexes and for promoting safuu (moral and ethical order) in society.47 The value system of Oromo society has been influenced by the gadaa and siiqqee institutions. In pre-colonial Oromo society, women had the siiqqee institution, a parallel institution to the gadaa system that “functioned hand in hand with gadaa system as one of its built-in mechanisms of checks and balances.”49 These two institutions helped in maintaining safuu by enabling Oromo women to have control over their labor and economic resources and private spaces, social status and respect, and sisterhood and solidarity by deterring men from infringing upon their individual and collective rights.50 If the balance between men
and women was broken, a siqqee rebellion was initiated to restore the law of God and the moral and ethical order of society.

The principles of justice and democracy guided the Oromo worldview and value. Oromo society rejected hierarchies based on race/ethnicity, class, and gender. Therefore, when the Oromo fought wars and defeated their competitors, they integrated them into their society through the processes known as guudifacha and moogafacha. When other peoples or groups were interested to join Oromo society they were allowed to join the society through these processes. Although this assimilation process was not perfect, it involved both cultural and structural assimilation to allow an open access to economic and political resources without
discrimination. Therefore, Oromoness does not necessarily require biological or blood ties, but accepting social justice, popular democracy, and accepting the rule of law. The Oromo nation used to make nagaa (peace) among its various branches and social forces through assertive peacemaking process of the gadaa system that renewed Oromummaa as a social contract in Oromo society in every generation. Oromummaa embraces the Oromo sense of nagaa and justice among all Oromos and beyond through “balance of human beings with the environment, balance of men and women, balance of productive forces, balance of power, balance of families, balance within families, etc. At the heart of that notion of balance was the principle or definition of justice. It was encoded in the law, or seera…. According to the Oromo, justice prevailed when
that balance was reached and maintained by law.”4

All Oromo practices and behavior have been regulated by the gadaa democracy and principles. Oromo society like any society has been conscious of its cultural identity, its relation to nature, and the existence of a powerful force that regulates the connection between nature and society. The Oromo knowledge of society and the world can be classified into two: a) cultural and customary knowledge known as beekumssa aadaa, and b) knowledge of laws known as beekumssa seera.The knowledge of laws is further subdivided into seera Waaqa (the laws of God), and seera nama (the laws of human beings). The laws of God are immutable, and the laws of human beings can be changed thorough consensus and democratic means.

Oromo customary knowledge is a public and common knowledge that guides and regulates the activities of members of society; some elements of this customary knowledge can develop into rules or laws depending on the interest of society. Every person is expected to learn and recognize seera Waaqa and seera aadaa; however, should someone does not know the laws of society or the laws of God, there are Oromo experts who can be referred to. These experts study and know the organizing principles of the Oromo worldview that reflect Oromo cultural memory and identity both temporally and religiously. Another important aspect Oromo culture and history has been Afaan Oromoo. Although the Ethiopian colonial system has tried its best to destroy all aspects of Oromo culture and history, including the Oromo language, it did not have the capacity to totally impose on Oromo society its culture and language. The Amhara-Tigrayan colonizers killed assertive independent Oromo leaders, destroyed or suppressed Oromo important institutions, such as gadaa, in the attempt to uproot Oromummaa and replace it with Ethiopianism. However, Oromo rural families, particularly Oromo women, protected Afaan Oromoo because they had little access to the institutions of the colonizers.

Without having a national institution that could protect it, Afaan Oromoo has remained the blood and sinew of the Oromo identity, culture, and history. Today, the survival of this language has enabled all Oromo branches that have been disconnected by colonial regions and borrowed religions to be reconnected and revive their national institutions and Oromummaa. The Oromo language as the gold mine of Oromo history and culture has remained the main pillar and marker of Oromummaa. The Oromo national struggle led by the Oromo Liberation Front enabled the Oromo to write and read in qubee (Latin alphabet) since 1991 in Oromia although the Tigrayanled Ethiopian government has dwarfed its development and the Amhara elites oppose this alphabet wishing to continue the imposition of their colonial language, Amharic. Generally speaking, Oromo institutions, such as gadaa, siqqee, and waaqeffannaa had imprinted indelible and enduring marks on Oromo personality, peoplehood, and conventional Oromummaa. How did Ethiopian colonialism suppress Oromummaa? Why do the Amhara and Tigrayan elites hate Oromummaa while promoting Ethiopianism?

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