Page 68 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

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The Oromo National Movement
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Ethiopians, and by creating an alienated and Ethiopianized Oromo intermediate class.
Colonialism can only be maintained by organized cultural destruction or repression
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and the assimilation of a sector of the colonized population. Ethiopian colonialism
repressed the Oromo cultural identity by denying Oromos the freedom of having and
developing their cultural institutions for the span of a century. Colonialism also de-
nied Oromos opportunities for developing the Oromo system of knowledge and
worldview by hindering the transmission of Oromo cultural experiences from gener-
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ation to generation. The exploitation of Oromo resources was facilitated by uproot-
ing the Oromo identity. But Ethiopian colonialism could not totally destroy Oromo
traditions since “gada [Oromo democratic] symbols and some practices went under-
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ground and survived until the present time.” As we will see below, the ideological
expression of the Oromo national movement has centered in gada (Oromo democ-
racy) since it “represents a repository, a storehouse of concepts, values, beliefs and prac-
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tices that are accessible to all Oromo.” Oromos have already fashioned their ideology
of national liberation based on their civil and political culture.As Benedict Anderson
explains,“Nation-ness, as well as nationalism, are cultural artefacts of a particular kind.
To understand them properly we need to consider carefully how they came into his-
torical being, in what ways their meanings have changed over time, and why, today,
they command such profound emotional legitimacy.” 34 Now let us explore the
Oromo cultural identity and its relation to Oromo nationalism.
The Cultural Bases of Oromo Identity and Nationalism
In contrast to the ancestors of African Americans who were taken away from their ge-
ographical and cultural milieus and placed in the country that is called the United
States, most Oromos were enslaved and colonized in their own homeland, Oromia,
and tightly controlled and exploited by Ethiopians. Oromos were not exposed to
complex global multicultural centers as the African Americans were. Despite the fact
that their cultural institutions were dismantled,Oromos have maintained more of their
cultural elements than have the African Americans. Unlike African Americans, Oro-
mos have even maintained some elements of their precolonial institutions in certain
Oromo regions, and the majority of Oromos still speak in their language, Afaan Oro-
moo. Further, as we see shortly, all Oromo groups share common cultural and histor-
ical roots in the form of kinship, political philosophy, worldview, and ritual. Lambert
Bartels notes that most Oromos “speak a mutually intelligible language of their own.
Kinship relations and marriage customs are much the same, and so their attitude to
leadership on one hand and to freedom of the individual on the other, the position of
nuclear family, their concept of man and society, and their modes of experiencing the
divine—all things which still find expression in many rites, ceremonies and forms of
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social intercourse.” Although Oromos have a biologically and socially constructed
complex kinship system, the formation and expression of Oromo peoplehood are cul-
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turally shaped. The Oromo kinship system on macro and micro levels has been the
basic social structure for defining common interests in resource management and uti-
lization, for establishing political and religious leadership, and for forming leagues or
confederations within Oromo society. 37
Oromo political and social institutions have been built on the kinship system; Oro-
mos call the largest grouping of the system gossa,which is subdivided into moiety,sub-
moiety, and qomo (clan).These subdivisions have lower-order branches known as mana