Page 75 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

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Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
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in all parts of Oromia. Baxter explains that the relationships “between the ritual wel-
fare of a family and its stock and the national rituals of gaada [sic] are linked by the use
of prayers and blessings which utilise the same rich store of metaphors and symbols.
The adult members of each village or camp usually come together daily to offer
prayers, as a duty and a joy; but they will not do it if they are quarreling or if the fam-
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ily head cannot provide coffee beans for sacrifice.” The qallus in the Boran and Guji
regions still practice some of their original roles; these roles include election officer,
ritual leader and expert, and advisor in the gada system.The qallu leaders play impor-
tant roles in the domain of the sacred and in the election and legitimation of gada lead-
ers. In the Borana region, the qallus and other leaders of the Sabbo and Gona moieties
and clans directly participate in the recruitment of leadership, and the qallus of the two
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moieties “have responsibility and the power to organize the election of gada leaders.”
Global capitalists used Ethiopian warlords to incorporate Oromos, and, in the
process, Ethiopian colonialists suppressed or destroyed some Oromo cultural elements
and institutions by imposing their culture and institutions on Oromo society with the
support of global structures.However,the Ethiopian colonizing structure was not fully
successful “despite over one hundred years of colonial domination, in bringing about
a structural change in the Oromo view of the world.The custodians of the Oromo
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oral tradition were able retain intact to a large degree the system of knowledge.” Al-
though some Oromos accepted Islam by force or as resistance to Ethiopian colonial
domination, and others were forced to accept Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity or
willingly accepted other forms of Christianity,their worldviews “are still hidden under
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the surface,” according to Lambert Bartels, who was a Catholic missionary in Oro-
mia. Oromo prayers, blessings, and greetings manifest the Oromo worldview. “The
words of prayers, blessings and greetings continuously create and recreate connections
between the organizational and the cosmological structures,” Baxter writes, “such as
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the moieties and gaada [sic],and workaday.” Discussing the original system of Oromo
thought and world view, Bartels asserts that it “is these things which constitute their
most precious heritage and their identity as a people, and in this they can enrich other
people.” 98 For Bartels, “Whether they became Christians or Muslims, the Oromo’s
traditional modes of experiencing the divine have continued almost unaffected, in
spite of the fact that several rituals and social institutions in which it was expressed
have been very diminished or apparently submerged in new ritual cloaks.” 99
In the whole Borana community, where some elements of the gada system still
exist, the assembly known as Gumi Gayo (the assembly of multitudes) brings together
almost every important leader,such as living Abba Gadas, the qallus, age-set counselors,
clan leaders and gada councilors, and other concerned individuals to make or amend
or change laws and rules every eight years.The Gumi Gayo assembly has the highest
degree of ritual and political authority, higher than the gada or other assemblies be-
cause it “assembled representatives of the entire society in conjunction with any indi-
vidual who has the initiative to come to the ceremonial grounds,” and “what gumi
decides cannot be reversed by any other assembly.” 100 The 37th Gumi Gayo assembly
was held in August 1996 to make or amend or change three kinds of laws that the Bo-
rana Oromo classify as cardinal, customary, and supplementary laws. 101
Oromo leaders have been elected to office based on certain criteria:“There is a gen-
eral understanding among the electors and among the men competing for office that
personal qualities, achievements, mystical attributes, and public service are the most important
factors. . . .It should be stressed that it is not the candidate himself who is being judged