Oromo historical heritage: historical significance of odaa bultum gadaa assembly

Abstract

The Gadaa system is a special egalitarian socio-economic and political organization of the Oromo that has its origin in the age-system of the Horn of Africa. Gadaa assembly has been held in the open air meadow (caffee) under the shade of the sacred evergreen sycamore tree (Odaa). The major purpose of this thesis is to show the viability of Odaa Bultum Gadaa assembly values and depict how membership to Odaa Bultum gadaa grades determined the social-political and economic roles and responsibilities of individuals. The central problem on which this study embarks is to put into consideration the interrelation of Oromo historical heritage and Odaa Bultum Gadaa Assembly. It deals with the historical heritage of Odaa Bultum with the focus of the progressions of Odaa Bultum Gadaa among the Harraghe Oromo society. The Oromo of the area have been selected because of the continuous disastrous changes seen in the subsequent times on the Oromo culture owing to the multi-faceted factors. To keep the reliability of the data the researcher used full time including long time to the night to arrange and transcribe the qualitative data into the computer and try to collect the documented materials from aanaas and godinaa offices through photocopy and mail systems. The research focuses on new site and relies primarily on in-depth interviews. About fifteen elders of different aanaas in West Hararghe zone were interviewed to collect reliable traditions related to the topic. The researcher interviewed some knowledgeable elders for about four hours at different times. By the end of the study, 15 informants (13 males and 2 females) had been interviewed. The informants were asked to reflect on Oromo historical heritage with special reference to historical significance of Odaa Bultum Gadaa assembly. The study also involved focus group discussions in which three to five participants discussed different aspects of Odaa Bultum Gadaa assembly. Finally, a total of three such groups participated in focus group discussion. The researcher observes society’s cultural, political, social and economic experiences by going down into remote villages and contacting elders in the society. The information that was collected from the elders was recorded on tape recorder, transcribed and qualitatively analized.