A History of Oromo Literature and Identity Issues (C. 1840-1991)
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to document the reciprocal relationships between Oromo literature
and identity issues in the process of the Oromo struggle against the formation of Ethiopian
homogenous nation as the subject has not received proper historical study. In an attempt to
fill the gap, the dissertation reconstructs a history of Afaan Oromo literature as a storehouse
of Oromo identity, transcript for consciousness creation and instrument of resistance against
impositions of Amhara rulers. For the study, pertinent available data were collected,
interpreted and analysed qualitatively based on historical research methods using mainly
narrative and analysis styles. The research findings depict that before the Oromo were
conquered by the Amhara, the main emphasis of Afaan Oromo literature was the socialization
of Oromo youths into ethically committed and morally strong Oromo. It was mainly used to
teach the Oromo youth what was good and evil, moral and immoral, destructive and
constructive, and encourage thought and action with its tales, poems, songs, epics, riddles,
demonological legends, ballads, anecdotes, proverbs, lullabies, history and others. It also
stored these principles in the forms of values, tension, myths, common experiences,
psychological makeup and intellectual curiosity. The first attempt to write in Afaan Oromo
might have come from the Muslim scholars whose efforts were to get written Afaan Oromo in
a suitable script, which continued until Qubee was adopted in 1991. From c. 1840 onwards,
the missionaries saw it as a language spoken by many people over large territorial areas and
as a pathway to control the Oromo cultural identity and convert them to Christianity. The
missionaries insisted on writing in Afaan Oromo under severe conditions that even cost them
heavy prices. Consequently, from 1840 to 1899, they effectively worked on translation of the
scriptures into Afaan Oromo, inscription of Afaan Oromo folklores and studies of Afaan
Oromo grammar and vocabularies which gave Afaan Oromo a written basis, and from 1900
to the period of Italian conquest on teaching how to read and write in Afaan Oromo. Besides,
the determination to write in Afaan Oromo and the increased consciousness of nationalism
were paradoxically escalated by the attempts to suppress Afaan Oromo and Oromo cultural
identity in favour of the formation of the linguistically, religiously and culturally homogenous
Ethiopia from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The Oromo grievances against the
domination were articulated, recorded and passed on vertically from generation to generation
and horizontally from one geographical area to another in Afaan Oromo literature. The
networking of the grievances by Oromo oral literature and the consolidation of Oromo
consciousness of their identity made the Oromo to consider the Italians as liberators when they
began to use Afaan Oromo for education, broadcasting and office activities. These linguistic
and cultural freedoms that the Oromo tasted under Italian rule made them to pose serious
resistance against the restoration of Emperor Haile Sillasie. The Harar and Baalee Oromo
uprisings, the Maccaa-Tuulamaa Association, the Afran Qalloo Cultural Movement and other
covert movements of the Oromo were what evolved because of the imposed strict language
policy and this gradually consolidated Oromo consciousness. The struggle was one factor for
the decline of Emperor Haile Sillasie. The struggle to write in Afaan Oromo and the Oromo
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national question continued under the Darg until it was declared that the Oromo were a nation
with their own regional state and Afaan Oromo became the written official language of the
Oromia Regional State in 1991. The script adopted to write Afaan Oromo passed through
intermittent linguistic studies with constant and critical debates until Qubee was adopted as
standardized script to write Afaan Oromo. The script in which Afaan Oromo was to be written
continued to be the subject of linguistic and political debates of the agencies engaged in issues
of written Afaan Oromo throughout the study period until Qubee was officially declared as the
script in which Afaan Oromo is now written.
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A History of Oromo Literature and Identity Issues