Social Exclusion and Integration In Ganta (Gamo) of South Western Ethiopia: A Study of Descent Based Slaves
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Date
2013-06
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AAU
Abstract
This Thesis is about descent based social exclusion and integration of slave
descendants in Ganta (Gamo) of southwest Ethiopia. It looks at local explanations for
exclusion of slave descendants, the areas of their exclusion from the mainstream
society, different integration mechanisms and a description of how the situation of slave
descendants has changed during successive political regimes of the country.
The data used for this study is based on three months of fieldwork during which 40 key
informants from different categories (including slave descendants and descendants of
slave owners with different educational and religious backgrounds) were interviewed.
The finding of the study shows that exclusion of slave descendants is deeply embedded
in the local ideology of slavery. In Ganta slave descendants do not only belong to the
lowest social class, they are also considered as impure. Their impurity is hereditary
through the mother's and the father's line and transferable to non kin through close
social contact during rites of passage (marriage, funeral and child delivery). The
ideology of impurity is rooted in the local mythological justification that slave
descendants inherited the dehumanized attributes of their ancestors. In the past slave
ancestors were treated below human beings; they were exchanged like animas and
commodities; they were sold, bought and given as gifts. Today slave descendants are
considered as "impure" and "inferior creatures " because they are believed to share
the dehumanized traits of their ancestors. Therefore, the ultimate assumption behind
excluding slave descendants during rites of passages (in marriage, mourning and
fune ral, and child delivery) is that close intimacy with them during these situations
automatically turns a free born into a slave.
To escape exclusion slave descendants have been integrating into the mainstream society
through the indigenous mechanism called wozzo ritual. The wozzo ritual fully integrates
slave descendants who can then freely intermarry with the free born and experience no
exclusion in the above mentioned rites of passage. The high cost of the ritual leaves slave
descendants economically broken. In addition to the indigenous mechanism, the Synods
of south western Ethiopian have introduced a new approach to eliminate the situation of
the slave descendants in recent time. They convinced ritual experts to publically
renounce the practice of slavery. The study has shown that the community does not have
full trust and still wavers to closely participate with unredeemed slave descendants, so
that the exclusion which has existed during the last twenty century and survived different
regimes continues to exist until today.