Historical Survey of Socio-Cultural Interaction Among the Peoples of Gidda Woreda, Eastern Wallagga (1936 -2000)
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Date
2018-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This thesis is a hi t rical survey ofsocio-cultural interactions among the people ' 0 Gidda
district from the Italian occupation in 1936 to the period IVhen interactions between
indigenous Oromo people and the Amhara reselliers gave ri e to open war in 2000. Gidda
district is located in Eastern Wallagga ::.one of Western Ethiopia. nlil the GoBame and
Shoans conquered the area in the last quarter of the 191t. centwy, no new order was imposed
on the socio-cultural lives of the people except for the emergence of monarchical chiefs
whose powers had weakened the gadaa system. Therefore, the people of the district IVho had
different clans, 'ub-clans and lineages had lived by practicing their indigenous religion and
other socio-cultural practices. Throughout the period under study. three historical
developments had been experienced and tram/ormed the socio-cultural interactions of the
people. These are the natural socio-cultural interactions among the local people, the impacts
of the newly introduced religions and the arrival of reseltlers fro m northern parts of
Ethiopia. The legacies and the consequences of conquest accompanied by these three
historical developments as well as other changes and continuities brought the socio-cultural
t ran~form atio n among the inhabitants of the area. On the side of the ne}vly arrived reselliers,
their spontaneous advent and the continual changes in their sentiments increased their
interactions with the indigenous people. Consequently, combinations of cooperation and
conf lict as well as interactions and isolationism characterized the relationships between the
/1Vo groups. AI/o st of the time, intensity of inter-ethnic su.spicion and isolationism exceeds that
of the cooperation and consistent peacefit! interactions. This problem emanates from and
utmost related to the roles played by the exploitative and suppressive Ethiopian governments.
Among the newly introduced religions, Orthodox Christianity and Protestantism brought
remarkable socio-cultural tran~fo rmations. As the people adopted and added the ideologies
of the new religions to their own, many of them modified their social lives, food and food
habits, marriage practices, fimeral system and their allitudes towards different rituals to the
extent that the ideologies of the two religions intermingled at least in the heart of the people.
As a part of the gadaa .system, the indigenous religion of the people had already been
internalized. Therefore, the newly designed administration system and the newly introduced
religions faced hardships in snatching the principles of indigenous culture. Therefore, the
people retained some aspects of their value system and indigenolls religion.
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Keywords
Historical Survey, Socio-Cultural Interaction