"It is not enough merely to call freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to preserve in the struggle and nothing is precious than freedom & independence."...Burma.
The oromo's are a cushitic-speaking people with physical characteristics varying from light skinned Hamitic to dark skinned Nilotic peoples who live in eastern Africa. The land of Cush,Nubia or parts of today's Ethiopia is the home of the cushites,Even if the Abyssinian colonizers denied the fact that oromo's are the native habitants of the horn region called oromia. Their physical features, culture, language and a number of evidences unquestionably point to the fact that the oromo's are indigenous to the horn of Africa.
Many historians wrote about the origin of the oromos including the self centered Abyssinian history writers. According to the so called Abyssinian scholars like Abba Bahre the oromo's might not be where they are today. But few scholars like Bates(1979) comments,.."the oromo's were a very ancient race, the indigenous stock, perhaps on which most other peoples in the horn have been grafted."
In the same manner p.t.w.Baxter contends "The cradle land of the oromo was in cool grasslands of southern Ethiopia where they lived as pastoral stockmen. In the early 19th century, triggered by demographic and ecological changes which we don't yet under-stand and possibly also by the introduction of saddled horse, there was a population upsurge and oromo spread rapidly. They took over most of the territory which they still farm & graze. They absorbed the peoples they overran, and drove out the garrisons and religious houses from those parts of the south of Ethiopia which the Amhara had colonized during the previous century(19th c).
On the same subject among many oromo elites and nationalists who are very concerned about reconstruction of oromo history and culture; the now vice-president of AAU Dr.Gamachu Magarsa on the his book comments "....a long time ago before any creation came to existence ,waaqa wanted all that was contained in him self come in to being. Hence, waqaa created the body of water, knowing that water is the source of all life. He then called the water Hora Wolabu. Then divided the impregnated body of water into two parts: Bishaan Gubbaa-the water above and Bishaan Goodaa-the water below. He divided the waters of the above into three parts: water, sky and heavenly bodies. waqa then named these five acts of creation yaayaa shanaan,or the five fundaments. with these,waqa drew ground plan upon which the rest of the world would be built. These began with the birth of the sun and the moon.
The first day began when the sun rose at dawn and ended when the sun set on the first day. This first day waaqa called Addula, "first sun". It take waaqa 27 days to complete his creation. These days occurred between the rising and setting of two new moons. Every tenth day, the creator rested, and so he took three days off. Then waaqa made humans and named him Horo(Horomo).
On horo's body waaqa placed five limbs ,a head, two arms, and legs. Each hand divided into five fingers and each foot divided into five toes.
On his face waaqa placed seven features. Horo thus reflected waaqa as period of creation, because he was made up of 27 different parts. on the body of the human being, three parts remain unaccounted, corresponding to the three days in which the creation of the world remained suspended.
Starting from this time on, the oromo people traced their origin from Horo,the founding father. The Fossil evidences discovered in oromiya(lucy,diknesh,chaltu over 3.5 million year old which was discovered in oromia in 1980'5 and the newly discovered EDALTU the oldest fossil ever discovered only about 200km from finfine are good emphasis to be added in my opinion) indicates the fact that humanity is originated in Eastern Africa(oromiya),thus,oromians beliefs are scientifically supported. The agricultural practice and their democratic law the GADA SYSTEM trace back almost two million years as well.
In oromo language, the name Horo comes from the verb HORU,meaning multiply and be fertile. The first letter "H" is not always pronounced, and so the name (H) oromo means the people who were descended from Horo.
Horo,the founding father, had two sons. His first born son was named BORANA; his younger son named BARENTU. In oromo language,word Horo designates the wall of the back bedroom of the tradition oromo house. The entrance of the house,from the inside looking outside traditionally faces the East. The rays of the rising sun pass through the eastern opening of the house to the room where the head of house hold sleeps. The word 'ANNA' means 'toward' or 'next to'. In oromo language, the last vowel is not always pronounced. The parts of the name 'BORANA' together mean "those who face east."
Similarly,the name BARENTU is made up of two terms:'BARRII',mean 'sunrise', and'-AANTU' the feminine form of '-ANNA'. Together the two words signify 'those facing the west.'"
According to professor Mohammed Hassan the history of oromo,at the time of the expansion the pastoral oromo constituted of two powerful confederacies named BORANA AND BARENTU. The descendants of Borana and Barentu form the major Oromo clans and sub-clans. They include Borana, Macha, Tuulama, Wallo, Garrii, Gurraa, Arsi, Karrayyu, ltu, Ala, Qaloo, Anniyya, Xummugga or Marawa, Orma, Akkichuu, Liban, Jile, Gofa, Sidamo, Sooddo, Galaan, Gujii and many others. In the national myth,oromo was the father of both. But in the separate Borana genealogy the BORANA had a father called SAPERA ,who lived around 1400A.D in TULU WALAL. In the highlands of Bale and the valley of river Ganale a farway land which is consistently claimed as the first home of the oromo people, the birth place of the nation the place known as FUGUG;the various oromo tribes seem to have shared a common language ,a culture ,an oral literature, customs and manners, law of government, and institutions like the office of Abba Gada, Qallu and the Bokku.Today the land of Fugug and mount Fugug are located in the administrative region of Arsi,the heartland of historical Bali.
To sum up, from these definition even if those self-centered Abyssinian scholars don't accept these truth,oromo elites and every body who is proud of being oromo & who understands the meaning of orommuma can give their feed back.
Copyright © 2003(Gada Oromiya)