Oduu Haaraya

The Oromo of Harerghe:

On their Sub Divisions and Citizenship Modalities

Written by Afandi Muteki

The Oromo of Harerghe belong to the Barentuma/Barento confederation, one of the two main branchs of the Oromo people. They are bounded by the Arsi Oromo in the west and south, the Karayyu and Jille Oromo in the north west, the Afar people in the north and the Somali people in the east and south east. They call their natural homeland “Fugug”. They are basically regrouped to three major tribes; the Ittu, Afran Qallo and Anniya.

The Ittu Oromo ocuppy the western part of Harerghe highlands. Their home area is called “Carcar” or “Ona Ituu”. They are the people who are very close to the assembly of “Caffee Odaa Bultum” under which the tradition of the Barentuma Oromo adminstration system is kept.

They used to undertake their caffee congress at this place. The natural boundary between Ittu and Afran Qallo is Burqa river which is found near Baroodaa town. The boundary between Ittu and Anniya is the Ramis river.

Oromoota harargee

The Afran Qalloo Oromo lay to the east of Ittu and North of Aniyyaa. They are largest of the three groups both in thier population and the area they occupy. They have four main divisions called Oborraa, Baabbile, Daga (which is subdivided to Nole, Jarso and Hume) and Ala. It is not clear whether the land of Afran Qalloo has a unique name although some people call it “Gooroo Fugug”. Afran Qallo had a long tradition of “Raabaa Doorii” assembly which was held at a place called “Bululoo” near the town of Watar.

The Aniya Oromo occoupy the lowlands of the former Gara Mulata province. Their home area is called “Diida Aanniyyaa” or ”Burqaa Tirtiraa”. With only few exceptions, they are pastoralists.

The boundary between Afran Qallo and Aniyya is the Mojoo river. The Anniya Oromo used to held their “Caffee Gadaa” assembly at “Burqaa Tirtiraa”.

The Oromo of Harerghe speak the Oromo language called Afaan Oromo. However, they retained unique dialect which has certain important features. First, their dialect is marked by a guttural sound “kh”. Some linguists say that the Harar Oromos borrowed this sound

from other languages (like Somali, Harari and Arabic). But this assumption has no base because the “kh” sound exists in other Oromo dialects as well; it exists even in “Borana” and “Guji” dialects which are thought to have low contact with other languages. On the other hand, in the Harar Oromo dialect, basically it is not the loan words that have the “kh” sound; many words of Oromo roots are marked so. For example “khaleessa” (yesterday), “khannuu” (to give), “khaayuu” (to put down), “khiyya” (mine), “khoottu” (come) etc have all “kh” sounds and these words were not borrowed from any other language. So the notion that asserts “kh” is a loan sound is unreliable.

Whenever we say this, some people do think that the Harar Oromos shift the “k” sound we hear in Afan Oromo dialects of other regions to “kh”. But that is not the case. The Harar Oromos also use many words that have ” k” sound in their vocabulary. For example, words like “tokko”, “lakkoysa”, ” akkam, “akkana, “akkas”, “karkarroo”, “kitaaba”, “shikifii”, “walakkaa”, ” waakkachuu”, “waakkallee etc are said and read just as I wrote here now (i.e. there is no ” akham” in Harar Oromo dialect; “akkam” is the correct form of the word).

The second feature of the Harar Oromo dialect is its possesion of many loan words which are used only in Harerghe. This has no mystery because the Oromos of Harerghe live in the land criss-crossed by trade routes and military expeditions, and they share boundary with different nations such as Somali, Afar, Harari etc; so it is evident that they could have borrowed many words from other languages. For example, we can see the Oromos of Harerghe saying “zigaal”, “zanyaa”, “zuuguu”, “azeeba”, “azalaa” etc. These words were borrowed from Harari language (As the Cushitic languages doesn’t have “z” sound, and the words we listed here appear only in Harari language and the Harar dialect of the Oromo language, we can easily conclude that the Oromos of Harerge borrowed them from their Harari neighbours).

The third feature of the Harar Oromo dialect is its maintaining many idiomatic expressions which are peculiar to the Harerghe region. For example, we can hear the Harar Oromos saying “miila kharaa khaayuu” (to put the leg in the road) which is to mean “to go”, “harka jabaatuu” (to be hard handed) to mean “to be thrifty, “dhukkee irraa khaasuu” (to blow dust on) to mean “to attack severely”.

There are two types of colloquiation among the Oromos of Harerghe. One is the traditional confederacy based colloquation, and the other is the urban-rural deviding colloquation. On the confederacy level, the three tribes of the Harar Oromo (Ittu, Afran Qallo and Aniyya) have retained certain vocabularies and “phonetic”

variants which can differentiate them from one another. For example, the Ittu Oromos say “eessa” for “where” but the Afran Qallo Oromos say “eeysa” which is phonetically different. While the Ittu Oromos say “diiddam” (twenty),

the Afran Qallo Oromos say “diydam”; When the Ittus say “ishii” (her) the Afran Qallo Oromos say “isii”. On the Other hand the Ittu Oroms say “subaaxa” to mean “lunch”, but the Afran Qallo

Oromos say “laaqana” for lunch. When the Ittu Oromos say “jibbuu” (to hate), the Afran Qallo Oromos say “jibbuu” and “balfuu”; when Ittu Oromos say “indooyyee” (aunt, mother’s sister) the Afran Qallo Oromos say “haboo”. The Ittu Oromos say “khottee” for “nail”, the Afran Qalloo Oromos say “qeensa”.

The urban-rural deviding colloquiation is relatively a recent phenomenon. It is mostly a result of Afan Oromo’s high fusion with Arabic, Somali and Harari languages in the urban areas. For example, an urban house wife in Harerghe may call her female friend “geelee” in the manner of the Harari women. The urban people say “faxara” for breakfast (in the word borrowed from Arabic), but the rural people simply call it “dhihena”; the urban people may say “shubbaaka” (also borrowed from Arabic) for window which the rural people call “fooddaa”.

One must not take the distinct usage of a dialect by the Oromos of Hareghe as something that separate them from other Oromos just as Ziyad Barre of Somalia was preaching 30 years ago. Even though they developed a unique dialect and certain traditions which are peculiar to them, the Oromos of Harerghe always consider themselves part of the greater Oromo nation.

The three tribes of the Harar Oromo are divided to clans called ‘gosa’. Many aspects of the family life and social activities of the people were influenced by clan based institutions. Currently, this phenomenon is very strong in the countryside where people’s tradition and customs are highly observed.

The Ittu Oromo is divided to ten clans; Baabbo, Alga, Waayye, Wacaale, Addaayyo, Arroojjii, Baaye, Gaamo, Gaadullaa and Qaalluu. The Afran Qallo Oromo has four clans called Oborraa, Baabbile, Daga and Ala (It is wrong to count Nole and Jarso as two of the four clans that make up the Afran Qallo as many writers do; both of them are parts of the “Daga” clan). The Anniya Oromo has seven clans grouped under two confederacies, called Saddacha and Kudhelle. The Sadacha confederacy has three clans called Babbo, Malka and Dambi. The Khodholle confedarcy has four clans called Bidu, Anna, Koyye and Macca.

Each clan is divided to sub-clans called “ibidda”. This “ibidda” inturn is divided to kinship groups called “warra”. It is this “warra” that denotes common origin of peoples and usually, each “warra” is called by a personal name which is regarded as the name of the ancestor of the “warra”. Most of the Oromos of Harerghe are able to count down their forefathers up to the man they consider as their bearing father (i.e. the ancestor of “warra”).

A person who belongs to the Oromo nation is called “lammii” (citizen). It is possible to be “lammii” in two ways: by birth and by adoption. Anyone who was born to the Oromo parents would be a “lammi” directly, and such a person is usually called “ilma gudeedaa” (”a child from the womb”).

Adoption was practiced in three ways.

1. “ilma guddisaa”: indicates the children that lost their parents at a battle field and adopted to the Oromo citizen. The person adopted in this way had full political and civil rights.

2. “ilma mixii”: children who are thrown by their bearer on the road and public places and adopted to an Oromo citizen. ‘Ilma mixii’ also had full political and civil rights.

3. ”ilma gosaa”/”ilma barcumaa”: this indicates aged persons who became Oromo citizens due to their service to the society and their extra ordinary skills (the Ittu Oromo say “ilma gosaa”, the Afran Qallo Oromo say “ilma barcumaa”). ”Ilma gosaa” had no right to be elected in the state, but he can elect the leaders of the state and members of “caffee” assembly.

A person who was adopted to an Oromo citizen must practice an Oromo culture; he should speak Afan Oromo and should had due respect for the society’s norms and ethical codes.

It was also possible to live in the Oromo land without having a “lammii” status. In this regard, however, giving a pledge to the society and the state was a must. A person who was welcomed by the Oromos in this manner was called “amba” (non-citizen). The “amba” had no right of election, neither would he involve in the political and administrative affairs. He, however, he had no duty to give military service.

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Afendi Muteki

Gelemso, Harerghe, Ethiopia

January 2013

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afran qalloo

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