By Getachew Ch. Nadhabaasaa (Membership: Gadaa Meelbaa)
Oromo people’s understanding of peace and reconciliation [araara fi nagaa (nagayaa)] is not part by part or piece by piece. They understand peace and reconciliation as a symmetric adaptation of conflict resolution to the whole part of conflicting groups’ behavioural activities. And, therefore, the Oromo belief of peace asserts the prevalence of tolerance relationship among conflicting parties’ diverse interests for common advantage. The interests could be reconciled and be able to live together in harmony or could go apart from each other agreeing on the irreconcilability of those basic differences.
[Read also Addis Ababa/Lyon City to City Cooperation]
In order to defend nagaa biyyaa (peace of the nation/country) the Oromo people, in their history of peace management, promptly work and sort out the root causes that disturb their peaceful way of life. Thus, pre-colonial Gadaa Oromo society had devised constructive reconciliation methods (mala araara) at various levels, based on the seriousness of the conflicts in order for peace and stability to prevail over chaos and turmoil.
This piece of information focuses on how a serious murder case could be deterred before it escalates to a tit-for-tat. The killing could be premeditated (contrived beforehand), or committed accidentally or happened in self-defence. Whatsoever it is, however, murder case is a disruptive serious crime which can divide the cohesiveness of the people, who view each other as one family, into two or more hostile branches. Therefore, the seriousness of the conflict requires pre-emptive action and precautious intervention of the hayyuus before it begins to spread the virus of irreversible hostility. In this case, the Abbaa Seeraa of the Gadaa system, together with other Gadaa hayyuu magistrates, bear pre-eminent obligation to bring the case for araara. Hence, for this particular burning issue, the use of the long-sustained seera Gumaa Oromo is indispensible.
For hayyuu Oromos, it is not so difficult to reconcile and bring peace back on to its right track within the Oromo communities. It is not so difficult, because the purposive goal and fundamental value of seera gumaa Oromoo is equally shared by all Oromo families of nation, regardless of their geographic distributions in the Horn of Africa.
Not surprisingly, however, basic differences continue to exist between Abyssinian authoritarian (=Habashas) institution and the Oromo democratic institution in establishing common understanding, particularly on the positive power of peace. That, the Habashas, in their ‘very good’ part of authoritarian history do neither have their own seera gumaa for making peace nor do they have positive feelings to use other peoples’ traditional experiences of conflict resolution methods.
What is Seera Gumaa Oromoo?
Seera Gumaa is Oromo people’s long-continued conventional body of rules of blood compensation for making and restoring peace. It enforces and reinforces the killer/murderer (the offender) to pay symbolic balance of compensation (in former times in kind, for example heads of cattle, nowadays in cash) to the nearest relatives of the person one had killed (victim). When the killer is influenced and enforced to pay compensation, members of the victim’s clan, the lineage group in particular, are solemnly appeased to accept the compensation for peace. They accept the peace not only for themselves but for those biologically and socially interconnected Oromo clans, who are not localised but dispersed all over the Horn of Africa.
Seera gumaa Oromoo also stipulates mechanisms that can deter potential threats of conflict escalation to perpetual retaliation. As an institution, it lays fundamental rules governing behavioural activities to be followed, that the Oromos are timely urged to follow and work on it for reconciliation (araara).Both parties, the offenders as gumaa payers, and the defenders as gumaa receivers, are governed by the rules and procedures of Seera Tumaa Oromoo (in this case seera gumaa) in restoring peace. It is an impressive institution, in its intensity, very ideal to the Oromo people of the Horn of Africa that crowns the positive rule of peace.
Procedures of Conducting Gumaa for Peace
The process of conducting gumaa for peace essentially requires the involvement of three important bodies (in some cases four)
1. The Hayyuus: Magistrates of the Gadaa System
The hayyuus are the ones who are acting on behave of peace (nagaa/nagayaa) of the nation at large. They are peace-makers who take initiative and start a go between two feuding parties for peace. They are not for jaarsumma who would work as fact finders and read the final verdict. They are working on the discernible existing facts. They exert their cumulative knowledge, wisdom, patience and effort to defuse the vibrating tension before its explosion to retaliation. The hayyuus are the ones who can revitalise the ailing peace of the nation to normal life.
The Power of Oromo Sacred Objects
The hayyuus are accompanied by Oromos’ powerful sacred objects. Among them: Kallacha, Caaccuu, Alangee, Cokoo (ritual spear) inherited from past ancestors, and bridled horses (cancala/luugama). These are indispensable sacred objects, carried by appropriate persons that accompany the hayyuus whenever they go to the victim’s village for peace. The sacred power for araara is essentially believed to have been encapsulated in these millennium old Oromo sacred objects. They persist to exist and continue to offer their sacred services in cleaning the polluted peace of the people despite condemnation to extinction by foreign-injected elements against their sacredness.
2. Clan members of the killer (an offender)
These are groups of gumaa payers and peace givers. It is not only the individual who has committed the murder whose hand is believed to be full of blood. The action he has taken against the life of the man is also believed to have contaminated hands of his clan members. They are the ones who bear primary obligation to clean the spoiled hands of their brother (direct committer of the crime) and themselves, too
3. Clan members of the victim (a defender)
These are gumaa receivers, peace accepters and restorers. It is viewed as if members of the victim’s clan are also killed. As a reason, they may raise their spears against the killers for revenge if they are not instantly intervened and deterred by the reconciling power of the hayyuus.
Preliminary Requisites
The gumaa norms of conduct for reconciliation require the defender’s party (victim’s family/clan) to accept the appeasement of the hayyuus for araara (reconciliation).It requires patience and wisdom of knowledge on the part of the hayuus to persuade them, in particular, those near relatives of the victim’s paternal lineage. It may not be an easy task to get their consent at initial stages. However, since they cannot be above the conventionally agreed upon norms of the society, they ultimately come to comply with the rules of the institution in exchange for symbolic compensation.
The victim’s family (clan) cannot ask the hayyuus to fix either the maximum or the minimum amount of compensation they accept or reject, nor do they appeal to their “foes” for compensation. Its procedural activities are regulated as enshrouded in the seeraa gumaa Oromoo tradition for peace. It is neither for punishment nor a debate of a win-to-win solution.
Members of the killer’s clan, if they are truly in need of peace, may urgently appeal to the hayyuus to undertake the gumma peace process. They, members of the killer’s clan, by themselves, cannot directly go to the families of the victim and appeal to them for peace; or acknowledge the man’s offensive action against life. They do not even directly look at their faces, especially at members of the victim’s paternal lineage. They have to strictly control their feet not to trespass upon the areas where lineage members of the victims are living. Failure to strictly follow these custom-regulated rules can thwart the beginning of the peace process, leave alone to come to reconciliation.
The Buyyaa Ceremony: The Final Chapter of the Peace Process
By holding what is known as the buyyaa ceremony, the gumaa reconciliation process will be coming to an end, which will be held at meadow where abundant green grasses, trees and a river that flows throughout the year are available. On this day, the payment of blood compensation, as decided by the hayyuus in light of seera gumaa, will be officially announced and handed to the nearest relative of the deceased (killed) person. If it is committed in self-defence or happened by accident, the amount will be less than the intent one. The killer’s clan cannot ask the hayyuus for revision. What the hayyuus could do is to ask the victim’s clan (gumaa receivers) to reduce for them certain amounts which is, in most cases, acceptable.
In the process of gumaa payment for peace, the other important point to be stressed is that, the killer is totally deprived of paying, even a single cent, out of his handhuuraa (private property), even if he is a millionaire. He is enforced to solicit for contribution tying his hands with chain. The chain shows the impurity (pollution) of his hands, contaminated by the pure blood of the man he had deliberately or desperately a cause to spill. He is now begging other innocents to help him clean his “xurii” (=dirty) out of his hands.
It is on this ceremony, that the killer(s) is officially presented to the public. In areas where the Waataa communities are living among the Oromos, the man is brought to the ceremony by Waataa ritual leader, the guardian of Waataa’s sacred object called botowaa. Until this day comes; the man stays under Waataa’s full protection. No one dares to attack him or molests him as far as he is under Waataa’s protection.
At this place, a ram is immolated whose meat is left only for birds of prey. The killer and the victim’s near relative will go to the house of the killer, sit side by side and sleep together at night. An exultant woman, with honey full of sour gourd, receives them at the gate. An uncastrated steer is immolated at the gate. At night, they sleep together. Their toes are tied to each other by a piece of intestine from the immolated steer. In the morning one of the killer’s sisters cuts the intestine from their toes with a sharp edge of a spear. The End!
The buyyaa ceremony celebrates the true face of gumaa for the restoration of peace, deterring and liquidating all possibilities of retaliatory vengeances. It ushers the termination of looking each other as “foes” (blood feuds) or seeking for revenge. It signifies the return of peace to its equinoctial position. It radiates a luminous peace to all members of the community at large.
Do Abyssinians (Habashas) have Gumaa for Peace or Gumaa for Revenge?
“In a society like Abyssinians (Ethiopians) where aggression, expansion, violence, banditry and retaliatory vengeance are dictatorially and imperially institutionalised, there is no place for the growth of socially chartered institutions that can manage peace for the wellbeing of the citizens. The kings, regional warlords, and emperors are believed to have an ascribed status in giving a divinely-fetched decision, be it punishment or amnesty. They are well tilted to a magical wand of war and aggression strategists as righteous advisers instead of eschewing such advisers as devils of peace”
The apex of the incumbent Ethiopian regime is full of individuals from the northern tip of Tigray, culturally akin to the Amhara people. How do they understand “peace”? Do they have an indigenous institution, like Seera Gumaa Oromo that can control serious crimes like murder case and prepares the society for araara (peace)? Herein sleeps and wakes up the problem. The Oromos, as briefly illustrated above, possess an indigenous mechanism that can deter and resolve conflicts like murder before they step onto retaliatory stage. In the case of the Habashas, vendetta (biqqela) is a long-sustained behavioural institution that seeks vengeance on the killer (offender). It is unstoppable tit-for-tat, carried on for generations without peace solution.
Today, the Ethiopian regime, led by Tigirean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Arsenals of Tigray, continues to follow the oldest Axumite’s model of defiling peoples’ peace way life. It is destabilising the natural order of the region. Right now, in the name of keeping peace, it is committed to conduct blatant war of genocide against the Oromos, ignoring their earnest demand for peace. It has declared martial law and put Oromiyaa, under military rule[2] ,to fight what the regime’s Communication Minister, Ato Getachew Reda, said, “Satanic temptation”. Ato Getachew’s unambiguous conclusion is no peace to the devils, or with the “devils”. [3]
This is not a new phraseology uniquely expressed by Ato Getachew Reda. He inherited the “holy diction” from his forefathers who continue to depict any resistance against their barbaric actions as guided by Satan.[4] In 1991, too, when all Oromos unanimously adopted to use “qubee”, Latin alphabet, the Ato Getachews’ were calling qubee the “devil (satanic) script”.[5]
In fact, this regime, since it came to power in 1991 through coup d’état, has not stopped, even for a single day; killing, torturing, maiming, imprisoning and terrorising the Oromos. Its current palpable action seems to have gone beyond reconciliation with or without compensation. What is shocking is, this regime, instead of addressing peoples’ basic demands and finding amicable solution, is committed to escalating the problem by further deploying its killing squads. In such away, the regime in Addis Ababa is rudely pushing the Oromo people towards unending blood feud, which is in sharp contrast to Oromos’ long-continued seera gumaa for peace.
How Can One Reconcile?
When egalitarianism versus authoritarianism, democracy versus autocracy, electoral versus dictatorial, participatory versus conspiracy, openness versus secretiveness how can reconciliation for harmony be construed between these extremist behavioural institutions? These are issues most Ethiopianist elites do not want to address down to their bottom roots. Whenever they face these types of questions, they switch on their vocal cords to vibrate melodies of moral science: “tegaabtenaal, tewaaldenaal, aand hizb nen” etc.
Yes, tegaabtenaal, tewaaldenaal because it is a natural phenomenon to any human being to mix; biologically, socially or psychologically. But, as the last 150 years of experience attested to us, the beautiful melodies of our ‘moral scientists’ could not be changed to supernatural force or a magic wand that can eradicate the deep-rooted problems of the “andinnet”. They are no more able to mend the widening rift of the “aandinnet” unless a new phase of the “science of melodies” is searched for and applied on.
“In fact, the conflict between the northern autocratic-authoritarian societies of Abyssinia (officially extended to Empire of Ethiopia in 1889) and the southern egalitarian societies like the Oromos is not the conflict between individuals’ physical characters. The conflict has been stretching over centuries between those antagonistically organised behavioural institutions of the authoritarian northerners and the egalitarian southerners.[6]
On individual or societal basis, there is no problem of mixing with one other. But as long as these individuals or societies are not able to harmonise or compromise their behavioural differences, the only mono approaches to “aandinnet, aand hizb” cannot be the “Seera Gumaa” of the Oromo people to compensate them. It can neither persuade the Oromos nor enforce them to accept blood compensation for their daily murdered sons, daughters, fathers, mothers and relatives. If at all the “Jaarsa Oromoos” accept the out-dated Abyssinian morality as a valid “moral science”, it is very far from maintaining sustainable integrity in the region.
We often hear when some Oromos are asking the regime to stop killing the Oromos and withdraw its agazi squads from Oromiyaa towns and villages. They are also asking the killer to pay compensation to the families of the Oromos it is killing. In principle, these are legitimate question. However, regarding Oromos’ demand for gumaa, as victims of the killer aggressive regime, in light of Seera Gumaa Oromo tradition for blood compensation is a deviation. It is an abrogation of Oromos’ conventional charter. How can a family whose children are massacred (killed) by an enemy asks the enemy (the murderer) to pay him gumaa? According to Seera Gummaa Oromoo, true peace can only be crowned when the killer’s party takes self-initiative for reconciliation and ready to pay blood compensation to the victim’s family.
One may ask for what the Oromos call “beenyaa”, which is, compensation paid for damaged or looted properties. Beenyaa can also be asked for minor injuries inflicted on certain parts of the man’s body. Now, when Oromos are asking the killer ‘Arsenals of Tigray’ to pay them gumaa, are they reducing Arsenals’ murderous crime to beenyaa or not? How do they understand it? Startlingly, the demand for ‘beenyaa’ is also ignored by the Arsenals.
Arsenals of TPLF Tigray, implementers of the Ghost’s vision
Ato Kuma Demeksa (aka,Taye T/Haimanot) Mayor of Addis Ababa, representing TPLF Arsenals of Tigray and H.J. Laferriere, Deputy Mayor of Grand Lyon, representing France, are signing joint implementation of the so-called Addis Ababa Master Plan whose actual intention is to complete Oromo genocidal master plan.
If the killer Arsenal of Tigray wants to have sustainable peace with the Oromo people, it has to come to the Oromos through Oromo people’s code of conduct. Oromo hayyuus or Jaarsaas must strictly follow these codes and observe Oromo social taboos if they are to give priority to nagaa Oromoo.
If the killing regime does not honestly ask the Oromo family of nation as a whole for reconciliation, it attests its commitment to total destruction. This could reinforce Oromos’ resistance capacity, which could lead them to unending blood feud between members of the murderer Ethiopian regime and the Oromo family of nation as a whole, even if their seera gumaa does not allow them to wish a blood-for-blood compensation.
They are committing war of genocide (Oromocide) in Oromo land, not in Tigray land. Hence, the matter should be resettled according to the law of the Oromos in hayyuu Oromiyaa assembly of justice. The bill is in the hands of the killers, Arsenals of TPLF-Tigray of the Ethiopian regime, to pay for it if it is for peace. Hayyuu Oromos or Jaarsa Oromos must strictly follow Oromo people’s code of conduct and observe their social taboos if they are to give priority to nagaa Oromoo.
[1] In this context “ Seera Gumaa Oromoo” is used to describe Oromo people’s ritualised act of making peace between two or more feuds. Semantically the word “gumaa” can have dual meaning which is not the objective of this article to deal with. As Oromos do have varieties of local customs, there could be variation from region to region, from clan to clan. However, Seera Gumaa Oromoo is fundamentally shared by all Oromos regardless of their regions or clan affiliation.
[2] https://www.oromiamedia.org/2016/02/26/oduu-amma-nu-gahebreaking-news-gur-26-2016/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Zcqw6eung
[4] See also John Markakis;Ethiopia: Anatomy of A Traditional Polity. Clarendon Press,Oxford, 1974, P.32
[5] Read Thomas Zitelmann; The Return of the Devil Tone——-. In: Cushitic and Omotic Languages. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium. Berlin, 17-19, 1994 Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. Köln PP.289-298
[6] http://oromiatimes.org/2014/06/29/