オロモのクランの歴史研究の可能性について
1996 年 1996 巻 49 号 p. 27-52
詳細
1996 年 1996 巻 49 号 p. 27-52
Approximately 40 percent of the entire population of Ethiopia is categorized under a nationality called ‘Oromo’. A loose integration in terms of common language and a sense of common historical origin became the basis for the constitution of the regional state of Oromiya, which was established only after the collapse of the Mengistu's Derg regime in May, 1991. This assumed integration can be attributed to the efforts of the Oromo nationalist groups and individuals, which emerged in the 1960s both inside Ethiopia and abroad. These Oromo nationalists sought for a common standing out of the now divergent national entity, and through these efforts, produced a number of publications on the subject of the Oromo culture and history.
This paper attempts to re-examine the history of the Macha branch of Oromo as presented by historians with Oromo nationalist stance, and poses that an inquiry into the historicity of clans, senni, can relativize the lineal and integration-oriented style of conceptualizing the Oromo.
The first part of this paper gives an outline of the development of historical and anthropological studies on various aspects of Oromo branch societies with comparison to the Oromo nationalist way of understanding the Oromo history. The discussion focuses on three points of arguement, namely, the origin of the Oromo, the investigation of the gada system, and the historical process of the Oromo migration embarked upon in the 16th century. Migration involved assimilation of other peoples with diverse cultural and linguistic origin, the process of which is analytically called ‘Oromization’.
Secondly, contrasting views regarding the formation of the Gibe states out of a Macha Oromo branch and the Islamization of the states are presented. Through the process of ‘Oromization’, the assimilated peoples adopted the Oromo language and culture, and were incorperated in the gada system in a deliberate way that kept the assimilated distinct from the main stock of Oromo.
This two-fold aspect of assimilation and discrimination is substantiated and recognized through the analysis of three clans now existent in one of the Gibe states, i. e. Gomma.
As a conclusion, the research in the historicity of the Oromo clans cuts across the often politicized boundaries of Oromo branches and regions, and in effect, anticipates a more flexible and relativized perspective of understanding the Oromo history.
