THE JOURNAL of OROMO STUDIES Volume 25, Number 1 &2 2018 Editor Zakia Posey, Community College of Baltimore County, USA
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THE JOURNAL OF OROMO STUDIES Volume 25, Number 1 &2 2018 Editor Zakia Posey, Community College of Baltimore County, USA Associate Editors Bedassa Tadesse, University of Minnesota Duluth, USA Asebe Regassa Debelo, Dilla University, Ethiopia Ayantu Tibeso, Independent Researcher and Oromo Documentary Project Editorial Advisory Board Mekuria Bulcha, Malardlen University, Sweden Bichaka Faysissa, Middle Tennessee State University, USA Ezekiel Gebissa, Kettering University, USA Guluma Gemeda, University of Michigan- Flint, USA Mohammed Hassen, Georgia State University, USA Bonnie Holcomb, George Washington University, USA Asafa Jalata, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, USA JOURNAL OF OROMO STUDIES Publication of the Oromo Studies Association The Journal of Oromo Studies (JOS), is a leading scholarly publication of the Oromo Studies Association (OSA). Issued twice a year, the journal publishes articles pertaining to all areas of Oromo Studies past, present and future, including topics related to the Oromo diaspora worldwide. Its interdisciplinary scope and approach offers readers a critical view of the socioeconomic, political and cultural achievements of the Oromo people in their interactions with the people of the Horn of Africa. Reflecting the diverse interests of OSA members, the journal emphasizes multidisciplinarity and embraces variety by publishing articles that allow both the specialist and the general reader to gain far-reaching insights and a thorough understanding of the Oromo people and the Horn of Africa region. All manuscripts submitted for publication consideration must be original works that have not been published previously and are currently not being considered by any other publication outlet. Submitted article are evaluated by scholars who are experts in the field. The journal’s editorial team is committed to communicating editorial decisions within a reasonable period to authors. Published articles do not necessarily reflect the views of OSA or its officers. Individual authors are responsible for the views, data and interpretations presented in the articles. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES Individual $35 Institutional $55 Single Issue $20 Add $20 annually for shipping. Send in US currency payments and subscription requests to: Oromo Studies Association P O Box 5152 Salisbury MD 21802 Make checks or money orders out to the Oromo Studies Association. ii INDIGENIZING UNIVERSAL PRINCIPALS Editor’s Message It is with great pleasure that I serve as the newest editor of the Journal of Oromo Studies (JOS). As woman of Oromo heritage born in the diaspora, the Journal of Oromo Studies was one of the first publications that I looked to in order to gain a better understanding of Oromo culture, history, economics, politics and identity. It is one of the first and longest running publications dedicated to the treatment, discussions and analysis of the Oromo globally. JOS has been published continuously since 1993 and has built a respected legacy. Looking to the future, the Oromo people in Ethiopia and elsewhere, are experiencing many technological, political, social, economic and environmental changes which require sustained research and explanation. It is imperative that the Oromo Studies Association, through the Journal of Oromo Studies, provides a comprehensive treatment and in-depth analysis of the many issues of importance to the Oromo people and their neighbors. We want to expand the Journal of Oromo Studies so that it can be used to help us better understand the ever-evolving changes taking place in Oromia and Ethiopia and the increased demands for analysis and distribution. Zakia Posey Editor 2018 iii THE JOURNAL OF OROMO STUDIES Volume 25, Number 1 & 2 2018 CONTENTS INDIGENIZING UNIVERSAL PRINCIPALS: OROMO PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS Ezekiel Gebissa 1 THE OROMO STRUGGLE: KNOWLEDGE AND OROMO AGENCY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Asafa Jalata 25 THE MATTER OF LAND IS A MATTER OF LIFE “DUBBIIN LAFAA, DUBBII LAFEETI”: EXAMINING CULTURAL MESSAGES IN AN OROMO PROTEST SONG, “KA’I QEERROO” Bonnie K. Holcomb and Peri M. Klemm 63 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE TO SELF-DETERMINATION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: THE OROMO EXPERIENCES Begna Dugassa 99 JOURNAL OF OROMO STUDIES GENOCIDE IN OROMIA THROUGH THE EYES OF SEXUAL TORTURE SURVIVORS Habtamu Dugo and Joanne Eisen 129 WAAQEFFANNA FOLKSONGS AND POETIC VERSE AMONG TUULAMAA OROMO Emana Beyene 151 BOOK REVIEWS Ficquet, É loi, and Wolbert Smidt. 2014. The life and times of Lı̈ j Iyasu of Ethiopia: new insights. Guluma Gemeda 197 Shell, Sandra Rowoldt. 2019. Children of Hope: the odyssey of the Oromo Mohammed Hassen 203 vi INDIGENIZING UNIVERSAL PRINCIPALS: OROMO PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS Ezekiel Gebissa Kettering University Since the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, the concept of human rights has become internationalized in global discourse and action. Governments around the world have progressively embraced human rights and publicly declared their commitment to respecting human rights. In a relative short period of time, the Declaration has “profoundly changed the international landscape, scattering it with human rights protocols, conventions, treaties, and derivative declarations of all kinds.” As such, there is currently “not a single nation, culture or people that is not in one way or another enmeshed in human rights regimes.”1 The second half of the twentieth century has witnessed the official acceptance of a broad concept of human rights globally.2 There is, however, a wide gap between a declaration of ideals and implementation. The UDHR introduced the concept of human rights into the arena of international politics and law dominated by states and other powerful actors who have 1 Johannes Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting, and Intent (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), X. 2 Michael Freeman, Human Rights, 2nd edition (Polity Press, 2011), 37- 60 JOURNAL OF OROMO STUDIES priorities other than human rights and whose primary interests do not lie in empowering citizens. They view the defense of the state and maintenance of law and order as their primary role. Attending to these interests, many governments have massacred millions of men, women and children under their control. According to R. J. Rummel, more 169 million persons were killed by governments in the twentieth century, out of which 45 million were political murders carried out between 1945 and the early1990s.3 All of this occurred even as the number of governments declaring official commitment to human rights increased dramatically. In the last two decades, authoritarian ruling elites have adjusted their tactics to match prevailing expectations. Keeping up with international trends, they pay lip service to the rule of law and the protection of human rights while deploying treacherous schemes to use their power to persecute, incarcerate and murder. Governments routinely declare a commitment to respecting human rights by writing into their constitutions articles and provisions protecting human rights and officially ratifying international conventions of human rights. But they proceed to violate those declared rights with impunity.4 If the recent history of international human rights practice has shown anything, it is the fact that governments do not dutifully protect human rights. In fact, they tend to expand their political space and act to implement the desires of the elite who control them. For a more robust defense of human rights to occur what is required is not more constitutional guarantees, commitment to international conventions and establishment of national human rights commissions but the emergence of a culture respecting human rights. As Makua Mutua put it, the 3 Rudolph J. Rummel, Death by Government (Transaction Publishers, 1997), 3-21. 4 William J. Dobson, The Dictator's Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy (Doubleday, 2012). 2 INDIGENIZING UNIVERSAL PRINCIPALS international standards of human rights would assume a clearer meaning and legitimacy if they are understood as categories of rights that have contextual cultural resonance. This is because people are more likely to rise to defend their rights when they comprehend and value those rights.5 This paper explores the Oromo conception of human rights and the ways in which those rights are understood, interpreted, protected or enforced within the traditional Oromo cultural and political milieu. The goal is to reveal points of convergence between universal standards and Oromo indigenous human rights conceptions with the hope of spurring a similar examination among other peoples whose human rights are not protected by the state. Here Oromo is taken to be a case in point where protection of rights requires a deeper understanding and adjusted practice. Such concepts are usually expressed in vernacular language in certain forms of taboo, proverbs or legal norms. I employ the concept of “indigenization” as a hermeneutical tool for developing a model to understand the interface between universal human rights and, in this case, Oromo worldview, cultural norms, and political system concerning the inherent dignity of a human being. This approach reveals the links between global trends and local cultures and also provides the basis for establishing a broader pattern of connections between globally expressed principles and local understanding and practice. Such a model is necessary because rights are better respected