Being and becoming Oromo : historical and anthropological enquiries

The Oromo are one of the most numerous peoples of Africa but general recognition of their distinctive culture and identity is comparatively recent. These essays, through an examination of the Oromo experience, seek to explain why recognition took so long and to analyse some aspects of the Oromo culture.CONTENTS: Introduction / P.T.W. Baxter, Jan Hultin and Alessandro Triulzi -- Hawani´s story / Hawani Debella & Aneesa Kassam -- The Development of Oromo Political Consciousness from 1958 to 1994 / Herbert S. Lewis -- The Survival and Recontruction of Orommo National Identity / Mekuria Bulcha -- The Devolopment of Oromo Nationalism / Mohammed Hassen -- Perceiving Oromo,'Galla' in the Great Narrative of Ethiopia / Jan Hultin -- Oromumma: Tradition, Consciousness and Identity / Gemetchu Megerssa --Re-examining the Galla/oromo Relationship, The Stranger as a Structural Topic / Thomas Zitelmann -- Being Gabra Today / Paolo Tablino -- Shifting Identities along Resource Borders, Becoming ad Contrinuing to be Boorana Oromo / Gufu Oba -- The Political Viability of Boorana Pastorialism, A Dicussion of Some Feautyres of the Political Sytsem of the Borana Pastoralists of Southen Ethiopia / Johan Helland -- Power's Ambiguity or the Political Significance of Gada / Marco Bassi -- Sources of Life and Identity / Gudrun Dahl -- Towards a Comparative Ethnography of the Oromo, The Importance of Affines / P.T.W. Baxter -- Keeping the 'Peace of the Waso Boorana', Becoming Oromo through Religious Diversification / Mario I. Aguilar -- Traditional and modern Cooperatives among the Oromo / Tesema Ta'a -- The Becoming of Place, A Tulama-Oromo Region of Northern Shoa / Odd Eirik Arnesen -- Adopting An Ambiguous Position, Oromo Relationships with Strangers / Hector Blackhurst -- United and Divided, Boorana and Gabaro among the Macha Oromo in Western Ethiopia / Alessandro Triulzi -- The Poetics of Nationalism, A Poem by Jarso Waaqo Qoot'o / Abdullahi A. Shongolo -- About the Contributors -- Appendix: Regional Division before 1989 and after 1991.