Understanding Nation from an African Vantage Point. The Oromo polity during the 16th century as a point of reference

The thesis attempts to address two central problems in the process of understanding the phenomenon of a nation. First, to what extent does the modernist view that embeds the origin of a nation in the European historical context is valid? Second, to what extent does the existing normative knowledge base concerning the phenomena of a nation and an ethnic entity adequately delineate the conceptual and empirical boundaries in between of these two phenomena. The central focus of this thesis is; therefore, to expose a basic internal contradiction that is inherent in the existing conceptual understanding of a nation. Using the Oromo case as a vantage point, it is the conviction of this thesis that the concept of a nation is 'Eurocentric' to the neglect of historical specificities outside Europe such as the case with the Oromo people. The thesis generates its epistemological presumptions from Hans-Georg Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics. Since the thesis will depart from the presumption that considers a nation as a concept, the thesis will attempt to capitalize on some methodological and conceptual insights from Reinhhart Koselleck's History of Concept. The thesis uses two kinds of sources materials: one, European theoretical literature on the concept of nation; two, ethnographic and historical..