Arsi people

Arsi
An Arsi Oromo attending an Irreechaa celebration
Regions with significant populations
Arsi Zone & West Arsi Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia
Languages
Oromo
Religion
Sunni Islam[1]

Arsi Oromo is an ethnic Oromo branch, inhabiting the Arsi, West Arsi and Bale Zones of the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, as well as in the Adami Tullu and Jido Kombolcha woreda of East Shewa Zone.The Arsi are made up of the Sikkoo-Mandoo branch of Barento Oromo. The Arsi in all zones speaks Oromo share the same culture, traditions and identity with other subgroup Oromo.

Map showing the Oromia region and Arsi zone. The Arsi make up the Arsi, West Arsi, Bale and East Bale zones of Oromia

Culture

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The Arsi have developed a concept of Arsooma which roughly translates to Arsihood. This has provided Arsi with an identity that has been passing to clans and other groupings for a long period of time.[2] The Arsi have a complex concept of clan division. The two main branches are Mandoo and Sikko. Mandoo refers to the Arsis in the Arsi and northern Bale Zones, while Sikko refers to those mainly in the Bale Zone.[citation needed]

History

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Arsi Oromo state an intermarriage took place between their ancestors and previous inhabitants of the Arsi Province, Adere (Harari) whom they call the Hadiya.[3][4] Hadiya clans claim their forefathers were Harari however they later became influenced by Sidama.[5][6] The Arsi have history dating back to the 4th century B.C and were mostly ruled under democracy for most of their Antiquity. During Ancient times, Arsi Oromos were the middlemen of trade, often taxing products that go through their territory. They did trade with the Romans and Persians and taxed their products going to Macrobia[7].

Arsi Oromos were a heavily centralized and militarized society. Similar to the Spartans in Greece, all men had to do military service starting from the age of 17. This was due to their Gadaa system which put them in age grades.

There were notable people in Oral Arsi history, one of them being Akkoo Manooyyee. Her reign is believed to be in the 3rd century AD and was the first Arsi woman leader. She made changes making the Arsi government shift from democracy to Monarchy with her centralizing all the power to herself. She was known as a cruel leader who would impose outlandish laws. One of the laws being that all elderly men should be killed. She then waged war on the Aksumite Empire which ended in a stalemate. It is said that she died while riding an Antelope down a hill.[8]

During Medieval times, most Arsis abandoned their traditional religion, Waaqeffanna and converted to Islam starting in the 9th century. They established a lot of imamates and sultanates in the 10th-16th century, one of them being the Arababni Sultanate. During the 16th century, the Arsis invaded Dawaro and ended the powerful Adal Sultanate. They also established Muslim dynasties in Ethiopia that descend from Arsis such as the Mammadenoch dynasty and the Warra Himano.

In the beginning of the early seventeenth century, the lands of Arsi Oromo were under the Emirate of Harar however the Emirate gradually lost control in the following centuries.[9][10]

Arsi Oromo were largely independent and ruling under their own Gadaa Republic until about the 19th century. The Arsi Oromo demonstrated fierce resistance in coordination with the Hadiya rebel leader Hassan Enjamo against the Abyssinian conquest of 1881-6, when Menelik II conducted several unsuccessful invasion campaigns against their territory.[11][12] In response when the Abyssinians occupied Arsi, Shewans terrorized civilians by committing various atrocities including massacres and amputations.[13] Although Arsi put up stiff opposition against an enemy equipped with modern European firearms, they were finally defeated in 1886.[12]

In the 1940s the Arsi Oromo with the people of Bale province joined the Harari Kulub movement an affiliate of the Somali Youth League that peacefully opposed Amhara Christian domination of Hararghe. The Ethiopian government brutally suppressed the ethno-religious movement using violence.[14][15][16]

During the 1970s the Arsi faced persecution by the Ethiopian government thus formed alliances with Somalia.[17]

Further information on the 1883: Battle of Dodota

Notable people

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References

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  1. ^ "Arsi of Ethiopia". www.peoplegroups.org. International Mission Board. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  2. ^ "The Functions of African Oral Arts: The Arsi-Oromo Oral Arts in Focus" (PDF). Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
  3. ^ Braukaemper, Ulrich. A history of the Hadiya in Southern Ethiopia. Universite Hamburg. p. 9.
  4. ^ Braukamper, Ulrich (2002). Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia: Collected Essay. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 47. ISBN 9783825856717.
  5. ^ The Ethno-History of Halaba People (PDF). Southern Nations state. p. 164. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-05.
  6. ^ Fargher, Brian (1996). The Origins of the New Churches Movement in Southern Ethiopia: 1927 - 1944. BRILL. p. 34. ISBN 9004106618.
  7. ^ Klein, Julieanne (2023). "Oromo people".
  8. ^ Imana, Gutema (June 13, 2023). "East African Journal of Social Science and Humanities".
  9. ^ Ben-Dror, Avishai (2018). Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian: Colonial Experiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Harar. Syracuse University Press. p. 100. ISBN 9780815654315.
  10. ^ Ahmed, Wehib (2015). History of Harar and Hararis (PDF). Harar Tourism Buearu. p. 83.
  11. ^ Hasan Engamo. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
  12. ^ a b Abbas Haji. "Arsi Oromo Political and Military Resistance Against the Shoan Colonial Conquest (1881-6)" (PDF). Journal of Oromo Studies. II (1 and 2). Oromo Studies Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 25, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  13. ^ Hassen, Mohammed (2002). "Conquest, Tyranny, and Ethnocide against the Oromo: A Historical Assessment of Human Rights Conditions in Ethiopia, ca. 1880s-2002". Northeast African Studies. 9 (3). Michigan State University Press: 17. JSTOR 41931279.
  14. ^ Religious Freedom and Religious Pluralism in Africa: Prospects and Limitations. AFRICAN SUN MeDIA. 22 May 2016. p. 443. ISBN 9781928357032.
  15. ^ The Role of Civil Society in Africa's Quest for Democratization. Springer. 8 December 2016. p. 134. ISBN 9783319183831.
  16. ^ Localising Salafism: Religious Change Among Oromo Muslims in Bale, Ethiopia. BRILL. 30 September 2011. p. 192. ISBN 978-9004184787.
  17. ^ Ali, Mohammed (1996). Ethnicity, Politics, and Society in Northeast Africa: Conflict and Social Change. University Press of America. p. 141. ISBN 9780761802839.
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