I n t roduc t ion

T he Oromo are the largest single ethnic group in East Africa.

Together with other Cushitic-speaking peoples, they have been the
native inhabitants of the region since antiquity. Their country covers
much of central, western, eastern, and southern Ethiopia, as well as
northern and eastern Kenya as far as the Indian Ocean coast, an area
approximately the size of Texas in the United States.1 The period
after 1704 was a time of relative peace throughout Oromoland and
neighboring states, due in part to civil wars within the Ethiopian
Empire that reduced military campaigns against the Oromo and
other groups. During the resulting peaceful coexistence between
1704 and 1882, flourishing commerce and communication networks
promoted the maturation of Oromo law and government, the inte-
gration of foreign ideas, and the assimilation of various non-Oromo
cultures into Oromo culture. This study presents a comprehensive
history of the Oromo, mainly during this period, from a transna-
tional and interdisciplinary perspective.
During this period, an indigenous concept of peace—nagaa
Oromoo —came to govern many aspects of Oromo life, relations with
other societies, and interactions with the natural environment. It
was manifested in daily life and speech—in blessings, prayers, songs,
narratives, rituals, and ceremonial activities—as well as in producing
more formal legal and administrative institutions. Nagaa, and the
related concept of qixxee (equality), reinforced the process of ethnic
integration and assimilation between the Oromo and their neighbors
in the region. This book explores the major reasons that the Oromo
were (and are) open to strangers; why they treat strangers equally as
themselves, more so than other comparable groups; and how their
welcoming institutions contributed to peace in East Africa, which
would otherwise have seen major ethnic wars. Historians are some-
times prone to overlook the significance of things—like wars—that
did not happen, but might have.
In the nineteenth century, political and economic developments in
the Red Sea basin attracted an increasing number of British, German,

T. Etefa, Integration and Peace in East Africa

© Tsega Etefa 2012
2 I n t e gr at ion a n d P e ac e i n E a s t A f r ic a

Italian, Austrian, and French travelers, explorers, diplomats, and mis-

sionaries to the East Africa region. These Europeans lived among
the inhabitants of the region and learned, among other things, local
languages, cultures, and political structures. Later, they published
diaries, journals, and books that serve as particularly useful source
materials for studying the Oromo during the nineteenth century.
Impressed by many aspects of the Oromo nation—including the
extent of its territory, the hospitality of the people, the sophistication
of their political institutions, and the monotheistic religion—several
travelers, missionaries, and, later, writers reported on the significance
of what they witnessed. This led to a “romantic quest”2 for Ormania,
the name they used to describe Biyya Oromoo (modern Oromia), the
country of the Oromo nation (see maps 1 and 2).
In several accounts, the Oromo are depicted as people who arrived
in the Ethiopian highlands only in the sixteenth century. Others
suggest that the Oromo were warlike people who were ready to kill
anyone they found along the route of their expansion. The narratives
that were created based on these accounts represent a distorted view
of the Oromo story.3 In the words of Richard Reid: “There can be
few peoples in African history who have been as misunderstood, and
indeed as misrepresented, as the Oromo . . . They have been, arguably,
even more demonized by Ethiopian chroniclers of various hues and
over a longer timeframe than the Somali, historically the other great
rival ‘bloc’ confronting the Amhara in north-east Africa.”4 European
travelers, missionaries, and diplomats who lived among the Oromo
in the nineteenth century suggest, based on the memories they col-
lected, that the Oromo were one of the earliest inhabitants of the
region. In addition, they show that the Oromo were a peaceful peo-
ple who welcomed and assimilated strangers and lived with others in
peace, harmony, balance, order, and justice.

The Antiquity of the Oromo

For many centuries, the Oromo have occupied a vast territory in
northeast Africa. Sir Richard Francis Burton, the British traveler who
visited Harar in 1855, writes, the Oromo “are spread over a large
portion of Africa.”5 According to his account, the Oromo had once
lived in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean coasts and stated that
they had contacts with the ancient Persian Empire.6 He also states
that “the white and black sheep of Ormania ([Oromo]-land) and
of Somali land”7 are of Persian origins. Having visited this part of
Africa from northern Somaliland to Zanzibar, he stated that, “The
 I n t r oduc t ion 3

inhabitants opposite Zanzibar are Wuddooa [Africans], but there is

reason to believe this part of the coast was formerly inhabited by the
Guracha [Oromo].”8 It is also interesting to note that he called the
Oromoland “Ormania,” following Johann Ludwig Krapf (Church
Missionary Society agent), who coined it in the mid-nineteenth
century (see chapter 5).
Herbert Vivian, another British explorer of the early twentieth
century, also stated that the Oromo “come of a very ancient stock.” 9
Furthermore, Darrell Bates wrote, “The [Oromo] were a very ancient
race, the indigenous stock, perhaps, on which most other peoples in
this part of eastern Africa had been grafted.”10 Other groups, particu-
larly the Somali, have been described as an offshoot of the Oromo.11
As such, these accounts speak to one underlying theme: that the
Oromo are not recent arrivals on the Ethiopian scene.
Francesco Alvarez, who was a member of the Portuguese mission
that arrived in Ethiopia in 1520, mentions two apparently Oromo
names in his books. He wrote, “For in our time, which was a stay
of six years [1520 to 1526], there were here four Barnagais [Bahr
Negash], that is to say, when we arrived Dori was Barnagais; he died,
and at his death the crown came to Bulla, his son, a youth of ten
or twelve years of age, by order of the Prester John.”12 The Bahr
Negash is a title for the governor of the Red Sea littoral, or present-
day Eritrea. Both Doorii and Bulaa are typical Oromo names.
Doorii is even more than a proper name; it is one of the names of
the gadaa grades. Bulaa literally means “to spend overnight.” When
the Portuguese mission arrived in 1520, Doorii was already well into
his tenure as Bahr Negash. Later, he was succeeded by his son, Bulaa.
Alvarez met these rulers of the Red Sea area, and this is firsthand
information that sheds light on the Oromo assimilation and active
presence in northern Ethiopia before the first half of the sixteenth
century.13
There are indications of Oromo settled life in the coastal regions
of the Gulf of Aden. In the 1840s, Richard Burton explored various
ruins, presumably of Oromo, in northern Somalia. Describing this
undertaking, F. L. James wrote in 1885:

He [Burton] then excavated [an Oromo] grave a short distance off

[from Zeila], and about three feet below the surface he came upon a
flooring of concrete, on which was the body with its head to the east
and its feet to the west. It was so old that the bones and skull fell to
pieces in his fingers. In another [Oromo] grave he found pink coral
beads and a woman’s hair-pin made of ivory. The flooring of these
4 I n t e gr at ion a n d P e ac e i n E a s t A f r ic a

graves must have been prepared previous to the person’s death, as it

would take several days for the mortar to set.14

Other Oromo graves were discovered to the east of Berbera. Moreover,

at a place called Olok, 5 to 10 kilometers (a few miles) west of Cape
Guardafui, the French explorer Georges Révoil observed many ruins
of houses and cairn-tombs. According to Merid Wolde Aregay, “At
Khor Abdahan, just south of the Cape, he [Révoil] came across the
remains of a rectangular building whose foundations were cut from
the rock, where he also found potshe[r]ds and fragments of what
he considered to be a Roman type millstone. What the Somali of
Alleyah, on the Gulf of Aden, regarded as of [Oromo] make is more
surprising. It was the ruin of a two storeyed construction built with
lime and stones.”15 Stone mounds believed to be the burial site of
ancient Oromo inhabitants were also discovered to the south of
Berbera by another European explorer, F. L. James, who writes: “On
our right we passed a small village near some stone mounds, said to
be [Oromo] ruins; and I believe the [Oromo] lived in the country a
long time ago.”16
Oromo graves were carefully ornamented and designed, indicating
the earlier existence of an organized community. They were numerous
and divided into two types: small poles and larger types. According
to I. M. Lewis, some of the smaller types belong to the Somali,17
while the larger types around Mandera and Wajir south of the Juba
River are said to be associated with the Oromo.18 In any case, most
of the graves, cairns, stone houses, wells, and ruins were attributed to
the Oromo people, as also indicated by the renowned archaeologist
Desmond Clark. He writes: “The numerous types of tumulae which
occur throughout the Horn are ascribed to the [Oromo] and known
colloquially as [‘Oromo] Graves.’ That the majority are the graves of
these people there can be little doubt.”19
According to F. L. James, Burton was also informed of a large
ancient Oromo city near Djibouti. He writes: “In one place, on the
road to Ras Jibuti, where tradition said there was formerly an immense
[Oromo] city, there was a large knoll formed by loose rocks.”20 Some
forty years later, James himself visited an ancient Oromo city in
northern Somalia and reported: “Our explorations carried us among
what appeared to be the débris of a large town with an extensive
cemetery attached to it, and from all we could gather the [Oromo] in
bygone ages had here built up a real city.”21 In the second half of the
nineteenth century, Harald George Swayne also concluded: “From
ruins, cairns, and graves which have been pointed out to me to be of
 I n t r oduc t ion 5

[Oromo] origin, I have been led to believe that before the Arab immi-
grations what is now called Somáliland, even to the northern coast,
was owned by the [Oromo].”22 While further investigation of these
ruins is needed, it is important to note that the Somali themselves
attribute these sites to the Oromo.23
In a recent study, Robert Collins and James Burns corroborate
the presence of Oromo settlement on the East Africa coast far back
in antiquity. They argue that “The first settlements on the coast
were made before the Christian era by Cushitic-speaking pastoral
peoples coming from Ethiopia and represented today by the Oromo
of southern Ethiopia and the Somali. They are probably the ‘red
men’ described in the Periplus.”24 According to the Periplus of the
Erythraean Sea, compiled between A.D. 45 and 50, the inhabitants of
the East African coast were described as tall, red men who were hunt-
ers and keepers of cattle, sheep, and goats. Most probably they were
Cushitic speakers including the Oromo. This sheds some light on the
antiquity of the Oromo in the Horn of Africa region. It seems that
the Oromo played a significant role in the Horn before the fifteenth
century. In the words of Desmond Clark, “The [Oromo] seem to
have controlled the whole of the Horn of Africa since at least the first
few centuries of the Christian era, and during the sixteenth century
spread inland to the south and west but subsequently were displaced
by the Somalis pressing down from the north, and the main group of
the [Oromo] were forced inland to their present habitat.”25
Later travelers also confirmed the dominance of the Oromo along
the East African coast. When the British explorer William Owen and
his party visited the islands and coastal regions between Mogadishu
and Zanzibar in 1824 and 1825, the Oromo had control of the coast.
Owen wrote, “We were informed that the whole coast was peopled
by [Oromo],”26 including Mogadishu, Brava, Juba, and Mombasa.
Harald George Swayne also described Lamu on the Kenyan coast as a
mixed Oromo and Arab town.27 The existence of the Oromo in close
proximity to Mogadishu during the first half of the seventeenth cen-
tury was also indicated by Michael Russell.28 The Portuguese Father
Joao Bermudez, who lived in Ethiopia during the first half of the six-
teenth century, also wrote that the Oromo lived close to Mogadishu.29
Jerome Lobo, who visited the East African coast in 1624, also met
Oromo in Malindi, Juba, and surrounding areas. He described their
governance under the leadership of the Luba (see chapter 1).30
Rock art and cave paintings in various sites on the Horn of Africa
also indicate the antiquity of the Oromo. The rock-art caves of Laga
Odaa, Ganda Biftuu, and Porc Epic around Harar revealed paintings
6 I n t e gr at ion a n d P e ac e i n E a s t A f r ic a

and engravings on protected rock faces, sheltered areas, and exposed

surfaces. Porc Epic is near Dire Dawa city and includes cave paint-
ings; while Ganda Biftuu is a painted rock face about 60 kilometers
(37 miles) west of Dire Dawa. At Porc Epic, the paintings include
humans (20 human figures) and wild animals (as opposed to domes-
ticated species). At Ganda Biftuu, details of humans depicted in
the painting include clothes, full facial features, and a hair comb,
while the majority of the animals represented are domesticated,
such as cattle with long horns and no humps. At Laga Odaa, about
20 k ilometers (12.5 miles) from Ganda Biftuu, one drawing shows a
human figure riding an animal that is most likely an ox. There were
also other prehistoric sites in the neighborhood of Dire Dawa, and it
is interesting to note that the paintings were, for the most part, very
carefully drawn and that the figures are suggestive of characteristics
of Oromo and Somali cultures today.31
The various engravings found in these areas depict camel and zebu
cattle. They represent the actual Oromo and Somali cultures of today,
as all of the cattle of these groups are of the zebu type. It seems
that the Oromo first introduced this type of engraving, and later the
Somali copied them. “The Dolbahanta [Somali] state that the first
engravings here were the work of the [Oromo].”32
All the indications are that the Oromo had occupied an exten-
sive territory covering much of East Africa. When Johann Ludwig
Krapf arrived on the East African coast in the 1840s, he was told
by the Swahili chief of Mombasa, Bana Hamade, that the Oromo
formerly ruled perhaps as far south as Tanga and Usambara33 in
modern Tanzania. According to Richard Burton: “The dominion of
the [Oromo] extended to the parallel of 8º lat. on the south, and to
the meridian of 29º E. long. on the west, or perhaps even f urther.
Their territories are, however, now much restricted.”34 Since at least
the fifteenth century, the Oromo might have had a big influence
on the coast as well as mainland East Africa, as recent research
also indicates: “Swahili and Mijikenda ethnohistories recall Oromo
supremacy on the coast and hinterland as far south as Pangani in
Tanzania.”35
The reason that the Oromo were hemmed in so that they now
occupy their present habitat is unclear. The evidence that Cushitic
speakers had lived in the entire Horn region in the remote m illennia
is beyond doubt. Among these people, the Oromo are said to be the
most powerful, owing to their status as the most numerous group.
In the words of Edna Mason Kaula: “The Cushitic people occupy
the east, south, and western plains, and the mountain slopes. Of
 I n t r oduc t ion 7

this varied group the [Oromo] are by far the most important–and
numerous–for they account for half of Ethiopia’s population.”36

Attitude Toward and Relations

with Non-Oromo
Numerous accounts that present the Oromo as hospitable and
welcoming of strangers belie the characterization of them as warlike
people. According to D. P. Kidder, “They are a hospitable people,
regard their oaths as holy, and revere old age.”37 This observation is
further augmented by Herbert Vivian, who asserts that the Oromo
“have distinct ideas of honour and hospitality”38 to strangers. He
writes: “Once they come to believe that fidelity is a duty in a given
case, they are faithful unto death.”39 J. H. Phillipson, who visited the
Oromo in Kenya in the first quarter of the twentieth century, also
observed: “Personally, I have received nothing at their hands except
kindness. They have made no excessive demands on my purse, but,
on the contrary, have been liberal in the extreme, usually welcoming
the traveller with a presentation of sheep, goats, and milk–enough,
sometimes, to supply the wants of more than twenty people.”40
Observations by nineteenth-century European travelers that the
Oromo host strangers with generosity is confirmed by scholars.
Among the Maccaa Oromo, Herbert Lewis notes: “Shoa [Oromo]
communities are open communities, easy for newcomers to join, com-
posed of people who are, in the first place, cooperating neighbors,
not kinsmen or lineage mates. New settlers are accepted if they are
willing to participate in community affairs . . . Members of other eth-
nic groups, such as Amharas, are accepted if they are cooperative.”41
Lewis also describes the Oromo in the Gibee region as having the
same flair for hospitality as do the Shawa Oromo. John Hinnant
reports that non-Oromo ethnic groups were openly welcomed by
the Gujii Oromo.42 It is very interesting to note that any non-Oromo
newcomer is equally welcomed into an Oromo community with all
the privileges accorded to any Oromo. The assimilated outsiders
were all first citizens with the right to lead gadaa rituals and other
ceremonies. This is based on the principle of qixxee, equality based
on humanity (see chapter 3). The only thing required of them is to
abide by the Oromo customs and be cooperative, which is also much
needed in agricultural societies.
As an extension of equality, qixxee is used for a meeting to settle
disputes in the community among the Oromo of Shawa. The con-
cept emphasizes the idea that when everybody attends a meeting, all
8 I n t e gr at ion a n d P e ac e i n E a s t A f r ic a

members are equal. No one is considered unfit or second class in

the deliberations.43 The European travelers also observed that: ‘ “The
Oromo accept well strangers,’ wrote Antoine d’Abbadie, ‘and do not
at all place any obstacle in their way.’ ‘They are sweet, friendly, hospi-
table,’ affirms on the other hand cardinal Massaïa.”44 De Salviac con-
firms this by stating, “nothing is more true.”45 According to Oromo
law, strangers who are willing to be adopted by the former will be
treated as the Oromo. There is an adoption ritual led by the abbaa
bokkuu (president). Thus, the Oromo maintained significant rela-
tionships with neighboring non-Oromo. As de Salviac in late 1890s
described, “Now it is unheard of that the Oromo does not have some
alliance with the families of the bordering race.”46 After adoption,
strangers could be sure that they would get the same privileges as
the adopting clan and, therefore, protection from attacks by other
groups, enjoying “the most stable peace and tranquility.”47
It is important to note that the Oromo openness and welcom-
ing spirit was not because of the presence of excess unoccupied land
among their communities. There was, in fact, competition over scarce
resources among the Oromo themselves. Openness and hospitality
emanates from the fundamental belief among the Oromo that all
humans are the children of God (Waaqa) and deserve to be treated
with dignity and equality. This belief is enshrined in the Oromo indig-
enous system of governance, which encourages all Oromo to accept,
live with, and treat others equally. As Donald Levine notes, “The
[Oromo’s] ability to make friends with outsiders and to incorporate
them or affiliate with them readily in local communities has been
reported for so many times and places that I am inclined to regard it
as a characteristic aspect of their mode of relating to outsiders.”48
Since their early days of contact with outsiders, the Oromo have
developed a number of mechanisms for establishing relationships with
non-Oromo communities. When they started to settle permanently
among different communities in their early days of expansion, the
Oromo seem to have devised different mechanisms to adapt them-
selves to their new conditions. “When the Oromo went forth from
their homeland they had to find ways of relating to the peoples near
whom they settled once the antagonisms of battle were temporarily
or permanently set aside. Their own script contained no mandate to
establish a dominion over others.”49 Instead, they assimilated and
lived with the peoples they encountered.
For centuries, the Somali in the Ogaden and Juba and Wabe
Shabelle regions have been in close contact with the Oromo. Starting
from the Harar region, all the way down to the lower Juba and Tana
 I n t r oduc t ion 9

Rivers in the south, both seem to have competed with each other “for
water, grazing, and agricultural land.”50 Around El Wak in Kenya (see
map 1), this has resulted in a significant Oromo-Somali assimilation,
particularly between the Warra Daayya Oromo and the Somali.51 The
Garre are, for instance, a mixture of the Oromo and Ogaden Somali
groups. Another Somali group called Sab, or Rahanwin, who live in
southern Somalia, have also blended with Oromo. Thomas Wakefield,
who collected traditions from the region in the 1860s and 1870s,
writes of the Sab, “They are evidently much mixed with [Oromo],
who formerly occupied a portion, at all events, of this country.”52
There is also considerable assimilation between the Somali and Gabra.
Many Somalis have adopted Boorana Oromo culture and the gadaa
system. L. Aylmer writes, “Intermingled with them [Boorana] are to
be found many Ajuran Somalis, of the Hawiyah division, and Gurreh,
another large division of the Somali race.”53
The Boorana, the Ajuran Somalis, and the Garre, Gabra, and
Sakuye groups intermarry with each another, have close friendships,
and share their villages. Even though the Somalis are largely Muslims,
they have developed considerable working relationships with the
Boorana, who practice the Oromo religion. The Somalis arrived in
the Juba region after the Oromo, and they were welcomed by the
latter. R. E. Salkeld, provincial commissioner in British East Africa
(Kenya), who visited the region in December 1913, writes: “They [the
Somali] had been preceded by the [Oromo], and these two peoples,
who are so closely akin that it is impossible at the present time to tell
[an Oromo] from a Somali, appear to have now occupied all the avail-
able territory in Jubaland and Tanaland adapted to their characteris-
tics as nomadic stock-owners.”54
Beyond the Juba River around Mombasa and the Malindi coast
of the Indian Ocean, there was also assimilation of the Pokomo, the
largest group in the Tana Province of Kenya, into the Oromo. Among
the Pokomo around the Tana River, Oromo culture is strongly
evident. A. Werner observed in the late 1860s that a branch of the
Pokomo already had adopted Oromo language55 and the Oromo
gadaa government.56
It is important to note that the Oromo and their neighbors’ rela-
tionships were not always free of conflict. Conflicts did occur; for
instance, between the Oromo and Pokomo. But most importantly,
they were both able to solve disputes and to live together amicably.
Those amicable relationships eventually developed into integration.
In describing dispute settlement between the Oromo and Pokomo,
Werner writes, “Since that time the Pokomo on the north bank of
10 I n t e gr at ion a n d P e ac e i n E a s t A f r ic a

the river . . . ‘have remained in peaceful possession of their country,

but take good care not to provoke the [Oromo], who in the end, also
find it to their advantage to refrain from attacking them, as they can
at all times get grain from the Pokomo.’”57 The Pokomo eventually
assimilated into the Oromo and adopted Oromo clan names in addi-
tion to the Oromo language. Johann L. Krapf, who visited the region
in the 1840s, also observed that the Pokomo understood the Oromo
language and supplied the Oromo with various trading items such as
rice and maize.58
Many of the ethnic groups in today’s Kenya and southern Somalia
have assimilated into Oromo society, accepting their institutions,
gadaa government, and religion. Linda Giles, who conducted
research along the Swahili coast of East Africa in the 1990s, also
observes that Oromo traditional beliefs, particularly in spirit posses-
sion, were formerly widely embraced in the region.59 Elsewhere, the
Oromo openness to strangers led to the intermingling of the Oromo
with others, and vice versa. In the Harar region, the Oromo have
adopted Islam as well as the Harari culture. After settlement of their
disputes with the Sultan of Harar in 1568, some Oromo groups came
closer to the walled city and to the Islamic faith. And, according to
Arthur Starkie, Oromo-Harari intermingling may have started even
earlier: “Since the thirteenth century, however, they [the Harari] have
greatly mingled with the [Oromo clans], and naturally their earlier
characteristics have become less pronounced.”60
From Raayyaa in Tigray to Orma on the Malindi coast of Kenya,
the Oromo have greatly contributed to ethnic integration, solidarity,
and peaceful coexistence. In describing the strong presence of the
Oromo in the civilizations that appeared in East Africa, this introduc-
tion has shown the need for additional research on ethnic dynamism
in the region. This introduction61 also provides important evidence
of the role of the Oromo in ethnic integration in a wider East African
context. The gadaa democratic governance structure helped to
solve conflicts within the Oromo and also with other groups, and
contributed to the development of ethnic solidarity and integration
in East Africa that was based on equal privileges.
In terms of numbers, too, the Oromo survived centuries of Ethiopian
military expeditions, droughts, and other natural catastrophes to
become the largest single group in East Africa. They maintained their
unity, culture, language, identity, and national character under dif-
ficult circumstances, in spite of being assimilated into other groups
elsewhere. Even as they adopted many from other ethnic groups,
so, too, were they subsumed into other groups; yet, they continued
 I n t r oduc t ion 11

to be the most numerous in the region. In the words of Alexander

Bulatovich, who visited Ethiopia in the late 1890s: “But they all recog-
nize that they belong to the [Oromo] nation. They all call themselves
‘Oromo.’ Almost all of them have the same customs, language, type,
and character, despite the difference of faith which exists between the
[Oromo] pagans and [Oromo Muslims].”62 Many African groups such
as the Nguni were dispersed elsewhere, with little unity throughout
southern Africa (see conclusion). Here we have continuity in a uniform
language, culture, gadaa system, belief in Waaqa, and the common
concept of peace and hospitality, all the way from Tigray in northern
Ethiopia to the Indian Ocean coasts. As John Trimingham put it, the
Oromo language is “the most widely-spoken language in Ethiopia.
Considering the vast expanse of country over which it is spoken where
the [clans] are separated by formidable physical barriers and even other
language areas, the language has remained remarkably uniform.”63
In spite of Islamic and Christian expansions, they kept their reli-
gion intact. The Oromo developed gender-specific organizations like
siiqqee, addooyyee, and ateetee women’s rituals that helped develop
checks and balances in the whole nation. They even influenced other
groups, who adopted the ateetee, irreecha, and Waaqa elements,
among others. In spite of early Islamic influence in the region, the
Aniya Oromo of Harar were still followers of the Oromo religion
into the nineteenth century (see chapter 5). As Gemetchu Megerssa
put it, “What is fascinating about the Oromo culture is, that despite
their exposure to other cultures, all the Oromo communities found
in East and Northeast Africa retain the essential features of their
ancient religious and philosophical system of thought.”64 European
t ravelers, missionaries, and diplomats witnessed the Oromo nation’s
commitment to maintaining nagaa (peace, harmony, balance, order,
and justice for all). They were convinced that the Oromo were a wel-
coming and a peace-loving nation with established indigenous gover-
nance institutions in East Africa.
Chapter 1 provides an account of the Oromo expansion and settle-
ment mainly north of the Abbay River, in spite of continual expedi-
tions from the Ethiopian Empire from 1570 to 1704. It describes
the basic concepts of Oromo unity, organization, leadership, gadaa
government, and their assimilation into various ethnic groups to the
north of that river.
Chapter 2 describes a history of the Oromo-speaking group in
Wanbara to the north of the Abbay River. It is interesting that most
of the Oromo who settled in Gojjam, Bagemeder, and Dambya were
assimilated into the Amharic-speaking community, while others close
12 I n t e gr at ion a n d P e ac e i n E a s t A f r ic a

to the Sudan kept their ethnic identity intact. While there was no
major Oromo expansion during the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-
turies, north of the Abbay River close to the Sudanese frontier, strong
expansion and assimilation did occur. This chapter details the Oromo
move northward and their interactions with local people. Despite
assimilating into various communities in this region, the Oromo
were able to keep their identity, language, government, and religious
practices intact. Many people, including the Oromo themselves, are
unaware of the existence today of Oromo north of the river on the
Sudanese border, believing that they were completely assimilated.
Yet, today, tens of thousands of Oromo live north of the Abbay River.
Most of the sources used in this chapter come from interviews con-
ducted with residents in the region.
Chapter 3 describes the Oromo concept of peace, Oromo law,
mechanisms of incorporating other groups, and various institutions
of peace. Nagaa (literally, “peace”) is the most important concept in
the way the Oromo conduct their daily lives, from religious practice
to governance.
Chapter 4 details the significance of commerce for pan-Oromo
relations in the nineteenth century as well as for relations with other
groups. Mainly using travel accounts, this chapter details commercial
transactions in Oromia, regional interconnections between Oromia
and other states, relations between the Oromo and foreign merchants,
and the contributions of Oromo interpreters and guides to the suc-
cess of merchants and travelers.
Chapter 5 explores the dynamics of indigenous beliefs, the role
of Islam and the introduction of Christianity into Oromia, and the
efforts of missionaries and local converts in the nineteenth century.
It describes the role of Oromo religion, including the qaalluu insti-
tution, ateetee ceremony, and ireecha festival, as well as connections
to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Religious practices
strengthened ethnic solidarity. This chapter also explores the introduc-
tion of Christianity into Oromia in the nineteenth century and details
the efforts of missionaries and local converts, including how Protestant
and Catholic missionaries tried to introduce a European form of evan-
gelical activity and how they were welcomed by the Oromo.
Chapter 6 (the last chapter), describes the major factors that
affected ethnic relations and peace in the region. The introduction
of firearms by the kingdom of Shawa, the role of Shawan–European
relations, the role of local collaborators, and loss of unity within the
Oromo significantly affected ethnic dynamism.