SALALE OROMO STUDIES / ETHIOPIA

To Envision Salale Oromo Studies

Background
The need for an overall, organized and comprehensive Salale study that seeks to analyze culture, socio-political structure and the history of the Salale Oromo in its entire immediate milieu is crucial. This is justifiable at least for three basic reasons.

First, as it has been the case to Oromo Studies at large, such an academic pursuit has been appended to the mainstream Ethiopian Studies so far. if anything, it has been little more than inkblots as sources focusing on the Salale Oromo are thin on the ground as compared to the longstanding socio-economic, historical, political, and cultural significance of the Salale in the region (central north Ethiopia) and their contact with their Orthodox Christain Showan Amhara rulers with cultural and political upper hand over the region nearly for over two hundred years.

Second, that scholarly venture was taken by both foreign and compatriot researchers who for one reason or another were forced to approach the region and the people only through the regal door of the Showan Kingdom open to them. We remain very grateful to those who led us through this long and crooked lane. Today, it is a felt importance to pave and straighten the way for the new generation of scholars and students in the fields of folklore, cultural studies, history and related disciplines committed to assisting change and transformation in the region. Despite many significant contribution by the Salale, seen in the local history of the people, from the unionist war generals such as Ras Gobena and Ras Ababa Aragay, who maintained the unity of the empire from its inception to during the foreign invasions, to the ethnic heroes, little mention, if any, of the Salale is made in the mainstream Ethiopian history. The Salale ethnic heroes such as Alamu Ejersa, Janka Nagawo, Agari Tullu and his two brothers, General tadasa Berru Kenne, Mulu Asanu, Badhadha Dhilgassa, to mention but a few,  executed by the Abyssinian consecutive regimes and belittled as bandits, history and historians of the region unfairly and unjustly turned their face against these real Robin Hoods of the Salale. 

Third, to reverse the western academic mistakes and misperceptions based on Abyssinian unsubstantiated claims and racist fallacies wrapped up in the catch-phrase “nation-building’ initiative. This fact ties up, unfortunately, the fate of the later Orthodox Christain Salale (or, are they?) to be culturally and politically subjugated before any other Oromo tribes and other nations and nationalities to the south. One such insightful documentation was provided by the then Russian military officer, explorer, and Orthodox monk, Alexander Bulatovich. In his book, History of Abyssinia, during his three years (1896-1899) of observation and excursion in Abyssinia and the conquered lands to the south he documented the Oromo genocide perpetrated by the invading Showan Amhara and Abyssinian armies. Enerico Cerulli (1922) also collected the Oromo folksongs and narratives of the time and analyzed historical songs of the then Oromo experiences and practices at large including the Salale Oromo daily lives put under domination. The traditional Showan polity of about 1840s is also studied by Svein Ege (1996).

Researchers in the field of culture, history, folklore and disciplines related to the political and economic activities of the people should feel the urge to update themselves with what is going on in the region, as what they did now seems remote, and need to work towards improving, reconstructing and building up their work founded on the real social phenomena past and present. This necessitates coming under one sunshade and set different perspectives commensurate with the ongoing history and politics (resistance and/or collaboration) from below in the face of globalization and system restructuring both from above.

Setting and Context
The Salale are the Tulama branch of the Cushitic Oromo located in northwest Oromia, north of Finfinne (Addis Ababa). The Salale region extends across the plains to Abbay ravine bordering the Amhara Region under North Showa Zone. The area is located on flat agricultural land with less dense and dotted rural settlements and small towns such as Caanco, Dubar, Fiche, Dagam, Alii Dooroo, Kuyyu and Gowa lie on the northwest on each side of the high way while Laga Xafo, Laga Dadhi stretch to the north of Finfinne along the highway to Wallo and Rayya and Azabo. Afaan Oromo (Oromo Language) is the main language of the people in the area although Amhraic is also spoken with varying degrees of competence.

Whether the Oromo in Salale belong to one sub-group called “Salale,” is not very clear. According to Tsegaye Zeleke (2003:15), in his MA study “History of the Oromo of Salaalee,” there is no such a genealogical group known by the name “Salale.” This may be refutable to some degree by the findings in the History of the Oromo to the 16th c (Oormia Cultural and Tourism Bureau, OCTB 2006:141) that there is a Salale sub-group of Bacho settled in the districts of Kuyyu, Abote, and Dagam. According to the Tulama genealogy, the Bacho tribe has five divisions. These are Salale, Warab, Ejere/Metta, Darra, and Borana / Wallo (OCTB, 2006: 141). The Salale sub-division in turn includes Urru, Garasu, and Wajjitu settling in the districts of Kuyyu, Abote, and Jarso along both sides of the highway to the Abbay Valley in the west and Jamma Valley in the east (OCTB, ibid).

Moreover, the etymology of the word Salale, according to available sources, derives from the name of the mountain found on the other side of Girar Jarso to the west of Fiche, the zonal capital (Opsan 2010; OCTB, ibid. p141; Zeleke, ibid p16). The Salale livelihood depends on agriculture and rearing livestock, which Zeleke argues, based on data he obtained from informants, that until they were fully incorporated into the Showan kingdom during the period of Ras Darge (1870s-1900), the Salales’ livelihood was based on animal husbandry (ibid, p24; Ege 1996) with 95% of Orthodox Christian religion presumably following the occupation by the Showan Amhara rulers. According to the Slalae Oromo (oral) history (OCTB 2006; Zeleke, ibid), this Oromo branch has lived in the present area of North (West) Oromia from the time of Minas’s successor Sarsa Dengel (r 1563-1597), also known as Malak Sagad (Zeleke, p3.), when the latter was forced by the Salale to flee to Dambia (Hassen 1994; 1980). However, with such a longstanding history of socio-cultural and political contour of its own, but the issue of the Salale Oromo study has been sidelined.

Objectives
It is imperative that an organized forum that leads towards a comprehensive Salale Oromo Studies will fill the felt gap in Oromo Studies at large. Its objectives could be:

-to conduct empirical studies and contributions that deal with the theory, methodology and application of social science research to the social phenomena in the area

-to optimize innovative ways of thinking, researching and presenting, writing and publishing to meet the demand of researchers, social change agents and, ultimately for the betterment of the people

-to organize a forum where past and present researchers in the area can exchange ideas, information and, what is more, research experience in Salale

-to publish selected single contributions, and contributions belonging to the rubrics of Salale Oromo Studies: Debates, Interviews, Reviews, Papers submitted as MA theses and PhD dissertations will be published after they go through peer review processes.

-to encourage internet-specific forms of interaction between researchers, blogger and readers such as online forums and journals. (In so doing, it will favor researchers with an interdisciplinary perspective)

The intention here is to undust the dusty mirrors left for ages. That is, with regard to empirical work, researchers will provide more detailed information about the Salale Oromo way of life and involve the people in the research process in a particular setting where their study will cover. They also communicate with other researchers in the area the nature of their study, duration and details of their research procedures.

In sum, as we know, there are only few (online) discussion venues that focus on Oromo Studies at large but almost nil to bet on Salale Oromo past and current life situation. The various discipline areas existed more or less independently of one another. And, in addition to disciplinary boundaries, regional boundaries also work in a very restrictive and distracted way. On the one hand, for example, the existing social science researchers and novice research students (MA, PhD) working in Salale need to have a forum to further enrich their methods and exchange research experiences to tackle apparent challenges. Without ignoring this fact, there is another problem to add. This region has been under the influence of ‘Abyssinian’ culture sphere characterized by a Semitic language (Amharic) and Coptic religion (Orthodox Christianity). Hence, on the other hand, only a few methodological developments have been practiced under the influence of foreign researchers. Some methodologies and methods used to collect data through informants during the fieldwork have practical limitations due to various reasons, which include cultural, religious, and political subjectivity of local officials and informants. Moreover, from experience, categorically one researcher does not know who did what or who is doing what in the area, which necessitates a forum for researchers in the Salale region of northwest Oromia, Ethiopia.

Asafa T. Dibaba
Indiana University 
USA

asafadibaba@gmail.com