Onkoloolessa/October 29, 2013 · Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com | Comments

The following are two new books on Oromo and related Horn of African studies.

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Title:

Conquest and Resistance in the Ethiopian Empire, 1880-1974

The Case of the Arsi Oromo

Author: Abbas H. Gnamo

Subject: This work examines the philosophical origins of Oromo egalitarian and democratic thoughts and practice, the Gadaa-Qaalluusystem, kinship organization, the introduction and spread of Islam and the consequent socio-cultural change. It sheds light on the advent of the Ethiopian empire under Menelik II, its conquests and Arsi Oromo fierce resistance (1880-1900), the nature and legacy of Ethiopian imperial polity, centre-periphery relations, feudal political economy and its impacts on the newly conquered regions with a focus on Arsi Oromo country. The book also analyzes the root causes of the national political crisis including, but not limited to, the attempts at transforming the empire-state to a nation-state around a single culture, contested definition of national identity and state legitimacy, grievance narratives, uprisings, the birth and development of competing nationalisms as well as the limitations of the current ethnic federalism to address the national question in Ethiopia.

Availability: Coming Soon – check the publisher’s website @ Brill.com

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Title:

Nomads in the Shadows of Empires

Contests, Conflicts and Legacies on the Southern Ethiopian-Northern Kenyan Frontier

Author: Gufu Oba

Subject: In Nomads in the Shadows of EmpiresGufu Oba presents accounts of why the legacies of banditry and ethnic conflicts have proved so difficult to resolve along the southern Ethiopian and northern Kenyan frontier. Using interpretative and comparative methods to dialogue the relationships between different political actors on both sides of the frontier, the work captures the dynamics of political events related to imperial contests over borders and trans-frontier treaty. A complex evolution of inter-societal relations, as well as the relations between partitioned nomads and the imperial states had resulted in persistent conflicts. This work improves the understanding why frontier pastoralists continue to experience conflict over land, even after the transfer of the tribal territories to the imperial and postcolonial states.