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.

Culture

Photo of an Arsi girl making flour in the late 19th century by Jules Borelli

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

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]

In the early years of the eleventh century, the Islamic faith had already become well-established in Bale, a primary region of Arsiland. Proof of this can be seen in the existence of a mosque named Dobbi, which was constructed in the year 460 AH (1067 AD) and was situated in the Gasara area. Furthermore, the construction of two additional mosques, one in Balla in 1067 and the other in Zuqum in the year 1075, also testified to the presence of a Muslim sultanate referred to as Bali at this time.


The establishment of the Islamic faith in the region of Bale was not the only significant development in Arsiland at this time, however, as the twelfth century also brought about the emergence of several other Muslim sultanates in the southeastern parts of what is now Ethiopia. These sultanates included Dawaro, Sharkha, Arababni, Dara, Wej province and Hadiya, and they were responsible for exerting a direct influence on the religious conditions within the Arsi Oromoo territories. According to historical records, some of these sultanates were founded on parts or all of the land now occupied by the Arsi Oromoo people. [7]


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.[8][9]

Arsi Oromo were largely independent and ruling under their own Gadaa Republic until about the 19th century. The Arsi Oromo under their leader Nur Hussien from Harar 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.[10][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

References

  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. ^ Adam, Temam Haji (June 2019). "Syncretism of Waaqeffannaa and Islam among the Arsi Oromo of Ethiopia".
  8. ^ Ben-Dror, Avishai (2018). Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian: Colonial Experiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Harar. Syracuse University Press. p. 100. ISBN 9780815654315.
  9. ^ Ahmed, Wehib (2015). History of Harar and Hararis (PDF). Harar Tourism Buearu. p. 83.
  10. ^ Dilebo, Getahun (1986). Emperor Menelik's Ethiopia, 1865-1916 National Unification Or Amhara Communal Domination. UMI Howard University. p. 101.
  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. doi:10.1353/nas.2007.0013. 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.