Irreecha

 

(COMPILED BY LEULSEGED WORKU)

The Oromo people have been living in the Horn of Africa for all of their known history. The Oromo people are the largest of the Cushitic speaking groups of people in Africa and also the largest ethnic group of Ethiopia.

The Oromo people, like the other peoples and nationalities of the country, have immense tangible and intangible heritages which have been created over centuries in the interactions of the people with natural and social environments and which stand as the manifestations of the identity of the people.

They share common language, history and descent, and once shared common political, religious and legal institutions. The Oromo people are known for their hospitality, tolerance and wisdom. Oromo culture is based on its authenticity and integrity that is engrained in the lifestyle, landscapes, nature, history and heritage and in its unique hospitality towards each other and their neighbors.

Today, the Oromo people are living widespread in the Horn of Africa along with other nationalities and particularly, in Ethiopia inhabiting in the largest of the ten regional states of the Ethiopian federation, in Oromia, and elsewhere in the country. Oromia is truly a land where one can experience nature and humanity in unity. This short article briefly introduces one of those intangible heritages of the Oromo people constituting one of the various institutions of  the Gada system, Irreechaa institution.

The Oromo recognize the Gada System as part of their cultural heritage and as a contemporary system of governance that functions in concert with the modern state system. The Gada Sytem is crucial organizing structure among the Oromo people and its social, political, ritual and legal aspects and provides the framework for order and meaningful social life. Gada organizes society via councils, laws and injunctions, outlining rights and duties of its members.

The Gada System is an all-inclusive social system in which every member of the society has specified roles and duties during one's life course. This begins when sons join the system as members of Gada class (generation class or set) forty years after their fathers’ ascendance to Gada and continues passing from one Gada grade to the next every eight years.

The Gada System distributes power across generations and down to community members and creates strong link between successive generations. Oromo philosophy, art and calendar are based on Gada as an expression of Oromo civilization.

Gada functions as a system of cooperation, social integration, enforcement of moral conduct and principle of peaceful co-existence with other ethnic groups. Gada is an indigenous system of human development on the basis of which the Oromo welfare system is institutionalized, communal wealth is distributed, rules of resource protection and environmental conservation enforced and through which all their aspirations are fulfilled. 

An Oromo cannot imagine functioning as a human being or living in a community apart from rules of behavior preserved and protected in the Gada System. Even the governing agencies of the Oromiya Regional Government derive from the traditional institutions of the Gada System Gada egalitarian ethos and communal solidarity.  The Oromiya Regional State named the regional parliament after the traditional Gada Assembly known as Caffee.

 

The knowledge and practices of the Gada System have been transmitted from generation to generation in various ways. At a household level, parents transmit orally knowledge about the ethics, practices and rituals of the system and socialize their children into Gada culture. Then, after sons joined the Gada System and collectively pass through the five grades (Daballe, Junior Game, Senior Game, Kussa, Raba Dori).

In the meetings that take place every eight years to re-examine the existing laws,  the seniors reiterate them in public and legislate new laws, demonstrate and share knowledge about the operation of the Gada System. As a result, when the group enters the Gada Grade (Luba), they will have acquired all the necessary knowledge to handle the responsibility of administering the country and arranging and presiding at the celebration of rituals.

In a very simplistic approach, Gada is a generation-set system that divides the (male) population of the Oromo into eight grades that follow each other in fixed intervals of eight years. Every male (and derived from their status, females, especially when married) as a member of society has to belong to a generation-set and undergo the proper ritual initiations and in the process learn about the rules and laws connected to it. In essence, however, the Gada system is impressive in its complexity and requires specialist in indigenous knowledge. It is a complex system that governs every political, social, economic, cultural and ritual aspects of the Oromo society since antiquity. As one of its political aspects, Gada is a system by which political power is transferred from one Abba Gada to another every eight years through competitive and democratic election assuming the form of “consociational” democracy of the modern governance system.

An important quality of the Gada System is its transparency and openness. There is no customary restriction in the practice of the Gada System. Participation in Gada assemblies, election to the Gada office, legislative processes, such as at Gumi Gaayo (assembly of assemblies), and meetings of the various Gada councils are public events open to anyone including members of other ethnic groups and expatriates. Attending power transfer ceremonies, rites of passages from one grade to another and other gatherings are essentially as transparent as possible.

The laws, norms, values, and ideals of the Gada System are compatible with existing international human rights instruments and humanitarian laws. Politically, it is a democratic system based on equality and equal access to office in which only merit counts. In the Gada System, the supremacy of the law is paramount and the equality of all before the law is sacrosanct. Even the Abba Gada, the head of the Gada executive branch, if accused of violating laws and regulations, is impeached, tried and uprooted (buqisu) from office before official tenure and replaced by one of the members of his class. Supreme legislative authority belongs to the people's Chaffee or Gumi (people's assembly). Gada leaders are accountable to this assembly. Every citizen has the right to speak and be heard in the Assembly of multitudes. Decisions over the use of common resources and the settlement of disputes are reached after thorough discussions and deliberation.

Gada System of checks and balances such as respecting eight years rule, power sharing and balanced opposition of parties helps avoid subordination, exploitation, corruption and misuse of power.  The women's siinqee institution within the System enables Oromo women to have control over resources and to form mechanisms of solidarity and sisterhood to deter men from infringing upon their rights and promote gender equality. The Gada system could serve as a model of democracy that influences the lives of other peoples. Thus, an understanding of the democratic Gada System by different communities helps for inter-cultural dialogue  and encourage mutual respect.

For the Oromo today, Gada constitutes a dynamic living culture that grants a sense of identity and continuity. Gada values regulate contemporary Oromo political, social, economic and religious life. As a social institution, it functions as a mechanism of socialization, conflict resolution, judicial administration, religious expression and social harmony. Contemporary Oromo political culture, moral/ ethical system and cultural traditions are shaped by the evolved traditions of Gada civilization.With this outstanding and universal value, the Oromo Gada system was inscribed by UNESCO as ‘ An Indigenous Democratic Socio- political System of the Oromo’ by the Reg. No. 01164 & Decision no. 11.com.10.b.11 on the Conference held in Addis Ababa on November 30,2016.

(Source Oromia Culture & Tourism Bureau)