Ethnicity, Local Identity and Folklore among the Southwestern Oromo of Ethiopia

This research project deals with local forms and self-reflective expressions of ethnic identity among the southwestern Oromo (Macha) in Ethiopia. It aims at understanding the formations and expressions of self-perceived differences in local cultural traditions and styles that distinguish the regional and sub-regional groupings within the Macha Oromo: the Leqa, Sibu, Wayyu, and Gibe (see map). The focus is on the identification, documentation, description and sub-group-oriented comparative analysis of folklore – seen as local discourses of and expressive basis for communal identity and collective action – in order to gain insight into the issue of ethnic identity and tensions between (sub-) ethnic groups in a complex multiethnic state. From the internal perspective, there are local boundaries differentiating one’s own group from that of “Others”, both within and outside the Macha. As the Oromo do not have a developed written literature, the bases for and consequences of these boundaries, definitions of and identifications with the (sub-)groups are expressed and symbolized in folklore. Empirically, there exists a massive body of myths, stories, jokes, etc., used by members of each local group to create a prototypical, or even stereotypical, portrait of their own self and that of others (for the debate on prototype theory, see Margolis & Laurence 1999). This body of folklore is also drawn upon in order to construct, signal, and perpetuate distinctions and tensions between these groups. The project attempts to elucidate the interrelationship between ethnicity and locality as foci for group identity among the southwestern Oromo, and the ways in which inter- and intra-ethnic relations, socio-economic, and political conditions affect and are reflected in the folklore of these people. Correspondingly, application of a combination of multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives, sub-group oriented and ethnographically-informed comparative analysis of folklore discourses of the southwestern Oromo, with emphasis on socio-cultural contexts, communicative processes and settings of folkloric performances, constitute the major methodological concern. This project is set in a wider analytical framework of socio-economic and political conditions and changes wrought by Ethiopia’s post-1991 ‘ethno-federal’ state structure. It will yield new empirical data about rich oral traditions, as well as useful material for future comparative studies on the significance and function of folklore as a way of projecting recurrent problem situations. Moreover, insights gained from the research can be usefully applied to increase scientific and practical understandings of the construction of (sub-) group identities, the emergence of group rivalry, and conflict in largely non-literate multi-ethnic societies, and suggest ways of addressing existing problems in these domains.