Epilogue

Summary

The history of the Oromo and the Christian kingdom (c. 1300–1700), which has been reconstructed in the foregoing chapters, is the story of long contacts and warfare between the Oromo and the Christian society. The warfare between the two communities entered the Christian society's cultural universe and coloured what the chroniclers wrote about the Oromo. Since the Oromo, as a preliterate society, did not write about their encounter with the Christian society, what was written about them reflects only one side of the encounter and thus planted the seeds of hatred, fear and prejudice that resulted in the deliberate distortion of Oromo history and their way of life in Ethiopian historiography. In the twenty-first century, when the political landscape of Ethiopia is changing, there is clear need for a paradigm shift in Ethiopian historiography, with the goal of moving away from a history that is based on incomplete records and prejudice. A history that is based on the achievements of only the Amhara and Tigrayan national groups does not serve a national purpose in the twenty-first century. What is needed for ‘the essential task of building’ an enduring nation out of several nations and nationalities that is not threatened with the spectre of disintegration of every generation is the creation of an intellectual climate in which the achievement of all Ethiopian peoples can be recognized. This can be achieved by teaching an accurate history of the various Ethiopian peoples in such a way that it makes all of them conscious of their dignity, enjoying unity in diversity, promoting respect for each other’s cultural heritage, and strengthening mutual understanding and trust among all.

THE PRESENCE OF OROMO COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN KINGDOM

Christian and Muslim influences are reflected in Oromo traditions and their key institutions going back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a time when the Oromo were said not to have been within the medieval Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. Amhara Christian traditions show the existence of contact between some Oromo groups and the Amhara communities during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Muslim narratives from Harar mention an Oromo presence in the Ramis River Valley during the fourteenth century. Somali traditions also mention an Oromo presence within the Muslim states of southern Ethiopia during the fourteenth century.