Decisions in the Shade: The Borana of Ethiopia

by Marco Bassi

Describing an African egalitarian State, hardly fitting any anthropological classificatory category, this book focuses on the institutions, norms and decisional procedures of the Borana, a southern territorial section of the Oromo. The celebrated gadaa generational class system provides the ritual space for the promotion of the political and economic integration of the main corporate segments, the gosa (clans). The gosa are recognized as autonomous political units only if they are led and represented by officers that have served in the gadaa centre for at least 8 years, where they learn pan-Borana values and norms. The political centre is thus indirectly and voluntarily sustained by the constitutive segments of the society, receiving political legitimacy in return. This study is an invitation to draw lessons from the existing African political experience by acknowledging the existence of cleavages, while providing institutional ways to avoid violent conflict and regulate economic relations. Gadaa governance, built and reproduced by the Oromo through Ethiopia, is based on participatory democracy, rotational and consociational access to the central offices. It is also based on the restriction of the executive and economic capacities of the political centre, mainly relegating the latter to a role of coordination and political legitimization in relation to a powerful symbolism of communion, social cohesion and solidarity.

560 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2004