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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Complexity of a Pastoral African Polity: An Introduction to the Council Organisation of the Borana-Oromo
Author:Bassi, MarcoISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:Journal of Ethiopian Studies
Volume:32
Issue:2
Period:December
Pages:15-33
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Ethiopia
Northeast Africa
Subjects:Boran
political systems
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Anthropology, Folklore, Culture
anthropology
Pastoral economy
Ethnography
Political behaviour
Social implications
Boran (African people)
Oromo (African people)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/41966092
Abstract:In the process of the formation of modern African States the cultural ethnocentric bias against pastoralism came to interact with Western-based evolutionary thinking. The geographical, economic and political marginalization of pastoralists in the postcolonial State and their exclusion from the modern, 'civilized' or 'complex' sector of the nation meant that pastoralism came to be identified with a backward lifestyle. However, the complexity of the council organization of the Borana-Oromo of southern Ethiopia challenges the evolutionary matrix of such cultural bias. The Borana organize several kinds of assemblies, having different names and specific competencies and involving different kinds of social groups. All binding decisions in Borana have to be taken in the context of a community-in council. Decisions are only reached by general consensus. The Borana-Oromo polity, ideologically centralized but egalitarian and democratic, displays most of the characteristics of a State, but without producing structural inequality. In fact it is only the marginalization of 'traditional' institutions, their lack of legitimacy within the broader national and international political and economic arena, which prevents them from incorporating innovations, adapting to new needs and 'modernizing' themselves. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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