Determinants of Acculturation Preferences between Ethiopian Majority in Shashemene, and Rastafarian Community

Abstract Background Acculturation is learning and adopting cultural traits different from the ones with which the person was originally growing up. Methods The researchers employed a transformative mixed research design. We randomly selected 349 participants from both the majority and their counterparts. Item measures acculturation choices of native and Rastafarians which were adapted from Navas et al. (2005) Relative Acculturation Extended Model. We computed multinomial logistic regression analysis to identify determinants of majorities' and minorities' acculturation preferences. A p-value < 0.05 considered significant. Results The study has shown that most of the respondents preferred the marginalization approach 54.7%. This result also highlighted that the second-largest preferred acculturation was assimilation 22.6%. Over 26.8% of the Rastafarians, pick separation preference. in the condition where the Rastafarians were to speak the local language, their likelihood of making integration to marginalization increased by 0.37 unit while holding all other variables in the model constant (AOR = 0.374, 95% CI (.146,.959). If a majority were to increase smoking Ganja by one point, the odds of preferring integration to marginalization enhanced by 0.008 points (AOR = 0.008, 95% CI (.001, 072). As for factors related to Rastafarians’ acculturation decision, divorce is one factor because many Ethiopian women who have a relationship with local men marry and bear children to Rasta men just to share their resources. In this study, the likelihood of making integration to marginalization optimized by 41.95 points if the local people had the habit of smoking Ganja (AOR = 41.95, 95% CI (2.51,.701.69). The Rastafarian reported that the town leaders have been continuously accusing them of planting and smoking Ganja, marijuana, and others. Conclusion The research suggested that there are some individuals working against the Rastafarians; therefore, elders and Abba Gedas have to work together to protect the vulnerable group as the Oromo culture, nurture togetherness and peaceful coexistence not to displace their neighborhood. We found that the Rastafarian people lack unity among themselves because there are some individuals often creating problems and paving the way for other intruders to discriminate against the Rasta community. Therefore, before blaming others it is a good idea if you first clean your houses.