7. Orature Across Generations Among the Guji-Oromo of Ethiopia

Oromo culture embodies multiple forms of oral literature that have played essential roles in all aspects of people’s lives across generations. Until today, oral literature takes precedence over written literature in Oromo society. However, only recently did Oromo oral literature start to receive the attention of international and local researchers. It was only as of the 19th century that a considerable amount of studies and collections have been made on the different forms of the Oromo Oral Literature of which works of Karli Tushek, Onesimos Nasib, Aster Ganno, Enrico Cerulli, Sheikh Bakri Sapalo, Mangasha Riqxuu, B.W Andrzejewski and John van De Loo are the pioneer ones. The Oromo oral literature consists of several forms known in Oromo language as Gerarsa, qexala, lalaba, makmaaksa, duriduri, oduu-duri, hibboo, weedduu(faaruu) sirba, eebba, abaarsa, kadhata (sagada) and xapha. These forms belong to and performed by different generations such adults, children, men and women. For example, Gerarsa, qexala and lalaba are performed by adult men while oduuduri and hibbo are predominantly known as children’s oral play. The rest are performed by all generations in different social and cultural contexts. These forms have different structure and styles of performance but have similar characteristics which arise from their oral and artistic nature. In this paper, I try to show how performance gives identity and life to these forms across the mentioned generations. I discuss how the performance approach may help to combine the literary and anthropological characteristics of oral literature and argue that the concept “orature”, in the study of Oral literature, may refer to performance beyond verbal actions. Eventually, I assert that the literariness and meaningfulness of oral culture exist in performance out of which it is difficult to understand the literary and artistic quality of African oral literature.