Sacred Knowledge Traditions of the Oromo of the Horn of Africa

This historical and comparative ethnography of the Oromo of the Horn of Africa is based on the teachings of the custodians of the sacred knowledge traditions. It shows that central to their traditional systems of thought and belief was the concept of 'time-force', which may once have formed part of a wider, shared, regional culture. The study presents a number of new findings about the cultural history of the Oromo. With maps, diagrams, photographs, glossary and index.

This historical and comparative ethnography is the first full length anthropological study of the Oromo of the Horn of Africa. It is based on more than thirty years of collaborative research by the two authors. With maps, diagrams, photographs, glossary and index.
Gemetchu Megerssa obtained his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (England), in 1993. His doctoral thesis was on the knowledge system and national identity of the Oromo, and on how their traditional knowledge traditions were progressively overlaid by the Abyssinian colonizing structures. After completing his doctoral studies, he lectured in anthropology at the University of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) for over a decade and a half from 1996. He is currently the director of the Oromo Studies Centre, Rift Valley University, Oromia (Ethiopia).
Aneesa Kassam obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle) in 1984. Her doctoral thesis was on the folktales of the Gabra Oromo of Northern Kenya. She taught at the University of Nairobi (Kenya) for almost a decade from 1982, and from 1993 to 2002 in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Durham (England, where she is currently an Honorary Research Fellow.

'Gemetchu Megerssa and Aneesa Kassam have recently published the most comprehensive account of the Oromo philosophy and value system', Bassi, Marco in Archivio Antropologica Mediterraneo Anno XXII, 21 (2), 2019, p. 29n6.