Borana Oromo

Borana Oromo

Borana man voting at a polling station in Marsabit, Kenya.
Regions with significant populations
Ethiopia, Kenya
Languages
Borana
Religion
Islam, traditional religion[1]
Related ethnic groups
Oromo, Barentu, Gabra

Borana is also an alternate Spanish name of the Boran sub-family of the larger Witotoan language family.

The Borana Oromo, also called the Boran, are a pastoralist ethnic group living in southern Ethiopia (Oromia) and northern Kenya.^[1] They are a sub-group of the Oromo people,^[2] and represent one of the two halves of the original Oromos (the other half being the Barentu).

Profile

Oromos in northern Kenya first entered the region from southern Ethiopia during a major migratory expansion in the late 10th century. They then differentiated into the cattle-keeping Borana and the camel-keeping Gabbra and Sakuye.^[3]

The Borana speak Borana (or afaani Boraana), which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. Roughly over 7 million people identify as Boranas.^[4]

Borana calendar

It is believed that the Borana developed their own calendar around 300 BC. The Borana calendar is a lunar-stellar calendrical system, relying on astronomical observations of the moon in conjunction with seven particular stars or constellations. Borana Months (Stars/Lunar Phases) are Bittottessa (iangulum), Camsa (Pleiades), Bufa (Aldebarran), Waxabajjii (Belletrix), Obora Gudda (Central Orion-Saiph), Obora Dikka (Sirius), Birra (full moon), Cikawa (gibbous moon), Sadasaa (quarter moon), Abrasa (large crescent), Ammaji (medium crescent), and Gurrandala (small crescent).^[5]

Sub-groups

The Oromo are divided into two major branches that break down into an assortment of clan families. From west to east and north to south, these subgroups are as listed:

The Borana which include:

• The Macha Oromo, living between Didessa River and the Omo River, and south into the Gibe region;
• The Tulama Oromo, who live in the Oromia Region around Addis Ababa;
• The Guji Oromo, who are the southern part subgroup of the Oromo, inhabiting neighboring the Garri (Gharri) and Borana Oromo.
• The Borana Oromo who live in the Borena Zone, which includes Moyale. They also live in Kenya and parts of Somalia.
• The Gabra Oromo, who live in north Kenya along the Moyale border Garri, (Gharri) region^{[clarification needed]}, who live in north east Kenya and parts of Somalia

And countless subdivisions.

See also

• Oromo people
• Barentu (Oromo)

Notes

References

Wikinews has related news: Children massacred in Kenyan school

• Appiah, Kwame Anthony; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., eds. (1999), Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, New York: Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-00071-1, OCLC 41649745 .

Further reading

• Asmerom Legesse, Gada
• Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, Some records of Ethiopia Hakluyt Society, 1954
• Bassi Marco, Decisions in the Shade. Political and juridical processes among the Oromo-Borana Red Sea Press, 2005
• Clifford H F Plowman CMG OBE, Notes On The Gedamoch Ceremonies Among The Boran, (Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 18, No. 70 (Jan., 1919), pp. 114-121 )

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