User:Nyachega nicholas/sandbox

THE UNIVERSITY OF ZIM BABWE HISTORY DEPARTMENT

NAME						: NYACHEGA NICHOLAS

QUESTION					: IS THERE ANY LINK BETWEEN IGOR KOPYTOFF’S “ FRONTIER THESIS” AND THE MIGRATION OF THE OROMO PEOPLE TO THE SOUTH WESTERN PARTS OF ETHIOPIA AND THEIR SETTLEMENT IN THE GIBE REGION FROM 1570 TO 1600? DUE DATE:

Numerous scholars have found in Ethiopia an interesting history to write- that of the Oromo people. These historians include M. Hassen, J.D. Clark, M. Abir among many others. However in a bid to explain the formation of some African states, Igor Kopytoff wrote a Frontier Thesis that becomes a model in the making of Africa’s political cultures during the period in question. Therefore this essay seeks to outline and explain whether there is or no link between Kopytoff”s Frontier Thesis and the migration of the Oromo people. It must be noted, however, that though one may find a link in the thesis, it should not blink students of history to find a share of criticism to Kopytoff.

Initially it appears necessary to identify who the Oromo people are, unless this done it will difficult for one to clearly understand the working area of this discussion. According to M. Abir, the Oromo who better known as the Galla were Cushitic pastoralists with a common language, culture and socio-political organisation .In addition, historian P.T.W Baxter noted that they constituted the greater part of Ethiopian population. However M.Hassen argued that the name Galla was applied by outsiders, the term was loaded with negative connotations because the Oromo did not call themselves Galla and they resist being so called.

Igor Kopytoff used the term frontier to refer to a region and a boundary. Buchannan and Plog gave the term “frontier” a nearly metaphorical cast by applying it to any kind of interactions across cultural boundaries. However in Kopytoff”s understanding the anthropological interpretation associates the term “frontier” to a geographical region of social constructs. Thus he asserted that a frontier consists of politically open areas resting between organised societies. In his introductory remarks Kopytoff noted that, “The aim of this book is to introduce a particular perspective on African societies and African cultural history....frontier perspective suggests a particular model of the process by which African societies developed...” Such reflects and shows a link between his Frontier Thesis with and the migration of the Oromo people to the Gibe region.

According to Kopytoff in his African Frontier, population movements were necessitated by the problem of famines, civil wars, ethnic rivalry, despotic regimes and conflicts between  polities. In any situation as the above noted, people are likely to look for solutions outside their territory or frontier hence could move or migrate. It is in such a context of disaster that he pastoral Oromo migrated from the South Western parts of Ethiopia to the Gibe region. Their migration had been a result of severe invasions by their neighbouring states, thus Kopytoff’s thesis stands justifiable in the movement of the Oromo populations. To cement this,Bahrey stated that, "....those of Borona who stayed, came out of their country by a way of Kuera, that was the time when Fasil attacked them....” Moreover Hassen noted that Imam Ahimad unleashed a jihad of a scale hitherto unwitnessed in the area.Such left conflicts left people devastated hence the need to migrate from the storm centres in search of uncontested areas. So did the pastoral Oromo, thus one may argue that indeed Igor Kopytoff’s Frontier Thesis is applicable to the migration of the pastoral Oromo people to the Gibe region from 1570 to 1600.

That there is a strong link between Kopytoff’s Frontier Thesis and the peopling of the Gibe region of Ethiopia by the pastoral Oromo people can hardly be doubted. Igor Kopytoff stipulated that in the frontier process there was what he called “The production of the Frontiersmen”. He suggested that the social fabric of traditional African societies was dynamic, designed in a way that they will timely eject people out of their kin groups, communities and polities. It was those who were periodically dislocated from their kin who will therefore form what Kopytoff called the frontiersmen. This is true of what happened to the pastoral “Galla” from 1570 to 1600.M.Hassen argued that during the process of Oromisation, some broke up with their community ties and found new areas to settle in the South Western parts of Ethiopia. In the light of this, the Borona of Oromo divided into three sub-groups mainly due to eternal forces hence the breaking up of the traditional clan ties. The three confederacies formed thereafter were the Tulama-Matcha, the Southern Boroma and the Guijjii  who found themselves ready to flee from the hotbed of unrest. Basing on the above, it can be noted therefore, that Igor Kopytoff’s Frontier Thesis is applicable to the migration of the pastoral Oromo people to the Gibe region. Interestingly, it must be considered also that, the thesis also fits in very well to the peopling of some parts of Africa besides South Western Ethiopia.

Apart from the formation of Frontiersmen, Kopytoff’s also sees a second stage where migration movements occur in groups. He noted that those who disengaged themselves from their original societies usually did so as in groups. Indeed as historians such as M.Hassen and P.T.W. Baxter have shown, the pastoral Oromo moved in groups until they reached the Gibe region. However, there is no clarity as from which group the pastoral Oromo disengaged from before they moved southwards. According to Hassen the pastoral Oromo had a long experience of warfare with the Christian kingdom; hence along the way they made surprise attack which made them an invincible enemy. The pastoral Oromo group conquered and absorbed people into their group hence their development. Those conquered were made recite the binding and unbreakable oath “...I fight whom you fight, go where you go, I chase whom you chase...” Therefore scholars seem to be in agreement on how the migration movements took place. Hence Kopytoffs Frontier thesis is authentic in explaining the migration of the pastoral Oromo people

Furthermore, Kopytoff argues that the frontier was an institutional vacuum. He argued that the definition of a frontier was political, the metropolis defined era at its periphery as open to legitimate intrusion. To the immigrant settlers it represented an institutional vacuum. Thus he adds that for a group to choose a frontier as their new settlement, certain factors were put into consideration which include geographical, ecological, demographic and political, whenever they were favourable. In relation to thus, the Oromo are said to have avoided areas or frontiers which were politically unstable, like those created during the Christian and Muslim war .In addition in a bid to establish the frontier as an institutional vacuum, Kopytoff reiterated that it is a politically and morally free region, a no man’s land independent settlements. In retrospect, the Oromo migration resembles the concept of an institutional vacuum. This is vividly shown by M.Hassen as he portrayed the Oromo people as a flexible group that would easily adapt to new environments and absorbed new people into the parent pastoral Oromo. On the same note, the Oromo’s gada system played a pivotal role in undermining Islam in the conquered regions. Notably, the Oromo people also imparted their language to the absorbed people hence population growth which resulted in the peopling of the Gibe region from 1570 to 1600.There it will be historically inaccurate to deny the link between Kopytoff’s Frontier thesis and the peopling of the Gibe region.

Interestingly, according to Kopytoff, in most situations, the impulses that carried or drove people to the frontiers is conservatism in culture, designed to secure a way of living that is culturally legitimate. However, this cultural conservatism can never be attained at home.Nonetheless, the perplexing issue here is that while Kopytoff mentions of the cultural roots of migration,Hassen noted that the pastoral Oromo of Ethiopia migrated for political reasons. Despite such, both Kopytoff and Hassen are correct but the say the same thing differently- using different words. According to Igor, most of the immigrants joined the existing groups and constructed a new social order, a task form which they brought from the metro pole a political culture and a model of legitimate social order. It therefore appears clear that what Hassen identified political motives are the same as what Kopytoff calls a political culture. To cement on the validity of Kopytoff’s thesis one may give an example of the Tulama and the Matcha.Their movement is resembling the similar traditions explained by Igor Kopytoff.In the light of the one may suggest that there is indeed a strong link between Kopytoff’s frontier thesis and the migration of the pastoral Oromo people.

Igor Kopytoff sees again an autonomous immigrant kin group, hence the use of a kin group model. “Struggles between autonomous groups as opposed to struggles within them also resulted in periodically pushing people out of the metropole....” noted Igor Kopytoff. Notably he emphasised that this was not always the case with some of the African leaders as they managed to sustain the pressure from within. In some instances people the people at the frontier would be resilient and a formidable enemy to be conquered or dislodged, they would coexist with the hosts and practice inter-marriages with them. However the case of the pastoral Oromo appears to the historical spectrum in a different picture altogether. M.Hassen suggested that the early movements of the Oromo were characterised by surprise attacks and these were done during nights and this made them an invincible enemy. He further noted that whenever possible, the Oromo avoided engagement which had a highly destructive force. They simply defeated and maintained their rule. Therefore in the light of this, one may suggest that in some instances the Frontier thesis by Koppytoff does not maintain the link so far perceived of the pastoral Oromo migration to the South Western parts of Ethiopia and the Gibe region during the period in question.

Furthermore Kopytoff described the Frontier as a historical process and this cannot be doubted of the peopling of the Gibe region by the pastoral Oromo people. “The new policy, “writes Kopytoff, “if established into an integrated society, might then have entered another phase of growth-that of expansion at the expense of neighbouring polities.” In much simpler terms, new policies were torn apart by internal strife or stress and resultantly they would be absorbed by stronger polities in the frontier.Kopytoff further noted that these will play a role in the political ecology, which would generate small polities systematically, endowing them with a frontier conditioned political culture, and re-injecting them into the regional system. This true of the pastoral Oromo. During their arrival in the Gibe region around 1570 to 1600, they were torn apart by internal stress hence they degenerated into small polities. An example to this was the formation of the Limmu-Ennayra of Abba in the Gibe region. To harness the above, it becomes a misjudgement of historical accounts for one to totally rebuff the relevance of Kopytoff’s Frontier Thesis in explaining the migration of the pastoral Oromo people.

The frontier process also used the principle of Firstcommers and Latecomers.Kopytoff reiterated that in principle, the aspects of authority were legitimatized by being a fistcomer. In this regard the first to dwell in a region or frontier, or the longer a certain kin group stays in a region the more legitimate they became. These sentiments are also share by Cohen who also noted that the first occupant was the legitimate owner of the territory. The reason for this as propounded by M.Hassen was that the first occupant of the land in reality had some special spiritual ties to it and its spirits. It has been widely accepted by historians such as D.N Beach and writers on African traditional religion such as M.Gelfand that the tribal spirits are the owners of the land, therefore if one was known first by the ‘ landowners’ then he is the legitimate owner of the land, region or frontier as Kopytoffs prefers to call it. Yet historians who wrote on the Oromo people remained silent about the spiritual ties of the pastoral Oromo and the ‘landowners’ of the Gibe region. Hassen only mentions of the Oromo imparting their complex gada system,their culture and language to the people, but this does not reflect on the spiritual and ritual facets of the pastoral Oromo. Against this background, a shadow of doubt appears, and one would deny the applicability of Igor Kopytoffs Frontier thesis to the migration of the pastoral Oromo of Ethiopia Igor Kopytoff also used the Inter-dependence approach and that of the Regional 	Context that is more similar to the First comers and Latecomers explanation. He noted that, “The character of a polity also sought legitimacy in the eyes of neighbouring polities. This required it to abandon its parochialism and draw upon values, traditions, and legitimizing themes widely shared fin the region.” Yet the problem that one may be faced with as in the First comers and Latecomers is that Koppytoff’s thesis lacks clarity.M.Hassen as shown before argued that the migration movements of the Pastoral Oromo were successful by raids and the imposition or simply impartation of their effective gada system to the conquered polities. Therefore it may be argued that some of the concepts used by Kopytoff to construct the African Frontier does not fit well in the context of the Pastoral Oromo migration to the South Western parts of Ethiopia and their settlement in the Gibe region from 1570 to 1600.

The concept of Patrimonialism also appears useful in explaining the migration of the pastoral “Galla” to the Gibe region. According to Kopytoff, since the growing polity was a direct expansion of the founders’ frontier hamlet, the patrimonial model of the latter become became the basis of the rulers’ constitutional ideology. This was true of the pastoral Oromo as reflected in the finely written work of J.D. Clark. The Oromo people where an invincible enemy in Ethiopia who when conquered other polities used their patrimonial status in their political ideology especially in kingship. Thus it may be suggested that Kopytoff’s thesis links very well with the events that took place during the migration of the pastoral Oromo people.

I summation, that Igor Kopytoff’s African Frontier had a striking link with the migration of the pastoral Oromo people. The idea of movement in groups and the production of frontiersmen may appear to one as the most beautiful explanation from which a clear picture of the migration movement comes to the mind of a student of history. Indeed the book, as Kopytoff wished, provides a better understanding of how some African societies developed. However some of the concepts he used to explain the formation of the African states do not link well with the Oromo migration but may be applicable to other African states which could not be noted in the foregoing discussion.

ENDNOTES

M.Abir, Ethiopia and the Red Sea,,p135 2 M.Hassen, the Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570-1860, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990. 3I.Kopytoff,p.9 4Ibid,p.3 5Ibid,p.9 6M.Hassen,p18 7I.Kopytoff,p16 8Ibid 9M.Hassen,p13 10bid,p18 11I.Kopytoff,p16 12M.Hassen, 13M.Hassen 14I.Kopytoff,p16 15M.Hassen, 16A.M.Jones,(et al) ,(eds),A History of Ethopia, Oxford University Press,Oxford,1955,p.20 17I.Kopytoff,p 18V.Grottanelli, “The peopling of the Horn of Africa”, H.Neville, (et al), (Eds), East Africa and the Orient: cultural synthesis in pre-colonial times, Lonman, New York, 1975, p.32. 19I.Kopytoff,p17 20J.D Clark,Prehistory of the horn of Africa,Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,1954,p30 21I.Kopytoff,p.17 22Ibid,p.20 23M.Abir,p.135 24M.Hassen,p.24 25M.Hassen,p25 26Ibid,p25 27I.Kopytoff,p.17 28M.Hassen,

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