Borana Oromo people
- Borana is also an alternate Spanish name of the Boran sub-family of the larger Witotoan language family.
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Ethiopia, Kenya | |
| Languages | |
| Borana | |
| Religion | |
| Islam, Waaq[1] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Oromo · Barentu · Gabbra and other Cushitic peoples. |
The Borana Oromo, also called the Boran, are a pastoralist ethnic group living in southern Ethiopia (Oromia) and northern Kenya.[1] They are a moiety of the Oromo people,[2] the other being the Barentu Oromo.
Profile
Oromos in northern Kenya first entered the region from southern Ethiopia during a major expansion in the late 10th century. They then differentiated into the cattle-keeping Borana and the camel-keeping Gabbra, Sakuye and Rendille.[3]
The Borana speak Borana (or afaan Booranaa), a dialect of Oromo language, 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
Main article: The 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 (Triangulum), Camsa (Pleiades), Bufa (Aldebaran), Waxabajjii (Bellatrix), 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]
Subgroups
See also
Notes
- 1 2 Oromo, Borana-Arsi-Guji (Ethnologue)
- ↑ Aguilar, Mario. "The Eagle as Messenger, Pilgrim and Voice: Divinatory Processes among the Waso Boorana of Kenya". Journal of Religion in Africa, Vol. 26, Fasc. 1 (Feb., 1996), pp. 56-72. Retrieved 2007-10-27.
- ↑ Elliot M. Fratkin, Eric Abella Roth, As Pastoralists Settle, (Springer: 2005), p.39
- ↑ Appiah & Gates 1999, p. 288.
- ↑ Lawrence R. Doyle, The Borana Calendar REINTERPRETED
References
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- 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
- Asmarom Legesse. Gada Three Approaches to the Study of African Society. The Free Press A Division of McMillan Co. Inc, 1973
- 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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