Oromia | Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, and Gender Perspectives in East Africa: Understanding an Oromo Culture

In Eastern African countries, in the so-called horn of Africa, there are several ethno-national groups whose populations are estimated in millions. Some of these large ethnic groups were scrambled by their colonizers and therefore, are indigenous inhabitants of some regions in two or more than two sovereign countries with internationally recognized boundaries. The Somalis, the Oromo, and the Afar People occupy the vast majority of the lowlands and the mid-highlands in what are today’s Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Eritrea and Djibouti. Although there are some disparities in the customs and values of these peoples of Cushitic heritage, undeniably, there are conspicuous shared cultural and social entities, which form the foundation of their societal fabric. Common to these indigenous people of the horn of Africa is not only the linguistic similarity or customs but also their traditional way of life-nomadic pastoralism.

The Oromo people, the bases of this study, are the single largest ethno-national group residing in East Africa mainly in Ethiopia and Kenya. There are pockets of areas in Somalia where people of Oromo origin live. Besides, tens of thousands of Oromo refugees live in the major cities and refuge camps in Kenya and Somalia. There are also sizable number of Oromo refugees in Djibouti, Sudan and Eritrea.

In the era of global pandemic of HIV/AIDS, and ever-worsening reproductive health (RH) conditions of the disenfranchised women in the pastoral communities of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudanese Darfurians; understanding the socio-cultural basis of customary sexual and reproductive health (SRH) practices, norms, and values is crucial. Researches conducted towards this end is important to the success of the myriads and often redundant development interventions being implemented in the region by all the stakeholders and actors, international and local, governmental and non-governmental organizations. The center piece of the study I conducted to understand the culture of the Oromo people was the research done among the Oromo pastoralist communities of Borana and Guji zones of Oromiya state. I made relentless efforts to explore the traditional sexual, reproductive health and gender perspectives among various Oromo groups in order to contribute towards better understanding of the socio-cultural backgrounds of the very common sexual, reproductive health and gender practices considered a threat to the success of the endeavors being made to promote SRH and empower women.

While working as a community physician and as a coordinator to the HIV/AIDS projects in Borana and Guji zones of Oromiya, I got an opportunity of working with Oromo traditional leaders to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and combat the spread of the epidemic to the rural populations. At the time, there were many international organizations and government line departments working separately and at times together, towards achieving the same goals. As part of the programmatic interventions, I conducted a couple of HIV/AIDS behavioral studies among the Borana pastoral community and the assemblies of the Gada leadership of the Borana Oromo. The inadvertent findings of my researches and the orthodox practices of the NGOs and other actors were not consistent with each other. There were mounting efforts being made by international organizations and governmental departments in the region as a result of the emergence of AIDS programs funded by the World Bank. Stakeholders were working to persuade the Gada leaders to pass a decree that abandons and outlaws certain traditional practices.

Their efforts culminated in a hot campaign by the then president of the Oromiya state and the wife of the Prime Minister to hold public meetings with the traditional Oromo leaders and demand a once and for all abandonment of the identified harmful traditional practices. It was evident that the approach used was out of context and a top down approach to solving perceived community problems. The response of the Borana Gada leaders in particular was a clear “We can’t do it here and we can’t do it now.”

Incidences like this might inspire some people to find out the why these leaders defied the demands of the most feared authorities. This was what aroused my curiosity and necessitated a further study to unearth the social and cultural realities and the functions of the Gada System of governance. The product of that study was the book I published in 2005 to share the findings of the study regarding the roles of Borana traditional institutions with the public in general and the development actors and stakeholders in particular. Later, a follow up study was carried out to get a comprehensive understanding of SRH and Gender related practices among the pastoralist communities of Borana and Guji zones of Oromiya. The problems are grave, the threats are real and the efforts are huge but mainly marred by a stereotype of top down approach with little understanding of the socio-cultural settings in which the problems exist. There is no “one size fits all” solutions to problems based on recommendations from few researches done in some “research communities”. In Ethiopia, there are few and often unsatisfactory “touch and run” type of studies done in remote and marginalized pastoralist communities that do not generate sufficient information for a holistic understanding of the SRH and Gender related problems.

In Ethiopia, SRH problems and Gender based violence are rampant. Cultural practices that would pose significant challenge to societal development programs are wide-spread among traditional communities as well as the mainstream Christian and Muslim communities. Similar SRH practices exist under different names and in different socio-cultural and religious settings.

In the predominantly Christian northern Ethiopia, Polygamy is not among the common SRH practices but these practices are common among the wealthy people in predominantly Muslim and pastoralist communities (both Oromo and non-Oromo) and among the elite traditional Oromo leaders. The cultural norms and beliefs that underpin these practices in traditional and Muslim pastoralist communities are apparently different. Among the Christian northern populations very early teen age girls’ marriage is compounded by what appears to be culturally tolerated very high divorce rate unlike no other place in Ethiopia. For instance, in Gondar, it is very common to see a woman as young as 25 years of age married and divorced 3-4 times. This is considered normal by the society. Polygamy is unacceptable for whatever reason. On the contrary, among the traditional Oromo communities, especially those who follow Gada system, it happens that polygamy is commonly practiced by the rich people and elite traditional leaders. In this community divorce is highly despised and a very rare phenomenon. The very low to non-existent divorce practice and widow inheritance among the Borana Oromo might explain the virtual absence of Borana women as commercial sex workers in the towns even at a time when such business became a lucrative business following the militarization of the Borana zone under the incumbent regime to fight the OLF insurgency in the region.

A regular extramarital sexual partnership appears to be common among the elite people in Christian Ethiopia and traditional communities regardless of ethnicity and geographic location. This practice is often declared as either illegal or officially condemned by both the church clerics and the traditional leaders as being against the custom. De facto, this seems to be a practice condoned at least for the elite class. It used to exist and it continued to exist under different names and social realities in various communities. Among the conservative Christian Ethiopia, one undisputable fact, which is historically recorded, is the existence of such practices as “Kimit”, and “chin-gered: sexual slave” by the feudal land lords and the royal families. In parts of central and western Oromiya “Sanyo” is not uncommon. In this study, the sexual norms and practices, the situation of the HIV care and a wide range of RH care areas such as Antenatal and Maternity care, Child health care, Family Planning services and post-abortion care, and adolescent RH care in all the pastoralist inhabited districts of Borana and Guji zones of Oromiya were explored.

The Borana, Garri, and Gabra Oromo are some of the Oromo groups that live on both sides of Ethiopia and Kenya. The cultures of these groups on Ethiopian and Kenyan sides of the border is quite similar as a result of constant movement of people across the border for trade and owing to pastoralist way of life that created a certain degree of homogeneity despite the presence of a century old international boundary. Therefore, a social study done on either side would help to understand the reality on the other side as well.

How does the Oromo Gada system regulate the SRH behaviors and Gender based violence? What are the socio-cultural backgrounds of the salient SRH and Gender related practices? What needs to be done to empower the Oromo Gada leadership to enable them enforce practices that promote SRH and empower women in society in the presence of looming RH and HIV/AIDS conditions in 21st century existing challenges and fast changing social realities to which they are not used to?

After a meticulous data collection, I critically analyzed the primary and secondary information generated and made recommendations for evidence based-policy decisions. It is my since hope that stakeholders and actors working in the area of SRH promotion, HIV/AIDS prevention and Gender Empowerment in pastoralist and traditional communities in East Africa would get helpful insights from my work under a title “Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, and Gender Perspectives in East Africa: Understanding an Oromo Culture”. The publisher is VDM Verlag publishing house.