Decisions in the Shade: Political and Juridicial Processes among the Oromo-Borana (review)

This study in political anthropology focuses on one of the most important institutions of the Borana Oromo of East and northeast Africa, namely their custom of holding assemblies at different structural levels as a means of regulating the affairs of the community. It is through these assemblies that decisions pertaining to the management of communal natural resources are made and social conflict is resolved by bringing about the consensus of the parties concerned, whether through persuasion or rhetorical threats of sanctions. These and other related issues are generally discussed by a group of elders seated under the shade (gaaddisa) of a large tree, which is synonymous with the concept of assembly and with the dispensation of justice, hence the title. The study thus addresses one of the key debates in the anthropological study of the Borana, that of the nature of political power and how it is exercised. This debate revolves around whether the gada generation-set system of social organization is a ritual or political institution.

One interpretation of gada, represented by the work of Paul Baxter in Britain, views it as primarily ritual in character, and therefore lacking in decisional and coercive power. The second interpretation, represented by Asmorom Legesse in the United States, suggests, on the contrary, that gada constitutes a democratic system of governance through which an elected class of officials holds "power" for an eight-year period. Bassi proposes a third interpretation which shifts the analytical focus to the role played by the assemblies in the power structure. In his view, it is the assemblies that constitute the foundational elements of the participatory polity and that are the "crux of political activity" (39). He thus sees the gada and qaalluu generation-set and religious institutions as providing the ideological superstructure through which the moral order (the "Peace of the Borana") is maintained (269). He argues that such a superstructure serves to override interclan conflict by emphasizing the collective values that are enshrined in the customs and laws of the society (aadaa seera Boranaa). For, he suggests, it is clans as corporate groups that constitute the basic political units through which the polity as a whole functions, in that they hold their own assemblies and contribute materially to the maintenance of the two institutions. He surmises, therefore, that both generation and kinship are important units of analysis in understanding the social organization of Borana society and that the principle of assemblies holds the key to understanding how power operates.

Following his mentor, Bernado Bernadi, Bassi describes his approach as an "ethnemic" one, in that it seeks to identify the traits shared by a community from the point of view of the cultural insiders. It is surprising, then, that he does not explore the conceptual meanings of the key term, gaaddisa, or meeting in the shade, in more depth. This would have enriched his analysis. He could also have updated his literature review. Nevertheless, despite these omissions and the numerous typographical errors, this work makes a major contribution to the study of the Borana and the interrelationships among their economic, social, political, and ritual institutions. It also challenges some of the conclusions reached by Fortes and Evans-Pritchard's (1940) classical study of traditional African political systems and adds rich, new ethnographic data in respect to Richards and Kuper's Councils in Action (1971). The translator is also to be commended for her fine work.