An Investigation into the Walābū Oromo Script Devised by Sheikh Kemal Adem

Abstract

Oromo is one of the Lowland East Cushitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum, spoken by the Oromo people,2 who have a strong oral tradition, which has served in the transmission of information from generation to generation. Apart from the oral tradition, travelers, European missionaries, Oromo ex-slaves, Oromo religious leaders, and professors have been working to make Afaan Oromo a literate language since the late 18th century. As such, several scripts have been adopted and created for Afaan Oromo literary productions for a long time. In this course of Afaan Oromo literary development, Ethiopic (Geez), Arabic, 'Ajami, Sheikh Bakri Saphalo's orthography, and Latin have all been used. Likewise, an effort by Sheikh Kemal Adem in the early 1960s is another notable example. Therefore, this paper introduces Sheikh Kemal Adem's Walābū Oromo script together with its linguistic analysis. To that end, the study employed a qualitative research approach, and the data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The fieldwork was undertaken in Bale, Southeast Ethiopia, through observations and interviews. The findings show that Sheikh Kemal, like his predecessors, devised an Oromo script that represents all Oromo sounds. He produced four manuscripts using this script, covering both secular and nonsecular topics.