Indigenous Oromo Gadaa System vis-à-vis Peace Building from Below Approach

Abstract

The conventional approach to peace building has often failed to lead to sustainable peace and it has become accepted that indigenous knowledge can play paramount role in ensuring peace. As every society have their own paradigm, the Oromo worldview is based on a holistic Gadaa system which promotes a culture of peace in their daily lives. This paper is intended to address why indigenous concepts matter in today’s peace  building   processes,  and to explain the Oromo Gadaa system with respect to peacebuilding from below point of view. By employing qualitative research approach, the reviewed documents reveals that building a durable peace at local level is presumed essential in seeking positive social change at national level. Here, indigenous knowledge systems have immense potential to contribute within the efforts of crafting new paradigms for culture of peace in the country. Particularly, the   indigenous Gadaa system was developed as a unique democratic and egalitarian form of administration where peace building processes in the system takes inclusive dimensions to be considered. This makes it a trustworthy approach to sustainable peace building processes than the state induced top-down approaches. The paper concludes that, the indigenous Oromo world view based on the Gadaa system deals with peacebuilding process in broader and holistic ways than the way it is experienced at different corners. Accordingly, the lessons to be drawn from the indigenous Gadaa system regarding peace building processes needs to serve as an exemplar milestone for the furtherance of quest for culture of peace in the country.