Discursive Practices of Identity among the Arsi Waata: A Critical Discourse Analyses

Abstract

This article analyzes the discursive practices of identity pertaining to the Waata. It employs qualitative method of data analysis. The snowball sampling technique is used to select informants from the Arsi and the Waata groups. Data were collected using key informant interview and focus group discussion, and analyzed thematically following Fairclough’s tri-dimentional model critical discourse analysis. The findings show that the Arsi and the Waata use discursive practices since antiquity which define the current Waata as descendants of a forefather cursed by God, and their occupations (hunting, cleansing, blessing, cursing, etc.,) as the compensation given to the man, and transferred to them. It is believed that the Waata’s participation in occupations other than these occupations leads to punishment. The expressions ‘God ordered the Waata to live on the given activities; education and farming were not meant for the Waata, etc. used by the groups are potent to naturalize the alleged given livelihood to the group. These discursive practices are oriented by the reductionist ideology latent to control the discursive, mental, and physical spaces of the Waata to confine themselves to these nonproductive types of occupations. The reductionist ideology embedded in the discursive practices may negatively implicate the Waata’s well-being, and create asymmetrical power relations between the Waata and the Arsi.