Identity and belonging: Ethnic formation processes amongst the Karaiyu/Oromo of the central Awash Valley, Ethiopia

This dissertation explores the processes of ethnic formation amongst the Karaiyu, a nomadic pastoralist group of Central Ethiopia, and their relation to land reduction, political incorporation, warfare and current ethno-political activism. It treats the development of ethnic consciousness from two different perspectives. Karaiyu gain their sense of distinctiveness as a bounded group from in-marriage and the intensity of daily interaction among kin and neighbors and from reflected perceptions of neighboring groups.;Ethiopian imperial conquest and subordination of Karaiyu and other Oromo groups in the nineteenth century helped define these groups' identity. Land loss due to both the creation of The Awash National Park and land confiscation for the creation of agro-businesses on former grazing areas has intensified warfare among the different groups inhabiting the central Awash Valley, reaffirming group boundaries and dividing rights to natural resources among ethnically defined collectivities.;The present administration of the Ethiopian State as a federation of ethnic constituencies has highlighted the problem of ethnic affiliation, and has encouraged the participation of political groups in the re-establishment of ethnic boundaries for the purpose of government resource allocation. I explore how an elite Oromo intelligentsia and official representatives of a Regional State influence the development of an Oromo/Karaiyu ethnic consciousness. The interplay between government political structures and Karaiyu socio-political administration, in the shape of the age-grading and generation-setting system known as the gadaa institution, has opened up new venues for Karaiyu's own definitions of themselves and of others. This interplay, the past history of Oromo people's participation in and marginalization from Ethiopian political life, and the role played by the Oromo intelligentsia through the development projects they carry out among the Karaiyu people are all instrumental in the development of a pan-Oromo identity.;Based on fieldwork over 23 months (1996–98) employing participant observation, structured and open-ended interviewing, and case histories, the study reflects the difficulties that arise when ethnic allegiance confronts change and when the possibility opens for different and sometimes competing levels of ethnic membership to be embraced. These interactions are explored in a three-tier analysis, which takes into account personal experience, inter- and intra-group relations and the presence of outside political influences. It also exposes a detailed ethnography of the Karaiyu people and highlights the extent to which history and context have shaped the construction of Karaiyu ethnic identity. I conclude this work with a discussion of culture, ethnicity and modernization and its influence on the present administrative and political make-up of the Ethiopian State.