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Indigenous Religious Institution and Conflict Management in Northern Shewa of Oromia, Ethiopia Amaya Yonas Tesema Department of History and Heritage Management, Dire Dawa University, Ethiopia, yonitase@gmail.com Online published on 7 April, 2017. Abstract This article has explored how a local religious institution operated to manage conflict between individuals in Ethiopia. The name of the institution is qaalluu1 which is a word in the Oromo language belonging to the Cushitic language family2. Qaalluu means a person on which spirit descends or spiritual leader of Oromo indigenous religion. Qaalluu is a person also serves as a guardian and interpreter of law of Waaqaa (God) and the compound where qaalluu resides functions as an institution for dispute settlement and prayer because of its sacredness. It is a religious institution that provides conflict resolution in addition to its religious service. Therefore, it is because of its holiness that people bring their conflict cases here to get solutions. The case studies in this article revealed that there are various factors that made people to opt for conflict resolution at qaalluu. Unlike state court, qaalluu institution is highly value oriented and embedded in the religious belief system of the society. People believe that qaalluu has ‘divine power’ to punish offenders and it has the capacity to distinguish truth from falsehood via the power of ayyaanaa (spirit). Some of the cases which are judged by the qaalluu are which lacked evidence while the cases that have evidences are brought to the state court. It is believed that the ayyaanaa (spirit) will disclose the wrongdoers with evidence. This is the major reason why local people sought help from this sacred institution to resolve their conflict and settle disputes. Top Keywords Oromo, Qaalluu, conflict resolution, shanachaa (jury elders), dhugaa (truth), ayyaanaa (spirit). Top | |
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