22
Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 119 (1994)
nationalist poetry is circulating widely in the area on audio-tapes and has been partly
put into writing and analysed in an earlier publication (Schlee and Shongolo 1992),
has brought out a new cassette in which he also refers to the Gumi Gaayo:
D’adac gubba Gaayo dagaage
dameeti wal mura,
d'adac kan jalaat dubbatti
jaars keen dubbin wal gula.
Jaarsi Oromo bir him báu,
dubbi mitta isiit hand'ura.
Fula ufün baatu fed ad'u,
yo durri atin karmura.
Gatiin si muran guddayoon!
Me, garan mari, akan gula!
Hagasum.
Ardaan Gaayo arda jabaa,
dubbi teenat aciit d'uma.
Bulcaan duri bulca hamaa,
arda keen sun wa maamula?
Aada Oromo daawata
adi gurracat gadi d'ufa.
Nami duraan hin argin yo
isaati man kees bula.
The acacia trees on Gaayo
have grown wide and their
branches cross each other,
under those trees discuss our
elders one case after the other.
Oromo elders do not talk in a round-
about way,
the joints [the relevant links] of the
argument are in the centre (lit: the navel).
Better try hard to elude them,
if you are an evildoer.
The fine they will impose on you, how
big it is!
So, come around this way!
Thats it.
The earth of Gaayo is strong earth,
our talks end there [i.e. the final and valid
judgements
are pronounced there].
The former administrators were bad
administrators,
have they ever cared about that area of
ours?
White and black people come
to watch the Oromo customs.
Those who have not seen the
place before think they are going to sleep
in houses.