| ID | 131791 |
| Title Proper | Competing Muslim legacies along city/countryside dichotomies |
| Other Title Information | another political history of Harar Town and its Oromo rural neighbours in Eastern Ethiopia |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Osmond, Thomas |
| Publication | 2014. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Between the Middle East and Eastern Africa, the city of Harar is often considered as the main historical centre of Islam in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Until recently, the cultural hegemony of the Muslim elites inhabiting Harar was commonly opposed to the almost pagan behaviours of the Oromo - or 'Galla' - farmers and cattle herders living in the wide rural vicinity of the town. The 1995 Constitution provided the different 'ethnolinguistic nationalities' of the new Ethiopian federation with the same institutional recognition. However, the institutionalisation of the two Harari and Oromo 'nationalities' seems to foster the historical duality between the city-dwellers and their close neighbours. This article proposes another political history of Harar and its ambivalent Oromo partners through the local dynamics of the Muslim city/countryside models. It reveals the both competing and complementary orders that have probably bound together the populations of Harar and its rural hinterland for more than five hundred years. |
| `In' analytical Note | Journal of Modern African Studies Vol.52, No.1 March 2014: p.1-24 |
| Journal Source | Journal of Modern African Studies Vol.52, No.1 March 2014: p.1-24 |
| Key Words | Muslim World ; Muslim Legacies ; Dichotomies ; History ; Political History ; Ethiopia ; Rural Neighbours ; Harar Town ; Eastern Ethiopia ; Eastern Africa ; Middle East ; Cultural Hegemony ; Muslim Elites ; Historical Duality ; Hinterland ; Local Dynamics ; Contemporary Islam ; National Identities ; Ethnic Identities ; Complementary Orders |