Country: Ethiopia

Group: Oromo

Date Finalized: 11/20/20

Team: Natasha Chandra (lead), Colleen Clauss, Maya Shrikant, Michael Demangone

Content Warning: slavery, violence, child slavery, slave caste

Approximate Time Period: 1800-present

The Oromo people have been subjected to forced labor in the past and present. We rated the information and findings a 3 because there were many detailed accounts of forced labor in the past and information about the present conditions.

              The Oromo people are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia making up 25-40% of the population. The Oromo people have a long history of oppression, land loss, and marginalization by the government (Minority Rights Group International, 2018). In the first half of the 19th century, Oromo rulers raided their own neighborhoods and enslaved other Oromo for minor crimes (Marcus, 1994). There are reports of Oromo children who were enslaved in southern Ethiopia, where they were then transferred to Arabia for further bondage (Shell, 2018). The Oromo social structure included 4 levels, with the lowest a slave caste. While there may have been forced labor within the Oromo ethnic group, Oromo people in this slave caste (and people of other castes as well) were sold to other regions as slaves (Wikipedia, 2020). The Oromo are required to perform forced labor under new institutions called “gott” and “garee” (Human Rights Watch, 2015). The regional authorities are using the “gott” and “garee” to monitor the speech and lives of the population as well as restrict and control the movement of residents and enforce farmers’ attendance at political rallies (Human Rights Watch, 2015). The “gott” and “garee” system in place for the Oromo people has allowed regional and federal authorities to justify harassment and forced labor (Human Rights Watch, 2015). If the Oromo people refuse to participate in the forced labor, they can receive fines or end up imprisoned (Human Rights Watch, 2015). Currently, the government is proposing the expansion of the capital city of Addis Ababa into the autonomous Oromia Region, which could lead to the displacement of thousands of Oromo farmers as well as forced resettlement of other communities into Oromo territory (Minority Rights Group, 2018).

Sources

  1. Human Rights Watch. (2015, April 29). Suppressing Dissent: Human Rights Abuses and Political Repression in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region. Retrieved November 13, 2020, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/05/09/suppressing-dissent/human-rights-abuses-and-political-repression-ethiopias-oromia.
  2. Marcus, H. A History of Ethiopia. University of California Press (1994) pp. 55 Google Books.
  3. Minority Rights Group International. (2018, May 10). Oromo. Retrieved November 13, 2020 from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/oromo/.
  4. Shell, S. (2018). Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa. In Children of Hope. Ohio University Press.
  5. Wikipedia (2020). Oromo people. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oromo_people&oldid=988324498.