What is the difference between a Debtera and a Borana man who is beholden to his community’s age old tradition?
Not much except one can read and write and the other can recite his community’s age old tradition.
What is barking at them?
A long time ago, I heard about a community meeting that a political faction called for. I went to listen to it. A Borana man by the name Licho Bukura and another man from Hararghe came to address the community.
One who is educated took on Licho Bukura in front of the attendees. With his calm demeanor and pointed explanation, Licho Bukura sized him down.
The discussion was about solving Oromo political question within Ethiopia or outside Ethiopia. Even if I have never supported the faction to which the two guests belonged, I fully understood their stand about solving the political question within Ethiopia.
Right after the meeting, someone that I don’t know to have any advanced training walked up to me and said መቃፍ በረዼ ጄዸ (ለስሙ ተምሬያለሁ ይላል።)
Did that meeting produce something that was productive at least in terms of political ideology. If someone with no advanced training could utterly say መቃፍ በረዼ ጄዸ, who had the moral high ground in that meeting? The one who took on the Borana Debtera or the Borana Debtera who sized him down with his cultured demeanor and pointed explanation?
His pointed explanation then about solving the problem within is explainable today.
If I am not mistaken, it used to be that people who walk up to one and tell one’s mistakes and save one from self embarrassment are real friends.
We made schools places to nurse our egos and forgot that few walk up to one to tell one’s mistake in the face and many get offended quickly if they are told right in the face. The Debtera from Borana Gada to Gönder Gedam probably remains unhinged from the age old culture, which can be studied and cultivated instead of becoming a drag on the people.
If I remember correctly, Dr. Gemechu Megersa stated that he went to three schools: Ethiopia’s, the UK’s, and Borana, and that he gained better education from the Borana. In effect, that is saying the Borana Debtera taught him better than the Ethiopian and British Professors.
The Debtera may be new to new scientific thought processes. Then again, he is the keeper of nature’s age old open laboratory that the new scientific thought processes attempt to understand and prove in new buildings.
