Juxtaposing Democracy with the Gada system of the Oromo People of the Horn of Africa
Part IV
Where does Gada depart from Democracy?
In the preceding article, the inclusiveness of the Gada System of the Oromo people is its sterility from the rise of tyranny, dictatorships, power abusers, etc.
In leadership positions, in contrast to the amorphousness of the Western democracy to hold power prelude to tyranny, dictators, power abusers, etc., leadership was thoroughly explored as:
1) Democracy is a System of Exclusion as Gada is the System of Inclusion
2) Gada is sterile from tyranny as Democracy prelude to tyranny
3) The Law Stands Above All men (Seerii Nama Hundaa Oli)
In the Oromo worldview, there are two types of laws, the laws of Mother Nature, and the laws made by man. Natural laws are laws that govern or regulate the universe, natural phenomena of the earth, and the blue plant as it is often called where there is life and living things known yet.
These are universal laws that living things must obey their rules and adjust themselves to them, to survive, develop, produce, reproduce, and live in harmony in the nexus of this inhabitable planet.
They are eternal laws and are immutable. Humans as part of nature cannot alter, or rework the laws of nature. We cannot alter, for instance when the Sun rises and sets, cannot change the axis of the rotation of the Planets, the movements of the Stars and Moon, etc.
Like all living things, humans must adapt to their rhythms, which include those of light and dark, cold and warm, high and low altitudes, etc.
The development of man-made laws and regulations in human civilizations in all areas of life to fit its nexus was also influenced and inspired by the law of nature, naturalism, and the physical environment, which profoundly shaped all living things, human thoughts, and consciousness. The wish to be the master of Nature we scarcely humans know is just the slogan idioits.
In the Gada system of the Oromo people, the cradle of biological as well as cultural civilizations of the human practices and teachings transferred from one to the next generations from time immemorial man-made laws are treated as the product of human endeavor and deliberation invented by great law makers.
Thus, the genius of Oromos, the master of lawmakers does not consider it as a gift of God or heroic ancestors or as supernatural thus incontestable. In the Gada system, man-made laws are not static, rather they are dynamic, can be altered at any time as required, and updated to fit and fulfill the prerequisites of the people in time and place.
In contrast, the Greco-Roman extension of Western democracy, in most cases is static, hardly alterable. I will briefly enlighten two states as an example, the USA and Germany, who portray themselves as “an apex of democracy and the rule law” to prove that the leaders have power above man-made laws.
The USA
The USA law was constituted in 1787. The man-made law is preserved as a God-given or supernatural gift of their heroic ancestors thus therefore, immutable. In other words, man-made laws were perceived as the law of nature more static, hardly alterable, and here lies the danger some of these laws written almost one-and-half centuries old are out of date and are not compatible with the requests of society of today.
The 1787 written law of the USA empowers the President to have the power to sign an executive order singularly, controls the intelligence information, sole control over the defense apparatus, and today in the modern era for instance in the USA, the nuclear weapon or other Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMDs) long-range missiles and other military arsenals among many other like Biological Weapons (BWs).
That is what we are destined to witness such as the war waged by the USA, in Iraq, etc, by scapegoating the regime to control the resource as they call it Black gold, Oil.
The Law also explicitly assigned the president, the power to sign or veto legislation, mess up International laws, and affairs, to stifle bureaucracy and mount the bully pulpit that only the president singularly owes sufficient stature, etc.
That proves that an entitled President and his representatives in the global arena are even worse than international law., can singularly veto against, the cancer of the global community at large as we have been destined to witness what is happening in Palestine “Might is Right” today in the 21st century?.
Past Nazi Germany
In post-Nazi Germany, the law empowers the Chancellor to propose the candidates for ministerial office, i.e. the members of the Federal Cabinet, to the Federal President, the power to dismiss ministers, singularly if he or she does not suit or show unquestionable loyalty, right to determine policy guidelines, etc.
The written laws of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany of 1949, called Basic Laws “das Grundgesetz“were adapted from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948, and that was approved by The General Assembly of the UN after unsettled disputes of World War I and aftermath of World War II that caused the death of over hundred thirty millions of humans all at one.
Germany as a major actor who waged both world wars, no matter what the causes might be and lost badly was occupied by the winners, and divided into two semi-independent states, the West and the East.
The western part occupied the western alliance was forced to replace the Nuremberg Race Law of 1935 and accept the demands of the UDHR of 1948 that Article 1, proclaims that human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority, and Article 3 declares that “all persons shall be equal before the law” and that “no person shall be favored or disfavored because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith…”. among the others.
It is worth knowing that, although Germany lost in the field of politics and military, but not have the mind or mentality. At least three-fourths of all things of human activities, behavior, etc, are mental, Thus, what governed the minds of the post Nazi Germany indeed has been the Nuremberg Race Law of 1935 of Nazis.
As a result of the denazification fiasco, and the collective failure of the occupying forces of all the allies of World War II the mind was left intact, hibernated in the mind, waiting from time to shoot up on the surface. The time has come.
The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 and the occupying forces former GDR, The Soviet’s went back to their homeland. GDR is renamed to New Federal Sates.
Bear in mind the propaganda of DDR was that they are free of Nazis and claim BRD harbors them. But it was under the mantra of re-united Germany euphoria in theory they are now transformed from dictatorship to democracy which gave a favorable environment for the hibernated mind of Nazis explosions and called neo-Nazis, a misnomer by itself as if all old Nazis mindset are all in the graveyard namely what was called “New Federal States.
Since then they committed barbaric acts of killing, by burying the houses of targeted groups of people of non-German background, the helpless refugees and their camps, accommodations, targeted serial killings, etc., turned their daily accomplishments.
The State blindfolded his eyes, deafened their ears, and even cooperated with them in some cases. The half-hearted behavior of the state’s management of the Nazis preludes to become the third political party clad with the garb of AFD in the current ruling party constellation.
More disgraceful is that the so-called law and the state turned to treat them and fund them as standard, and institutionalized laws under the mask of“democracy” that emboldened them, and Nazism find itself in a renaissance.
“Germaness i.e. German parents (jus sangunis) of Nuremberg Race Law analog to the Jim Crow Law in the USA as the third-ranking in the cabinet, but turned not only into normal activities but even justified the way they treated the others daily.
The fact is a state remains a state in which foreigners arrived in Germany independent of time and place and remain foreigners in every walk of life.
German in real life and treated as prime was replaced on paper but the deep-seated deep in an enclosed society that operates under the vestiges of an exploitative racial cast in the entire society and welcomed duties by the state. Profoundly, if one digs deep to the root, but not only looking over the surface from outside it is the unwritten laws that operate under enclosed doors.
The terms of the political jargon often spoken like neutralization integrations, language, multicultural, civilized, modern, etc. ” are all balderdash in one. Its object is to cover the fact and just to be considered as such, brushing the outer layer with the Gold to enhance their global image via seas and oceans.
Thus, western democracy to the power holders is a prelude to tyranny, the mass of the world’s citizens do not even know this strange name late alone as their system to be administered.
The Gada system
In contrast, in the Gada system, the law stands above all men, and Gad is sterile from the rise of tyranny, zero tolerance for all sorts of discrimination, and power abuse. It is mutable, and all Oromos are familiar with it and live in it, except the assimilates, the burden of the Society.
And no one stands above the law of Gada. All are subject to it equally, independent of entitlements. The Abba Gada (The President, or the Chancellor as it is called in German-speaking countries, etc.) himself; or Hadhaa Seqee (the First Lady) is subject to the same law and the same punishments as all its citizens in case they violate it.
The Principle of Accountability
The role of Confession and Penalty Although the 20th century was considered the century of genocide and the ethos of genocide never again was born, It is unfortunate that the world is destined to witness genocides going on right now in various regions of the world such as in Africa and Asia:
Tyrannical regimes rule with iron-fist sponsored by the resource-geared, automated war machine producers and dealers of foreign states and international companies by direct or indirect intervention.
They both incubate sponsor wars, and commit to genocidal atrocities by their clientelist local tyrants in a particular region. They have rarely been brought to justice, either to the local or International criminal courts.
The local tyrants are protected by their sponsors, and the sponsors of wars, such as internationally operating companies, and states like USA, EU, Russia, etc.
They are all above the international laws and regulations and the system is constitutionalized and legalized by self-empowering, dictatorship, and power abuses that have been self-evident and called it vetoing.
Never seen taking responsibility for sponsoring and supporting tyrants beyond their boundaries. The hidden genocides and the criminals are yet free. Such was and is the case in Darfur, DRC, Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Myanmar, etc.
As W. Faulkner reminds us “The past is never dead. It’s not even past” One of the most tragic comprehensive stupidity of the human species incapable of learning from the past and still commits Homicide on its fellow human being. The paranoia and the fraud of what is called “globalization-muscular self-assertion beyond their boundaries.”
Gada System is Humane
What makes humans, humane or devil is their deeds. In other terms, a person in the Gada system of the Oromo people is a person in the eyes and the ears of another person.
Self-promotion, enlargement, embellishment, bravery, etc. are extremely harmful practices to the welfare of the world’s most heinous men, who fostered the demise of tyrants like Hitler, Stalin, Mengistu, Meles, Abiy and others who committed the mega killings of human beings. Just a few of the many.
Where as, the Gada is hyper-allergic to tyranny and sterile from it. In Gada one is accountable for what one said and for what one did. For Lie is a curse or Haraam in Oromo Culture, a people of words. One loses not only faith, and trust but human values punished accordingly and unfit, and can not be given any responsible public service postion. Can not take administrative posts and responsibility of leadership.
Hanqate Waaqni Itti Ya Guutu!!!
INJIFATNOON KAN UMMATA OROMOOTI!!!!!!
Further Readings
Asmarom Legesse Oromo Democracy an Indigenous African Political System. The Red Sea Press, Asmara, 2000.
Asmarom Legesse Three approaches to the study of African society. The Free Press, New York,1973
Dirribii Demesse Ilaacha Oromoo. Finfinne, 2000