Mereja Forum

[Sadacha Macca]

Will post all the sources/references of books I've read on these various subjects regarding Oromos:



for now, here's some:



''The Oromos, with the usual pride of wild and independent nations, call themselves exclusively Orma, i.e. ''men,'' ''the people''; and an individual among them is Ilma' Orma, ''a son [or one] of the people,'' corresponding literally with the Arabic ibn-el-nas--- ''gentilis,'' ''well born,'' 'free''-as opposed to the abd or slave.
The native designation of the Dankali tribes- Affar-has [if I mistake not] precisely the same meaning.
In the same way, therefore, as the free Oromo styles himself Ilma 'Orma, he calls his language Afan Orma, ''the people's tongue''-lit. ''mouth.''


[Proceedings of the Philological Society, Volume 2
Page 96
Published in 1846, by George Bell]



''The Folk-Literature of the Oromos of Southern Abyssinia/Ethiopia:

Introduction:

''Almost all of the texts printed in this article are composed in the dialects of the Macca Oromos; and particularly in those of the northeastern Macca groups: Leqa, Limmu, Guma.
The Oromos apply the name Macca to their tribes living in the districts beyond the Gibe River; that is, the 5 independent Oromo kingdoms of Guma, Gomma, Gimma/Jimma, Gera, and Limmu; the Ilu, the Nonno, and the 5 Leqa tribes,

In the present Oromo language, the word 'Maccaa/Macca' means both 'company of soldiers' and ''people.''
Thus, with a change in sense analogous to the Amharic ''saw'', ''man,'' in the phrase ''ya saw agar,'' or ''land of men,'' i.e. foreign country,'' and to the Arabic biladu nnasi, which has the same meaning, Macca 'people' also signifies ''stranger,'' ''enemy.''
Therefore the Oromo living beyond the Gibe are called Macca Gamati, ''the people of the other bank,'' by the Tulama of Shoa.


[Varia Africana
African Department of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, 1922 - Africa
Pages 11-15]