Khat Time and Earthen Houses Reconnecting to Oromo Sacred Knowledge Traditions
- Author: Logic(s) Magazine
- Full Title: Khat Time and Earthen Houses: Reconnecting to Oromo Sacred Knowledge Traditions
- Category: articles
- Document Tags: #planet
- URL: https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/khat-time-and-earthen-houses-reconnecting-to-oromo-sacred-knowledge/
Highlights
- Unlike Western conceptions of segmented and linear time in which atomized individuals march toward progress, within Oromo cosmologies time is a series of concentric circles and is measured through Ayyaanaa.2Stellar, solar, and lunar movement governs a set of cyclical measurements from the twelve-hour period dividing a day into light and dark, a thirty-day month (ji’a or baatii). Twelve rounds of the ji’a or baatii is marked in the highlands of the Oromo land by what we call the rituals and colorful celebrations of the ayyaanaa waggaa (ayyaanaa of the year).3 The next significant round is an eight-year cycle, which we call gadaa. That is when a power transfer happens from one gadaa—one peer (hiriyaa) or generational group (luba)—to another. So this reckoning with my entire life is coming at a time that corresponds to the generational transfer of power in the gadaa system. After nine gadaa rounds, or 360 years, we reach a saglii, or catastrophe, in which the entire system has to be reconceived (View Highlight)
- It’s so easy for them to conclude this Black African man must have imposter syndrome or anxiety because they see me as a body out of place. But I knew that I needed more than an SSRI or once-weekly counseling sessions; or, rather, I remembered what it felt like to be in a place that I belonged and the rhythmic, ecstatic sound of drums and joy from my childhood. So I decided that I needed to go back home, to the village, to visit the warra ayyaanaa5 (the custodians of Oromo indigenous medicine) (View Highlight)