Ituu

One of Clan of the Oromo people From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ituu (Oromo: Ituu Carcar) is one of the clans of the Oromo people. This group lives dominantly in the present-day West Hararghe Zone. The correct term for the land of Ituus is "Chercher" or "Ona Ituu" (the Ituu Province). It is believed the extinct Harla people were incorporated into Ituu Oromo.^[1]

History

Asma Giyorgis states that the Ituu established themselves in the Adal regions after the Battle of Fatagar, which took place between Abyssinia and the Adal Sultanate.^[2]

The Ituu were invaded by Menelik II From 1883^[3] to 1885.

Clans

Ituus are divided into ten clans: Baye, Wayye, Addayyo, Aroji, Babo, Gadula, Wachale, Alga, Gamo, Elellee. There is no Galan in Ituu.^{[clarification needed]}

Religion

The Ituu seemed to have adhered to their traditional religion until the 18th and 19th centuries, when the westward expansion of Muslim Somalis into Hararghe initiated a broader process of Islamization. Somali-origin Warra Qallu missionaries subsequently established themselves among the Ituu in Chercher as Muslim religious leaders.^[4]^[5] Islamization was significantly reinforced by Harari influence, particularly Emir ʽAbd al-Shakur ibn Yusuf, as well as Egyptian proselytizing campaigns, and Muslim religious figures.^[6]^[7]^[8] Aw Ali was an influential Ittu Muslim saint in the nineteenth century.^[9]

References

[1]
Mohammed, Ayantu. Mapping Historical Traces: Methogensis, Identity and the Representation of the Harela: A Historical and Anthropological Inquiry (PDF). Wollo University. p. 111.
[2]
Giyorgis, Aṣma. Asma Giyorgis and His Work History of the Gāllā and the Kingdom of Šawā. Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH. p. 763.
[3]
Prouty, Chris (1986). Empress Taytu and Menilek II : Ethiopia, 1883-1910. Internet Archive. London : Ravens Educational & Development Services ; Trenton, N.J. : Red Sea Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-932415-11-0.
[4]
Østebø, Terje. Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia: The Bale Insurgency, 1963-1970. University of Florida: Cambridge University Press. p. 53. The Islamization of the Oromo in southeastern Ethiopia started with Muslim Somalis pushing westward on the Harar plateau (Hararge) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The encounter with the existing Oromo population led to a process of assimilation that produced a bilingual Muslim group known as the Warra Qallu, a group that would become instrumental in further expanding Islam in Hararge and beyond.
[5]
Braukämper, Ulrich (2002). Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. p. 111. Whereas this kind of Islamization concerted with the spread of the Somali ethnos, there were also Somali who went as missionaries inside the Oromo-inhabited areas. The most active agents of Muslim diffusion were the Warra Qallu (Oromo: priests) who seemed to have first settled among the Ala-Oromo. They started founding a new clan there which in the 1880s was still bilingual. Later on they established themselves among other subgroups of the Bärentu-Oromo as far as the Ittu in Çärçär, but they all preserved the memory of their Somali origin. Wherever they lived in a purely Oromo-speaking environment they occupied a position as shaikhs and outstanding representatives of Muslim religion.
[6]
Asnake, Gossa. A HISTORY OF HIRNA TOWN FROM ITS FOUNDATION UP TO 1991. Addis Ababa University. p. 90. Itu Oromo in and around Hirna practiced the above indigenous religion under a big oak tree by the side of Hirna River at a place called Hujjuba. Their close economic and social relations with the Hararis and the Egyptian conquest of Hararge, however, strongly influenced the Itu to be converted to Islam. The contacts of the religious men with the local rulers also had a significant role in the conversion of the Itu into Islam. However, the Itu Oromo for some time resisted the Hararis and Egyptians in accepting Islam. Nevertheless, through time the Itu Oromo in Carcar and Hirna were converted into Islam though the process of conversion continued until the 1970s.
[7]
Østebø, Terje. Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia: The Bale Insurgency, 1963-1970. University of Florida: Cambridge University Press. p. 53. The Islamization of the Oromo in southeastern Ethiopia started with Muslim Somalis pushing westward on the Harar plateau (Hararge) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The encounter with the existing Oromo population led to a process of assimilation that produced a bilingual Muslim group known as the Warra Qallu, a group that would become instrumental in further expanding Islam in Hararge and beyond. Islamization was also accelerated by Emir Abd al-Shakur's (1783-1794) efforts in converting the Oromo surrounding Harar and, later, by the proselytizing campaigns of the Egyptians (occupying Harar from 1875 to 1885).
[8]
Olson, James Stuart; Meur, Charles (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-313-27918-8.
[9]
Braukämper, Ulrich. Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia Collected Essays. Lit. p. 119.

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Ituu

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