Paper short abstract:

Indigenous epistemologies of peacebuilding are informed by people’s understanding of peace as a holistic phenomenon beyond the liberal peace theory. Among the Oromo of Ethiopia, the Gada system is a building block of the people’s views of peace.

Paper long abstract:

Peace and peacebuilding are variously interpreted based on culture, history, and political philosophies people embrace. While the liberal peace theory often advocated by the West promotes peace-building through state and supra-state institutions, Indigenous peoples have quite different views of peace. Among Indigenous peoples, peace is defined and conceptualized not as the absence of war/conflict but as a conjointly constituted co-existence between humans, between humans and more-than-humans and the supernatural power. The Oromo people in Ethiopia have an Indigenous socio-cultural and political organization called the Gadaa system. This system informs and guides Oromo’s worldviews including their views about peace and peacebuilding. This paper, based on an ethnographic study of the Gadaa system will explore how ideas of peace and dialogue are embedded within the Gadaa system, and how it also shapes Oromo political elites’ contemporary positions on peace. It will also give a critical view of whether political elites depart from this cultural root or whether they embrace it in their political negotiations in intra-party negotiations/dialogues and peace talks.