In Ethiopia, Authorities’ Reshuffling of the Oromo Language Alphabet Touches a Nerve

Screenshot from animation shared by Girma Gemeda on his Facebook page.

Authorities in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest state, have infuriated language experts and Oromo nationalists with their decision to re-arrange the order of the alphabet of the region’s language, Afan Oromo.

In multilingual and multiethnic Ethiopia, orthographic choices are complex linguistic and political decisions that have great socio-political consequences.

Among Ethiopia’s written languages, most write their language in either the Ge’ez or Ethiopic alphabet, known as “Fidel,” or the Roman alphabet. Afan Oromo officially adopted the Roman alphabet — in its usual order of ABCD and so on — after the current government come to power in 1991.

However, more than a quarter century later, the regional educational authorities of Oromia announced they were reshuffling the “Qubee Afan Oromo” (as the alphabet is called). The first seven letters are:

  • L
  • A
  • G
  • I
  • M
  • Aa
  • S

Screenshot from the news bulletin that announced the change of the alphabet on Oromia Broadcasting Services shows the first seven letters of the new order of the Alphabet shared by Girma Gutema.

Justifying the change, authorities blamed the old alphabet order as the reason why reading skills among primary school children in Oromia remain poor. They even cited a research to back up their claim.

There is, however, a problem with their argument. It was based on a misrepresentation of the findings of the research. In fact, the research, which was funded by US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2010, revealed a broader problem of reading skills not only among Afan Oromo-speaking primary school students, but also students whose mother tongue was Amharic, Hararigna, Sidaamu Afoo, Somali and Tigrinya.

In the study, pedagogic and logistical difficulties were identified as factors for poor reading skills in Ethiopia’s six major regions. However, the order of alphabet was not cited as a factor for the dismal reality. In a post on the citizen journalism site OPride.com, one blogger agreed with the findings of the research but questioned the connection it had to the alphabet order, writing:

There is little disagreement on the core problem here: The education quality crisis in Ethiopia needs fixing. …. The disagreement here though is on the proposed solutions. This is underscored by a key question that everyone is asking: JUST HOW DOES REORDERING THE AFAAN OROMO ALPHABET IMPROVE READING AND LEARNING OUTCOMES?

‘Yet another fraud perpetrated on the Oromo people’

The change actually took effect in 2016 and school textbooks already reflect the reshuffling, but it was done so quietly. So much so that the news of the letter order change only made it into Ethiopia’s political news cycle after government affiliate Oromia Broadcasting Service reported about it. Over last two years, a series of political events with far-reaching repercussions such as protests and internet outages has dominated the country's news cycle.

OMN special on the change of the Afan Oromo alphabet from June 5, 2017. Screenshot from programme shared by OMN TV's official Facebook page channel.

As soon as the change was reported, concerned Oromo intellectuals started raising questions.

For them, this is the latest attempt in a series of steps intended to diminish the cultural rights of the Oromo people, who have historically been marginalized in Ethiopia. On Facebook Awol Kassim Allo, wrote:

The casual change/disfiguring of the Alphabet of a language spoken by more than 40 million people without any debate and discussion is appalling. The excuse given to justify it – improving the ability of children to read at early stages of instruction – is lame and cannot stuck up to scrutiny. …This is yet another fraud perpetrated on the Oromo people and it must be rejected.

The circumstance of the change also stoked another fear: that the decision to alter the order of the letters might be a plot by people who were disgruntled when the Oromos opted to adopt the Roman alphabet over the Ge’ez alphabet in 1991.

Prior to 1991, Afan Oromo was written in different alphabets. The first Oromo Bible was printed in Ge’ez letters in the 19th century. During the reign of emperor Haile Selassie (1930-1974), Afan Oromo was not a written language.

When Ethiopia’s military regime came to power in 1974, it decreed that all Ethiopian languages must be written exclusively in Ge’ez alphabet— a draconian policy intended to promote unity among Ethiopia’s diverse ethnic groups.

Parallel to the Ge’ez letters, however, Oromo language experts and Oromo nationalists were also using the Roman alphabet. Paul Baxter, a social anthropologist, wrote that the Roman alphabet was used to transcribe the Afan Oromo language among Kenyan Oromos in the 1940s.

Proponents of the Ge’ez alphabet believe that Ge’ez signifies the rich liturgic and literary tradition of Ethiopia. For them, preserving Ge’ez in the age of the Roman alphabet's domination is a sign of resistance to cultural globalization and a symbol of identity. Responding to Awol Kassim Allo’s post on Facebook, Abeba Teshale wrote:

Simple, structured, logical, Ethiopian, African, Amharic/Tigregna alphabet is there for any one interested to adopt. 26 vs 338 syllables! There is an alphabet for each sound and for the ones that don't have one, we could crate a symbole. Just a thought

For many Oromos, though, adopting the Roman alphabet is a matter of selecting an alphabet that best fits the Afan Oromo sound system.

According to academic Teferi Degeneh Bijiga, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the topic of Afan Oromo writing system, complex historical, cultural and linguistic forces were at play when Oromo intellectuals decided to adopt the Roman alphabet in 1991.

Over the next few weeks, this issue will be front and center in Ethiopian politics, where the Ethiopian government is operating under a state of emergency because of the protests that began over land use as well as political and economic marginalization in Oromia in November 2015.

10 comments

  • connie

    “Kenyan Oromos” had to use roman alphabet thanks to the colonialism in Kenya by the British

  • Samy Eyob

    So, according to the “Oromo intellectuals” including “academic” Teferi, the Roman alphabet choice for their language was based on the fact that the Oromos are close to Romans historically, culturally and linguistically.

    I believe that is true. When I visited Ethiopia, I’ve observed the Oromo “intellectuals” were proud of Alexander the Great, not that King of Kings (Menelik)who defeated the Italians at Adowa.

    These “intellectuals” eat pasta and club sandwiches, not Injera, Lafeesso or Chechebsa.

    Just because the German protestant “Pastors” used their Roman alphabet and thought them to do so, these Oromo ” “intellectuals,” believe and want us to believe how close is the Oromo language to the Romans.

    Can anyone help me define the word ” Intellectual” ?

    • Gudeta

      We are just tired off giving answers and teaching the idiots how the Roman alphabet best fits Afaan Oromoo than any other alphabet.

    • Yes Eoby, you are right we want to be close to Romans like you did. Your very name implies that you are attracted to Israelites. Are not you… The old days have gone where we are forced to use the Sabian letters, I mean Amahric letter. Soryy Eoyb…

    • Bekele Atoma

      Hey, what has Oromia Broadcasting Service to do with this??
      You should correct this as Oromia Radio and TV organisation, which is government owned.

    • Dinqo

      If you knew Afan Oromo you would also suggest or pic Latin over Gee’ze. And yes unlike Amhara, other groups in Ethiopia have no love for the emperors who told us that they were children and descendants of king David and Solomon. What do they even have in common to claim that? Two legs and two arms? Why is it only Amharas who are madly in love with them? Do you have an answer for that? Ethiopia is still poor beacause of the greed and stupidity of them. They multiplied few good things they achieved by negative and here we are.

  • weslataw

    If the budget comes from the regional state, it is ok and let them play with their own money. The country has more serious issues than alphabets to be addressed at this momment.

  • Selam

    This is contradictory and makes no sense:-

    “Prior to 1991, Afan Oromo was written in different alphabets. The first Oromo Bible was printed in Ge’ez letters in the 19th century. During the reign of emperor Haile Selassie (1930-1974), Afan Oromo was not a written language”

    Oromigna was written in Geez, so it WAS a written language.

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