Astronomical Calendar of the Oromoo - Living Style in Space and Time Facts and Historical Issues

Abstract

The Oromoo people constitute the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, and belong to the Cushitic family. Their original homeland, Oromia, included most of what is now the Ethiopian Empire and stretched into northern Kenya and Somali, where some Oromoo still live. As sources indicate, customarily, their living style: philosophical view, belief, physical existence and phenomena (perception, analysis and future prediction) are all customarily linked to events they observe in cosmos. A concisely established witness is the Booranaa calendar. It is so claimed as an accurate complex astronomical calendar of ancient Cushites by the scientific community. The historical discovery of this calendar is supported from a broad range of disciplines, like Anthropological, Astronomical, Physical studies (radioactive dating) traced from the pillars at Namouratuna where the Booranaas, or otherwise, the “Kushs” had built around 300 B.C as the drawings on the pillars confirm to whom the property stands for. Its identity representation to all Oromoo does not raise question. However, whether it is customary or not across all the Oromoo is worth to bring into discussion. In fact, there are similar pillars preserved in some regions of Oromia and else around as well as event telling practices by Oromoo elders across most of Oromia. It needs to be worked out and is widely open to research. This noble scientific based life style needs attention by the current generation to promote, work on it, document and hand it over to the next generation. In this article, the author first tries to provide detailed scientific, astronomical-physical review and analysis of the Booranaa calendar. Secondly, he tries to articulate further research initiatives of the Oromoo space- time conceptual, astrophysical/cosmological living style perspectives. Finally, the author presents comments and concluding remarks.