answering this lies in the first-person accounts of the slaves themselves.
GRAPH 3.1. Parental occupation by gender of child (source: Sandra Rowoldt Shell).
Parental Occupation
According to the children’s firsthand accounts, all but one of the parents were engaged in farming (see the assertion in Wakinni Ugga’s account in appendix B; narrative 63). The present analysis is rather more detailed than that broad stroke would suggest. The reason for this has been in recognition of issues of status underwriting some of the occupations—for example, where a father was a village chief, or a mother was engaged in domestic work as a slave in a household environment, or where widows were forced to find employment following the deaths of their husbands.
Just under one-fifth of the children (19.8 percent)—mostly very young or, in a few cases, mentally compromised—did not give the missionaries any details regarding their parents’ occupations. Of the rest, marginally more than two-thirds of the group (66.7 percent) indicated that their parents made their living off the land. The most striking finding is the difference between the proportion of farmers among the boys’ families (76.2 percent) and the girls’ (31.8 percent). The following double pie diagram (graph 3.1) clearly shows the predominance of agricultural endeavor, particularly in the families of the boys. Only 2.4 percent of the boys’ parents were in domestic servitude. This agricultural concentration was the natural result of the higher level of freehold tenure among the boys’ families.
The diagram shows that 18.2 percent of the girls were the daughters of village chiefs. The parents of 13.6 percent of the girls hired themselves out as cadastral laborers (plowmen, tillers, sowers, or reapers), including those widowed mothers who were engaged in manual labor in the fields after the deaths of their husbands: Damara, mother of Damuli Diso (see appendix B; narrative 49), cut wood to sell to local men who made earthenware; Dongoshe, Jifari Roba’s (narrative 57) mother, went to reap in the fields; and Dabeche, mother of Turungo Gudda (narrative 61), went into the fields to sow or reap or do any other labor required by Turungo’s uncle. One widow, Damuli Dunge’s (narrative 50) mother, became a market vendor. A total of 9.1 percent of the girls’ parents were engaged as domestic slaves. Wakinni Ugga’s (narrative 63) father, the only artisan and Matthew Lochhead’s single occupational exception, was a village tailor.
Measures of Land
In addition to occupation, the extent of a family’s immovable property is also a strong indicator of relative wealth. In their interviews with the missionaries, 69.7 percent of the children gave rough details of property size through either precise or approximate acreage. These approximations have been aggregated as follows: land the children described as “small” measured up to two acres; land the children described in approximate terms such as “some” or “a few” acres was classified as medium; and land the children described as “large” measured six acres and up. Of the 30.3 percent of the children who did not give any indication of property size, some were in nonownership circumstances, while others either did not know or could not remember.
Graph 3.2 shows the proportional sizes of property occupied by the families of the Oromo children by gender of child. All but one of the children giving the size of the family’s land were raised on freehold farms. The exception was Amaye Tiksa, whose father was a small crofter working “about two acres of land” (appendix B; narrative 4).
Most of the boys (36.8 percent) also indicated that their families owned large pieces of land. Liban Bultum, for example, reported that his father “was the owner of a large piece of land in the Ilu country” (appendix B; narrative 27). One boy, who stated that his father owned a “small piece of land” (appendix D), told an unusual story. Gutama Tarafo (see appendix D), who would have been about thirteen years old when he was captured, lived near the village of Gamoje in the Gera country. The word gamoje in general use means “the cool country.” In this case, Gamoje is the name of a small village that presumably had a climate cool enough to keep bees for the production of honey.
While fewer girls were raised on freehold farms than boys, a higher proportion (57.1 percent) were from families owning what they described as a “large” piece of land (i.e., land of six acres or more). Among these girls were four daughters of local chiefs, whose fathers appear to have had wealth to match their stations. Berille Boko, for example, gave a graphic description of her family’s socioeconomic status, saying that her father was “the chief of the village and possessed land which it would take a whole day to go round” (appendix B; narrative 46). Dinkitu Boensa’s home was in a village called Garjeda in the Gindo country. She told the missionaries that her father was the chief of Garjeda and that “he had large lands” (narrative 51). Similarly, Galani Warabu’s father was “the chief of a village” and died before she left home. Galani’s information about her homestead is skimpy, but there is a suggestion of considerable holdings, as she reported that when her father died, her uncle claimed “all his cattle and property” (narrative 53). Kanatu Danke also gave a response that implied rather than detailed her family’s circumstances. She reported that her father, who was the chief of the village of Lalo in the Sayo country, “possessed a piece of land on which he employed many labourers” (narrative 58).
In an anonymous essay—which may be classed as a small memoir, written later at Lovedale Institution—one of the Oromo children wrote about the prevalence of beekeeping and honey cultivation among the Oromo. The author of the memoir is almost certainly Gutama Tarafo, as he provided the only reference to honey and beekeeping in the narratives: “There is plenty of honey. The people don’t keep bees as in this country. They hang a kind of basket made of reeds high on a tree. When the honey is ready, the people climb the tree, and get the honey. They sell it in the markets, of which there are many” (appendix B; narrative 20). Beekeeping in Ethiopia has a long history. According to Kassaye Ayalew, cited in a study by two biologists, Gidey Yirga and Kibrom Ftwi, Ethiopians are believed to have been raising bees since 3500–3000 BC. In the same study, Yirga and Ftwi indicate that the success of box hive beekeeping is largely due to the country’s moderate climate.5 In recent years, Ethiopia has been responsible for almost a quarter of Africa’s total honey production.
GRAPH 3.2. Relative sizes of land occupied by Oromo families (source: Sandra Rowoldt Shell).
Gutama’s father, Tarafo, was apprehended while selling honey to a neighboring clan. Gutama does not explain why this should have been an illegal act, given the proliferation of honey production in the country, but Gutama told the missionaries that it was deemed to “have been an offence against the King of the country.” The village chief who found out about Tarafo’s honey-selling reported him to the king of Gera. The king’s response was to send his men to seize Tarafo’s land and possessions. The entire family was also seized and given as slaves to the village chief—one may assume as a reward for blowing the whistle on Tarafo’s honey-selling (see appendix B; narrative
