had more vivid memories of what happened at the moment they moved from freedom to slavery than of subsequent transactions, none of the children gave a monetary price for this first exchange. As shown in the earlier discussion on the mode of capture, there was a variety of transactions at the moment of capture. Most children were simply the spoils of raids; only a few captures involved any form of exchange, in monetary or commodity terms. For example, one boy (Liban Bultum; see appendix B; narrative 27) and two girls (Hawe Sukute [narrative 56] and Turungo Gudda [narrative 61]) were taken in lieu of debts.
Hawe Sukute was about sixteen years old when interviewed but was considerably younger when she first encountered slavery. Her father, Sukute, died when she was very young. Her mother, Ibse, was left vulnerable and was taken as a slave (with Sukute and two brothers and a sister) by the Sayo people, who were feuding with those in her own country, Garjeja. When her mother died, she and her brothers were taken by their uncle into his home. But her father’s brother intervened, claiming the children as his own property. This uncle put the children to work, but, as he was also indebted to the Garjeja king, he sold Hawe to a Leka merchant to pay off his debt.
There were two Oromo girls called Turungo in the group: Turungo Tinno (meaning “little Turungo”; narrative 62) and Turungo Gudda (meaning “big Turungo”; narrative 61). Both girls were paternal orphans and did not carry their fathers’ names, hence the descriptors to distinguish them from each other. Turungo Gudda was about fourteen when interviewed. Her mother, Dabeche, worked for one of their uncles sowing and reaping in the fields. However, before her father died, he had borrowed various items from his brother, and the family was not able to reimburse the loan. To compensate for the unpaid debt, the uncle sold Turungo to Jimma merchants in a market nearby.
Berille Nehor (narrative 47), who was approximately thirteen years old at the time of her interview, was the daughter of Nehor and Bushaseche and had several brothers and sisters. Her father, Nehor, was a slave in a place called Ishete in the Kaffa country. He held a piece of land that he cultivated for his master, while the mistress of the household employed Berille as a nursemaid to her child. Berille’s master lost his goga, or kaross, in an altercation with a neighboring ethnic group and saw Berille as an asset he could sell to pay for a new one. He told Berille to go to a neighboring hut to fetch his sword, but when she reached the hut, a stranger was waiting for her. The stranger gagged her and carried her off to Jimma, where he sold her on the slave owner’s behalf.
Other girls were bartered, like the orphaned Bisho Jarsa (see page 30 and narrative 48), who was sold for a little corn. Jifari Roba (narrative 57), the daughter of Roba and Dongoshe, was around age thirteen when she was interviewed. The family, comprising Jifari and three brothers and four sisters, lived in a village called Galani in the Sayo country. When her father died (about a year before she was enslaved), her mother went out to work, sowing and reaping in the fields. A woman in a neighboring village offered to look after Jifari but betrayed the trust placed in her by selling Jifari almost immediately to a group of Nagadi people for ten pieces of salt (called amole).
Fayissi Gemo (narrative 52) was also approximately thirteen years old when the missionaries interviewed her at Shaikh Othman. She lived with her father, Gemo, and her mother, Yarachi, in a village called Upa in the Kaffa country. After her father died, her mother had to support the family, employing laborers to plow the land. However, when her mother returned to her home village for a short period, Upa, the chief, seized the opportunity to abduct Fayissi and exchanged her for a horse in a deal with passing merchants.
Aguchello Chabani (narrative 1), son of Chabani and Gurdenfi, was a young boy of about twelve at the time of his interview. He was born in a village called Enge in the district of Barsinge in the Shangalla country, where his father co-owned six acres of land. Aguchello, at that time only ten or eleven years old, was playing near his family home one afternoon when a group of people he described as “black Arabs” came to the house and entered into a heated discussion with his father. Angry and frustrated, the strangers seized Aguchello and, using considerable force, began to carry him off. Both Chabani and Gurdenfi pleaded with the strangers not to take their child. The “black Arabs” said they would return Aguchello if his parents would bring all their cattle in his place. However, when the cattle were handed over to them, the “black Arabs” double-crossed the parents and took not only the cattle but Aguchello as well.
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