Oromo Language - Language Policy

Language Policy

Before the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974, publishing or broadcasting in Afan Oromo was very limited. The few works that had been published, most notably Onesimos Nesib's and Aster Ganno's translation of the Bible from the late nineteenth century, were written in the Ge'ez alphabet, as was the 1875 New Testament produced by Krapf. Following the 1974 Revolution, the government undertook a literacy campaign in several languages, including Oromo, and publishing and radio broadcasts began in the language. All Oromo materials printed in Ethiopia at that time, such as the newspaper Barissa, Urjii and many others, were written in the traditional script.

Plans to introduce Oromo instruction in the schools, however, were not realized until the government of Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown in 1991, except in regions controlled by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). With the creation of "Oromia" under the new system of ethnic regions, it has been possible to introduce Oromo as the medium of instruction in elementary schools throughout the region (including areas where other ethnic groups live speaking their languages) and as a language of administration within the region. Since the OLF left the transitional Ethiopian government in early 1990s, the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO) continued developing Afaan Oromo in Ethiopia.

Oromo is written with a Latin alphabet called Qubee which was formally adopted in 1991. Various versions of the Latin based orthography had been used previously, mostly by Oromos outside of Ethiopia and by the OLF by the late 1970s (Heine 1986). With the adoption of Qubee, it is believed more texts were written in the Oromo language between 1991 and 1997 than in the previous 100 years.

The Sapalo script was an indigenous Oromo script invented by Sheikh Bakri Sapalo (also known by his birth name, Abubaker Usman Odaa) in the years following Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and used underground afterwards. The Arabic script has also been used intermittently in areas with Muslim populations.

Within Kenya there has been radio broadcasting in Oromo (in the Borana dialect) on the Voice of Kenya since at least the 1980s. The Borana Bible in Kenya was printed in 1995 using the Latin alphabet, but not using the same spelling rules as in Ethiopian Qubee. The first comprehensive online Afan Oromo dictionary was developed by the Jimma Times Oromiffa Group (JTOG) in cooperation with SelamSoft. Voice of America also broadcasts in Afan Oromo alongside its other horn of Africa programs. Afan Oromo and Qubee are currently utilized by the Ethiopian government's state radios, TV stations and regional government newspaper.