ABSTRACT
This chapter presents tentative findings from an ongoing grass roots empirical study stemming from a community-based local initiative of Oromo spiritual revival. Movements of spiritual revival have become global phenomena in response to the ontological insecurity fostered by the rapid shifts, uncertainties, and extreme fluidity of contemporary globalization. In the Oromo case, these shifts are also movements in response to 150 years of oppression, denigration, and dehumanization suffered through their colonial incorporation into modern Ethiopia. Oppressed and persecuted, most Oromos in the diaspora fled Ethiopia as refugees. They were flung far and wide and globalized. Although homogenizing processes of globalization transnationalize and disperse them throughout Western countries, fragmenting processes of localization slot them into marginalized spaces of gendered, racialized, and nationalized subaltern identities. Finding themselves painfully separated from their people in the homeland and woefully alienated in their adopted countries, they seek solace in each other and in reclaiming their ancient ancestral spirituality. These movements are broader in context and Oromos are deeply involved both in the homeland and in the diaspora. In this light, it seems appropriate to start this chapter by providing a brief historical background to contextualize the globalization and diasporization of Oromos.
