"Ummata Fannaana Ummata Qashtii Dire Dhawaa" (The Artistic and Jolly People of Dire Dawa)-Part Two

Written by Afendi Muteki

Part Two

The youth of Dire Dawa have interesting skills. Among them, what attracts me most is their language skill.  From the youth of Dire Dawa, you will rarely see a boy who can’t speak three languages; Afan Oromoo, Amharic and Somali. As Arabic is still servin as the commercial language of the city, many of the youth of Dire Dawa also learn to speak it. The boys who were brought up in the Konnel area of Magala district easily communicate in Harari language as though they were the native speakers. The youth whose livelihood is associated with the railway transportation can be assumed to understand French if not they speak it fluently.

Dire Dawa in 2007, photo by Dire Tube (www.diretube.com)

 Being multi-lingual is a gift of the Almighty God. It helps one to share his feeling with others easily. It has a remedy during hardships and it can be a source of fantasy. Furthermore, a mult-lingual person can easily get high audience. Social chatting in friends circle will become more amusing when the friends in the circle are multi-lingual.  The youth of Dire Dawa highly match the descriptions I put here. If you go to Dire Dawa and visit your friend in his barcaa “Jama’aa” (club), or if you stop at a café in “Kazira” and meet by chance some youth of Dire Dawa passing a coffee time there, then you would be highly amazed in their language skill and may say “I wish I were born in Dire Dawa”.

The youth of Dire Dawa are very active; as they fastly adapted to new technology and easily create new working techniques, they have also created their city-wide colloquial languages. For example, they speak Afan Oromo and Amharic in unique accents. Let me paraphrase this .

Basically the Afan Oromo spoken in the city is the Harar Oromo dialect. And in this dialect, you will say “argeetin jira” for “I have seen it”. But the youth of Dire Dawa say “agareetin jira” which is slightly different. If you want to say “he passed” in Afaan Oromoo, you will say “dabre”, but the youth of Dire Dawa say “dabare”. In Afaan Oromo, you will say “ana qofa” for “only me”; but in Dire Dawa accent, you will say “ana qullii”. And in Afaan Oromoo, you will say “kijibaa” for “liar”, but the youth of Dire Dawa say “Farada”.  This unique accent doesn’t extend out of Dire Dawa to the towns situated in the highlands of Harerghe. (Some parts of Haramaya and Harar may be regarded as two exceptions; I observed that some of the youth of these towns also share the accent of Dire Dawa to some extent).

The colloquial language in Dire Dawa also contains many words that are created by the youth. As I introduced you at the beginning of my essay, “qashti” was created by them. Words like “abustoo” (“alright), “xuxxuruq” (talkative) and “labjaa” (“cheating in sells” or the cheater himself) are also attributed to them. On the other hand, the youth of Dire Dawa, altered the meaning of many of the existing words and made them parts of the spoken language. For example, the word “jiidhaa” (wet) is made to mean “foolish”; “daaraa” (ash) was altered to “miserable”, “ulaa” (honey collector) was made to mean “deceptive” or “cheater” and “bonbaa” (water pipe) was altered to “a big liar”.

The spoken language of the city is also featured by a frequent reoccurrence of some Arabic words. For example, Arabic words like “faduuli” (the one that enters to others’ personal affair), “iyyala suuq” (gangster), and “fattala” (rumour disseminator) are highly used in the speech of Dire Dawa youth.

The last but equally important items that have a great part in the spoken language of Dire Dawa are the idiomatic expressions and proverbs which are created periodically and added to speech of the people. For example, “hattuu salaattu” (a thief that prays) is an idiom created by Dire Dawa youth, and it has an approximate meaning with the English idiom “wolf in the lambs skin”. “Hisaaba finiinaa” (a boiling price) is said when a person interested to by certain product is asked to pay a high price that he didn’t expect. From a proverbs created by the youth of Dire Dawa, the one that goes “khabajaan kuntaala abban qumxatti deebisa” (meaning “dignity worths a quintal but the owner may exchange it for an ounce”) is very famous and it clearly shows the exalted stage of their creative mind.

One should note that the words, idioms and proverbs created by Dire Dawa youth are now also used by the residents of the other towns of Harerghe. However, no urban dweller in the other towns of Harerghe resemble the youth of Dire Dawa when he speaks. For example, I, the native of Galamso, can’t resemble in my speech the Dire Dawa youth in anyway; even though I use the created words like “qashti” and “labjaa”, I don’t say “agareetin jira” or “faradaa” as the youth of Dire Dawa. (By the way, we those who are born in Harerghe use this clear-cutting sign as a formula to differentiate those who falsely claim a birth in Dire Dawa from those who were truly the natives of the city).

*****  *****  *****

I have described for you Dire Dawa in short. Before I summarize my essay, let me take you the “La Gare” quarter of the city and show you the language usage associated with railway transportation.

Trains are called according to their service and their comfortability. “Otoray” is the main passengers’ train. It can be taken as the highgway public bus of the train catagory; however, it is very different from public bus for it has three classes which accommodate passengers according to the payment they can afford. Class one is the luxury class. People who paid for this class may sit on highly comfortable seats or they may sleep on a sofa while they are on travel. People in the second class will get seats individually, but there are no sofas here. The third one is the most busy and densely occupied class; seats are available to those who have gotten in to the train early, and the rest will travel standing on the floor of the train. Suffocation, troubles in breathing, and highl heat are the usual phenomena the travellers in this class would have to struggle.

“Dede” is another kind of passengers train. It is different from “Otoray” in the number of the carts it has; “Otoray” has many carts than “Dede”. Because of this, there may not be class difference on “Dede”; it may host only second class travellers, or all of the carts may be of third class.

Another kind of passengers train is called “Hasan Jog”. However, for a reason I couldn’t know until now, its journey is confined to Dire Dawa-Djibouti line only. Is it because the locomotive can’t resist travelling long distance in the high temprature? It may be, but the youth of “Laga Gare” may tell us the true reason behind this.

Except infants, all passengers that use the rail transportation should pay a travelling fee. The fee is called “Noolii” and it is paid before entering to the train. The passenger who paid “Noolii” would receive a receipt which he must have in his hand until his final destination. When the controller of the train service asked him for the receipt while on travel, he must show it. If the passenger is unable to show the receipt, then the controller of the train would consider him a cheater and fine him. This controller, who usually dresses a unique uniform, is called “Shaftraan”.

People who can’t afford the payments, and usually on-travel thieves, relay on another kind of train called “Falto”. This is a freight carrier train that brings loads from the port of Djibouti and takes the export items there. Those who don’t pay “Noolii” preferred it only for there is no “Shaftraan” here. However, people onboard wouldn’t enter to the carts of the train by any means; the internal sections of the carts are places where freight is put.

The travellers that use “Falto” usually sit on the roofs and the left and right sides of the carts. It is considered illegal to travel in this way. If anyone wants to make advantage of travelling by “Falto” in this illegal manner, he must learn the art of the open air travellers of “Falto”. This art is called “Harfa”. The “Harfa” includes getting onboard when the train starts its movement from rail station, sitting on the roof and sides of the train carefully, keeping body balance onboard and when the train passes curves, searching for sitting places in the other carts if the whole of the sides and the roof of one cart is occupied, and getting off the train carefully before it stopped at the next station. A person that doesn’t observe these “Harfaa” skills may encounter a big danger, he may die as well. If a man dies in this condition, it is said “Nyam tahe” (meaning “He is eaten”).

*****  *****  *****

This is Dire Dawa in my sight. I hope others will tell us more about the city. I too, will try to study it again and write other essays.

Afendi Muteki

March 25/2013

Harar

"Ummata Fannaana Ummata Qashtii Dire Dhawaa" (The Artistic and Jolly People of Dire Dawa)

  Written by Afendi Muteki

Part One
 
Once up on a time, the people of Dire Dawa were assembled in the city's main hall to listen to the speech of a member of the central committee the Dergue (the military government that ruled Ethiopia from 1974-1991) who came to visit the city. As most of the people were the speakers of Afaan Oromoo, the Dergue official picked certain boy from among the people and made him a translator (the official delivered the speech in Amharic).

 
The official started his speech. And when he said "Yetekeberkewna yetewededkew Ye Dire Dawa Hizb" (meaning "the beloved and the respected people of Dire Dawa"), the boy translated it "Yaa Ummata Fannaana Yaa Ummata Qastii Dire Dhawaa". Hearing the boy's translation, the people of Dire Dawa burst into laugh.

********

The above incident might happened; or it might not happened. But if it were a real account, I am sure that many people who heard it would laugh again and again. I also laughed when I heard it first. But if you see the translation of the boy in depth, you would find that his saying perfectly describes the people of Dire Dawa. If you say ''why?'', I will reason out it as follows.

"Fannaan" is to mean "an artist" in Arabic language. But in its usage in Dire Dawa and other East Ethiopian towns, it refers mostly to the youth that dress well and always appear smart and clean. A fashion follower may also be called ''fannaan''. In a wider sense, "fannan" is to mean a sociable, humorous and funny person. If we follow this wider sense, the people of Dire Dawa are 100% "fannaan".

''Qashtii'' has no exact meaning in any language. It came out from the creative mind of the youth of Dire Dawa; and its real meaning can be found only in their dictionary. But in the usage prevalent around Dire Dawa, it can be a variant of "fannaan". However, "qashtii" has extra applications; we express many things in it which "fannan" can't describe. For example, a man that performs his work efficiently can be called "qashtii". We may look at a plane or a train passing at a high speed and say "It's qashtii". A bus that arrives on time is also "qashtii" (here it is to mean ''the one that arrives when people wanted it''). A new car model, a paper money note printed recently, a luxurious and gallant villa and any other beautiful thing can be called "qashtii".

Given the above meanings of "fannaan" and "qashtii", can we pass a judgment on the boys saying about the people of Dire Dawa? Exactly! The boy did no wrong. The people of Dire Dawa are always "fannaan" and "qashxii". They are giants of creativity, modernity, modesty and sociability. However, the statement of the boy is more applicable to the city itself.

Dire Dawa is only 110 years old. But it excels all Ethiopians cities in the role it has played for the modernity of the nation save Addis Ababa and Harar. It is the centre of trade, banking, manufacturing, transport, technology and art. Through its mystique threads, it has connected the natives of the three continents (Africa, Asia and Europe) at one place. In short, modern civilization entered Ethiopia through it.
I could have said many words about Dire Dawa. But that is not the theme of this article. Here, I will focus mainly on four things: I will tell you the foundation of the city; introduce you to Dire Dawa's main boroughs and their naming; describe in short the Dire Dawa youth language usage and their creative skill; give you some notes on the customs related to the railway transportation.

********

The elderly people say that the current site of Dire Dawa and its surrounding was inhabited by three pastoralist communities. They were the Nole Oromo, the Issa Somali and the Gurgura Somali people. On the site where the Nole Oromo were living, there was an oasis which the whole people of the area were frequenting for its good and safe drinking water. The oasis was called by the Oromos “Dhawa” and accordingly, the site where it was found was named “Diree Dhawaa” (meaning “where the oasis was found”).

When the rail road connecting Addis Ababa with Djibouti was planned to be constructed, it was thought to reach the city of Harar on the first phase and to run from Harar to Addis in the second phase. But when the plan was implemented, the French engineers who were in charge of constructing the railway learned that it was difficult to cross the highlands nearby Harar and insert the railway to the old city. Therefore, they decided to undertake the construction in the lowlands situated north of Harar.

In the first phase of the construction, the railway reached a place where the aforementioned oasis was found and stopped there. No sooner than the company that owned the railway built its main terminal in area, people started to settle there. With the fortune of the incoming and outgoing commodities, trade bloomed in the area and caused the small settlement to turn to a new urban centre. Many European, Arabian and Indian traders came to the area and introduced new transactions and building styles. Within a decade, a town rivalling the centuries old Harar as the main commercial centre appeared in east Ethiopia. Dajazmach Yilma Mekonnen, a son of the late Ras Mekonnen and the governor general of Harerghe then, proposed naming the new town “Addis Harar” (the New Harar). But people gave it low attention and continued to call the town “Dire Dhawa”, the ancient name of the place.

*****  *****  *****

Dire Dawa was born in the way I described in the above section. The exact place of the ancient oasis called “Dhawa” is unknown. Let historians dig out all sources and tell us in the future. Hoping good luck for them, I turn now on narrating other tales of the beautiful Dire Dawa.

Train and railway are inseparable from Dire Dawa. And we can’t neglect the role played by the Franco-Ethiopian Railway Line (Now called “Djibouto-Ethiopian Railway Line) in the growth of the city. An important thing that justifies this notion is the name of Dire Dawa’s earliest borough called “La Gare” which is to mean “rail station” in French. In the early years of the city, “La Gare” was its leading commercial and financial centre. Many historical figures like the Syrian-born Merchant and advisrer of Lij Eyasu called Hasib Yidilbi and the leading Ethiopian scholar of early 20^th century called Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagne resided in the borough.

As the road and air transportations were getting more preferences, the importance of rail transport started to drop and so was the importance of “La Gare” in the city's commercial and cultural lifes. In recent years, when the rail transportation is interrupted for rehabilitation purposes, “La Gare” has becoming the frigid zone of Dire Dawa. However, its historical significance will never be forgotten. When the rehabilitation project is completed, “La Gare” may resurrect again as an important commercial centre of the city.

*****  *****  *****

It is clear that some boroughs of Dire Dawa held their ancient names. Some other boroughs hold the names born with expansion of trade in the city. Some few boroughs however, are called in the names that amplify the creativity of the youth of the city. Let me forward few examples from each category.

“Laga Harre” (meaning “the donkey’s river” in Afaan Oromo”) is clearly a name of ancient times. It is a name of a seasonal river crossing the city in its eastern half. From the tradition of the area, we may suggest that it was the name given to the shallowest section of the river where people bring their donkeys and make them drink from the flowing water (the people of the area don’t bring a donkey to deep rivers because they believe that the animal can’t survive it sinks down). On the other hand, the elders of the city say that “Laga Harre” was a river where the people of Dire Dawa were getting the water they drink. This might be a reason why Ali Birra once sung

“Diree Dhawaa dhugaa bishaan Laga Harree

Jaalala akkanaa takkaatuu hin agarre”.

It can be translated as

“Dire Dawa drinks from the water of Laga Harre

I have never seen this kind of love”

“Kazira” is Dire Dawa’s most beautiful and attractive borough. It is a borough about which people talk widely. Lyrics wrote many poems for it. Singers as well sing in many occasions about it. The origin of the name “Kazira” is vague. I couldn’t get enough information with regard to this. But the name suggests an Arabic root. I guess that it is a corrupted form of an Arabic word “Khadira” (meaning “green” or “green quarter”). I say this because the borough called so represents the greenest part of Dire Dawa. The famous green shades of the city about which many singers composed their marvellous hits are situated in the borough.

Yes indeed! Even though “La Gare” is a borough credited for bearing the city, it is the famous green shades of “Kazira” that make many people to miss it. If there were no shades that are standing on the wide streets of Dire Dawa, I am sure that nobody would have missed Dire Dawa this much. The interesting shades were rooted in the ground with an amazing geometrical symmetry.

Some 50 years ago, “Kazira” was a borough where foreigners were living. Greeks, Arabs and Italians occupied it. Later on, British citizens also became the main residents of “Kazira”. According to the information I obtained from different sources, the origin of the current beautiful shades of “Kazira” is the plantation activity those foreigners had undertaken in order to get shelter from the head killing sun that rises over the arid region of the horn. And the old tradition pioneered by them continued to this date. In the hot and dry afternoons, many people are seen sitting under the shades of the trees of “Kazira” streets. However, the service of “Kazira” trees isn’t bound only in Dire Dawa. It extends to another regions and extra services. Here are two notable accounts of my observation.

The residents of Addis Ababa (Finfinne) usually pass their weeding picnics and honeymoon at Sodere or Langano. The people of Harerghe on its part used to prefer two places for their honeymoon and other recreational activities. One was Harar Maya Lake which died few years ago. Yes indeed, the lake for which Ali Shabbo, Mahdi Jappon, Halo Dawe and others sung marvellously have disappeared for unknown reason and the people of Harerghe lost one of its famous honeymoon destination.

However, the second important honeymoon destination and recreation area is still surviving. This is “Kazira” with its ever green and cooling shades that float over the symmetrical trees of Dire Dawa. Addis Ababa. In Harerghe, a bride that passed his picnic at “Kazira” with his best men and friends will be referred by the public has having a good time in the beautiful city. I still have a fresh memory of the wedding of a man called Najib Abdalla Ali who passed his picnic at “Kazira” accompanied by 16 cars, a record for West Harerghe towns at the time (Najib was from Badessa town, 35 kms east of Gelemso-my home town).

When the heat is strengthened in the Horn of Africa and Arabia, many citizens of Djibouti, Somaliland and Yemen usually take a refuge in Dire Dawa which is relatively cooler than their home areas. The shades of “Kazira” trees are the place where these foreigners pass their daylights.

*****  *****  *****

There are many boroughs in Dire Dawa whose names start in the Oromo prefix “ganda” (meaning “borough” or “village”). “Ganda Gara”, “Ganda Qore”, "Ganda Miskin” and “Ganda Tush Tush” are only few examples.

“Ganda Gara” is to mean “a village of the hill”. The name exactly matches the borough because it is found near a hill. “Ganda Qore” meant “a village of the sticky tree”. These two names are common in Oromo nomenclature. Many places in Oromia are called so. “Ganda Miskin” and “Ganda Tush Tush came out of the creative mind of Dire Dawa youth. But their exact origin is unclear for me. If can guess, “Ganda Miskin” , which is to mean “the poor’s quarter”, might had been occupied once by beggars that came to the city from nearby rural areas and other places. The origin of the name “Ganda Tush Tush” is out of my guessing capacity. The youth of Dire Dawa may tell us how it was created. But for notification purposes, I can tell you that “Tush Tush” refers to used and thrown house wares and deformed factory products.

*****  *****  *****

Dire Dawa’s main commercial and financial district is called “Magala”. The word “Magala” is to mean “Market” in Oromo, Harari and Somali languages. This financial district was very small when it was made the city’s main trading centre by Italians. Now, it occupies about one third of the whole city. It is the only quarter of the city that never sleeps in the 24 hours. As Addis Ababa’s Markato has many sub quarters (like “Satin Tera”, “Bomb Tera”, “Dubai Tera”, “Sidamo Tera” etc..) Dire Dawa’s Magala also has many sub quarters; “Taiwan”, “Alaybade”, “Qafira”, “Konel”, “Chat Tera” are few of them. Some other sub quarters have names holding the prefix “magala”. You may take “Magala Sogida”, “Magala Cabxuu”, and “Magaala Guddoo” as examples.

“Magala Sogida” is to mean “salt market”. The name indicates the main commodity sold in this sub quarter. “Magala Guddoo”, literally “the big market”, is a market where many kinds of traders and different commodities can be found. The name “Magala Cabxuu” is clearly a creativity of the youth of Dire Dawa. Even though it can be translated as “the market where broken items are sold”, the naming of the sub-quarter is only known to Dire Dawa youth. I hope they would tell us about its origin in detail.

*****  *****  *****

Afendi Muteki

March 24/2013

Harar

The Oromo of Harerghe: On their Settlement Pattern and their Dialect

Written by Afendi Muteki

The Oromo of Harerghe belong to the Barentuma/Barento confederation, one of the two main branches of the Oromo people (the other one bieng Borana). They are bounded by the Arsi Oromo in the west and south, the Karayyu and Jille Oromo in the north west, the Afar people in the north and the Somali people in the east and south east. They call their natural homeland “Fugug”. They are basically regrouped to three major tribes; the Ittu, Afran Qallo and Anniya.

The Ittu Oromo occupy the western part of Harerghe highlands. Their home area is called “Carcar” or “Ona Ituu”. They are the people who are very close to the assembly of “Caffee Odaa Bultum” under which the tradition of the Barentuma Oromo administration system is kept. The natural boundary between Ittu and Afran Qallo is Burqa river which is found near Baroodaa town. The boundary between Ittu and Anniya is the Ramis River.

The Afran Qalloo Oromo lay to the east of Ittu and North of Aniyyaa. They are largest of the three groups both in their population and the area they occupy. They have four main divisions called Oborraa, Babile, Daga (which is subdivided to Nole, Jarso and Hume) and Ala. It is not clear whether the land of Afran Qalloo has a unique name although some people call it “Goro Fugug”. Afran Qallo had a long tradition of “Raabaa Doorii” assembly which was held at a place called “Bululoo” near the town of Watar.

The Aniya Oromo occupy the lowlands of the former Gara Mulata province. Their home area is called “Diida Aanniyyaa” or "Burqaa Tirtiraa”. With only few exceptions, they are pastoralists. The boundary between Afran Qallo and Aniyya is the Mojoo River. The Anniya Oromo used to hold their “Caffee Gadaa” assembly at “Burqaa Tirtiraa”.

***********************************

The Oromo of Harerghe speak the Oromo language called Afaan Oromo. However, they retained unique dialect which has certain important features. First, their dialect is marked by a guttural sound “kh”. Some linguists say that the Harar Oromos borrowed this sound from other languages (like Somali, Harari and Arabic). But this assumption has no base because the “kh” sound exists in other Oromo dialects as well; it exists even in “Borana” and “Guji” dialects which are thought to have low contact with other languages. On the other hand, in the Harar Oromo dialect it is not only the loan words that have the “kh” sound but also many words of Oromo roots are marked so. For example “khaleessa” (yesterday), “khannuu” (to give), “khaayuu” (to put down), “khiyya” (mine), “khoottu” (come) etc… have all “kh” sounds and these words were not borrowed from any other language. So the notion that asserts “kh” is a loan sound is unreliable.

The second feature of the Harar Oromo dialect is its possession of many loan words which are used only in Harerghe. This has no mystery because the Oromo of Harerghe live in the land criss-crossed by trade routes and military expeditions, and they share boundary with different nations such as Somali, Afar, Harari etc; so it is evident that they borrowed many words from other languages. For example, we can see the Oromos of Harerghe saying “zigaal”, “zanyaa”, “zuuguu”, “azeeba”, “azala” etc… These words were borrowed from Harari language (As the Cushitic languages doesn’t have “z” sound, and the words we listed here appear only in Harari language and the Harar dialect of the Oromo language, we can easily conclude that the Oromos of Harerghe borrowed them from their Harari neighbors.)

The third feature of the Harar Oromo dialect is its maintaining many idiomatic expressions which are peculiar to the Harerghe region. For example, we can hear the Harar Oromos saying “miila kharaa khaayuu” (to put the leg in the road) which is to mean “to go”, “harka jabaatuu” (to be hard handed) to mean “to be thrifty, “dhukkee irraa khaasuu” (to blow dust on) to mean “to attack severely”.

There are two types of colloquation among the Oromos of Harerghe. One is the traditional confederacy based colloquation, and the other is the urban-rural dividing colloquation. On confederacy level, the three tribes of the Harar Oromo (Ittu, Afran Qallo and Aniyya) have retained certain vocabularies and “phonetic” variants which can differentiate them from one another. For example, the Ittu Oromos say “eessa” for “where” but the Afran Qallo Oromos say “eeysa” which is phonetically different. While the Ittu Oromos say “diiddam” (twenty), the Afran Qallo Oromos say “diydam”; When the Ittus say “ishii” (her) the Afran Qallo Oromos say “isii”. On the Other hand the Ittu Oromos say “subaaxa” to mean “lunch”, but the Afran Qallo Oromos say “laaqana” for lunch. When the Ittu Oromos say “jibbuu” (to hate), the Afran Qallo Oromos say “jibbu” and “balfuu”; when Ittu Oromos say “indooyyee” (aunt-mother’s sister) the Afran Qallo Oromos say “haboo”. The Ittu Oromos say “khottee” for “nail”, the Afran Qalloo Oromos say “qeensa”.

The urban-rural dividing colloquation is relatively a recent phenomenon. It is mostly a result of Afan Oromo’s high fusion with Arabic, Somali and Harari languages in the urban areas. For example, an urban house wife in Harerghe may call her female friend “geelee” in the manner of the Harari woman. The urban people say “faxara” for breakfast (in the word from Arabic), but the rural people simply call it “dhihena”; the urban people may say “shubbaaka” (also borrowed from Arabic) for window which the rural people call “fooddaa”.

One must not take the distinct usage of a dialect by the Oromos of Harerghe as something that separate them from other Oromos just as Ziyad Barre of Somalia was preaching 30 years ago. Even though they developed a unique dialect and certain traditions which are peculiar to them, the Oromos of Harerghe always consider themselves part of the greater Oromo nation.