By Fatuma Fugicha

The Abba Gada system that dates back 500 years ago practices Boran culture based on a single abiding principle, known as ‘Nagya Boran’, which means ‘Peace of the Boran’.

The king’s official seal of power is a whip made of rhinoceros and giraffe parts.

The Boran believe members of their community should at all times be bound by unifying peace. Regardless of conflicts with other communities or any social influences, the Boran insist that harmony among them must prevail.

Ethnic umbrella

The Gada system spread to what is now southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya through migration and interaction with the Oroma people under whose ethnic umbrella the Boran fall.

Boran traditional dancers are part of the community’s rich heritage. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

All the Oroma sub-tribes share a traditional, socio-political character.

The Gada central system is recognised by all Boran as a crucial key to unique heritage of political, social, and cultural life despite which side of the border they find themselves on.

Studies conducted on the Gada system rekindle a vision of strongly co-ordinated communities that had a predominant organised system of governance. Scientists like Dr Marco Bassi of Bologna University in Italy have agreed that the Gada system is one of the most structured and democratic institutions in the world.

In Ethiopia, the Boran community occupies a whole province in the southerly-most region that borders Kenya.

The Boran of northern Kenya first entered the region from southern Ethiopia during a major migratory expansion in the late 10th century.

They then differentiated into the cattle-keeping Boran and the camel-keeping Gabra and Sakuye.

The Boran speak Borana (or Afaani Boraana), which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro Asiatic family of languages.

Roughly more than seven million people identify as Borana under different sub-tribes.

It is believed the Boran developed their own calendar around 300 BC.

Rely on astronomy

The Boran calendar is a lunar-stellar calendrical system, relying on astronomical observations of the moon in conjunction with seven particular stars or constellations.

In northern Kenya, the community has both Christian and Muslim members in their population.

The Borana are mainly pastoralists.