PDF Steps on the Path to Enlightenment; Karma: Steps on the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo; Volume 2: Karma (Vol.2) by Geshe Lhundub Sopa in History

Description

The Oromo are one of the most numerous peoples of Africa; but general recognition of their distinctive culture and identity is comparatively recent. Most of the Oromo live in Ethiopia; however a significant number of them form part of the modern republic of Kenya. These are the subject of this study; carried out through several years of fieldwork in Kenya; and research into historical archives and sustained collections of oral narratives.Mario Aguilar explores one of the less researched aspects of cultural; political and national identity; namely religion and ritual. It is through ritual that the Boorana (Oromo) of Eastern Kenya have remained part of a wider political process affecting the whole Oromo nation. As most scholars have pointed out in the past; the Boorana have converted to Islam and Christianity; and it is with those historical processes in mind that the author explores the role of age groups in social-political transformations; while describing the ritual life of an African community today.The book constitutes an exhaustive study of the Oromo religion in Kenya; and it develops the concept of a religious diversification' rather than of syncretism. The study portrays the dynamics of pastoralism in Kenya as an important phenomenon for our understanding of the modern African nation-states; and the challenge it poses to the centralization of the modern post-colonial state in Kenya.