Makkoo Bilii
Makkoo Bilii (Makko Billi) is the legendary lawgiver of the Macha Oromo of western Ethiopia and one of the great culture-heroes of the gadaa tradition. Oral tradition places him in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, when the Macha, expanding westwards, separated from the Tulama in the remembered 'break of Bisil' and seated their own caffee assembly under the sycamore Odaa Bisil in the upper Gibe valley. There Makkoo Bilii is said to have instructed the people in the gadaa laws — among them the settling of disputes over land, the performance of the buttaa sacrifice by each new gadaa class every eight years, and the keeping of the annual new-year rite — so that the saga of Makkoo Bilii became the charter of Macha political identity. Tradition remembers him as at once an able leader, a great lawgiver and a raajii, a prophet who spoke in the name of Waaqa and taught the people to follow Waaqa's way; the distinctively Macha elaboration of safuu, the moral order of respect and due distance, is bound inseparably to his name. Whether or not a historical individual stands behind the saga, he is the individuated founder-figure through whom the Macha remember the origin of their law.
Domains
- law and justice
- prophecy
- moral order
Powers
- to lay down the gadaa laws
- to prophesy in the name of Waaqa
Epithets
- raajiiHassen, Mohammed. The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570–1860. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: WaaqaRemembered as a prophet as well as a lawgiver, Makkoo Bilii spoke to the Macha in the name of Waaqa and bound his laws to the way of Waaqa and the moral order safuu.Hassen, Mohammed. The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570–1860. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. (secondary)
Sources
- Makkoo Bilii is the legendary lawgiver and prophet of the Macha Oromo who established their independent caffee assembly at Odaa Bisil and gave them their gadaa laws.: Triulzi, Alessandro. "The Saga of Makkoo Bilii: A Theme in Mac'a Oromoo History." Paideuma 36 (1990): 319–327. (secondary); Hassen, Mohammed. The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570–1860. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. (secondary)