Abstract
The paper has aimed to propound the conception of femininity and masculinity in the traditional expression of gender in the Oromo mainstream culture, the xunduu (coupling) Synopsis. Xunduu is a bipolar means of expressing female and male overall organizations and relationships in the universe in pairing order of corresponding arrangement. Xunduu is gada born Oromo knowledge of gender which states about the general organizational arrangement, the overall power relationships, responsibilities and roles between husband and wife. The research was conducted in Oromiya. Data were mainly collected from literature and through systematic interview of female and male elders, observation of their cultural landscape and ethnographic objects. The finding indicates that, Xunduu is a manner of expressing a wife-husband relationship in replicating to biological sexual beings, non-biological and non-sexual things which are essential and respected, ordered in pairing and corresponding arrangement in their culture. The result also shows that from the nature of objects replicating gender and the methods of presentation, xunduu was a means to pursuing the practices of gender bipolar in the egalitarian gada ethos. It is recommended that as the culture is under strong pressure from internal and external forces, it needs to work towards preserving and enhancing such thoughtful wisdom towards gender empowerment.
Highlights
Feminine-masculine is a biological opposite sex-based socio-cultural expression to indicate female and male relationships
Female-male relationship is the commonest form of manifestation to gender and its expressions in various manners of life including labor division
One of the first fundamental views with the Oromo knowledge of gender ideology is rooted in the indigenous belief system on which the gada system is based and named Waaqeffannaa [4, 9]
Summary
Feminine-masculine is a biological opposite sex-based socio-cultural expression to indicate female and male relationships. Female-male relationship is the commonest form of manifestation to gender and its expressions in various manners of life including labor division. Gender has been discussed as a means in which feminine opportunities was restrained in the pretext of biological sex disparity. The Oromo, like any group of people, is a gendered society and they are not exceptional to the ecstasy and agony experiences. A cultural way to the expression of femininity-masculinity in the Oromo worldview is xunduu (coupling) based gender bipolarity. The Oromo have their own long generational egalitarian socio-economic, political, administrative and military system called the Gadaa, which has served as a guiding principle for the nation as a whole [1,15]
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