Gozamen is a Wreda, encircling Debre Markos town in East Gojjam Zone of Amhara State. Even if the society there has the same Amharic dialect and share several common cultural and religious values with most of the Amhara people, it has its own unique logical ways of comprehending some ancient sociocultural concepts and protecting them.
This article is written based on the research conducted by Waltangus Mekonen, who is a Folklore Teacher at Bahirdar University. According to him, having entrenched roots in the traditions of this society is associated with being trust worthy, strong, ambitious, spotless and obedient than strangers that set foot on the Wereda. Due to that, the people have a great sense of respect for originality, while the same level of suspicion goes for over strange new situations and traditions. It is believed by the Gozamen society that if creatures (humans in particular) go far beyond their original nature, they will turn out to be empty, lost and slavish. The more they get far away from their nature physically and mentally because of different changes, they would adopt different behaviors and lose their originality, which brings the conceptual difference between being the first and late comers.
This idea has also necessitated the criteria to identify all the creatures in the world from the ones categorized edible or not, cursed or blessed, purchasable or not. It also applies for plants that we identify or classify for wisdom, solution, wealth, health (medicine), scarifies (ritual), meal, among others. When this society compares and categorizes creatures as wise or lazy, heavenly or earthly, spiritual or worldly, brave or weak, committed or volatile, and righteous or empty, it bases on their respective order of creation or discovery.
So many around the world may have heard or read that the original ingredients for creation for all the creatures in this world are water, earth, wind (air), and fire. The mixture of all these elements is called flesh. When the basic source of life called the soul joins the flesh, the sum will transform in to a human being.
Aside from the general concept, what could
be the relationships between these roots of creation and the sociocultural ideologies of being the first and a latecomer in the Gozamen society?
The first philosophy lies in the question “Are these major roots of life the treasures given by God with balance? If one lives in them appropriately, they would be honors for humanity. And if one person trespasses the boundaries of his/her human nature, the roots of life would be curses. But they also have their own orders of creation and differences in shape, test, volume and type.
Every quality that is in the predecessor would be fresh and fully original. These qualities and behaviors will not appear fully in the successor. As a result, when one goes farther and farther from the beginning or the original, the circle of life will be smaller, narrower, and weaker and may lose its original behavior and finally grows in to an attitude.
Whenever, every single body does anything that gets detaches or moves it away from its originality, its defensive energy will go lower and vulnerability for attacks will increase. The vulnerability could only decreases, as long as it brings itself closer to the originality.
Based on the orders, wind (air) is the first; fire goes next while water and earth take their consequent positions respectively. Seed is considered to be the origin of all creatures and it falls in the category wind, which the flesh is also a part of. The major purpose of wind in the lives of human beings is revealed as the source of ideas and thoughts. Since researches, ideological and philosophical uplifts or righteousness are the results of the major purposes of wind, it is considered that the mind of a man, who spends his whole day thinking, imagining and dreaming, would remain in the air.
On the other hand, fire is the representative of wishes and desires in human nature. Wish is a behavior that ignites burns and explodes through the limitless attitude that cannot stop until one gain or achieves something. Thus, the source of ideological things is wind, while fire is the fertile part. When a seed is described by its emerging or growing nature as a wind, it will differ by bearing fruits, and foaming as a fire. Fire is a changing force that would bring a new thing by burning the old one. It will mature the fresh, dry the wet (moist), makes the flimsy strong.
The symbol of water in the nature of human beings is expressed through emotion. All the desires that flow inside, the deep ideas that take a special place inside, the mysteries that are hidden in the dark and cannot be revealed by light or those releasing a dim light like the moon including the shiny ones are the reflections of water. The behavior of water is containing, which is why it always flows down to the inside. It flows down, can only be felt in the inside but not be exposed; it just digs the inner part and feels very cold.
In this case, what is inside fire is, blazing, explosive and visible on the outside. As a result, those who possess most of the wealth on earth and who have everything extra in their hands fall in this category.
Meanwhile, night, going low, setting and blurring, are symbols of earth for they are under the night sky. Earth is also a symbol for something that is completely obedient, dead alive, motionless or empty.
When all these concepts are applied on the life of human beings, it is believed that mankind will move fast like the wind during his childhood, get conscious and bear fruits in his tie of fire, gets weak and passive during the water as he collapses or dies in this age of the earth. These roots of life are the important features of the flesh.
Mankind in its childhood is closer to its nature and everything is completely original. The behavior depicted in childhood grows, gets weaker and dies when it indulges in the worldly matters and activities where a human being will be cursed and goes lesser from that originality. When a man’s ages advances, the harmony and balance of originality will be lost and that is where he will get closer to earth; the closeness to the end of humanity. They call it the age of darkness.
Somehow, the order is still ironically expressed by these people. They say “Light or day ends by eventide, a week by Friday and a year by summer (in Ethiopian context by the rainy season). The whole year may be born and die gradually in seasons. But if one does not use the seasons respecting their natural or original blessings effectively, then it means he/she will mess up the order and that could cause trouble which affects not only one but many generations to come. If one does not respect the first, what s/he would do on the next or last could only result in failure.
Ethiopian Herald Sunday December 8/2019
BY HENOK TIBEBU
