Waiting for Gadaa: a critical exploration through transnational Siinqee feminism

Abstract

In this autoethnography I critically engage the experiences and theories of waiting for liberation, dubbed waiting for gadaa, in the Oromo diaspora by using the Africanist analytic framework of transnational siinqee feminism. I organize my stories into two parts. In the first part, I introduce the work, starting from my personal experiences of waiting and connecting the dots of the personal and political and individual and collective stories. I tease out three salient epistemological principles of a transnational siinqee feminist conceptual framework for both the critical analysis of theories and experiences of waiting in the Oromo diaspora. In the second part, I explore waiting in theory and practice. I interweave the three siinqee principles, my research in the Oromo diaspora, and broader emergent theories of waiting to critically engage the complex textures of waiting for gadaa in the Oromo diaspora. I conclude by opening the principles of transnational siinqee feminism for a possible fit in broader emancipatory praxis.