I sistemi delle classi d’età. Il contributo teorico di Bernardo Bernardi e la loro riscoperta contemporanea in chiave identitaria e patrimoniale

This chapter considers Bernardi’s contribution to two different processes of traditional institutions revival in East Africa. He was the main ethnographer of the Mugwe, a traditional dignitary of the Meru of Kenya, that ceased to exist soon after his field work. He used the attribution ‘failing prophet’ in the title of the first edition of his book, changed into ‘blessing prophet’ in the following edition, having in the meanwhile registered a growing symbolic consideration for the institution. The history of the gadaa generational class system of the Oromo is intertwined with the Oromo liberation struggle. The institution never disappeared entirely, having remained operative among the Oromo-Borana in the southern periphery of Ethiopia. In Asmaron Legesse’s ethnography it was presented as capable of providing a centre of democratic government. It became a symbol of political autonomy among the Oromo in diaspora and among the fighters, and a national Oromo symbol after the introduction of ethnic federalism in the country. It is now in full revival and enlisted among the Unesco intangible cultural heritage. Starting from his doctoral thesis in 1950, Bernardi was the first anthropologist to systematically theorize about the political significance of age class systems in East Africa.