365 Tidbits About Ethiopia and Islam – 056)

365 Tidbits About Ethiopia and Islam – 056)
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The town of Harar is regarded as the fourth most holiest city in Islam.
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The production of local culture in Harar has been derived through ongoing processes in which influences have been and are continuously accommodated.
The production of local subjects in Harar can perhaps most easily be recognized through the process of Ge limaad, whereby outsiders can literally “learn the way of the city” or rather, its people, and “become” Ge usu’ through various linguistic, cultural, and social means.
As a designation of political and economic affluence, Ge usu ‘ is a desirable prestige category into which many coresidents of the city, principally Oromo and Somali, have assimilated. Harar has long been a center of established interethnic trade, in which Ge usu’ have stood at the apex of a complex hierarchy of class structured ethnic relations .
The ge usu’ have largely retained their position of prestige through the accommodation of foreign influences.”