The Arsi have developed a concept of Arsooma which roughly translates to Arsihood. This has provided Arsi with an identity that has been passing to clans and other groupings for a long period of time. The Arsi have a complex concept of clan division. The two main branches are Mandoo and Sikko. Mandoo refers to the Arsis in the Arsi and northern Bale Zones, while Sikko refers to those mainly in the Bale Zone.
History
Arsi Oromo state an intermarriage took place between their ancestors and previous inhabitants of the Arsi Province, Adere whom they call the Hadiya. Hadiya clans claim their forefathers were Harari however they later became influenced by Sidama. In the beginning of the early seventeenth century, the lands of Arsi Oromo were under the Emirate of Harar however the Emirate gradually lost control in the following centuries. In the eighteenth century, Emir Abd-Shakur made attempts to Islamisize the Arsi Oromo. Arsi Oromo were largely independent until about 19th century. The Arsi Oromo demonstrated fierce resistance against the Ethiopian conquest of 1881-6, when Menelik II conducted several unsuccessful invasion campaigns against their territory. They put up stiff opposition against an enemy equipped with modern European firearms, until they were defeated in 1886. In the 1940's the Arsi Oromo with the people of Bale province joined the Harari Kulub movement an affiliate of the Somali Youth League that peacefully opposed Amhara Christian domination of Hararghe. The Ethiopian government brutally suppressed the ethno-religious movement using violence. During the 1970's the Arsi faced persecution by the Ethiopian government thus formed alliances with Somalia. It is a shared tradition of the people that the Oromo originated in Mada Walabu − an area that is still inhabited by Arsi. In Northern Ethiopia, for instance, an Agew tradition has it that the Arsi Oromo moved to the locality around the sixteenth century. According to the tradition, some of the Agew speakers near Metekel were Arsi Oromos who moved via Gabra Guracha town in Northern Showa. They named their new locality Jaawwii after an Arsi Oromo clan name. The fact that the locality is still called Jaawwii and a nearby church, Arusi Mikael, attests to the pertinence of the Agew story.
