Dances of Exile

Dancing the Past into the Future is a video documentary of Oromo women’s birth rituals, songs and dances. It is an elaborate celebration of praising mothers, welcoming babies, and praying for women with no child.

Dances of Exile is produced by a group of Siinqee Women, a grassroots women’s movement to reclaim their foremothers’ birth rituals and being in the world. Their goal is to pass them on to the younger generation. The video is an elaborate celebration divided into five parts. Each part is a stand-alone piece complete in itself. Please click on each one and enjoy.

Part I: The Video and the Producers

This part introduces the documentary and the group of Siinqee Women who produced it.

Part II: Background and the First Day

This part gives a historical background of Oromo women’s rituals and focuses on the current efforts of decolonization underway to reclaim women’s birth rituals. It also elaborates Saamita Hiikaa, rituals of the first day of birth.

Part III: Shanan – The Fifth Day

This part gives the most elaborate rituals, songs and dances that women perform for Shanan, the fifth day of birth.

Part IV: Saglan – The Ninth Day

This part elaborates on the rituals of the ninth day, the Ulmaa Baha, where women take the mother-child(ren) dyad out of the house in a procession. This is also the day when newborn children comes out to the community and claim belonging and when the community embraces them and makes room for them.

Part V: Mock Fights and Reconciliation

In this part, women divide into two moieties and perform the elaborate rituals of insult songs and dances of mock fighting and reconciliation. The deep cultural and spiritual meanings of these insults and mock fights are elaborated in the narration