The cultural and historical resources of a nation or region are intrinsic assets or values of the people inhabiting a country or region. They are reflections of the identity of a people, objects of their pride and a manifestation of their ethos. Oromia is endowed with considerable historical and cultural attractions. However, the rich cultural history and heritage of the Oromo people have not been fully recorded and their contribution to the historical and cultural evolution of the country has not been given adequate attention. Nonetheless, the cultural and historical resources of Oromia have an important role to play in advancing tourism in the region. Generally, the major historical and cultural resources of the region include:-

Melka Kunture

It is located in West Showa Zone of Oromia Region on the Addis Ababa-Butajira road after small town of Awash at a distance of 50 km from Addis Ababa. Crossing the bridge of Awash river one can see the site of this important archaeological resource fenced and kept for excavation and collection of prehistory physical remains. It was discovered and drew the attention of the Ethiopian Archaeological Service for the first time in 1963. The Melka Kunture archaeological site, which extends for a distance of 6 kilometres astride the banks of the Awash River, is a place where numerous excavations have been made to study the spatial organisation and cultural evolution of the early and middle Pleistocene hominids. It has sites in which choppers and flakes that are known to be 1.7 millions years old as well as fragments of human skull and mandible (jaw) related to Homo erectus which are 700,000 years and 1.5 million years old respectively.

Djimma Museum
This museum displays most of historic materials of king Abba Jifar, his kingdom and cultural objects of local oromo people and other ethinic groups around Kafa. The first set of collection in this museum is the personal household furniture of the king which includes beds of Abba Jifar, tables, arm chairs, utensils, religious manuscripts and others.

Dirre Sheikh Husein

Dirre Sheikh Husein or the site of the Shrine of Shiekh Husein is one of Oromia’s major sites of culture tourism. It is situated on the border of West Hararghe and Bale Zones. The Shrine is named after an ancient holy man (religious) leader called Sheikh Nur Husien bin Malka or bin Ibrahim who was reputed for his religious teachings, high devotion and remarkable miraculous deeds.

Abba Jifar Palace

Before incorporated into the central Christian Empire of Ethiopia , Dimma is one and the strongest of the five autonomous Gibe Kigdoms of the oromo people under the leadership of Abba Jifar Abba Gomal, best known as king Abba Jifar (Sultan Muhammad Dawud Ibn Ibrahim) Towards the end of 1860’s king Abba Jifa built his palace at Jiren which costed him 400 kg of gold and 65, 000 Maria Theresa and still stands with colourful architectural beauty. In the compound of the palace still stand other four buildings: the public mosque, the mosque of Abba Jifar, sesidential palace of Abba Jifar and residential building of Abba Jobir Abba Dula( the grandson of Abba Jifar).

Wellegga Museum

Wellegga Museum is located in East Wellegga Zone of Oromia Region, Nekemte town, at 327 km west of Addis Ababa. It is established in 1989. The Museum is one of the major ethnographic and historical collections in the country. It has three sections: the ethnographic, the historic, and the different exhibition sections.

Irrecha

Irrecha is one of the major traditional Oromo festivities observed annually with colour and pomp at the end of the rainy season in September at lake Hora in Bishoftu. The festival is a thanksgiving ceremony to Waqa (God) for the end of the rainy season and the dawning of spring.

The Borana of Oromia

The Borana are the first born of the Oromo nationality, indeed, the appellation itself means the first born. They inhabit a harsh environment and are a resilient people. They alone have upheld Oromo culture and tradition in its purest form by refusing to abandon their ancestral ways of life. The Borana are semi-nomadic pastoralists with villages that are uprooted and moved several times a year. Elas, or desert wells, are of great importance in Borana as they are sources of drinking water both for humans and animals. Descending thirty metres or more, the deepest wells are formidable undertakings which could have only been sunk by an organised society capable of mobilising substantial resources. Borana has several cultural attractions including the Borana Cave the paintings of which are estimated to be more than 5,000 years old and vividly manifest the ingenuity of Oromo forbears.

Borana is the birthplace of the Gada system which is an ancient mode of administration exercised by Oromos and is still practised in Borana. It is an organisation of the society into age sets, including a highly motivated warrior grade, which was organised according to a strict and repetitive calendar. This complex system of stratification survives to this very day in its original form among the Borana of Oromia and, to a lesser extent, among the neighbouring Guji Oromos. Although the system is on the decline elsewhere in Oromia, it nevertheless continues to exert a powerful subliminal influence on many aspects of Oromo culture and religion. The Gada continues to have historical and cultural attraction.

The Gada system had a military role with a new class acquiring warrior status every eight years. The warrior class proved itself by extending frontiers. Gada elders were responsible for the administration of justice, for maintaining peace and order. Gumii-Gayoo in Borana is an important cultural site where an assembly takes place every 8 years to review the law vis-à-vis the Gada Systems. Such assemblies are known to last for up to 30 days. Such sites are of cultural and historic interest and are worth visiting. In 1994/95 the Boranas celebrated their 68th Gada system and more than 20,000 people attended the ceremony.