Yooseef Gaaluu

Life and ministry

Yooseef Gaaluu was probably born in the surroundings of Warra Illuu around 1862. (For his origin, see the title page of Barth’s Bible Stories, 1881).

Yooseef Gaaluu is mentioned as Greiner’s translation assistant in the Oromo version of Barth’s Bible Stories (St. Chrischona: Mission Press, 1881).

According to Greiner’s letter dated June 8, 1875, Yooseef Gaaluu was an outstanding pupil in his school for Oromo children in Ankober, which Greiner ran from 1874 to 1879.

  • The same letter mentions that Yooseef Gaaluu accompanied Greiner to the market in Abdul Räsul to buy the freedom of an enslaved Oromo.

It can be assumed that Yooseef Gaaluu also helped Greiner with the translation of [at least two] German hymns into Oromo before June 1875. These hymns are most probably the earliest Oromo congregational songs ever.

  • These hymns were composed before Onesimos Nesib left to Sweden for theological study from 1876 to 1881.

Greiner reports in a letter dated June 1876, that he had visited Yooseef Gaaluu’s former master, Aläqa Zännäb, in Liche. Having become acquainted with the Gospel, Yooseef wanted to go to his people and teach them. Aläqa Zännäb believed Yooseef would become instrumental to the conversion of thousands of Oromos, yet asked Greiner to perfect Yooseef’s education.

According to the Jahresbericht (‘annual report’) of the Pilgrim Mission for the year 1879 (p. 14), Greiner was busy translating the Bible with the help of his Oromo students. Yooseef Gaaluu was most likely part of this team.

After that, Yooseef Gaaluu no longer seems to be mentioned in missionary sources. It is therefore questionable whether he served with Greiner at the new mission station in Bali in the 1880s.

  • At the time when King Menelik was a vassal of the decidedly orthodox Emperor John IV (1878‒1889), a Bible translation project was hardly possible in his domain, especially as Aläqa Zännäb had already passed away in October 1876.

Further reading

» Joseph Gallu (tr.) and Johann J. Greiner (ed.). Barth’s Bible-Stories, translated into [Oromo]. St. Chrischona: Mission-Press, 1881. [View online]

» Two Oromo hymns (ed. by Greiner)

Cross-references

» Greiner, Johann Jacob (Profile)

» Greiner, Letters published in St. Chrischona (1874‒75)