Mereja Forum

[OPFist]

It is Not Yet Right Time for the Oromo to Sing Ethiopiawinet, Green-yellow-red and Unitarity!

Nowadays, we observe that the Amharianist elites led by Abiy Ahmed persuading Oromo artists to sing about Ethiopiawinet, the green-yellow-red flag and about Andinet. Is this right timing to sing Ethiopiawinet? I don’t think so! Still Ethiopiawinet is equivalent to Amharanet, as long as Amharigna is the dominating primary language of the palace, government and parlament. This is the status quo maintained by the Amharianist regime of Abiy Ahmed, who could successfully silence the voice of Oromianists struggling for Afaan Oromo to be the primary language of Ethiopia (Great Oromia). To make the canning Amhara elites out of political game, the Oromo need to hijack and instrumentalize the three main agenda usually used by them: the identity (Ethiopiawinet), the flag (green-yellow-red) and the ideology (unitarity). But, as a precondition, firstly Oromo elites should consolidate aangoo/power in Finfinne palace, promote Afaan Oromo to primary language of the federation and cultivate Aadaa/culture of Oromo in the whole country. After fulfilling these three preconditions, the Oromo can sing Ethiopiawinet, carry the green-yellow-red banner and even accept unitarity arrangement in Oromo terms. By taking away these three agenda, which are beloved by the Amhara elites, it is possible to make them out of political game for eternity. To send them further to deep grave, so that they can never come back, the Oromo should help some people of Gojjam, Lalibella and Gondar to revive their Agaw back ground and push the rest in Shoa, Wallo, Gojjam and Gondar to reclaim their Oromo identity.
Read more: https://fayyisoromia.wordpress.com/2019 ... -ethiopia/

[OPFist]

The Oromo were struggling against the Abyssinian’s system of domination for the last more than a century. Now, that domination is almost over and the Oromo are trying to lead the transformation of Abyssinian empire to Ethiopian union. But, our mindset is still with only liberating Oromia, not yet programmed towards leading Ethiopia. The mindset of liberating Oromia needs an emphasis of Oromo nationalism and denigeration of Abyssinians. In the contrary, the mindset of leading Ethiopia requires an inclusive approach, which should stress common identity for all nations of the country. That common identity is being Ethiopian (Cushite). Even, the two Habesha nations (Amhara and Tegaru) should come back to their true identity of Cush, which they denied because of their religious affliation to “Solomonism”. It is time for the Oromo to play a magnanimous politics as the victor and to be accomodative. It is surprising to observe Oromo activists still “struggling against Amhara assimilationists”! Who is now hindering Afaan Oromo from being federal working language? Amhara elites? Tegaru hegemonists? Neither of the two! Oromo ruling party, the OPP, is procrastinating the implementation for certain reason. Lack of good will? Leadership strategy? Only the OPP leaders and God know it! What we actually need now is leadership quality to bring the Oromo and other nations to their full freedom, equality and sovereignty. We still need Oromummaa for the sake of fighting for liberation of Oromia. Then, we will use Ethiopiawinet for exercicing our leadership role in the whole Ethiopia.

[OPFist]

More than enough is written about the past and the future of Ethiopia. Here is a short repetition from my present point of view. Ethiopia is only a fraction of the so called Cushland in the northeastern part of Africa, in which several Cushitic nations are found. Certain parts of these nations in the northern part of the country are already Abyssinized due to the cultural and linguistic influence of the Semites from the Middle East; some in the southern part are Bantunized due to the contact with certain Bantu nations; and the others in the eastern part are a bit Arabinized due to the cultural and religious contact with the Arab world. But, at the core of the country is a relatively unaffected part, now called Oromia, still preserving the main values of the proto-Oromo (the Cush). 

[OPFist]

This proto-Oromo (the Cush) has been under immense pressure from all directions since thousands of years. Particularly, the southward push from the Abyssinized nations of the north was so strong that the Abyssinian kings could occupy most parts of Gadaa Oromia till the 16th-century self-defense and liberation of the country from Abyssinians of the north and from others in the east. This liberation movement was wrongly named by Abyssinian writers and their Western partners as “Oromo migration.” Ethiopia enjoyed a time of relative peace and stability for about 300 years, till the start of the European ‘Scramble for Africa’ of the nineteenth century, in which emperor Minilik of Abyssinia took part and re-occupied Gadaa Oromia. It is controversially discussed whether the Oromo were part of the empire builders due to the participation of some Oromo nobles fighting on the side of the emperor or Oromo nation was only an imperial subject. Be it the Oromo are part of both the conquerors and the conquered, as Prof. Merera Guddina once put it, or we are only the victims, but not part of the victors; the fact on the ground now is that the Oromo nation was suffering under very oppressive system of  Abyssinian elites.

[OPFist]

Since this time of occupation, Oromo nation has showed a strong resistance, and had a coordinated as well as a sporadic liberation struggle. Leaving the many known examples of such movement aside, it is important to mention two alternative approaches chosen by Oromo elites, who led the struggle till now: ‘liberation of Oromia from the empire’ and ‘transformation of the empire to Ethiopian union;’ the second one is usually named as ‘democratization of Ethiopia.’ These two visions were followed by Oromo nationalists being organized in either the same liberation front or in different organizations. Nowadays, organizations pursuing the two goals are clearly differentiated, so that some of them strive for an independent Gadaa Oromia, whereas the others struggle for an integrative Great Oromia (democratic Ethiopia); of course, common denominator for the two being freedom of Oromo nation from alien rule, after which this free nation can choose either of the two goals per referendum. This being the fact on the ground, some nationalists still try to antagonize the two visions and portray one vision as anti-Oromo interest and the other as pro-Oromo interest. These destructive antagonizers are V-minded people in contrast to the constructive integrators, the Y-minded nationalists.

[OPFist]

To make both: independence of Oromia and integration of Ethiopia become a reality, and to help the struggle for freedom be successful, certain questions must be answered. For instance, despite the fact that the two Oromo groups (independencists and the integrationists) were under a very dire situation, why did they fail not to foster an alliance of Oromo liberation forces (alliance of both pro-independence and pro-integration nationalists)? One brilliant Oromo intellectual once raised a nice question: “how can we overcome our dictatorial mentality of 19th century?” The answer to this question can be: the only way for us to overcome this mentality is by embracing 21st century mentality of democracy. The 19th century mentality of brute force and mischief, under which few of Oromo elites and most Habesha elites in Ethiopia were suffering, is backward mentality of dictators (V-minded politicians); whereas, 21st century mentality is that of democrats (Y-minded politicians), who do believe in human and national freedom to self-determination. For what do the letters V and Y stand here? Who are these V or Y Oromo-nationalists

[OPFist]

To understand V-minded politicians, let’s just imagine a big letter V and try to visualize that at bottom junction of the letter are Abyssinian dictators trying to keep Abyssinian hegemony; at left top of the letter are dictatorial independencists (Oromianists); and at the right top are dictatorial integrationists (Ethiopianists). If we look at the way how these three forces deal with each other, they just do want to achieve their respective goals unconditionally: Abyssinian hegemonists want to keep their domination at any cost, dictatorial Oromo independencists try to achieve Gadaa Oromia’s independence at any cost, and dictatorial integrationists want to achieve integrated Ethiopia at any cost. Especially, the unconditional positions of the two opposition camps, i.e. that of the unconditional pro-independence Oromo and that of the unconditional pro-integration Oromo, who are continuously antagonizing and attacking each other, is a trillion-dollar lottery, which the Abyssinian elites are enjoying, even by further dividing and polarizing the two Oromo camps, because of the fact that both the independencist dictators and the integrationist dictators (V-politicians of the two Oromo camps) could not forge a challenging alliance against Abyssinian dictators. They consider that both ways of the independencists and the integrationists are diverging from each other, so that they have no common route and common objective to move and struggle together.

[OPFist]

To see who the Y-minded politicians (democrats in the two Oromo camps) are, let’s just try to imagine a very big letter Y and try to distinguish four points on the letter (the bottom, middle junction, left top, and right top). Then, let’s imagine that the bottom is the status of Ethiopian politics, where both the independencist and the integrationist Oromo are under tyranny of Abyssinian elites; the middle junction is a point of freedom for Oromo nation from tyranny (common goal of both pro-independence and pro-integration nationalists); left top is the point of independence (Gadaa Oromia); and right top is the point for integration (Ethiopia = Great Oromia). Then, let’s imagine that this letter Y is a route of liberation journey for both independencists and integrationists from our common oppressiv situation, towards our short-term (common) and long-term goals (diverging respective goals). Could we imagine that freedom fighters of this oppressed nation has a possibility to move from the bottom (point of tyranny) to the middle junction (point of freedom) together? This is our common route for the journy towards common short-term goal of freedom. Then after will come, the two diverging routes towards two different and diverging long-term goals of the two camps: left top = independence (long-term goal of the independencsts); and right top = integration (long-term goal of the integrationists).

[OPFist]

If we could imagine this letter Y very well, it is not hard to comprehend that we need alliance of the two camps to move from tyranny to point of freedom, not necessarily to move together to right top (integration goal) or to left top (independence goal). After achieving our freedom together, it is up to Oromo public to decide per referendum which direction to move further: to left top of independence, or to right top integration. If the Oromo majority will choose the right top, then our common national long-term goal will be that of the integrationists, i.e. an integrative Ethiopia with flourishing Oromummaa/Oromo nationalism). Otherwise, if the Oromo majority will choose to move to left top, no force can hinder the Oromo from achieving Oromia’s independence. That means, when we look at the wholistic political visions in organized Oromo community in general, we do observe two major groups:

– those who struggle for self-rule of an independent Gadaa Oromia without any claim on the other parts of Ethiopia, and

– those who want to forge self-rule of Gadaa Oromia within shared-rule of Ethiopia, i.e. de facto Great Oromia.

[OPFist]

Regarding Oromo nationalists, who want to achieve self-rule of Oromia with shared-rule of Ethiopia, I must say that they are very cautious not ‘to call a spade is spade’ and talk explicitly about Great Oromia, instead of Ethiopia. They should have asserted this because of the fact that the future rule of the game they want is freedom, democracy and Afan Oromo as a federal working language, and for the whole country will have a potential to be transformed to Great Oromia and because the only alternative to an independent Oromia can be the possible de jure Great Oromia, not the designation Ethiopia. If other nations and nationalities are interested in future voluntary union of peoples in the empire and in its territorial integrity as they usually tell us, they should make public this demand of re-naming Ethiopia as Oromia themselves, or they need to accept the offer of this arrangement from the pro-integration Oromo nationalists.

[OPFist]

For Oromo national liberation struggle to be successful and to achieve one of the two visions given above, self-rule of Oromia, be it within or without shared-rule of Ethiopia, we need to fight against Abyssinian dictators, who wants to keep, and we have to check those, who still nostalgically long for the past system. The future Ethiopia (de facto Great Oromia) will be the country, in which Afan Oromo and Oromummaa will flourish without any inhibition and oppression. Even if the name of such country will continue to be Ethiopia, of course, based on the voluntary agreement of all involved nations, including the Oromo, it yet will be de facto Great Oromia, so that there is nothing the Oromo nation will lose. But, for the sake of durability of the union and political stability, the necessary de jure name change from Ethiopia to Oromia must take place. To come to one of the above two visions, Oromo nationalists need to build unity of purpose based on common ground, i.e. freedom, and also forge alliance with organizations of other oppressed nations against Abyssinian dictators.

[OPFist]

Unfortunately, we do still observe that few of our leaders, nationalists and scholars are doing the job of antagonizing the two Oromo camps (pro-independence and pro-integration), rather than promoting their possible alliance or unity of purpose, that means, if they are not necessarily DiGa, they surely are FiGo. DiGa means Diina Gamna (smart foe), who is doing the job of antagonizing Oromo liberation camp for the sake of own advantage intentionally, whereas FiGo is Fira Gowwaa (misguided friend) doing same job of the foe unintentionally. Looking at the authors and commentators on Oromo websites, we observe two groups of Oromo nationalists: the antagonizers and the integrators. The antagonizers pray the mantra of “facts and theories,” which can help them in polarizing Oromo forces in a form of presenting such Oromo nationals as if they are irreconcilable enemies being divided into two camps: pro-integration and pro-independence. Usually, these antagonizers talk or write as if the pro-integration Oromo are collaborators to the Abyssinian camp, and or as if the pro-independence nationals are “evil secessionists, who hate to live with other nations.”

[OPFist]

On the other hand, integrators see the two post-freedom Oromo goals (an independent Oromia and an integrative Ethiopia) of Oromo people as two sides of the same coin (two sides of freedom). They try to assert that both pro-independence and pro-integration Oromo nationalists are de facto pro-freedom, who have two alternative post-freedom objectives. As we usually do observe, Abyssinian dictators do camouflage as pro-independent Oromo, and curse pro-integraion nationalists or vice versa, for the sake of sawing discord in Oromo liberation camp. Their motive is clear: Oromo should be divided, antagonized and polarized in order to be kept weak and ruled. What is really pity here is that, some Oromo nationalists and scholars fall in this trap of the Nsftagnas and do bidding of the enemy. Actually, Abyssinian dictators have a lot of people doing the antagonizing job with millions of dollars being invested on this project. May Waaqa open eyes of our misguided antagonizing Oromo nationalists, who are unknowingly still doing this job of Abissinian dictators.

[OPFist]

Last, but not least, for every move towards freedom and democracy is a tantamount approach to the realization of the self-rule of Oromia within or without shared-rule of Ethiopia, there is nothing disadvantageous for the Oromo if we support all groups promoting these values. Even though Abyssinians seem to get all sorts of support from regimes of both the Eastern and Western world to keep their hegemony, political and social development of the globe towards freedom, justice and democracy is in favour of Oromo national liberation struggle. That is why, it is high time for Oromo freedom fighters of the two camps (pro-independence and pro-integration) to build alliance in the first phase of liberation struggle (freedom phase) with each other and with non-Oromo democrats, in order to put pressure on Abissinian dictators. Be it we achieve our common goal of freedom in a revolutionary way or in an evolutionary way (step by step), Oromo people will be free and then decide per referendum in the second phase (sovereignty phase) either for self-rule of Oromia within shared-rule of Ethiopia or for self-rule of Oromia without shared-rule of Ethiopia. May Waaqa help Oromo nationalists work together in freedom phase, and may He help this nation exercise its free will to choose one of the two good alternatives during the sovereignty phase: independent Oromia (Gadaa Oromia)or integrated Ethiopia (Great Oromia). For the Oromo, the future is for either an independent Gadaa Oromia or an integrative Great Oromia. I personally prefer the second. That is why, I would like to encourage Oromo elites to develop more the mind set of leading Great Oromia (democratic Ethiopia) rather than holding on the mind set of only liberating Gadaa Oromia! Now, it is not yet high time and more pragmatic to instrumentalize Ethiopiawinet more than using Oromumma, because of Abiy Ahmed’s attempt to maintain domination of Amharanet over Oromumma. At this moment, singing Ethiopiawinet means adoring Amharanet. It is rather a right time to struggle for promotopn of Afasn Oromo to primary language of Ethiopia (Great Oromia)!