Economic and development analysis: Perspectives on economics, society, development, freedom & social justice. Leading issues in Oromo, Oromia, Africa & world affairs. Oromo News. African News. world News. Views. Formerly Oromia Quarterly
Bara Boorannii Gadaan bulaa bahe bara 1,456 bara addunyaan maan keessa jirti?Amerikaan maqaa guddoo tun qabdu tun bara sun keessaa USA jedhamtee yaamamuufuu ganna 320 hafaaf.
The Borana Oromo have elected Kura Jarso, 30, as their 71st Abba Gadaa in an elaborate, week long ceremony attended by tens of thousands of people in Badhaasa, southern Oromia.
Spectators and invited guests started arriving at Arda Jila Badhaasa (the Badhasa ceremonial place) several days ahead of Jarso’s inaguration. The mood here was euphoric all week long and Badhaasa is packed with people from every corner of Oromia. This is where the Borana Oromo leaders have exchanged power peacefully and in a democratic manner every eight years for more than 560 years. Click here to read more at OPRIDE.
15-Year-Old Haawii’s Moving Speech on the Importance of Media, OMN and the Struggle to Uphold Afan Oromo
Mini Documentary by Seenaa Jimjimo
‘The Oromo Community Association in Chicago was featured on Chicago Public Radio’s Worldviewprogram on Wednesday, October 20, 2010. Listen below the full segment of the program on the Oromo people, the Oromo Community Association in Chicago, and the benefit jazz concert that the Association will hold on October 24, 2010.From the Chicago Public Radio: There are an estimated 40 million Oromo in Ethiopia, which makes them the nation’s largest ethnic group. Their numbers extend into Kenya and Somalia as well. Yet, despite their wide influence in the Horn of Africa, many people have never heard of the Oromo. Seenna Jimjimo of Chicago’s Oromo Community Association and Kadiro Elemo talk with Jerome about the Oromo culture, the struggle for independence and the local Oromo community in Chicago.’ Source:Gadaa.com
“The Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia must be one of the most athletically blessed on earth. The list of long distance running champions it has produced includes Haile Gebrselassie, Abebe Bikila, and Sileshi Sihene, as well as Dibaba sisters and Derartu Tulu.” Says Olympic and World Records 2012, Keir Radnedge (Author), pp- 62-82. This is an Official London 2012 Olympic Games Publication. Wami Biratu, Mammo Dagaga, Tolasa Qotu, Fatuma Roba, Tikki Galana, Lesisa Desisa, Tsegaye Kebede, Meseret Defar, Maryam Yusuf, Gelete Burka, Tariku Bekele, Atsede Bayisa, Mohammed Aman, Gete (Gexee) Wami, Lamma Kumsa, Abebe Mekonnen, Fita (Fixa Bayyisa), Ayelech Worku, Worku Bikila, Kuture Dulacha, Elfnesh Alemu, Abebe Tola, Maru Dhaba, Mariam Hashim, Ibrahim Said, Berhane Adere, Magarsa Tullu, Abarraa Ayyano, Mohammed Kadir, Shibbiruu Raggasaa, Nugussie Roba, Markos Geneti Guta, Tigist Fufa are Oromians of world stars.
Younger sister of Tirunesh Dibaba, 24-year-old Oromo athlete Genzebe Dibaba – also hailing from Bekoji, Oromia – won the Diamond League 5K Meet in Oslo, Norway, on June 11, 2015. Among others, she was also cheered by her Oromo supporters in Norway. Oromo athletes Sinbiree and Galate Burqa completed 2nd and 4th respectively.
WORLD LEADS FOR OROMO ATHLETES YOMIF QAJELCHA (KEJELCHA) AND AMAN IN ROME – IAAF DIAMOND LEAGUE. THURSDAY, 4TH JUNE 2015.
Yomif Qajelcha (Kejelcha), author of the best world performance of the season on 5000m in Eugene last on Friday, 29 May 2015 (13’10 “54), improved his own mark in Rome, on the occasion of the fourth stage of the Diamond League, Thursday, 4th June 2015. The young Oromo athlete (17) won in 12’58 “39, before the Kenyan Paul Kipngetich Tanui (12’58” 69). The world 800m champion Mohammed Aman won over two laps of the track in a world-leading 1:43.56.
Sifan Hassan was second in in 1500m women’s race.
Oromia Athletic nation World News
Oromo athlete Sutume Asefa Kebede produced a stunning performance in the BIG 25 Berlin on Sunday May 10, 2015.
Despite 60mph gusts of wind, Oromian newcomer Sutume Asefa Kebede smashed Ejegayehu Dibaba’s national 25km record at the BIG 25 Berlin on Sunday 10 may 2015.
The 21-year-old front-ran to the finish-line in the historic Berlin Olympic Stadium, smashing Ejegayehu Dibaba’s national record with a time of 1:21:55. Despite the windy conditions, Sutume was 19 seconds faster than Ejegayehu Dibaba in Chicago in 2011.
Sutum’s time is a world-lead, and the fifth fastest ever run at this distance. The Oromian was more than four minutes faster than second placed Kenyan Winny Jepkorir who clocked 1:25:59. Elizeba Cherono of Kenya was third with 1:26:59.
Sutume set two lifetime bests en route to victory: 31:05 at 10km, and 68:23 through the halfway mark.
“I am very happy to have broken the national record. I did not expect this to happen today,” said Sutume, who now intends to run the 5000 m on track. “In the autumn I will run road races again.”
At the #Shanghai#IAAF Diamond League meeting on Sunday, 17th May 2015 #Oromo athlete #Almaz#Ayana amazed the world in her shinning victory in 5000m race.
Just going faster and faster, Ayana smashed her rivals to win by about 150 metres in 14:14.32.
It was a personal best, a meeting record, an Asian all-comers’ record and an IAAF Diamond League record. Only world record-holder Tirunesh Dibaba (14:11.15) and Meseret Defar (14:12.88), both Oromo athletes, have ever gone faster and Ayana might have topped those times too had she had more competition over the last half of the race.
The 23-year-old Ayana took the bronze medal at the 2013 IAAF World Championships and last year won the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech. She has form.
Two years ago, Ayana clung resolutely to Dibaba’s heels as her more illustrious countrywoman ran 14:23.68 at the Paris IAAF Diamond League meeting. Ayana’s reward then was second place in 14:25.84, which remained her personal best coming into Shanghai.
On a cool Sunday night which inevitably suffered a little in contrast to Friday’s IAAF Diamond League opener in Doha, Ayana led after five laps and ran solo from just before the 3000m mark.
At that stage, Kenya’s Viola Kibiwot was still vaguely in contact, but in reality, her only hope of catching Ayana would have been to hail a taxi. Even then it would have been doubtful as the field was spread out all around the track.
It was never hard to spot Ayana, however; you just looked for the woman who was obviously running fast.
With Global Sports physiotherapist Joost Vollaard helping with translation, Ayana said she was not aware of how close she was to the world record.
“I was trying for 14:20, I didn’t think of the world record,” she explained. “I was surprised; it was much faster than I had in mind.”
Based in Finfinnee, Ayana is training just outside the city. She is coached by her husband, 1500m runner Soresa Fida.
#Oromo athlete #Mamitu#Daska created marathon magic at #TCS World 10k in #Bengaluru, India, 17 May 2015 on a fine Sunday.
The story of the day was the spirit of competition, as the entirety of the race was contested in the best possible manner.
Mamitu Daska produced a world-class performance, winning the run but missing the overall course record by 9 seconds. Mamitu ended the race on a high,steering ahead of the competition by a clear 13 seconds, she ended the run with an overall time of 00:31:57. Although Mamitu had pulled far into the lead, the battle for second and third was a thrilling encounter with both Wude Ayalew and Gladys Chesir exchanging positions at the 7km mark. Wude raced ahead by two seconds finishing second at 00:32:10.
Speaking about her medal-winning performance, Mamitu said “I am really happy to end the run on a winning note. Though I was comfortable for the first four kilometres, it got a bit tougher. However I took initiative to push myself after that and crossed the finish line before my competition.”
In the international category of World 10K for Elite Men proceedings as Mosinet Geremew stole the show. The race to claim top honours was tightly contested with the top three finishers separated by 2 seconds each, Geremew emerged victorious, clocking in a time of 00:28:16. His fellow countryman Fikadu Seboka finished second with a timing of 00:28:18, followed by Edwin Kiptoo from Kenya who finished his run in 00:28:20.
Oromians won both the men’s and the women’s races at Riga Marathon Course, the IAAF Bronze Label Road Race on Sunday (17 May 2015).#Oromo athlete Haile #Tolossa Smashes #Riga#Marathon Course Record in men’s race on Sunday 17th May 2015.
In a race where three men ran well inside the previous course record, Haile Tolossa triumphed with a PB of 2:12:29 to record the fastest marathon ever on Latvian soil. Beyene #Effa held on for second place in 2:12:52, also a PB. Duncan Koech of Kenya 3rd in 2:12:53.
Compatriot Oromo athlete #Meseret#Eshetu#Damedominated the women’s race, winning by more than five minutes in 2:37:04 to narrowly miss the course record by 13 seconds.
Oromo athlete Workenesh Tola and Kenya’s Ruth Wanjiru had been running side by side for the majority of the race. Having long passed the fading Chepkemoi, it was only in the final two kilometres thatOromia’s Tola began to pull away, eventually taking second place in 2:42:07.Leading resultsMen
1 Haile Tolossa 2:12:29
2 Beyene Effa 2:12:52
3 Duncan Koech 2:12:53Women
1 Meseret Eshetu Dame 2:37:04
2 Workenesh Tola 2:42:07
3 Ruth Wanjiru 2:42:29
World indoor champion #Oromo athlete #Genzebe#Dibaba was named sportswoman of the year at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Shanghai on Wednesday ( 15th April 2015).
DIBABA NAMED SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR AT LAUREUS WORLD SPORTS AWARDS
World indoor champion Genzebe Dibaba was named sportswoman of the year at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Shanghai on Wednesday (15).
The middle-distance runner became the first sportsperson from Ethiopia to win an award in any category at the prestigious event, which began in 2000.
Dibaba was rewarded for her 2014 season in which she set world indoor records for 1500m and 3000m as well as a world indoor best for two miles.
Outdoors, she went on to record world-leading times over 5000m and 2000m before ending her season with 3000m victory at the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech.
On a night in which Renaud Lavillenie, Valerie Adams and Jo Pavey were nominated for other awards, Dibaba was the only winner from the sport of athletics.
Adams was nominated in the same category as Dibaba, while Lavillenie was nominated for the sportsman of the year award, which was given to tennis star Novak Djokovic. Pavey was one of the contenders for the comeback of the year award, which eventually went to rugby player Schalk Burger.
But other legendary athletes played a part in the ceremony. USA’s 400m world record-holder Michael Johnson presented Chinese tennis player Li Na with the exceptional achievement award, while recently retired sprint hurdler Liu Xiang joined Chinese opera singer Liao Changyong on stage for a surprise performance. http://www.iaaf.org/news/news/laureus-awards-2015-genzebe-dibaba
OROMO ATHLETE GENZEBE DIBABA RUNS SECOND-FASTEST 5KM IN HISTORY AT CARLSBAD 5000.
29 MAR 2015REPORTCARLSBAD, UNITED STATES
Two-time world indoor champion Genzebe Dibaba narrowly missed out on breaking the world best at the Carlsbad 5000, but her winning time of 14:48 was the second-fastest ever recorded for 5km on the roads.
The 24-year-old owns the fastest times in history across four distances indoors, and had been hoping to add another mark to her growing collection. Just like three of her indoor record-breaking performances, she was targeting a time that had been set by Meseret Defar. The two-time Olympic champion ran 14:46 in Carlsbad in 2006.http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/carlsbad-5000-2015-genzebe-dibaba-lalang
Injifannoo gammachisaa!!! #Oromo athlete Abera #Kuma from Oromia, pulled away from his rivals in the last seven kilometres of the 35th edition of de NN #Rotterdam#Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, to win in 2.06.46 on Sunday (12).
Kenya’s Mark Kiptoo finished second in 2:07:20 and his compatriot Bernard Koech, who did a lot of work in the second part of the race, was third in 2.08.02.
“I was waiting for the more experienced runners to make a move,” reflected Kuma after the third marathon of his career. “I did come here for a personal best but, when the pace slowed down, I decided to try to win the race.”
Oromo athlete Abdi Nageeye was the fastest in the race for the Dutch national title. He finished ninth overall in 2.12.32.
Sisay #Lemma won the 32nd #Vienna City Marathon in 2:07:31 in windy and relatively warm weather conditions at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race on Sunday (12). Kenya’s Duncan Koech was second with 2:12:14 while #Siraj Gena took third in 2:12:48.
On same day Oromo athletes #Meseret Mengistu Biru and her compatriot Amane Gobena win the Paris Womens Marathon. Seboka #Tola was 3rd in men’s marathon. #Oromo athletes Meseret #Mengistu Biru and her compatriot Amane #Gobena win the #Paris Womens#Marathon. Seboka #Tola was 3rd in mens marathon.
Injifannoo atileetota Oromoo.
Oromo athletes E. Shumi and B. #Dibaba were crowned champions of#Tokyo#Marathon, Sunday 22nd February 2015. #Oromia. #Africa
Endeshaw #Negesse Shumi clocked a time 2:05:59 to win the men’s race and to beat Olympic and World Champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda, who clocked a personal best and national record time of 2:06:30. Kenya’s Dickinson Chumba finished 3rd in 2:06:32.
The women’s Tokyo Marathon winner Birhane Dibaba clocked 2:23:15. Kenya’s Helah Kiprop clocked a personal best time of 2:24:03 to take second while Olympic Champion Tiki #Gelana (#Oromia) was third with a time of 2:24:26.
Congratulations to Oromia’s marathoners Angasaa and Qanani in Indore just like those in Tokyo!
INDORE: Runners from Oromia dominated the inaugural edition of Indore Marathon organised by the Association of Indore Marathoners in the city on Sunday 22nd February 2015.
While all three winners in men’s 21-km open category were Oromians (Oromos), it was their compatriots who were among two of the top three finishers in the women’s open category of the same event.
In the 21-km half marathon men’s open category,Oromia’s Angasa Ware clinched the first place clocking a time of one hour, five minutes and just over 42 seconds, while compatriot Abera Demelash was a close second. Their country mate, management graduate Belay Shimelis stood third.
In the women’s open category of the same event, Oromian Keneni Kome timed one hour, 18 minutes and 58 seconds to win the race, while Kenyan Linal Chirchir stood second and Oromia’s Adanech Jefare secured the third position.
Dibaba broke her fourth indoor world record in just over a year
World indoor champion Oromo athlete Genzebe Dibaba clocked 14:18.86 to beat previous record by more than five seconds at XL Galan meeting in Stockholm, Sweden on 19th February 2015.
Netherland’s European 1500m champion Oromo athlete Sifan Hassan clocked a world-leading indoor personal best of 4:00.46 to win the women’s race. German based Homiyu Tesfaye ran world-leading 1,500 time of 3:34:13.
Oromo athlete Genzebe Dibaba is now the holder of four world indoor records or world bests after clocking 14:18.86 to break the 5000m mark at the XL Galan meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, on Thursday.
With that time the two-time world indoor gold medallist beat the previous world indoor 5000m record set by her compatriot Meseret Defar – also run in Stockholm in 2009 – by more than five seconds. Her 3000m split time of 8:37 is the quickest that distance has been run so far this year.
Dibaba adds this most recent world record to the world indoor records she ran over 1500m and 3000m and the world indoor best she clocked over 2 miles all within 15 days last year. The 3000m record was run at XL Galan, with Defar the previous holder of that record, too.
On Thursday Dibaba finished more than a minute clear of her closest rival, Birtukan Fente, who ran 15:22.56. Oromo athletes filled the top three spots as Birtukan Adamu was third with 15:34.15.
LAVILLENIE, ADAMS, OROMO ATHLETE GENZEBE DIBABA AND PAVEY AMONG 2015 LAUREUS WORLD SPORTSMAN AND SORTSWOMAN NOMINEES.
Read more as follows:
‘IAAF World Athletes of the Year Renaud Lavillenie and Valerie Adams are among the nominees for the 2015 Laureus World Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards.
Lavillenie, in addition to memorably breaking Sergey Bubka’s long-standing pole vault world record last February, was only beaten once during a momentous year.
Outside of athletics, the other male nominees are (in alphabetical order) Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, British racing driver Lewis Hamilton, British golfer Rory McIlroy Spanish motorcyclist Marc Marquez and Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Adams is joined on the list of female nominees by Ethiopian distance runner Genzebe Dibaba; as well skiers Marit Bjorgen and Tina Maze, from Norway and Slovenia respectively, and tennis players Li Na and Serena Williams, from China and the USA.
British distance runner Jo Pavey, who won the European 10,000m title in Zurich last summer at the age of 40 and just 10 months after giving birth, is nominated in the Comeback of the Year category.
The 16th Laureus World Sports Awards will recognise sporting achievement during the calendar year of 2014 and is the premier honours event on the international sporting calendar.
The winners are voted for by the Laureus World Sports Academy, which is made up of 48 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, and they will be unveiled at a globally televised Awards Ceremony staged in the Grand Theatre, Shanghai, on Wednesday 15 April.
“This is going to be yet another classic year. Each year we think the list of Nominees cannot get better, but then it does. The Sportsman of the Year and Team of the Year categories look amazing. You could make a case for every nominee to be the winner,” said Laureus World Sports Academy chairman and former 400m hurdles world record-holder Edwin Moses.’ http://www.iaaf.org/…/news/lavillenie-adams-dibaba-pavey-la…
February 2, 2015 (IAAF) — The world 5000m bronze medallist and Continental Cup winner Oromo athlete Almaz Ayana chats about some of the best things in her world.
Best friend in athletics
My best friend in athletics is Soresa Fida (a 3:34 1500m runner) who is also my husband and always my first source of advice.
Best achievement in athletics
My best achievement is the 5000m victory at the 2014 Continental Cup in Marrakech The other one would be winning a bronze medal in the 5000m at the Moscow World Championships, which was a real breakthrough performance.
Best piece of advice
Every one of us, wherever we live or whoever we are, must work for peacefulness in our world. We are given this world to live in for free and leave it only by the grace of almighty God.
Biggest regret
Up until this point in my life, I have no regrets.
Biggest weakness
I have a weakness in terms of the finish of my races. This is something I am working hard to improve.
Biggest disappointment
I am always highly disappointed when I cannot make a good result in top competitions, like at the 2014 IAAF Diamond League in Brussels (Almaz placed down in ninth in the 3000m). I always want to show my best and I’m unhappy if other circumstances such as illness or injury hold me back.
Best athlete I ever saw
Tirunesh Dibaba is my idol. She has shown great discipline and character throughout her career.
Biggest rival
I have many great rivals but, in the race, time is my biggest rival.
Biggest achievement outside of athletics
I was living in a very small rented room for long time, but recently I bought my own residential house where I am living with my beloved husband.
Best stadium/venue
Competing at the Moscow Olympic Stadium at the 2013 World Championships was the most exciting event in my life. It was an impressive stadium with a great atmosphere and crowd.
Almaz Ayana on her way to winning the 5000m at the IAAF Continental Cup, Marrakech 2014 (Getty Images)[/caption]Almaz Ayana in the 5000m at the 2013 IAAF World Championships (Getty Images)[/caption]
Almaz Ayana in the 5000m at the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup (Getty Images)
Almaz Ayana on her way to winning the 5000m at the IAAF Continental Cup, Marrakech 2014
Source: IAAF.org and http://ayyaantuu.com/sport/personal-bests-almaz-ayana/
HASSAN THE STAR ON A NIGHT OF SIX WORLD LEADS IN KARLSRUHE
February 3, 2015 (IAAF) — The Netherlands’ European 1500m champion Sifan Hassan provided the outstanding performance at the first IAAF Indoor Permit meeting of 2015 when she sped to a national record and world-leading 1500m time of 4:02.57 at the Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe on Saturday (31).
Hassan moved away from Ethiopia’s 20-year-old world indoor silver medallist Axumawit Embaye off the final bend, although the latter was second in an indoor personal best of 4:02.92.
There were five other world-leading marks in the German city.
Turkey’s Ilhan Tanui Ozbilen won the men’s 1500m in 3:38.05, edging out Kenya’s Nixon Chepseba who was second in 3:38.12.
France’s Dmitri Bascou won the 60m hurdles in 7.53, having run the same time in his heat.
“Moments after the start tonight (in the final), I made a big mistake. Had this not happened, I would have run under 7.50 tonight,” said Bascou.
China’s Xie Wenjun was second in 7.62 and Great Britain’s Lawrence Clarke was third in 7.63, equalling his personal best.
Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith sped to a 60m time of 7.12, like Bascou, having run as quickly in her preliminary round.
The Briton’s route to victory was eased by the fact that the Netherlands’ European 100m and 200m champion Dafne Schippers, who had also run 7.12 in her heat, was disqualified in the final for a false start.
“I had not reckoned with this time tonight,” bubbled Asher-Smith. “I’m quite surprised how well I ran tonight.”
Spain’s Eusebio Caceres took the long jump honours with an indoor PB of 8.16m.
The Spaniard was languishing down in fifth place with 7.75m before posting his winning attempt in the final round. It spoiled a potential celebration for Germany’s Julian Howard, who actually hails from Karlsruhe and who had leapt an indoor best of 8.04m in the second round
Russia’s former European junior 3000m champion Yelena Korobkina won over 15 laps of the track in a personal best of 8:47.61, almost three seconds faster than she had ever run before under any conditions.
Great Britain’s Laura Muir was second in 8:49.73 with the first seven women home in indoor personal bests.
Lavillenie fails at 6.01m
Not participating in the orgy of world-leading marks was the evening’s headline act, Renaud Lavillenie.
The French vaulter initially looked a bit off his game, after going over 6.00m in Rouen last Saturday, and missed his opening jump at 5.73m.
He then recovered on his next attempt, posting a meeting record of 5.86m on his first try for the victory.
However, he was unsuccessful at what would have been a world-leading 6.01m.
“I was feeling a little tired tonight,” said Lavillenie. “It’s not easy to jump six metres every time out. I had great pleasure in breaking the meeting record, so I’m not unhappy.”
Russia’s Aleksandr Gripich finished second in an indoor best of 5.73m.
USA’s Funmi Jimoh won the women’s long jump with a 6.71m leap right at the end to beat Sweden’s Erica Jarder, who was second with 6.69m. Germany’s world-leading Sosthene Moguenara finished third, also with 6.69m.
Paul Kipsiele Koech’s win in the men’s 3000m never seemed in doubt as he cruised to a 7:45.41 win ahead of Germany’s Richard Ringer, who clocked a best of 7:46.18
US shot putters Christian Cantwell and Ryan Whiting, second and first in Dusseldorf on Thursday, swapped places as Cantwell won with 20.77m to Whiting’s 20.72m.
Susanna Kallur returned to the city of her 2008 world record in the 60m hurdles, running a competitive race over the barriers for the first time since 2010.
The Swede, in the wake of her well-documented injury woes over the past few years, posted creditable 8.14 times in both her heat and final but the competition belonged to Germany’s Cindy Roleder, who won with 8.03 in the final.
Oromo athletes: Lemi Berhanu surprises while Aselefech Mergia makes magnificent Marathon Comeback in the 2015 Dubai Marathon
Note: 90% of Athletes in the ranking positions are Oromo athletes from Oromia
January 23, 2015 (IAAF) — Ethiopia’s Lemi Berhanu emerged as the unexpected champion at the 2015 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, crossing the line at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in a world-leading time and big personal best of 2:05:28 on Friday (23)
It was not a debutants’ triumph as has been the case for the past three years but it was definitely surprise as the 21-year-old Ethiopian – wearing a bib with his extended family name of Hayle on it – left behind some of the biggest names in long-distance running.
Lelisa Desisa, the 2013 Dubai and Boston Marathon champion, took second in 2:05:52 while Deribe Robi completed the all-Ethiopian podium with a time of 2:06:06.
Fourth was Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa in 2:06:35 followed by two more Ethiopians, Sisay Lemma in a personal best of 2:07:06 and Bazu Worku in 2:07:09. Indeed, the top 12 men were all Ethiopian runners.
Split times of 14:39 for 5km and 29:22 for 10km initially pointed towards a sub-2:04 finishing time.
However, the pacemakers could not sustain the pace and when a group of 15 runners reached the 25km mark in 1:13:57, none of them was left in the race.
Five more runners lost contact during the next five kilometres, among them Kenenisa Bekele.
It was Desisa who surged ahead at the 30km refreshment station to take his bottle. The Ethiopian kept going and five countrymen went with him: Robi, Lemma, Lelisa, Girmay Birhanu and Lemi Berhanu.
Five kilometres from the finish a duel between Desisa, who was also second in New York last November, and Lemi Berhanu developed and the latter was able to drop the much more experienced Desisa with about one kilometre to go.
Dream come true in Dubai
“I would never have thought that I could win this race,” said Berhanu, who had won his debut race in Zurich last year with 2:10:40. “It was my dream to do this in Dubai one day, but not this year! With around one kilometre to go, I sensed that I could succeed.”
He has now improved by more than five minutes and is unbeaten in two races.
“If my federation selects me then I would really like to run the marathon in the World Championships in the summer,” added Berhanu, who said he had no idea what to do with the first prize cheque of US$200,000. “I never thought about the money. I really don’t know what I will do with it.”
By contrast, Dubai proved a tough and disappointing marathon experience for Bekele.
Ethiopia’s superstar, in his third marathon, dropped out just beyond the 30km mark, appearing to suffer from a leg injury. He had been in the leading group up to the 28km mark.
“Kenenisa suffered hamstring problems in both legs,” explained his coach Renato Canova.
“But I think the real problem is in his right achilles tendon. At the end of November, he had to reduce training because of this but then it got better and, actually, his final training sessions looked encouraging. A world record was never a realistic target, but a 2:04 time seemed realistic.
“However, when I saw him running today he did not look relaxed, he looked tight. I think this is the reason why he developed hamstring problems. Something must have happened in the final few days before the race,” added the Italian coach. “We now have to solve this tendon problem but for his future marathon career I remain very confident. I think he will do really well.”
Mergia a motivated mother
Making it a marvellous day for Ethiopian runners, other than Bekele, Aselefech Mergia produced a perfect comeback in the women’s race.
Having taken an extensive break from competition to have a baby, the 2011 and 2012 Dubai champion returned to run a marathon for the first time since her disappointing 42nd place at the 2012 Olympics and won in 2:20:02, just 31 seconds outside her course record from three years ago.
In a thrilling battle right to the line, Kenya’s world half marathon champion Gladys Cherono was beaten by just one second in what was the third-fastest marathon debut.
Another Kenyan, Lucy Kabuu, was third in 2:20:21 in a race which saw 10 women run faster than 2:24.
Ethiopia’s Tigist Tufa broke clear shortly after the start and maintained a daunting pace, leading a talented chasing group by a minute at 20km, which was reached in 1:05:23 and suggested a 2:18 finishing time.
However, Tufa paid the price in the end and was caught at 34km by a five-woman group consisting of Mergia, fellow Ethiopians Aberu Kebede and Shure Demissie, Kabuu and Cherono.
The group was reduced to three with just over three kilometres remaining after Kebede and Demissie were dropped, before Mergia eventually proved the strongest in the final kilometre.
“I told myself after having my daughter that I could win a marathon again,” said Mergia, who was watched by her husband and baby daughter. “We used the prize money from my first two wins in Dubai to begin building a hotel back home, now we’ll be able to complete the job.”
Ethiopian runners took the next four places. Fourth was teenager Demissie in a world junior best of 2:20:59, and the fifth fastest debut on record; with Kebede in 2:21:17, 2014 Dubai champion Mulu Seboka in 2:21:56 and then Alemu Bekele in 2:22:51 the next three women across the line.
Men’s results:
Women’s results:
Source: IAAF
Read more at: http://ayyaantuu.com/sport/lemi-berhanu-surprises-while-aselefech-mergia-makes-magnificent-marathon-comeback-in-dubai/
Oromo Athlete Dibaba Successfully Defends Her Xiamen Title as Both Course Records Fall.
January 5, 2015 (IAAF)
Oromo’s (Oromian) Mare Dibaba won the Xiamen Marathon for the second year in succession, taking more than one-and-a-half minutes off the course record she set last year at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race, winning in 2:19:52 on Saturday (3).
For the first time since the inaugural Xiamen Marathon in 2003, both course records were broken as Kenya’s Moses Mosop set a Chinese all-comers’ record of 2:06:19 to win the men’s race on a day when runners were met with ideal conditions with temperatures in the range of 11-15°C.
The organisers had made some adjustments to the route due to some construction-related concerns in the city. Some of the more undulating parts of the course – including the Yanwu Bridge that stretches over the sea – had been taken out.
When Dibaba won in Xiamen last year, she took 61 seconds off the course record and crossed the line five minutes ahead of her nearest rival.
This time, her victory was even more emphatic.
Dibaba built up a significant lead in the early stages of the race and maintained it all the way to the finish, despite some problems with her legs after 33km.
By equalling her PB of 2:19:52, she covered the course one minute and 44 seconds quicker than she did last year, finishing almost eight minutes ahead of Meseret Legesse, who once again finished second to Dibaba for the second year running.
“I could have run faster but I felt a little bit pain in my legs in the last 10km which forced me to slow down,” said the 25-year-old who finished third in Boston and second in Chicago last year. “But I am happy with the result.”
Dibaba had also aimed to break the Chinese all-comers’ record of 2:19:39, set by Sun Yingjie in 2003, and the organisers had offered an extra bonus for achieving such a feat, but Dibaba missed that mark by just 13 seconds.
“I was trying to break the record and I missed it by a few seconds, which was a pity, but I am happy to break the race record,” said Dibaba, who represented Ethiopia in the marathon at the 2012 Olympics. “The new course is very good and the fans along the road were so supportive from the beginning to the end of the race.”
Legesse was about a minute slower than last year, finishing second in 2:27:38. In third, Kenya’s Meriem Wangari set a PB of 2:27:53. It was the second time the 35-year-old had made it on to the podium in Xiamen, having finished second on her marathon debut in 2012.
Mosop back to winning ways
Back in 2011, Mosop made a promising start to his marathon-running career, clocking 2:03:06 on Boston’s record-ineligible course on his debut at the distance and then winning the Chicago Marathon with a course record of 2:05:37 later that year.
But in recent times, the 29-year-old has struggled to recapture that form. He finished eighth at the 2013 Chicago Marathon and a distant 12th in Prague last May, clocking 2:20:37. So when he lined up in Xiamen, he was something of an unknown quantity.
Unlike the women’s race, the men’s contest was more competitive.
A pack of 10 runners ran shoulder to shoulder after 7.5km and passed the 15km check point in 44:50. After 20km was reached in 1:00:20, the leading group was trimmed to six men as Ethiopia’s world bronze medallist Tadese Tola, the fastest man in the race with a PB of 2:04:49, was left behind.
The pace maker dropped out at the 30km mark, but the pace did not slow down. Regassa tried to pull away but was soon caught by Mosop and Ethiopia’s Abrha Milaw.
The leading trio ran alongside one another for a further 5km before Milaw slowed down. Mosop seized the lead at 40km and kept extending his advantage over Regassa untill he hit the finish line in 2:06:19 to take more than a minute off the course record set in 2013 by Oromia’s Getachew Terfa Negari.
Mosop’s time was also the fastest marathon ever recorded on Chinese soil, bettering the 2:06:32 set by the late Samuel Wanjiru when winning the 2008 Olympic title in Beijing.
“I planned to run in sub-2:06 in Xiamen, but I am happy with this result,” said Mosop, who has a PB of 2:05:03. “I have been troubled with injuries – first a knee injury and than an injury in the calf – for two years. Winning in Xiamen at the start of the season is a huge boost for me.”
Mosop’s next marathon will be in Paris in April.
Regassa was also inside the previous course record, clocking 2:06:54 in second place. Milaw finished third in 2:08:09, nine seconds ahead of Kenya’s Robert Kwambai. Tola was a distant fifth in 2:10:30.
In total, more than 43,000 runners competed in the marathon and half-marathon races.
Leading results
Men
1 Moses Mosop (KEN) 2:06:19
2 Tilahun Regassa (Oro) 2:06:54
3 Abrha Milaw (ETH) 2:08:09
4 Robert Kwambai (KEN) 2:08:18
5 Tadese Tola (Oro) 2:10:30
Women
1 Mare Dibaba (Oro) 2:19:52
2 Meseret Legesse (Oro) 2:27:38
3 Meriem Wangari (KEN) 2:27:53
4 Meseret Godana (Oro) 2:36:11
5 Cao Mojie (CHN) 2:43:06
In a record-breaking edition of the #Airtel New #DelhiHalf-Marathon on Sunday (23 November 2014), an unprecedented nine runners ducked under the one-hour mark led by the great #Oromo athlete #Guye#Adola in a course record of 59:06.
The 24-year-old, who won a bronze medal at the #IAAFWorld Half-Marathon Championships in #Copenhagenin March, had the measure of the gold medallist Geoffrey Kamworor this time.
In the deepest race of all-time, #Adola powered to a personal best of 59:06 to defeat #Kamworor – who arrived in the Indian capital unbeaten at the half-marathon in 2014 – by one second.
“The competition was hard, but I am very happy with my podium finish. It was bit cold in the early morning. But I am happy with my timing, and more so because I broke the course record,” said Adola.
Mosinet Geremew finished third in 59:11 while further back, the world-leader Abraham #Cheroben from Kenya placed seventh, albeit in 59:21!
The women’s race was a comparatively sedate affair with world record-holder Florence Kiplagat taking the plaudits in 70:04 in a race which boiled down to a sprint finish on the track inside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
“It was a very nice and strong field today, very tight group. I knew that if I stuck to the group, I could win and that was my strategy for today,” said the winner.
“Coming into the race as defending champion, there was no pressure on me. I just had to believe in myself and I know I could win back the title.”
World half-marathon champion Gladys #Cherono from and Worknesh #Degefa from took second and third in 70:05 and 70:07 respectively.
Oromo Athlete Amane Gobena takes the honour at the Istanbul Marathon for the third time
November 17, 2014 (IAAF) — Amane Gobena took the honours at the 2014 Vodafone Istanbul Marathon, winning at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in 2:28:46 on Sunday (16).
The women’s race had a runner who decided to take matters into her own hands early in the race.
Local road running talent Ummu Kiraz of Turkey led from the start and passed 5km in 17:50 and 10km in 35:25. However, Ethiopia’s Emebt Etea, Amane Gobena and Salomie Getnet kept the gap to around 80 metres, with the home hope Elvan Abeylegesse, Ukraine’s Olena Burkovska and London 2012 Olympic Games bronze medallist Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova close behind.
By the halfway point, covered in 1:14:52, Kiraz was still in the lead by 29 seconds over what had become a six-women pack,
However, around 25 kilometres, race favourite Gobena decided to haul in Kiraz and increased her pace, taking the lead two kilometres later and she passed 30km at 1:46:03, 26 seconds faster than Kiraz and Getnet.
Abeylegesse was running just behind the chasing pair but Burkovska and Petrova Arkhipova were by now another 100 metres in arrears.
Gobena carried on forging ahead and remained unchallenged until the finish line, finishing almost two minutes ahead of anyone else.
Getnet was second in 2:30:36, Burkovska was third with 2:31:30 and Petrova Arkhipova took fourth place with 2:31:47.
Former 5000m world record holder Abeylegessie was fifth in 2:32:15 with the early leader Kiraz eventually finishing sixth in 2:32:52
“I’m very happy to be here for the third time and win for the first” said the 32-year-old Gobena, who was finished third in Istanbul in 2010 and second in 2012.
Her only disappointment was missing out on the course record of 2:27:25, set in 2010 by her compatriot Ashu Kasim Rabo, with race organisers having high hopes that the mark might be improved upon this year.
Hafid Chani, from Morocco, won the men’s competition, finishing the 42-kilometer course in two hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds, becoming the first athlete from Morocco to win the race in its history. Chani will a $50,000 prize for finishing first.
Oromo athlete Gebo Burka came second after finishing the course in 2:12.23, while Kenya’s Michael Kiprop followed him in a time of 2:12.39.
Burka will receive $25,000, while Kiprop is set to go home with $15,000.
Approximately 25,000 runners from 118 countries registered to compete in today’s races which also included a 15km race and a 10km race.
Oromo athlete Abarraa #Kumaa (Abera#Kuma) wins #Zevenheuvelenloop on Sunday, 16th November 2014.
The Seven Hills Run in #Nijmegen won Sunday by Oromo athlete Abarraa Kumaa. The big favorite and defending champion, Leonard Patrick Komon dropped out midway. He could not keep up the pace.
Kuma was part of a leading group with, among other world record holders Leonard Komon and Zersenay Tadese. These two top runners were on#Zevenheuvelenweg let the leaders go when Kuma accelerated. The Oromian then fought a battle with his compatriots Yigrem Demelash, Yenew Alamirew and Tesfaye Abera. Eventually he arrived solo at the finish.
Gammachuu!!! Gammachuu!!! Injifannoo Atileetota Oromoof! Victory to Oromo athletes! Amanee Gobanaa (Women’s race) and Gebo Burqaa (2nd in men’s race) took the honours at the 2014 Vodafone Istanbul Marathon, winning at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race.
Belayinesh Oljirraa, Emane Margaa & Muktar Idris Win IAAF Cross Country series in Burgos, Spain.
The 11th ‘Cross Internacional de Atapuerca’ marked the opening leg of this winter’s IAAF Cross Country Permit series which will reach the pinnacle with the IAAF World Cross Country Championships next March and saw victories from the Oromian duo Imane Margaa (Men’s race) and Belaynesh Oljirraa (Women’s race) on Sunday 16th November 2014.
Right from the gun, the men’s race – held in cold conditions as the thermometer barely reached 7 degrees Celsius, and with very strong winds – turned into a two-man battle between Margaa and his compatriot Muktar Edris.
Wearing identical orange vests, Edris and Margaa looked in impressive form but it was always Edris who made the pace while the former world champion Margaa ran comfortably just behind him, copying his tactics from the last three editions in Atapuerca where he had taken narrow sprint finish wins.
Oljirraa maintains the Oromians dominance!
In contrast to the men, the 7.9km women’s race opened relatively gently with Spain’s Sonia Bejarano reaching the one kilometre point in the lead while all the favourites were comfortably positioned behind her.
Oljirraa, who won bronze medals at both the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and also in the IAAF World Championships 10,000m last year, took command some five minutes into the race but there still were a large leading group of seven at halfway.
After successive laps of 6:43 and 6:30, two-time Atapuerca winner Hiwot Ayalew went to the front and the group was quickly whittled down to four with only Ayalew, Oljira, Kenya’s 2013 World Championships 5000m silver medallist Mercy Cherono and Morocco’s Malika Asahssah remaining in contention after Ayalew covered the third lap in 6:25.
With just under two kilometres remaining, Oljirraa regained command of the race and her change of speed left first Cherono and then Ayalew behind.
As Oljirraa carried on to secured her win in style, crossing the line in 25:26, Cherono caught Ayalew some 200 metres out to finish eight seconds adrift the victor.
A fading Ayalew could not even keep her third place as she was caught by Asahssah in the closing 30 metres.
“I knew Atapuerca as I already had raced here three years ago. On that occasion, I came second so I was eager to come back to what I think is the best cross country race in the world and win,” said a delighted Oljirraa.
#Oromo athlete Belaynesh #Oljirraa won the 25th edition #Bupa Great South Run.
Oromo Athletes in Germany: Tulu Wodajo Addisu wins the sovereign Rother fair run
August 13, 2014
Oromo Athletes performed superb in Roth, Bayern, Germany on Sunday, August 10, 2014. Athlete Tulu Wodajo Addisu, with Oromia National flag on his shirt (214), finished first, while Etana Getachew finished second and Badhane Gamachu fourth.
Congra! Brave #Oromo athlete Sifan Hassan wins for Europe!
Sifan #Hassan collected an impressive victory in the 1500m to further cushion Team Europe’s lead midway through the second day’s programme.
Hassan, the #European champion from the #Netherlands, won by more than a second in 4:05.99 after taking command of the race from the 800m point. She didn’t hide her delight as she crossed the line, arms held high, smiling widely.
“In the last 600 metres (Seyaum) was going fast so I had to speed up,” said the 21-year-old, who ran a world-leading 3:57.00 at the #IAAF Diamond League meeting in Paris in July. “So that’s how I won. It’s fantastic!”
Oromo Athelete Sifan Hassan (Representing Netherlands) won gold medal in 1500 m at European Championships 2014 in Zurich.
August 15, 2014 (Google Translation from Dutch language – NOS) — Sifan Hassan won the gold medal in the 1500m at the European Championships in Zurich, yesterday, August 14, 2014. Hassan (21) was born in Adama, Oromia, and obtained a Dutch passport only last November. Later this week, Hassan was out on the five kilometers.
It is the second Dutch gold medal in Zurich; Wednesday Dafne Schippers was the fastest in the 100m.
Hassan fitted into the finals its usual tactic. She sat only at the start of the final round in the lead and accelerated, but this time she let herself overtake weather by its biggest competitor, the Swedish Abeba Aregawi. On the final straight, the 21-year-old Arnhem hit mercilessly. Aregawi had to settle for silver in 4.05,08. The bronze medal was for the British Laura Weightman in 4.06,32.
Sifan Hassan left Oromia as a refugee and arrived in the Netherlands in 2008 at age fifteen. She began running while undertaking studies to become a nurse.
Affiliated with Eindhoven Atletiek, she entered the Eindhoven Half Marathon in 2011 and won the race with a time of 77:10 minutes. She was also runner-up at two cross country races (Sylvestercross and Mol Lotto Cross Cup). She won those races in 2012, as well as the 3000 metres at the Leiden Gouden Spike meeting.
Sifan made her breakthrough in the 2013 season. She ran an 800 metres best of 2:00.86 minutes to win at the KBC Night of Athletics and took wins over 1500 metres at the Nijmegen Global Athletics and Golden Spike Ostrava meetings. On the 2013 IAAF Diamond League circuit she was runner-up in the 1500 m at Athletissima with a personal best of 4:03.73 minutes and was third at the DN Galan 3000 metres with a best of 8:32.53 minutes – this time ranked her the fourth fastest in the world that year.
She gained Dutch citizenship in November 2013 and the following month she made her first appearance for her adopted country. At the 2013 European Cross Country Championships she won the gold medal in the under-23 category and helped the Dutch team to third in the rankings. She also won the Warandeloop and Lotto Cross Cup Brussels races that winter. At the beginning of 2014 she ran a world leading time of 8:45.32 minutes for the 3000 m at the Weltklasse in Karlsruhe, then broke the Dutch record in the indoor 1500 m with a run of 4:05.34 minutes at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. http://ethiofreespeech.blogspot.no/2014/08/sifan-hassan-won-gold-medal-in-1500-m.html
“The Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia must be one of the most athletically blessed on earth. The list of long distance running champions it has produced includes Haile Gebrselassie, Abebe Bikila, and Sileshi Sihene, as well as Dibaba sisters and Derartu Tulu.” Says Olympic and World Records 2012, Keir Radnedge (Author), pp- 62-82. This is an Official London 2012 Olympic Games Publication. Wami Biratu, Mammo Dagaga, Tolasa Qotu, Fatuma Roba, Tikki Galana, Lesisa Desisa, Tsegaye Kebede, Meseret Defar, Maryam Yusuf, Gelete Burka, Tariku Bekele, Atsede Bayisa, Mohammed Aman, Gete (Gexee) Wami, Lamma Kumsa, Abebe Mekonnen, Fita (Fixa Bayyisa), Ayelech Worku, Worku Bikila, Kuture Dulacha, Elfnesh Alemu, Abebe Tola, Maru Dhaba, mariam Hashim, Ibrahim Said, Berhane Adere, Magarsa Tullu, Abarraa Ayyano, Mohammed Kadir, Shibbiruu Raggasaa, Nugussie Roba and Markos Geneti Guta are Oromians of world stars.
Following her dramatic victory in the women’s 10,000m final at Barcelona 1992, Derartu Tulu waited at the finish line for the opponent Elana Meyer, a white South African, and the two set off hand in hand for a victory lap that came to symbolise new hope for Africa. At Sydney 2000, having regained her form of eight years earlier, Tulu again won gold in the women’s 10,000m event, becoming the first woman to win two gold medals in long-distance races at Games and the only woman to win 10,000m gold twice.
Women’s long-distance track events are relatively new to the games programme. It wasn’t until 1996 that a women’s 5000m event introduced and the women’s 10,000m did not make its debut until the 1988 games in Seoul. Only one women, Tirunesh Dibaba at the Beijing games in 2008, has achieved the accolade of claiming the 5000m-10,000m double.
At the 2008 Games in Beijing, Tirunesh Dibaba became the first woman in history to complete the 5000m- 10,000m double.
Gebrselassie burst on to the scene in the 1990s and progressed to become the pre-eminent marathon runner. Bekele took over his crown as king of the men’s 10,000m in 2004 and four years latter laid claim to being the best ever at half the distance. Bekele is aslo arguably the finest cross-country performer the world has ever seen.
Men’s 5000m and 10,000m long distance races challenge an athlete’s speed and endurance. The two events were introduced at the 1912 games Stockholm and many athletes have competed in both over the years with the double achieved on seven occasions, most recently by Kenenisa Bekele at Beijing 2008.
Abebe Bikila, running barefoot, won the men’s Marathon at Rome 1960 to become the first black African gold medallist in history. When runners lined up for the men’s Marathon at Rome 1960, no one outside his own country had heard of 28-year-old Abebe Bikila. He had been drafted into his country’s team at the last moment only after Wami Biratu broke his ankle playing football. By the end of the race, he had claimed the first gold medal won by a black African in the Games’ history – in bare feet, and in a world record time of 2:15.16. Four years latter, he contracted appendicitis just six weeks before Tokyo Games but jogged around the hospital to maintain his fitness. This was his first marathon with shoes , and he won in another record time (2:12.11).
Olympic and World Records 2012
by Keir Radnedge (Author),Hardback, pp- 62-82.
An Official London 2012 Olympic Games Publication
Oromo athlete, a father of 12, Wami Biratu was once among the best long-distance runners in Ethiopia. Wami had at one point trained Abebe Bikila. In his career, Wami had won 30 gold, 40 silver and 10 bronze medals and won competitions in Egypt, Japan and Czhekoslavakia.
Mamo Wolde Dagaga was born in the village of Dirre Jille in Ad’a district about 60 Km from Finfinnee from his parents Obbo Wolde Dagaga and Aadde Ganame Gobana.
Mamo grew up in a traditional upbringing spending most of his childhood in Dredhele where he attended a “qes” schooling. In June of 1951, he was hired by the Imperial Body Guard. While at the armed forces, Mamo was able to further his education. In 1953, he was transferred to the Second Battalion of the Imperial Guard and was sent to Korea as part of the UN peacekeeping mission. Mamo spent 2 years in Korea where he had a distinguished military service. After returning from Korea, Mamo got married and pursued his passion of athletics quite regularly.
Mamo easily qualified to be a member of the Ethiopian Olympics team that participated in the Melbourne Olympics in 1962. He had the overall best performance of the national Olympics team by becoming 4-th in 1500 meter race. In 1968, Mamo competed in the 10000 meters race along with the then favorite Kenyan athletes Kip Keno and Naphtaly Temo. 200 meters before the end of the race, Mamo went to the lead. He maintained the lead until almost the end whence he was overtaken by Naphtaly Temo of Kenya. Mamo won his first Silver Olympic medal. One day before the marathon race, the team trainer Negussie Roba approached Mamo and informed him that the legendary Abebe may not be able to finish the marathon race due to bad health. Coach Negussie told Mamo that he was the nation’s only hope for the next day’s marathon race and orders him to prepare. The next day, October 20, 1968, 72 athletes from 44 countries started the long anticipated race. Abebe Bikila, Mamo Wolde and Demssie represented Ethiopia. Abebe later dropped out of the race at the 15-th Km after leading for the whole duration. Mamo later would muse.
Mamo Wolde completed the race victoriously giving his country a third gold medal in Marathon. Mamo became an instant hero just like Abebe. Mamo was 35 when he won the Mexico City Marathon race. In 1972, Mamo participated in the Munich Olympics at the age of 40 where he won a bronze medal in the 10000 meter. In his athletic career, Mamo had participated in a total of 62 international competitions. http://www.roadrunnersclub.org.uk/documents/196_MamoWoldeandtheRRC.pdf
Oromo athlete Tolossa Qottuu is currently the assistant coach of the Ethiopian National Athletic team. Tolossa had his own successful career in long-distance running which earned him 18 gold, 3 silver and 12 bronze medals. His rise to national level was as a result of his near win in the 5K race in 1972 which he narrowly lost to Miruts. Tolossa had participated in the Montreal and Moscow Olympics.
Oromo athlete Eshetu Tura had won a total of 30 gold, 19 silver and 13 bronze medals in the 3000 meters hurdle race.
Eshetu Tura is a man whose career changed by a song. The famous song written by Solomon Tessema, the legendary sport journalist, to honor Abebe Bikila and Mamo Wolde (marathon li-Ililtwa) was playing on the radio after Mamo’s victory in Mexico City. Eshetu not only get inspiration but also a determination to be like Abebe and Mamo.
Eshetu joined the armed forces, the breeding-ground of athletics success in Ethiopia. His win in the 3000 meters hurdle earned him the national spot-light. Eshetu had won a total of 30 gold, 19 silver and 13 bronze medals in the 3000 meters hurdle race. Eshetu’s name is recorded in the History books as Oromia’s first athlete in the 3K hurdle.
Oromo athlete Darartu Tulluu as she won the women’s 10000 meters race in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.www.oromiasports
Derartu Tulu rose to fame and an Olympics history, when she convincingly won the women’s 10000 meters race in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. The scene of this 23 year old Ethiopian young lady winning this race and then draping herself with the national tri-color and doing a lap has placed her in the ranks of the eternal Oromo heroes Abebe Bikila and Mamo Wolde.
Dearatu was born in 1969 in the village of Bokoji in the Arsi region of central Oromia as a seventh child in a family of 10 children. Even in elementary school, Derartu excelled in horse riding competitions. Derartu’s first significant win came in a 400 meter race in her school where she out-run the school’s start male athlete. That along with a win in 800 meters race in her district convincingly put Derartu in a path of a successful career in Athletics. In 1988, Derartu represented the region of Arsi and competed in a national 1500 meters race where she won a bronze medal.
When she was 17, Derartu was hired by the Ethiopian Police Force. In 1989, she competed in her first international race of 6 kilometer cross-country in Norway but was 23rd. In a year time, though, she competed in the same race and won the Gold Medal. Derartu won international recognition and success in the 90’s. Her record-setting win in the 10,000 meter race in Bulgaria and her win in the same distance race in Cairo, Egypt are worth mentioning.
Derartu’s win in the 10,000 meter race in the Barcelona Olympics goes down in the History Books as the first gold-medal win ever by an African woman.
Darartu is the first black African woman to win a gold medal which she won in the 10,000m event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. The race, where her and Elana Meyer (South Africa) raced for lap after lap way ahead of the rest of the field launched her career. She sat out 1993 and 1994 with a knee injury and returned to competition in the 1995 IAAF World Cross Country Championships where she won gold, having arrived at the race only an hour before the start. She was stuck in Athens airport without sleep for 24 hours. The same year she lost out to Fernanda Ribeiro and won silver at the World Championships 10,000.
1996 was a difficult year. At the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Tulu lost her shoe in the race and had to fight back to get 4th place. She also finished 4th at the Olympic Games where she was nursing an injury. In 1997 she won the world cross country title for the second time but did not factor in the 10,000 metres World Championships. 1998 and 1999 she gave birth, but came back in 2000 in the best shape of her life. She won the 10,000 metres Olympic gold for the second time (the only woman to have done this in the short history of the event). She had also won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships title for the third time. In 2001 she finally won her world 10,000 track title in Edmonton. This was her third world and Olympic gold medal. She has a total of 6 world and Olympic gold medals.
She is also remembered for her speed and her 60.3 second-last lap at the end of the 10,000 metres at the Sydney Olympics was a sprint of note. As of 2014, Derartu Tulu is still running competitively, while most of her old rivals are retired or retiring. In her short but on-going career, she has managed to win over 35 gold, 12 silver and 15 bronze medal.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derartu_Tulu
Oromo athlete Fatima (Fatuma) Roba. The first black/ African Woman to win Marathon. www.oromiasports
Roba started running in her elementary school in the Arsi region that was once home also to Derartu Tulu and Haile Gebrselassie, 10,000-meter Olympic gold-medalists in 1992 and 1996 respectively.
Fatuma Roba was the fourth of eight children of subsistence farmers living in the rural countryside outside Bukeji, Derartu Tulu’s hometown. Roba began winning 100-meter and 200-meter races and was chosen to represent her school in regional competitions.
“I knew of (1960 Olympic marathon winner) Abebe Bikila and (1968 winner) Mamo Wolde from the radio, so I thought I’d try it, too,” she says. Unlike many rural women runners, Roba says she faced little objection from her Muslim family when she decided to take up the sport. Four years later, she moved to Finfinne became a runner on the prison police force.
‘Fatuma Roba did not take the usual path to becoming a living legend in the sport of marathon running. She was a pioneer, becoming Africa’s first ever female to take the sport’s most prestigious prize at Atlanta in 1996 when she won the Centennial Olympic Marathon. Who would have thought it, when she had only a 2:39 PR coming into the Olympic year!’http://www.runnersworld.com/boston-marathon/fatuma-roba-twisted-path-living-legend
Oromo and Kenyan girls dominated 5000m final race, IAAF Moscow 2013. Bronze medal winner Almaz Ayana of Oromia, gold medal winner Meseret Defar of Oromia and silver medal winner Kenya’s Mercy #Cherono, from left, compete in the women’s 5000-meter final Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013. Photo: David J. Phillip,www.sfgate.com/
Maryam Jamal was born in the Arsi Zone in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, an area famous for distance runners, including Haile Gebreselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba. She is Muslim Oromo. At the 2012 Olympics, Maryam Yusuf Jamal Represented of Bahrain and became the first Gulf female athlete to win a medal when she won a bronze for her showing in the 1,500m race.
Oromo athlete Tikki Galana, as she wins the 2012 Women’s marathon in London.
The 2011 Amsterdam Marathon marked a breakthrough for Tiki as she won the race in a time of 2:22:08 hours – almost eight minutes faster than her previous best and an improvement upon Gete Wami‘s nine-year-old course record.[14] At the end of that year she returned to Ethiopia, where she came runner-up at the Great Ethiopian Run and third at the Ethiopian Clubs Cross Country Championships.[15][16] She improved her personal best at the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon in February 2012, going unchallenged to win the race in 1:08:48 hours.[17]
She broke the Ethiopian record at the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon, completing a solo run of 2:18:58 hours to win the race almost five minutes ahead of runner-up Valeria Straneo.[18] This made her the fourth fastest woman ever over the distance.[19] She was selected to represent Ethiopia in the Olympic marathon as a result. At the London 2012 Olympics she won the gold medal at the marathon with an Olympic record time of 2:23:07 hours, in spite of rain throughout the race and a fall at the water station.[20] After the Olympics she ran a personal best for the half marathon, recording 1:07:48 for third at the Great North Run,[21] then ran a 15 km best of 48:09 minutes at the Zevenheuvelenloop (finishing behind Olympic 10,000 m champion Tirunesh Dibaba at both races).[22] She was chosen at the AIMS World Athlete of the Year Award for her performances that year.[23]
Injifannoo gammachiisa!!!!
Oromo athlete Genzebe Dibaba wins the women’s 3000m for #TeamAfrica in 8:57.54. The fourth w3000 win in a row for Africa at the IAAF#ContinentalCup, 13th September 2014.
Ibrahim Jeilan (Oromia, silver) and Mo Farah (Britain, gold) in 10,000k Moscow World Athletics 2013 final race.
Winner of the Boston Marathon, Oromo athlete Lelisa Desisa with United States Secretary of State John Kerry at the American Embassy in Oromian Capital, Finfinnee.
In a somber ceremony at the American Embassy on Sunday, 26th May 2013, Lelisa Desisa, the men’s winner of this year’s Boston Marathon, said he intended to donate his medal to the people of Boston.“Sport holds the power to unify people,” Desisa said.
Oromia’s Tsegaye Kebede won the men’s London 2013 Marathon race in an unofficial time of two hours six minutes three seconds after chasing down runaway leader Emmanuel Muta.
Oromo athletes Buzunesh Daba is 2nd in 2013 New York Women Marathon and TigistTufa has demonstrated great performance as debutante. Both were leading the 1st 35 km. Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya is the 1st. The favorite Tsegaye Kebede is 2nd in the men’s race as Kenyan was the 1st.
Oromo athlete Negari Terfa wins the 11th Xiamen International Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label race (2013), and set a course record in the men’s race while while Oromo athleteFatuma Sado made it an Oromiann double by winning the women’s race. Eyarusalem Kuma is 3rd in the women’s race.
Oromo athlete Markos Geneti (born May 30, 1984 in Gute, a small township about 10 km east of Nekemte in Eastern Wollega, the State of Oromia) is an Oromian long-distance runner who previously competed in track running, but now is a road specialist.
In March 2011, he won the Los Angeles Marathon, breaking the record by almost two minutes in his first marathon attempt. His time of 2:06:35 was the sixth fastest ever for a race débutante at that point. In his second race at the 2012 Dubai Marathon he ran a personal best time of 2:04:54 hours, but in one of the fastest races ever, he took third place behind Ayele Abshero and Dino Sefir.He did not return to competition until December, when he ran at the Honolulu Marathon and placed second to Wilson Kipsang.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markos_Geneti
Oromo Athletes win Great Manchester Run
May 18, 2014, Manchester, England – Oromian athletics legends Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba eased to victory in their respective races in the Great Manchester Run on Sunday.
World and Olympic 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba earned a comfortable victory in the women’s competition, finishing the 10km course in 31:09.
Bekele, a three-time Olympic gold medalist on the track, raced alongside world marathon record holder Wilson Kipsang of Kenya for much of the 10 kilometres course.
However, the 31-year-old – who indicated he may have an equally glorious career ahead of him in road racing when he won his debut marathon in Paris in April – kicked away in the final 400 metres to finish in a time of 28 minutes 23 seconds.
Kipsang, also fresh from a marathon triumph in London where he set a new course record, came in five seconds back while South Africa’s Steve Mokoka was some distance back in third.
“I’m very happy to win here after having run the marathon recently,” said Bekele.
“There was a lot of wind so I tried to hide behind Kipsang and save my energy.”
A beaming Kipsang was delighted with his showing.
“This is a short distance for me but I still showed I have the speed.
“We shall meet again and over the longer distance (the marathon),” said the 32-year-old, who took marathon bronze in the 2012 Olympics.
Bekele, also a four-time 10 000 metres world champion as well as once the 5 000m titleholder, said that he and Kipsang would face many battles over the marathon distance in the years to come.
“I will run some races on the track still but Wilson and I are the same age and the same level so we will be competing against each other for years to come,” said Bekele.
Dibaba, a three-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion on the track, was never troubled and came home over a minute clear of her nearest rivals Gemma Steel of Great Britain and Polline Wanjiku of Kenya.
“The course was very good but the wind was a problem,” said 28-year-old Dibaba
Bishaan Amboo sana dhugdeeti.
The winner of Dubai and Houston Marathon, #Oromo athlete #Mamitu#Daska is unquestionably the current queen of the #Bolder Boulder’s elite women’s 10K race.
The Oromian won her fourth title Monday 26th may 2014 well ahead of the rest of the field, finishing in 32 minutes, 21.63 seconds. She also won in 2009, 2010 and 2012 and was the runner-up in 2011. Only Portugal‘s Rosa Mota has more career Bolder Boulder victories with five.
Even with temperatures in the high 60s, and even with a hard early pace from Deena Kastor, Daska felt the pace was too slow. So she took off down the left side of a long straightaway before the first mile while the rest of the women followed the inside curve of the road.
The champion “did good training and felt the pace was easy at the beginning,” Daska said through a translator.
That set the tone: If you want to win, prepare for bold moves and a long grind over the scorching pavement of this rolling, high-altitude course.
July 26, 2014 (IAAF) —World youth 3000m champion, Oromo athelete Yomif Kejelcha led for most of the last kilometre to win the men’s 5000m in 13:25.19, his best ever clocking.
Kejelcha’s team mate Yasin Haji, with whom he shared pacing duties in the last third of the race, finished in 13:26.21 for silver. Moses Letoyie of Kenya took bronze in 13:28.11.
Population: The Oromo people are the native inhabitants of Eastern Africa. Their population is estimated at 40 million people, which comprises the single largest ethnic group in East Africa. There are thousands of Oromo people living in diaspora, largely residing in countries including the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Norway, England and Sweden.
Where is the Oromo land?
The land of the Oromo people is called Oromia. Oromia is bordered by Ogadenia and Somalia in the East, Kenya in the South, Gambella and Sudan in the West and Abyssinia in the North. The capital city of Oromia is called Finfinnee (pronounced fynn-fynn-neh), otherwise referred to as “Addis Ababa”.
Language:
The Oromo people speak Afaan Oromo. They belong to the Cushitic-speaking group of Eastern Africa. The Oromo language is the 4th most spoken language in the continent of Africa.
Religion:
The Oromo people practice three main religions Waqeefanna (Traditional Oromo beliefs), Islam and Christianity.
History:
Since the late 19th century, the Oromo have been under colonization by successive Ethiopian governments. Assisted by European colonial powers with modern weaponry, many Oromo people were killed and during 1870 until 1900s. Bloodshed was intense as the Oromo population was reduced from 10 million to 5 million people. Since the forced incorporation of Oromia as part of present day ‘Ethiopian’ empire, the language and culture of the Oromo people was banned by the Ethiopian government and punishable as a crime, until 1991. Oromo attempts to preserve the Oromo culture and language exist despite open attempts at Oromo ethnic cleansing.
Since the official penalty for speaking the language has been lifted in 1991, many Oromo people are still identified as “Ethiopian”; a title is largely resented because of the because of the historically traumatic connotations for Oromo people.
Notable Oromo movements, particularly in the 1960′s include the Oromo Raayya revolt, the Caalanqo and Aanoole Wars and The Afran Qalloo movements. Other Oromo groups and movements include the Maccaa Tuulama Association, the birth of the Oromo Liberation Front, the Oromo Student movements in 2005.
The Oromo people refer to themselves as Oromo and their land as Oromia.
Historical and cultural information about Oromo people:
Gadaa System:
The Oromo people live by a democratic and egalitarian political system, called the Gadaa system. The Gadaa system consists of Gadaa grades, these grades have individual titles and responsibilities and are also grouped in 8 year periods. Each Gadaa title teaches the young male from birth to develop skills and knowledge about culture, governance, family values and leadership qualities. At the age of 40, Oromo men can be elected as Gadaa officials.
Siinqee Institution:
Like Oromo men, Oromo women have an incorporated institution. Siinqee is one of the pillars of Gadaa, an indigenous system of thought and practice which forms the foundations of Oromo society. As the bride steps out of the door of her mother’s house, she would be handed the Siinqee (a traditional and sacred Oromo stick) by her mother. She walks, imbued with the majesty of Siinqee, shoulder to shoulder with her bridegroom, who carries a spear. The role of Siinqee in Oromo society is to keep the peace and moral sanctity of the society. Warring groups would have to immediately halt their hostilities once the womenfolk wielding Siinqee appear on the battle scene. Most importantly, when in justice is committed, the women in the vicinity would come out in the the morning hours bearing their Siinqee and baring their hairs. According to Oromo custom, the testimony of a woman is not to be doubted. It takes only the testimony of a woman to convict a man. However, it would take the sworn testimony of three men to convict a man as guilty.
Coffee:
Coffee was first found in Oromia, in the city of Kaffa, South Western Oromia. Oromo people began using coffee for nutritional use in the beginning of the 5th century.
Darajjee Goobanaa, Oromo national and 3rd year student at Bule Hora University is murdered by fascist TPLF Ethiopia (Agazi) forces: Barataa Waggaa 3ffaa Yuuniversitii Bulee Horaa Kan Ta’e Sabboontichi Darajjee Goobanaa Rasaasa Poolisoota Wayyaaneen Wareegame.
Barataa Darajjee Goobanaan godina Wallaggaa Horroo Guduruu aanaa Jaardagaa Jaartee jedhamutti kan dhalatee guddate ta’uu fi amal qabeessaa fi qaroo ilma Oromoo akka ta’e barattooti Yuuniverstii Bulee Horaa dubbatu.
6 Oromo Students of Three Universities Abducted by TPLF Led Government Forces
Qeerroo Report, May 17, 2015: As the fake 2015 so called Ethiopian election approaches, the TPLF led Ethiopian government has intensified arresting, harassing, and abduction of Oromo nationals, especially Oromo students of universities and higher educational institutions. Accordingly, the following Oromo students of Adama University, Eastern Shoa zone of Oromia regional state have been abducted by the terrorist “intelligence” forces of the Ethiopian regime and their whereabouts are unknown. Read Full; Qeerroo Report, May 17 2015
5 Oromo students from Adama University have been kidnapped by TPLF (Agazi) security forces. Kidnapping, torturing and violence against Oromo students and civilians is continued all over universities and entire Oromia. See the following table for few latest lists in Afaan Oromo.
Humni Tika fi Loltuun Feederaala Wayyaanee Barattoota Oromoo Yuuniversitii Wallaggaa Hedduu Reebuu Saamaa Jira, Barattoota Afur Reebichaan Gara Malee Miidhe.
Oromo students in University Wallaggaa have been tortured and robbed their belongings by TPLF (Agazi) forces operating in the campus. Among students who have been severely attacked by Agazi are:
Abarraa Ayyalaa fi kanneen biroo maqaan hin qaqqabin dararama jiraachuun maddeen keenya gabaasan. http://qeerroo.org/2015/05/15/humni-tika-fi-loltuun-feederaala-wayyaanee-barattoota-oromoo-yuuniversitii-wallaggaa-hedduu-reebuu-saamaa-jira-barattoota-afur-reebichaan-gara-malee-miidhe/
More than 50 Oromo students arrested by Ethiopia’s Tyrannic TPLF regime in Ambo, Oromia; 20 being tortured
The following is a statement from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA).
Ethiopia: The Endless Violence against Oromo Nationals Continues
Fear of Torture | HRLHA Urgent Action
For Immediate Release
May 7, 2015
Harassment and intimidation through arbitrary arrests, kidnappings and disappearances have continued unabated in Ambo and the surrounding areas against Oromo youth and intellectuals since the crackdown of last year (April 2014), when more than 79 Oromos, mostly youth, were killed by members of the federal security force.
According to HRLHA correspondents in Ambo, the major targets of this most recent government-sponsored violence were Ambo University and high schools Oromo students in Ambo town. In this incident, which started on April 20, 2015, more than 50 university and high school students were arrested; more than 20 were severely beaten by the security force and taken to the Ambo General Hospital for treatment.
Although it has been difficult to identify everyone by their names, HRLHA correspondents have confirmed that the following were among the arrestees:
Those who were badly beaten and are being hospitalized in the Ambo General Hospital:
According to HRLHA reporters, the arrests were made to clear out supporters and members of the other political organizations running for the 5th General Election to be held May 24, 2015. The EPRDF, led by the late Meles Zenawi, claimed victory in the General Elections of 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010. The TPLF/EPRDF government of Ethiopia has started a campaign of intimidation against its opponents. Extrajudicial arrests and imprisonments, particularly in the regional state of Oromia, the most populous region in the country, began late October 2014.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) expresses its deep concern over the safety and well-being of these Oromo nationals who have been arrested without any court warrant, and are being held at police stations and unknown detention centers. The Ethiopian government has a well documented record of gross and flagrant violations of human rights, including the torturing of its own citizens, who were suspected of supporting, sympathizing with and/or being members of the opposition political organizations. There have been credible reports of physical and psychological abuses committed against individuals in Ethiopia’s official prisons and other secret detention centers.
HRLHA calls upon governments of the West, all local, regional and international human rights agencies to join hands and demand the immediate halt to such extrajudicial actions against one’s own citizens, and the unconditional release of the detainees.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to the Ethiopian Government and its officials as swiftly as possible, written in English, Ahmaric, or your own language. The following are suggested:
– Indicate your concern about citizens being tortured in different detention centers, including the infamous Ma’ikelawi Central Investigation Office; and calling for their immediate and unconditional release;
– Urge the Ethiopian authorities to ensure that detainees will be treated in accordance with the regional and international standards on the treatment of prisoners, and that their whereabouts be disclosed, and
– Make sure the coming May 24, 2015 election is fair and free
Oromia Support Group Australia Appeal for Urgent Action:
To: Committee on Enforced Disappearances and Committee against Torture
Human Rights Treaties Division (HRTD)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais Wilson – 52, rue des Pâquis
CH-1201 Geneva (Switzerland)
Ethiopia: Kidnapped and disappearance of Oromo civilians Magarsa Mashsha And Urgessa Damana:
Oromia Support Group Australia Inc. (OSGA) expresses its deep concern regarding the kidnapping a nd disappear an ce of two Oromo civilians by the Ethiopian security forces. Mr Magarsa Mashasha Ayansa was kidnapped and diapere d on April 23rd, 7pm local tim e while Urgessa Damana was on May 4th, 2015. Mr Magarsa, community health worker, a student of Ambo University is the local area resident. He was kidnapped by Ethiopian security forces from the country’s central city Fifinna (Addis Ababa) – Bole area – while he was on a trip for his personal business. In a similar situation, Mr Urgessa Damana a former Rift Valley University Student and resident of Ambo town also captured on 4th of May 2015 by Ethiopian security forces. Since then the whereabouts of theses Oromo civilians remained unknown.
OSGA believes that th e Ethiopian government conduct violated the fundamental rights. The right to freedom from torture and the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Per sons under Any Form of Detention and Imprisonment including the UN Standard Minimum Treatment of Prisoners is entirely denied. We are concerned that this pattern will continue to worsen.
We respectfully believe that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – Human Rights Treaties Division (HRTD) has a duty to use its diplomatic relationships with the reciprocal expectation of protecting human rights and legitimate democratic governance. These accusations reveal serious violations of human rights and legal process, and without external accountability, many vulnerable people will suffer in the country.
We, therefore, urge you to:
1. Request the Ethiopian Government to reveal the whereabouts of these two Oromo civilians and immediate and unconditional release of them including all
political prisoners under their captivity.
2. Request to investigate, amongst other things, actions taken by the Ethiopian
Government security forces in the state of Oromia and the suffering of Oromo
civilians in hundreds of official and hidden torture chambers.
3. Raise this case with the international community and other relevant
United Nation bodies. Stress the righ t to remedy, restitution,
compensation, non-repetition, and punishment of the perpetrators, in line
with the UN Guidelines on the right to treat.
We denounce the attacks on peoples who are exercising their fundamental and democratic rights.
Thanks for considering of OSGA appeal
Oromia Support Group Australia
Oromo national Urgeessaa Dammanaa, student from Rift Valley University, kidnapped by fascist TPLF Ethiopian security forces on 4th May 2015 and his whereabouts is not known.
Oromoo Hidhuu fi Ajjeessuu Araada Kan Godhate Mootummaan Abbaa Irree Wayyaanee, Sabboonticha Oromoo Barataa Urgeessaa Daammanaa Caamsaa 4 Bara 2015 Edda Ukkaamsee Har’aa Ukkaamsee Eessa Buuteen Isaa Hin Beekamne.
11 years old Oromo child from Galamsoo town, Eastern Oromia was tortured and murdered by fascist TPLF security forces. Mootumma abba irree wayyaannen muca daa’ima waggan isa 11 ta’e wajjira poolisii magaala galamsoo keessatti ati ABO dhaf basaasta haati kee eessa jirti, mal hojjetti jedhanii utuu reebanii lubbuun isa darbite.
Source: Social networks, 4 May 2015.
Ogeessa Fayyaa fi Barataa Yuuniverstii Amboo Kan Ta’e Sabboonaa Magarsaa Mashashaa Ayyaanaa Humnoota Tika Wayyaaneen Ukkaamfame.
Ethiopia: Police must stop the use of excessive force against demonstrators
April 27, 2015
PUBLIC STATEMENT
April 22, 2015
AI Index: AFR 25/1515/2015
Amnesty International calls on the Ethiopian authorities to ensure that police refrain from excessive use of force in policing demonstrations, after police violently dispersed mass protests in Addis Ababa yesterday. The Ethiopian authorities must respect the rights of demonstrators to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly.
Video footage and photographs posted online show police beating protestors who appear to be offering no resistance, and tear gas being used against the crowd. A journalist in Addis Ababa told Amnesty International that 48 people had been seriously injured and admitted to different hospitals, and that many others sustained minor injuries. Two photos show wounded people being treated at hospital. Hundreds of others are reported to have been arrested.
The protests started on Tuesday following circulation of a video showing the killing of around 30 people believed to be Ethiopians by the armed group ISIS in Libya. Two of the named victims have been identified as coming from Cherkos, Addis Ababa. Hundreds of relatives and friends were gathered outside their family homes before spilling on to the streets towards Meskel Square. Many protestors in the photographs and video footages posted online are shown holding pictures of the two men.
Protests resumed on Wednesday morning, with thousands gathering in Meskel Square where a mass rally had been organized as part of the official three days of mourning announced by the government. Around 100,000 people took part in the demonstrations, which were initially targeted against the killings by ISIS, but later turned into anger towards the government, including its inability to protect Ethiopian citizens and more general calls for political reform. According to reports the police began to disperse the gathered crowd by force after some demonstrators shouted slogans during the rally, and as the situation escalated there were clashes between protesters and police.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, Communications Minister Redwan Hussein accused the opposition Semayawi (Blue) Party of trying to manipulate the demonstrations for their own political interests and of inciting the public to violence, which the party has denied. The minister said that seven police officers had been injured and hospitalized, but made no mention of injuries or arrests among the protestors. Eight members of the Semayawi Party were arrested, including three candidates in the upcoming general elections on 24 May 2015. They are Woyneshet Molla, Tena Tayewu, Ermias Siyum, Daniel Tesfaye, Tewodros Assefa, Eskinder Tilahun, Mastewal Fekadu and Yidnekachewu Addis. At least one other party member was hospitalized after beaten on the head by police.
The Ethiopian authorities have an obligation to facilitate people’s exercise of their right to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly. If there is a legitimate reason for which it is necessary to disperse an assembly, police must avoid the use of force where at all possible or, where that is not practicable, must restrict any such force to the minimum necessary. Law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty.The authorities in Ethiopia must ensure that there is an effective and impartial investigation into the use of force by police against protestors during the demonstrations and ensure that any police found to have used unnecessary or excessive force are subject to disciplinary and criminal sanctions as appropriate. Arbitrary or abusive use of force should be prosecuted as a criminal offence.Amnesty International urges the Ethiopian authorities to ensure that in policing demonstrations in the future, the police comply with international law and standards on the use of force by law enforcement officials. With general elections a month away on 24 May, the Ethiopian authorities should commit to facilitating the right of protestors to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
The Ethiopian Government is Responsible for the Inhuman Treatments against Ethiopian Refugees and Asylum Seekers around the World
HRLHA Press Release
25th April 2015
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa has been greatly saddened by the cold-blooded killing of 30 Christian Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers in the past week in Libya by a group called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria/ ISIS. The HRLHA also highly concerned about thousands of Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers living in different parts of Yemen were victimized due to the political crises in Yemen and hundreds have suffered in South Africa because of the unprecedented actions taken by a gang opposing refugees and asylum seekers in the country. The suppressive policy of the EPRDF/TPLF government has forced millions of Ethiopians to flee their country in the past twenty-four years. The mass influx of Ethiopian citizens into neighboring countries every year has been due to the EPRDF/TPLF policy of denying its citizens their socioeconomic and political rights. They have also fled out of fear of political persecution and detention. It has been repeatedly reported by human rights organizations, humanitarian and other non – governmental organizations that Ethiopia is producing a large number of refugees, estimated at over two hundred fifty thousand every year.
The HRLHA calls upon the Ethiopian government to unconditionally release the detained citizens and allow those who have been injured during the clash with police to get medical treatment.In connection with the incident that took place in Libya, on April 22, 2015 tens of thousands of Ethiopians marched on government- organized rallies against the killing of Ethiopian Christians in Libya. However, with the demonstrators’ angry expressions were directed at the authorities, the police used tear gas against them and hundreds of people were beaten on the street and arrested. On the 23rd and 24th of April 2015 others were picked up from their homes and taken to unknown destinations according to the HRLHA reporter in Addis Ababa.
Recommendations:
The Ethiopian government must stop political suppression in the country and respect the human rights treaties it signed and ratified
The Ethiopian Government must provide the necessary lifesaving help to those Ethiopians stuck in crises in the asylum countries of Yemen, South Africa and others.
The EPRDF/TPLF government must release journalists, opposition political party members, and others held in Ethiopian prisons and respect their right to exercise their basic and fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution of Ethiopia and international standard of human rights instruments.
This is part and parcel of the TPLF Ethiopian government’s ongoing genocidal crimes against Oromo people. Kurnasoo Abdulmaalik Yuunis (in picture) is Oromo national residing in Eastern Oromia, Dire Dawa city. He was attacked and severely beaten on 28 March 2015 by TPLF (Woyane) killing forces in the area while he visited the police station to search for the whereabouts of his kidnapped brother and close friends.
Dargaggoo Galataa(Tamasgeen) Waaqoo kan jedhamu godina Shaggar Kibba Lixaa ona Daawoo magaala Buusaa keessa itti guyyaa kaleessa ganama keessaa toora 12.30 pm itti gaaffii mirgaa kaftan sababaa jedhuun Poolisootaa fi kaabinootaan ari’amee erga qabamee booda sadafii qawween erga rukutamee haalaan miidhamee jira,kana malees reebicha Poolisoonnii fi dabballoonni Wayyaanee irraan gahanii lafa irra harkisuun reebicha humnaa ol erga irraan gahaanii booda mana hidhaa aanichaatti galchanii jiraachuu Qeerroon gabaasa.
Kana malees Dargaggoo Galataa Bitootessa 11,2015 erga reebanii hidhanii booda rifeensa gogaa irraa haadun fi mana kophaatti galchuun harkaa fi miilla muka dhaabbatutti hidhuun reeba kan jiran yoo ta’u erga kaleessa hidhamee haga amma hidhan kan irraa hin hiikkatiinifi reebichi irraa hin dhaabbatin ta’uu oodeffannoo achiirraa nu gahe ni addeessaa!
Kana malee Anaa Deedoo irraa ilmaan Oromoo torba kanneen ammaf maqaan isiinii nu hin qaqqabiin humna poolisii federaalaan qabamanii mana hidhatti darbamuu maddeen keenya gaabasan.
Haaluma kanaan Yeroo amma kana Mootummaan Wayyaaneen humni Adda Bilisummaa Oromoo ABO’n Godina Jimmaa keessa buufate jira maqaa jedhuu fi maqaa sakkatta’aa dhabamsiisuu jedhuun humna poolisii naannoo Oromiyaa irraa shakkii guddaa qabatuun ajaja mootummaa federaalaatiin poolisoota Federaalaa fi waraanaa aanota Godinichaa keessa bobbaasuun ilmaan Oromoo maqaa qorannoo fi sakkatta’insaan dararuu fi ukkamsuun hidhatti darbaa jiraachuun saaxilamera. Adeemsi gochaa diinummaa mootummaan Wayyaanee fudhachaa jiru kun uummata bakka jiruu dammaqsuun akka uummatni fincilee sochii FDGtti makamuun mirga isaa kabachiifatuuf dirqamsiisa jiraachuu irraa uummatni utuu hidhatti hin ukkanfamiin harka walqabatnee mootummaa abba irree irratti finciluun yeroon gamtaan kaanee falmannuu amma jechuun dhaamsa waliif dabarsaa jiraachuun ibsame jira.
Oromo: HRLHA Plea for Release of Detained Peaceful Protestors
February 8, 2015 By Stefania Butoi Varga, Human Rights Brief, Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law*
From March to April 2014, members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, engaged in peaceful protests in opposition to the Ethiopian government’s implementation of the “Integrated Regional Development Plan” (Master Plan). The Oromo believe that the Master Plan violates Articles 39 and 47 in the Ethiopian Constitution, by altering administrative boundaries around the city of Addis Ababa, the Oromia State’s and the federal government’s capital. The Oromo fear they will be excluded from the development plans and that this will lead to the expropriation of their farmlands.
In response to these protests, the Ethiopian government has detained or imprisoned thousands of Oromo nationals. In a January 2005 appeal, the Human Rights League of the Horn
of Africa (HRLHA) claimed that the Ethiopian government is breaching the State’s Constitution and several international treaties by depriving the Oromo prisoners of their liberty. Amnesty International reports that some protestors have also been victims of “enforced disappearance, repeated torture, and unlawful state killings as part of the government’s incessant attempts to crush dissent.”
Under the Ethiopian Constitution, citizens possess the rights to liberty and due process, including the right not to be illegally detained. Article 17 forbids deprivation of liberty, arrest, or detention, except in accordance with the law. Further, Article 19 provides that a person has the right to be arraigned within forty-eight hours of his or her arrest. However, according to the HRLHA, a group of at least twenty-six Oromo prisoners were illegally detained for over ninety-nine days following the protests. The HRHLA claims that these detentions were illegal because the prisoners were arrested without warrants, and because they did not appear before a judge within forty-eight hours of their arrest. The Ethiopian authorities’ actions also disregard the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which requires that no one be subject to arbitrary arrest, and that those arrested be promptly brought before a judge. Ethiopia signed and ratified the ICCPR in 1993, and is thus bound to uphold the treaty.
Additionally, the Ethiopian Constitution deems torture and unusual punishment illegal and inhumane. According to Article 18, every citizen has the right not to be exposed to cruel, inhuman, or degrading behavior. Amnesty International reports that certain non-violent Oromo protestors suffered exactly this treatment, including a teacher who was stabbed in the eye with a bayonet for refusing to teach government propaganda to his students, and a young girl who had hot coals poured onto her stomach because her torturers believed her father was a political dissident. Amnesty International further recounts other instances of prisoners being tortured through electric shock, burnings, and rape. If these reports are an accurate account of the government’s actions, the Ethiopian authorities are not only acting contrary to their constitution, but also contrary to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT). According to Article 2 of the CAT, a State Member must actively prevent torture in its territory, without exception. In addition, an order from a high public authority cannot be used as justification if torture is indeed used. Ethiopia ratified the CAT in 1994, and is thus obligated to uphold and protect its principles.
The HRLHA pleads that the Ethiopian government release imprisoned Oromo protesters. This would ensure that the intrinsic human rights of the Oromo people, guaranteed by the Ethiopian Constitution and several international treaties ratified by Ethiopia would finally be upheld. Furthermore, it would restore peace to and diminish the fear among other Oromo people who have abandoned their normal routines in the wake of government pressure, and have fled Ethiopia or have gone into hiding.
*The Human Rights Brief is a student-run publication at American University Washington College of Law (WCL). Founded in 1994 as a publication of the school’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the publication has approximately 4,000 subscribers in over 130 countries.
Ethiopia:- TPLF’s Leaders Arrogance and Contempt – Inviting Further Bloodshed and Loss of Lives – HRLHA Statement
The following is a statement from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA).
———————-
February 23, 2015
Since the downfall of the military government of Ethiopia in 1991, the political and socioeconomic lives of the country have totally been controlled by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front/TPLF leaders and business institutions. As soon as the TPLF controlled Addis Ababa, the capital city, in 1991, the first step it took was to create People’s Democratic Organizations (PDOs) in the name of different nations and nationalities in the country. With the help of these PDOs, the TPLF managed to control the whole country in a short period of time from corner to corner. The next step that the TPLF took was to weaken and/or eliminate all independent opposition political organizations existing in the country, including those with whom it formed the Ethiopian Transitional Government in 1991. Just to pretend that it was democratizing the country, the TPLF signed seven international human rights documents from 1991 to 2014. These include the “Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”. Despite this, it is known that the TPLF has tortured many of its own citizens ever since it assumed power, and has continued to the present day.
The TPLF Government adopted a new constitution in 1995; and, based on this Constitution, it formed new federal states. The new Ethiopian Constitution is full of spurious democratic sentiments and human rights terms meant to inspire the people of Ethiopia and the world community. The TPLF’s pretentious promise to march towards democracy enabled it to receive praises from people inside and outside, including donor countries and organizations. The TPLF government managed somehow to maintain a façade of credibility with western governments, including those of U.S.A. and the UK. In reality, the TPLF security forces were engaged in intensive killings, abductions, disappearances of a large number of Oromo, Ogaden, Sidama peoples and others whom the TPLF suspected of being members, supporters or sympathizers of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Ogadenian National Liberation Front (ONLF), and Sidama People’s Liberation Front (SPLF). TPLF – from high officials down to ordinary level cadres in the various regional states – engaged in enriching themselves and their family members by looting and embezzling public wealth and properties; raping young women in the occupied areas of the nations and nationalities in Ethiopia; and committing many other forms of corruptions.
After securing enough wealth for themselves, the TPLF government officials, cadres and members declared, in 2004, an investment policy that resulted in the eviction of indigenous peoples from their lands and all types of livelihoods. Since 2006, thousands of Oromo, Gambela, and Benishangul nationals and others have been forcefully evicted from their lands without consultation or compensation. Those who attempted to oppose or resist were murdered and/or jailed by the TPLF1. The TPLF government then cheaply leased their lands, for terms as long as 50 years, to international investors and wealthy Middle East and Asian countries, including Saudi Arabia2. The TPLF government has done all this against its own Constitution, particularly article 40 (3)3, which states that “The right to ownership of rural and urban land, as well as of all natural resources, is exclusively vested in the State and in the peoples of Ethiopia. Land is a common property of the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of exchange”. These acts were also against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17 (1 & 2)4, which says, “1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.”
In order to facilitate further corruption and embezzlement, the money paid for the leases as long as 50 years were received in cash. For example, the Indian agro investor Karaturi explained to a Guardian newspaper’s reporter that the TPLF government officials asked him to pay in cash in order to get the land, which he called “green gold”5. These gross human rights violations by the TPLF leaders against the Oromos, Gambelas, and Benishanguls have been condemned by many civic organizations, including Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa, the Oakland Institute and others.
The giving away of Oromo land in the name of investment also includes Addis Ababa, the capital city situated at the center of Oromia Regional State. 30,000 Oromos were evicted by the TPLF/EPRDF Government from their lands and livelihoods in the areas around the Capital City and suburbs, and their lands were given to the TPLF officials, members and loyal cadres over the past 24 years. In order to grab more lands around Addis Abba, the TPLF government prepared a plan called “the Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan,” a plan that aimed at annexing about 36 towns and surrounding villages into Addis Ababa. This Master Plan was first challenged by the Oromo People’s Democracy Organization/OPDO in March 2014.
The challenge was first supported by Oromo students in different universities, colleges and high schools in Oromia, and then spread to Oromo farmers, Oromo intellectuals in all corners of Oromia Regional State and to Oromo nationals living in different parts of the world. The Oromo nationals staged peaceful protests all over Oromia Regional State. In connection with this Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan, which had the risk of evicting more than two million farmers from around the capital city, about seventy Oromo students from among the peaceful protestors were brutalized by the special TPLF Agizi snipers and more than five thousand Oromos from all walks of life were taken to prisons in different parts of Oromia Regional State. The inhuman military actions and crackdowns by the TPLF government against peaceful protestors were condemned by different international media, such as the BBC6, human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and the HRLHA7. The government admitted that it killed nine of them8. The unrest that started in central Oromia suddenly escalated to such a high level that the TPLF leaders suspended the expansion plan for a while.
However, recently, without the slightest regret and sense of remorse over the massacres committed against peaceful protestors of Oromo Nationals by his government in May and April 2014, the TPLF’s co-founder, top official and the current Prime Minister’s (Hailemariam Dessalegn’s) special advisor, Mr. Abay Tsehaye, vowed in public that anyone who attempts to oppose the implementation of the so-called Addis Ababa Master Plan would be dealt with harshly. In his speech, he confirmed that the TPLF government is determined to continue with the master plan, no matter what happened in the past or what may come in the future. In a manner that Abay Tsehaye was reiterating that the annexations of towns and cities in central Oromia into the capital Addis Ababa will go ahead as planned regardless of the absence of consultations and consent of the local people and/or the officials of the targeted towns and cities. Besides displaying his extreme arrogance and contempt for the Oromo Nation, Mr. Abay Tsehaye’s speech was in direct breach of constitutional provisions of both federal and regional states.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) would like to express its deep concern that this TPLFs leader’s speech not only encourages violence against the country’s own citizens, but also invites further bloodshed and losses of lives; it leaves no room at all for dialogue, consultation and consent – norms which are at the core of a genuine democracy. This is still happening despite the killing of more than seventy Oromo youth and the arrest and incarceration of thousands of others as a result of violent and deadly responses by armed forces of the TPLF and the government to peaceful demonstrators in May and April 2014.
Conclusion:
The HRLHA believes that the gross human rights violations committed by the TPLF government in the past 24 years against Oromo, Ogaden, Gambela, Sidama and others were pre-planned and intentional all the times that they have happened. The TPLF killed, tortured, and kidnapped and disappeared thousands of Oromo nationals, Ogaden and other nationals simply because of their resources and ethnic backgrounds. The recent research conducted by Amnesty International under the title “Because I am Oromo”: SWEEPING REPRESSION IN THE OROMIA REGION OF ETHIOPIA’9 confirms that peoples in Ethiopia who belong to other ethnic groups have been the victims of the TPLF. The TPLF inhuman actions against the citizens are clearly a genocide, a crime against humanity10 and an ethnic cleansing, which breach domestic and international laws, and all international treaties the government of Ethiopia signed and ratified. The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa wants to hold the TPLF government accountable, as a group and as individuals, for the crimes they have committed and are committing against Oromos and others.
The HRLHA calls on all human rights families, non-governmental civic organizations, HRLHA members, supporters and sympathizers to stand beside the HRLHA and provide moral, professional and financial help to bring the dictatorial TPLF government and officials to international justice.
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* The HRLHA is a non-political organization which attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa. It works to defend fundamental human rights including freedoms of thought, expression, movement and association. It also works on raising the awareness of individuals about their own basic human rights and those of others. It encourages respect for laws and due process. It promotes the growth and development of free and vigorous civil societies.
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The young man whose photo you see below is Nimona Chali. He was the Chairman of Gumii Aaadaaf Afaan Oromo (GAAO) and a second year engineering student at Haromaya University. He was arrested from the university campus right after #OromoProtests started last year and he is being kept incommunicado in a dark room at the notorious Ma’ikelawi prison. He has not been charged with any crime nine months after his arrest. Nimona Chali had spent three years as a political prisoner prior to going to Haromaya University. He was born and raised in Ambo, a city known for its proud tradition of resistance against tyranny of Ethiopia.
Two Oromo Farmers in Salale Brutally Murdered; Their Bodies Dragged and Put on Pubic Display for Resisting Oppression Against Tigrean Habesha Rulers [Viewer Discretion Advised: Graphic Photo]
Ob. Jawar Mohammed (Facebook): “Some might doubt such a barbaric action actually happened in the present day. But it did. This picture was taken on December 9, 2014, in Oromia, Salale province, Darra district, Goro Maskala town. The government soldiers killed Katama Wubatuand his comrade whole rebelled due to harassment, dragged their body through the town and displayed it like this as way of terrorizing the public.
Karaa biraa Godina Qellam Ona Jimmaa Horroo dargaggoonni jiraatan kaardii filannoo fudhachuuf gara waajjira Wayyaane naannichaa deeman dargaggoota Ona kanaa irraa guutummaatti shakkii qabna, isaan jaarmayaa Qeerroo, ABOn jeequmsaaf nutti ergamani jechuun kaabinootni OPDO Ona sanaa arii’an. Haaluma kanaan dura waraaqaa eenyummaa fudhattan male kaardii fudhachuu hin dandeessan, dargaggoonni aanaa kanaa ABO, kaardii filannoo barbaaduun kun waan karoorfatan qabdu jechuun arrihatamuu gabaasti hoogganasa Qeerroo Ona sanaa hubachiisee jiree jira. Akka gabaasa kanaatti kaabinootni Wayyanee naannoo sanaa filannoo isaanii as adeemu kanatti jeequmsi nutti ka’uun waan hin oolle jechuun garanumaa sodaa qaban himachaa akka jiran gabaasti kun ni mirkaneessa.
Dargaggoonni naannoo kanaa odeessa ABOdhaa dabarsu, uummata nurratti ijaaraa jiru, uummanni kaardii hanga yoonatti fudhachuu diduun olola dargaggoota Qeerroon ijaaramanii jiran kana irraa ta’uu uummata walitti qabuun doorsisuu fi yaaddoo himachaa jiru. Ona Anfilloo gandoota 28 jiran keessaa namootni muraasati yeroo galmaa’an, ganda tokko qofaa keessaa hanga nama 160 ol ta’antu kaardii filannoo hin fudhanne, kun ammoo mootummaattii mataa dhukkubbii fi gaaffii guddaa ta’aa jira jechaa jiru.
Guyyaa kaardiin filannoo hiramuu eegalee qabee hanga ammaatti gandoonni kaardii tokko illee fudhachuu hin dandeenye ykn guutummaatti dhiise fi hin kennamin hafe akka jiru fi sababoota kanaa fi kana fakkaatani irraa kan madde naannoo sanaa akka walii galaatti gamaaggamaan dhiphachaa jiraachuutu gabaasti Qeerroo nannoo sanaa ibsa.
Since the March-April 2014 crackdowns against the peaceful Oromo protesters who have protested against the Ethiopian Federal Government’s plan of annexation of 36 small Oromia towns to the capital city of Addis Ababa under the pretext of the “Addis Ababa Integrated Plan”, thousands of Oromo nationals from all walks of life from all corners of Oromia regional state including Wollo Oromo’s in Amhara regional state have been detained or imprisoned. Some have disappeared and many have been murdered by a special commando group called “the Agiazi force”. The “The Agiazi” force is still chasing down and arresting Oromo nationals who participated in the March-April, 2014 peaceful protests. Fearing the persecution of the Ethiopian government, hundreds of students did not return to the universities, colleges and high schools; most of them have left for the neighboring states of Somaliland and Puntiland of Somalia where they remain at high risk for their safety. Wollo Oromos who are living in Ahmara regional state of Oromia special Zone are also among the victims of the EPRDF government. Hundreds of Wollo Oromos have been detained because of their connection with the peaceful protests of March-April 2014. The EPRDF government has detained many Oromo nationals in Wollo Oromia special Zone under the pretext of being members or supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), as prisoners’ voices from Dessie/Wollo prison have revealed.
From among the many Oromos who were picked from different districts and places from Wollo Oromia special Zone in Amhara regional state in April 2014, the HRLHA reporter in the area has received a document which shows that 26 Oromo prisoners pleaded to the South Wollo High Court that they were illegally detained first in Kamise town military camp for 36 days, Kombolcha town Police Station for 27 Days, and Dessie city higher 5 Police Station for 10 days- places where they were severely tortured and then transferred to Dessie Prison in July 2014. According to the document, they were picked up from three different districts and different places by federal police and severely beaten and tortured at different military camps and police stations and their belongings including cash and mobile telephones were taken by their torturers. In their appeal letter to the South Wollo high court they demanded
Kana malees dabalataaniis mootummaan abbaa irree Wayyaanee maloota diddaa uummataa dhaamsuuf tattaaffatu keessaas reebicha hamaa irraan gahuu, qaama hir’isuu fi hidhuu akkuma ta’e hundaa diddaa barattootaa kana irrattis barattoonni hedduun reebbamuu fi doorsifamuu irra darbee barattooni gara fuula duraatti maqaa fi baayina isaanii Qeerroon bahuuf jiru gara buuteen isaanii dhibuus; kanneen keessaa warri adda durummaan qabamanii FDG qindeesituun yakkamanii jiran barataa Bultoo Dinquu barataa waggaa 2ffaa Psychology fi barataa Habtaamuu Kabbadaa barataa waggaa 3ffaa Engineering fa’aa kanneen jedhaman akka keessatti argaman odeessi Qeerroo nu qaqqabe addeessa. http://qeerroo.org/2014/12/17/diddaan-barattoota-oromoo-yuuniversitii-madda-walaabuu-daran-hammaachuu-irraan-barattooti-oromoo-waggaa-2ffaa-psychology-fi-waggaa-3ffaa-engineering-taan-hidhaman/
ETHIOPIA: Outbreak of Deadly Disease in Jail, Denial of Graduation of University Students
HRLHA – URGENT ACTION
December 10, 2014
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) would like to express its deep concern over the outbreak of a deadly disease at Gimbi Jail in Western Wollega, as a result of which one inmate has already died and sixty (60) others infected. HRLHA strongly believes that the very poor sanitation in the jail, absence of basic necessities, and denial of treatment after catching the illness have contributed to Mr. Yaikob Nigaru’s death. HRLHA fears that those who have already caught the disease might be facing the same fate. It is well documented that particularly inmates deemed “political prisoners” are deliberately subjected to unfriendly and unhealthy environments and, after getting sick as a result, are not allowed access to treatment until they approach or reach the stage of coma, which is when recoveries are very unlikely. HRLHA considers it one way of the systematic eliminations of alleged and/or perceived political dissidents.
Mr. Ya’kob Nigatu was one of the 224 Oromo Nationals (139 from Gimbi in Western Wollaga, 80 from Ambo, and 5 from Ma’ikellawi in Addis Ababa/Finfinne) who were charged by the Federal Government on the 10th of November, 2014 for allegedly committing acts of terrorism in relation to the April/May, 2014 peaceful protests by Oromo students in different parts of the regional state of Oromia. HRLHA has learnt that five of the 224 Oromo defendants, who were held at the infamous Ma’ikelawi Criminal Investigation for about six months, were subjected to harassments and intimidations through isolations and confinements, with no visitations by relatives and friends, no access to a lawyer, and no open court appearance until when they were eventually taken to court to be given the charges. Those five Oromo nationals, who were transferred to Kilinto Jail right after receiving the alleged terrorism charges, were:
Ababe Urgessa Fakkansa (a student from Haromaya University),
Magarsa Warqu Fayyisa (a student from Haromaya University),
Addunya Kesso (a student from Adama University),
Bilisumma Dammana (a student from Adama University),
Tashale Baqala Garba (a student from Jimma University), and
Lejjisa Alamayyo Soressa (a student from Jimma University).
Besides the outbreak of a deadly disease witnessed at Gimbi Jail, and the likelihood of the same situations to occur particularly at highly populated and crowded jails, Kilinto is known to be one of the very notorious substandard prisons in the country. Such facts taken into consideration, HRLHA would like to express its deep concern over the safety of those young Oromo prisoners.
HRLHA has also received reports that 29 Oromo nationals, who have been attending the Addis Ababa/Finfinne University, have been denied proofs of graduations (degrees and/or diplomas) and, as a result, prevented from graduating after completing their studies for allegedly taking part in the April/May peaceful protests of Oromo students and other nationals against the newly drafted and introduced Finfinne Master Plan. The 29 Oromo students were first detained along with 23 other Oromo students of the same university, following the protests, and released on bails ranging between $1000.00 and $4000.00 Birr. Upon re-admission back to the University, they were all (52 of them) forced to appear before the disciplinary committee of the University, where they were asked to confess that their involvement in the peaceful demonstrations was wrong and that they should apologize to the Government and the public. According to reports from HRLHA’s correspondents, it was the students’ refusal to confess and apologize that has resulted in their prevention from graduating, despite their fulfillment of all the academic requirements. HRLHA describes the University’s becoming a political weapon as shameful, and the restrictions imposed on Oromo students as a pure act of racism aimed at partisan political gains. Of the 29 Oromo students who have become victims of the University’s non-academic action, HRLHA has obtained names of the following nine students:
Jirra Birhanu
Jilo Kemee
Mangistu Daadhii
Taddasaa Gonfaa
Lammeessa Mararaa
Ganna Jamal
Nuguse Gammadaa
Dajanee Daggafaa
Gaddisaa Dabaree
BACKGROUNDS:
The human rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has reported (May 1st and 13th, 2014, urgent actions, www.humanrightleague.org) on the heavy-handed crackdown of the Ethiopian Federal Government’s Agazi Special Squad and the resultant extra-judicial killings of 34 (thirty-four) Oromo nationals; and the arrests and detentions of hundreds of others. Besides, Amnesty International in its most recent report on Ethiopia – “Because I am Oromo – Sweeping repression in the Oromia region of Ethiopia” – has exposed how Oromo nationals have been regularly subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without charge, enforced disappearance, repeated torture and unlawful state killings as part of the government’s incessant attempts to crush dissent.
Also, the provisions in Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law have been criticized by local, regional, and international human rights agencies such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International as violating most of the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Ethiopian Constitution, other legal documents and international human rights standards that the Country has ratified. Given Ethiopia’s proven track record of mistreating and/or torturing suspected members and supporters of opposition political organizations, HRLHA calls upon the world communities, human rights, humanitarian, and diplomatic agencies so that they monitor using all means available how those young prisoners are treated in Ethiopian jails.
Please direct your concerns to:
His Excellency, Mr. Haila Mariam Dessalegn, Prime Minister of Ethiopia
P.O.Box – 1031 Addis Ababa
Telephone – +251 155 20 44; +251 111 32 41
Fax – +251 155 20 30 , +251 15520
Office of the President of Oromia Regional State
Telephone – 0115510455
Office of the Ministry of Justice of Ethiopia
PO Box 1370,
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 5517775; +251 11 5520874
Email: ministry-justice@telecom.net.et
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris.
7 place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP France
1 rue Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15 France
General phone: +33 (0)1 45 68 10 00 www.unesco.org
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)- Africa Department
7 place Fontenoy,75352
Paris 07 SP
France
General phone: +33 (0)1 45 68 10 00
Website: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/africa-department/
UNESCO AFRICA RIGIONAL OFFICE
MR. JOSEPH NGU
Director, UNESCO Office in Abuja
Mail: j.ngu@unesco.org
Tel: +251 11 5445284
Fax: +251 11 5514936
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva – 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: + 41 22 917 9022 (particularly for urgent matters)
E-mail: tb-petitions@ohchr.org (this e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Office of the UNHCR
Telephone: 41 22 739 8111
Fax: 41 22 739 7377
Po Box: 2500
Geneva, Switzerland.
African Commission on Human and Peoples‘ Rights (ACHPR)
48 Kairaba Avenue, P.O.Box 673, Banjul, The Gambia.
Tel: (220) 4392 962 , 4372070, 4377721 – 23 Fax: (220) 4390 764
E-mail: achpr@achpr.org
Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights,
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex, FRANCE
+ 33 (0)3 88 41 34 21, + 33 (0)3 90 21 50 53
Email (C/O): pressunit@coe.int
U.S. Department of State
Laura Hruby, Ethiopia Desk Officer
U.S. State Department
Email: HrubyLP@state.gov
Tel: (202) 647-6473
Amnesty International – London
Claire Beston, Claire Beston”
Claire.Beston@amnesty.org
Human Rights Watch
Felix Horne, “Felix Horne” hornef@hrw.org.
Waaqeffannaa (Amantii Oromoo), the traditional faith system of the Oromo people, is one version of the monotheistic African Traditional Religion (ATR), where the followers of this faith system do believe in only one Supreme Being. African traditional religion is a term referring to a variety of religious practices of the only ONE African religion, which Oromo believers call Waaqeffannaa (believe in Waaqa, the supreme Being), an indigenous faith system to the continent of Africa. Even though there are different ways of practicing this religion with varieties of rituals, in truth, the different versions of the African religion have got the following commonalities:
– Believe in and celebrate a Supreme Being, or a Creator, which is referred to by a myriad of names in various languages as Waaqeffataa Oromo do often say: Waaqa maqaa dhibbaa = God with hundreds of names and Waaqa Afaan dhibbaa = God with hundreds of languages; thus in Afaan Oromoo (in Oromo language) the name of God is Waaqa/Rabbii or Waaqa tokkicha (one god) or Waaqa guraachaa (black God, where black is the symbol for holiness and for the unknown) = the holy God = the black universe (the unknown), whom we should celebrate and love with all our concentration and energy. http://gadaa.com/oduu/11044/2011/09/19/waaqeffannaa-the-african-traditional-faith-system/
Oromo student Rabbirraa Kusha Bayeechaa from Ambo University, Waliso Branch, Accounting 1st year student was abducted by Fascist TPLF Agazi forces on 20th November and being tortured at jail in Waliisoo/Ejersa.
Sadaasa 21,2014 Gabaasa Qeerroo
Barattooti Oromoo Sababaa Gaaffii Mirgaa Kaastan Jedhuun Hidhamuu fi Dararamuun Irraa Hin Dhaabbanne,yeroo ammaa kanas mootummaan EPRDf Wayyaaneen dargaggoota Oromoo irratti duula banteen barataa Rabbirraa Kushaa Bayeechaa sababaa sochii warraaqsaa deemu duubaan jirta jedhuun Ambo college Waliso branch keessaa accounting wagga 1ffaa kan baratu yakka tokkoon malee Sadaasa 20,2014 mana hidhaa magaalaa Waliisoo/Ejerrsa jedhamutti darbamuun ilmaan Oromoo naannichatti Oromummaan yakkamanii hidhaman waliin dararaan guuddaa irraan gahaa jira.
Barataa Rabbirraa Kushaa bakki dhaloota isaa godina Kibba Lixa Shaggar aanaa Iluu ganda Bilii jedhamutti kan dhalate yeroo ta’u.Yeroo dheeraaf sababaa Oromummaan yakkamaa akka turee fi yaada itti amanu dubbatee baafachuu dorkamaa turuun gabaasi nu gahe addeessa.
Ethiopia: The Violence Against Oromo Nationals Must Be Stopped, HRLHA
The following is a statement of the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA).
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Ethiopia: The Endless Violence against Oromo Nationals Must be Halted
Fear of Torture, HRLHA Press Release
November 16, 2014
Harassment and intimidation through arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions without trial, kidnappings and disappearances have continued unabated in Ambo and the surrounding areas against peaceful protestors since the crackdowns of April 2014, in which more than 36 Oromos were killed by members of the federal security force.
According to HRLHA correspondents in Ambo, the major target areas of this most recent government-sponsored violence includes Ambo town and the villages of Mida Qagni district in eastern Shewa zone, approximately 25km south of Ambo town. More than 20 Oromos, students, teachers and farmers from different villages were arrested beginning November 11, 2014, until the time of the compilation of this press release. According to HRLHA reporters, the arrests were made following the protest by the people of the area against the sales of their farmland by the federal Government of Ethiopia to the investors.
Although it has been difficult to identify everyone by their names, HRLHA correspondents have confirmed that the following were among the arrested:
1- Kitata Regassa – age 70 – Wenni Village, Farmer
2- Tolessa Teshome – age 15 – Balami High School, 10th grade student
3- Dirre Masho – age 15 – Balami High School, 9th grade student
4- Tarku Bulsho – age 15 – Balami High School, 10th grade student
5- Yalew Banti – Balami High School, Teacher
6- Biyansa Ibbaa – age 15 – Balami High School, 10th grade student
7- Tesfay Biyensa – age 15 – Balami High School, 10th grade student
8- Mangistu Mosisaa – Balami, Businessman
On the other hand, in order to “clear and smoothen” the road to the victory of the election, which is to be held in the coming May 2015, the TPLF/EPRDF government of Ethiopia has started the campaigns of intimidation against whom it suspects are members of the other political organizations running for the election. Extrajudicial arrests and imprisonments, particularly in the regional state of Oromia, the most populous region in the country, has begun starting from the end of October 2014.
In this most recent wave of arrests and imprisonments that has been going on since the 30th of October 2014, and has touched almost all corners of Oromia, hundreds of Oromos from all walks of life have been apprehended and sent to prison.
According to information obtained from the HRLHA reporters, many Oromos from Wollega, Jimmaa and Illu-Ababora Zones, Western Oromia Regional State, Bale and Borana Southern Oromia Regional State were arrested for being members of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), the organization operating peacefully in Oromia Regional State. These members of the opposition political organization were accused with terrorism acts, and disseminating false and hateful information against the present government of Ethiopia. Among the detainees, three members Oromo Federalist Congress – Mr. Ahjeb Shek Mohamed, Mr. Mohamed Amin Kalfa and Mr. Naziv Jemal from Jima Zone were sentenced with two years and six months in prison and the fates of the rest detainees are yet unknown.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) expresses its deep concern over the safety and well-being of these Oromo nationals who have been arrested without any court warrant and are being held at Mida Qagni police station and other at unknown detention centers. The Ethiopian government has a well-documented record of gross and flagrant violations of human rights, including the torturing of its own citizens who were suspected of supporting, sympathizing with and/or being members of the opposition political organizations. There have been credible reports of physical and psychological abuses committed against individuals in Ethiopian official prisons and other secret detention centers. HRLHA calls upon governments of the West, all local, regional and international human rights agencies to join hands and demand the immediate halt of such kinds of extra-judicial actions against one’s own
citizens, and release the detainees without any preconditions.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to the Ethiopian Government and its concerned officials as swiftly as possible, in English, Ahmaric, or your own language
Your concern regarding the apprehension and fear of torture of the citizens who are being held in different detention centers including the infamous Ma’ikelawi Central Investigation Office; and calling for their immediate and unconditional release;
Urging the Ethiopian authorities to ensure that these detainees would be treated in accordance with the regional and international standards on the treatment of prisoners, and to disclose the whereabouts of the detainees; and
To stop grabbing Oromo land without negotiation with the owners and compensation
Make sure the coming 2015 election is fair and free
Send Your Concerns to:
His Excellency: Mr. Haila Mariam Dessalegn – Prime Minister of Ethiopia
P.O.Box – 1031 Addis Ababa
Telephone – +251 155 20 44; +251 111 32 41
Fax – +251 155 20 30 , +251 15520
Office of Oromiya National Regional State President Office
#Dargagoo Oromo Yoonas Jedhama Guyya Lama Dura Magalaa Jimma Nannoo Xaana Jedhamuti Miseensi Homa Waranaa Weyanee Fodda Cabse Seenudhan Akko Isa Xiyitii Tokkon Isammo Xiyitii 32 Itti Roobse Ajjesee. Dargagoon Kuni Eega Ji’oota Shan Dura Harmeen Isa Boqatte Booda Obbolessa Isa Kan Hangafa Fi Akko Isa Wajjiin Jiraata Ture. Miseensi Hooma Warana Wayyanee Bombi fi Mesha Waranaa Qabate Lubbu Dargagoo Oromo Kana Haala Sukkanessa Ta’een Dabrse Jira..Akkoon Mucaas Battalummati Boqatani. #BecauseIAmOromo. Sadaasa 15 bara 2014.
The genocidal TPLF (Ethiopian) Agazi troops by invading an Oromo family home in Jimma murdered Oromo youth Yoonas and his grand mum. The killers shot unarmed innocent boy 32 times and his grand mum 2 times. #BecauseIAmOromo. 15th November 2016
Intensifying Mass Arrest, Torture, and Killing will Only Inflame Struggle of for Freedom
Statement of Qeerroo Bilisummaa on Continued Arrest and Conviction of Oromo Students from Various Zones of Oromia
November 16, 2014
It is to be recalled that tens of thousands of Oromo nationals in general and Oromo students in particular have been arrested and severely tortured by the TPLF-led Ethiopian regime over the last few months in connection to a series of Oromo student protests which broke out in large scale and spread out throughout Oromia beginning the month of April, 2014. These protests, organized and led by the National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy (aka Qeerroo Bilisummaa), are just one incident in a series of continued struggle of the Oromo nation for freedom, democracy, and justice over the last 23 or so years. Hundreds have been gunned down by live bullets by the so called Agazi troops of the regime in the months of April and May, 2014. In addition to those who have been shot and killed during the protests, many have lost their lives in prison cells unable to stand the brutal torture. Many others have simply disappeared. Qeerroo Bilisummaa believes that those who disappeared have been killed and their bodies hidden – a practice repeatedly perpetrated on the Oromo prisoners by this regime.
On July 7, 2014 Qeerroo Bilisummaa has compiled a list of 61 Oromos killed and 903 others rounded up and thrown into jail during the April/May Oromo student protests of universities, colleges, high schools, middle schools and other educational institutions. Our evidence indicates that all those who have been arrested have undergone through intense interrogation which involved severe and brutal torture. Many have lost their lives due to the severe torture. For example, a 2nd year Computer Science Oromo student of Haromaya University, Aslan (Nuradin) Hasan, was killed as a result of extended torture in prison on June 04, 2014. On the same day a 10th grade student, Dawit Wakjira, was arrested and beaten to death in Anfillo district, Qellem Wollega zone. Again on the same day a young high school teacher, Magarsa Abdissa, was beaten and killed in Gulliso Prison, West Wollega zone. The fact that these three young Oromos are known and reported to have been beaten to death on the same day, from different parts of Oromia, is a testimony that prisons in the empire are not safe places under this regime. It has to be noted that many other killings that occurred in the prison cells remained hidden as it is extremely difficult and risky to compile reports of such brutal killings under tight security machinery of the regime.
The arrests and tortures have continued non-stop. More and more are being arrested before those who are in jail are released or brought to court. Many of those who survived the torture will remain incarcerated, without any charge, until they confess the accusations brought against them. On many other prisoners, concocted charges and false witnesses have been prepared and they are brought to the kangaroo court of the regime to pass a long time sentence on them so as to legitimize their prison term. Everybody who pays close attention to how the judicial system of the regime operates knows for sure that the so called “court” of the regime is just a place where a fictitious drama is performed. Qeerroo Bilisummaa believes no justice is expected from the so called “court” of the current Ethiopian regime at any level.
In this brief statement the data collection team of Qeerroo Bilisummaa has compiled a list of 183 Oromos, from 6 different zones of Oromia, mainly students, on which the regime has finalized its trumped up charges in order to pass a “guilty” verdict on these young innocent Oromo students and others and sentence them to several years of prison. The main content of the charges brought against them is “having connection with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)” and “participating on the public protest against the government”. These Oromo students and other Oromo individuals are in addition to several hundreds of prisoners Qeerroo has reported in the last few months and our reports indicate that they are going under severe torture and they are denied food, health care, closing and basic needs to sustain their lives.
Qeerroo Bilisummaa strongly demands that the Ethiopian regime drop all charges against these Oromo nationals and tens of thousands others and release them immediately and unconditionally. We would like to reiterate that we the Oromo youth Qeerroo will not sit and be silent when part of our body is bleeding. The Ethiopian regime should realize that intensifying arrest, torture and killing will only inflame the struggle of the Oromo people for their right. More oppression doesn’t lead to submission. It rather breeds more dissenting voices. We are certain that eventually the Oromo and other oppressed nations and nationalities will bring down this criminal regime and justice and freedom will prevail. Read Full Statement:- Continued Arrest and Conviction of Oromo Students from Various Zones of Oromia
OMN: Interview with Amnesty International Researcher Claire Beston – Part 2
OMN reported land grabs, mass arrests, killings and evictions by TPLF Agazi and Liyu Police at Mida Qenyi (Central Oromia, Ambo) and at Saweyna & Beelto in Bale, Southern Oromia.
Ethiopia’s federal court in Dire Dawa has handed down 1-5 years prison sentence against 16 Oromo students arrested during #OromoProtests. Below is these list of students:
According to a report obtained by HRLHA from its local reporters in eastern Oromia, the border clash that has been going on since November 1, 2014 around the Qumbi, Midhaga Lolaa, and Mayuu Muluqee districts between Oromo and Ogadenia nationals, has already resulted in the deaths of seven Oromos, and the displacement of about 15,000 others. Large numbers of cattle and other valuable possessions are also reported to have been looted from Oromos by the invaders. .
The HRLHA reporter in the eastern Hararge Zone confirmed that this violence came from federal armed forces (the Federal Liyou/Special Police) from the Ogadenia side; the Oromos were simply defending themselves against this aggression- though without much success because the people were fully disarmed by the federal government force prior to the clash starting.
Read the detail @ http://www.humanrightsleague.org/?p=15215
Mass killings is being conducted by Liyu Police against Oromo people in Eastern (Harargee) and Southern (Bale) Oromia. OMN News Sources, 7th November 2014.
Mass evictions of Oromo families from their ancestral homes in Buraayyuu (Central Oromia, near Finfinnee), OMN reports, 30 October 2014. Listen to the following OMN, Afaan Oromo News.
Seenaa Abdissa:- Twenty Years Later After the Adoption of the Constitution, Jailed, Abducted and Killed #BecauseIAmOromo
The following short note, but thought provoking and moving paragraph – adopted for the Oromo case from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, is from Seenaa Abdissa’s Facebook. The time to end the injustice on the Oromo people is now; this generation must not run away from this injustice and pass on the duty of fighting against this injustice to the next generation. This generation must face the enemy and defeat it by all nonviolent means necessary. Qeerroo, stand up!
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by Seenaa Abdissa
“Twenty years ago, when Ethiopians adopted a federal constitution after deposing the cruel dictator Mengistu Hailemariam, this momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Oromo who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But twenty years later, the Oromo still is not free. Twenty years later, the life of the Oromo is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. Twenty years later, the Oromo lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Twenty years later, the Oromo is still languished in the corners of Ethiopian prisons of Maikelawi, Kaliti, Zway and Kilinto and finds himself an exile in his own land and abroad. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. #BecauseIAmOromo!!!”
Groups at risk of arbitrary arrest in Oromia
‘BECAUSE I AM OROMO’ SWEEPING REPRESSION IN THE OROMIA REGION OF ETHIOPIAEthiopia has “ruthlessly targeted” and tortured its largest national group for perceived opposition to the government, Amnesty International said in a damning report on Tuesday.Thousands of people from the Oromo have been “regularly subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without charge, enforced disappearance, repeated torture and unlawful state killings,” said the report, based on over 200 testimonies.”Dozens of actual or suspected dissenters have been killed.”At least 5 000 Oromos have been arrested since 2011 often for the “most tenuous of reasons”, for their opposition – real or simply assumed – to the government, the report added.Former detainees, who have fled the country and were interviewed by Amnesty in neighbouring Kenya, Somaliland and Uganda, described torture “including beatings, electric shocks, mock execution, burning with heated metal or molten plastic and rape, including gang rape,” the report said.One young girl said hot coals were dropped on her stomach because her father was suspected of supporting the OLF, while a teacher described how he was stabbed in the eye with a bayonet after he refused to teach “propaganda about the ruling party” to students.‘Relentless crackdown’Those arrested included peaceful protesters, opposition party members and even Oromos “expressing their Oromo cultural heritage,” Amnesty said.Family members of suspects have also been arrested, some taken when they asked about a relative who had disappeared, and had then been detained themselves without charge for months or even years.”The Ethiopian government’s relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent among the Oromo is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality,” Amnesty researcher Claire Beston said.”This is apparently intended to warn, control or silence all signs of ‘political disobedience’ in the region,” she added, describing how those she interviewed bore the signs of torture, including scars and burns, as well as missing fingers, ears and teeth.Amnesty International’s report titled, “‘Because I Am Oromo’: A Sweeping Repression in Oromia …” can be accessed here.
Photo courtesy of: Gadaa.com@flickr
According to a report published by Amnesty International on Tuesday October 28, based on the testimony of over 200 people, the Ethiopian government is guilty of widespread human rights violations in the Oromia region. Anyone who is suspected of being a dissident risks arrest and torture, and even family members of those arrested have been targeted on the basis of sharing, or even having inherited their relative’s point of view.
Thousands of members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, are being ruthlessly targeted by the state based solely on their perceived opposition to the government, said Amnesty International in a new report released today.
“Because I am Oromo” – Sweeping repression in the Oromia region of Ethiopia exposes how Oromos have been regularly subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without charge, enforced disappearance, repeated torture and unlawful state killings as part of the government’s incessant attempts to crush dissent.
“The Ethiopian government’s relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent among the Oromo is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality,” said Claire Beston, Amnesty International’s Ethiopia researcher.
“This is apparently intended to warn, control or silence all signs of ‘political disobedience’ in the region.”
More than 200 testimonies gathered by Amnesty International reveal how the Ethiopian government’s general hostility to dissent has led to widespread human rights violations in Oromia, where the authorities anticipate a high level of opposition. Any signs of perceived dissent in the region are sought out and suppressed, frequently pre-emptively and often brutally.
At least 5,000 ethnic Oromos have been arrested between 2011 and 2014 based on their actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government.
These include peaceful protesters, students, members of opposition political parties and people expressing their Oromo cultural heritage.
In addition to these groups, people from all walks of life – farmers, teachers, medical professionals, civil servants, singers, businesspeople, and countless others – are regularly arrested in Oromia based only on the suspicion that they don’t support the government. Many are accused of ‘inciting’ others against the government.
Family members of suspects have also been targeted by association – based only on the suspicion they shared or ‘inherited’ their relative’s views – or are arrested in place of their wanted relative.
Many of those arrested have been detained without charge for months or even years and subjected to repeated torture. Throughout the region, hundreds of people are detained in unofficial detention in military camps. Many are denied access to lawyers and family members.
Dozens of actual or suspected dissenters have been killed.
The majority of those targeted are accused of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – the armed group in the region.
However, the allegation is frequently unproven as many detainees are never charged or tried. Often it is merely a pretext to silence critical voices and justify repression.
“People are arrested for the most tenuous of reasons: organizing a student cultural group, because their father had previously been suspected of supporting the OLF or because they delivered the baby of the wife of a suspected OLF member. Frequently, it’s because they refused to join the ruling party,” said Claire Beston.
In April and May 2014, events in Oromia received some international attention when security forces fired live ammunition during a series of protests and beat hundreds of peaceful protesters and bystanders. Dozens were killed and thousands were arrested.
“These incidents were far from being unprecedented in Oromia – they were merely the latest and bloodiest in a long pattern of suppression. However, much of the time, the situation in Oromia goes unreported,” said Claire Beston.
Amnesty International’s report documents regular use of torture against actual or suspected Oromo dissenters in police stations, prisons, military camps and in their own homes.
A teacher told how he had been stabbed in the eye with a bayonet during torture in detention because he refused to teach propaganda about the ruling party to his students.
A young girl said she had hot coals poured on her stomach while she was detained in a military camp because her father was suspected of supporting the OLF.
A student was tied in contorted positions and suspended from the wall by one wrist because a business plan he prepared for a university competition was deemed to be underpinned by political motivations.
Former detainees repeatedly told of methods of torture including beatings, electric shocks, mock execution, burning with heated metal or molten plastic and rape, including gang rape.
Although the majority of former detainees interviewed said they never went to court, many alleged they were tortured to extract a confession.
“We interviewed former detainees with missing fingers, ears and teeth, damaged eyes and scars on every part of their body due to beating, burning and stabbing – all of which they said were the result of torture,” said Claire Beston.
Detainees are subject to miserable conditions, including severe overcrowding, underground cells, being made to sleep on the ground and minimal food. Many are never permitted to leave their cells, except for interrogation and, in some cases, aside from once or twice a day to use the toilet. Some said their hands or legs were bound in chains for months at a time.
As Ethiopia heads towards general elections in 2015, it is likely that the government’s efforts to suppress dissent, including through the use of arbitrary arrest and detention and other violations, will continue unabated and may even increase.
“The Ethiopian government must end the shameful targeting of thousands of Oromos based only on their actual or suspected political opinion. It must cease its use of detention without charge, torture and ill-treatment, incommunicado detention, enforced disappearance and unlawful killings to muzzle actual or suspected dissent,” said Claire Beston.
Interviewees repeatedly told Amnesty International that there was no point trying to complain or seek justice in cases of enforced disappearance, torture, possible killings or other violations. Some were arrested when they did ask about a relative’s fate or whereabouts.
Amnesty International believes there is an urgent need for intervention by regional and international human rights bodies to conduct independent investigations into these allegations of human rights violations in Oromia.
FILE – Ethiopian migrants, all members of the Oromo community of Ethiopia living in Malta, protest against the Ethiopian regime.
Amnesty International has issued a new report claiming that the Ethiopian government is systematically repressing the country’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo.
Amnesty International says Ethiopia’s ethnic Oromo are subject to arbitrary arrest, detentions without access to lawyers, repeated torture and even targeted killings to crush dissident.
Claire Beston is the Ethiopia researcher for Amnesty International. She says the East African country is hostile to any kind of dissent but particularly fears the Oromo for a number of reasons.
“Including the numerical size of the Oromo because they’re the largest ethnic group; a strong sense of national identity amongst the Oromo; and also kind of history of perceived anti-government sentiment,” said Beston.
Oromia is the largest state within Ethiopia and about 35% of the population is considered to be ethnically Oromo.
Oromo students protested in April and May against the capital city’s restructuring plan – which they said would dilute Oromo culture through annexing traditional Oromo land surrounding Addis Ababa. The rare protests led to violence. Several dozen people were killed and hundreds arrested. Peaceful Oromo Muslim protests in 2012 and 2013 were also crushed with force and mass arrests.
Beston says Oromo students and protestors are not the only ones who are at risk in Ethiopia.
“We’re talking about hundreds of people from ordinary people from all walks of life including teachers and mid-wives, and even government employees, singers and a range of other professions who’re all arrested just on the suspicion that they don’t support the government,” said Beston.
Amnesty International has not been allowed into Ethiopia since 2011. Researchers based the report’s findings on several hundred interviews with Oromo refugees outside Ethiopia and telephone and email conversations with Oromo inside the country. Many of the respondents said they had been detained in prisons, police stations, military camps or unofficial detention centers where they were subjected to repeated torture.
Amnesty has concluded at least 5,000 Oromo have been arrested and detained since 2011, many for weeks or months without being charged. The report says they are usually accused of supporting or being members in the outlawed armed group, the Oromo Liberation Front. The OLF has been fighting for self-determination for more than 40 years. The report claims this is just a pretext for silencing dissent.
In response to Amnesty, the government – through the state-run Oromia Justice Bureau – says there is no clear evidence of violations as claimed by Amnesty and calls the allegations “untrue and far from the reality”.
Beston says repression throughout the country, and particularly against the Oromo, is likely to increase as the May 2015 elections approach.
Oromo demonstrators protest in London earlier this year following the killing of student protesters in Oromia state by Ethiopian security forces. Photograph: Peter Marshall/Demotix/Corbis
Ethiopia has “ruthlessly targeted” and tortured its largest ethnic group owing to a perceived opposition to the government, Amnesty International has said.
Thousands of people from the Oromo ethnic group have been “regularly subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without charge, enforced disappearance, repeated torture and unlawful state killings,” according to a damning report based on more than 200 testimonies. “Dozens of actual or suspected dissenters have been killed.”
At least 5,000 Oromos have been arrested since 2011 often for the “most tenuous of reasons”, for their opposition – real or simply assumed – to the government, the report added.
Many are accused of supporting the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
Former detainees who have fled the country and were interviewed by Amnesty in neighbouring Kenya, Somaliland and Uganda described torture “including beatings, electric shocks, mock execution, burning with heated metal or molten plastic and rape, including gang-rape”, the report added.
One young girl said hot coals had been dropped on her stomach because her father was suspected of supporting the OLF, while a teacher described how he was stabbed in the eye with a bayonet after he refused to teach “propaganda about the ruling party” to students.
There was no immediate response from the government, which has previously dismissed such reports and denied any accusation of torture or arbitrary arrests.
“The Ethiopian government’s relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent among the Oromo is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality,” the Amnesty researcher Claire Beston said.
“This is apparently intended to warn, control or silence all signs of ‘political disobedience’ in the region,” she added, describing how those she interviewed bore the signs of torture, including scars and burns, as well as missing fingers, ears and teeth.
With nearly 27 million people, Oromia is the most populated of the country’s federal states and has its own language, Oromo, which is distinct from Ethiopia’s official Amharic language.
Some of those who spoke to Amnesty said people had been arrested for organising a student cultural group. Another said she was arrested because she delivered the baby of the wife of a suspected OLF member.
“Frequently, it’s because they refused to join the ruling party,” Beston added, warning that many were fearful attacks would increase before general elections slated for May 2015.
In April and May, security forces shot dead student protesters in Oromia. At the time, the government said eight had been killed, but groups including Human Rights Watch said the toll was believed to be far higher. Amnesty said “dozens” had been killed in the protests.
Former detainees who had fled the country described torture, “including beatings, electric shocks, mock execution, burning with heated metal or molten plastic and rape, including gang rape”, it added.
Amnesty said other cases of torture it had recorded included:
A young girl having hot coals poured on her stomach while being held in a military camp because her father was suspected of supporting the OLF
A teacher being stabbed in the eye with a bayonet while in detention because he had refused to teach propaganda about the ruling party to his students
A student being tied in contorted positions and suspended from the wall by one wrist because a business plan he had prepared for a university competition was seen to be political
It compiled the report after testimonies from 200 people who were exiled in countries like Kenya and Uganda, Amnesty said.
“We interviewed former detainees with missing fingers, ears and teeth, damaged eyes and scars on every part of their body due to beating, burning and stabbing – all of which they said were the result of torture,” said Claire Beston, Amnesty Ethiopia researcher.
Ethiopian government spokesman Redwan Hussein dismissed Amnesty’s report.
“It [Amnesty] has been hell-bent on tarnishing Ethiopia’s image again and again,” he told AFP news agency.
Ethiopia is ruled by a coalition of ethnic groups. However, the OLF says the government is dominated by the minority Tigray group and it wants self-determination for the Oromo people.
Former detainees describe beatings, electric shocks, and gang rape, according to Amnesty International report
Al jazeera, October 28, 2014
Ethiopia has “ruthlessly targeted” and tortured thousands of people belonging to its largest ethnic group for perceived opposition to the government, rights group Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday.
The report, based on over 200 testimonies, said at least 5,000 members of the Oromo ethnic group, which has a distinct language and accounts for over 30 percent of the country’s population, had been arrested between 2011 and 2014 for their “actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government.”
“The Ethiopian government’s relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent among the Oromo is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality,” said Amnesty International researcher Claire Beston.
The rights group said those arrested included students and civil servants. They were detained based on their expression of cultural heritage such as wearing clothes in colors considered to be symbols of Oromo resistance – red and green – or alleged chanting of political slogans.
Oromo, the largest state in Ethiopia, has long had a difficult relationship with the central government in Addis Ababa. A movement has been growing there for independence. And the government has outlawed a secessionist group, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which has fought for self-determination for over 40 years.
Since 1992, the OLF has waged a low-level armed struggle against the Ethiopian government, which has accused the group of carrying out a series of bombings throughout the country.
Amnesty said that the majority of Oromo people targeted are accused of supporting the OLF, but that the “allegation is frequently unproven” and that it is “merely a pretext to silence critical voices and justify repression.”
“The report tends to confirm the claims that diaspora-based Oromo activists have been making for some time now,” Michael Woldemariam, a professor of international relations and political science at Boston University, told Al Jazeera. “What it does do, however, is provide a wealth of detail and empirical material that lends credibility to claims we have heard before.”
Missing fingers, ears, teeth
Former detainees – who fled the country and were interviewed by Amnesty in neighboring Kenya, Somaliland and Uganda – described torture, “including beatings, electric shocks, mock execution, burning with heated metal or molten plastic, and rape, including gang rape,” Amnesty said.
Although the majority of former detainees interviewed said they never went to court, many alleged they were tortured to extract a confession.
“We interviewed former detainees with missing fingers, ears and teeth, damaged eyes and scars on every part of their body due to beating, burning and stabbing – all of which they said were the result of torture,” said Beston.
Redwan Hussein, Ethiopia’s government spokesman, “categorically denied” the report’s findings. He accused Amnesty of having an ulterior agenda and of repeating old allegations.
“It (Amnesty) has been hell-bent on tarnishing Ethiopia’s image again and again,” he told Agence France-Press.
The report also documented protests that erupted in April and May over a plan to expand the capital Addis Abba into Oromia territory. It said that protests were met with “unnecessary and excessive force,” which included “firing live ammunition on peaceful protestors” and “beating hundreds of peaceful protesters and bystanders,” resulting in “dozens of deaths and scores of injuries.”
Oromo singers, writers and poets have been arrested for allegedly criticizing the government or inciting people through their work. Amnesty said they, along with student groups, protesters and people promoting Oromo culture, are treated with hostility because of their “perceived potential to act as a conduit or catalyst for further dissent.”
Al Jazeera and wire services. Philip J. Victor contributed to this report.
Ethiopia illegally detains 5000 Oromos in the Past four years: Amnesty, 27 October 2014
The Ethiopian Government, led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is engaged in systematic destruction of the Oromo social fabric. It is committing, at times, acts of genocide against the Oromo People for forcibly suppress their demand for self-determination (photo: Hundreds of detained and shaved Oromo students at a certain concentration camp).
Thousands of Ethiopians have been tortured by the country’s brutal security forces while Britain funnelled almost £1billion in aid to the country’s government, a damning report has revealed.
Human rights group Amnesty International said more than 5,000 Ethiopians had been arrested, raped and ‘disappeared’ in a state-sanctioned campaign to crack down on political dissent over the past three years.
At the same time, the Department for International Development gave Ethiopia £882.9million.
The east African country is the second largest recipient of British aid after Pakistan.
It pocketed £261.5million in 2012/13 and £284.4million in 2013 – and is due to get another £337million this year.
David Cameron wrote to the Ethiopian prime minister earlier this month after a British man was sentenced to death without access to lawyers.
The British ambassador in Addis Ababa has been allowed to meet Andargachew Tsige only once, seven weeks after he was arrested.
His wife, Yemi Hailemariam, said she fears that Mr Tsige will face the same brutal treatment described in the Amnesty report.
Its dossier of ‘sweeping repression in the Oromo region of Ethiopia’ was based on 240 testimonies and interviews with 176 refugees from the country’s majority Oromo ethnic group, reported the Times newspaper today.
Women were gang raped by groups of prison guards, and men told how they had bottles of water ‘suspended from their genitalia’.
The report says: ‘One man interviewed by Amnesty said his brother had had to have 70 per cent of his penis removed after release from detention as a result of being subjected to this treatment.’
More than 5,000 citizens were tortured, raped and burnt by Ethiopia’s security forces in a state-sanctioned campaign to suppress political dissent, a rights group claimed yesterday, while Britain gave almost £1 billion in aid.
An Amnesty International report said that thousands of victims, including women and children, faced arbitrary arrest, forced disappearance, “repeated torture and unlawful state killings” in the past three years.
Does British aid to Africa help the powerful more than the poor?
‘Sadly, anyone familiar with Ethiopia will not be surprised. With a long record of suppressing dissent, its government is one of the most authoritarian in Africa. Yet Ethiopia also benefits handsomely from British aid, receiving £329 million last year, making it the biggest recipient of UK development assistance in Africa – and the second biggest in the world.’
Does British aid to Africa help the powerful more than the poor?
As Ethiopia’s regime is accused of atrocities, David Blair asks whether British aid might – inadvertently and indirectly – be subsidising repression?
British aid to Ethiopia amounted to £329m last year.
Ethiopia’s security forces have carried out terrible atrocities during a brutal campaign against rebels from the Oromo Liberation Front. So reports Amnesty International in a horrifying investigation which concludes that at least 5,000 people from the Oromo ethnic group have suffered torture, abduction or worse in the last three years alone.
Sadly, anyone familiar with Ethiopia will not be surprised. With a long record of suppressing dissent, its government is one of the most authoritarian in Africa. Yet Ethiopia also benefits handsomely from British aid, receiving £329 million last year, making it the biggest recipient of UK development assistance in Africa – and the second biggest in the world.
You could put these facts together and reach the headline conclusion: “British aid bankrolls terrible regime”. But the Department for International Development (DFID) would point out that things are not quite so simple. First of all, Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a national income per capita of less than £300. At least 25 million Ethiopians live in absolute poverty, defined as an income of less than 60p per day. Should you refrain from helping these people just because, through no fault of their own, they happen to live under a repressive government?
Second, no British aid goes to Ethiopia’s security forces. Instead, our money is spent on, for example, training nurses and midwives, sending children to primary school and ensuring that more villages have clean water. If an Ethiopian military unit carries out an atrocity in the Ogaden region, would it really help matters if Britain stopped funding a project to give safe water to a village in Tigray?
This is a serious argument and there are no easy answers. But DFID’s case also has two key flaws. First, when outside donors spend large sums in a poor country, they change the way the relevant government allocates its own resources. Put simply, if rich foreigners are prepared to pick up a big share of the bill for useful things like health and education, then the government could, for example, take the opportunity to spend a lot more on its horrible security forces.
The great risk attached to aid is that you give national administrations more freedom to spend their money on what they think is important. That’s fine if the government concerned has the welfare of its people at heart. I put the point delicately: this is not universally true in Africa. In Ethiopia, there must be a real possibility that the government has bought more weapons for its appalling security force than would otherwise have been possible if DFID had not been covering a share of the bill for health, education, water, sanitation and so forth. The danger is that, inadvertently and indirectly, we could be subsidising Ethiopia’s campaign of repression.
The second problem concerns the political setting in which aid is spent. Ethiopia is an authoritarian state with a dominant ruling party that holds 499 of the 547 seats in parliament. In this context, any outsider who invests large sums in Ethiopia will probably end up strengthening the regime’s grip on power, whether intentionally or not. Every time a school is built or a hospital opened, the ruling party will claim the credit. And if the party in question has a long history of crushing it opponents with an iron fist – which is certainly true in Ethiopia – then the donors could find themselves underwriting this system of repression, albeit indirectly.
None of this suggests that Britain should cut off aid to Ethiopia tomorrow or that all our money is necessarily wasted. My only purpose is to show that the law of unintended consequences works more perniciously in the field of international development than just about any other. There are real dilemmas – and aid can end up helping the powerful more than the poor.
Amnesty Says Ethiopia Detains 5,000 Oromos Illegally Since 2011
By William Davison
Bloomberg, Oct 27, 2014,
Ethiopia’s government illegally detained at least 5,000 members of the country’s most populous ethnic group, the Oromo, over the past four years as it seeks to crush political dissent, Amnesty International said.
Victims include politicians, students, singers and civil servants, sometimes only for wearing Oromo traditional dress, or for holding influential positions within the community, the London-based advocacy group said in a report today. Most people were detained without charge, some for years, with many tortured and dozens killed, it said.
“The Ethiopian government’s relentless crackdown on real or imagined dissent among the Oromo is sweeping in its scale and often shocking in its brutality,” Claire Beston, the group’s Ethiopia researcher, said in a statement. “This is apparently intended to warn, control or silence all signs of ‘political disobedience’ in the region.”
The Oromo make up 34 percent of Ethiopia’s 96.6 million population, according to the CIA World Factbook. Most of the ethnic group lives in the central Oromia Regional State, which surroundsAddis Ababa, the capital. Thousands of Oromo have been arrested at protests, including demonstrations this year against what was seen as a plan to annex Oromo land by expanding Addis Ababa’s city limits.
Muslims demonstrating about alleged government interference in religious affairs were also detained in 2012 and 2013, Amnesty said in the report, titled: ‘Because I am Oromo’ – Sweeping Repression in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia.
ETHIOPIA: A Minor Gets Prison Terms for Alleged Instigation
HRLHA – URGENT ACTION October 14, 2014
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) strongly condemns the sentencing of Abde Jemal, a fourteen-year old minor, in adults’ court to four years in prison and $700.00 Birr fine for allegedly inciting people to political violence. According to HRLHA’s correspondents, Abde Jemal was arrested by the security agents while tending his parents’ cattle out in the field. HRLHA has learnt that Abde Jemal was severely beaten up (in other words, physically tortured) following his arrest by members of the security force in order to coerce him into confessing in court to the alleged crime. To begin with, this was allowed to happen despite the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990, to which Ethiopia is a signatory, and which clearly states under Article 37(a) that State Parties shall ensure that “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”; and additionally guarantees under article 40, sub-article 2(a) that every child alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law should … “Not be compelled to give testimony or to confess guilt.”
HRLHA has also learnt through its correspondents that Abde Jemal, after being sentenced to four years in jail on the 2nd of September, 2014, in criminal charge file #06055 in the Bilo Nopha District Court, in the western Illu Abbabor Province of the Regional State of Oromia, was soon sent to Bishar, the provincial grand prison in Mettu, where adult offenders of all kinds of common crimes including murder are held. Being born to a poor family, Abde Jemal assumed the responsibilities of supporting his parents and himself at this very young age.
In the first place, it is undoubtedly abnormal and unusual to accuse a child of Abde Jemal’s age for inciting or being part of a POLITICAL violence. What is more, the Ethiopian Criminal Code, Chapter IV, sub-section I, under “Ordinary Measures”, states that, “In all cases where a crime provided by the criminal law or the Law of Petty Offences has been committed by a young person between the ages of nine and fifteen years (Art. 53), the court shall order one of the following measures …”: admitting to a curative institution (Art. 158), supervised education (Art. 159), reprimand; censure (Art. 160), school or home arrest (Art. 161), and other similar and light conditional sanctions and measures that facilitate the reforming, rehabilitation and reintegration of the young offender. The Criminal Code also provides, particularly under sub articles 162 and 168 in the same chapter, that the court shall order the admission of young offenders “… into a special institution for the correction and rehabilitation of the young criminals …” and “When the criminal was sent to a corrective institution, he shall be transferred to a detention institution if his conduct or the danger he constitutes renders such a measure necessary, or when has attained the age of eighteen years and the sentence passed on him is for a term extending beyond his majority.” Besides, the above mentioned UN Convention, under article 40, provides that “States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child’s sense of dignity and worth, and which takes into account the child’s age and the desirability of promoting the child’s reintegration and the child’s assuming a constructive role in society”. These all provisions inarguably show that minor offenders of Abde Jemal’s age deserve none of what have been imposed on him, including sending him to adults’ jail such as Bishari.
Also, the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child, another international document that Ethiopia has ratified, states that the child shall in all circumstances be among the first to receive protection and relief, and that the child shall be protected from practices which may foster racial, religious and any other form of discrimination. In spite of these all, according to HRLHA’s belief, Minor Abde Jemal has been subjected to all forms of discrimination – racial and political in particular, and was not given any of the protections he is entitled to as a child or a minor.
By allowing such extra-judicial impositions to happen to its own citizen, a minor in this case, the Ethiopian Government is inviting the questioning of the credibility of its own justice system, and its adherence to international documents it has signed and ratified.
Therefore, HRLHA calls up on the Ethiopian Government to unconditionally reverse all that have been imposed on Abde Jemal and other minors like him, if any, in adults’ criminal court, and ensure that the Minor gets fair trial in an appropriate judicial setting, in case he has really committed a crime. We also request that the Ethiopian Government honours all international documents that it has signed and that apply to children’s rights. HRLHA also calls up on regional and international diplomatic, democratic, and human rights agencies to challenge the Ethiopian TPLF/EPRDF Government in this regard; and join HRLHA in its demand for a fair treatment for Minor Abde Jemal.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to the Ethiopian Government and its concerned officials as swiftly as possible, in English, Ahmaric, or your own language:
Expressing your concerns over the absence of fair and appropriate delivery of justice, and the political biases impacting on the overall justice system,
Urging the concerned government offices and authorities of Ethiopia to ensure that Minor Abde Jemal would get a fair trial in appropriate court and based on the proper provisions of the criminal code as well as the constitution of the country,
Urging the Ethiopian Government to abide by all international instruments that it has ratified
Requesting diplomatic agencies in Ethiopia that are accredited to your respective countries that they play their parts in putting pressure on the Ethiopian Government so that it treats its citizens equally and fairly, regardless of their racial, religious, and/or political backgrounds.
Kindly send your appeals to:
His Excellency Haila Mariam Dessalegn, Prime Minister of Ethiopia,
Ethiopia: Systemic human rights concerns demand action by both Ethiopia and the Human Rights Council
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
AI Index: AFR 25/005/2014
22 September 2014
Systemic human rights concerns demand action by both Ethiopia and the Human Rights Council
Human Rights Council adopts Universal Periodic Review outcome on Ethiopia
With elections coming up in May 2015, urgent and concrete steps are needed to reduce violations of civil and political rights in Ethiopia.� Considering the scale of violations associated with general elections in 2005 and 2010, Amnesty International is deeply concerned that Ethiopia has rejected more than 20 key recommendations on freedom of expression and association relevant to the free participation in the elections and the monitoring and reporting on these. These include in particular recommendations to amend the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, which continues to be used to silence critical voices and stifle dissent, and recommendations to remove severe restrictions on NGO funding in the Charities and Societies Proclamation.� The independent journalists and bloggers arrested just days before Ethiopia’s review by the UPR Working Group in May 2014 have since been charged with terrorism offences. Four opposition party members were arrested in July on terror accusations, and, in August, the publishers of five magazines and one newspaper were reported to be facing similar charges.
While Amnesty International welcomes Ethiopia’s statement of ‘zero tolerance’ for torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and its commitment to adopt preventative measures,� it is concerned by its rejection of recommendations to investigate and prosecute all alleged cases of torture and other ill-treatment and to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.� The organization continues to receive frequent reports of the use of torture and other ill-treatment against perceived dissenters, political opposition party supporters, and suspected supporters of armed insurgent groups, including in the Oromia region. Amnesty International urges Ethiopia to demonstrate its commitment to strengthening cooperation with the Special Procedures by inviting the Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit the country.� Unfettered access by independent monitors to all places of detention is essential to reduce the risk of torture.
Ethiopia’s refusal to ratify the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance is also deeply concerning in light of regular reports of individuals being held incommunicado in arbitrary detention without charge or trial and without their families being informed of their detention – often amounting to enforced disappearances.�
Ethiopia’s UPR has highlighted the scale of serious human rights concerns in the country. Amnesty International urges the Human Rights Council to ensure more sustained attention to the situation in Ethiopia beyond this review.
Background
The UN Human Rights Council adopted the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of Ethiopia on 19 September 2014 during its 27th session. Prior to the adoption of the review outcome, Amnesty International delivered the oral statement above.
The UN Human Rights Council adopted the outcome of the UPR of Ethiopia
Statement from HRLHA
September 21, 2014
The UN Human Rights Council adopted the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Ethiopia on September 19, 2014. On that date, Ethiopia was given 252 recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council member States[1] to improve human rights infringements in the country, based on the general human rights situation assessment made to Ethiopia on May 2014 at UPR.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa welcomes the adoption of the outcome of the UPR on Ethiopia and appreciates the majority of the UN Human Rights Council member states’ recognition that one of their members, Ethiopia, has committed gross human rights abuses in its own country contrary to its responsibility to protect and promote human rights globally. Most of the Recommendations the Ethiopian Government received on September 19, 2014 were similar to the 2009 recommendations that were given to the same country during the first round of UPR human rights situation assessment in Ethiopia[2]. This proves that the human rights situation in Ethiopia continues to deteriorate.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa also welcomes the Ethiopian government for its courage of admitting its wrongdoings and acknowledged most of the recommendations and promise to work further for their improvements. The HRLHA looks forward the Government of Ethiopia to shows its commitment to fulfil its promises, and not to put them aside until the next UPR comes in four years (2019)
However, the government of Ethiopia failed again to accept the recommendations not to use the anti-terrorism proclamation it adopted in 2009 to suppress fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly and demonstrations. The country also rejected the recommendation of the member states to permit a special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association to travel to Ethiopia to advise the Government.
Today, thousands of people are languishing in prison because they formed their own political organizations or supported different political groups other than EPRDF. Thousands were indiscriminately brutalized in Oromia, Ogadenia, Gambela, Benshangul and other regions because they demanded their fundamental rights to peaceful assembly, demonstration and expression. These and other human rights atrocities in Ethiopia were reported by national and international human rights organizations, and international mass media, including foreign governments and NGOs. The Government of Ethiopia has repeatedly denied all these credible reports and continued with its systematic ethnic cleansing.
The HRLHA appreciates the UN Human Rights Council members who have provided valuable recommendations that have exposed the atrocity of the Ethiopian Government against defenceless civilians and the HRLHA urges them to put pressure on the government of Ethiopia to accept those recommendations it has rejected and put them into practice.
Finally, the HRLHA strongly supports the recommendations made by UN Human Rights Council member states and urges the Ethiopian Government to reverse its rejection of some recommendations, including:
Ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC),
Ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, OPCAT,
Permitting the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association to travel to Ethiopia to advise the Government;
Improving conditions in detention facilities by training personnel to investigate and prosecute all alleged cases of torture, and ratify OPCAT,
Repealing the Charities and Societies Proclamation in order to promote the development of an independent civil society “Allowing Ethiopia’s population to operate freely”
Removing vague provisions in the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation that can be used to criminalize the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and association and ensure that criminal prosecutions do not limit the freedom of expression of civil society, opposition politicians and independent media ;and use this opportunity to improve its human rights record.
UN experts urge Ethiopia to stop using anti-terrorism legislation to curb human rights
GENEVA (18 September 2014) – A group of United Nations human rights experts* today urged the Government of Ethiopia to stop misusing anti-terrorism legislation to curb freedoms of expression and association in the country, amid reports that people continue to be detained arbitrarily.
The experts’ call comes on the eve of the consideration by Ethiopia of a series of recommendations made earlier this year by members of the Human Rights Council in a process known as the Universal Periodic Review which applies equally to all 193 UN Members States. These recommendations are aimed at improving the protection and promotion of human rights in the country, including in the context of counter-terrorism measures.
“Two years after we first raised the alarm, we are still receiving numerous reports on how the anti-terrorism law is being used to target journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders and opposition politicians in Ethiopia,” the experts said. “Torture and inhuman treatment in detention are gross violations of fundamental human rights.”
“Confronting terrorism is important, but it has to be done in adherence to international human rights to be effective,” the independent experts stressed. “Anti-terrorism provisions need to be clearly defined in Ethiopian criminal law, and they must not be abused.”
The experts have repeatedly highlighted issues such as unfair trials, with defendants often having no access to a lawyer. “The right to a fair trial, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of association continue to be violated by the application of the anti-terrorism law,” they warned.
“We call upon the Government of Ethiopia to free all persons detained arbitrarily under the pretext of countering terrorism,” the experts said. “Let journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents and religious leaders carry out their legitimate work without fear of intimidation and incarceration.”
The human rights experts reiterated their call on the Ethiopian authorities to respect individuals’ fundamental rights and to apply anti-terrorism legislation cautiously and in accordance with Ethiopia’s international human rights obligations.
“We also urge the Government of Ethiopia to respond positively to the outstanding request to visit by the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of peaceful assembly and association, on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and on the situation of human rights defenders,” they concluded.
ENDS
(*) The experts: Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ben Emmerson; Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye; Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst; Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul; Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Méndez.
Special Procedures is the largest body of independent experts in the United Nations Human Rights system. Special Procedures is the general name of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Currently, there are 38 thematic mandates and 14 mandates related to countries and territories, with 73 mandate holders.
The Ethiopian government has been demolishing the homes of Oromo farmers in order to implement its “Integrated Master Plan”, meant to integrate Addis Ababa with the surrounding towns of the minority’s home region. According to residents of the town of Legetafo at least two people were shot by government forces as they tried to prevent the destruction of their homes. http://unpo.org/article/17521
“We didn’t do anything and they destroyed our house,” Miriam told me. “We are appealing to the mayor, but there have been no answers. The government does not know where we live now, so it is not possible for them to compensate us even if they wanted.”
Like the other residents of Legetafo—a small, rural town about twenty kilometers from Addis Ababa—Yehun and Miriam are subsistence farmers. Or rather, they were, before government bulldozers demolished their home and the authorities confiscated their land. The government demolished fifteen houses in Legetafo in July [2014].
The farmers in the community stood in the streets, attempting to prevent the demolitions, but the protests were met with swift and harsh government repression. Many other Oromo families on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s bustling capital are now wondering whether their communities could be next.
These homes were demolished in order to implement what’s being called Ethiopia’s “Integrated Master Plan.” The IMP has been heralded by its advocates as a bold modernization plan for the “Capital of Africa.”
The plan intends to integrate Addis Ababa with the surrounding towns in Oromia, one of the largest states in Ethiopia and home to the Oromo ethnic group—which, with about a third of the country’s population, is its largest single ethnic community. While the plan’s proponents consider the territorial expansion of the capital to be another example of what US Secretary of State John Kerry has called the country’s “terrific efforts” toward development, others argue that the plan favors a narrow group of ethnic elites while repressing the citizens of Oromia.
“At least two people were shot and injured,” according to Miriam, a 28-year-old Legetafo farmer whose home was demolished that day. “The situation is very upsetting. We asked to get our property before the demolition, but they refused. Some people were shot. Many were beaten and arrested. My husband was beaten repeatedly with a stick by the police while in jail.”
Yehun, a 20-year-old farmer from the town, said the community was given no warning about the demolitions. “I didn’t even have time to change my clothes,” he said sheepishly. Yehun and his family walked twenty kilometers barefoot to Sendafa, where his extended family could take them in.
Opponents of the plan have been met with fierce repression.
“The Integrated Master Plan is a threat to Oromia as a nation and as a people,” Fasil stated, leaning forward in a scuffed hotel armchair. Reading from notes scribbled on a sheet of loose-leaf notebook paper, the hardened student activist continued: “The plan would take away territory from Oromia,” depriving the region of tax revenue and political representation, “and is a cultural threat to the Oromo people living there.”
A small scar above his eye, deafness in one ear and a lingering gastrointestinal disease picked up in prison testify to Fasil’s commitment to the cause. His injuries come courtesy of the police brutality he encountered during the four-year prison sentence he served after he was arrested for protesting for Oromo rights in high school and, more recently, against the IMP at Addis Ababa University.
Fasil is just one of the estimated thousands of students who were detained during university protests against the IMP. Though Fasil was beaten, electrocuted and harassed while he was imprisoned last May, he considers himself lucky. “We know that sixty-two students were killed and 125 are still missing,” he confided in a low voice.
The students ground their protests in Ethiopia’s federal Constitution. “We are merely asking that the government abide by the Constitution,” Fasil explained, arguing that the plan violates at least eight constitutional provisions. In particular, the students claim that the plan violates Article 49(5), which protects “the special interest of the State of Oromia in Addis Ababa” and gives the district the right to resist federal incursions into “administrative matters.”
Moreover, the plan presents a tangible threat to the people living in Oromia. Fasil and other student protesters claimed that the IMP “would allow the city to expand to a size that would completely cut off West Oromia from East Oromia.” When the plan is fully implemented, an estimated 2 million farmers will be displaced. “These farmers will have no other opportunities,” Fasil told me. “We have seen this before when the city grew. When they lose their land, the farmers will become day laborers or beggars.”
The controversy highlights the disruptive and often violent processes that can accompany economic growth. “What is development, after all?” Fasil asked me.
Ethiopia’s growth statistics are some of the most impressive in the region. Backed by aid from the US government, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the country’s ruling coalition, is committed to modernizing agricultural production and upgrading the country’s economy. Yet there is a lack of consensus about which processes should be considered developmental.
Oromo activists allege that their community has borne a disproportionate share of the costs of development. Advocates like Fasil argue that the “development” programs of the EPRDF are simply a means of marginalizing the Oromo people to consolidate political power within the ruling coalition.
“Ethiopia has a federalism based on identity and language,” explained an Ethiopian political science professor who works on human rights. Nine distinct regions are divided along ethnic lines and are theoretically granted significant autonomy from the central government under the 1994 Constitution. In practice, however, the regions are highly dependent on the central government for revenue transfers and food security, development and health programs. Since the inception of Ethiopia’s ethno-regional federalism, the Oromo have been resistant to incorporation in the broader Ethiopian state and suspicious of the intentions of the Tigray ethnic group, which dominates the EPRDF.
As the 2015 elections approach, the Integrated Master Plan may provide a significant source of political mobilization. “The IMP is part of a broader conflict in Ethiopia over identity, power and political freedoms,” said the professor, who requested anonymity.
Standing in Gullele Botanic Park in May, Secretary of State Kerry was effusive about the partnership between the United States and Ethiopia, praising the Ethiopian government’s “terrific support in efforts not just with our development challenges and the challenges of Ethiopia itself, but also…the challenges of leadership on the continent and beyond.”
Kerry’s rhetoric is matched by a significant amount of US financial support. In 2013, Washington allocated more than $619 million in foreign assistance to Ethiopia, making it one of the largest recipients of US aid on the continent. According to USAID, Ethiopia is “the linchpin to stability in the Horn of Africa and the Global War on Terrorism.”
Kerry asserted that “the United States could be a vital catalyst in this continent’s continued transformation.” Yet if “transformation” entails land seizures, home demolitions and political repression, then it’s worth questioning just what kind of development American taxpayers are subsidizing.
The American people must wrestle with the implications of “development assistance” programs and the thin line between modernization and marginalization in countries like Ethiopia. Though the US government has occasionally expressed concern about the oppressive tendencies of the Ethiopian regime, few demands for reform have accompanied aid.
For the EPRDF, the process of expanding Addis Ababa is integral to the modernization of Ethiopia and the opportunities inherent to development. For the Oromo people, the Integrated Master Plan is a political and cultural threat. For the residents of Legetafo, the demolition of their homes demonstrates the uncertainty of life in a rapidly changing country.
Ethiopia: A Generation at Risk, Plight of Oromo Students
Fulbaana/September 7, 2014
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The following is an Urgent Action statement from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA).
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HRLHA Urgent Action
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 06, 2014
The human rights abuses against Oromo students in different universities have continued unabated over the past six months – more than a hundred Oromo students were extra-judicially wounded or killed, while thousands were jailed by a special squad: the “Agazi” force.
This harsh crackdown against the Oromo students, which resulted in deaths, arrests, detentions and disappearances, happened following peaceful protests by the Oromo students and the Oromo people in April-May 2014 against the so-called “Integrated Master Plan of Addis Ababa.” This plan was targeted at the annexation of many small towns of Oromia to the capital Addis Ababa. It would have meant the eviction of around six million Oromos from their lands and long-time livelihoods without being consulted or giving consent. The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has repeatedly expressed its deep concern about such human rights violations against the Oromo nation by the EPRDF government(1).
The HRLHA reporter in Addis Ababa confirmed that, in connection with the April-May, 2014 peaceful protests, among the many students picked from different universities and other places in the regional State of Oromia and detained in Maikelawi/”the Ethiopian Guantanamo bay Detention camp,” the following nine students and another four, Abdi Kamal, TofiK Kamal and Abdusamad – businessmen from Eastern Hararge Dirre Dawa town, and Chaltu Duguma (F), an employee of Wellega University, are in critical condition due to the continuous severe torture inflicted upon them in the past five months.
The current ongoing arrests and detention of Oromo students started when the students were forced to attend a “political training” said to be a government plan to indoctrinate the students with the political agenda of EPRDF for two weeks before the regular classes started in mid-September 2014. Before the training started, students demanded that the government release the students who were imprisoned during the peaceful protests of April-May 2014. Instead of giving a positive answer to the students’ legitimate questions, the federal government deployed its military forces to Ambo and Wellega University campuses to silence their voices; many students were severely beaten, and hundreds were taken to prison from August 20-29, 2014. Through the brutality of the federal government’s military “Agazi,” students from Ambo University, Hinaafu Lammaa, Kuma Fayisa, Tarreessaa Waaqummaa Mulugeta, Sukkaaraa Cimidi, Leensa Hailu Bedhane (F) and Elizabeth Legesse (lost her two teeth) were among those harshly beaten in their dormitories, and then thrown outside naked in the open air.
The HRLHA reporter documented the following names among hundreds of students taken to different detention centers from both Ambo and Wellega Universities on August 28 and 29, 2014.
Among many Wellaga University students, those who were severely beaten on 28/08/2014 – Markos Taye, Ganati Desta and Mosisa Fufa – were first taken to Nekemte Hospital and later transferred to Tikur Anbasa, a hospital in the capital city, more than 300km away, for further treatment. They remain there in critical condition.
The most recent report (Sept. 3, 2014) received by HRLHA from Ambo town indicates that more than 250 students released from Senkele detention center have been taken back to their villages so that their parents or guardians can sign documents stating that their children are responsible for the conflict created between the students and the federal military. The parents of the students rejected the attempt of the government to make their children guilty by supporting, instead, the demands of the students “Free our friends, bring the killers of the students to court.”
By killing, torturing and detaining nonviolent protesters, the government of Ethiopia is breaching:
1. The 1995 constitution of the Ethiopia, Articles 29 and 30, which grant basic democratic rights to all Ethiopian citizens(2).
2. All international and regional human rights instruments that Ethiopia signed, and the UN Human Rights council 19th(3) and 25th(4) sessions resolutions that call upon states, with regard to peaceful protests, to promote and protect all human rights and to prevent all human rights violations during peaceful protests.
Therefore, the HRLHA calls upon the Ethiopian Government to refrain from systematically eliminating the young generation of Oromo nationals and respect all international human rights standards, and all civil and political rights of citizens it has signed in particular.
HRLHA also calls upon governments of the West, all local, regional and international human rights agencies to join hands and demand an immediate halt to such kinds of extra-judicial actions against one’s own citizens. Detainees should be released without any preconditions and the murderers should brought to justice.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to the Ethiopian Government and its appropriate government ministries and/or officials as swiftly as possible, both in English and Ahmaric, or in your own language:
– Expressing concerns regarding the apprehension and possible torture of citizens who are being held in different detention centers, including the infamous Ma’ikelawi Central Investigation Office, and calling for their immediate and unconditional release;
– Request that the government refrain from detaining, harassing, discriminating against Oromo Nationals;
– Urging the Ethiopian authorities to ensure that detainees are treated in accordance with the regional and international standards regarding the treatment of prisoners;
– Also send your concerns to diplomatic representatives in Ethiopia who are accredited to your country.
Oral statement, Human Rights Council, 19 June 2014
August 27, 2014
Fleeing from abuse in Ethiopia and seeking refuge in Kenya, Djibouti, Somaliland, South Africa and Egypt, 187 refugees have described in detail, during hour-long interviews how they and their close families were persecuted.[1]
Nearly all reported arbitrary detention of relatives and 126 were themselves detained. Over half of those interviewed (95 – 51%) had been tortured, which amounted to 75% of former detainees. Rarely do refugee populations report experiencing torture to this extent.
Rape was reported by 25% of women/girl refugees (21 of 85). Just over half of women/girl refugees who had been detained (41) were raped in detention, almost always repeatedly and by more than one officer, and sometimes by up to eight at a time.
Refugees reported 87 disappearances in detention, of whom 69 were first degree relatives – parents, children, siblings or spouses.
Extra-judicial killings of those whom refugees were able to name – friends, neighbours, relatives or co-detainees – were reported of 372 individuals, 84 of whom were first degree relatives.
There are more than 250,000 Oromo refugees in the world. If only one tenth of that number has experienced the intensity of abuse meted out to the interviewees in Africa, hundreds of thousands of detentions without trial, at least 50,000 political killings, over 11,000 disappearances and over 6000 cases of rape by members of the security forces can be assumed to have taken place in Ethiopia since 1992.
While Ethiopia has enjoyed favoured aid status and millions of it population have remained dependent on food aid, its oppressive policies have stifled pluralism and denied more than a fraction of democratic space to opposition groups. It has one of the most sophisticated security and surveillance systems in Africa and maintains a large, well-equipped army and air-force.
Despite ongoing food-dependency, more than one million hectares of arable land has been leased to foreign investors growing for foreign markets while hundreds of thousands of local farmers have been evicted from their land.
Oromia: Enhanced Master Plan to Continue Committing the Crimes of Genocide The actions taken were aimed at destroying Oromo farmers or at rendering them extinct. ~Ermias Legesse, Ethiopia’s exiled EPRDF MinisterAugust 30, 2014 (Oromo Press) — The announcement of the implementation of the Addis Ababa Master Plan (AAMP) was just an extension of an attempt by EPRDF government at legalizing its plans of ridding the Oromo people from in and around Finfinne by grabbing Oromo land for its party leaders and real estate developers from the Tigrean community. The act of destroying Oromo farmers by taking away their only means of survival—the land—precedes the current master plan by decades. Ermias Legesse, exiled EPRDF Deputy Minister of Communication Affairs, acknowledged his own complicity in the destruction of 150,000[1] Oromo farmers in the Oromia region immediately adjacent to Finfinne. He testifies that high-level TPLF/EPRDF officials are responsible for planning and coordinating massive land-grab campaigns without any consideration of the people atop the land. Ermia’s testimony is important because it contains both the actus reus and dolus specials of the mass evictions[2]:Once while in a meeting in 1998 (2006, Gregorian),the Ethiopian Prime Minster Meles Zenawi , we (ERPDF wings) used to go to his office every week, said. Meles led the general party work in Addis Ababa. We went to his office to set the direction/goal for the year. When a question about how should we continue leading was asked, Meles said something that many people may not believe. ‘Whether we like it or not nationality agenda is dead in Addis Ababa.’ He spoke this word for word. ‘A nationality question in Addis Ababa is the a minority agenda.’ If anyone were to be held accountable for the crimes, everyone of us have a share in it according to our ranks, but mainly Abay Tsehaye is responsible. The actions taken were aimed at destroying Oromo farmers or at rendering them extinct. 29 rural counties were destroyed in this way. In each county there are more or less about 1000 families. About 5000 people live in each Kebele (ganda) and if you multiply 5000 by 30, then the whereabouts of 150,000 farmers is unknown.Zenawi’s statement “the question of nationality is a dead agenda in Addis Ababa” implies that the Prime Minister planned the genocide of the Oromo in and around Finfinne and others EPRDF officials followed suit with the plan in a more aggressive and formal fashion.Announcement of the Addis Ababa Master Plan and Massacres and Mass DetentionsAAMP was secretly in the making for at least three years before its official announcement in April 2014.[3] The government promoted on local semi-independent and state controlled media the sinister plan that already evicted 2 million Oromo farmers and aims at evicting 8-10 million and at dividing Oromia into east and west Oromia as a benevolent development plan meant to extend social and economic services to surrounding Oromia’s towns and rural districts. Notwithstanding the logical contradiction of claiming to connect Oromia towns and rural aanaalee (districts) to “economic and social” benefits by depopulating the area itself, the plan was met with strong peaceful opposition across universities, schools and high schools in Oromia. Starting with the Ambo massacre that claimed the lives of 47 people in one day[4], Ethiopia’s army and police killed over 200 Oromo students, jailed over 2000 students, maimed and disappeared countless others over a five-month period from April-August 2014.
Update Naqamte Indoctrination Conference (27 August 2014): After heated debate over the Addis Ababa Master Plan yesterday, federal police raided dormitories last night taking away hundreds of students to unknown detention center. Hospital sources confirm three students have been admitted to emergency room. Similar arrest and disappearances are being reported from other universities and meeting venues as well. Update on other campuses will follow.Although the cadres have been trying to discuss the three themes prepared for for the conference, the issue surrounding the Addis Ababa Master Plan continues to dominate the discussion. The tension has worsened following claim by cadres that the controversial Master Plan has been cancelled. Students have demanded that the alleged cancellation shall be made official and public. #OromoProtests, #FreeOromoStudents, Jawar Mohamed
ETHIOPIA: Relentless government violence on Oromo students and nationals continues, says human rights organization
Posted: Hagayya/August 27, 2014 · Gadaa.com
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The following is a press release from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA).
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August 27, 2014
While fresh arrests and detentions, kidnappings and disappearances of Oromo nationals have continued in different parts of the regional state of Oromia following the April-May crackdown of peaceful demonstrators, court rulings over the cases of some of the earlier detainees by courts of the regional state are being rejected by political agents of the governing TPLF/EPRDF Party. The renewed violence by government forces against Oromo nationals started particularly following what was termed as “Lenjii Siyaasaa” (literally meaning “political training”) that has targeted Oromo Students of higher educational institutions and has been going on in the past two weeks in different parts of Oromia.
Although the agendum for the “Political Training” was said to be “the unity of the country,” it instead has become an opportunity of carrying out further screenings and arrests of students, as around 100 more students have so far been arrested from Ambo University campuses alone and sent to a remote, isolated military camp called Sanqalle, leaving families and friends in fear in regards to the safety and well-being of the students in particular, not to mention the disruption of their studies. The arrests were made following the students’ protest of their confinement into the campuses during this so call “Political Trianing,” and the demand that the killers of their fellow students be brought to justice prior to discussing “unity.” Also, five students of Wallaga University, from among those who were gathered for the same purpose of “Political Training,” were kidnapped on the 22nd of August 2014, and taken away in a vehicle with plate number 4866 ET; and their whereabouts are not known since then. HRLHA correspondents have also traced another fresh arrests and detentions of around 100 Oromo nationals in a small town called Elemo, Doranni District in the Illu Abba Borra Zone. It took place on the 14th of August 2014; and Waqtole Garbe, Sisay Amana, Tiiqii Supha, Ittana Daggafa, Badiru Basha, Kamal Zaalii, Rashiid Abdu, Zetuna Waaqoo, Daggafa Tolee, Adam Ligdii, Indush Mangistu, Dibbeessa Libaan, and Ofete Jifar were a few among those detainees in Elemo Prison.
More worrisome and frustrating is agents of the federal government’s interference with regional and local judicial systems. More than one hundred students and other Oromo nationals, from among the thousands who were detained following the April-May nationwide protest, have been granted bails in local courts of the regional government of Oromia. These include 64 detainees in Dembi Dollo/Qellem, 10 in Ambo, 40 in Sibu-Sire and Digga District. But, all the court decisions were overruled by political officials representing the federal government. The Dembi Dollo/Qellem detainees in particular were granted bails four times, only to be turned down by political officials all the four rounds. On the other hand, there have been some cases in which prison terms ranging from six months to a year-and-half were imposed on the Oromo detainees, not in courts, but by those representatives of the federal government. Also, some independent lawyers complain that they were threatened by officials from the ruling party; and, as a result, refraining from representing the Oromo detainees. Usual as it has been in the past fifteen or so years, this case of interfering with and disobeying court rulings indicates that the case of these most recent Oromo detainees is purely political.
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) calls upon the Ethiopian Government to refrain from harassing and intimidating students through such extra-judicial means as killings, arrests and detentions, and denials of justice after detention; and instead, facilitate conducive teaching-learning environments. HRLHA also calls upon the Ethiopian Government to unconditionally release the detained Oromo students and other nationals; and, as requested by their fellow students, bring to justice the killers of innocent and peaceful protestors during the April-May crackdown.
BACKGROUNDS:
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has reported (May 1st and 13th, 2014, urgent actions, HumanRightsLeague.com) on the heavy-handed crackdown of the Ethiopian Federal Government’s Agazi Special Squad and the resultant extra-judicial killings of 34 (thirty-four) Oromo nationals; and the arrests and detentions of hundreds of others.
Although the brutalities of the armed squad and the resultant fatalities happened to be very high in Ambo Town, the peaceful protests by Oromo students of different universities and faculties have been taking place in April and May in various towns and cities of Oromia, including Diredawa and Adama in eastern Oromia, as well as Jimma, Mettu, Naqamte, Gimbi, and Dambidollo in western Oromia.
The Oromo students of universities and colleges in different parts of the regional state of Oromia took to the streets for peaceful demonstrations in protest to the decision passed by the Federal EPRDF/TPLF-led Government to expand the city of Finfinnee/Addis Ababa by uprooting and displacing hundreds of thousands of Oromos from all sorts of livelihoods, and annexing about 36 surrounding towns of Oromia, the ultimate goal of which is claimed to be redrawing the map of the Oromia Region. The federal annexation plan, which was termed as “The Integrated Development Master Plan,” is said to be covering the towns of Dukem, Gelan, Legetafo, Sendafa, Sululta, Burayu, Holeta, Sebeta, and others, stretching the boundary of Finfinne/Addis Ababa to about 1.1-million hectares – an area of 20 times its current size.
3rd year Water Engineering student Alamayyoo Sooressaa of Jimma University was kidnapped 4 months ago by Agazi (TPLF) forces. He is being tortured in Ma’ikkelawi with the rests of Oromo students held there. #FreeOromoStudents, 25th August 2014.
#FreeOromoStudents #OromoProtests, posted 25th August 2014
More than 200 university students gathered at Ambo University for political indoctrination by government cadres have been arrested.
The students are being kept at Sankalle Police Training Camp and have been subjected to severe beatings for opposing the indoctrination. #OromoProtests, 25th August 2014.
5th year Law student Iskandar (Obsaa) Abdulkadir of Haromaya University kidnapped by Agazi (TPLF) forces. Iskandar (Obsaa) Abdulkadir was kidnapped from Somaliland and sent to Ethiopia through extraordinary rendition. Obsa reportedly took refuge in the neighboring country following the student protest in May.
24 August 2014.
ODUU BAYEE NAMA NASIISTUU FI GADDISTUU BARAATAA SEERA WAGAA 5ffaa tii. WAYAANEN QIINDEESSA FDG UNIVESITII HAROMAYAA JECHUU DHAN ISSAA KANA SEERAF DEHESSUF YALAA TURAAN.YEROO HANGAA TOKKO BOODA ISKANDAR ABDULKADIR YKN OBSA ABDULQADIR TO’ANAA MOTUMMA WAYAANEE JALAA OLUU ISSAA MIRKKANAWEE.
ISKANDAR YKN OBSA ABDULKADIR JECHUUN BARATOOTA WAGAA KANA ABOOKKATUMMAN EBIIFAMUU KESSA TOKKO TUREE GARUU OROMUMMATUU ISSA DORKKEE.OBSA YKN ISKANDAR PREZINDANTII BARAATOTAA UNIVERSIITII HAROMAYAA KAN TUREE.
#oromoprotests #freeoromostudents
3rd year law student Waaqumaa Dhaabaa and high school student named Dereje from Ambo (Oromo nationals) were kidnapped by TPLF (Agazi) forces on 19th August 2014 and their whereabouts is not known. Ambo residents are being terrorized b Agazi forces#OromoProtests.
For details listen the following OMN.
Sad News (12th August 2014): Oromo youth (student) named Biqila Balaay, who was wounded by Agazi in Ambo during the #OromoProtests has passed away on 11 August 2014 at Tikur Anbassa Hospital.
Oduu Gaddaa amma nu qaqqabe!!Mormii Maaster Pilaanii Finfinneetiin wal qabatee sochii adeemsifamaa tureen Naannoo Ambootti Rasaasaan kan miidhamanii yaalamaa turan keessaa tokko kan ta’e Dargaggoo Biqilaa Balaay hospitaala Xuqur Ambassaa keessatti guyyoota hedduuf osoo daddeebi’ee yaalamuu miidhamni kun “Infection” itti ta’ee kaleessa galgala du’aan Addunyaa kana irraa Wareegameera. Reeffi isaa Hospitaala Miniilik keessatti erga sakatta’amee booda Galgala kana gara bakka dhaloota isaa Horroo Guduruu Wallaggaa Magaalaa Kombolchaatti gaggeeffameera. Sirni Awwaalcha isaa guyyaa borii magaalaa Kombolchaa keessatti ni raawwata!!!Biyyeen sitti haa salphatu!!!
Oduu Gaddisiisaa fi Seenaa Gabaabaa Gooticha Barataa Biqilaa Balaay Toleeraa
Gootichi Barataa Biqilaa Balaay Abbaa isaa Obbo Balaay Troleeraa fi Haadha isaa Aadde Siccaalee Mul’ataa Abdataa irraa Godina Horroo Guduruu Wallaggaa aanaa Habaaboo Guduruu ganda Caalaa Fooqaa keessatti bara 1991 A.L.Otti dhalate. Dhalatees Hiriyyoota isaa waliin taphachuu, Seenaa baruuf tattaafachuu fi barsiisuu kan jaallatu sabboonaa qaroo ilma Oromooti. Barataa Biqilaan guddatee barnootaaf akka gahetti bara 1999 AL.Otti mana barumsaa sadarkaa 1ffaa Caalaa Fooqaa seenuudhaan kuitaa 1ffaadhaa hanga 8ffaatti barate. Barnoota isaa sadarkaa lammaffaa mana barnootaa sadrkaa lammaffaa Kombolchaa seenuudhaan kutaa 9ffaa fi 10ffaa barate. Barnoota isaa Cinaatti ilmaan Oromoo sabboonummaa barsiisaa gama kallattii garaa garaadhaan QBO keessatti qooda olaanaa fudhachaa kan ture bara 2009 AL.Otti kutaa 10ffaa akka xumureen Koollejjii Horroo Guduruu magaala Fincaa’aa seenuun bara 2011 A.L.Otti muummee Veternarydhaan eebbifame. Barataa Biqilaa Balaay dhiibbaa mootummaan wayyaanee ilmaan Oromoo irraan geessu argaa bira kan hin dabarre QBO keessatti qooda fudhachaa kan as gahe Fincila diddaa garbummaa bara 2014 dhimma naannawa lafa Finfinnee qabatee dhoheen magaala Amboo keessatti hiriira barattootnii fi Uummatni gamtaan gaafa Ebla 25, 2014 gaggeessan keessatti qooda fudhachuun rasaasa mootummaa wayyaaneedhaan sa’a 12:29 PM irratti mataa rukkutame. Rukkutamees waldhaansaaf gara Hospitaala Xiqur Ambasaa guyyaa sana kan fudhatame yoommuu tahu maallaqa hedduu dhangalaasuudhaanis waldhaansa olaanaa irra ture. Waldhaansi olaanaan taasifamus rukkuttaa bakka hamaa rukkutamee fi waldhaansa taasisfameen qorichi kennamaafii ture mataa isaa keessaa rasaasa baasuuf yaalii godhamaa ture summii itti tahuun gaafa hagayya 11 bara 2014 Addunyaa kana irraa du’aan boqoteera.Qabsaa’aan ni kufa!
Qabsoon itti fufa!Qeerroo Bilisummaa
Hagayya 15, 2014
Sad News (4th August 2014):Teacher named Wakjira Barsisa, who was wounded in Gimbi during the #OromoProtests has passed away at Tikur Anbassa Hospital.In related news, the following 11 students have been released from Maekalwi prison after being detained and subjected to torture for the last three months.
1. Falmataa Bayecha
2. Mo’ibul Misganuu
3. Bekele Gonfa
4. Nimonaa Gonfa
5. Ebisaa Dhabasa
6.Ratta Dajash
7. Araarsaa Leggesse
8. Ashanafi ( Jaarraa ) Marga
9. Barisso Jamal
10. Abu ( Guyyo) Galma *
11. Alii Shadoo** Abu (#10) is a 14 years old , while Alii ( #11) is 15 years old. They were both 9th grade students at the time of their arrest.
Oromo star artists, Haacaaluu Hundeesa and Jaamboo Joote were arrested today in Finfinnee, but finally left the country. They are on their way to Washington Dulles International Airport. This is typical Woyaane tactic to chase away Oromo figures. Seif Nebelbaal News, 4th August 2014.
Mass killing’s in Ambo conducted by fascist Woyane (TPLF) army, Agazi.
Testimony of a youngman whose friend was murdered by Ethiopian securitymen during protest against the government decision to annex farming areas into Addis Ababa – which is believed to evict farmers from their ancestral homeland (https://wordpress.com/read/post/id/9822596/204/
Ethiopia’s Compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child Report for the Pre-Sessional Working Group of the Committee on the Rights of the Child Submitted by The Advocates for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status with ECOSOC and The International Oromo Youth Association, a non-governmental diaspora youth organization 69th Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Geneva 22–26 September 2014 http://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/uploads/tahr_ioya_crc_loi_submission_july_1_2014.pdf
(The Advocates for Human Rights, Adoolessa/July 26, 2014, Finfinne Tribune, Gadaa.com ) – The Advocates for Human Rights, in collaboration with the International Oromo Youth Association, submitted a report for the Pre-Sessional Working Group of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. This report identifies numerous violations of the rights of children in Ethiopia, particularly with respect to the rights of the child to equality, life, liberty, security, privacy, freedom of expression and association, family, basic health and welfare, education, and leisure and cultural activities. Unless otherwise noted in the report, these violations occur without distinction based on the ethnic group of the child. In some cases, however, children belonging to the Oromo ethnic group—the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia—face discrimination or other rights violations unique to their ethnicity. The Advocates has worked extensively with members of the Ethiopian diaspora for purposes of documenting human rights conditions in Ethiopia. Since 2004, The Advocates has documented reports from members of the Oromo ethnic group living in diaspora in the United States of human rights abuses they and their friends and family experienced in Ethiopia.The Ethiopian Government has adopted strict constraints on civil society; Government monitoring and intimidation, as well as fear of reprisals, impede human rights monitoring and journalism in the country. In spite of this, The Advocates has documented the continued discrimination against the Oromo and other ethnic groups. In recent months, the Ethiopian Government has also violated the right to life of Oromo children and youth by using excessive force in response to peaceful protests, including violence, killing, mass detentions, and forced expulsions.Further, the Government fails to protect children from abuse in the family and from harmful traditional practices such as FGM. Perpetrators of physical and sexual violence against children enjoy impunity. The Government also fails to promote and protect rights of many children with disabilities. The Government’s “villagization” program places the health of children in rural areas at risk and impedes their right to an adequate standard of living. Children in Ethiopia continue to be denied access to primary education, especially in rural areas, and child domestic labor remains a serious concern.- Details: The Advocates for Human Rights and the International Oromo Youth Association report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child- Source: The Advocates for Human Rights
Oromo mother angry over murdered son
Yeshi, mother of man shot dead in April in Ambo
By Hewete HaileselassieBBC Africa, Ethiopia
“Yeshi” is still trying to come to terms with the trauma of discovering the body of her son being carried through the streets of the Ethiopian city of Ambo.
A rickshaw driver in his 20s, he had been caught up in deadly protests between the police and students in the city in April.
They were demonstrating about plans to extend the administrative control of the capital, Addis Ababa, into Oromia state.
Oromia is the country’s largest region and completely surrounds Addis Ababa – and some people feared they would be forced off their land and lose their regional and cultural identity if the plans went ahead.
Four Oromo students of Madda Walaabuu University have been abducted by TPLF/Agazi forces while with their family in Western Oromia (Wallagga, Gidaami). Their where about is yet unknown.
Barattooti Oromoo Yuuniversitii Madda Walaabuu 4 Boqonnaa Yeroo Gannaaf Gara Maatii Isaanii Wallagga, Gidaamii Itti Galan Tika Wayyaaneen Qabamuun Bakka Buuteen Isaanii DhabameGabaasa Qeerroo Qellem, Gidaamii – Adoolessa (July) 26, 2014Mootummaan wayyaanee barattoota boqonnaa yeroo gannaaf maatii galan maatii irraa irraa ugguruudhaan qabee mana hidhaatti galchaa akka jirtu gabasi nu gahe addeessa. Har’a gabaasni Qeerroo Qellem Giddamii irraa nu dhaqqabe kan ibsu barattoota madda Walaabuu Yuuniversitii irraa galan aanaa Gidaamii ganda Giraay Sonqaa jedhamu irraa basaasaa wayyaanee aanaa kaan irratti ilmaan Oromoo dabarsee diinaf saaxilun kennaa jiruun saaxilamanii humna waraana Wayyaanetti kennamuudhaan Adoolessa gaafa 18/2014 qabamanii hidhamanii jiru. Basaasaan wayyaanee maqaan isaa Waaqgaarii Qan’aa kan jedhamu jiraataa aanaa Gidaamii ganda Giraay Sonqaa jiraataa kan ture amma garuu ganda Afteer Saanboo jedhamutti teessoo jireenya isaa kan jijjiirrate maqaa qindeessitoota FDG, Miseensa ABO, Alabaa ABO fannisuutiin, uummata kakaasuu fi ijaaruun duras aanaa kana keessatti isaan kun warra duraati jechuudhan yuuniversitii irratti hojii kana hojjetaa akka turan jedhee diinaaf kennee kan jiru gabaasni nu gahe ibsa, ijoollotni kuni maqaan isaanii akka arman gadii kan taheedha:1. Gammadaa Birhaanee
2. Solomoon Taaddasaa
3. Mallasaa Taaffasaa
4. Amaanu’eel Facaasaakan jedhamaniidha, namootni maatii akka tahanii fi amma gara itti hidhamanillee kan hin beekmne tahuu isaa Qeerroon gabaasee Qellem Wallaggaa Gidaamii irraa nuuf gabaasee jira.
(July 22, 2014) – According to sources, the following Oromo political prisoners, who were arrested in connection with #OromoProtests over a month ago, had been transferred to the notorious Maekelawi prison recently. Before they were brought to Maekelawi, they had been apparently kept at the headquarters of the Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) – where they were subjected to severe torture. Their ordeal was so severe that many of them were carried on stretchers into their new prison cells at Maekelawi. One prisoner, who was there at Maekalawi before them, apparently said to his visiting families: “I thought I had the worst torture until I saw the latest Oromo students.’ In particular, a female student Chaltu Dhuguma from Wallaggaa University, has contracted a breast infection from injuries she had sustained at the NISS headquarters. Although these Oromos have been in detention since early May 2014, they have not been brought before a court, or charged. They have been denied the right to attorney, and family visits are restricted.
Jimmaa University
1. Falmata Barecha
2. Ebisa Daba
3. Lenjisa Alemayehu
4. Gamachu Bekele
Addunya Keesso was a 4th year engineering student at Adama Science and Technology University in Adama, Oromia, Ethiopia. He was dismissed from the university after government officials accused him of playing a leadership role in the peaceful student protest against the infamous Addis Ababa City Master Plan which many believe will result in the eviction of millions of Oromos from their ancestral land. On may 29 Addunya Keesso and two other ASTU students (Bilisumma Daammana and Mekonnen Kebede) were abducted from Franko neighborhood in Adama and taken to Ma’ikelawi prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where political prisoners are routinely tortured. Sources say Addunya Keesso has been tortured and has not been taken to court. It is to be recalled peaceful protesters were attacked by Ethiopia’s Federal Police and Agazi army since last April and scores of high school and college students have been killed and thousands detained in towns and villages across the Oromia region of Ethiopia. #FreeAddunyaaKeesso#FreeOromoStudents, 22nd July 2014
Oromo national, Bilisummaa Daammanaa, Final year Adama University student is being tortured in Fascist TPLF Ma’ikelawi torture chamber. #FreeOromoStudent. 20th July 2014. Bilisummaa Daammanaa jedhama.Barataa Yuuniversitii Saayinsii fi Teeknoloojii Adamaatti bara kana kan eebbifamu ture garuu,yuuniversitii irras ari’amuun,Gaaffii mirga Abbaa Biyyumaan wal qabatee,badii tokko malee yeroo amma kana mana hidhaa Wayyanee ma’akkalawwitti dararamaa jira! Gabaasa Qeerroo Adoolessa 19,2014 Finfinnee Barataa sabboonticha Bilisummaa Daammanaa jedhamu mooraa Adaamaa Yuuniversitii irraa kan baratuu fi baree baranaa kan xumuruun eebbifamu yoo tahu Ebla 29/2014 guyyaa FDG mooraa Yuuniversitii Adaamatti tokkummaa barattoota Oromoo moorichaan mootummaa Wayyaanee dura dhaabbachuudhaan gaggeessaniin tikoota Wayyaaneen hiriyoottan sabboontota Oromoo nama 40 ol tahan waliin qabamanii torbanoota lamaa oliif bakka buuteen isaanii dhabamee ture irraa kaasee bakka tursan tursanii gara mana hidhaa Maa’ikelaawwii keessatti sabboonaa beekamaa fi itti gaafatamaa dargaggoota ykn Qeerroo Yuuniversitii Adaamaa kan tahe,akkasuma dursaa maadhewwan mooraa fi magaalaa Adaamaa kan tahe Addnuyaa Keessoo waliin rakkina guddaa fi gocha suukkanneessaa waraana Wayyaaneetiin mana hidhaa Maa’ikelaawwii keessatti irratti raawwachaa tureera. Ammas gara jabinaan waan dhala namaa irratti hin raawwanne barataa Bilisummaa Daammanaa jedhamu kana irratti ammas irratti raawwacha jiru du’aa fi jireenya gidduutti argamuu isaa gabaasi qeerroo addeessa. http://qeerroo.org/2014/07/20/mana-hidhaa-maaikelaawwii-keessatti-barataa-sabboonaa-bilisummaa-daammanaa-reebichaan-rakkina-hamaa-keessa-jira/
Oromo national Walabummaa Dabale, 4th year Engineering student at Adama University is in TPLF Torture Chamber. He is the author of the above book in Afaan Oromo titled ‘Faana Imaanaa’.
Walabummaa Dabalee Barataa Yuuniversitii Saayinsii fi Teeknoloojii Adaamaatti barataa Injineeringii waggaa 4ffaa ture.yeroo ammaa kana mana hidhaa mootummaa Wayyanee keessatti dararamaa jirachuun isaa ni beekama.#FreeOromoStudents
High school student #Samuel Ittaana from Gimbii, Oromia was shot by fascist Ethiopia’s federal police (Agazi) while taking part in a peaceful demonstration during #Oromoptotests. #FreeOromoStudents
The above picture is some of the thousands Oromo student youths kidnapped by fascist TPLF (Agazi) forces and sent to its torture camp in Afar state. They are forced to shave and skin heads. The TPLF falsely claimed that they are ‘Godana Tadaadar’ (homeless, street residents). #OromoProtests #FreeOromoStudents 13th July 2014
Suuraan amma olii kun kan mootumaan Ethiopia ykn TPLF, dargagoota egeree boruu ta’an baraachiidhaan, barnoota isaanii irraa arii’uudhaan, qabeenyaa ykn qe’ee isanii irraa ariitee ergaa jettee booda asi deebitee maqaa itti baasitee ‘Ye Godaana Tadadari’ jechuun, dhiiraaf durba otuu hin jennee kan kumaatamatti lakkawaman mataa irraa aaduudhaan gara nanoo Afar keesatti ergitee jirtii. Kunis kan ta’ee filannoo itti aanuu rakkina amma tokko dhufuu danda’u irra hiridhisa kan jedhuu irra kan ka’ee karoorafatanii ta’uu isa beekamee.Dargagoota sodaa irra qaban kuma afurii ta’uun isanii beekamee. #OromoProtests
MORE THAN 3000 SHAVED HEADED OROMO STUDENTS WERE SENT TO AFAR CONCENTRATION CAMP
Following massive crock-down on Oromo students throughout Oromia, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Front (EPRDF) regime moved thousands of Oromo students who participated in peaceful protests to various concentration camps. Besides putting those students in extremely dangerous detention centers, the detainees are usually exposed to various kinds of corporal punishments. According to Ethiopian Review report, among Oromo students who were arbitrarily arrested following massive arrest that took place in May this year, around 3000 of them were put to a massive head shaving ritual. The EPRDF regime practiced this kind of cruelty and act of barbarism against Oromo nationalists since it came to power 23 years ago. Prominent Oromo singer and nationalist Ilfinesh Qano is one of those who went through this ugly and inhumane practice of detainees handling. Reports show that more than 30,000 Oromos were rounded up and put in different camps following the demonstration that took place in Ambo, Addis Ababa, Robe, Nakamte and other Oromia cities and villages.
Humnootni tikaa sirna wayyaanee barataa Mootii Mootummaa ukkaamsanii fudhatan namoota shan oggaa ta’an, isaan keessaa tokko kana dura magaalaa Ambootti tika wayyaanee kan turee fi yeroo ammaa Adaamaadhaa kan hojjetu nama maqaan isaa Tasfaayee jedhamu ta’uunis barameera. Barataa Mootii Mootummaa Abdii barreessaa kitaaba “Qaroo Dhiiga Boosse” jedhamuu oggaa ta’u, sabboonummaa Oromummaa nama qabu akka ta’es kanneen isa beekan ibsaniiru. Mootummaan wayyaanee akkuma ilmaan Oromoo hedduu ukkaamsee nyaataa turee fi jiru barataa Mootii Mootummaa Abdii irrattis yakka fakkaataa raawwachuun isaa hin oolu kan jedhan hiriyootni isaa, ilmaan Oromoo biyya ambaatti argaman dararaa fi lubbuu ijoollee Oromoo hidhaa keessatti argamanii hambisuuf kanneen mirga dhala namaaf falmanitti iyyachuufii jabeessanii akka itti fufan dhaamsa dabarsaniiru.
Maqaan isaa Waaqjiraa Biraasa jedhama hojiin isaa barsiisaa yoo ta’u sababa sochii /mormii barattoota Oromootiin miidhaan irea gahee hospital Xuqur Anbassaa keessatti argama. Oromo national and teacher Waaqjiraa Biraasaa is in life and death situation after being tortured by Agazi/TPLF. At the time of this posting he is in Xiqur Ambassa (Black Lion Hospital), Finfinnee. #OromoProtests. #FreeOromoStudents. 13th July 2014. 31 Oromo students, under 16 year old teenagers are being tortured by Agazi (TPLF) in jail at Ambo. The National Youth Movement for freedom and Democracy listed (in its 10th July 2014 publication) their names which is in Afaan Oromo as follows:-Dararamni Oromoo mana hidhaa Wayyaanee keessaa umurii hin filatu Dargaggoonni maqaan isaanii armaa gadi xuqame guyyaa 23/08/2006 (A.L.E) irraa eegalee sababa tokko malee jumulaan walitti qabamanii shakkiidhaan hidhamuu irraan kan ka’e ma/mu/ol/Go/ Sh/Lixaatti akka dhihaatanii fi himannaan dhiyaate waan hin jirreef jedhee ajajaan akka gadi lakkisaman murteesse. Haa ta’u malee ajajni mana murtii kun hojii irra ooluu irra umurii daa’imummaan mana hidhaa keessatti dararamaa jirra jechuun ma/mu/waliigalaa Oromiyaatti ol iyyatanii hanga yoonaatti deebii hin arganne. Isaanis;
Shibirree Mokonnon G/Yesus Umuriin waggaa 15
Misgaanaa Oolgaa Dawoo umuriin waggaa 16
Alamituu Fayyeraa Baayisaa umuriin waggaa 16
Haaluma wal fakkaataan namoonni armaa gadii ammoo qabamanii mana qajeelcha poolisaa godinaa irraa gara mana sirreessaa Go/Sh/Lixaatti darbuun himannaa fi murtii tokko malee dararamaa jirani. Sababa kana irraa ka’uun dhimma isaanii hordofachuu akka hin dandeenye ibsachuun nama dhimma isaanii hordofuuf bakka buufachuun ma/mu/walii gala Oromiyaatti iyyatanii hanga yoonaatti deebii sirnaa akka hin arganne maddeen mirkaneessu. Isaan kunis;
A Summary of Oromos Killed, Beaten and Detained by the TPLF Armed Forces during the 2014 Oromo Protest Against The Addis Ababa (Finfinne) Master Plan Compiled by: National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy (NYMFD) aka Qeerroo Bilisummaa
July 05, 2014
Background
It is a well-documented and established fact that the Oromo people in general and Oromo students and youth in particular have been in constant and continuous protest ever since the current TPLF led Ethiopian government came to power. The current protest which started late April 2014 on a large scale in all universities and colleges in Oromia and also spread to several high schools and middle schools begun as opposition to the so called “Integrated Developmental Master Plan” or simply “the Master Plan”. The “Master Plan” was a starter of the protest, not a major cause. The major cause of the youth revolt is opposition to the unjust rule of the Ethiopian regime in general. The main issue is that there is no justice, freedom and democracy in the country. The said Master Plan in particular, would expand the current limits of the capital, Addis Ababa, or “Finfinne” as the Oromos prefer to call it, by 20 folds stretching to tens of Oromian towns surrounding the capital. The Plan is set to legalize eviction of an estimated 2 million Oromo farmers from their ancestral land and sell it to national and transnational investors. For the Oromo, an already oppressed and marginalised nation in that country, the incorporation of those Oromian cities into the capital Addis Ababa means once more a complete eradication of their identity, culture, and language. The official language will eventually be changed to Amharic. Essentially, it is a new form of subjugation and colonization. It was the Oromo university students who saw this danger, realized its far-reaching consequences and lit the torch of protest which eventually engulfed the whole Oromia regional state.For the minority TPLF led Ethiopian regime, who has been already selling large area of land surrounding Addis Ababa even without the existence of the Master Plan, meeting the demands of the protesting Oromo students means losing 1.1 million of hectares of land which the regime planned to sell for a large sum of money. Therefore, the demand of the students and the Oromo people at large is not acceptable to the regime. It has therefore decided to squash the protest with its forces armed to the teeth. The regime ordered its troops to fire live ammunition to defenceless Oromo students at several places: Ambo, Gudar, Robe (Bale), Nekemte, Jimma, Haromaya, Adama, Najjo, Gulliso, Anfillo (Kellem Wollega), Gimbi, Bule Hora (University), to mention a few. Because the government denied access to any independent journalists it is hard to know exactly how many have been killed and how many have been detained and beaten. Simply put, it is too large of a number over a large area of land to enumerate. Children as young as 11 years old have been killed. The number of Oromos killed in Oromia during the current protest is believed to be in hundreds. Tens of thousands have been jailed and an unknown number have been abducted and disappeared. The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa, who has been constantly reporting the human rights abuses of the regime through informants from several parts of Oromia for over a decade, estimates the number of Oromos detained since April 2014 as high as 50, 000In this report we present a list of 61 Oromos that are killed and 903 others that are detained and beaten (or beaten and then detained) during and after the Oromo students protest which begun in April 2014 and which we managed to collect and compile. The information we obtain so far indicates those detained are still in jail and still under torture. Figure 1 below shows the number of Oromos killed from different zones of Oromia included in this report. Figure 2 shows the number of Oromos detained and reportedly facing torture. It has to be noted that this number is only a small fraction of the widespread killings and arrest of Oromos carried out by the regime in Oromia regional state since April 2014 to date. Our Data Collection Team is operating in the region under tight and risky security conditions not to consider lack of logistic, financial and man power to carry the data collection over the vast region of Oromia.
June 29, 2014 Dear Sir/Madam: We are reaching out to you as the Board of Officers of the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA) whose nation is in turmoil back in Oromia, Ethiopia. Recently, Oromo students have been protesting against the new Addis Ababa “Integrated Master Plan” which aims at incorporating smaller towns surrounding Addis Ababa for the convenience of vacating land for investors by displacing millions of Oromo farmers. As a political move, this will essentially result in the displacement of the indigenous peoples and their families. Oromo farmers will be dispossessed of their land and their survival both economic and cultural terms will be threatened. The Oromos strongly believe that this plan will expose their natural environment to risk, threaten their economic means of livelihood (subsistence farming), and violate their constitutional rights. The Ethiopian government is executing its political agenda of progressive marginalization of the Oromo people from matters that concern them both in the Addis Ababa city and the wider Oromia region. The master plan is an unconstitutional change of the territorial expansion over which the city administration has a jurisdiction. The government justifies the move in the name of enhancing the development of the city and facilitating economic growth. The justification is merely a tactical move masked for the governments continued abuse of human rights of the Oromo people. While the Oromos understand that Addis Ababa itself is an Oromo city that serves as the capital of the federal government, they also consider this move as an encroachment on the jurisdiction and borders of the state of Oromia. The protesters peacefully demonstrated against this move. University students and residents have been in opposition to the plan, but their struggle has been met by a brutal repression in the hands of the military police (famously known as the Agazi). It has been reported that shootings, arrests, and imprisonments are becoming rampant. It is also reported that the death toll is increasing by the hour. Recently, sources indicate that over 80 people have been shot dead, others severally injured and thousands arrested. In addition, Oromo students have been protesting peacefully for over three weeks now, despite mass killings and arrests by Ethiopian security forces. University and high school students from more than ten universities have been engaging in the Oromo protests. The peaceful rally has now spread across the whole country and is expected to continue until the Ethiopian government refrains from incorporating over 36 surrounding smaller towns into Addis Ababa. It is stated to be displacing an estimate of 6.6 million people and violating constitutional rights of regional states. As an organization subscribing to broader democratic engagement of the Oromo youth, we oppose the brutal violence that the Ethiopian government is meting out on innocent, unarmed young students who are peacefully protesting. As leaders of the Oromo community, we support and stand in solidarity with Oromo protests in Ethiopia. The human rights volitions being carried out by the Ethiopian government against innocent students are unacceptable. Continuous assaults, tortures, and killings of innocent civilians must be stopped. We urge you to join us in denouncing these inhumane and cruel activities carried out by the Ethiopian government. We believe it is imperative that the international community raise its voice and take action to stop the ongoing atrocities that are wreaking havoc to families and communities in the Oromia region. We urgently request that such actions be taken in an attempt to pressure the Ethiopian government to stop terrorizing and killing peaceful protesters:
The US government and other International organizations should condemn the Ethiopian government’s brutal action taken on unarmed innocent civilians. Furthermore, we demand over 30,000 innocent protesters to be released from prisons, as they will be subjected to torture and ill treatment.
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is currently terrorizing its own electorates/nation. Under the law of R2P in the UN constitution, the international community is obliged to protect a nation that is being terrorized by its own government and EPRDF should be taken accountable.
We demand Ethiopia to be expelled from any regional and international cooperation including and not limited to AU and UN for its previous and current human rights violations. The International community should stop providing support in the name of AID and development to Ethiopia as it is violating the fundamental and basic needs of its nation.
The Ethiopian government should be stopped on immediate effect; its forceful displacement of the indigenous peoples across Ethiopia is unjust and unconstitutional. We ask the United States, European Union, and the United Nations to stand in solidarity with peaceful student protesters who are condemning such injustice.
The onus is on the international community to act in favor of the innocent and civilian populace that is seeking its fundamental right. Punitive actions towards this government should be taken for cracking down on freedom of expression and other democratic rights being expressed by its citizens.
We believe it is in the interest of our common humanity to take responsibility, to pay attention to this problem, to witness the plight of the voiceless victims, and to raise concerns to the Ethiopian government so it can desist from its brutal acts of repression. We count on your solidarity to help the Oromo youth be spared from arbitrary arrest, incarceration, and shootings. Yours Respectfully, International Oromo Youth Association http://ayyaantuu.com/horn-of-africa-news/oromia/oromoprotests-ioya-appeal/https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=E31gqU_fbpM Abdi Kamal Mussa is Oromo political prisoner kept in Dire Dawa. He graduated from Dire Dawa Universityin 2013 and was working at Ethiopian Commercial Bank, Jigjiga branch. He was arrested in May 2014 on bogus accusation of providing financial support to the student protesters. He is languishing in the gulag without any charge and legal representation. #OrmoProtests #FreeOromoStudents
Maqaan isaa Alamaayyoo Dassaalee Kumii ( miidiyaa hawaasaa barruu fuula duraa ykn facebook kana irratti Sabom Alekso Desale) jedhama. Dhalatee kan guddate godina Wallagga Bahaa aanaa Kiiramuutti. Barnoota sadarkaa ol’aanaa kan hordofes Naqamtee Kolleejjii ASK jedhamutti. Magaala Naqamtee yeroo turetti gama sochii jabeenya qaamaatiinis gurbaa sadarkaa guddaarra ga’edha. Si’ana oguma barsiisummaa ittiin leenji’een hawaasa leenji’eef tajaajiluuf Godina Addaa Saba Oromoo kan taate Kamisee, aanaa Dawwee Haarawaatti argama. Saabom Alamaayyoon yeroo hojii idilee isaarraa ba’utti boqonnaa malee dargaggoota magaalaa Booraatti argaman sochii jabeenya qaamaa fi gorsa naamusaa kennuufiin nama jaalalaa fi kabajaa guddaa argateerudha. Hawaasa oromoo magaala Booraa (magaala guddoo aanaa Dawwee Haarawaa) fudhatama argachuun sabboonaa kanaa kan isaan yaaddesse jala adeemtotni wayyaanee aanichaaf amanamoodha jedhaman hinaaffaa fi sodaa guddaa keessa waan isaan galcheef, haal duree tokko malee Oromummaa isaa qofaan yakkuudhaan Waxabajji 20, 2014 guyyaa keessaa naannoo sa’a 4:00 harka,ijaa fi miila isaa xaxuudhaan: ati ABO waliin hidhata qabda, haasawaa ABO’n wal qabatu yoo haasofte malee uummanni akkamiin akkas si sifeeffate, Hiriyoota kee si waliin ABO deeggaran eeri…fi gaaffilee inni sammuu keessaa hin qabneen jaanjessanii eeyyama tokko malee mana jireenya isaa erga sakatta’anii booda mana hidhaatti darbataniiru. Wanti guddaan akka namummaatti nama gaddisiisu garuu ilmi namaa yakka tokko malee, biyya namni jiru keessatti guyyaadhaan dirree irratti ija raramee yommuu dhiittaan mirga namoomaa daangaa darbe akkanaa irratti raawwatamu birmataan tokkollee dhibuu isaati. Namoonni sobaan balaaloo hammanaa irratti xaxanis kanneen akka Habtaamuu Calqaa (hojjetaa mana maree aanichaa) fi Jamaal ( itti gaafatamaa mana maree aanaa Dawwee Haarawaa) ta’uutu bira gahame. Yeroo ammaa kanatti bakkuuteen isaas akka dhabame hiriyyootni isaa soorata geessuuf barbaadan hadheessanii dubbataa kan jiran yommuu ta’u, maatiin isaas eessa buutee ilma isaanii dhabanii burjaaja’aa jiru. #OromoProtests
The following are photographs and backgrounds of 5 students abducted from Madda Walabu University. #OromoProtests
Jeylan Ahmed Mohammed West Hararghe, Abro Disttict, Haji Musa Vilage, Tourism Management majorn Class 2014
Diribe Kumarra Taasisaa, Kellem Wollega, Laloo Qilee District, Bilee Buubaa Village, Class 2014
Haile Dhaba Danboba, South west Shewa Dawoo District, Busaa 01 kebele, Economics, Class 2014,
Leenco Fixa Soboqa South West Shewa, Sadeen Soddoo District. Tolee Dalotaa Village, Water Engineering major 2nd year
Twenty Ethiopia state journalists dismissed, in hiding
“If they cannot indoctrinate you into their thinking, they fire you,” said one former staff member of the state-run Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO), who was dismissed from work last month after six years of service. “Now we are in hiding since we fear they will find excuses to arrest us soon,” the journalist, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, told CPJ.
On June 25, 20 journalists from the state broadcaster in Oromia, the largest state in terms of area and population in Ethiopia, were denied entry to their station’s headquarters, according to news reports. No letters of termination or explanations were presented, local journalists told CPJ; ORTO’s management simply said the dismissals were orders given by the government. “Apparently this has become common practice when firing state employees in connection with politics,” U.S.-based Ethiopian researcher Jawar Mohammed said in an email to CPJ. “The government seems to want to leave no documented trace.” Read more @http://www.cpj.org/blog/2014/07/twenty-ethiopia-state-journalists-dismissed-in-hid.php
STATE FIRES 20 JOURNALISTS FOR “NARROW POLITICAL VIEWS”
Reporters Without Borders condemns last week’s politically-motivated dismissal of 20 journalists from Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO), the main state-owned broadcaster in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest regional State.The 20 journalists were denied entry to ORTO headquarter on 25 June and were effectively dismissed without any explanations other than their alleged “narrow political views,” an assessment the management reached at the end of a workshop for journalists and regional government officials that included discussions on the controversial Master Plan of Addis that many activists believe is aimed at incorporating parts of Oromia into the federal city of Addis Ababa.The journalists had reportedly expressed their disagreement with the violence used by the police in May to disperse student protests against the plan, resulting in many deaths.It is not yet clear whether the journalists may also be subjected to other administrative or judicial proceedings.“How can you fire journalists for their political views?” said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk. “The government must provide proper reasons for such a dismissal. Does it mean that Ethiopia has officially criminalized political opinion ?“In our view, this development must be seen as an attempt by the authorities to marginalize and supress all potential critiques ahead of the national elections scheduled for 2015 in Ethiopia. These journalists must be allowed to return to work and must not be subjected to any threats or obstruction.”Ethiopia is ranked 143rd out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.http://www.siitube.com/articles/state-broadcaster-fires-20-journalists-for-“narrow-political-views”_293.html
Up to 20 journalists reportedly fired from Ethiopian broadcaster
Ethiopian state broadcaster’s alleged dismissal of reporters prompts questions over press freedom.
Ethiopia’s state-run Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO) allegedly sacked(link is external) up to 20 journalists on June 25. Neither the station nor the government has given reasons for the reported firings, but Reporters Without Borders said(link is external) ORTO management found the reporters had “narrow political views”.
#OromoProtests- (Vancouver Canada, 26th June 2014) Amnesty International Human Right against torture awarness public forum. Discussing forum on Oromo students tortured & killed by Ethiopian government because of questioning their constitutional rights.
52 students called before the disciplinary committee of Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) University
The TPLF listed the following students from Finfinnee ( Addis Ababa) University to be Punnished for being in peaceful Oromo students rally:
18 journalists of Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO) have been fired
18 journalists of Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO) have been fired. The journalists say they received no prior notice and learned of their fate this morning when security prevented them from entering the station’s compound located in Adama. Members of the management informed the journalists that they cannot help them as decision terminate their employment and the list of names came from the federal government. This firing follows a 20 day reindoctrination seminar given to journalists and reporters of the ORTO and workers of the region’s communication bureau.Main agenda’s for the seminar were the ongoing #OromoProtests and the upcoming election. Speakers at the seminar included Bereket Simon, Waldu Yemasel ( Director of Fana broadcasting), Abreham Nuguse Woldehana and Zelalem Jemaneh.http://www.siitube.com/articles/17-journalists-of-oromia-radio-and-television-organization-orto-have-been-fired_253.html
On June 25, when 18 journalists from Ethiopia’s state-run Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO) arrived to start their scheduled shifts, they learned their employment had been terminated “with orders from the higher ups.” The quiet dismissal of some 10 percent of the station’s journalists underscores the country’s further descent into total media blackout. The firing of dissenting journalists is hardly surprising; the ruling party controls almost all television and radio stations in the country. Most diaspora-based critical blogs and websites are blocked. Dubbed one of the enemies of the press, Ethiopia currently imprisons at least 17 journalists and bloggers. On April 26, only days before US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the capital, Addis Ababa, authorities arrested six bloggers and three journalists on charges of working with foreign rights groups and plotting to incite violence using social media. Reports on the immediate cause of the latest purge itself are mixed. But several activist blogs noted that a handful of the dismissed journalists have been irate over the government’s decision not to cover the recent Oromo student protests. An Ethiopia-based journalist, who asked not to be named due to fear of repercussions, said the 18 reporters were let go after weeks of an indoctrination campaign in the name of “gimgama” (reevaluation) failed to quiet the journalists. The campaign began earlier this month when a meeting was called in Adama, where ORTO is headquartered, to “reindoctrinate” the journalists there into what is sometimes mockingly called “developmental journalism,” which tows government lines on politics and human rights. The journalists reportedly voiced grievances about decisions to ignore widespread civic upheavals while devoting much of the network’s coverage to stories about lackluster state development. Still, although unprecedented, the biggest tragedy is not the termination of these journalists’ positions. Ethiopia already jails more journalists than any other African nation except neighboring Eritrea. The real tragedy is that the Oromo, Ethiopia’s single largest constituency (nearly half of Ethiopia’s 92 million people) lack a single independent media outlet on any platform. The reports of the firings come on the heels of months of anti-government protests by students around the country’s largest state, Oromia. Starting in mid-April, students at various colleges around the country took to the streets to protest what they saw as unconstitutional encroachment by federal authorities on the sovereignty of the state of Oromia, which according to a proposed plan would annex a large chunk of its territory to the federal capital—which is also supposed to double as Oromia’s capital. Authorities fear that an increasingly assertive Oromo nationalism is threatening to spin out of state control, and see journalists as the spear of a generation coming of age since the current Ethiopian regime came to power in 1991. To the surprise of many, the first reports of opposition to the city’s plan came from ORTO’s flagship television network, the TV Oromiyaa (TVO). A week before the protests began, in a rare sign of dissent, journalist Bira Legesse, one of those fired this week, ran a short segment where party members criticized the so-called Addis Ababa master plan. Authorities saw the coverage as a tacit approval for public displeasure with the plan and, therefore, an indirect rebuke of the hastily put-together campaign to sell the merits of the master plan to an already skeptical audience. But once the protests began, culminating in the killings of more than a dozen students in clashes with the police and the detentions and maimings of hundreds of protesters, TVO went mute, aside from reading out approved police bulletins. This did not sit well with the journalists, leading to the indoctrination campaign which, according to one participant, ended without any resolution. – See more at: http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/ethiopia_cans_18_journalists.php#sthash.ewAVFyXB.dpuf Dhaabbanni Raadiyoofi Televiziyoonii Oromiyaa kaleessa jechuun Roobii 25/6/2014 gaazexeessitoota Oromoo ta’an 18 balleessaa tokko malee hojiirraa dhaabuusaa gabaafame.Dhaabbinni Woyyaaneen maqaa Oromootiin Adaamatti banatte-Dhaabbanni Raadiyoofi Televiziyoonii Oromiyaa ilmaan Oromoo 18 kaleessaa kaasee baleessaafi sababa tokko malee hojiirraa dhaabee jira. Odeeffannoo hanga ammaa qabnuun maqaan gaazexeessitootaa 18 nu gahee jira. 1. Birraa Laggasaa-dubbisaa oduu afaan Oromoo 2. Abdisaa Fufaa-qopheessaa qophii dokumentarii 3. Olaansaa Waaqumaa-qopheessaa qophii barnootaa 4. Obsee Kaasahun-oduu dubbistuuf dhiheessituu qophii bohaartii 5. Abdii Gadaa-qopheessaa qophii dargaggootaa 6. Baqqalaa Atoomaa-reppoortera afaan Oromoofi English 7. Zallaqaa Oljiraa-qopheessaafi repportera 8. Kabbaboo Ibsaa-qopheessaa oduufi sagantaa afaan Oromoo 9. Ayyaanaa Cimdeessaa-qopheessaa qophii gola Oromiyaa 10. Yusuuf Warqasaa-qopheessaa qophiilee afaan, aadaafi tuurizimii 11. Izqeel Argaw- qopheessaa qophii barnootaa 12. Margaa Angaasuu-qopheessaa qophii ispoortii 13. Zallaqaa Oljiraa-qopheessaa qophii ‘haloo doktaraa’ 14. Xilahun Magarsaa – rippoortara website dhaabbata sanii 15. Liisaanewok Moges- qopheessaa sagantaa Afaan Oromoofi Amaaraa 16. Addis Tegeny- rippoortara afaan Amaaraa 17. Hamzaa Hussien- ripportara Afaan Oromoofi English 18.Bosonaa Dheeressaa-qopheessaafi gulaala oduu afaan Oromoo
#OromoProtests: U.S. Senators Say Ethiopian Govt’s Respect of All Ethnic Groups’ Human Rights Must Be Central to the U.S.-Ethiopia Relationship
Photos: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (L) and Sen. Al Franken (R) of Minnesota Two more U.S. Senators, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, wrote a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, to express concerns about the Ethiopian government’s human rights violations, particularly the Ethiopian government’s recent acts of violence against Oromo peaceful demonstrators in Oromia. In the letter, the U.S. Senators urged the U.S. State Department to make the “respect for the rule of law and human rights in Ethiopian government’s treatment of all ethnic groups” central to the U.S.-Ethiopia relationship. It’s to be noted that U.S. Senators from the State of Washington, Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray, also wrote a letter earlier in June – expressing their concern about the Ethiopian government’s acts of violence against Oromo peaceful demonstrators. http://qeerroo.org/2014/06/24/oromoprotests-u-s-senators-say-ethiopian-govts-respect-of-all-ethnic-groups-human-rights-must-be-central-to-the-u-s-ethiopia-relationship/
HRLHA on Ethiopia: Gross Violations of Human Rights and an Intractable Conflict
The following is a report presented by Mr. Garoma B. Wakessa, Executive Director of the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA), at the 26th Session of United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Palais des Nations, on June 19, 2014.http://gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/hrlha-on-ethiopia-gross-violations-of-human-rights-and-an-intractable-conflict/ ——————– Ethiopia: Gross Violations of Human Rights and an Intractable ConflictIntroduction: It is common in democratic countries around the world for people to express their grievances/ dissatisfaction and complaints against their governments by peaceful demonstrations and assemblies. When such nonviolent civil rallies take place, it should always be the state’s responsibility to respect and guard their citizens’ freedom to peacefully assemble and demonstrate. These responsibilities should apply even during times of political protests, when a state’s own power is questioned, challenged, or perhaps undermined by assemblies of citizens practicing in nonviolent resistance. If a government responds to peaceful protests improperly, a peaceful protest might lead to a violent protest- that could then become an intractable conflict. Government agents, most of all the police, must respect the local and international standards of democratic rights of the citizens during peaceful assemblies or demonstrations. – Read the Full Reporthttp://gadaa.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/HRLHA_June2014.pdf
UNPO Condemns Recent Crackdown of Oromo Student Protests by Ethiopian Government
Following last month’s violent answer of the Ethiopian armed forces against peaceful protesters in Oromia, UNPO expresses its support to the victims’ families. Urgent attention from the international community to the situation of the Oromo people in Ethiopia is required. Over the course of the month of May, students in Oromia have been facing harsh repression by Ethiopia’s authorities. The peaceful student protests against the government’s planned education reforms, were met by excessive violence, causing the death of approximately 30 students and teachers. Reportedly, the youngest victim was only 11 years old. Ever since, international outrage spread, and in many cities solidarity protests were held. The Ethiopian Government has denied any responsibility, and is exercising a strict control over the local media. By staging the protests, the students wanted to express their concern about the government’s project to expand the municipal boundaries of the capital city, Addis Ababa. This would imply that the Oromo students’ communities, currently under regional jurisdiction, would no longer be managed by the Oromia Regional State. In addition, the reform would include the displacement of Oromo farmers and residents. Considering their vulnerable status in Ethiopian society, this would make the situation for Oromo individuals even worse than it already is. The discrepancy between the nature of the protests and the Ethiopian authorities’ reaction is extremely alarming, and gives further evidence of the human rights abuses to which the Oromo community is systematically subjected in Ethiopia. The Oromo suffer from severe discrimination, not only in terms of freedom of expression, as was the case in these recent events, but also in terms of basic human rights, cultural expression, socio-economic conditions and political representation. Housing development in Ethiopia regularly happens at the expense of Oromo farmers, who are forced to give up their lands, with insufficient or no financial compensation in return. These acts of forced removal or land grabbing are mostly achieved through violent attacks and killings. Over the past few years, many reports stated that Oromo individuals had been killed by the Ethiopian Special Police Forces, including women and children. According to a recent report published in 2013 by Human Rights Watch, numerous Oromo political prisoners were tortured and executed in secret prisons in Oromia and Ethiopia. UNPO strongly condemns the crackdown on the Oromo community and urges that those responsible are held accountable. UNPO furthermore calls on the Ethiopian government to stop violating the fundamental human rights of its citizens, and to respect and abide by the international conventions it signed and ratified. http://www.unpo.org/article/17246 – See more at: http://www.unpo.org/article/17246#sthash.Op7f2o5F.dpuf Oromo youth Galanaa Nadhaa murdered by TPLF/Agazi. Waxabajjii 23/2014 Sirni Awwalcha Gooticha Sabboonaa Oromoo dargaggoo Galanaa Nadhaa guyyaa har’a ganda dhaloota isaa Godina Lixa Shawaa Aanaa Tokkee Kuttaayee ganda qonnaan bulaa Tokkee Konbolchaatti bakka uummaanni Oromoo Godinotaa fi aanaawwaaan garaagaraa irra irraatti argamanitti gaggeeffama jira. keessattuu uummaanni aanaawwaan kanneen akka Aanaa Amboo, Gudar, Xiiqur Incinnii, Tokkee kuttaayee, Calliyaa Geedoo, Midaa Qanyii ,Shanaan, Finfinnee, fi bakkota hedduu irra uummaatni Oromoo tilmaamaan 3000 olitti lakka’amu irratti argamuun gaddaa guddaa sabboonaa Oromoo kana ibsachuun Dhaadannoo, eessaan dhaqxu sabboonaa Oromoo isa bilisummaa keenyaaf falmuu, Goota Oromoo mucaa dandeetii fi sabboonummaan nama boonsuu Galaanaa Nadhaa jechuun uummaanni haal;a ulfataa ta’een gaddee, jira. Qeerroowwan sabboontotni Oromoo sirna awwaalchaa kanarratti argamuun gumaan ilmaan Oromoo hin haftu, gumaa Galaanaa Nadhaa ni baasna, qabsoo goototni ilmaan Oromoo irraatti wareegamaan galmaan ga’uuf kutannoon qabsoofnaa, Wareegama ilmaan isheetiin Oromiyaan ni bilisoomti, Mootummaan wayyaanee EPRDF/TPLF/OPDO’n seeraatti dhiyaachuu qabu jechuun yeroo amma kanatti dhaadannoo dhageesisaa jiru. ummaanni Fardeen fe’atee dhaadannoo akkam jabaa ta’ee fi dheekkamsaan guutame dhageesisaa jira, kanneen kaan garaftuudhaan of reebuun hanga of dhiigsanitti gaddaa guddaa isanitti dhaga’amee fi roorroo garbummaa uummata irraa jiru ibsacha jiru.http://qeerroo.org/2014/06/23/sirni-awwalcha-sabboonaa-dargaggoo-oromoo-galaanaa-nadhaa-haala-hoaa-taeen-gaggeeffamaa-jira/ Galaanaan Nadhaa abbaa isaa obbo Nadhaa cawwaaqaa fi haadha isaa aadde Geexee Haacaaluu irraa godina lixa shawaatti bara 1972 ALH tti dhalate.Umuriin isaa wayita barnootaaf gahu mana barumsa baabbichaa sadarkaa lammaffaatti kuyaa tokkoo hanga sadii barate.kutaa 4 hanga 8 mana barumsaa tokkeetti barachuun qabxii gaarii fidee mana barumsaa Amboo sadarkaa lammaffaatti barnoota isaa kutaa saglaffaa itti fufe.Galaanaan nama sabboonummaa orommummaa qabuu fi qalqixxummaa dhala namaatti nama amanu ture.Galaannaan rakkina saba oromoof furmaanni qabsoo gochuu qofa jedhee amana.kanaafis gummaacha isarraa eegamu bahaa ture.bara 1992 yeroo bosonni baalee gubate barattoota oromoo adda dureen mormii dhageessisan keessaa tokko ture.mormii inni dhageessiseefis diinni qabee mana hidhaatti dararaa hangana hin jedhamne irraan gahe.haa ta’uu garuu Galaanaan nama doorsisa diinaaf jilbeeffatu hin turre.Jireenyi isaa qabsoo ture.Bara 1994 yeroo FDG oromiyaa keesssa deemaa ture Galaanaan ammas qooda lammummaa bahu irraa of hin qusanne.ammas diinni qabee mana hidhaa galche..Galaanaan bara kutaa 12 qorame ture mana hidhaa taa’ee.qabxii olaanaa fiduun yunivarsiitii maqaleetti ramadame.Achitti balaa dhibee waggaa kudha tokkof isa gidirseef saaxilame. kunis gochaa ilmaan tigireeti.Galaanaan waggaa kudha tokkoof erga dhukkubsatee booda sanbata darbe addunyaa kanarraa du’aan boqote.sirni awwaalcha isaa guyyaa har’aa bakka uummanni oromoo bal’aan argametti har’aa magaala tokkee bataskaana mikaa’el jedhamutti raawwatame.qabsaa’aan kufus qabsoon itti fufa!!!! IUOf!!!!!!!!!. ‘My name is Hambaasan Gudisaa. I was born in Gincii, West Showa, Oromia, Ethiopia. I was a third year student (Afaan Oromo major) at Addis Ababa University. I am the author of ‘AMARTII IMAANAA,’ a recent book written in Afaan Oromo. I was abducted from the university library by Ethiopian security forces on Thursday, June 19, 2014. Only my abductors know where I am or even whether I am dead or alive. There are thousands of young Oromos like me. Remember us in your prayers!’ #OromoProtests
Oromo Geologist Takilu Bulcha kidnapped by TPLF/Agazi security forces and his where about is unknown
Maqaan isaa Takiluu Bulchaa jedhama. Maqaa addaa Bokkaa jedhamuun beekama. Bakki dhaloota isaa Magaalaa Najjooti. Yuunivarsiitii FINFINNEE kiiloo 4 Muummee Geology/Earth Science kan seene ALI tti bara 1992 ture. Haa ta’u malee Gidiraama Wayyaaneen irraan ga’aa turteen barumsa isaa addaan kutee Jooraa turee waggaa Muraasaafis mana hidhaa Qaallittii keessa turee erga ba’ee booda, bara 2003 ALItti Mooraatti deebi’ee. Bara 2005 ALItti Eebbifamee ba’uudhaan Ji’a 3 project Gibe III keessa erga hojjetee booda, deebi’ee Ministeera Albuudaa Kan Magaalaa Finfinnee Naannoo Magganaanyaa Shoolaatti argamu keessa dorgomee gale. Kanaan booda Achi keessa naannoo ji’a 6tiif dalageera. Osoo kanaan jiruu Fiildiitiif ergamee Naannoo uummata Kibbaa keessa Ji’a 3′f dalagaa turee Gara Finfinneetti akkuma deebi’een Guyyaa 2 erga bulee booda dhabamsiisani. Hiriyaa fi maatiin issa iraa akka baree innii galuu dhabnan itii bilbilaa isaas yaalaanii dadhabuu issani nu ibsaan. Hiriyyoota isa waliin hojjetani ijoollee Habashaa tokko gaafatanii akka inni dalagaarra hin jirre tahuu issa baraan.Gaafa June 04-2014 iraa jalqabee ykn san duraas tahuu mala kan dhabamuu issa bekkamee duubaa yaa oromoo.
2.Kiflee Jigsaa-Ogeessa fayyaati, namni kuni humna waraana wayyaanee mana jireenya isaa cabsanii mana isaa keessatti erga reebanii booda gara manahidhaatti geessan.
3.Mitikuu Ittaana-Qote Bulaa
4.Isaayyas Bulchaa-Qote Bulaa
5.Taammiruu Tarfaa-Qote Bulaa
6.Yoohannis Aseffaa-Qote Bulaa
7.Kumarraa Waaqjiraa-Qote Bulaa
8.Birhaanuu Tarfaaa-Qote Bulaa
9.Malkaanuu Geetachoo-Qote Bulaa
10.Galahuun Leencaa
11.Tasfaayee Fiqaduu-Barsiisaa
12.Abiyoot Ayyaanaa-Qote Bulaa
13.Asheetuu Dhinaa-Qote Bulaa
14.Dabalaa Waaqjiraa-Qote Bulaa
15.Lammaa Dureessaa-Qote Bulaa
16.Charuu Tashoomee-Barataa
17.Addisuu Iddoosaa-Barataa
18.Maaruu Baajisaa-Qote Bulaa
19.Nagaash Gonjjoraa-Qote Bulaa
20.Misgaanuu Wandimmuu
21.Zelaale Dingataa-Qote Bulaa
22.Masfin Ofgaa-Qote Bulaa
23.Nagaasaa Yaadasaa-Qote Bulaa
24.Boshaa Baqqaabil-Qote Bulaa
25.Dawit Mitikkuu-Barataa
26.Ayyanaa Ittafaa-Qote Bulaa
Isaan kana keessaa gariin isaanii torbeewwan lamaa ol mana hidhaa keessatti humna waraana Wayyaaneetiin dararfmaa akka jiran Qeerroon gabaasee jira, gariin isaanii Waxabajjii 19,2014 akka qabaman addeessa.
#Oromoprotests+ 20 June 2014 8 senior year Oromo students suspended for a year from Ambo University. They are accused of being leaders of #OromoProtests. Below is list of these students and a sample letter posted on campus notifying students about the decision. 1.Bikila Galmessa 2.Morka Keneni 3.Awal Mohammed 4.Usma’il Mitiku 5.Fayisa Bekele 6.Yonas Alemu Ragassa 7.Hundessaa Abara 8.Tamirat Aga
OPINIONS
Aftenbladet
The farmers from the Oromo people around the capital Addis Ababa in Ethiopia losing livelihood and their culture when the government is now giving their land to foreign companies that want to invest in industry and other sectors, writes Badilu Abanesha.
Stop the plunder of the Oromo people
Badilu Abanesha , Oromo Association of South Rogaland
Published: Jun 13. 2014 3:19 p.m.Updated: Jun 13. 2014 3:28 p.m.
Millions of Oromo farmers in Ethiopia are being displaced without receiving compensation for the land they lose.Protests are brutally faced with violence, torture and murder.
Oromo are being deprived of their land and their ability to survive financially, and their culture is threatened. This happens at the boundaries of the capital Addis Ababa is substantially extended. Large areas are being given to foreign companies to establish manufacturing and service sectors at the farmers’ fields and orchards. The traditional inhabitants are losing their own food and are left to fend for themselves. If the government plan is completed, approx. 6.6 million people being driven from their homes without compensation.
Over 100 killed
There have been peaceful protests against these plans all over Oromia.Students at ten universities and large groups of people have protested against the plans, but their peaceful struggle has been met by brutal military police. There have been reports of shooting, detention and torture. Death toll rises with every passing day. Via various sources it has emerged that over 100 people have been shot and killed, while others are badly injured and thousands have been arrested. Oromo students have protested peacefully for over a month now, despite the killings and arrests by Ethiopian security forces. Oromo are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group with over a third of the country’s population. They have traditionally been oppressed by Amhara and tigreanere, which has been the dominant, state income and country’s leading ethnic groups in Ethiopia.
Stop remittances
The Norwegian people, the Norwegian government and other international organizations should condemn the Ethiopian government’s brutal attack on unarmed innocent civilians. We demand that the detainees will not be subjected to torture and ill-treatment. We require all innocent protesters arrested are released from prison immediately. The Ethiopian government should immediately stop its movement by the original people from their own lands throughout Ethiopia. We also believe that financial transfers to management in Ethiopia must be stopped while of government does not respect the fundamental and basic rights of its own people. We worry about really what is happening in Ethiopia. It is difficult when we are not physically able to take part in their fight against injustice. Therefore, we have a great desire to pass on their plea for help to the outside world. Our hearts bleed, and we have awakened the people so they can see what is happening and help the injustices and massacres stopped. See @http://www.aftenbladet.no/meninger/Stopp-plyndringen-av-oromofolket-3441527.html#.U5-PjdJDvyv
#OromoProtests– Gindbarat, Kachis town invaded by Agazi/TPLF fascist forces (the above picture) Agazi/ TPLF armed forces killed three unarmed high school 912th grade) Oromo students on Thursday morning 12th June 2014 in Kachisi town ( Gindebert district, W. Shawa, Oromia) located 120 km from Ambo. The names of the three students killed: 1. Damee Balchaa Baanee 2. Caalaa Margaa 3. Baqqalaa Tarrafaa Oromo people of Gindaberete Protesting the shootings and killings of unarmed school students Waraannii Wayyaanee Aanaa Gindabarat irra qubsiifamee jiru, uummaata sivilii irratti waraana banuun barattoota Oromoo kutaa 12ffaa Sadii ajjeese. Waxabajjii 12/2014 Waraannii Mootummaa Wayyaanee Godina Lixaa Shawaa aanaa Gindabarat Magaalaa Kaachiis irra qubatee jiru eda galgala sa;aatii 1:00 irratti waraana banuun barattoota Oromoo kutaa 12ffaa Sadii (3) ajjeese jira. Mootummaan Wayyaanee duula dugugginsa sanyii genocide uummaata Oromoo irraatti banee jiru jabeessuun itti fufee, Wayyaaneen humna waraanaa of harkaa qabu uummata Oromoo irratti bobbaasuun yeroo amma kanatti uummata sivilii irratti waraana banuun dhukaasee ajjeesa jira,
#OromoProtests- 11th & 12th June 2014 , Deeggaa, Illuu Abbaa Booraa, western Oromia, Lalisaa Sanaagaa High School and Sanaagaa Wuchaalee Primary & Middle Secondary School
on 11th June 2014, 5 school children were heavily beaten by Agazi/ TPLF forces. These students were taken to Beddallee hospital. on 12th June 2014 the rests of students from these schools were put in a lorry by Agazi forces and taken to unknown place. Waxabajjii 11 Bara 2014, Godina Iluu Abbaa Booraa Aanaa Deeggaa Mana Barumsaa sadarkaa 2ffaa Lalisaa Sanaagaa fi Sadarkaa 1ffaa fi Giddu Galeessa Sanaagaa Wucaalee irraa barattootin humna goolessituu ergamtoota wayyaanee wajjin walitti bu’iinsa uumameen barattootin 5 reebicha hamaa irra gaheen Yaalaaf gara Hosptaala Baddalleetti ergamuu gabaasuun keenya ni yaadatama. Oolaan guyyaa har’aa akkuma suuraa kana irraa argtanu konkolaataa fe’isaa mooraa Mana Barumsaa keessaa dhaabanii Ilmaan Oromoo akka meeshaati walitti guuranii fe’uun gara hin beekamnetti fuudhanii adeemaniiru jedhu maddeen keenya. Maatiin ijoollota kanaa dhaamsa nuu birmadhaa dabarfataniiru.
At Jaardagaa Jaartee, Horroo Guduruu Wallaggaa, Aliiboo town, Western Oromia, 11 Oromo nationals have been dismissed from their jobs an the allegations that they were involved in opposing the TPLF tyrannic rules.
Huseen Said, Political Science student, Haromaya University, attacked by TPLF forces. Waxabajjii 11,2014 Gabaasa Qeerroo Hidhaa fi ajjechaa mootummaa Wayyaanee jalaa dheessee gara Bosaassootti socho’aa kan ture barataan Oromoo tokko rasaasaan rukutamuun isaa gabaafame. Oduun Qeerroo dhaqqqabe akka hubachiisutti Yunversitii Haramaayaatti barataa Saayinsii Polotikaa kan ture barataa Huseen Sa’id Haajii jedhamu FDG barattoota Oromoo Yunversitichaan geggeeffamu keessaa harka qabda jedhamee hordoffii hidhaa fi ajjechaa mootummaa Wayyaanee jalaa baqatee gara Bosaassoo Puntlanditti osoo socho’aa jiruu, tikootni Wayyaanee isa hordofuun barataan kun kellaa magaalaa Qardhuu jedhamutti loltoota Puntlandiin akka rukutamu taasisanii jiran. Barataa Huseen Sa’id Haajii yeroo ammaa kana gargaarsaa fi waldhaansa ga’aa tokkoon maleetti Hospitaala Bosaassoo ciisee kan jiru oggaa ta’u, bakki dhaloota isaas Godina Baalee Ona Agaarfaa irraa ta’uun gabaafameera. See @http://qeerroo.org/2014/06/12/yunversitii-haramaayaatti-barataa-saayinsii-polotikaa-kan-tae-barataan-huseen-said-haajii-loltoota-wayyaaneen-rukutame-hosptala-gale/
Ethiopia’s Police State: The Silencing of Opponents, Journalists and Students Detained
By Paul O’Keeffe June 11, 2014 (Global Research) — Detention under spurious charges in Ethiopia is nothing new. With the second highest rate of imprisoned journalists in Africa[1] and arbitrary detention for anyone who openly objects to the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime’s despotic iron fist, the Western backed government in Addis Ababa is a dab hand at silencing its critics. Eskinder Nega and Reeyot Alemu are just two of the country’s more famous examples of journalists thrown in prison for daring to call the EPRFD out on their reckless disregard for human rights. This April the regime made headlines again for jailing six[2] bloggers and three more journalists on trumped up charges of inciting violence through their journalistic work. Repeated calls for due legal process for the detainees from human rights organisations and politicians, such as John Kerry, have fallen on deaf ears as they languish in uncertainty awaiting trial. This zero-tolerance approach to questioning of government repression is central to the EPRDF’s attempts to control its national and international image and doesn’t show much signs of letting up. Stepping up their counter-dissent efforts the regime just this week detained another journalist Elias Gebru – the editor-in-chief of the independent news magazine Enku. Gebru’s magazine is accused of inciting student protests[3] which rocked Oromia state at the end of April. The magazine published a column which discussed the building of a monument[4] outside Addis Ababa honouring the massacre of Oromos by Emperor Melinik in the 19th century. The regime has tried to tie the column with protests against its plans to bring parts of Oromia state under Addis Ababa’s jurisdiction. The protests, which kicked off at Ambo University and spread to other parts of the state, resulted in estimates[5] of up to 47 people being shot dead by security forces. Ethiopia has a history of student protest movements setting the wheels of change in motion. From student opposition to imperialism in the 1960s and 1970s to the early politicisation of Meles Zenawi at the University Students’ Union of Addis Ababa. The world over things begin to change when people stand up, say enough and mobilise. Ethiopia is no different. Similar to its treatment of journalists Ethiopia also has a history of jailing students and attempting to eradicate their voices. In light of such heavy handed approaches to dissent the recent protests which started at Ambo University are a telling sign of the level discontent felt by the Oromo – the country’s largest Ethnic group. Long oppressed by the Tigrayan dominated EPRDF, the Oromo people may have just started a movement which has potential ramifications for a government bent on maintaining its grip over the ethnically diverse country of 90 million plus people. Students and universities are agents of change and the EPRDF regime knows this very well. The deadly backlash from government forces against the student protesters in Oromia in April resulted in dozens[6] of protesters reportedly being shot dead in the streets of Ambo and other towns in Oromia state. Since the protests began scores more have been arbitrarily detained or vanished without a trace from campuses and towns around the state. One student leader, Deratu Abdeta (a student at Dire Dawa University) is currently unlawfully detained in the notorious Maekelawi prison for fear she may encourage other students to protest. She is a considered at high risk of being tortured. In addition to Ms. Abdeta many other students are suspected of being unlawfully detained around the country. On May 27th 13 students were abducted from Haramaya University by the security forces. The fate of 12 of the students is unknown but one student, Alsan Hassan, has reportedly committed suicide by cutting his own throat all the way to the bones at the back of his neck after somehow managing to inflict bruises all over his body and gouging out his own eye. His tragic death became known when a local police officer called his family to identify the body and told them to pay 10,000 Birr ($500) to transport his body from Menelik hospital in Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa town in Oromo state. Four of the other students have been named as Lencho Fita Hordofa, Ararsaa Lagasaa, Jaaraa Margaa, and Walabummaa Goshee. Detaining journalists and students without fair judicial recourse may serve the EPRDF regime’s short term goal of eradicating its critics. However, the reprehensible silencing of opponents is one sure sign of a regime fearful of losing its vice-like grip. Ironically the government itself has its own roots in student led protests in the 1970s. No doubt it is well aware that universities pose one of the greatest threats to its determination to maintain power at all costs. Countless reports of spies monitoring student and teacher activities on campus, rigid curriculum control and micro-managing just who gets to study what are symptoms of this. The vociferous clamp-down on student protesters is another symptom and just the regime’s latest attempt to keep Ethiopia in a violent headlock. The regime would do well to remember that stress positions cause cramps and headlocks can be broken. It can try to suppress the truth but it can’t try forever. Paul O’Keeffe is a Doctoral Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome. His research focuses on Ethiopia’s developing higher education system. [1] http://www.cpj.org/2014/05/ethiopia-holds-editor-in-chief-without-charge.php [2] http://allafrica.com/stories/201404290650.html [3] http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/may/22/ethiopia-crackdown-student-protest-education [4] http://www.war-memorial.net/Aanolee-Martyrs-memorial-monument-and-cultural-center-1.367 [5] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27251331 [6] http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/05/ethiopia-brutal-crackdown-protests Source: Global Research Read @ http://ayyaantuu.com/horn-of-africa-news/ethiopias-police-state-the-silencing-of-opponents-journalists-and-students-detained/ #OromoProtests- 15 Oromo students were kidnapped on 9th June 2014 by TPLF/Agazi forces from Madda Walaabuu University, Oromia. Their where about is unknown (see their details as follows:
Barattootni Oromoo Yuunivarsiitii Madda walaabuu 15 tika mootummaa wayyaaneen halkan ukkaamsamuun bakka buuteen isaanii dhabame
Mass Grave of Oromos Executed by Govt Discovered in Eastern Oromia Posted: Waxabajjii/June 10, 2014 · Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com According to sources, a confrontation between residents and Ethiopian government officials broke out on June 9, 2014, over a mass grave discovered at the former Hameressa military garrison near Harar city, eastern Oromia. The mass grave is believed to contain remains of political prisoners executed during both the Dergue era and the early reigns of the current TPLF regime. Among those who were executed and buried in the location was Mustafa Harowe, a famous Oromo singer who was killed around early 1980′s for his revolutionary songs. Thousands more Oromo political prisoners were kept at this location in early 1990′s – with many of them never to be seen again.
The mass grave was discovered while the Ethiopian government was clearing the camp with bulldozers to make it available to Turkish investors. Upon the discovery of the remains, the government tried to quietly remove them from the site. However, workers secretly alerted residents in nearby villages; upon the spread of the news, many turned up en mass to block the removal of the remains and demanded construction a memorial statue on the site instead. The protests is still continuing with elders camping on the site while awaiting a response from government. In addition to the remains, belongings of the dead individuals as well as ropes tied in hangman’s noose were discovered at the site. See @ http://gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/mass-grave-of-oromos-executed-by-govt-discovered-in-eastern-oromia/ ——————— Lafeen ilmaan Oromoo bara 1980moota keessa mootummaa Darguutin, baroota 1990moota keessa ammoo Wayyaaneen dhoksaan kaampii waraanaa Hammarreessaa keessatti ajjeefamanii argame. Ilmaan Oromoo mooraa san keessatti hidhamanii booda ajjeefaman keessa wallisaan beekamaan Musxafaa Harawwee isa tokko. Musxafaa Harawwee wallee qabsoo inni baasaa tureef jecha qabamee yeroo dheeraaf erga hiraarfamee booda toora bara ~1991 keessa ajjeefame. Hiraar Musxafaarra geessifamaa ture keessa tokko aara wallee isaatirraa qaban garsiisuuf muka afaanitti dhiibuun a’oo isaa cabsuun ni yaadatama. Baroota 1990moota keessas Oromoonni kumaatamaan tilmaamaman warra amma aangorra jiru kanaan achitti hidhamanii, hedduun isaanii achumaan dhabamuun yaadannoo yeroo dhihooti. Haqxi dukkana halkaniitiin ajjeesanii lafa jalatti awwaalan kunoo har’a rabbi as baase. Dhugaan Oromoo tun kan amma as bahe, mootummaa kaampii waraanaa kana diiguun warra lafa isaa warra Turkiitiif kennuuf osoo qopheessuuf yaaluti. Lafee warra dhumee akkuma arganiin dhoksaan achirra gara biraatti dabarsuuf osoo yaalanii hojjattonni ummata naannotti iccitii san himan. Ummanniis dafee wal-dammaqsuun bakka sanitti argamuun ekeraan nama keenyaa akka achii hin kaafamneefi siidaan yaadannoo akka jaaramu gaafachaa jiran. Hamma feetes turtu dhugaan Oromoo awwaalamtee hin haftu.
#OromoProtests- 8th June 2014- Confrontation between residents and government officials is reported over mass grave discovered at the former Hameressa military garrison near Harar city. The mass grave is believed to contain remains of political prisoners executed during the Dargue era and the early reigns of TPLF. Among those who were executed and buried in the location is Mustafa Harowe, a famous Oromo singer who was killed in 1982? for his revolutionary songs. Thousands of more of political prisoners were kept at this location in early 1990s, with many of them never to be seen again.The mass grave was discovered while the government was clearing the camp with bulldozers to make it available to Turkish investors. Upon discovery of the remains, the government tried to quietly remove it from the site. However, workers secretly alerted residents in nearby villages who spread the news and turned up en mass to block the removal of the remains and demanding construction of memorial statue on the site. The protests is still continuing with elders camping on site while awaiting response from government.
#OromoPprotest at Hameressa military camp where mass grave was discovered on Sunday 8th June 214. Three people were injured when federal police attempted to forcefully remove residents who have camped on the location to protect the remains and demand conversion of the location into memorial site.
#OromOProtests (10 June 2014) – TPLF’s repressive action against our Oromo in East Oromia resulting in 3 people been injured. The regime wants to give away to foreigners a hallowed ground where mass grave is just been discovered. May be the regime is worried about possible unearthing and identification of remains of its own victims from 1990s.
After deciding that we wanted to leave Ethiopia, we had return to Ambo to pack our bags and say goodbye to our friends. Packing our bags turned out to be the easy part.When we arrived back in Ambo, the destruction was still apparent, although the cleanup had already started. The burned cars were pulled to the side of the road. The debris from the damaged buildings was already being cleared. The problem, however, was that the courthouse was one of the buildings that was burned. How do they plan on having trials for those hundreds of people we saw in jail, we wondered. We wanted to tell all our friends why we were leaving, but how could we say it? Maybe we should say, “It’s not OK for the police to hunt down young people and shoot them in the back.” Or maybe we should say, “It’s not OK for us to have to cower in our home, listening to gunshots all day long.” Or maybe we should say, “It’s not OK for the government to conduct mass arrests of people who are simply voicing their opinion.” Since the communication style in Oromia is BEYOND non-direct, with people afraid to really say what they mean, we knew exactly what to tell people:”We are leaving Ambo because we don’t agree with the situation,” we repeated to every friend we encountered. Everyone knew EXACTLY what we were talking about.We told our friend, a town employee, we were leaving, and he said, “Yes, there are still 500 federal police in town, two weeks after the protests ended.”We told a neighbor we were leaving, and he said, “Now there is peace in Ambo. Peace on the surface. But who knows what is underneath?”We told a teacher at the high school we were leaving, and she was wearing all black. “Maal taate? (What happened)” we asked. One of her 10th grade students was killed during the protests.We told the local store owner we were leaving, and she said, in an abnormally direct way, “When there is a problem, your government comes in like a helicopter to get you out. Meanwhile, our government is killing its own people.”After a traditional bunna (coffee) ceremony, and several meals with some of our favorite friends, we were the proud owners of multiple new Ethiopian outfits, given as parting gifts so we would ‘never forget Ethiopia.’How could we forget?We still don’t know exactly who died during the protests and the aftermath. It’s not like there is an obituary in the newspaper or something. But questions persist in our minds every day:
Our two young, dead neighbors remain faceless in our minds…was it the tall one with the spiky hair?
Students from the high school were killed…had any of the victims been participants of our HIV/soccer program?
What about that good-looking bus boy that is always chewing khat and causing trouble…is he alive? in jail?
How many people were killed? How many arrested?
If we knew the exact number of people killed or arrested, would it actually help the situation in any way?
I was at a fundraiser today. The majority of it was in Afaan Oromo, a language I’m trying to learn, but still very far from understanding. Still, I was tempted to decline when a woman in my row moved over to sit next to me and offered to translate for me. I kind of like to try to listen and pick out what I can. If I had turned her down, I would have missed the emotion conveyed in her translation. Her tone told me what I hadn’t figured out yet (though I should have known) – the son was going to die…a double injustice since the real-life plot not only includes the loss of ancestral lands, but also the lack of freedom to protest that loss, and death or imprisonment for those who dare to do so anyway. It was more of a skit, really. A powerful skit, regardless of acting ability, because the story is so powerful. A story of a family of three. Just one son, supported in his schooling by what his family was able to produce on their farm. The land was key. His parents had not been able to get an education. With the land, now he could. Yet when an investor came asking the government official if land was available, he was told, yes, there is much land that is ‘not being used.’ When the investor was brought to see the land in question, it was as if the farmer was invisible. The deal was made right there between the investor and a local intermediary while the farmer continued to plough his field. Then their son came home from school saying he was going out to march with other students to protest what was happening to the land – to all of the farmers in the area – the mom cautioned him to be safe, the government can not be trusted, she said. My translator began to cry in earnest. … I remembered once when I had to act out a similar scene. I’m not a big fan of role-plays, so I was going along with the activity, but holding back quite a bit. A group of us were given roles to act out a lesser known bit of Canadian history when indigenous children were forcibly removed from their villages and their families and taken to residential schools to be ‘educated,’ as well as assimilated, often abused, even experimented upon. Often, they never returned. Almost always, those who did return spoke of their lost childhood and traumatic memories. I was an Anishinabe mother in the role-play. In real life at the time, I had left my only child, a two year old boy, home for two weeks with his dad so I could participate in this delegation, mostly to learn more about the Anishinabe history in general and one community’s struggle in particular. Though the experience was meaningful, that day I was starting to wonder if two weeks was too long to be away from my son. One person had come to the delegation with me, Jared, a young man in his twenties. I knew him well in the sense that we were part of the same intentional living community. We had eaten together, worshipped together, sat in consensus decision-making meetings together, sang, cooked, and worshipped together over the previous three years. He was given the role of my son. Jared and I stood in the circle area with a few other people who had roles as part of the Anishinabe village. I was just going through the motions of the role-play, not really into it. Wishing I enjoyed that kind of thing more. Then they came for Jared. In that moment when they snatched him away, I cried out and reached out for him but he was gone and I was left sobbing. Somehow it had become real. Five years later, I still hear comments about how real my heartbreak felt to everyone in the room. … As the woman next to me struggled to speak through her tears, we watched the skit draw to its inevitable close. The security forces blocked the path of the unarmed protesters. The protesters held their ground. The security forces escalated the situation by firing at the students. The only child of the farmer and his wife was gunned down. His parent actors bitterly mourned his loss. He too is gone. It’s hard to clap after that. Hard to will one’s hands to applaud the actors when you’re thinking of the families that have gone through similar situations so recently. Many Oromo students are gone. Some known to be killed, some disappeared, arrested or abducted without releasing names. Many die in detention centers and prisons. Yes many students are gone. Some may return from imprisonment with accounts of mistreatment and suffering, with harrowing stories of other students locked up years ago, still in prison with no trial, no real charges and very little hope. Others will not return. One of those is Alsan Hassan, abducted May 27 from his university after participating in a hunger strike. On June 1, his family was notified of his death. They were told he killed himself, a story commonly invented by the authorities to cover up the real cause of death: torture. His parents came to retrieve their son. His body was severely disfigured from the abuses he had suffered. Still they could not simply take him home. They were charged an exorbitant price and had to return home, borrow money just to secure the release of his body and finally make journey home to bury him. The thought of Alsan and the other sons and daughters lost to their families – that is why the woman translating for me (and I) couldn’t keep from crying, however predictable the plot of the skit. I was sitting next to my six year old son. Her 11-or-so year old son was on the other side of her. We can’t help but hear these stories not only as fellow human beings, but as mothers. We translate, we write, we do whatever we can from the other side of the world in the hopes that we will inform and inspire enough people to bring an end to the unjust imprisonment of dissenting young voices. See @ http://amyvansteenwyk.tumblr.com/post/88273995454/gone To read more about Alsan: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1398441760444684&set=a.1389352578020269.1073741828.100008366190440&type=1&theater For more on the Oromo Protests: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2014/06/06/community-voices-oromoprotests-perspective
(OPride) — A 21-year old Oromo student, Nuredin Hasen, who was abducted from Haromaya University late last month and held incommunicado at undisclosed location, died earlier this month from a brutal torture he endured while in police custody, family sources said.
Members of the federal and Oromia state police nubbed Hassen (who is also known by Alsan Hassen) and 12 other students on May 27 in a renewed crackdown on Oromo students. Friends were not told the reason for the arrests nor where the detainees were taken.
Born and raised in Bakko Tibbe district of West Shawa zone, Alsan, who lost both of his parents at a young age, was raised by his grandmother.
The harrowing circumstances of his death should shock everyone’s conscience. But it also underscores the inhumane and cruel treatment of Oromo activists by Ethiopian security forces.
According to family sources, on June 1, a police officer in Dire Dawa called his counterpart at West Shewa Zone Police Bureau in Ambo and informed him that Alsan “killed himself” while in prison. The officer requested the local police to tell Alsan’s family to pick up his body from Menelik Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. The West Shewa zone police relayed the message to the district police station in Bakko Tibbe and the latter delivered the message to Alsan’s family. Three family members then rushed to the capital to collect the corpse of a bright young man they had sent off, far from home, so that he can get a decent shot at college education.
Upon arrival, the hospital staff told the family to search for his body from among 30 to 40 corpse’s kept in a large room. According to our sources, what they saw next was beyond the realm of anyone’s imagination. The details are too gruesome to even describe.
They found their beloved son badly tortured, his face disfigured and barely recognizable. His throat was slit leaving only the muscles and bones at the back of his neck connecting his head to the rest of the body. There were large cuts along his eyelids, right below the eyebrows as if someone had tried to remove his eyes. There were multiple wounds all over his face and head. Both of his arms were broken between his wrists and his elbows. It appeared as if the federal forces employed all forms of inhumane torture tactics, leaving parts of his body severely damaged and disjointed. The family could not grasp the cruelty of the mutilation carried upon an innocent college student.
Their ordeal to recover Alsan’s body did not end there either. Once the body was identified, the federal police officer who brought the body from Harar told the family to pay 10,000 birr (roughly $500) to cover the cost of transportation the government incurred. They were informed that the body will not be released unless the money is paid in full.
The family did not have the money, nor were they prepared for the unexpected tragedy. After friends and relatives raised the requested sum to cover his torturers costs, Alsan’s body was transported to Bakko Tibbe, where he was laid to rest on June 2. There was little doubt that Alsan was murdered while in detention, but in police state Ethiopia, the family may never even know the full details of what happened to their son, much less seek justice. In an increasingly repressive Ethiopian state, being an Oromo itself is in essence becoming a crime. To say the gruesome circumstances surrounding Alsan’s death is heart-wrenching is a gross understatement. But Alsan’s story is not atypical. It epitomizes the sheer brutality that many Oromo activists endure in Ethiopia today. On June 6, another Oromo political prisoner, Nimona Tilahun passed away in police custody. Tilahun, a graduate of Addis Ababa University and former high school teacher, was initially arrested in 2004 along with members of the Macha Tulama Association during widespread protests opposing the relocation of Oromia’s seat to Adama. He was released after a year of incarceration and returned to complete his studies, according to reports by Canada-based Radio Afurra Biyya. Born in 1986, Tilahun was re-arrested in 2011 from his teaching job in Shano, a town in north Shewa about 80kms from Addis Ababa. He was briefly held at Maekelawi prison, known for torturing inmates and denying legal counsel to prisoners. And later transferred between Kaliti, Kilinto and Zuway where he was continuously tortured over the last three years. Tilahun was denied medical treatment despite being terminally ill. His death this week at Black Lion Hospital is the third such known case in the last two years. On August 23, 2013, a former UNHCR recognized refugee, engineer Tesfahun Chemeda also died under suspicious circumstances, after being refused medical treatment. In January, a former parliamentary candidate with the opposition Oromo People’s Congress from Calanqo, Ahmed Nejash, died of torture while in custody. These are the few names and stories that have been reported. Ethiopia holds an estimated 20 to 30 thousand Oromo political prisoners. Many have been there for more than two decades, and for some of them not even family members know if they are still alive. While Alsan, Chemeda, Nejash and Tilahun’s stories offer a glimpse of the brutality behind Ethiopia’s gulags, it is important to remember thousands more face similar heinous abuses everyday. Since Oromo students began protesting against Addis Ababa’s unconstitutional expansion in April, according to eyewitnesses, more than a 100 people have been killed, hundreds wounded and many more unlawfully detained. While a relative calm has returned to university campuses, small-scale peaceful protests continue in many parts of Oromia. Reports are emerging that mass arrests and extrajudicial killings of university students are far more widespread than previously reported. Last month, dozens of students at Jimma, Madawalabu, Adama and Wallaggauniversities were indefinitely dismissed from their education. In addition, an unknown number of students from all Oromia-based colleges are in hiding fearing for their safety if they returned to the schools. Given the Horn of Africa nation’s tight-grip on free press and restrictions on human rights monitoring, in the short run, the Ethiopian security forces will continue to commit egregious crimes with impunity. But the status quo is increasingly tenable. For every Alsan and Tilahun they murder, many more will be at the ready to fight for the cause on which they were martyred. As long repression continues unabated, the struggle for justice and freedom will only be intensified. No amount of torture and inhumane treatment can extinguish the fire that has been sparked. Written by Amane Badhasso, the president of International Oromo Youth Association, and a political science and legal studies major at Hamline University &. Badhatu Ayana, an Oromo rights activist.
See @http://www.opride.com/oromsis/news/3758-the-torture-and-brutal-murder-of-alsan-hassen-by-ethiopian-police ….DUBBADHU QAALLIITTI!!! dubbadhu qaallitti abaaramtuu lafaa yoo dubbachuu baatte xuriinsaa sitti hafaa ajjeechaa Niimoonaa akkaataa du’a isaa si qofaatu beeka jalqabaaf dhuma isaa dubbadhu qaallitti Oromoon si hin dhiisu maal jedhe Niimoonaan yeroo qofaa ciisu? yeroo kophaa ciisee dukkana daawwatu hunduu dabaree dhaan yeroo gadi dhiittu yeroo midhaan dhabee mar’ummaan wal rige yeroo bishaan dhabee qoonqoon itti goge yeroo madaa irratti madaa dabalate yeroo lammiif jecha waanjoo guddaa baate atis akka isaanii garaa itti jabaattee? Moo,bakka keenya buutee jabaadhu ittiin jette? dhiitichaaf kaballaa ciniinatee obsee iccitii keessa isaa yeroo diina dhokse maal jedhe Niimoonaan waa’ee miidhama isaa afaan keen itti himi si eegu maatiin saa dubbadhu qaallitti ol kaasi sagalee namni beeku hin jiru yoo waaqaaf si malee uummata isaaf jedhee rakkoo hunda obsee iji imimmaan didee yeroo dhiiga cobse Niimoonaan maal jedhe dhaamsa maal dabarse? dubbadhu Qaallitti himi waan dhageesse!! sirna awwaalchaa Niimoonaa Tilaahuun Imaanaa!!! Nimoonaa Xilaahuun Imaanaa (1986-2014). Oromo National, Banking and Finance Graduate of Finfinne University (AAU) & Teacher. Tortured and murdered by TPLF while in jail. http://qeerroo.org/2014/06/07/sbo-waxabajjii-08-bara-2014-oduu-ibsa-abo-waxabajjii-15-guyyaa-hundeeffama-sbo-waggaa-26ffaa-ilaachisee-dhaamsota-baga-ittiin-isin-gahee-fi-qophiilee-biroo-of-keessatti-hammatee-jira/
#OromoProtetsts– Gabaasa godina wallagga lixaa magaalaa Gimbii irraa
Four Oromo elders from Gimbi town of Oromia are being tortured in TPLF’s jail (Report received 6th June 2014).
“I mourn the death of our youngsters,” says the Rev. Teka Obsa Fogi of dozens of casualties witnessed since April 25 among peacefully protesting students throughout Oromia Regional State by security force shootings and beatings.* Pr. Fogi is pastor of Oromo Resurrection Evangelical Church (“OREC”) in Kensington, Maryland, a worshiping community of the Metro D.C. Synod with direct ties to the region, one of nine ethnically-based states of Ethiopia. “OREC and all Oromo churches are praying for our young students, their parents and those the government wants to dispossess of their land,” he says. “Please pray with us.” Protests, which began at universities in large towns throughout Oromia then spread to smaller communities in the region, erupted over the release in April of the proposed Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan. The “Master Plan” outlines substantial municipal expansion of Addis Ababa to include more than 15 communities in Oromia according to Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.* “The problem is, if this ‘Master Plan’ is put into action, many Oromo farmers will be uprooted from the land they get their living from. They were tilling this land for generations. Compensation, if the government gives any, will only help them for a while,” Pr. Fogi anticipates, “and after that, they will be homeless.” An Ethiopian government statement on May 1 blamed protests by “anti-peace forces” on “baseless rumours” being spread about the “integrated development master plan” for the capital and acknowledged a limited number of protest-related deaths as reported by BBC News.** This report is one of few from traditional news sources available on the current situation. Indirectly emphasizing the challenge of telling this story, the United Nations human rights chief in a May 2 news release “condemned the crackdown on journalists in Ethiopia and the increasing restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression.”*** “The situation of family members and friends of Oromo members of our congregations and community is very fragile, and communications are very difficult and sensitive,” said the Rev. Michael D. Wilker, senior pastor of Lutheran Church of the Reformation in D.C. The congregation did respond to Pr. Fogi’s request for prayer during worship services May 11. “We trust that God hears us when we cry in pain and shout for justice. May God’s creativity, compassion and courage be with the Oromo people and all the residents of Ethiopia,” added Pr. Wilker. The Rev. Kathy Hlatshwayo, interim pastor of Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church in D.C., was one of several local Lutheran pastors in attendance at an Oromo rally near the White House and State Department on May 9 to draw attention to the situation and protest the human rights violations. “We ask your prayers,” she said, “for the Oromo people, especially mothers and fathers whose children have been killed, the region of Oromia, Ethiopia, and those in diaspora and our congregations.” The Rev. Philip C. Hirsch, Assistant to the Bishop of the Metro D.C. Synod who also attended the rally, shares the following: God of mercy and of justice: We pray together with our Oromo sisters and brothers in Lutheran congregations in our synod for those who have suffered recent violence in Ethiopia. We pray for the students who were attacked, arrested or killed while protesting. We especially lift up to you the mothers, fathers and community members of the victims. Grant them peace. Grant them justice. In Christ’s holy name we pray, Amen.
Ambo story – shocking human right violations against Oromo people
In a recent interview with a local media, Mr Abdulaziz Mohammed – the Vice President of Oromia Region stated that “No one is arrested and we don’t have any information about the arrest.” The Vice President’s single statement says two contrasting ideas at a time – denying the arrest allegations and ignorant about the arrest. In the first place it is a shame for the Vice President to deny the reality on the ground – where more than 49 people were killed and 800 people have been arrested, tortured and imprisoned. These atrocities are in response to a series of demonstrations or protests by the Oromo people who demand the government to stop removing farmers from their ancestral homeland in the name of ‘development’. The demonstration at the initial stage was peaceful and in order before the government’s heavily armed security forces and the military started shooting and killing people. The harsh environment for the media in Ethiopia has made it absolutely difficult to get information about the depth of human right violations in Ethiopia. I was furious with the government’s intent to belittle the recent killings and human right abuses in many parts of Oromia – Ambo, Bale Robe, Adama, Bushoftu, Nekemte, Guder, Haromaya, Bulle Hora, Dire Dawa and many small towns in Western Oromia. I decided to visit the communities that have gone through these abuses and met with different people in a very cautious and careful way. I made my first visit to Ambo – where the arrests and torturing are still taking place. I talked with mothers who have lost their children, and young men who have been beaten and tortured, and people who have survived dreadful bullet hits and bodily injury. Ambo stories are dreadful and shocking!
“My name is E.B. I am 18 years of age. I dropped out of grade 5 – to help my poor parents to make some income and buy food. I live in Ambo town – where I do a labor job. I joined Ambo University Student’s protest about the government’s decision to take away farmers land around Addis Ababa. The first day was peaceful. But on the third day of the protest – the morning of 30th April 2014 the government security men started shooting demonstrators. It was unbelievable and shocking to see the soldiers shooting at unarmed people. We started dispersing to save our lives. Everyone was running except some of the young men who were trying to turn and shout at the shooters. I was running when a young man before me fell into the ground. I stopped to help him. I kneeled down beside him and lifted him up from his head – his eyes were blinking too fast. He was bleeding from his head. He was hit by a bullet in the back of his head. While I was trying to help him, I felt a sharp sting in my back. I felt watered-down my lower chest. I left the dead young man there and I tried to run a few meters. I looked my bottom chest and saw that air was getting out through the bullet wound. The bullet hit me in the back and went through my lower chest. I was staggering and fell into the ground. I didn’t recognized what happened since then – before I regained my consciousness two days later in a local hospital. The room where I was lying was full of people who were wounded by bullets.”
E.B. was hit by three bullets in his back. His friends lifted him from where he fell and took him to hospital. One of the bullets went through his lower chest and two more remained in his belly. He had to go through operation – where the two bullets were removed with his infected pancreas. His parents covered the cost of his medication from their meager income – his father as a clinic security guard and his mother as a cook.
“The doctor told me that I shouldn’t do any labor job and be careful with my injury. He told me that as my pancreas has been removed, there is less likely to recover from any future wounds even if I am not even sure whether I am going to fully recover and survive the present injury. Oooops it is painful – can’t sleep comfortably. I am worried about my future as I still continue to depend on my parents since this young age or…?” Tear gushing down from his eyes…this shouldn’t have happened to me. We were protesting peacefully… we don’t deserve bullets in return!”
http://oromo1refrendum.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/ambo-story-shocking-human-right-violations-against-oromo-people/ #OromoProtests- Fascist TPLF/Agazi’s genocidal crime against humanity. 10th grade student Dawit Waqjira shot and killed by TPLF/ Agazi on 3rd June 2014, Qellem Wallaggaa, Anifillo, Western Oromia. Ajjeefamuun Barataa Oromoo Daangaa Dhabe! Barataan Kutaa 10ffaa Daawwit Waaqjira Wallagga Anifilloo Keessatti Waraana Wayyaaneen Rukutamee Wareeganuun Gabaafame Posted: Waxabajjii/June 4, 2014 · Gadaa.com (Qeerroo.org – Waxabajjii 03, 2014 – Dambi Doolloo) – Gabaasa Qeerroo Qellem Wallaggaa Anfilloo Waxabajjii 03/2014 galgala keessaa sa’a 3:40 irratti.Mootummaan wayyaanee humna agaazii oromiyaa keessa tamsaasuudhaan gaaffii tokko malee nama oromummaa isaaf dhaabbatu rasaasaan rukuchiisaa jira.Gabaasni kun akka addeessutti kaleessa Waxabajjii 02/2014 barataa kutaa kurnaffaa qormaata biyyoolessaa fudhatee gale sabboonummaa isaatiin kan ka’e yakka tokkollee kan hin goone humna waraana agaaziitiin qabamee bosona seensisuudhaan reebicha hamma du’aatti irratti raawwatan,erga reebanii miidhanii booda sadarka du’a isaa beekuudhaan rasaasaan rukutani. Barataa Oromoo wareega qaalii kafale kana bosona keessatti reebanii erga hamma du’aatti deemsisanii booda galgala daandiitti baasaniiti rasaasaan akka rukutan kan ijaan argan ni dubbatu. Barataan kun maqaan isaa Daawwit Waaqjira jedhama.Guyya har’aa sirni awwaalcha isaa kan gaggeeffame yoo tahu humni waraana agaazii wayyaanee jedhamu kun uummata naannessee marsuudhaan hamma reeffi mucaa awaalamee xumuramutti akka waan rukuttaadhaaf qophiin jiruutti bakka qabachuudhaan gandi Ashii jedhamtu dirree waraanaa fakkaattee ooltee jirti jedhu maddi gabaasa Qeerroo Anfiilloo! Kana malees ganama Waxabajjii 03,2014 dargaggoon Addisuu Aagaa jedhamu magaalaa Laaloo Qilee keessa Motorbike qabatee osoo nagaan deemaa jiruu poolisoonni Oromiyaan reebamee Hosptala Ayiraa gullisoo galee akka jiru gabaasi naannicha irraa nu gahe addeessa. – Qeerroo.org: http://qeerroo.org/2014/06/04/ajjeefamuun-barataa-oromoo-daangaa-dhabe-barataan-kutaa-10ffaa-daawwit-waaqjira-wallagga-anifilloo-keessatti-waraana-wayyaaneen-rukutamee-wareeganuun-gabaafame/ #OromoProtests-Genocidal TPLF’s crime against humanity. Oduu Gaddaa ( Very sad News), 4th June 2014 Teacher Magarsa Abdisa tortured and died at military detention at Ayiraa detention center, Western Oromia.
Magarsaa Abdiisaa Mana Hidhaa Wayyaanee Wallagga Baha Ayiraa Keessatti Reebicha Loltoota Wayyaanee Irraan Wareegame
Mootummaan Wayyaanee ajjeechaa ilmaan Oromoo irratti geessitu jabeessuun kan itti fufte Godina Wallaggaa lixaa magaala Guulisoo keessatti barsiisaa BLLTO kan tahe barsiisaa Magarsaa Abdiisaa jedhamu kan dhalootaan Wallaggaa bahaa aanaa Jiddaa kan tahe reebichaa loltoota Wayyaanee irraan kan ka’e wareegame. Barsiisaa Magarsaa Abdiisaa sabboonummaan dhalatee kan guddate miindaa mootummaa Wayyaanee nyaatnee Uummata Oromoof hojjenna malee bitamna miti jechuun ejjennoo jabaa qabatee ilmaan Oromoo keessumattuu daraggootaa fi barattoota barsiisaa kan ture yoommuu tahu mootummaan Wayyaanee gaaffii abbaa biyyummaa gaafatamaa dhufeen wal qabatee mana hidhaatti kan ukkaamse yoommuu tahu reebicha addaa irraan gahuun Lubbuu isaa dabarsanii jiran. Uummatni Oromoo maal eegna?? Kana booda Uummatni martuu mirga isaaf ka’uun dirqama akka tahu waamicha jabaa dabarsina. Ajjeechaa mootummaan wayyaanee gaggeessaa jirus daran balaaleffanna. Qeerroon wareegama barbaachisaa baasee Uummata Oromoo bilisa baasuuf jabaatee kan hojjetu tahuus mirkansa. #OromoProtests-Genocidal TPLF’s crime against humanity. Oduu Gaddaa ( Very sad News), 2nd June 2014 Aslan Hasan, one of the 10 Oromo students kidnapped on May 29, 2014 from Haromaya University has died while in military detention center in Harar city. Apparently he collapsed during one of the torture sessions, then was taken to Tikur Anbessa Hospital in the capital, where he died on June 1, 2014. The regime told his families that the student committed suicide. Aslan was a 2nd year engineering student at the University. He was born in Bakko and attended high school in Burayu. His body has been taken to Gudar. Barataa Nuraddin(Alsan) Hasan dhalootaan magaalaa BAAKKOO’tti dhalate. Barnoota isaa sadarkaa 1ffaa achuma magaalaa Baakkootti xumure. Barnoota isaa sadarkaa lammaffaaf qophaa’naa obboleessa isaa bira taa’ee magaalaa BURAAYYUU tti xumure. Bara 2005(2013) yuuniversiitii Haramayaa saayinsii Injiinariing(Engineering science) jalattii muummee ‘Electirical Computer Engineering’ filachuun barataan sabboonaaf garraamiin kun haala hoo’aaf milkaayina qabuun barnoota isaa hordofaa utuu jiruu, humni mootummaa abba hirree wayyaaneen guyyaa gaafa 29/05/2014 mooraa guddicha YUUNIVERSIITII HARAMAYAA keessaa bakka GADA-JAHE(IOT CUMPUS) jedhamuun beekamu, Gamoo H lakk-doormii 26 (H-26) duulli mootummaa wayyaanee saroota OPDO waliin doormiitti itti seenan, hiriyoota isaa faana qayyabachaa utuu jiruu, qabame. Barataan sabboonaan Nuraddin(Alsan) Hasan guyyaa gaafa qabamee kaasee hanga guyyaa kaleessaatti (01/06/2014) barattoota kakaaste hidhata dhaaba alaa waliin qabda jechuun barataa barumsa qofaaf maatii isaa irraa adda bahee barnoota isaa hordofaa jiru, magaalaa Hararitti guyyoota sadii guutuu fannisanii reeban. Erga inni of dadhabees, sobdee akka nuti si dhiifnuuf malee hin miidhamne ittiin jechuun, utuu reebanii lubbuun isaa dabarte. Gocha hammeenyaa hagana ga’u raawwatanii, hidhamaan of ajjeeseera, gara hospitaalaa haa deemu, haa qoratamu. Jechuun reeffa isaa gara hospitaala XIQUR AMBASSAA geessan. Obboleessa isaa SULXAAN HASAN, waamuun obboleessikee mana adabaatti of-ajjeese gara finfinneetti kottuu reeffa fuudhi, jechuun maatii isaatti bilbilan. Yeroo ammaa kana reeffi barataa kanaa magaala GUDAR ga’uu isaa ergaan bilbilaa nu ga’eera. “Lubbuukeef Jannatan Hawwa” itttiin jedhaa! Maddi oduu peejii “kuusaa Dhiiga Oromoo” ti peejicha ‘like’ haa goonu press ‘like’ link on Kuusaa Dhiiga Oromoo’s page. RAKKOO AMBOO KEESSA JIRU!#OromoProtests- 2nd June 2014 Akkuuma beekamu FDG FI WAA’EEN MASTEER PLANII erga jalqabe kaase Magalatii keessatti saba Oromoo irratti kan rawwatama jiru mutumma kamiyyun kan rawwatama ture waliin hin madalamu jechudhan gabasaan magala Amboo irra nu qaqabee jira! Waan Nama gadisiisu keessa Barataa yunviristi tokko kan guyya finciilli itti jalqabee rasaasan rukutamee hanga ammatti bakka warri Ogumma fayya itti barataan(Mana reeffa)keessa keessa tursuun Jimaata darbee halkaan keessa sa’ati 10 irratti gara dhalotasa Arsii geeffame!Maqaassa fi waan jiru qulqulleesine isiin geenya! Kana irra kan ka’e Baratoon guyyaa kaleessa irra egalaani nyaata lagachuun barumsaa fi qormaata dhabuun isanii yaddoo gudda Bulchinsa yunv.Ambootti ta’e jira! Kan biraan Barataa Afaan oromoo kan ta’e fi bara kana kan eebbiifamu Kitaaba wagga sadii kaase kan barreessa turee manxase gabaa irra olchuuf jedhe waliin kan qabamee lafa buteensa kan dhabame ture yeroo amma yoo kitaaba kee kana gubuuf gabaa irra olchuu baatte murtii du’a sitti murteesiina jedhanii yoo itti himanille hanga du’atti Ani qopha’a dha malee waan isiin jettaan kana naaf hin liqimsanu jechuunsa beekame! Mani murtii yeroo amma kana waraana wayyaane wajjiin uummaata fi baraatootta miilla isaani kateenan hidhamaan konkoolata guuddatti fe’uudhan garaan keessa ciibsani mana murtiiti deedebissa jiraachun isanii beekame jira! Magaala Amboo keessa Bishaani erga bade ji’a sadii kan ta’e yommu ta’u Ibsa halkaan dhamsuun Mana nama cabsuun sakata’aa yoo ijoollee Shamaraan jiratee Abbaa fi Hadha isaan qabani eerga hidhanii dirqisiisani akka gudeedan bira ga’amee jira!yeroo amma kana seerri fi Motumaan kan keessa hin jirreef humna waraana fi tika wayyaaneen akka rakkacha jirtuu bekameera! FDG itti fuuffa malee kan hin dhabaanne ta’u isa beekisisaniru! Ijjifannoon Uummaata Oromoof!!!
May 29, 2014 (Jen and Josh in Ethiopia) — After the protests and violence in Ambo, we fled to the capital city of Addis Ababa and stayed at a little hotel called Yilma. Immediately, we started telling everyone about what happened in Ambo. We called and texted our friends, we talked to anyone at the hotel that would listen, and we posted things on Facebook. If we tell everyone about the protesters in Ambo being imprisoned and killed, surely it will stop, we reasoned.The next day, two strange men – one tall with dark skin, the other short with lighter skin – struck up a conversation with us in the hotel restaurant.“We’re from Minnesota, here to visit our family in Wollega,” they said. “Oh, we’re from St. Paul!” we replied, excited. “Oh, we’re from St. Paul, too!” they said, pulling out a fake-looking Minnesota driver’s license.The address said Worthington, not St. Paul.“How long have you lived in St. Paul?’ we asked. “Yes.” the tall man said, nervously. “I mean…how long have you lived in St. Paul?” we said, slower. “Just 2 weeks.” “And you’re already back in Ethiopia. And you just drove through Ambo, past all the protests and the police, to visit your family in Wollega?” we asked, thinking about the single paved road that heads west through Ambo. “Yes.” he replied. “You must be very brave,” we said, thinking about how the road was closed due to the violence. “Why?” he asked, baiting us with a stoic face.We froze, afraid to speak further. At that moment, after 20 months in Ethiopia, we finally understood why so many people in Oromia are afraid of spies. When we first arrived in Ambo, people thought WE were C.I.A. spies, which we found amusing…spies who couldn’t even speak the language? If we had beenspies, we certainly weren’t very good at our job. But now, the tables were turned.The two men began following us around the hotel area, sitting next to us whenever possible, walking slowly past our table, then returning slowly past our table – sometimes up to 10 times per hour. A different man followed us to a restaurant about a mile from the hotel, then sat at the closest table to ours, rudely joining a young couple’s romantic dinner.For the next three days, we stopped telling people about the protests and the imprisonments and the killings in Ambo. We were afraid that the two men would be listening. We were afraid that someone was monitoring our communications on the government-controlled cell phone service and the government-controlled internet. Were we just paranoid? Were we really being monitored? Maybe we had just integrated too much, to the point where we had become Oromo, afraid of government spies and afraid of speaking out and being put in jail. While being ferenji (foreigners) gave us some level of protection, thoughts of the Swedish journaliststhrown into an Ethiopian jail in 2011 lingered in the backs of our minds. The journalists “were only doing their jobs, and human rights group Amnesty International said the journalists had been prosecuted for doing legitimate work.” Did we seem just as suspicious to the government as those Swedish journalists? We didn’t want to find out.Peace Corps gave all the volunteers strict instructions NOT to blog or post on Facebook about the protests or killings across Oromia. It is just too dangerous to say anything about the Ethiopian government, they pointed out.That’s when we decided to leave Ethiopia. For us, staying in Ambo, not ruffling any feathers, was not an option. How could we go back and pretend that our neighbors, students, and and fellow residents didn’t die or didn’t end up in prison? http://jenandjoshinethiopia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ambo-protests-spying-spy.htmlhttp://etefa.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/ambo-protests-spying-the-spy/
Breaking News: Amma Galgala Kana Barattooti Oromoo Yuuniversitii Haromaayaa 10 Doormii Keessaa Lolotoota Wayyaaneen Ukkaamfaman.
Walabummaa Goshee kan inni baratu Economics waggaa 2ffa bakki dhalootaa godina shawaa lixaa Ambo,
Irranaa Kabbadaa kan inni baratu agricultural wagga 2ffaa bakki dhalootaa godina Shawaa lixaa Ambo
Sanyii Yaalii kan inni baratu economics waggaa 3ffaa bakki dhalootaa godina Shawaa lixaa AMBO
Biqila Toleeraa kan inni baratu veternari Medecine waggaa 6ffaa bakki dhaloota godina kibba lixa Shawaa AMBO
Raggaasaa kan inni baratu waggaa lammaaffaa water engenering bakki dhalootaa Godina Shawa lixati 10.maqaan nu hin geenye.Ammaaf maqaan hin baramne.
In picture: student Leencoo Fiixaa
#OromoProtests-
Oromo Students Abducted From Haromaya University on May 28 Ten Oromo students were abducted from Haromaya University by Ethiopian (TPLF/Agazi) security forces on Wednesday, 28th May 2014. Their where abouts is unknown. Among the abductees are: 1. Lencho Fita Hordofa, 3rd year in the Department of Agriculture. He was born in the district of Dawo, South Shewa Zone of Oromia state 2. Ararsaa Lagasaa, 4th year student in the Department of Water Engineering. He was born and raised in the Tolee distrit of South Shewa Zone 3. Jaaraa Margaa, 4th year student in the Department of Water Engineering. He was born and raised in Sabata, South Shewa Zone 4. Alsan Hasan, 2nd year student in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He was born and raised in Ambo, West Shewa Zone 5. Walabummaa Goshee, 2nd year student in the Department of Economics. He was born and raised in Ambo, West Shewa Zone.
6. Irranaa Kabbadaa, 2nd year student in the Department of Agriculture. He was born and raised in Ambo, West Shoa Zone.
7. Sanyii Yaalii, 3rd year student in the Department of Economics. He was born and raised in Ambo, West Shoa zone.
8. Biqila Toleeraa, 6th year medical student, Department of Veterinary Medicine. He was raised in Ambo, South West Shoa zone.
9. Raggaasaa, 2nd year student in the Department of Water Engineering. He was raised in Ambo, West Shoa zone.
The names of the 10th student is not identified at this time. Shown in the photograph is Lencho Fita Hordofa, one of the ten kidnapped.
Submission from the HRLHA 26th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council (10 – 27 June 2014)
May 27, 2014
Submission from the HRLHA 26th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council (10 – 27 June 2014)
Item 3:Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
(Country- Ethiopia)
HRLHA is a non-political organization which attempts to challenge human rights abuses suffered by the peoples of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa. HRLHA is aimed at defending fundamental human rights including freedoms of thought, expression, movement and organization. It is also aimed at raising the awareness of individuals about their own basic human rights and that of others. It focuses on the observances as well as the due processes of law. It promotes the growth and development of free and vigorous civil societies.
Executive Summary
This report covers mainly the gross human right violations in Ethiopia that have happened in the past twenty- three years in general, and the current human rights crisis in the Regional State of Oromia in Ethiopia in particular.
The EPRDF/TPLF Government has committed gross human rights violations against the people of Ethiopia since it came to power in 1991 after toppling the dictatorial Dergue regime, contrary to the constitution of Ethiopia (1995) and international human rights treaties it has signed and rectified. It has continued to suppress the freedom expression, political and civil rights and, as a result, has sent dozen of journalists, bloggers, and hundreds of leaders and members of opposition political parties to jail. In violations of the right to protest and demonstrations, peaceful demonstrators have been shot at and killed, kidnapped and disappeared; hundreds have been arrested in mass and detained. A good case in point is the most recent very violent attack against unarmed and peaceful protestors of Oromo students of universities, colleges, and high schools in the regional state of Oromia.
Methodology
The information in this report is mainly based on HRLHA’s reports on human rights violations in Ethiopia as well as reports from other sources such as various international human rights organizations and civil society groups, and the US State Department annual country report of 2013.
Violations of Fundamental Rights
The current EPRDF government claims that the basic and fundamental rights of the citizens are respected in Ethiopia, and that the country is heading towards democracy. However, on the contrary, the basic and fundamental rights of citizens enshrined in the Ethiopian Constitution of 1995, under Chapter three (fundamental rights and freedoms, articles 13-28 and democratic rights ,articles 29-44)[1] which guarantees civil liberty and life in peace and harmony has been extremely violated. In the above articles are included individuals and common rights, such as equality before the law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom to practice religion. All are highlighted on paper only for the political consumption. In other words they are used as a cover-up for the gross violations of human rights..
Democratic Rights
After the first global expression of rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which all human beings are inherently entitled, has been adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. The international, regional and national documents were created to enforce the promotion of the rights enshrined in the declaration. Peaceful assembly (Article 20(1)) in the UDHR, while often characterized by marches, rallies and mass demonstration, which obviously involves the presence of a number of individuals in the public places, has been echoed in international law, regional standards, and national constitutions throughout the world.
It becomes customary that in different parts of the world people are expressing their grievances/ dissatisfactions and complaints against their governments by peaceful demonstrations and assemblies. When such nonviolent and peaceful civil rallies are taking, place it should always be the state’s responsibility to respect and guard their citizens’ freedom of peaceful assembly and demonstration. These responsibilities also should apply even during times of political protest, when a state’s power is questioned, challenged, or perhaps undermined by assemblies of citizens practicing in nonviolent resistance.
The 1995 Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, articles 29 and 30 also grant these democratic rights to the Ethiopian citizens without distinction[2]. The Right of Thought, Opinion and Expression, The Right of Assembly, Demonstration and Petition are the rights of Ethiopian citizens through which they can express their opinions and dissatisfactions with the performances and activities of their government
However, in the past two decades the current Ethiopian government proved that peaceful assemblies and demonstrations, expression of thoughts are not tolerated. Since the current government came to power in 1991, thousands of citizens who held political agenda different from the ruling party’s were systematically jailed, abducted or killed. Those who criticized the government of Ethiopia including journalists, bloggers, universities and high school students and teachers who took to streets to demand their rights peacefully were beaten, arrested and detained or killed. The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa has been reporting in different ways on the systematic human rights violations by the Ethiopian government and its security agents against peaceful demonstrators. These include the recent case of Oromo students from different universities and colleges. The Oromo students were discriminately targeted particularly in the past six years[3]. The current political crises in Oromia regional state of Ethiopia is the continuation of the above facts. Peaceful protests against the so called the Master plan of Addis Ababa, which is likely to cause the estimated eviction of around 6 million Oromo peasants around the area and planed to be sold to the wealthy non-Oromos, should not be considered as a criminal activity. Instead it should be tolerated and be considered as one of the ways that the citizens can express their thoughts and concerns on the development plan of the government in which they were not consulted and did not give their consent.
The Addis Ababa Expansion-related protests quickly spread around universities, colleges and high schools all over Oromia. And in response, contrary to the provisions in the constitution of the land and international basic and fundamental rights of the citizens, the Ethiopian government launched a brutal crackdown against peacefully demonstrating Oromo students in order to freeze the peaceful demand of the protestors. As a result of this brutal crackdown by special squads, more than 36 students were killed, hundreds wounded and thousands of others arrested and thrown into detentions. The protest against the expansion of Addis Ababa was not limited to students only, but also involved city dwellers, farmers and workers in Oromia. The most affected area was the Ambo Town and its surroundings where 16 University and high school students were killed, including the eight (8) year old boy.
The Ethiopian Government’s atrocities that targeted the Oromo nation during the nationwide protest from April 24 to May 24, 2014 have been condemned by worldwide human rights organizations, public media, and other civic organizations..
The Human Rights Watch[4], Amnesty International[5], Oromia Suport Group[6], Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa[7], The guardian[8], BBC[9] , CNN[10] and The Create Trust[11] are among the organizations which condemn and reported the crime against humanity taken against the Oromo nation by Ethiopian armed force.
The Ethiopian Government has repeatedly implemented various excessive forces to dissolve peaceful protests in violations of international treaties it has signed and ratified. The responses to legal, constitutional and peaceful protests should not include actions that violate human rights, such as arbitrary arrests and detentions, even guns or other violence. HRLH believes many atrocities, that were not reported on due to the tight controls, restrictions, and censorships on all local and international media, are taking place. The Ethiopian Government does not have any justification for the illegality of the protests for taking such brutal action against peaceful and unarmed students and other protestors. An illegal protest may happen if the protest becomes violent or is in violation of the state’s laws of public order and civility.
Even if some peaceful protests include deliberate acts of civil disobedience, in which case it is permissible for states to make individual arrests of law offenders. However, as recognized by an HRC panel discussion on the matter (A/HRC 19/40)[12], the increasing use of criminal law against protest participants may ultimately contradict the states’ responsibility to uphold the right to peaceful assembly. In this situation the Ethiopian Government clearly violated the right to legal peaceful protest.
Recommendation:
The Ethiopian Government first of all must respect and implement the rights of citizens enshrined in the constitution of the country (1995) and enforce the Ethiopian penal code of 2004
Ethiopia must avoid an excessive force in response to Oromo protests
The Ethiopian Government must abide by all international human rights instruments to which the country is a signatory
The Ethiopian Government must allow a fully independent, civilian-led investigation into the death of Oromo students and civilians including gross human rights violation in Oromia.
[12] Summary of the Human Rights Council panel discussion on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ironically, as we sat at home, listening to gunshots all day long, John Kerry was visiting Ethiopia, a mere 2 hours away in Addis Ababa, to encourage democratic development. Around 3pm, while the sounds of the protests were far on the east side of town, we heard gunshots so close to our house that we both ducked reflexively. An hour later, we talked to a young man who said, numbly, “I carried their bodies from their compound to the clinic.” Our two young neighbors – university students – had been hunted down by the federal police and killed in their home while the protest was on the opposite side of town. Another friend told us about 2 students who were shot and killed by the federal police in front of a primary school…again, far away from the protest. Wednesday night, we slept fitfully, listening to the sounds of the federal police coming around our neighborhood. They were yelling over a bullhorn in Amharic, which we didn’t understand, but was later translated for us: “Stay inside your compound tonight and tomorrow.” Thursday, the bus station was closed and there weren’t any cars on the roads. That morning, a Peace Corps driver finally came to get us, looking terrified as he pulled up quickly to our house. We had to stop at the police station to get permission to leave town. While waiting at the station, we saw at least 50 people brought into the station at gunpoint, some from the backs of military trucks and many from a bus. Inside the police compound, there were hundreds of demonstrators overflowing the capacity of the prison, many of them visibly beaten and injured. After the U.S. Embassy requested our release, we headed out of town. The entire east side of town, starting from the bus station, was damaged. A bank, hotel, café, and many cars were damaged or burned. Our driver swerved to avoid the charred remains of vehicles sitting in the middle of the street. We couldn’t help but shed tears at the sight of our beloved, damaged town. – Read more @http://jenandjoshinethiopia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ambo-protests-personal-account.html?spref=tw
Ethiopia: Worrisome Situations in Detention Centres Where #OromoProtests Protesters Imprisoned; an HRLHA Urgent Action
Posted: Caamsaa/May 24, 2014 · Gadaa.com
The following is a statement from the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA).
———————— May 24, 2014 For Immediate Release While kidnappings and/or extra-judicial arrests and detentions have continued particularly around academic institutions in different parts of the regional state of Oromia in Ethiopia, disturbing and worrisome reports are coming out of detention centres where the Oromo students arrested in the past two weeks are being held. According to HRLHA correspondents in Nakamte, Wollega Province in western Oromia, there have been cases of tortures of varying levels as well as detainees being taken away in the middle of the night to unknown destinations for unknown reasons. Fifty (50) detainees, including thirteen females, were taken away at one time alone; and their whereabouts were not known. In relation to tortures, the reports indicate that some of the detainees are isolated from others and held in separate rooms handcuffed and legs tied together with their hands on the their backs. There were ten students subjected to this particular situation, among whom were Std. Tesfaye Tuffa (male) and Std. Bontu Hailu (female). Although not confirmed at this point, there were also eight students who were screened out in order to be transferred to a detention or investigation office at the federal level; and these include: 1. Chalaa Fekaduu Gashe (high school student), 2. Chalaa Fekaduu Raajoo (high school student), 3. Nimoonaa Kebede (Wollega University 5th year law student), 4. Moi Bon Misganuu (Wollega University, student), 5. Abdii Gaddisaa (high school student), 6. Abel Dagim (high school student), 7. Qalbessa Getachew (high school student), 8. Mulgeta Gemechu (high school student), 9. Edosa Namara Dheressa, Civil Engineering, Wallaga University In the meantime, reports indicate that kidnappings and/or extra-judicial arrests and detentions have continued in different parts of the regional state of Oromia, particularly in Hararge/Haromaya, West Showa, and West Wollega, all in relation to the protests that have been going on in the Regional State of Oromia in opposition to the newly introduced master plan to expand the Capital City of Addis Ababa/Finfinne in all directions by displacing the local Oromo residents. The following are among the hundreds of the most recent cases of kidnappings, arrests and detentions: 1) Edosa Namara Deressa – Wollega University (Civil Engineering) 2) Walabuma Dabale -Adama University, West Showa, 3) Ebisa Dale -Adama University 4) Ganamo Kurke -Adama University 5) Liban Taressa – Adama University 6) Adam Godana -Adama University 7) Bodana (last name not obtained) – Adama University Name of other detainees arrested May 15-17, 2014: The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) is highly concerned about the life-threatening situations in the detention centres where those young Oromos were held, and the safety and wellbeing of those who were taken to unknown destinations. Therefore, HRLHA calls upon the Ethiopian Government to abide by all international human rights instruments that it has signed, and refrain from subjecting the young detainees to such harsh situations. It also calls upon all local, regional, and international human rights organizations including UN Human Rights Council, humanitarian, and diplomatic agencies to put pressure on the Ethiopian Government so that it: 1. Unconditionally releases the Oromo students who were detained in the past two and three weeks simply because the attempted to exercise some of their fundamental rights in a peaceful and absolutely non-violent manner. 2. Stop killing, arresting and abducting Oromo nationals 3. To form an independent committee from civilians for investigation and Prosecution of the killing and torturing crimes. – HRLHA http://humanrightsleague.com/2014/05/ethiopia-worrisome-situations-in-detention-centres-hrlha-urgent-action/
The Ethiopian government likes to trumpet its higher education system to its western aid backers as a crowning success of its development policy. As billions in foreign aid are spent annually on Ethiopia, the west must be more cognisant of the fact that this money helps reinforce a government which cuts down those who dare to speak out against it. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Ambo in Oromia state. On 25 April, protests against government plans to bring parts the town under the administrative jurisdiction of the capital, Addis Ababa, began at Ambo University. By the following Tuesday, as protests spread to the town and other areas of Oromia, dozens of demonstrators had been killed in clashes with government forces, according to witnesses. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/may/22/ethiopia-crackdown-student-protest-education
Since 25th April, students have demonstrated throughout the Oromia Regional State, protesting against the government’s sinister sounding ‘Integrated Development Master Plan’. The Oromo people constitute Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group — around 27 million people — almost a third of the population. They have been marginalised and discriminated against since the 19th century when Empress Taytu Betul (wife of Menelikk II) chose the site of Addis Ababa for the capital. As the city grew Oromos were evicted from their land and forced onto the margins — socially, economically and politically: “time and again, Oromo farmers were removed from their land under the guise of development without adequate compensation.”[Geeska Africa]. Like tyrants everywhere, the paranoid EPRDF is hostile to all forms of dissent no matter the source; however they react with greater levels of brutality to dissenting voices in Oromia than perhaps anywhere else in the country, and “scores of Oromos are regularly arrested based on their actual or suspected opposition to the government.” [Amnesty International (AI)]
The proposed ‘master plan’ would substantially expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa into areas of Oromia surrounding the capital. “Protestors claim they merely wanted to raise questions about the plan — but were answered with violence and intimidation.” [BBC] They rightly feel smallholder farmers and other groups living on government land (all land in Ethiopia is government owned) would once again be threatened, leading to large scale evictions to make way for land leasing or land sales, as has happened elsewhere in the country. In addition many Oromos see the proposed expansion as a broader threat to their regional and cultural identity and say the scheme is “in violation of the Constitutionally-guaranteed protection of the ‘special interests’ of the Oromia state.” [AI] Constitutional guarantees that mean nothing to the members of the ruling party, or a politically controlled judiciary.
Killing, beating, intimidating
University campuses have formed the beating heart of the protest movement that has now spread throughout the region. On Tuesday 29th April around 25,000 people, “including residents of Ambo town in central Oromia, participated in a city wide demonstration, in the largest show of opposition to the government’s plans to date.” [Revolution News] Somewhat predictably, security forces, consisting of the federal police and military Special Forces known as the ‘Agazi’, have “responded by shooting at and beating peaceful protesters in Ambo, Nekemte, Jimma, and other towns with unconfirmed reports from witnesses of dozens of casualties.” [Human Rights Watch (HRW)] A witness told Amnesty International that on the third day of protest in Guder town, near Ambo, the security forces were waiting for the protesters and opened fire when they arrived. “She said five people were killed in front of her. A source in Robe town, the location of Madawalabu University, reported that 11 bodies had been seen in a hospital in the town. Another witness said they had seen five bodies in Ambo [80 miles west of Addis Ababa] hospital.”
Whilst the government says that “at least nine students have died” during the protests, “a witness told the BBC that 47 were killed by the security forces” — a misleading term for government thugs, who are killing, beating and intimidating innocent civilians: Amnesty reports that children as young as 11 years of age were among the dead. In addition to killing peaceful protesters, large numbers have been beaten up during and after protests, resulting in scores of injuries, and hundreds or “several thousands”, according to the main Oromia opposition party, the Oromo Federalist Congress (AFC), have been arbitrarily arrested and are being detained incommunicado. Given the regime’s history those imprisoned face a very real risk of torture.
In many cases the arrests took place after the protesters had dispersed. “Security forces have conducted house to house searches in many locations in the region, [looking] for students and others who may have been involved. New arrests continue to be reported,” [AI] and squads of government thugs are reportedly beating local residents in a crude attempt at intimidation. Amnesty reports the case of a father whose son was shot dead during a protest, being ‘severely beaten’ by security forces, who told the bereaved parent “he should have taught his son some discipline.”
The Oromia community has often been the target of government aggression, and recent events are reminiscent of January 2004, when several Oromia students at Addis Ababa University were shot and killed when protesting for the right to stage an Oromo cultural event on campus. Many more were wounded and 494 [Oromo Support Group (OSG)] were arrested and detained without charge or trial. HRW reported how “police ordered both male and female students to run and crawl barefoot, bare-kneed, and bare-armed over sharp gravel for three-and-half hours; they were also forced to carry each other over the gravel.” The Police, HRW goes on to say, “have repeatedly employed similar methods of torture and yet are rarely held accountable for their excesses.”
The recent level of extreme violence displayed by the State is not unusual and takes place throughout Ethiopia; what is new is the response of the people. Anger at the security forces criminality has fuelled further demonstrations in Oromo as friends and family of those murdered have added their voices to the growing protest movement. This righteous stand against government brutality and injustice is heartening for the country and should be supported with condemnation and pressure from international donors and the UN more broadly. Those arrested during protests must be immediately released and investigations into killings by security personnel instigated as a matter of utmost urgency.
Tools of control
The government’s heavy-handed reaction to the Oromo protests is but the latest example of the regime’s ruthless response to criticism of its policies. Political opposition parties, when tolerated at all have been totally marginalised, dissenting independent voices are quickly silenced and a general atmosphere of fear is all pervading. Despite freedom of expression being a constitutional right virtually all media outlets are either government owned or controlled; “blogs and Internet pages critical of the Ethiopian government are regularly blocked and independent radio stations, particularly those broadcasting in Amharic and Afan Oromo, are routinely jammed.” [HRW] The EPRDF has created “one of the most repressive media environments in the world.” Reinforcing this condition, “the government on April 25th and 26th arbitrarily arrested nine bloggers and journalists in Addis Ababa. They remain in detention without charge.” [Ibid] International human rights groups (whose activities have been severely restricted by the stifling Charities and Societies Proclamation of 2009) as well as foreign journalists are not welcome, and reporters “who have attempted to reach the current demonstrations have been turned away or detained,” [Ibid] making it difficult to confirm exact numbers of those killed by government security personnel.
The UN Human Rights Council recently reviewed Ethiopia’s human rights record under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Since the first review in 2009 the human rights condition has greatly deteriorated. The EPRDF rules the country through fear and intimidation, they have introduced ambiguous, universally condemned legislation to control and intimidate: the Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSO law) and the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation specifically. Laws of repression that together have made independent media and civil society completely ineffective. Freedom of assembly – another constitutional right – is not allowed, (or as can be seen with the Oromo protests) is dealt with in the harshest manner possible; the Internet and telecommunications are controlled and monitored by the government and phone records/recordings are easily obtained by security personnel. Arbitrary arrests and false Imprisonment of anyone criticizing the government is routine as is the use of torture on those incarcerated. In the Ogaden region the regime is committing gross human rights abuses constituting crimes against humanity and in Gambella and the Lower Omo Valley large numbers of indigenous people have been forcibly moved into government camps (Villagization Programme), as land is sold for pennies to international companies. In short, human rights are completely ignored by the Government in Ethiopia. As the people begin to come together and protest, international pressure should be applied on the regime to observe the rule of law and uphold the people’s fundamental human rights. Read more @http://www.counterpunch.org/
#OromoProtest- Barbaric Attack On peaceful and unarmed Oromo Students and civilians by TPLF/Agazi forces at Madda Waalabuu University, Bale Soutrhern Oromia, 21 May 2014.
IOYA Appeal Letter
Dear Sir, Madam,
We are reaching out to you as the Board of officers of the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA) whose nation is in turmoil back in Oromia, Ethiopia. Recently, Oromo students have been protesting against the new Addis Ababa “Integrated Master Plan” which aims at incorporating smaller towns surrounding Addis Ababa for the convenience of vacating land for investors by displacing millions of Oromo farmers. As a political move, this will essentially result in the displacement of the indigenous peoples and their families. Oromo farmers will be dispossessed of their land and their survival both economic and cultural terms will be threatened. The Oromos strongly believe that this plan will expose their natural environment to risk, threaten their economic means of livelihood (subsistence farming), and violate their constitutional rights.
The Ethiopian government is executing its political agenda of progressive marginalization of the Oromo people from matters that concern them both in the Addis Ababa city and the wider Oromia region. The master plan is an unconstitutional change of the territorial expansion over which the city administration has a jurisdiction. The government justifies the move in the name of enhancing the development of the city and facilitating economic growth. The justification is merely a tactical move masked for the governments continued abuse of human rights of the Oromo people. While the Oromos understand that Addis Ababa itself is an Oromo city that serves as the capital of the federal government, they also consider this move as an encroachment on the jurisdiction and borders of the state of Oromia.
The protesters peacefully demonstrated against this move. University students and residents have been in opposition to the plan, but their struggle has been met by a brutal repression in the hands of the military police (famously known as the Agazi). It has been reported that shootings, arrests, and imprisonments are becoming rampant. It is also reported that the death toll is increasing by the hour. Recently, sources indicate that over 80 people have been shot dead, others severally injured and thousands arrested. In addition, Oromo students have been protesting peacefully for over three weeks now, despite mass killings and arrests by Ethiopian security forces. University and high school students from more than ten universities have been engaging in the Oromo protests. The peaceful rally has now spread across the whole country and is expected to continue until the Ethiopian government refrains from incorporating over 36 surrounding smaller towns into Addis Ababa. It is stated to be displacing an estimate of 6.6 million people and violating constitutional rights of regional states.
As an organization subscribing to broader democratic engagement of the Oromo youth, we oppose the brutal violence that the Ethiopian government is meting out on innocent, unarmed young students who are peacefully protesting. As leaders of the Oromo community, we support and stand in solidarity with Oromo protests in Ethiopia. The human rights violations being carried out by the Ethiopian government against innocent students are unacceptable. Continuous assaults, tortures, and killings of innocent civilians must be stopped. We urge you to join us in denouncing these inhumane and cruel activities carried out by the Ethiopian government. We believe it is imperative that the international community raise its voice and take action to stop the ongoing atrocities that are wreaking havoc to families and communities in the Oromia region.
We urgently request that such actions be taken in an attempt to pressure the Ethiopian government to stop terrorizing and killing peaceful protesters:
The US government and other International organizations should condemn the Ethiopian government’s brutal action taken on unarmed innocent civilians. Furthermore, we demand over 30,000 innocent protesters to be released from prisons, as they will be subjected to torture and ill treatment.
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is currently terrorizing its own electorates/nation. Under the law of R2P in the UN constitution, the international community is obliged to protect a nation that is being terrorized by its own government and EPRDF should be taken accountable.
We demand Ethiopia to be expelled from any regional and international cooperation including and not limited to AU and UN for its previous and current human rights violations. The International community should stop providing support in the name of AID and development to Ethiopia as it is violating the fundamental and basic needs of its nation.
The Ethiopian government should be stopped on immediate effect; its forceful displacement of the indigenous peoples across Ethiopia is unjust and unconstitutional. We ask the United States, European Union, and the United Nations to stand in solidarity with peaceful student protesters who are condemning such injustice.
The onus is on the international community to act in favor of the innocent and civilian populace that is seeking its fundamental right. Punitive actions towards this government should be taken for cracking down on freedom of expression and other democratic rights being expressed by its citizens.
We believe it is in the interest of our common humanity to take responsibility, to pay attention to this problem, to witness the plight of the voiceless victims, and to raise concerns to the Ethiopian government so it can desist from its brutal acts of repression.
We count on your solidarity to help the Oromo youth be spared from arbitrary arrest, incarceration, and shootings.
Gambella Nilotes Army Condemns Killing Oromos for Their Land
Press Release 15th May 2014, Gambella “Ethiopian Government Must Stop Killing Oromos for their Land”
Gambella Nilotes United Movement/Army (GNUM/A) condemns the mass killing perpetuated by the TPLF-Led Ethiopian government’s security forces against the Oromo University students and other innocent civilians which occurred in many parts of Oromia Region particularly in Ambo Zone since last two weeks. The students were peacefully demonstrating their constitutional right for the Oromo farmers who were/are forcefully and illegally evicted from their ancestral land around Finfine (Addis Ababa) due to new Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan imposed upon them. As our sources confirm the killings continue in Nekemte town and other areas of which unconfirmed number of innocent Oromos are being massacred. Many are arrested and many more disappeared from their homes as the protest demonstrations continue. It should be known that the proposed Master Plan by the TPLF – Led government of Ethiopia did not consider the interest and participation of the Oromo people to ensure that it would not cause eviction of people and land grabbing. The plan affirms the continuation of land grabbing policy designed to displaced poor rural people of Gambella, Ogaden, Benisgangul Gumuz, Afar, South Omo and other parts of the country. The Master plan will evict million of Oromo farmers from their ancestral land and make them landless, an act which denies their traditional land ownership rights around Addis Ababa. It must be condemned at all might for it is undemocratic and barbaric. It follows the mode of Menelik who built the country on slave trade economy in raiding slaves and plundering resources of the subjects, in exchange for weapons from European colonisers to build his hegemony, of which the Oromos, Gambellans, Ogadenians, Beneshagul/Gumuz people, Afar, south western nations and nationalities, and others were the victims. The wounds inflicted by the Menelik in the past are still open and bleeding, and it is immoral for the TPLF- Led government to scratch the wounds inflicted by their ancestors against Oromos without remorse. For this reason we call upon all the Oromos to unite. Whatever differences may exist, Oromos must unite as one body and seek solidarity from other oppressed people who are fighting for their freedom. The TPLF – Led Ethiopian government is racist beyond any doubt, and it is a failed state that believes in enforcing its racist policies at gun point. The unity and moral we have are more than the weapons they put their belief. We shall prevail. It must not be allowed to sell out Oromo land to foreign investors or to settle their own people in Oromos’ land while Oromos are evicted. Currently other Ethiopian are not entitled to own large land for their business unless those coming from northern part of the country. The land taken from all the oppressed people elsewhere in the country including the Oromos should be categorized as stolen property, in which day has come, actually it is very near to claim it back from all TPLF members and supporters. We encourage all Oromo people to continue with their demonstration not to allow any inch of Oromo land to Addis Ababa Master Plan. We call upon all the Oromo people throughout the world to strengthen their solidarity in support to those who are sacrificing their lives in the country for the freedom of Oromos. Gambella Nilotes United Movement/Army (GNUM/A) is also calling upon all people of Gambella and other South Western Nilotes to stand together with Oromo people who are suffering under brutal Ethiopian government. We call upon the international community, international human rights organizations and other concerned bodies to condemn the ongoing human rights abuses and atrocities perpetrated by the TPLF/EPRDF regime against the Oromo innocent civilians who are demanding their constitutional rights from the government. We are also calling upon the United Nations, EU, AU, and all other humanitarian organizations operating in Ethiopia to closely monitor the political and military action against the innocent civilian in Oromia region. At last we call upon the TPLF/EPRDF government to stop killing of the Oromos; to release our brothers kept in various prisons in the country under inhumanly conditions; to recognize the communal land rights and ownership in accord with the UN provisions; to respect Article 39 provision in the constitution and recognizes territorial integrity to stop extinction measures; to respect our independence development and foreign policies to ensure our freedom and prosperity in our territories. In conclusion the Gambella Nilotes United Movement/Army (GNUM/A) will continue its struggle for all people of Gambella and other oppressed Ethiopian to ensure freedom, justice, security and prosperity are brought to the oppressed. “Freedom and Justice for All Oppressed People of Oromo”“Unite We Must to Fight for the Rights and Justice of IndigenousSouth Western Nilotic and Omotic Peoples of Ethiopia”GAMBELLA NILOTES UNITED MOVEMENT/ARMYCENTRAL COMMITTEEOur contact:gambellagnuma@yahoo.comORgambellagnuma@gmail.comhttp://ayyaantuu.com/horn-of-africa-news/gambella-nilotes-army-condemns-killing-oromos-for-their-land/Barattoota Oromoo kan Yuuiversitoota garagaraat osoo karaa nagaan hiriira bahani dhimma abbabiyummaa isaanii falmata jiranuu lubbuun isaanii waraana mootummaa Wayyaanen darbite keessaa seenaa gabaabaa barattuu Tigist Maammoo Simaa isiniif qooda. Tigist Abbaa ishee Obbo Maammoo Simaa fi Haadha ishee Aaddee Ayeetuu Maammoo irraa bara 1992 akka lakkoofsa Oromootti Biyya Oromiyaa Godina Kibba lixa Shawaa Aanaa sadeen Sooddoo Ganda Saaririti jedhamutti dhalattee. Mana barnoota sadarkaa 1ffaa kan barattee 1-8 mana barnoota Calalaqa kan jedhamu miilan deemsa sa’a lama deemte barattee.sadarkaa 2ffaa 9-12 mana barnoota Harbuu Cululleetti baratte.
#OromoProtetsts- Tigist Mammo, Oromo student at Madda Waalabu University, murdered by TPLF/ Agazi forces. http://maddawalaabuupress.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/seenaa-gabaabaa-gootittii-oromoo.html?spref=fb #OromoProtests- Peaceful Oromo students and civilians were attacked and wounded by Agazi in Nekemte, Western Oromia. Denied medical help. Agazi forced them out from hospital. Medical workers at Nekemte hospital were attacked by Agazi for giving medical services to wounded students and civilians. 20th May 2014
ODUU GADDISISSA!! Godina Wallagga lixaa aanaa Gimbii ganda waloo yesuusitti dhalata barataa Gammachiis Dabalaa umuriin 16 yoo ta’u barataa kutaa 9ti. Jireenyasaa keessatti cilee gubee gara magaalaa gimbii geessee ittin barataa maatii saas gargaara . Akkuma amalasaa cilee fuudhee guyyaa gaafa 02/09/2006 akka lakk habasha ganama gara magaalaa gimbii utuu deemuu loltuun wayyaanee naannoo gafaree bakkaa addaa mana indaaqqoo jedhamutti duukaa buutee ariun rasaasaan miilla isaa dhoofte. gaafuma sana hospitaala adventisti Gimbii ciise. Ta’us carraa fayyuu hin arganne guyyaa gaafa 12/09/2006tti lubbuunsaa darbite kichuutu hudhaatti cite ayiiiiiiiiiiii yaa oromoo lakkii ka’iiiiii uuuuuuuuuuuuuu —————————————SAD NEWS!! In west wallagaa in the town of Gimbi in the neighborhood of Waloo-yesuus. There was a 16 year old grade 9 student named Gammachiis Dabalaa. In his life time he used to burn firewood to make charcoal so he can support his family as well as paying for his education. Like his day to day duty, while he went to fetch woods and burn for charcoal on his way to Gimbi town in the morning on 02/09/2006(E.C) he was shot on his foot by a woyanee(TPLF) soldier. Since that day this young boy was spending his time in the Adventist Hosptal in the Gimbi town. Due to lack of quick recovery he passed away on 12/09/2006. May his soul rest in peace!!!!!!!!
#OromoProtests- Victim of TPLF/Agazi, in Western Oromia, Gimbi, Wallagga, 21st May 2014.
#OromoProtests – Victim of genocidal TPLF/Agazi. Photo of Milishu Melese who was killed by Agazi by a car yesterday in Adama. Family members say he was previously a political prisoner for 8 years ( 3 at
Maekelawi and 5 in Kaliti).He was ran over by car in broad daylight on 16th May 2014 along his
friend Bilisumma Lammi.
#OromoProtests- Photo of Oromo student Bilisumma Lammi of Rift Valley University college who was killed by by Agazi on 16th May 2014 with his friend in Adama.
OromoProtests– TPLF/Agazi’s crime against humanity. Wounded Oromo students from Wolega university in Nekemte hospital as of 17th May 2014
Dimokraasiin Biyya Ethiopia jedhamtu keessatti kunoo kana fakkaata!!! Hospitalli Naqamtee dhiiga Ilmaan Oromootiin guutameera!!! Saffisaan Oromiyaa guddisuun Qaroo Ilmaan Oromoo Abdii buroo kan ta’an itti duuluu, ajjeesuu, hidhuu, tumuu, mana barumsarraa’ari uu, doorsisuu, fi k.kn f.f taniin oromia nuuf guddifuun lallabaa jiran
Ethiopia: Ambo under Siege, Daily Activities Paralyzed
HRLHA Urgent Action
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
13 May, 2014.
The brutal attempts of crackdown against Oromo protesters by the Agazi Special Squad continuing unabated in different parts of the regional state of Oromia, reports coming from Ambo in central Oromia indicate that the town and its surrounding has come under virtual seizure by the Agazi Federal Armed Force, daily movements and activities becoming almost impossible.
According to information obtained by HRLHA (this morning) form its correspondents, the Agazi Special Squad has been deployed in Ambo Town and its surrounding in much larger number than before and engaged in indiscriminately kidnapping the local people from along the streets and throwing them into detention centres in the area. There are also reports of widespread rapes being committed against female detainees.
Although the protests against the plan to annex some central small towns of Oromia into the Capital Addis Ababa/Finfinne have been involving Oromos from all walks of life, age and gender, the prime targets have been the youth, university, college, and high school students in particular. Since the protest started in different parts of the regional state of Oromia two weeks ago, more than 50,000 (fifty thousand) Oromos have been arrested and detained from Ambo, Gudar, Tikur Inchini, Ginda-Barat, Gedo, and Bakko-Tibe towns in West Showa Zone of Central Oromia alone, Apart from along the streets in cities and towns, especially students are being picked up even from dormitories and classrooms on universities and college campuses. Reports add that there have been around twenty(40) extra-judicial killings so far that have resulted from brutal actions against unarmed and peaceful protesters by armed forces.
Ever since the violence against Oromo protesters started two weeks ago, and following the release of its first urgent action over the incidents, the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) has been monitoring the situation through its correspondents in the region; and has been able to obtain some of the names of the Oromos (students and others) who have so far been killed, kidnapped or arrested, and detained or disappeared. There are also cases of beatings and wounds or injuries inflicted on some of the protesters by the heavy-handed federal armed force. The names are listed below:
Partial List of arrested Students from Addis Ababa University May 11, 2014
1
Abebe gadafa
12
Lataa Olani
2
Alamayo Taye
13
Melaku Girma
3
Gaddisaa dabalee
14
Mulata Eliyas
4
Gamada Dhidhita
15
Nigusie Gammada
5
Gudata Wakne
16
Nigusie Yoosef
6
Guddina
17
Sisay Safara
7
Indalu Yigezu
18
Taye Teshome
8
Jabessa ekele
19
Teshome Ararsa
9
Jamal Usman
20
Waqo Roba
10
Jilo Kamew
21
Yaatanii Utukan
11
Kebede Guddata
May 11, 2014 Arrestees from different universities in Oromia
No
Name
Department
Institute Name
1
Abebe Taddese
Political Science
Addis Ababa University
2
Chala Dirriba
Dirre Dawa University
3
Lencho
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Adama University
4
Fawaz Ahmed Usman
Mechanical Engneering
Adama University
5
Obsa Jawar
Management
Adama University
Partial list of Oromos killed by Agazi Armed Force of the Federal Government
NAME
SEX
Birth Place
Occupation
Academic institution
Place of execution
1
Ababa Kumsa
M
student
Wallaga
2
Abdii Kamaal
M
student and Krate Trainer
Gudar
Gudar
3
Abdiisaa Guutuu
M
9 years old teenager
–
Gudar
4
Abdiisaa Fiixee
Bussinessman
Gudar
5
Abdisa Nagasa
M
student
Wallaga
6
Alamnee Bayisa Tashoomee
M
9th grade
Ambo
Ambo
7
Alamayyoo Hirphasaa
M
9th grade
Ambo
Ambo
8
Alemaayyoo Urgeessaa
M
Farmer
Gudar
Gudar
9
Baayisaa Soorii
M
10
Biikkolee Dinqaa
M
11
Biqilaa Belay
M
Merchant
–
Ambo
12
Bultii Yaadasaa
M
Jibaat
Techinical student
Shanaan
13
Darejjee
M
Kebele Milisha
–
Ijaajjii
14
Falmata Bayecha
M
Medicine 5th year
Jimma
Jimma
15
Galana Adaba
M
Governance 3rdyear
Jimma
Jimma
16
Getachew Darajie
M
Governence 3rdyear
Jimmaa
Jimma
17
Geetahuun Jiraataa
M
Junior Secondary school
Gudar
Gudar
18
Geetuu Urgeessaa
M
student
Ambo
19
Gexe Tafari
F
student
Wollega
20
Gurmuu Damxoo
M
Junior Secondary school
Gudar
Gudar
21
Gosomsaa Baayisaa
M
Farmer
–
Ambo
22
Haacaaluu Jaagamaa
M
Jibaat
Shanaan
23
Husen Umar
M
Uni student
Jimmaa
Jimma
24
Indaalee Dessaalenyi
M
Ambo
Diplom holder, Bajaji driver
Ambo
Ambo, 01 Kebele
25
Indaalee Lammeessaa
M
9th grade student
Ambo
Ambo
26
Isra’el Habtamu
M
Uni student
Jimma
Jimma
27
Kebbedee Boranaa
M
Ambo
28
Kumalaa Guddisa
M
Tikur Incini
10th grade
Gudar
Gudar
29
Maammush Gaaddiisaa
M
Busssinessman
–
Gudar
30
Mammush Guutuu
M
11 years old teenager
–
Gudar
31
Naasir Tamaam
M
Driver
Gudar
32
Nagaasaa Lameessaa
M
Farmer oromo elder of 80 years old
Ambo
33
Olmaan Biinagdee
M
Ganjii Gooree
Farmer, 75 years Oromo elder
–
Ambo
34
Taddasee Gashuu
M
Waddeessaa,
Ambo
Liibaan Machaa J.S.SchoolAmboAmbo35Tashome DawitM Uni studentWallaga 36Zabana BarasaM Governance 3rdyearJimmaJimma
Partial list of injured or wounded protestors
NAME
sex
Occupation
Academic institution
Region
Date
1
Abrhaam Suufaa
M
12th grade student
Ambo
Ambo
2
Balaayi Kuusaa
M
Midaa Qanyii
Ambo
01.05.2014
3
Baayisaa Obsaa
M
Midaa Qanyii
Ambo
01.05.2014
4
Baqalee Itichaa
M
5
Bitamaa Baayisaa
M
7th grade
Ambo
Ambo
6
Darrasaa Ayyaanaa
M
Midaa Qanyii
Ambo
01.05.2014
7
Geetuu warquu
Ambo
8
Gonfaa Mul’isaa
M
Bajajii driver
Ambo
9
Kasaahun Aseffaa
M
Ambo
10
Miidhaksaa ijiguu
M
Bussinesman
Ambo
11
Misgaanaa Mammuyyee
Ambo
12
Roobee Beenyaa
M
Ambo
13
Shallamaa Caalasaaa
M
High School student
Midaa Qanyii
Ambo
14
Shantamaa Qanaa’aa
M
Ambo
15
Sintaayoo Mirreessaa
F
5th grade student
Addis ketema, Ambo
16
Taaddalaa Tsagaayee
M
9th grade student
Ambo High School
Ambo
17
Warquu ijjiguu
M
Bussinesman
–
Ambo
18
Zarihuun Urgeessaa
M
Ambo
Partial list of indiscriminately arrested or kidnapped and detained protestors
Below is the list of some of the estimated 50,000 Oromos picked up and detained from different towns in West Showa Z0ne:
Name
Sex
Occupation
Place arrested
1
Ababaa Moosisaa
M
Tikur Incini
2
Alamayyoo Irreessoo
M
Was ONC Elected member of Oromia regional in 2005
Ambo
3
Ashannaafii Buusaa
M
12th grade student
Ambo
4
Agidoo Waqjiraa
M
Midaa Qanyii high school
Ambo
5
Ayyaantuu Dagaagaa
F
Merchant of cultural dresses
Ambo
6
Baqqaluu Gidaada
F
Ambo
7
Baayiluu Mallasaa
M
Gudar School
Gudar
8
Bilisee Indaaluu
F
High school student
Midaa Qanyii
9
Biraanuu Addunyaa
M
High school student
Tikur Incini
10
Burgudee Araarsaa
F
Highschool student
Ambo
11
Caalchisaa Aanaa
M
Preacher
Midaa Qanyii
12
Caalaa Baayisaa
M
With his 5-family member
Ambo
13
Camadaa Jaalataa
M
Farmer
Midaa Qanyii
14
Dagguu Takkaa
M
Elementary J.S. School, 8th grade
Addis Ketama-Ambo
15
Dammee Taddasaa
F
Ambo
16
Dararaa Galataa
M
High school Student
Midaa Qanyii
17
Darrasaa Guutataa
M
Farmer
Midaa Qanyii
18
Dawuti Raggaasaa
M
9th grade student
Liiban Maccaa Ambo
19
Dheeressaa Tarfaa
M
Bussinessman
Gudar
20
Dhibbaa Tutishaa
M
Assistant driver
Ambo
21
Gadaa
M
Ambo uni student
Ambo
22
Gechoo Dandanaa
M
High school student
Midaa Qanyii
23
Getaachoo dandanaa
M
Businessman
Gudar
24
Goobanaa Abarraa
M
High school student
Midaa Qanyii
25
Goobanaa Tolasaa
M
Tikur Incinni
26
Gonfaa Dhaabaa
M
Bussinessman
Ambo
27
Gudinaa Abarraa
M
High school student
Midaa Qanyii
28
Iddeessaa Magarsaa
M
Chairperson for Waqqeffata for Ambo area
Amboo
29
Lachiisaa Fufaa
M
Tikur Incinni
30
Lateeraa shallamoo
M
Tikur Incinni
31
Mallasaa Kabbadaa
M
Bussinessman
Ambo
32
Mootummaa Tasfaayee
M
Tikur Incinni
33
Nagarii Dhaabaa
M
Ambo
34
Qanaa’aa Chuuchee
M
Employee of KFO
Ambo
35
Salamoon Dhaabaa
M
11th grade student
Ambo
36
Shallamaa caalaa
M
Gudar
37
Shallamaa Caalasaaa
M
High School Student
Midaa Qanyii
38
Shallamaa Diroo
High School Student
Midaa Qanyii
39
Taaddasaa Misgaanaa
M
Tikur Incinni
40
Taamiruu Caalsisaa
M
Tikur Incinni
41
Tammiree Caalaa
Employee of youth and Sport commission
Caliyaa Geedoo
42
Tamasgeen Abarraa
M
Bussinessman
Ambo
43
Tasfayee Daksiisaa
M
High School Student
Midaa Qanyii
44
Tolaa Geeddafaa
M
High School Student
Midaa qanyii
45
Wabii Xilaahuun
M
Ambo university 3rd year
Ambo
HRLHA calls up on the Ethiopian Government to:
Immediately stop the racial and discriminatory violence against Oromos, and bring the culprits toJustice
Unconditionally release the detained Oromo students and facilitate the resumption of normal classes;
Reverse the decision of the plan and present it for discussion and consultations to the concerned Oromo People, and obtain their consents;
Compensate all loses and damages that resulted from the brutal actions of its armed forces.
HRLHA also calls up on regional and international diplomatic, democratic, and human rights agencies to challenge the Ethiopian TPLF/EPRDF government on its persistent brutal, dictatorial, and suppressive actions against innocent and unarmed civilians who are attempting to exercise some of their “said-to-have-been-granted” democratic rights.
Caamsaa 14,2014 Gara Jabeenya Wayyaanee TPLFn Magaalli Naqamte Akkasitti Oolte. TPLF’s cruelty Against Oromo students and civilians at Nekemte, Wolega university, 14 May 2014. 6 innocent people murdered.
DOCUMENT – ETHIOPIA: AUTHORITIES MUST PROVIDE JUSTICE FOR SCORES OF PROTESTERS KILLED, INJURED AND ARRESTED IN OROMIA
AMNESTY INTERNATIONALPUBLIC STATEMENT13 May 2014AI Index: AFR 25/002/2014
ETHIOPIA: AUTHORITIES MUST PROVIDE JUSTICE FOR SCORES OF PROTESTERS KILLED, INJURED AND ARRESTED IN OROMIA
Amnesty International condemns the use of excessive force by security forces against peaceful protesters in a number of locations across the Oromia region during the last two weeks, which has resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of people including students and children. Many hundreds of protesters are reported to have been arbitrarily arrested, and are being detained incommunicado and without charge. Detainees are at risk of torture.
The Ethiopian government must immediately instruct the security forces to cease using deadly force against peaceful protesters, and to release any person who has been arrested solely because of their involvement in peaceful protests. These incidents must be urgently and properly investigated, and suspected perpetrators should be prosecuted in effective trial proceedings.
Since late April, protests have taken place in many universities and towns across the Oromia region over the ‘Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan’ – a plan from the central government to expand the capital, Addis Ababa, into parts of Oromia – the region which surrounds the city. The government says the master plan for expansion would bring city services to remote areas. However, the protesters, and many other Oromos, the ethnic group that makes up the significant majority of the population of Oromia regional state, fear that the move will be detrimental to the interests of Oromo farmers, and will lead to large scale evictions to make way for land leasing or sale. Many Oromos also consider the move to be in violation of the Constitutionally-guaranteed protection of the ‘special interests’ of the Oromia state.
Numerous reports from witnesses, local residents and other sources indicate that the security forces have responded with excessive force against peaceful protesters. Forces comprised of the federal police and military special forces known as ‘Agazi’, have fired live ammunition at unarmed protesters in a number of locations including in Wallega and Madawalabu universities and Ambo and Guder towns, resulting in deaths in each location.
One witness told Amnesty International that on the third day of protest in Guder town, near Ambo, the security forces were waiting for the protesters and opened fire when they arrived. She said five people were killed in front of her. A source in Robe town, the location of Madawalabu University, told Amnesty International that 11 bodies had been seen in a hospital in the town. Another witness said they had seen five bodies in Ambo hospital.
There are major restrictions on independent journalism and human rights monitoring organizations in Ethiopia as well as on exchange of information. Because of these restrictions, in conjunction with the number of incidents that occurred in the last two weeks, it is not possible to establish the exact number of those who have been killed. The government acknowledged that three students had died at Madawalabu University, and five persons had died in Ambo town, but did not state the cause of death. Numbers of deaths reported by witnesses and residents within Oromia are significantly higher. Investigations into these incidents must include the establishment of comprehensive numbers of people killed and injured in all incidents.
According to eye-witness reports received by Amnesty International, of those who were killed some people, including students and children, died instantly during protests, while some died subsequently in hospitals as a result of their injuries. Children as young as 11 years old were among the dead. Students and teachers constitute the majority of those killed and injured.
Protesters were also reportedly beaten up during and after protests, resulting in scores of injuries in locations including Ambo, Jimma, Nekempte, Wallega, Dembi Dollo, Robe town, Madawalabu, and Haromaya.
Hundreds of people have been arrested across many locations. The main Oromo opposition party, the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) which has been collecting information from its members throughout the region, believes those arrested may total several thousand. Witnesses told Amnesty International that in many cases the arrests took place after the protesters had dispersed. Security forces have conducted house to house searches in many locations in the region, for students and others who may have been involved. New arrests continue to be reported. A small number of people have been released, but most of those arrested remain in incommunicado detention, in many cases in unknown locations. The OFC also reports that two of its members were arrested in Ambo because they had spoken to a Voice of America reporter about events in the town.
Hundreds of those arrested have been taken to unofficial places of detention including Senkele police training camp. One local resident, whose nephew was shot dead during the Ambo protests, told Amnesty International that detainees in Senkele have been prevented from seeing their families or receiving food from them. Military camps in Oromia have regularly been used to detain thousands of actual or perceived government opponents. Detention in military camps is almost always arbitrary – detainees are not charged or taken to a court for the duration of their detention, which in some cases has lasted for many years. In the majority of cases, detainees in military camps have no access to lawyers or to their families for the duration of their detention. Amnesty International has received countless reports of torture being widespread in military camps. The organization fears that the recent detainees are at serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
There is a very high security force presence in towns across the region in recent days, including in university campuses. Witnesses in several locations say that classes have been suspended in the universities. Amnesty International has heard from other locations, where classes have continued or resumed, that attendance registers are being taken for every class, with serious repercussions threatened for those not present.
Amnesty International has also received several reports that in a number of locations throughout the region local residents are being beaten and in some cases, arrested by the police, ostensibly to intimidate them against taking part in further protests. Police are also threatening parents to control their children. One witness told Amnesty International that one man who went to collect his son’s body, who had been shot dead during a protest, was severely beaten by security forces telling him he should have taught his son some discipline.
The OFC says the response of the security forces has fuelled further protests as the colleagues, parents and community members of those killed and injured have joined in further protests against the brutality of the security forces. In some locations anger at the actions of the security forces has resulted in burning of cars and damage to property.
The Ethiopian authorities regularly suppress peaceful protests, which has often included the use of excessive force against protesters. The Oromos have long felt discriminated against by successive governments. The current government is hostile to all dissent. However, this hostility often manifests most fiercely in the Oromia region, where signs of dissent are looked for and suppressed even more brutally than in other parts of the country. Scores of Oromos are regularly arrested based on their actual or suspected opposition to the government.
The recent events are highly reminiscent of events in 2004 when months of protests broke out across the Oromia region and in Addis Ababa by college and school students demonstrating against a federal government decision to transfer the regional state capital from Addis Ababa to Adama (also known as Nazret), a town 100 kilometres south-east of Addis Ababa. The transfer was perceived to be against Oromo interests. Police used live ammunition in some incidents to disperse demonstrators, killing several students and wounding many others, which led to further protests. Hundreds of students were arrested and detained for periods ranging from several days to several months, without charge or trial. Many were severely beaten when police dispersed protests or in detention. Subsequently hundreds were expelled or suspended from university and many suffered long-term repercussions such as repeated arrest based on the residual suspicion of holding dissenting opinions.
The events of the last two weeks in Oromia demonstrate that there has been no improvement in Ethiopia’s policing practices in the last decade, and that very serious concerns remain about the willingness of the Ethiopian security forces to use excessive force against peaceful protesters. These events also show that major restrictions remain on the ability of peaceful protesters to express grievances or make political points in Ethiopia. The environment for peaceful protest, freedom of expression and political participation has worsened over the last decade.
The recent events in Oromia fall at a time when the local population and interested parties internationally, are starting to look towards the general elections in May 2015. The aftermath of the disputed 2005 elections also saw excessive use of force against peaceful protesters during widespread demonstrations against the alleged rigging of the election by the ruling EPRDF party. Security forces opened fire on protesters in Addis Ababa resulting in the deaths of more than 180 people. The recent events bode very ill for the run up to the 2015 elections, still a year away. Unless substantial reforms are urgently initiated, Amnesty International is concerned that the run up to the elections will be characterised by further serious violations of human rights.
Amnesty International urges the Ethiopian authorities to immediately and publicly instruct the security forces to cease using excessive force against peaceful protesters in Oromia. While some of the recent protests in Oromia are reported to have seen incidents of violence, including destruction of property, the use of force, including lethal force, by security forces must comply with human rights standards at all times in order to protect the right to life. Amnesty International urges that any police response to further protests must comply with international requirements of necessity and proportionality in the use of force, in line with the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. These principles state that law enforcement may use only such force as is necessary and proportionate to maintain public order, and may only intentionally use lethal force if strictly necessary to protect human life.
Thorough investigations which are credible and impartial must urgently take place into allegations of excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, and the torture of protesters and other members of local communities in Oromia, and where admissible evidence of crimes is found, suspected perpetrators should be prosecuted in effective trial proceedings that meet international standards. All persons arrested solely because of their participation in peaceful protests must be immediately and unconditionally released. Amnesty International urges that no-one suffers any violation or denial of their human rights as a result of their involvement in peaceful protests including any suspension or termination of their education.
Finally, Amnesty International urges the Ethiopian government to respect all Ethiopians’ right to peacefully protest, as guaranteed under the Ethiopian Constitution and in accordance with Ethiopia’s international legal obligations, including under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The government should immediately remove all restrictions on free and open political participation, including restrictions on the independent media, civil society and political opposition parties.
Press Release from the Oromia Support Group (OSG) on the Oromo demonstrators arrested, beaten and shot dead by the Ethiopian Agazi Security Forces
Posted: Caamsaa/May 9, 2014 · Gadaa.com
Press Release from the Oromia Support Group-UK 7 May 2014 60 Westminster Rd Malvern, Worcs WR14 4ES UK Tel +44 (0)1684 573722 Email: osg@talktalk.net Demonstrators arrested, beaten and shot dead At least 16 peaceful student demonstrators were shot dead by the Agazi, Ethiopia’s riot police, between 28 April and 1 May. Protests against the planned extension of Addis Ababa city administration, which would evict thousands of farmers and split Oromia Region in two, were met with live ammunition and indiscriminate beating. Several killings were in Ambo, where 27,000 reportedly took to the streets, but demonstrations were also met with violence in Guder, Adama, Dire Dawa, Robe, Jimma, Metu, Nekemt, Gimbi and Dembi Dollo – high schools and universities in central, east and west Oromia Region. Sources claimed 25-50 were killed. At least seven were confirmed dead in Ambo alone. Many were badly injured and hundreds were taken from streets and university campuses to places of detention, where protestors and opposition party supporters are routinely tortured and raped. Names of confirmed dead, injured or detained are given overleaf. Those killed include Endale Desalegn (Temesgen), and Tasfaye Gashe, both ninth grade students in Ambo. Individuals in the UK are requested to write to their MPs, requesting them to ask the Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, and the Minister for International Development, Lynne Featherstone, what the British Government intends to do in response to this latest episode of killing and detaining peaceful demonstrators. Killed: Ababa Kumsa – Wallega Abdi Kamal – Guder Junior Secondary School Abdisa Nagasa – Wallega Endale Desalegn (or Temesgen) – Ambo High School Falmata Bayecha – Jimma 5th yr Medicine Galana Adaba – Jimma 3rd yr Governance Getachew Daraje – Jimma 3rd yr Governence Getahun Jirata – Guder Junior Secondary School Gexe Tafari – Wallega Gurmu Damxoo – Guder Junior Secondary School Hussen Umar – Jimma Israel Habtamu – Jimma Kumala Guddisa – Guder Junior Secondary School Tadesse Gashee – Ambo Liban Macha Junior Secondary School Tashome Dawit – Wallega Zabana Barasa – Jimma 3rd yr Governance (or Oromo Folklore) Injured: Balay Kusa – Mida Qanyi School – W Showa Bayisa Obsa – Mida Qanyi School – W Showa Dararsa Ayana – Mida Qanyi School – W Showa Adama University students detained and beaten: Abrahm Makonin Ararso Abenzari Hagaye Yohannis Abdala Hussen Julio Amnu’el Burka Danka Andu’alam Telahun Alemayo Ayantu Jalta Misha Bilisuma Lamii Agaa Bonsa Badhadha Bati Bultu Wadaju Bultum Chala Galan Dabiso Datamo Fayera Shif Dane Abo Bushira Dani’el Admasu Tamsgen Didaa Ahmed Ibroo Duni Hussen Walbu Ebisa Malka Nuruu Etihafa Tuffa Soraa Fantale Faru Qarsuu Fayisa Girma Biranu Gada Dinqa Bayisa Humin’esa Miliki Fanta Ibraham Musa Awal Ifabas Burisho Nuruu Iliyas Ishetu Ibsa Lami Marga Gabru Lelisa Ayansa Marga Marga Tuffa kiltu Magris Banta Sodaa Muktar Jeyilan Sa’ed Musxafa Kadir Siraj Nuho Gudata Irre Odaa Damis Bonjaa Shibiru Tariku Falke Sidise Jara Tashome Bakele Sabbatichal Tadalu Mamo Bacha Takalinyi Ketama Baharu Tayee Tafara Agaa Tullu Bonus Tura Welbuma Ragasa Qalbesa
Security Forces Fire On, Beat Students Protesting Plan to Expand Capital Boundaries
(Nairobi) – Ethiopian security forces should cease using excessive force against students peacefully protesting plans to extend the boundaries of the capital, Addis Ababa. The authorities should immediately release students and others arbitrarily arrested during the protests and investigate and hold accountable security officials who are responsible for abuses.
On May 6, 2014, the government will appear before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for the country’s Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record.
“Students have concerns about the fate of farmers and others on land the government wants to move inside Addis Ababa,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director. “Rather than having its security forces attack peaceful protesters, the government should sit down and discuss the students’ grievances.”
Since April 25, students have demonstrated throughout Oromia Regional State to protest the government’s plan to substantially expand the municipal boundaries of Addis Ababa, which the students feel would threaten communities currently under regional jurisdiction. Security forces have responded by shooting at and beating peaceful protesters in Ambo, Nekemte, Jimma, and other towns with unconfirmed reports from witnesses of dozens of casualties.
Protests began at universities in Ambo and other large towns throughout Oromia, and spread to smaller communities throughout the region. Witnesses said security forces fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in Ambo on April 30. Official government statements put the number of dead in Ambo at eight, but various credible local sources put the death toll much higher. Since the events in Ambo, the security forces have allegedly used excessive force against protesters throughout the region, resulting in further casualties. Ethiopian authorities have said there has been widespread looting and destruction of property during the protests.
The protests erupted over the release in April of the proposed Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan, which outlines plans for Addis Ababa’s municipal expansion. Under the proposed plan, Addis Ababa’s municipal boundary would be expanded substantially to include more than 15 communities in Oromia. This land would fall under the jurisdiction of the Addis Ababa City Administration and would no longer be managed by Oromia Regional State. Demonstrators have expressed concern about the displacement of Oromo farmers and residents on the affected land.|
Ethiopia is experiencing an economic boom and the government has ambitious plans for further economic growth. This boom has resulted in a growing middle class in Addis Ababa and an increased demand for residential, commercial, and industrial properties. There has not been meaningful consultation with impacted communities during the early stages of this expansion into the surrounding countryside, raising concerns about the risk of inadequate compensation and due process protections to displaced farmers and residents.
Oromia is the largest of Ethiopia’s nine regions and is inhabited largely by ethnic Oromos. The Oromos are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group and have historically felt marginalized and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments. The city of Addis Ababa is surrounded on all sides by the Oromia region.
Given very tight restrictions on independent media and human rights monitoring in Ethiopia, it is difficult to corroborate the government crackdown in Oromia. There is little independent media in Oromia to monitor these events, and foreign journalists who have attempted to reach demonstrations have been turned away or detained.
Ethiopia has one of the most repressive media environments in the world. Numerous journalists are in prison, independent media outlets are regularly closed down, and many journalists have fled the country. Underscoring the repressive situation, the government on April 25 and 26 arbitrarily arrestednine bloggers and journalists in Addis Ababa. They remain in detention without charge. In addition, the Charities and Societies Proclamation, enacted in 2009, has severely curtailed the ability of independent human rights organizations to investigate and report on human rights abuses like the recent events in Oromia.
“The government should not be able to escape accountability for abuses in Oromo because it has muzzled the media and human rights groups,” Lefkow said.
Since Ethiopia’s last Universal Periodic Review in 2009 its human rights record has taken a significant downturn, with the authorities showing increasing intolerance of any criticism of the government and further restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and association. The recent crackdown in Oromia highlights the risks protesters face and the inability of the media and human rights groups to report on important events.
Ethiopian authorities should abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which provide that all security forces shall, as far as possible, apply nonviolent means before resorting to force. Whenever the lawful use of force is unavoidable, the authorities must use restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense. Law enforcement officials should not use firearms against people “except in self-defense or defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury.”
“Ethiopia’s heavy handed reaction to the Oromo protests is the latest example of the government’s ruthless response to any criticism of its policies,” Lefkow said. “UN member countries should tell Ethiopia that responding with excessive force against protesters is unacceptable and needs to stop.”
Oromo: Ethiopia Uses Force Against Peaceful Student Protesters
The Ethiopian government has used excessive force against students peacefully protesting the Government’s plans to expand the municipal boundaries of Addis Ababa, which would threaten the communities currently under regional jurisdiction, and would no longer be managed by Oromia Regional State. Demonstrators have expressed concern about the displacement of Oromo farmers and residents on the affected land.
Ethiopian security forces should cease using excessive force against students peacefully protesting plans to extend the boundaries of the capital, Addis Ababa. The authorities should immediately release students and others arbitrarily arrested during the protests and investigate and hold accountable security officials who are responsible for abuses.
On May 6, 2014, the government will appear before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for the country’s Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record.
“Students have concerns about the fate of farmers and others on land the government wants to move inside Addis Ababa,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director. “Rather than having its security forces attack peaceful protesters, the government should sit down and discuss the students’ grievances.”
Since April 25 [2014], students have demonstrated throughout Oromia Regional State to protest the government’s plan to substantially expand the municipal boundaries of Addis Ababa, which the students feel would threaten communities currently under regional jurisdiction. Security forces have responded by shooting at and beating peaceful protesters in Ambo, Nekemte, Jimma, and other towns with unconfirmed reports from witnesses of dozens of casualties.
Protests began at universities in Ambo and other large towns throughout Oromia, and spread to smaller communities throughout the region. Witnesses said security forces fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in Ambo on April 30 [2014]. Official government statements put the number of dead in Ambo at eight, but various credible local sources put the death toll much higher. Since the events in Ambo, the security forces have allegedly used excessive force against protesters throughout the region, resulting in further casualties. Ethiopian authorities have said there has been widespread looting and destruction of property during the protests.
The protests erupted over the release in April of the proposed Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan, which outlines plans for Addis Ababa’s municipal expansion. Under the proposed plan, Addis Ababa’s municipal boundary would be expanded substantially to include more than 15 communities in Oromia. This land would fall under the jurisdiction of the Addis Ababa City Administration and would no longer be managed by Oromia Regional State. Demonstrators have expressed concern about the displacement of Oromo farmers and residents on the affected land.
Ethiopia is experiencing an economic boom and the government has ambitious plans for further economic growth. This boom has resulted in a growing middle class in Addis Ababa and an increased demand for residential, commercial, and industrial properties. There has not been meaningful consultation with impacted communities during the early stages of this expansion into the surrounding countryside, raising concerns about the risk of inadequate compensation and due process protections to displaced farmers and residents.
Oromia is the largest of Ethiopia’s nine regions and is inhabited largely by ethnic Oromos. The Oromos are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group and have historically felt marginalized and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments. The city of Addis Ababa is surrounded on all sides by the Oromia region.
Given very tight restrictions on independent media and human rights monitoring in Ethiopia, it is difficult to corroborate the government crackdown in Oromia. There is little independent media in Oromia to monitor these events, and foreign journalists who have attempted to reach demonstrations have been turned away or detained.
Ethiopia has one of the most repressive media environments in the world. Numerous journalists are in prison, independent media outlets are regularly closed down, and many journalists have fled the country. Underscoring the repressive situation, the government on April 25 [2014] and 26 [2014] arbitrarily arrested nine bloggers and journalists in Addis Ababa. They remain in detention without charge. In addition, the Charities and Societies Proclamation, enacted in 2009, has severely curtailed the ability of independent human rights organizations to investigate and report on human rights abuses like the recent events in Oromia.
“The government should not be able to escape accountability for abuses in Oromo because it has muzzled the media and human rights groups,” Lefkow said.
Since Ethiopia’s last Universal Periodic Review in 2009 its human rights record has taken a significant downturn, with the authorities showing increasing intolerance of any criticism of the government and further restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and association. The recent crackdown in Oromia highlights the risks protesters face and the inability of the media and human rights groups to report on important events.
Ethiopian authorities should abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which provide that all security forces shall, as far as possible, apply nonviolent means before resorting to force. Whenever the lawful use of force is unavoidable, the authorities must use restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense. Law enforcement officials should not use firearms against people “except in self-defense or defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury.”
“Ethiopia’s heavy handed reaction to the Oromo protests is the latest example of the government’s ruthless response to any criticism of its policies,” Lefkow said. “UN member countries should tell Ethiopia that responding with excessive force against protesters is unacceptable and needs to stop.”
The human rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) would like to express its deepest concern over the widespread brutalities of the Ethiopian Government in handling protests in different parts of the regional state of Oromia by peaceful demonstrators. In a heavy-handed crackdown being carried out by the federal armed squad called Agazi, which is infamously known for its cruelty against innocent civilians particularly during such public protests, 16 (sixteen) Oromo students have so far been shot dead in the town of Ambo alone and scores of others have been wounded, according to HRLHA correspondents in the area. The victims of the brutal attacks were not only from Federal Police brutality in Ambo town among those who were out protesting in the streets, but also among those who stayed behind on university campuses. Hundreds of others have also been arrested, loaded on police trucks, and taken to unknown destinations.
Although the brutalities of the armed squad and the resultant fatalities happened to be very high in Ambo Town, the peaceful protests by Oromo students of different universities and faculties have been taking place in the past couple of days in various towns and cities of Oromia including Diredawa and Adama in eatern Oromia, as well as Jimma, Mettu, Naqamte, Gimbi, and Dambidollo in western Oromia.
The Oromo students in all those and other universities took to the streets for peaceful demonstrations in protest to the recently made decision by the Federal EPRDF/TPLF- led Government to expand the city of Finfinnee/Addis Ababa by uprooting and displacing hundreds of thousands of Oromos from all sorts of livelihoods, and annexing about 36 surrounding towns of Oromia, the ultimate goal of which is claimed to be re- drawing the map of the Oromia Region. The federal annexation plan, which was termed as “The Integrated Development Master Plan”, is said to be covering the towns of Dukem, Gelan, Legetafo, Sendafa, Sululta, Burayu, Holeta, Sebeta, and others, stretching the boundary of Finfinne/Addis Ababa to about 1.1million hectares – an area of 20 times its current size.
The Oromo protesters claim that the decision was in violation of both the regional and federal constitutions that guarantee the ownership, special interests and benefits of the Oromo Nation over Finfinne/Addis Ababa. Similar unlawful and unconstitutional action taken at different times in the past fifteen and twenty years have already resulted in the dispossessions of lands and displacements of hundreds of thousands of Oromos farmers and business owners from around the city of Finfinne, forcing them into unemployment and day labourer.
The HRLHA has been able to obtain the names of the following students from among those who have been shot dead, wounded, and/or arrested and taken away:
No Name Gender University & Department
1 Falmata Bayecha M Jimma, Medicine 5th year 2 Galana Ababa M Jimma, Governance 3rd year 3 Zabana Barasa M Jimma, Oromo Folklore 3rd year 4 Getacho Darajje M Jimma, Governance 3rd year 5 Isra’el Habtamu M Jimma 6 Husen Umar M Jimma 7 Ababa Kumsa M Wallagga 8 Abdisa Nagasa M Wallagga 9 Tashome Dawit M Wallagga 10 Gexe Tafari F Wallagga
By so doing, the Ethiopian Government violates the property rights of peoples, which is clearly described both in local and international agreements including the Ethiopia constitution of 1995 article 40(3). While strongly condemning the brutality of the Ethiopian Government against its own people, specifically the youth, HRLHA would like to once again express its deep concerns regarding the whereabouts as well as safety of the students who have been taken into custody in relation to this protest.
HRLHA calls up on the Ethiopian Government to immediately stop shooting at and killed unarmed peaceful protestors who are attempting to exercise some of their fundamental rights and freedom of expression; and unconditionally release the detained students. We also request that the Ethiopian Government bring to justice the security agents who have committed criminal offences against own citizens by violating domestic and international human rights norms. HRLHA also calls up on regional and international diplomatic, democratic, and human rights agencies to challenge the Ethiopian TPLF/EPRDF government on its persistent brutal, dictatorial, and suppressive actions against innocent and unarmed civilians.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to the Ethiopian Government and its concerned officials as swiftly as possible, in English, Ahmaric, or your own language expressing:
Your concerns over at the apprehension hundreds of students, and fear of torture of the citizens who are being held in Ma’ikelawi Central Investigation Office and other detention centers since February, 2011 to present at different times, and calling for their immediate and unconditional release;
Urging the authorities of Ethiopia to ensure that these detainees are treated in accordance with regional and international standards on the treatment of prisoners,
Urging the Ethiopian Government to disclose whereabouts of the detainees and,
Your concerns to diplomatic representatives of Ethiopia accredited to your respective countries,
Send Your Concerns to
His Excellency: Mr. Haila Mariam Dessalegn – Prime Minister of Ethiopia P.O.Box – 1031 Addis Ababa Telephone – +251 155 20 44; +251 111 32 41 Fax – +251 155 20 30 , +251 15520
Office of Oromiya National Regional State President Office Telephone – 0115510455
• Office of the Ministry of Justice of Ethiopia PO Box 1370, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Fax: +251 11 5517775; +251 11 5520874 Email: ministry- justice@telecom.net.et
UNESCO Headquarters Paris. 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP France 1, rue Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15 France General phone: +33 (0)1 45 68 10 00 http://www.unesco.org
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)- Africa Department 7 place Fontenoy,75352 Paris 07 SP France General phone: +33 (0)1 45 68 10 00 Website: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/africa-department/
UNESCO AFRICA RIGIONAL OFFICE MR.JOSEPH NGU Director
UNESCO Office in Abuja Mail: j.ngu(at)unesco.org Tel: +251 11 5445284 Fax: +251 11 5514936
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights United Nations Office at Geneva 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Fax: + 41 22 917 9022 (particularly for urgent matters) E-mail: tb-petitions@ohchr.org this e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Office of the UNHCR Telephone: 41 22 739 8111 Fax: 41 22 739 7377 Po Box: 2500 Geneva, Switzerland
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) 48 Kairaba Avenue, P.O.Box 673, Banjul, The Gambia. Tel: (220) 4392 962 , 4372070, 4377721 – 23 Fax: (220) 4390 764 E-mail: achpr@achpr.org
Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights
Council of Europe F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex, FRANCE + 33 (0)3 88 41 34 21 + 33 (0)3 90 21 50 53 Contact us by email
U.S. Department of State Laura Hruby
Ethiopia Desk Officer U.S. State Department HrubyLP@state.gov Tel: (202) 647-6473
Amnesty International – London Claire Beston Claire Beston” <claire.beston@amnesty.org>,
Human Rights Watch Felix Hor “Felix Horne” <hornef@hrw.org>
Mekonnen Hirphaa, Civil Engineering student killed at Madda Walabuu University, Robe.
Since Ethiopia’s Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front apartheid army massacred over 52 people and injured as many on April 30th in Ambo town, confirmed killings have spiraled to 85, including 5 students killed, in Dambi Dollo town in Western Oromia today. Eyewitnesses told Oromo Press, 1 female student and 4 others were gunned down in Dambi Dollo on May 6 during a peaceful protest against the Addis Ababa Master Plan, which aims to evict 10 million Oromo farmers from Finfinne and surrounding towns and villages. Students were chanting, “Oromia will not be sold,” when they were indiscriminately fired on by Ethiopia’s army. 30 students are reported injured from live ammunition and excessive tear gas application.
Kumala Gudisa Bali, who was shot in Ambo, on April 30th and transported to Finfinne (Addis Ababa) for hospitalization, also died today at Black Lion Hospital.
Kumala Gudisa Bali, 1 of 52 massacred in Ambo
Many of students who were killed were shot multiple times on the head, neck and on the chest proving the brutality of the ethnically-pure Tigirean Agazi military unit. Other brutal methods of killings include hurling grenades into a crowd of students in soccer fields–one person died this way and 70 were injured this way at Haromaya University. Some members of the federal police gauged out eyes of some Oromos under arrest uttering ethno-racial slurs and “you will never see again.”
In a related breaking news from Fiche town, in north central Oromia, schools are shut down and surrounded by TPLF Ethiopia’s army. Witnesses saw at least 50 people, including students, teachers and residents being loaded and whisked away in military convoys. The students at Fiche were not even protesting when the army falsely told them that they were there to detonate a bomb and an explosive buried in the school compounds.
Ethiopia’s TPLF government is disarming Oromia regional police and replacing them with the more loyal and ethnically-pure TPLF soldiers and federal police. Oromia Times confirmed the imprisonment of “4 Oromia police commanders for refusal to order the use of lethal forces” against civilians and students. The Oromo police commanders were Lieutenants: Tadesse Legesse Gemechu, Habtamu Ragassa, Ayana Milkessa, and Alemu Kitessa Sanyi.
As many reporters, including BBC’s Mary Harper rightly observe: “it is very, very difficult for information to come out showing just how the authorities there are very repressive.”
Even human rights organizations with better resources, including Human Rights Watch, have been unable to get the exact numbers of students and civilians killed, injured and imprisoned in Oromia over the last 13 days. The general consensus, however, is that excessive force is being used by Ethiopia’s army to respond to peaceful student protesters demanding an end to ethnic-cleansing under the guise of urban development and city expansion.
The following is a statement from the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA).
——————— May 1, 2014 Oromo students in Ethiopia are currently facing assault, imprisonment, and death due to the mass protests in Universities against the “Integrated Development Master Plan, “also known as the, “Addis Master Plan” The proposed plan aims to expand the current territory of Ethiopia’s capital by evicting and displacing thousands, if not millions of Oromo peasants from their lands. Student protestors are opposing the eviction of peasants from their lands and illegal expansion at the expense of indigenous people. Students at multiple universities including Jimma, Wollo, Haramaya, Ambo, Wollega, Metu, Bolu Hora, Adama, Maddawalabu and Dire Dawa University campuses continue to express their concerns through ongoing peaceful protests. On April 29, 2014, an estimated 25,000 people in Ambo marched in the streets of Oromia in opposition to the government’s plan. In an attempt to intimidate and deter further protests, Ethiopian security forces responded with gunfire and killed several students, leaving many others injured. To date, the numbers of deaths are still rising and Security forces are sent into various cities to silence further protests. The current crackdown on innocent students is no surprise to the international community. The Ethiopian government has been silencing dissenting voices by violently intimidating, killing, and torturing those who dare question or oppose its policies. Local reports indicate that the protests will continue so long as the Ethiopian government ignores the basic constitutional and free speech rights of the Oromo people. The atrocities and dehumanization of Oromo students must be stopped. Ethiopia continues to devalue basic human rights of the Oromo people and we cannot affirm their policies by staying silent. Our organization as a collective will be making a campaign video to raise awareness about the issue unfolding in the Oromia Region. We are asking for other communities to follow in solidarity and demand their respective communities to condemn atrocities being committed against students in Oromia. IOYA calls upon all Oromo and all human rights organizations to write letters to the international community and publicly stand in solidarity with the protesters right to condemn land eviction, displacement and disregard for regional constitutional rights. Sincerely, International Oromo Youth Association Website: www.ioya.org
Massacre of Peaceful Demonstrators- Perpetual Habit of TPLF RegimeOLF Press Release The level of repression and exploitation exacted by the successive regimes of Ethiopia on the subject peoples under their rule in general and the Oromo people in particular has been so unbearable that the people are in constant revolt. It has also been the case that, instead of providing peaceful resolution to a demand peacefully raised, the successive regimes have opted to violently suppress by daylight massacre, detention and torture, looting, evicting and forcing them to leave the country. Hundreds of students have been dismissed from their learning institutions. This revolt, spearheaded by the Oromo youth in general and the students in particular, has currently transformed into an Oromia wide total popular uprising.The response of the regime has, however, remained the same except this time adding the fashionable camouflage pretext of terrorism and heightened intensity of the repression. This has been the case in Ambo,MaddaWalabou,DambiDoolloo,Naqamte,Geedoo,HorrooGuduruu,BaaleeandCiroo in Oromia;andMaqaleeinTigray aswellGojjam in Amhara region, by the direct order fromtheTigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) leaders in the last 22 years.Tens of peaceful demonstrators, including children under the age of 10,have been massacred in Ambo,MaddaWalabou yesterday April 30, 2014. Hand grenades have been deliberately thrown on student demonstrators in AmboandHaramaya Universities causing several death and serious wounds.Morehave been detained. Indiscriminate severe beating, including elderly, women and children by Federal Police and militia, is widespread.TheOLF condemnsthe perpetration of these atrocities and holds, the Prime Minister of the regime, the army, federal police and security chiefs, directly responsible for these crimes selectively targeting the Oromo, who peacefully presented their legitimate demands.TheOLF renews its call on the Oromo nationals who are serving in the armed forces of this regime not only to refrain from partaking in this crime against their parents, siblings and children; but also to resist and stand in defense of their kin and kith and other civilians.We call upon the Oromo people both inside and outside the country, to realize that wehave been pushed to the limit. The only way out of this and to redeem the agony visited upon us for the past is to fight back in unison. We specially call upon you in the Diaspora to act on behalf of your brethren, who are under siege, and urge the nations who host you to discharge their responsibility as government anda community of human beings towards thelong suffering Oromo and otherpeoples under the criminalTPLF regime.We urge again and again that the international community, human rights and organizations and governments for democracy to use their influence and do all they can to stop the ongoing atrocity against the Oromo people. Failure to act immediately will be tantamount to condoning.Victory to the Oromo People!Oromo Liberation Front May 01,2014ABO:HumnaWaraanaanHiriiraNagaaUkkaamsuunIttiFufaGochaaMootummaaWayyaaneWagga 22tiIbsaABOirraakennameHacuuccaa fisaaminsisirnootaabbootiiirreesirnootadarabeenItophiyaabitanbifa addaaddaangaggeeffamuummatootaItophiyaaadddattiammooummataOromooirraanmiidhaandhaqqabsiisesadarkaa hinobsamnedhaqqabuuirraaummatniOromoogaaffiimirgaa fidimokraasiikaasuudhaanwaggootadheeraafqabsoottijira.QabsoonummatniOromoosirnabittootaairrattiadeemsisaaturee fijirukunis har’a sadarkaa olaanaattitarkaanfateeguutuuOromiyaakeessattigarafincilaummataattijijjiiramee argama.Haa tahumaleemootummootniItophiyaagaaffiiummatniOromookaraanagaadhiheeffatu dhaga’anii furmaataittigochuuirrahumnaanukkaamsuu kanfilatantahuundhugaairra deddeebi’ee mul’ate dha.QabsoohaqaaummatniOromooittijiruufdeebisabarbaachisukeennuuirra “farranagaa, farramisoomaa,shororkeessota fikkfjechuunjumulaanajjeesuu,hidhuu,tumuu fibiyyaabaqachiisuuntarkaanfiileemootummootniItophiyaafudhataaturanii fijirani dha.Yeroo ammaa kanabarattootnii fidargaggootniOromooakkasumasummtniOromiyaaguutuukeessattigaaffiimirgaakaasuunhiriira nagaaadeemsisaajirankeessattideebiinargataajiranakkumaadeeffatamegaaffiibarattootaaofittifudhatuundeebiikennuuirrahaalasuukanneessanajjeechaa,reebicha fihidhaatahaajira.TarkaanfiiajajahogganootasirnaWayyaaneenhumnawaraanaaamanamaasirnichaanilmaanii fiummataOromooirrattifudhatamaajiruunlammiiwwanOromoo kanijoolleenumrii10nigadiikeessattiargamanAmboo,MaddaWalaabuu fibakkootabiroottikudhanootaanajjeefamaniijiran.Amboo fi UniversityHaromayaakeessattiboombiileedargaggotaa fiummataharkaqullaairratidhoosuungaraajabinaanlubbuundhabamsiifamaajira.Hedduun manahidhaattigatamaniiru.Jaarsaa fijaartii,guddaa fixiqqaaosoo hinjennereebichiummataOromoobakkayyuuttiirragahaajirusukanneessaa dha.TarkaanfiifudhatamaajirukunisittifufaajjeechaabarattootaOromoogaaffiimirgaakaasuuirraa Ambo,DambiDoolloo,Naqamte,Geedoo,HorrooGuduruu,Baalee,Ciroo fiOromiyaanalattisTigrayMaqalee fiGojjamkeessattiajjeefamaa fijumulaanmanneenbarnootaakeessaa ari’amaa turanii ti.ABOn gaaffiihaqaaummatnikaasaajiruufdeebiigahaakennuuirratarkaanfiisuukanneessaamootummaaWayyaaneenfudhatamaa kanjirujabeesseebalaaleffata. Tarkaanfiigarajabinaahumnaaddaawaraanaa,poolisaFederaalaa fihidhattootaanfudhatamaajiru kanaajajuu firaawwachiisuukeessattikanneenqoodaqaban,MuummichiMinistaraasirnichaa,ajajaanhumnawaraanaa figaafatamaantikaamootummaaWayyaaneegaafatamootahuu hubachiisa.Kanatti dabalees ABOnilmaanOromoohumnawaraanaa fipoolisaakeessattiargaman kanajjeefamaa,hidhamaa fitumamaajiranabbootii,haawwanii fiobboleewwanisaaniitahuuhubatuuntarkaanfiihammeenyaa fidiinummaa fudhatamaajiru kanakeessattiakkaqooda hinfudhanneqofaosoo hintaaneakka duradhaabbatanirra deebi’eewaamicha dhiheessaaf.Ummatni Oromookeessaa fi alajiruammaanboodagidaarattidhiibameefilmaatadhorkamee kanmayiiirraagahuuhubateeharkaawalqabateemirgaisaafalmatuu figumaakanneenwaggaa 22darbanajjeefamaabahanii fiammasgaraalaafinamaleejumulaanajjeefamaajiraniiseeraanistahekaraa danda’amu hundaanakkafalamtuwaamichakeenyacimsineedabarsina.Addattikanneen alajirtansagaleeummata kanadhageessisuufakkasochootani fidirqamasabummaakeessanbaatan waamichagooana.Hawaasni addunyaa, dhaabbattootni mirga namoomaaf dhaabbatanii fi jaarmayootni mirga dimokraasiif falman hundis tarkaanfii mootummaan abbaa irree ummata fayyaaleyyii gaaffii mirgaa fi dimokraasii kaasan irratti fudhataa jiru farra dimokraasii tahuu hubatuun gochaa isaa hatattamaan akka dhaabuuf dhiibbaa barbaachisu akka godhan ABOn hubachiisa. Gochaa kana callisanii ilaaluun gochaa kana eebbisuu keessaa qooda fudhatuu tahuu ABO deddeebisee hubachisa.Injifannoo Ummata Oromoof!Adda Bilisumma Oromoo!
OLF Statement | Ibsa ABO: Massacre of Peaceful Demonstrators- Perpetual Habit of TPLF Regime
#Oromoprotests the following students have been arrested Monday 12th May 2014 morning at Adama University. 1) Fawaz Ahmad Usman.Mechanical, Engineering, 3rd yr 2) Obsa Juwar, Management 2nd yr 3) Lencho (las name unidentified) Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2nd yr.
Their classmates are unable to locate where they were taken after being arrested
36 Oromo Students Arrested by TPLF Ethiopian Regime As Part of Ongoing Violent Crash of the #OromoProtests FDG
Breaking News reaching our desk: an estimated 36 Oromo students have been arrested by the TPLF Ethiopian regime in Haro Limu (Eastern Wallaggaa, Oromia) over the last week. These arrests are in addition to the several hundred others being carried out across Oromia by the TPLF Ethiopian regime to crash the ongoing Oromo Students #OromoProtests FDG Movement.
The Oromo Students #OromoProtests FDG Movement opposes the implementation of the Addis Ababa Master “Genocide” Plan, and demands the institutionalization of the Special Interests of the State of Oromiyaa over Finfinnee as per the Constitution. In addition, as the TPLF Ethiopian regime has resorted to violence to resolve the demands of #OromoProtests FDG, the Movement seeks justice for the slain Oromos and release of those arrested by the TPLF regime.
Godina Iluu Abbaa Booraa, Aanaa Beddellee Magaala BEDDELLEE keessatti mootummaan wayyaanee yeroo ammaa kana barattoota Oromoo baay’ee isaanii badii tokko malee hidhuu fi reebuu itti fufee jira. Guyyaa gaafa kamisa, 01/05/2014 barattoota qabanii hanga ammaatti maatin wal argaa dhorkamani jiran keessa kannen maqaa jaraa bira geenye kan armaan gadiiti.
1. Barataa MANSUUR KAMAAL kutaa 10ffaa Mana barumsaa Ingibii sadarka 2ffaa magaala Beddele ira 2. Barataa MUJAAHID JAMAAL kutaa 12 ffaa mana barumsaa S/2ffaa fi Qophaa’ina magaalaa Beddele irraa 3. Barataa KAMAAL kan jedhamu maqa abba isaa kan nu qaqqabne yo ta’u, kutaa 10ffaa Mana barumsaa Ingibii sadarka 2ffaa magaala Beddele irraa kan baratudha. Kanneen biroo yeroo maqaa isaanii argannu sinii ibsina. QABSOON ITTI FUFA. Qerroo Magaala Beddellee irraa! Post nuf godha. #OromoProtests
#OromoProtests This is horrible! Yesterday (7th May 2014) night (local time reference) two young males are reportedly found dead, Nekemte town, one around the area knows as mirtizer and the other around board. According to an eye witness regarding the later body: today early morning, on the newly constructed cobble stone road taking from board down towards celeleki, in front of Bethel KG school, a body watched by very few people and with no ID card was taken by police who said nothing but drive their car towards where they came from, pocket road towards kuteba!
8th May 201- The following students have been arrested and remain in jail in Galamso (W. Hararge) due to the protest that took place few days ago. They are kept at the ‘karchale’.
#OromoProtests: Over the last several days we have been hearing from observers and officers that Oromia police ( both regular and special) has been disarmed, particular in areas where protest took place. This decision seems to have come following the decision by Oromia police not disperse protesters at Madda Walabu University. Since then Federal police and Agazi forces did not only take over security response but also have been seen in many cities using vehicles marked Oromia Police (Poolisii Oromiyaa). More over, Oromia police commanders are not included in the ‘ Emergency Command Post’ created to suppress and contain the protest. The so called Command Post was first established at regional level now extend to all zones. Representatives of Oromia Police are not found in any of these command posts. The security slot in these Commands are filled with federal police commanders, intelligence officers and military personnel ( More in this soon).
Also note that almost all cases of clashes and use of lethal force happened where federal police/ Agazi special military contingent was deployed. The two pictures show Oromia Police monitoring protest without violence. The other picture show federal police riding in Oromia Police vehicle with heavy machine gun mounted. #OromoProtests– picture of Darartu Abdata, student and head Oromo Students Cultural Association at Dire Dawa University who has been isolated from the rest of the student population and kept incommunicado. Its feared she might subjected to torture and other harm. #OromoProtests Oromo student Wabii Tilahun, 2nd year Afan Oromo student at Ambo University kidnapped by Agazi, his where about is not known. Micaan Kun Wabii Xilahn Jedhama Barata Afan Oromoo Waggaa 2 ffaa Godina Wallagaa Baha Aana limmuu dhufee Umatii Magaala Kana Osoo Ijaa Keessaa Ilaaluu kitabaa isaa 700 Maxxaanfmee Osoo Hin Gurguramiin Hafe Hidha hin hiikamnee jedhuu Waliin Fudhanii Deemaan Hospital Mana Hidha Amboo Keessaa Akkaa Hin Jirreee Biraa Geenyee Jirraa. Essaa Akkaa Busaan ni Wallaallee!!!!! Iyii iyaa dabarsii yaa Ilmaan Oromoo!!! Magarsaa Worku, Oromo student of Haromaya University, kidnapped by Agazi #OromoProtests- OBALAYAAN KOO AKKA GARII HUBADHAA DUBISSAA ! INNII KUNI BARAATAA UNIVERSITY HAROO MAYA DHA TII MAQAAN ISSAA MAGARSSA WORKUU DHAA. GAFAA MORMII DIDAA GARBRUMMAA JALQAABEE SAN ISSAA KANATUU XALAAYAA GAFII HAYYAMAA HIRIRAA BAHUU KAN BARESSEE WAJIRALEE DHIMAA LALCHIFTUU HUNDAA KAN AKKA MOTUMMAA FEDERAL FI MANA CAFEE OROMIYAA FI WAJIRALEE BAHA OROMIYAA POLIS KOMISHIONERA FI WARA ILALCHIISSUU HUNDAA HARKKA ISSAN GALCHEE KAN GAFATEE TAHUU ISSA ISSIINII IBSAA.DUBAA ARAA BARATOOTAA SII FINCILSSISE JECHUU DHAN MIRGA BARATOOTAAF WAAN FALMATEE JECHUU DHAA MOTUUMAAN WAYANEE FARA NAGAYA BORESSITUU JECHUU DHAAN QABANII MANA HIDHAA SHINILE YKN KARSHALE DHIMAA WARA SIYASSA ITII MANA DUKKANA DACHII JALAA GALCHANII KOOBAA ISSA GUYAA MAY 10/2014 GANAMAA MAGALA DIRE DAWATII HIDHAMEE.MAGARSSA WORKU ARAA MANA HIDHA DACHII JALAA SHINELE DIRE DAWA ITII HIDHAA JIRAA.FREE MAGARSSA WORK .NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN ETHIOPIA
#OromoProtests this is Ababa Tilahun, a 2nd yr statistics student who was injured during an explosion at Haromaya University. Doctors at Hiwot Fana Hospital complain that police harassment and interference is hindering provision of proper medical aid to students.Kun Abbabaa Xilaahun, barataa waggaa istaatistiksii waggaa lammafati. Bombii magaalaa Haroomaayatti dhoo’een madaaye. Doktoroonni Hospitaala Hiwoot Faanaa doorsisni poolisootaan nurra gahaa jiru tajaajila fayyaa bifa tasgabbayeen kennuu nu hanqise jedhuun komatu.
Its killings, imprisonment, and all illegal acts of atrocities immediately,
Respect the constitution of the land (article 49/5) and terminate the so called “Integrated Development Addis Ababa Master Plan.”
Respect the rule of law and bring those who committed extrajudicial killings to court
Release all political prisoners, journalists and prisoners of conscience without any prerequisite.
All concerned NGOs are also kindly requested to come to the assistance of the people that become victims of the current siution in the country. 02 May 2014 Addis Ababa Seal: http://ethiomedia.com/16file/4559.html
Statements on the Massacre of Oromo youth by TPLF regime in Ethiopia
(OPride) — Ethiopia is gripped by widespread student demonstrations, which has so far left at least 47 people dead, several injured and hundreds arrested, according to locals.In a statement on April 30, the government put the death toll at 11. About 70 students were seriously wounded in a separate bomb blast at Haramaya University in eastern Oromia on April 29, the statement added.The protests began last month after ethnic Oromo students voiced concerns over a plan by Addis Ababa’s municipal authorities, which aims to expand the city’s borders deep into Oromia state annexing a handful of surrounding towns and villages. Ethiopia’s brutal federal special forces, known as Liyyu police, responded to nonviolent protests harshly, including with live bullets fired at close range at unarmed students. The government’s brutal crackdown swelled the ranks of demonstrators as defiant students turned out around the country expressing their outrage.Ethiopia maintains a tight grip on the free flow of information; journalists are often detained under flimsy charges. Given the difficulty of getting any information out of the country, it is very difficult to fully grasp the extent, prevalence, and background of the latest standoff. Here are ten basic questionsabout the protests:
Who are the Oromo?
The Oromo are Ethiopia’s single largest ethnic group, constituting close to 40 percent of the country’s 94 million population. Despite their numerical majority, the Oromo have historically faced economic, social and political marginalization in Ethiopia. Theoretically, this changed in 1991, when Ethiopia’s ruling party deposed Mengistu Hailemariam’s communist regime. The transitional government set up by a coalition of rebel groups endorsed ethnic federalism as a compromise solution for the country’s traumatic history. The charter, which established the new government, divided the country into nine linguistic-based states, including Oromia — the Oromo homeland. Covering an area of almost 32 percent of the country, Oromia is Ethiopia’s largest state both in terms of landmass and population. Endowed with natural resources, it is sometimes dubbed as “Ethiopia’s breadbasket.” Want to know more? Here is a handy guide: http://www.gadaa.com/thepeople.html
What are the Oromo students protesting exactly?
In a nutshell, the protesters oppose the mass eviction of poor farmers that are bound to follow the territorial expansion of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Addis Ababa is a busy city that’s been rapidly expanding over the last decade — dispossessing and rendering many a poor farmer into beggars and daily laborers.Last month, in an apparent effort to improve the city’s global competitiveness and accommodate its growing middle-class, city officials unveiled what they call an “Integrated Development Master Plan,” which would guide the city’s growth over the next 25 years. But Ethiopia’s constitution places Addis Ababa in a peculiar position where it is at once a federal city and a regional capital for Oromia. While the city’s horizontal growth has always been contentious, this is the first attempt to alter its territorial boundaries.The actions by the authorities raise several disturbing questions. First, how does a jurisdiction annex another constitutionally created jurisdiction without any due process? What does this say about the sanctity of Ethiopia’s federalism? What arrangements were made to mitigate the mass eviction of poor farmers that accompanied previous expansions?Oromo students say the “master plan” is meant to de-Oromonize the city and push Oromo people further into the margins. But there’s also a long history behind it.
The Oromo, original inhabitants of the land, have social, economic and historical ties to the city. Addis Ababa, which they call Finfinne, was conquered through invasion in 19th century. Since its founding, the city grew by leaps and bounds. But the expansion came at the expense of local farmers whose livelihoods and culture was uprooted in the process. At the time of its founding, the city grew “haphazardly” around the imperial palace, residences of other government officials and churches. Later, population and economic growth invited uncontrolled development of high-income, residential areas — still almost without any formal planning. While the encroaching forces of urbanization pushed out many Oromo farmers to surrounding towns and villages, those who remained behind were forced to learn a new language and embrace a city that did not value their existence. The city’s rulers then sought to erase the historical and cultural values of its indigenous people, including through the changing of original Oromo names.
Ethnic Oromo students at various universities around the country sparked the protests. It has now spread to high school and middle schools in the Oromia region. A handful of those killed in the last few days have been identified. Media is a state monopoly in Ethiopia. There is not a single independent media organization — in any platform — covering the state of Oromia. For this and other reasons, we may never know the identity of many of these victims. But thanks to social media, gruesome photographs of some students who sustained severe wounds from beating and gunshots have been circulating around social media. Here are few names and images (view these at your own discretion):http://gadaa.com/oduu/25751/2014/05/02/in-review-photos-from-the-oromoprotests-against-the-addis-ababa-master-plan-and-for-the-rights-of-oromiyaa-over-finfinne
Are the protests related to the recent arrest of bloggers and journalists?
Yes and no.Yes, the struggle for justice and freedom in Ethiopia is intractably intertwined as our common humanity. So long as the ruling party maintains its tight grip on power, the destiny of Ethiopia’s poor — of all shades and political persuasions — is one and the same. Oromo students are being killed and harassed for voicing their concerns. Ethiopian bloggers and journalists are jailed for speaking out against an ever-deepening authoritarianism. As the Martin Luther King once said, regardless of our ethnic and political differences, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This is much closer to home.No, technically because the bloggers were not part of the protests opposing Addis Ababa’s expansion. But we would go on a limb to suggest that they would have been the first to show a moral support and chime in on social media. Their past conducts suggest as much.
But the government says the plan is still open to public consultations
The majority of the 500,000-strong Borana tribe live in Kenya but some also live in Ethiopia and Somalia
Women use clarified butter (ghee) to keep their hair in perfect condition and wear it in elaborate plaits
Girls have the crown of their heads shaved, with the hair only allowed to grow after they marry
Other beliefs include the fear that having your photo taken removes some blood and steals your shadow
They also believe in a single god named Wak, although more are converting to Christianity and Islam
By Ruth Styles for MailOnline
January 24, 2015 (TKG News) Split between Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, the 500,000-strong Borana tribe might be numerous but their fascinating customs and religious beliefs are entirely unique.
A nomadic people, their lives revolve around finding good grazing for their herds of camels and cattle, which combined, provide everything they need to survive in the striking semi-arid scrub land they inhabit.
But while men dominate village life and are in charge of the herds, women play a vital role and are in sole charge of building Borana homes and performing the elaborate dances that signal the birth of a baby.
Dressed in her best: A Borana woman wearing traditional garb made from goat skins. The expensive dresses are now kept only for best
Rules: Many of the Borana’s rules apply to children, including a prohibition on addressing anyone older than themselves by their first name
With so little water to be had, their beauty routine is an unusual one and involves anointing their locks with ghee (clarified butter) to keep hair smooth and shiny.
Girls are given the most striking hairdos and wear the crown of their heads shaved until they marry, at which point the hair is allowed to grow back while the rest is plaited into elaborate designs.
But hair isn’t the only part of life governed by the Borana’s centuries-old laws. The majority of rules apply to children who, for instance, aren’t allowed to call anyone older than themselves by their first names.
Those names are also governed by tribal law and are inspired by the time of day they were born. ‘Boys born in broad daylight are always called Guyo,’ explains photographer Eric Lafforgue who took these incredible pictures.
‘Some are named after a major event, a ceremony (Jil), a rainy season (Rob) or a dry season (Bon). Others are named after weekdays while a few get odd names such as Jaldes (ape), Funnan (nose), Gufu (tree stump) and Luke (lanky long legs).’
Whatever their parents decide to call them, all children are given a place in the social pecking order at birth – and once done, it is rare for it to be changed.
Welcome: The birth of a baby of either gender is marked by a traditional women-only dance which welcomes the infant into the world
Hard work: Women are in sole charge of building Borana homes and since they move four times a year, have to work extremely hard
Elaborate: A woman carries milk in an engraved gourd and shows off a bead ring (left). Right: The chief’s wife is given special jewellery
Shaved: Girls such as this one have the crowns of their heads shaved until marriage. Afterwards, hair grows back and is plaited
Changing times: Traditionally, the Borana believed in a single god called Wak. Now Islam and Christianity are beginning to make inroads
Moving: Many of the young people are leaving the tribe behind for jobs in town, among them this trio who send money home to their families
Screened: Borana women are not allowed to come face-to-face with their son-in-laws. If they do, both must immediately cover their faces
The luckiest are the sons of village chiefs who are placed in the top grade, daballe, at birth and show their status with long locks that make them resemble girls.
As future chiefs themselves, no one is allowed to punish them, even when they misbehave, while their mothers gain an honoured place in society and are frequently asked to bless well-wishers.
These women are also given special jewellery to wear usually made from colourfully beaded leather, enlivened on occasion with recycled Coca-Cola caps.
Those who aren’t married to a chief, although often forced to share a husband, do get some special benefits including being in sole charge of who can and cannot enter their homes – spouses included.
‘A wife always decides who will enter in the house,’ explains Lafforgue. ‘If her husband comes back and finds another man’s spear stuck into the ground outside her house, he cannot go in.’
Women are also in sole charge of raising their daughters and usually insist that they become excellent housewives. Men, when they come to choose a wife, will often judge the girl by her mother, which makes getting it right all the more important.
Older women are honoured as the keepers of tribal lore, although not all of it makes sense to Western ears. ‘Old people are afraid of having their picture taken,’ says Lafforgue. ‘They believe that when you take their photo, you remove their blood and steal their shadow.’
New religion: An increasing number of Borana are becoming Muslim and have adopted Islamic customs such as the headscarf
Respected: Older women are honoured as keepers of village lore while this boy (right) is the son of a chief and can never be punished
Important man: This man is the overseer of one of the Borana’s network of wells. It is taboo to fight over water
Chief: The Borana elect a leader every eight years. The ‘father of the village’ wears a special headdress called a kalacha
Home: Women have the final say on who can enter their homes. If a man finds another man’s spear outside his wife’s hut, he can’t go in
Laborious: Women are tasked with building all the houses, as well as dismantling and rebuilding them when the village moves on
Livelihood: The Borana’s cattle and camels are their most precious possessions and are nearly always cared for by men
Featuring Raya Wollo (Raya Oromo) People: Northernmost Cushitic Oromo People
January 8, 2014 (kwekudee trip down memory lane) — Celebrating our African historical personalities,discoveries, achievements and eras as proud people with rich culture, traditions and enlightenment spanning many years.
The Raya Wollo people, sometimes called Raya Oromo are agricultural and music-loving Cushitic Oromo people but now mixed with small amalgamated Tigre and Amhara bloodlines living in the Debubawi Zone of the current Tigray Regional State at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands in Ethiopia.
Historically, the Raya Wollo (Raya Oromo), with the Yejju Oromo, are the northernmost groups of the Oromo people and are a part of the Wollo Oromo Tribe. Their women especially are known by their distinctive hair-braiding styles and facial tattoos.
The Wollo Oromo (particularly the Raya Oromo and Yejju Oromo) were early Oromo holders of power among the increasingly mixed Ethiopian state. The later north-to-south movement of central power in Ethiopia led to Oromos in Shewa holding power in Ethiopia together with the Shewan Amhara. “In terms of descent, the group that became politically dominant in Shewa – and Subsequently in Ethiopia – was a mixture of Amhara and Oromo; in terms of language, religion and cultural practices, it was Amhara.
Currently, Debubawi Zone/Raya-Azebo woreda (county) is bordered on the south by Alamata, on the southwest by Ofla, on the northwest by Endamehoni, on the north by Hintalo Wajirat, and on the east by the Afar Region. The administrative center of this woreda (county) is Mersa; other town in Raya-Azebo includes Weyra Wuha.
Despite their historic resistance against dominance (read any literature on Ethiopian history, the Raya Oromo revolt given below is mentioned as the first revolt against the Teferi government as early as the late 1920′s and as the predecessor of the Bale Oromo revolt), Raya’s ties with the rest of Oromia have weakened due to years of wars in that part of the region. Today, the challenge should be given to Oromo artists to produce music of the Raya in Afan Oromo; music serves as a cultural ambassador as well as a path to reconnect to one’s historic past (heritage). It’s also paramount that the Oromo Studies Association (OSA) set up a session during its annual meeting to deliberate on the history of Raya Oromo and on ways to bring about the renaissance of Oromummaa in Raya.
Why the name Raya Wollo?
Wollo was an historical region and province in the northeastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Dessie. The province was named after the Wollo Oromo, who settled in this part of Ethiopia in the 17th century. An older name for Wollo is Lakomelza.
Following the invasion by Britain that toppled Italian colonial authority in 1941, the provinces of Amhara Sayint, Azabo, Lasta, Raya Province, Wag, and Yejju were added to Wollo. A number of peasant rebellions rocked Wollo, which included the Woyane rebellion in 1943, and revolts of the Yejju Oromo in 1948 and 1970. With the adoption of the new constitution in 1995, Wollo was divided between the Afar Region, which absorbed the part of the province that extended into the Afar Depression; the Tigray Region, which annexed the northwestern corner; and the Amhara Region, which absorbed the remainder of the province in the Ethiopian highlands.
Northern Marginalization under Shewan Rule
The northern provinces of Gonder, Gojjam, Wollo and Tigray are the heartland of the “core” culture of Ethiopia — the Ethiopian Orthodox church, the Amharic language and script, plow-based agriculture, and many elements of the social system of the country derive from this historic region. Most of the Emperors also came from here.
At the end of the 19th century, the center of power in Ethiopia decisively shifted from the north to Shewa, with the assumption of the title of Emperor by Menelik, King of Shewa. Menelik was an Amhara, from the dynasty that ruled Manz, at the northern tip of the modern province of Shewa. The majority of the inhabitants of the rest of Shewa were Oromo — as is the case today. In terms of descent, the group that became politically dominant in Shewa (and subsequently in Ethiopia) was a mixture of Amhara and Oromo; in terms of language, religion and cultural practices, it was Amhara. The northern Amhara regarded the Shewans as “Galla” (the pejorative term for Oromo), and together with the Tigrayans and some of the Agau and Oromo people in Wollo, resisted the new Shewan domination, which led to their economic and political marginalization.
Revolt in Wollo
Between 1928 and 1930 there was a rebellion — or a series of rebellions — in northern Wollo against Shewan domination. The specific political cause was support for Ras Gugsa Wale, a northern Amhara lord with a strong claim on the throne, against the Shewan Ras Teferi (who crowned himself the Emperor Haile Selassie after defeating the revolt). The government suppression of the revolt led to quartering soldiers with local people, interrupting the salt trade, and involved massive looting and confiscation of cattle. Combined with drought and locusts, the result was famine. Haile Selassie ordered the importation of grain from India to supply Addis Ababa, but there was no relief for north Wollo. Political measures were taken after the revolt, including the replacement of much of the administration, which formerly had local roots, with appointees from Shewa; and the joining of the rebellious districts to the province of southern Wollo, which was ruled with harshness and venality by the crown prince. These helped to contribute to the further marginalization of the area, and the series of famines which plagued the area up to the fall of the Emperor.
The cumulative impact of imperial misrule and the petty tyrannies of local landlords created an atmosphere in which development was extremely difficult, as described by two consultants investigating the possibility of starting livestock projects:
Wollo is virtually impossible … there is such an obscuring weight of disbelief, suspected innuendo and antagonisms; such a mess of mis-government at petty levels, and such a
lading of landlords that there is almost nothing to start with and nowhere to start that
will not go wrong or sour … [there is] the smothering welter of the weeds of an
entrenched and stagnant society.
The Weyane in Tigray
Following the restoration of Haile Selassie after the defeat of the Italians in 1941, there was a revolt in Tigray. Known as the Weyane, this was the most serious internal threat that Haile Selassie faced. An alliance of the Oromo semi-pastoralists of Raya Azebo, disgruntled peasants, and some local feudal lords, under the military leadership of a famous shifta, Haile Mariam Redda, the rebels nearly succeeded in overrunning the whole province.4 British aircraft had to be called in from Aden in order to bomb the rebels to ensure their defeat. While some of the aristocratic leaders, such as Ras Seyoum Mengesha, were treated gently and ultimately allowed to return and administer the recalcitrant province, there were reprisals against the ordinary people. Most notably, the Raya and Azebo Oromo were subjected to wholesale land alienation, and much of their territory was transferred to the province of Wollo. This area was badly hit in subsequent famines, partly as a consequence.
Tax Revolts in Gojjam
Gojjam treasured its independence for centuries, and did not submit willingly to Shewan rule. The issue around which opposition repeatedly coalesced was any attempt by the central government to measure land and tax it. Taxation was not only resented as the imposition of unjust exertions by government, but was feared as the means whereby the traditional land tenure system would be undermined, and the farmers’ independence destroyed.
In the 1940s and ’50s there was a series of attempts to measure land in Gojjam, prior to taxation. In the face of peasant resistance, including violence, all attempts failed. In the early 1960s, only 0.1 per cent of the land had been measured, and Gojjam, one of the richest and most populous provinces, paid less land tax than the poor and thinly populated province of Bale. In 1950/1 there was armed resistance, including a plot to assassinate Haile Selassie. However the most serious revolt occurred in 1968, in response to the most systematic attempt to levy an agricultural income tax to date.
In February 1968, in reaction to the arrival of parties of government officials accompanied by armed police, the peasants of Mota and Bichena districts resorted to armed resistance. After months of stalemate while much of the province remained out of government control, Haile Selassie sent troops to Gojjam in July and August. The air force bombed several villages; it burned houses but its main task was probably intimidating the resistance. Several hundred people died, according to contemporary accounts, but the Gojjamis remained defiant.
Finally, in December, Haile Selassie backed down. He visited Gojjam in 1969, cancelled all tax
arrears, and made no serious attempt to collect the new taxes.
Famines in Wollo and Tigray
In 1974, the Emperor Haile Selassie became notorious for his attempts to conceal the existence of the famine of 1972-3 in Wollo. This, however, was only one in a succession of such incidents. Prof. Mesfin Wolde Mariam of Addis Ababa University has documented how the famines of 1958 and 1966 in Tigray and Wollo were treated with official indifference, bordering on hostility towards the peasants who were considered sufficiently ungrateful for the divinely-sanctioned rule of Haile Selassie as to allow themselves to defame his reputation by dying of famine.
There was severe famine in Tigray in 1958 which went without significant government relief. In 1965/6, reports of famine from Were Ilu awraja in Wollo arrived at the Ministry of the Interior in November 1965, one month after the situation became clear to the local police, but no action was taken. The information took a further 302 days to reach the Emperor, who then requested the Ministry of the Interior to act — which it did by asking officials in Wollo to send a list of the names of the people who had died.6 A small relief distribution was then authorized.
The only consistent response to famine was to regard it as a security problem — famine created destitute migrants, who needed to be prevented from entering towns, particularly Addis Ababa.
Both the 1958 and 1965/6 famines killed tens of thousands of people.
The famine that struck Wollo during 1972-3 played a crucial role in Ethiopian history:
“the revelation of that famine by the British television journalist Jonathan Dimbleby played a key
role in precipitating the downfall of the rule of Haile Selassie. Between 40,000 and 80,000
people died.” The famine also led directly to the creation of the Relief and Rehabilitation
Commission (RRC), the powerful government department mandated to prevent and ameliorate
future famines, and to coordinate international assistance. The 1972-3 famine was the last one
in which there were no functioning mechanisms for the delivery of large-scale humanitarian
relief.
The Wollo famine was popularly blamed on drought, a backward and impoverished
social system, and the cover-up attempted by the imperial government. These factors were all
important — though it must be remembered that specific actions by the government, especially
after the Ras Gugsa and Weyane revolts, were instrumental in creating the absence of
development. In addition, forcible alienation of resources and violence also played an important
role.
The group that suffered most from the famine were the Afar pastoral nomads of the
Danakil desert. Famine had already gripped them in early 1972. The Afar inhabit an arid semi-
wilderness, utilizing pastures over a large area to support their herds. In times of drought, they
are forced to move to areas which they do not normally exploit. Traditional drought reserves
included the Tcheffa Valley, on the rift valley escarpment, and pastures along the inland delta of
the Awash river where the waters dissipate into the desert. In the 1960s the Tcheffa Valley
became the location of commercial sorghum farms, and small farmers from nearby also began
to use much of the land. Meanwhile, large cotton plantations were developed along the Awash.
By 1972, 50,000 hectares of irrigated land had displaced 20,000 Afar pastoralists.
During the years of good rainfall, the loss of the drought reserves was not noticed by the
Afar, but when repeated drought struck, they found that a necessary resource they had utilized
sporadically for generations had been alienated, without compensation. Famine among the Afar
was certainly caused by drought — but by drought acting on a society that had been deprived of
the means of responding to that threat.
Official indifference to the plight of the Afar is illustrated by an incident in 1974, when
the flood waters of the Awash river were directed to the Dubti valley in order to irrigate cotton
plantations. The resident Afar population was not informed, and 3,000 lost their homes, while
100 were “missing.”
Mobility is crucial to survival among the Afar. Nomadic in normal times, the ability to
move freely over large distances becomes a vital concern when resources are short. In the early
1970s, the Afar’s mobility was further restricted by the flow of weaponry to their nomadic
neighbors and competitors, the Issa (who are ethnic Somali). The Issa themselves were
suffering from the alienation of much of their pasture and restrictions on their movement. The
result was an attempt by the Afar to appropriate wells formerly used by the Issa. This led to
widespread armed clashes, especially in 1972. One Afar reported “Many people die. Disease is
the first cause but the Issa are the second.” Meanwhile, a survey done among the Issa reported
that homicide by the Afar was a major cause of death. The famine also resulted in large-scale
armed clashes between the Afar and their Oromo neighbors in Wollo.
The second group which suffered severely from the famine included farmers in a narrow
strip of middle-altitude areas of northern and central Wollo. Those who suffered most were
tenants. The Raya and Azebo Oromo had been reduced to that state by massive land alienation
after they participated in the Weyane revolt against Haile Selassie in 1943. Others were forced
to mortgage or sell their land by the stresses of repeated harvest failures in the early 1970s.
Landlords took advantage of their tenants’ penury by insisting on the payment of large rents,
often in kind. This demand could be backed up by force, as most influential landlords had a
retinue of armed guards. The enforcement of crippling tenancy contracts in time of shortage had
the effect of taking food from the hungry. Thus, during 1973, the famine area exported grain to
the provincial capital, Dessie, and to Addis Ababa.
The famine was much less severe in Tigray province, despite the drought affecting both
provinces. The difference can be largely accounted for by the different modes of land tenure —
in Tigray, most farmers owned their own land; in middle-land Wollo, most were tenants.
Finally, the Emperor Haile Selassie considered that the peasants and nomads of Wollo
were shaming His reputation by starving, and resolved to ignore them. Reports of famine were
consistently ignored or denied. In response to a report by UNICEF documenting famine
conditions in July 1973, the Vice-Minister of Planning retorted: “If we have to describe the
situation in the way you have in order to generate international assistance, then we don’t want
that assistance. The embarrassment to the government isn’t worth it. Is that perfectly clear?”
Though the governor of Wollo, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, was both greedy and
incompetent (at the time of the famine he forced the closure of commercial sorghum farms in
the Tcheffa Valley by engaging in litigation, claiming their ownership), Haile Selassie was
never in ignorance of the conditions in Wollo. A UN official visited him in early 1973 and
found him well-informed — his attitude was that peasants always starve and nothing can be
done, and that in any case it was not the Shewan Amhara who were dying. On belatedly
visiting the province in November 1973, his one remedial action was to announce that all who
had sold or mortgaged their land in the previous year could return and plow it during the coming
season, only leaving it to their creditors afterwards. Even this minimal and tardy gesture was
not enforced.
The 1975 Northern Rebellions
The Wollo famine contributed to the downfall of Haile Selassie, not because the hungry
peasants and nomads revolted and forced him out, but because the issue gained political
currency among the students and middle classes of Addis Ababa. However, that is not to say
that the famine, and more generally the eight decades of political marginalization and economic
stagnation that preceded it, did not have serious consequences at the time of the 1974 revolution
and the years following.
In the early 1970s, “peasant risings in various provinces [were] an even more closely
guarded secret than the famine”. These revolts intensified in during the revolution, with a
series of rebellions led by feudal leaders in each of the northern provinces. In Wollo, there was
a revolt by a feudal lord, Dejazmatch Berhane Maskal. In March 1975, he destroyed an
Ethiopian airlines DC3 at Lalibella. In October, he rallied supporters after a spree of killings of
former landlords by peasants and government security officers. Dej. Berhane’s ill-armed force
of 5,000 was defeated by government militia and air force attacks near Woldiya in December
1975, but he continued to cause problems for the government for years. Another feudal leader,
Gugsa Ambow, had brief military successes in northern Wollo, before the army foiled an
attempt to capture Korem in mid-1976, reportedly causing 1,200 fatalities among Gugsa’s
peasant army and local villagers.18 Other smaller revolts occurred in Gojjam and Shewa.
The most significant rebellion started in Tigray. This was an insurrection led by the
former governor, Ras Mengesha Seyoum (son of the governor at the time of the 1943 Weyane).
Ras Mengesha fled to the hills with about 600 followers in November 1984, when the Dergue
executed 60 officials of the previous regime. Ras Mengesha combined with other members of
the aristocracy, notably General Negga Tegegne (former governor of Gonder) and formed the
Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU) in 1976. They obtained encouragement from western
countries. With Sudanese military assistance, the EDU occupied the towns of Metema, Humera
and Dabat (all in Gonder province) between February and April 1977,19 but was defeated by the
militia force sent to the province in June-July.
The EDU remained active in Tigray, where two other rebel groups were also
operational. The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was set up in February 1975 by a
group of left-wing students and peasants, incorporating the Tigray National Organization,
created three years earlier. Prominent among its early leaders was Berihu Aregawi; later the
front was headed by Meles Zenawi. In 1978, the TPLF set up the Relief Society of Tigray
(REST), headed by Abadi Zemo. It espoused a mix of Tigrayan nationalism and socialist
transformation. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP), after defeat in the urban
Red Terror (see chapter 6), retreated to a base in rural eastern Tigray in mid-1977.
The EDU was rent by divisions between its leaders, and its aristocratic leaders failed to
gain popular support among their erstwhile tenants. Crucially, it suffered defeat at the hands of
the TPLF.20 The EPRP was also defeated by the TPLF and driven into Gonder, creating lasting
bitterness between the two organization.
After the ill-fated Peasants’ March of 1976, the government launched a series of five military offensives in Tigray: November 1976, June 1978, October-November 1978, March-
April 1979 and May-June 1979. Small towns such as Abi Adi changed hands several times. By
1979, REST estimated that 50,000 people in Tigray were displaced on account of war.
Refugees from Tigray and Gonder began to arrive in Sudan in early 1975. By May there were
34,000; by 1978 there were 70,000. In February 1979, the Ethiopian army invaded Sudanese
territory at Jebel Ludgi, forcing the evacuation of the nearby refugee camp of Wad el Hileui.
Dates and Event of Raya Wollo (Raya Oromo) people
1929: Oromo peasants and nomads in Yejju, Raya or Wajerat districts of present southern Tigray and northern Wallo revolted against the rule of Haile Selassie and refused to pay the heavy taxes imposed on them. The government dispatched troops to put down the revolt. The peasants with few arms they possessed were able to defeat the troops and capture a large quantity of arms and ammunition. Additional arms were obtained by the nomads from the Red Sea coast in Tajura.
1929: The Oromo fighters of the revolt in Yejju and Raya controlled a large part of their area and closed the trade route that connected Dasee, the capital of Wallo, to the south. In a battle with the government forces in October 1929, the Oromo fighters captured 2,000 rifles and 12,000 cartridges.
1930: Tafari Makonnen, throne name Haile Sellassie I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God and Emperor of Ethiopia, succeeded Zawditu to the throne.
1930: A large government force, led by the war minister, Mulugeta, arrived in Yejju and Raya regions. The Oromo fighters put up stiff resistance. The Oromo resistance was finally put down, although temporarily, mainly by the use of airplanes. It was the first time airplanes were ever used in a war in the Empire.
1931: The first constitution of Ethiopia was introduced. In this document the term “Abyssinia” was dropped in favor of “Ethiopia,” thereby defining Abyssinians and all the colonized peoples as “Ethiopians.”
1935/1936: Oromo of Raya and Qobbo were fighting Haile Selassie’s army. At one point, on April 3, 1936 near Ashange Lake, they almost trapped Haile Selassie himself fleeing from the Italians. He never put his feet in this area again after that. During the same period, the Oromo guerrillas attacked the retreating Ethiopian army led by Ras Mulugeta and inflicted heavy casualties. They revenged his earlier (1930) aerial attack on them by killing his son; he himself narrowly escaped. One of the reasons for the attack was, the Ethiopian army on its way to the war had looted the property of the Oromo communities.
1943: The Oromo uprising in Raya was temporarily suppressed with the assistance of the British Royal Air Force stationed in Aden. Many of the leaders of the Oromo movement were also implicated in the Woyane revolt in Tigray in 1943.
1947/1948: The Raya Oromo rose up in arms again. Again after they had liberated a large area of their land, the movement was stopped when the British Royal Air Force in Aden, at the request of the Ethiopian regime, bombed the Oromo guerrilla positions
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Decolonising Development:The Political and Cultural Locations of Nationalism and National Self-determination (the Case of Oromia)
Several scholars have argued that national self-determination is a claim for cultural independence and that nationalism in general is based on the right to cultural autonomy, right to a culture. In the Oromo context, national self-determination is about the representation of collective identity and dignity. It is the demand of the Oromo people to govern themselves. Practically, this can be interpreted as let us be governed by people who are like us, people of our nationality or people who accept and respect our value system. For the last hundred years and so, the Oromo nation has suffered from Abyssinian expansionism, social, ecological and economic destruction and continuous and intensive cultural and physical genocide. The Abyssinians and Oromians connections have been the coloniser (refers to the former) and the colonised (refers to the latter) relationships. Contrary to the Ethiopianist discourse, they have not developed a common unifying identity, social and political system. While the Abyssinians feel a sense of glory of their kings, warlords and dictators, the Oromians feel victimisation to these rulers, so they have not emerged a common ancestry, culture and collective memory, which can result in common ‘Ethiopian’ identity. From the perspective of Oromo social construction, the present Ethiopian domination over Oromia is a continuation of what pervious generations of Oromo nation had experienced. Thus, the Oromo people, sees the present political arrangement as illegitimate because it is a rule by the people who have engaged in destroying them. So, they claim not only cultural but also political independence. Oromo nationalism is also very democratic. It follows the UN principles of self-determination for the citizens of Oromia, claiming independence from the tyranny of Ethiopian Empire. The latter has been constructed based on Amhara-Tigre nationalism. The Oromo nationalism also offers democratic solutions to the ethnic minorities in the Ethiopian Empire. Scholars of Oromo studies claim that there is fundamental behavioural, linguistic, ethnic and cultural differences between the Abyssinians (northern) and their subjects (Southern). The Oromo, Sidama, Afar and the Ogaden (Ogaden Somalians) nations, beyond their common Cushitic progeny, they have common experiences of victimisation and illegitimately absorbed by Abyssinian southward expansion. Their collective memory of past experiences and present victimisation are making common identity. This identity is a key to understand politics there and to work together for self-determination, to recover their lost humanity.
For the early version of this article, see Temesgen M. Erena, The Political and Cultural Locations National Self – Determination, Oromia Quarterly, Vol. II, No.2, March 1999; Temesgen, M. Erena, Oromia: The Nation and the Politics of National Self – Determination, Oromia Quarterly, Vol. I, No.2, December 1997, ISSN 1460-1346.
Man knows himself only insofar as he knows the world, and becomes aware of the world only in himself, and of himself only in it. Every new object, well observed, opens a new organ in ourselves.
-Goethe, Maximen und Reflexionen, VI Build therefore your own world. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Introduction
The passions of national freedom and national interest are probably the strongest in the whole political spectrum that characterises the present world. Kellas (1998) holds that it is stronger than the passions aroused by religion, class, individual or group interest. This passion is not all futile, either. In Gellener’s (1983) understanding, nationalism has been considered as essential to the establishment of a modern industrial society. According to Smith (1991), it is ‘the sole vision and rationale of political solidarity.’ For Kellas (1998), it provides legitimacy to the state, and inspires its citizens to feel an emotional attachment towards it. It can be a source of creativity in the arts, and enterprise in the economy. Its power to mobilise political engagement is unrivalled, particularly in the vital activity of nation building. It is intimately linked with the operation of popular democracy. Indeed, the global pattern is a mosaic of political drives, economic interests, linguistic pride, cultural imperatives, psychological needs and nations seeking identity. These factors are manifesting as a powerful staying power in a modern Africa, either. As European colonialism and socialism melted away, the perpetual existence of the backlash against ‘neo-colonial’ colony colonialism and the reviving of national selfdom become more and more significant in social and political dynamics of contemporary multi-ethno-nation African societies. The African experience is motivated by the same aspirations as that of elsewhere. At its root is a need for freedom, dignity, for the right of people of distinct social communities to function freely and independently. In this regard, Oromia represents the case of rejuvenating claim for national freedom and the struggle against more than a century old Abyssinian Empire colonialism in Africa. Oromia is a homeland for an Oromo nation, a group of people with a common culture and value system (seera fi aadaa), language ( Afaan Oromo), political institutions (Gadaa), and historical memories and experiences. Oromia is the single largest, homogeneous and endogenous nation in Africa with a population of 40 to 45 million. Both in terms of territorial and population size, more than two-third’s today’s sovereign states that are making members of UN (United Nations) are smaller than Oromia. The Cushite (see Demie, 1998) Oromo people have inhibited their homeland, Oromia, since pre-history and in antiquity were the agents of humanity’s documented Cushitic civilisation in terms of science, technology, art, political and moral philosophy. The links between the Oromo and the ancient civilisations of Babylon, Cush and Egypt has been discussed in Asfaw Beyene (1992) and John Sorenson (1998) scholarly works. Utilising prodigious evidence from history, philosophy, archaeology and linguistics, Diop (1974 and 1991) confirms that the Cushite Egyptian civilisation was emerged from the Cushite civilisations of North East Africa, particularly, the present day Western Sudan and upper Nile Oromia (also known as Cush or Punt). Indeed, except the name of places, saints and prophets, many of the Old Testament and the Holy Koran moral texts are copies of the Oromo moral codes. The formers are written documents while the latter are orally transmitted. Since the late 1880s the Oromo people have disowned their sovereignty. They disowned their autonomous institutions of governance, culture, education, creativity, business, commerce, etc. Thus, they have been claiming for national self-determination, national-self government and the right to their own state and resist the Abyssinian Empire saver (supremacist’s) nationalism. The Oromians are not only against the quality of Ethiopian Empire governance but also against the philosophy on which it is based: domination, dehumanisation, inequality, double standard, hypocrisy, deceit, exclusion, chauvinism, war institution, rent-seeking, extractive state, conservatism, feudalism, Aste fundamentalism (Aste Tewodros, Aste Yohannis, Aste Menelik, Aste Haile Sellasie), etc. The political goal of national self-determination (national self-government) is asserted in the outlook and attitudes of the Oromo political and social organisations. Of course, the Oromo nationalism, which supports the interests and identity of the Oromo people, is a more subtle, complex and widespread phenomenon than common understanding and observation. It is within this context that we are going to discuss the Oromos’ politics of national self-determination and the search for the national homeland, the demand for reinventing a state of their own in the following sections.
Defining Nation, Nationalism and Self- determination
To define nation and nationalism is as Benjamin Akzin (1964, pp. 7-10) discussed five decades ago, to enter into a terminological jungle in which one easily gets lost. Different scholarly disciplines have their own more or less established and more or less peculiar ways of dealing with nation and nationalism. Ideally, our definition of nation and nationalism should be induced of elements of nationalist ideology. Getting at such a definition has confirmed phenomenally strenuous. Hugh Seton-Watson, an authority in this domain, has deduced that ‘no scientific definition’ of a nation can be concocted. All that we can find to say is that a nation exists when significant number of people in a community consider themselves to form a nation, or behave as if they formed one (Seton-Watson, 1982, p.5).Van den Berghe (1981) defines a nation as a politically conscious ethnic group. Several attempts have been made at making a cardinalist definition of the term, pointing out one or more key cultural variables as defining variables. Among those tried are language, religion, common history/descent, ethnicity/race, statehood and common territory (homeland). For a group of people to be termed a nation, its members typically have to share several of these characteristics, although historically, one criterion may have been predominant (for example, language in Germany, or culture and history in France). In the case of Oromo, common language (Afaan Oromo), common territory (Biyya Oromo, dangaa Oromiyaa or Oromia), common historical experiences (victimisation to Ethiopian Empire rules or Abyssinocracy) are particularly very significant. Stalin made his undertaking in 1913. His definition includes four criteria: the members of a nation live under the same economic conditions, on the same territory, speak the same language, and have similar culture and national character (Seton-Watson, 1982, p.14). Neither Ernest Gellner nor Eric Hobsbawn, two influencials, gave definite definitions of the nation in their major achievements. Indeed, they are very hostile towards what they define as nationalism. ‘…For ever single nationalism which has so far raised its ugly head…’ (Gellner, 1983, p.45), this is a Gellner’s conception and sees the world as naturally divided into nations, each with its own individuality. This implies an acceptance of the nationalist self-perception. There are also other conceptualisations. A social anthropologist, Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1992, p. 220) says ‘a nation is an ethnic group whose leaders have either achieved, or aspire to achieve, a state where its cultural group is hegemonic’, Anthony H. Birch (1989, p.6) considers that a nation is best defined as ‘a society which either governs itself today, or has done so in the past, or has a credible claim to do so in the not-too- distant future. Kellas (1998) defines the nation as a group of people who feel themselves to be a community bound together by ties of history, culture and common ancestry. Nations have ‘objective’ characteristics, which may include a territory, a language, a religion, or common descent, and ‘subjective’ characteristics, essentially a people’s awareness of its nationality and affection for it. In the last resort it is ‘the supreme loyalty’ for people who are prepared to die for their nation. The definition of ‘nation’ which we will make use of in the following is one suggested by Anthony D. Smith (1983,pp. 27-109, 1991, p. 14; 1995); a definition mastering well the ‘sounding board’ dimension. Smith here defines a nation as ‘a named human population sharing a historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members. A recent definition of Smith holds nationalism, one manifestation of national-self-determination, as ‘an ideological movement for attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity on behalf of a population deemed by some of its members to constitute an actual or potential ‘nation’ (Smith, 1991, p. 73; 1995). For Smith nationalism has a deep ethnic roots and rejuvenates itself in response to global and domestic impulses. While the phenomenon of globalisation and technocratic culture are there, nationalism is an eternal nature and nourishes and propels itself on technocratic innovations. In this context, national self-determination may be defined as many part aspirations of a nation: To be free to freely determine one’s own national identity, culture, including language, education, religion, and form of government, to be free of rule by another ‘nation’, that is to overcome social and political systems of domination and exclusion in which nations other than one’s own wield predominant power. To be free to select its own form of government; and those governed within it have the right of unflagging consent.
Culture and the Politics of Self-determination
Nation, nationalism and national self-determination are commanding attentions. One of the perennial issues within nationalism is whether national self-determination can stand alone, or whether it requires a ‘qualifier’ from within cultural or political ideas or both to clarify its precise cultural and political location. Several scholars have argued that national self-determination is a claim for cultural independence and that nationalism in general is based on the right to cultural independence and that nationalism is based on the right to a culture. Nielson, for example, peers a nation as groups of people whom ‘perceive themselves as having a distinct culture and traditions’, and Tamir presents that a nation is a community in which individuals develop their culture, and they therefore regard their place within a nation as membership in a cultural group. Indeed, she argues that ‘the right to national-self determination stakes a cultural rather than a political claim, namely, it is the right to preserve the existence of a nation as a distinct cultural entity.’ Will the people who demand national self-determination be satisfied with such an arrangement? Tamir gives credence to that the idea of basing the right to self-determination on the right to a culture is the one that has best conformity with a liberal internationalist viewpoint. That is thinkable, but international liberalism is incompetent on this particular matter. A nationalism, which is based on culture and cultural distinctions, was not very long a go. It is a concept that characteristic the thesis of right wing, or romantic theorists such as Herder. Indeed, Herder’s nationalism was not political, and it distrusted a state as something external, mechanical, not emerging spontaneously from the life of the people. Nevertheless, in the Oromo context the claim for national self-determination is a political rather than a cultural one. If we look at the distinction between the two, it would seem that the claim for national self-determination involves more than a demand to be tolerated while the cultural question is. For example, the Catalan’s and Quebecois’ culture and identity have been tolerated and respected to some extent, and yet many of them thought that this did not reflect a situation of self-determination. Indeed, meeting their claim would involve legislation and redefinition of institutions within the state, and perhaps even a new state. In the Oromo case the demand is actually the claim to have control over their lives. This does not mean over every individual’s private life, but over the public aspect of one’s existence, i.e. the system of mutual relationships, which reflect and sustain one’s membership of a certain collective. Here the self is conceptualised within the context of community, but one that has to be real, actual, and functioning and performing. Otherwise these communal ties are too abstract, which makes it impossible for the self to be defined by them. The statement of Cohen has to be recalled: ‘A person does not only need to develop and enjoy his powers. He needs to know who he is, and how his identity connects him with particular others. He must… find something outside himself which he did not create… He must be able to identify himself with some part of objective social reality’ (Cohen, 1988). Moreover, self-realisation, however, cannot be merely a mental situation; thus this community cannot be only cultural. It must be a political situation at least so that, in order for the Oromo people to realise themselves, they must not be dependent on the goodwill of a second party. They then must be certain that their self-realisation in all spheres of life will not be prevented by the Abyssinian government, the TPLF, the Orthodox Church, and so forth. They should therefore be politically active and watch such institutions carefully. In addition, they must participate in politics in order to decide collectively upon public matters, which influence their self-realisation. So the Oromos claim for national-self determination is about the realisation of their potential status, ability and collective character, which may be achieved only through participation in autonomous political institutions. But for more than a century Oromos have been denied access to these institutions, either officially or in practice. In other words, if Oromos as a nation achieve self-determination they will better able to participate, better represented, better able to deliberate, gain much more control over their life than formerly and more autonomous. The Oromos demand for national self-determination thus, aims at establishing those institutions, which are needed for the realisation of the self-determination. When an Oromo demands national self-determination, he/she is not asserting that he/she would like to control his/her private life, e.g. his/her job, his/her shopping activities, his/her love affairs. Many Oromos do not control these aspects of their lives and yet nevertheless demand national self-determination. But the same principle also applies to cultural life. The Oromos may be allowed more-or-less to use their language, have their own newspapers and theatre, and the freedom of worship, etc. which are making cultural freedom. Actually, these rights are hardly exist at present. But when they claim national self-determination they are not only referring to these aspects of life, as political community: they want to be able to form and choose among and vote for the Oromo political parties, to observe the Oromo constitutional laws, to pay taxes to an Oromo authority, and to have a history (and indeed, myth) of independent Oromo state, from which their identity and self-determination can derive. Thus, the Oromo’s Declaration for Independence will emphasise parliamentary participation and the need to form a constitution, rather than cultural activities. In general the Oromos demand for national self-determination entails that the individuals in this nation should be citizens, engaged in politics as members of a community committed to the realisation of certain (their own) common goods, rather than participating as individuals who seek their self-interests, as it is implied by the right- to- culture school of thought and Liberal Internationalists. Perhaps for this reason Margalit and Halbertal revise the right-to- culture argument, arguing that the right is to a certain culture rather than to culture. A certain culture, then, becomes a common good. And yet, this is not enough, because they still regard the common good in cultural rather than political terms: ‘shared values and symbols… are meant to serve as the focus for citizens’ identification with the state, as well as the sources of their willingness to defend it even at the risk of their lives (Margalit and Halbertal, 1994). Why, then, do theories adhere to the culture discourse? Of course, for most of the Western theorists, the term national self-determination is affiliated to the strive to become part of humanity, to regain the human condition of autonomy; it is adjoined to the struggle to be part of the free world, of the more progressive forces; it is seen as decolonisation, as civilisation, as an attempt made to become part of the world of liberty, rights, and justice. But, it is seen as part of centrifugal forces, from the centre to the global, universalism or what Lane (1974) calls as ‘total situation’ or citizenship based on individual freedom and social justice. These theorists, therefore, universalise the notion of national self-determination: they make it part of liberalism. The liberals’ universal approach tends to be uniformist. This makes a society rootless and a citizen far removed from those who control his/her destiny. On the other hand, the notion as it is put forward and used by the Oromos that the demand for national self-determination is also centripetal, from the global and the greater units to the smaller ones. These groups demand the disengagement from the ‘other’, the global, the colonist, even from other humanity, by asserting that ‘we are not merely the essential equal and part of humanity, but rather we are also different and distinct: we have our own political identity, which we want to preserve, sustain, and establish institutionally, like the Scottish vision in multi-nation state Europe. This is the language of liberation from colonisation. It is also the language of particularisation within the universal or the global, and it seems that the uniformist approach is not sensitive enough to the real Oromos problems. Thus, the Oromos quest for self-determination involves the ultimate goal of particularism (its own unique space), reinventing the Oromia State, owning the national homeland. Of course, in a heterogeneous society of the Ethiopian Empire, though uniformity may simplify system of control, social justice will not be attained in one vast monolithic block of oppressed by colonial legislation, bureaucrats and its armies. An important work of Professor Asafa Jalata, an authority in the study of Oromo nationalism kindly quoted as’ The Oromo question involves both colonialism and ethno nationalism. Ethiopian colonialism has been imposed by global capitalism on the Oromo nation. Ethiopians, both Amharas and Tigrayans, through establishing settler colonialism in Oromia, have systematically killed millions of Oromo and expropriated their lands and other resources from the last decades of the nineteenth century until today. Ethiopian colonialists already destroyed the people called Agaw by taking their lands, systematically killing them, and assimilating the survivors. They attempt to do the same thing to the Oromo by destroying the Oromo national movement, confiscating Oromo lands, and forcing the remaining Oromo into ‘settlement villages’ or (reservations). Many times, some Oromo organisations attempted to democratize Ethiopia so that the Oromo would achieve equal citizenship rights and maintain their ethno cultural identity. Determined to maintain their colonial domination and to destroy the Oromo cultural personality through ethnocide or assimilation, Ethiopian colonialists destroyed or suppressed those Oromo political forces that attempted to transform Ethiopia into a multinational democratic society. Therefore, most Oromos are convinced that their rights and freedom cannot be obtained and respected without creating their own state, or state that they can create as equal partners with other ethno national groups interested in forming a multinational democratic society to promote ethno cultural diversity and human freedom. Hence, Oromo nationalism is an ideology of the subjugated Oromo who seek human rights, freedom, justice, and democracy’ (Jalata, 1997). In fact social justice can be attained when and only when the oppressed majority able to rule its homeland. The Oromos work for national self-determination is the great humanist and historical task in terms of Freire (1993) argument ‘To liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves. Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both. Any ‘attempt to soften the power of the oppressor in difference to the weakness of the oppressed almost always manifest itself in the form of false generosity; indeed, the attempt never goes beyond this.’ In this context, for Oromos in order to have the continued opportunity to express their ‘generosity,’ the Habasha colonist must perpetuate injustice, too. Tyranny is the permanent fount of this ‘generosity,’ that sustains at the price of death, dehumanisation, despair and poverty. ‘True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.’ (Freire, 1993). For further discussions on Oromo nationalism, universalism, globalism, Ethiopianist discourses and Oromo Nationalism, see Sorenson (1998) and Sisai Ibssa (1998).
Concluding Thoughts
Man as a social animal always seeks his own territory and belongings to a social group in which his identity and sense of community is observed and respected. In the defence of the cause for social justice and social ecology, these are basic tenets to backlash against the danger of the rhetoric of universalism, polyarchy and false perspectives of social uniformity, which appear to appreciate the social problems from a single privileged point. Georg Hegel, The Phenomenology of Mind ( New York, 1967 edition), in his famous philosophical discussion of the relationship between ‘lordship and bondage’ maintained that a single consciousness could know itself only through another, even in a condition of totally unequal power relationship. According to this philosophical model, the lord (the oppressor) is lord only through the relationship with a bondservant (the oppressed, the one whose humanity is stolen). In the relationship, however, the other is annulled. The self of the mastery, the lord, derives from the conquest and negation of the servant, the bond. Only recognition of the selfhood of the other permits for its annulations. Thus, lordship covertly recognises the separate identity of the dominated. They are normally equal selves locked into unequal hierarchy. Metaphorically, Hegel’s dialectics of lordship and bondage is very important to understand the Ethiopian domination over Oromia. However, in the Ethiopianist discourse, the essential equality of the selves has been escaped totally. Rather, the persisting hierarchy has taken for granted. According to Sorenson (1998), Ethiopianist scholars like Clapham, Sven Rubenson and Levine because of their attachment to one version of the Ethiopian past and present make them either or unwilling to engage with the full complexity of the problem. From this point of view, to accept the unchanging polarity of Ethiopia and Oromia in the lordship-bondage relationship is to succumb to a structure of Ethiopian aggression and colonialism. The Oromians demand for national self-determination is, however, the civilised step out of the polarity upon which the coercive hierarchy relies, it is the collective political demand, as its main purpose is to achieve the good of the social whole, humanisation, the essential liberation of the Oromo national identity, dignity and the reinvention of Oromia as a sovereign state. The Abyssinian occupation of Oromia, the existence of the Abyssinian Rule, war-lordism and their armies in Oromia and the making of Finfinnee their garrison station, the centre of their crowds is not only an act of conquest, aggression and colonialism but also, from Oromo perspective, such elements are symbols of bondage and slavery that negate the Oromo selfhood as equal essential. For the last over hundred years, the Oromo nation has disowned selfhood, its own state or administration, and lived as a bondage of Abyssinia. The Abyssinian administration which has undermined the Oromo national traditions, exploited it economically, and maintained order through mechanical and repressive means- such a nation actually must seek national self-determination to foster within its politics, to bring dignity, justice, freedom and democracy and to survival as essential equal, as a nation and as part of humanity and its civilisation. It is necessary for Oromians to build the world of their own, a world which make them capable to sustain as a group of human people. They must able to liberate themselves and the violent, the oppressor too. In this context, the Oromo issue is a test case to the deceptive ‘democracy world-wide’ which is being advocated in the USA foreign policy and manipulated by the neo-nafxanyas (see Ibssa, 1998). It is a challenge to contemporary theories of democracy and polyarchy (Robinson, 1997) and actors of post cold war Ethiopian politics who simply take for granted that the boundaries and powers of political community in the ‘Horn’ have already been settled. Thanks to the dedicated works of human rights activists, particularly the OSG (the Oromia Support Group) and its UK based publication, Sagalee Haaraa, we have been well informed on plights of human population and their environment in the entire region. We are interested to recommend this publication to all actors of the region. In this context, we are confident to say that Ethiopian democracy rhetoric or federalism sham politics is nothing more than a fig leaf, covering up the continuation of an extraction of the ‘politics of the belly’, in terms of Bayart (1993) from ‘prudish eye of the West.’ Its democratic rhetoric is a new type of rent seeking (extracting economic rent). By making believe, it enables the collection of international aid that includes diplomatic, military and humanitarian. It enables the seizure of the resources of the modern economy for the benefit of the Tigrayan elites. The situation is not in democracy’s favour, rather it is a situation that the Tyranny is retaining control over the security forces, economic rents and the support of the West. Such manipulation is not new for Africa. Menilik, Haile sellassie, Mengistu, Mobutu, Biya, Senghor and Diouf did the same thing either in Ethiopia or elsewhere in the continent at one time or another. The Quote from Bayart’s (1993) African analyis comes to our mind ‘…The support of western powers and multilateral institutions of Bretton Woods and the Vatcan, who despite having waved the flag of democratic conditionality and respect for human rights, have not dared to pursue such sentiments to their logical conclusion and have continued to think in terms of ‘Mobutu or Chaos’ where Gorbachev given up saying ‘Ceaucescu or chaos’…’. Indeed, very recently, we have read the deceptive descriptions to neo-Mobutu, neo-Mengistu, etc.: democratic, new generation, confident and pragmatic, etc. Sadly, everything changes so that everything stays the same. Nevertheless, the oppressed Oromos are not passive objects, either. They have not allowed themselves to be ‘captured’, as in the past they have demonstrated their historical ability to resist dehumanisation, despair and poverty, and predictably will continue to resist until the justice will come to them. An everyday Oromo coins the following: ‘Victory to the Oromo people! Oromia shall be free!’ We feel moral and social responsibility to support the just cause of fellow humanity.
Listen to Oromo Voice Radio (OVR) Broadcast Afaan Oromo interviews with Dr. Almayayyoo Birru on topic of Self-determination:
‘External self-determination, in particular, seems to carry dual meaning. On the one hand it is taken to mean full independent statehood, while on the other hand it is taken to mean external recognition by other states within the
international community.’
HRLHA Holds Public Meetings with Oromo Community Members
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) held, over the past three weeks, public meetings with members of Oromo Communities in four cities of Canada and discussed human rights issues in the Horn of Africa in general and in Ethiopia in Particular. The Oromo communities involved were those of Toronto/Ontario, Edmonton & Calgary/Alberta and Winnipeg/Manitoba; and the major topic of discussion at all the four public meetings was the unabated gross human rights violations by the different regimes of the Ethiopian Government for over a century, with particular focus on what have been happening in the past twenty years under the current TPLF/EPRDF government.
Toronto:
The public gathering in Toronto was held on December 13, 2014 at the office of Oromo Canadian community Association. At the gathering, HRLHA Executive Director Mr. Garoma B. Wakessa explained in his presentation “the gross and Systematic violations of human rights against Oromo nation and other nationals in Ethiopia in the past and at present”by different governments that ruled the country. Extra judicial killings, mass arrests and detentions, kidnappings and disappearances, and tortures under the present government in particular have been discussed in details.
Besides, Mr. Tesfaye Dheressa Kumsa, Director of Investigations and Dissemination with HRLHA, who did a presentation on “Land Grabs and Evictions as a Cultural Genocide”, explained how forced displacements of the Oromos and others from their farm lands and the resultant detachments and disconnections from traditional rural lives have been causing destructions of precious cultural assets, values, and wisdoms from which the societies have been benefiting generation after generation.
The HRLHA presenters explained that they are working with other civil society organizations to bring the perpetrators to justice and urged all human rights advocates to stand together in this regard.
Edmonton and Calgary:
On December 20 and 21, 2014, similar public meetings were held in Edmonton and Calgary/Alberta respectively, and many Oroms participated and discussed human rights violation issues in Oromia and Other regions in Ethiopia.
At the gathering, HRLHA Executive Director Mr. Garoma B. Wakessa presented “the gross and Systematic violations of human rights against Oromo nation and other nationals in Ethiopia in the past and at present” by different governments that ruled the country.
Extra judicial killings, mass arrests and detentions, kidnappings and disappearances, and tortures under the present government in particular have been discussed in details. The participants have actively participated in discussion by giving their perspectives on the continuous gross human right violations by EPRDF government of Ethiopia against Oromo young generation in particular. At the end of the meeting, the consensus has been reached that the perpetrators should be brought to justice for genocide they had committed and also Oromos must pay all necessary sacrifices to resist the evil action of the EPRDF Government to save Oromo nation from more victimizing.
Winnipeg/Manitoba:
On Dec 27, similar meeting was held in Winnipeg/Manitoba and many Oromos participated and discussed human rights violation issues in Oromia and Other regions in Ethiopia.
Winnipeg
Extra judicial killings, mass arrests and detentions, kidnappings and disappearances, and tortures under the present government in particular have been discussed in details. After many hours’ explanations and discussions on genocide the EPRDF government has committed against Oromo nationals and others, the consensus has been reached that the perpetrators should be brought to justice for genocide they had committed and also Oromos must pay all necessary sacrifices to resist the evil action of the EPRDF Government to save Oromo nation from more victimizing.
During the discussions at four meetings held, it has been concluded that, by committing such well documented human atrocity, the Ethiopian government has violated the constitution of the land, regional, and International human rights treaties it has signed and ratified. The continued gross human right violations in Oromia, Ogadenian and Gambela regions in the past twenty three years by the EPRDF Government were/are intentionally committed genocides and crimes against humanity. For its deliberate actions of killings, torturing and disappearing its citizens, the EPRDF Government should be accountable. For the heinous human atrocity of EPRDF government against Oromo, Ogaden and Gambela people there are credible documents and proofs to hold the EPRDF Government accountable for its criminal actions and to bring the perpetrators to justice. The participants raised several questions on the possibilities of bringing the government to justice and all possibilities were explained by the presenters.
Finally Oromo participants of the four meetings thanked all HRLHA members for their commitment of defending human rights and promised to support HRLHA financially to make the organization stronger. HRLHA chapter organization was created during the meetings to help the organization’s more involvement in the communities.
Sof Umar Wall, Bale Oromia (Ancient and magnificent past and present)
Parts of ancient kemetic (Kushitic), Egyptian, material culture (fashion accessories), courtesy of British Museum sources
Traditionally, Oromo women wear necklaces with telsum amulets, triangular and crescent shaped pendants protect from the evil eye and attract the power of the moon or to improve fertility.
Oromia: The continuity of farming in Oromo society from ancient Kemetic (Kushitic) to present Oromia
Ancient Oromo culture, Irreechaa from the time before the Pyramid
As some indeed suspect, that the science which we see at the dawn of recorded history, was not science at its dawn, but represents the remnants of the science of some great and as yet untraced civilisation. Where, however, is the seat of that civilisation to be located? (J. W. S. Sewell, 1942)
Conquest and dominations are social phenomenon as are dying elsewhere will die in Oromia (Author’s Remark).
JEL: O5, D2
Oromia: Untwist the Twisted History
The topic is about Oromia’s location in space and allocation in humanity and society. It is concerned with Oromia’s physical position in terms of geography and relational to issues of economic conditions, social justices, cultural values, political history and destiny. Civilisation, Colonisation and Underdevelopment are presented in historical and geo-political perspectives. They capture both the space and time perceptions. They are also representing the economic and social conditions and positions. The portrayal we procure the present of the Oromo nation, the core of the Cush (Cushite/ Kemet)/Ham (Hamite), the children of Noah, in North & East Africa in past age from the phantom of the Solomonic dynasty, the history thought in Abyssinian high schools, their text books and elsewhere in the invaders’ literature, abusive literary and oral discourses is that they were savages and that, though Abyssinians and Europeans overrun their lands and have made mere subjects of them, they have been in a way, bestowing a great favour on them, since they have brought to them the benisons of Christian Enlightenment. With objective analysis, however, this paper obliterates and unmakes that inaccurate illustration, wanton falsifications, immorality, intellectual swindle, sham, mischievous tales, the bent and the parable of human reductionism. Hence, it is the step to delineate an authentic portrait of a human heritage, which is infinitely rich, beautiful, colourful, and varied in the retrograde of orthodox misconceptions. The paper is not only a disinclination itself but also a call for and a provocation of the new generation of historians to critically scrutinise and reinvestigate the orthodox approaches to the Oromo history and then to expose a large number of abusive scholarship authorities on the Oromo and Cushitic studies and it detects that they do not really know the intensity and profoundness of the history of these black African people and nations and the performance these Africans registered in the process of creating, making and shaping the prime civilisations of human societies. The study acknowledges and advances a strict contest to an orthodox scholarship’s rendition of Egypt as a white civilisation, which arose during the nineteenth century to fortify and intensify European imperialism and racism. Depending on massive evidences from concerned intellectual works from linguistic to archaeology, from history to philosophy, the study authenticates that Egypt was a Cushitic civilisation and that Cushite civilisation was the authentic offspring of the splendid Upper Nile/ Oromian legacy. The Greek civilisation, which has been long unveiled as the birthplace of Western philosophy and thought, owes its roots to the Cushites thoughts and achievements. The original works of Asfaw Beyene (1992) and F. Demie (inOromia Quarterly, 1998 & 2000) are giving motivations and also greatly acknowledged. The study also expresses that radical thinkers and multi-genius African historians such as Diop (1991) have not given due attention to the epic centre of Cushitic civilisation, Oromia, the land after and Eastern and South Eastern to Nubia, pre-Aksum central Cush, Aksumite Cush and Cushites civilisation southern to Aksum, etc. The method of enquiry is qualitative and the eclectics of formal and the informal sources, rigorous, casual and careful scholarship argument. Oral history and written documents on history, economy, sociology, archaeology, geography, cosmology and anthropology are based on as references. The paper studies the Oromo history and civilisation in horizontal approach and challenges the reductionist and Ethiopianist (colonialist, racist) vertical approach (topsy-turvy, cookkoo). It goes beyond the Oromo Oral sources (burqaa mit-katabbii) and Africanist recorded studies and western civilisational studies. The approach is to magnify, illuminate and clarify the originality of humanity and civilisation to this magnificent Cushitic (African) beauty. The Origin of Humanity When and where did human life first surface on our cosmos? Who contrived the original and prime human culture and civilisation? Ancient Egyptians contended that it was in their homeland, the oldest in the world, the God modelled the first of all human beings out of a handful of ooze soddened by the vivacity of the life giving sanctified and blessed water, the Nile (see, Jackson, 1995). “The ancient Egyptians called the river Ar or Aur (Coptic: Iaro), “Black,” in allusion to the colour of the sediments carried by the river when it is in flood. Nile mud is black enough to have given the land itself its oldest name, Kem or Kemi, which also means “black” and signifies darkness. In The Odyssey, the epic poem written by the Greek poet Homer (7th century bce), Aigyptos is the name of the Nile (masculine) as well as the country of Egypt (feminine) through which it flows. The Nile in Egypt and Sudan is now called Al-Nīl, Al-Baḥr, and Baḥr Al-Nīl or Nahr Al-Nīl.”http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/415347/Nile-RiverAr or Aur (Coptic: Iaro) is Booruu in modern Afaan Oromo which means turbid in English translations. Lagdi Nayili jedhamee amma waamamu maqaan kun kan akkanatti moggaasameefi, bowwaa jechuudha. Warri kushii, warri biyyaa, waarri durii laga isaanii Aur (Ooruu) jedhanii waamu. Afaan Oromoo amma uni dubbannuutti booruu jechuudha. Booruu (turbid) jechuuni gurri’aacha (Kami) jechuu miti. Booruu (Ooruu, Aur) jechuun kan taliila hin taane kan hin calaliini jechuudha. Dameen laga kanaa kan Moromor (dhidheessa) irraa maddu galaana biroo itti burqan dabalatee biyyoo loolan haramaniin waan booraweef. kaartumitti yoo damee isa (isa taliila) garba Viktooriyaati karaa Ugaanda dhufutti makamu kanasi booressee misiriitti godaana. Dameen Garba Viktooriyaati dhufu iyyuu adii (white) jedhamee mogga’uuni irra hin turre. Bishaani adiini hin jiru. Bishaani hin boora’iini bishaan taliila. Bishaani taliilatu bishaan guri’aacha. Inni ‘Blue’ jedhanisi ‘Blue’ mitti. Bishaan taliilatu, gurri’aacha ‘Blue’ dha. ‘Blue Nile’ jechuu irra ‘Brown’ Nile (Mormor Booruu, Ar, Aur) yoo jedhani ille itti dhiyaata.
The word (Africa) Afrika itself derived from kemetic (Oromo) language. In Oromo, one of the ancient black people (kemet), Afur means four. Ka (Qa, Waqa) means god. Afrika Means the four children of god. It describes the four sub groups of kemet people. Such type of naming system is very common in Oromo even today such as Afran Qallo, Shanan Gibee, Salgan Boorana, Macca Shan, Jimma Afur, Sadan Soddoo, etc. For other theories in this topic please refer to http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/09/23/9-theories-africa-got-name/
One of the oldest Cushites histories to account for the origin and early development of man and his culture survives in a Greek version of the thesis advanced by the ancient Cushites, Oromians and the rest. This marvellous people paraded in golden times in the region called Kush (Punt) in the Hebrew Scriptures and stamped on the present-day upper Nile Oromia (see, Jackson, 1995). Diodorus Siculus, wrote that the Cushites were of the opinion that their country was not only the birthplace of human race and the cradle land of the world’s earliest civilisation, but, indeed, the primal Eden where living things first appeared on Earth, as reported by the Scriptures. Thus, Diodorus was the first European to focus attention on the Cushites asseveration that Upper Nile (Oromia) is the cradle land of world’s earliest civilisation, the original Eden of the human race. Whether by almighty (God) or nature/ evolution (Darwin’s natural selection and survival of the fittest), Oromia was not only the birth place of man himself (e.g., Lucy) but also for many hundred years thereafter is in the vanguard of all world progress (see Diop, 1991 in his African Civilisation; Martin Bernal, 1987). These are also authenticated by the present archaeological inferences in Oromo tropical fields and rivers valleys. The original natives of Egypt, both in old and in the latter ages of development, were Cushite and there is every raison d’être for the discourse that the earliest settlers came from upper Nile Oromia. The original homeland of the Oromians and other Cushites including Chadic, Berber, Egyptian, Beja, Central Cushitic, East Cushitic, South Cushitic, Omotic and Nilotic was the present day upper Nile Oromia. It was from the original Oromo (Madda Walaabu) that the rest of humanity descended diffused to other parts of the world. This can be understood in the analogue of the diffusion of two Oromo families (Borana and Barentuma). While those who expanded to other regions latter taken new family names like Macha, Tulama, Karayyu, etc and those who stayed in original place kept the original name such as Borana. In terms of linguistic, like most scholars, we believe that it is impossible to judge between the theories of monogenesis and polygenesis for human, though the inclination is towards the former. On the other hand, recent work by a small but increasing number of scholars has convinced us that there is a genetic relationship between European, Asian, and African and Cushite languages. A language family originates from a single dialect, proto Cushitic/ Oromo. From such language and culture that must have broken up into Africa, Asiatic, and European and within them a very long time a go. Professor Bernal (1987, in Black Athena, p. 11) confirmed that the unchallenged originality of Oromians and other Cushites nativity to the region and put forward that the latest possibility for initial language break up would be the Mousterian period, 50- 30,000 years Before the Present (BP), however, it may well have much earlier. He further observed that the expansion and proliferation of Cushitic and other Afroasiatic as the promulgation of a culture long pioneered in the East African Rift valley (South Eastern Oromian) at the end of the last Ice Age in the 10th and 9th millennia BC. According to Bernal (1987, p.11) the polar ice caps caged the water within itself, which was during the Ice ages, thus water was significantly less than it is nowadays. He reports that the Sahara and Arabian deserts were even bigger and more inhospitable then than they are presently. In the centuries that ensued, with the rise of heat and increase in the rainfall, greatly the regions became savannah, into which adjoining peoples voyaged. The most successful of these were, the speakers of Proto-Afroasiatic from upper Nile Oromia. Bernal further confirmed that these people not only possessed flourishing and effective skills and techniques of hippopotamus hunting with harpoons but also had domesticated cattle and food crops. The following is quoted from Black Athena: ‘Going through the savannah, the Chadic speakers renched lake Chad, the Berbers, the Maghreb, and the Proto-Egyptians, upper Egypt…. With long-term desiccation of the Sahara during the 7th and 6th millennia BC, there were movements into the Egyptian Nile Valley from the west and east as well as from the Sudan. … A similar migration took place from the Arabian savannah into lower Mesopotamia ‘(Bernal, pp.11-12).
The Origin of Civilisation
There are many things in the manners and customs and religions of the historic Egyptians that suggest that the original home of their human ancestors was in the Upper Nile region and the biblical land of Punt/ Kush (Cush) Or Oromia which include the present day of Cushitic North and East of Africa. Hence, historical records showed that the antiquity of upper Nile Cushitic Oromian civilisation had a direct link with the civilisation of ancient Egypt, Babylonian and Greece. Hence, the Egyptian and Babylonian civilisations are part and parcel of the entire Cushite civilisation. As it is described above, there is wide understanding that Cushites = Egyptians + Babylon + Oromo+ Agau + Somalis + Afars + Sidama + Neolithic Cush + other Cush. There is also an understanding that all the Cushites are branched out (descended) from their original father Oromo which can be described as Oromo = Noah=Ham= Cush= Egyptian + Bablyon+ Agau + Somali + Afar + Sidama + Neolithic Cush + other Cush. Boran and Barentuma, the two senior children and brothers were not the only children of the Oromo. Sidama, Somali, Agau, Afar and the others were children of the big family. Wolayita and the Nilotics were among the extended family and generations of the Cushite. As a hydro-tower of Africa, the present Oromia is naturally gifted and the source of Great African rivers and hosts the bank and valleys of the greatest and oldest civilisations such as Nile (Abbaya), Baro (Sobat), Gibe, Wabe, Dhidhesa, Ganale, Wabi-shebele, Omo, and Awash among others. Oromian tropical land, equatorial forest and Savannah have been the most hospitable ecology on the earth and conducive environment to life and all forms of human economic and social practices. According to Clarke (1995), many of the leading antiquarians of the time, based largely on the strength of what the classical authors, particularly Diodorus Siculus and Stephanus of Nabatea (Byzantium after Roman colonisation and Christianisation), had to say on the matter, were exponents of the vista that the Cushite, the ancient race in Africa, the Near East and the Middle East, or at any rate, the black people of remote antiquity were the earliest of all civilised peoples and that the first civilised inhabitants of ancient Egypt were members of what is referred to as the black, Cushite race who had entered the land as they expanded in their geographical space from the their birthplace in upper Nile Oromia, the surrounding Cushite river valleys and tropical fields. It was among these ancient people of Africa and Asia that classical technology advanced, old world science and cosmology originated, international trade and commerce was first developed, which was the by-product of international contacts, exchange of ideas and cultural practices that laid the foundations of the prime civilisations of the ancient world. Cushite Africa and also of the Middle East and West Asia was the key and most responsible to ancient civilisations and African history. It must also be known that there were no such geographical names, demarcations and continental classification at that time. As a whole, Cushite occupied this region; there was the kernel and the centre of the globe, the planet earth, and the universe. African history is out of stratum until ancient Cushites looked up on as a distinct African/ Asian nations. The Nile river, it tributes, Awash, Baro and Shebele or Juba, etc., played a major role in the relationship of Cushite to the nations in North, South and East Africa. The outer land Savannah, Nile, other Oromian rivers with it Adenian ecology were great cultural highways on which elements of civilisation came into and out of inner North East Africa. After expansions, there was also an offshoot, a graft, differentiation, branching out, internal separation, semi-independence and again interactions, interdependence and co-existence of the common folks. Cushites from the original home made their relationships with the people of their descendants in the South, the North, East and the West, which was as both good, and bad, depending on the period and the regime in power they formed and put in place in the autonomous regions. Cushite Egypt first became an organised autonomous nation in about 6000 B.C. In the Third Dynasty (5345-5307 B.C.) when Egypt had an earnest pharaoh named Zoser and Zoser, in turn, had for his chief counsellor and minister, an effulgent grand named Imhotep (whose name means ‘he who cometh in peace”). Imhotep constructed the famous step pyramid of Sakkarah near Memphis. The building techniques used in the facilitation of this pyramid revolutionised the architecture of the ancient world (Clarke, 1995). Of course, Independent Egypt was not the original home of these ancient technology. However, it was an extension, expansion, advancement and the technological cycle of the Upper Nile Oromia, Nubia, Beja, Agau and other Cushites. Ideas, systems, technologies and products were invented, tested and proved in upper Nile then expanded and adopted elsewhere in the entire Cush regions and beyond. . Bernal (1987, pp. 14-15) has identified strict cultural and linguistic similarities among all the people around the Mediterranean. He further attests that it was south of the Mediterranean and west to the Red Sea’s classical civilisation that give way to the respective north and east. Cushite African agriculture of the upper Nile expanded in the 9th and 8th century millennia BC and pioneering the 8th and 7th of the Indo-Hittite. Egyptian civilisation is Cushite and is clearly based on the rich pre-dynastic cultures of Upper Egypt, Nubia and upper Nile, whose Cushite African and Oromian origin is uncontested and obvious. Of course, Cushite Egypt gave the world some of the greatest personalities in the history of mankind. In this regard, Imhotep was extraordinary discernible. In ancient history of Egypt, no individual left a downright and deeper indentation than Imhotep. He was possibly the world’s first mult-genuis. He was the real originator of new medicine at the time. He revolutionised an architect of the stone building, after which the Pyramids were modelled. He became a deity and later a universal God of Medicine, whose images charmed the Temple of Imhotep, humanity’s earliest hospital. To it came sufferers from the entire world for prayer, peace, and restorative. Imhotep lived and established his eminence as a curative at the court of King Zoser of the Third Dynasty about 5345-5307 B.C. (Duncan, 1932). When the Cushite civilisation through Egypt afar crossed the Mediterranean to become the foundation of what we think of as Greek culture, the teachings of Imhotep were absorbed along with the axioms of other great Cushite African teachers. When Greek civilisation became consequential in the Mediterranean area, the Greeks coveted the world to ponder they were the originators of everything in its totality. They terminated to acknowledge their liability to Imhotep and other great Cushites. Imhotep was forgotten for thousands of years, and Hippocrates, a mythical posture of two thousand years latter, became known as the father of medicine. Regarding to Imhotep’s influence in Rome, Gerald Massey, noted poet, archaeologist, and philologist, says that the early Christians cherished him as one with Christ (Massey, 1907). It should be understood that, while the achievements of Cushite Egypt were one of the best, these are not the only achievements that Cushite Africans can claim. The Nubians, upper Nile, central and eastern Cushites (the Oromo, Agau, Somalia, Afar, etc) were continue to develop many aspects of civilisation independent of Cushite Egyptian interactions. These nations and states gave as much to Egypt as Egypt give to them in terms of trade, ideas and technology as well. There was also a considerable Cushite dominion on what later became Europe in the period preceding Christian era. Cushites played a major role in formative development of both Christianity and Islam. Both the Holly Bible and the Holly Quran moral texts are originated from the Oromo and other Cushite oral and moral principles, beliefs, creeds and teachings. There is a common believe and understanding that Abraham, a seminal prophet, believer and recipient of a single and eternal God was from Central Cush of present Upper Nile Oromia. The Oromos believed in a single and eternal God, Black God (Waaqa Guri’acha) also Blue God according to some scholars who translated the oral history. Waaqa also Ka. While the Oromian faith, social structure and policies were the prime and the origins of all, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were all the derivatives and originated from the Black God. Waaqayyoo in Oromo is the original, the single, the omnipotent, the prime and the greatest of all the great religions. All aspects of the present day Christian churches were developed in Cushites. One of the more notable of Cushite contributions to the early church was monasticism. Monasticism, in essence, is organised life in common, especially for religious purposes. The home of a monastic society is called a monastery or a convent. Christian monasticism probably began with the hermits of Cushite Egypt and Palestine about the time when Christianity was established as a licit religion (Clarke, 1995). Oral tradition and Arabian records confirm that Bilal, a tall, gaunt, black, bushy-haired, Oromo, was the first High Priest and treasurer of the Mohammedan empire. After Mohamet himself, the great religion, which today numbers upwards of half a billion souls, may be said to have began with Bilal. He was honoured to be the Prophet’s first neophyte. Bilal was one of the many Cushites who concurred in the founding of Islam and later made proud names for themselves in the Islamic nations and expansions. Europe was sluggishing in her Dark Ages at a time when Cushite Africa and Asia were relishing a Golden Age. In this non-European world of Africa and Asian, Cushites built and enjoyed an age of advancement in technology before a period of internal withdrawal and isolation that favoured the Europeans to move a head of them. For more than a thousand years the Cushites were in the ‘Age of Grandeur’ but the second rise of Europe, internal strife, slave trade and colonialism brought the age of catastrophic tragedy, abase and declivity. The early Cushites made spears to hunt with, stone knives to cut with, the bola, with which to catch birds and animals, the blow-gun, the hammer, the stone axe, canoes and paddles, bags and buckets, poles for carrying things, bows and arrows. The bola, stone knives, paddles, spears, harpoons, bows and arrows, bow-guns, the hammer and the axe- all of them invented first by Cushites – were the start of man’s use of power. The present’s cannon, long-range missiles, ship propellers, automatic hammers, gas engines, and even meat cleavers and upholstery tack hammers have the roots of their development in the early Cushite use of (Clarke, 1995). Cushite offered humans the earliest machine. It was the fire stick. With it, man could have fire any time. With it, a campfire could be set up almost any place. With it, the early Africans could roast food. Every time we light a match, every time we take a bath in water heated by gas, every time we cook a meal in a gas-heated oven, our use of fire simply continues a process started by early Cushites: the control of fire. Of course, those early Cushite was the first to invent how to make a thatched hut. They had to be the first because for hundreds of thousand of years they were the only people on earth. They discovered coarse basket making and weaving and how to make a watertight pot of clay hardened in a fire. In the cold weather, they found that the skins of beasts they had killed would keep them warm. They even skin covers for their feet. It was from their first effort much later clothing and shoes developed. Humanity owes the early Cushites much and even much more (Clarke, 1995). The Cushites dociled animals. They used digging sticks to obtain plant roots that could be consumed. They discovered grain as a food, how to store it and prepare it. They learnt about the fermentation of certain foods and liquids left in containers. Thus, all mankind owes to Cushites including the dog that gives companionship and protection, the cereals we eat at break-fast-time, the fermented liquids that many people drink, the woven articles of clothing we wear and the blankets that keep us warm at night, the pottery in which we bake or boil food, and even the very process (now so simple) of boiling water- a process we use every time we boil an egg, or make spaghetti, or cook corned beef. Canoes made it possible for man to travel further and farther from his early home. Over many centuries, canoes went down Baro, the Nile and the Congo and up many smaller rivers and streams. It was in this pattern that the early Cushite civilisation was advanced. From the blowgun of antiquated Cushite, there come next, in later ages, many gadget based on its standard. Some of these are: the bellows, bamboo air pumps, the rifle, the pistol, the revolver, the automatic, the machine gun- and even those industrial guns that puff grains. Modern Scientists certain that by about 3000 B.C., the Cushite farmers in the Nile Valley were growing wheat and barely, cultivating millet, sorghum, and yams. Around 1500 B.C. new crops farming were developed: – banana, sugar cane, and coconut trees and later coffee. The cultivation of bananas and coffees in particular spread rapidly which are suited to tropical forest conditions. Cushites had also domesticated pigs, donkeys, horses, chickens, ducks, and geese, etc. (Greenblatt, 1992). The agricultural revolution brought about a gradual increase in population. Then another development helped expand population still more. The technique of smelting iron innovated by Cushites. Iron working start and then advanced in the Nile valley and then started to spread to other parts of Africa and from who, by way of Egypt and Asian Minor, this art made its way into Europe and the rest of Old World. Iron greatly improved the efficiency of tools and weapons. Iron tools and weapons are much stronger and last longer than those made of stone or wood. Iron axes made it easier to chop tropical trees and clear land for farming. Iron sickles made harvest easier. Iron hoes and other farm tools helped farmers cultivate land more easily. Iron-tipped spears meant more meat. The new technologies boosted the Cushite economy; they increased food production that enabled more people to survive. In addition, iron objects became valuable items in Cushite trade and commercial activities. With his simple bellows and a charcoal fire the Cushite blacksmith reduced the ore that is found in many parts of the region and forged implements of great usefulness and beauty. In general, the Iron technology was instrumental in auguring the rise and expansion of Cushite civilisation (Greenblatt, 1992). Cushite hunters many times cut up game. There still exists for evidences, drawings of animal bones, hearts and other organs. Those early drawings as a part of man’s early beginnings in the field of Anatomy. The family, the clan, the tribe, the nation, the kingdom, the state, humanity and charity all developed first in this region of the cradle of mankind. The family relationships, which we have today, were fully developed and understood then. The clan and the tribe gave group unity and strength. The nation, the common whole was first developed here. It was by this people that early religious life, beliefs, and the belief in one God, the almighty started and expanded. The first formal education of arts, science, astronomy, times and numbers (mathematics) were visual, oral and spoken tradition given in the family, during social and religious ceremonies. Parents, Medicine men, religious leaders, etc were the education heads. Ceremonial Cushite ritual dances laid the basis for many later forms of the dance. Music existed in early Cushite Among instruments used were: reed pipes, single-stringed instruments, drum, goured rattles, blocks of wood and hollow logs. Many very good Cushite artists brought paintings and sculpture into the common culture. The early Cushites made a careful study of animal life and plant life. From knowledge of animals, mankind was able to take a long step forward to cattle rising. From the knowledge of plants and how they propagate, it was possible to take a still longer step forward to agriculture. Today, science has ways of dating events of long a go. The new methods indicate that mankind has lived in Cushite Africa over two million years. In that long, long time, Cushites and people of their descent settled in other parts of Africa and the rest. Direct descents of early Cushites went Asia Minor, Arabia, India, China, Japan and East Indies. Cushites and people of Cushite descents went to Turkey, Palestine, Greece and other countries in Europe. From Gibraltar, they went into Spain, Portugal, France, England, Wales and Ireland (Clarke, 1995). Considering this information, the pre-Colombian presence of Cushite African mariners and merchants in the New World is highly conceivable and somewhat sounds. In this context, the first Africans to be brought to the New World were not in servitude and slavery, which contrary to popular creed. Tormenting references in the Spanish chronicles and other growing body of historical studies advocate that Cushites were the founders, the pioneers and first permanent settlers of America. Commanding authentication as in Bennett (1993, p. 85) cited by Leo Veiner in his work Africa and the discovery of America suggests that African traders founded Mexico long before Columbus. Hence, the Africans influences were extended from Canada in the North to the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilisation in the South America. The Cushite civilisation is therefore the basis of Indian civilisation. Unlike the western Sudan and in Egypt, the people and nations of upper Nile had lost written records of their ancient times and medieval history. These were destroyed and burned during war of conquests. The early travellers to these areas are also mostly not yet known. Notable kingdoms, republics and states did rise in this part of Africa and did achieve a high degree of civilisation of their time. Scholarly undertakings show that Cushite Africans such as Oromos were the first in human history to invent and implement democratic institutions (e.g. Gada system or Gadaa system), democratic forms of government, elections and unwritten constitution. Democracy was first invented in upper Nile Oromia then to Athens, Greek and to the rest. It was not the other way round. Gada, an accomplishment of Oromian social genius in socio-political organisation is one of the most complex, the world wonder and by far superior to so far other humanity’s social and political imagination and civilisation. Gada in its vector of values constitutes, political institution, the power structure, governing constitution, the ideology, the religion, the moral authority, the economic and the whole way of life of the public, the collective, the social and the private individual. Gada is the social civilization of the Oromo in the Nile civilization. Gada is an atonishing and complex social evolution in human social transformation and an Oromo social perfection. In old Egyptian (Cushite, oromo) dialect it means Ka Adaa. Ka means God. Adaa (law). It means the law of God, the law of waaqa (God). It also symbolizes the dawn of not only civilization but also human freedom as civilazation. ‘Gadaa bilisummaa saaqaa.’ Orthodox historians and some archaeologists believe that the civilisation of Egypt is the oldest in the world, while others give that priority to western Asia or India. It has also been suggested that, since all these cultures possess certain points of similarity, all of them may evolve from an older common civilisation. Men of eminent scholarship have acknowledged this possibility. In this regard, Sir E.A. Wallis Budge (1934) indicated: “It would be wrong to say that the Egyptians borrowed from the Sumerians or Sumerians from Egyptians, but it may be submitted that the literati of both peoples borrowed their theological systems from common but exceedingly ancient source… This similarity between the two companies of gods is too close to being accidental.” A pioneer American Egyptologist, Breasted (1936) advanced the following views: “In both Babylonian and Egypt the convenient and basic number (360), of fundamental importance in the division of the circle, and therefore in geography, astronomy and time-measurement, had its origin in the number of days in the year in the earliest known form of the calendar. While its use seems to be older in Egypt than in Babylonian, there is no way to determine with certainty that we owe it exclusively to either of these two countries. A common origin older than either of is possible.” Sewell (1942) said that the science, which we see at the dawn of recorded history, was not science at its dawn, but represents the remnants of the science of some great and as yet untraced civilisation. Where, however, is the seat of that civilisation to be located?” A number of scholars, both ancient and modern, have come to the conclusion that the world’s first civilisation was created by the people known as Cushite (Oromian) and also known by Greeks as Punt (Burnt Faces). The Greeks argued that these people developed their dark colouration since they were adjacent to the sun than were the fairer natives of Europe. In terms of the sources of well-informed modern authority, Herodotus describes the Cushites as in Lugard (1964) as: “ The tallest, most beautiful and long-lived of the human races,’ and before Herodotus, Homer, in even more flattering language, described them as ‘ the most just of men; the favourites of gods.’ The annals of all the great early nations of Asia Minor are full of them. The Mosaic records allude to them frequently; but while they are described as the most powerful, the most just, and the most beautiful of the human race, they are constantly spoken of as black, and there seems to be no other conclusion to be drawn, than that remote period of history the leading race of the western world was the black race.” Alexander Bulatovich (2000, p.53) of Russia in his 1896-1898 travels in Oromia described the Oromo, which is akin to Herodotus’s description as fallows: “The [Oromo] physical type is very beautiful. The men are very tall, with statuesque, lean, with oblong face and a somewhat flattened skull. The features of the face are regular and beautiful…. The mouth is moderate. The lips are not thick. They have excellent even teeth; large and in some cases oblong eyes and curly hair. Their arm bones are of moderate length, shorter than the bones of Europeans, but longer than among the Amhara tribes. The feet are moderate and not turned in. The women are shorter than the men and very beautifully built. In general, they are stouter than the men, and not as lean as they. Among them one sometimes encounters very beautiful women. And their beauty does not fade as among the Abyssinians. The skin color of both men and women ranges from dark to light brown. I did not see any completely black [Oromo].” According to Homer and Herodotus, the Cushites were inhabited in the Sudan, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, present Ethiopia, Western Asia and India. In his essay of historical analysis of ancient East Africa and ancient Middle East, roughly in the years between 500BC and 500AD. Jesse Benjamin (2001), brought to our attention that the importance of research focus on global formations, multi- and bi-directional and cultural relations, geopolitical associations, archaeology, linguistics, sociology, cosmology, production, commerce and consumption patterns of these regions. Benjamin (2001) indicates that historiographers have acknowledged and documented that the adored spices, cinnamon (qarafaa in modern Afaan Oromo) and cassia of the Mediterranean sphere produced and come from ‘Cinnamon land.’ The latter is also known in different names as ‘ The other Barbaria,’‘Trogodytica,’Cush, Kush,Upper Nile. or ‘Punt’ but persistently representing the whole environs identified nowadays as the ‘Horn of African’ or that part of Oromia. These show the presence of production, consumption and commercial interactions in the regions. In line with Miller (1969), Wilding (1988), Benjamin (2001) included the Oromian pastoralism, pottery, cosmology and culture in the antiquity and old world civilisation. The identification of the Cushite Oromian civilisation with the present Abyssinia Amhara-Tigre under the name of Ethiopia made by the post civilisation Abyssinian priests translators of the Abyssinian version of the Bible in the 5th and 6th century or some other time, has been a cheating and misrepresentation of true human history. Those Abyssinians who were stealing the history were relatively recent migrant (conquerors) of the region. They occupied the present day Northern Ethiopia (central Cushitic of Agau and Oromo) long after the first human civilisation already originated and advanced in the area and spread to the rest of the world including to Arabia and Mediterranean Europe. The native residents of the region are the Cushite African people (Oromo, Agau, Somali, Sidama, Afar, Beja, Saho, etc). Ethiopian Jews (Falashas) are also Cushite Oromo and Agau who accepted Jews religion. Abyssinian tribes have fabricated their own myth and false history to claim legitimacy to the region and then established a regime truth through continuos fable story, phantom, indoctrination and falsification of the real Cushite history. Semitic immigrants did not found Aksum but the Abyssinians resettled among the Cushites cities and commercial centres in which Aksum was one and latter dominated the ruling power in this very centre of the civilisation of the central Cush. Ge’ez was invented as a language of the centre and latter used as the official language of the church and the colonising Abyssinian ruling class. Ge’ez was initially developed from the mixture of Cushitic and Greek elements that was facilitated by the Cushite trade links to the Greek world. There was also Greek resettlement in Aksum and the surrounding central Cush commercial towns with primary contacts with endogenous Cushite. The earlier rulers of Aksum and Christian converts including Ezana were Cushites. Though Ezana was the first convert from the above (the ruling class) to Christianity, he did not give up his belief in one God (Waqa) (Cushite/ black God). He was also not the first Cushite to be a Christian. In their linkages with a wider world, it is also highly likely and very logical and possible that there were Christians among the civilian Cushite trading communities who had already disseminated their new faith, as so many Oromo merchants were to do latter in the expansion of Islam. The splendid Stella, towers of solid masonry, with non-functional doors and windows at Aksum was not the earliest materialisation but it was the continuity in the manifestation of major indigenous Cushite tradition of monumental architecture in stone, which also later found expression in the rock-hewn churches of the Cushite Agau kings (see also Isichei, 1997 for some of the opinions). Abyssinians were the rulers. They were not the engineers and the builders of the stone monuments. It was the original product and brainchild of Cushite technologist. Of course, their advancement was thwarted with the unfortunate coming of the Abyssinians. Almost all of the original studies of the origin of Cushite civilisation could not penetrate far deep into regions south east to Nubia (Mereo) and could not dig out the other side of the twin, the close link and vast primary sources in present day Oromia. Though the British Museum has collected vast sources on Nubian, it has not kept on or linked any to the sister and more or less identical to the civilisation of the Oromo. For me, as native Oromo with knowledge of oral history and culture, as I observed the Nubian collection in British Museum, what they say Nubian collection is almost identical to Oromia, but in a less variety and quantity. I can say that Nubian and other Cushite civilisations were extensions (grafts) of the vast products of Oromo. I may also be enthused to the inference that the people whose manners and customs have been so thoroughly capitulated by Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo Pliny and other were not Abyssinians and other Black people at all, but the natives of Upper Nile, Oromos, Agau, Somalis, Afar and the rest of Cushitic people of the present Horn of Africa. Sir Henry Rawlinson in his essay on the early History of Babylonian describes Oromos as the purest modern specimens of the Kushite. Thus, Oromo is Kush and Kush is Oromo. Seignobos (1910), in his scholarly works on the history of Ancient Civilisation reasoned that the first civilised natives of the Nile and Tigiris-Euphrates Valleys were a dark skinned people with short hair and prominent lips, they were called Cushites by some scholars and Hamites by others. So Cushite (Hamite) is generally recognised as the original home of human civilisation and culture both beyond and across the Red Sea. They are the original source of both the African and Asiatic (Cushitic Arabian) civilisation. Higgins in 1965 scholarly undertaking discusses: “I shall, in the course of this work, produce a number of extraordinary facts, which will be quite sufficient to prove, that a black race, in a very early times, had more influence of the affairs of the world than has been lately suspected; and I think I shall show, by some very striking circumstances yet existing, that the effects of this influence have not entirely passed away.” Baldwin in his 1869 study of Arab history expressed in his own words the following: “At the present time Arabia is inhabited by two distinct races, namely descendants of the old Adite, Kushite, …known under various appellations, and dwelling chiefly at the south, the east, and in the central parts of the country, but formerly supreme throughout the whole peninsula, and the Semitic Arabians- Mahomete’s race- found chiefly in the Hejaz and at the north. In some districts of the country these races are more or less mixed, and since the rise of Mahometanism the language of Semites, known as to us Arabic, has almost wholly suppressed the old … Kushite tongue; but the two races are very unlike in many respects, and the distinction has always been recognised by writers on Arabian ethnology. To the Kushite race belongs the purest Arabian blood, and also that great and very ancient civilisation whose ruins abound in almost every district of the country.” Poole (in Haddon, 1934) says, “Assyrians themselves are shown to have been of a very pure type of Semites, but in the Babylonians there is a sign of Kushite blood. … There is one portrait of an Elmite king on a vase found at Susa; he is painted black and thus belongs to the Kushite race.” The myths, legends, and traditions of the Sumerians point to the African Cushite as the original home of these people (see. Perry, 1923, pp. 60-61). They were also the makers of the first great civilisation in the Indus valley. Hincks, Oppert, unearthed the first Sumerian remains and Rawlinson called these people Kushites. Rawlinson in his essay on the early history of Babylonian presents that without pretending to trace up these early Babylonians to their original ethnic sources, there are certainly strong reasons for supposing them to have passed from Cushite Africa to the valley of the Euphrates shortly before the opening of the historic period: He is based on the following strong points: The system of writing, which they brought up with them, has the closest semblance with that of Egypt; in many cases in deed the two alphabets are absolutely identical. In the Biblical genealogies, while Kush and Mizrain (Egypt) are brothers, from Kush Nimrod (Babylonian) sprang. With respect to the language of ancient Babylonians, the vocabulary is absolutely Kushite, belonging to that stock of tongues, which in postscript were everywhere more or less, mixed up with Semitic languages, but of which we have with doubtless the purest existing specimens in the Mahra of Southern Arabia and the Oromo.
The Greek alphabet, the script of English today, is based on the Kemetic alphabet of Ancient Egypt/Kemet and the Upper Nile Valley of Ancient Africa. Ancient Egyptians called their words MDW NTR, or ‘Metu Neter,” which means divine speech. The Greeks called it, ‘hieroglyphics”- a Greek word. The etymology of hieroglyphics is sacred (hieros) carvings (glyph). The Oromos (the Kemet of modern age) called it Qubee.
“Chaltu as Helen”, which is based on a novelized story of Chaltu Midhaksa, a young Oromo girl from Ada’aa Barga district, also in central Oromia.
Born to a farming family in Koftu, a small village south of Addis Ababa near Akaki, Chaltu led an exuberant childhood. Raised by her grandmother’s sister Gode, a traditional storyteller who lived over 100 years, the impressionable Chaltu mastered the history and tradition of Tulama Oromos at a very young age.
Chaltu’s captivating and fairytale like story, as retold by Tesfaye, begins when she was awarded a horse named Gurraacha as a prize for winning a Tulama history contest. Though she maybe the first and only female contestant, Chaltu won the competition by resoundingly answering eleven of the twelve questions she was asked.
Guraacha, her pride and constant companion, became Chaltu’s best friend and she took a good care of him. Gurraacha was a strong horse; his jumps were high, and Chaltu understood his pace and style.
A masterful rider and an envy to even her male contemporaries, Chaltu soon distinguished herself as bold, confident, outspoken, assertive, and courageous. For this, she quickly became a household name among the Oromo from Wajitu to Walmara, Sera to Dawara, Bacho to Cuqala, and Dire to Gimbichu, according to Tesfaye.
Chaltu traces her lineage to the Galan, one of the six clans of Tulama Oromo tribe. At the height of her fame, admirers – young and old – addressed her out of respect as “Caaltuu Warra Galaan!” – Chaltu of the Galan, and “Caaltuu Haadha Gurraacha!” – Chaltu the mother of Gurraacha.
Chaltu’s disarming beauty, elegance, charisma, and intelligence coupled with her witty personality added to her popularity. Chaltu’s tattoos from her chin to her chest, easily noticeable from her light skin, made her look like of a “Red Indian descent” (Tesfaye’s words).
As per Tesfaye’s account, there wasn’t a parent among the well-to-do Oromos of the area who did not wish Chaltu betrothed to their son. At 14, Chaltu escaped a bride-kidnapping attempt by outracing her abductors.
Chaltu’s grandfather Banti Daamo, a well-known warrior and respected elder, had a big family. Growing up in Koftu, Chaltu enjoyed being surrounded by a large network of extended family, although she was the only child for her parents.
Recognizing Chaltu’s potential, her relatives suggested that she goes to school, which was not available in the area at the time. However, fearing that she would be abducted, Chaltu’s father arranged her marriage to a man of Ada’aa family from Dire when she turned 15.
Locals likened Chaltu’s mannerism to her grandfather Banti Daamo, earning her yet another nickname as “Caaltuu warra Bantii Daamo” – Chaltu of Banti Daamo. She embraced the namesake because many saw her as an heir to Banti Daamo’s legacy, a role usually preserved for the oldest male in the family. Well-wishers blessed her: prosper like your grandparents. She embraced and proudly boasted about continuing her grandfather’s heritage calling herself Chaltu Banti Daamo.
Others began to call her Akkoo [sic] Xinnoo, drawing a comparison between Chaltu and a legendary Karrayu Oromo woman leader after whom Ankobar was named.
Chaltu’s eccentric life took on a different trajectory soon after her marriage. She could not be a good wife as the local tradition and custom demanded; she could not get along with an alcoholic husband who came home drunk and abused her.
When Chaltu threatened to dissolve the marriage, as per Oromo culture, elders intervened and advised her to tolerate and reconcile with her husband. Rebellious and nonconformist by nature, Chaltu, who’s known for challenging old biases and practices, protested “an alcoholic cannot be a husband for Banti Daamo’s daughter!”
Soon she left her husband and moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, to attend formal education and start a new chapter in life.
Trouble ensues.
In Addis Ababa, her aunt Mulumebet’s family welcomed Chaltu. Like Chaltu, Mulumebet grew up in Koftu but later moved to Addis Ababa, and changed her given name from Gadise in order to ‘fit’ into the city life.
Subsequently, Mulumebet sat down with Chaltu to provide guidance and advice on urban [Amhara] ways.
“Learning the Amharic language is mandatory for your future life,” Mulumebet told Chaltu. “If you want to go to school, first you have to speak the language; in order to learn Amharic, you must stop speaking Afaan Oromo immediately; besides, your name Chaltu Midhaksa doesn’t match your beauty and elegance.”
“I wish they did not mess you up with these tattoos,” Mulumebet continued, “but there is nothing I could do about that…however, we have to give you a new name.”
Just like that, on her second day in Addis, Caaltuu warra Galaan became Helen Getachew.
Chaltu understood little of the dramatic twists in her life. She wished the conversation with her aunt were a dream. First, her name Chaltu means the better one, her tattoos beauty marks.
She quietly wondered, “what is wrong with my name and my tattoos? How can I be better off with a new name that I don’t even know what it means?”
Of course she had no answers for these perennial questions. Most of all, her new last name Getachew discomforted her. But she was given no option.
The indomitable Chaltu had a lot to learn.
A new name, new language, new family, and a whole new way of life, the way of civilized Amhara people. Chaltu mastered Amharic in a matter of weeks. Learning math was no problem either, because Chaltu grew up solving math problems through oral Oromo folktale and children’s games like Takkeen Takkitumaa.
Chaltu’s quick mastery amazed Dr. Getachew, Mulumebet’s husband. This also made her aunt proud and she decided to enroll Chaltu in an evening school. The school matched Chaltu, who’s never set foot in school, for fourth grade. In a year, she skipped a grade and was placed in sixth grade. That year Chaltu passed the national exit exam, given to all sixth graders in the country, with distinction.
But her achievements in school were clouded by a life filled with disappointments, questions, and loss of identity. Much of her troubles came from Mulumebet packaged as life advice.
“Helen darling, all our neighbors love and admire you a lot,” Mulumebet told Chaltu one Sunday morning as they made their way into the local Orthodox Church. “There is not a single person on this block who is not mesmerized by your beauty…you have a bright future ahead of you as long as you work on your Amharic and get rid of your Oromo accent…once you do that, we will find you a rich and educated husband.”
Chaltu knew Mulumebet had her best interest at heart. And as a result never questioned her counsel. But her unsolicited advises centered mostly on erasing Chaltu’s fond childhood memories and making her lose touch with Oromummaa – and essentially become an Amhara.
Chaltu spent most of her free time babysitting Mulumebet’s children, aged 6 and 8. She took care of them and the kids loved her. One day, while the parents were away, lost in her own thoughts, Chaltu repeatedly sang her favorite Atetee – Oromo women’s song of fertility – in front of the kids.
That night, to Chaltu’s wild surprise, the boys performed the song for their parents at the dinner table. Stunned by the revelation, Mulumebet went ballistic and shouted, “Are you teaching my children witchcraft?”
Mulumebet continued, “Don’t you ever dare do such a thing in this house again. I told you to forget everything you do not need. Helen, let me tell you for the last time, everything you knew from Koftu is now erased…forget it all! No Irreechaa, no Waaree, no Okolee, no Ibsaa, No Atetee, and no Wadaajaa.”
Amused by his wife’s dramatic reaction, Getachew inquired, “what does the song mean, Helen?” Chaltu told him she could not explain it in Amharic. He added, “If it is indeed about witchcraft, we do not need a devil in this house…Helen, praise Jesus and his mother, Mary, from now on.”
“Wait,” Getachew continued, “did you ever go to church when you were in Koftu? What do they teach you there?”
Chaltu acknowledged that she’s been to a church but never understood the sermons, conducted in Amharic, a language foreign to her until now. “Getachew couldn’t believe his ears,” writes Tesfaye. But Getachew maintained his cool and assured Chaltu that her mistake would be forgiven.
Chaltu knew Atetee was not a witchcraft but a women’s spiritual song of fertility and safety. All Oromo women had their own Atetee.
Now in her third year since moving to Addis, Chaltu spoke fluent Amharic. But at school, in the market, and around the neighborhood, children bullied her daily. It was as if they were all given the same course on how to disgrace, intimidate, and humiliate her.
“You would have been beautiful if your name was not Chaltu,” strangers and classmates, even those who knew her only as Helen, would tell her. Others would say to Chaltu, as if in compliment, “if you were not Geja (an Amharic for uncivilized), you would actually win a beauty pageant…they messed you up with these tattoos, damn Gallas!”
Her adopted name and mastery of Amharic did not save Chaltu from discrimination, blatant racism, hate speech, and ethnic slurs. As if the loss of self was not enough, seventh grade was painfully challenging for Chaltu. One day when the students returned from recess to their assigned classes, to her classmate’s collective amusement, there was a drawing of a girl with long tattooed neck on the blackboard with a caption: Helen Nikise Gala – Helen, the tattooed Gala. Gala is a disparaging term akin to a Nigger used in reference to Oromos. As Chaltu sobbed quietly, their English teacher Tsige walked in and the students’ laughter came to a sudden halt. Tsige asked the classroom monitor to identity the insulting graffiti’s artist. No one answered. He turned to Chaltu and asked, “Helen, tell me who drew this picture?”
She replied, “I don’t know teacher, but Samson always called me Nikise Gala.”
Tsige was furious. Samson initially denied but eventually admitted fearing corporal punishment. Tsige gave Samson a lesson of a lifetime: “Helen speaks two language: her native Afaan Oromo and your language Amharic, and of course she is learning the third one. She is one of the top three students in the class. You speak one language and you ranked 41 out of 53 students. I have to speak to your parents tomorrow.”
Athletic and well-mannered, Chaltu was one of the best students in the entire school. But she could not fathom why people gossiped about her and hurled insults at her.
Banned from speaking Afaan Oromo, Chaltu could not fully express feelings like sorrow, regrets, fear and happiness in Amharic. To the extent that Mulumebet wished Chaltu would stop thinking in Oromo, in one instance, she asked Chaltu to go into her bedroom to lament the death of a relative by singing honorific praise as per Oromo custom. Chaltu’s break came one afternoon when the sport teacher began speaking to her in Afaan Oromo, for the first time in three years. She sobbed from a deep sense of loss as she uttered the words: “I am from Koftu, the daughter of Banti Daamo.” Saying those words alone, which were once a source of her pride, filled Chaltu with joy, even if for that moment.
Chaltu anxiously looked forward to her summer vacation and a much-needed visit to Koftu. But before she left, Mulumebet warned Chaltu not to speak Afaan Oromo during her stay in Koftu. Mulumebet told Chaltu, “Tell them that you forgot how to speak Afaan Oromo. If they talk to you in Oromo, respond only in Amharic. Also, tell them that you are no longer Chaltu. Your name is Helen.”
Getachew disagreed with his wife. But Chaltu knew she has to oblige. On her way to Koftu, Chaltu thought about her once golden life; the time she won Gurracha in what was only a boys’ competition, and how the entire village of Koftu sang her praises.
Her short stay in Koftu was dismal. Gurraacha was sold for 700 birr and she did not get to see him again. Chaltu’s parents were dismayed that her name was changed and that she no longer spoke their language.
A disgruntled and traumatized Chaltu returns to Addis Ababa and enrolls in 9th grade. She then marries a government official and move away from her aunt’s protective shield. The marriage ends shortly thereafter when Chaltu’s husband got caught up in a political crosshair following Derg’s downfall in 1991. Chaltu was in financial crisis. She refused an advice from acquintances to work as a prostitute.
At 24, the once vibrant Chaltu looked frail and exhausted. The regime change brought some welcome news. Chaltu was fascinated and surprised to watch TV programs in Afaan Oromo or hear concepts like “Oromo people’s liberation, the right to speak one’s own language, and that Amharas were feudalists.”
Chaltu did not fully grasp the systematic violence for which was very much a victim. She detested how she lost her values and ways. She despised Helen and what it was meant to represent. But it was also too late to get back to being Chaltu. She felt empty. She was neither Helen nor Chaltu.
She eventually left Addis for Koftu and asked her parents for forgiveness. She lived a few months hiding in her parent’s home. She avoided going to the market and public squares.
In a rare sign of recovery from her trauma, Chaltu briefly dated a college student who was in Koftu for a winter vacation. When he left, Chaltu lapsed back into her self-imposed loneliness and state of depression. She barely ate and refused interacting with or talking to anyone except her mother.
One afternoon, the once celebrated Chaltu warra Galaan took a nap after a coffee break and never woke up. She was 25.
The bottom line: Fictionalized or not, Chaltu’s is a truly Oromo story. Chaltu is a single character in Tesfaye’s book but lest we forget, in imperial Ethiopia, generations of Chaltu’s had to change their names and identity in order to fit in and be “genuine Ethiopians.” Until recently, one has to wear an Amhara mask in order to be beautiful, or gain access to educational and employment opportunities.
Likewise, in the Ethiopia of today’s “freedom of expression advocates” – who allegedly sought to censor Tesfaye – it appears that a story, even a work of fiction, is fit to print only when it conforms to the much-romanticized Ethiopianist storyline.
So much has changed since Chaltu’s tragic death a little over a decade ago, yet, clearly, much remains the same in Ethiopia. Honor and glory to Oromo martyrs, whose selfless sacrifices had allowed for me to transcribe this story, the Oromo today – a whole generation of Caaltuus – are ready to own, reclaim, and tell their stories.
Try, as they might, the ever-vibrant Qubee generation will never be silenced, again.
Origins of the Afro Comb: 6,000 years of culture, politics and identity
Even today, a significant number of mainstream Egyptologists, anthropologists, historians and Hollywood moviemakers continue to deny African people’s role in humankind’s first and greatest civilization in ancient Egypt. This whitewashing of history negatively impacts Black people and our image in the world. There remains a vital need to correct the misinformation of our achievements in antiquity.
Senegalese scholar Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) dedicated his life to scientifically challenging Eurocentric and Arab-centric views of precolonial African culture, specifically those that suggested the ancient civilization of Egypt did not have its origins in Black Africa.
Since some people continue to ignore the overwhelming evidence that indicates ancient Egypt was built, ruled, and populated by dark-skinned African people, Atlanta Blackstar will highlight 10 of the ways Diop proved the ancient Egyptians were Black.
Physical Anthropology Evidence
Based on his review of scientific literature, Diop concluded that most of the skeletons and skulls of the ancient Egyptians clearly indicate they were Negroid people with features very similar to those of modern Black Nubians and other people of the Upper Nile and East Africa. He called attention to studies that included examinations of skulls from the predynastic period (6000 B.C.) that showed a greater percentage of Black characteristics than any other type.
From this information, Diop reasoned that a Black race existed in Egypt at that time and did not migrate at a later stage as some previous theories had suggested.
A Chronological Summary of Oromian Student Movement Led by Qeerroo Bilisummaa: November 2013 – November 2014
Compiled by Daandii Qajeelaa November 7, 2014
In memory Oromo students who lost their lives during the November 2005 and April/May 2014 Oromo student movement known as Fincila Diddaa Gabrummaa (Revolt against Subjugation).
Introduction
In recent years an Oromo youth wing known as “the National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy (NYMFD)”, widely known among the Oromo as “Qeerroo Bilisummaa” or simply “Qeerroo”, has reinvigorated the struggle of the Oromo nation for freedom, democracy and justice. From the publications and public statements of the group, one can easily see a strong connection or affiliation of the group with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). For example, the radio of OLF, Sagalee Bilisummaa Oromoo (SBO), routinely reports the movements of Qeerroo, and conversely, Qeerroos radio, Sagalee Qeerroo Bilisummaa, also routinely reports the military activities of the OLF army. However, the chairman of OLF, Mr. Daud Ibsa Ayana, was reluctant to disclose the apparent affiliation of his organization with Qeerroo in a recent interview he made with Oromia Media Network (OMN). Perhaps he refrained from doing so for obvious reasons.
While considered as the “youth wing” of the OLF, “Qeerroo” has been vibrant and visible than the OLF itself in just few years of its formation. To see the validity of this statement, it will be enough to look at the volume of information provided by Qeerroo website www.qeerroo.org, frequently updated each day, since the formation of the group in 2011. When an incident such as Oromo student protest, unlawful arrest of Oromo nationals, school dismissals related to student unrests, incidents of land grab and eviction of Oromo farmers, and so on occurs at any corner of Oromia, it is usually this youth group (its website and web-based radio) that reports first from every corner indicating that the group is well organized and widely spread not only in Oromia but also throughout the entire Ethiopia. For example, during the widespread Oromo student protests in spring 2014, it was only this group who managed to compile a list of 61 Oromo students killed 903 others languishing in several prisons in all corners of Oromia, East, West, North, and South. It is remarkable how a single youth group managed to compile all these names, not to consider all the details: school/university the student was attending, major subject the student was in, year (1st year, 2nd year, etc.), place of birth, and so on virtually from everywhere in the region. In many cases when Oromo students are killed by the regime, it is this youth group that makes the names and in some cases the pictures of the victims public. This has been happening continuously over the last four years. What is more remarkable is that the group managed to compile all these data under tight security machine of the regime and with almost no known financial or material support.
Inspired by the 2011 revolution of North Africa and the Middle East known as Arab Spring, this Oromo youth group Qeerroo Bilisummaa was formed in 2011. At first, very few people paid serious attention to it. Many believed it to be just another bluffing of desperate groups opposing the government from the Diaspora. But soon enough the group showed itself on the ground that it is for real. The movement of the group started showing itself mainly in universities and higher educational institutions in Oromia. A series of Oromo student protests broke out in several universities and colleges soon following the formation of the group.
On April 7, 2011, following the founding declaration of Qeerroo, Oromo students of Mizan Tepi University revolted. The government federal police fired live ammunition on the protesters in which 114 Oromo students were reported to have been wounded and hospitalized. 50 others have been abducted from their dormitories the next night and taken to unknown location. On April 12, 2011 Oromo students of Haromaya University staged a peaceful protest demanding the release of their classmates who have been abducted from their dormitories. Their protests however resulted in more arrests and more abductions. On April 15, 2011 Oromo students protested in Arba Minch University, SNNP regional state, which resulted in arrest of several students. On May 2, 2011 Oromo students of Jijjiga University, Ogaden regional state, protested. On May 15, 2011 Oromo students of Fiche Preparatory School, Northern Shoa, protested. May 19 – 21, 2011 Oromo students of Adama University protested. These are just few of the incidents of protests and the response of the government following the formation of Qeerroo in 2011.
Oromo student protests continued on and off, but non-stop throughout the years 2011-2014 in Oromia, apparently under the [underground] leadership of this youth group “Qeerroo Bilisummaa”. The government suppression also continued. The most wide spread and bloodiest of all the protests is the series of protests that occurred in the spring of 2014. At one time alone Qeerroo managed to compile the list of some 61 Oromo students that were killed in mainly Ambo, Gudar, and Robe (Bale zone), but the actual number of Oromo students that have been killed by the forces of the regime in the months of April and May, 2014 is probably several hundreds and those arrested are estimated in tens of thousands.
Some of the students killed in Ambo – April 30, 2014The purpose of this report is to compile and document the most visible movement of the Oromo youth movement against subjugation (Fincila Diddaa Gabrummaa), led by Qeerroo Bilisummaa, of the year 2013 – 2014, in the English language. Almost all of the report is taken directly from Qeerroo website www.qeerroo.org. While I have taken the liberty to ignore some reports which are incomplete or ambiguous, I have made no effort to verify the validity of any of the information provided. However, the fact that such details of the information presented on a large scale from every corner, it is easy to see that most of the information and data given in this report are largely true. In the report, I have attempted to document the day-to-day activities related to Qeerroo in a chronological order. On a given day, I have translated only headlines of the item(s) I considered are significant. I have provided the link to the incident for those who want to verify for themselves from the source. It has to be noted that, due to the high volume of information given on the website, only the most relevant and a small fraction is presented in this report.
Ethiopian government soldiers firing at unarmed and defenseless Oromo students
While I have been closely following [and reporting] the Oromo student movement in general, and that of Qeerroo Bilisummaa in particular in recent years, it has to be known that I am not a member of this group Qeerroo. Nor am I involved in the activities of this group in any shape or form.
Headlines of Qeerroo’s Activities and the Response of the Government
Nov. 2013 – Nov. 2014
Date
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government esponse
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
November 15, 2013
Oromo students of Arba Minch University staged a peaceful protest aginst the regime. The regime’s forces used live ammunition to disperse the students during which a 4th year electrichal engineering Oromo student Samuel Dessalenyi was severely injured.
Oromo students of Gondar University, Amhara regional state, staged a peaceful protest. The government used live ammunition to disperse the protest during which a 3rd year marketing Oromo student named Anteneh Asfaw Legesse was shot and severely wounded. The student died in the hospital few days later. Several students have been arrested.
40 Oromo nationals, including a 13 year old child have been arrested and tortured in Ebantu district, Hinde town, East Wollega zone, for allegedly having connection with the OLF and for opposing the construction of the so called “Renaissance Dam”. The list of those arrested can be seen in the link provided to the right.
An estimated 3000 Oromo students staged another peaceful protest in Gondar University, when the news of the passing away of Oromo student Anteneh Asfaw, wounded by live bullet during the November 26 protest was spread in the university campus. New wave of arrest followed the protest.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government esponse
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
December 7, 2013
The Administration of Gondar University expelled 36 Oromo students who are accused of leading the peaceful protest of November 26 -30 and gave warning to 150 others. Among the 36 students, 8 are dismissed completely, 9 are suspended for two years, and 19 others are required to pay money and hence not to return to the university until they pay in full.
Oromo youth of Alibo town, Jardaga Jarte district, Horo Guduru Wollega zone, staged a peaceful protest. The government forces arrested 6 government employees accusing them of having connection with the youth (qeerroo) protest.
A new radio program “Oromo Voice Radio” started broadcasting to Oromia three days a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 7:00 PM (Oromia time) at 16 MB or 17850 kHz.
Internet radio, “Radio Sagalee Qeerroo Bilisummaa” started broadcasting. Here is the link to the first broadcast.
Date
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government esponse
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
January 4, 2014
Oromo students of Mattu University, Ilubabor zone, staged a peaceful protest. At least two students have been severely wounded by government forces.
Qeerroo Bilisummaa Singers Group released an inspirational song (a response to a popular Amahara singer Teddy Afro, who is known for praising King Minilik II through his song) on YouTube by a popular young Oromo singer Shukri Jamal.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government esponse
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
January 12, 2014
Qeerroo Singers Group released another revolutionary song named “kunoo akkasi yaa lammi koo garaan na ciise reefuu” (yes my fellow countrymen (Oromos), I am now happy [that you continue fighting]) on YouTube.
13 Oromo students of Mattu University are expelled from the university as a consequence of their opposition and protest against Beddellee Beer. (Many young Oromos protested against Beddelle Beer factory because the owner of the brewery sponsored Teddy Afro who is known for his song of praising King Minilik II which Oromos consider as “Hitler of Africa” for the genocide he committed on Oromos and other peoples of Southern Ethiopia during the 2nd half of the 19thcentury).
Oromo students of Ambo university showed disobedience by making a hunger strike demanding for the armed forces of the regime leave the University campus. 3 Oromo students are arrested.
Oromos residing in Sululta (vicinity of Finfinne [Addis Ababa]) revolted against the repressive policy of the government by singing revolutionary songs and distributing leaflets of Qeerroo. In response the government arrested at least 5 Oromos out of which 3 are members of the ruling OPDO party.
Oromo students of Haromaya University revolted in the university campus by chanting slogans, signing revolutionary songs and refusing to eat food. In response the government arrested at least 4 employees of the university. In Jimma University, Qeerroo leaflets have been distributed.
Armed forces of the regime continued terrorizing Oromo students and other Oromo nationals in Ambo university and other towns of West Shoa zone. At least 5 have been arrested.
Oromo students of several middle schools and high schools in East Wollega zone protested against the government in their respective school campus. Among several schools in which student protests took place are Haro Limmu, Leqa Dullacha, Jimma Arjo, and Kiramu high schools.
Oromo students of Mattu university staged a peaceful protest demanding the return to school of 15 Oromo students who were expelled from the university.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
March 2, 2014
Renowned Oromo vocalist Hirpha Ganfure released an inspirational revolutionary song named “Ka’I dubbiin booree taatee” meaning roughly “stand up for your right” through YouTube.
Oromo students in West Shoa zone, Midaqanyi and Chaliya districts staged a peaceful protest in Gedo town. At least six Oromo students have been abducted in connection to the protest and disappeared.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
March 10, 2014
Renowned Oromo vocalist Elemo Ali released a YouTube Song (video) about the cruel “hand and breast cutting” (harma mura Anole) of Oromo men/women by King Minilik entitled “Maali Mallisaa” meaning “what is the solution”.
Oromo students of Shakkiso Secondary and Preparatory school, Guji zone, staged a peaceful protest against the illegal gold mining project of the Shakkiso area while the region remains deprived of services and infrastructure. Students are reported to have been beaten by the armed forces of the regime and at least 30 have been severely wounded. Many others have been thrown into jail.
A young Oromo vocalist Fesel Haji released a new video on YouTube entitled “Anis Oromoo dha” meaning “I am Oromo too”.
Oromo students of Shakkiso Secondary and Preparatory School staged another peaceful demonstration opposing the exploitation of Gold from the area by the government and the selling of their natural resources to the so called “investors”. Government armed forces fired live ammunition on protesters seriously wounding at least 23 students. The names of the students who are wounded is given in link to the right.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
March 20, 2014
Oromo students of Jimma University staged a peaceful demonstration in the University campus following a cultural show event by singing revolutionary songs recently released by Shukri Jamal “Minilik nuuf diina” (Minilik is our enemy) and by Qamar Yusuf “Minilik bineensa” (Minilik is a beast) and revolutionary songs of several other Oromo Artists such as Hacalu Hundessa (suma Abdiin koo Qeerramsoo koo), Amin Hussen (Abba Biyya hoo), Hirpha Ganfure (Ka’ii Qeerroo), Haylu Kitaba (Qeerroo Loli), Adnan Mohammed (Baala Adaamii) and more.
Oromo students of Haru Chululle School, South West Shoa zone, staged a peaceful protest demanding the return to school of a 12th grade student named Gabbisa Tammiru who has been expelled from school because of being accused of “promoting the work and agenda of the OLF”.
About 100 Oromo students who became jobless after graduating from different universities and colleges staged a peaceful demonstration in front of the zone police commission in West Shoa zone, Ambo town.
“Baandii Tokkummaa” or “Unity Band” has shown inspirational revolutionary songs (including the famous “Minilik is our enemy” song by Shukri Jamal) in Haromaya University firing up Oromo students of the university.
Students are seen carrying the singer in the video released later by Qeerroo. See part of the YouTube video here:
The Central Committee of Qeerroo Bilisummaa released a statement calling Oromo youth and the entire Oromo nation for revolt against the repressive Ethiopian regime in general and against the so called “Master Plan” in particular. One can see that this call was the beginning of the Oromia wide revolt that spread in the region in the months of April and May, 2014. The full statement in Afan Oromo can be seen here:
20 Oromo students of Adama university have been arrested while they were traveling to Arsi zone to commemorate the “breast cutting” of King Minilik at Anole, Arsi zone. See the names of the students in the link provided to the right.
Oromo students of Jimma University staged a huge protest in the university campus chanting slogans such as “Oromo land belongs to Oromos”, “The Statue of King Minilik should be removed from Finfinne (Addis Ababa)”, “Minilik is our enemy”, “Finfinne (Addis Ababa) belongs to the Oromo”, and more. Watch a brief YouTube video posted by Qeerroo Bilisummaa here:
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
April
13, 2014
Renowened Oromo vocalist Jafar Yusuf released his famous revolutionary song called “Finfinnee” (Addis Ababa) on YouTube denouncing the eviction of Oromo farmers around the capital and opposing the expansion of the capital (through the so called “Master Plan”).
“Qeerroo Bilisummaa Singers Group” (Hawwisoo Qeerroo Bilisummaa) released a new collective song about Oromo Martyers Day (Guyyaa Gootota Oromoo) on YouTube.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
April
16, 2014
Oromo students of Adama Science and Technology University staged a protest inside their campus by chanting slogans, singing, and denouncing the TPLF led Ethiopian government and some Habasha singers and publishers who are engaged in tarnishing the history and diginity of the Oromo people.
Oromo students of several universities and high schools in Oromia organized under Qeerroo Bilisummaa commemorated “Guyyaa Gootota Oromoo” (Oromo Martyrs Day): Hawasa University, Wollega University (Nekemte, Shambu, Ghmbi), New Generation College (Nekemte), Ambo University, Gedo [high school], Tikur Hinchini [high school], Waliso, Walqixxe, Haromaya University (Haromaya), Haromaya University (Chiro), Finfinne (Addis Ababa) University (“kilo” 4, 5, 6, and Kotebe), Mattu, Jimma, Robe (Bale) universities, and several other places.
Many students who are members of the ruling OPDO party also are reported to have participated on this commemoration (although the event is done underground without the knowledge of the authorities).
Popular Oromo Artist Jafar Yusuf was arrested by the TPLF-led Ethiopian “security” forces because of his revolutionary song “Finfinne” (Addis Ababa) which he released five days ago (on April 13). He was taken to a military camp and severely beaten for several days after which he was hospitalized and taken to ALERT hospital. After his release he is reported to have been forced to go into exile. Here was his song:
Oromo students of Jimma University stood in unison, went to Jimma Police station and demanded the release of their classmates which were arrested earlier. This bravery of the students created a surprising and unseen turn of events when the police station unexpectedly accepted their demand and released 10 Oromo students. The students returned to their dormitories happy and singing. The names of the released students can be seen from the link provided on the right.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
April
20, 2014
Oromo students’ protest in Jimma University is renewed and intensified. A protest is also broke out in Mattu University, Illubabor zone. In both places the studdents protested mainly against the so called “Addis Ababa Master Plan”. The government military force was dispatched to both universities and has beaten several students and also was seen firing live ammunition at the students. Especially, Jimma University was reported to have looked like a war zone.
The popular Oromo singer Shukri Jamal released another inspirational revolutionary song on YouTube known as “abbaan lafaa dhabe lafasaa” (the owner lost his land). It is a song which opposes the land grab and also the expansion of the capital [Addis Ababa] to Oromia. Here is the video:
At least 12 Oromo students of Jimma University have been abducted and arrested by the government police for participating on the peaceful protest of students of the university. Meanwhile, all the four campuses of Jimma University are filled by Federal police and students are prohibited to move from place tp place in those campuses.
Oromo students of Jimma University organized in Unison again and went to Jimma police station and bravely demanded the release of their classmates. This time the Jimma Police station released 8 students. The names of those released are given in the link provided to the right.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
April
25, 2014
Oromo students of Ambo University staged protest this time coming out of their university campus in which the residents of the town also joined, chanting slogans such as “Minilik bineensa” (Minilik is a beast), “Finfinneen keenya” (Finfinne [Addis Ababa] is ours”, and more. At least 15 students have been arrested on the protest. Below is the audio of the protest recorded and released by Qeerroo Bilisummaa:
At the same time Oromo students of Haromaya University staged a huge protest getting out of their campus in which many residents of Haromaya city joined. At least 5000 students are said to have been participated on the protest. The students were chanting slogans such as “Finfinne is ours”, “Sebeta is ours”, “Oromia shall be free”, “Oromo need freedom”, “Jafar Yusuf should be released [from jail]”, and many more. The president of Haromaya University Dr. Girma Lammessa tried to calm the students but was rejected by the students. The audio of the speech of the university president was recorded and released by Qeerroo Bilisummaa:
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
April
26, 2014
Oromo students of Wollega University staged a huge and historic protest defying the order of the regime’s police and getting out of their campus and moving in the [Nekemte] city. The so called Federal police of the regime attacked the students with live bullet. Several students were injured and hospitalized and several others have been arrested. Some of of the slogans of the students were: “Finifinne is ours”, “Today it is Bishoftu[taking of Oromo land], tomorrow it is Jimma”, “Minilik’s Statue should be removed from Finfinne (Addis Ababa)”, and more.
The audio of the student protest was recorded and released by Qeerroo Bilisummaa as follows.
Oromo students of Wollega University continued protest for the 2nd day. The Agazi force of the government [special police force of the Federal government known for its cruelty] wounded several students by beating as well as by live bullet fired directly at students peacefully protesting. At leat 6 were wounded severely and taken to Nekemte Hospital.
Oromo students of Adama Science and Technology University staged a peaceful protest chanting the same slogan that Oromo students of other universities were chanting. The regime arrested at least 10 students.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
April
29, 2014
Continued
Oromo student protest spread to several places all over Oromia. Students in all places were more or less chanting the same slogan indicating that all these protests are well planned and coordinated [by no other entity than “Qeerroo Bilisummaa”, Oromo youth group]. All happening on the same day, at the same time.
Ambo University, all schools in Ambo town and the people of Ambo staged a historic demonstration. An estimated 25, 000 people participated on the protest. The government forces initially used tear gas to disperse the crowd but later used live bullets shooting and killing protesters.
Adama Science and Technology University staged a historic protest in the Adama city. At least 10 arrested. Qeerroo’s video is here:
Alibo Preparatory Secondary School, Jardaga Jarte district, Horo Gudru zone
All school in Nekemte town, East Wollega zone (students were seen burning the Habasha/Woyane flag)
Schools in Shambu town, Horo Gudru zone
Oromo student protests intensified in Dembi Dollo, West Wollega zone; Gudar, West Shoa zone; Mattu University, Ilubabor zone [second day].
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
April
30, 2014
A historic and bloody day in the history of the struggle of the Oromo nation for freedom. Oromo student protest spread to all parts of Oromia.
The biggest and bloodiest of all the protests took place in the city of Ambo, West Shoa zone, where the peaceful protest turned into violence when government so called Agazi force shot and killed a 9thgrade student. Cars and buildings were ablaze on fire. The protest included all people of the city. Several people were killed hundreds wounded. Ambo looked like a war zone. BBC reported at least 30 people were killed by live bullet including 8 students. Listen to live report recorded (interview, live from the scene):
Oromo students of Dire Dawa University staged a peaceful protest.
Listen to audio interview by Radio Qeerroo Bilisummaa Oromoo:
Oromo students of Balami Secondary School, Mida Qanyi district, West Shoa zone staged a peaceful protest.
Oromo student protests continued in several universities, including Addis Ababa [Finfinne] University, colleges, high schools and middle schools and towns.
Oromo people of Alibo town, Horo Gudru zone, completely controlled the city chasing away the local government officials.
Oromo students of Madda Walabu University, Robe Town, Bale zone, staged a historic and blody protest. The notorious government Agazi force fired live ammunition on protesting students and several students were killed.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
May
1, 2014
Continued
A huge protest was held in Gudar town, West shoa zone. Government forces fired live ammunition and killed several students. With the brutal killing of the regime’s forces, the protesters turned to violent action. The military camp of the regime located in the town was burned.
In Ambo town the whole town remained closed. Government forces went house to house and arrested several people, including three school teachers several students.
Oromo students of Finfinne [Addis Ababa] University staged a peaceful protest. Video recorded and released by Qeerroo Bilisummaa:
Oromo student protests are reported to have continued in Haromaya, Jimma, Madda Walabu, and Shambu universities.
Oromo student protests continued spreading to several other universities and high schools, middle schools throughout Oromia:
In Mida Qanyi district, West Shoa zone, the intensified protest of the Oromo students and people led by Qeerroo forced the administrator of the district, Shumi Lata, abandon his government and surrender to the people. The protesters controlled the administration office and the police station.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
May
2, 2014
continued
Student protest intensified in Mandi town, West Wollega zone. In this video recorded and released by Qeerroo Bilisummaa, the Federal police is seen directly shoting at protesters.
Oromo students of Ayira Gulliso, West Wollega zone staged a peaceful protest. Audio of the protests in Ayira, Mandi, Mida Qanyi, and Haromaya is released by Qeerroo Bilisummaa as follows:
Oromo students of Arba Minch University continued protest for the third day in a row.
Oromo students of Gindabarat and Xuqur Hincinni districts, West Shoa zone, staged peaceful protest
Oromo students of Haromaya University continued protesting in Haromaya town.
Oromo students of Ganji Secondary School, West Wollega zone, staged a peaceful protest.
Oromo students of Burrayyu Secondary School, Finfinne Special zone, staged a peaceful protest.
Oromo student protest continued in several towns in Oromia:
In Horo Guduru zone, Jardaga town, protesters chased away the police and local armed forces of the regime and controlled the town.
Protests continued in Horo Guduru Wollega zone, Kombolcha town.
Oromo student protests continued in the following cities on this day: Shambu, Horo Guduru Wollega; Sibu Sire, East Wollega; Bakko, West Shoa; Wal Qixxe, Wanchi, Taji, Sabata, Sadan Sodo, Ammaya, South West Shoa zone.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
May
5, 2014
Student Protest Continued in Mida Qanyi district, West Shoa zone. Agazi force is sent to the area and terrorized the civilian population.
The regime arrested four commanders of its police force in Nekemte town, East Wollega, accusing them of having connection with the OLF.
Oromo student protest intensified in several places of East Wollega: Haro Limmu, Limu Gelila, Guto Wayyu, Guto Gidda, Kiramu, Gidda Ayana, Ebantu, Gatama, Sibu Sire, Nunu Qumba, Bako, Billo Boshe, Guttin, Arjo Guddattu, and Digga Sasigga.
Protests expanded to several places of West Wollega zone: Inango, Nedjo, Dongoro, Ghmbi, Ayira, Gulliso, Gidami, Begi, Gidami, Jimma Horo, Qebe, Qaqe, and Haro Sabu.
Oromo student protests also continued in Horo Guduru Wollega zone at places such as Jardaga, Jarte, and Agamsa.
Popular Oromo singer Addisu Karayyu released his famous revolutionary song named “Ka’ii Loli” meaning “Stand up and fight” on YouTube.
Oromo students of Dembi Dollo town, West wollega zone staged a huge protest. Government Agazi force is reported to have beaten the students with stick and used tear gas, but also used live bullet to disperse the protest. Qeerroo reported that 2 students are killed.
Protest was spread to towns and villages near Dembi Dollo such as Mugi, Ashi, and Garjeda. Several students are reported to have been arrested indiscriminately.
In connection with the protests, several students of Adama University, East Shoa zone have been abducted by government forces and disappeared. One of the students arrested, Adunya Kiso, was the leader of Oromo cultural show known as GAASO.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
May
8, 2014
Ethiopian government unlished its forces in West shoa zone and made indiscriminate and massive arrests.
At least 400 people have been arrested in Mida Qanyi, West Shoa zone, students, teachers, farmers, government employees, including many local government officials and OPDO members in connection with the protest in the area.
The widespread and indiscriminate arrests occurred after the protests have slowed down in this area. In West Shoa zone alone mare than 600 Oromo students, including 15 year old girls, have been abducted and arrested.
Oromo students and residents of Ghmbi town staged a protest which is reported to have been turned into violence when an Oromo student was killed by an Amhara business man who lived in the city for many years. Some buildings are set on fire and many shops are reported to have been destroyed.
Oromo people of Bakko and Bakko Tibbe towns, West Shoa zone, protested and closed the road from Finfinne (Addis Ababa) to Finca’a town, Horo Gududru Wollegga zone.
3-Day Minnesota-State-Capitol OromoProtests Solidarity Hunger-Strike ended successfully at the Passing of Minnesota House Resolution condemning the Ethiopian govt’s violence on Oromo students.
Oromo student protest continued in Innango, West Wollega zone
Several Oromo students of Jimma University arrested.
Oromo protests solidarity hunger-strikers hold a mock funeral in front of the Minnesotan State capitol for slain Oromo students and civilians in Oromia.
Popular Oromo singer Hangatu Balcha released an inspirational revolutionary song on YouTube.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
May
14, 2014
Another round of Oromo student protest broke out in Wollega University. The government forces are reported firing live ammunition on the students. Several students are injured many others are abducted and taken away.
Government forces continued terrorizing Oromo students of Jimma University. Beating and arresting indiscriminately.
Qeerroo Bilisummaa Singers Group released a new revolutionary song named “Oromiyaa Keessaan Qeerroon sitti marse” (You are surrounded in Oromia by Qeerroo) on YouTube.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
May
15, 2014
Beating and firing live ammunition on Oromo students continued in Wollega University. More than 150 students hospitalized. Doctors and other health professionals of Nekemte Hospital are beaten for treating the injured Oromo students.
Oromo students of various colleges in Nekemte town staged peaceful protest and brutally beaten by government forces.
Oromo student protest broke out in Nedjo town, West Wollega zone. The Oromo students controlled Nedjo town for several hours until government Federal force arrived from Ghmbi town. The federal police started beating everyone indiscriminately upon arrival. Hundreds of students arrested. Others escaped to rural areas and remained there for several months. Many others are forced to permanently disappear from the area, some of them into exile.
A Young Oromo artist Jirenya Shiferaw released an inspirational and revolutionary song on YouTube.
At least 6 Oromo students are reported to have been arrested from their dormitories in Adama University in connection to the student protest held in the area.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
May
17, 2014
Continued
Two Oromo students, Milishu Mallasa and Bilisumma Lammi have been murdered in Adama town by government forces immediately after being released from prison.
Young Oromo artist Dadhi Galan released a new song named “dagachuu hin qabnu kan kalee” (we should not forget what happened [to us] yesterday). The singer is later arrested on the 2014 irreechaa festival (see October 22 report below).
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
May
24, 2014
Oromos and other Ethiopians staged peaceful protest in the capital Finfinne [Addis Ababa] against the government brutality on peacefully protesting Oromo students.
Oromo students of several schools in Ambo, Nekemte, and Nedjo demanded the release of their classmates who have been jailed, before they take the 10th grade national exam.
At least 10 students of Haromaya Uinversity have been abducted from their dormitories accused of refusing to celebrate the so called “Ginbot 20” (May 28).
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
June
4, 2014
Oromo student of Haromaya University, Aslan (Nuradin) Hasan, has been killed in prison as a result of extended and brutal torture.
A new protest of Oromo students broke out in Ambo, West Shoa zone, in Homacho Secondary School, demanding the release of Oromo students who have been jailed for participating in student protests. The director of the school was beaten badly by the protesting students when he tried to call government armed forces on the students.
An Oromo student named Dawit Wakjira was killed in Anfilo district, Qelem Wollega zone, by government forces. His death sparked a new wave of violence in the area.
A young Oromo high school teacher named Magarsa Abdissa is beaten and killed in Gulliso prison, West Wollega zone.
More than 200 Oromos have been adbucted and jailed from Begi town, West Wollegga zone. 9 of these ditainees have disappeared and their families could not find where they were taken.
15 Oromo students have been abducted from Madda Walabu University and their whereabout is unknown.
75 Oromo students (8 of them female students) are reported to have been under severe torture in prison in West Shoa zone. Their names can be found on the link given to the right of this row.
A new revolutionary song is released on YouTube by a young Oromo artist Kekiya Badhadha.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
June
10, 2014
Protest broke out in Anfilo, Qellem Wollega. At least 40 people arrested. The protesters closed the road between Mugi and Dembi Dollo for two days in a row.
Government military deployed in Gindeberet, West shoa zone, killed three 12th grade students: 1) Dame Balcha, 2) Chala Marga, 3) Bekele Terefe.
11 government employees (including three OPDO officials) are fired from their job accused of having ties with the OLF in Jardaga Jarte district, Alibo town, Horo Guduru Wollega zone.
A political Science Oromo student of Haromaya University, Husein Seid, is severely beaten by government armed forces and hospitalized.
A hidden massive grave, found at Hamareysa, East Oromia, infuriarated Oromo people of the area.
Oromo students of Qellem Preparatory Secondary Schhol, Dembi Dollo, Qellem Wollega zone, protested demanding the release of their class mates who are jailed. Their protest was met with brutal force of the government and many more students have been arrested.
A young Oromo man, Galana Nadha, who has suffered continuous torture in the Ethiopian prison, passed away and buried in Tokkee Kusaye district, West Shoa zone. The cause of death of Galana is widely belived to be directly related to his traumatic torture after which he developed a mental illness, eventually leading to his death. Some three thousand Oromo people attended his funeral.
New protest is ignited in Begi town, West Wollega zone, when several Oromo students who have been unjustly sentenced to long-prison for participating on protest were about to be transferred to Ghmbi Prison.
16 Oromo journalists of Oromoian TV, STVO, are fired from their job accused of not properly reporting the propaganda and lies of the regime and reporting the Oromo students’ protests and/or indirectly supporting the rightful demands of the Oromo people.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
June
27, 2014
Two students, among several Oromo students detained for participating in peaceful protests, escaped from prison in Begi town, West Wollega. In response, the government arrested several people and reportedly tortured them severely, including the mother of one of the students who escaped.
OLF- ShG and OLF-QC completed their unification process which was going on for two years. Their declaration is provided on Qeerroo website (see the link to the right).
Popular Oromo singer Hirpha Ganfure released a famous revolutionary song on YouTube praising the movement of Qeerroo. Hirpha Garfure is one of many Oromo artists who are forced to flee into exile, now lives in Norway. It is to be recalled that Hirpha also had released another inspirational “Ka’I Qeerroo” song following the formation of Qeerroo in 2011.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
July
7, 2014
Qeerroo Bilisummaa released a list of 61 Oromos killed and 903 others arrested and being tortured in different prisons accused of participating on the student protests of April and May 2014.
An Oromo student and an author of a book named “Qaroo Dhiga Boosse” (An Eye with Blood Tears) was abducted from Wollega University accused of having connection with the student protest
Oromo student Bikila Belay Tolera passed away, after staying in hospital following the gun shot wound he incurred when he participated in student protest in Ambo town, West Shoa zone.
Oromo students of Mattu University and Ambo University staged peaceful protest refusing the so called “political training” the regime started conducting in different universities in the region. The students chanted slogans in their campuses. Audio of the protest is recorded and presented by Qeerroo Bilisummaa (see the link to the right).
Oromo students of Jimma and Ambo Universities intensified their protest against the training of the regime. In Ambo, Oromo students burned the manual (book) distributed to them for training. Audio is presented in the link to the right.
Oromo students continued protesting against the training in Ambo, Jimma, Bule Hora and other universities. The audio of Jimma University is given below.
At least 53 Oromo students of Ambo University have been abducted and beaten on this day. Over 230 have been arrested from Ambo University in the last 3 days alone.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
August 27, 2014
The confrontation of Oromo students of Ambo Universityand Wollega University and the government forces is recorded and presented by Qeerroo Bilisummaa. Listen.
At leats 800 students of Wollega Uinversity arrested.
The university campus looked like war zone. One student killed in Wollega University. Amazing slogans of students. Listen the audio below.
Qeerroo released statement disclosing the names of 25 Oromo nationals who are on the verge of losing their lives by severe torture. Read the full statement here. The pictures of three of the Oromos at risk are below.
Sena Solomon, a young singer of Qeerroo Singers Group, released a new revolutionary song named “Gootni Baroode” (the Hero is Roaring [in the jungle]) on YouTube.
Oromo students of Jimma University protested in the University campus surrounded by the Federal Police and Agazi Force of the regime. The protest of the students erupted when the so called President of Oromia, Muktar Kadir, attempted to make an intimidating speech to the students through Plasma TV. In an unprecedented bravery, the Oromo students have been chanting slogans denouncing the regime, standing right in front of the brutal Agazi trrops.
A new protest erupted in Finfinne (Addis Ababa), Nefas Silk area, at a School called “Ginbot 20 School”. The protest is said to have attracted other nations and nationalities of the country.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
Sep.
16, 2014
Qeerroo Singers Group released a new revolutionary song “Jabaadhu WBO Abdii Saba Kiyyaa” (Be Strong WBO, Hope of My People) on YouTube. (“Waraana Bilisummaa Oromoo (WBO)” means “Oromo Liberation Army (OLA)”).
Irreechaa (Oromo Thanksgiving) is celebrated at Lake Arsadi, Bishoftu, Eastern Shoa zone. An estimated 4 million people participated on the occasion. Oromo youth participated in large numbers and expressing their grievances through various revolutionary songs.
One of the songs says: “Si eegee dadhabee ka’ee baduu laata?” (I waited too much for you [OLF], should I ran away?[to look for you]).
Three Oromo soldiers who are members of the regimes military, Eastern Command, have been arrested accused of having connection with the Oromo student protests in the area.
Qeerroo Activity and/or Ethiopian government response
Link for details of the news in Afan Oromo
November 5, 2014
21 Oromo students of Dire Dawa University, who have been languishing in jail for several months accused of participating in the Oromo student protest, have been unjustly sentenced to prison ranging from one year to five years. It has to be noted that Qeerroo has reported on August 30, 2014 (included in this report) that these students have been severely tortured and are at risk of losing their lives.
Darartu Abdata, sentenced to one year and 500 Birr payment
#OromoProtests (Qeerroo FDG) – Previously Unreleased Video of Oromo Students’ Protest at Finfinnee University Against the Addis Ababa Genocidal Master Plan
Barattootni Yuunivarsiitii Finfinnee Damee Science fi Technlogy Diddaa Kaasan.
Walgayiin barattootaa adeemsuma gaaffiwwan dhiyeessuutiin Yuuniversitii hunda irratti kan itti fufeedha. YuuniversitiiwwanAmboo,Wallagga,Jimmaa, Adaamaa fi kkf keessatti gaaffileen mirgaa dhiyaachaa jiran deebii argachu kan hin dandeenye ta’ullee ammas barataan kam iyyuu walgayii irratti hirmaachaa kan jiran gaaffiin deebii argachuu qabuuuf deebii dhabuun isaa sodaa mootummaa Wayyaanee barattootaa irraa qabu tahuun isaa waan beekameef dabalata Yuuniversitiilee hunda irratti barataan kamuu mooraadhaa ala bahu akka hin dandeenye hanga guyyaan walgayiin kun xumuramuutti mootummaan murtoo kan baase tahuu gabaasni Qeerroo addeessa. Keessattuu Yuuniversitii Wallaggaa irratti barataan mooraadhaa ala bahuu hin danda’u jedhamee murtoon guyyoota sadii asitti waan baheef barattootni diddaa jabeessaa jiru. Gaaffiin hin fuudhamu, dhimma guddina biyyaa fi qulqullina barumsaa irratti mareen barattootaa kan itti fufu malee gaaffii dhuunfaa fi dhimmi uummataa kana booda ka’uu hin qabu kan jedhus mootummaan Wayyaanee ibsa baasaa akka jiru gabaasni caasaa mootummaa irraanis ibsa. Walgayiin barattootaa guyyoota borus kan itti fufu waan ta’eef sochii fi fincilli barattootaa ammas haaluma wal fakkaatuun itti fufiinsa irra akka jirus qeerroon gabaasa. Gama biraan mootummaan Wayyaanee Yuunivarsitii Harammayyaa keessatti walitti qabamuun ololaa afaan faajjii irratti gaggeessa jirtu mormuun Iyyaannoo marasaa 2ffaa kan gaaffii mirga abbaa biyyummaa qabxii 10 of irraa qabu galfachuun walga’ii wayyaanee fudhachaa akka hin jirre ibsatan.http://qeerroo.org/2014/09/01/gaaffii-hin-fudhatnu-isa-isinitti-himnu-qofa-fudhaa-jedhchuun-hogganooti-wayyaanee-barattoota-oromoo-mirga-gaaffii-dhorkaa-jiru/
Oromia: Enhanced Master Plan to Continue Committing the Crimes of Genocide
The actions taken were aimed at destroying Oromo farmers or at rendering them extinct.
~Ermias Legesse, Ethiopia’s exiled EPRDF Minister
August 30, 2014 (Oromo Press) — The announcement of the implementation of the Addis Ababa Master Plan (AAMP) was just an extension of an attempt by EPRDF government at legalizing its plans of ridding the Oromo people from in and around Finfinne by grabbing Oromo land for its party leaders and real estate developers from the Tigrean community. The act of destroying Oromo farmers by taking away their only means of survival—the land—precedes the current master plan by decades. Ermias Legesse, exiled EPRDF Deputy Minister of Communication Affairs, acknowledged his own complicity in the destruction of 150,000[1] Oromo farmers in the Oromia region immediately adjacent to Finfinne. He testifies that high-level TPLF/EPRDF officials are responsible for planning and coordinating massive land-grab campaigns without any consideration of the people atop the land. Ermia’s testimony is important because it contains both the actus reus and dolus specials of the mass evictions[2]:
Once while in a meeting in 1998 (2006, Gregorian),the Ethiopian Prime Minster Meles Zenawi , we (ERPDF wings) used to go to his office every week, said. Meles led the general party work in Addis Ababa. We went to his office to set the direction/goal for the year. When a question about how should we continue leading was asked, Meles said something that many people may not believe. ‘Whether we like it or not nationality agenda is dead in Addis Ababa.’ He spoke this word for word. ‘A nationality question in Addis Ababa is the a minority agenda.’ If anyone were to be held accountable for the crimes, everyone of us have a share in it according to our ranks, but mainly Abay Tsehaye is responsible. The actions taken were aimed at destroying Oromo farmers or at rendering them extinct. 29 rural counties were destroyed in this way. In each county there are more or less about 1000 families. About 5000 people live in each Kebele (ganda) and if you multiply 5000 by 30, then the whereabouts of 150,000 farmers is unknown.
Zenawi’s statement “the question of nationality is a dead agenda in Addis Ababa” implies that the Prime Minister planned the genocide of the Oromo in and around Finfinne and others EPRDF officials followed suit with the plan in a more aggressive and formal fashion.
Announcement of the Addis Ababa Master Plan and Massacres and Mass Detentions
AAMP was secretly in the making for at least three years before its official announcement in April 2014.[3] The government promoted on local semi-independent and state controlled media the sinister plan that already evicted 2 million Oromo farmers and aims at evicting 8-10 million and at dividing Oromia into east and west Oromia as a benevolent development plan meant to extend social and economic services to surrounding Oromia’s towns and rural districts. Notwithstanding the logical contradiction of claiming to connect Oromia towns and rural aanaalee (districts) to “economic and social” benefits by depopulating the area itself, the plan was met with strong peaceful opposition across universities, schools and high schools in Oromia. Starting with the Ambo massacre that claimed the lives of 47 people in one day[4], Ethiopia’s army and police killed over 200 Oromo students, jailed over 2000 students, maimed and disappeared countless others over a five-month period from April-August 2014. Read more @http://oromopress.blogspot.co.uk/
Barattootni Oromoo Godina Wallagga bahaa , Horroo Guduruu Wallaggaa fi Qeellam Wallagga irraa University Wallaggaatti walitti qabuun walgahiin wayyaanee gaggeeffamaa jiru hanga guyyaa har’atti milkii tokko malee mormii guddaan wayyaanee kan mudatee fi walgahichi barattoota Oromootiin fudhatama dhabee danqamee jiraachuun gabaafamera. Walgahii kana irrattis barattootni Oromoo gaaffii mirgaa fi iyyata galfachuun mirgi hiriira nagaa gochuu akka
hayyamamuuf gaafatan, walga’iin wayyaanee kunis fudhatamaa kan hin qabnee fi uummata Oromoo kan hin fayyadne ta’uu barattootni ifatti gaafachuun gabaafamera.
Walgahiin wayyaanee kun Oromiyaa bakkota hedduutti mormii barattootan fashaala’a jiraachuun hubatamera. Keessattuu Godina shawaa lixaa Amboo, Godina Jimmaa , Iluu A/Booraa, wallagga Lixaa fi wallagga bahaatti sochiin barattoota Oromoo wayyaanee haalan raasee boqonna dhorkuun gabaafamera.
Godina wallagga bahaatti barattoota manneen barnoota sadarkaa 2ffaa fi qophaa’ina barattoota bara kana qorumsa kutaa 12ffaa qoramanii University seenuuf jiraniif illee Onoota godinichaa irratti qopheessuun mormii guddaan barattoota kutaa 12ffaa irraas haala walfakkaatuun wayyaanee mudachuun wayyaanee fi ergamtoota lukkeelee wayyaanee OPDO abdii kutachiisa jiraachuun gabaafamera.
Walga’ii kanarratti barattootni mana barumsaa sadarkaa 2ffaa Biiftuu Naqemtee barattootni kutaa 12ffaa walitti qabamanii turanwayyaanee irraatti fincila guddaa kachiisuun gaaffii keenyaaf deebiin nuuf hin kennamne, walgahii keessan hin fudhannu gadi nu gadhiisa jechuun ergamtoota wayyaanee jeeqan.
Ergamtootni wayyaanees barattoota nu jeeqaa jiran kanneen University fi kutaa 12ffaas yoo ta’ee walgahii kana irraa isin ariina jechuun gaaffii barattootaaf deebii dhabnaan kana deebisan.
Barattootni Oromoo University garaa garaa irraa University Wallaggaa damee Gimbii, Shaambuu fi University Wallaggaa Naqemteetti walitti qabaman hanga guyyaa har’atti walgahii wayyaanee hin fudhannuu jechuun mormii guddaa waltajjii wayyaanee irratti kaachisuun garaaf bultoota wayyaanee boqonnaa
dhorkachuun abdii kutachiisa jiraachuun gabaafame.
Bakkota sadan irraa iyyuu FDG guddatu ka’a jedhamee waan eegamuuf humni waraanaa wayyaanee lakkofsi guddaan Shaambuu, Naqemtee fi Gimbii irra qubsiifamuun gabaafamera. Sochiin barattoota yeroo ammaa kanatti haalan kan ho’ee fi uummata FDG kan dammqsee jiru ta’uun immoo ittumaa wayyaanee fi lukkee wayyaanee OPDO yaaddeessee jira. Haaluma kanaan walgahiin wayyaanee kun FDG guddaan xummuramuuf jira.
Hagayya 21 yuuniversitii Mattuu irratti kan waamaman barattootni Oromoo 2000 ol ta’an walgayii wayyaanee diiganii ganama sa’a lama irraa kaasaanii dhaadannoo garagaraa dhageessisaa oolaniiru.
FDG Yuuniversitii Barattootni Walgayii Itti Waamamanitti Eegalee Jira
Mootummaan wayyaanee barattoota walgayii afeeruun isaa of dagachiisuuf ykns gaaffii mirgaa lamuu lammataa akka hin gaafatamneef haala isaan burjaajessuuf yaalee ka’ee dha, kun kan itti caale tahee argame,walgayiin yuuniversitiilee oromiyaa keessatti qophayanii waamaman irratti FDG har’a bakkooota muraasatti kan eegalee dha, sochii fi karoorri Qeerroon qabatee jiru ammas bakka hundaatti barattootan kan eegalee fi har’a ganama Hagayya 21 yuuniversitii Mattuu irratti kan waamaman barattootni Oromoo 2000 ol ta’an walgayii wayyaanee diiganii ganama sa’a lama irraa kaasaanii dhaadannoo garagaraa dhageessisaa oolaniiru.
Walagyii hin feenu,gaaffiin keenya hanga deebii argatutti nun gaggeessitan, gaaffiwwan yeroo darbe obboleewwan keenya itti wareegaman irra tarkaanfannee walgayii keessaniif kabajaa hin laannu jechuudhaan walgayiin wayyaanee yuuniversitii Mattuu irratti afeeramanii jiran har’a fesheletee jira.
Akkasuma yuuniversitii Amboo fi naannowwan godina Shawaa Lixaa Ona Tokke Kuttaayee, Calliyaa, Miidaqany, Amboo, Gindabarat fi kan hafan keessatti uummanni barattoota waliin gaaffii mirgaa isaa dhiyeessuun halkan edaa irraa kaasee weellisa qabsoo fi barruulee adda addaa bittimsuu irratti kan argamaa jiranii dha.Yuuniversitii mara irratti sochiin barattootaa FDG kaasuun kan wal qabateen eegalaa jiru itti fufa.
MADDA ODUU SBO/VOL Hagayya 22 Bara 2014 #OromoProtests
Godina Iluu Abbaa Booraa Aanaa Mattuu Gandoota Gabaa Guddaa , Siibaa fi Aadallee Gumara ( Mardaafa ) keessatti Finccilli ka’e jabaatee itti fufee ooleera. Hagayya 21 Bara 2014. #OromoProtests Illuu Abbaa Borora, Western Oromia.
Godina Iluu Abbaa Booraa Aanaa Mattuu Gandoota Gabaa Guddaa , Siibaa fi Aadallee Gumara ( Mardaafa ) keessatti Finccilli ka’e jabaatee itti fufee ooleera. Finccila kana daran kan hammeesse ergamtootin Diinaa Shamarree Lalisee Geetaahoo ganni ishee 16 ta’e ganda Aadallee Gumar ( Mardaafa) keessatti Osoo isheen kophaa adeemttuu arganii Billaan mormma ishee qaluuf kufisanii bakka jiranutti ummatin qaqabee irraa buusuun battaumati miidhamttuu gara hospitaala mattuuti kan geessan yeroo ta’u gochaan gara jabina daanggaa hin qabne Kun raawwatamuun isaa ummata gar malee aarsuun jeequmsi jabaan uumamee jiraachuu maddeen Keenya gabaasaniiru.
Barattoota Oromoo Sagalee Ummata Oromoo: The Oromo Students are the Voices of Oromo Nation
21 August 2014
Barattoonni keenya Sagalee uummata keenyaa ta’uu isaanii ammaas irra deebi’uu dhaan Mirkaneessaa jiru!!! bakkeewwan Mootummaan maree dhaaf Barattoota keenya walitti qabde mara keessatti osoo mareen hin jalqabin mormii guddaan uumamaa jira.mormii kanaaf sababa kan ta’an keessaa Durgoon barbaachisaa ta’e kaffalamuu dhabuun isa tokko yoo ta’u Dhimmi Maaster Pilaanii finfinnee waltajjii Marii kana keessaa dhibuun Barattoota keenya dheekkamsiiseera!! dhiigni Ilmaan Oromoo kan irratti dhangala’ee dhimmi Maaster Pilaanii Finfinnee osoo Xumura hin argatin biyya Dimokiraasiin keessatti dagaage Ijaaruuf mari’achuun bu’aa tokko illee hin qabu jechuu dhaan mormii kaasaa jiru.Barattoota kana mari’achiisuuf kan ergaman “Dhimmi Maaster Pilaanii Finfinnee yeroo dhaaf waan dhaabbatee jiruuf isa irratti mari’achuu hin barbaachisu” jedhanis, Barattoonni keenya “yeroo dhaaf osoo hin taane dhimmi maaster pilaanii Finfinnee yoom iyyuu taanaan akka Lafaa hin kaane Mootummaan waadaa nuuf seenuu qaba. akkasumas Lubbuu darbeef qaamni itti gaafatamummaa fudhate ifa ba’uu qaba!!” jechuu dhaan mormii isaanii dhageessisaa jiru!!
TPLF’s Oromo students indoctrination conference at the meeting at Haromaya University – Dire Dawa Campus has been discontinued after panelists refused to entertain questions regarding Addis Ababa master Plan and Per Diem payment. During the morning session students demanded the issue of the Mater Plan and Land Grab must be added to the agenda, and also per diem must be paid. The panelists, led by Faysal Aliyi ( formerly at Washington DC embassy and now head of diaspora affairs at foreign ministry), responded saying they have no authority over such matter. Failing to break deadlock, both side walked out practically ending the meeting for the day.
In Ambo, where students are attending the meeting under heavy federal police presence, none of the agenda items have been presented yet as student continue to protest towards inclusion of the Master Plan issue and payment of Per Diem payment.
Gimbitti walgahiin har’aa mootummaa dargii durii abaaruun eegalame, Guyyaa guutuu Dargii fi ABO abaaraa oolan. Sa’a booda marii akkaataa aanaa irraa dhufaniin taasifame irratti gaaffiin bartootaan ka’e, utuu dhimmi masterplani finfinnee hiika hin argatiin, kanneen hidhaman gad hin dhiisamiin, kan ajjeesan seeraan hin gaafatmiin, gaaffiin Oromoo marti deebii hin argatiinitti waa’ee badii dargii fi ABO akkasumas gaarummaa wayyaanee nutti hin haasa’inaa jedhan yoo kana hin taane ammoo gad nu yaasaa gara maatii keenyaa deemna jedhan. Kanneen akkataa aanaatti marii gaggeessaa turan gaaffii keessan kana nama walgahii kana gaggeessuf finfinnee irraa dhufetti isiniif dhiheessina nuti kana isiniif deebisuu hin dandeenyu jedhan. Kanumaan kana sa’a booda ture addaan citee jira.
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In Gimbi unlike other venues students were divided into their home district. The meeting started with condemnation of the previous Dergue regime and followed by accusation against OLF. Students protested saying its pointless to talk about Dergue and OLF while refusing to engage us on the Master Plan, releasing jailed students and bringing to justice those who perpetuated killing. Panelists resorted to similar excuse saying they have no authority to answer question that are not on the manual provided to them by the government. The meeting discontinued on this point.
#OromoProtests, 21st August 2014
Breaking News: Hagayyaa (August) 20, 2014 FDG Marsaa 2ffaan Godina Lixa Shawaa Yuunibarsiitii Amboo Keessatti Goototata Dargaggoota Oromoon Qabsiifame. #OromoProtests in Central Oromia, Ambo University.
The planned indoctrination conference of Oromo Students at Walaga University- Naqamte Campus dispersed before it began due to disagreement between regime cadres and students. Its reported that students demand for per diem payment since they are forced to gather at the expense of their vacation time when they could earn money by helping their parents or through summer jobs. The cadres told student they have no power to make such arrangement, at which time students walked out promising to return when an entity with such power comes to meet their demand.
Similar question was raised at the Gimbi meeting, however the cadres were able to buy time promising they will make the necessary arrangement for payment. The cadres then introduced three themes of the conference 1) Building democracy in Ethiopia 2) Security and foreign policy of Ethiopia 3) Religion as cause of Oromo Student Protest. Students immediately raised procedural demand insisting the issue of Finfinne and land grab should be discussed before moving into the theoretical and policy focused issues . The cadres responded saying they were given syllabus with strict order and hence cannot discuss any other issue. Meeting adjourned while still in deadlock.
These indoctrination meeting is planned to take place in Gimbi, Naqamte, Adama, Madda Walabu and Haromaya. The regime has threatened that students who fail to attend one of these meetings will not be allowed to enroll back to college in Fall. http://www.siitube.com/article_read.php?a=587
In order to raise global awareness about the protests and the imminent threat facing students who have been expelled from school and those imprisoned, the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA) is launching a social media campaign. IOYA has prepared a short informative documentary that provides a summary of the protests to date. IOYA is also calling for the immediate release of thousands of Oromo students currently being held in detention and are likely to face torture for peacefully protesting against the Integrated Development Master Plan. The Ethiopian government’s continuous use of brutal force, arbitrary detentions, and torture to severely restrict freedom of expression and rights of citizens should be condemned. The campaign will call on various international human/governmental organizations to urge the Ethiopian government to release the students arrested and to refrain from expelling and abducting innocent students. To follow everything related to the social media campaign use #FreeOromoStudents
THE ADDIS ABABA MASTER PLAN IS A PLAN TO MASSACRE AND DISAPPEAR THE OROMO PEOPLE
By Yunus Abdellah Ali | July 14, 2014
Why the Oromo students decided to sacrifice their life against AAMP of the brutal dictator government of Ethiopia? The AAMP is the core issue of the complete oromo struggle.So it is the question of life and death for the whole oromo population. Millions of oromo s have been massacred by the emperor Minilik, emperor Haileselase, Derg, and TPLF for more than 120 years. But our oromo elders paid their life, their bones, their blood to bring a lot of achievements in the oromo struggle,and they did it. We have achieved some of the fruit of our elders struggle. We have regained the name Oromia for our land, oromo for our people, Afaan Oromoo for our language, our culture, in general we have gained our identity by the blood of oromo freedom fighters with an unforgettable dream of regaining our unique system of governance the Gadaa system.
But recently we the qube generation is facing one of the biggest challenge ever in the middle road of journey to freedom,that is the Addis Ababa Master Plan (AAMP). This plan is the plan that will take all of our achieved rights by our past struggles. So the qube generation is decided to protest against this AAMP in many parts of the world especially in the Ethiopian universities and high schools .This protest is not simply a protest, it the question of life and death,we qube generation are not only protest against this illegal plan, but also we will defend our land from being sold even if we continue being killed by the brutal Ethiopian government.
The Oromia students protest is the life costing struggle for the question of life and death. The dictator Ethiopian government is expanding Finfine , This means, the Weyanes want to expand from the center of Oromia and taking the the oromo land in to their federal territory. The AAMP going to take away our rights we gained through our years struggle with the blood of oromo elders. So that this master plan obviously is not about investment but it is about disappearing of the oromo people.this master plan is targeted directly towards the struggle of the oromo people ,which affects the oromo people directly in a lot of ways.
The current federal language amharic will expand again,in other words the working language of Oromia is going to be amharic based on long term expansion.Once the late prime minister Meles said that he will eliminate the dominance of oromo population in terms of number and the land. That is why the TPLF government have massacred the oromo people in different parts of Oromia and now displacing thousands of oromo farmers from their land. As he already said, in long term, the oromo people will be weak financially, small in number with out unity, and will be eliminated . But we oromo youngsters know that we can’t let our land to to be sold to the investors or government based NGO s even if it costs us our lives.
The Ethiopian government has been displaced many oromo farmers in eastern shewa, western side of Finfine in the name investment. For example in Oromia region in the areas of Zuway , Holeta, and other places there are flower farming. That farm is toxic naturally. And release a lot of toxic chemicals in to the soil kills the soil nutrient for 100 years,so the oromo farmers around that area have died by drinking toxic water that flows from those toxic soil to the lakes and rivers around, the release of chemical dusts from the local industries to the river. Many industries in Oromia release such toxic fluids in to the river of oromo farmers using for drinking water.
In conclusion the Addis Ababa Master Plan is not planned for investment but for elimination of the oromo nation one of the nation in Africa. This master plan is a plan with a mission of hidden eradication of the oromo people identity and population with the progressive erosion of oromo resources, culture, politics, language, land ,people and others from every angle.
So that we Oromo people will struggle by protesting both inside and outside until the end, to cancel the Addis Ababa Master Plan(AAMP) at any costs.
#OromoProtests– 19th June 2014, joined with their families, primary and secondary school students in Najjo, western Oromia, have boycotted classes and staged demonstration today.
#OromoProtests- FDG Magaalaa Dambi Dolloo Irratti Itti Fufee Jira
Gabaasa Qeerroo Qellem Dambi Dolloo Waxabajjii 18
Waxabajjii 17 Bara 2014 barattootni mana barumsaa sadarkaa olaanaa fi qophaayinaa Qellem gaffii mirgaa dhimma hidhamtoota oromoo mana hidhaa keessatti dararamaa jiraniin wal qabsiisanii hiriira bahaniin tikni wayyaanee dura dhaabbachuudhaan barattoota hedduu gara mana hidhaatti guuraa oole.
Hidhamuu barattoota kan guyyaa kaleessaa waraana wayyaaneetiin jilmaadhaan mana hidhaatti guuramaniin har’a waxabajjii 18 uummannii fi barattootni mana barumsaa sadarkaa garagaraa magaalaa Dambi Dolloo keessatti argamu itti fufuudhaan gaaffii mirgaa gaafachuudhaan barattootnni hidhaman nuf haa bahan jedhanii ganama kana irraa kaasanii iyya isaanii dhageessisaa jiru.
Humni waraana wayyaanee diddaa kana dhaamsuuf magaalaa kanatti guuramaa jira, uummanni fi barataan magaalichaa keessaa hidhamtootni gaaffii abbaa biyyummaa gaafatanii hidhaman akka bahaniif diddaa isaanii ciminaan gaggeessaa akka jiran Qeerroon gabaasaa jira.
Radio Afuura Biyyaa Waxibajjii (June) 16, 2014. Interview with Dr. Gizachew Teferra Tesso. The topic of discussion at RAB studio this time is the environmental impact assessment.
Why Resist the Master Plan?: A Constitutional Legal Exploration
Tsegaye R. Ararssa
When the Ethiopian government announced its readiness to implement its “Integrated Regional Development Plan” (the “Master Plan” for short) in the middle of April 2014, it provoked an immediate reaction from university students across the National Regional State of Oromia. Through the instrumentality of its security forces (such as the Federal and State Police, the Army, and the Special Forces), the Ethiopian government responded with brutal repression of the protests. In a series of campus-based and street protests that barely lasted for two weeks, over a hundred innocent Oromos are killed and thousands are jailed. To date, sporadic and spontaneous protest demonstrations continue to erupt in various parts of Oromia. Fuelled by anger triggered by the reckless words and utter disdain expressed in the course of a televised discussion between the Addis Ababa City Administration and the mayors and other executive heads of the surrounding towns over the Master Plan, and informed by history of killing, mutilation, dispossession, and political marginalization (all of which continue unabated), the protests were more a spontaneous reaction than a planned resistance.
Ignored by the state and local government, lied on by the national propaganda machine, neglected by international media and NGOs (with few exceptions), the students continue to resist. Diaspora Oromo communities, in a gesture of solidarity, voiced the plights of the students at home, and they took the occasion to ‘witness’ the violence once more. The non-Oromo Ethio-political elite, which always finds it difficult to speak out on atrocities perpetrated on Oromos, rather characteristically, is still struggling with itself on how to express anger at the mass killings without siding with the cause of the Oromo. (Basking on the nation-wide challenge to the regime as a fertile political moment, they sought to make gestures of solidarity in the hope that they won’t be left out in the event that the tide gets traction thereby leading to the eventual crumbling of the regime.) But very few groups came out in public and condemn this state-orchestrated terror. To be fair, they did well in voicing the plight of the six bloggers and three journalists arrested in the weeks following the start of the unrest. And that is to be appreciated. But the contrast was nothing less than disheartening to those who expected more than gestures of solidarity and had hoped that Oromo lives and rights would be valued as any other lives and rights in Ethiopia.
In this piece, I seek to make a close reading of the constitutional-legal frame within which to situate the master Plan. Accordingly, first, I seek to explore the constitutional-legal context within which the Master Plan should be considered and analysed. Next, I will present a summary of four major constitutional-legal arguments against the Master Plan.- Read the full text @ http://www.gulelepost.com/2014/06/04/why-resist-the-master-plan-a-constitutional-legal-exploration/
#Oromo Protests- Jen & Josh (Ijoollee Amboo) witnessed the cruelties of TPLF/ Agazi forces against peaceful Oromo students and civilians in Ambo, Oromia
The Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM) and Mederk have Successfully & Peacefully Demonstrated in Hawssa! @ Sidama capital, Hawassa, June 14, 2014
The Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM) and Mederk (Coalition of Opposition Parties in which SLM is a part of) have successfully conducted their anti-TPLF’s government demonstration in Sidama capital Hawassa amid tremendous fear of civilians resulted from a systematic over weeks’ intimidations and terror deliberately created by the regime’s army, Security forces and police personnel of federal and regional as well as Sidama Zone’s TPLF’s messengers, all of whom remained patrolling the entire Hawassa and its outskirt for the past five days leading to the June 14, 2014 demonstration. The ultimate aim of the regime’s agents who were busying themselves with missions of intimidation, harassment, repression and suppression- literally terrorising peoples individually and at family levels going from house by house- was hindering the participants from taking part in the said demonstration although they have only partially succeeded in doing so as the expected number of over 100,000 was cut by over 80%.
From another angle however, symbolically the numbers of participants who have taken part in today’s Hawassa demonstration exceeded the expectations of the organisers as it has happened against odds despite the fact that TPLF’s authoritarian regime has left no stone unturned to obstruct the participants from taking part deploying various means including sending the entire Sidama civil servants (majority of whom could have added several thousand if not tens of 1000s) out of Hawassa city under the pretexts of trainings to various southern regional towns for 3-4 days since June 12, 2014.
Besides, the leadership of both SLM/Medrek have expressed their fair satisfaction with the numbers of participants, which has been estimated to be between 11, 000 and 12,500. Given regime’s heinously planned hard work put into this involving deploying its army to harass and terrorise the civilians for the last few days, the numbers were significant victory to both SLM and Medrek. Additionally, since the 13thof June 2014, the regime has also paid the owners of public transportation vehicles in the entire Sidama districts further ordering them to remain out of work until the demonstration is over to hinder the Sidama civilians from taking part. Regardless these all hurdles, the people of Sidama nation have defiantly travelled hundreds of miles on foot to take part on today’s demonstration. The leadership of SLM and Mederk have expressed their gratitude to the people of gallant Sidama and Oromo nation and others who have taken part in today’s demonstration, inviting all to do similar in the future.
ETV (the only and State owned Ethiopian television) has fully satisfied the expectations of genuine minded peoples of SLM/Medrek supporters by putting the numbers of today’s Hawassa demonstrators at about 200!! No wonder if TPLF’s Media (ETV) has significantly cut the number to under 2% as it always does when it comes to success of the opposition parties such as SLM and Medrek. Thus, expecting the regime that deliberately undermines its constitution to speak the truth will by itself be utter naivety.
The slogans of the demonstrators involved:-
Unconditionally Respect the Rights of Nations and Nationalities!!
Unconditionally Release all political prisoners!!
The rights of peoples individually and collectively must respected as they are constitutionally guaranteed!!
Unconditionally Stop the uprooting of the Oromo peasants from the outskirts of Finfinnee and bring those who have massacred Oromo civilians to an independent justice!
Stop Finfinneee Master Plan! Stop uprooting Sidama from the outskirt of Hawassa!
Bring those security forces and authorities who’ve massacred Sidama civilians on May 24, 2002 in Looqqe village to justice and unconditionally respond to the Sidama national quest to regional self-administration for which the Sidama civilians have sacrificed their lives!
Stop harassing, intimidating and terrorising civilians of the country who have demanded their constitutional rights to be respected!!
Stop displacing peasants under false promises of fake Development!!
Stop selling the lands of nations and nationalities to transnational companies!!
We need Freedom!! We need justice not bullet!! Any numerous others.
The demonstration was peacefully concluded despite the fact that the regime planned to slaughters Sidama civilians soon after the 12th Anniversary of Looqqe massacre.
#OromoProtests- Finfinnee (Addis ababa) organised by Oromo Federalist Congress, 24th May 2014
Guyyaa har’a kana Kongereessiin Biyyoolessa Oromiyaa hiriira nagaa magaala Finfinneetti waame haala ho’a ta’een bahe ummani Oromoo. Sa’a sadii hanga sa’a torbaatti kan geggeeffamee yoo ta’u dhadhannoo arman gadii dhageessisuuni
1. Hidhaan fi ajjeechan barattoota Oromoo irratti rawwatamaa jiru yaa dhaabbatu
2. Master plan yaa dhaabbatu
3. Godinaa addaa naannoo Finfinnee kan Oromiyaati dabarsinee hin kenninu
4. Rasaasnii furmaata hin ta’u
5. Namoonni ajjeecha raawwatan seeratti yaa dhiyaatan
6. Mootummaan amma jiru uummata bakka hin bu’u
6. Ol aantummaa seera,haqa,bilisummaa ,walabummaa ,birmadummaa ni barbaanna fi kkf irratti sagalee dhageessisa turan.
(May 24, 2014) – Hundreds of thousands of protesters in the Ethiopia’s capital Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) today demanded the TPLF Ethiopian regime to stop killing Oromo students, and to stop evicting Oromo farmers and grabbing their land in the name of “development.” The protest rally was called by Medrek, a coalition of political organizations, including the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC).
The protesters have demanded justice for the Oromo students and civilians slaughtered by the TPLF Ethiopian regime during the Oromia-wide #OromoProtests in April and May 2014 against the Addis Ababa Master Plan, which outlines the Addis Ababa City’s plans to annex land from the Federally and Constitutionally instituted Oromia in the name of “development,” thereby evicting millions of Oromo farmers and subjecting them to both genocide and ethnocide in their own land.
Among the slogans chanted by the protesters at today’s rally in Finfinne include: “Stop eviction of farmers in the name of development,” “Stop the massacre,” “Bring culprits to justice,” “Free all political prisoners,” “Stop the land grab,” and “We need freedom of expression.”
Waltajjiin falmii araddaa finfinnee fi naannoo gochaa yakkamaa shira diinaa kana jabeessee kan balaaleffatu ta’uu ibsaa dhala OROMOO fi qaama dhimmi kun laallatu hundaaf kan gadditti tuqame kana qaabachiisuun barbaachisaa dha jedhee amana.
Akka sabaatti haalli keessa jirruu fi itti nudhiibaa jiran saalfachiisaa fi jibbisiisaa jireenyaa gadiiti. Haala kana falmii qindaaheen, kutannoo fi wareegama amma lubbuu gaafatu malee kan keeessaa nubaasuu danda’u hin jiruu hubannee wareegama gara hundaa bilisummaan gaafattu keessaa qooddachuun dirqama namaa fi qaama oromummaan laallatu hundaa ta’uu qaba. Wareegama nama biraatin bilisummaa hawwuun yakka yakkaa olii ta’uunis hubatamuun akka.
Diinni keenya garaagarummaa ilaalcha siyaasaa, amantii, gandaa fi dantaa xixxiqqoo qabnutti dhimma bahee bittaa gabrummaa issaa nurraatti dheereffachuun salphina jaarraa 21ffaa keessa harkaa nuqabu. Falli salphina kana ittiin obbaafannu waan hunda dura oromummaa dursuun qofa akka ta’e hubachiifna.
Buqqa’iinsa Lafaa Uummata keenya naannoo finfinnee irratti raawwatee fi raawwachaa jiru keessaa Oromoonni beekaa ykn otoo hin hubatin bu’aa yarootin hawatamtanii lafa abbaa keessanii oromoon dhiigni keessan irraa buqqaafame diina yakkamaa kana harkaa safartanii fudhachuun yakka dhala OROMOO irratti raawwatamaa jiru keessaa qooddachuu ta’uu hubatanii akka irraa ofqusattan isiniif dhaamna.
Barattoonni dargaggoo fi shamarran dhaloota qubee akkasumas qoteebultoonni fi jiraattonni magaalaa, ojjattoonnii fi waliigalli uummata oromoo daba Oromoo fi Oromiyaa irratti aggaammate hubattanii dura dhaabbachuun wareegama hulfaataa amma lubbuu gahu kanflatanii fi kanfalaa jirtan wareegamni keessan itti fufa wareegama gootummaa falmii mirgaa, Tufaa Munaa irraa amma Laggasaa Wagii fi sana boodalleen kanfalamee waan ta’eef seenaa keessatti kabajaan yaadatamaa jiraattu.
Sochii mormii gootonni barattoonnii fi dargaggoonni akkuma obboleewwan isaanii kan kaleessaa ciminaan akka Oromoo lafarraa buqqisuun dhaabbatuuf itti jiran hin deeggarra. Madaan issaanii madaa keenya. Duuti issaanii du’a keenya. Kanaaf akka dhiigni issaanii bilisummaa uummata keenyaa marguuf waan barbaachisee fi danda’amu hundaan bira dhaabbanna.
Hogganootaa fi ojjattoota mootummaa naannoo Oromiyaa, miseensota OPDO, Humna poolisii fi waraanaa dhalootaan oromoo ykn saba fe’erraa taatanii tarkaanfii garajabinaa wayyaaneen barattootaa fi uummata oromoo irratti fudhatee fi fudhachaa jiru ifatti ykn karaa isiniif aanja’e hundaan dura dhaabbattan kabajaan isiniif qabnu guddaa dha. Kanneen ammalleen garaa fi garaacha issaaniif yaaduu bira kutuu hanqatanii faallaa mirga Oromoo dhaabbatan maraatummaa fi raatummaa itti jiranirraa yaroon gara qalbii fayyaatti deebi’uuf akka yaalan gaafanna.
Badiin har’a uummata Oromoo irratti aggaammate kun akkuma kana dura waan hedduu waliin dhamdhamne boru isinis xuquun kan hin oolle ta’uu hubachuun sabnii fi sablammoonni biyyattii keessa jirtan akka falmii mirgaa barattoonnii fi uummanni Oromoo itti jiru bira dhaabbattan isin gaafanna
Saba Tigraay tiif
Gochaalee olitti xuqame kan dhaaba sikeessaa dhaltee siinis utubame kanaan Oromoo irratti raawwachaa turee fi itti jiru balaaleffattee harka kee xurii dhiigaa irraa qulqulleeffachuuf yaroon ati qabdu ammaa fi amma qofa. Kun ta’uu baatee akkuma kaleessaa qarqara dhaabbattee ililtaan harka dhooftaaf taanaan gatii guddaa har’a si mataa kee ykn dhalaa fi dhaloota kee boruu kanfalchiisuun waan hin oolle ta’uu siif himuu feena
Saba Amaaraa tiif
– Mootummoota kalee saba Amaaraa keessaa bahaniin biyyaattiin sun gidiraa
– Waggaa dhibbaa baattee jiraachuuf dirqamuun dhugaa dha. Haa ta’u malee
– Qotee bulaa fi cinqurfamaan saba amaaraa akka sabaatti bu’aan addaa
– Mootummaa maqaa keetin dhaadachaa turerraa hargatte ammamuu
– Mul’ataa Miti. Akkuma saboota biraa rakkinaa fi gadadoo keessa turuun kees
– Beekkamaa dha. Uummanni Oromoo fira malee diina kee miti. Atis oromoo
– Dhaaf fira malee diinaa miti. Mirgi oromoo kabajamuun akkuma waan mirgi kee kabajameetti lakkaa’ama. Kana hubattee kanneen maqaa keetiin dhaaba
– Faallaa mirga Oromoo ijaarrataniin gowwoomtee akka faallaa qabsoo mirgaaf
– Godhamaa jiruu hin dhaabbanne sigaafanna.
Irra deebinee waliigala Uummata Oromootif
– Mirga uumamaan qabdu garuu diinaan sirraa mulqame deebifattee
– Bilisummaa dheebotte gonfachuuf fallii fi malli issaa harka kee malee
– Harka eenyuutuu miti. Kana gachuun wareegama gaafatu qaba. Wareegama
– Malee mirgi addunyaa kanarratti kabajamee, mul’atees hin beeku. Waan ofii
– Gootuun malee kan namrraa eegduun milkii hawwaa jiraachuun ga’uu qaba
– Warra ebeluu fi ebelutu kana gochuu didee komii himachaa bara guutuu
– Aadaa jiraachuun gahee kara siif mijate hundaan qabsoo bilisummaa fi mirga
– Abbaa biyyummaaf godhamu keessaa qooda fudhadhu.
Dhaabboleen siyaasaa biyya keessaa fi alatti maqaa OROMOO tin sochootan
– Yaroon ofii harka walqabatanii akka uummanni harka walqabatee human ta’u
– Itti ojjattan amma ta’uu qabaan waamicha keenya.
Humni milkii qabsoo bilisummaa fi mirga abbaa biyyuummaa furgaasu tokkummaa OROMUMMAA irratti hundaa’e qofa!
#OromoProtests– Wealth gained by corruption, land grabs and mass killings :TPLF’s general Alemeshet’s new building in Finfinnee. The building, which is located at CMC Mikael in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa), is partially rented for 500,000 birr per month to several Chinese companies, one bank and one restaurant on the first floor. The building is registered under his wife Ansha Seid.http://mereja.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=79369
Gabaasi Qeerroo magaalaa Dambi Dolloo irraa
Caamsaa 21,2014 addeessuun har’a barattootni mana barumsaa Qellem barumsa dhaabuudhaan gara gaaffii keenya bu’uuraa kan deebi’uu dideetti deebina jedhuun mooraa mana barumsaa keessatti wal gayuudhaan diddaa eegaluuf gana sa’a 2:30 irratti waltti qabaman, Lukkeen waraanni wayyaanee eessaa dhufeen isaa fi eenyumaan isaa kan hin beekamne barattoota kana akka amala isaanii reebuuf gara mooraa mana barnootatti ol gamuu yoo eegalan barattootni tokkommudhaan barsiisota dabalatee dhagaadhaan of irraa qolachaa akka turan Qeerroon gabaasee jira, barataan guyyaa guutuu mooraa keessa waraanni wayyaanee mooraa manicha barumsaatti marsanii hamma ammaatti akka jiran gabaasni Qeerroo addeessa. Barattootni hamma dhugaanii ifa bahutti hamma gaaffiin uummata keenyaa deebi’utti barumsa akka hin baranne murtoo dhumaa fi beeksisa baasanii maxxansanii akka jiran gabaasni addeessa.#OromoProtests– Dambi Dolloo, Western Oromia, 21st May 2014.
Oroomoon martuu dubbiisu qabduu eerga kana !
Obboo Ermiyas Legesse ittii aana Ministeera Data fi information kan turan Wagga 12 fis motuumma wayyaanne waliin kan hojjeeta turaan yeroo amma biyyaa gadhiisudhan biyya ambaati argaamu isaanis Gaffiifi deebii Televizioonaa ESAT waliin tasiisan kessa yaadoota tokko tokkoo gabaabse isiin fi ka’ati na caqaasa .
1Gafiin Dura Magaala Finfinne Eenyuu tu bulcha ka jedhu ture
Obbo Ermiyas : akka seraa fi heeraa biyyaattitti magaalan finfinnees tae kan nannoo ofiin of bulchu ka jedhu barreeffame jira.
Gabaabumatti deebiisufi ofiin of bulchuun kan eegalu yoo namnii ati filaatte sii bulche fi akkasuuma yoo seeraan siin tajaajille yeroo barbaaddettis nan ta’u jette kastee qofadha.kun immoo akka finfinneettis akka gutuumma biyyaattitis hin jiruu.Sabaabnisa filaanno walaabatti wayyaannen wan hin amanneefi
2.Wa’e Master planii finfinnee yeroo amma ilaalchisee
Obboo Ermiyas: Gara master planii finfinne isa amma osoo hin tane waema guddiina fi lafa qabaanna nannoo finfinnee irraattin waa siif himuu barbaada.
Gazeexessanis :Tole
Obboo Ermiyas : Nannoo finfiinneeti wantoota qote bulaa fi jiraata Oroomo nannoo finfinnee irra jiraatani yoo kasnee mardhuummantu sii gubaata.
Maqaa Investmentiitin Hayat Real State kan jedhaamu kan qabeenyuumman isa namoot
Tigiraayi ta’e lafa duwwaa argaate mara irraatti mana xiqqoo (service) ijaarudhan maqaa manaattiidhan lafa duwwaa hektaara kumaataman lakaa’amu gurguuratani fixan
Akkaasumas dhaboolen adda maqaa ijaarsa mana irraatti bobb’an edduun kan qabeenyuumman isa warra Tigiraayi ta’e Oroomo kumaatama lafa isaarra buqqiisudhan abba warra gara kuma dhibbaatokkoo fi shantama qe’e isaarra buqqaasani bakka kanaatti aboottin warra kun ijoolle meqaa qabu matii maqaa qabaachu danda’u kan jedhuun bayiisati Oroomon meqaa akka buqqa’e tilmaamun isiin hin rakkiisu.
Fakkeenya nama anii beekuu tokkoo siif kenna Abbaan shanqoo lafa baldha qabu turaani qotee bulaadha shanqoon ijoolle gulbee ykn gatiitti fi surraa qaban nannoo anii jiraadhu kessa tokkoodha
Abbaan shanqoo lafa nannoo Hospiitala Bethel akka jiruutti kan sanii ture nannoon kun g
kara Ayar xenaa bakka jedhaamu fi zennaaba werqi bakka radio fm 97 .1 ttii bakka dhihatuudha namoota hin bekneefi
Shanqoon dur midhaan abbaan isa omiishe hardheetti fe’e gabaatti gurguure gala ture eerga laftii abba isa gurguurame warrii abba qabeenya itti ijaarraatani bioda garuu shanqoon dur midhaan abba isa hardheetti fe’e fidee gurguurun afee
Mana magaazinadha namoota fi hardheetti fe’e gara mana isaanitti gessuu eegale dur namnii midhan ofii isa gurguuru jechuudha.
Kun fakkeenya nama tokkooti garu seenna Oroomo nannoo sani 10 yks yks 40 yks 100 ykn 1000 lakka’amaniiti
Fakkeenya kan bira Dubartii Oroomo dhabbaata miti motuumma tokkoo kessa sha’e gurguurte jiraattu tokkoo mee siif ha kasuu
Hiriyaan ko tokko NGO tokko dhabuudhan namoota HIV dhan qabaamanifi gargaarsa tasiisa ture
Gafa tokko gara dhabbatichatti na affeere wae dubartii HIV qaban kana kan achii sha’e danfiisudhan jiraatani kana naf kasee
Dubartiin kun dur utuu laftii isaani jala hin fuudhatamiin dura hadha warra qotee bulaa cima turaani yeroo mara hardhee fi gangeetti midhan fe’udhan gara gabaatti midhaan gessuu turaani
Garuu laftii isaani gafs gurguuramu abban warra isaani jireenyi isaani qonnaa irraatti wan xiyyeeffatefi qonnaas wan jaallatanifi lafti isasni gafa gurguuramu yeroo jalqaab fi isa xumuuradha fi qonna waliin naga waliitti dhamaani
Kana boods gara magaalatti galuun qarshii isaani kanan harii irraan kan ka’e akka malee dhuguus eegalani yeroo kanas gara shamarran mana buna biira deemuu eegaalani HIV dhafis saxiilamani
ati warra isaanis HIV dhan qabaamani mucaan gidduu kanaatti dhalaattes HIV waliin dhalaatte
Ilmii isaani dargagfessis HIV dhafi saxiilame
Jartiin kun jalqaaba muca ishee isa xiqqaa awwaalte ittii ansuudhan abba warra ishee itti ansuun ilma ishee isa dargaggeessa
Amma xumuurri ishe dhabbata miti motuumma NGO tti galuudhan hojii sha’e danfiisu kana hojjeette jiraatti
Garuu isheen matii ishee hunduuma awwaalte fixxee boor garuu isheen awwaalcha hin qabduu .
Kun seenaa Oroomo tokko lama miti 50 yks 100 hanga kumaatamati
Gabaaba dhumastti kun anaaf Genocide dha yks Duguugga sanyii Oroomo irraatti xiyyeeffatedha.
Oroomon kumni dhibbaa tokko fi kuma shantaama ol ta’u bakka handhuurri isa awwaalamte irraa buqqiisun fayyaatti du’a ittii murteessu jechuudha kun .
Wan dubbiistaniifi galaatoma!
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Short summary:
English Translation by: Henok Oromia Kan Oromotti
Every Oromo must read this summarized translation!!
Mr. Ermiyas Legesse Former Vice Minister of Data and Infromation who had been in office for 12 years working within the TPLF government. Mr. Ermiyas is currently a refugee outside Ethiopia. He had an interview with the ESAT television and I would like to give you a summarized version of the interview. I hope you read my summarized version!!
.
1. (Interviewee) The first question: Who governs the city of Addis Ababa(Finfinnee)?
Mr Ermiyas: According to the governments law and regulation written in the constitution the city of Finfinnee should be able to govern it self. In short, self govern means(starts) if the person/party you have selected is the full representative of you, and you as a citizen can decide whether to like or not to like the law being proposed. Unfortunately the government of the city of Finfinnee let alone the government of the country don’t live on its own constitution. The reason is the government does not believe in free and fair rule(election).
2. Speaking of the current situation on the Finfinnee Master Plan:
Mr: Ermiyas: Before we jump in to the Finfinnee master plan issue there is one thing I would like to clarify(tell you) first.
Interviewee: Sure go ahead!
Mr. Erimyas: If we start talking about the livelihood of the Oromo Farmers and the Oromo people within the outskirts of Finfinnee you will burn in side. In the name of investment, there was Hayat Real Estate which was constructed on “Free Open” land which is solely owned by Tigray investors. These investors build small “service” constructions and sell each lands of thousands of hectares.
In addition, many of contractors and investors are of Tigray ethnic background, who evacuate thousands of Oromo people from their ancestral land. If we put this in numbers the Oromo people being evacuated can be around 150,000 who were displaced from their own land. To find out the scale of how many Oromo people were displaced in this area is not hard to find out.
For instance let me tell you of a Family I knew. Shanqoo’s Dad (Abba Shanqoo) who is a farmer, used to have a huge farm land. Abba Shanqoo had a land that was up to the Bethal hospital. That whole area used to belong to him.
In the neighborhood of Ayer-xenaa and Zenaba Werqi near the radio 97.1 studio there is no one who doesn’t know Shanqoo. He used to carry the vegetables his father cultivated on a donkey and took it there to sell. However, ever since there land was taken and sold away, the vegetables that Shanqoo used to take to the market was no more.
Currently he delivers magazines on his donkey to those area. This is just an example of one person but there are many Oromos like him in that area maybe 10 maybe 40 maybe 100 maybe even over 1000 in numbers!
Another instance, there is an Oromo girl who sell tea for living, let me tell you about her. One of my friends was NGO for assisting HIV affected individuals.
One day he invited me to his organization and mentioned to me about a girl who was living with HIV and was selling tea. This girl long ago before their land was not sold to investors, her mother was a strong farmer. Every now and then they used to take the cultivated vegetables to the market on their donkey and mule. But ever since there land was sold their dad payed his last tribute to his land and migrated to the city and started to drink(intoxication). The intoxication is due to depression and anger. At this time he was visiting the coffee shops and having contacts with women, and unfortunately had contacted HIV. His wife contacted HIV and a child was born between them this child(tea girl) had HIV.
This woman’s(tea girl) first child was lost, then her husband then her teenager son. Now she is part of the NGO where she currently works as a tea lady to support her self.
She burried her whole family but tomorrow she has now one to burry her. This is not a story of one Oromo this is a story of many more like her maybe 50 or 100 more.
To me just to summarize, this is genocide that is specifically focused on the Oromo People.
Oromoo of over 150,000 who are buried in their own capital is just like a complete execution.
SAD NEWS!! #OromoProtests
In west wallagaa in the town of Gimbi in the neighborhood of Waloo-yesuus. There was a 16 year old grade 9 student named Gammachiis Dabalaa. In his life time he used to burn firewood to make charcoal so he can support his family as well as paying for his education. Like his day to day duty, while he went to fetch woods and burn for charcoal on his way to Gimbi town in the morning on 02/09/2006(E.C). He was shot on his foot by a woyanee(TPLF) soldier. Since that day this young boy was spending his time in the Adventist Hosptal in the Gimbi town. Due to lack of quick recovery he passed away on 12/09/2006. May his soul rest in peace!!!!!!!
This photo shows the colonial mansion of Abadi Zemo – one of TPLF’s men. The house is in Yerer Ber. Just a decade or so ago, Yerer was an Oromo district.This 19th-century-U.S.-plantation like colonial mansion was not built by evicting one Oromo farmer and family. It was built by uprooting an entire community of Oromos in Yerer. No one knows what has happened to that Oromo community uprooted from Yerer to make way for Abadi Zemo’s colonial mansion. Who must stand for those Oromo communities being uprooted across Oromia in TPLF’s land-grabbing campaign? – Gadaa.com
This is just tip of the iceberg of TPLF’s empire of corruption.
Aduna Workneh, father of five, lives across bunches of flower farms near Addis Ababa. Officials from the government and flower farms came and talked to him in person. They told me I will benefit better if I take the offer from the government and leave my land. Initially, I refused the offer – because they money would feed my family for a few years, but my land will feed till the ages of my grandchildren and even beyond.” However, Aduna was forced to take the offer and he is now a landless man. He is not sure about his future.
These flower farms benefit us nothing; at least they were expected to provides employment opportunity, says Aduna. Only a few members of our community got employed; as for the majority are not from this area. Showing across the valley, Aduna says – this whole valley was covered by indigenous trees – now is cut down and green houses have been constructed on them. We were able to collect firewood from leftovers and foliage in the forest – the flower farms have taken away everything from us.
#OromoProtests: Dambi Dollo, Western Oromia, Wallaggaa, 14th May 2014
#OromoProtests- Oromo students peaceful protest and Agazi’s brutality at Jimma university, 14th May 2014
#OromoProtests FDG: Renewed Anti-Land-Grabbing Students Protests at Wallaggaa University. Four Oromo Students Reported Dead; Several Hundred Oromo Students Injured
May 14, 2014 (gadaa) — #OromoProtests FDG continued at Wallaggaa University in the Nekemte Campus on May 14, 2014 to demand that the Addis Ababa Master Plan be annulled, and to demand for the institutionalization of the Special Interests of Oromiyaa over Finfinnee per the Constitution. The Addis Ababa Master Plan is termed as the Master “Genocide” Plan by Oromo activists as it aims to evict millions of Oromo farmers around Addis Ababa (whose Oromo name is Finfinnee), and hand out the land to local and foreign land-grabbers – with the Chinese being main actors of the ongoing land-grabbing campaigns in Oromia/Ethiopia.
According to sources, three Oromo students were reported dead at the Wallaggaa University May 14, 2014 #OromoProtests FDG, and one fell/was thrown from a high-rising building. And, medical staff at the nearby hospital have reported up to 200 injured Oromo students being brought to the emergency room. The Agazi TPLF Ethiopian Security Forces continue to lead the violent crackdown of the nonviolent Oromo Students Movement known as #OromoProtests FDG. When students barricaded themselves in dorm rooms, the Agazi forces have demolished walls to enter the rooms, and carry out their harassment, killings and arrests of the students.
Meanwhile, several hundred Oromo students are being arrested en masse at Jimmaa University; this latest campaign of mass arrests by the TPLF Ethiopian regime is in addition to the already arrested hundreds of Jimmaa University Oromo students and Oromo university professors/instructors.
Here are some photos from today’s Wallaggaa University incident: photos show the atrocities being committed by the Agazi TPLF Ethiopian Security Forces on unarmed Oromo students. Warning: some of the photos are gruesome; viewer discretion advised. –For more images click Gadaa.com
#OromoProtests at Walaga University when students barricaded themselves in dormitory, Agazi’s broke down the walls and doors. 14th May 2014
#OromoProtests- Agazi’s brutality at Nekemte (Naqamtee) Wallaggaa University, 14th May 2014
Agazi & the brutal regime(TPLF) in Ethiopia is killing peacefully demonstrating oromo students. The TPLF/ Agazi is also showing its brutal actions on victims’ families and health workers who have showed their empathy to the victims. They are showing their cruelness in each and every action they take on the voiceless peaceful civilians. What does the international legislation, the WHO’s patients’ rights says to this ignorant regime? They are disrespecting international laws in multiple ways.
#OromoProtests FDG Renewed Anti-Land-Grabbing Students Protests at Wallaggaa University.
Four Oromo Students Reported Dead; Several Hundred Oromo Students Injured Posted: Caamsaa/May 14, 2014 · Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com
#OromoProtests FDG continued at Wallaggaa University in the Nekemte Campus on May 14, 2014 to demand that the Addis Ababa Master Plan be annulled, and to demand for the institutionalization of the Special Interests of Oromiyaa over Finfinnee per the Constitution. The Addis Ababa Master Plan is termed as the Master “Genocide” Plan by Oromo activists as it aims to evict millions of Oromo farmers around Addis Ababa (whose Oromo name is Finfinnee), and hand out the land to local and foreign land-grabbers – with the Chinese being main actors of the ongoing land-grabbing campaigns in Oromia/Ethiopia.
According to sources, three Oromo students were reported dead at the Wallaggaa University May 14, 2014 #OromoProtests FDG, and one fell/was thrown from a high-rising building. And, medical staff at the nearby hospital have reported up to 200 injured Oromo students being brought to the emergency room. The Agazi TPLF Ethiopian Security Forces continue to lead the violent crackdown of the nonviolent Oromo Students Movement known as #OromoProtests FDG. When students barricaded themselves in dorm rooms, the Agazi forces have demolished walls to enter the rooms, and carry out their harassment, killings and arrests of the students. Meanwhile, several hundred Oromo students are being arrested en masse at Jimmaa University; this latest campaign of mass arrests by the TPLF Ethiopian regime is in addition to the already arrested hundreds of Jimmaa University Oromo students and Oromo university professors/instructors. Here are some photos from today’s Wallaggaa University incident: photos show the atrocities being committed by the Agazi TPLF Ethiopian Security Forces on unarmed Oromo students. Warning: some of the photos are gruesome; viewer discretion advised. Agazi breaking into dorimtories. #OromoProtests reports that medical staff at Nekemte Hospital being harassed and assaulted by federal police. Altercation began when police tried to remove a wounded individual from the critical unit.
#OromoProtests, Gimbi, Wallaggaa, Western Oromia, May 1oth 2013
Gimbi continued their protest again the dictatorial regime for the Oromo land grab and Finfinne. Accordingly, the TPLF/ Ethiopian government security forces (Agazi) are burning buildings and other stores in the Gimbi town. Qabsoon qeerroo gara dhihaa onnee guuttun itti cimee fufeera. Magaala Gimbii keessatti Mormiin uummataa itti fufee jira.
The brutal crime and atrocity of T.P.L.F thugs committed on unarmed peaceful Oromo student’s and civilians is continued. While the Oromo Community in diaspora demanding for justice still the killing is continued in Oromia. This picture is from Gimbi, Wallagga, Western Oromia.
#OromoProtests Dembi Dolloo, Qellem Wallagaa, Western Oromia, 6th May 214
#OromoProtests Arjoo (JImma Arjo and Nunnuu Qumbaa), East Wallaggaa, Western Oromia, 6th May 2014.
2nd May 2014#OromoProtests pictures from the rally at Galila (E.Walaga)
#OromoProtests Photo: Addis Ababa University Oromo students urge Mr. John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, who’s on a visit in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa), to condemn the government violence on unarmed Oromo students protesting against the Addis Ababa Master Plan to expand the city limits, and thereby evict in millions those Oromos living around the Capital, and also dispossess them of their land (May 1, 2014)
#OromoProtests 2nd May 2014 in Dongoro town (27 KM from Gimbi) – low resolution picture
#OromoProtests #Oromo, 2nd May 2014, Arsi (Dodola) Ethiopia Godina Arsii Lixaa magaala Dodoolatti barattoonni mana baruumsa sadaarka lammaaffa dodoola Fdg eegaluf moona mana baruumsa afootti osoo marii’ata jiran,humnoota mootummaan addaan bittiinayan.barattoonni kun osoo sagaale hin dhageesisin addan bittiinaayanis bakka mirgi Abbaa biyyumma ummaata oromoo hin kabajaminitti hin barannu jeechun yeroo amma kana mormi dhageessisa jiran.
#OromoProtests, 4th May 2014: Guduruu (Kombolcha), Horroo Guduruu Wallagaa, Western Oromia
kaleessa godina horro gudduru wallagaa magaala kombolcha aanaa guduruutti ummanni oromoo fi baratoonni oromoo hirira nagaa bahan ta’us haala nagayan itti fufu hin dandeenye sababni isaa saroonni fi jaleen wayyaanee ummata fi baratoota mirga isaaf dhaabate kana reebanii adda adda fachaasani haa ta’u malee gaafa kibxataa(28:8:06) haala nama ajaa’ibun hiriira nagaa bahuuf qopha‘ani jiru kanaaf uummanni oromoo hundi qabsoo isaa itti fufuu qaba jenna nutti oromoonni hundi keenya mirga keenyaaf dhaabachu qabna hamma yoomiitti cunqursama hafnaa??
Oromo diaspora (Norway) joined the Oromia (at home) peaceful movement, 1st may 2014 in protest of the Tyranny of Ethiopia and its genocidal master plan.
#OromoProtests– SIREE town, 50km from Adama, Siree high school and preparatory student are going to protest “The Master Plan” that is planned by #TPLF to annex 20 oromia towns. The people are also preparing to abandon him/herself from any activity, teachers are going to stop teaching, student are going to stop learning, there is no marketing, gov’t employer are going close the office until the questions of oromo student get response. When and where the Siree high school and preparatory student will going to hold demonstration is not publicized for security purpose. 5th May 2014
Horrifying Scene from the Ambo Massacre of April 29, 2014 – #OromoProtests – Peaceful Oromo protesters – opposing the Addis Ababa Master Plan – chased by the TPLF security forces as they (the TPLF security forces) indiscriminately batter rally-goers
Photos/Videos: the Global Oromo Community and Friends of the Oromo Express Solidarity with #OromoProtests and Demand Justice for Slain Oromos
Posted: Caamsaa/May 4, 2014 · Gadaa.com
(Gochaa Abba irre Motummaa Wayyaanee ummata Oromoo irratti raawachaa jiru, mormudhaan tarkaanfii waloo fi hatattama fudhachuuf Marii waamame ture milkaawe jira. Qophiin kuni, akka aadaa Oromootti Ebbaa Jaarsoole Oromoon dungoo qabsiisuudhaafi yaadannoo Gotoota Oromoo nuf waregamnin jalqabame. Marii kana irratti namoota dhibban lakkawaaman kan argaman yemmu ta’u, bakka bu’oota Hawaasa Oromoo Berliin-HOB. ev fi Hawaasa Oromoo Munchen fi Nannoo-HOMN e.V, Murtii isaani ummataaf ibsani gaaffii ka’eefis deebi kennaniiru. Waluma galatti Hirira nagaa gaafa Caamsa 9, 2014tti geggeffamu ilaalchisanis haalli qindaawee akka jiru ibsame, hawaasonni biro fi Jaarmooli siyaasas misensoota isaani kan hirmaachisan ta’u isa akkasumas, Warri yakka kana ummata kenya irratti rawwatan haga Seeraan Gaafatamani murtii isaani argatanitti fi gaaffin Saba Oromoo deebii hamma argattutti utu giddutti hinkutiin qabsoo kana kessa hirmaachuuf waada galaniiru. Jarmooleen Siyaasaa Oromoos gargarummaa ilaalchaa siyaasaa qabaan dhiphiifataa diina irratti xiyeeffachuun akkataa dantaa ummataa Oromoo kabajchisuu fi tiksuu irratti garaa fuulduraa maarii bal’aa kan hawaasni keenyaa ifatti qoodaa irraa fudhaatuu akkaa yabboo(Forum)n tolfamuu hirmatoonii walgahii kanaa dhammatnii jiru. Tokkummaan Humna! – 03.05.2014 – Muenchen)(Oromo Community in Munich, Germany; May 3, 2014)(Oromo Community in Munich, Germany; May 3, 2014)(Oromo Community in Munich, Germany; May 3, 2014)(Oromo Community in Munich, Germany; May 3, 2014)(Oromo Community in Munich, Germany; May 3, 2014)(Oromo Community in Munich, Germany; May 3, 2014)(Oromo Community in Munich, Germany; May 3, 2014)(Photo: Oromo Diaspora in Minnesota – the largest community outside Oromia – met on Sunday, May 4, 2014, to discuss on how to best help Oromo Students’ #OromoProtests)(Photo: Oromo Diaspora in Minnesota – the largest community outside Oromia – met on Sunday, May 4, 2014, to discuss on how to best help Oromo Students’ #OromoProtests)(Photo: Oromo Diaspora in Minnesota – the largest community outside Oromia – met on Sunday, May 4, 2014, to discuss on how to best help Oromo Students’ #OromoProtests)
The so-called Addis Ababa Master-Plan is meant to physically/ethnically/nationally cleanse Oromo from Tulama-land. Let us see this case, Lafto was an Afan-Oromo speaking Oromia district a mere 15 years ago. Over the last decade or so, the Afan-Oromo Lafto has been transformed into an Amharic-speaking region inside Addis Ababa – with no significant Oromo nationals there; thus, by expanding to the Lafto area, the Habesha government of Addis Ababa has committed ethnocide on the Oromo in Lafto (it changed the ethnic/national makeup of the Lafto area). This is a point in addition to physically murdering the Oromo farmers who used to live in Lafto area – where are they now? With no land, home and livelihood to depend upon, they have been left to die slowly – which is the genocide committed on the Oromo as a result of the expansion of Addis Ababa into Lafto. The same can be said about other Oromo regions now forcefully incorporated into Addis Ababa, especially over the last few decades: CMC, Kolfe, Kotebe, etc. In other words, the expansion of Addis Ababa has nothing to do with “urbanization” or “development” – but only for committing the physical liquidation (genocide) of the Oromo farmers, and extermination of their language and culture (ethnocide). To summarize, the expansion of Addis Ababa results in the death of Oromo farmers and their families, and also in the death of their culture and language. This is to say, the Master Plan of Addis Ababa is the Habesha’s Mein Kampf on the Oromo. (Note: Mein Kampf is Hitler’s hateful plan for extermination of the Jews). By all means necessary, all Oromos and friends of the Oromo – and peace-loving citizens of the world – must destroy the Habesha’s Mein Kampf on the Oromo – aka the Master Plan of the Addis Ababa City. Those behind this document must be brought forward to face justice for attempting/vouching to perpetrate ethnic cleansing and ethnocide on the Oromo. – Gadaacom Oromo
The Secrets of the New Master plan of Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) Expansion
THE NEW MASTER PLAN (MASTER CLAN KILLER) OF FINFINNE (ADDIS ABABA): Critique and Protest Against Utopian (Nowhere) Comprehensiveness and Physical (Tabula Rasa) Determinist Master Plan.
It is a politically motivated move based on driving the surrounding Oromo community into deeper poverty offering only empty promise to others simply echoing what they think people may want to hear such as, international standard, accelerated development, modernizing the city, experts from prominent European master planners, etc. They have wrongly judged the Oromo thinking and aspirations when they try to trick the Oromos by naming few Oromo individuals like Kumaa Dammaksaa, Berhane Deressa, Driba Kuma, etc. These individuals have always been on the other side of the Oromo issue that the dictators were ingenuous to think that such names would soften the position of the Oromos to thwart the grand political question that they have been asking. No cover ups and use of Oromo names can answer this questions, only the rule of law implemented without political infringement can. The current Ethiopian constitution touted 20 years ago then is politically void in that many of its provisions including articles 40, 43, and 49 remained hollow promises. Particularly, Article 49 of the fake constitution gives only lip service concerning the special interest of Oromia on Addis Ababa. So far, the acclaimed special interest had not met any interest of the Oromo people and the State of Oromia except the contamination of rivers, unmanaged urban runoff, untreated grey water, and pollutions from different land uses of Finfinnee continue to wreak lives and destroy livelihoods of the surrounding Oromos. No considerations of inclusionary practice for Oromo people who use water from the contaminated rivers is made in the recent master plan; it rather plans to do worse, uproot the remaining communities and clear up the swaths of land for the alien settlers. The plan is not inclusive and has no room for managing conflicting interests. So, it is morally, ethically, and professionally wrong and void. Politically flawed; federally owned or territorial boundary of the city has no geographically limited space and no sustainable growth management practices are evinced within the master plan document. The territories of States are divisible and can be manipulated all the time for hidden and clear goals where the state of Oromia has no clear boundaries. The master plan has a clear expansionist goal that will divide the state of Oromia in to two separate regions while it gives access (connection) to the Amhara region and Gurage zone in the near feature. So, the acclaimed master plan is an open venue for the urban sprawl and the development it claims can create political instability for that country. Legally unconstitutional and has no legal means is provided to acquire 1.1 million hectares of land. It is aimed to transfer a political power, state property, and private property to the other private owner (the riches). This is illegal because government cannot take a property from one citizen and transfer it to other private citizen or cannot treat its citizens prejudicially and undermine the rights of indigenous population. The so called master plan has unbearable outcomes; it is aimed to disintegrate the shared values of Oromo people, kills the sense of belongingness, the clans, sub-clans, hamlets, and traditional norms. That master plan has ignored the right of the Oromo people and the state of Oromia to administer a large city and has the intent of building a single municipal government on the big chunk of land. The so called prominent European experts on the advisory payroll seemed to have no clue of multijurisdictional planning or ignored the underlying effects of planning that can destroy existing unique identity. If growth is desirable the undesirable effects of planning could be averted. For instance, cities can have contiguous shape or spotted (leapfrog) settlements while having different local governments that leave sensitive places open as it is in between the cities such as farm lands, environmentally sensitive places, historical places, and indigenous population. Why is the state of Oromia cannot administer satellite (suburban) cities? No reason except there is a hidden goal.That master plan is naive about the sociological formation of indigenous people and assumed as if no diversity exists. Its planning contents disrespected existing values that are given for diversity of culture, values, and different interests of the Oromian state position. No principles and normative theory is evidenced. That master plan is naive about the sociological formation of indigenous people and assumed as if no diversity exists. Its planning contents disrespected existing values that are given for diversity of culture, values, and different interests of the Oromian state position. No principles and normative theory is evidenced. No answer is provided for questions such as, who is going to be evicted? Why they are evicted? Where is their destination? And where is the end point of expansion of the city of Finfinnee? No equal opportunity and equitable conditions provided for the affected.
By Gamsiis (Ph.D.)
Introduction
The aim of this short essay is to protest and critique the newly declared Master Plan of Finfinne (Addis Ababa), the central city of Oromia. Moreover, it is also aimed to advocate for and bolster the voice of the underrepresented Oromo communities living in around Fifinne who are affected by this master plan. The so called new master plan of the city of Addis Ababa (Finfinnee) is a top-down, utopian, physical determinist, a blue print production oriented plan, and filled with politically void terms, laden with hidden agenda that has a grand aim of disintegrating the territorial integrity of the state of Oromia and expand federal government and the minority settlers it has been sponsoring for the last 23 years at the heart of Oromo land, Finfinne.
Prior to discussing the details of the so called master plan this article will define and analyze three major planning and plan related issues. Here we will discuss the theoretical and practical considerations in defining a city planning, and the legal frameworks surrounding city planning practices.
City planning (Town planning) in general term is an activity that regulates the urban development to efficiently manage the urban land use in order to improve the lives of its community by creating safe, healthy, equitable, well situated, and attractive social and economic opportunities for the present residents without compromising the need and possible aspirations of future generations.
Therefore, Master plans (comprehensive plan, general plan) should be aimed to create more development opportunity, better living conditions, healthy and livable place. There are multiple outcomes that are expected from the genuine planning activity. Planning should focus on providing and creating better job opportunity for the community, build improved tax base for the city government, and facilitate the provision of better public services such as transportation, supply, utility services, schools, safety services (policing, fire protection, etc.), recreations, and park services. Secondly, planning is aimed to facilitate economic development outcomes that encourage existing economic institutions and attract new development opportunities. Thirdly, planning activity must create equitable benefits (conditions) for the business community, the public, and the local government (city government). Fourth, city planning activity should empower environment friendly development activities while regulating activities that can have negative environmental impacts and severe environmental hazards such as industrial pollutions, management of urban runoffs, and control other land use externalities.
Contrarily, planning can have negative impacts on property values, can affect peoples’ life negatively, may have hidden values or vague goals, and can have negative political impacts against citizen. Planning activity without legal and judiciary means of protecting civil right can serve as covert exercise of power over the private property, and natural amenities can have a devastating outcome. Authorities, business community, and interested stakeholders may use planning as a land grabbing tool or can impose unfair land use management practices.
Moreover, planning itself can be viewed as a political exercise that manifests itself as taking power (eminent domain) or policing power over public/community properties as well as private property. In its perfect sense, planning should be purely apolitical and it is a governmental duty exercised by city government. But planning can unequally benefit/harm citizens, and even displace and evict communities, destroy shared common values, culture, identity, history and heritage of people, and can kill the sense of belongingness and ownership. Particularly, in places like Finfinne where the unique merger of history and power accorded aliens the privilege of carving a settlement for themselves among the indigenous people, planning to expand, modify the settlement (city) will have always adverse effect on the surrounding indigenous communities. In addition to the scramble for the physical land resources there exist invaluable cultural and historical heritage heritages that may be destroyed by planning practices. There are diverse multi layered socio-cultural orders, common shared values, systems, clans, sub clans, villages, traditional settlements, historical places, and related religious amenities of indigenous nature on which planning can have a devastating effect. It can kill all of these values if not practiced carefully and if legal measures and institutions are not in place to protect all of these including environmentally sensitive areas.
Additionally, planning is value laden practice and with multi-faceted interest where affected parties need to consulted, counseled and legally represented at all planning levels and their needs and rights given proper consideration. Planning graphics, maps, colors, and planning jargons can be very complex, can be hard to be understood by layperson, and are full of professional terms. In some cases planning can have hidden goals where the outcomes are not clear to everyone including the stakeholders they were meant to serve.
The Master Clan Killer
As the case study conducted about the current and newly proposed master plan shows
The analysis of the newly proposed master plan of Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) indicated that its content and quality has imposed issues (values) that are dictatorial and top-down planning activity. The so called master plan is aimed at physical development such as land acquisition for the expansion of the city without full social, cultural, and environmental planning concepts. The industrial zonation of the south east Finfinne was an example of bad planning practice that did not take in to account the impact it can have on the environment. Industrial wastes from this zone have affected thousands of individuals along Akaki (Aqaaqii) river banks and the effects have been felt as far south as Koka (Qooqaa). Therefore, this and earlier master plans were aimed to achieve physical design goals i.e., a plan to expand the perimeter of federal constituency at the expense of social, cultural, environmental, historical and economic injustices to the nearby indigenous communities. The so called master plan failed the affected communities, destroyed their values and can be called the CLAN KILLER. The following is a justification why it has to be called the MASTER CLAN KILLER.
The acclaimed master plan is socially blind and has never mentioned to have a social oriented goal. So, it is socially reckless physical design oriented towards achieving a narrow goal of undermining the state of Oromia and the Oromo people and expanding breathing ground for aliens settled in the city.
It is blind towards the cultural and historical heritage of Oromo people that existed for thousands of years before the inception of Finfinnee. No evidence of any attempt was presented to protect the cultural and historical heritages of the local communities and the major Oromo clans of the area such as Abbichuu. Gullallee, Galaan, etc, are on the verge of extinction.
It is a politically motivated move based on driving the surrounding Oromo community into deeper poverty offering only empty promise to others simply echoing what they think people may want to hear such as, international standard, accelerated development, modernizing the city, experts from prominent European master planners, etc. They have wrongly judged the Oromo thinking and aspirations when they try to trick the Oromos by naming few Oromo individuals like Kumaa Dammaksaa, Berhane Deressa, Driba Kuma, etc. These individuals have always been on the other side of the Oromo issue that the dictators were ingenuous to think that such names would soften the position of the Oromos to thwart the grand political question that they have been asking. No cover ups and use of Oromo names can answer this questions, only the rule of law implemented without political infringement can. The current Ethiopian constitution touted 20 years ago then is politically void in that many of its provisions including articles 40, 43, and 49 remained hollow promises. Particularly, Article 49 of the fake constitution gives only lip service concerning the special interest of Oromia on Addis Ababa. So far, the acclaimed special interest had not met any interest of the Oromo people and the State of Oromia except the contamination of rivers, unmanaged urban runoff, untreated grey water, and pollutions from different land uses of Finfinnee continue to wreak lives and destroy livelihoods of the surrounding Oromos. No considerations of inclusionary practice for Oromo people who use water from the contaminated rivers is made in the recent master plan; it rather plans to do worse, uproot the remaining communities and clear up the swaths of land for the alien settlers. The plan is not inclusive and has no room for managing conflicting interests. So, it is morally, ethically, and professionally wrong and void.
Politically flawed; federally owned or territorial boundary of the city has no geographically limited space and no sustainable growth management practices are evinced within the master plan document. The territories of States are divisible and can be manipulated all the time for hidden and clear goals where the state of Oromia has no clear boundaries. The master plan has a clear expansionist goal that will divide the state of Oromia in to two separate regions while it gives access (connection) to the Amhara region and Gurage zone in the near feature. So, the acclaimed master plan is an open venue for the urban sprawl and the development it claims can create political instability for that country.
Legally unconstitutional and has no legal means is provided to acquire 1.1 million hectares of land. It is aimed to transfer a political power, state property, and private property to the other private owner (the riches). This is illegal because government cannot take a property from one citizen and transfer it to other private citizen or cannot treat its citizens prejudicially and undermine the rights of indigenous population.
The so called master plan has unbearable outcomes; it is aimed to disintegrate the shared values of Oromo people, kills the sense of belongingness, the clans, sub-clans, hamlets, and traditional norms.
That master plan has ignored the right of the Oromo people and the state of Oromia to administer a large city and has the intent of building a single municipal government on the big chunk of land. The so called prominent European experts on the advisory payroll seemed to have no clue of multijurisdictional planning or ignored the underlying effects of planning that can destroy existing unique identity. If growth is desirable the undesirable effects of planning could be averted. For instance, cities can have contiguous shape or spotted (leapfrog) settlements while having different local governments that leave sensitive places open as it is in between the cities such as farm lands, environmentally sensitive places, historical places, and indigenous population. Why is the state of Oromia cannot administer satellite (suburban) cities? No reason except there is a hidden goal.
That master plan is naive about the sociological formation of indigenous people and assumed as if no diversity exists. Its planning contents disrespected existing values that are given for diversity of culture, values, and different interests of the Oromian state position.
No principles and normative theory is evidenced.
No answer is provided for questions such as, who is going to be evicted? Why they are evicted? Where is their destination? And where is the end point of expansion of the city of Finfinnee?
No equal opportunity and equitable conditions provided for the affected
No evidence of public participation and the affected side has no say in it. All planning jargons, engineering graphics, color codes, and the full intent of the plan supposed to be explained to the unskilled public. Legal representation and professional advocacy supposed to be rendered for the affected community. The so called master plan has no principles or notion of inclusive community development plan. Its participants are outsiders and foreigners to the Oromo public and have nothing to do with Oromo to discuss their future destiny on behalf of our community. No authority is vested to any foreign nationals or foreign government or any non-Oromo group to decide on them or ratify any type of master plan on behalf the State of Oromia. This will create distrust between the representatives of Oromian state and the Oromian nationals at large while undermining the fake constitution of Ethiopia. The leaders of OPDO should rise and remove the curtain that has blinded them for too long. If they need any sort of credibility among the Oromo people, this is their chance. They have to stand firm and oppose this TPLF sponsored master plan of destroying Oromia and the Oromo people. The destruction of the Oromo people as we know is the end of OPDO as well.
It is a perpetrated document for federal government to practice an overtly eminent domain and expand the federal government holdings.
It is a document aimed to kill (weaken) the tax base of the state of Oromia and economically marginalize Oromian citizens while holding them in a perpetual poverty trap.
It is a planning document without zoning ordinance and legal support.
It is a top-down faceted planning activity and it is the same as the past failed master plans. It is a dictatorial planning system that has no public interest envisioned.
It is an old style, rigid, and inflexible blueprint without common value.
From Ambo in West, to Melka Jebdu/Dire Dawa in East, to Jimma in South, to Kombolcha/Walloo in North, Oromia is Up for Grabs Under the Cover of “Industrial Zones”
Posted: Ebla/April 15, 2014 · Gadaa.com
According to documents acquired by Gadaa.com, the scale of land grabbing (land thefts) underway in Oromia by the TPLF junta, its Habesha “INVESTORS” (aka Neo-Neftegna’s) and its foreign financiers is larger than previously known to the public. According to information aggregated by Gadaa.com, prime farmlands in Oromia, including the Walloo territory in the North, will be divided into at least 8 “industrial zones” and ownership of Oromo farmlands will be transferred to Habesha “INVESTORS” (aka Neo-Neftegna’s) and their foreign financiers under the pretext of the “Growth and Transformation Plan – GTP – Development” scheme. Ambo, in West Oromia, is slated to be ultimately incorporated under the authority of Addis AbabaAdministration, together with Bole-Lemmi, Sandafa, Dukem, Kilinto and other small Oromian towns Surrounding Addis Ababa. Under this scheme, Oromo farmers in Kilinto have been completely evicted off their farmlands over the last year in 2013/2014, as it was reported last week on Gadaa.com. Farmlands around Jimma in South Oromia and those in Melka Jebdu around Dire Dawa in East Oromia will all be incorporated into the adjacent cities, and the ownership of the land be transferred to Habesha“INVESTORS” (aka Neo-Neftegna’s) under the pretext of “development,” “Growth and Transformation Plan – GTP,” and so on. In Northern Oromia, the TPLF regime has already doled out land to “INVESTORS” under its GTP scheme around Kombolcha, near Bati, Walloo. The full TPLF plan, if implemented, will uproot millions of Oromos from their farmlands, and condemn them to further poverty with no land and livelihood. Here are some documents: – The 8 so far known “industrial zones” designed by TPLF for land theft and grabbing in Oromia (includes Jimma, Dire Dawa and Kombolcha/Walloo): – Ambo and Other Towns Around Finfinnee: the expansive Addis Ababa will ultimately bring these Oromian towns under its authority per the TPLF plan: http://gadaa.com/oduu/25363/2014/04/15/from-ambo-in-the-west-to-melka-jebdudire-dawa-in-the-east-to-jimma-in-the-south-to-kombolchawalloo-in-the-north-oromia-is-up-for-grabs-under-the-disguise-of-industrial-zones/#.U0y_ONMGNwM.facebook
The Oromo Federalist Congress(OFC) has sounded its sternest alarm about the ongoing land-grab activities in Oromia, especially the plan regarding the Oromian towns surrounding Finfinnee, in a statement released on April 14, 2014. OFC issued the statement at the conclusion of its meeting in Finfinnee on April 13, 2014.
In the statement, OFC also condemned the Ethiopian government’s Land Policy, which is being enforced in Oromia without Oromo’s participation, as a plan that will ignite violence between Oromo farmers and investors. Furthermore, OFC reminded the Ethiopian government about the Special Interests of Oromia in Addis Ababa (Finfinnee), which has not been implemented so far, per the Constitution.
Ibsa ABO | The OLF Condemns the Acts of Ethnic Cleansing in Finfinnee
The OLF Condemns the Acts of Ethnic Cleansing Perpetrated Against the Oromo People by the TPLF-led Regime in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa)
PRESS RELEASE 16th April 2014
We are gravely concerned that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front-led (TPLF) regime has, once again, intensified its policy of cleansing the Oromo people from Finfinnee, the capital city of Oromia, and the surrounding districts.
The regime first created the so-called Oromia Special Zone in 2008 and since pursued a relentless systematic removal of the indigenous Oromo people from their ancestral land in the name of “land for investors”, with the sole purpose of forcefully usurping and controlling Oromo land and resource.
The Oromo towns including Akaki, Bonsa, Burayu, Chaffe, Chancho, Dukam, Galan, Holata, Mojo, Mulo, Sabata, Sandafa, Sululta, and Walamara, which the regime has brought under the administration of the “Special Zone”, are scattered along the four main gates to and from the capital in the range of 25Km to 50Km from the capital city.
The regime has launched its most recent atrocity under the guise of “Addis Ababa and the Surrounding OromiaIntegrated Development Plan Project” and annexed the aforementioned towns from Oromia. The regimes’ long-term sinister strategic plan is to surgically remove Finfinnee and the surrounding from Oromia and annex it to the neighboring Amhara state and deprive Oromia of its vital economic and political capital when Oromia eventually becomes an independent country.
Having compulsorily and illegally evicted the Oromo people from areas surrounding their capital city, and now removing a huge landmass and vital strategic towns away from Oromia, the regime has — as it did in 2004 when it imprisoned, killed and exiled over 350 Oromo students for opposing the eviction of Oromo institutions from their capital city — provoked the Oromo youth to rise up and protest. Now it will use this as pretext to dismiss Oromo students from universities, imprison them, and send them into exile en masse.
The TPLF regime and its collaborators need to understand that the land taken from the Oromo people will be returned to its lawful owners sooner or later.
The regime has been waging state terrorism against the Oromo people to suppress their protest against eviction from their homeland and confiscation of their farmlands. It has imprisoned tens of thousands of them for their objection to its apartheid-like educational policy and for their demands of political rights and the right of self-determination for the past two decades. Numerous reports from credible regional and international human rights organizations confirm that the TPLF considers all socially and politically conscious Oromo nationals as enemies, and that it targets them as such.
There has been no regime that has pushed the Oromo people harder than the TPLF in their history. They are being pushed to the limit by the brutalities of the regime and have no alternative but to rise up in unison. Hence, the current TPLF-led regime needs to be reminded that its premeditated human rights abuses and dehumanization of the Oromo people constitute a recipe for a disastrous civil war.
The OLF believes the TPLF must be stopped. The OLF will do all in its power to strengthen its struggle against the regime. We will also renew our call to our people to stand shoulder to shoulder and strengthen our unity to defeat the enemy and guarantee the survival of our nation.
Oromia shall be free!
Oromo Liberation Front
Addi Bilisummaa Oromoo Mootummaan Wayyaanee Oromoo Finfinnee fi Naannoo Keessaa Haxaayee Baasuuf Itti Jiru Ni Balaaleffata
An office called “Addis Ababa and the surrounding Oromia Integrated Development Plan” prepared an International and National Conference on June 2013 at Adama Town, Galma Abba Gadaa.
The Objective of organizing the conference of the top ranking government cadres (mostly OPDO’s) was to work on the manifesting of the proposed Integrated Regional Development Plan (IRDP) and prepare the cadre’s to work on the people.
On the Conference, it was stated that, the Purposes of the “IRDP” are: Instrumental to unleashing Regional Development Potentials Enables localities addressing their mutual development challenges Enables localities addressing their mutual development challenges Strengthens complementarities and interconnection of localities These purposes can be the explicit or clear objectives of the plan. However, the plan have hidden or implicit agenda. Systematically bringing the land under their custody so that, it will sooner or later scramble among their impoverished people in their region. For example, the Finfinnee City Administration and Finfinnee Special Zone can address their mutual development challenges without being incorporated into one master plan. However, the Master plan is not prepared on mutual benefit as the plan is solely prepared by Finfinnee City Administration, despite the name of the office. Hence, though development is boldly emphasized, the main purpose seems to clear the Oromo farmers from their lands in the name of unfair Economic Development. It was also stated that the Pillars of the Integrated Regional Development Plan are: Regional Infrastructure Networks Natural Resource and Environment Stewardship Cross – Boundary Investments/ e.g FDI) Joint Regional Projects However, there seem hidden agenda behind these pillars. For example, in the name of cross-Boundary Investments, local Oromo farmers are going to lose their land for the so-called “investors” and under the pretext of promoting national economy through FDI initiatives In addition, if the plan is going to be realized natural and environmental degradation is inevitable. In addition, the Basic Principles of the Integrated Regional Development Plan are: Ensuring Mutual Benefits A joint development Framework – not a substitute for local plans An Integrated Regional Plan voluntarily accepted by participating partners Differences resolved through negotiation and under in-win scenario Nevertheless, the plan will not ensure a mutual benefit at it is largely intended to displace Oromo farmers from their land. In additions, the populations of the two areas are not homogenous. Hence, they have no common interest. Even though it is said the “IRDP’ will be voluntarily accepted by participating partners, the top cadres in Oromia themselves have strongly opposed the plan on the conference. Beside, the implicit objective of the plan is to remove/avoid the differences in language and culture there by to plant “Ethiopianism or Tigreans” on Oromo land. The plan is intended to say good bye to Oromo Culture and language. The other thing is that the differences between Oromo and others cannot be resolved as it is intended to eradicate Oromo identity, culture and language. As we know from history, Oromo’s never compromised on these issues. Hence, if the plan is to be implemented, peaceful co-existence may not be there.
Oromos are demanding Article-49.4 of the Constitution Be Respected.
Article 49 – The Capital City
4. The special interest of the State of Oromia with respect to supply of services or the utilization of resources or administrative matters arising from the presence of the city of Addis Ababa within the State of Oromia shall be protected. Particulars shall be determined by law.
19 years since the 1995 ratification of the Constitution; why is the TPLF government violating its own Constitution by delaying and ignoring ARTICLE-49.4?Deliberate and systematic extermination of identities of indigenous peoples of Ethiopia through land grabbing (1870 – 2014) Land grabbing is classically known as the seizing of land by a nation, state, or organization, especially illegally or unfairly. It is recently defined as large scale acquisition of land through purchase or lease for commercial investment by foreign organizations (4). Abyssinian governments of Ethiopia are systematically used land grabbing as a tool either to eradicate completely or to reduce indigenous peoples of Ethiopia particularly Oromo and generally Southern peoples in favor of Abyssinian identities. Both micro and macro scales of land grabbing have effectively resulted in disappearance of indigenous identities over time, because in agrarian society land is not only a fixed asset essential to produce sufficient amount of crops and animals to secure supply of food, but it is the foundation of identities (language, culture, and history) of a community or a nation. Changes to land use without consultation with traditional owners of the land, mainly by forceful displacement of indigenous peoples, can, in a long term, result in the disappearance of languages, cultures, and histories of the peoples traditionally identified by ancestral land. Both the expansion of amorphous towns and cities without integration of identities of indigenous peoples and large scale transfer of rural land to investors are the major political strategies of current Abyssinian government to successfully achieve the target of eradicating identities of indigenous peoples of Ethiopia in order to replace it with Abyssinian identities. Thus, problems associated with land grabbing become very complex in Oromia and Southern Ethiopia where the peoples are unrepresented by the Abyssinian government of Ethiopia.http://gadaa.com/oduu/25483/2014/04/22/deliberate-and-systematic-extermination-of-identities-of-indigenous-peoples-of-ethiopia-through-land-grabbing-1870-2014/#.U1Wk8iPYF14.facebook Read the Full Article (OromoPress.Blogspot.com):http://oromopress.blogspot.com/#!/2014/04/eprdfs-addis-oromia-special-zone-master.html
In 1907, Addis Ababa (Finfinnee) had Birbirsaa and Finfinne Hot Springs as its outskirts (border) on the western and southwestern direction. This is when Menelik II was still alive, and merely 21 years after the fall of the Oromo Finfinnee region under the Shoan Amhara kingdom led by Menelik II. On the eastern side, only few embassies were venturing out to the Eekka area (where today’s British Embassy is situated today was the city limit). Today, Addis Ababa has expanded close to ~1800% to what it used to be in 1907 – and in the process, millions of Oromo farmers who used to till and live around the outskirts have been murdered genocidally or ethnocidally (i.e. either directly killed or relocated to other peripheries of the Empire to die helplessly, or their Oromo heritages (culture/language) have been destroyed.) In other words, as the Addis Ababa city expands beyond limits, it has done so at the expense of the Oromo people living around it. The Habesha governments have been using the “expansion of Addis Ababa” as a means (a tool) to perpetrate genocide on the Oromo. Stopping the expansion of Addis Ababa means stopping the genocide on the Oromo living around it.
CNN report: There has been widespread protest by Oromo students in universities in Ethiopia against unpopular ‘Addis Ababa-Finfinnee surrounding integrated master plan’. Oromo students in Haromaya, Jimma, Ambo and Wollega universities held protests. Although officials in Oromia state and Addis Ababa city administration insist the plan only intends to develop Addis Ababa and its surrounding, Oromo students and the wider Oromo elites believe the plan is to displace farmers in the outskirts and suburban areas of the city, meet the growing demand for land, and weaken the Oromo identity. The Ethiopian constitution grants a special interest to the Oromia state regarding administrative, resource and other socio-economic matters in Addis Ababa, in its article 49 which never have been implemented. This has largely resulted in significant resistance within the ruling party, OPDO, in Oromia and a continues pressure to materialize the implementation. The protest against the doomed to fail master plan is held in four universities sofar. Yesterday (26/04/2014) at Wollega University, the infamous and notorious Federal police opened fire at innocent Oromo students. Reports and eye witness indicate unknown number of students were hurt and some have fled to the bushes. The people of Nekemete town were prevented from joining the resistance. Even then some of the residents broke through line of federal police force and joined the protest. At similar protest in Jimma university, the security forces picked more than 10 students and jailed them. Further 15 students in Ambo university were jailed. The uproar against the plan is resonating across different segments of Oromo society. A singer by name Jafar Yusuf was jailed last week that is believed to be because he released a single condemning the plan. The diaspora is is voicing its concerns through the newly launched diaspora based Oromia Media Network The security forces in Ethiopia are dominated by the Tigrayan minority who have been in power since the downfall of Derg communist regime in 1991. The Oromos are the most prosecuted in Ethiopia. More than 40000 Oromos are in jail, although the correct figure is hard to know.http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1125264
April 26, 2014 (Oromo Free Speech) – Oromo students’ nonviolent protests are underway at Wallaggaa University against the plan (called the Addis Ababa Master Plan) to evict millions of Oromo farmers and dispossess them of their land in Oromian districts surrounding Finfinnee under the pretext of the “urban development of Addis Ababa.” According to published data, under the current TPLF regime, Addis Ababa has expanded by ~400% since 1991 (from ~13,763.3-ha in 1991 to ~52,706.2-ha in 2014 – see d
Gallant Oromo Students are Heroically Demanding their rights!
‘Gallant Oromo Students are heroically moving forward opposing Government’s unlawful and Unconstitutional plan to uproot Oromo Peasants from the outskirts of Finfine to create Room for settlers and trade Oromo land for its benefit. All peoples of nations and nationalities of Ethiopia must support Oromo Students and demand the regime to unconditionally stop its unlawful plans with immediate effect.’ http://sidamanationalregionalstate.blogspot.co.uk/
Dispossession and annexation of land from the Oromo people and other people of Ethiopia is part of TPLF’s original play book or master plan. Once they changed their strategy from seceding from Ethiopia to ruling Ethiopia, they were determined to dispossess the Oromos of their ancestral land.As everybody knows, the land policy in Ethiopia is that it does not belong to anybody but to the Ethiopian state. Who rules the Ethiopian state? -the TPLF regime rules it. In effect, they have made sure that all the land belongs to them and they have ascertained this legally. They have created this legal pretext to evict anybody they want.Their focus has mainly been the Oromo farmers. Under the guise of development, they have displaced thousands of Oromo farmers without any compensation forcing them to become beggars or laborers on their own ancestral land.The Tigryan led minority regime disguised behind multi ethnic puppet representatives will continue this trend until they change the whole demographic situation of Ethiopia, mainly of the Oromos.The current Oromo generation and all who stand for peace, justice and democracy in Ethiopia should fight this trend and put a stop to it. An injustice to one is injustice to all. This call includes the peace loving people of Tigray who have been duped by this regime.If this continues, it will reach a stage where it would be irreversible and would remain a shame and a wound on the history of the Oromo people-and this is a strategic goal of the TPLF from the very beginning.What everybody has to understand is that this is part of the regime’s grand strategic scheme to change the demography of Ethiopia when it comes to the Oromo people. In fact, they have also annexed huge chunk of the Amhara land in Gondar and other places in their pursuit to form a greater Tigray.How long will this shame continue? How long will this trick continue? How long will making the Oromos beggars on their ancestral land continue? What is life full of shame, slavery and dispossession in the 21st century?The TPLF regime disguised behind a prime minster from the South and an Oromo symbolic president would like the world to believe that they are purely doing well by pursuing development goals and who by any means speaks against what they do is against Ethiopia’s bright future.Any kind of development that is not in the best interest of the indigenous people, any kind of development that goes ahead without respecting the people’s interest, any kind of development that is based on dispossessing the people of their land and their properties by force is bound to have a negative and destructive consequence in the end.Unbalanced development dictated by the few with a far reaching strategic consequence to destroy a nation is bound to fail.It is time to rise up and stop the shame, denigration and destruction of a great nation. Life without freedom is meaningless!! http://ayyaantuu.com/horn-of-africa-news/dispossession-annexation-tplfs-strategic-goal/http://ayyaantuu.com/horn-of-africa-news/dispossession-annexation-tplfs-strategic-goal/VOA Afaan Oromo reporting on Oromo students peaceful demonstrations:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeFLCX3ZDQ4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzO3tr0rfZwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tx8LqDvWSPEProtests Grow Over Addis Ababa’s Expansion
Oromo students in Ethiopia are ratcheting up opposition to the territorial expansion of the Horn of Africa nation’s capital, Addis Ababa. Thousands of students at all eight regional universities in Oromia, the largest of Ethiopia’s federal states, turned in recent days to demand an immediate halt to the city’s so-called “Integrated DevelopmentMaster Plan,” unveiled earlier this month.
Today, Tuesday 29 April, an estimated 25,000 people, including residents of Ambo town in central Oromia, participated in a city wide demonstration, in the largest show of opposition to the government’s plans to date. A handful of students have been injured and others arrested in protests at the campuses of Jimma, Haromaya, Ambo, Wollega, Metu, Bolu Hora, Adama and Maddawalabu universities, according to local reports.
Once dubbed a “sleeping beauty,” by Emperor Haile Selassie, Addis Ababa is an awakening city on the move. Vertically, buoyed by a growing economy and rural to urban migration, there is construction almost on every block — so much so that locals refer to it as “a city underconstruction.” The country’s first light rail transit which will connect several inner city neighbourhoods, being constructed with the help of the China Railway Group Ltd, is reported to be60% complete. Horizontally, over the last decade, not least due to an uptick in investment from returning Ethiopian expats from the U.S. and Western Europe, the city has expanded at a breakneck pace to swallow many surrounding towns.
Addis Ababa’s rapid urban sprawl is also getting noticed abroad. In 2013, it’s the only African city to make the Lonely Planet’s annual list of “top 10 cities to visit.” In April 2014, in its annual Global Cities Index, New York-based consultancy A.T. Kearney named Addis Ababa, “the third most likely city to advance its global positioning” in sub-Saharan Africa, only after Johannesburg and Nairobi. If it maintains the pace of development seen over the last five years, Kearney added, “the Ethiopian capital is also among the cities closing in fastest on the world leaders.”
Overlapping jurisdictions
Founded in 1886 by emperor Menelik II and his wife Empress Taytu Betul, Addis Ababa sits at the heart of the Oromia Regional State. According to the country’s constitution, while semi-autonomous, Addis Ababa is treated as a federal district with special privileges granted to the Oromia region, for which it also serves as the capital.
The Addis Ababa City Administration, the official governing body, has its own police, city council, budget and other public functions overseen by a mayor. The overlapping, vague territorial jurisdictions have always been the subject of controversy. Now contentions threaten to plunge the country into further unrest.
Home to an estimated 4 million people, Addis Ababa offers Ethiopia one of the few gateways to the outside world. The state-run Ethiopian airlines, one of the most profitable in Africa, serves 80 international cities with daily flights from Addis to Europe, different parts of Africa, the United States, Canada, Asia and the Middle East.
In addition to being the seat of the continental African Union, the city hosts a number of United Nations regional offices, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. There are also more than 100 international missions and foreign embassies based in Addis, earning it the nickname of ‘Africa’s diplomatic capital.’ All these attributes require the city to continually grow to meet the needs and expectations of a global city.
City officials insist the new “master plan”, the 10th iteration since Addis Ababa began using modern city master plans in 1936, will mitigate the city’s disorganised growth and guide efforts to modernize it over the next 25 years.
According to leaked documents, the proposed plan will expand Addis Ababa’s boundaries to 1.1 million hectares, covering an area more than 20 times its current size. Under this plan, 36 surrounding Oromia towns and cities will come under Addis Ababa’s jurisdiction. Oromo students, opposition and activists say the plan will undermine Oromia’s constitutionally granted special interest.
A history of problematic growth
Addis Ababa’s spatial growth has always been contentious. The Oromo, original inhabitants of the land, have social, economic and historical ties to the city. Addis Ababa, which they call Finfinne, was conquered through invasion in 19th century. Since its founding, the city grew by leaps and bounds. But the expansion came at the expense of local farmers whose livelihoods and culture was uprooted in the process. At the time of its founding, the city grew “haphazardly” around the imperial palace, residences of other government officials and churches. Later, population and economic growth invited uncontrolled development of high-income, residential areas — still almost without any formal planning.
While the encroaching forces of urbanisation pushed out many Oromo farmers to surrounding towns and villages, those who remained behind were forced to learn a new language and embrace a city that did not value their existence. The city’s rulers then sought to erase the historical and cultural values of its indigenous people, including through the changing of original Oromo names.
Ultimately, this one-time bountiful farm and pasture land from which it draws the name Addis Ababa – meaning ‘new flower’ – where Oromos made laws under the shades of giant sycamore trees, grew foreign to them by the day. It is this traumatic sense of displacement that elicits deep passions, resentment and resistance from the Oromo community. The Oromo are Ethiopia’s single largest ethnic group, numbering over 25 million – around 35% of the total population – according to the 2007 census.
Ethiopia’s constitution makes a pivot to Addis Ababa’s unique place among the Oromo. Article 49 (5) of the constitution stipulates, “the special interest of the state of Oromia with respect to supply of services, the utilisation of resources and joint administrative matters.”
The Transitional Government of Ethiopia, which drafted the constitution, was fully cognisant of the potential conflicts of interest arising from Addis Ababa’s unbridled expansion, when it decided “to limit its expansion to the place where it was before 1991 and to give due attention to its vertical growth,” according to Feyera Abdissa, an urban researcher at Addis Ababa University.
But in the city’s 1997-2001 master plan, which has been in effect over the last decade, the city planners determined vertical growth posed key urbanisation challenges. In addition, most of Addis Ababa’s poor cannot afford to construct high-rise dwellings as per the new building standards. Officials also noted that the city’s relatively developed infrastructure and access to market attract the private investment necessary to bolster its coffers; the opening up to privatisation contributed to an upswing in investment.According to Abdissa, during this period, “54% of the total private investment applications submitted in the country requested to invest in and around Addis Ababa.” In order to meet the demand, city administration converted large tracts of forest and farmland in surrounding sub-cities into swelling urban dwellings, displacing local Oromo residents.
Local self-rule
In 2001, in what many saw as a conspiracy from federal authorities, the Oromia regional government decided to relocate its seat 100kms away, arguing that Addis Ababa was too “inconvenient” to develop the language, culture and history. The decision led to Oromia-wide protests and a brutal government crackdown, which left at least a dozen people, including high school students, dead. Hundreds of people were also arrested. In 2005, regional authorities reversed the decision amid internal pressures and protracted protests in the intervening years.
But the current opposition to the city’s expansion goes far beyond questions of self-rule. Each time Addis Ababa grew horizontally, it did so by absorbing surrounding Oromo sub-cities and villages. Many of the cities at the outskirts of the capital today, including Dukem, Gelan, Legetafo, Sendafa, Sululta, Burayu, Holeta and Sebeta, were one-time industrious Oromo farmlands. While these cities enjoy a level of cooperation with Addis Ababa on security and other issues of mutual interest, they have all but lost their Oromo identity. If the proposed master plan is implemented, these cities will come directly under Addis Ababa City Administration — thereby the federal government, further complicating the jurisdictional issue.
Among many other compromises made possible by Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism, each state has adopted the use of its native tongue as the official language of education, business and public service. In theory, the country’s constitution also grants autonomous self-rule to regional states. Under this arrangement, each state makes its own laws and levy and collect taxes.
In contrast, municipalities that fall under federal jurisdiction, including Addis, are governed by their own city administrations and use Amharic, Ethiopia’s federal working language. For the Oromo, as in the past, the seceding of surrounding towns to Addis means a loss of their language and culture once more, even if today’s driving forces of urbanisation differ from the 19th century imperialist expansion.
As seen from its recent residential expansions into sub-cities on the peripheries such as Kotebe, Bole Bulbula, Bole Medhanialem, Makanisa and Keranyo, the semi-agrarian community, including small, informal business owners, were given few options. The city’s new code requires building high-rises that are beyond their subsistence means. Unable to comply with the new city development code, the locals were pressured into selling their land at very low prices and eke out a living in a city that faces chronic unemployment. As a result, the horizontal expansion and displacement of livelihoods turned a one time self-sufficient community into street beggars and day labourers.
Activists fear that the latest expansion is part of a grand plan to contain a resurgent Oromo nationalism. As witnessed during the 2001 protests, any attempt to alter Addis Ababa’s administrative limits, unites Oromos across religious, regional and political divides. Unless halted, with a steam of opposition already gathering in and outside of the country, the ongoing of protests show ominous signs.
In a glimpse of the fervent opposition that could quickly turn deadly, within weeks after the plan was unveiled, two young and upcoming Oromo artists have released new music singles lamenting the city’s historic social and cultural heritage. One of the singers, Jafar Yusef, 23, was arrestedthree days after releasing his musical rendition — and has reportedly been tortured. Despite the growing opposition, however, the Addis Ababa municipal authority is vowing to forge ahead with the plan, which they say was developed in consultation with a team of international and local urban planners. Federal Special Forces, known as Liyyu police, who have previously been implicated in serious human rights violations, have been dispatched to college towns to disperse the protests. Soldiers in military fatigues have laid siege to several campuses, preventing students from leaving, according to eyewitness reports.
Trouble at the top while those at the bottom lack the basic necessities
The city administration is also riddled by a crippling legacy of corruption, massive inefficiency and poor service delivery. Its homeless loiters in the crowded streets that are shared by cars, pedestrians and animals alike. There are few subsidised housing projects for poor and low-income families. Many of the residents lack clean drinking water, healthcare and basic education. While some progress had been made to upgrade the city’s squatter settlements, the city is full of dilapidated shacks. Despite poor drainage system and other infrastructural deficiencies, studies show that there is a general disregard for health and environmental hazards in Ethiopia’s urban redevelopment scheme.
A lot of these social and economic problems are caused by the city’s poorly conceived but dramatic urban expansion. In the last two-decades, in an effort to transform the city into a competitive metropolis, there have been an uptick in the construction of high-rise buildings, luxury hotels and condominiums, which displaced poorer inhabitants, including Oromo farmers. “No one is ensuring the displaced people find new homes, and there are no studies about what his happening to them,” Mara Gittleman of Tufts University observed.
Regardless, the outcome of the current controversy will likely test Ethiopia’s commitment to ethnic federalism. The advance of the proposed master plan would mean further estrangement between the Oromo masses and Oromia regional government. Long seen as a puppet of the federal regime, with substantial investment in cultural and infrastructural development, regional leaders are only beginning to sway public opinion. Allowing the master plan to proceed would engender that progress and prove suicidal for the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Oromo element in Ethiopia’s ruling coalition. In the short run, the mounting public outcry may not hold much sway. The country’s one-time vibrant opposition is disarray and the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has almost complete control of the political system.
The opposition to the expansion plans does not pose an immediate electoral threat to the EPRDF who, controlling the system as they do, are likely to claim an easy victory in next year’s elections. However, opposition, and the government’s possible aggressive response to it, could make Oromo-government relations more difficult. The government now has a choice, violently crackdown on protestors, labelling them “anti-development”, or engage with them as stakeholders representing historically marginalised communities. Ethiopia’s federal constitution suggests the latter course of action; sadly, recent history may suggest the former.
Correction 29/4/14: The article originally stated that Jafar Yusef was 29, rather than 23. This has been changed.
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Following the peaceful demonstrations held by Oromo students in nine Universities across Oromia [Haromaya, Jimma, Ambo, Adama, Bule Hora, Wallaga, Madda Walabu, Kotebe and Dire Dawa Universities], more than a dozen people are so far reported to have been killed by the TPLF mercenaries in Ambo (10) and Bale Robe (3). Today, the public outrage in Ambo that subsequently claimed 9 more lives and property losses came after the TPLF forces opened live rounds on demonstrators and killed a 9th grader, by the name Endale Desalegn (picture attached herewith). It is so revolting and heartbreaking to hear that these security forces gunned-down peaceful demonstrators for no other reason; but for they were simply asking their constitutionally protected rights be respected. As the entire Oromo nation is in deep agony following these tragic events happening across Oromia, 2nd May 2014 #OromoProtests ALERT: Muhaba Hussien, the lead actor in the Afaan Oromo drama ‘Sakaallaa’ has been in jail in Adama for last few days. Family and friends have been denied access. Unconfirmed report indicate that he might have been transferred, overnight, to Maekelawi along about 100 students and residents arrested from Adama and neighboring towns.Victim of Police shooting in Bale Robe, #Oromia,#Ethiopia during a protest against the new Addis Ababa Master Plan | April 30, 2014 Below is Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) University as invaded by Agazi/TPLF Army 1st May 2014
Disturbing Images of Oromo Students Injured By TPLF’s Military Police at a Peaceful/Nonviolent Rally in Wallaggaa, Oromia
Barsisaa isporti Tiquando kan ta’e suraa isaa kan armaan olitti argamu maqaan isaa Abdi Akmal kan jedhamu waraana TPLF n ajefameraa. Kumalaa Gudisa jirata magala amboo yerota’u kalesa galgala mana yalaa xiqur anbasa ti samuisa gubaa huna motuummaa wayaneen rasaasaan rukute subii guyyaa 1/05/2014 boqotee refi isa gara magala diree inciniti gefamaa jira. #OromoProtests Barataa Taddasaa Gaashuu Barataa kutaa 9ffaa amboo Keessa gaafa 30/4/2014 rasaasa agaaziitiin wareegame jira.#OromoProtests Barataa Taddasaa Gaashuu Barataa kutaa 9ffaa amboo Keessa gaafa 30/4/2014 rasaasa agaaziitiin wareegame jira. RIP kichuu Ayiii#OromoProtests photo of Alemayoo Urgesaa who was killed in Gudar during last week’s massacre. He was laid rest 5th May 2014. May he join our martyrs in heaven. #OromoProtests Barataa Taddasaa Gaashuu Barataa kutaa 9ffaa amboo Keessa gaafa 30/4/2014 rasaasa agaaziitiin wareegame jira.OROMO STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS INCLUDING KIDS OF AMBO FIRED BY ARMED TPLF& INJURED NOW IN AMBO HOSPITAL , 1ST MAY 2014 Humna hidhattota Wayyaane tiin Fanjii dhoyeen Barattota Universitii Haromayaa’rra miidhaan hamaa ga’ee jira. Kan wareegaman ni jiru, dhibbatti lakkawwamani’mmoo madayaaniiru” jedhama.2/04/”014. #OromoProtests #OromoProtests update 2nd May 2014; the number of students who were killed the bomb attack on Haromaya University campus has reached four. One died on the same day three passed away yesterday and today at Hiwot Fana hospital where this picture was taken. 10 students are still listed as critical in ICU. WARNING Gruesome and disturbing picture. 2nd May 2014, victims of TPLF’s voilence @Najjoo, Westwrn Oromia. Shamaran sadii fi dhira tokko Dhukassa federal midhamanii dhigni isaan gar malee kan dhangala’ee kunoo kana fakkata! @Nadjo Hospital!! 2nd May 2014, Oromia Innocent Oromo mother while she coming from market, attacked by Agazi, wayooooo wayooooooo!!! Uuuuuuuuuuuuuu 2nd May 2014,Oromo student Mohammed Abdulhamid shot dead by Agazi while at peaceful demonstrations at Balee Robee, Oromiyaa. GUYYA KALEESA HIRIRAA BALEE ROBEE KESSATI BARATOONI OROMOO KAN RASASSAN NU BIRAA AJJEEFAME BARATAA MOHAMMED ABDULHAMID JEDHAMAA UMRII DHAN IJOOLA WAGGA 21. #OromoProtests 2nd May 2014, Daarimuu, Abbaa booraa, Oromia Caamsaa 2/2014 Godina Iluu Abbaa booraa aanaa Daarimuu irratti fincila diddaa garbummaa geggeefameen qotee bulaan oromoo rasaasa poolisii federaalaan rukutame Hospitaala Karl Mattuu du’aaf jireenya gidduu jiruu dha. “Hiriyyottan koo lubbuu koo olchitaniif galanni koo guddadha. Kan na biraa lubbuun keessan darbeef waqayyoon lubbuu keessan haa yaadatu. Qabsa’aan ni kufa qabsoon itti fufa.” http://www.spreaker.com/user/ragabaa/roorroo-dachaa?sp_redirected=true #OromoProtests RIP Hachalu Jagama who was killed in Jibat while peacefully protesting. He was a university graduate, who was working as day laborer. Data from Oromia regional government show that less than a third of those who graduated in the last 2 years were able to land job. #OromoProtests Kumala Gudisa Bali who was shot by Agazi in Ambo on April 30 and passed away at Tikur Ambassa Hospital. May he join the rest of our martyrs in heaven.#OromoProtests body of Mekonnen Hirpa who was killed at Madda Walabu by University by Agazi. May he join the rest of our martyrs in heaven. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.#OromoProtests Student Abbabaa Xilahun, statistics 3rd year shot wounded by Agazi and denied medical treatments requires. Kun Abbabaa Xilaahun, barataa istaatistiksii waggaa lammafati. Bombii magaalaa Haroomaayatti dhoo’een madaaye. Doktoroonni Hospitaala Hiwoot Faanaa doorsisni poolisootaan nurra gahaa jiru tajaajila fayyaa bifa tasgabbayeen kennuu nu hanqise jedhuun komatu. Mothers of Oromo students crying for their lost sons and daughters killed by TPLF snipers http://dhaamsaogeetti13.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/in-review-photos-from-the-oromoprotests-against-the-addis-ababa-master-plan-and-for-the-rights-of-oromiyaa-over-finfinne-03-05-14/https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ndJ1NE0qV_Mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQyKa4JP2chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_AWytE16g
BREAKING NEWS: MASS ARREST AND KILLING OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS!!!
The recent plan to partition Finfine (Addis Ababa) by the current regime has received a single, united and resounding NO from Oromo’s all across the globe. Ethiopia’s plan to partition large portions of land that belongs to Oromo’s in a pseudo-quasi excuse of expanding the capital city is not only unlawful, but an unprecedented move. The Ethiopian constitution, although vague and widely disapproved by citizens grants special interest to the state of Oromia in regards to administrative and resource management in the capital city. However, the government has chosen to ignore the interests of Oromo’s, the state of Oromia, and its own constitution with its unprecedented move to dislocate thousands of Oromo’s in the interest of expanding the capital city. Not only does this violate Ethiopia’s own constitution, but that of many globally accepted governing bodies. According to Article 14 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, “The right to property shall be guaranteed. It may only be encroached upon in the in¬terest of public need or in the general interest of the community and in accordance with the provisions of appropriate laws.” Furthermore, article 21 (2) states, “In case of spoliation the dispossessed people shall have the right to the lawful recovery of its property as well as to an adequate compensation.” The current regime has broken its own law as well as that of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. Ironically, Finfine is home to the African Union, however, the unelected and dictatorial regime continues to unjustifiably remove Oromo’s mostly peasants who depend on the land for livelihood from surrounding areas in Finfine. The African Union must stand in unison with Oromo’s, lawful owners of the land and hold the Ethiopian regime to account for breaking the Charter on Human and People’s Rights. Otherwise, what is the purpose of such organization if it cannot legally protect disenfranchised citizens from aggression of unelected and illegitimate government? In addition to AU’s Charter, globally accepted governing norms dictate the Ethiopian regime has broken international laws far too many times. The latest one should be the last if the world legitimately expects the Oromo people and other ethnic groups throughout Ethiopia to live in peace without fear of losing life, liberty, and property. According to one of the most recognized governing bodies in the world, the United Nations in Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “1. everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his [or her] property.” Given this UN declaration as well as that of the African Union’s Charter, the Oromo’s are not only legitimate owners of the land, but should legally be entitled to protection from these governing bodies. These governing bodies are obligated to STOP the mass discrimination, injustice, and growing inequality toward Oromo’s and should immediately put in place mechanism to protect over 40 million Oromo’s. After all, the language Oromiffa is the fourth widely spoken language in Africa, which suggests the depth of Oromo population. Oromo’s have been victimized for far too long and can no longer remain silent, so it is in the international community’s interest and obligation to step in and mitigate this matter before further escalation. In addition to violating the rights of land owners, Ethiopia continues to further disregard human rights. In a widely condemned move, the regime has sent armed federal troops to Universities across the country to suppress the voices of countless students who are peacefully protesting the partition plan. Countless students have been beaten, arrested, and 8 have been confirmed dead, a number that is expected to sharply increase as crackdown on peaceful protesters intensifies. Government officials who ordered armed federal troops to open fire on innocent protesters should be brought to justice. This is a heinous crime against humanity. The mere fact the Ethiopian regime has no regard for its young citizenry is a concern that should cause individuals and governments all over the world to openly condemn and unequivocally voice their grave concern! Oromo’s have been victims at the hands of various Ethiopian regimes for nearly a century. However, in this day and age where social media has proven it can topple dictatorships like the recent Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East, we the people can bring about change with a united and resounding voice of disapproval for the current unelected regime. Oromo’s have suffered enough under brutal regimes and more than 23 years of power for a single party is beyond ample time, in fact it is quite absurd by western standards, therefore, immediate change of government is not only necessary, but a must to end all atrocities! Therefore, those in the west who enjoy unparalleled freedom must speak up for over 45,000 voiceless Oromo’s languishing in Ethiopia’s inhumane prisons, current students suffering for voicing their concern, and the mass number of Oromo’s who are forced to vacate their ancestral land. Whether one voices their opinion through social media, by word of mouth, letters to elected officials, or simply contacting international media’s like CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera etc… we must exercise our right to voice our opinion. Innocent students were brutally beat and killed for simply exercising their inherent right guaranteed by UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a right those in the west so often take for granted. Thus, silence is no longer an option, let us all unite to support Oromo students, prisoners, and landowners throughout Ethiopia! http://www.oromotv.com/breaking-news-mass-arrest-and-killing-of-university-students-3/https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h4STfZRg_28
Massacre of Peaceful Demonstrators- Perpetual Habit of TPLF Regime
OLF Press Release The level of repression and exploitation exacted by the successive regimes of Ethiopia on the subject peoples under their rule in general and the Oromo people in particular has been so unbearable that the people are in constant revolt. It has also been the case that, instead of providing peaceful resolution to a demand peacefully raised, the successive regimes have opted to violently suppress by daylight massacre, detention and torture, looting, evicting and forcing them to leave the country. Hundreds of students have been dismissed from their learning institutions. This revolt, spearheaded by the Oromo youth in general and the students in particular, has currently transformed into an Oromia wide total popular uprising. The response of the regime has, however, remained the same except this time adding the fashionable camouflage pretext of terrorism and heightened intensity of the repression. This has been the case in Ambo, Madda Walabou, Dambi Doolloo, Naqamte, Geedoo, Horroo Guduruu, Baalee and Ciroo in Oromia; and Maqalee in Tigray as well Gojjam in Amhara region, by the direct order from the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) leaders in the last 22 years. Tens of peaceful demonstrators, including children under the age of 10, have been massacred in Ambo, Madda Walabou yesterday April 30, 2014. Hand grenades have been deliberately thrown on student demonstrators in Ambo and Haramaya Universities causing several death and serious wounds. More have been detained. Indiscriminate severe beating, including elderly, women and children by Federal Police and militia, is widespread. The OLF condemns the perpetration of these atrocities and holds, the Prime Minister of the regime, the army, federal police and security chiefs, directly responsible for these crimes selectively targeting the Oromo, who peacefully presented their legitimate demands. The OLF renews its call on the Oromo nationals who are serving in the armed forces of this regime not only to refrain from partaking in this crime against their parents, siblings and children; but also to resist and stand in defense of their kin and kith and other civilians. We call upon the Oromo people both inside and outside the country, to realize that we have been pushed to the limit. The only way out of this and to redeem the agony visited upon us for the past is to fight back in unison. We specially call upon you in the Diaspora to act on behalf of your brethren, who are under siege, and urge the nations who host you to discharge their responsibility as government and a community of human beings towards the long suffering Oromo and other peoples under the criminal TPLF regime. We urge again and again that the international community, human rights and organizations and governments for democracy to use their influence and do all they can to stop the ongoing atrocity against the Oromo people. Failure to act immediately will be tantamount to condoning. Victory to the Oromo People! Oromo Liberation Front May 01, 2014
Latest News: Godina Wallaggaa lixaa aan aa Ganjii Mana barum saa sadarkaa lammaff aa Ganjii Ganjii kee ssatti Barattootni H iriira gaggeessun dh aadannoo dhageessisu u irratti argamu
Witnesses say Ethiopian police have killed at least 17 protesters during demonstrations in Ethiopia’s Oromia region against plans to annex territory to expand the capital, Addis Ababa. Authorities put the protest-related death toll at 11 and have not said how the demonstrators were killed. The main opposition party says 17 people were killed while witnesses and residents say the death toll is much higher. Residents say that an elite government security force opened fire on protesters at three university campuses. The demonstrations erupted last week against plans by the Ethiopian government to incorporate part of Oromia into the capital. Oromia is Ethiopia’s largest region and Oromos are the country’s largest ethnic group. Oromos say the government wants to weaken their political power. They say expanding the capital threatens the local language, which is not taught in Addis Ababa schools. – VOA Newshttp://gadaa.com/oduu/25780/2014/05/02/voa-deadly-protests-in-ethiopia-over-plans-to-expand-capital/#.U2PO0unJ7BY.facebookhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nQ3x0L9wfpUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=821Ijw2GoXM Partial lists of Oromo students of Adama University kidnapped by Agazi and the whereabouts are not know: as of 3rd May 2014 Barattoota University Adaamaa Kaleessa Guyyaa 5/1/2014 Mana Hidhaatti Guuran Keessaa Kan Ammaaf Maqaa Isaanii Arganne Armaan Gaditti Laalaa…
Maaram is believed to be the divinity of women. Maaram was created by Waaqa and addressed as haadha boor (the mother of ocean). I think this is to indicate that Maaram came to the Oromo from outside. The Oromo believe that Mooram is the mother of a child. The Oromo women perform traditional ceremonies in respect of Maaram. It is believed that Maaram will help barren women to beget a child, and help pregnant women to give birth to a child. When a woman gives birth to a child Oromo women will gather and ululate (say ilili ilili). They also prepare porridge, and splash butter. It is normal for the Oromo to sacrifice an animal during this ceremony. Moreover, Maaram is worshipped for the health of the environment, animals, human beings and crops. The Oromo Qoolluu leaders pray to Maaram every two weeks for the continuation of offspring of humans. Maaram has her own ritual house. Ritual goods include Jaaloo (earthen caldron), and Qoloo (traditional shirt). It has also madabii (raised platform of Earth). The dancing ceremony is performed on Tuesdays, Thursdays,. and Saturdays.
Some writers have explained the nature of Ateetee and Maaram. Knutsson states that the names Ateetee and Maaram are used interchangeably for the same kind of being (Kmitsson 1967,55). Daniel states that the various songs of Ateetee imply that “[a]teete is a ceremony prepared for Ayyolee, Maaram and Waaqa as thanksgiving by those who have children and a lamentation by the barren women” (Daniel 1984, 111). Bartels, however, questioned this assertion. To the Oromo of Western Matcha, Ateetee is the name of the ritual in which Maaram is invoked (Bartels 1983). Baxter (1979) had similar observation concerning the belief of the Arsi Oromo. For Cerulli, Ateetee is conceived as the goddess of fecundity (Cerulli 1922,127; Harris 1968,50).
In the traditional Oromo society, women played distinct roles through an institution called the Siiqqee (a symbolic decorated stick given to all women by their mothers upon marriage). This is an exclusively women’s solidarity institution sanctioned by tradition and respected by society. It is a sort of sorority that provides women with channels to participate in village councils, and a cultural vehicle to mobilize en masse against violence and abuse. Infringement of certain rights that women enjoy is regarded as an attack on human rights. In the event of violation of their rights, women take out the Siiqqee and mobilize to fight for the respect of rights, and for any perpetrator of abuse to be tried by society. The use of Siiqqee draws an enormous religious, ritual and moral authority and in the pursuit of peace and social tranquility. According to tradition peace is not merely the absence of war, but a constant state of unity and cooperation among the people as well as harmony with God and nature, with the power to bless or curse. Historically, women as a sector of society were designated as strangers and excluded from the Gadaa structures and rituals, but, they stuck together through the Siiqqee counting on one another within this common sorority. –http://oromowomensinternationalconferenceonline.com/general-information.html
In Oromo mythology, the divinity for motherhood and fecundity is Ateetee or Maaram. Maaram or Ateetee is invoked and praised on birth-rituals. In addition, women prepare a feast and invoke Her, praise Her kindness so that they could be fertile, healthy, prosperous, and happy (Bartles, 1990,124; Cerulli 1917, 127, Tilahun Gamta, 2004,101)
Get-together, for today is Maaram
Let us rejoice, throw away the boredom!
O Maaram, O dear Maaram,
Reconcile, with us who lack wisdom.
Maaram with beautiful eyes, O Maaram,
Have a sit, in front of me, please come!
When in pain, the mattress one clutches
When in labour, the wall one clutches
After delivery, a baby one snatches!
In return for your labour pain
Here, the little one is your gain.
O prolific woman, your clothes smell bad,
But Maaram has adorned your backyard,
The husband laughs from the front yard.
O sterile woman, with beautiful dress
Your husband furiously grumbles,
For your backyard, Maaram avoids.
If I were Balas,
That Balas of Boongaa,
To a bad-shooter his trophies I give;
So he could boast about it with relief.
If I were Maaram,
Our great lady Maaram,
A son I would give to the sterile woman,
So she could intimidate her man.
O Maaram, my dear Maaram
Be merciful to the childless.
O Maaram, with beauty and grace
You have revered blood in your face
O Maaram, you are my commuter [between me and God]
My parturifacient mother.
Two kinds of mothers are there
One is far across the river [The biological one]
The other one is the one here. [Maaram]
I know a rider’s thought and will
He gallops down the hill
I know a husband’s thought
He loves the prolific wife the most;
He equates me to a mule, dry and bare
and makes me carry his ploughshare.
O Maaram every women’s’ queen
Resolve this problem for me
Either grant me a baby boy
I call him “he the wise”
Either grant me a baby girl
I call her “she the wise”
Or either give me death
So I could get done with my worries.
Yaa dhabduu masoo dhirsa
Dhirsatu dhaanu hawwee.
Yaa saree eegee dabbasaa
Kan quufee Waaqiin darbata
Kan Maaram namaa gootu
Haati ofii namaa hingootu.
Sibiila mutaa gootee
Kan djiiga mucaa gootee.
Baddaan qullubbii hinqabu
Muree laga dhaabbata
Kan kee dhukkubbii hinqabu
Turtee nama yaadattaa.
Araarfanne yaa maaram
Sirraa deenyee.
Gadi jedheen xaafii haamaa
Ol jedheen Waaqiin waama
An old horse’s rise from the stable,
I wonder if dogs have seen it and been able?
To have eaten it, and then did settle?
Cry of a baby-longing childles
Lament of a health-longing patient
A trophy-longing hunter’s plight
I wonder if Maaree have seen?
If She has seen and granted!
Ululation for Waaqa is a must
I ululate and beseech Waaqa;
Market of the taxing tanner
I am Waaqa’s earnest prayer!
The Loomee firewood of the street
When do you think we could meet?
Tomorrow, around mid-day
We will meet slipping away.
A handful of barley
That a widow parched and eat
the sterile prospered with it
the prolific counted it. [To equally divide.]
You know what the prolific said?
“Do not see my baby.” she said
“Do not enter my inner-room” she said.
What if I enter her inner-room?
What if I see her baby?
To her baby, I give a gift
To my stomach, porridge I eat.
No calf is kept in her inner-room,
She thinks I pine her child, I presume.
What a pity for the sterile lady
She could not get pregnant and eat a hunk of meat
She could not deliver and have showers of gift.
Abundance of rock and escarpment
Is hanging and piling up
The sterile did not hate giving birth
It is Maaram that un equalizes.
The prolific with smelly skirt
Her backyard is full of spirit.
But, the childless in a pretty skirt
Her backyard is devoid of spirit.
The sterile, the husband’s name-sake
The husband wishes to punish her.
O dog with a hairy tail
The over-fed hurls at Waaqa
The favour Maaram does for one
One’s own mother would not do.
She turned iron to needles
She turned blood to a baby that toddles.
The high land does not have onion
They cut and plant in the valley;
Your delay is not offensive
for you compensate gradually.
Reconciliation with you, O Maaram
You gave us deliverance.
I bow down and harvest xaafi [food plant]
I rise up and invoke Waaqi
This article is for those who did not have the opportunity to know how democracy evolved in human society. Democracy is only one type of government supposedly based on the will of the masses. There had been other types of government like monarchy or aristocracy, dictatorship or autocracy and totalitarian. One can find overlapping characters in all these. So what ever form we may talk about we have to expect element of one in the other. For much, democracy is an ideal type of government but not all proclaimed democracies are fully pro-people. Here the writer is trying to introduce the essence of both Western and Oromo democracy in an easy way. For those who are well versed in theory and practice of democracy this is an opportunity to enrich this work for the benefit of the youth. In particular the young generation that is showing pride in its historic past from oral tradition if armed with the facts may show more interest and start to inquire about it. To prepare the following information in addition to oral tradition and experience this writer was exposed to, the books: Gadaa and Oromo Demokrasii by Asmirom Laggasaa, The Oromo by De Salviac as translated by Qannoon, Folk Litrature by Ceruuli, Aadaa Booranaa by Ton Leus, Ethiopia through Russian Eyes by Bulatovich and Wikiipedia from internet were refered to.
Short note on Western Democracy
Democracy is a term frequently heard from lips of everyone to express equality, justice and liberty in one word. There are no governments that do not claim to follow democratic principles in their governance. Even totalitarian states call themselves “democratic republics” (probably with exception of fascism) in spite of flagrant violation of their subjects’ rights. Just like true democrats they talk about the inviolability of people’s and human rights and respect for the rule of law and fair and free election. They claim that it is to protect these rights on behalf of the masses when they take what are inhuman actions for others. Their founding documents are full of borrowed phrases from ideal democracies. Democratic governmental structures are adopted minus their functions from different countries.
Democratic models many emulate are American governmental structure with its system of separation of powers. The functions of legislature, executive and judiciary are separated into three branches in such a way that one can check on excesses of the other to maintain the balance of power. The executive or President and the legislative or members of Congress are elected directly by the people. Members of the Supreme Court are nominated by the president and endorsed by the legislature for life. The other models are Parliamentary Democracy where the executive is elected by the legislature. Those can be its members or non elected persons that are answerable to it. Britain and European governments fall under this. They have mainly different styles of organization. Still others are traditional rulers blended with modern jargons.
All these claim their objective to be safeguarding peoples’ democratic interests. The term democracy is a legacy of ancient Greek city state, Athens. It is derived from Greek demokratia which means government of the people (“demos”, people, and “kratos”, power). In this aspect “people” for Athens includes only male citizens above 20 years of age. That does not include women, children under 20, those not born in the city state and slaves.
In the city state all those qualified had the right to be present at meetings and participate in deliberations directly. That is why it is now referred to as direct democracy. After many modifications it has reached the present level of modern Western democracy. Here people elect representatives that participate in deliberations on its behalf. The two methods of electing representatives are plurality and proportional voting systems. In the first one with the highest vote is elected even if one represents minority of voters. The second shares votes in proportion of the votes parties got in overall election. Those are the features of modern indirect democracy. In both not all electorates are represented.
Now in most cases men and women above certain age have the right to vote depending on the law of each democratic country. The right to vote for women was achieved, for example, for Switzerland in 1971 on federal level and 1990 at Canton levels. It took a long time and a relentless struggle to attain universal suffrage. Though all accept these basics of democracy the structure and function of elected offices are not yet standardized and methods of elections fall short of including every voter’s voices. For example if hundred people vote for three persons and two of them got thirty votes each and the third one gets forty he/she wins the whole thing. That leaves 60 persons unrepresented. Proportional representation may improve this but cannot totally correct it. Here seats are divided in proportion to votes parties got overall.
For African countries democracy was imposed on them by departing colonial masters that keep on insisting to this day not to abandon it even if it was a fake one. Africans did not participate to construct a government relevant to their culture and tradition. Even those who later wanted to introduce amendments tried to mix the various world systems instead of looking into their own history and tradition and make it reflect national personality or psyche. As copy and eclectic as it is, it is understood only by elites who themselves are copies of colonial culture.
They rule the way they wanted, constitutions are only window dressings. On the other hand the West had modified the concept of democracy in such a way that it fits their particular national needs not as it was practiced by Athenians or any other pioneer democracies. Therefore there is no one common blueprint for it.
Had it not excluded a segment of the population Athenian democracy could have been an ideal one where the concern of every member is taken care of. Much has been tried to approximate that but the world did not yet achieve flawless democracy. Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address “Government of the people, by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth.” reflects that aspiration. The question to be answered is who are the people that influence decisions, are they really the people or oligarchs? Though the ideal is not yet achieved there are those that had come nearer and worth emulating. Had Oromo democracy been able to answer that question?
Be as it may there are certain basics that underlie every governance of those that claim to be democratic. Principles like equality, freedom, fair and free election; rule of law and respect for people’s and individual rights run through all of them. Even dictators and totalitarian government claim to apply these principles in their own way. Thus these are universally accepted principles of governance though malpractice is rampant in so many countries. Ethiopian rulers had tried to adopt constitutionalism under pressure against their established tradition. The emperor had instituted a semblance of Westminster parliament without political parties. His successor (Darg) had one party state. The next (Wayyaanee) is a pseudo multiparty system but only its party is destined to win.
Be him the last emperor or the two dictators after him used democratic phraseology to cover up their core authoritarian values. Their inherited autocratic practices could not go away. The Habashaa in most part of their own history were ruled by forces that come through coup d’états violently or outlaws overthrowing the preceding government. That was so before they formed the empire and remained so even after it. All the three came to power overthrowing their predecessors. The first two staged coup d’états the third was an outlaw.
It was not consensus but brut force that kept that highland kingdom together under one crown. Democracy assumes one man one vote in a fair and free election that should be carried out periodically. Democracy is the rule of majority. Who ever gets most of the votes comes to power. In numbers they are the minority in the empire and are scared of others outnumbering them at the ballot box. They have no confidence of winning an election by strength of their platform and performance. Therefore they believe that many opportunities would be at stake if they really change from the old ways bowing down for democratic principles. The situation makes the rulers greedy, self centered, chauvinistic and paranoid that they believe only in their own ways and wisdom and are not permeable to new possibilities. They do not believe that even their own people would elect them in a democratic election. That is why human right abuse became their trade mark.
Brief note on Gadaa Democracy
When one discusses Gadaa it would be preposterous to claim understanding its depth and breadth. It was a highly complicated and sophisticated societal system to be attributed only to few generations. That it has a background of ancient civilizations can be deduced from organization of society, its legal system and patterns of knowledge it emanates. For this reason what this article presents is only a simplistic superficial aspect of it, which yet could give a clue to its democratic legacy. Leaving aside procedures, rituals and the regalia what interests us here is the legal and democratic principles enshrined in it. To discover the truth of it much effort is needed from nationals that so far considered it to be just one among the age grade initiation systems found in so many societies. They have to erase all they learned about the Oromo in colonial schools and start unraveling the truth about this so far neglected great African nation.
Gadaa was an all encompassing national system where by every male of all ages had roles to play in groups based on peerage. Accordinglly all institutions in society were managed by elected bodies that decide in counsel. Though all activities in general fall under the Gadaa system, it was more visible in its political aspect. Major divisions to be considered are the temporal and the spiritual institutions and within the temporal one the social and the political functions. Gadaa is temporal while Qaalluu is spiritual. It is said that the Qaalluu office used to assist in Gadaa operations like elections. But sovereignty is vested in Gadaa Assembly. Therefore Qaalluu as an institution does not interfere in running political affairs of the country. That means Gadaa was secular. Here we are more interested in Gadaa secular democracy. The social and political aspect of the spiritual institution may worth following for its historical and academic significance. There are several Oromoo that follow traditional religion to this day.
Gadaa was practiced by the Oromo people from time immemorial. In social aspect male members of society are grouped into age grade “hiriyaa” (peer) system. To simplify, these were Dabbalee from 1-8 years, Foollee or Gaammee 9-24 and Qondaala or Kuusaa 25-33, Raaba didiqqaa 30-38, Raaba Doorii, 38-46 Luba 46-54 and Yuba 55-78 and gadamoojjii or jaarsa above 78 (taken from different regions practice for convenience). Each member of a society had rites to pass through. At each grade there were roles to be played and training to go through.
Activity of a hiriyaa group starts from cradle to calf herding, to different hurdles of fitness that include military training to ruling and counseling the country. It is from these hiriyaa groups that members of national leadership evolve and gradually become Luba, members of the Gadaa ruling group. These leaders in most cases had been leaders of hiriyaa group from the beginning. Women, non naturalized aliens (kan luba hin bahin) and artisans were not included in Gadaa power sharing process.
One Gadaa period is eight years. At the end of that period there used to be great feast. That ceremonial feast was called “Buttaa”. Buttaa also served as measurement of time. To know someone’s age one asks “how many Buttaa did you eat?” All those who were born during the eight years tell the same age, one, two, three etc. Buttaa. From that a wise man could tell to which hiriyaa group or Gadaa party one belonged. Five buttaa are slain in one Gadaa cycle of forty years. Those born into each Gadaa are hiriyaa (peers) irrespective of up to eight years possible differences. A boy born at the beginning of the eight years and one born on Buttaa day after eight years are considered to have eaten one Buttaa.
On the political side society is divided into Gadaa of five parties. Members in each Gadaa party were recruited from their own generational age grades. Each Gadaa has a role to play in the political life of the nation depending on the time and level in the Gadaa tier. The oldest group is the Yuba. It is composed of person whose members were in power in previous times. Next is Luba, the ruling party. Below that is the Itmakoo or Raba Doorii (these may have other names with different tribes) juniors that lead in defense and nation building. The next group follows the foot steps of their seniors and engages in different aspects of society appropriate for their ages. Each hiriyaa group maintains close relationship and prepare themselves for the next stage of partisan responsibility. They all elect their leaders. Those at the bottom of the ladder are the dabbalee to whose raising society gives much attention. It is there that the basis of Oromummaa is laid down and hunting for generational leaders start.
At any one period there are three Gadaa levels that engage is serious party work and has conventions or yaa’a. The bottom one is Raabaa Doorii a group that is preparing to take power after eight years (from), the middle one is the Gadaa in power Luba and the last one is the one that leaves office, Yuba. Each Gadaa comes to power after a cycle of forty years. Since there is a party in waiting to replace the other no party can stay in power for more than eight years. No crisis can be obstacle to transfer Baallii for there is a ready made leadership. To transfer Baallii means to transfer authority. As symbol of authority the old Abbaa Gada hands over to the incoming ostrich feather that was in his custody. Each Gadaa proclaims its own constitution and laws. Therefore there is no stagnation in waiting for cumbersome methods of amendments. Even if there is no article to be changed the past law is formally made null and void and proclaimed again as new. The five Gadaa had set names or are called after their leaders.
The highest Assembly of the nation is Caffee or Gumii. The Caffee sits under shade of an Odaa tree. The General Assembly includes all members of the ruling party and any such persons that want to attend it. In this way it is a representative indirect democracy with some elements of direct democracy. Living Abbaa Gadaas and the Yuba can also participate in the assembly. Abbaa Gadaa or Abbaa Bokkuu is the head of the Caffee and the chief executive as well. There is a case where their were two heads of Caffee, one ritual head called Abbaa Bokkuu and another elected head, Abbaa Gadaa. The Luba usually consults “raagaa” wise man or philosopher on the future or consequences of certain decisions. But the raagaa has no power to avert a decision.
In addition to mentioned institutions there are several others that should not escape our attention. For example the institution of clan elders which are hereditary have no place in the Gadaa structure but has important role in organizing and guiding the tribe. Members of Gadaa were recruited (nominated) from tribes they lead. They have ritual symbols and roles to play in cursing and blessing. When Gadaa is the national leadership these ones are tribal ones. It was from among these ones that the colonizers embraced and recruited as agents for all their grassroots activities. In tribal protocol the eldest of the clans is called or seated first. Since tribal structures have already been rendered obsolete it has no nationwide political relevance in modern setting. There is also the Siiqqee institution that gives women social and political authority to some degree. In principle this can be integrated into any modern adaptations.
For the Oromo rights like equality, freedom, fair and free election; rule of law and respect for people’s and individual rights, respect and protection for environment and wild life are inbuilt qualities of Gadaa democracy. All human beings are equal; no one is above the law; discrimination because of origin, color or economic status etc is unjust. Respect for human rights, freedom of expression that are not safuu or morally repulsive, freedom of movement and association are protected by law. Elected officials are loved and respected as long as they serve the people whole heartedly and with the highest morale standard. An incompetent and corrupt official can be removed from office by the assembly before the expiry of his term of office. In meetings it was preferred if decisions were reached by consensus. Each member of a meeting or assembly has the right of veto to halt a discussion. Once decisions were reached all are required to acclaim and the law becomes sacred.
Gadaa Assembly combines executive, legislative and judiciary powers. Gadaa here is to mean the ruling class as well as the eight years of their rule. Leaders of current Gadaa are called Luba. The outgoing Gadaa which participates as advisors and judges are called Yuba. The Yuba group includes two previous Yuba. Though all powers and responsibility lie with the Luba, Yuba and all living Abbaa Gadaas had also roles to play in matters of law and checking on excesses of Luba and had great influence on all political matters. Full retirement comes three Gadaa after they leave office. From thence they are called gadamoojjii or jarsaa. Another hiriyaa group that is active during a Gadaa period is the Itmakoo or Raaba Doorii with defense as their major activity with their eye on the bokkuu when the time comes.
In Oromo society there was a tendency of the weak to form alliance against the strong. For example grandparents and grandchildren ally against parents. In the same way it is logical for Raabaa Doorii to ally against the strongest institution of the land, Luba. In that way power of Luba can be checked before it gets corrupted and become abusive.
The chief Luba is the Abbaa Bokkuu or Abbaa Gadaa (Hayyuu Fiixee). In places he has two deputies one having greater power than the other. The executive power is held by Salgee, the top nine Luba or six in some places. Those were elites elected by the people for eight years with Abbaa Gadaa as their leader. Committees were usually formed at different levels for different functions. Prerogatives of decision making at each level is known. There will always be consultation before decisions are taken. They were it is believed, those frequent meetings to make seera (law, legislation) that gave rise to Amaara legal term “seeraa” to mean conspiracy.
Abbaa Bokkuu implements what is decided by Salgee. Abbaa Bokkuu’s role as a chief is defined by law. Thus he has internal constraint imposed on him by peers and external ones by Yuba and Raaba Doorii and Caffee periodic assembly that is chaired by Abbaa Seera who is a well respected past Abbaa Gadaa. The limitation of office term of only eight years for a party is by it self a reason not to get corrupted lest face humiliation with no chance of reelection. Thus Gadaa democratic system was a well balanced system with inbuilt checks and balance mechanism. The Abbaa Gadaa and Luba had assistances called makala (Makkala). Makala kan be compulsory service to Gadaa offices.
Military functions are assigned to Raaba Doorii by law and tradition. But Abbaa Gadaa was commander in chief and only Caffee can declare war. Commanders are appointed by Abbaa Gadaa for each engagement. After a campaign is over the person went back to his normal duties.
But lack of efficient communication and contingent law enforcement mechanism had given rise for Abbaa Duulaas to defy tradition starting in the course of the 16th century.
Some cardinal points of Gadaa system
Gadaa is equal: There should be no one to be denied passing through Gadaa process, elect and be elected when ones turn comes. There should not be partiality or discrimination in services and protections Gadaa provides. Every member has the right to directly or through elected representative be heard in all affairs that affect people’s life; to be equally treated in matters of administration of justice. No one is above the law. No one may be prohibited to attend Gadaa deliberations.
Odaa is equal: Odaa is a national symbol for people’s government, demokratia. It represents freedom of speech and expression, freedom of assembly, equality of all participants that meet there, freedom of worship, peace and araaraa (reconciliation) and liberty to rest for persons and animals under its shade without worry of being disturbed.
Malkaa is equal: Ford or river crossing (confluence) is open to all for crossing; perform rituals; using water for drinking, washing etc for humans and animals. No one for any one reason can bar any one from using it. Malkaa is a symbol of transiting from status quo to something new.
Market is equal: every one has equal rights to take ones produce to the market and exchange with goods and services that it provides. Every one is free to participate in such exchanges and any trade of ones liking that the market provides
Road is equal: every one is entitled to the right of way; no one can be denied an access from his home to outer world or restricted from using of existing roads like all others; there will not be restriction to the right of travel; no one has the right to close an existing road for own use.
Is there any point that modern society discard from these? So far we have tried simplistic approach to uncover old Gadaa practice. Gadaa was more inclusive in its membership than Greek City state democracy. It involves every member of society to equally participate in all activity of the nation according to generations. All male nationals are grouped into generational hiriyaa and play roles society assigned for them. For this reason the Gadaa system involves all in the process of managing a society. Each division stays in the age grade for eight years before it is initiated into the next level. Probably except kids under nine all elect their leaders through electoral process. Gadaa was a representative democracy with some elements of direct democracy. Anyone that can travel to Caffee Assembly can participate in its deliberations and express ones opinion. That gives it semblance of direct democracy. Gadaa was practiced when Qaalluu institution had significant role in Oromo society and the nation was at a different level of economic and technological development than the present. Taking these variations into account let us see if there are principles that we could salvage for new democratic Oromiyaa.
Societal development takes place on two lines. One is the social age grade system and the other is the party system. One follows the gradual mental and physical development of a child, while the other handles its political development. At stage of adult hood both overlap. In the political aspect society is grouped into five hiriyaa category and a party name is attached to them. Each party takes turn in governing every eight years. A party has to wait for forty years to reign again. All five parties exist at the same time with different roles to play.
In Gadaa executive and legislative functions are combined. Bokkuu and Caffee (Gumii) are the highest authority of the land. Sovereignty lies with the people but expressed through Caffee and Bokkuu.
Decisions are reached by consensus how ever long it may take. That means minority opinion is never neglected.
Abbaa Bokkuu is the commander in chief of the fighting force. Caffee is the only power that can declare war. People love and respect the leaders because of their valor and uprightness not out of fear and threat.
Yuba is the highest advisory body and also heads the supreme court of the land. Its head is the most respected among the living retired Abbaa Gadaas and usually taken as the Supreme Judge (Chief Justice).
Itmakoo/Raaba Doorii is a power in waiting to replace the incumbent Luba. It is responsible for recruiting, training military personnel and conducting war.
Qaalluu is the spiritual leader with some functions concerning elections but never interferes in secular affairs of the Gadaa. Gadaa was a temporal institution.
Women were recognized as subjects of rights through Siiqqee institution. There were also rituals that cannot be performed without them. But full equality was not guaranteed.
The top Gadaa counselors were nine ( Salgee) or Six
The Luba are assisted by unelected official called makala (Aide de camp)
Each Gadaa general assembly convenes at the beginning of its term to declare laws. Then it will assemble in its mid term to make progress report. Then members can be criticized, condemned or uprooted for wrong doings if any. That means electors had the right to recall their representatives for corruptions and abuses. Caffee meetings are open for citizens that can attend.
Raagaa is a wise usually old man or philosopher that can advise on the future
Hayyuu were notables (elites) that can give decisions and counseling on several issues. They were knowledgeable members of the society without any flaw in character.
To summarize, the people are sovereign; representative system mixed with direct democracy were practiced; rulers were elected for a limited term of only eight years; citizens had the right to elect and be elected according to their ages; no one was above the law; people can recall their representative; humans, animals and nature are protected by law; the welfare of children was concern of all members of society; their was majority rule but by making decision by consensus minority views were protected; all human being were equal, ill treatment was abhorred; right to assemble and freedom of expression were protected; right to engage in any trade was protected; right to travel were granted; right to worship was recognized and discrimination based on race, age, gender and economic status are forbidden. There was inbuilt check and balance system in the political process but not so spelled out.
Now, that we have seen a brief introduction to western and ancient Oromo Gadaa democracy, let us try if we can come out with a fitting system for reorganizing modern Oromiya. The system of dividing and managing society into generations is not different from modern world school systems. Children learn what is assigned them according to peerage, “preschool, kindergarten, primary, secondary, college”. This is not far from what they call “dabbalee, Foollee, Gaammee, Raaba etc.” Existing political parties recruit members from this school system. But the Oromo as different as they are, had something to add and their own outlook. Oromo see the system in interrelation with all other societal activities. To pass from one stage to the other are rights of all citizens not of particular classes.
Probably it would be essential to revise certain things and see how they may serve modern society better. Instead of collectively saying Oromo youth association if one says association of Foollee, Gaammee, Raaba etc it will help to mobilize in unison generation that under stand each other better. It may also give better opportunity to develop future leadership for society. In the past stages in the Gadaa were seen from fathers’ point. For this reason the age at which one has to produce a child was determined. If one is born before that it was bad omen. Now all children should be treated equally and age has to be considered from childrens point. So, age should not be calculated by butta and father’s Gadaa grade, but the exact date of a child’s birth. All those excluded to participate in gadaa activities and elections must now be included to make true that all humanbeing are eqal. This is only the skeleton otherwise social functions require deeper research. During the period of Abbaa Gadaa there was only one Qaalluu, now they are numerous (in addition to those of other religions). In the past we go for pilgrimage only to Abbaa Muudaa now we crossed the sea and added Mecca and Jerusalem etc. After all, what do you think? This is a big challenge for Oromoo intellectuals. It may require liberating ones mind from the shackles of foreign influences to appreciate what we had. Gadaa is never obsolete but may need refurbishing. Go and make research before responding.
Let us get prepared to be ourselves and show the world that Gadaa still dwells in our minds and body. This will not be difficult for one who has pride in Oromummaa.
Honor and glory for the fallen heroines and heroes; liberty equality and freedom for the living and nagaa and araaraa for the Ayyaanaa of our fore parents!
Ibsaa Guutama
July 2011
…The presence of the aged, both men and women who attired in traditional costumes, and carrying ritual sticks—bokkuu and siiqqee—the symbols of power and justice of the gadaa system decorated the march which reflected the authentic Oromo tradition. This authenticity is articulated not only in the words spoken by the elders and sung by the artists but also expressed in the peacefulness of the gathering of millions of people. Oromo nationalism is reviving and thriving in the fertile soil of rich symbolic cultural resources that have come to the open since the 1990s. The array of national symbols such as the odaa tree which decorate the costumes worn by men, women and children, the siiqqee, the bokkuu and other pre-colonial pan-Oromo symbols carried by men and women at the festival represent and reinforce the pride of the nation and unite the multitude gathered for the festival through a common imagery of shared memories, myths and values—in other words the shared structures of feeling.
is the principle of deep moral honor and accountability that was fostered by Waaqayyo fearing people of Oromia. “Yoon maqe, Waaqni na arga” is the principle rooted in each Oromo proven to be worthy of wholesomeness, to have virtue, and love other. These type of people have a desire to understand and live by traditional values.
Young Oromo children often spoke about the fundamental principle that telling the truth, respecting nature, being trustworthy, and standing for the right thing is natural to human beings. As an Oromo, we were taught these values and it made us women and men of such noble character.
Not only our characters were shaped by Safuu Oromo, even the process of Seera tumu (law making) was inspired by this principle and the Gadaa system was framed on the basis of Safuu. Basically then, Safuu is the principle of restoration of human dignity in a significant way. Because of Safuu, Birmadummaa and honesty is expected from each Oromo so that we all can live virtuous life of divine purposes.
When the Oromo people lived according to the Gadaa system, they dominated the horn of Africa and established their republic, and the Oromoo Foollee turned into statesmen and defended the norm of Gadaa governance. Because they believed in being honest, true, benevolent and virtuous in doing good to humanity, they demanded no money for their work and time. They worked on their farms but served their country as abbaa Seeraa, abbaa Alangaa, abbaa Caffee, abbaa Bokku and as Hadha sinqee etc..
Because of Safuu, the Oromos are inspired to respect nature and committed to deal justly with humankind! That’s why we are indebted to freedom-loving individuals everywhere who had the integrity necessary to build the foundations of human societies upon safuu’s fundamental moral values. Only in an atmosphere of freedom and trust could values like honesty and integrity truly flourish.
Safuu Oromo therefore is an expectation that people must rise above self-interest and act in the public interest with wisdom and courage both on the national and the local political scene.
One reason for the decline of Safuu in Oromia to day is that people invented new standards that constantly changes and undependable moral conduct. As a result, individuals define good and evil as being adjustable according to each situation but doing so is in direct contrast to the Safuu standard.
The vast majority of so called educated Oromos speak or think based on this mindset where right and wrong are calculated to either remain neutral or to be liked by others at the expenses of own value, the Safuu. In the process, our people lost their ancestral knowledge of what is right and what is wrong and went astray by longings for luxury and leisure that they think will be found in the western world style of living and thinking.
The devastation that comes from such fraudulent life style and self misrepresentation is immeasurable. It leads to a false belief that they can worship anything they want following the rules they set for themselves.
However, the continued survival of a free and open society is dependent upon a high degree of divinely inspired values and moral conduct (safuu), as stated by the Oromo Ayaantus. People must have trust in their institutions and in their leaders. Hence, a great need today is for leadership that exemplifies truth, honesty, and decency in both public and private life.
Honesty is not only the best policy, it is the only policy according to Safuu Oromo.
There are several things we can do to develop SAFUU.
Desire It (Fedhii Safuu horadhu)
Live honest life (hin Maqin)
Be Humble (Fayaalessa ta’i)
Study (Qu’adhu)
Search and ponder on ideas (Yaada xiinxali)
Love nature ( Umaa jaaladhu)
Irreecha (Irreessa) Birraa Oromoo kan Bara 2014 ((akka lakkoobsa Oromootti kan Bara 6408) akka gaariitti karooreffatamee, haala oo’aa fi bareedan kabajame. Here are some of live pictures, videos and reports refer to Irreecha Oromo Thanksgiving 2014 (6408 in Oromo Calendar) Season Global Events Planning and Celebration. The blessing event that started in mid August and celebrated successfully and colorfully through Birraa (September- October). Millions attended Hora Harsadi (Bishoftuu, Oromia) and Malkaa Ateetee (Buraayyuu, Oromia).
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebrated in East Wallaggaa, Western Oromia, Naqamtee City, 16 November. This month’s Irreecha also known as Irreecha Yaadanno. Remembrance Irreechaa.
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebrated at Burraayyuu, Malkaa Ateetee, Oromia with millions of Oromians in attendance. 9th October 2014.
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebrated at Bishoftu Oromia, Hora Harsadii with over 4 million in attendance. 5th October 2014.
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebrated at Bishoftu Oromia, Hora Harsadii with over 4 million in attendance. 5th October 2014
OromoPress Report:- Irreecha: Oromo’s Largest African Festival Celebrated by Millions at Hora Arsadi, Bishoftu
(OromoPress) – On Sunday October 5, 2014 an estimated 4 million people attended the annual Irreecha Festival at Hora Arasdi (lake) in Bishoftu town, located 47.9 kilometers southeast of the Oromo nation’s capital Finfinne (aka Addis Ababa). Although not conceptually, historically and purposively equivalent, people sometimes superficially use the word from the American holiday “Thanksgiving” to describe Irreecha Festival to expatriates. Oromo and friends of Oromo from across all religions and backgrounds converged to celebrate the transition from a gloomy (dukkana) rainy season to a bright (booqaa) Birraa (Spring season). The rainy season that runs for 3 months–June to August– is considered a harsh winter and is associated with darkness and separation from friends and families because of rivers swelling, (and also because of the lack of electricity). In contrast, Spring is considered a more pleasant season of festivity. Honestly, the tropical rainy season is not as a harsh a season as Winter as we know it in the northern hemisphere if you have the skills to swim and walk in and on waters.To say that Irreecha is a celebration of escaping a bad season, would be a gross oversimplification given the long and complex history of the Oromo indigenous African holiday practiced for thousands of years before the arrival of Abrahamic faiths in Oromia, Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Read more @http://oromopress.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/irreecha-oromos-largest-african.html
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Tel Aviv, Israel, (Middle East)
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Uganda (East Africa)
5th October 2014.
The Oromo people, the largest nation in Ethiopia, celebrate Irreecha, a festival of thanksgiving. Oromo communities spread out across the world perform rituals on this day around water sources to thank God for enduring the rainy season and ushering in the Spring season. The Oromo Community in Uganda held their celebrations at the Kabaka’s Lake in Lubaga on October 5, 2014. http://finfinnetribune.com/Gadaa/2014/10/ntv-uganda-report-oromo-community-in-uganda-celebrate-irreecha-festival/
NTV Uganda
A Beautiful Irreecha Celebration in Groton, Connecticut (It Takes One Family to Start Building a Community)
Irreecha Celebration in Perth (Australia) – Oct. 5, 2014
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in South Africa.
5th October 2014.
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Melbourne, Australia
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Cairo, Egypt
5th September 2014.
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
4th October 2014
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Holland.
4th October 2014
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Boston, MA, USA
28 September 2014
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Los Angeles, California
27 September 2014
Hawaasni Oromoo Magaalaa Los angeles fi San Diego Ayyaanaa Biyyoolessa Oromoo, IRREECHA, Birraa 27, 2014 haala hoo’an kabajaanni oolan. Sirni ayyaaneeffanaa sa’aa 11:00WD qabee hanga sa’aa 6:00WB gageeffame kun seeraan banamee, eebbaa manguddootiin itti fufee, aadaa irreechaatiin Waaqaa faarffachaa fi gammachuudhaan sirbaa iddoo haroo adeemudhaan erga irreeffatamee booddaa haaluma walfakkaataan iddoo qophiitti deebi’ame sirbaa fi mariin xumurameera. ‘Barrii baranaa kan hegereetiin Isin ha gahu!’
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) Festival Celebrated in Bay Area, California
4th October 2014
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Leeds, UK.
27 September 2014
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Ohio.
28th September 2014.
Irreecha( Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Seattle with Oromiya and Caffee Tuulamaa Abbaa Gadaa- Bayanaa Sanbatoo, 28th September 2014
Irreecha: Colorfully Celebrated
inWashington DC, USA.
27th September 2014
At the Hururssaa, Name-Recognizing or Name-Giving Ceremony, held in conjunction with the 2014 Washington-DC’s Irreecha celebration, author Tasfaayee Gabra-aab has become “Gadaa” Gabra-aab; watch the ceremony below (video by OPride.com). Hururssaa is one of the rich traditions of the Oromo nation.
Minnesota, Little Oromia in the Presence of A/G Bayyanaa Sanbatoo & Ob. Laggasaa Deettii, Former Leader of Macha-Tulama Association
Ayyaana irreechaa Fulbaana 27 bara 2014 magaalaa Bergen,Norway
Irreecha Colorfully Celebrated in Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014
Seife Nebelbal Radio: Special Program on the Irreecha Festival in Dallas, TX (With Abbaa Gadaa Bayyanaa Sanbatoo)
Irreecha Birraa 2014 Celebration @ Las Vegas, Sunset Park
25 Fuulbana ( September ) 2014.
The 2014 Irreecha Celebration in Adelaide, South Australia
Ayyaana Irreecha Birraa Oromoo kan bara 2014 Kanaadaa (Canada) Calgaryti Birraa 20 Bara 2014 haala O’ooan kabajamee Ooole. Irreecha celebrated in Calgary, Canada on 20th September 2014. See picture below.
Irreecha Oromoo kan Bara 2014 Baga Ittiini Isin Gahe! Aadaa Oromoo Maraa Irreechi Hundee Keenya Irree Keenya!!!
Happy the 2014 Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, Cultural and National Day!!!!
Felice 2014 Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, Culturali e Giornata Nazionale !!!!
Glückliche 2014 die Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, kulturellen und nationalen Tag !!!!
Glad de 2014 Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, kulturelle og National Day !!!!
Bonne 2014 Oromo Irreecha Merci Donnant, la culture et la Journée nationale !!!!
Gelukkig 2014 Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, culturele en nationale Dag !!!!
Shona 2014 Oromo Irreecha Go raibh maith agat a thabhairt, Cultúrtha agus Lá Náisiúnta !!!!
Irreechi Faajjii Keenya
Irreecha @Buraayyuu, 2013
Oromians in Sweden Celebrated Irreecha in Stockholm on 13th September 2014
Ayyaanni Irreessa/irreecha Sweden magaalaa Stockholmitti Fulbaana 13, 2014 ayyaaneffatame (suuraa kanaan olii ilaalaa, see the above pictures of Irreecha celebration in Stockholm )
Ayyaanni Irreessaa/irreechaa Sweden magaalaa Stockholmitti Fulbaana 13, 2014 ayyaaneffatame
Ayyaanni Irreessaa/irreechaa Sweden magaalaa Stockholmitti Fulbaana 13, 2014 ayyaaneffatame ( Suuraa kanaa olii ilaalaa, Irreecha celebration @ Stockholm pictures).
Irreecha celebration: Toronto,Canada 31 August 2014
We are pleased to inform you that he is finally able come to the United States. OSA has extended its theme focusing on Gada democracy through the end of the year and Abba Gada Bayana speak at a series of OSA-organized workshops in various cities in Unite Stated from September 6-27, focusing on the ongoing work of reviving the Gadaa system.
He will also participate as a guest of honor at several Irreecha celebrations organized by Oromo in the Diaspora.
We invite all who are interested in the Gadaa democratic system and Oromo culture in general to attend these workshops and participate in spectacular Irrechaa celebrations to be held throughout September and October 2014.
We would like to extend our appreciation to local individuals and institutions who participated in preparing these events. We are also grateful to the United States Consular Service for the assistance they provided in issuing Abbaa Gadaa Bayana’s travel documents.
The attached flyer contains general information about dates and cities where Abbaa Gadaa Bayana will be speaking.
Jawar Mohammed
President, Oromo Studies Association
Welcoming the New Season; Announcing the Season’s First Irreecha Celebration (Toronto, Canada – August 31, 2014)
According to the Oromo culture writer, Ob. Anga’a Dhugumaa, the preparation for the spring Oromo holiday of Irreecha/Gubaa, which celebrates the transition from the rainy season to the bright season by giving Thanks to Waaqa, begins in mid-August, and mid-August is only a couple of weeks away from today; the mid-August celebration is calledTaaboree or Muka Dhaabaa.
Here is a quote from Ob. Anga’a Dhugumaa article on Gubaa/Irreecha:
“In the middle of August, a tall olive tree (Ejersa – Olea Africana) is cut, and all its branches removed except at its top. It is then erected (horduu, dhaabuu) on ground as a pole. The species of this tree has to be olive. Olive trees (Ejersa) are considered as holy trees among the Oromo. Its smoke is very sweet. Erecting such a tree at the peak of the rainy season symbolizes a wish for the Earth to get firm. It is a peak time for the ground to get wet or saturated with rainwater, and is too weak to stand heavy rain. This day, which is called Taaboreeor Muka Dhaabaa, is observed by the youth only.
“The final gigantic celebration takes place exactly five weeks later from this day. The five weeks are refereed to as the ‘five-finger rules’. One finger is equivalent to one week.” (Read more here: http://goo.gl/kGdVBD)
With that, Toronto is once again ready to hold the first Irreecha celebration, which will be held in Whitby, Canada, on August 31, 2014.
Ayyaana Irreecha | Oromo Thanksgiving in Sydney, Australia – Sept. 27, 2014
Ayyaana Irreecha Bara 2014 | Oromo Thanksgiving in Los Angeles on Sept. 27, 2014
Ayyaanni Irreecha bara 2014 Fulbaana 27 magaala Los Anjeles keessatti kabajaamuuf qophiin itti fufeera. Lammiiwwan Oromoo fi firoonni Oromiyaa Kaaliforniyaa fi Godina Ollaa keessa jiratan hundinuu koottaa waliin haa Irreeffannuu!
Qophiin sa’aa 11:00 WD jalqaba.
Bakkeen Qophii:
Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area
4100 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA – 90056
———————
The Oromo Thanksgiving Day will be celebrated on September 27, 2014. All Oromo citizens and friends of the Oromo nation cordially invited. Please join us on our highly celebrated Holiday.
Program begins at 11:00am
Location:
Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area
Los Angeles, CA – 90056
Ayyaana Irreecha | Oromo Thanksgiving in Helsinki, Finland – on October 4, 2014
Event Details:
Date: 4th of October 2014
Time: from 12:00 to 5:00
Place: Kivikonkaari 11, Kivenkolo, Helsinki, Finland
Transport: Take Metro from Helsinki Railway Station to Kontula; From Kontula, take Bus 78. It is about 5 minutes.
Irreecha Bara 2014 | Kan Biyya Jarmaniitti | Fulbaana/Sept. 20, 2014
Waamicha Kabajaa Ayyaana Irreecha kan Bara 2014 Biyya Jarmanii keessatti qophaa’ee: Koree Qindeesitu Ayyaana Irreeschaa irraa Ilmaan Oromoo Biyya Jarmanii keessa jiraatan Maraaf – Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Kabajammo Ilmaan Oromoo,
hundaa duraan dursee nagaan rabii isin haagahu. Ashamaa ilmaan Oromoo kann biyya Jarmanii keessa jiraattan; obboleewwan keenya dhiira fi dubartiin, baga ayyaana Irreecha bara haaraa 2014 walumaan jala geenye. Ayaanni Irreecha jila (festival) waga/bara haaraatti cee’uumsaatti.
Ayyaanni Irreecha kan bara haaraa 2014 biyya Jarmaniitti kutaa magaalaa Frankfurt am Main “Bockenheim” (im Stadtteil Bockenheim) jedhamu keessatti Fulbaana (September) 20, 2014 kabajamuuf qophiin Koree Qindeessituu Ayyaana Irreescha xumuramee jira. Kanaaf Oromoon biyya Jarmanii keessa jiraatan kabajaa ayyaana Ireechaa kan bara 2014 irratti argamtannii waliin akka kabajnu ulfina guddaan isin afeerra.
Ayyaanni Irreecha kan bara haaraa 2014 Fullbaana (September) 20, 2014, guyya sambata xiqqaa(Saturday), sa’a 12:30 WB (PM) irra eegalee hanga (hama) sa’attii 18:00 WB (PM) Paarkii (iddoo namni itti haara galfatu) “Rebstockpark” jedhamu keessatti cinaa (bukkee) haroo (Weiher im Rebstockpark = Pond in Rebstockpark) ti kabajama.
Ayyaanni Irreecha guyyaa ilmaan Oromoo akka sabaatti heddomminaan walarganii dhimma har’a itti jiran waliif himan, waan hegeree immoo waliin qindeeffaatan, guyyaa waloomaa (day of joint action) Oromoo ti. Heddomminaan bahanii ayyaana Irreecha irratti aadaa fi duudhaa/jifuu (culture and tradition) ofii agarsisuunis mallattoo sabboonummaa saba Oromoo ti. Aadaa kana guddisuu fi muldhisuun eenyummaa Oromoo guddisuudha.
Ayyaanni Irreecha kan bara 2013 kan yeroo kamuu caala biyya keessaa fi alatti sirna ho’aa fi hamilee guddaan akka kabajame, odeeffannoo fi gabaasa bakka gara garaa irraa argaa fi dhagahaa jirra. Kun kan muldhisu, ayyaanni Irreecha guddina aadaa fi duudhaa/jifuu, akkasumas eenyummaa fi tokkummaa saba Oromoof utubaa ta’uu nu hubachiisa.
Daandi (kara)/Street: Am Römerhof, Max‐Pruss‐Straße Geejiba/Transport: Baabura (tram) lakoofsa 17 (Straßenbahnlinie 17 vom Hauptbahnhof Frankfurt am Main bis zur Endehaltestelle “Rebstockbad”)
Ayyaana Irreecha Kan Bara 2014 | Oromo Thanksgiving in Columbus, Ohio – Sept. 28, 2014
Address: 213 Camrose Court, Gahanna, OH
UPDATED (Seattle): Workshop on Gadaa with A/G Bayyanaa Sanbatoo following Irreecha: Seattle, Washington (NW U.S. & British Columbia) – Fulb./Sept. 28, 2014
Ayyaana Irreecha Kan Bara 2014 | Oromo Thanksgiving in Columbus, Ohio – Sept. 28, 2014
Address: 213 Camrose Court, Gahanna, OH
Ayyaana Irreecha | Oromo Thanksgiving in Leeds, the UK (Fulbaana/Sept. 27, 2014)
Mark your calendar; this year’s Irreecha celebration will be held in the city of Leeds, the UK, on Sept. 27, 2014. All Oromos and friends of the Oromo in the UK are invited.
Plan of Event: Ayyaana Irreecha , Oromo Thanksgiving on Onkoloolessa/October4, 2014- Perth, Australia
Baga bacaqii Gannaa nagaan baatanii Booqaa Birraa argitan jechaa, Eenyummaa fi Aadaa ofii yoo abbaan duukaa bu’ee hin kununisifatiin alagaan ishuma hafte iyyuu balleessuuf duubatti hin jedhu waan ta’eef IRREECHA bara kanaa / 2014 sirnna hoo’aan kabajachuuf Oromoonni dhuunfaan sagantaa kana irratti hojjataa jiru. Ammoo dhimma kana fiixaan baasuuf hirmannaan Hawaasa Oromoo Magaalaa Perth murteessaa dha.
Waan kana ta’eef jecha Oromoonni Magaalaa Perth jirraattan hundi ayyaana IRREECHAA kana irratti hafeeramtaniirtu.
Koottaa / dhyaadhaa waliin gammannaa!
Yoom:-
Gaafa 05/10/2014
Guyyaa Dilbataa
Bakka:- Burswood Park, Burswood
Yeroo:- Sa’aatii 11:00 AM irraa eegalee
Hubachiisa:-
Wamicha Guyyaa Irreecha bara 2014 | London: Fulb./Sept. 27, 2014
Oromoo fi Firottan Oromoo UK Maraaf,
Hawaasni Oromoo UK kessa jiraatu guyyaa Irreecha galata kennan bara 2014 Fulbaana 27, 2014 Magaala Londonitti ayyaneffata. Kanaf, guyyaa Oromon tokkummadhan uumaa galata galchatu kana irratti argamtani akka gammaddan Hawaasni Oromoo UK kabajaan isin aferra. Nyatnii fi dhugaatin gatii bayyessan ni jira.
Kottaa aadaa fi muziqaa Oromoo dhandhamadhaa!
Sagantaa:
A. Sagantaa Irreffachuu: 11:00wd-2:00
Bakka: Hampsted Heath Park Staff Yard, Parliament Hill Fields, High-gate Road, London NW5 1QR
Gejjiba: Atobusii: C2, C11, 214
Baabura: Bufata baaburaa Gospel Oak
Konkolaataa dhabuf sa’ati 2f £2.50 basisa
B. Yeroo gammachuu fi hawaasessuu – 3.00wb-10.30gg
Bakka: Whittington Park Community Centre, Yerbury Road, London N19 4RS
Gejjiba: Atobusii C11 gara bufata baaburaa Archway, 17, 43, 263, 271 (gara bufata baaburaa Upper Holloway Road)
Baabura: Bufata baaburaa Archway
Bufata baaburaa: Upper Holloway Road
Irreecha (Irreessa) Birraa Oromoo kan Bara 2014 ((akka lakkoobsa Oromootti kan Bara 6408) akka gaariitti karooreffatamee, haala oo’aa fi bareedan kabajame. Here are some of live pictures, videos and reports refer to Irreecha Oromo Thanksgiving 2014 (6408 in Oromo Calendar) Season Global Events Planning and Celebration . The blessing event that started in mid August and celebrated successfully and colorfully through Birraa (September- October). Millions attended Hora Harsadi (Bishoftuu, Oromia) and Malkaa Ateetee (Buraayyuu, Oromia).
Irreecha Oromoo kan Bara 2014 Baga Ittiini Isin Gahe! Aadaa Oromoo Maraa Irreechi Hundee Keenya Irree Keenya!!! Happy the 2014 Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, Cultural and National Day!!!! Felice 2014 Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, Culturali e Giornata Nazionale !!!! Glückliche 2014 die Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, kulturellen und nationalen Tag !!!! Glad de 2014 Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, kulturelle og National Day !!!!
Bonne 2014 Oromo Irreecha Merci Donnant, la culture et la Journée nationale !!!!
Gelukkig 2014 Oromo Irreecha Thanks Giving, culturele en nationale Dag !!!!
Shona 2014 Oromo Irreecha Go raibh maith agat a thabhairt, Cultúrtha agus Lá Náisiúnta !!!!
سعيدة 2014 أورومو Irreecha تقديم الشكر والثقافة واليوم الوطني !!!!
Irreecha Buraayyuu irrattii yoo kabajamu. Suraan kun kan bara 2013 bara kan maxxanfame.
Oromo woman celebrating Irreecha (Irreessa) Thanksgiving at Burayyuu, Central Oromia, near the capital Finfinnee, September 2013.
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebrated in East Wallaggaa, Western Oromia, Naqamtee City, 16 November. This month’s Irreecha also known as Irreecha Yaadannoo. Remembrance Irreechaa.
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebrated at Burraayyuu, Malkaa Ateetee, Oromia with millions of Oromians in attendance. 9th October 2014.
OromoPress Report:- Irreecha: Oromo’s Largest African Festival Celebrated by Millions at Hora Arsadi, Bishoftu
(OromoPress) – On Sunday October 5, 2014 an estimated 4 million people attended the annual Irreecha Festival at Hora Arasdi (lake) in Bishoftu town, located 47.9 kilometers southeast of the Oromo nation’s capital Finfinne (aka Addis Ababa). Although not conceptually, historically and purposively equivalent, people sometimes superficially use the word from the American holiday “Thanksgiving” to describe Irreecha Festival to expatriates. Oromo and friends of Oromo from across all religions and backgrounds converged to celebrate the transition from a gloomy (dukkana) rainy season to a bright (booqaa) Birraa (Spring season). The rainy season that runs for 3 months–June to August– is considered a harsh winter and is associated with darkness and separation from friends and families because of rivers swelling, (and also because of the lack of electricity). In contrast, Spring is considered a more pleasant season of festivity. Honestly, the tropical rainy season is not as a harsh a season as Winter as we know it in the northern hemisphere if you have the skills to swim and walk in and on waters.To say that Irreecha is a celebration of escaping a bad season, would be a gross oversimplification given the long and complex history of the Oromo indigenous African holiday practiced for thousands of years before the arrival of Abrahamic faiths in Oromia, Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Read more @http://oromopress.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/irreecha-oromos-largest-african.html
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Tel Aviv, Israel, (Middle East)
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Uganda (East Africa)
5th October 2014.
The Oromo people, the largest nation in Ethiopia, celebrate Irreecha, a festival of thanksgiving. Oromo communities spread out across the world perform rituals on this day around water sources to thank God for enduring the rainy season and ushering in the Spring season. The Oromo Community in Uganda held their celebrations at the Kabaka’s Lake in Lubaga on October 5, 2014. http://finfinnetribune.com/Gadaa/2014/10/ntv-uganda-report-oromo-community-in-uganda-celebrate-irreecha-festival/
NTV Uganda
A Beautiful Irreecha Celebration in Groton, Connecticut (It Takes One Family to Start Building a Community)
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Holland.
4th October 2014
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Boston, MA, USA
28 September 2014
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Los Angeles, California
27 September 2014
Hawaasni Oromoo Magaalaa Los angeles fi San Diego Ayyaanaa Biyyoolessa Oromoo, IRREECHA, Birraa 27, 2014 haala hoo’an kabajaanni oolan. Sirni ayyaaneeffanaa sa’aa 11:00WD qabee hanga sa’aa 6:00WB gageeffame kun seeraan banamee, eebbaa manguddootiin itti fufee, aadaa irreechaatiin Waaqaa faarffachaa fi gammachuudhaan sirbaa iddoo haroo adeemudhaan erga irreeffatamee booddaa haaluma walfakkaataan iddoo qophiitti deebi’ame sirbaa fi mariin xumurameera. ‘Barrii baranaa kan hegereetiin Isin ha gahu!’
Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) Festival Celebrated in Bay Area, California
4th October 2014
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Leeds, UK.
27 September 2014
Irreecha (Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Ohio, USA.
28th September 2014.
Irreecha( Oromo thanksgiving) 2014: Colorfully celebration in Seattle with Oromiya and Caffee Tuulamaa Abbaa Gadaa- Bayanaa Sanbatoo, 28th September 2014
Irreecha: Colorfully Celebrated
inWashington DC, USA.
27th September 2014
At the Hururssaa, Name-Recognizing or Name-Giving Ceremony, held in conjunction with the 2014 Washington-DC’s Irreecha celebration, author Tasfaayee Gabra-aab has become “Gadaa” Gabra-aab; watch the ceremony below (video by OPride.com). Hururssaa is one of the rich traditions of the Oromo nation.
Irreecha: Colorfully Celebrated in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Little Oromia in the Presence of A/G Bayyanaa Sanbatoo & Ob. Laggasaa Deettii, Former Leader of Macha-Tulama Association
Ayyaana irreechaa Fulbaana 27 bara 2014 magaalaa Bergen,Norway
Irreecha Colorfully Celebrated in Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014
Seife Nebelbal Radio: Special Program on the Irreecha Festival in Dallas, TX (With Abbaa Gadaa Bayyanaa Sanbatoo)
Irreecha Birraa 2014 Celebration @ Las Vegas, Sunset Park, Nevada
25 Fuulbana ( September ) 2014.
The 2014 Irreecha Celebration in Adelaide, South Australia
Ayyaana Irreecha Birraa Oromoo kan bara 2014 Kanaadaa (Canada) Calgaryti Birraa 20 Bara 2014 haala O’ooan kabajamee Ooole. Irreecha celebrated in Calgary, Canada on 20th September 2014. See picture below.
Ayyaanni Irreessa/irreecha Sweden magaalaa Stockholmitti Fulbaana 13, 2014 ayyaaneffatame (suuraa kanaan olii ilaalaa, see the above pictures of Irreecha celebration in Stockholm )
Ayyaanni Irreessaa/irreechiaa Sweden magaalaa Stockholmitti Fulbaana 13, 2014 ayyaaneffatame
Ayyaanni Irreessaa/irreechaa Sweden magaalaa Stockholmitti Fulbaana 13, 2014 ayyaaneffatame (Suuraa kanaa olii ilaalaa, Sweden Irreecha celebration pictures above).
Ayyaana Irreecha Birraa Bara 2014. Hargaya (August) 31 colourfully Celebrated in Toronto, Canada. Oromo Thanksgiving Celebration 2014, Toronto Canada. See the pictures below.
Ayyaana Irreecha Birraa Bara 2014. Hargaya (August) 31 as Celebrated in Toronto, Canada.
Oromo Thanksgiving Celebration 2014, Toronto Canada
Ayyaana Irreecha Birraa Bara 2014. Hargaya (August) 31 as Celebrated in Toronto, Canada.
Oromo Thanksgiving Celebration 2014, Toronto Canada
We are pleased to inform you that he is finally able come to the United States. OSA has extended its theme focusing on Gada democracy through the end of the year and Abba Gada Bayana speak at a series of OSA-organized workshops in various cities in Unite Stated from September 6-27, focusing on the ongoing work of reviving the Gadaa system.
He will also participate as a guest of honor at several Irreecha celebrations organized by Oromo in the Diaspora.
We invite all who are interested in the Gadaa democratic system and Oromo culture in general to attend these workshops and participate in spectacular Irrechaa celebrations to be held throughout September and October 2014.
We would like to extend our appreciation to local individuals and institutions who participated in preparing these events. We are also grateful to the United States Consular Service for the assistance they provided in issuing Abbaa Gadaa Bayana’s travel documents.
The attached flyer contains general information about dates and cities where Abbaa Gadaa Bayana will be speaking.
Jawar Mohammed
President, Oromo Studies Association
Plan of Event: Ayyaana Irreecha , Oromo Thanksgiving on Onkoloolessa/October4, 2014- Perth, Australia
Baga bacaqii Gannaa nagaan baatanii Booqaa Birraa argitan jechaa, Eenyummaa fi Aadaa ofii yoo abbaan duukaa bu’ee hin kununisifatiin alagaan ishuma hafte iyyuu balleessuuf duubatti hin jedhu waan ta’eef IRREECHA bara kanaa / 2014 sirnna hoo’aan kabajachuuf Oromoonni dhuunfaan sagantaa kana irratti hojjataa jiru. Ammoo dhimma kana fiixaan baasuuf hirmannaan Hawaasa Oromoo Magaalaa Perth murteessaa dha.
Waan kana ta’eef jecha Oromoonni Magaalaa Perth jirraattan hundi ayyaana IRREECHAA kana irratti hafeeramtaniirtu.
Koottaa / dhyaadhaa waliin gammannaa!
Yoom:-
Gaafa 05/10/2014
Guyyaa Dilbataa
Bakka:- Burswood Park, Burswood
Yeroo:- Sa’aatii 11:00 AM irraa eegalee
Hubachiisa:-
– Hanga danda’ametti Uffannaa Aadaan midhaganii argamuun heddu feesisa.
– BBQ fi waanni dhugan nama maraaf tola.
– warra hin dhageenyeef dabarssaa.
Qopheessituu IRREECHA Magaalaa Western Australia (Perth) bara 2014
Plan of Event: Ayyaana Irreecha , Oromo Thanksgiving in Cairo, Egypt – on October 5, 2014
Ayyaana Irreecha | Oromo Thanksgiving in Boston/Cambridge, MA
Akkam jirtu Oromoo Boston?
ODA Boston waggaa waggaadhaan laga Charles River, Cambridge kessatti argaamu irrati guyyaa Irreecha kabajaa turuun isaa ni yadatama. Haaluma Kanaan bara kanas gaafa guyyaa Fulbaana ykn September 28/2014 sa’ati 12:00pm irrati kabajuuf qophii irra jiraachu isaa gamachuudhan isin beekisisaa, akka irrati argamtan kabajaan isiin hafeerra.
Galatoomaa!
Koree ODA Boston
Ayyaana Irreecha | Oromo Thanksgiving in Helsinki, Finland – on October 4, 2014
Posted: Fulbaana/September 28, 2014 · Finfinne Tribune | Gadaa.com
Event Details:
Date: 4th of October 2014
Time: from 12:00 to 5:00
Place: Kivikonkaari 11, Kivenkolo, Helsinki, Finland
Transport: Take Metro from Helsinki Railway Station to Kontula; From Kontula, take Bus 78. It is about 5 minutes.
BEEKSISA:
Oromoota magaalaa Nairobi fi naannawa isii jiraatan maraaf
DHIMMA: Ayyaana Irreechaa fi Hulluuqqoo, 2014
Ilmaan Oromoo hundi baga ganna bacaqii irraa gara booqaa birraatti nagayaan ceetan jechaa, ayyaanni Irreechaa fi Hulluuqqoo magaalaa Nairobitti Fulbaana 28, 2014 waan kabajamuuf, maatii fi hiriyyoota keessan wajjiin akka irratti hirmaattan kabajaan isin affeerra.
Bakka (Venue): Nairobi City Park
Yeroo: Ganama 8:00AM – 2:00PM
Ayyaana Irreechaa fi Hulluuqqoo sababeeffachuun barnootni:
~ aadaa fi argaa-dhageettii,
~ maalummaa Irreechaa fi Hulluuqqoo,
~ Seenaa fi amantii Oromoo ni kennama. Kana malees sagantaa nyaata aadaa Oromoo fi qophii bashannanaa waan qabnuuf ammas irra deebinee dhiyaadhaa isiniin jenna.
Odeeffannoo dabalataaf ammo karuma fuula facebook’n nu qunnamaa!
Koree Aadaa fi Argaa Dhageettii Oromoo, Nairobi
Irreecha Bara 2014 | Kan Biyya Jarmaniitti | Fulbaana/Sept. 20, 2014
Waamicha Kabajaa Ayyaana Irreecha kan Bara 2014 Biyya Jarmanii keessatti qophaa’ee: Koree Qindeesitu Ayyaana Irreeschaa irraa Ilmaan Oromoo Biyya Jarmanii keessa jiraatan Maraaf – Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Kabajammo Ilmaan Oromoo,
hundaa duraan dursee nagaan rabii isin haagahu. Ashamaa ilmaan Oromoo kann biyya Jarmanii keessa jiraattan; obboleewwan keenya dhiira fi dubartiin, baga ayyaana Irreecha bara haaraa 2014 walumaan jala geenye. Ayaanni Irreecha jila (festival) waga/bara haaraatti cee’uumsaatti.
Ayyaanni Irreecha kan bara haaraa 2014 biyya Jarmaniitti kutaa magaalaa Frankfurt am Main “Bockenheim” (im Stadtteil Bockenheim) jedhamu keessatti Fulbaana (September) 20, 2014 kabajamuuf qophiin Koree Qindeessituu Ayyaana Irreescha xumuramee jira. Kanaaf Oromoon biyya Jarmanii keessa jiraatan kabajaa ayyaana Ireechaa kan bara 2014 irratti argamtannii waliin akka kabajnu ulfina guddaan isin afeerra.
Ayyaanni Irreecha kan bara haaraa 2014 Fullbaana (September) 20, 2014, guyya sambata xiqqaa(Saturday), sa’a 12:30 WB (PM) irra eegalee hanga (hama) sa’attii 18:00 WB (PM) Paarkii (iddoo namni itti haara galfatu) “Rebstockpark” jedhamu keessatti cinaa (bukkee) haroo (Weiher im Rebstockpark = Pond in Rebstockpark) ti kabajama.
Ayyaanni Irreecha guyyaa ilmaan Oromoo akka sabaatti heddomminaan walarganii dhimma har’a itti jiran waliif himan, waan hegeree immoo waliin qindeeffaatan, guyyaa waloomaa (day of joint action) Oromoo ti. Heddomminaan bahanii ayyaana Irreecha irratti aadaa fi duudhaa/jifuu (culture and tradition) ofii agarsisuunis mallattoo sabboonummaa saba Oromoo ti. Aadaa kana guddisuu fi muldhisuun eenyummaa Oromoo guddisuudha.
Ayyaanni Irreecha kan bara 2013 kan yeroo kamuu caala biyya keessaa fi alatti sirna ho’aa fi hamilee guddaan akka kabajame, odeeffannoo fi gabaasa bakka gara garaa irraa argaa fi dhagahaa jirra. Kun kan muldhisu, ayyaanni Irreecha guddina aadaa fi duudhaa/jifuu, akkasumas eenyummaa fi tokkummaa saba Oromoof utubaa ta’uu nu hubachiisa.
Daandi (kara)/Street: Am Römerhof, Max‐Pruss‐Straße Geejiba/Transport: Baabura (tram) lakoofsa 17 (Straßenbahnlinie 17 vom Hauptbahnhof Frankfurt am Main bis zur Endehaltestelle “Rebstockbad”)
UPDATED (Seattle): Workshop on Gadaa with A/G Bayyanaa Sanbatoo following Irreecha: Seattle, Washington (NW U.S. & British Columbia) – Fulb./Sept. 28, 2014
Ayyaana Irreecha | Oromo Thanksgiving in Sydney, Australia – Sept. 27, 2014
Ayyaana Irreecha Bara 2014 | Oromo Thanksgiving in Los Angeles on Sept. 27, 2014
Ayyaanni Irreecha bara 2014 Fulbaana 27 magaala Los Anjeles keessatti kabajaamuuf qophiin itti fufeera. Lammiiwwan Oromoo fi firoonni Oromiyaa Kaaliforniyaa fi Godina Ollaa keessa jiratan hundinuu koottaa waliin haa Irreeffannuu!
Qophiin sa’aa 11:00 WD jalqaba.
Bakkeen Qophii:
Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area
4100 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA – 90056
———————
The Oromo Thanksgiving Day will be celebrated on September 27, 2014. All Oromo citizens and friends of the Oromo nation cordially invited. Please join us on our highly celebrated Holiday.
Program begins at 11:00am
Location:
Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area
Los Angeles, CA – 90056
Ayyaana Irreecha Kan Bara 2014 | Oromo Thanksgiving in Columbus, Ohio – Sept. 28, 2014
Address: 213 Camrose Court, Gahanna, OH
Ayyaana Irreecha | Oromo Thanksgiving in Leeds, the UK (Fulbaana/Sept. 27, 2014)
Mark your calendar; this year’s Irreecha celebration will be held in the city of Leeds, the UK, on Sept. 27, 2014. All Oromos and friends of the Oromo in the UK are invited.
Wamicha Guyyaa Irreecha bara 2014 | London: Fulb./Sept. 27, 2014
Hawaasni Oromoo UK kessa jiraatu guyyaa Irreecha galata kennan bara 2014 Fulbaana 27, 2014 Magaala Londonitti ayyaneffata. Kanaf, guyyaa Oromon tokkummadhan uumaa galata galchatu kana irratti argamtani akka gammaddan Hawaasni Oromoo UK kabajaan isin aferra. Nyatnii fi dhugaatin gatii bayyessan ni jira.
Kottaa aadaa fi muziqaa Oromoo dhandhamadhaa!
Sagantaa:
A. Sagantaa Irreffachuu: 11:00wd-2:00
Bakka: Hampsted Heath Park Staff Yard, Parliament Hill Fields, High-gate Road, London NW5 1QR
Gejjiba: Atobusii: C2, C11, 214
Baabura: Bufata baaburaa Gospel Oak
Konkolaataa dhabuf sa’ati 2f £2.50 basisa
B. Yeroo gammachuu fi hawaasessuu – 3.00wb-10.30gg
Bakka: Whittington Park Community Centre, Yerbury Road, London N19 4RS
Gejjiba: Atobusii C11 gara bufata baaburaa Archway, 17, 43, 263, 271 (gara bufata baaburaa Upper Holloway Road)
Baabura: Bufata baaburaa Archway
Bufata baaburaa: Upper Holloway Road
Koree Hojii Geggessituu Hawaasa Oromoo UK
Hawaasni Oromoo UK kessa jiraatu guyyaa Irreecha galata kennan bara 2014 Fulbaana 27, 2014 Magaala Londonitti ayyaneffata. Kanaf, guyyaa Oromon tokkummadhan uumaa galata galchatu kana irratti argamtani akka gammaddan Hawaasni Oromoo UK kabajaan isin aferra. Nyatnii fi dhugaatin gatii bayyessan ni jira.
Kottaa aadaa fi muziqaa Oromoo dhandhamadhaa!
Sagantaa:
A. Sagantaa Irreffachuu: 11:00wd-2:00
Bakka: Hampsted Heath Park Staff Yard, Parliament Hill Fields, High-gate Road, London NW5 1QR
Gejjiba: Atobusii: C2, C11, 214
Baabura: Bufata baaburaa Gospel Oak
Konkolaataa dhabuf sa’ati 2f £2.50 basisa
B. Yeroo gammachuu fi hawaasessuu – 3.00wb-10.30gg
Bakka: Whittington Park Community Centre, Yerbury Road, London N19 4RS
Gejjiba: Atobusii C11 gara bufata baaburaa Archway, 17, 43, 263, 271 (gara bufata baaburaa Upper Holloway Road)
Baabura: Bufata baaburaa Archway
Bufata baaburaa: Upper Holloway Road
Koree Hojii Geggessituu Hawaasa Oromoo UK
Ayyaanna Irreecha/ Oromo Thanksgiving in Calgary, Canada with Live Concert/ Sept./Fuul. 20, 2014
Welcoming the New Season; Announcing the Season’s First Irreecha Celebration (Toronto, Canada – August 31, 2014)
According to the Oromo culture writer, Ob. Anga’a Dhugumaa, the preparation for the spring Oromo holiday of Irreecha/Gubaa, which celebrates the transition from the rainy season to the bright season by giving Thanks to Waaqa, begins in mid-August, and mid-August is only a couple of weeks away from today; the mid-August celebration is calledTaaboree or Muka Dhaabaa.
Here is a quote from Ob. Anga’a Dhugumaa article on Gubaa/Irreecha:
“In the middle of August, a tall olive tree (Ejersa – Olea Africana) is cut, and all its branches removed except at its top. It is then erected (horduu, dhaabuu) on ground as a pole. The species of this tree has to be olive. Olive trees (Ejersa) are considered as holy trees among the Oromo. Its smoke is very sweet. Erecting such a tree at the peak of the rainy season symbolizes a wish for the Earth to get firm. It is a peak time for the ground to get wet or saturated with rainwater, and is too weak to stand heavy rain. This day, which is called Taaboreeor Muka Dhaabaa, is observed by the youth only.
“The final gigantic celebration takes place exactly five weeks later from this day. The five weeks are refereed to as the ‘five-finger rules’. One finger is equivalent to one week.” (Read more here: http://goo.gl/kGdVBD)
With that, Toronto is once again ready to hold the first Irreecha celebration, which will be held in Whitby, Canada, on August 31, 2014.
SUMMARY: REPRESSION OF DISSENT IN OROMIA “I was arrested for about eight months. Some school students had been arrested, so their classmates had a demonstration to ask where they were and for them to be released. I was accused of organising the demonstration because the government said my father supported the OLF so I did too and therefore I must be the one who is organising the students.” Young man from Dodola Woreda, Bale Zone1
The anticipation and repression of dissent in Oromia manifests in many ways. The below are some of the numerous and varied individual stories contained in this report: A student told Amnesty International how he was detained and tortured in Maikelawi Federal Police detention centre because a business plan he had prepared for a competition was alleged to be underpinned by political motivations. A singer told how he had been detained, tortured and forced to agree to only sing in praise of the government in the future. A school girl told Amnesty International how she was detained because she refused to give false testimony against someone else. A former teacher showed Amnesty International where he had been stabbed and blinded in one eye with a bayonet during torture in detention because he had refused to ‘teach’ his students propaganda about the achievements of the ruling political party as he had been ordered to do. A midwife was arrested for delivering the baby of a woman who was married to an alleged member of the Oromo Liberation Front. A young girl told Amnesty International how she had successively lost both parents and four brothers through death in detention, arrest or disappearance until, aged 16, she was left alone caring for two young siblings. An agricultural expert employed by the government told how he was arrested on the accusation he had incited a series of demonstrations staged by hundreds of farmers in his area, because his job involved presenting the grievances of the farmers to the government.
In April and May 2014, protests broke out across Oromia against a proposed ‘Integrated Master Plan’ to expand the capital, Addis Ababa, into Oromia regional territory. The protests were led by students, though many other people participated. Security services, comprised of federal police and the military special forces, responded to the protests with unnecessary and excessive force, firing live ammunition on peaceful protestors in a number of locations and beating hundreds of peaceful protestors and bystanders, resulting in dozens of deaths and scores of injuries. In the wake of the protests, thousands of people were arrested. These incidents were far from being unprecedented in Oromia. They were the latest and bloodiest in a long pattern of the suppression – sometimes pre-emptive and often brutal – of even suggestions of dissent in the region. The Government of Ethiopia is hostile to dissent, wherever and however it manifests, and also shows hostility to influential individuals or groups not affiliated to the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political party. The government has used arbitrary arrest and detention, often without charge, to suppress suggestions of dissent in many parts of the country. But this hostility, and the resulting acts of suppression, have manifested often and at scale in Oromia. A number of former detainees, as well as former officials, have observed that Oromos make up a high proportion of the prison population in federal prisons and in the Federal Police Crime Investigation and Forensic Sector, commonly known as Maikelawi, in Addis Ababa, where prisoners of conscience and others subject to politically-motivated detention are often detained when first arrested. Oromos also constitute a high proportion of Ethiopian refugees. According to a 2012 Inter-Censal Population Survey, the Oromo constituted 35.3% of Ethiopia’s population. However, this numerical size alone does not account for the high proportion of Oromos in the country’s prisons, or the proportion of Oromos among Ethiopians fleeing the country. Oromia and the Oromo have long been subject to repression based on a widespread imputed opposition to the EPRDF which, in conjunction with the size of the population, is taken as posing a potential political threat to the government. Between 2011 and 2014, at least 5,000 Oromos have been arrested as a result of their actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government, based on their manifestation of dissenting opinions, exercise of freedom of expression or their imputed political opinion. These included thousands of peaceful protestors and hundreds of political opposition members, but also hundreds of other individuals from all walks of life – students, pharmacists, civil servants, singers, business people and people expressing their Oromo cultural heritage – arrested based on the expression of dissenting opinions or their suspected opposition to the government. Due to restrictions on human rights reporting, independent journalism and information exchange in Ethiopia, as well as a lack of transparency on detention practices, it is possible there are many additional cases that have not been reported or documented. In the cases known to Amnesty International, the majority of those arrested were detained without charge or trial for some or all of their detention, for weeks, months or years – a system apparently intended to warn, punish punish or silence them, from which justice is often absent. Openly dissenting individuals have been arrested in large numbers. Thousands of Oromos have been arrested for participating in peaceful protests on a range of issues. Large-scale arrests were seen during the protests against the ‘Master Plan’ in 2014 and during a series of protests staged in 2012-13 by the Muslim community in Oromia and other parts of the country against alleged government interference in Islamic affairs. In addition, Oromos have been arrested for participation in peaceful protests over job opportunities, forced evictions, the price of fertilizer, students’ rights, the teaching of the Oromo language and the arrest or extra-judicial executions of farmers, students, children and others targeted for expressing dissent, participation in peaceful protests or based on their imputed political opinion. Between 2011 and 2014, peaceful protests have witnessed several incidents of the alleged use of unnecessary and excessive force by security services against unarmed protestors. Hundreds of members of legally-registered opposition political parties have also been arrested in large sweeps that took place in 2011 and in 2014, as well as in individual incidents.
In addition to targeting openly dissenting groups, the government also anticipates dissent amongst certain groups and individuals, and interprets certain actions as signs of dissent. Students in Oromia report that there are high levels of surveillance for signs of dissent or political activity among the student body in schools and universities. Students have been arrested based on their actual or suspected political opinion, for refusing to join the ruling party or their participation in student societies, which are treated with hostility on the suspicion that they are underpinned by political motivations. Hundreds of students have also been arrested for participation in peaceful protests.
Expressions of Oromo culture and heritage have been interpreted as manifestations of dissent, and the government has also shown signs of fearing cultural expression as a potential catalyst for opposition to the government. Oromo singers, writers and poets have been arrested for allegedly criticising the government and/or inciting people through their work. People wearing traditional Oromo clothing have been arrested on the accusation that this demonstrated a political agenda. Hundreds of people have been arrested at Oromo traditional festivals.
Members of these groups – opposition political parties, student groups, peaceful protestors, people promoting Oromo culture and people in positions the government believes could have influence on their communities – are treated with hostility not only due to their own actual or perceived dissenting behaviour, but also due to their perceived potential to act as a conduit or catalyst for further dissent. A number of people arrested for actual or suspected dissent told Amnesty International they were accused of the ‘incitement’ of others to oppose the government.
The majority of actual or suspected dissenters who had been arrested in Oromia interviewed by Amnesty International were accused of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – the armed group that has fought a long-term low-level insurgency in the region, which was proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian parliament in June 2011. The accusation of OLF support has often been used as a pretext to silence individuals openly exercising dissenting behaviour such as membership of an opposition political party or participation in a peaceful protest. However, in addition to targeting demonstrators, students, members of opposition political parties and people celebrating Oromo culture based on their actual or imputed political opinion, the government frequently demonstrates that it anticipates dissenting political opinion widely among the population of Oromia. People from all walks of life are regularly arrested based only on their suspected political opinion – on the accusation they support the OLF. Amnesty International interviewed medical professionals, business owners, farmers, teachers, employees of international NGOs and many others who had been arrested based on this accusation in recent years. These arrests were often based on suspicion alone, with little or no supporting evidence.
Certain behaviour arouses suspicion, such as refusal to join the ruling political party or movement around or in and out of the region. Some people ‘inherit’ suspicion from their parents or other family members. Expressions of dissenting opinions within the Oromo party in the ruling coalition – the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) – have also been responded to with the accusation that the dissenter supports the OLF. Family members have also been arrested in lieu of somebody else wanted for actual or suspected dissenting behaviour, a form of collective punishment illegal under international law.
In some of these cases too, the accusation of OLF support and arrest on that basis appears to be a pretext used to warn, control or punish signs of ‘political disobedience’ and people who have influence over others and are not members of the ruling political party. But the constant repetition of the allegation suggests the government continues to anticipate a level of sympathy for the OLF amongst the Oromo population writ large. Further, the government appears to also believe that the OLF is behind many signs of peaceful dissent in the region.
However, in numerous cases, the accusation of supporting the OLF and the resulting arrest do not ever translate into a criminal charge. The majority of all people interviewed by Amnesty International who had been arrested for their actual or suspected dissenting behaviour or political opinion said that they were detained without being charged, tried or going to court to review the legality of their detention, in some cases for months or years. Frequently, therefore, the alleged support for the OLF remains unsubstantiated and unproven. Often, it is merely an informal allegation made during the course of interrogation. Further, questions asked of actual or suspected dissenters by interrogators in detention also suggest that the exercise of certain legal rights –for example, participation in a peaceful protest – is taken as evidence of OLF support. A number of people interviewed by Amnesty International had been subjected to repeated arrest on the same allegation of of being anti-government or of OLF support, without ever being charged.
Amnesty International interviewed around 150 Oromos who were targeted for actual or suspected dissent. Of those who were arrested on these bases, the majority said they were subjected to arbitrary detention without judicial review, charge or trial, for some or all of the period of their detention, for periods ranging from several days to several years. In the majority of those cases, the individual said they were arbitrarily detained for the entire duration of their detention. In fewer cases, though still reported by a notable number of interviewees, the detainee was held arbitrarily – without charge or being brought before a court – during an initial period that again ranged from a number of weeks to a number of years, before the detainee was eventually brought before a court.
A high proportion of people interviewed by Amnesty International were also held incommunicado – denied access to legal representation and family members and contact with the outside world – for some or all of their period of detention. In many of these cases, the detention amounted to enforced disappearance, such as where lack of access to legal counsel and family members and lack of information on the detainee’s fate or whereabouts placed a detainee outside the protection of the law. them again. The family continued to be ignorant of their fate and did not know whether they were alive or dead.Many people reported to Amnesty International that, after their family members had been arrested, they had never heard from.
Arrests of actual or suspected dissenters in Oromia reported to Amnesty International were made by local and federal police, the federal military and intelligence officers, often without a warrant. Detainees were held in Kebele, Woreda and Zonal3 detention centres, police stations, regional and federal prisons. However, a large proportion of former detainees interviewed by Amnesty International were detained in unofficial places of detention, mostly in military camps throughout the region. In some cases apparently considered more serious, detainees were transferred to Maikelawi in Addis Ababa. Arbitrary detention without charge or trial was reported in all of these places of detention.
Almost all people interviewed by Amnesty International who had been detained in military camps or other unofficial places of detention said their detention was not subject to any form of judicial review. All detainees in military camps in Oromia nterviewed by Amnesty International experienced some violations of the rights and protections of due process and a high proportion of all interviewees who had been detained in a military camp reported torture, including rape, and other ill-treatment. Actual or suspected dissenters have been subjected to torture in federal and regional detention centres and prisons, police stations, including Maikelawi, military camps and other unofficial places of detention. The majority of former detainees interviewed by Amnesty International, arrested based on their actual or imputed political opinion, reported that they had been subjected to treatment amounting to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, in most cases repeatedly, while in detention or had been subjected to treatment that amounts to torture or ill-treatment in and around their homes. Frequently reported methods of torture were beating, particularly with fists, rubber batons, wooden or metal sticks or gun butts, kicking, tying in contorted stress positions often in conjunction with beating on the soles of the feet, electric shocks, mock execution or death threats involving a gun, beating with electric wire, burning, including with heated metal or molten plastic, chaining or tying hands or ankles together for extended periods (up to several months), rape, including gang rape, and extended solitary confinement. Former detainees repeatedly said that they were coerced, in many cases under torture or the threat of torture, to provide a statement or confession or incriminating evidence against others. Accounts of former detainees interviewed by Amnesty International consistently demonstrate that conditions in detention in regional and federal police stations, regional and federal prisons, military camps and other unofficial places of detention, violate international law and national and international standards. Cases of death in detention were reported to Amnesty International by former fellow detainees or family members of detainees. These deaths were reported to result from torture, poor detention conditions and lack of medical assistance. Some of these cases may amount to extra-judicial executions, where the detainees died as a result of torture or the intentional deprivation of food or medical assistance.
There is no transparency or oversight of this system of arbitrary detention, and no independent investigation of allegations of torture and other violations in detention. No independent human rights organizations that monitor and publically document violations have access to detention centres in Ethiopia.
In numerous cases, former detainees interviewed by Amnesty International also said their release from arbitrary detention was premised on their agreement to a set of arbitrary conditions unlawfully imposed by their captors rather than by any judicial procedure, and many of which entailed foregoing the exercise of other human rights, such as those to the freedoms of expression, association and movement. Failure to uphold the conditions, detainees were told, could lead to re-arrest or worse. Regularly cited conditions included: not participating in demonstrations or other gatherings, political meetings or student activities; not meeting with more than two or three individuals at one time; not having any contact with certain people, including spouses or family members wanted by the authorities for alleged dissenting behaviour; or not leaving the area where they lived without seeking permission from local authorities. For a number of people interviewed by Amnesty International, it was the difficulty of complying with these conditions and the restricting impact they had on their lives, or fear of the consequences if they failed to comply, intentionally or unintentionally, that caused them to flee the country. The testimonies of people interviewed by Amnesty International, as well as information received from a number of other sources and legal documents seen by the organization, indicate a number of fair trial rights are regularly violated in cases of actual or suspected Oromo dissenters that have gone to court, including the rights to a public hearing, to not be compelled to incriminate oneself, to be tried without undue delay and the right to presumption of innocence. Amnesty International has also documented cases in which the lawful exercise of the right to freedom of expression, or other protected human rights, is cited as evidence of illegal support for the OLF in trials. Amnesty International also received dozens of reports of actual or suspected dissenters being killed by security services, in the context of security services’ response to protests, during the arrests of actual or suspected dissidents, and while in detention. Some of these killings may amount to extra-judicial executions. A multiplicity of both regional and federal actors are involved in committing human rights violations against actual or suspected dissenters in Oromia, including civilian administrative officials, local police, federal police, local militia, federal military and intelligence services, with cooperation between the different entities, including between the regional and federal levels. Because of the many restrictions on human rights organizations and on the freedoms of association and expression in Ethiopia, arrests and detentions are under-reported and almost no sources exist to assist detainees and their families in accessing justice and pressing for remedies and accountability for human rights violations.
The violations documented in this report take place in an environment of almost complete impunity for the perpetrators. Interviewees regularly told Amnesty International that it was either not possible or that there was no point in trying to complain, seek answers or seek justice in cases of enforced disappearance, torture, possible extra-judicial execution or other violations. Many feared repercussions for asking. Some were arrested when they did ask about a relative’s fate or whereabouts. As Ethiopia heads towards general elections in 2015, it is likely that the government’s efforts to suppress dissent, including through the use of arbitrary arrest and detention and other violations, will continue unabated and may even increase. The Ethiopian government must take a number of urgent and substantial measures to ensure no-one is arrested, detained, charged, tried, convicted or sentenced on account of the peaceful exercise of their rights to the freedoms of expression, association and assembly, including the right to peacefully assemble to protest, or based on their imputed political opinion; to end unlawful practices of arbitrary detention without charge or trial, incommunicado detention without access to the outside world, detention in unofficial detention centres, and enforced disappearance; and to address the prevalence of torture and other ill-treatment in Ethiopia’s detention centres. All allegations of torture, incidents involving allegations of the unnecessary or excessive use of force by security services against peaceful protestors, and all suspected cases of extra-judicial executions must be urgently and properly investigated. Access to all prisons and other places of detention and to all prisoners should be extended to appropriate independent, non-governmental bodies, including international human rights bodies. Donors with existing funding programmes working with federal and regional police, with the military or with the prison system, should carry out thorough and impartial investigations into allegations of human rights violations within those institutions, to ensure their funding is not contributing to the commission of human rights violations. Further, the international community should accord the situation in Ethiopia the highest possible level of scrutiny. Existing domestic investigative and accountability mechanisms have proved not capable of carrying out investigations that are independent, adequate, prompt, open to public scrutiny and which sufficiently involve victims. Therefore, due to the apparent existence of an entrenched pattern of violations in Ethiopia and due to concerns over the impartiality of established domestic investigative procedures, there is a substantial and urgent need for intervention by regional and international human rights bodies to conduct independent investigations into allegations of widespread human rights violations in Oromia, as well as the rest of Ethiopia. Investigations should be pursued through the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission or comparable procedure, comprised of independent international experts, under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council or the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
In most of Africa, indigenous African religions have been pushed to the margin because of a number of factors. The implied and open relegation of indigenous African religions to the levels of inferiority and inconsequentiality in world affairs by colonial powers and post-colonial contemporary African states not only undermines and stereotypes the examination of the unique contributions of these religions to peacemaking, but also discards with them unique mythologies, values, laws, cultures and meaning-making systems. I argue that applying North American conflict resolution models, without considering African religious values that existed for many millennia before the arrival of world religions, will be an enormous hindrance to building lasting peace from the bottom-up in the vastly rural and agrarian Africa that is still steeped in traditions and rituals.
Contributing to a range of negative stereotypes about African religions (example, uncivilized, barbaric and conflict-generating) is the fact that many of them have been orally transmitted from generation to generation and lack written major holy books unlike the world religions. The purpose of this paper is to shift attention from common misconceptions about African religions to a productive examination of the constructive roles they can be made to play.
I will focus on the case of Waaqeffannaa, an Oromo indigenous religion of East Africa, and its core values and laws. It will be significant to examine Waaqeffannaa’s complex concepts, such as concept and view of Waaqaa (God), Eebba (prayers and blessings), safuu (the place of all things and beings in the cosmic and social order), issues related to cubbuu (sin) and other religious and ritual practices. Although there is no holy book forWaaqeffannaa thus far, I will obtain my data from published ethnographic books, journal articles, periodicals, relevant reports and press releases. The interactions between Waaqeffannaa and other organized religions, such as Christianity and Islam, will be examined in context.
The paper will seek answers to three related questions:
What are the contributions or lack thereof orally transmitted values and laws of Waaqeffannaa to peacemaking and relationship-building? If there are any contributions, how can they be compared to other forms of conflict resolution? What will be the role of Waaqeffannaa in peacemaking in the ever changing global and local contexts of religious diversity and difference?
The Concept of God in Waaqeffannaa’s Monotheistic System
In order to examine the hermeneutic advantages and disadvantages of Waaqeffannaa and compare it to modern or Western conflict resolution methods, it is essential to examine the concept of God (Waaqaa) in the religion in its own right. There is a consensus among researchers and observers of Waaqeffannaa—the most prominent of whom are pre-colonial European missionaries, explorers and anthropologists and local religious leaders and scholars—that Waaqeffannaa is one of the ancient indigenous African monotheistic religions.[1] The Oromo, the Cushitic African people of Ethiopia, among whom this religion emerged and developed, call their one God Waaqaa or more intimately and endearingly Waaqayyoo (good God). It is difficult to capture with one definition the complexity of the ways in which the followers of this religion (Waaqeffataas) relate to God and make sense of God (not gendered) is hard to capture just with one definition. The question of ways of understanding and relating to God is a question of Waaqeffannaa’s worldview that is indigenous and unique, in some ways, and thus, different from ways in which followers of major world religions understand and relate to God.
While monotheism is a key similarity it shares with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Waaqeffannaa has the following worldview of its own:
We believe in God who created us. We believe in Him (sic) in a natural way … We believe in God because we can see what God has done and what he does: he makes rains and the rains grow greenery, and crops that we consume. He lets the sun shine. So believing in him is instinctive and inbuilt. It is as natural as the desire we have for food and drink, and as natural as the reproduction of living things. We go to the nature, the nature that He created: mountains and rivers to praise and appreciate Him impressed by His works … [2]
This contemporary declaration of the faith centers on nature and creation that can be pragmatically seen and experienced in daily life. There is no mention of “heaven” and “hell” here. Concerning the followers’ perceptions of the residence of God, Bartels writes, “They do not visualize Waaqaa(sic) existing outside this world in time or space … In this sense Waaqaa is as much of this world as the vault of the sky.”[3] Bokku concurs with Bartels findings that God exists among people on earth, but Bokku makes a radically different claim as follows: “Waaqeffataas don’t [sic] believe in after life. They don’t believe that God would come in the future to judge people and send the righteous to heaven and the sinful to hell. God is with us always.”[4] Bokku’s claims can be controversial because in much of the literature I reviewed, I found that the question of “after life” is either overlooked or ambiguously treated, except in the work of Father De Salviac whose much older field research (1901) explicitly states the existence of the belief in life after death among Waaqeffataas in eastern Oromia as follows:
They acknowledge three places destined to receive the souls after death. The paradise, which they call: the ‘Happiness of God’,Ayyaana Waaqaa; or the: ‘Response of God’, Bayanacha Waaqaa; or even Jenneta Waaqaa; ‘Paradise of God’, is reserved for the just who go there to enjoy the company and infinite blessings of the Lord … they say of death ‘That he passed on to Waaqaa;’ – ‘That he entered into Waaqaa,’ – ‘That he went to his eternal house with Waaqaa’.[5]
Reference to life after death, punishments and rewards in hell and heaven respectively are very rare features of the religion. Nonetheless, the argument that De Salviac makes about the existence of the belief in life after death in Oromo society is enough to make Bokku and other writers’ denial of the existence of “life after death” contested and curious. The issue of justice and how people relate to each other may hold for every writer. The question of relationships between peoples, and nature and justice will be treated in later sections for safuu.
Waaqeffataas generally view and worship Waaqaa based on their amazement with the ingenious works of Waaqaa’s hands that they experience and find them overwhelming to comprehend and explain. Even family prayers around the hearth contains many such instances: “UNIQUE AND SO GREAT GOD SUPPORT WITHOUT PILLAR THE DOME OF THE BLUE SKY.”[6]
Waaqeffataas view the earth as one of the major ingenious works of God. The earth is viewed inseparably from God. The image that followers of this religion have of the relationship between Waaqaa and the Earth “comes close to that of a human couple”[7]: ‘the earth is Waaqaa’s wife—Lafa niti Waaqaa,’[8] According to Bartels, there are four manifestations of the close connection between Waaqaa and the earth in four spheres of theWaaqeffannaa religious life:[9]
Blessings
May the Waaqaa and the earth help you.
May Waaqaa and the earth cause you to grow up (a blessing for children.) …
Curses
Be not blessed either by Waaqaa or the earth.
May Waaqaa and the earth burn [make dry] your kidneys and your womb (the curse is addressed to a woman).
Oaths
The man who takes the oath breaks a dry stick, saying:
‘May the earth on which I walk and Waaqaa beneath whom I walk do the same to me, if I have done such and such a thing.’
Rituals
There are rituals of slaughtering a bull or sheep for Waaqaa and making libation (dhibayyuu) under a tree for the earth.[10]
Waaqeffannaa rituals honor both God and the earth. Followers of the religion seem to take cue from God Himself, who created the earth, to inform their ways of relating to Waaqaa and earth (lafa). Evidence that suggests a relationship based on fears, intimidations or punishment between God and persons is less prevalent than those that are mostly based on respect for God, one another and for the earth. Waaqeffataas embrace and celebrate the egalitarian view of God and the diversity of names people call God. Despite some differences among people, research points to followers’ similar attitudes towards God. “… it has become clear that their attitude towards him [sic] is not only inspired by awe but also marked by familiarity and even, from time to time, by lack of respect. In his despair, a man may claim: ‘Waaqaa does not exist!’”[11] This just showsWaaqeffataas have a more liberal relationship with God. It does not mean that they are less pious as there is enough evidence to suggest many magnificent examples of humility, piety and obedience.
The question of Waaqeffataas’ acknowledgement of the oneness of God and the multiple names various religions call Him does not only show the openness of the concept of God to various interpretations, but it also shows the religion’s acceptance of religious diversity. It is easier to engage in interfaith or other conflict resolution activities when such an acknowledgement is extant than when religions claim “my way or the highway.” The ways some prayers are rendered testify to this progressive values of Waaqeffannaa: “O Black God who created the dark sky and the clean waters, who is one but called by multitudes of names, who has no competitor, the omniscient, the omnipotent, the omnipresent, who is eternal and ever powerful, whose power can never decline.”[12] Because of the view of God described here, Waaqeffataas believe that God is patient and that it is not in His nature to become angry if people believe in other things abandoning Him. Bokku holds the Waaqeffannaa God is too self-confident to be angered into punishing people who do not obey or defect to other religions.[13]
Prayers and Blessings
Boran society sometimes appears to float on a river of prayers and blessings…
Common to private, collective and family prayers is the focus of Oromo/Waaqeffataas’ prayers on the material conditions and well-beings of the self, the family and the group. Prayers mediate conditions of people to God so he can intervene and alter their current conditions.[15] The faithful pray for peace, health, deliverance from wrongdoing and harmful sprits and things, human and livestock fertility, growth of babies (little ones), long life for adults, for the goodness of the inside and the outside, rain, harvest and development, inter alia.
The Waaqeffannaa prayer is barely about inheriting the kingdom of heaven nor is it about seeking the help of God in a battle against Satan and sin. Evidence suggests that the concept of Devil/Satan does not exist in Waaqeffannaa while spirits that cause all kinds of suffering and misfortune or harm (ayyaana hamaa) are believed to exist.[16] Instances of talk about Devils by Waaqeffataas are generally understood as the borrowing of a religious vocabulary from the adjacent/co-existing major faiths, such as Christianity and Islam. For instance, Waaqeffataa pray to God to prevent them from wrongdoing and errors committed in ignorance. The religion has no room for addressing anxieties and fears arising from the imaginary realm of the devil/evil. For instance, words used in prayers include, “Prevent us from wrongdoing …” (dogogora nu oolchi). In terms of how people experience and understand misfortunes and fortunes (good things) Oromo proverbs capture the peoples’ dependence on Waaqaa. Indeed, the proverbs below indicate how Waaqaa is perceived as the source of good and bad things that happen in real life:[17]
A house that is built by Waaqaa will be completed.
It is Waaqaa who brings hunger;
It is Waaqaa who brings a full stomach.
The one Waaqaa clothes will not go naked.
Who trusts on Waaqaa will not lack anything.
Man wishes, Waaqaa fulfills.
Waaqaa is there [therefore] the sun rises.
It is Waaqaa who makes a person sick;
It is Waaqaa who restores him to health.
Waaqaa is never in a hurry;
But he is always there at the proper time.
There are standard prayers that have been codified in oral tradition and bequeathed down to generations. The codification of prayers, rituals and ceremonies in oral traditions serve the purpose of making Oromo worships definite and unarbitrary. The question of precise transmissions of spoken messages are always up for debates as there are obviously some room for improvisation and modification as the word of mouth (message) travels through time and space. I believe that the improvisation aspect of oral narratives will add an interesting dimension of dynamism to the hermeneutics of Waaqeffannaa.
De Salviac praises the endurance of Waaqeffannaa for many millennia in spite of the oral mode of transmission. De Salviac aptly critiques the West for generally believing that the sole sources of “valid” or “authentic” knowledge are written texts (books) as follows: “We, accustomed to the cycle of knowledge by turning pale over the books, our careless memory resting on the permanence of typography, we hardly take into account the power of tradition, which sufficed, for centuries, for the civilization of many peoples. With the Oromo, religious and secular traditions are formulated in thousands of short sentences …”[18]
What I understand from De Salviac is that Western or modern industrialized societies privilege written knowledge. His critique is on tangent because preference for written and formal communication in the West will certainly shape intervention policy-making, official diplomacy and the attitudes of interveners towards indigenous cultures. Third party interveners with fixed or rigid approaches are not only likely to disrespect and shun local knowledge systems, but they are also likely to impose rigid and unproductive conflict resolution processes developed in the context of limited civilizations.
One can only anticipate the stiff resistance that locals are likely to put up against Western models in today’s Africa where there is an increasing awareness about the importance of self-reliance and going back to the roots in order to solve indigenous problems. The true superficiality of strict Western models of dialogue, mediation, problem-solving workshop can be revealed by observing how in most of Africa’s peripheries cut of modern laws, bureaucracies and infrastructures, people thrive on the strong indigenous knowledge systems. This is how most conflicts are resolved and how people do communal work in either irrigating the land or protecting the environment. In the contexts of corrupt and partisan politics, these efforts by local people to overcome the daily challenges must be given credit because some of them are providing themselves important social services that that their governments have failed to provide them. In any effort of conflict resolution or peacemaking in such dire circumstances, it is imperative to bring local knowers (the wise men and women) into the sphere of diplomacy and peacemaking.
Prayers, sometimes synonymously called blessings or benedictions, in the form of litany and chants are integral parts of indigenous communities. Every communal activity whether it is weddings, funerals or dances and music begins with blessings or prayers. Eebba is aimed moderating the way people relate to each other at certain venues and beyond. They are about building constructive relationships even in times of wars. Here are some examples of Oromo prayers/blessings of different periods and crowds’ responses.
Gadaa (social system) is the system of rain and peace!
The year is the year of abundance/development and full stomach.
These contemporary prayers cited from the Waaqeffannaa magazine are powerful. They are usually used in order to open any public/communal gatherings secular and spiritual. This is how things are called to order. The religious prayers give authority or credibility to whatever event that is to take place. At the center of this messaging is reaching the hearts and minds of parties to an event by cleansing the air of any hard feelings and ensuring that the heart and minds are softened and ready for the secular or non secular events and exchanges that will proceed from that.
Historically, Oromos made ecumenical pilgrimages to holy sites of Abbaa Muudaa, Spiritual Father,[22]in order to receive blessings for them and to bring back blessings into their communities with them. Blessings are still considered serious religious activities that serve as glues of social life. Spiritual Fathers can give blessings to people on a range of personal and communal matters: such as long life, being alive, more property and wealth, peace in the household, on productions (calves, children, crops).
I have not come across modern mediation, negotiation or other third party intervention processes that start with prayers. Obviously, if blessings are not built into the processes, an attempt at conflict resolution in African societies, such as the Oromo, will be in vain. In the first place, people will not recognize what is not authorized and endorsed by their own knowledge system. Most importantly, empowering and funding Abbaa Mudaas or elders to engage in conflict resolution is likely to be accepted and bear fruit because of the tremendous reputations these people wield in society. They are highly regarded in society and leaving them out of official processes simply works against peace.
In Waaqeffannaa, one sees from the content of the payers and blessings above that most of them take on the nature of what Gopin succinctly characterizes as “Premordial prosocial moral/spiritual values.”[23] Although many of the conflicts in Ethiopia (Africa) are not religiously driven, the application of religious values will have a huge impact on conflicts driven by ethnicity, nationalisms and competition over resources and power. People listen when one reaches out and talks to them at their own level. Gopin provides a detailed critique of why current modern conflict resolution approaches fail to understand the importance of using prosocial religious values in the context of the Arab/Israel conflict in the Middle East, but his appraisal also holds true for the Horn of Africa region, where the volatility and intractability of conflicts are comparable to the ones in the Middle East. Among the important reasons Gopin cites are the West’s refusal to recognize non-Western models and knowledge systems. Gopin articulates the consequences of modern cultures failure to reckon with indigenous religious and cultural systems as follows:
As religion becomes more important in the lives of hundreds of millions of people, the political power generated by this commitment will either lead to a more peaceful world or to a more violent world, depending on how that power is utilized … Methods of peacemaking that continue to focus only on political and intellectual elites or that fail to address the broadest possible range of religious believers are leading to systematic and potentially catastrophic diplomatic failures in key areas of the world … [24]
Survival through Religious Diversification and Rituals
It is accurate that Waaqeffannaa and similar Africa indigenous religions are being reincarnated and are slowly starting to become explicitly important in the lives of so many people. Religious traditions, including those from indigenous religions, form the bedrock of the values of those Africans who converted to Christianity and Islam. Often these values moderate the foreign values associated with the cultures from which these major religions originated. It is not just the Waaqeffataas who only follow the indigenous religion, but a swathe peoples seem to have accepted double or triple religious lives. They shuttle between various religious and cultural values in their daily decision-makings so as to adapt to changing socio-economic circumstances. Pointing to the loose nature of individual’s and group’s negotiations between multiple religious identities, Aguilar[25] presents a case of the importance of “religious diversification for survival” among the Kenyan Boran/Oromo in northern Kenya. Aguilar provides the best illustration for survival and adaptation by accepting diverse religious values. He cites how Muslim and Waaqeffaannaa parents send their children to Catholic schools in northern Kenya and that the children do perfectly well shuttling between religious worldviews without facing physical dangers.[26] The same religious rituals performed by followers of Waaqeffannaa form the cores of the rituals and daily cultural practices of the followers of Islam and Christianity, as a mechanism of preserving and transmitting their identity. For instance, some of the religious traditions and rituals kept by Oromo communities who converted to major religions in north Kenya include similar types of blessings, prayers, and peacemaking through rituals of coffee beans-slaughtering and symbolic prayers.[27] These subtle practices of syncretism not only form the core identity of Oromo in north Kenya and connect them to the mainland (Oromia-Ethiopia), but they also play stabilizing roles in a families and communities there.[28]
The phenomenon of syncretism/ “religious diversification” serves as a survival strategy where minority communities cut off into another country from the mainstream because of colonial map-making try to cope with the alien majority they are swallowed up by. The case of Kenyan Oromos imitating the Waaqeffannaa values of the mainland is an example of such an essential survival strategy. Aguilar puts this as, “It is clear that the strategy of diversification provides the household (and a manyatta [place of settlement]) with security should something happen to either of the herds.”[29]
It is no accident that somebody whom an outsider may perceive as a follower of one religion is actually found at the crossroads of multiple religious values. It takes a deeper look to discern such subtle and significant dynamics. For an intervener who has no interest or who is not patient to take time and learn, the subtlety of the power of tradition will ever remain inaccessible. Because one has no access to the right cultural tools, the very people he/she trying to reach and help will become inaccessible and unresponsive, especially if one attempts to impose some ivory-tower (imported) conflict resolution framework or process on local situations. People have been handling their affairs everyday for centuries independently of outsiders. To assume that they somehow do not or their methods are not in par with modern approaches will defeat the purpose of thinking to help others in the first place.
Safuu in Peacemaking and Social Harmony
This section analyzes the role of Safuu as one of the key elements of Waaqeffannaa. Safuu is a prosocial variable that needs a deeper analysis to see its roles in indigenous peacebuilding. Safuu is a broad concept that governs relationship in and between families, communities, national groups and relationship between people and nature and things.
Bartels provides a nuanced anthropological definition of the term Safuu:[30]
Saffu is a fundamental and all-pervading concept in the Matcha’s [Oromo] life. It implies that all things have a place of their own in the cosmic and social order, and that they should keep this place. Their place is conditioned by the specific ayana [good spirit] each of them has received from Waaqaa. Every creature, and especially man, has to act according to its own ayana and to respect the others’ ayana. Saffu implies both rights and duties. In the people’s eyes wisdom is ‘knowing saffu and abide [sic] by it.’
Gemetchu Megerssa, a leading Oromo anthropologist and former research assistant to Lambert Bartels, probably influenced by Bartels himself, states that safuu is one of the key founding concepts in Oromo culture and Waaqeffannaa tradition.[31] Bartels’ definition is more encapsulating, while it shares one central common feature with Megerssa’s definition, “… the concept of saffu(mutual relationship between elements of the social and cosmic orders) which maintains practice obligatory [sic] through ethical conduct.” They both agree that safuu governs relationships between people and people, and people and nature, but Megersa introduces a newer and more specific idea of safuu as “an ethical conduct.”
Another leading expert on Waaqeffannaa, Bokku quotes Bartels directly and extends the concept of Safuu to broad areas of “morality”, “norm” and “laws” that govern social and ecological order.[32] Bokku states his extended definition building on Bartels: “Safuu is the understanding of differences and appreciation of differences for the peaceful coexistence of all natural things.” For Bokkuu, as opposed to man-made laws “safuu is not subject to change.” He concludes that safuu as laws of nature is necessary for the “smooth operation of life”, which is harmony. Everyone invokes the notions that Safuu owes its authority over social relationship because it derives from the will or the spirit of God (ayyaanaa). Thus, experts agree that Safuuis one of the fundamental principles of Oromo culture that governs relationships and keeps society together.
In Waaqeffannaa in particular and Oromo culture in general, it is believed that “breaking safuu would cause some sort of trouble.”[33] Breaking safuulaws is seen as committing sin. The consequences of breaking various categories of safuu are understood as generating unhappy reactions from God. In Waaqeffannaa when someone sins, God turns His back on him/her. The meaning behind this is that if one misses the face of God, it means that one lacks ayyana (a guardian, blessings or will of God). This core law encourages people to maintain friendly relationships between themselves and with nature. Safuu is a law of rights and obligations. Since Safuu is not something in people, but something between them, it is assumed to promote collective harmony. Paying attention to the concept of “sin” in the meaning system of Waaqeffannaa is important because it comes from the Oromo word, “‘balleessuu’, which actually means ‘to destroy, to damage, to spoil’”[34]
When one engages in destructive activities one is considered to be destroying, damaging, and spoiling relationships between at least three parties: God, creation (nature) and other human beings. In Oromo life, not damaging relationship between oneself and creations is given more importance than not damaging relationship between human and God.[35]
The Dynamisms of the Indigenous Faith System
It is hard to understand how one can be effective in conflict resolution in Africa without having at least the working knowledge of important key principles governing all-rounded relationships, such as safuu. Religious values of Waaqeffannaa may not require so much hermeneutic transformation because they already exist in pro-social form. Keeping natural and social orders is already a stringent requirement on top of acceptance for differences of any sort.
In Waaqeffannaa, destroying (for example killing humans in conflict) is prohibited by the religion’s laws. Those who violate traditional laws and destroy anything will face alienation and banning from God as well as from fellows humans. They are denied opportunities to sit and eat at a table with family members and others; they become social outcasts. My evidence does not suggest any anti-social principles/laws in the Waaqeffannaaworldview so far. Even some of the curses that are put on people have the goal of ensuring social harmony and can be viewed positively. If I had come across anything that says, “if you kill your enemy or someone, God will reward you with heaven or sainthood or some other rewards,” I would have paused and thought, this is a justification for war and destruction that needs to be hermetically transformed. Transformation may be due if violence is made into something sacred. In my opinion the values of this religion particularly those about safuu are poised to play important peacebuilding and relationship-building roles at least in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
One can think of the lack of written scriptures (there are oral ‘scriptures’) for African religion as both advantages and disadvantages. In terms of the creativity and improvisation of transmissions of oral values/laws, the lack of written scriptures is an advantage because followers or leaders of indigenous religions will have the ability to interpret the concepts in ways that meet the physical and spiritual needs of their time. But that can also be a disadvantage since some lament that African could not have converted to Christianity and Islam if they had written scriptures and transformed their religions into organized faith systems.[36]
The question of whether Africans had concepts of God or not or whether they were ‘pagan hordes’ as the colonialists viewed them is now an outdated and irrelevant question because a number of scholars have produced research revealing that indeed Africans had believed in one God even before the advent of Middle Eastern religions.[37] Mbiti’s findings are credible because he stayed in Africa for 15 years and conducted studies on about 300 African communities and their belief systems.
Because indigenous African religions, including Waaqeffannaa, lack written scriptures, culturally biased scholars who judge everything according to Western standards may think religions, such as Waaqeffannaa, are inferior, static and things of the past. In rebuttal, one can respond to that arguing that oral mode of transmission makes African religions dynamic, ever-changing and ever-adapting to social changes even after some converted to other faiths. This happens because African religions do not punish defections and because their religious leaders are less likely to make claims to the permanence of specific oral texts or think of the values/traditions of their religion as the only “Truth” to die for.
About the locus of the existence of African religions, Mbiti writes, “Religion in African societies is written not on paper but in people’s heart, minds, oral history, rituals, and religious personages like the priests, rainmakers, official elders … African religions have neither founders nor reformers.”[38]Mbiti’s notion of the lack of founders and reformers can be contested because it could be that founders and reformers might have existed millennia ago and simply no written records were kept about them. The key point here is that words of mouth are dynamic. The best way to reach the hearts and minds of the vast peoples of rural Africa should be through oral traditions and spoken language. The prevalent practice by third party interveners shows an opposite tendency of bureaucratizing everything and transmitting messages via the written medium (forms and documents) through the agency of “rational professionals”.
Authors caution against viewing Waaqeffannaa religious traditions as part of a static tradition of the past[39], and encourage us to view them as dynamic traditions that are continually changing based on wider experiences that are part of their present. Aguilar is succinct about the advantages of the dynamism of Waaqeffannaa’s hermeneutics: “… traditions are transmitted, never as static forms but as changeable manifestations of an Oromo religion [Waaqeffannaa] that interacts [sic] with other traditions and other ethnic groups, and therefore becomes capable of reshaping society itself.”[40]
Lessons for Conflict Resolution
The values and laws of Waaqeffannaa identified and analyzed in this research suggest the importance of recognizing African indigenous religious systems and the prosocial contributions of their values and laws to conflict resolution.
I deliberately tried not to impose a theoretical framework over my analysis although my approach was influenced by hermeneutics.[41] Engaging in peacemaking in indigenous African communities requires the use of what Gopin, drawing on Lederach, calls “elicitive and cross-cultural methods.”[42] Concepts such as safuu, the Waaqeffannaa worldview, prayers, blessings, harmony are predominantly about building relationships between people and people, and them and nature. The most effective way of arriving at these principles and using them in interventions is to do one’s best to involve indigenous peoples, religious leaders, elders and parties to conflict and to elicit from them the best practices they have evolved over centuries in peacemaking.
Indigenous African religions are caught up in multipronged challenges, such as lack of recognition from interveners, states and richer and more organized religions despite their prevalence and appeal to many African communities. Established conflict resolution methods, such as mediation, negotiation, facilitation, problem-solving workshop and dialogue, are often too Western, rationalistic, elitist and foreign to accommodate other grassroots approaches to peacemaking, such as obeying safuu. If we look at official mediation, for instance, we find the reliance on rigid processes and professionals as its main features. Such formal stages may include collecting data, building hypothesis about a conflict, searching for theories, selecting theory, making intervention, and verifying and nullifying hypothesis.[43] It is not necessarily bad to prepare for mediation in stages, but when everything is prefigured, there is a danger of learning very little on the field while doing the intervention itself. In most rationalistic conflict resolution methods listed above, the immediate settlement of conflict is desired. This may turn out to be a shortcoming because long-term relationship-building and peacemaking, which is the hallmark of indigenous systems, are and sidelined.
Limitation of the Indigenous Religion
The most important limitation of many African indigenous religious values and traditions, including Waaqeffannaa, is that the practice of peacemaking is inbound to groups in which these traditions originated. There are also perceptions and tendencies to associate the good prosocial aspects of religious principles this religion with ethno-nationalist competitions of the day, and therefore, to readily dismiss them as unrepresentative of the whole. A much productive approach, however, is to see the commonalities of multiple African religious traditions and to take key principles from each of them and combine them in order to make everyone feel good about their faiths. There is so much to learn from this culture if one is willing to follow the elicitive path to conflict resolution.
The second obvious limitation is the lack of written scriptures and the challenges of accessing oral scriptures for outsiders due to language barriers, but which can still be overcome with translators and interpreters.
Thirdly, African indigenous religions have not been given the places they deserve in some continental interfaith organizations whose member religions tend to be organized and rich major religions. For instances, the United Religious Initiative (URI) Africa chapter, an international faith network that operates in 25 African countries, professes that it aims to look for solutions to Africa’s challenges at community levels in the areas of corruption, human rights violation, poverty and HIV/AIDs[44], but unfortunately no indigenous African religious tradition from any community is represented by such an important organization. The network carries it activities in Africa through major faiths, such as Christianity and Islam. Another domestic (Ethiopian) interfaith network, Interfaith Peace-building Initiative (IPI), a member of the URI, has no indigenous Ethiopian religions (Waaqeffannaaincluded) as its members.
The problem with URI and IPI is not only a simplistic and envious question of who is represented or who is not, but it appears that the mentioned interfaith networks have been systematically coopted and used to advance the interests of the Ethiopian state since Ambassador Mussie Hailu is serving simultaneously as the Regional Director of URI and the Board Chair of IPI.[45] The more intractable and absurd aspect of IPI is that it is an interfaith organization as far as the major religions are concerned, but the founders and its leaders are members of a single ethno-national group who are publicly known to lean toward the ruling party from the same group. This is a clear negative messaging to others in Ethiopia where the issues of ethnicity are sensitive. To be sure, it is possible to have an interfaith organization with wonderful goals like IPI, but with ethno-nationalist ideological agenda at same time. That will do more to keep peoples apart than bring them together.
Despite its growing popularity in Oromiya regional state, the most populous in Ethiopia, Waaqeffannaa’s attempts to transform itself into an organized religion have failed many times so far because the Ethiopian state has first denied and then revoked the license of the group citing that its leaders sympathize with the Oromo Liberation Front[46], a secular rebel group in conflict with the government on the question of autonomy and self- determination for Oromiya.
Conclusion
Waaqeffannaa’s pro-social principles, laws and values did and will contribute to building constructive relationships between communities. In addition to improving human relations, laws, such as safuu, that emphasize the need to maintain good relationship with nature, can be extended and used in areas of environmental conflict resolution, specially where climate change is threatening pastoralist and agrarian communities in many observable ways today.
I explored and discussed the ways in which the egalitarian but respectful views of God by Waaqeffataas can be helpful in curbing extremist tendencies. Neither oral scriptures of the religion nor its leaders condone acts of violence as something leading to rewards or sainthood. Prayers and blessings function as authoritative moderators and they can be used in opening and closing any intervention efforts. Waaqeffannaa is a very pragmatic religion whose most themes are linked to and earthbound to the material conditions of people. Therefore, people in conflict may have the same questions they want answered through prayers to be answered through interventions.
The potential and capacity of the religion in national or regional peacemaking is promising if it be recognized and the multi-pronged obstacles in its way are removed.
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References
Abu-Nimer, Mohammed. Nonviolence and Peace Building in Islam: Theory and Practice. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003.
Aguilar, Mario I. The Politics of God in East Africa: Oromo Ritual and Religion. Trenton, N.J.: The Red Sea Press, 2009.
Appleby, Scott R. “Retrieving the Missing Dimension of Statecraft: Religious Faith in the Service of Peacebuilding.” In Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik, ed. Douglas Johnston, 2003. Oxford: OUP.
____ The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000.
Bartels, Lambert. Oromo Religion: Myths and Rites of the Western Oromo of Ethiopia-An Attempt to Understand. Berlin: Dietrich Reamer Verlag, 1983.
Bokku, Dirribi Demissie. Oromo Wisdom in Black Civilization. Finfinne, Ethiopia: Finfinne Printing & Publishing S.C., 2011.
De Salviac, Martial. An Ancient People: Great African Nation: the Oromo. Translation from the 1901 original French edition by Ayalew Kanno. Paris, the French Academy, 2005.
Gopin, Marc. Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence and Peacemaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
____ Holy War, Holy Peace: How Religion Can Bring Peace to the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Megerssa, Gemetchu. “Oromumma: Tradition, Consciousness and Identity.” In Being and Becoming Oromo: Historical and Anthropological Enquiries, Edited by P.T.W. Baxter, Jan Hultin and Alessandro Triulzi. Lawrenceville, N.J.: The Red Sea Press, 1996.
Montville, Joseph V. “Psychoanalytic Enlightenment and the Greening of Diplomacy.” In The Psychodynamics of International Relationships, Eds. Vamik D. Volkan, Demetrios A. Julius, and Joseph V. Montville. Lexington Mass.: Lexington Books (1990-1991): 177-192.
Moore, Christopher W. The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict. 3rd Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003.
MTA. Waaqeffannaa: Ayyaana Irreechaa Birraa, 2010.Vol. V. No. 1. Finfinnee: MTA, 2010. (trans. Waaqeffannaa: Thanksgiving Holiday of Fall 2010.)
Sandole, Dennis J.D. “Paradigm, Theories, and Metaphors in Conflict and Conflict Resolution: Coherence or Confusion?” In Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice, Ed., Dennis Sandole. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, (1993): 3-24.
Stenger, Mary Ann. “Gadamer’s Hermeneutics as a Model for Cross-Cultural Understanding and Truth in Religion.” In Religious Pluralism and Truth: Essays on Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion, Ed., Thomas Dean. New York: State University of New York Press, (1995): 151-168.
Volkan, Vamik D. “Psychological Processes in Unofficial Diplomacy Meetings.” In The Psychodynamics of International Relationships, Eds. Vamik D. Volkan, Demetrios A. Julius, and Joseph V. Montville. Lexington Mass.: Lexington Books (1990-1991): 207-219.
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Footnotes
[1] De Salviac, 1901:43; Bartels, 1983:89; Bokku, 2011: 54). The two previous books on Oromo religion (now named Waaqeffannaa) by European missionaries are widely regarded as authoritative secular scholarly sources closest to the source ever to be published on an indigenous African religion of antiquity. Bokku adds his own recent perspectives on the religion and revises his predecessors’ perspectives without altering the essence of their work.
[12] Bokku, 2011: 66. The quote was an English translation the author provides from the Afaan Oromoo (Oromo language) version, which runs:“Gurraacha garaa garbaa, leemmoo garaa taliilaa, tokkicha maqaa dhibbaa, guddicha hiriyaa hinqabne, kan waan hundaa beeku, kan waan hundaa gochuu danda’u, kan bakka maraa jiru, kan hinkufine, kan hinduuneefi kan hincabne.”
[20] Translated by me from Afaan Oromoo into English from the Waaqeffannaa magazine, p i.
[21] Haroo Walaabuu is considered the origin of Oromo community and the source of all walking humans on earth. It plays an important symbolic/mythic role in standard prayers. Water bodies are considered sources of life.
Hararqee, the vast land in Eastern Ethiopia, is where over 50% of Ethiopia’s (possibly including Horn of Africa)
rock paintings are found (Bravo 2007:137). Among these is the famous Laga Oda Site “dating to at least 16,000
BP” (Shaw and Jameson 1999:349) and comprising depictions of bovines and many different types of animals. This vast land of Hararqee is settled by the Oromo, the largest tribe of the Cushitic stock, and hence it is part of the Oromia National State. The Oromo people, one of the richest in ancient (oral) cosmogonal- social history , literature and especial owners of the unique socio-philosophico-political institution known as Gada or Gada System, consistently insist that theirs as well as human being’s origin is in the Horn of Africa specifically a place known as Horra βalabu/Ŵolabu ‘the Place of Spring-Water of Genesis of Humanity’ (Dahl and Megerssa 1990).
This and a plethora of Oromo social epistemology has been studied by the plausible Oromo historians (Gidada 2006, Hassen 1990, to mention a few) and non-biased European theologico-ethnologists (Krapf 1842; De Abbadie 1880; De Salviac 1980, Bartels 1983, to mention a few). Similarly, social semiosis is not new to the Oromo. Although Eurocentric archaeologists rarely acknowledge, “the identification of cultural themes and symbolic interpretation has revealed affinities between contemporary Oromo practices and those of other East African culture groups, both ancient and modern (Grant 2000: np.).In like manner, the Classical Greek philosophers wrote that the Ancient Ethiopians were “inventors of worship, of festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifice, and of every religious practice” (Bekerie, 2004:114). The oral history of the Oromo states that it was Makko Billii, whom Antonio De Abbadie, one of the early European scholars who studied and lived with the Oromo, described as “African Lycurgus” (Werner 1914b: 263; Triulzi and Triulzi 1990:319; De Abbadie 1880) and son of the primogenitor of the Oromo nation (Raya or Raâ), who hammered out the antique, generation-based social philosophy known as Gada System (Legesse 1973, 2006; Bartels 1983; Gidada 2006). A key ingredient in Gada system is the For Oromo, the first Qaallu “Hereditary ritual officiant” and “high priest” was of “divine origin” and, as the myth tells us, “‘fell from the sky itself’…with the first black cow” and he was the “‘eldest son of Ilma Orma’” (Hassen 1990:6; Baxter, Hultin and Triulzi 1996:6). In its “dual[ity] nature”, Waaqa, the black Sky-God “controlled fertility, peace, and lifegiving rains… [hence] prayers for peace, fertility, and rain” are the core recursive themes in Oromo religion (Hassen 1990:7). Hence, the concept/word Qaallu refers at large to “Divinity’s fount of blessings in the world” (Baxter, Hultin and Triulzi 1996: 1996: 21). As De Salviac (2005 [1901]: 285) explicated “The Oromo are not fetishists. They believe in Waaqa took, a unique universal creator and master. They see His manifestations in great forces of nature, without mistaking for Him.” As a result of this ‘pre-historic’, Spinozaean like social epistemology, but unlike Martin Heideggerean “ancients” who never dared questioning or confronting ontology but endorsed only veneering it, for the Oromo social semiosis has never been new since time immemorial. Despite all these antique history and tradition, it is unfortunatel, the so-far few studies made on the Ethiopian ancient rock paintings and rock arts never consider—sometimes apparently deliberately isolate–the social history, tradition, culture or language of the Oromo people as a possible explanatory device. What the available few studies usually do is only positivist description of the paintings (types, size and/or number of the signs) rather than inquiry into and explanation of the social origin and the underlying social meaning, praxis or worldview. Partly, the reason is the studies are totally dominated by Eurocentric paradigms that de-Africanize and extrude the native people and their language, religion, social structure, material cultures and, in general, their interpretive worldview. Besides, some of the native researchers are no different since they have unconditionally accepted this Eurocentric, hegemonic epistemology (Bekerie 1997; Smith 1997; Gusarova 2009; Vaughan 2003). As a result, we can neither understand the social origin of these amazing ‘texts’ nor can we explain the underlying social semiosis.. Equally, under this kind of mystification or possible distortion of human (past) knowledge, we miss the golden opportunities that these ancient documents offer for evolutionary, comparative and interdisciplinary social science research and knowledge. Above all, the old Eurocentric view narrowed down the sphere of semiotics (archaeological, social) to only ‘the sign’, extruding the human agents or agency and the social context.
The aim of this paper is to use the ancient Qaallu Institution of Oromo as analytical ‘devices’ in order to understand and explain the underlying social epistemological, semiotical and rhetorical structures, i.e., expressed in all forms of linguistic and non-linguistic structures. In sharp contrast to the aforementioned positivist, narrow, colonial semiotics, in this analysis,
Theo van Leeuwen’s postmodern and advanced approach to social semiotics is adopted. Primarily, Van Leeuwen (2005: 3) expands “semiotic resource” as involving “the actions and artefacts we use to communicate, whether they are produced physiologically – with our vocal apparatus…muscles…facial expressions and gestures, etc. – or by means of technologies – with pen, ink and paper…computer hardware and software…with fabrics, scissors and sewing machines.”
Van Leeuven (2005: xi) introduces the changing semiosphere of social semiotics:
Just as in linguistics the focus changed from the ‘sentence’ to the ‘text’ and its ‘context’, and from
‘grammar’ to ‘discourse’, so in social semiotics the focus changed from the ‘sign’ to the way people use semiotic
‘resources’ both to produce communicative artefacts and events and to interpret them;
Rather than constructing separate accounts of the various semiotic modes – the ‘semiotics of the image’, the ‘semiotics of music’, and so on – social semiotics compares and contrasts semiotic modes, exploring what they have in common as well as how they differ, and investigating how they can be integrated in multimodal artefacts and events.
Indeed, the Classical Western dualism which separates the linguistic from the non-linguistic, the literary from the
non-literary, the painting from the engraved, the notional from the artefactual must be eschewed, especially when
we build evolutionary perspective to analyzing pre-historic arts.
CLEARING SOME CONFUSIONS
Scholars have already explicated and explained away the old de-Ethiopianization historiographies in social sciences
(Bekerie 1997; Smith 1997; Gusarova 2009; Vaughan 2003), humanities (Ehret 1979) and archaeology
(Finneran 2007). Therefore, there is no need to repeat this here. But, it is necessary to briefly show disclose some
veils pertaining to Hararqee pre-historic paintings. As usual, the ‘social’ origin of ‘pre-historic’, Classical or Medieval era Hararqee rock paintings is either mystified or hailed as agentry “Harla” or “Arla” (Cervicek and Braukämper 1975:49), an imaginary community:
According to popular beliefs Harla generally refers to a mysterious, wealthy and mighty people, (frequently even
imagined as giants!), who had once occupied large stretches of the Harar Province before they were destroyed by the supernatural powers through natural catastrophies as punishment for their inordinate pride. This occurred prior to the Galla (Oromo) incursions into these areas during the 16th and 17th centuries” (Cervicek and Braukämper 1975: 49; emphasis added).
In footnote, Cervicek and Braukämper (1975:49) quote Huntingford (1965:74) to on the identity of the Harla: “The
name “Harla” is first mentioned, as far as we know, in the chronicle of the Ethiopian Emperor ‘Amda Seyon in the
14th century (Huntingford 1965:74).” It is clear that this mystification prefigures in the usual gesture of de-Africanizing civilization of Black Africans to justify the so-called Hamitic myths, as explained well in the works of the aforementioned post-modern scholars. Thanks to Professor Claude Sumner (Sumner 1996: 26), today we know the fact of the matter, that it was not Huntingford who composed about the imaginary “Harla”. It was the French Catholic missionaries by the name
François Azais and Roger Chambard who reconstructed to fit it to their interest the imaginary ‘Harla’ (spelling it
rather as “Arla”) from an oral history told to them by an Oromo old man from Alla clan of Barentuu.The story itself
is about a “wealthy” Oromo man called “Barento” who was “very rich but very proud farmer” (Sumner 1996: 26).
For it is both vital and complex (in its ironic message, which cannot however be analyzed here) we have to
quote it in full:
There was in the Guirri country, at Tchenassen [Č’enāssan], an Oromo, a very rich but very proud farmer called Barento. A cloth merchant, an Arab who was also very rich, lived a short distance from there at Derbiga. The merchant’s daughter went one day to see the farmer and told him: “I would like to marry your son.”—“Very well, I shall give him to you,” he answered. The merchant in turn, gave his daughter and made under her daughter’s steps a road of cloth, from Derbiga to Tchenassen, residence of the rich farmer. The tailor replied to this act by making a road of dourah and maize under his son’s steps, from Tchenassen to Derbiga. But God was incensed by this double pride and to punish him, shaked Tchenassen Mountain and brought down a rain of stones which destroyed men and houses; it was then that the race of Arla [Alla] was destroyed (Sumner 1996: 26). Confirming the antiquity and unity of this story and the Oromo, similar story is found in Western Oromo as far closer to the Southern Sudan: “in interpreting certain of their [Oromo] myths about the beginning of things, it was because of man’s taking cultivation and pro-creation toomuch into his own hands, that Waqa[Waaqa] withdrew from him–a withdrawal resulting in a diminution of life on earth in all its forms” (Bartels 1975:512). As a part of the general social semiotics adopted in this study, onomasiology (the scientific analysis of toponyms, anthroponyms,ethnonyms as well as of semiotic metalanguages) is considered as important component for evolutionary social semiosis, particularly for any researcher on Oromo since these are coded or they code social epestemes, are cyclical, based on the principles of Gada System’s name-giving tradition, and, hence, are resistant to change (for detail on this see Legesse 1973). For instance, Cervicek and Braukamper (1965:74) described the Laga Gafra area and its population as: “The area of the site is part of the Gafra Golla Ḍofa village, and the indigenous Ala [Oromo] call it Gada Ba’la (“large shelter”)”, but appropriately, Baalli Gada. Here, let us only remember that Alla and Itťu clans are two of the Hararqee Oromo self-identificating by Afran Qalloo
(literally the Quadruplets, from ancient sub-moiety) who “provide[d] a basis for…construct[ing] models for
prehistoric land and resource use” (Clark and Williams:
Social semiosis, language and reality in the ancient ‘texts’ Social semiosis might be considered as old as homo
sapiens sapiens. But, for our analytical purpose, it is logical to begin from the Ancient Black Africans that some
19th century European missionaries and researchers referred to as ‘Ancient Egyptians’ (although still others
refer to them by Ancient Cushites, Ancient Ethiopians, Ancient Nubians or Meroes), who are the originators of
the first writing systems known as ‘hieroglyphics’. Chiekh Anta Diop (Diop 2000), Geral Massey (Massey 1907)
and other scholars have illuminated to us a lot about hieroglyphics. Initially, hieroglyphics was pictogram or semagram. That is, pictures of real world were ‘painted’ to communicate a sememe or motif, the smallest meaningful structure or concept, for instance, a picture of sitting man for their word equivalent to the English ‘sit’; a picture of man stretching his/her arms to the sky for ‘pray’; a lion for ‘great man’, etc., all or some of which is determined by
the lexical structures (phonological, syllabic, semantic, imagery they arise, etc) of their respective words. Based
on their social philosophy/paradigm, literary/figurative symbolism, and/or their word’s/language’s phonology/syntax, for instance, equivalent to the English ‘woman’, they might have also depicted a picture of a pigeon, or an owl or a cow. This zoomorphic mode of representation as the ‘Sign-Language of Totemism and Mythology’ was the first and early writing system in human history. The Ancient Egyptians used the principles of, among others, sound-meaning association, semantic and ontologic (what something/somebody can cause) similarization, physical resemblance, grouping (duplication or triplication of the same pictograms to represent meaning), aggregation (pictograms are combined in or around a spot or a pictogram is duplicated as many as necessary and congregated in or around a spot), sequencing vertically or horizontally (representing lexico-grammatic, syntactic, semotactic or stylistic structure) and so forth.
Some of these or similar principles or ‘stylistic features’ are observed, particularly, in the Laga Oda painting styles. Cervicek (1971:132-133 122-123), for instance, observed in Laga Oda paintings such stylized ‘discourse’ as ‘group of horseshoe-like headless bovine motifs’, ‘paired ‘soles of feet’ from Bake Khallo [Bakkee Qaallu ‘Sacred Place for Qaallu Ritual]’, ‘oval symbo accompanied as a rule by a stroke on their left side’, sun-like symbol, in the centre with animal and anthropomorphic representations grouped around it’, paired ‘soles of feet’, carefully profiled styles (overhead, side, back point-of-view of bovines), zooming (large versus small size of bovine motifs), headless versus headed bovines, H-shaped anthropomorphic
representations with raised hands’, superimposition and so forth. Any interpretation that renders these as isolated
case, arbitrary or pointless marks can be rejected outright. Some of these ‘early spelling’ are found not only across the whole Horn of Africa but also in Ancient Meroitic-Egyptian rock paintings, hieroglyphics and, generally, organized social semiosis.By the same token, Oromo social semiotical ‘texts’, like any ancient texts, textures “intimate link…between form,
content and concrete situation in life” (Sumner 1996:17-18). Professor Claude Sumner, who produced three volume analysis of Oromo wisdom literature (Sumner 1995, 1996, 1997), sees that like any “ancient texts”, in Oromo wisdom literature, “a same unit of formal characters, namely of expressions, of syntactic forms, of vocabulary, of metaphors, etc., which recur over and over again, and finally a vital situation…that is a same original function in the life of [the people]” (Sumner 1996:19). An elderly Oromo skilled in Oromo wisdom speaks, to use the appropriate Marxian term, ‘historical materialism’, or he speaks “in ritual language, as it was used in old times at the proclamation of the law” (Bartels 1983:309).
Moreover, he speaks in rhythmatic verses, full of “sound parallelism” (Cerulli 1922), “parallelism of sounds” or
“image” or “vocalic harmony” (Bartels 1975: 898ff). Even Gada Laws used to be “issued in verse” (Cotter 1990:
70), in “the long string of rhyme, which consists of repeating the same verse at the end of each couplet” or “series of short sententious phrases” that are “disposed to help memory” (De Salviac 2005 [1901]: 285). The highly experienced researchers on the ancient Oromo system of thought, which is now kept intact mainly by the Booran Gada System, emphasize that “‘the philosophical concepts that underlie the gadaa system’…utilize a symbolic code much of which is common to all Oromo” (Baxter, Hultin and Triulzi 1996: 21). Long ago, one scholar emphatically stated, this is a feature “surely has developed within the [Oromo] language” and “is also only imaginable in a sonorous language such as Oromo” which “as a prerequisite, [has] a formally highly developed poetical technique” (Littmann 1925:25 cited in Bartels 1975:899).
Claude Sumner formulates a “double analogy” tactic as prototypical feature of Oromo wisdom literature, i.e., “vertical” and “horizontal” parallelism style (Sumner 1996:25), known for the most part to linguists, respectively, as ‘paradigmatic’ (‘content’ or ‘material’) and ‘syntagmatic’ (‘form’ or ‘substance’) relations or in both literature and linguistics, as contextual-diachronic and textual-synchronic, relations. Oromo social epistemological concepts/words/signs offers important data for historical and evolutionary social sciences for they recycle and, consequently, are resistant to change both in form and meaning (Legesse 1973). In the same way, in this analysis of the ancient rock paintings of Hararqee, an evolutionary and multidisciplinary analysis of the interrelationship among the traditional ‘semiotic triangle’—the sign (sound or phonon, word or lexon, symbol or image), the signified (the social meaning, ‘semon’, episteme or theme) and the referent (cultural-historical objects and ritual-symbolic actions)——and among the metonymic complex (referring here to layers and clusters of semiotic triangles in their social-natural contexts) is assumed as vital meta-theoretical framework.
METHODS AND THE SEMIOTIC RESOURCES
For this analysis, both archival and field data or semiotic resources are collected. In 2012 visits were made to the
some of the popular (in literature) ancient rock painting sites in Hararqee (Laga Oda, Goda Agawa, Ganda Biiftu,
etc.; comprehensive list of Ethiopian rock painting sites is presented by Bravo 2007). Also, field visits were made to
less known (in literature) ancient to medieval era painting sites were made in the same year (e.g., Goda Rorris,
Huursoo, Goda K’arree Ǧalɖeessa, Goda Ummataa, Goda Daassa, etc). Huge audiovisual data (still and
motion) of both paintings and engravings were collected, only very few of which are used in this paper. On the one
hand, the previously captured data (as photos, sketches or traces) from some of the popular sites, for instance
Laga Oda and Laga Gafra (as in Cervicek 1971; Cervicek and Braukamper 1975), are sometimes found to be
preferably clearer due to wear-off or other factors. On the other hand, from the same sites, some previously
unrevealed or undetected motifs (painted or engraved) were collected. Therefore, both field and archival data are
equally important for this analysis. However, since the Qaallu Institution , and its sub-themes, is used as sensitizing device or a means rather than end— hence is capitalization upon social semiotic and linguistic aspects–there is an inevitable risk of undermining these complex philosophical notions. Yet, for the pertinent (to Qaallu Institution) anthropological-ethnological archivals used as additional secondary data or, to use Theo van Leeuwen’s term, as “semiotic resource”, original and influential references are indicated for further reading. More importantly, two old men skilled in Oromo social epistemology, customarily referred to as ‘walking libraries’, are used as informants. Taaddasaa Birbirsoo Mootii, 87, from Wallagga, Western Oromia (Ethiopia) and Said Soddom Muummee, 85, from Hararqee Eastern Oromia (Ethiopia). Mootii, Addoo Catholic Church Priest (‘Catechist’ is the word they use), was one of the infor- mants and personal colleagues of Father Lambert Bartels, who studied in-depth and wrote widely on Oromo religion, rituals and social philosophy. His scholarly and
comparative (with Biblical) analysis of Oromo religion and world view, child birth custom, praise song for the cow,
Qaallu Institution, Gada system geneaological-social hierarchy are among his seminal works. Although Bartels
only indicated Mootii as “one priest”, he and his colleague Shagirdi Boko (one of the Jaarsa Mana Sagadaa ‘Old
Men of Church’) were among his informant colleagues. Muummee, is not only well seasoned wiseman, but he
still celebrates and identify himself as Waaqeeffata—believer, observer and practitioner of the pre-Christian
Oromo religion founded on Waaqa, the Black Sky-God.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Qaallu Institution and the praise to the cattle Above, under Introduction section, we briefly touched upon the mythical-social origin of the Qaallu Institution and its relation with genesis and cow-milk. Qaallu comes from the gerundive qull (qul’qullu, intensive) ‘pure, holy, sacred, blameless; being black, pretty, neat’, pointing to the color and quality of Waaqa (see Bartels 1983; Hassen 1990 for detail).. The “ancient” Qaallu Institution of Oromo (Baxter 1987: 168 quoted and elaborated in Gidada 2005: 146-147) had been widely practiced in Eastern, Hararqee Oromo until the first half of the 20th century. It is as much cosmogonal, cosmological and ideological (identificational) as it is theo-political to the Oromo nation, in particular, and, at large, the pre-colonial (pre-Christian, pre-Islam) Cushite who uniformly believed in Water, as a source of life and on which life is unilaterally dependent, and in Waaqa–a concept/word that means, on the one hand, the abstract ‘Supreme Being, God, Devine, Heave’ and, on the other, the ‘concrete’ ‘Sky, Divinely Water (rain)’. For Oromo, the first Qaallu “a high priest”, the “spiritual leader” was of “divine origin”, as the myth tells us, “ ‘fell from the sky itself’…with the first black cow” and he was the “‘eldest son of Ilma Orma’” and in its “dual nature”, Waaqa, the black Sky-God “controlled fertility, peace, and lifegiving rains…[hence] prayers for peace, fertility, and rain” are the core recursive themes in Oromo religion (Hassen 1990: 6-7). For more on Oromo genealogical tree and history, see Gidada (2006), Bartels (1983), BATO (1998), to mention a few.
The Booran Oromo, who still retains the Qaallu Institution ‘unspoiled’:
The Booran view of cosmology, ecology and ontology is one of a flow of life emanating from God. For them, the benignancy of divinity is expressed in rain and other conditions necessary for pastoralism. The stream of life flows through the sprouting grass and the mineral waters [hoora] of the wells, into the fecund wombs and generous udders of the cows [ɢurrʔ
ú]. The milk from the latter then promotes human satisfaction and fertility (Dahl and Megerssa 1990: 26).
In this worldview, the giant bull (hanɡafa, hancaffa) is a symbol of angaftitti “seniority of moieties: stratification
and imbalance” (Legesse 2000: 134). Hence, the separation of the most senior or ancient moieties or the cradle land imitates hariera ‘lumbar and sacral vertebrae’ (other meaning ‘queue, line, suture’) or horroo ‘cervical vertebrae’ of the bull.
The primogenitors (horroo) of the Oromo nations (mainly known as Horroo, Raya, Booro) set the first ßala ‘moiety, split (from baɮ ‘to flame, impel, fly; to split, have bilateral symmetry’) or Ẃalaßu ‘freedom, bailing, springing’. The formation of moieties, sub-sub-moieties grew into baɭbaɭa‘sub-sub-sub-etc…lineages’ (also means ‘door, gate’; the reduplication showing repetitiveness). Jan Hultin, an influential anthropologist and writer on Oromo, states “Among the Oromo, descent is a cultural construct by which people conceive of their relations to each other and to livestock and land; it is an
ideology for representing property relations” (Hultin 1995: 168-169). The left hand and right hand of the bovine always represent, in rituals, the “sub-sections of the phratry” (Kassam 2005:105). That is, as the tradition sustains,
when the ancient matrilineal-patrilineal moieties sowed, dissevered (fač’á) from the original East (Boora), the
Booreettúma (designating matrilineality, feminine soul) took or went towards the left hand side, while the Hoorroo
(also for unclear reason βooroo, designating patrilineality, masculine soul) took the right hand side. Both correspond, respectively, to the directions of sunrise and sunset, which configure in the way house is constructed: Baa, Bor ‘the front door’ (literally ‘Origin, Beam, morning twilight’) always faces east, while the back wall (Hooroo) towards west (also Hooroo means ‘Horus, evening twilight’). This still governs the praxis that the backwall “is the place of the marriage negotiations and of the first sexual intercourse of sons and their bride [i.e., behind the stage]” (Bartels 1983: 296). For this reason, Qaallu Institution has had a special Law of the Bovine as well as Holiday of the Cattle/Bovine, Ǧaarrii Looni (Legesse 1973:96; Dahl and Megerssa 1990). On Ǧaarrii Loonii, cattle pen are renovated and embellished, and festivities and dances with praise songs to cattle was chanted (for more, Bartels 1975; Wako 2011; Kassam 2005). An excerpt from the praise song ‘talks’ about them with admiration (See also Bartels 1975: 911):
Chorus: Ahee-ee
Soloist: Sawa, sawilee koo–Cows, o my cows,
Bira watilee koo–and also you, my calves.
Ǧeɗ’e malee maali–Could I say otherwise?
Yá saa, yá saa—o cattle, o cattle!
saa Humbikooti–cattle of my Humbiland,
Saa eessa ǧibbu?–What part of cattle is useless?
Saa qeensa qičču–Our cattle with soft hoofs,
koṱṱeen šínii ta’e—from their hoofs, we make coffee-cups
gogaan wallu ta’e—from their skins, we make wallu
[leather cloth]
gaafi wanč’a ta’ee, — from their horns, we make wáɳč’a
[large beer cup]
faɭ
ʔ
anas ta’a!—as well as spoons! [See Fig.1A, B, C, D,
E]
Chorus: Ahee-ee
Lambert Bartels, a Catholic Father and scholar lived with the Oromo, writes “When they bless, they say: ɡurrači
ɡaraa ǧ’abbii siif ha kenu ‘May the dark one [God] with hail under his abdomen give you all (good things)’
(Bartels 1983:90-91). Cervicek (1971:124 Fig.10) wonders about the unexplained but recurrent “oval
representations… painted black [and] white-dotted” and consistently painted “below” the cow udder (see Fig.2B).
This can be compared with wáɳč’a ‘drinking horn-cup’ or č’óč’oo, č’iič’oo ‘milking (horn-)cup’ (see Fig.1D). On
Irreečča ritual of Thanking Waaqa the Black Sky-God, a line of the doxology mentions, among others, “Waaqa
č’iič’oo gurraattii” ‘God of the dark č’iič’oo milking-cup’ (Sabaa 2006:312). The deadjectival č’óč’orree means ‘white dotted (black background); turkey or similar white dotted bird’, while Waaɳč’ee is a proper name for white-dotted cow.
Qaallu as ecotheological concept
Qaallu is also an ontological concept referring to the spirit that resides in sacred realities, the mountain hills, seas, river
beds, pasture land, etc. As an important place for ritual place for immortalizing (primogenitors, ancestors), blessing
(children, the young), initiations (to Gada classes, power take-over), praying (for fertility, abundance, fortune, rain),
and praising (God, nature, cattle), the sacred land of spirituality must be mountain foot (goda) where there must
be, naturally, laga ‘lagoon, river’, č’affee ‘marshy area with green grasses’ (symbol of the parliamentary assembly),
χaɭoo ‘pasture land’, and the evergreen oɖaa fig sycamores. Oɖaa serves not only as “a depiction of a political power”,
but “is also a centre of social and economic activities” and “symbolizes the entire corpus of their activities, history,
culture and tradition” (Gutamaa 1997:14). Five Qaallu centres are known in Booran sub-moiety: (1) Qaallu Odiituu, (2) Qaallu Karrayyuu, (3) Qaallu Matťarii, (4) Qaallu Karaar, (5) Qaallu Kuukuu, (10) Qaallu Arsii (Nicolas 2010). These centers are like cities of (con-)federal states and simultaneously are (sub-)clan names. These names are codes and decoders of not only genealogical and landscapes, but also of ancient (sub)-moieties and settlement patterns. Since they are cyclical, based on the principles of Gada System’s name-giving principle, they are widespread across Oromia and resistant to change. Werner (1915:2) observed that in Booran Oromo, “every clan has its own mark for cattle, usually a brand (ɢuʋa [ɡuƀá ], which is the name of the instrument used, is an iron spike fixed into a wooden handle)”, a fact which is
significated in other parts of Oromia with different signifiers, for instance, pattern of settlement, which is determined by a
korma karbaʑaa ‘bull that bulldozes jungles’ or korma qallaččaa ‘kindling bull’ (Gidada 2006: 99-100) or bull’s
anatomy (BATO 1998). For instance, quoting Makko Billii, the ancient Gada System law maker, the Wallaga Oromo
recite their settlement pattern in the anatomy of Korma the virile ‘buffalo-bull’ or ‘macho man’: Sibuun garaača. Haruu č’inaacha, Leeqaan dirra sangaati, ‘The Sibuu [Sabboo] clan is the abdomen, the Haruu [Hooroo] is the ribs, and Leeqaa is the chuck of the bull’ (BATO 1998:164).
Qallačča bull as a kindler is related defined qallačča “a white patch between the horns of a cow running back down the
two sides of the neck; a charm” (Foot 1913:33). See Fig.2 A, B, C and D . It is the symbol of a Qaallu’s qallačča, here
meaning, an inherited, from ancestors, spiritual and intellectual grace or sublimity. This is quite related to of
book’a ‘a black cow or bull or ram that has a white mark upon the forehead’ (Tutschek 1844:135-136), a natural
phenomenon considered as a good omen. Adda isá book’aa qaba ‘his forehead has a blaze’ is an idiom appropriately
meaning the person has the natural capacity, inherited from ancestors, to prophesize, foreknow. For this reason, “white-headedness” or wearing white turban is a symbol of (passage to) seniority or superordinate moiety (Kassam 1999). As usual, there is “intimate link…between form, content and concrete situation in life” (Sumner 1996:17-18).
Qallačča as a mysterious metal
Qallačča is a key concept in Qaallu Institution. One instantiation of this complex concept is that it is a mysterious
sacred material culture (Fig.3). Informants tell us that true. qallačča worn on the forehead by the Qaallu was made of
iron that fell from sky as qorsa (comet, metorite); it was only recovered after pouring milk of a black cow on the specific
spot it dropped. For some ethnologists/anthropologists, it is a “white metal horn which is worn on the forehead” and is
“horn-symbolism” for “every man is a bull”, a symbol of virility (Bartels 1983: 146). For others it is just a ‘white
metal horn’ which is a symbol of fertility or just is “phallic ornament” (Haberland 1963:51 quoted in Bartels
1983:146). These argumentations share the root qaɾa ‘horn (sharp and tall), acute; graining fruit, granulate,
shoot’ and the inavariable qaɾ-ɳî ‘sex (characteristics)’. The very Oromo word for ‘sex (intercourse)’, namely
saala, also designates ‘horn, oryx, penis; awe, honor, esteem; shame, shameful’. But, these notions are only
part of the polysemantic and complex concept of qallačča. Amborn (2009: 401) might be wrong when he completely
rejects the “phallisphication” of qallačča by “some anthropologists”. He is right that qallačča is also a symbol
of “socio-religious mediator which is able to bundle positive and negative “cosmic” (for want of a better word)
energies” and rather “symbolizes a link between the human and the supernatural world; its function is to open
up this connection between different spheres.” Knutsson (1967:88-90 quoted in Bartels 1983:145) describes
qallačča as “a conically formed ‘lump’ of black iron…brought from the heaven by the lightening.” Plowman (1918:114), who took a sketch of qallačča (Fig.3 D), described it as “emblem” of the Qaallu “Chief Priest” or of the retired Abba Gadaa ‘the president’. Plowman fleshes out the components of qallačča: (1) “seven bosses superimposed on a raised rim running
round the emblem”; (2) “upright portion made of polished lead”; (3) “circular base of white polished shell-like substance resembling ivory”; (4) “leather straps for fastening emblem to forehead of weaver” (Plowman 1918:114). This mysterious cultural object has multifunction. Taaddasa Birbirsso Mootii, who is not only an informant, but, in the expression of the locals, ‘a man who has sipped mouthful’ (of Oromo traditional wisdom) explains the social epistemological structure underlying qallačča: During the time of Gada System, government by the people’s justice, the Waaqeeffataa used to pour out milk of black cow on Dibayyuu ritual and discover/see their qallačča [truth and abundance]. For it is a sacred object,
qallačča never moved [transported, communicated] withoutsacrificial blood of bulls. It must be smeared on
the forehead [See Fig.3A and P7B on the forehead]. How can urine/semen without water, child without blood, milk
without udder/teats be discovered [gotten]? In the aftermath of lengthy drought, too, they used to take
qallačča to depression/ford and hill-top to pray with one stomach [unanimously] to God with Qaallu the Spiritual
Father. Immediately, qallačča [God’s riposte] reconciled streaming milk from the sky [rains]. Hence, qallačča was
used for collective welfare. Qallačča is God’s qali ‘alethic truth, promise’. Note that from Laga Oda Cave, archaeologists (Brandt 1984:177) have found “‘sickle sheen’ gloss and polish”, which helped archaeologists to recover “possible
indications of intensive harvesting of wild grasses as early as 15, 000 B. P.”; “one awl”, “one endscraper” and
“one curved-backed flake” all “dated 1560 B.C.”; and, “a few microliths that show evidence of mastic adhering
close to the backed edges” which “strongly suggests” that by “1560 B.C…stone tools were being used (probably as components of knives and sickles).”
Qallačča and Gadaa—the generation-age-based sociopolitical system
Baxter (1979:73, 80) calls it “phallic” or “ritual paraphernalia”, which is worn on the head “by men at crucial stage in the gaada [gadaa] cycle of rituals”. Informants make distinction between two types of qallačča: qallačča laafa (of the soft, acuminous), which is worn by the Qaallu or Abba Gadaa; and qallačča korma (of the virile man or bull, macho). Viterbo (1892) defines “kallaéccia”, qallačča as ‘disciple, pupil’, which cuts para-llel with the anthropologist Baxter (1979: 82-84) who
states that, in Oromo Gada System, a young man’s grown tuft (ɡuuɗuu; see Fig.3D; we shall come back to Fig.3A in the final part of the discussion) is “associated symbolically with an erect penis” and discourses that he is “guutu diira”, which means a “successful warrior”, the one who has reached a class of “member of political adulthood”, for he has “become responsible for the nation”. At this age, Baxter adds, “each of its members puts up a phallic Kalaacha”, a “symbol of firm but
responsible manliness.” The feminine counterpart to ɡuuɗuu hairstyle is “ɡuɖeya” (Werner 1914a: 141), guʈʈiya (literally go-away bird or its tonsure) or qarré ‘tonsure’ (literally, ‘kite’ or similar bird of prey) (Bartels 1983:262), while of the masculine qallačča head-gear is the feminine qárma (literally ‘sharpened, civilized’). In Gada System, this age-class is called Gaammee Gúɖ’ɡuɖá (reduplication ɡuɖá ‘big’) ‘Senior Gamme III’, the age of at which the boys elect their six leaders to
practice political leadership (Legesse 2006:124-125).
Bokkuu: Insignia of power, balance and light of freedom
Hassen (1990:15) discusses that bokkuu has “two meanings”. One is “the wooden scepter kept by the Abba
Gada in his belt during all the assembly meetings”, an “emblem of authority…the independence of a tribe,
and…a symbol of unity, common law and common government” (Fig.4). De Salviac describes it “has the
shape of a voluminous aspergillum (a container with a handle that is used for sprinkling holy water) or of a mace
of gold of the speaker of the English parliament, but in iron and at the early beginning in hard wood” (De Salviac
2005 [1901]: 216). Legesse (2006: 104) describes it as “a specially curved baton”, which shows that there are two
types in use. The second meaning of bokkuu is, “it refers to the keeper of the bokkuu—Abba Bokkuu” (Hassen
1990:15), or in plural Warra Bokku “people of the scepter” (Legesse 2006: 104). Hence, after serving for full eight year, Abba Bokkuu must celebrate Bokkuu Walira Fuud’a (literally to exchange the scepter bokkuu), a Gada system concept
that refers to two socio-political “events as a single act of “exchange”” (Legesse 1973:81): (1) the event of power
“take over ceremony”, i.e., the symbolic act of “the incoming class” and (2) the event of power “handover
ceremony”, i.e., the symbolic act of “the outgoing class”. This power-exchange ceremony is also called Baalli
Walira Fud’a “Power Exchange” or “transfer of ostrich feathers” (Legesse 1973: 81-82; 2006: 125). Here, baalli
refers not only ‘power, authority, responsibility’ (Stegman 2011: 5, 68), but also ‘ostrich feather’ and ‘twig
(leaved)’, both of which are used as symbolic object on the Baalli power transfer ceremony. De Salviac (2005 [1901]: 216) witnessed “the power is transferred to the successor by remittance of the scepter or bokkuu.” After power exchange ceremony, the ‘neophyte’ Abba Bokkuu: “falls in his knees and raising in his hands the scepter towards the sky, he exclaims, with a majestic and soft voice: Yaa Waaq, Yaa Waaq [Behold! O, God!] Be on my side…make me rule over the
Doorii…over the Qaallu…make me form the morals of the youth!!!…” (De Salviac 2005 [1901]: 213). See Fig.4B.
Then, the new Abba Bokkuu takes possession of the seat and “immolates a sacrifice and recites prayers to obtain
the assistance of On-High in the government of his people….The entire tribe assembled there, out of breath
from emotion and from faith” (De Salviac 2005 [1901]: 212). Above we raised that two symmetrical acts/concepts are
enfolded “as a single act [or word] of “exchange”” is performed by exchanging the Bokkuu scepter during
Baalli ceremony (Legesse 1973:81). That is, when the scepter is the one with bokkuu ‘knobs’ on each edge, it
suffices to enfold it ‘Bokkuu Baalli’ since the symmetricality principle of the act of reciprocal remittance
or power exchange is as adequately abstracted in the phrase as in the iconicity of the balanced bokkuu. Besides, the horooroo stick with a knob (bokkuu) on one side and a v-/y-shape (baalli) on the other side is a semagram and semotactic for the same concept of symmetricality principle, i.e., Bokkuu Baalli.
Ateetee in Qaallu Institution: Fertility symbolism
Cerulli (1922:15, 126-127) “Atētê …the goddess of fecundity, worshipped by the Oromo” and adds that “the
greatest holiday of the [Oromo] pagans is the feast of Atetê”; she is “venerated” by “even the Mussulmen”; she
is referred to “in the songs ayô, ‘the mother,’ often with the diminutive ayoliê, ‘the little mother’”. Women sing
“songs asking the goddess to grant them fecundity and lamenting the woes which are caused by sterility.” Long
before Cerulli, Harris (1844:50) wrote as follow: “when sacrificing to Ateti, the goddess of fecundity, exclaiming
frequently, “Lady, we commit ourselves unto thee; stay thou with us always”.”
The symbolic material cultures pertaining to Aɖeetee are important for our purpose in this paper. Bompiani
(1891:78) saw the Oromo on their “long journeys to visit Abba Múdā” who, “as a sign of peace they make a sheep
go before them on entering the village… and instead of a lance carry a stick, upon the top of which is fixed the horn
of an antelope” (this is well known Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph). Indeed, sheep (ḫooɭaa), common in ancient
rock paintings of Hararqee, is also the favorite for sacrificial animal for Qaallu institution of “peacemaking
and reconciliation”, particularly black sheep, “a sheep of peace” (hoolaa araaraa)” (Gidada 2001: 103). In fact, the
word ḫooɭaa for ‘sheep’ and rêeé, re’ee for ‘goat’ (re’oṱa, rooɖa, plural) have meronymic relationship. The semantic
structure underlying both is ‘high fertility rate’ (arareessá, from ɾaɾí ‘ball, matrix; pool, rivulet’). The “antelope” that Bompaini names is in fact the beautifully speckled ʂiiqqee ‘klipspringer’ (Stegman 2011:45, 35), common in Laga Oda and other paintings along with ‘fat-tailed’ sheep. At the same time, ʂiiqqee (literally, ‘splendid, lustrous, graceful’) is, according to the
Aṱeetee Institution, a sacred, usually tall and speckled, “stick signifying the honor of Oromo women…a blessing… a ceremonial marriage stick given to a girl…a religious stick Oromo women used for prayer” (Kumsaa 1997:118). Kumsa observed that “the very old, the very young and all women, in the Gadaa system, are considered innocent and peace-loving” and quoted the renowned anthropologist Gemetchu Megerssa who expressed that in Oromo Gada tradition women “were also regarded as muka laaftuu (soft wood–a depiction of their liminality) and the law for those categorized as such
protected them” (Kumsa 1997:119). Concentric or circular or ‘sun-burst’ geometric motifs are as abundant as ‘udder chaos’ in the Hararqee and Horn of African ancient rock paintings (Fig.5C from Qunnii or Goda Ummataa; A and B Goda Roorris traditionally known as ‘Errer Kimiet’; G from Goda K’arree Ğaldeesaa or Weybar in Č’elenqoo; E Laga Oda from Cervicek
1971). Bartels (1983) studied well about another symbolic object in Aɖeetee Institution, namely ɡuɳɖo, a grass-plate, made from highly propagative grasses, plaited in a series of concentric-circles (see Fig.5D). It is used to keep bîddeena ‘pizza-like circular bread’ and fruits. Bartels (1983: 261) documented that, on her wedding day: [T]he girl has with her a grass-plate (gundo), which she made herself. This gundo is a symbol of her womb [ɡaɖāmeʑa]. Since…she is expected to be a virgin
[ɡuɳɖúɖa], nothing should have been put in in this grass plate beforehand. Gundo are plaited [with an awl] from
outside inwards, leaving a little hole in the centre [ɡuɖé, qaa]…this little hole is not filled in by the girls themselves,
but they ask a mother of a child to do it for them. If they do it themselves, they fear they will close their womb to
child-bearing (Square brackets added).While, ɡuɳɖó stands for a woman’s gadameʑa ‘womb’ (from gadá ‘temple; generation, time-in-flow), the concentricity of the plaits (marsaa, massaraa, metathesis) is a symbol of the ‘recyclers’ of generations, namely mûssirró ‘the bride-woman’ and marii ‘bride-man’ (marii also means ‘cycle, inwrap, plait’). A bigger
cylindrical ɡuɳɖó with cover called suuba is particularly given as hooda ‘a regard’ to the couples (on their good
ethos, virginity) and is a symbol of súboo ‘the newly married gentlemen, the prudential gentlemen’. Father Lambert Bartels (Bartels 1983: 268) wrote that a buffalo-killer would bring a special gift for his mother or wife from the wilderness: namely, elellee (elellaan, plural) from his buffalo skin” Elellee and č’aačč’u refer to a string of cowries (of snail shells, obsidian rocks or fruits of certain plant called illilii) and festooned to a sinew cut from a sacrificial animal (Fig.5F). They are worn only by
women on the breastplate or forehead or worn to č’ooč’oo, č’iič’oo milk-pots, symbol of “a woman’s sexual and reproductive organ” (Østebø 2009: 1053). See also Fig.5F and G.
We need to add here a praise song to a beauty of woman, which symbolizes her by élé ‘circular cooking pot or oven made of clay’ and bede smaller than élé (Sumner 1996: 68): Admiration is for you, o <ele>… <But> I take out of <bede>…
Admiration is for you, moon shaped beauty. Rightly, Sumner (1996:68) states élé symbolizes “the mother, of woman” while bedé symbolizes “daughters” or the “moon [báṱí] shaped beauty”, i.e., her virginity (ɡuɳɖuɖa), uncorruptedness (baʤí) combined with ethos of chastity (aɖeetee). Woman is expressed arkiftu idda mačč’araa literally ‘puller of the root of one-body/-person’,a paraonomastic way to say circulator, recycler or propagator of the genealogy of Oromo moieties, namely
Mačč’a and Raya/Raã. Here, it is fascinating to observe the unique social semiosis at work—selecting and stitching (qora) the language and world according to the semblance and image the reality (world) offers as a cognitive possibility to operate upon. cowries of “giant snail shells…kept with a string made.
Spear piercing coffee bean
According to the Aṱeetee tradition, on her wedding ritual, the bride “hands her gundo to her mother-in-law who puts
some sprouting barley-grains in it. They are (a symbol of) the children Waqa will give her if he will’’ (Bartels 1983:
261). The mother-in-law will, according to the long tradition, adds some coffee-beans (coffee-beans and
cowries are look-alike, Fig.5 F from Cervicek 1971 and H); “coffee-beans are a symbol of the vagina,
representing the girl to be a potential mother. The beans are children in the shell at this moment, protected and
inaccessible as a virgin’s vagina” (Bartels 1983:261). Later on during the ritual, the elderly bless her: “May
Waqa cause the womb [gundo] sprouts children [grains]! Let it sprout girls and boys!” Amid the ceremony, the
bride “gives the gundo to her groom’s mother. She herself now takes his [bridegroom’s] spear and his stool.
She carries the stool with her left hand, holding it against her breast. In her right hand she grasps the spear….”
The spear, a representation of the male organ, is expressed in the Girl’s Song:
O sheath [qollaa] of a spear,
Handsome daughter,
Sister of the qaɽɽee [us colleagues of marriage-age]
Let us weep for your sake
The buna qalaa ‘slaughtering of coffee fruit’, which reflexes, in direct translation, the ‘slaughtering’ (qaɭa) the
virgin is “a symbol of procreation” (Bartels 1975: 901). The bride “puts the coffee-fruits from the gundo in butter
together with others and put them over the fire” (Bartels 1983: 263). Butter (ɗ’aɗ’á) is a symbol of fecundity
(ṯaɗ’āma) while the floor of the fire, or hearth (baɗ’ā) is a symbol of the nuclear family that is taking shape
(Legesse 1973:39). While, all this was captured by Bartels in the late 20th century in Wallagga, Werner (1914
b: 282) captured similar events a thousand or so kilometers away at Northern Kenya with the Booran:
On the wedding morning, a woman (some friend of the bride’s mother) hangs a chicho [č’iič’oo, č’ooč’oo] full of
milk over the girl’s shoulder….The bridegroom, carrying his spear and wearing a new cloth and a red turban, goes
in at the western gate of the cattle-kraal and out at the eastern, and then walks in a slow and stately way to the
hut of his mother-in-law, where the bride is waiting for him. They sit down side by side just within the door; after
a time they proceed to the cattle-kraal, where his friends are seated. She hands him the chicho and he drinks
some milk, and then passes it on to his friends, who all drink in turn.
In general, matrix-shape, milk-pots, sprouting beans all symbolizes feminineness quality, the natural power to
‘reproductive faculty’ (ʂaɲɲí), a capacity to generate many that, yet, keep alikeness or identity (ʂaɲɲí).
Woman and a cow and infant and a calf
Cows are “a symbolic representation of women” (Sumner 1997: 193; Bartels 1975: 912) because both are equally
haaɗ’a manaa ‘the flex of the home/house’:
Sawayi, ya sawayi—o my cow, o my cow [too high
hypocorism]
ʼnīṱī abbaan gorsatu–a wise man’s wife/a wife of wisest
counselor husband
amali inmulattu–her virtues are hidden;/is virtuous and
has integrity;
saa abbaan tiqsatu–o careful owner’s cow/ similarly, cow
that the owner himself
shepherds/feeds
č’inaači inmuľaṱu–her ribs are hidden/her hook bone is
invisible (full and swollen).
Saa, saa, ya saa–cattle, cattle, o cow,
ya saa marī koo–o cow, my advisor/darling
ţiqē marartu koo–good in the eyes of your herdsman/am
overseeing you spitefully.
(Bartels, 1975: 912)
Likewise, an infant and a young calf are not only congruous, but also sung a lullaby to comfort them:
Sleep, sleep!
My little man slobbers over his breast.
The skin clothes are short.
The groin is dirty
The waist is like the waist of a young wasp
The shepherd with the stick!
Sleep, sleep!
He who milks with the ropes!
Sleep, sleep!
He who takes the milk with the pot!
Sleep, sleep!
The cows of Abba Bone,
The cows of Dad’i Golge:
They’ve gone out and made the grass crack;
They’ve [come home] again and made the pot.
(Sumner 1997: 181)
Basically, there is no difference between a newborn calf and an infant; no need of separate lexisboth is élmee—
diminutive-denominative from elma ‘to milk’. Young calves or children are worn kolliʥa ‘collar’, ǧallattii
‘diadem, crown, tiara’ or č’allee ‘jewelry’ wrapping around their necks, all of whose semiotic significance is to
express ǧalla, ǧallačča ‘love’ and protection from ɡaaɖiɗú ‘evil spirit’ that bewitches not only infants and young of
animals, etc (Bartels 1983: 284-285, 196-197). The first meaning of ɡaaɖiɗú, gádíṱú is ‘silhouette’ or ‘human
shadow’ (see also Tutschek 1844: 54), but, in this context it refers to an evil spirit that accompanies or inhabits a
person. The evil spirit comes in a form of shadow and watches with evil-eye, hence it is also called, in some areas, ɮaltu, ilaltu ‘watcher (wicked)’. All these concepts are common motifs in Hararqee rock paintings (Cervicek 197). See
Fig.6 especially the silhouette-like background and in C an evil-eye motif is seen watching from above.
In accordance with the Qaallu Institution, the Qaallu (or Qaalličča, particulative) receives and embraces new
born children, giving them blessings, buttering their heads and ɡubbisaa ‘giving them names’, literally,
‘incubating’ from ɡubba ‘to be above, over’ or ɡuƀa ‘to brand, heat’ (Knustsson 1967). Women call this process of entrusting children to the Qallu ‘aɖɖaraa ol kaa’, literally ‘Putting/Lifting up oath/children to the topmost (related to the prayer epithet Áɖɖaraa ‘Pray! I beseech you!’). Or, they call it Ők’ubaa ɢalča, literally ‘entering/submitting the Őq’ubaa’, which refers to “the act of kneeling down and raising one’s hands with open fingers towards the sky (Waaqa) and thus submitting oneself to Waaqa” (Gidada 2006:163), from the prayer epithet: Őq’uba ‘Pray!, Prayer!’, literally,
‘Take my fingers!’ A “perfect attitude at prayers in the Oromo’s eyes is to lift the hands towards heaven”
(Bartels 1983: 350). An unfortunate Oromo father/mother has to but say élmee koo ana ǧalaa du’e, literally ‘my offspring/child died from under/underside me’ while an unfortunate child would say abbo/ayyo koo ana’irraa du’e ‘my dear dad/mum died from above/over me’. Some lines from a song for a hero illustrate caressing and kissing the belly of his mother (Cerulli 1922: 48):
The belly which has brought you forth,
How much gold has it brought forth?
Who is the mother who has given birth to you?
If I had seen her with my eyes,
I would have kissed her navel.
These symbolic-actional rhetorical organizations are most probably the underlying ‘grammar’ of the recurrent
anthropomorphic signs, along with a newborn calves, ‘embracing’ the belly, navel of a cow (Fig.6CandD from
Cervicek 1971). Culturally, cows are given as an invaluable gift to an adoptee child, so that she/he never
sleeps a night without a cup of milk. The gift-cow is addressed by hypocoristic aɳɖ’úree ‘navel, umbilical cord’
(aɖɖ’oolee, plural, by play on word ‘good parous ones, the gray/old ones’), which means ‘dear foster-mama’
symbolizing cordiality, wish to long-life and strong bond, protection of the child (see also Hassen 1990: 21).
Earlier in this paper, we saw how matrilineal-patrilineal and moiety phratry are represented partly by bovine
anatomy. As recorded by the Catholic Father Lambert Bartels and others, Waaqa ‘Devine, God, Sky’
symbolizes Abbá, Patriarchic-side of the cosmos or Father or Husband “who goes away” while, Daččee
‘Earth’ symbolizes, the Matriarchic-side, Mother or Wife who “is always with us” (Bartels 1983: 108-111) and
“originally, Heaven and Earth were standing one next to the other on equal terms” (Haberland 1963: 563 quoted in
Bartels 1983: 111). As we observe the Laga Odaa pictures (see Fig.5A), we consistently also find another
interesting analogy–bulls are consistently drawn above the cows. In Oromo worldview, a bull represent ßoo
‘sacred domain of the male’ (vocative form of bâ ‘man, subject, being, masculine 4th person pronoun’), while a
cow (saa, sa’a) represent çâé, îssi ‘sacred domain of the female’ (also ‘feminine 4th person pronoun’) (Kassam
1999:494). From this worldview comes Oromo concept of Ḿootumma ‘rule, government, state, kingdom’:[Ḿootumma comes] from moo’a, autobenefactive: moo’ď/ʈ, is a cattle image. For example, Kormi sun him moo’a, “that bull is in heat” and sa’a sun iti moo’a ‘he is mounting that cow’. With reference to human beings, the implication is not necessarily sexual, but can denote superiority or dominance in general. An moo’a, an mooti is a formula of self praise by a new Abba Gada during his inauguration (Shongolo 1996: 273).
Qallačča and Qaallu: A jigsaw motif
In this last section of this analysis, we must consider the symbolic significance of what an old man skilled in
Oromo oral history says is tremendously important: The Qaallu did this. For the daughter/girl of Ǧillee
[eponymous clan name] he took a heifer; for the daughter/girl of Elellee [eponymous clan name] he also
took a heifer. Then, for the Elellee girl he erected the heifer of Elellee in such a way that her (the heifer’s) head
is faced upwards. For the Ǧillee girl, he erected the heifer of Ǧillee in such a way that her (the heifer’s) is faced
downwards. The girl of Ǧillee too siiqqee stick and hit the Mormor River; then, the Mormor River split into two
(BATO 1998:75; My translation).
This story offers us a tremendously important insight.It corresponds with the amazing critical observation and re-interpretation of my informant Muummee. Muummee rotated 90oCW Cervicek’s (1971) Laga Oda Figure 47 (=
Fig.7 A) and got Fig.7B after rotating. In this motif, the Qaallu , with his qallačča headgear, is at the centre. We
can observe one heifer above the Qaallu (perhaps Ǧillee heifer) her head inverted, serving as qallačča headgear,
and behind him to the right handside, two heifers (cattle, one headless), both of whose heads are facing
downwards but in between them and the qallačča cattle is one anthropomorphic motif, unlike on the lefthand
where there are many, possibly a chorus in praise of the sublime black cow and of the reverenced Qaallu. We also
observe, a heifer (cow?) whose head is faced upwards (possibly Elellee heifer).
As usual, it is likely also that this style is as much for associal-epistemological as is it for grammatical- semotactical reason. The downward-faced heifer or Ǧillee (hypocoristic-diminutive from ǧiɭa ‘ritual ceremony, pilgrimage’), which is equivalent to qallačča headgear of the Qaallu anthropomorphic, is a signification of the semantic of ɡaɮa ‘to safely travel away and come home (or ɢaɮma ‘the Sacred Temple of Qaallu’)’ by the help of the Qallačča the providence of God. Thus, the collocation
forming gaɮa-gaɮča gives the polysemous metonymic senses: (1) to invert, make upside down, (2) one who causes safe home-come i.e., Qallačča. The same ‘play on word’ is true of Elellee: (1) reduplication (emphasis) of ēɮ, éla ‘spring up; well (water)’, and (2) őɮ literally ‘go up; upwards; spare the day peacefully, prevail’. “Őɮa!” is a farewell formula for ‘Good day!’ (literally ‘Be upward! Be above! Prevail!’).Yet, the most interesting aspect lies beyond the lexico-syntactic or semotactic motives. If we look carefully at this motif, the head of the Qaallu and the foreparts of the downwards (ɡaɗi) Ǧillee heifer merge, which makes the latter headless (ɡaɗooma). The Elellee heifer apparently with only one horn but full nape (bok’uu)
appears to be another jigsaw making a thorax (ɡûɗeɫča) of the Qaallu, possibly because in the “Barietuma” Gada
System, the Qaallu are “central”, i.e., “occupy a special position, and their members act as “witnesses” (Galech)
on the occasion of weddings or other important transaction” (Werner 1915:17, 1914a: 140; See also Legesse 2006: 104, 182, for “Gada Triumvirate System”). This is not arbitrary, but is stylized so that the notions of seniority are textured simultaneously, in caput mortuum. Pertaining to the “seven bosses” of the qallačča (Plowman 1918:114) ) is possibly equivalent to Cervicek’s (1971:192) description of this same motif: “Seven animal representations, painting of a symbol ((cen-tre) and pictures of H-shaped anthropomorphic figures…Painted in graphite grey, the big cattle picture a
little darker, the smaller one beneath it in caput mortuum red.” While we can consider, following Dr. Gemetchu Megerssa, anthropology professor, that the seven bosses might stand for the seven holes of human body (above the neck) which still stand for some mythical concepts we cannot discuss here, it is also possible to consider the (related) socio-political structure of the democratic Gada System. They must stand for what Legesse (1973: 82, 107) calls “torban baalli” “the seven
assistants” of Abba Gada in “power” (his in-powerness is makes him Abba Bokkuu, ‘Proprietor/Holder of the
Scepter’). Long before Legesse’s critical and erudite study of Gada System, Phillipson (1916) wrote:
The petty chiefs act in conjunction with the king. These are, however, appointed by election of officers called Toib
[Tor b] or Toibi (= seven councilors or ministers). These are men of standing and character…. They are governed
by, and work in unison with, the head. These officers are appointed by the king, and each of the seven has an
alternative, so that the number is unbroken. Their office is to sit in council with the king, hear cases, administer
justice, and in the king’s absence they can pass sentence in minor cases; but all they do is done by his authority.
For all that, this may act as a check if the king inclines to despotism. There is no such thing as favoritism; the Toibi
stands in the order elected: 1, 2, and c (Phillipson 1916:180). These seven high ranking officials (aɡaoɗa) are
purposely represented by forepart of bovine body (agooda), because this is the strongest and most
powerful part. Ól, literally ‘up, upwards, upper’ is a metaphoric expression for those “On-High in the
government of his [Abba Bokkuu] people” (De Salviac 2005 [1901]: 212). Cervicek (1971:130) is accurate when he theorized “anthropomorphic representations do not seem to have been painted for their own sake but in connection with the cattle and symbolic representations only.” Despite the guttural sounds dissimilarization, as in the expression
ɢaɮčaan naaf ɡalé ‘I understood it by profiling. i.e., symbolically (i.e., from the gerundive ɢaɮču, kalču ‘profiling, aligning, allying’, or kaɬaṯṯi ‘perspective, façade’, or the base kala, χala ‘to construct, design’; see Stegman
2011:2, 17), the very word qallača itself is a metasemiotic language, meaning ‘symbolic interpretation’.
*Dereje Tadesse Birbirso (PhD) is Assistant Professor, School of Foreign Language, College of Social Science and Humanities, Haramaya University
It is a great honor to be part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Macha Tulama Association. For a people facing complete erasure, survival itself is a revolutionary act.
The fact that we are gathered here today to honor the founding of Macha Tulama 50 years ago speaks to the fact that despite all odds, we, as a people are survivors. Ethiopian history is full of attempts to annihilate the Oromo—culturally, politically, socially, economically, in all and every ways possible.
Oromos — cast as foreign, aliens to their own lands, have been the targets of the entire infrastructure of the Ethiopian state since their violent incorporation. Our identity, primarily language, religion and belief systems and cultural heritage have been the main targets of wanton destruction.
Oromo and its personhood were already demonized, characterized as embodiments of all that is inferior, shameful and subhuman from the beginning. Oromo people were economically and politically exploited, dominated and alienated.
Oromo cultural, political and religious institutions have been under massive attacks and dismantlement by consecutive Ethiopian governments. Oromos were rendered slaves on their own lands by a colonial land tenure system.
Given the huge systematic and structural forces that have been mobilized against Oromo people and its peoplehood, it is truly astonishing that we have survived. But we have survived not by some miracle, but because our ancestors have continuously resisted violent assimilation, dehumanization, economic exploitation, and complete eradication.
We have survived because our people have courageously and wisely Organized, sang, fought and sacrificed. We have survived because of brilliantly organized Oromo institutions such as Macha Tulama, which have held our communities together.
For five decades, this organization has been the vanguard of the Oromo people’s struggle for freedom, liberty and autonomy. Macha Tulama was conceived at a time when Oromo people desperately needed institutions that would provide direction, leadership, and mobilize the financial, human, intellectual and creative resources to empower Oromo communities.
The upcoming 50th Anniversary Celebration of Macha-Tulama Association (MTA).
This historic event will be held on August 1, 2014 in Washington DC.
Please allow us to explain once again why this celebration will be held in Washington DC, thousands of miles away from Ethiopia.
The story of the establishment of the Macha-Tulama Association was an event of great drama and wonder that has captured the imagination of the Oromo public since 1963, while its banning in 1967 is story of epic proportion which demonstrates Oromo powerlessness in Ethiopia. History of modern Ethiopia includes few cases of injustice and open discrimination equal to the banning of the first Oromo peaceful civic organization, which has come to symbolize the condition of the Oromo nation under successive Ethiopian regimes to the extent that in 2014, the Oromo who constitute the single largest national group in Ethiopia, are not allowed even to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their oldest civic organization in their own country.
The leaders of the Macha-Tulama Association came together from different parts of Oromia. They have become the symbol of courage and sacrifices that have propelled millions of Oromo into organized motion. Firm as their grasp of reality, they looked upon peaceful resistance with a boldness of imagination unsurpassed in modern Ethiopian history. What spirit was it that moved them, made them accept sufferings, torture, imprisonment, loss of property, breakup of families and loss of life itself? Without a doubt, it was the spirit of Oromo political awakening that propelled these men and women onto a new historical stage. They became the organizational expression of Oromo national consciousness. Through their struggle and sacrifices, they won a lasting place in the hearts of the Oromo nation. Within four short years the leaders of Association not only united and provided the Oromo with central leadership, but also made them conscious of their unity and their dehumanization as second-class subjects and inspired them to be agents for their freedom and human dignity. The 50th anniversary celebration is organized for honoring the sacrifices made by the leaders and members of Macha-Tulama Association and for keeping alive the spirit of freedom and human dignity for which they struggled.
Without any doubt it was the Macha-Tulama Association that planted the tree of Oromo political consciousness. The limited gains the Oromo achieved since the 1970s was the fruit from that tree of political consciousness. The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, which has dominated Ethiopian government since 1991, is determined to deprive the Oromo of any independent organization by banning the Macha-Tulama Association, detaining its leaders from time to time and confiscating its property, thereby demonstrating the utter absence of the rule of law in Ethiopia.
We believe that you feel the pain and the daily humiliation of our people who are even denied the simplest right of celebrating the 50th anniversary of their oldest country-wide civic organization in their own country. Those of us who live in freedom beyond the tyranny of the TPLF regime have moral responsibility for supporting the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Macha-Tulama Association. It will give us a wonderful opportunity for informing the Western world that the Oromo and other peoples in Ethiopia are denied their basic human and democratic rights in their own country. What is greater shame for the TPLF regime that beats the empty drum of democracy than denying the Oromo the right to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their civic organization? Together, let us expose the brutality of the Ethiopian regime and lift up the spirit of our people. Now is the time for those of who are interested in freedom, democracy and the rule of law in Ethiopia to rise to the challenge of publicizing the 50th anniversary celebration so that more people will know about the tyrannical TPLF regime.
The plan of the day is:
· Demonstration at 9AM, gathering in front of the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW.
· Marching to US State Department, 2200 C St, NW, at 11AM – ending at 1PM.
· Official Celebration at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine, 4250 Harewood Rd, NE, Washington, DC 20017, starting at 4:30PM.
· Continuing with Oromo Cultural Evening at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine until midnight.
Please join us so that we joyously celebrate together the 50th anniversary of the Macha-Tulama Association and demonstrate to the TPLF leaders that they will never be able to kill the spirit of freedom and human dignity that the Macha-Tulama Association planted in the heart, mind and soul of the Oromo nation.
We thank you for your cooperation in this noble undertaking.
A Generation, Fearless of Death and Detention, Will Crumble Mountains
By Firehiwot Guluma Tezera*
There is an Ethiopian saying, “one would lose what one has in the hand while reaching for more from the upper shelf.” While this selfish individual tries to get hold of more, what one has already have will be scattered all over the place. Lately, in the Habesha camp, fear has spread, and uneasiness has increased likewise.
Soothing, warnings, rebuking, and many others had been tried. Unfortunately, they try to tell us that the source of their problem is the national struggle of the Oromo people. In reality, the aim and goal of the struggle of the Oromo people is to get rid of authoritarian rulers, and thus, to achieve the right to self-determination for the Oromo people – based on international regulations and laws. The importance of the struggle is not only for the Oromo people, but for all peoples of the empire who are suffering under the colonial rule. So, the Oromo people trust in the united struggle of the oppressed peoples. The Oromo national movement will wedge, and has been wedging, joint struggles with forces of similar aims. In other ways, the Oromo people demonstrate peace in their cultural and administrative structures, and support fair unity. Fair unity helps the weak and stands for the oppressed. A good demonstration is the exemplary unity of the different ethnic groups living in today’s Oromiyaa – despite the numerous attempts by anti-Oromo groups to create rifts between the Oromo people and the other ethnic groups.
As the Oromo people – in their social lives and national struggle – respect the rules of human rights, by any measure, they are not threats to neighboring and same-region peoples; the information, which has been disseminated by groups wanting to re-instate the old system and TPLF jointly and independently, has turned out to be fake and false time and again.
The truth has been illustrated at various times by different individuals. But as long as those Oromo-phobic individuals who could not understand it give in, we must show and teach them theoretically and by action how the Oromo struggle has matured. Accordingly, the Oromo struggle has come a long way and has reached a stage where it cannot be averted; even though they are not going to like it, I would like to demonstrate through credible facts:
• By the sacrifices paid by its dear children, the Oromo Nation has been able to show to the whole world its country’s boundaries and its true history. By blood and bones of her children, our country Oromiyaa will be respected till eternity. This is the reality.
• The language and culture of Oromo people has been developing on solid foundation. Today Afan oromo has its own alphabets. Millions study, teach and do research by it. Medias with International audience broadcast by it. It has become language of literature. As this indicates that the struggle is nearing the end, we must take note.
• The Oromo people’s struggle has arrived at the generation which does not fear death, and which is ready to sacrifice for its dignity and for the sovereignty of Oromiyaa. This confirms all. As this reality has already been seen on the ground, there is no need for further explanations.
• The international community has not only understood, but forced to look for solutions about the arbitrary killings of the Oromo people. This is the fruit of the relentless struggle. Even if you don’t like it, you know the exact gist.
• Today, we have arrived at a historical chapter where the Oromo people have demonstrated that they will not crack by propaganda of anti-Oromo elements, and that they have stood together in unison for a common goal. This cooperation among all segments of the Oromo people has started to shake your power base – giving you high blood pressure as demonstrated by the recent uprising.
• As the Oromo national struggle consists of all options, Oromiyaan mountains, valleys and forests are witnessing strong military preparations. Accordingly, in May 2014 the Oromo Liberation Army has attacked enemy soldiers, and more than 200 soldiers have been put out of action. It has also confiscated a number of military equipment.
Overall, the Oromo people have scored important victories, and are mobilizing their human and material resources to claim the rest of their rights. So, are you trying to stop this visionary generation by imprisonment? Or trying to fool them through rebuke and fake words? To tell you the truth, that era has passed. Let me help you realize the truth. You can’t stop them. This is because you can’t stop a generation with a cause. The better way is to drop the old eyeglasses, which has twisted the truth, and straighten your views and live together. May God help you.
Waaqeffannaa (Amantii Oromoo), the traditional faith system of the Oromo people, is one version of the monotheistic African Traditional Religion (ATR), where the followers of this faith system do believe in only one Supreme Being. African traditional religion is a term referring to a variety of religious practices of the only ONE African religion, which Oromo believers call Waaqeffannaa (believe in Waaqa, the supreme Being), an indigenous faith system to the continent of Africa. Even though there are different ways of practicing this religion with varieties of rituals, in truth, the different versions of the African religion have got the following commonalities:
– Believe in and celebrate a Supreme Being, or a Creator, which is referred to by a myriad of names in various languages as Waaqeffataa Oromo do often say: Waaqa maqaa dhibbaa = God with hundreds of names and Waaqa Afaan dhibbaa = God with hundreds of languages; thus in Afaan Oromoo (in Oromo language) the name of God is Waaqa/Rabbii or Waaqa tokkicha (one god) or Waaqa guraachaa (black God, where black is the symbol for holiness and for the unknown) = the holy God = the black universe (the unknown), whom we should celebrate and love with all our concentration and energy
– No written scripture (ATR’s holy texts are mostly oral), but now some people are trying to compose the written scripture based on the Africans’ oral literature.
– Living according to the will of the Supreme Being and love also those who do have their own way of surviving by following other belief systems, which are different from that of the Waaqeffannaa. It includes keeping both safuu (virtues) and laguu (vices); i.e. to love safuu as well as to hate and abhor cubbuu (sin).
– Correspondence with the Supreme Being in times of a great need (i.e. in times of natural calamities, unexplained deaths) and try to walk always on the karaa nagaa (on the way of peace = on the way of righteousness, on the road of truth).
– Having a devout connection with ancestors; in case of Oromo, the ancestors are all ways blessed and celebrated for the good inheritance we got from them, but not worshiped as some people want to mis understand.
The word “culture” is most commonly defined as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group; different cultures are the distinct ways that classified people living in different parts of the world, that represented their experiences and acted creatively. African peoples have got our own culture, which distinguish us from other parts of the world, of course also having our own sub-cultures among ourselves. Aadaa Oromoo (Oromo culture) being one part of the Cush culture is one of the sub-cultures within the common African culture, which consists also the faith system of Waaqeffannaa as part and parcel of the Oromo/African culture.
Waaqeffannaa’s interaction with other religions
According to the expert opinions written up to now, the concept of monotheism is the whole mark of African Traditional Religion including the faith system of the Cush nations. It seems that this concept of monotheism have moved from Cushitic black Africans (including the Oromo) first to ancient Egypt, secondly, further to Israel of the Bible and lastly to the Arab world of Koran. The experts tell us that Moses was not the first monotheist, but Akhenaten was the first revolutionary monotheist; they even claim that Moses might have been black. It is also argued that Moses was an Egyptian Pharaoh known as Akhenaten before the exodus. Additionally, they do argue that Akhenaten’s monotheism revolution in Egypt was not inspired from inside, but induced from outside by the Cushites, i.e. Akhenaten might have derived his monotheism concept from Africa’s/Oromo’s concept of Waaqa tokkicha in a form of “Waaq humna malee bifa hin qabu (God has no physical form, but power).” This concept may have been misinterpreted so that the other religions later started to talk about God with a physical form.
It is also interesting to observe many similarities between some old Egyptian words and Afaan Oromo words; for instance, the similarities of the ancient Egyptian words “Anii and Matii” with the Oromo words of “Ana (Ani) and Maatii.” Anii of Egyptians, which means I (I am who I am), that is equivalent to God is similar to the Oromo word Ani, which also means I and refers to the first person singular (the actor = the main character of GOD). Matii being the designation of God’s congregation and the Oromo word Maatii for the family which is the “congregation” of ani (first person = God) are surprisingly the same. This is only one of many similarities between Oromo and Egypt registered by experts till now. It is not my intention to talk about this historical relationship here, but just to show the relation between Oromo’s traditional religion and the three Abraham religions, even though Judaism is not part of the current religions practiced by the Oromo. It means the new acceptance of both Christianity and Islam by Africans is the coming back of the same belief in Waaqa tokkicha to Africa in different forms.
This historical relation between Amantii Oromoo and the two big religions of the world suggests that Waaqeffannaa is the older version of monotheism and humanism. Waaqeffannaa as a faith system and Irreechaa as a major national celebration were part and parcel of Oromo public life. Now, some Oromo nationals prefer the name Amantii Oromo/Amantii Africa to Waaqeffannaa. It is important if we all can agree to call the Oromo traditional religion as Amantii Oromo/Amantii Africa, just like we agreed on calling our language Afaan Oromo and our country Biyya Oromo. So in short, we can say: Our land is Biyya Oromo, our language is Afaan Oromo and our religion is Amantii Oromo. It is known that some people may argue by saying “how can we call it Amantii Oromo, when we do see that more than half of the Oromo nowadays have Christianity and Islam as their religion?” Are Oromo with other first language rather than Afaan Oromo not Oromo, despite their lost Afaan Oromo? Should we say just because of these Oromo, who nowadays speak only English, German, Amharic, etc., that Oromo language is not Afaan Oromo? The same way, it is not logical not to call Oromo religion as Amantii Oromo because of the Oromo who overtook other religions. Actually, the designation Waaqqeffannaa (believing in and living with Waaqa) can also be applied to Christian Oromo and Islam Oromo even though most of the Islam Oromo prefer the name Rabbii to the name Waaqa. They all are believers in Waaqa = God = Allah = Rabbii. Amantii Oromo differs only because of its specificity for it is the older Oromo faith embedded in only Oromo/African culture without any influence from alien culture.
The fact to be accepted here is that God is universal even though we call HIM Waaqa, Rabbii or Allah. But, Amantii Oromo is the way how our forefathers believed in this universal Waaqa of humankind. We don’t have God or Waaqa, who is specific only to Oromo/Africa and doesn’t care for other nations. Waaqa is the God of nations. But, we Oromo do have a specific way and culture regarding how we do practice our belief in Waaqa. This way of practicing our faith is what we call Amantii Oromo. Amantii Oromo is simply the Oromo way of practicing the faith in the universal Waaqa. It is part of the Oromo way of dealing with the problems of life (it is part of Aadaa Oromo). Accordingly, aadaa (culture) can also be defined as the way, in which a certain collective or group of people deals with its own life problem.
The difference between this Amantii Oromo and the other two big religions practiced by Oromo is that the other two got not only the faith in one God, but also the elements of cultures from the people in which they first emerged. We can see here the Arabs accepted the concept of Waaqa tokkicha while still keeping pre-Mohammad Arab culture in Islam, which is far different from Oromo/from African culture, but Islam practiced by Oromo in Oromia is colored by Arab culture for it is adopted from there. Interestingly, this is the difference between Islam Arab and Islam Oromo; Islam Arabs adopted only the concept of Waaqa tokkicha from Cush of Africa/Egypt/Israel, but don’t seem to exercise alien culture from these areas, whereas Islam Oromo tend to adopt both the faith and the culture from Arabs. Egyptians and Israelis, who accepted the concept of the same Waaqa tokkicha, also do practice their faith being colored by their own previous culture; they don’t seem to practice Cush culture; but again Christianity practiced in Oromia is mostly colored by the culture of the Israelis, the Habeshas as well as by that of the Western world for Christian Oromo tend to adopt not only the faith, but also the alien culture.
That is why it is not actually bad that some Oromo nationals accept and believe in the two monotheist religions (Christianity and Islam) per se, but not good is giving more value to the culture of the nations from which the religions come to us, at the cost of the very valuable Aadaa Oromo. Of course, good elements of foreign cultures can be accommodated without damaging the good elements of our own. For instance, the similarity between dibbee Qaallu (Qaallu’s drum) and the beat of Tigrinya music shows how Tegarus have inherited and kept some elements of Oromo’s culture. This can verify that the suggestion of Donald Levine, who in his book called Greater Ethiopia wrote that “Tegarus are part of the Cushites of the Old Testament who denied their identity”, may be true. After all, why do they call their mother Aadde? Where does the name Barentu in Eritrea come from? Are they only inheritance of names or were they part of the lost Oromo/Cush? Anyways, it is good to follow the advice given once by Luba Shamsadin. He said (paraphrased here), when we try to accept religions from other nations, we have to identify and separate “the bone of the fish from the meat”; i.e. we need to identify and leave the unnecessary cultural elements of other nations, which are usually mixed with their religions we Oromo do tend to accept and adopt.
So as it is put here in short,
Waaqeffannaa (believe in one Waaqa of the universe) is practiced not only among the Cush nations, but also among almost all African nations. This faith system of Africans including Waaqeffannaa has been devalued as something “paganism, barbarism, religionlessness, uncivilization, Godlessness, animism, primitivism, etc”. The black color, which is the symbol of holiness in Waaqeffannaa was/is demonized as a symbol for Satan. All the blessing ceremonies of Waaqeffannaa and the utensil used for the blessings are condemned as a service, an instrument and worshiping of demons/Satan. Despite this denigration, the current revival of Waaqeffannaa and the celebration of Irreechaa in Oromia can be a good example-setting for the other African nations to revive their hitherto devalued and almost lost culture and religion.
To serve this purpose of revival, the right way of Waaqeffannaa (believing in, celebrating of and living with Waaqa) must be cleaned from alien non-constructive elements as well as from non-productive practices and rituals like that of “qaalichaa” (infiltrating idolatry), which are not serving the purpose of Waaqa in our personal or national life. That means, we have to differentiate Waaqeffachuu (realizing God’s purpose in our life) from waaqessuu (serving alien gods). Waaqeffachuu is applying Waaqa’s goodwill in our practical life, whereas waaqessuu is making someone or something be our Waaqa, i.e. practicing idolatry. The Oromo people in general have never had an idol to worship, but always had only one Waaqa to believe in and to celebrate. Of course, there are very few Oromo individuals nowadays tending to practice waaqessuu. Such purification of the African faith system from unimportant and useless elements must be done in all versions of the practices and rituals among all African nations.
Concept of God in Waaqeffannaa
To make Waaqeffannaa a little bit clear, here is a short narration about this faith system in practice. Oromo nationals practicing this faith do talk about Waaqa tokkicha, which is one of the evidences for the faith to be monotheism, just as the Christianity and Islam are. The concept of God among these believers is summarized by their usual saying: “Waaq humna malee bifa hin qabu.” These believers do not misinterpret Waaqa tokkicha as an expression of physical form for even the whole nature as a physical form is also an expression of his power. The believers and the Qaalluu or Qaallitti (local spiritual leader) are usually very lovely; specially the leaders are simply like a love in person. All their followers are selfless people full of good deeds and love; they do talk about Waaqa, calling him as abbaa koo (my father), and they usually do pray for children saying: “akka ijoollee keenyaa eebbisuuf abba keenya gaafanna (let’s ask our father to bless our children),” they usually don’t say “abba keenya kadhanna (let’s beg our father).”
Whenever they are challenged by life problems, they do assert by saying: “Waaq abbaan keenya eessa dhaqeetu (our God is not far away)”, denoting that Waaqa is always ready to help his children. They some times also talk as prophets in a way: “Abbaan keenya akkas jedha, ani sin wajjin jira, ani nan sin gargaara (our father says, I am with you and I will help you)”. According to them, the spiritual father is Waaqa garaa gurraachaa, i.e. Waaqa with holy heart, symbolized with black color, most of whose holiness is unknown to humans. Knowledgeable believers do tell that the concept “Waaqa gurracha garaa garba (black God with heart like ocean)” actually refers to the unknown future. What Waaqa may bring in the future is unknown, and that is signified by black color. Here, garaa garba is also about the unknown. One couldn’t know what is inside the body of water from afar. This point of view seems to be the reason for the color black in the Oromo tricolor to signify the unknown future.
In some regions of Oromia, there are a lot of congregations visited by Oromo at some big houses called gimbi (galma) which have got different names: gimbii diloo, maram, abbaa jama, hiike, etc; the spiritual practices done there include the following: dalaguu (dancing), irreenssa kennu (green leaf as a gift), wareeguu (offerings), hammachiisaa (blessing babies), gashaa (delicious food brought to gimbi), etc. Actually, people go to such gimbi regularly carrying green leaves of Irreensaa. In this culture, green grass or green leaf is a powerful symbol for life and prosperity, and it is an element present in all public rituals of Waaqeffataa Oromo, including funerals and prayers of remembrance, during which grass is spread on the ground or grave. The above listed different names of gimbi are Oromo spiritual holy places and palaces, which are equivalent to temple, church and mosque. In all the places mentioned, everyone prays to Waaqa. The practices mentioned above are just variations of spiritual practice to Waaqa.
It is also to be observed among the practicing Waaqeffattaa how balanced is their way of discussion and relationship. During sorts of discussions, they often discuss very wisely. For example, when they give comments, here is a sample of how they do: “Ilaa, kanaa fi sana waan gaarii jette. Haa ta’u malee, kunimmoo otoo akkana ta’e wayya (here and there you said good, but it is better if this one be so and so)”. They do not denigrate the opinion of the other side, but tell the better alternative to the opinion they do disagree with. They do tolerate the mistake of others and just tell the consequence of the mistake. As far as they are concerned, there is always cubbuu (sin) in their consciousness, but no concept for hell or condemnation after death. This simply implies that we all do experience the consequence of our trespasses regarding the safuu (virtues) and laguu (vices) expected from us during our life time.
Not to suffer such consequences of cubbuu, Waaqeffattaa Oromo have got a lot of very well said prayers in their practical life activities. The following are very few of the impressive prayers in the day to day life of the Oromo, which need to be presented here as examples. They are usually heard from the believers of Amantii Oromo, and they are almost similar to what the believers in Christianity and Islam do pray, let alone the similarity of the greatly formulated prayers we do hear during Irreechaa celebration with what the Christian Qesis and the Islam Sheiks usually do pray:
– Yaa Waaq kan dubbatee nu dubbachiisu fi kan hamaa nutti yaadu nurraa qabbi (God keep us from those who speak evil and make us speak the same).
– Yaa Waaq mirga nu oolch (help us to walk on the right way); hamaa nurraa qabi (protect us from evil).
– Yaa Rabbii, ilmi ga’e haa fuudhu (Oh God, let the young man be married), dubarri geesse haa heerumtu (let the young woman be married), this prayer shows howimportant family building for human blessing is.
– Yaa Waaq, ani galee, kan galee hin rafne narraa qabi; ani rafee kan rafee hin bulle narra qabi (I am now at home to sleep, save me from the evil ones who didn’t yet be at their home and didn’t sleep).
– Yaa Waaq galgala koo hin balleessiin (let my old age not be cursed), this is related with the conse -quence of cubbuu. The believers are asking Waaqa to help them stay away from cubbuu so that their “galgala (late age)” will not be bad/painful. Here we see something similar with the native American’s culture. They say: “when you came to this world, you cried and everybody else laughed; live your life so that when you leave this world, you laugh and everyone else cries”; i.e. to say live your life free from cubbuu and its conse -quence (suffering), the life style which leads you to the blessing in your old age.
This prayers indicate the fact on the ground how Oromo look at Waaqa and at the human-being. Waaqa is conceived as a holy father with whom we can correspond during our day to day life problems or when ever we face calamities or difficulties for his will is always good, whereas human-beings can be with either bad or good intention in relation to each other. Both Gadaa and Qaalluu institutions look at all individuals as human with equal rights in front of Waaqa; that is why there is no a “respect form” of addressing human-being or God in Afaan Oromo, just as there is non in English language. After losing our sovereignty, the Oromo people had to learn how to “respect” authority figures. For there is no such option in Afaan Oromo, we had to use plural verbs to address the authority figures. Even Abbaa Gadaa (chief of the government) and Abbaa Mudaa (the spiritual leader) were addressed as “ati = you in a singular form,” not as “isin = you in a plural form.” Today, we have to address our fellow human being with certain authority as “isin” to show “respect.” It is not bad if such addressing would have been mutual/symmetrical as for instance it is in German language. But such “respect,” which we are now applying is asymmetrical (only the authority figure is addressed with the “respect” form, whereas the authority figure can address the other person without using the “respect” form. Where it is the reality that we don’t use the “respect” form during addressing our Waaqa, as seen in the above prayers, why should we bother to use it in addressing our fellow human being? It would be better if we leave this culture, which we adopted from others with authoritarian culture in contrast to our own egalitarian one. Our concept of Waaqa doesn’t allow us to behave so submissively to any human being, who is equal to us.
Virtues and Vices of Waaqeffannaa
Here in short, safuu (virtue) can be defined as the “to do list” in order to serve Waaqa and to achieve his kaayyoo/goal in our personal and national earthly life; whereas laguu (vice) is the “not to do list” or the taboo, so that we can refrain from doing such activities diverting us from the kaayyoo Waaqa for our life. Cubbuu (sin) then in short includes both not doing the safuu and doing the laguu. Just as an example, if we take bilisummaa (national freedom) as Waaqa’s kaayyoo for the Oromo nation, what are the safuu and the laguu to be respected? If the kaayyoo of Waaqeffannaa is individual healing from any sort of illness, what are the safuu and the laguu, which both the healer and the sick person should respect?
In order to look at the virtues and vices of the traditional Oromo/African belief system for our earthly life, let us now try to describe Waaqeffannaa as we experienced it and knew it. Note that all the descriptions and notions we try to put here on paper are based on our own argaa-dhageetti (based on our own perception), which may differ from that of the other Oromo nationals. For instance, we could observe that Oromo is a nation filled with celebrations of eebba (blessing), who do have different celebrations for almost everything and everybody related to our life. For instance, taaboree as a blessing ceremony for young boys; ingiccaa for blessing young girls; ayyaana abbaa for blessing the ancestors for the good inheritance we got from them; ateetee for blessing our women; borantichaa for blessing adult men; jaarii looni for blessing our useful animals; jaarii qe’e or jaarii kosii for blessing our residence area; jaarii midhaani to bless our farms; garanfasa mucucoo as a celebration of the rainy season and, of course, gubaa and irreechaa for celebration of the coming birraa (the coming spring season) etc. We hope that Oromo students of anthropology, sociology and theology will make a scientific research on these blessing ceremonies and tell us the constructive and non-constructive elements of the activities in them.
But, let us mention few of the virtues (positive aspects) of Waaqeffannaa in our earthly life time. Here the reference point to judge certain elements as negative or positive is the position of the purpose, which Waaqa do have for our personal and national life, i.e. based on the kaayyoo (goal) our Waaqayyoo do have for us. To elaborate this relationship between kaayyoo and Waaqayyoo, we can ask: is Waaq-aayyoo our ka-ayyoo / is our ka-ayyoo the Waaq-ayyoo? It is about knowing what purpose we do serve in our daily life both cognitively and behaviorally, as individuals or as a nation. Be it that we do think and walk at political, religious or private level, we do try to serve certain purpose in life. In order to identify that purpose, we only need to be conscious about it, reflect on it and ask our selves: whom do we privately or collectively serve in our endeavors? Do we serve Waaqa’s purpose for us or that of the others’? Simply put, which purpose should we serve? Fortunately the hitherto cumulative knowledge and wisdom of different societies in general and that of the Oromo society in particular tell us what we ought to serve: i.e. to serve Waaqa’s purpose which is good for us as an individual and as a collective. This good purpose is given a sacred name and it seems to be what people call the will of Waaqa.
As a support for this assertion, we can look at an example written in the Bible of Christians, that states : “God is my objective”. Is this to be understood also as: “my objective is God”? Can we say that our good personal or political purpose is the will of Waaqa, whom we ought to serve? To comprehend this, it is no where clearly written other than in Afaan Oromo. Surprisingly the words kaayyoo and Waaqayyoo in our language do indicate to have the same source. As we know, the short word KA is the name given by our Cushitic ancestors to God and the word aayyoo is, of course, the name given to a mother, who does wish all good things for her children and does plan and try to fulfill it. So KA can be defined as the Supreme Being, which has good purpose for ayyoo’s children. This purpose is the “Goodness” for her children. So KA-ayyoo is God’s will (his good objective to her beloved children). The term Waaqayyo is the short form of waan-KA-ayyoo (what is planned from KA for aayyoo and for her children). So we can see that the good end, we have to serve, can be called kaayyoo from Waaqa. So the will of Waaqa is simply to be defined as the good end we should choose to serve as part of the balanced universe created by HIM.
To fulfill this service to the good end, fortunately the best thing we do observe among Waaqeffataa Oromo is the work-ethics they do have to achieve the purpose of Waaqa in their earthly life, specially in the life areas of career and family. They do love to be the best in both life areas; they love their family and most of them are very enthusiastic to be successful in their profession. They usually say “Waaq taa’i taa’i namaan hin jedhin (let HE not make us idle);” simply put, diligence is part of safuu and to be idle and lazy is part of laguu. We know that there are certain contamination from other cultures to be practiced as rituals contradicting this virtue and which are not serving the purpose of Waaqa for us. That is why we do recommend not only the revival of this marvelous belief system, which was the creation of our forefathers, but also we do suggest a necessary reformation to make the faith system to be fit, so that it can help us to cope with the 21st century challenge and situation. Waaqa’s creation and his keeping the balance of the universe is still going on, so that HE demands also a dynamic creative work from his creature, from the human being. Another impressive virtue of Waaqeffannaa necessary to be mentioned is its relation with nature and its persuasion to help us keep the environment healthy; it is the faith system which is simply through and through green.
Waaqeffannaa’s position on the life after death
According to this belief system, we all will live further after death as ekeraa (in a form of soul/spirit) with our father, with Waaqa, without any possibility of punishment in hell. We recently read Martial De Salviac’s translated book, in which he wrote “Oromo invariably believe that they will go to heaven.” So, the consequence of our cubbuu is not losing eternal life, but suffering in our earthly life. To Waaqeffataa Oromo, Waaqa is the one who wants us not to do a collective cubbuu, but expects us to protect the balanced nature, in which HIS power is manifested. The wisdom that guides Waaqeffataa Oromo in fulfilling this mission seems to be our arga-dhagetti (believe and act on a principle of reality, i.e. based on what we see and hear).
According to argaa-dhageetti, the concepts like “cubbuun ni qabdi (sin has got consequence), cubbuun ni sirriqxi (the consequence of sin can be inherited), cubbu abbaatu eeggata or cubbuu irra abbaatu uf eega (everyone should keep him-/herself from committing sin and everybody is responsible for the consequences of the sin he/she commit)” are nice and practical. What we liked most from the principles of Waaqeffannaa is this concept of cubbuu. The consequences of cubbuu are only to be seen here on this earth, not in the coming life after death. There is no hell that Waaqayyoo has prepared to punish the people with cuubbu. This is hilarious and very healing for those who always have to live with the fear of hell or punishment after death.
Another interesting aspect of Waaqeffannaa is that we never heard from the practicing believers that they are believing in the presence of an evil spiritual power in the form of Satan, which acts and lives against the almighty power of Waaqa. Accordingly, there is only one sovereign power doing and undoing all things in a universe, that is Waaqa. Unfortunately, the concept Satan is now already spread among the whole Oromo population as a contamination taken from other religions. Waaqeffataa Oromo do believe that the evil things we do experience in life are due to the imbalance of nature as a result of the unwise or wicked deeds of humans as collective, i.e. it is a human cubbuu with its consequences on the earth. That is why they usually ask their Waaqa for wisdom to keep the balance of nature and that HE lead them to only those with good intention and protect them from those with bad intention, for example, in a prayer like: “yaa Waaq tolaa nutti qabi, hamaa irraa nu eegi (God lead who is good to us and keep away who is evil from us). Here it seems that good is someone, who works to keep the balance of nature; and evil is the contrary.
According to the faith system of Waaqeffannaa, there is nothing we have to do now to earn eternal life after death; life after death is simply a free gift we got from our father, Waaqayyoo, whom we just need to celebrate and thank as we do daily and during the yearly celebrations like Irreechaa. We also don’t need a savior, who has to suffer and die for us, so that we can get life after death. The only area where we have to work on is trying to live the quality life (the character of the eternal life) according to the will of Waaqa here on earth. To live this quality life, we need to activate our potentials given to us from Waaqa and then walk on the karaa nagaa towards the kaayyoo Waaqa for our life, being free from cubbuu by keeping both safuu and laguu.
Further recommendation
The very important aspect of Waaqeffannaa as part of Oromo/African culture is its principle of argaa-dhaggeetti (it is relatively an evidence based faith system, possibly trying to be free from superstition). This principle is about reading the real situations at hand and finding the appropriate solutions for the situations. Waaqeffannaa teaches that only Waaqa is not prone to change for HE is perfect, but all his creature and all the situations are changing with time; that is why his creative action is still going on and that we also need to be in a position to find new solutions for the changed situations. In short, we need to be situation oriented, time oriented and live accordingly. That means, it is good to know the past version of aadaa and Amantii Oromo/Africa; but better is to live and practice the present version of aadaa and Amantii Oromo; of course the best is to create the most beneficial version of aadaa and Amantii Oromo as well as to inherit it to our coming generation. So let’s learn from the past version, live the present version and love to create the future verion of aadaa Oromo in general, and Amantii Oromo in particular.
This article is of course coloured by subjective perceptions, so that Oromo nationals are welcome to complement or contradict it. All the sub-titles given in this article need a further meticulous research and study. Through scientific studies, it can be possible to cleanse Waaqeffa -nnaa from certain meaningless rituals adopted from the other sub-cultures, e.g rituals like that of “qaalichaa” (idolatry), xinqolaa (sorcery), etc, where the practitioners are actually making business in the name of the religion. Waaqeffannaa needs not only revival, but also reformation as part and parcel of the ongoing liberation from such sensless practices. Elements, which are against the will of Waaqa for all human-being in general and for African nations in particular must be removed, so that we can say Waaqa bless Oromia/Africa and then live accordingly. Adopting good elements, which serve the will of Waaqa for us, from other cultures and faiths is not bad as it is usually said: “waan gaariin bade hundi kan Oromo ti” (every good thing lost belongs to Oromo). Again, good and bad is defined from the position of the will of Waaqa for our life, i.e. from the position of his kaayyoo in our life, which is always a good purpose.
So, only celebrating the holidays and reviving the religion are not enough, if we want to be fit for the present 21st century situation and for the situation in which our future generation will live. Our forefathers created a faith system as part of the solution to their situation; we also need to do the same. So let’s not try to use the same key used by our forefathers in the past to open doors with totally different keyholes at the present and the future or we don’t need to ride a donkey at this age of driving a limousine; in short we need a right solution for the present and the future situations. Our next generation need to inherit from us the latest and modern model/edition/version of our faith system, Waaqeffannaa, which they also can reform, edit and secure for their children and grand children, so that we human-being continue to be as creative as our father, Waaqa.
Let’s give a simple suggestion as an example in the required reforming: why can’t we use bundle of flowers for Irreechaa, instead of only grass used by our forefathers? Why don’t we use water or oil, instead of butter to anoint others during the blessing ceremonies just for the sake of hygiene? Why don’t we use candle light or the modern beautifully colored electric light decorations instead of bonfire during wa-maraa (demera)? etc. Now it is a time to have Waaqeffannaa free from non-productive and untimely elements, so that it will be a faith system, which will be accepted and believed by the enlightened and informed Oromo in particular as well as by Africans in general (so that it will be a faith system serving the will of Waaqa for Oromia in particular, and for Africa in general).
Last but not least, Waaqeffataa Oromo need to be creative in realizing the will of Waaqa in our life, which is the only way to “evangelize” and convert others to the “karaa nagaa (to the right way) HE wants us to walk. We need to learn from the past (the known part of life, which is symbolized by white color), live the present (the challenging part of life symblized by red color) and love to know the future (the unknown part of life symbolized by black color). The karaa nagaa at this particular era/time includes the virtue of a passinate struggle in life both individually and collectively, not an attitude of the pacifistic stoicism. Waaqeffannaa doesn’t persuade us to do things to secure life after death, but it tells us that our effort and enthusiasm are part of the safuu we have to keep and implement in order to make our life here on earth the excellent success story.
The Mass Massacre & Imprisonment of ORA Orphans – Wallaga 1992-93
By Mekuria Bulcha*
“…. many of us lost our parents and relatives and were cared for by the Oromo Relief Association (ORA) for our survival and wellbeing. With the support of the international community and Oromos abroad, some 1,700 of us have been taken care of in exile in the Blue Nile Province of the Sudan. … The ORA gave us the chance to survive” (from a letter by “Raagaa”, one of the ORA children 1993).
“The life of those of us who did not experience the sweet love of parents, but had known only an organization [ORA] was devastated when the organization collapsed; we were left alone without relations. There are many who shared my misfortune; regrettably the whereabouts of many of them remains a mystery” (from an interview by the author with another former ORA child, Leensaa, March 2014).
“We appeal to you to do all you can to shed light upon the fate of the more than 1,600 children from ORA camp in Kobor. Where are Sagantaa Useen, Tolina Waaqjiraa and Duulaa Tafarra and all others?” (from a letter sent by the teachers and pupils of Heinrich-Goebel-Realschule to Dr. Klaus Kinkel, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, November 2, 1992)
Introduction
The three quotations presented above are from documents used in writing this article and reflect, in one way or another, the fate of about 1,700 Oromo children who were looked after by the Oromo Relief Association (ORA) in the refugee camps of Yabus, Damazin and Bikoree in the late 1980s. The first quote is from a letter written by one of the ORA children to the ORA office in Germany after he escaped from the Dhidheessa concentration camp in 1993. “Ragaa” is a fictive name as the letter writer lives in Ethiopia. The second quote is from an interview with Leensa Getaachoo who was one of the ORA orphans. First incarcerated at the age of ten in 1994, she had been in seven Ethiopian prisons before she fled from Ethiopia in 2000. A brief account of her more than a decade-long odyssey across three continents and her sojourn in six countries in search of a safe haven is included in the last section of this article. The last quotation is from a letter written by students and teachers of a school in Germany appealing to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help them find out the whereabouts of the ORA orphans. Their school supported the ORA project materially and the pupils were pen friends with the ORA children.
The main purpose of this article is to shed light on what happened to the ORA children in western Oromia during the summer months of 1992. Associating them with the Oromo Liberation (OLF), the Tigrayan Liberation Front (TPLF) imprisoned hundreds of them in 1992 and 1993 along with thousands of Oromo civilians and OLF fighters in the Dhidheessa concentration camp. Although I knew that many of the ORA children were imprisoned, I only got a hint of the full magnitude of the crime committed against themlast year when I came across a report written in 1996 by the UK based Oromia Support Group (OSG Press Release No. 13, 1996). The OSG wrote about the flight of the ORA children and their guardians chased by the TPLF forces. The report noted that“After three weeks on the run, with rain, mud, hunger and sleeping rough in the bush, the remaining 600 or so children were attacked in the Gunfi area.…. Local informants claim that the fleeing children were hunted like kurupé, a small antelope which leaps to see its way while fleeing through tall vegetation.” (Emphasis mine) This reminded me of what I read about the now extinct indigenous inhabitants of the island of Tasmania. They were hunted and killed by white settlers just like wild game and were exterminated. It is embarrassing that we have failed to record the story of the ORA children properly during the last twenty-two years. However, I believe that it is our obligation to record their story now and bring it to the attention of particularly the Oromo people. As the first two quotations above indicate, most of the children were parentless; the majority had no families to remember them. It is our duty to remember them by recording their story.
An inquiry into the intention of the crime is another aim of the article. The crime was carried out systematically and over a long period of time. The question is: why? Why did the TPLF forces chase children and adolescents for over three months and capture or kill them, when they knew that they were unarmed youth and that the adults accompanying them were not fighters but their guardians? Based on information gathered through interviews and the description of the manner in which the TPLF security forces have treated them inside and outside the concentration camps, the article will argue that politicide,[1] was perpetrated against the ORA orphans. The TPLF was in an open war with the OLF when the children were massacred in the summer months of 1992. Consequently, it wouldn’t be farfetched to argue, as I will do in this article, that the atrocities committed by the TPLF against the ORA children and their guardians constitute a war crime.
Thirdly, the article will show that the persecution of the ORA children was a springboard for the TPLF policy of liquidating those individuals and groups its makers see as bearers of the seeds of Oromo nationalism, and that this has culminated in the current widespread war against Oromo students. I will describe, albeit briefly, the case of other Oromo children and youth who have been accused of “supporting” the OLF or branded as “terrorists” and treated with incredible cruelty.The many crackdowns on Oromo students during the past fifteen years, including the ongoing war against secondary school and university students throughout Oromia, which I will discuss in another forthcoming article, are guided by the same odious policy which led to the massacre and imprisonment of the ORA orphans. Based on my readings of its cruel treatment of the educated Oromo youth, my assessment of the main objective of the TPLF regime’s policy has been to deprive the Oromo nation of its current and future leaders. In short, what has been going on in Oromia since 1992 is clearly politicide. Oppressive Latin American dictatorships, which were led by military generals such Augusto Pinochet in Chile from 1973 to 1999, and Jorge Rafael Videla, Leopoldo Galtieri and others in Argentina between 1975 and 1983. Although not widely known and acknowledged, the politicide carried out against Oromo intellectuals, businessmen and students—who are often labelled by the TPLF regime as “OLF supporters” or “terrorists”—surpasses in its ferocity that of the Latin American dictators against the so-called communists. Its treatment of its Oromo victims is in many ways “dirtier” than the “Dirty Wars” which the Argentinian military dictators carried out against left wing politicians and others between 1975 and 1983. Politicide takes on genocidal characteristics when carried out against members of an ethnic, linguistic or “racial” community. The policy of the Tigrayan ruling elites against the Oromo displays these characteristics.
Sources of information
The article is based on information collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary sources comprise
correspondence which I had with a former teacher and head of the ORA children’s project who was also with the children during their flight from the TPLF in western Oromia,
written and telephone interviews with two former ORA children who live in an African country and one who lives in England,
telephone interviews conducted with Oromos who were imprisoned by the Ethiopian regime in the 1990s. These Oromos, who are now scattered across different countries in Africa, North America and Europe and who know what happened to the children during the second half of 1992 or later.
I have consulted reports and documents from the archives of ORA as a secondary source of information. These include a short letter written in Afaan Oromoo by one of the ORA children who were deported to the Dhidheessa concentration camp in June 1992. He escaped from the concentration camp in 1993 and found his way to Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) from where he wrote the letter to the ORA office in Germany. The letter was translated into English by Tarfa Dibaba. The other secondary source of information, an OSG (Oromia Support Group) report, was based on interviews with the surviving children, teachers, guardians and local Oromo population of western Oromia in 1996. The third document used here is a short article based on an interview given in 1994 by a former prisoner of the Dhidheessa concentration camp. The interview was in Afaan Oromoo and was translated to English by Yoseph Taera & Kathrin Schmitt and published as “An EPRDF Prison Camp from Inside” (see Oromo Commentary, Vol. VI (1), 1994). The informant was a detainee at the Dhidheessa concentration camp. Other documents obtained from the ORA archives in Germany include most of the photos used in the article, and a copy of the letter written by the teachers and pupils of Heinrich-Gobel-Realschule of the city of Springe in Germany to the German Minister for Foreign Affairs in November 1992 mentioned above. The article has three short parts including this one. The second part will discuss imprisonment and death in the Dhidheessa concentration camp. The third part consists of short life stories of some of the children, both dead and alive.
The Oromo Relief Association: Its Origins and Objectives
The Oromo Relief Association (ORA) had its origin in a clandestine committee created during the dark days of the so-called Red Terror which was unleashed by the Dergue (the Ethiopian Military Regime) and devoured thousands of the educated youth in Ethiopia in 1977-78. The objective of the committee was to assist families whose breadwinners were jailed, had “disappeared” or had been killed. The committee was known as “Funding-raising Committee”, and functioned mainly in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa). Oromo government employees and businessmen made contributions to assist the work of the clandestine committee. [2]
When it was formally established abroad in 1979, one of the objectives of ORA was to assist in bringing up the children of those Oromos who had died or were imprisoned because of their role in the national struggle for freedom. ORA provided humanitarian assistance to needy people in the OLF-held areas and offered medical and social service for Oromo refugees in the neighboring countries of the Horn of Africa. The Sudan was one of the countries in which the association was established and was recognized by its government.
ORA’s humanitarian activities in the Sudan
I visited the ORA offices in both Khartoum and Damazin in the Sudan for the first time in November 1981. From December 1982 to February 1983 I was again in the Sudan and could see the progress which the association was making in providing crucially needed services to Oromo refugee communities settled in the Blue Nile Province of the Sudan. In all the places I visited in the Sudan, the largest concentration of Oromo refugees was in Yabus, a district located south of Kurmuk town near the Ethiopian border.
Being one of the remotest districts in the Sudan, Yabus lacked not only a clinic and a school, but also all means of communication including roads. In February 1983, I presented a report entitled “Some Notes on the Conditions of Oromo, Berta and other Refugees in the Kurmuk District of the Blue Nile Province, Republic of Sudan” (Bulcha, 1983) to the UNHCR and NGOs in Khartoum, to raise awareness about the problems which were facing Oromo refugees in the remote districts of Sudan’s Blue Nile Province, particularly the health problems and high death rate among children. I also pointed out that the only organization which was assisting the refugees in the province was the ORA, and that it had almost no resources at its disposal to support even its staff. The UNHCR and NGOs responded positively to my short report. The UNHCR sent a staff member to Damazin and followed up the problem. Among NGOs was Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, who participated in providing medical service to Oromo refugees and the ORA children whose stories are given in this article. Researchers from Europe and the US were also in the region and to conduct further studies of the problem facing Oromo refugees.[3] The reportwas also presented during workshops organized by ORA support committees in some European countries.
Through hard work and assistance from Oromo Support Committees in Europe and the US, the ORA was able assist Oromo refugees in the Horn of Africa, particularly in the Sudan. Through its children’s program, the association provided education to young refugees, and took care of parentless children in shelters it had built in the Sudan (see Tarfa Dibaaba’s book: It is a Long Way: A Reflection on the History of the Oromo Relief Association (2011).
The social backgrounds of the ORA children
As described in the first two quotations at the beginning of this article many of the children, who were supported and educated by ORA in its children centers in Yabus, Damazin and Bikoree in the Sudan, were parentless. They lost their parents and relatives during the Dergue period. Most of them were small when they came to the ORA camps. For example, the record shows that of the 244 children who fled Yabus to Damazin, 24 percent were between six and ten years old, 67 percent were between 11 and 15, and 9 percent from 15 to 17 years old (source:ORAdocuments, Berlin, Germany).
Pictures 7a & 7b: Some of the ORA children in Yabus and in Damazin in the late 1980s (Photo: Tarfa Dibaba).
Picture 8a & 8b: Some of the smallest ORA children in Yabus in 1988: In the forefront are the ‘inseparable sisters’ Sadiyyaa and Nuuriyya Tolasaa (see also 8b above, Photo: Tarfa Dibaba). Many of these children were viciously killed, imprisoned and tortured by TPLF’s forces in the 1990s.
The 1989 flight from Yabus
Quoting Amanda Heslop and Rachel Pounds of the London-based agency “Health Unlimited,” who were working as volunteers in Yabus as a teacher and a nurse respectively when it was attacked by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the New African (April, 1990) wrote “In mid-December 1989, Oromo children started arriving in an Oromo refugee camp in Damazin, Central Sudan in a severe state of malnutrition and shock. The New African added “They were orphaned children who, among 6,000 Oromo refugees, had fled from the South Sudanese town of Yabus”. According to another source (Dhaabaa, November 21, 2013) some of the children were moved to Damazin and the rest were sent to Bikoree when Yabus was attacked by the SPLA. The SPLA was fighting the Sudanese army and was backed by units of the Ethiopian army when it attacked Yabus.
Picture 9:The 244 children who fled from Yabus to Damazin in December 1989 were quartered in tents on their arrival. The tents and other ORA properties including trucks and large amounts of food in store were confiscated by the Sudanese government in 1992 supporting the Tigrayan regime in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa). The tents were donated by the German Ministry for Development Aid. Photo Tarfa Dibaba
The children who were in the ORA children’s camps in the Sudan in the mid-1980s returned home in 1992. According to the ORA, the first batch of its1033 children returned to Oromia from Bikoree in early 1992. They were joined in May 1992 by 691 children from Damazin. In addition to the 1,724 returnees from the Sudan, there were over 300 children in two camps—one in Caanqaa and the other Mummee Dhoqsaa in OLF controlled areas (source: Dhaaba as above).
Following the demise of the Dergue regime, “Those from Bikore, aged 12-18, were moved to Asosa in 1991. Because of the poor security situation there, they were moved to a site near Mendi (Wallaga) for one year. Nearby clashes between the OLF and the TPLF forced them to be moved around April/May 1992 to Kobor, 10-20 km in the direction of Asosa from Begi” town. Soon after, “the 5-15 year olds” from Damazin also arrived in Kobor (OSG Press Release, No. 13, 1996).
“We were all full of joy to be back in our country”
Research on international migration shows that, irrespective of age, sex and profession, a spiritual and physical return to the lands of their ancestors is uppermost in the minds of most of those who find themselves outside of their homeland against their wishes. Indeed, the ORA children must have been very happy to return to their homeland. The parents of many of them had sacrificed their lives fighting for its freedom. In a letter he wrote to ORA-Germany, Raagaa, who escaped from the Dhidheessa concentration camp explained,
When the situation seemed favorable to move back to our country, arrangements were made to take us back to our home areas of western Wallaga. … First, we were taken to Mendi and from there to Begi. We did not see anything of the fighting between the TPLF and the OLF. We did not know anything about the problem. We did not see any armed units on the way. We enjoyed a short-lived peaceful time. We continued our regular lessons under shady trees and in small village schools and spent most of the time outside enjoying the cool climate of our country. We were all full of joy to be back in our country (emphasis mine).
Raagaa belongs to the batch of children who returned from Bikoree in early 1992. The joy he described above did not last long. Those who returned from Damazin in May 1992 did not get a chance to experience even the short-lived peaceful life that the returnees from Bikoree experienced. Their dream of a happy life in a free homeland was shattered by terror perpetrated by enemy forces who occupied their homeland. The children were deprived not only the right to live and grow in freedom and happiness in their ancestral homeland, but many of them were also deprived of the right to life itself.
A walk into a death trap
The return of the ORA children from Damazin to Oromia coincided with the encampment of the OLF forces which was mediated by representatives of the US and Eritrean governments and signed by the OLF and the TPLF, preparing the ground for elections planned to take place in June 1992. But that did not happen. As we all know, following the withdrawal of the OLF from the local elections scheduled for the third week of June, its camps were attacked by the TPLF soldiers, who were not encamped like those of the OLF.
Regrettably, it was not the peace and happiness for which the children were longing, but violence, horror and death that was waiting for them at home in the shape of a new enemy that had occupied it. Ironically, from the relative security in refugee camps in the Sudan, they walked into a death trap laid out by the TPLF-led regime in their homeland. The shelters for the children at Gabaa Jimaata (for those from Bikoree) and at Ganda Qondaala (for those from Damazin)—both near Kobor—were attacked as if they too were OLF camps. So were the smaller shelters at Mummee Dhoqsaa and Caanqaa. The fact that the shelters were both homes and schools for children was known to the public. This was not hidden from the TPLF troops. They would have been informed, not only by their intelligence agents, but were in the area for weeks before they started their murderous attack on the children. In other words, the assaults on the shelters were carried out with the intent of harming the children. At that time of the attack, 1,724 children who returned from the Sudan and 22 who joined them at home (altogether 1,746 children) lived with their 37 caretakers and 35 teachers in the two ORA children centers mentioned above. In addition, the two smaller centers at Caanqaa and Mummee Dhoqsaa run by the OLF, housed and supported about 300 internally displaced, poor or parentless children. All in all the assault targeted over 2000 children. According to Dhaabaa (November 21, 2013), at that time the children were receiving training in different skills in addition to the education given in public schools.
Describing what had happened to the children he had bravely tried to protect from the TPLF killers during their three-month long bewildering flight, Dhaaba (November 21, 2013) wrote,
“The children were denied human rights; they were hunted, shot at, wounded and killed. Those who were captured were dragged into prison in violation of ethics that ought to be respected. That became their fate.”
Picture 10: A classroom in a school ran by ORA for refugee children in Damazin
As reflected in the eager faces of these pupils, children in refugee camps often have an amazing thirst for education. They see in it a better future. Regrettably, the life of these knowledge thirsty ORA children was cut short by the TPLF regime. They lacked protection, parental, organizational and legal. Photo: Tarfa Dibaba, 1988
Picture 11: Obbo Shifarraa was one of the assistant teachers and caretaker of ORA children in the ORA school in Damazin
ORA and the OLF ran schools which taught classes up to grade six. This was also the case in areas under OLF control inside Oromia. It was here that together with the literacy classes that were given to Oromo refugees in different places in the Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia and elsewhere that the qubee based educational system adopted by all school Oromia in 1992 was laid down.
Picture 12: Shows a classroom in Bikoree in 1990. It is difficult to say how many of these lovely kids were killed during the June-July 1992 TPLF onslaught or died in Dhidheessa concentration camp later. (Photo: Tarfa Dibaba)
Through Forests and Marshlands and Over Mountains with Killers on their Heels
Dhaba reported that they, the teachers and caretakers (hereafter the guardians), fled with the children into the Charphaa forest. From there, they sent some of the children away to Gidaami and some of them to Begi to look for relatives or hide among the local population. The TPLF forces arrived after sometime and opened fire on the group. In the shooting that followed some of the children were killed or injured. The children and their guardians fled from Carphaa to the Gaara Arbaa mountain range. Helped with information about the whereabouts of the TPLF forces provided by the sympathetic local population, they had been hitherto ahead of their hunters. However, soon aftertwo days after their arrival in Gaara Arbaa area, they detected that the TPLF fighters were building a ring around the forest wherein they were hiding. The children were forced to rush down the hillsides towardthe Dabus River. As the month of June is part of the season when the rainfalls are the heaviest, the valley had turned into a marshland and was covered with impenetrable tall elephant grass. Fleeing on foot through thewild and impenetrable vegetation was taxing. Blood-thirsty insects swarmed in the tall grass making travel through them immensely difficult and unbearable even to the most experienced adults: they had to fight off biting insects and struggle to walk through the grass at the same time. The children and their guardians found the Dabus was in full flood and unfordable on foot. Fortunately there were canoes owned by the locals. However, they carried only 2 or 3 individuals at a time. Therefore, it took many hours filled with fear and anxiety to take the children to the other side.After ten days, the children and their caretakers came to Mummee Dhoqsaa on the banks of the Dillaa River, a tributary of the Dabus after ten days (Dhaabaa, December 9, 2013).
The Dillaa was also in flood and, as the children were trying to cross under similar stress and circumstances (as when they crossed the Dabus), the TPLF, whose soldiers were still on their heels opened fire on them in the Gunfi area. According the OSG report mentioned above, an unknown number of children were killed or wounded and some were captured by the soldiers. The rest were separated and scattered in different directions. Dhaabaa reported (December 9, 2013) that a clinic in Gunfi (where children who were suffering from malaria and other diseases were getting medication) was surrounded by the TPLF soldiers who opened fire on them. Although caretakers were assigned and had accompanied each group (Dhaabaa, see above) it is difficult to say how many of the children were able to escape the TPLF troops as they continued to chase and capture or kill them for many weeks.
Picture 13: Some of the ORA teenagers in Bikoree, Sudan, having a good time together in 1990. This and the other pictures taken in exile show that that the children were well cared for by ORA. Photo: Tarfa Dibaba
As mentioned above, there is no doubt that the TPLF forces knew that those who were fleeing from them were children, as well as their caretakers and teachers, and not Oromo soldiers or fighters. Although they might have been “carrying out” orders from above, they behaved monstrously as though the children they were chasing and killing were not human beings like themselves. It seems that they captured, persecuted or killed the children as a matter of duty.
Killed by TPLF bullets or taken by floods while fleeing from them
Nobody knows how many of the ORAchildren were killed or captured and imprisoned by the TPLF. Different incidents are mentioned by the sources in which the children incurred casualties at the initial stage of their flight. According Abdalla Suleeman, a former OLF fighter, in one attack at a place called Yaa’a Masaraa near Kobor in Begi district over 30 children were killed when the TPLF forces bombed a building in which the fleeing children took shelter. He also mentions that many children had also drowned when the pursuing forces opened fire on them on the banks of the Dabus River (personal communication, March 2013). One of the eyewitness-accounts of the TPLF assault was given by a 13-year old girl, “Milkii” (fictive name as she is married and lives in Oromia now). Milkii was among the group of children who were sent in the direction of Mendi in the north. Although wounded when her group was attacked on the banks of the Dabus River, she was lucky to escape together with her 11-year brother and many of her companions. Regrettably, it was not all the children in her group who had that luck. She said that between 35 and 40 children in her cohort were killed on the riverbank or drowned while trying to cross to the other side seeking safety.
Since we do not have any other eyewitness of the incident described above, we have to accept Milkii’s account with caution. This, not because I believe she is telling lies, but because of the situation under which she had made the observation. However, it is important to note that other sources also indicate that a number of the ORA children had drowned while crossing the Dabus River or its tributaries.The OSG, for example, mentions that about 20 children had drowned while Dhaabaa mentions only one child who died in such an accident. Since the children were dispersed and fled in different directions, nobody seems to know how many of them had drowned or were killed during the flight. It is also difficult to verify whether the sources are referring to the same or to different incidents. In general, given the information we have, it is impossible to account for the fate of the majority of the 1,724 children who returned home, nor of the 300 who were in the Caanqaa and Mummee Dhoqsaa shelters when the TPLF attacked them in June 1992. However, regarding the number of children killed by the TPLFforces,the OSG (Press Release no. 13, August 1996: 17) wrote that “Between 170 and 200 bodies of children were found.” The OSG indicated that the figures were based on “Interviews with surviving children, teachers and carers, and interviews with residents in Wollega province over the last twelve months”. In short, although wecannot confirm the death statistics given above, there is no doubt that many of the ORA children were killed during their three-month long vicious pursuit and assault by the TPLF forces. Among those who were gunned down by the TPLF forces were the three boys—Tolina Waaqjiraa, Duula Tafarraa and Sagantaa Useen—mentioned in the letter cited at the beginning of the article (Dhaabaa, December 9, 2013). As mentioned above, over 300 children were captured and imprisoned in the Dhidheessa concentration camp. As will be revealed in the next part of this article, many died there from hunger, diseases and torture.
Crime against guardians and sympathetic local Oromo population
Noteworthy aspects of the flight of the ORA children were the courage that their guardians—their teachers and caretakers—had shown in protecting them as well as the support given them by the inhabitants of the districts they traversed. The price which both the guardians and many sympathetic peasants have paid to protect and support the children was high. Some were killed during the flight. It seems many were also caught and imprisoned. Among the children’s guardians who were killed were Abbaa Jambaree and Adabaa Imaanaa. The killing of the physically handicapped Adabaa Imaanaa was carried out with barbaric brutality. Dhabaa wrote (November 21, 2013) that
Adabaa Imaanaa was a guardian of the ORA children starting in Bikoree until the time of the TPLF assault. As he couldn’t walk, I got help from the people who gave us a mule to be used by him during flight from the assaulters. We were followed by the enemy from place to place and arrived in Mummee Dhoksaa on the banks of the Dillaa Gogolaa. After sometime we were surrounded by the enemy. They opened gunfire on us. One of the children’s caretakers, Abba Jambaree was killed. We managed to cross the river by canoes. Since his mule was frightened by the gunfire, panicked and galloped away, we sent away Adaba Imaanaa to limp to his village hiding from the enemy. When I went to his village later and I heard from his neighbors that he had reached his village with difficulty. But the TPLF agents had traced him, surrounded his house, took him out and killed him in late 1992.
However, in spite of the risks involved, the Oromo inhabitants of the districts through which the children passed, sheltered, fed, and directed them to the safest routes, informing them about the whereabouts of the TPLF forces. They had also volunteered to receive and hide those children whom the ORA staff were forced to place in their guardianship. The generosity shown to the fleeing children and their guardians by the inhabitants of the many villages through which theypassed, did not go unpunished by the TPLF. According Dhaabaa (November 21, 2013), the first person to be accused of helping the ORA children was a priest the village of Gabaa Jimaata mentioned above. His name was Abbabaa. He was dragged out of his house by the TPLF soldiers and shot in cold blood. A farmer called GaaddisaaDaaphoo was killed for feeding the children and their guardians in Harrojjii, a village in which they stayed during their flight.
It is difficult to imagine the hate that makes people commit such atrocities. Why did they kill, for example, a physically handicapped old man? Is it because he was an Oromo? What did the Oromo do to them? How can one hate a people amongst whom one lives in such a manner? Some probable answers to these questions will be discussed in the forthcoming part of this article.
[1] Politicide” means “a crime committed with intention on political grounds.” More fully, it is a deliberate killing or physical destruction of a group who form (or whose members share a distinctive characteristic of) a political movement.
[2] I was a contributor for a short time before I left the Ethiopia in September 1977.
[3] See for example, Virginia Lulling, “Oromo Refugees in a Sudanese Town”, Journal of Northeast African Studies, 8(2&3), 1996;
*Mekuria Bulcha, PhD and Professor of Sociology, is an author of widely read books and articles. His most recent book, Contours of the Emergent and Ancient Oromo Nation, is published by CASAS (Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society), Cape Town, South Africa, in 2011. He was also the founder and publisher of The Oromo Commentary (1990-1999).
The Name of the Abominable Crime is Politicide
(Part Two)
Deportation and Death in the Dhidheessa Concentration Camp
By Mekuria Bulcha*
Introduction
In the first part of this article, published on this website on June 22, 2014 under the title “The Name of the Abominable Crime is Politicide: The Mass Massacre and Imprisonment of ORA Orphans – Wallaga 1992-93,” I described the humanitarian activities of the Oromo Relief Association (ORA) among Oromo refugees in the Sudan in the 1980s and discussed the repatriation of some 1700 orphans, who were taken care of by the association, to Oromia in 1992. As I mentioned in the article, the initial TPLF onslaughts on the fleeing ORA children and their guardians took about three months. The different sources that I consulted indicated that between 170 and 200 children were hunted down and killed or drowned in flight. In addition, an unknown number of their guardians—as well as inhabitants of the districts through which they passed who helped during their flight—were killed during the onslaught. At the start of the onslaught about 300 children were captured and sent to the Dhidheessa concentration camp.
Deportation, torture, and political indoctrination
As mentioned before, most of the children were either placed in the care of the people or were sent away to look for relatives before their teachers and caretakers scattered to hide or flee back to the Sudan to seek refuge. However, the TPLF search for ORA children continued for more than a year after the initial onslaught came to an end. Apparently, many of the children who escaped the TPLF-forces’ bullets, and who were not arrested during the onslaught were traced, arrested and sent to jail. One of the survivors H.S. (who lives in a country neighboring with Ethiopia) told me:
I was about eight [years] old when the TPLF attacked us. I fled with the other children and adults in our camp. After sometime, we smaller children, who were unable to keep pace with the rest in the flight, were given to families in different villages along the route. I was placed with a family in a village called Gaara Arbaa. Two of my shelter mates, Kuusaa and Dingata, were also placed in the neighborhood in the same village. However, after a few weeks, the TPLF found and captured us and took us first to Begi town and then to the Dhidheessa prison camp.
Consequently, the number of the ORA children who ended up in the TPLF jails and died whilst kept captive remains unknown. The limited information I could gather confirms that, generally, the children were treated with cruelty in the concentration camp. In his letter to ORA (see the first part of the article), Raagaa mentions the names of some of the friends he left behind in the Dhidheessa concentration camp grieving that,
The fate of those children mentioned in this note, many hundreds of them, is that they were accused by the TPLF that they were brought up by the OLF and as such need to go through “re-education programs” of the TPLF. Can anybody imagine the children would fight the EPRDF/TPLF back? The truth is the children did not understand anything about the war.
Concerning the TPLF “re-education program,” another informant has also reported that “frequently the children are asked about their attitude towards the EPRDF” and that their “hands are fettered behind their backs” during the interrogations and that “the children’s skin was cut and wounded around their wrists from the rope” with which they were tied. To change their “political attitude,” the TPLF forced the children to participate in a “political education.” The OLF was demonized and the participants (prisoners) were instructed about the “crimes it had committed” and were made to shout anti-OLF slogans at the top of their voices.
The so-called political education was forced not only on the ORA children who were detained in the Dhidheessa concentration camp but also on the tens of thousands of Oromo prisoners kept in the numerous open and secret prison camps run by the TPLF regime in the early 1990s. One of the prisoners forced to experience the TPLF “political education” was Jamal. He was imprisoned in the Hurso concentration camp, outside of the eastern Oromo city of Dire Dawa. Jamal escaped from Hurso and fled to Djibouti in 1993.In August 1997, whilst in Djibouti, he met the two Swiss journalists Bruna Bossati and Peter Niggli as well as the late Lydia Namarraa of the ORA (UK) and told them about his own experience of the “political education” that was given by the TPLF cadres to Oromo prisoners as follows:
The lessons [were] given by the OPDO [and] were supervised by armed TPLF soldiers. The prisoners were instructed that the OLF was a criminal organization with a misguided anti-democratic program directed against the people. The teachers measured the success of their efforts by the enthusiasm with which their ‘pupils’ shouted slogans such as: “The OLF kills and slaughters the people” and “We will destroy the OLF.”
Jamal said “Whoever didn’t agree with the slogans was forced to stand up and repeat them at the top of his voice.” Those who showed insufficient enthusiasm were punished. They were beaten. Any resistance, according to Jamal, would have risked death (see Bruna Fossati, Lydia Namarra & Peter Niggli, The New Rulers of Ethiopia and the Persecution of the OromoFrankfurt am Main: Evangelischer Pressedienst, 1996, Nr. 45e , p. 25). The treatment of the imprisoned ORA orphans followed the same pattern. However, reports indicate that there were those among the ORA children imprisoned in Dhidheessa who resisted the intimidation of the TPLF “political educators,” thus risking their lives. Tarfa Dibaba notes that one of the survivors of the Dhidheessa concentration camp whom he met in Khartoum in 1998 told him about one of the ORA children who was hung upside down during one of the sessions of the TPLF political education and was ordered to tell its other participants to “give up” the idea that “Oromia shall be free.” But the boy was not intimidated into following the order. He refused to tell his prison mates anything nor did he repeat anti-OLF slogans. He paid with his life. He was tortured and left hanging upside down and died in the same position in the evening. According to the same source the boy was about 13 years old. An OPDO-TPLF militia participated in his torture. Another report (Dhaabaa, January 7, 2014) indicates a boy called Simeesso was also killed in the circumstances similar to the above. The report also mentions the names of two other ORA children, Soreessaa and Asabo, who were tortured for showing similar resistance. It is reported that these two adolescents were separated from the other children and were taken away. Nobody knows what happened thereafter.
When a prisoner is “taken away” by the security agents of the TPLF regime, it can mean two things: either execution or solitary confinement in another section of the prison camp, or transfer to another prison in another part of the country. As noted by a former prisoner, Magarsaa Dame who escaped from a firing squad in March 1995 (see the Amharic Weekly Urjii Newspaper, March 1995), prisoners were taken out of the Dhidheessa concentration camp, executed and their bodies left in the open to be devoured by wild beasts. According to another former inmate (see Schmitt & Taera, “An EPRDF Prison Camp from Inside”, Oromo Commentary IV (1), 1994), the Dhidheessa camp constituted several prisons, some of which were open for inspection by international human rights organizations such as the Red Cross, while others, such as the so-called Korea Sefer, were secret. He said that some of the ORA children were kept in a secret prison “separate from others.” He reported that,
In December 1992, for instance, about 40 children were locked up in a very narrow dark room [and] those kids, who become ill, physically or psychologically, due to the hot climate of the Dhidheessa lowlands and torture, are not given medical treatment (Taera & Schmitt, as above 1994: 25).
According to the same source, the argument of the camp authorities for denying the children medication was that the children were not ill but that their problems were “related to their political attitude towards the EPRDF” (Taera & Schmitt, as above 1994: 25). “Political attitude” stands here for affiliation with the OLF and animosity toward the EPRDF (TPLF).
In the “Korea Sefer” and the other sections of the camp, untreated wounds caused by torture inflicted by the TPLF thugs and their OPDO prisoners of war, thirst and hunger, and above all, contagious diseases which flourished in the overcrowded filthy prison rooms, also caused the death of many prisoners. In the interview he gave in 1993, a former prisoner from Dhidheessa (as above Taera and Schmitt 1994: 25) explained,
In the so-called Korea Sefer section of concentration camp where the ORA children were kept, the prisoners are not allowed to go out to urinate, they do not get water to drink and are not allowed to wash themselves and their clothing. They are not allowed to go out to get fresh air. On a very narrow space many people are locked up with almost no possibility to move, heavily guarded from outside. As the consequence of the abhorrent sanitary conditions that prevailed in the concentration camp there were cases of typhoid fever. Since there are few facilities for washing, many prisoners are also suffering from lice.
However, there is no information whether the two boys mentioned above were taken to a firing squad or to another prison within or outside of the Dhidheessa concentration camp. Describing (in his letter mentioned in the first part of this article) the barbarisms to which he was exposed in the Dhidheessa concentration camp, Raagaa wrote:
I escaped from one oppressor and fell into the hands of another oppressor. When one oppressor is replaced by another oppressor life begins to be miserable. To adjust oneself from an Amhara military oppressor [the Dergue] to a crueler regime of a Tigre oppressor is not an easy case.
Obviously it was not. It is impossible to expect human being to adjust to the cruel treatment which the ORA children received in the hands of the agents of the current regime. As Raagaa’s description of the prison conditions suggests, it is plausible to assume that many of them might have not survived imprisonment in Dhidheessa.
“Many have pains in their hearts and their feelings …
Some died like insects”
The words in the sub-title, above, are from Raagaa’s letter. The horrendous atrocities which, according Raagaa and the other sources cited here, the ORA children and apparently Oromo prisoners in general were made to endure in the Dhidheessa prison camp, are painful even to imagine. However, no information is available about the exact number of those who died from diseases, hunger and torture in the filthy concentration camp. Malaria, in particular, seems to have taken its toll.In the letter, Raagaa expressed the inhumanity he saw and the pains he felt as follows:
Those of us who were detained were between 10 and 16 years of age. Many of us became ill from malaria and lack of food. Many of us were sick from diseases that affect children. Many have pains in their hearts and in their feelings. The worst sight which I will not forget is when the kids got sick from malaria and became crazy and talked nonsense. When their condition became serious their hands and legs were tied and they were made to lie on bare ground to keep them silent. During these hours nobody attended them and gave them medicine. Some died like insects. I do not know how many. I can only remember few of the names of the children I stayed all those days, weeks and months. I and these children have nothing to do with the political and military problems [of the TPLF and OLF]…. How can they do such things to children? Nobody can imagine this (Translated from Afaan Oromoo by Tarfa Dibaba. Emphasis mine)
Phrases such the “children became insane,” “have pain in their hearts” and “died like insects” indicate the excruciating pain felt and the unspeakable suffering the children experienced in the prison camp. Raagaa mentions with grief Maritu (female), Waanca (female), Burqaa Nagaasaa (male), Guutuu Injigu (male), Iddoosaa Ammayuu (male), Saloome Abdiisa (female), Galaanee Taariku (female), Aster (female), Almash (female) and Mitiku Abdallah (male) as some of the many former friends and playmates he left behind in the Dhidheessa concentration camp in the conditions described above. The camps in which the TPLF regime incarcerated tens of thousands of Oromos, irrespective age, were death camps. According to Susan Pollock (see “Ethiopia: A Tragedy in the Making”, Oromo Commentary, Vol. VI, no.1, 1996), 3000 men, women and children had died in four of the TPLF regime’s concentration camps from malaria, diseases and lack of food. Dhidheessa was one of these camps. A former prisoner from the Dhidheessa concentration camp has described the conditions that resulted in the death of inmates in the following words.
Many prisoners had lost their lives or become mentally ill as a consequence of illness or maltreatment in the camp. Extremely bad is the situation of the OLF fighters who were disabled in the fight against the Dergue and in the conflict with the EPRDF. Among them, there are many who are blind, and some have lost their arms and legs. They are not offered any support although they are in the most terrible conditions in the camp since they are not able to wash themselves or their clothes or to go to the latrine without help of others. They suffer from unimaginable dirt and lice. (Taera & Schmitt, 1994: 25)
The horrific maltreatment described above was not limited to the inmates of the Dhidheessa prison. Similar conditions prevailed in the many hidden and official concentration camps which had been erected all over the Oromo country by the TPLF in 1992 and after.
Rape crime against imprisoned children
In an article published on Gadaa.com on May 28, 2013 I described that rape has been one of the dehumanizing torture-methods that are routinely used against Oromo detainees in the TPLF-run prisons in Oromia. The Dhidheessa concentration camp was no exception. One of my informants, Dhaabaa (December 4, 2013), gives the names of 10 of the ORA female children (the names are withheld here) who became pregnant in Dhidheessa prison after being raped by TPLF prison guards. These, it seems, were only some among the many children who were exposed to this outrageous crime in prison. According to the same source, the father of one of the girls (name withheld) committed suicide on hearing that his child had been raped by guards in the concentration camp.The sources also indicate that some of the adolescent girls were forced to marry TPLF soldiers.
“Where are Sagantaa Useen, Tolina Waaqjiraa and Duulaa Tafarra…?”
As indicated above, nobody knew what exactly had happened to the ORA children and their guardians once they were back in their homeland. Therefore the story described in this article is sad news to everyone who knew them or was involved in helping them. The inquiry “Where are Sagantaa Useen, Tolina Waaqjiraa and Duulaa Tafarra and the others?” which was raised by the teachers and pupils of Heinrich-Gobel-Realschule of city of Springe in Germany in their letter reproduced below was not answered. They were the only people who tried to find out what had happened to the children after they returned to their homeland in the spring months of 1992. They appealed to the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, the German Commission for UNESCO and the UNCHR Branch Office for Germany, to speak for and protect the ORA children. The following is the content of their letter addressed to Dr. Claus Kinkel the German Minister of Foreign Affairs dated November 2, 1992.I have reproduced its content unabridged in order to give the reader a grasp of the concern of the letter writers and the relations that existed between them the children in question.
Dear Dr. Kinkel,
We are deeply concerned about the fate of 1,600 Oromo orphans in Kobor near Begi in West-Wollega/Ethiopia. We have not received any information from the children’s camp there since July of this year, when Ethiopian government troops marched into West Wollega and also Begi. The ‘Oromo Relief Association’ (ORA) in Addis Ababa, which has been looking after and feeding these children for many years, was unable to establish contact to the camp.
In February 1985, our school organised an African Day with the Ethiopian teacher Terfa Dibaba. In this context we got to know about the starvation and civil war in his homeland and about the work of the indigenous refugee relief organisation ‘Oromo Relief Association’ (ORA). Since that time our school has continuously traced the work of ORA for parentless refugee children. We received oral and written reports and photographs regarding the opening of the refugee settlement in Yabus/Sudan, the opening of the children’s camp in Damazin/Sudan in early 1988, the day-to-day, medical and educational care for the orphans by the devoted and unpaid work of the ORA staff. The pupils, their parents and the teaching staff of our school have organised relief shipments with clothing, school material, toys, sports equipment and musical instruments since 1988.
The number of children in Damazin was increasing, and therefore, ORA opened another camp in Bikore/Sudan in 1990. The last time we received photographs, a letter and some children’s drawings was in August 1991. Duula Tafarra, a 12-year-old boy, closed his letter with the words: “Nagaa nu hundaaf haa tahuGARA JERMANII“. It means “To Germany: Peace be with us all” (emphasis mine).
In spring 1992 the children from Damazin and Bikore could return to their homeland Ethiopia. Our last relief shipment included, amongst other things, 200 notebooks, into which our pupils wrote – in view of the return: “I wish you peace and a good future in your homeland.” “Yeroo biyyakeetti galtu, nagaa fi hegeree gaarii akka argattun siifi hawwa”.
In the meantime, we have received information about several incidents of brutal attacks by Ethiopian government troops (EPRDF) against the Oromo population. The election observers, who were assigned to the regional elections in the Oromo regions of Ethiopia by your Ministry in June this year [1992], told us that they had been asked by the parents of arrested children [not ORA’s] to speak up for their release. Now we heard that in July minors from the ORA camp in Kobor have been arrested [also] and deported to the EPRDF camp in Didessa. Is this information correct? Are they 250, as we heard, or are they more?
We appeal to you to do all you can to shed light upon the fate of the more than 1,600 children from the ORA camp in Kobor. Where are Sagantaa Useen, Tolina Waaqjiraa and Duulaa Tafarra and all the others? Please take action to protect these children. Please try to arrange for the 1,600 Oromo orphans to be returned to the care of their previous guardians and teachers and make sure they can be supplied by the relief organisation ORA as before.
Yours faithfully
For the teaching staff of the Heinrich-Goebel-Realschule: J. Brennecke, Headmaster, and [14 signatures of teachers], Representing the pupils of the Heinrich-Goebel-Realschule [5 Signatures]
(The letter is translated from German by Kathrin Taera, November, 2013)
Duulaa and his group returned to Oromia in May 1992 and their camp was attacked in June that year. He wrote the letter (below) on behalf of the ORA children in Damazin.
Date 13-7-1991
From the [ORA] School in Damazin,
To pupils [of Heinrich-Gobel-Realschule, Springe) in Germany,
First of all we send you our greetings. How are you? We are well. We who are greeting you are the Oromo children at the school in Damazin. We will like to inform you that we have received the gifts such as balls and other sport materials you sent us and that we are using them. We are happy with the gifts and thank for your generosity. [We] the Oromo children who fled from [our] country and are in Damazin in the Sudan are given the opportunity to learn [and we are happy about that]
We urge you to write to us. He who wrote this letter is Duulaa Tafara. He is in grade five and is 12 years old. May peace be with all of us!
(The letter is translated from Afaan Oromoo by the author)[1]
Regrettably, Duulaa and his friends were deprived not only the peace which he wished for all, but also of the right to life. As I have mentioned in the first part of this article, Duula and his two school (camp) mates mentioned in the letter by the pupils and teachers of Heinrich-Gobel-Realschule, were among the victims of the TPLF assault on the ORA orphans. Tolina Waaqjiraa was killed on the first day when the TPLF forces opened fire on their camp in June 1992. Duula Tafarra and Saganta Usen were killed by the same force in the Carphaa forest where they took shelter with other children after their camp was attacked (Dhaabaa, December 9, 2013).
Notwithstanding the praiseworthy efforts of the pupils and teachers of the Heinrich-Goebel-Realschule, it seems that, neither the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nor the officials of the two UN organizations who had received their appeal letters, took the initiative to confront either the late Mr. Meles Zenawi or his regime to find out the whereabouts of the ORA children in 1992 or after. It is unlikely, therefore, that the authors of the letter were informed about what had happened to the children. To my knowledge, this article is, regrettably, the first response to the enquiries they raised twenty-two years ago.
Photo (Left) This photo is said to be that of Duula Tafarra, Saganta Usen, and Tolina Waaqjiraa. The person (Dhaabaa) who sent it me did not identify who is who in the photo. The only thing he said he knew is that the photo is that of the three boys taken together. I have included the picture here hoping that someone who knew them can help us to identify them.
The case of Duula, Saganta and Tolina reflects not only the fate of many of the ORA children, but also of the numerous other unnamed Oromo children who perished inside and outside the TPLF regime’s concentration camps during the last two decades.
A case of politicide
The sources indicate that the ORA children were very conscious of their identity and were, above all, eager to repatriate and live in their homeland in peace. An Oromo scholar who knew the ORA children in the Sudan (mail communication with Asafa Dibaba, July 4, 2014) wrote,
I lived in Damazin two and half decades ago and together with Nagaasaa [killed in 1992 in a battle with the TPLF] I used to visit the children in Bikoree from time to time. The children were, as far as I remember, between 7 and 15 years and most of them had passed the Gammee age group (0 to 8 years). Their knowledge of Oromo history and culture was beyond expectation. Their knowledge of makmaaksa (folktales), riddles hibboo (riddles) and the flora and fauna of Oromia was also remarkable. The children narrated their family histories and genealogy as if they were growing up in family homes with their parents and grandparents. Although their education was based on a curriculum that followed by schools in Ethiopia, it reflected the cultural and education programs laid down by the OLF. They used to tell me that their hope was to return to an independent and Oromia to grow up and serve their people (freely translated from Afaan Oromoo by the author).
Once they started an open war with the OLF, the TPLF leaders did not want to leave the ORA children in peace. The fact that the said children were brought up by an organization which was associated with the OLF was enough for the TPLF to see them as potential enemies and persecute them. Its argument about “political education” mentioned above indicates that the ORA children were seen as “carriers” of Oromo nationalism, a “problem” which the TPLF leaders associate with the OLF. In his letter to ORA mentioned above Raagaa noted,
We [the ORA children] were accused by the TPLF of being brought up and educated by the OLF. Can anybody imagine the children would fight the EPRDF/TPLF back? The truth is the children did not understand anything about the war.
The three-month long pursuit of the fleeing children by the TPLF troops in the summer of 1992 and the search for children who were entrusted to the local households in western Wallaga by their guardians indicates that the children were, as indicated above, seen as bearers of the seeds of Oromo nationalism and the OLF aspiration of establishing an independent state. Therefore, I will argue that the TPLF believed that their best course of action was to exorcise the ideas and inspirations with which they believed the Oromo children were imbued (through their association with the OLF) before these spread among the Oromo youth at large.The so-called political education was, for example,to brainwash and make them subjects loyal to the TPLF-led regime. Those who were resistant to the process were eliminated physically.
In general, the intention behind the atrocious massacre committed by the TPLF-led regime against the ORA children and the murderous crackdowns which it has been conducting currently against Oromo high school, college and university students during the last fifteen years can been seen as a policy of politicide with the aim of nipping Oromo nationalism in the bud. As the comments which were repeatedly made on many occasions by the late Meles Zenawi reflected, the TPLF saw in any and every socially and politically conscious Oromo, a potential member or sympathizer of the OLF. It is common knowledge that tens of thousands of Oromos who were labelled as such have been in one way or another victimized by the TPLF-led regime. Therefore, its criminal actions against the ORA orphans in the 1990s and against Oromo students during the last fifteen years are hardly surprising.
Children labelled “terrorists” and killed by the TPLF
Associating and killing of Oromo children by the TPLF-led regime did not stop with the assault on the ORA orphans in western Oromia. Many Oromo children were detained and killed in other places for the same reasons. The Oromia Support Group (OSG Press Release No. 13, 1996) notes that in 1996 the government forces killed Usen Kaallu, aged 12, Badiri Shaza, also aged 12, Awal Saani, aged 13 and Awal Idire, aged 16 years old in Tukaana village near the town of Gasera in Bale in the southeast. Their “crime” was tattooing the initials “ABO” (the Oromo version of OLF) on their hands. It seems that, not knowing the consequences, schoolchildren have been tattooing the initials on their bodies or embroidering them on their capsand clothes in many places throughout the Oromo country. The same report indicates, for example, that seven other children between the ages of 12 and 14 years of age were imprisoned, accused of committing similar “crimes” in the nearby Dabool village at the same time. The report gives their names and ages as Muyidin Haj Useen (14), Kaliil Useen (13), Eliyas Haj Abdo (12), Idris Aman (13), Qadiro Useen (12) and Shitta Usman (12). However, the report does not indicate how long they were imprisoned nor any details about what had happened to them in prison or afterwards.
After the al Qaida 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, the TPLF-regime changed the characterization of its “Oromo enemies,” including schoolchildren was changed from members or supporters of the “OLF” to “terrorists.” The Human Rights Watch (HRW, 2005) wrote that “In early 2004, police in Dembi Dollo, arrested a twelve-year-old schoolboy and imprisoned him after discovering that he had tattooed ‘ABO’, the Afaan Oromoo acronym for ‘OLF’, onto his hand.” His father told HRW that
They [the police] said he was a terrorist. They said he was a supporter of the OLF. The child’s family petitioned the local authorities and secured his release after two weeks of detention, but the police continued to follow and harass the boy until the family was forced to send him to live with relatives in Addis Ababa.
The HRW notes that between 2001 and 2005, “At least twenty other children under the age of fifteen have been imprisoned for similar reasons in Dembi Dollo alone” (emphasis mine). Furthermore, a relative of a boy who was arrested in 2003 told a HRW reporter, “I had an eleven-year old relative who wrote ‘ABO’ on the blackboard at school. He was dragged off to the police station and imprisoned there. They released him after several days because there was “too much noise about it” from the local people who were affronted by the imprisonment of an 11-year-old child. However, the HWR writes that the “child also experienced problems with the police after his release and eventually left [home] to live with relatives in Canada.” The TPLF regime did not see the 11 year old boy as a child but as an enemy—a terrorist and a supporter of the OLF.
There are international conventions signed by the UN member-states to prevent genocide and other crimes against humanity of which the 1948 Human Rights Convention was the first. Regrettably, however, the conventions did not end the evil which was the cause for the origins of the convention—the evil which is epitomized by the acts of Adolf Hitler and his cronies.As mentioned in the first part of this article, the telling metaphor “hunted like kurupé” (used by Oromo peasants to describe the predicament of the fleeing children they had witnessed) reveals not only the physical movement called forth by the existential instinct to escape from life-threatening danger, but also the horror and angst the children felt as a consequence of the unconcealed vicious intentions of the armed units who were chasing them from one district to another, shooting at them and wounding or killing them. Notwithstanding the size of the affected population, the cruelty reflected in the assault on the ORA children brings to mind the evil deeds of the Nazis against Jews, and in particular, incidents which Serge Klarsfeld (2010) describes in his book French Children of the Holocaust—a Memorial concerning deportation to death camps. In his descriptions of some of the incidents, Klarsfeld reveals how Jewish children who attempted to escape deportation were callously shot down by the Gestapo as though they were not human beings. Even the TPLF action against the local peasants who helped the fleeing ORA children and their guardians was reminiscent of what Nazi thugs did to those who tried to rescue the European Jews and their children from deportation to the concentration camps. The nature of the evil, the intent to harm their victims with impunity which underpinned the actions of the TPLF forces, reflects a shocking similarity with the murderous behavior of the Nazi criminals. Nothing is as evil as treating human-beings as wild game as the TPLF forces did to the ORA children.
Disturbing silence over crimes against humanity
As noted by the famous physicist Albert Einstein “The world is too dangerous to live in – not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who stand by and let them” (cited in S. Bruchfeld & P. Levine, Tell Ye Your Children: A Book about the Holocaust in Europe 1933-1945, Revised Edition, 2012, p. 14).
It would not be an exaggeration to construe that today the world has become too dangerous for the Oromo to live in.Whether it is at war or at “peace” with the Oromo and the other oppressed peoples in Ethiopia, the TPLF regime has been committing crimes against them and “against humanity” during the last twenty-three years.
A crime against humanity targets a given group and is carried out as a “widespread and systematic” violation of their human rights. By definition, crime against humanity differs from war crime in that it occurs not only in the context of war, but also in times of peace. Under international law, examples of war crimes include, among others, the persecution and deportation of the civilian population of an occupied territory, and the murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war. (See for example Gary Solis,The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War (2010: 301: 3). By and large, all the crimes mentioned here have been committed against the Oromo children. The crimes which were committed against Oromo prisoners in general (see my articles from May 28 and July 31 in Gadaa.comor Ayyaantuu.com) are acts that appear in the definition of crimes against humanity in the ICC Statute of 1998 and in other international conventions on human rights. In short, one can say that the characteristic elements of war crime and crime against humanity overlap clearly in the persecution of the Oromo children by the TPLF. A war situation prevailed between the OLF and the TPLF forces when the children were attacked and killed. The children were unarmed and non-combatants. However, the TPLF forces chased and killed or captured the children with the intention of harming them. The TPLF associated the children with the OLF and attacked, captured and incarcerated hundreds of them in a concentration camp. Many of them were denied the right to life. The ORA, an internationally known and supported humanitarian organization, was banned, and its properties were confiscated. The foundation it had laid for the physical and intellectual development of the orphans was destroyed. Consequently, as I will describe in the third and last part of this article later, the life chances of those who survived the assault and imprisonment were shattered.
Regrettably, there is an ominous silence, not only over the less known massacre of the ORA children described in this and the first part of this article, but also on the many well recorded crimes committed by the TPLF-led regime against humanity during the last two decades. In August 1943, Fl. Hällzon, editor of the Swedish newspaper Hemmets Vän, frustrated by the continued silence over the holocaust, wrote that
The mass graves of Jews cry out to the world; yes, they scream, and the screams pierce the skies up to God in Heaven. Woe betide Germany and those responsible when the bloody crops are harvested. Woe betide the world, which through its sins has participated in this blood-soaked crime being committed in our days (F. Hällson, Hemmets Vän, August 1943, cited in Bruchfeld & Levine, as above, 2012: 60).
Implicit in Hällson’s frustration was that the silence over the Holocaust was not because of lack of information, but his country’s lack of the will to save the Jews. As reflected in the heroic deeds of Raul Wallenberg between July and December 1944, the Swedes finally acted to save the Jews, but it was too late. By then millions of Jews had been killed. The Nazis were defeated by the allied forces in 1945 and the leading holocaust criminals were also brought to justice.
Whether it could have been possible for the international community to intervene and save more Jews before 1944-45 or not remains a controversial issue. However, the type of problems that could have hindered international intervention against the Nazi onslaught on the European Jews do not exist today. The UN was established to end human rights violations. The purpose of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which the UN member states signed is to safeguard the right of every human being to life, liberty and security of person. Therefore, the silence of the international organizations over the atrocities committed against the Oromo is as frustrating— if not more so—than that over the fate of the Jews in the early 1940s. I am not saying that the Oromo are being killed on the same scale or at the same speed as the Jews were in the 1940s, but that the plight and fate of the tens of thousands Oromos who were incarcerated in the prison camps bear similarities with that of the millions of Jews who perished in the Nazi concentration camps. The congestion, the lice and the rats, the filth and diseases, the dearth of medical care and the lack of food and water which the Oromo prisoners (including the ORA children) suffered and died of in the outrageous concentration camps run by the TPLF regime bear striking similarities with the conditions associated with the Nazi concentration camps. As the recent excavation by a Turkish construction firm near a previous site of the TPLF concentration camp Hamaressa revealed, mass graves of Oromo victims bear signs of the crimes committed by the present regime. As it was with the Jews in the 1930s and 40s, the Oromo are being persecuted today because of their ethnic identity. The policy of the TPLF regime regarding the Oromo reflects elements of the Nazi policy of destroying a group based on race or nationality. The difference is that the Nazis believed they would solve what they called the Jew problem with the annihilation of the entire population of European Jews while the TPLF leaders intend to solve the Oromo “problem” with elimination of the politically conscious class of the Oromo population. Hitler’s policy was to rule a Europe “free” from Jews. He conducted genocide. The TPLF policy is to destroy current and future Oromo leaders and to become the rulers of the Oromo people. They have been committing politicide. As stated in the Hizbaawi Adera (The People’s Trust), the official quarterly of the ruling party TPLF/EPRDF, their policy is to eliminate Oromo intellectuals and businessmen who are labelled as the “enemy of Revolutionary Democracy.” They argued,
Higher echelon intellectuals and big business people are narrow-minded. Their aspiration is to become a ruling class only to serve their own self-interests. They are so greedy that they want to “eat” alone. As they are desperate, they can be violent. … Unless the narrow nationalists are eliminated, democracy and development cannot be achieved in Ethiopia (see Hizbaawi Adera, Vol. 4, no. 7, 1996, emphasis mine)
Tens of thousands of Oromo intellectuals, journalists, teachers, students, businessmen and their families have been the victims of this policy. One may argue that the crime against the ORA children was committed in a remote part of the country and was unknown. But, in general, the silence over the crimes committed against the Oromo was not due to lack of information. There are numerous, reliable reports by local and international human rights organizations such as the Human RightsLeague of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA), the Oromia Support Group (OSG), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) which indicate that the TPLF leaders and their security forces have been serial abusers during the last twenty-three years. The crimes which have been committed against the Oromo were systematically conducted and widespread. In other words, we are not talking about sporadic cases of rape, rare cases of mass killings, or occasional disappearances of few individuals, but crimes that have been consistently committed all over the Oromo country for more than two decades. The extra-judicial killings which the TPLF forces carried out in Oromia have involved not just a few men and women, but thousands of individuals. They have been the outcomes of an official policy which has been systematically implemented to terrorize and subjugate the entire Oromo nation of more than thirty-five million members.
Concluding remarks
The atrocities described in this article constitute what the international human rights statutes define both as war crimes and as crimes against humanity. Yet the international organizations and governments of democratic states have continued to conduct business with the TPLF-led regime as usual. I will say more on the role of bystanders regarding the violation of human rights by the TPLF-led regime in the third part of this article. It suffices to note here that, in general, the international organizations’ silence over the crimes committed by the Ethiopian regime is alarming. It is alarming because it makes the UN and its conventions irrelevant in the eyes of millions of people. It is important to note that the silence over the April-May 2014 massacre of Oromo students is particularly shocking to many observers, particularly among the Oromo. This is particularly so because the students were killed while participating in peaceful demonstrations to oppose the government plan to expand the city of Finfinnee (the indigenous Oromo name of Addis Ababa) thereby forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands of Oromo families. In addition, Finfinnee, which serves as the capital city of both Oromia and of the Federal state of Ethiopia, is also the diplomatic headquarters of the continent of Africa. The headquarters of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the embassies of UN member states, and the headquarters of the African Union (AU) are located in the city. Given the proximity of the “place of crime” to the seats of the representatives of international organization and states, the total silence over the atrocities committed by the Ethiopian regime is both astonishing and offensive to many people worldwide. Regrettably, the Oromo predicament is being repeatedly ignored by the entire diplomatic community their city is hosting.
By and large, the situation created by the recent mass massacre and widespread persecution of Oromo students has led to a new development in current Oromo affairs. The incident has made it clear to every Oromo that the survival of his/her community is under serious threat. This new insight has brought Oromos together everywhere to protest against the anti-Oromo policies of the Ethiopian government. This is a positive sign. It is also encouraging to witness that in some places like Minneapolis in US and in Canberra in Australia, Oromo communities have been able to solicit the support of important politicians and national political institutions to voice their protests against human rights violations in Oromia. These international responses will help considerably and should be stepped up and continued. However, it is not enough by itself to solve the Oromo problem or remove the regime from power. It is a deadly illusion to expect that foreign pressure would bring down the TPLF-led regime. We know that there is no interest among the great powers to do that. The Oromo themselves must do that. Therefore, there is the need for a strong Oromo organization that can strengthen the Oromo struggle for freedom at all levels, both at home and abroad, to ensure the survival of the nation. Needless to say, the recent reunification of the two OLF factions can be seen as a promising development in this regard and it is expected that other Oromo organizations will follow suit.
________________
[1] My gratitude is to the long-time Chairperson of the German ORA Support Committee to Rüdiger Jentsch and Obbo Shorroo Gemechu for sending me copies of this and other documents regarding the ORA children).
*Mekuria Bulcha, PhD and Professor of Sociology, is an author of widely read books and articles. His most recent book, Contours of the Emergent and Ancient Oromo Nation, is published by CASAS (Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society), Cape Town, South Africa, in 2011. He was also the founder and publisher of The Oromo Commentary (1990-1999).
Meroe, Oromo and Old Nubian: Solving the Mystery of Meroitic Language
By Dereje Tadesse Birbirso (PhD), College of Social Science and HumanitiesHaramaya University, Ethiopia
Abstract
Meroitic language is one of the most controversial ancient languages but one of the few having advanced writing systems. Some classify it Asian, European, non-African, Semitic,or ‘unclassified’. This paper contends Meroe, similar to their Cushitic friends, are left victims of preconceived ideas based on an entirely argument from silence, an hegemonic epistemology that elevates a single perspective and silences other(s). This paper, thus,comparatively analyzes Meroitic and Old Nubian lexical and grammatical items with corresponding Oromo, a Cushitic family which,
a Cushitic family which,vocabulary possibly the Ancientlanguage of the Nile Valley and/or Horn of Africa. Meroitic and Old Nubian lexical, grammatical and epigraphic data were collected from secondary sources by Meroitic researchers. Oromo corpora are obtained both from classical and modern descriptions and native-speakers. Results indicate Oromo lexemes show significant level of cognates with not only Meroitic and Old Nubian, but also with the Ancient Egyptian to their northern part.
Keywords: Oromo, Meroe, Nubian, Ancient Egyptian, Cushitic, Chiekh Anta Diop
The Meroitic Ethiopian Origins of the Modern Oromo NationBy Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
This paper deals, among others, with the development of Meroitic studies, the Meroitic civilization, the destruction of the city of Meroe, the dispersal of the Meroitic people after the collapse of their state, the Christianization of the post Meroitic states, the migration of the remnants of the Meroitic people in the direction of the Blue Nile and their possible relation of ancestry with the modern Cushitic language speaking Oromo nation. It must be stated clearly at the outset that the issue of Meroitic ancestry of the Oromo nation has not been considered, much less published in an academic journal or scholarly books. The paper was first presented in an academic conference organized by the Oromo Studies Association. Footnotes have been added recently.
1. The Development of the Meroitic Studies, the History of Kush and Meroe, and the Efforts to Decipher the Meroitic Scripture
Interest in what was Ethiopia for the Ancient Greeks and Romans, i.e. the Northern territory of present day Sudan from Khartoum to the Egyptian border1, led to the gradual development of the modern discipline of the Humanities that long stood in the shadow of
Egyptology: the Meroitic Studies.
Considerable advances had been made in academic research and knowledge as the result of the exploratory trips of the Prussian pioneering Egyptologist Richard Lepsius2 (1842 – 1844) that bestowed upon modern scholarship the voluminous ‘Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien’ (Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia), and the series of excavations by E. A. Wallis Budge3 and John Garstang4 at Meroe (modern Bagrawiyah) in the first years of the twentieth century, Francis Llewellyn Griffith5 at Kawa (ancient Gematon, near modern Dongola, 1929 – 1931), Fritz Hintze6 at Musawwarat es Sufra, Jean Leclant7 at Sulb (Soleb), Sadinga (Sedeinga), and Djebel Barkal (ancient Napata, modern Karima) in the 1950s and the 1960s, D. Wildung8 at Naqah, and Charles Bonnet at Kerma. . The pertinent explorations and contributions of scholars like A. J. Arkell9, P. L. Shinnie10 and Laszlo Torok11 that cover a span of 80 years reconstituted a large part of the greatness and splendor of this four-millennia long African civilization.
Yet, due to the lack of direct access to original sources and genuine understanding of the ancient history of Sudan, the legendary Ethiopia of the Greeks and Romans, which also corresponds to what was ‘Kush’ of the Hebrews Bible and ultimately ‘Kas’ of the ancient Egyptians12, we face a serious problem of terminology. We are confined to such terms as Period (or Group) A (3100 – 2700 BCE),13 Period B14 (2700 – 2300 BCE that starts with Pharaoh Snefru’s expedition,15 and the beginning of time-honored enmity between Egypt and Kush), Period C16 (2300 – 2100 BCE, when we have no idea to what specific ethnic or state structures the various Egyptian names Wawat, Irtet, Setjiu,Yam, Zetjau, and Medjay refer)17, Period Kerma18 (2100 – 1500 BCE, named after the modern city and archeological site, 500 km in the south of the present Sudanese – Egyptian border). What we know for sure is that, when the first Pharaohs of the New Empire invaded and colonized the entire area down to Kurgus19 (more than 1000 km alongside the Nile in the south of the present Sudanese – Egyptian border), they established two top Egyptian administrative positions, namely ‘Viceroy of Wawat’ and ‘Viceroy of Kush/Kas’. Wawat is the area between Aswan and Abu Simbel or properly speaking, the area between the first and the second cataracts whereas Kas is all the land that lies beyond. With the collapse of the Kerma culture comes to end a first high-level culture and state in the area of Kush.
We employ the term ‘Kushitic Period’20 to refer to the subsequent period: a) the Egyptian annexation (1500 – 950 BCE) that was followed by a permanent effort to egyptianize Kush and the ceaseless Kushitic revolutions against the Pharaohs;
b) the Kushitic independence (950 – 800 BCE, when a state is formed around Napata21, present day Karima, 750 km in the south of the Sudanese – Egyptian border);
c) the Kushitic expansion and involvement in Egypt (800 – 670 BCE, which corresponds mostly to the XXVth – ‘Ethiopian’ according to Manetho22 – dynasty of Egypt, when the Theban clergy of Amun made an alliance with the Kushitic ‘Qore’ – Kings of Napata, who had two capitals, Napata and Thebes);23 and d) the Kushitic expulsion from Egypt (following the three successive invasions of Egypt by Emperors Assarhaddon24 in 671 BCE, and Assurbanipal25in 669 and 666 BCE, and of Assyria, who made an alliance with the Heliopolitan26 priesthood and Libyan princes against the Theban clergy and the Kushitic kings), and gradual decline (following the invasions by Psamtik/Psammetichus II27 in 591 BCE, and the Achaemedian28 Persian Shah Kambudjiyah/Cambyses29 in 525 BCE) until the transfer of the capital far in the south at Meroe, at the area of present day Bagrawiyah (at the end of the reign of Qore Nastasen30between335 and 315 BCE).
We call ‘Meroitic’ the entire period that covers almost 700 years beginning around 260 BCE with the reign of the successors of Nastasen (Arkamaniqo / Ergamenes31 (the most illustrious among the earliest ones and the first to be buried at Meroe / Bagrawiyah), down to the end of Meroe and the destruction of the Meroitic royal cities by the Axumite Abyssinian Negus Ezana32 (370 CE). It is easily understood that ‘Kushitic’ antedates ‘Meroitic’, but the appellations are quite conventional.
The Ancient people of Kush (or Ethiopia) entered into a period of cultural and scriptural radiation and authenticity relatively late, around the third century BCE, which means that the development took place when Meroe replaced Napata as capital of the Kushites / Meroites. Before that moment, they used Egyptian Hieroglyphic scripture for all purposes of writing, administrative, economic, religious and/or royal. The introduction of the Meroitic alphabetic hieroglyphic writing spearheaded the development of a Meroitic cursive alphabetic scripture that was used for less magnificent purposes than palatial and sacred relief inscriptions. The first person to publish Meroitic inscriptions was the French architect Gau33, who visited Northern Sudan in 1819. Quite unfortunately, almost two centuries after the discovery, we risk being left in mysteries with regard to the contents of the epigraphic evidence collected in both scriptural systems.
The earliest dated Meroitic hieroglyphic inscriptions belong to the reign of the ruling queen Shanakdakheto34 (about 177-155 BCE), but archaeologists believe that this scripture represents the later phase of a language spoken by Kushites / Meroites at least as far back as 750 BCE and possibly many centuries before that (hinting at a Kushitic continuity from the earliest Kerma days). The earliest examples of Meroitic cursive inscriptions, recently found by Charles Bonnet in Dukki Gel (REM 1377-78)35, can be dated from the early second century BCE. The latest text is still probably the famous inscription from Kalabsha mentioning King Kharamadoye (REM 0094)36 and dated from the beginning of the fifth century AD, although some funeral texts from Ballana37 could be contemporary if not posterior.
Despite the fact that F. L. Griffith has identified the 23 Meroitic alphabetic scripture’s signs already in 1909, not much progress has been made towards an ultimate decipherment of the Meroitic38. Scarcity of epigraphic evidence plays a certain role in this regard, since as late as the year 2000 we were not able to accumulate more than 1278 texts. If we now add to that the lack of lengthy texts, the lack of any bilingual text (not necessarily Egyptian /Meroitic, it could be Ancient Greek / Meroitic, if we take into consideration that Arkamaniqo / Ergamenes39 was well versed in Greek), and a certain lack of academic vision, we understand why the state of our knowledge about the history of the Meroites is still so limited.
Linguistics and parallels from other languages have been repeatedly set in motion in order to help the academic research. Griffith and Haycock40 tried to read Meroitic using (modern) Nubian. K.H. Priese41 tried to read the Meroitic text using Eastern Sudanese (Beja42 or Hadendawa43); and F. Hintze44, attempted to compare Meroitic with the Ural-Altaic group. Recently Siegbert Hummel45, compared the “known” Meroitic words to words in the Altaic family which he believed was a substrate language of Meroitic. At times, scholars (like Clyde Winters46) were driven to farfetched interpretations, attempting to equate Meroitic with Tokharian, after assuming a possible relationship between the name Kush and the name Kushan47 of an Eastern Iranian state (of the late Arsacid48, 250 BCE – 224 CE, and early Sassanid49, 224 – 651 CE, times)! However, one must state that the bulk of the researchers working on the Meroitic language do not believe that it was a member of the Afro-Asiatic group.
So far, the only Meroitic words for which a solid translation had been given by Griffith and his successors are the following: man, woman, meat, bread, water, give, big, abundant, good, sister, brother, wife, mother, child, begotten, born, feet. The eventual equivalence between Egyptian and Meroitic texts was a strong motivation for any interpretational approach, recent or not. More recent, but still dubious, suggestions are the following: arohe- «protect», hr- «eat», pwrite «life», yer «milk», ar «boy», are- or dm- «take, receive», dime «cow», hlbi «bull», ns(e) «sacrifice, sdk «journey», tke- «love, revere», we «dog». It is clear that vocalization remains a real problem50.
Through the aforementioned we realize why collective works, like Fontes Historiae Nubiorum. Textual Sources for the History of the Middle Nile Region (vols. I – IV, edited by T. Eide, T. Hägg, R.H. Pierce, and L. Török, University of Bergen, Bergen 1994, 1996. 1998 and 2000), are still seminal for our – unfortunately indirect, as based on Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Latin and Coptic texts – knowledge of Meroe.
2. The End of Meroe
Amidst numerous unclear points of the Kushitic / Meroitic history, the end of Meroe, and the consequences of this event remain a most controversial point among scholars. Quite indicatively, we may mention here the main efforts of historical reconstitution.
A. Arkell, Sayce and others asserted that Meroe was captured and destroyed, following one military expedition led by Ezana of Axum.
B. Reisner insisted that, after Ezana’s invasion and victory, Meroe remained a state with another dynasty tributary to Axum.
C. Monneret de Villard and Hintze affirmed that Meroe was totally destroyed before Ezana’s invasion, due to an earlier Axumite Abyssinian raid.
D. Torok, Shinnie, Kirwan, Haegg and others concluded that Meroe was defeated by a predecessor of Ezana, and continued existing as a vassal state.
E. Bechhaus- Gerst specified that Meroe was invaded prior to Ezana’s raid, and that the Axumite invasion did not reach lands further in the north of Meroe51
With two fragmentary inscriptions from Meroe, one from Axum, two graffitos from Kawa and Meroe, and one coin being all the evidence we have so far, , we have little to reconstruct the details that led to the collapse of Meroe. One relevant source, the Inscription of Ezana (DAE 11, the ‘monotheistic’ inscription in vocalized Ge’eze),52 remains a somewhat controversial historical source to be useful in this regard. The legendary Monumentum Adulitanum53, lost but copied in a confused way by Cosmas Indicopleustes54, may not shed light at all on this event. One point is sure, however: there was never a generalized massacre of the Meroitic inhabitants of the lands conquered by Ezana. The aforementioned DAE 11 inscription mentions just 758 Meroites killed by the Axumite forces.
What is even more difficult to comprehend is the reason behind the scarcity of population attested on Meroitic lands in the aftermath of Ezana’s raid. The post-Meroitic and pre-Christian, transitional phase of Sudan’s history is called X-Group55 or period, or Ballana Period and this is again due to lack to historical insight. Contrary to what happened for many centuries of Meroitic history, when the Meroitic South (the area between Shendi56 and Atbara57 in modern Sudan with the entire hinterland of Butana that was called Insula Meroe / Nesos Meroe, i.e. Island Meroe in the Antiquity) was overpopulated, compared to the Meroitic North (from Napata / Karima to the area between Aswan58 and Abu Simbel59, which was called Triakontaschoinos60 and was divided between Meroe and the Roman Empire), during the X-Group times, the previously under-populated area gives us the impression of a more densely peopled region, if compared to the previous center of Meroitic power and population density. The new situation contradicts earlier descriptions and narrations by Dio Cassius 61 and Strabo.62
Furthermore, the name ‘Ballana period’ is quite indicative in this regard, Ballana being on Egyptian soil, whereas not far in the south of the present Sudanese – Egyptian border lies Karanog with its famous tumuli that bear evidence of Nubian upper hand in terms of social anthropology. The southernmost counterpart of Karanog culture can be found in Tangassi (nearby Karima, which represented the ‘North’ for what was the center of earlier Meroitic power gravitation)
In addition, in terms of culture, X-Group heralds a total break with the Meroitic tradition, with the Nubians and the Blemmyes/Beja outnumbering the Meroitic remnants and imposing a completely different cultural and socio-anthropological milieu out of which would later emanate the first and single Nubian state in the World History: Nobatia.
Much confusion characterized modern scholars when referring to Kush or Meroe by using the modern term ‘Nubia’. By now it is clear that the Nubians lived since times immemorial in both Egypt and the Sudan, being part of the history of these two lands. But Nubians are a Nilo-Saharan ethnic / linguistic group different from the Khammitic Kushites / Meroites. At the times of X-Group and during the long centuries of Christian Sudan, we have the opportunity to attest the differences and divergence between the Nubians and the Meroitic remnants. The epicenter of Nubian center, the area between the first (Aswan) and the third (Kerma) cataracts, rose to independence and prominence first, with capital at Faras, nearby the present day Sudanese – Egyptian border, around 450 CE. Nobatia institutionalized Coptic as religious (Christian) and administrative language, and Nubian language remained an oral only vehicle of communication. The Nobatian control in the south of the third cataract was vague, nominal and precarious. Nobatia was linked with the Coptic – Monophysitic Patriarchate of Alexandria.
The Meroitic remnants underscored their difference from the Nubians / Nobatians, and the depopulated central part of the defunct state of Meroe rose to independence in the first decades of the sixth century. Its name, Makkuria, is in this regard a linguistic resemblance of the name ‘Meroe’ but we know nothing more. The Meroitic remnants inhabited the northern circumference of Makkuria more densely, and the gravitation center turned around Old Dongola (580 km in the south of Wadi Halfa), capital of this Christian Orthodox state that extended from Kerma to Shendi (the area of the sixth cataract), so for more than 1000 km alongside the Nile. But beyond the area of Karima (750 km in the south of Wadi Halfa) and the nearby famous Al Ghazali monastery we have very scarce evidence of Christian antiquities. The old African metropolis Meroe remained at the periphery of Makkuria, Alodia and Axumite Abyssinia.
Makkurians highlighted their ideological – religious divergence from the Nubians, by adopting Greek as religious language. They even introduced a new scripture for their Makkurian language that seems to be a later phase of Meroitic. Makkurian was written in alphabetic Greek signs, and the Makkurians preferred to attach themselves to Christian Orthodoxy, and more particularly to the Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria.
Alodia has long been called the ‘third Christian state’ in Sudan, but recent discoveries in Soba, its capital (15 km at the east of Khartoum), suggest that Alodia rose first to independence (around 500 CE) and later adhered to Christianity (around 580 – 600 CE) following evangelization efforts deployed by missionary Nobatian priests (possibly in a sort of anti-Makkurian religious diplomacy). We know nothing of an Alodian scripture so far.
The later phases of the Christian history of Sudan encompass the Nobatian – Makkurian merge (around 1000 CE), the islamization of Makkuria in 1317, and finally the late collapse of Christian Alodia in 1505. The question remains unanswered until today:
What happened to the bulk of the Meroitic population, i.e. the inhabitants of the Insula Meroe, the present day Butana? What occurred to the Meroites living between the fourth and the sixth cataracts after the presumably brief raid of Ezana of Axum, and the subsequent destruction of Meroe, Mussawarat es Sufra, Naqah, Wad ben Naqah and Basa?
3. Reconstruction of the Post-Meroitic History of the Kushitic Oromo Nation
Certainly, the motives of Ezana’s raid have not yet been properly studied and assessed by modern scholarship. The reasons for the raid may vary from a simple nationalistic usurpation of the name of ‘Ethiopia’ (Kush), which would give Christian eschatological legitimacy to the Axumite Abyssinian kingdom, to the needs of international politics (at the end of 4th century) and the eventuality of an Iranian – Meroitic alliance at the times of Shapur II (310 – 379), aimed at outweighing the Roman – Abyssinian bond. Yet, this alliance could have been the later phase of a time honored Meroitic diplomatic tradition (diffusion of Mithraism as attested on the Jebel Qeili reliefs of Shorakaror). What we can be sure of are the absence of a large-scale massacre, and the characteristic scarcity of population in the central Meroitic provinces during the period that follows Ezana’s raid and the destruction of Meroe.
The only plausible explanation is that the scarcity of population in Meroe mainland after Meroe’s destruction was due to the fact that the Meroites in their outright majority (at least for the inhabitants of Meroe’s southern provinces) fled and migrated to areas where they would stay independent from the Semitic Christian kingdom of Axumite Abyssinia. This explanation may sound quite fresh in approach, but it actually is not, since it constitutes the best utilization of the already existing historical data.
From archeological evidence, it becomes clear that during X-Group phase and throughout the Makkurian period the former heartland of Meroe remained mostly uninhabited. The end of Meroe is definitely abrupt, and it is obvious that Meroe’s driving force had gone elsewhere. The correct question would be “where to?â€
There is no evidence of Meroites sailing the Nile downwards to the area of the 4th (Karima) and the 3rd (Kerma) cataracts, which was earlier the northern circumference of Meroe and remained untouched by Ezana. There is no textual evidence in Greek, Latin and/or Coptic to testify to such a migratory movement or to hint at an even more incredible direction, i.e. Christian Roman Egypt. If we add to this the impossibility of marching to the heartland of the invading Axumites (an act that would mean a new war), we reduce the options to relatively few.
The migrating Meroites could go either to the vast areas of the Eastern and the Western deserts or enter the African jungle or ultimately search a possibly free land that, being arable and good for pasture, would keep them far from the sphere of the Christian Axumites. It would be very erroneous to expect settled people to move to the desert. Such an eventuality would be a unique oxymoron in the history of the mankind. Nomadic peoples move from the steppes, the savannas and the deserts to fertile lands, and they settle there, or cross long distances through steppes and deserts. However, settled people, if under pressure, move to other fertile lands that offer them the possibility of cultivation and pasture. When dispersed by the invading Sea Peoples, the Hittites moved from Anatolia to Northwestern Mesopotamia; they did not cross and stay in the small part of Anatolia that is desert. The few scholars who think that Meroitic continuity could be found among the present day Beja and Hadendawa are oblivious to the aforementioned reality of the world history that was never contravened. In addition, the Blemmyes were never friendly to the Meroites. Every now and then, they had attacked parts of the Nile valley and the Meroites had had to repulse them thence. It would rather be inconceivable for the Meroitic population, after seeing Meroe sacked by Ezana, to move to a land where life would be difficult and enemies would wait them!
Modern technologies help historians and archeologists reconstruct better the ancient world; paleo-botanists, geologists, geo-chemists, paleoentomologists, and other specialized natural scientists are of great help in this regard. It is essential to stress here that the entire environmental milieu of Sudan was very different during the times of the Late Antiquity we examine in our approach. Butana may look like a wasteland nowadays, and the Pyramids of Bagrawiyah may be sunk in the sand, whereas Mussawarat es Sufra and Naqah demand a real effort in crossing the desert. But in the first centuries of Christian era, the entire landscape was dramatically different.
The Butana was not a desert but a fertile cultivated land; we have actually found remains of reservoirs, aqueducts, various hydraulic installations, irrigation systems and canals in Meroe and elsewhere. Not far from Mussawarat es Sufra there must have been an enclosure where captive elephants were trained before being transported to Ptolemais Theron (present day Suakin, 50 km in the south of Port Sudan) and then further on to Alexandria. Desert was in the vicinity, certainly, but not that close.
We should not imagine that Ezana crossed desert areas, moving from the whereabouts (vicinities?) of Agordat, Tesseney and Kessala to Atbarah and Bagrawiyah, as we would do today. And we should not imagine the lands in the south of present day Khartoum, alongside the White Nile, were easy to cross in the antiquity. In ancient times, impenetrable jungle started immediately in the south of Khartoum, and cities like Kosti and Jabalayn lie today on deforested soil. At the southernmost confines of the Meroitic state, pasturelands and arable land could be found alongside the Blue Nile Valley.
Since jungle signified death in the antiquity, and even armies feared to stay overnight in a forest or even more so in the thick African forest, we have good reason to believe that, following the Ezana’s raid, the Meroites, rejecting the perspective of forced christening, migrated southwestwards up to Khartoum. From there, they proceeded southeastwards alongside the Blue Nile in a direction that would keep them safe and far from the Axumite Abyssinians whose state did not expand as far in the south as Gondar and Tana lake. Proceeding in this way and crossing successively areas of modern cities, such as Wad Madani, Sennar, Damazin, and Asosa, and from there on, they expanded in later times over the various parts of Biyya Oromo.
We do not imply that the migration was completed in the span of one lifetime; quite contrarily, we have reasons to believe that the establishment of Alodia (or Alwa) is due to the progressive waves of Meroitic migrants who settled first in the area of Khartoum that was out of the westernmost confines of the Meroitic state. Only when Christianization became a matter of concern for the evangelizing Nobatians, and the two Christian Sudanese states were already strong, the chances of preserving the pre-Christian Meroitic cultural heritage in the area around Soba (capital of Alodia) were truly poor; then another wave of migrations took place, with early Alodian Meroites proceeding as far in the south as Damazin and Asosa, areas that remained always beyond the southern border of Alodia (presumably around Sennar). Like this, the second migratory Meroitic (Makkurian) wave may have entered around 600 CE in the area where the Oromos, descendents of the migrated Meroites, still live today.
A great number of changes at the cultural – behavioral levels are to be expected, when a settled people migrates to faraway lands. The Phoenicians had kings in Tyre, Byblos and their other cities – states, but introduced a democratic system when they sailed faraway and colonized various parts of the Mediterranean. The collapse of the Meroitic royalty was a shock for the Nile valley; the Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makkuria and Alodia were ruled by kings whose power was to great extent counterbalanced by that of the Christian clergy. With the Meroitic royal family decimated by Ezana, it is quite possible that high priests of Apedemak and Amani (Amun) took much of the administrative responsibility in their hands, inciting people to migrate and establishing a form of collective and representative authority among the Meroitic Elders. They may even have preserved the royal title of Qore within completely different socio-anthropological context.
4. Call for Comparative Meroitic-Oromo Studies
How can this approach, interpretation, and conclusion be corroborated up to the point of becoming a generally accepted historical reconstitution at the academic level? On what axes should one group of researchers work to collect detailed documentation in support of the Meroitic ancestry of the Oromos?
Quite strangely, I would not give priority to the linguistic approach. The continuity of a language can prove many things and can prove nothing. The Bulgarians are of Uralo-Altaic Turco-Mongolian origin, but, after they settled in Eastern Balkans, they were linguistically slavicized. Most of the Greeks are Albanians, Slavs, and Vlachians, who were hellenized linguistically. Most of the Turks in Turkey are Greeks and Anatolians, who were turkicized linguistically. A people can preserve its own language in various degrees and forms. For the case of languages preserved throughout millennia, we notice tremendous changes and differences. If you had picked up Plato and ‘transferred’ him at the times of Linear B (that was written in Mycenae 800 years before the Greek philosopher lived), you should be sure that Plato would not have understood the language of his ancestors with the exception of some words. Egyptian hieroglyphics was a scripture that favored archaism and linguistic puritanism. But we can be sure that for later Pharaohs, like Taharqa the Kushite (the most illustrious ruler of the ‘Ethiopian’ dynasty), Psamtik, Nechao, Ptolemy II and Cleopatra VII, a Pyramid text (that antedated them by 1700 to 2300 years) would almost be incomprehensible.
A. National diachronic continuity is better attested and more markedly noticed in terms of Culture, Religion and Philosophical – Behavioral system. The first circle of comparative research would encompass the world of the Kushitic – Meroitic and Oromo concepts, anything that relates to the Weltanschauung of the two cultural units/groups under study. A common view of basic themes of life and a common perception of the world would bring a significant corroboration of the Meroitic ancestry of the Oromos. So, first it is a matter of history of religions, African philosophy, social anthropology, ethnography and culture history.
B. Archeological research can help tremendously too. At this point one has to stress the reality that the critical area for the reconstruction suggested has been totally indifferent for Egyptologists, Meroitic and Axumite archeologists so far. The Blue Nile valley in Sudan and Abyssinia was never the subject of an archeological survey, and the same concerns the Oromo highlands. Certainly modern archeologists prefer something concrete that would lead them to a great discovery, being therefore very different from the pioneering nineteenth century archeologists. An archeological study would be necessary in the Blue Nile valley and the Oromo highlands in the years to come.
C. A linguistic – epigraphic approach may bring forth even more spectacular results. It could eventually end up with a complete decipherment of the Meroitic and the Makkurian. An effort must be made to read the Meroitic texts, hieroglyphic and cursive, with the help of Oromo language. Meroitic personal names and toponymics must be studied in the light of a potential Oromo interpretation. Comparative linguistics may unveil affinities that will lead to reconsideration of the work done so far in the Meroitic decipherment.
D. Last but not least, another dimension would be added to the project with the initiation of comparative anthropological studies. Data extracted from findings in the Meroitic cemeteries must be compared with data provided by the anthropological study of present day Oromos. The research must encompass pictorial documentation from the various Meroitic temples’ bas-reliefs.
To all these I would add a better reassessment of the existing historical sources, but this is not a critical dimension of this research project.
I believe my call for Comparative Meroitic – Oromo Studies reached the correct audience that can truly evaluate the significance of the ultimate corroboration of the Meroitic Ancestry of the Oromos, as well as the magnificent consequences such corroboration would have in view of
a) the forthcoming Kushitic Palingenesia – Renaissance if you want – in Africa,
b) the establishment of a Post – Colonial African Historiography, and – last but not least –
c) the Question of the Most Genuine and Authoritative Representation of Africa in the United Nations Security Council.
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NOTES
1. To those having the slightest doubt, trying purely for political reasons and speculation to include territories of the modern state of Abyssinia into what they Ancient Greeks and Romans called “Aethiopiaâ€, the entry Aethiopia in Pauly-Wissowa, Realenzyklopadie der klassischen Altertumwissenschaft consists in the best and irrevocable answer.
4. Mythical figure of the British Orientalism, Garstang excavated in England, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and the Sudan; Albright, William Foxwell: “John Garstang in Memoriam”, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 144. (Dec., 1956), pp. 7–8. Garstang’s major articles on his Meroe excavations are the following: ‘Preliminary Note on an Expedition to Meroë in Ethiopia’, Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 3 (1911 – a), ‘Second Interim Report on the Excavations at Meroë in Ethiopia, I. Excavations’, Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 4 (1911 – b), ‘Third Interim Report on the Excavations at Meroë in Ethiopia’, Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 5 (1912), ‘Forth Interim Report on the Excavations at Meroë in Ethiopia’, Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 6 (1913), and ‘Fifth Interim Report on the Excavations at Meroë in Ethiopia’, Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 7 (1914). His major contribution was published in the same year under the title ‘Meroë, the City of Ethiopians’ (Oxford). A leading Meroitologist, Laszlo Torok wrote an entire volume on Garstang’s excavations at Meroe: Meroe City, an Ancient African Capital: John Garstang’s Excavations in the Sudan.
5. Griffith was the epigraphist of Grastand and had already published the epigraphic evidence unearthed at Meroe in the chapter entitled ‘the Inscriptions from Meroë’ in Garstang’s ‘Meroë, the City of Ethiopians’. After many pioneering researches and excavations in various parts of Egypt and Northern Sudan, Faras, Karanog, Napata and Philae to name a few, he concentrated on Kerma: ‘Excavations at Kawa’, Sudan Notes and Records 14.
6. Basically: www.sag-online.de/pdf/mittsag9.5.pdf; among other contributions: Die Inschriften des Löwentempels von Musawwarat es Sufra, Berlin (1962); Vorbericht über die Ausgrabungen des Instituts für Ägyptologie der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in Musawwarat es Sufra, 1960-1961 (1962); ‘Musawwarat es Sufra. Preliminary Report on the Excavations of the Institute of Egyptology, Humboldt University, Berlin, 1961-1962(Third Season)’, Kush 11 (1963); ‘Preliminary Note on the Epigraphic Expedition to Sudanese Nubia, 1962’, Kush 11 (1963); ‘Preliminary note on the Epigraphic Expedition to Sudanese Nubia, 1963’, Kush 13 (1965).
8. His recent volume Sudan: Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile, Paris/New York (1997) contains earlier bibliography.
9. Some of his most authoritative publications: ‘A History of the Sudan from the Earliest Times to 1821’, 1961 (2nd Ed.), London; ‘’The Valley of the Nile’, in: The Dawn of African History, R. Oliver (ed.), London. Arkell is mostly renowned for his monumental ‘The Royal Cemeteries of Kush’ in many volumes.
More particularly on Qustul, and the local Group A Cemetery that was discovered in the 60s by Dr. Keith Seele:http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/qustul.html (by Bruce Beyer Williams). Quite interesting approach by Clyde Winters as regards an eventual use of Egyptian Hieroglyphics in Group A Nubia, 200 years before the system was introduced in… Egypt:http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/7051/anwrite.htm.
24. Basics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assarhaddon; the edition of the Assyrian emperor’s annals by R. Borger (Die Inschriften Assarhaddons, Königs von Assyrien, AfO 9, Graz, 1956) remain our basic reference to formal sources. More recently, F. Reynolds shed light on private sources, publishing ‘The Babylonian correspondence of Esarhaddon, and letters to Assurbanipal and Sin-Sarru-Iskun from Northern and Central Babylonia’ (SAA 18, 2004).
26. Heliopolis (Iwnw in Egyptian Hieroglyphic – literally the place of the pillars –, On in Hebrew and in Septuaginta Greek) was the center of Egyptian monotheism, the holiest religious center throughout Ancient Egypt; it is from Heliopolis that emanated the Isiac ideology and the Atum Ennead. Basic readings: the entry Heliopolis in Realenzyklopaedie and in Lexikon der Aegyptologie; more recently:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopolis_%28ancient%29.
29. Readings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambyses_II_of_Persia (with bibliographya nd sources). Cambyses invaded Kush and destroyed Napata at the times of Amani-natake-lebte, and his embattled army was decimated according to the famous narratives of Herodotus that still need to be corroborated. What seems more plausible is that, having reached in an unfriendly milieu of the Saharan desert where they had no earlier experience, the Persians soldiers, at a distance of no less than 4000 km from their capital, faced guerilla undertaken by the Kushitic army remnants and their nomadic allies.
30. Nastasen was the last to be buried in Nuri, in the whereabouts of Napata. Contemporary with Alexander the Great, Nastasen fought against an invader originating from Egypt whose name was recorded as Kambasawden. This led many to confuse the invader with Cambyses, who ruled 200 years earlier (!). The small inscription on the Letti stela does not allow great speculation; was it an attempt of Alexander the Great to proceed to the south of which we never heard anything? Impossible to conclude. For photographical documentation:http://www.dignubia.org/bookshelf/ruler … 00017&ord=. Another interpretation: http://www.nubia2006.uw.edu.pl/nubia/ab … 94e6349d8b.
32. For Abyssinia’s conversion to Christianity: http://www.spiritualite2000.com/page.php?idpage=555, and http://www.rjliban.com/Saint-Frumentius.doc. The Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezana_of_Axum) is written by ignorant and chauvinist people, and is full of mistakes, ascribing provocatively and irrelevantly to Ezanas following territories (using modern names): “present-day Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, northern Somalia, Djibouti, northern Sudan, and southern Egyptâ€. All this shows how misleading this encyclopedia can be. Neither southern Egypt, northern Sudan, northern Somalia and Djibouti nor Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia ever belonged to Ezana’s small kingdom that extended from Adulis to Axum, and following the king’s victory over Meroe, it included modern Sudan’s territories between Kessala and Atbara. Nothing more!
33. Richard A. Lobban, ‘The Nubian Dynasty of Kush and Egypt: Continuing Research on Dynasty XXV’: http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:4F … clnk&cd=2; these inscriptions were published as early as 1821: E. F. Gau, Nubische Denkmaeler (Stuttgart). Other early publications on Meroitic antiquities: E. Riippell, Reisen in Nubien, Kordofan, &c. (Frankfort a. M., 1829); F. Caillaud, Voyage a Me’roe (Paris, 1826); J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, e5fc. (London, 1819); G. Waddington and B. Hanbury, Journal of a Visit to some ‘parts of Ethiopia (London, 1822); L. Reinisch, Die Nuba-Sprache (Vienna, 1879); Memoirs of the Societe khediviale de Geographic, Cairo.
34. Readings: http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/candace.html;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanakdakhete; more analytically:http://www.arkamani.org/arkamani-librar … graphy.htm. The only inscription giving her name comes from Temple F in Naga (REM 0039A-B). The name appears in Meroitic hieroglyphics in the middle of an Egyptian text. See also: Laszlo Török, in: Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, Vol. II, Bergen 1996, 660-662. The first attempts to render full Meroitic phrases into hieroglyphs (not only personal names, as it was common earlier) can be dated from the turn of the 3rd / 2nd century BCE, but they reflect the earlier stage of the development.
‘Karanog: the Meroitic Inscriptions of Karanog and Shablul’, (The Eckley B. Coxe Junior Expedition to Nubia VI), Philadelphia, 1911; ‘Meroitic Inscriptions, I, Sôbâ Dangûl’, Oxford, 1911; ‘Meroitic Inscriptions part II, Napata to Philae and Miscellaneous’, Egypt Exploration Society, Archaeological Survey of Egypt, Memoirs, London, 1912; ‘Meroitic Studies II’, in: Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 3 (1916).
40. B. G. Haycock, ‘The Problem of the Meroitic Language’, Occasional Papers in Linguistics and Language Learning, no.5 (1978), p. 50-81; see also: http://www.arkamani.org/arkamani-librar … nology.htm. Another significant contribution by B.G.Haycock, ‘Towards a Data for King Ergamenes’, Kush 13 (1965).41. See: K.H.Priese, ‘Die Statue des napatanischen Königs Aramatelqo (Amtelqa) Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum Inv.-Nr. 2249’ in: Festschrift zum 150 jährigen Bestehen des Berliner Ägyptischen Museums, Berlin; of the same author, ’Matrilineare Erbfolge im Reich von Napata’, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 108 (1981).
43. Basic reading: Egeimi, Omer Abdalla, ‘From Adaptation to Marginalization: The Political Ecology of Subsistence Crisis among the Hadendawa Pastoralists of Sudan’, in: Managing Scarcity: Human Adaptation in East African Drylands, edited by Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and Hassan Abdel Ati, 30-49. Proceedings of a regional workshop, Addis Ababa, 24-26 August 1995. Addis Ababa: OSSREA, 1996 (http://www.africa.upenn.edu/ossrea/ossreabiblio.html).
44. F. Hintze, ‘Some problems of Meroitic philology”, in: Studies in
45. In various publications; see indicatively: ‘Die meroitische Sprache und das protoaltaische Sprachsubstrat als Medium zu ihrer Deutung (I): Mit _quivalenten von grammatikalischen Partikeln und Wortgleichungen’, Ulm/Donau (1992).
61. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dio_Cassius; see details of the early Roman rule over Egypt here: Timo Stickler, ‘Cornelius Gallus and the Beginnings of the Augustan Rule in Egypt’,
Title: Listening to Ethiopia’s South: Music, Musicians, and the Performance of Oromo Nationalism Author:Kay Kaufman Shelemay (Professor of Music and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University) Published:Seminar Presentation, African Studies Workshop at Harvard University Language: English Keywords: Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, Music, Oromo Nationalism
On March 3, 2014, Kay Kaufman Shelemay, G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, presented, “Listening to Ethiopia’s South: Music, Musicians, and the Performance of Oromo Nationalism.” Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music at Harvard University, was the discussant.
After spending almost three decades as a political prisoner in his own country, Nelson Mandela emerged from his cell and quickly became one of the most revered world leaders. 18th July, Mandel’s Birthday, has been named International Nelson Mandela Day in his honor.
Nelson Mandela was not only a great leader; he was a student of great leadership. As a boy, he was dazzled by stories of African leaders from the 17th and 18th centuries, and he saw himself as part of that grand tradition. He was raised by the Regent of the Tembu tribe, who allowed him to sit in on tribal councils. Mandela once told me that the Regent would never speak until the end, and then he would summarize what had been said and try to form a consensus. When I was working with Mandela on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, I sat in on many meetings with his own senior team. He would almost always wait until the end to speak and then see if he could forge a consensus. To him that was the African way.
Mandela was not only a student of great leadership; he was intent on creating great African leaders. He believed that there was a dearth of great leaders in Africa, and he was keen on motivating a new generation of leadership for the continent.
I was with Mandela during many meetings with South African and international leaders. Afterwards, he would comment on a leader’s particular style or tactics, or even on what he wore. He would note if a leader was polite or deferential. He did not like leaders who were overly emotional or histrionic. If he described you as “measured,” that was a great compliment. He prized directness. He had no tolerance for leaders who were not honest. And he would sometimes smile ruefully if someone was in over his head.
Mandela believed that African leaders needed to be different than Western leaders. As the head of the African National Congress, and as the president of South Africa, he always sought consensus. He once told me that as a boy he had spent many days herding cattle, and that the way you lead cattle is from behind. By that he meant, you must marshal your forces and make sure that your people are ready to go in the direction where you want to lead them. Mandela led from the front and behind, and it is his spirit that is behind the Young African Leadership Initiative. And on Mandela’s 96th birthday, we get ready to welcome to Washington the 500 YALI Fellows who are the brightest of a new generation of great African leaders.
Mandela understood that leaders are made as well as born, and that circumstances bring forth great leaders. He liked the old English expression about leadership: “Cometh the moment, cometh the man – or the woman.” This is the moment for these young African leaders.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
“Living isn’t just about doing for yourself, but what you do for others as well.
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress member Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie, raise fists upon Mandela’s release from Victor Verster prison on Feb. 11, 1990, in Paarl, South Africa.(ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images)
Mandela at a funeral for 12 people who died during township unrest in Soweto, South Africa, Sept. 20, 1990.(ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images)
Mandela greets supporters behind the fence in the mining town of Randfontein, west of Johannesburg, Nov. 25, 1993. He toured the area as part of his campaign for the 1994 presidential election.(WALTER DHLADHLA/AFP/Getty Images)
South African President Nelson Mandela takes the oath of office on May 10, 1994, at the Union Building in Pretoria.(WALTER DHLADHLA/AFP/Getty Images)
South African President Nelson Mandela takes the oath of office on May 10, 1994, at the Union Building in Pretoria.(WALTER DHLADHLA/AFP/Getty Images)
President Mandela goes on a walkabout round Trafalgar Square in London on his way to South Africa House, where he made a speech from the balcony.(POOL/AFP/Getty Images),
‘Over the years, Mandela’s initial military training and brief stay in Ethiopia received only a scant media coverage. It has been said that Mandela had come face-to-face with death at many junctures in his long life. But had the alleged 1962 assassination attempt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, succeeded, the world would have been worse off.
In ‘July 1962, Col Fekadu Wakene taught South African political activist Nelson Mandela the tricks of guerrilla warfare – including how to plant explosives before slipping quietly away into the night.’ BBC
Namoota hedduu biratti maandelaan Goota.Nama kaka’uumsa qabu nama jabaa fi mul’ata qabu. Yeroo baayyee nama gad of qabu, nama gaarii, amanamaa, nama warra biraafis yaadu.
Ta’uun beekamu. Nelson Mandelaan Adooleessa 18 bara 1918 dhalatanii naannoo dur gurraachonni Afrikaa kibbaa keessa jiraatan Transkei jedhamtu keessatti guddatan.
Gama kaaniin ammoo dhaabi fiilmii Amerikaa baasu Holly Woodii fi ka Afrikaa Kibbaalleen seenaa Maandellaafaa shugguxi Maandellaa ta baddee fi seenaa Oromoota isa waliin turanii irralleetti wa hojjachuutti jira.
His Excellency Jacob G Zuma
President
Republic of South Africa
Dear Mr. President:
It is with feelings of great sorrow that we in the Oromo Liberation Front and the Oromo people at large learned the passing of Mr. Nelson Mandela, the first elected President of South Africa and a true freedom -fighting icon. On behalf of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Oromo people, I wish to convey my deepest condolences and sympathies to you and the people of South Africa during this time of national mourning. The passing of Former President Mandela is a tremendous loss not only to South Africa and Africa alone but to the whole world.
The world and Africa in particular has lost an extraordinary statesman; a true freedom fighter whose moral strength, dedication and determination liberated his people from the evil of apartheid and set a genuine example for the rest of world. This gallant son and leader of Africa, through his unconditional sacrifices and heroism transformed his beloved country, South Africa, into peaceful multiracial nation that continues to serve as an example of a true and genuine national reconciliation in the world.
We, Oromo, have very fond memories of Mr. Mandela’s secret visit to our country in 1962, where he was hosted by General Taddasa Biru, an Oromo hero, founder of the OLF and leader who was murdered by the Ethiopian regime in 1975, while in struggle for the liberation of his own people. General Taddasa Biru trained and prepared Mr. Mandela for armed struggle. Because of this connection in particular, Mr. Nelson Mandela has become a source of inspiration for those of us struggling for freedom, equality, peace and reconciliation. We will greatly miss this freedom icon and giant son of Africa.
History will remember President Nelson Mandela as a great man and hero. Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela’s legacy will live on and inspire generations to come.
At this moment, our prayers are with the people of South Africa and President Mandela’s family in particular and we hope that they will find strength and solace to overcome their sorrow during this period of deep grief.
May his soul rest in eternal peace!
Yours Sincerely,
Dawud Ibsa
Chairman
Oromo Libertion Front– National Council
The Oromo Studies Association (OSA) is profoundly saddened by the death of Nelson Mandela. Mandela was a father, a husband, a statesman, a global hero, an anti-apartheid symbol, an advocate of human rights, and a fearless fighter of discrimination. He fought for the equal right of the black people in Apartheid South Africa, and paid a heavy price for the freedom of his people. He was condemned to a 27-year imprisonment. Despite the prison ordeals, he defended his dignity, civility, discipline, principle, and emerged a better human being. Eventually, he led a pariah state to a new chapter of peace with itself and the world. A passionate and forgiving man, he built a common home for blacks and white races – making animosity between the once sworn enemies a matter of history. Today, the rainbow nation is a model for a racial equality and tolerance. Added to his popularity and grace was his decision to limit his presidency to one term in the continent often incumbents die in the office or removed by coup.
Mr Mandela with His Oromo Trainer, General Tadesse Biru. (Photo: Public Domain)
Mandela was a prisoner of conscience, but he was a free man at last. Today, there are tens of thousands of Oromo prisoners of conscience in Ethiopian prisons. Mandela was once considered a terrorist. Today, the Ethiopian government often labels one who advocates for the rights of the Oromo people as a terrorist. It is against this background that Mandela’s universal message of justice has a strong resonance in the Oromo nation, a nation trying to overcome a century of discrimination, oppression, marginalization, exploitation, and occupation.
The Oromo nation had a historical connection to a man who changed the world through his words and actions. He inspired General Taddasa Birru, a man who ignited the struggle of the Oromo people for freedom and equality. The Oromo nation takes pride in teaching a military science and training Mandela needed to spark the struggle of the people of South Africa. Mandela cut his teeth under General Taddasa Birru and Capt. Fekadu Wakane. The Oromo nation also foiled an assassination attempt against the life of Nelson Mandela. Captain Dinka Guta is still a living witness for that. We are also happy that Dr. Neville Alexander, a son of an Oromo slave, fought for the independence of the people of South Africa, and imprisoned with Mandela at the same prison.
Mandela has left the world for good; yet he has changed the world for good. Today, the world is a better place for humanity because of a meaningful life he lived and a remarkable legacy he left behind. We are grieving his death, but humanity is better off because of his universal message of love, peace, harmony, understanding, human rights, and democracy. Mandela’s struggle against discrimination and oppression will inspire the struggle of the Oromo people and other oppressed peoples around the world. Our prayers and thoughts are with his family and the people of South Africa during this difficult time.
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Dr. Ibrahim Elemo, the President of OSA, signing a condolence book at the Consulate General of South Africa, in Chicago, December 6, 2013.
Dr. Ibrahim Elemo, the President of OSA, briefed the staff of the Consulate General of South Africa about the link between the Oromo struggle and the South Africans’ struggle against the Apartheid
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Ibrahim Elemo, M.D, M.P.H
President, the Oromo Studies Association/Waldaa Qorannoo Oromoo
E-mail: ielemo@weisshospital.com
Qunu, South Africa—Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically-elected president and its most beloved leader, was laid to rest Sunday at a state funeral in the lush green hills he roamed barefoot as a child.
About 4,500 mourners gathered in a giant white tent on the Mandela family compound, where 95 candles—one for each year of Mandela’s life—burned behind his South African flag-draped casket. Family, friends and world leaders recalled Nelson Mandela as disciplined but mischievous, courageous yet humble.
The service concluded a 10-day period of national mourning that included a memorial gathering in Soweto, various concerts and Mandela’s body lying in state for three days in Pretoria. Organizers wanted Sunday’s service to wrap up in two-and-half hours, because a man of Mandela’s stature should be buried at noon, “when the sun is at its highest and the shadow at its shortest,” said African National Congress Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who served as master of ceremonies.
“Madala, your abundant reserves of love, simplicity, honesty, service, humility, care, courage, foresight, patience, tolerance, equality and justice continually served as a source of enormous strength to many millions of people in South Africa and the world,” said Ahmed Kathrada, who gave the first eulogy, addressing Mandela with the Xhosa word for elder. “You symbolize today, and always will, qualities of collective leadership, reconciliation, unity and forgiveness.”
Kathrada, who spent 26 years in prison with Mandela, choked up several times during his address. “When Walter [former African National Congress Secretary General Sisulu] died, I lost a father,” he said. “When you died, I lost a brother. Now I don’t know who to turn to.”
Guests included luminaries like Price Charles, Oprah Winfrey and Jesse Jackson and African leaders such as Malawi’s President Joyce Banda, Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete and Zambia’s former President Kenneth Kaunda.
Mandela’s granddaughter, Nandi Mandela, gave a moving tribute that recalled her grandfather’s humble roots. “He grew up from these rolling hills,” she said. “He went to school barefoot yet he rose to the highest office in the land.”
She depicted Mandela as a stern, but fun-loving and mischievous grandfather who loved telling stories.
“People always talk about his achievements, but he was a lot of fun to be around and he was a great storyteller.” She said he particularly liked to poke fun at himself, recounting a tale he told about trying to pick up a piece of chicken with his fork while at dinner with a girl he was trying to impress and her family. “Every time I stabbed the chicken, it jumped,” Nandi Mandela recalled her grandfather saying with a hearty laughter. “We shall miss your voice, we shall miss your laughter.”
Residents of Qunu and surrounding villages and ordinary South Africans who traveled from all over the country were not permitted inside the tent. Instead, hundreds watched Nandi Mandela and the other speakers on a giant screen set up in a distant field overlooking the Mandela compound, and at other public viewing sites around the country.
Draped in yellow and green Mandela t-shirts and scarves, with small South African flags attached to their hats or behind their ears, they sat quietly and intently, but jumped to their feet ululating and cheering when Mandela’s former praise poet, Zolani Mkiva, offered a rousing introduction to President Jacob Zuma.
The boos that greeted Zuma during a memorial service last week in Soweto were absent Sunday. In his speech, Zuma said Mandela offered, “hope in the place of hopelessness” and promised that South Africans would not abandon the principles that defined Mandela’s life.
“We have to continue building the type of society you worked tirelessly to construct,” Zuma said. “We have to take your legacy forward.”
As they watched the service in the field, mourners recalled how Mandela threw Christmas parties for the children of Qunu and surrounding villages, plying them with shoes, uniforms, and bags for school.
“For a big man like this, he was always there for us,” said Masibulele Magqirha, 42, of Qunu. Magqirha said he grew up playing soccer on the fields where Mandela’s house now stands. And he recalled when his entire soccer team decided they’d go ask Mandela to buy them uniforms.
“He said, ‘What are you doing here?’ But nobody wanted to talk,” Magqirha recalled. “’Gentlemen I’m talking to you, what are you coming here for?’” Mandela said, according to Magqirha. Magqirha finally spoke up: “Tata, please we are here to ask you to buy for us a kit. We are out playing soccer but we don’t have a kit.” Mandela told two team leaders to return the next day, Magqirha said. “When we came back, he said, ‘Tell me, what is your story?’ Are you studying? Please, you must go to school.’”
The next day, Magqirha returned, and was told to hop into a military truck, where he was presented with cleats, socks, shorts and shirts for the entire team.
“Where will we get a person like this again?” he asked.
Following Zuma’s speech, mourners walked behind the giant screen and paused in a vast open field. A young woman sat gazing towards the gravesite, crying. Others stood peering through binoculars towards the Mandela compound. Two police officers took a selfie, the funeral tent in the background. A man raised one fist in the air, holding a poster of Mandela in his other hand, gazing into the distance.
Then two busloads of men from neighboring KwaZulu Natal province, wielding spears and shields, offered a tribute in music and dance to Mandela, gyrating through the field.
Ultimately, Ramaphosa, the master of ceremonies, had to plead with the ancestors for extra time, as the ceremony went about an hour longer than expected. A small, private burial service followed at the family gravesite nearby.
Three helicopters carrying South African flags whizzed by, and military jets passed overhead in tribute as mourners sprinted towards them in a futile dash. A 21-canon salute boomed and smoke filled the village air.
At the Mandela family’s request, the national broadcaster cut the live feed to allow for a private burial. As coverage on the big screen ended, a woman seated in the front row wearing an elegant purple dress raised her hand and waved goodbye.
‘Much of Mandela’s belief system came from his youth in the Xhosa tribe and being raised by a local Thembu King after his own father died. As a boy, he lived in a rondavel — a grass hut — with a dirt floor. He learned to be a shepherd. He fetched water from the spring. He excelled at stick fighting with the other boys. He sat at the feet of old men who told him stories of the brave African princes who ruled South Africa before the coming of the white man. The first time he shook the hand of a white man was when he went off to boarding school. Eventually, little Rolihlahla Mandela would become Nelson Mandela and get a proper Methodist education, but for all his worldliness and his legal training, much of his wisdom and common sense — and joy — came from what he had learned as a young boy in the Transkei. Mandela might have been a more sentimental man if so much had not been taken away from him. His freedom. His ability to choose the path of his life. His eldest son. Two great-grandchildren. Nothing in his life was permanent except the oppression he and his people were under. And everything he might have had he sacrificed to achieve the freedom of his people. But all the crude jailers, tiny cells and bumptious white apartheid leaders could not take away his pride, his dignity and his sense of justice. Even when he had to strip and be hosed down when he first entered Robben Island, he stood straight and did not complain. He refused to be intimidated in any circumstance. I remember interviewing Eddie Daniels, a 5-ft. 3-in. mixed-race freedom fighter who was in cell block B with Mandela on the island; Eddie recalled how anytime he felt demoralized, he would just have to see the 6-ft. 2-in. Mandela walking tall through the courtyard and he would feel revived. Eddie wept as he told me how when he fell ill, Mandela — “Nelson Mandela, my leader!” — came into his cell and crouched down to wash out his pail of vomit and blood and excrement. I always thought that in a free and nonracial South Africa, Mandela would have been a small-town lawyer, content to be a local grandee. This great, historic revolutionary was in many ways a natural conservative. He did not believe in change for change’s sake. But one thing turned him into a revolutionary, and that was the pernicious system of racial oppression he experienced as a young man in Johannesburg. When people spat on him in buses, when shopkeepers turned him away, when whites treated him as if he could not read or write, that changed him irrevocably. For deep in his bones was a basic sense of fairness: he simply could not abide injustice. If he, Nelson Mandela, the son of a chief, tall, handsome and educated, could be treated as subhuman, then what about the millions who had nothing like his advantages? “That is not right,” he would sometimes say to me about something as mundane as a plane flight’s being canceled or as large as a world leader’s policies, but that simple phrase — that is not right — underlay everything he did, everything he sacrificed for and everything he accomplished.’
Itophiyaa waan halle, durooma waa tattaa, human namaa fi surrii saamuu malee hanga yoonaa waan Oromiyaaf buufte hin qabdu. Surrii itt lola’e kan waajjirbulchii Itoophiaa bara dheeraaf jiraachise. Surroota sana isaanii kan fuuloo ta’ee fula saanii xuraawaa dhosseef. Gaaffiin Oromoo gaaffi bilisummaa sabaawaa sammicha seermalee akasii hambisuuf kan dhihaate yoo ta’u kan koloneeffataa olhaantummaa gad jabeessuuf kan dhihate. Yoo qabamsi raawwate malee dhoofsisaaf irraa ka’i waloo hin jiru. Kan golli sadaffaan qayyabachuu dadhabu sana ta’a. Gaaffiin hiree ofii ofiin murteeffachu dhugooffachuu mirkanii jireenya seenaa sabichaa irratt hundaawaa.
Mootummaan amma jiru kana beekuun kan heera saa keessatt mirga kana galche. Sun waan qajeelaa dha. Sobaan dhiheessuun garuu addagummaa dha. Oromomitiin seexaa qaban kan Oromiyaa keessatt dhalatan, jiraatan, yk hojjetan kanneen keesumsiisoo, michuu, nama biyya walii ta’an waan bilisomuu irraa sodaatan kan hin jirreef isaan waliin qabama raawwachiisuuf akka dhaabbatan eegamuu. Kanneen jibba sanyii fi amantee koloneeffamoo hin qabne ummati Oromoo naga qabeessoo fi aada qabeessoo akka tahan beeku. Nama nagaatt roorrisuun uumaa sabichaa keessa waan hin jirre. Garuu Wayyaaneen ofii yakka hamaa tolchee kan biraatt maqachuun amala see waan ta’eef dammaqanii eeggachuu dha.
Koloneeffataa inni eegalaallee yeroo mootii Itophiyaa fi biyya Oromoo ofiin jechuu labse adda addummaa biyyooti lamaan, Itophiyaa fi Oromiyaan qaban beekuufii saa agarsiisa. Oromoon akka wallaaloti tokko tokko xeeban gosa hedduu of keessaa qaba malee ofii gosa miti. Mootummaan ammaa gaaffii bilisummaa Oromoo irra darbama jira. Heera tumuun, Oromoo qabsoo saanii irraa dagachiisee, hamaa dhiiga lolaasu duuba fiduu deemuuf yeroo bitachuu saa ture. Hacuuccaa hagamiittu dhimma bahuun deebii gaaffii akkasiif barbaachisu yeroo hin beekamneef dabarsuun boombii innaa eeggatee dhukahu waan ta’eef irra darbuun hin dandahamu. Kanaaf bu’aa olloototaa fi addunyaa jedhamee ariitiii dandahamuun ilaalamuu qaba.
Ka’ka’i barattoota dhiheenya ta’e qabattee ilaalamu qaban hedduu keessaa tokko qofaa. Kanneen biro akka “Ittissa Haaromaa” (GRD) kan nammi hedduun kuusaa saa jireenyaa gowwoofamee bondi bituun itt dhagalaase; “Samicha lafaa” kan Oromiyaan ummati see buqqifamuun gatii yartuun gurguramte; Afaan Oromoo waajjiraalee fi waabaroota Finfinnee akka hin seene ittifamuu fakkaatan Oromoo waan laalaniif roorroo biraa irratt dabalamuun qabattee morma guddaa kaasuu danda’an keessatt argamu. Lagi Abbayyaa bishaa gara caalu Oromiyaa irraa argata. Yaa’aan saas lafa Oromiyaa guddaa tuqa. Bishaan qajeellaan dhimma itt bahamuu kan mormu hin jiru. Garuu akki inni itt eegalee malbeekiin kan gorsamu mitii, horiin barbaachisu kan hanga dhumaatt baasu miti, yaadi duuba jirus mamsiisaa dha. Wanti sanaan dhufuu kan Oromiyaa hubuu danda’u samicha lafaa gadi hin ta’u.
What can nationals do to help the struggle back home?
By Ibsaa Guutama*
Finfinnee is found in Oromiyaa, and so it is the indisputable part of it. Oromiyaa has been under occupation for over a century. Finfinnee was turned into the headquarters of the occupying force where Oromo was forced to serve with sweat and blood rather than getting benefit out of its formation. After the overthrow of the Darg, the state of Oromiyaa and the interest it has in Finfinnee was formally recognized by the occupying regime and a sort of administrative structure was created for it.
With what seemed a magic wand, the empire was turned into federation. It is assumed that all federal states will have equal contributions in organizing and running it so that no one state should bear a federal burden alone. Therefore, federal state has to lease Finfinnee if Oromiyaa wills or buy land or found a brand new citadel with master plan of its choice. Other than that, trying to expanding Finfinnee will be denying the change in nature of the empire. The alternative is to recant the officially declared federal status, and reestablish it as a colonial empire. Then, the question becomes not federal, but colonial. Be it as it may for an alien force to kill Oromo in their own land for whatsoever reason is unjustifiable, and so is wanton aggression and criminal.
Now the people of Oromiyaa are showing solidarity to defend their rights more than any other time, whatever the cost may be. Students and parents in north, south, west and east Oromiyaa had simultaneously gone out to protest the meddling of the Ethiopian regime in affairs of Oromiyaa. Though they know that the government is not known to respect its own single-handedly crafted Constitution, they gave it benefit of the doubt and went out to test the truth if the Constitution is constitutional. Alas, the government exposed its true self and met them with live bullets and clubs – imported from abroad, and a special force known as “Agaazii.”
Numerous under ages lost their lives, and properties were destroyed. The world has witnessed in clear terms the impossibility of peaceful struggle under such an empire and such anti-people regime. Their laws are only fake instruments. Since people cannot give up on their birth rights, it is lamentable that the alternative available to them is going to remain the violent ones alone.
Ethiopia so far has given nothing to Oromiyaa, but has taken away everything valuable, material wealth, human labor as well as brains from her. It is the brain drained that sustained Ethiopian bureaucracy for a long time. It is those brains that they use as masks to cover their dirty face.
The Oromo question is a question of national liberation to end such undue exploitation, while that of the colonizer is question of domination. There is no common premise for negotiation unless the occupation ends. That is what third parties might fail to understand. The demand for the realization of the right to national self-determination is based on historic fact of life of the people. It was realizing this that the present regime included such right in its constitution. That was the right thing to do. To fake it, is hooliganism. Conscientious non-Oromo who were born, lived or worked in Oromiyaa are expected to stand with their hosts, friends and Oromo compatriots in resisting occupation and have nothing to fear from being free. Those who have no biases against race and creed of the colonized know that the Oromo are the most peaceful and cultured people. To do harm to innocent human beings is not in the nature of the nation. But the possibility of TPLF committing heinous crimes and putting the blame on others must be watched out.
Even the first colonizer recognized the separate status of the two countries Oromiyaa and Ethiopia when he declared himself as emperor of Ethiopia and Oromo country. Oromo is a nation of many tribes not a tribe (gosa) as some ignorant want to refer to it. The present regime has kept on postponing the question of Oromo liberation. Promulgation of the Constitution was only to distract Oromo from their struggle, and buy time for the bloody repression it was going to unleash later. Whatever repressive force it may apply, the response to such questions cannot be avoided indefinitely for it is a time bomb waiting to explode when the appropriate time comes. Therefore, for the benefit of all neighbors and the world, they have to be attained the soonest possible.
Recent student uprising is only one out of several issues of concern. Others like the unsustainable “Great Renaissance Dam” (GRD) in which many are fooled into spending their life’s saving in buying bonds; “Land Grabbing” where Oromiyaa is being sold at the expense of eviction of natives; prohibition of Afan Oromo from schools and offices in Finfinnee also concern Oromo and could possibly be issues provoking public protest in addition to the overall human rights abuses. The Abbayya River gets most of its water from Oromiyaa and its course touches big swath of Oromo land. No one will object to fair use of the water. But, the ways it started is not diplomatically commendable, financially sustainable and the motive is questionable. The consequence affects Oromiyaa no less than the land grab.
Is the “GRD” for momentary individual or group glory or is it really meant for national benefits as stated. Is it meant to manipulate rifts in international relation in favor of one side and has nothing to do with Ethiopia’s interest? From the nature of the regime that is addicted to amassing wealth for small circle of cohorts, it is not to take the project to completion, but to benefit from possible negotiation to modify or end it. Many harnessed rivers of Oromiyaa did not benefit her, but the mother land and foreign business. Abbayya will not be different. As far as the question of land is concerned, land still remains property of the alien government. The owner can dispose of it as it liked. That is why the regime is selling to whoever asks at very cheap price; or give to supporter who amass wealth by selling it or give it to galtuu Oromo whom they could blackmail later with crime of “kiraayi sabsaabii” (rent seeking). It is Oromo land; the Oromo cannot accept the sale of their land or obliged to respect such contracts. It is unlawful contract that did not take peasant farmers’ interest into consideration. As far as the general Oromo question goes, it seems the regime has signed the end to the right of subjects to peacefully express oneself. Therefore, the form of resistance is sure to change, otherwise any peaceful demonstration there will be suicidal.
After the massacre, the most outrageous thing is the putting of words in mouths of the vulnerable by the regime to say things against their dead compatriots and their struggle. The case is Federal. They are also the ones that turned their guns against children. But they were the Neo-Goobanaa that had come out to distort the real causes of the uprising and blame culprits their masters are going to create for it later. The old Goobanaa served the same pacifying role until his dishonorable fall. The Ethiopian peoples have enough experience about allegations. Coined epithets were for the king “foreign hand,” for Darg “CIA hirelings,” and forWayyaanee they are “terrorists and anti-developments.” The Neo-Goobanaa also tried to deny the objective of the Master Plan that is to turn Finfinnee into one metropolitan “Addis Ababa” forgetting the plan is there in black and white.
The Oromo are opposed, of course, to those bodies that are trying to dismantle Oromiyaa in the name of city planning and development that dispossesses them. No amount of malicious propaganda will stop the Oromo struggle for liberation and the integrity of united Oromiyaa. There cannot be a nation called Oromo without integrated free Oromiyaa. For lack of formidable political organization, students are taking the lead as during the emperor’s days. Just like those days, if old OLF is not ready, other organized group will come forward and revitalize the originalKaayyoo of the liberation movement. As long as repression continues, Oromo revolution cannot be stopped. The wisest thing for Oromo activists is not to waste time lamenting about what happened yesterday, but on what should be done henceforth. Yesterday with its best and worst has gone; to make or break, we have today aiming at better tomorrow.
Committing more crimes to silence the Oromo is already in full gears. The tragic events of past weeks cannot be reversed. But it is hoped that all nationals have already started to ponder on how to stop such crime continuing. Domestically, the wheels of resistance have already started rolling. People who are feeling the brunt of alien repression will continue to put up resistance against dismantling Oromiyaa, and evicting the inhabitants from their ancestral grounds where umbilical cords of generations were buried. They may require only to strengthening their movement as to make it difficult for the enemy to control Oromiyaa. The death of young students and innocent nationals is heartbreaking, but there is always price to be paid for freedom. The spy networks of “Goox,”“Garee” and “Aand Laamist” are broken. The enemy has already started to be frantic; keeping the moment could make it entangled with its own follies and forced to negotiate for own survival. Let us raise issues of concern on how nationals and people in the Diaspora help Oromo struggle back home by assessing areas of sustainable cooperation.
Oromo all over the world are organized into communities as well as faith based and professional associations. But all organizations are infested with active and sleeping cells of infiltrators. To be useful for the national cause, they need to cleanse themselves first. What is said of civic entities is also true for political organizations. The functions of a community organization are limited to a surrounding. The Oromo predicament requires global coordination. It needs an in depth assessment of possibilities and thorough understanding of the issue to operate in unison for pan Oromo benefit. Past experiences have lessons to learn from.
Political organization will be effective if they could coordinate their operations. If they fail, it must be known that organizations and leaders can be born out of a situation and make them irrelevant. Those that cannot for reasons take part in joining efforts should take necessary care as not to be obstacle to people’s struggle. Refusing to yield to ideas of majority and stubbornness do not serve under the prevailing situation. The enemy pokes there to trigger conflict. So everyone has to be vigilant not to be caught off guard. On has also to beware of gents of colonialists and expansionists disguised as missionaries of religious establishments to take part in creating obstacles for cultural development and peoples’ struggle for freedom. These are also to be countered by nationals from faiths for they are divisive and anti-peace.
One important thing to remember is that Wayyaanee is using structures created in its embassies and government fund for espionage wherever there is dissidence. Among its objectives are creating conflicts among nationals abroad to paralyze opposition against it and also to gathering information on their movements. Where possible, they also recruit from among their ranks for their PDO’s. For this, they use modern technics as well as human spies, infiltrators who act more radical than true nationalists. This is carried out in accordance with permanent guidelines given to diplomatic missions. That is why tight organization of trusted members is needed. Oromo nationals are either with national organizations or with the enemy. They cannot serve both camps. Liberal attitudes have to stop in such matters. Safuu serves in Oromo context and only with those who have similar values.
There are peoples neighboring Oromiyaa – who had fallen to colonial rule and still face alienation by the same source. Solidarity of struggle with those is indispensable. Those are sovereign peoples with own territory, and deserve unequivocal recognition from all nations, including Oromo, without any precondition. Those who had already joined hands in struggle have to take it to higher level whenever possible. Enemy hand to divide them has to be watched out. Oromo activists have to give benefit of the doubt for such people as not to jeopardize relations by jumping to conclusions on assumptions. Otherwise, it will be walking into enemy trap.
Many Oromo living abroad are citizens of respective countries they live in. These, as ethnic groups, may have civic organizations. There are many arenas open to them to influence decision making of their respective countries. As long as they have the votes, they will have the voice as well. They have always to keep in memory that the people they left behind are crying to be rescued from dictators. Oromiyaa, a historically free and democratic country, should not remain dependent when they are there for her. It has to remain a challenge to their conscience. Therefore, they should take on themselves that they have at least a role to play in the peaceful or diplomatic struggle of their people. Their people need knowledgeable and skilled manpower as well as material support of all sorts. No Oromo group has more exposure to resources than they do.
People back home are not free to gather and discuss matters of common interest. But when oppression pass their limits, fear of being caught fades away. That is the stage where Oromo is reaching. Whether children demonstrate or not, the Wayyaanee will is not stopping incarcerating and killing Oromo. Unless it breaks the morale of the nation, it is afraid that Oromo will demand ownership of the land and resources it is plundering. As far as possible, it will try to gaga it so that it does not utter a word, produce wealth and it remains uninformed. All who believe being Oromo have to help and devise means that this nation can release itself from the alien entanglement. Those who give their lives and freedom to maintain the name high are doing so believing in their rear.
There is nothing worse than living despised and humiliated in own country. For this reason, those who are not living under that scourge have to be strong and dependable rear. Oromummaa demands that. Because when a person is imprisoned or killed, not only the person, but the community and family enter into political, social and economic crisis that is why to support from the rear becomes essential.
Those activists who started with carbon copying and have passed through alcohol and stencil duplicators have now reached the electronic printer age. Messenger and copper wire telephone they used are now replaced by computer communication. Many did not get chance to see it, but they have traveled tortuous road and passed away contributing to our self-consciousness. We may not realize that the older one is the less comfortable one becomes with computers and modern ideas. Therefore, computer suave and better informed younger generation has to be entrusted with that for efficient functioning of the struggle. The old ways have to phase out, be it in communication or administration, for they are becoming obsolete. In other words, the Gadaa principle of rejuvenation of political process has to be adopted in a way fitting changing times. Wisdom acquired through ages has its proper role to play in Oromo tradition. The Oromo have to gear up for the drive towards liberation in memory of their old and recent martyrs. We cannot help being in tears when our hearts bleed remembering the recent atrocities committed against Oromo youth by occupation’s special force sent by TPLF/EPRDF butchers.
Honor and glory for the fallen heroines and heroes; liberty equality and freedom for the living, and nagaa and araaraa for the Ayyaanaa of our fore parents!
A Summary of Oromos Killed, Beaten and Detained by the TPLF Armed Forces during the 2014 Oromo Protest Against The Addis Ababa (Finfinne) Master Plan Compiled by: National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy (NYMFD) aka Qeerroo Bilisummaa
July 05, 2014
Background
It is a well-documented and established fact that the Oromo people in general and Oromo students and youth in particular have been in constant and continuous protest ever since the current TPLF led Ethiopian government came to power. The current protest which started late April 2014 on a large scale in all universities and colleges in Oromia and also spread to several high schools and middle schools begun as opposition to the so called “Integrated Developmental Master Plan” or simply “the Master Plan”. The “Master Plan” was a starter of the protest, not a major cause. The major cause of the youth revolt is opposition to the unjust rule of the Ethiopian regime in general. The main issue is that there is no justice, freedom and democracy in the country. The said Master Plan in particular, would expand the current limits of the capital, Addis Ababa, or “Finfinne” as the Oromos prefer to call it, by 20 folds stretching to tens of Oromian towns surrounding the capital. The Plan is set to legalize eviction of an estimated 2 million Oromo farmers from their ancestral land and sell it to national and transnational investors. For the Oromo, an already oppressed and marginalised nation in that country, the incorporation of those Oromian cities into the capital Addis Ababa means once more a complete eradication of their identity, culture, and language. The official language will eventually be changed to Amharic. Essentially, it is a new form of subjugation and colonization. It was the Oromo university students who saw this danger, realized its far-reaching consequences and lit the torch of protest which eventually engulfed the whole Oromia regional state.
For the minority TPLF led Ethiopian regime, who has been already selling large area of land surrounding Addis Ababa even without the existence of the Master Plan, meeting the demands of the protesting Oromo students means losing 1.1 million of hectares of land which the regime planned to sell for a large sum of money. Therefore, the demand of the students and the Oromo people at large is not acceptable to the regime. It has therefore decided to squash the protest with its forces armed to the teeth. The regime ordered its troops to fire live ammunition to defenceless Oromo students at several places: Ambo, Gudar, Robe (Bale), Nekemte, Jimma, Haromaya, Adama, Najjo, Gulliso, Anfillo (Kellem Wollega), Gimbi, Bule Hora (University), to mention a few. Because the government denied access to any independent journalists it is hard to know exactly how many have been killed and how many have been detained and beaten. Simply put, it is too large of a number over a large area of land to enumerate. Children as young as 11 years old have been killed. The number of Oromos killed in Oromia during the current protest is believed to be in hundreds. Tens of thousands have been jailed and an unknown number have been abducted and disappeared. The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa, who has been constantly reporting the human rights abuses of the regime through informants from several parts of Oromia for over a decade, estimates the number of Oromos detained since April 2014 as high as 50, 000
In this report we present a list of 61 Oromos that are killed and 903 others that are detained and beaten (or beaten and then detained) during and after the Oromo students protest which begun in April 2014 and which we managed to collect and compile. The information we obtain so far indicates those detained are still in jail and still under torture. Figure 1 below shows the number of Oromos killed from different zones of Oromia included in this report. Figure 2 shows the number of Oromos detained and reportedly facing torture. It has to be noted that this number is only a small fraction of the widespread killings and arrest of Oromos carried out by the regime in Oromia regional state since April 2014 to date. Our Data Collection Team is operating in the region under tight and risky security conditions not to consider lack of logistic, financial and man power to carry the data collection over the vast region of Oromia.
In 1941 Selassie passed a decree to ban the Oromo language, [Afan Oromoo]. His bias against the Oromo became readily apparent when he went so far as to forbid them from speaking their own language. The emperor followed this in 1944 with Decree Number 3, which required all missionaries to teach in Amharic, despite the fact that the majority of the Oromo and other ethnic minorities did not speak the language. According to the decree, The general language of instruction throughout Ethiopia shall be the Amharic Language, which language all missionaries will be expected to learn. Selassieís government entrenched the Abyssinian culture further by making Amharic the national language of Ethiopia in 1955. During the early 1970 the regime recognized and used four other languages (Tigrinya, Tigre, Somali, and Afar) but not Oromoo afan, thereby demonstrating the leaderís level of disdain for the Oromo.
The concept of Oromo peace also influenced their beliefs regarding the social development of humanity (finna), which they believed passed through five stages to reach the nagaa oromoo. They called the first stage the gabbina, where humanity learned from their past mistakes to create the gada system. After this stage they progressed to the ballina, which involved greater cooperation between them and increased wealth. The badhaadha marked the third stage, where unity and tranquility persisted among the Oromo, which pleased Waqa. After humanity had made peace with itself, it next made peace with nature, represented by the hoormaata stage. Finally, the daaga was the level on which humans integrated all lessons learned from previous stages in order to live in perfect harmony.
Haile Selassie and American Missionaries: Inadvertent Agents of Oromo Identity in Ethiopia (Thesis)
By Horace Eric Gilchrist
The thesis analyzes the dynamics among the Ethiopian government under Emperor Haile Selassie, American Protestant missionaries, and the Oromo during the period of 1960-1975. The thesis argues that Selassie and the missionaries had different agendas for helping the Oromo and shows how this resulted in political and social outcomes which neither the missionaries nor emperor intended to create. One such consequence was the
evolution and entrenchment of the Oromo sense of identity. Using the unpublished records of the Christian Missionary Fellowship (CMF) the thesis examines the efforts of this particular mission and that of its counterpart, the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) of which more is known. The speeches and decrees of Haile Selassie and other government officials have also been helpful in this study, and for the Oromo particular, the thesis has had to rely
on published works by the Oromo themselves.
The government of Haile Selassie and the CMF had different views on the proper role of missionary work in Ethiopia. Selassie saw the missionariesí role as being utilitarian, aiding his overall objective of the unification of Ethiopia. However, the CMF saw their primary goal as spiritual, saving the Oromo from a life of sin through the acceptance of Christianity. Neither agenda had as its primary goal elevating the depressed sociopolitical and economic levels of the Oromo society. The question arises regarding the success of the CMF in evangelizing to the Oromo and the extent to which the Oromo benefited from CMF efforts. Related to this is the manner in which the Amhara-dominated government and Ethiopian Orthodox Church responded to the success of the CMF.
Findings of the Thesis
‘No unified Ethiopian society existed prior to the late nineteenth century and that the Oromo and Abyssinians had separate and distinct societies during this period. Abyssinians developed a unique sociopolitical culture which differed fundamentally from those of most Africans. Cushitic-speaking humans occupied the area of modern Ethiopia for thousands of years. The Abyssinians traced their heritage back before the time of ancient Egyptians, with roots outside of Africa. Around 1,000 BC Arabic-speaking people, the Sabeans, invaded Ethiopia.’
‘The governing system of the Oromo reflected the society’s openness and flexibility, which contrasted with the Abyssiniansí rigid and autocratic government system. The Oromo clearly placed a value on individual liberty and freedom, which was reflected in their political organizations and social customs. Their acceptance and incorporation of other ethnicities reflected the societyís mutability; they also saw themselves not as a unified nation but as individual federations with a common culture.’
‘The Oromo held religious beliefs as complex as the Abyssinians’ beliefs. Contrary to traditional scholarship, the Oromo practiced a monotheistic religion distinct from Christianity and Islam long before they came into contact with Abyssinians and Westerners. The Oromo believed in a sky god, Waqa, whom they believed created the universe and, like many pre-Christian societies, the Oromo held a pantheistic belief that Waqa resided in all living things yet remained a distinct entity. The Oromo also had Jesus and Abraham figures, known as Orma: a demigod and son of Waqa, whom the Oromo saw as their progenitor. Orma set down Waqaís law to the abbaa muudaa (father anointed), who acted as the chief priest of the religion. The similarities with Christianityshould be noted: first, Waqa functioning as God the father, Orma as the Son, and finally a figure similar Abraham in the form of the abbaa muudaa. The complexity of the Oromo religion went beyond monotheism. The Oromo also believed in a complex theological system, with many similarities to Christianity. According to their tradition, their god created spirits, known as ayaana, who could be evil or good. However, they did not have the concept of a devil (setana) until the advent of Christianity. Some scholars might describe the Oromo concept of ayaana as a simple pagan belief, yet they resembled Christianity’s angels and functioned in a similar intercessory role for the Oromo as did angels with the Christian god.The Oromo also believed in a divine moral code (saffu), created by Waqa, which guided all things in nature (uuma), and the saffu served to achieve and maintain earthly peace called nagaa oromoo. This moral concept of nagaa oromoo carried over into the Oromo belief in cooperation with each other so that they never formed alliances with non-Oromo against other Oromo groups.’
‘The concept of Oromo peace also influenced their beliefs regarding the social development of humanity (finna), which they believed passed through five stages to reach the nagaa oromoo. They called the first stage the gabbina, where humanity learned from their past mistakes to create the gada system. After this stage they progressed to the ballina, which involved greater cooperation between them and increased wealth. The badhaadha marked the third stage, where unity and tranquility persisted among the Oromo, which pleased Waqa. After humanity had made peace with itself, it next made peace with nature, represented by the hoormaata stage. Finally, the daaga was the level on which humans integrated all lessons learned from previous stages in order to live in perfect harmony.’
‘The Oromo developed a religious class as complex and distinct as Orthodox Christian priests. Oromo called their priests qaallu, and choose them at birth, the position passing from father to son. These priests acted as intercessors for the Oromo with the ayaana and Waqa much like Orthodox priest did for the Abyssinians. Unlike the Orthodox priests, the Oromo priests did not live apart from the people. They also had prophets, called ragas, who foretold the future. Religious historians called ayaantus committed to memory all significant religious and social events in Oromo society.53 Finally, the abbaa muuda acted as the patriarch or pontifical figure in the Oromo qaallu system. The Oromo believed that he obtained his powers directly from Orma. Certain Oromo subgroups such as the Matcha Oromo made yearly pilgrimages to the abbaa muuda to seek blessings.’
‘Several important factors characterized Oromo political, social, and religious life. First, the Oromo clearly valued societal openness and flexibility over a rigid hierarchical society like that of the Abyssinians, and their willingness to incorporate other ethnicities into their groups is one proof of this. Likewise, the Oromo felt closely connected to nature with their religious beliefs and practices. Unlike Orthodox Christianity, which had an elaborate system focused on clergy, the Oromo religion centered on the individual. These religious beliefs easily meshed with their democratic practices, similar to Protestant Christianityís closeness to liberal democracy in the United States and other Western nations. This contrasted sharply with Orthodox Christianity, which matched more with the Abyssinian feudalistic governing system.’
‘The Oromo and Abyssinians possessed distinct cultures with different religious practices prior to the late nineteenth century. No unified Ethiopian nation existed during this period, except as represented by Abyssinian culture. Hierarchical political and religious structures characterized the Abyssinian culture, while democratic political and religious structures marked the Oromo culture.’
‘Abyssinians commenced the political unification of Ethiopia in the middle of the nineteenth century by destroying the sociopolitical and religious institutions of the Oromo. In 1852 the Amhara, under Dejazmatch Kassa (who later became Emperor Tewodros), defeated the most powerful Oromo city-state controlled by Ras Ali.
Within three years Dejazmatch Kassa conquered all of his Tigrean and Amhara rival leaders and assumed the title of Emperor of Ethiopia. Once the Abyssinians had unified the country, they initiated political and religious procedures to pacify other ethnic groups, including the Oromo. Emperor Menelik II (1885-1913) destroyed the Oromo gada system, replacing it with the military feudal structure known as nafxanya. Abyssinian soldiers confiscated the Oromo land and turned the Oromo into gabbars (peasants), who began to pay a feudal homage to their new conquerors by contributing one third of their crops and paying a monetary tax.’
‘The Orthodox Church played a key role in the pacification of the Oromo in the twentieth century. Emperor Menelik II initiated this campaign through a mass Christianization process in Oromo areas. He used his soldiers to conquer the Oromo, made them all Orthodox Christians by imperial decree, and then sent Orthodox priests to pacify his newly conquered subjects with religion. He also supported the construction of Orthodox churches throughout the conquered Oromo territory; he accomplished this by granting bala gults (feudal grants) to the Orthodox priests with Oromo peasants on the land. Meanwhile, all Oromo had to attend Orthodox services conducted entirely in Geíez, the ancient Abyssinian language that most Amhara and Tigreans did not understand. Like most imperial powers, the Abyssinian rulers naturally sought to make their language and religion the dominating one. Although to date the governmentís efforts at colonization had been more haphazard than coordinated, they achieved results. By the beginning of the twentieth century the Abyssinians had made significant inroads into destroying Oromo culture and creating in them a new Ethiopian identity.’
‘Haile Selassie’s ascendancy to the throne marked the beginning of perfected efforts by the Abyssinian government to pacify the Oromo. Selassie wanted to create a unified Ethiopian state under his control and devised several means to accomplish this goal.Through a project called Teklay Gizat (pulling together) he attempted to manufacture an Ethiopian identity with a campaign of uniting all disparate peoples. Selassie’s effort to centralize his power and create a new national identity manifested in many forms. In his philosophical outlook the Abyssinian culture, particularly that of the Amhara and Orthodox Christianity, represented his concept of Ethiopia and, under him, being Ethiopian became synonymous with accepting his view of Abyssinian culture. The emperor expressed this sentiment in public speeches throughout his reign. In a 1959 college speech Selassie clearly expressed this sentiment: The Amhara race must know that it has an obligation on its part to work in the technical field no matter at what level. To preserve the heritage of one’s honor and culture. This statement indicates that, for Selassie, being Ethiopian meant being Amhara. The emperor continued to express the belief that being an Amhara Orthodox Christian represented the qualities of Ethiopians when he stated on 15 January 1965, Ethiopia, an island of Christianity, has made her own distinctive contribution to the Christian faith; forever since her conversion to Christianity she has remained faithful, her age-old ties with the apostolic church uninterrupted. This shows that Selassie believed that Orthodox Christianity represented all of Ethiopia’s peoples and their non-Christian religions. In his Ethiopia, no room existed for people who did not assimilate to the Abyssinian culture and religion.
‘Selassieís attempt to create a national Ethiopian identity appeared harmless on the surface but, in fact, he took the nafxanya system to its logical conclusion by destroying the traditional Oromo provinces and creating new ones controlled by military governors. He employed a technique that communist governments would later use to pacify ethnically diverse populations: He forcibly split up the Oromo and other ethnic groups.Selassie also continued Menelikís policies of church building and forced conversions in conquered Oromo areas.These policies helped to weaken substantially the political cohesiveness of Oromo communities.’
‘The Ethiopian government enacted legislative policies to weaken the Oromo politically as well. In 1941 Selassie passed a decree to ban the Oromo language, Oromoo afan. His bias against the Oromo became readily apparent when he went so far as to forbid them from speaking their own language. The emperor followed this in 1944 with Decree Number 3, which required all missionaries to teach in Amharic, despite the fact that the majority of the Oromo and other ethnic minorities did not speak the language. According to the decree, ìThe general language of instruction throughout Ethiopia shall be the Amharic Language, which language all missionaries will be expected to learn.î15 Selassieís government entrenched the Abyssinian culture further by making Amharic the national language of Ethiopia in 1955. During the early 1970 the regime recognized and used four other languages (Tigrinya, Tigre, Somali, and Afar) but not Oromoo afan, thereby demonstrating the leaderís level of disdain for the Oromo.’
‘In its continued effort to unify Ethiopia, Selassie’s government actively limited the political activities of the Oromo. The regime provided the Oromo only limited participation in the government. The Oromo officials selected by Selassie to work in the public service were those who had completely abandoned their culture and adopted that of the Amhara. One such person was Major General Mulugeta Bulli, an Oromo balabat, who became Minister of National Community Development. Selassie was an autocratic constitutional monarch who tolerated no political opposition, not least from the Oromo. After several coup attempts in the 1960s, primarily by Amhara officials and some Oromo, Selassie further restrained the advancement of the Oromo even the assimilated ones. In 1966 he banned the Oromo political party, Macha Tulama Association, and harassed its leaders with imprisonments and executions. In one episode the government jailed one hundred party members and executed two of them (General Taddesse Birru and Lieutenant Mamno Mazamir) on grounds of subversion in spite of the fact that, earlier that year, they had helped to put down an actual coup attempt by Amharic officials. The regime also executed leading Oromo intellectuals and human rights advocates, including Marno Mazamir, the author of an Oromo book; also executed was Haile Mariam Gamada, a famous lawyer.’
‘Imperial authorities also used social neglect to subjugate the Oromo. The government failed to provide adequate educational facilities for the Oromo, while encouraging them and other minorities to help themselves. In a speech on education in 1962 Selassie stated, ìAnd similarly if you [Ethiopia’s non-Amhara ethnic groups] continue to consult one another and strive to get rid of the other handicaps, say problems of obtaining clean water, better roads, and sanitation for your community, you will find that the accomplishment within your capacity. This indicates that Selassie did not feel personally responsible for providing even basic social services to the Oromo in the manner that most governments provide for their citizens. The regime required all teachers to instruct students only in Amharic, ensuring that Amhara teachers made no effort to be culturally sensitive or accommodating to Oromo children. Statistical data from the Selassie era show the harmful effect that the policy of social neglect had on the Oromo, educational reforms benefiting the Abyssinian elite only. For example, sometime in 1947 Selassie created an education tax via Proclamation 94, and the Abyssinian elite managed to ensure that Oromo peasants paid most of it. This policy resulted in Oromo peasants paying for Abyssinian childrenís education to the detriment of their own. Nearly 88% of Oromo school children between the ages of seven and twelve years did not attend school, as well as 97% of those in the age range of thirteen to eighteen years. In the 1960s the majority (83%) of Oromo children who attended school dropped out by sixth grade.The result of all this was that the Oromo had limited opportunities for basic employment and for secondary and college education. By 1974 0nly 10% college age Oromo students were enrolled in Ethiopia’s universities.’
‘The government of Haile Selassie also failed to provide economic opportunities to the Oromo. Subsistence feudal agriculture formed the basis of the Ethiopian economy from its earliest history through the 1960s, with Amhara aristocrats benefiting from the labor performed by peasants on their land. The Selassie administration consisted primarily of nobles who came from this feudal tradition and had no incentive to alter the system. By the late 1960s 60% of Oromo farmers remained in a feudal system of land tenure because Selassie failed to dismantle it, contributing to the economic disparity endured by the Oromo by allowing Abyssinian nobles to avoid government taxes, while the peasants paid them.Earlier, in 1942, he had issued Proclamation 8, which established land taxes that were paid primarily by the Oromo peasants.Proclamation 60 of 1944 set out details of an income tax but, when the Abyssinian nobles refused to pay, the emperor substituted it with a regressive tax on labor and rented land that, once again, placed the onus on Oromo peasants.All major industrial projects were in areas dominated primarily by the Amhara.’
‘ Haile Selassie bore a great deal of responsibility for the poor conditions of the Oromo people, even if he was not directly involved with all of the policies. Although he ascended to power as a modernizer, he readily sacrificed true reforms for political convenience. For example, in 1924 he attempted to abolish the slave trade by making it a capital crime, but he did not enforce this law, and he allowed the problem to continue well into the late 1960s. The emperor also demonstrated his exclusive commitment to himself by his failure to enforce his own tax codes on the Abyssinian nobles, and he personally oversaw most of his governmental initiatives through the 1960s. For example, he reportedly used merit to appoint all government ministers, and he personally chose 1,000 them.’
‘The successive policies of the Abyssinian governments through the 1960s require some comment. The evidence presented thus far shows that Abyssinian rulers were determined to form a unified state under their domination and used Orthodox Christianity as one means to subjugate non-Semitic speakers such as the Oromo. Haile Selassie perfected the system of colonization through the use of legal measures, political repression, and socioeconomic neglect to subdue such peoples, and he supported and established the notion of accepting Orthodox Christianity and the Abyssinian culture of the Amhara as the prerequisite for being Ethiopian. His governmentís actions allowed no room for groups such as the Oromo to retain their cultural identity and still be Ethiopian. One would expect the oppressed people to respond to this assault on their culture in a negative manner, and there is no doubt that the Oromo viewed the Orthodox Church as a tool of their subjugation. Indeed, they did respond in a negative way to this onslaught of Abyssinian culture.’
‘During the 1900s to the 1940s the Oromo reacted to Abyssinian imperialism by applying their traditional societal flexibility, which allowed them to adapt easily to new situations. Most non-Muslim Oromo accepted the mass conversion to Orthodox Christianity and wore circles around their neck to symbolize their acquiescence.
However, American Protestant missionaries witnessed many Oromo, including those of Wollega, practicing their traditional religion in secret. Christian missionaries in the 1960s testified that ìwhile most Oromo feigned adherence to the Orthodox religion, they secretly worshiped other spirits. Some Oromo attempted genuinely to accept Christianity on their own terms. Among such converts was the religious scholar Onesimos, who translated the Bible into Oromoo. The Oromo elite also responded to the political domination by taking Amharic names and cooperating with the local Abyssinian officials. However, as before, the Abyssinian rulers responded negatively by limiting the advancement of Oromo officials because of the fear that this would help to promote a sense of a national identity. Had the Amhara-dominated government approached the Oromo in a different manner, taking into account the Oromo traditional societal flexibility, the outcome might have been different. The Selassie governmentís negative response to the attempts of the Oromo to adapt their system subtly, while retaining some cultural independence, caused them to become more militant in their actions. Their dissatisfaction with Selassieís regime manifested in the form of several peasants revolts.’
‘The Raya Oromo initially revolted in 1935 in response to the brutal tactics of Selassie’s military governor, Ras Mulugeta, as he attempted to force them into the national army.With the initiation of the Italian Invasion in 1936, another group of Oromo, who described themselves as the Western Oromo Confederation, declared their independence from the Ethiopian government. Eventually, Selassie defeated the two groups, but the fact that the Oromo had rebelled at all indicated their level of frustration with the government. Many Oromo cooperated with the Italians during their occupation because the Italians reorganized Ethiopiaís provinces along linguistic lines and constructed mosques for Oromo Muslims.The negative feelings and actions of the Oromo toward the Abyssinian government intensified as the twentieth century progressed; by the 1960s, peasants became increasingly belligerent toward the Selassie regime. The Oromo peasant populace became enraged by the blatant disparity between themselves and the Amhara elites, including the heavy taxes that they paid without tangible socioeconomic benefits.Oromo simply had no land on which to live or farm because of the pro-Amhara policies of Haile Selassie. In a series of revolts starting in 1963 in the province of Bale, Oromo peasants unleashed their anger on the central government over its increased property taxes and favoritism toward Amhara Christians. The assimilated Oromo elite responded to the tactics of the imperial authorities by developing sociopolitical organizations that instilled a sense of a national Oromo identity that transcended their traditional divisions. The small number of Oromo who managed to achieve positions in government organizations, such as the civil and military services, felt disenfranchised by the Ethiopian government. Oromo civil servants and military officers could expect to achieve only nominal advancement in the imperial government, from which they obviously felt a certain amount of alienation. The disgruntled assimilated Oromo started to form self-help groups to provide political expression and to help their communities to advance. Activists formed organizations such as Arfannn Qallo, Biftu Ganamo, and the Macha Tulama Self Help Association, which sought to improve Oromo communities. The Macha Tulama became the most important and influential of the self-help organizations in expressing the political angst of the Oromo elite. On 24 January 1963 the Macha Tulama organization emerged from three older groups with the goal of creating educational, medical, and religious facilities for the Oromo.’
‘Ethiopia experienced a colonial period that mirrored the rest of Africa in terms of duration and tactics. The major difference was that the Ethiopian colonial system originated with Africans (the Abyssinians) colonizing other Africans (the Oromo). The issues of ethnic and national identity that plagued colonial Africa with the creation of artificial nations that had no historical basis also plagued Ethiopia and continue to plague it…..The study demonstrates that Ethiopian historiography should be reexamined to understand the true dynamics that led to the creation of this state. The traditional scholarly approach of regarding Ethiopia as a monolithic culture centered on Abyssinian society has proven inadequate to understand the sociopolitical conflicts that trouble modern Ethiopia. Only through examining all of Ethiopiaís ethnic groups and their interactions with one another can Ethiopian historiography be advanced.’
In mid-2012 theAddisAbeba City Administration (AACA) has organized a project office called “Addis Ababa City Planning Project Office” and tasked it to prepare a city development plan that it claimed would work for the coming ten years. In the middle of the process, however, the Project Office was givenanadditional mandate of preparing a plan that instead should suit a metropolitan level. It was then that the project expanded its planning boundary toincludethe whole surrounding area ofAddisAbeba – covering as far as 40 to 100 kilometers in an area as big as 1.1 million hectares of land. As these surroundings belong toandare administered by the Oromia National Regional State (ONRS) a supervisory body from theregionwas established to oversee the activities of the project office. It comprised big namesincludingAbdulaziz Mohammed, deputy president oftheONRS andAsterMamo, deputy prime minister in the governance and reform cluster.The Project Office had also brought on board people from the Oromia Urban Planning Institute.Many of the Oromia regional state senior officials were enthusiastic about the idea of organizing a joint metropolitan plan and the project office was re-named ‘Addis Abeba and the Surrounding Oromia Special Zone Integrated Development Plan Project Office’.One of the achievements of Abbaaduula Gammadaa’s tenure as president of ONRS was the amalgamation in 2008 of Addis Abeba/Finfinne surrounding districts and municipalities into a single Special Zone found within 30 kilometers radius of the city of Addis Abeba. Immediately after the establishment of the Special Zone, ONRS commissioned a Regional Plan that was finalized in 2010. The Oromia regional state officials had offered this regional plan to be incorporated with the proposed metropolitan plan commissioned by the AACA.
What went wrong, where and when?
The grand plan that was warmly welcomed by ONRS senior officials failed to attract the same reception from the lower and mid-level political leadership of the Special Zone as well as local governments within the zone. Most of them were skeptical and some viewed it as an effort to annex the Special Zone of Oromia into Addis Abeba. There were few incidents where Oromia regional state officials refused to cooperate with the Project Office in making information necessary for the planning process easily accessible.
The Project Office, too, has done little to establish trust among the Special Zone and ONRS mid and lower level officials. Trust between the two had reached rock-bottom when the Project Office developed what it said was a spatial plan without involving mayors of the municipalities as well as other officials in the metropolitan area and relevant regional and Special Zone officials. In June 2013 the Project Office unveiled a readymade draft metropolitan plan in Adama town, 100km east of Addis Abeba and the capital of the ONRS, that determined, among others, the locations of waste treatment, landfill sites, industrial zones, and transportation corridors. Once again the draft metropolitan plan was welcomed by the top Oromia regional state leadership; but it left the rank and file officials disgruntled. Most of them considered it (perhaps rightly) as a violation of their autonomy. However, since the top leadership has given the grand plan its blessings the Project Office went ahead with it. Things went vividly out of control during a meeting between officials of the Oromia regional state and the Addis Abeba city administration representatives held in Adama town on March 26 and April 12-13.The questions raised in these meetings revealed that the Project Office has failed to build trust on the motive of the Master Plan let alone actively involve the ONRS officials in the planning process.
How not to make a Master Plan
What happened with the preparation of this master plan was an approach that gave strategic planning and political inclusiveness a zero chance. Five fundamental problems highlight the plan.
First, this master planning approach viewed planning as a mere technocratic process and the planner as the chief architect of the spatial area that comes up with a readymade blueprint that everyone is expected to accept.
Strategic spatial planning is as much of a political process as it is professional; it requires the active involvement of political leadership, major urban or regional actors-including the private sector, community organizations and civil society groups. In addition, the planner’s role should mainly be as a facilitator and a negotiator among the diverse actors who have conflicting (and competing) interests.
There was groundbreaking effort to shift urban planning culture to a more strategic and inclusive approach in the 2002-12 City Development Plan of Addis Abeba. In the two year planning process, for example, over 150 workshops and consultative meetings with a wide range of stakeholders, including a city exhibition and public forum, were organized. That is something the current master plan project lacked; it has organized not more than nine consultative workshops.
A grand plan such as this need to be owned as much by politicians and their constituency as by professional urban planners. The only way to do this is if the authorities and the public were involved actively in the planning process. Nevertheless, the Project Office single-handedly decided where to locate the waste treatment, the land fill site or the industrial zone with no formal consent from the respective local government officials who are supposedly the elected representatives of the constituencies in the areas affected by the plan. It was a planning process that gave way to the infamous planning syndrome known as Not in My Backyard (NIMBY). When a planner decides to put a waste treatment in one district, the least s/he needs to do is negotiate with the respective district authorities on how to mitigate the negative externalities. With the new master plan, nothing of this happened, compromising the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy of the Oromia regional state and the Special Zone to make decisions that affect their constituency.
Second,it failed to secure the legitimacy for joint planning. The reason for the suspicion by many low and middle level officials of the ONRS is twofold. The first one is metropolitan planning in Ethiopia is unheard of and Addis Abeba’s administrative boundary has been expanding for the last century, in which the latest one has more than doubled its jurisdiction in 1994. It is, therefore, totally understandable if ONRS officials and concerned citizens fear the encroachment of the Special Zone by the capital city. The second reason is the project office kept most of the process secrete.
Third, amalgamation of municipalities into one gargantuan metropolitan government has lost credence since the late 1980s and new forms of metropolitan cooperation are promoted in lieu of annexation. However, the project office failed in clarifying its intention and mobilizing support from the Oromia region officials and other stakeholders due to its closed door planning process.
Fourth,and the major limitation of the process is the composition of the planning office. As it was mentioned above the project office was initially commissioned by AACA to prepare a city development plan for Addis Abeba. The same planning team was tasked to develop a metropolitan plan with the exception of the recruitment of a handful of former Oromia Urban Planning Institute staff. Less than 10 planners from close to 80 technical staff of the project office cannot ensure Oromia’s interest, the largest and most populous region of the country, in the metropolitan plan. The majorities of the planning team members are born in Addis Abeba or have lived in the city for long or were former staff members of the Addis Abeba city administration, which makes them perfect candidates for sentimental compromise against the interests of the Oromia region.
And finally,the top leadership of ONRS welcomed the draft metropolitan plan regardless of opposition from their subordinates as well as the wider public. The stubbornness of the ruling party, which is seen in other policy arena, was also visible in this planning process. The government, rather than accommodating the reservation of various individuals and groups on the plan or on its motive, chose to label those who complained against the plan as working for the so-called obscure “anti-peace agents”. This was the major reason that led to the widespread protest in many Universities and several towns in Oromia, which claimed the lives of eleven people by the account of the government (other sources put the death as high as 49) and resulted in countless property damages. (Please see A new master plan:Complicated-turned-deadly).
he way out
Many people may believe it may be already too late. But there are things one can do to reverse courses. The first step is to establish a taskforce, which comprises ONRS officials, Special Zone officials, Mayors of the eight municipalities of the Special zone together with the Regional Urban Planning Institute planners or commissioned consultants, to review the draft metropolitan and suggest recommendations that ensure Oromia’s interest. This taskforce in turn needs to consult with the civil society, the private sector, opposition party members, residents of the Special zone, University students and other concerned bodies in its reviewing process. The second and perhaps the most important one, is clarifying the provisions of Art. 49(5) of the country’s constitution by a federal proclamation before signing the metropolitan plan into a law; the metropolitan plan need to be used as an instrument to materialize the constitutional provision of the country. Third, and most sensitive, should be bringing before justice those who ordered the killings of the students who were protesting against the plan as well as those who executed the orders.
The local coverage of the protests offer a best case study to look at Ethiopian media’s inherent, institutional bias toward Oromo stories. Given the foregoing discussion on Ethiopia’s challenging media environment, the dangers of balanced coverage are not contested. The government’s choke-hold on the media and fear of repercussions have discouraged journalists from visiting the scenes of protests and accurately reporting on the events. Ethiopia’s independent press is saturated in Finfinne, and many simply don’t have credible regional sources, especially in Oromia, who can feed them with the news of the protests. Besides, media institutions and some journalists consider approaching the protesters or contacting the victims’ families almost existential.
There is also an ideological bias toward “ethnic” based activism. In part this explains the reluctance among many journalists to visit some of the 15 towns included in the master plan and interview local residents and farmers. However, speaking to government officials and opposition politicians about the master plan, the protests and violent crackdown could have been done with minimum effort.
A closer look at reports by six web-based publications and three international correspondents reveals much not only about Ethiopia’s handcuffed press but also the deficiency of the so-called independent press itself. It took almost a month for most local outlets to offer basic, even if lopsided coverage on the cause of the protest and the causalities. Even considering the grim media environment, there were many missing links in those reports.
Others completely disregarded the matter and kept to their business as usual. For example, Addis Fortune, a weekly English newspaper with 10,000 monthly circulations, devoted only one singlesentence to the protests its May 11 report about the master plan.
Awramba Times republished a video and text from EthioFirst blog. To his credit, the EthioFirst reporter went to the scene of protests in Ambo town. The online only publication provided coverage supported with text and videos of what it said were destroyed properties. It also interviewed residents of Ambo, students of the Ambo University and chief of the university all denouncing the destruction of property. The report’s focus on the damage caused to properties as opposed to the loss of lives and arrests of hundreds gives us a reason for pause. Besides, the reporter made no attempt to speak with protesters, victims or their families.
Others recycled government statements and news releases from opposition political parties. For example, both the English and Amharic editions of The Reporter made its first coverage based on government statements. The English edition of the newspaper tried to balance the story by asserting“independent observers and those who claim to be eyewitnesses say that the death toll and injuries might be higher than what has been officially admitted.”
Sendek Amharic newspaper, which gave its reporting five days after the protests began, referred to a press release from the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) and later conducted interviews with the party’s leaders.
Addis Admas, another local Amharic daily, also did its initial coverage using government statement and anonymous sources from Ambo, Robe and Haromaya, where the protests took place. In a subsequent report on May 10, the paper reached out to a farmer residing in Sabata, one of the 15 towns included in the master plan, and offered local grievances over issues of compensation and threat to the farmer’s livelihood. Addis Standard, a local English magazine, also did its “best” by relying on sources from the universities where protests were reported, otherwise largely toeing the line from government statement.
Unfortunately, Finfinne-based foreign correspondents also kept to the official line. The Associated Press carried a police statement, and even went a step further linking the protests to secession andOromo Liberation Front. Bloomberg News also repurposed the government statement, with a passing reference to opposition leaders. Reuters simply ignored the news.
Other newspapers offered sensationalized stories that reflect their bias more than journalistic inclinations. For example, on May 2, Addis Guday wrote, ‘Oromia: Gize Tebikiwu Yeminfeneda Bomboch-Yetameku ye politika bisotoch. Ye tebab bihertenynet tosoch’ roughly translated as ‘ Oromia: a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and a concealed political dissatisfaction. The scar of narrow-minded ethnicity” In all, almost no attempt was made to contact to the protesters or the farmers and residents affected by the master plan. And none of the aforementioned outlets treated the incident as a breaking news item.
Ethiopian journalism is still at its infancy stage. Restrictions against the press and physical harassment of journalist make it impossible to cover issues of public interest. The reliance on government press statement reveals the challenges of obtaining first-hand reports from the scene of the incident. The country’s ethnicized politics confounds the lack of impartial coverage. In a country where there is no single Oromo media outlet and given the jamming of diaspora-based websites, the Oromo are left with no voice so to speak. Dozens of Oromo newspapers and magazines that existed in the 1990s were either banned or forced out of business when Oromo journalists fled the country.
With a varying degree, both private and government media outlets share a common hostility toward Oromo interests. While some of the private media practitioners are in government pockets, others cater to non-Oromo political groups. The rest are far more concerned with making money and they know what their audience wants. “There is little independent media in Oromia to monitor these events, and foreign journalists who have attempted to reach demonstrations have been turned away or detained,” the HRW said. A case in point is the four-hour detention of Bloomberg’s William Davison on May 1, after attempting to report on protests that took place at Addis Ababa University.
In a nutshell, independent, objective journalism has essentially become a crime in Ethiopia. Given the highly restrictive media environment, Ethiopia’s “independent” press continues to teeter on the edge of death and survival. Under the circumstances, a lot of journalists have begrudgingly embraced the “developmental state” storyline. For others, strict self-censorship has become more of a norm. As a result, the professionalism and quality of Ethiopian journalism has been significantly compromised. Still more concerning is the inherent ideological and institutional bias toward coverage of “ethnic” stories, particularly stories about Oromo activism. The role of a journalist is to report on events as objectively and truthfully as possible. Journalists should act as non-participating spectators of events. When reporters become part of a story or offer their opinions, they are expected be transparent and issue a disclosure. These ethical values are rare in Ethiopia. However, if there’s any hope for future of Ethiopian journalism, Addis Ababa-based media houses should start checking their ethnicized and detached coverage of events outside of the capital. -To read the full article, visit OPride, original source @http://www.opride.com/oromsis/news/3756-ethiopia-s-besieged-press-and-the-oromoprotests
Any system which crushes its brightest should not be considered a success….The Ethiopian government likes to trumpet its higher education system to its western aid backers as a crowning success of its development policy. As billions in foreign aid are spent annually on Ethiopia, the west must be more cognisant of the fact that this money helps reinforce a government which cuts down those who dare to speak out against it.
Ethiopia crackdown on student protests taints higher education success
Western backers of the Ethiopian education system should not ignore reports of violent clashes on university campuses
Oromia, Ethiopia, where at least three dozen people were reportedly shot dead by security forces during student protests
Over the past 15 years, Ethiopia has become home to one of the world’s fastest-growing higher education systems. Increasing the number of graduates in the country is a key component of the government’s industrialisation strategy and part of its ambitious plan to become a middle-income country by 2025. Since the 1990s, when there were just two public universities, almost 30 new institutions have sprung up.
On the face of it, this is good news for ordinary Ethiopians. But dig a little deeper and tales abound of students required to join one of the three government parties, with reports of restricted curricula, classroom spies and crackdowns on student protests commonplace at universities.The Ethiopian government likes to trumpet its higher education system to its western aid backers as a crowning success of its development policy. As billions in foreign aid are spent annually on Ethiopia, the west must be more cognisant of the fact that this money helps reinforce a government which cuts down those who dare to speak out against it.
Nowhere has this been more evident than in Ambo in Oromia state. On 25 April, protests against government plans to bring parts the town under the administrative jurisdiction of the capital, Addis Ababa, began at Ambo University. By the following Tuesday, as protests spread to the town and other areas of Oromia, dozens of demonstrators had been killed in clashes with government forces, according to witnesses.
As Ethiopia experiences rapid economic expansion, its government plans to grow the capital out rather than up, and this involves annexing parts of the surrounding Oromia state. An official communique from the government absolved it of all responsibility for the clashes, claiming that just eight people had been killed and alleging that the violence had been coordinated by a few rogue anti-peace forces. The government maintains that it is attempting to extend Addis Ababa’s services to Oromia through its expansion of the city limits.
However, Oromia opposition figures tell a different story. On 2 May, the nationalist organisation the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) issued a press release that condemned the “barbaric and egregious killing of innocent Oromo university students who have peacefully demanded the regime to halt the displacement of Oromo farmers from their ancestral land, and the inclusion of Oromo cities and surrounding localities under Finfinnee [Addis Ababa] administration under the pretext of development”. The Addis Ababa regime dismisses the OLA as a terrorist organisation.
While news of the killing of unarmed protesters has caused great concern among many Ethiopians, there has been little coverage overseas. The government maintains strict control over the domestic media; indeed, it frequently ranks as one of the world’s chief jailers of journalists, and it is not easy to come by independent reporting of events in the country.
Nevertheless, the government’s communique does run contrary to reports by the few international media that did cover the attacks in Ambo, which placed the blame firmly on government forces.
The BBC reported that a witness in Ambo saw more than 20 bodies on the street, while Voice of America (VOA) reported that at least 17 protesters were killed by “elite security forces” on three campuses in Oromia. Local residents maintain that the figure [of those killed] was much higher.
These reports, while difficult to corroborate, have been backed up by Human Rights Watch, whichissued a statement saying that “security forces have responded [to the protests] by shooting at and beating peaceful protesters in Ambo, Nekemte, Jimma, and other towns with unconfirmed reports from witnesses of dozens of casualties”. One university lecturer said he had been “rescued from the live ammunition”, and that it was the “vampires – the so-called federal police” who fired on the crowds.
The Ethiopian government likes to trumpet its higher education system to its western aid backers as a crowning success of its development policy. As billions in foreign aid are spent annually on Ethiopia, the west must be more cognisant of the fact that this money helps reinforce a government which cuts down those who dare to speak out against it.
Inevitably, continued support for such an oppressive regime justifies its brutal silencing of dissent. Yes, the higher education system has grown exponentially over the past 15 years but the oppression and killing of innocent students cannot be considered an achievement. Any system which crushes its brightest should not be considered a success.
Paul O’Keeffe is a doctoral fellow at La Sapienza University of Rome, where he focuses on the higher education
When students in Ethiopia started protesting last month against the Ethiopian Government’s proposal to annex territory from the state of Oromia to facilitate the expansion of the capital city Addis Ababa, diasporans mobilized to show their solidarity. As federal “Agazi” security forces cracked down, opening fire on peaceful protesters, placing students on lock-down in their dormitories, and conducting mass arrests, Oromos around the world staged rallies and hunger strikes to raise international awareness and to call on the governments of the countries where they live to withhold aid and put pressure on the Ethiopian Government to respect human rights.
In the first three posts in this series, I discussed the Oromo diaspora’s mobilization to shed light on the human rights violations on the ground, the sharp criticism the government of Ethiopia faced during the Universal Periodic Review on May 6, and the steps the Oromo diaspora in Minnesota is taking to show solidarity and press for accountability in Ethiopia. This final post tells some of the stories of Oromos in the diaspora who have spoken with friends and family on the ground in Oromia about events over the past three weeks, and also covers the Ethiopian government’s formal response to the UN review and offers some suggestions for next steps.
Not “voiceless,” but deliberately silenced by Ethiopian government
“We need to be a voice for the voiceless” has been a common refrain from the diaspora. But in my view, the students and others who are protesting in Ethiopia are far from voiceless. They have been bravely marching, placing their lives and academic careers on the line, to express their opposition to the government’s “Integrated Development Master Plan for Addis Ababa.” In the words of 2004 Sydney Peace Prize winnerArundhati Roy, “there’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”
The government controls the media and telecommunications in Ethiopia, effectively placing a stranglehold on open debate and criticism of the government. Historically, efforts by western media, including CNN, to cover events on the ground in Ethiopia have been stymied. The government’s repression and intimidation also create obstacles for independent journalists trying to cover the story from outside the country. I spoke with one U.S.-based reporter who covers the Horn of Africa, and he explained that when he tried to confirm casualty reports, hospital personnel in Ethiopia refused to speak to him, fearing for their jobs.
We are reaching out to you as the Board of officers of the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA) whose nation is in turmoil back in Oromia, Ethiopia. Recently, Oromo students have been protesting against the new Addis Ababa “Integrated Master Plan” which aims at incorporating smaller towns surrounding Addis Ababa for the convenience of vacating land for investors by displacing millions of Oromo farmers. As a political move, this will essentially result in the displacement of the indigenous peoples and their families. Oromo farmers will be dispossessed of their land and their survival both economic and cultural terms will be threatened. The Oromos strongly believe that this plan will expose their natural environment to risk, threaten their economic means of livelihood (subsistence farming), and violate their constitutional rights.
The Ethiopian government is executing its political agenda of progressive marginalization of the Oromo people from matters that concern them both in the Addis Ababa city and the wider Oromia region. The master plan is an unconstitutional change of the territorial expansion over which the city administration has a jurisdiction. The government justifies the move in the name of enhancing the development of the city and facilitating economic growth. The justification is merely a tactical move masked for the governments continued abuse of human rights of the Oromo people. While the Oromos understand that Addis Ababa itself is an Oromo city that serves as the capital of the federal government, they also consider this move as an encroachment on the jurisdiction and borders of the state of Oromia.
The protesters peacefully demonstrated against this move. University students and residents have been in opposition to the plan, but their struggle has been met by a brutal repression in the hands of the military police (famously known as the Agazi). It has been reported that shootings, arrests, and imprisonments are becoming rampant. It is also reported that the death toll is increasing by the hour. Recently, sources indicate that over 80 people have been shot dead, others severally injured and thousands arrested. In addition, Oromo students have been protesting peacefully for over three weeks now, despite mass killings and arrests by Ethiopian security forces. University and high school students from more than ten universities have been engaging in the Oromo protests. The peaceful rally has now spread across the whole country and is expected to continue until the Ethiopian government refrains from incorporating over 36 surrounding smaller towns into Addis Ababa. It is stated to be displacing an estimate of 6.6 million people and violating constitutional rights of regional states.
As an organization subscribing to broader democratic engagement of the Oromo youth, we oppose the brutal violence that the Ethiopian government is meting out on innocent, unarmed young students who are peacefully protesting. As leaders of the Oromo community, we support and stand in solidarity with Oromo protests in Ethiopia. The human rights violations being carried out by the Ethiopian government against innocent students are unacceptable. Continuous assaults, tortures, and killings of innocent civilians must be stopped. We urge you to join us in denouncing these inhumane and cruel activities carried out by the Ethiopian government. We believe it is imperative that the international community raise its voice and take action to stop the ongoing atrocities that are wreaking havoc to families and communities in the Oromia region.
We urgently request that such actions be taken in an attempt to pressure the Ethiopian government to stop terrorizing and killing peaceful protesters:
The US government and other International organizations should condemn the Ethiopian government’s brutal action taken on unarmed innocent civilians. Furthermore, we demand over 30,000 innocent protesters to be released from prisons, as they will be subjected to torture and ill treatment.
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is currently terrorizing its own electorates/nation. Under the law of R2P in the UN constitution, the international community is obliged to protect a nation that is being terrorized by its own government and EPRDF should be taken accountable.
We demand Ethiopia to be expelled from any regional and international cooperation including and not limited to AU and UN for its previous and current human rights violations. The International community should stop providing support in the name of AID and development to Ethiopia as it is violating the fundamental and basic needs of its nation.
The Ethiopian government should be stopped on immediate effect; its forceful displacement of the indigenous peoples across Ethiopia is unjust and unconstitutional. We ask the United States, European Union, and the United Nations to stand in solidarity with peaceful student protesters who are condemning such injustice.
The onus is on the international community to act in favor of the innocent and civilian populace that is seeking its fundamental right. Punitive actions towards this government should be taken for cracking down on freedom of expression and other democratic rights being expressed by its citizens.
We believe it is in the interest of our common humanity to take responsibility, to pay attention to this problem, to witness the plight of the voiceless victims, and to raise concerns to the Ethiopian government so it can desist from its brutal acts of repression.
We count on your solidarity to help the Oromo youth be spared from arbitrary arrest, incarceration, and shootings.