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#Ethiopia:33 years after it was founded, #Oromo Studies Association (OSA), is hosting its annual conference in 🇪🇹 for the 1st time. Conference starts today.OSA is an org.dedicated to promote "Oromo scholarship, history, culture & identity through its mid-yr & annual conferences." pic.twitter.com/EqZfpf9FM1
«Solving #Ethiopia's Governance Challenges» — Prof John Markakis addresses the #Oromo Studies Association annual conference being held for the first time in Addis Ababa, #Ethiopia, after 33 years in exile. #OSAinOromiahttps://t.co/xDfvKi80HN
Prof John Markakis, guest speaker on OSA in Oromia speaking on the theme “Re-IMAGINING THE STATE”: “tribalism is a “dirty word” that has been effectively used in politics, by ‘a small westernized African elite” to crack down on… https://t.co/C73Vt1NwRbpic.twitter.com/AHDIFbCQX3
The 2016 annual conference of Oromo Studies Association in Washington D.C. July 30-31, 2016 Blackburn Center Ballroom, Howard University 2397 Sixth Street NW, Washington, DC 20059
#OSA30 30th Annual Conference theme: Knowledge, Collective Consciousness & Transformation of Oromo Politics:Peace, Governance & Dev’t in the Horn of Africa
This conference offers a unique opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Oromo Studies Association (OSA). For three decades, OSA has successfully engaged in knowledge production and dissemination about the Oromo people. It has been instrumental in deconstructing exclusionary Ethiopianist narratives that justified the suppression of the Oromo and other southern nations, many of which were overtly antagonistic to people’s identity, politics, language and history. At this stage in its history, OSA is pleased that it continues to provide a discursive platform for generating new discussions concerning a broad range of issues that affect the Oromo, non-Oromo Ethiopians and other peoples in the Horn of Africa. As OSA celebrates its 30th anniversary, we recognize we are at a conjuncture in the Oromo nation’s history. OSA is marking its achievements as the Oromo nation is undergoing epochal transformation in the wake of the Oromo protests of 2014-16. In light of three decades of scholarship and advocacy and in the wake of the transformative events of the Oromo protests, it is an apt time for OSA to take stock. This year’s conference will highlight the trajectories of change as the Oromo and other marginalized peoples in Ethiopia continue their inexorable movement from the political periphery to the center. OSA’s annual conference has proven to be a productive platform for lively exchange among scholars on what is required to imagine and design innovative/alternative frameworks for understanding and shaping events and processes that bring about sustainable change for the Horn of Africa region. Oromo scholarship since OSA’s founding has effectively refuted the distortions and misrepresentations of the past. Anthropologists, sociologists, historians and other scientists have presented descriptions and analyses of demographic dynamism, theories of economic growth, democratic political culture, cultural and religious expressions, and indigenous views on cosmology, time-reckoning systems and moral traditions. Oromo literature is flourishing, creative arts are thriving and various other genres of Oromo aesthetic heritage are prospering. To date, there has been a dialectical relationship between Oromo scholarship and rising Oromo collective consciousness. In the next decades, we trust that these symbioses will continue with greater determination, purpose and confidence.
Continuous efforts have been made to create a modern state and the legal basis that underpins its formation in Ethiopia for about one century. The adoption of the 1930 constitution and the 1955 revised constitution which is followed by series of law making attempts that produced half a dozen of codified laws over a space of 10 years in the mid twentieth century. The 1991 Transitional Charter and more importantly, the 1995 constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia could be taken as one of the most radical marking point and complete departure from the past in the legal and political history of Ethiopia. This new constitution brought about a new state formation and instituted the formation of nine Regional States with their respective state structures. Politicians and the academia fiercely debate on the legal and political implication of the rights of the nations and nationalities enshrined in this constitution.
IOLA seeks to reflect on the underlying reasons that necessitated the adoption of major legal documents that constitute today’s Ethiopia and to discuss the level of success of such legislative attempts. It would like to take the opportunity to reflect on the legacies of past and present constitutive moments.
Possible topics include, but not limited to:
– The power relationship between the Centre (Federal) and its constituting Regional Sates under the 1995 FDRE Constitution: theory and practice;
– The position of Oromia Regional State regarding the capital city (Addis Ababa or Finfinnee);
– Electoral politics in Ethiopia: the role of the opposition and civil society;
– Federalism as a solution for Self-determination of people/nations;
– The current state of law enforcement and justice systems in Ethiopia: comparative analysis to the rule of law and universal human rights norms;
– Freedom of the press and the media landscape in contemporary Ethiopia.
OSA’s Midyear Conference to stay in Europe | London will host the conference on April 2 & 3, 2016
The Oromo Studies Association’s (OSA’s) 2016 Midyear conference will take place at the London School of Economics (LSE) in London on April 2 and 3. The theme of the Conference will be “The Oromo in the Global Political Economy.” For the latest update, visitOromoStudies.org
OROMO STUDIES ASSOCIATION – 2016 MIDYEAR CONFERENCE
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE (LSE), LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
The Oromo Studies Association invites paper abstracts and panel proposals for its 2016 midyear conference to be held at the London School of Economics (LSE) in collaboration with the LSE Africa Initiative.
The conference provides a platform for examining major changes, challenges and opportunities that impact the Oromo via the global political economy. The theme sets a broader context in which to examine the power dynamics and major actors and beneficiaries of global political economy in Ethiopia. We are also interested to examine how these dynamics and actors inform the questions of economic and political justice, history, law, leadership, and environmental challenges. Global trade, finance, and geopolitical interests over the last few decades seem to have shaped both inter-state relations and regional political economy. From the Oromo perspective, these subjects are critical to the process of mapping knowledge across multiple disciplines with a view to seeking direct global alliances and partnerships.
The event presents an opportunity to explore unique and exciting themes that will broaden understanding of the Oromo nation through research and dissemination of findings globally. With such a diverse range of interest focusing on the Oromo in global political economy, the famous London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) presents an excellent ideal academic environment for OSA’s midyear conference.
Themes of the conference include:
– The place of the Oromo in the geopolitics of the Horn;
– Federalism; Oromo land and property security: natural resource ownership;
– Economic justice, state/party-capitalism and conglomerates in Ethiopia;
– The ‘developmental state, constitution and constitutionalism
– China-Africa Trade Policy and Implication for the Oromo
– Global events/turning points in modern history & the Oromo, 1935/36, 1974, 1991)
– Imperial Ethiopia, local alliances and global connections;
– Finfinnee, Oromo hinterlands and the fate of Oromo national identity;
– Climate change and its impact on ecological health, sustainable development, renewable energy in Oromia;
– Historical wrongs and the pursuit of justice and reconciliation;
– Regional networks, alliances & political projects: the Oromo & the rest of the South
– Ethiopia’s counter-archives: narrative, memory, history
– The identity/alterity nexus in the Oromo-Ethiopia dualism
– The politics of othering and the othering of politics
– The next chapter in the political economy of Oromia and Ethiopia
Walga’iin kun guyyoota lamaaf kan taa’amu oggaa ta’u dhimmoota qorannoo Oromoo irratti warqaalee qorannoo gara garaa hayyoota Oromoo fi kanneen biroon dhiyaatan dhaggeeffachuun marii kan gaggeessan ta’uun beekameera.
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