It has been over 125 years since the exemplary Oromo Gadaa System and its egalitarian values – where everything under the sun was valued dearly as the work of the Creator (Waaqaa) and everyone deserved a fair and equal treatment before the law – were banned and replaced by a barbaric and authoritarian rule of the Abyssinians. It took only forty odd years for the Oromo Nation to re-claim some of its lost cultural values, its language and its history under the pan-Oromo Nationalism spearheaded by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
We have heard and witnessed when the Abyssinian rulers unashamedly tell us that their culture and language is superior to that of the Oromo Nation, and speaking Afan Oromo is a sign of backwardness and those adhering to the Oromo culture are uncivilized people. They have gone as far as saying “Afan Oromo,” which is the third widely-spoken language in Africa, cannot be used as a medium of communication because “if used in broadcasting, Afan Oromo will damage the radio or television sets and waves.”
We owe much to the Macha-Tulama Association’s founders and the brave Oromo scholars, such as Sheikh Bakiri Sapaloo, Haile Fida, Terfa Dibaba, Dr Tilahun Gamtaa, Ibsa Gutuma and many other dedicated Oromo elders, women, and the entire OLF leadership – past and present – for the renaissance of the Oromo language and culture.
The main aim of my writing is not to pay due where it deserves, but to say something about the recent all-out war and public campaign against the Oromia Media Network (OMN) – from within and without. As a citizen and proud Oromo, I want to express my unhappiness, and our failure as a nation to learn from the Gadaa system’s conflict resolution methods, and in this case, we have taken our internal issues to the public. When things burst into the public sphere, it will only widen our wounds, and each group (of the two warring parties) makes every attempt to prosecute its case, not in front of a jury, but in the eyes and ears of the wider public, and the outcome of such a case will be very partisan and negative.
After listening to the individuals and the few media outlets that have waged very negative campaigns in the name of lack of transparency and accountability in the OMN structure, I was reminded of one of Eleanor Roosevelt quotes, which states “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
The Oromia Media Network (OMN) is a young organization – less than a year old, and we should not attempt to throw out the baby with the bath water, and we are not to throw those individuals who have sacrificed their time and energy for the realization of this media organization under the bus. To come out and wage an all-out war in the name of transparency and accountability, and failing to solve – whether big or small issue(s) – as an internal matter is like demanding a newborn baby to run before it learns how to walk. What all former and current members of the OMN Board have done – to me – is untimely, immature and, at best, reckless. Reckless in a sense, how many of us have understood the negative campaign we are conducting will always benefit our enemy camps? Both Abyssinian camps are throwing every mud and are spending millions of dollars to either hijack OMN for their own mission or to destroy it because our adversaries have understood a long time ago the role of media and their impacts in the psychological warfare.
Let’s not rush to throw the people who tirelessly work on OMN or for OMN under the bus because we disagree with them. Let’s go back to our roots and read or ask in what ways our forebears had used to resolve internal conflicts by employing “safuu.” Our forebears resolved any conflict within their community using “safuu” and “dubbiin habultuu” for the sake of their community’s harmony. Any organization, including the Oromia Media Network (OMN), should be criticized, but any criticism must be on how to make it stronger and better so that it can serve and expose the century-old human, economic, social, psychological, environmental genocide the Abyssinian regimes, including the TPLF regime, have been committing on our people. OMN, on its part, has a major role in rallying the Oromo mass, raise awareness on the above mentioned injustices on our people, and scrutinize Oromo organizations so that they protect and defend Oromo interests.
OMN has a great platform and opportunity to present and document the human rights violations which the past and present Abyssinian regimes have committed and are committing at this very minute. The opportunities for OMN as a global Oromo media organization is limitless, including portraying the histories of those men and women who were martyred, but are larger than life – and documenting their contributions for the Oromo struggle to inspire the new generations of Oromos to follow in their footsteps, and also documenting the life stories of those who have survived the torture and humiliations perpetuated upon them by our enemies.
Let’s hear, document and pass on the histories, biographies and lives of past and living legends of the extraordinary Oromos, such as General Tadese Biru, Megersa Bari, Aboma Mitiku, General Waqo Gutu, Mamo Mazimir, Elemo Qilxu, Milkesa Gadaa, Gelassa Dilbo, Gutama Hawas, Negasa Tumsa, Nadi Gamada, Lydia Nemara and many thousands, who were selfless and sacrificed their precious lives so that their people live in peace and dignity, and re-claim their past glories and rewrite their own history and destiny. Let’s the histories and biographies of our past and current heroes and heroines be told, re-told and passed on the current and future generations so that our heroes’ and heroines’ dream of a free Oromia shall be realized by the current or future generations.
Finally, we are in processes of nation-building, and media play a huge role in shaping the attitudes of our people towards that journey. OMN is the fruits of a century-old Oromo struggle and all those who have made contributions for the realization of it deserve due respect, but we are not even half way in that nation-building project.
May Waqaa help us, together as a people, work towards the realization of the dreams and aspirations of our heroes and heroines.
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* Bakalchoo Barii: bakalchoobarii@gmail.com
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