August 12, 2013 | By Dumessa Diimmaa*
After Al Jazeera produced a show in its weekly scheduled program called “The Stream” about the predicament of the Oromo nation in the Ethiopian empire, the Habesha iliterati went apoplectic! A certain Tedla Asfaw inflamed and soured the cyber sphere by posting a muddled and ignoble article accusing Jawar Mohammed for not declaring himself an Ethiopian first and an Oromo second!
Tedla’s nefarious aims and acrimonious intentions were to out Jawar as closet Oromo nationalist owing loyalty to ethnocentric politics while on numerous occasions before a large or important Habesha political, religious and social gatherings, he was masquerading as bona fide Ethiopian devoid of any ethnic hypocrisy or pretense! This is a total canard, I know Jawar and I have never observed him disguising nor concealing his identity to fit to the Habesha notion of Ethiopiawinet! He may have given speeches and analysis in Amharic depending on the nature and scale of the gathering, or composition of the audience.
Jawar Mohammed burst on the Habesha political scene when he authored a series of infantile articles criticizing the Oromo Liberation Front and its leadership. The Habesha cacophonous bunch were afflicted by his intellect and got giddy to the extent of wallowing and basking in the notion that they came across this Oromo kid who contrived the ineffectiveness of OLF and its politics. His analysis in those articles did fit to the venomous views that some of the domineering Habesha intellectuals espoused about the Oromo struggle for self determination and national liberation. They put him on the pedestal so high that he became one of the biggest celeb on the speaking circuit on issues relevant to the Horn of Africa!
His celebrity status among the Habeshas notwithstanding, Jawar never forgot his Oromo heritage, cultural memory or the construction of identity. His Ethiopian universalism is mediated by his Oromo particularism. He is aware of how the Oromo nation was conquered by Emperor Minelk and incorporated into the Abyssinian Empire during the scramble for Africa!
To this these extent, Tedla, Yilma and all the Habeshas who savagely attacked Jawar did not understand the maturity and density of Oromo struggle. Yilma’s solipsistic arguments about some leadership qualities (by quoting an Ivy League Prof), statistics and distortion of facts by the Oromo Panelist on the Aljezeera Stream are bogus! All the available data about the Oromo predicament in the Empire’s jails indicates that the overwhelming majority of the political prisoners are Oromo nationals. Sye Abreha, the Former Defense Minister of Ethiopia who was an inmate at the Qalitti Prison was quoted saying that the language of the Empire’s Prison is Afaan Oromo! Today, the Qalittii prison is euphemistically called “Oromia Kilil”!
The reticence of Oromos to speak their language in urban centers is a simple self preservation! The Wayannee government considers those Oromos who insist to speak their mother tongue anywhere, anytime, as militants and possible members or sympathizer of OLF! Hence, there may be no legislation to ban Afaan Oromo, but the hostile environment and harsh political realities faced by the bulk of Oromo nation in present day Ethiopia is undeniably dreadful.
Now, let’s consider this notion of Ethiopiawinet, Yilma et al are lecturing us about on how we were all “mixed blood”, lived together in peace and harmony, and everything was hunky-dory in the land of the Queen of Sheba and Emperors, Minelick, Haile Selassie etc.. until the diabolical Wayannee (walinyannee: the term was initially coined by the Raya and Azebo Oromos in the 1940s when the Imperial Army campaigned against these pastoral communities to no avail and had to call in British Royal Air Force from Aden to surgically bomb hamlets and livestock to crush them to silence and pacify the North South high way that went through the Raya-Azebo territories. Hence, the 1st Walinyanee, the Afaan Oromo term: we’re united/joined together to fend off the external aggressor was used) mafia arrived and contrived the ethnic Kilil to suit their objective of divide- and- rule! This is utterly untrue and if we glance at a cursory history of Ethiopia in late nineteen and early 20th century, the incessant campaign to build the Empire from independent polities in the south and east by successive Abyssinian monarchs is the result of this present conflict among subject peoples and Abyssinia/Ethiopian state. The esoteric history of Ethiopia peddled and espoused by the likes of Yilam and Tedla lacks intellectual integrity and historical coherence. The inability of Ethiopian elite to understand the rising tide of Oromo nationalism and the democratic aspirations of all subject peoples of the Empire illustrates the crude stage of their political and democratic development!
Jawar Mohammed may have done some dalliance with Ethiopiawinet in several fora that he delivered analysis of politics on the Horn Africa and Ethiopia, but hardly ever did he forgot his Oromummaa. He mediated the need for ethno-nationalism with that of Pan Africanism/Pan Ethiopianism! What else could he be except an Oromo man from Bale, born to and reared among a given Gossaa/clan of the Oromo Nation! The centrality and locus of his Oromo heritage transcends his ethiopiawinet ! As indicated above, his cultural memories are that of an Oromo person whose identities are linked to his gossaa and then to Oromummaa. It is an account of oneself and others; it seems natural to us to consider ourselves Oromo first, as Oromummaa evokes our origins, defines us in relations to other polities of the Empire. It binds our identity inextricably with democratic culture and ethos (at least it was until the colonizing structure disrupted our democratic karma, culture and history) democracy permeated every aspect of Oromo culture – Gadda is a system that has an organizing structure, thoughts, concept, doctrine, and tenets which provides for and- upon which identities constructed by the Oromo.
The entire hullabaloo by all these Habeshas regarding Jawars comments and a very disturbing ad hominem and gratuitous vilification, unnecessary and pointless rants, are not a panacea for the Empire’s insurmountable social and political dilemmas. The vitriolic commentaries that pervaded the Ethio-centric websites about Jawar are all craven canards and will not elevate the debate an iota about identity, nationality nor citizenship. We are not surprise by fusillade of abusive invectives. It has been said that, the usage of invectives, overt and coded name-calling and verbal abuses are time honored Habesha virtues!
We either succumb or rise above our chauvinism regarding other polities of the Empire. To fit with what is universal among us or to construct a durable of bonds as a citizens of the Empire that transcend boundaries, cultural heritage and ethnicity/nationality, we need to embrace and employ mutual trust! It is the confidence forged by continuous dialogues about the shifting paradigms in the various communities of the Empire that will endow us to shape the destiny of the region, not innuendoes or abusive words when our views diverge. Debates about the Ethiopian State, about citizenship, about unity of the Empire should not need to be marred by virulent attacks and distortions. All the content less platitude about the glories and indivisibly of the Empire will not spare the Ethiopian State as it is politically arranged now. It is necessary that we make a profound reassessment of the political and social struggle and call for unity against the entrenched Wayannee regime. Nuanced and often noxious commentaries about Oromo activists and Oromia as an entity will only constitute discords, disunity and impediment to the essential process of solidarity of struggle against the formidable Ethiopian police state.
We Oromos had come a long way to this matrix of struggle, our dream of freedom in our own land seems so close, we cannot fail to seize upon and we must keep our eyes on the prize! We should direct our energy to ward altering the conditions of our people as well as refining ourselves, redefining the history of the country and relationships between polities of the Empire! We must secure support and solidarity with all the polities in the Empire, our armed, political and social struggle will reach a point when it will be sufficiently developed to meet the Wayannee forces in a “Dien Bian Phu” type of confrontation. Taking into consideration the justness of struggle, prudent preparation, and our victory inevitable!
Finally, the Oromo Nations struggle is a momentous process that cannot be scuttled by individual or group assault on our activist, collective body, or luminaries of our cause! Either through bullet or ballot, the liberation of our people will come. It is an historic inevitability that the struggle of the Oromo people and all the subject peoples of the Empire will succeed
Dumeesaa Diimmaa is an Oromo Activist.
=======================================================================
*He could be reached at: Diimmaa@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment