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| Wake Jio Garbi |
In this article I will reflect on the Biblical teachings in relation to the current Oromo people peaceful protest against the so called ‘Addis Ababa Integrated Master plan’. It attempts to justify the need of more actions to stop the human rights violations, extra judicial killings, and torturing engineered by the TPLF dictatorial government. Further, it urges the entire Oromo people to be more united than ever in order to enhance the revolutionary movements.
- Perspectives from the Bible - Old Testament
In
the Old Testament, the book of 1Kings 21, Naboth refused to give up
his vineyard, the land that he inherited from his father and was
murdered for his refusal. “…there
was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the
Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab
the king of Samaria. Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Let me have your
vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my
palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you
prefer, I will pay you whatever it worth. But Naboth replied, “The
Lord forbids that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”
(1Kings 21:1-3). The account ‘give me your vineyard’ seemed to be
started as a simple real estate transaction. The vineyard was near to
the royal house of Ahab that he was willing to trade it or to pay for
it in order to have it for luxury or superfluity. However, for Naboth
this vineyard was his everything: food, water, shelter, history, and
identity that he can’t trade it for anything. Therefore, Naboth’s
response ‘The Lord forbids that I should give you the inheritance
of my fathers’ is tantamount to saying ‘no’. The answer of
Naboth to the king reflects the history of land during his time. In
Israel, land was believed to be inheritance from Yahweh/Waaqayyo,
parceled out to individual tribes and families according to the will
of God (Leviticus 25:15, 23, 25; Numbers 36:7; Ezekiel 46: 18).
In
Oromo culture too, land is given by God (Waaqayyoo) to a mankind.
Thus it is deeply rooted in our belief that Waaqayyo gave us the land
on which we reproduce and populate. As such we ought to stand for the
birthplace right and that this is the will of Waaqayyoo. He gave the
land to our ancestors and we inherited it from them, and this
continues and the inheritance goes to the future generation.
Otherwise it would mean disgracing the will of Waaqayyoo and His gift
according to the Bible teaching I cited above. Giving up our own
land, there is no way we can claim others land.
Coming
back to the Bible teaching, Ahab brooded or sulked and refused to
eat. His wife Jezebel came and asked him why he was so sullen and
didn’t eat. The King answered her that Naboth refused to give him
his vineyard which is near the palace. Jezebel promised Ahab that she
will do whatever it takes to get him the vineyard of Naboth and
encouraged the king to eat (1king 21:4-7). Thus subtly Jezebel
prepared a means to murder Naboth just because he refused to give up
his father’s land. She wrote letter in Ahab’s name, sealed and
sent them to the elders and nobles dwelling in the city. In the
letter she urged the elders to proclaim fasting, to gather people and
to make Naboth sit in front of the people while two men give false
witness against him (Naboth) saying “You have blasphemed against
God and the King”. Then they take him out to stone him to death.
The inhabitants of the city did as Jezebel ordered them to do and
reported that Naboth had been stoned and died. Obviously, Ahab agreed
with his wife to write and seal the letters in his name. It was a
traitorous plan that the collaborative classes of Ahab in Jezreel set
Naboth in a high place of decency and honor which was actually untrue
and stoned him and killed him with lies from mouths of two men (1King
21:8-14).
In like manner Oromo individuals, social group leaders, supporters and members of political organizations are accused based on false allegations, tortured to death and imprisonments. In other words the Oromo nationalists who stand against the TPLF’s exploitations natural resources experience similar history of Naboth as briefly narrated above. TPLF politicizes and accuses the Oromo who speak against the exploitations and dominations by the TPLF-led dictators as narrow nationalists, anti-peace, and anti-development elements. The current peaceful protest in Oromia against the so called ‘Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan’ is comparable to the response of Naboth to Ahab who planned to evict him from his heritage above. Of course, there have been some prodigals (the lost Oromo who implement the colonial agendas of TPLF) blindly accuse Oromo national struggles.
In like manner Oromo individuals, social group leaders, supporters and members of political organizations are accused based on false allegations, tortured to death and imprisonments. In other words the Oromo nationalists who stand against the TPLF’s exploitations natural resources experience similar history of Naboth as briefly narrated above. TPLF politicizes and accuses the Oromo who speak against the exploitations and dominations by the TPLF-led dictators as narrow nationalists, anti-peace, and anti-development elements. The current peaceful protest in Oromia against the so called ‘Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan’ is comparable to the response of Naboth to Ahab who planned to evict him from his heritage above. Of course, there have been some prodigals (the lost Oromo who implement the colonial agendas of TPLF) blindly accuse Oromo national struggles.
God
shapes, rebukes, and corrects political leaders through his servants
(2 Chronicles 16:9). Christians challenge tyrannical governments in
order to fulfill their Waaqayyo given roles (Psalms 127: 1).
Spiritual
leaders in Oromia should take courage to say ‘yes’ when ‘yes’
is needed and to say ‘no’ when ‘no’ is needed to TPLF
tyrannical government. As spiritual leaders and as theologians we
have to be voice for the voiceless; we have to encourage and educate
our people to reject slavery and to defend their Waaqayyo given right
peacefully ensuring that everybody has equal dignity before Waaqayyo.
It is not surprising that TPLF always labels any Oromo who say ‘no’
to the government’s systematic exploitation as member of the Oromo
liberation Front/OLF and punish them. As we know,
the TPLF has imprisoned over 40,000 Oromo nationalists, and has been
torturing and killing thousands of Oromo with false accusation.
However,
this strategy of TPLF works no more, for the more this dictator
government pushed down the struggle of Oromo, the more Oromo raise
up. The sudden occurrences of waves of protests by the Oromo all over
the World and in Oromia are indicative of the fact that there is no
way to give up the land of their fathers and forefathers to any
robber or conqueror.
When
Ahab strived to possess the land, Waaqayyoo has sent Elijah the
prophet to the king and rebuked him that he killed the innocent man
(Naboth), made blood of Naboth licked by dogs and possessed his land.
The prophet explicitly speaks what the king does is injustice and
Waaqayyoo does not tolerate it. Thus Waaqayyoo warned the king to
reexamine his deed and repent, but he was not willing to listen to
the prophet. Rather Ahab attempted to attack Elijah saying that ‘you
are my enemy’. In fact he continued to do evils after evils. But
these evils led to the failure of his kingdom and to his own death.
Not only this, his son and wife Jezebel paid for the wrongdoings of
Ahab in life. Interesting enough, after Naboth died his land was not
owned by Ahab or by the royal family, but it was given to heirs of
Naboth (1King 21:29; 2King 9: 24-26).
For
the believers, the narrative about Naboth and Ahab above warn that
liars like the heavy-handed TPLF-led government to take-off their
merciless yoke of exploitations and dominations from the Oromo
people. The Bible warns them saying; do not evict poor farmers from
their century- old places of birth and heritages; otherwise the rages
of Waaqayyoo that came upon Ahab will also find you!
TPLF
never hear the opposition parties and human rights activists who have
been pressing the government to stop human rights violation in the
Ethiopian Empire. The government showed zero tolerance to opposition
parties’ leaders and their members, journalists who actually expose
the injustice and freedom fighters, and continued killings after
killings, cheatings after cheatings and whatever one calls crime
against humanity. It is part of our spiritual call to denounce such
acts in any society and to stand with the victims. Thus we cannot sit
and see TPLF evict our people from their land without their
willingness and exploit our resources while thousands of our people
are stricken by hunger, and while this dictator kill our fathers,
mothers and children, and persecute Oromo human rights activists. The
word of Waaqayyo encourages us to stand with our people and struggle
to promote justice, peace, democracy and freedom (Jer 22: 3, Proverb
31:9).
Moses
chose to suffer with his own people rather than enjoying pleasures of
sin. He couldn’t deny the problem of his people and cooperate with
the Pharaoh who enslaved Israelites to whom he belongs (Exodus 5:
1ff). The book of Hebrew 11:25 tells us that Moses chose to suffer
with and for his people rather than cooperating with those who
intimidate, discriminate, and kill his people. For Moses, there was
no popularity and privilege than liberating his people from bondage
of slavery in Egypt. What about us today? The more Moses pressed
Pharaoh to let Israelites free and the more his people(Israelites)
got awareness to resist slavery, the more Pharaoh expressed his
disapproval even with further maliciousness and tranny (Exodus
5:5-19). Moses continued to mobilize the people to promote civil
disobedience by leading them. Lastly, they managed to break through
the colonial yoke of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 6:6ff). Israel moved
out of Egypt seeking their liberty. In like manner Oromo have no
choices left to them, but seek liberty peacefully which they
attempted to but denied by the oppressors who wish to control Oromia
in a round about ways, like by redrawing parts of Oromia towns and
farm lands under the Municipality of Finfinnee.
There
was time when the people of Israel accused Moses whom God sent for
them to set them free slavery in Egypt (Number 25: 5). No less than
this that we also accuse our earlier political leaders saying that
they are the causes for the stagnation of the struggle for freedom of
Oromo. The reality is that they did the best they could. Of course as
human being it may be true that they have weakness; but they still
deserve our appreciations for they have brought the struggle to this
level. More importantly this is not the time to go back and search
for weaknesses defiling and humiliating each other. Rather it is the
time for us to come together and plan the way ahead of us. It is time
to put our human and natural resources together in order to achieve
justice and true democracy in Oromia.
- Perspectives from the Bible- New Testament
Jesus
had great charisma of leadership, unspeakable potential of
argumentations. As such the authorities of the time could have given
Him high positions as well as respect in the Roman Empire of
Jerusalem. Instead He
identified himself with the oppressed, the poor, and the marginalized
section of the society. He spoke on their behalf. He proclaimed that
He came to set the oppressed free (Luke 4: 15-18). There was large
number of Jewish who opposed the Roman Empire’s ruling system and
were persecuted, burned alive, and killed. Jesus boldly proclaimed
that He came to set these oppressed people free. His proclamations
have theological and political implications. Theologically, Jesus
came to this Word to free people from Demonic power and to win them
for eternal life. Politically, He taught them freedom to those under
oppression by tyrannical governments. It
is obvious that this teaching has political implication in our
current context. Waaqayyo created Oromo people free and wants us live
in freedom. This
should not be taken as going out of the Christian teaching. This is
about understanding the fundamentals the teaching and fulfilling what
it requires of us the believer.
The
authorities in the Roman Empire during Jesus time were attempted to
persuade Jesus not to expose their cruelty over the people under
their leadership in public sphere. The Roman rulers who had been
ruling over people of Israel judged Jesus on false accusation that
Jesus blasphemed God and the king, Caesar. They sentenced him to
death penalty though
He was blameless and liberator.
Enemies
of our freedom use different strategies to keep us under their rules.
For
instance, misusing religious philosophies, they have derailed our
uninformed Oromo brothers and sisters from the path of seeking
freedom. These are persons who are not cleaver enough to mark the
boundaries between religion and standing against unjust treatments in
the hands of the dictators (Joshua 5:13).
The
Bible teaches Christians to obey the rulers as long as the
governments obey the will of Waaqayyo (Rom 13:1-3). If the rulers are
cruel and attempt to abandon truth and justice, Christians ought to
obey Waaqayyo than rulers (Acts 5:29). For instance, Herod ordered
the wise men- the Magi- to return with information regarding the
whereabouts of the baby Jesus so that he can easily get where Jesus
was and kill him, but they disobeyed the king Herod and returned to
their country by another route (Math 2:1-12). When the government
attempts to kill those who struggle to free the oppressed, it takes
people to break the law made by oppressors. TPLF,
on the one hand, is sending its merciless federal police and armies
to occupy almost every city, school and university in Oromia; the
armies and federal police have been hunting down barehanded peaceful
protesters since April 26, 2014. On the other hand, it (TPLF) is
sending its cabinets all over Oromia to deceive Oromo by the name of
forgiveness, reconciliation, peace and unity. Oromo people should
know that such false propaganda of unity, reconciliation, peace and
forgiveness has nothing to do with our legitimate question of freedom
from TPLF oppression. The armies of this dictator government should
take off their fingers from their weapons and stop killing our people
inhumanly, and then we will sit for reconciliation. On top of that,
the reconciliation, unity, and forgiveness TPLF and some prodigal
Oromo are trying to persuade Oromo people have nothing to do with
truth and justice. Because reconciliation, forgiveness, peace and
unity can be practiced only after truth is established. Oromo people
have been protesting peacefully to establish such truth, yet the TPLF
has been answering by killing, torturing, and putting thousands of
them in jail.
Conclusion
and Recommendation
The
article explored that the Bible never teaches Oromo people to give up
their land to oppressors. I have three points to make as a conclusion
to my article:
- The
Church in Oromia and around the world should declare ‘spiritual
boycotting’ against TPLF regime. What I mean by ‘spiritual
boycotting’ is that the church should stop praying for the strength
and success of the TPLF regime who is conducting crime against
humanity by killing barehanded peaceful protesters, torturing
innocent people, and imprisoning thousands by false allegation. The
church should rather pray to Waaqayyo so that He would give wisdom
and strength for the oppressed to cope with the catastrophic
situation in Oromia and to continue peaceful protest in order to free
themselves from colonial yoke of TPLF. Additionally, the church
should stand with the voiceless and denounce that the regime is
committing crime against human dignity which is unacceptable in the
sight of Waaqayyo.
- Call upon Oromo all over the World to hold hand in hand and continue
peaceful protest and civil disobedience until we end the injustice
that reigned in Oromia. We have obligations to air our voices
non-stop to the international communities that TPLF-led dictatorial
regime in Ethiopia has continued torturing, imprisoning, jailing and
killing peaceful Oromo protester and not to implement the so called
‘Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan’ aimed at dismantling Oromo
from his ancestral land in disguises.
- All Oromo political parties should come to the table and discuss how to form a united front to make an end to the TPLF’s colonial rule in Oromia, etc. Let me finish with the Oromo saying: “Nutu kan waliiti”. “Harreen wal dhiitti malee ilkaan wal irraa hin fixuu”
Waaqayyo
bless Oromia!!!
=======================================================================* The author is currently studying a dual masters degree program in Theology (MA) and in Society and Global Issues at the Norwegian School of Theology and can be reached at waktheophilaw@gmail.com.
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