In my article under “ from my beliefs “ I tried in passing to summarily dismiss the gada system as belonging to the annals of history used by those who want to divert our attention and lull us away from the real task of real struggle for fundamental change. I exaggerated
comparing it to the social systems that supposedly existed in pre-Christian Abyssinia or to the Greek military democracy. The fact is the gada system did exist as late as the last decade of the 19 century. This is of course a big difference looked at from historical view point. But I still hold to my point that the gada system is a matter of the past.
I even go further to postulate that the gada system had indirectly contributed to the defeat of the Oromo people in the face of advancing Abyssinian armies organized and directed by the colonial powers, especially Britain and France.
I am not questioning here the merits of gada socio-economic formation that was destined most probably to disappear any way in the face of advancing monopoly and finance capitalism. At the time of the colonial scramble, there were various socio-economic formations and systems of governments based on them in Africa. For western colonial powers, the gada system was one among social systems absolutely incompatible with the development of the capitalist market based on grabbing new lands and whole territories in the interest of the more advanced exploitative capitalist system at home in Europe. The Abyssinian system, whatever it was, was suited much better to their ambitions.. In the now well known stalemate among the colonial powers in the Horn the Abyssinian kings availed themselves of every opportunity, subordinating their interests and themselves to the interests of colonialist countries and serving as place holders for them. They were even raised in the process to the status of minor participants ( Berlin Congress) in colonialism in the run for a ruthless full-scale land grabbing and subjugation of the peoples of Africa..By that time Abyssinian kings and warlords had already destroyed much of the economic resources and the old feudal system in Abyssinia proper through constant wars and were thirsting for the fertile lands of Oromia, Sidama, even Afar, Ogaden etc. Today’s Ethiopia owes its existence mainly not to their Christian pretensions nor to their brave patriotism and myth but to the accommodation reached among the colonial powers to invent the Ethiopian empire as it stands today in a region where their interests clashed in those days so as to use it as a model for such situations elsewhere, especially in Africa.
The emergence of the USA as a capitalist superpower in the beginning of the twentieth century is a high point in history but the rules of the game have not changed much basically ever since. The laws of the jungle are still at work as ever. I do not deny that the world is changing. Yet the Ethiopian empire seems an exception that defies all rules. The superpowers of today seem to have agreed that the Horn of Africa should remain frozen in a limbo in the hands of a new generation of the Abyssinian dependent colonialist elites represented by Melles Zenawi and Esayas Afeworqe once regarded as part of the new African elite.
Yesterday Menilik of Shoa and Kasa of Tigray jointly defeated the Oromos in Wollo, forcing them into Christianity after widespread destruction of human lives and resources, turning countless people into slaves, with the help of British and French weapons and advisors. The Amhara kings had the upper hand and articulated the empire in the most brutal way, again, with the help of the British and the French fire arms and advisors, finally expanding it tenfold or more. Today the Abyssinian Tigray elite has taken the initiative over in turn and is doing what their emperor had failed to do, in this age of capitalist globalism with the added support of the only superpower – the American might.
In the light of this reality it is sickening to hear some Oromos in Paltalk discussion rooms railing at each other about individuals like Leenco, Dima, Dawit etc. These individuals are not as inept as some of us would like to think. I know none of them personally. But following their steps and statements I know they do read the world situation clearly and correctly in a way. They want to be winners as soon as possible without a hitch, without taking personal risks, without making big sacrifice, by serving the powers that invented and maintain Ethiopia. Their fear of Islam underscores this tendency and provides background for much of their wavering. As representatives of forty million people they dream that they might be helped, for that reason alone, when their turn comes, into the Ethiopian imperial palace. They see the world is dominated by interests and not by ideologies. They fail, however, to see that today the world is a chessboard where only strength matters. OLF leaders have neither the gut to admit this, nor the politico-economic-military infrastructure that is needed to get attention on world stage beyond petty patronage, whereas the Abyssinian elite have most of these things.. Besides, the Abyssinian petty bourgeoisie have been all along well-schooled in serving colonialism and neo-colonialism, in the footsteps of their Emperors. It is not by accident that Melles Zenawi is a graduate of General Wingate high school. He has been a protégé of Blair and Gordon Brown as we all know and is a British favorite up to now. There are more reasons why the Oromo bureaucrats have no chance of winning in this game: the history of the Oromo people as victims of colonialism and neo-colonialism. The struggle of the Oromo people is part of the general anti colonialist struggle worldwide and can succeed only when it starts at grass root level from below and not when initiated by half-hearted bureaucrats.
It will be a struggle that does not end by hoisting flags and winning meaningless independence. Let us aim high for social justice and true freedom for our long suffering nations.