It is nature at work and cannot be eliminated altogether. Even in the most closed, brutal and suppressive empire in history such as Ethiopia changes are inevitable. If I ask myself what is the story I know best, the answer must be, of course, my own story. I was born in an Arsi village in Bale in a house where there was, of course, no question of running water or electricity. To me candles were, for long time, more precious than things like gold. As I grew up, I realized some wells were strictly avoided because they were poisoned. I was moved to another village. The first cruelty I experienced in my life was when I started learning Qur’an. I had two teachers at different times. The first one was an extremely kind person, a sheikh with great insight into Islamic teaching. He did not demand the learning of the text by heart. Besides, he entertained us humorously with various constructive stories from the early history of Islamic tradition. However, he left the village to take care of the family of his brother who died in another part of the region. The second teacher was the opposite. He had himself most probably learned the Qur’an by rote and demanded the same from us. His violence and terror took a real toll on the children. Decades later when I met him, I found him transformed into a mild person by old age and experience.
Yet, in general, I grew up normally without any major frustration until I went with my brother to government schools. I met there the first real brutality in my life. We were the only Oromo boys who could not speak Amharic. Therefore, the threat of serious violence mostly from Amhara and perhaps even Amharized Oromo boys became a daily reality. They shouted at us “Galla”. The Amhara ruling mafia gave this disparaging name to the Oromo people who had fiercely resisted its colonially inspired conquests. For most of the children of this people going to government schools was a gruelling experience. Western diplomats and advisers of the regime were, then, as they are today, in full knowledge of the reality but did not care.
It was about this time one day that a tall man, about sixty years old, arrived at our village on the back of a horse at the sunset. Someone had to hold down one side of the saddle for him to dismount, with an impressive drum on his back, from his beautiful horse. My mother asked me to greet him and he bent down to kiss me and some other children with blessing words. He must have been invited mainly by my mother and some of her women friends in the village. At the dusk of the evening he quietly moved about carefully marking a relatively clean site in the village. Soon, it was swept. All preparations for the ceremony were quickly made.
There was a big fire and plenty of food including coffee beans roasted with honey known as Xiliite. The villagers sat in a circle around the fire, the men on the left, and the women on the right. The man started singing accompanying himself with his talking drum. Others took up the refrain. Suddenly an old woman, who used to breed goats, took a burning glowing wood into her hands. I jumped to my feet shocked. My mother had to extend her hands to me to pull me down to herself. But, later, long after midnight, I saw this woman herself singing softly with my mother and her hands, to my surprise, were not harmed.
Was this drummer just a traditional healer, a kind of high priest? He was more than that. He must have been full of insight into, and in touch with the dynamics of passionate human spirit.“ Melos,” Plato said, “ is compounded out of three things: speech, music and rhythm.” How true! Never before did I hear in such a manner such a thrilling intonation and harmonization of a song from oral traditional Oromo poetry. The Cartesian split between mind and body is a fiction. Meaningful music can help us relinquish our resentment. It can mobilize in us new energies of self assessment and understanding.
This is among things that made me sensitive and self-confident, confirming my belief that Oromo language and culture, even though abused and prohibited from official use, were not inferior to the Abyssinian language and culture. This was long before the rise of Oromo nationalism.
Today the Oromo language is not prohibited from official use. But the Oromo people are still special targets of oppression, suffering from most systematic repression under the full might of Abyssinian generals who climbed on the bandwagon of the war on terror.
My articles in this site may not address the whole picture. My aim is not so much to resolve issues in any definitive sense as to bring them into focus to make every sensible person relinquish false hopes about a democratic Ethiopia and to stimulate serious discussion especially among us Oromos on how to respond concretely to the Abyssinian tyranny. But, generally, true political seriousness is a very rare and expensive item among us. We can yet cause furore over non-topical or irrelevant issues pretending to be patriotic and serious. Since the destruction of the Gada self-discipline and tradition, most Oromos have forgotten how to take care of themselves in an organized manner through solidarity and collective action. Daily survival and consumption has become their main motto in life. Usually, we discuss past events to avoid dealing with current issues. Dealing with current political practical issues of importance demands commitment and sacrifice. Most of us avoid that. For this reason, I appear to some Oromos polemical, withdrawn, aloof or even wild. Most Abyssinian thinking is that we will remain apathetic for good, divided especially along regional and religious lines. Today, under the present repressive conditions, who can forbid us from clandestine political and organizational work if we learn how to take calculated risks, if we learn how to organize and trust one another? Academic achievement and brilliance alone in itself will not help us except in a revolutionary context. Let us stop blaming mainly others. The initiative and responsibility must lie entirely in our hands. It is shameful to pretend to be serious when we are not, and to cause furore over secondary issues. Let us examine our secret motives and be aware of our own subtle mechanisms of avoiding real issues. When human beings lose the capacity to be honestly indignant and, I repeat, consciously indignant, against gross injustices, nothing can change their situation from outside. I am ashamed of myself, having to be emphatic about this.
At present, many opportunist Abyssinian political groups and their Oromo bedfellows in the capital are talking of election set for May 24,2015. I cannot help laughing when people seriously talk about election not only under the present fascist regime but also under any Abyssinian dominated regime whatsoever. The politics of the Abyssinian neo-Fascists is not motivated by any genuine concrete reality or even by the contingency of events in the real world. It is driven by a singular and very arrogant determination to rule indefinitely by all means possible, come what may. I wonder why we keep on narrating what is happening in Ethiopia without representing boldly and honestly what should happen and doing effectively what is possible according to necessity in self defence and to overthrow the tyranny.
The Western public reaction against the deadly terrorist attack targeting the satirical newspaper’s office in Paris is legitimate and understandable. I would, however, be glad if I see equal indignation by Western peoples against targeting countless civilians in Muslim countries by Obama’s bombers and drones, and against increasing Western military interventions there. I will keep dreaming. It is one of nature’s best gifts even to animals.
Arab military dictators and absolute rulers were shaken by the fear of Arab Spring. They needed badly to stop the Western public opinion and free press from further supporting the Arab democracy movement. To prove to the West that they are its only reliable allies in the region and to convince it that the people were not ready for democracy in their part of the world, they immediately started working directly and indirectly to create the current situation and crisis surrounding ISIS. The American and European bourgeoisie must have been fully aware of this. But they have their own agenda of diverting the attention of their peoples from the real social and economic problems at home. Fomenting more and more anti Muslim phobia is, for historical reasons, the easiest way to achieve that. Besides, the capitalist industrial military complex must sell its weapons of destruction constantly. Hence the choice of the weak as targets. Feeding terrorism and fighting it at the same time is becoming a special luxury of the powerful super rich. This may not be the whole truth. But it is certainly part of it. For the time being, the Abyssinian dictators are bathing in brilliant luxury. They are doing well among the winners of the dirtiest game by default.