The Oromo people are trying to release themselves, as never before, from the shackles of fear in the cage of death that is the Abyssinian empire of Ethiopia. More and more spheres of their narrow private existence and daily routine under oppression are being purged out of their complacent monotony by unprecedented revolutionary fervour and communal commitment. The ongoing Oromo protest is not merely a student protest in support of the Oromo peasants exposed to the politics of land grabbing that goes under the name of master plan. Actually all the lands of the peoples incorporated by force into the Abyssinian empire at the turn of the nineteenth century are still owned by the Abyssinian state, at first by the crown, later, dubbed nationalization, under modern military tyrannies of Mengistu Haile Mariam and Wayane. So the present upheaval is part of the national liberation struggle of enslaved peoples of the Ethiopian empire that has been going on in different forms and with different intensities. Only Abyssinian elites and their global backers dare to deny this fact.
While I have great respect for the work of such organization as the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in exposing the atrocities of the Ethiopian regime against peaceful Oromo protests, I do, at the same time, deplore and regret the subtle ways in which they downplay the Oromo issue. They invariably say in their statements that the Oromo people “feel disadvantaged” or marginalized for long time. Well, if it were only a matter of feeling! Are the ordeals of the Oromo people merely subjective or the product of human imagination? Recently Deutsche Welle has also used this language of the Oromo people “ feeling disadvantaged,” while commenting on developments in Ethiopia. Years back, I wrote to the German magazine, Der Spiegel, explaining the Oromo issue. In its answer it said also that it realized that the Oromo people felt disadvantaged! This jumbling of concrete realities together under “feeling” by even relatively free journalism is painful to sensitive human beings. I feel our people are being treated as children. Does seeing things simply as they are require martyrdom?
The present Oromo protests are taking place at a critical time in world history. It is very difficult to make prognosis about political and military developments in the world when all the superpowers are directly engaged in military conflicts to protect their tyrannical puppet regimes under the cover of war on terrorism in the region. There is no end in sight to these conflicts because aggression and violence have been and are still paying off to the benefit of powerful circles. The era of intensive lip-service and pretension to democracy seems to be over.
This is reason enough for Oromos to be more vigilant now than ever. If they are not careful, their protests can be misused and derailed by Oromo groups and individuals who collaborate with the Abyssinian opposition groups and the international circles supporting them. My motto is: if you do not trust yourself, you cannot trust others. As we all know, the Abyssinian groups are still vehemently denying the right of the Oromo and other oppressed peoples to self determination even in theory. As the Ormo protests gain in momentum, the Abyssinian groups, in particular the Amhara opposition cliques, are opening their cans of worms about threats to the Ethiopian unity and flag. We, from the oppressed peoples, cannot dream at present that Abyssinian elites will be well attuned to dissolve their empire voluntarily as the Soviet Russia did without a single shot. Far from it. The Abyssinian belligerence and provocations are on the rise.
That is why the most important topical question for us has to do with the nature of the leadership of the present Oromo protests. We must drop the Abyssinian culture of shrouding everything vital in secrecy. Let us leave to the Abyssinian elites the shameless and brutal denials of things that are open secrets to the whole world. They have been denying even our existence as a people for long time. Is the present Oromo protest movement merely a spontaneous popular upsurge to say enough is enough, without leadership? Is it initiated, at least in part, by the so-called Oromo liberation organizations? Are there well organized underground groups behind it? I must speak out my mind even while holding back, at this moment, from making sweeping answers to these questions. I would like to speak briefly in the light of my own experience. In 1967 I was introduced, in broad terms, to the concept of underground political organizations for the first time in Somalia after I presented myself to a leftist Somali political party known as SDU, the Somali Democratic Union. This party had, at the time, only five members in the Somali parliament if I remember well. They were the only Somali political group who recognized, at least privately, the Oromo national identity, our right to self determination, and the historical ties that bind the Cushitic peoples together. Later I came in touch with a number of more practical leftist Arab groups in Syria and Lebanon who dealt with the issue of underground political organizations in more detail. Attending and participating in their study circles opened my eyes wide. But, alas, no matter what I did I could not really interest my Oromo colleagues in the idea of a well organized political underground structures. They seemed to hear me well but were mostly impervious in practice. I cannot blame them really. I had also my own limitations which I could not see at the time whatever they were.
All along up to now Oromos have not been able to address this issue seriously and objectively. Actually we avoid the topic altogether. I have no game-changing explanation for this except to remark that something terrible has happened to the workings of the Oromo mind due to constant humiliation under the Abyssinian tyranny…. But we cannot go on blaming only external factors for ever. We have to accept our own faults and take resposibility for our own thinking and behavior. It is worth mentioning that ELF, EPLF and even TPLF (all being Abyssinian dominated organizations) had used underground cells in various ways in the days of their struggles. Also, when I met the leaders of ESUE (the Abyssinian dominated student group), including Haile Fidda and Negede Gobaze, in Europe in 1972, I realized that they, too, did use some aspects of underground activities to coordinate the student movement from outside.
At this point I must, however, say that effective underground political structures can succeed only if their leaders remain in the field with their grass roots and people, taking all the necessary risks. That has not happened in our case. I can only hope that the leaders of the present Oromo protest at home have learned the lesson. I do not think that traditional Oromo groups can stand this test… For all who are interested there is enough literature on the theory and practice of underground work that includes urban guerilla movement and focoism. It is useful to look at those experiments. Luckily none of them can be repeated. They failed mostly because of the absence of organizational democracy and the charismatic leaders. Nothing can replace one’s own experience and experiment in the light of one’s particular reality and time. But certain organizational techniques must be informally taught and learned in practice. They cannot be acquired at will or random. This is what most Oromo intellectuals even with the best intentions do not really understand because they have never tried it. Puffed up with primitive provincial empty pride, we are not yet ready to bend down and learn the ABCs of revolutionary struggle. For many of us even the word revolution is becoming one of our great taboos these days. The underground work is a highly sensitive and controversial topic. But if we are serious it must be dealt with properly in an ethical manner. No cleverness or nationalist emotions or even purely academic achievements are of much help here.
In the present Oromo reality, I think Oromos must have several indepedent or autonomous underground organizational structures and organs provided they all have consensus on the minimal political program. In this way it is possible to avoid wholesale slaughter of innocent people by the Abyssinian fascists and to watch against infiltration, keeping track of things with complete presence of mind far from the usual emotional hoi hoi and hogwash. We cannot face facism supported by global forces only with sticks and crossed empty hands. Oromos, where are we? In the course of the struggle, sooner or later, depending on the situation, these structures will merge democratically to form one organization, with self-confidence and regained self-discipline, from positions of real power and strength. Any way, reality will dictate rational compromise in every stage. I mean we must be clear minded and open to serious democratic dialogues with all parties concerned. We must be prepared for all eventualities yet keep the door open for peaceful resolution of the problem at any time. Dogmatic or ideological inflexibility are harmful.
This much said, here, in our long night of repression and tyranny, is the history of the Oromo people itself that demands from us to be wary about the rationality of this world. Its superpowers are each bent today on achieving extremely aggressive geopolitical advantage at the expense of the defenceless poor peoples of our region and at the expense of the ecosystem itself. I keep asking myself how creative people, seeking little more than their own comfort and amusement, can abandon the dogmas, fears and petty mental habits that hold them back from speaking truth to power telling it things it does not want to hear and mobilizing thereby the dormant energies of truly human global solidarity against global brainwash. If they do that will they not enjoy life even better for heaven’s sake?