Believing in a myth cannot make it true.
“Believe what?” asked Shadow. “What should I believe?”
“Everything,” roared the Buffalo man. —American Gods.
There are things in this world that have no substantial reality of their own and are absolutely crazy beyond belief. I mean myths justifying unjust power. But they exist because there are always people who are indoctrinated enough and misled to believe them. Can believing in such a myth make it true? Here you have, for example, Ethiopia, a country well known and respected worldwide and a member state of the United Nations, but in reality an empire made up of nations and nationalities whose existence and rights as human beings have been denied to this day since long time. Today, under the pretext of war on terror, Somalia is being destroyed and Eritrea under threat mainly because world powers are determined to save the oppressive empire-state of Ethiopia. Today the Abyssinian, Tigray and Amhara ruling classes are, sad to say, with some Oromos, gloating over this prospect, emboldened, more than ever before, determined to hold down the oppressed nations and nationalities by force to maintain as ever their century old dominance by all means possible. The neo-colonialists are their staunch supporters like the old colonial powers who had helped them create the Empire by violence in the first place and for the same reasons.
There are many other secondary contributing factors. Factors of division and disunity within the oppressed, fostered by the ruling elites and underpinned by constant terror, by lack of political and organizational awareness, the wide spread self degradation among the oppressed, resulting in low morale and, most important, the factor of their complete geopolitical isolation and encirclement.
Belonging to the biggest nation among nations and nationalities on the receiving end, the Oromos, I can personally attest to all these facts as a victim myself. I can talk about Oromos more mostly because I know about them more. Most of us Oromos have become experts at self-deception, and nowadays at making a great commotion about nothing. No matter how strong our nationalism, our euphoria and our self identification with the glories, real or imagined, of the Gada sytem may be, we mostly underplay those factors which our oppressors, their international allies and local agents use to divide us from within. I mean mainly factors of the religious divide and regionalism, most especially the former.
The now famous brutalities of the Abyssinian armies, trained and directed by the main European colonial powers in the last half of the nineteenth century during the Abyssinian territorial expansion, and the forced Christianization that accompanied it especially in Wollow, drove the majority of the by then Waqeffata ( followers of our old religion ) Oromos into Islam and into seeking the help from the Arabs and the Ottoman Empire. I have read just recently Professor Asafa Jaalat’s article entitled “ Oromia: A national crisis, open dialogue…” issued December26, 2011 in gada.com. There he compares the resistance of the Oromo people to the Abyssinian domination to their resistance to the Ottoman and Arab influence and domination. This is a clear distortion of history by an advanced Oromo intellectual whose good nationalism I may not necessarily doubt, no matter how opposed I may be to the OLF in which he is a senior figure. It is also, at least in part, an Abyssinian version of history!
Let us not mix things. I do appreciate his article. It is the first by a senior OLF member, to my knowledge, containing open and sharp self-criticism but also a generally broad vision about the struggle of our people for liberation. It is not a matter of questioning his intentions either. For me the facts of history are not as important as their relation to the realities of our struggle at present. I hope that there is someone somewhere who can articulate better than me what I am trying to say here.
To put this in context, the facts of the Arab and Ottoman expansionism are not the issue here. At the time the Horn of Africa had been, as it is today, part of international conflict in which weak nations had no saying. The simple fact is that the greatest majority of Muslim Oromos were not forcibly converted through Jihad or even the religious propaganda by the Arabs and Turks. Most Oromos turned to Islam long before they knew its fundamentals. It was simply an instinctive political decision in self- defence against the superior European backed invaders… To the majority of Oromos opposition to the Abyssinian conquest meant also opposition to Christianity. That is why, even after the relative consolidation of the Abyssinian supremacy, armed resistance have kept erupting among Oromo Muslims in one area after another especially since the independence of Somalia.
Even while I am writing this article, despite the apparent strength of pan Oromism, there is a strong undercurrent of belief among the Oromo and non Oromo Muslims of Ethiopia that justly considers Islam a symbol of resistance to the Abyssinian domination. This is an open secret to the Western regimes and media. Instead of dealing with the basic issues of the most blatant violations of human rights, the issues of justice and democracy in Ethiopia, they are engaged in systematically propping up and promoting the criminal Abyssinian ruling military and civilian elites bent on preserving forcibly the unity of the oppressive empire state. At the same time they paradoxically support in parts of the Arab world the mass movement for change!
Most politically conscious Oromos do know that the so-called war on terrorism in Somalia is part of a grand conspiracy to strangle and ultimately destroy the Oromo resistance to the Abyssinian aggressors. The policies of major Western powers in Ethiopia is, in my opinion, a great disservice to Christianity itself as I understand it, one of the really great world religions, with a great message not only to the Christians but also to the entire humanity. The systematic doublespeak and misuse of Christianity by the Western powers and their local agents both before under capitalism is not a new phenomenon.
opportunist OLF leaders of missionary background and the chorus of opportunist intellectuals supporting them have utterly failed to objectively and rationally assess the situation in Oromoland, ignoring manifest Oromo realities.. They are busy more in fighting Islam indirectly than in struggling to liberate Oromia. This is the main reason why they are in complete disarray today and are looking for scapegoats. This is also one of the reasons why Wahabism, the most fanatic and dogmatic manifestation of Islam is spreading like wild fire among Muslim Oromos, especially among the Arsi clan. This is a clan that is, because of its consistent resistance, most hated, brutalized, dehumanized and condemned to backwardness by the Abyssinian ruling elite and their international allies ever since the formation of the Ethiopian empire. This is also why at present the core OLF leadership is engaged in trumpeted war with one of its own opportunist factions led by Kamal Galchu, an Arsi former officer in the Derg and Wayane military establishments. The gang of Kamal Galchu has been able to mislead and mobilize some vacillating Arsi elements in the Diaspora.
The Woyane regime, on its part, is pulling different strings in confusion and panic especially since the explosion of the Arab spring.. It did encourage for years the official brand of passive Wahabism, among other things, to undermine the Oromo nationalism but was shocked by its possible connection to, or sympathy with the militant Islam suspected of involvement with Shabab. Yet, Almoudi, the pro Saudi billionaire, works closely with the Woyane regime. He is one of the five Wahabi Billionaires active in the Middle East who collaborate with the most corrupt oil oligarchs in the region. All the same, the regime of Meles Zenawi is importing now the strange dogma of a dubious anti Wahabi sect based in Lebanon, Al Ahbash. The sect preaches complete political passivity and is opposed to the main Shari’a trend in Islam. Unlike the Wahabis who claim to belong to the original great salafi tradition, the Al Ahbash try to re-invent Islam itself. This is only in passing.
Dr. Asafa in his article raises indirectly some aspects of the issues of religious divide among the Oromos but evasively and in a wrong context when he talks about the problems of sub identities. Trouble is that many Oromo academics and intellectuals relinquish their integrity easily for mostly egotistical reasons. Either they keep silent pretending objectivity on important issues or try to misrepresent through ignorance or on purpose the essentials of the Oromo struggle past and present.
Let me quote here some sentences from Dr. Asafa’s article: “There are also some Oromo elites who have commitment to serve the enemies of the Oromo people. In the 1970s, some Oromo elites joined Ethiopian and Somali organizations while a few created the OLF. Furthermore, the lack of ideological and political maturity led to the division of the OLF in the 1970s, and recently, in the 2001 and 2008.” Is Asafa Jaalata writing the first parts of these sentences due to lack of information or oversight? Or does he want to bewilder and mislead intentionally? If it is because of lack of information, he needs to be corrected.
Without wanting to go deeply into the annals of OLF, I must stress a few facts here without even commenting much on them. Who are the Oromo elites Asafa is darkly talking about gloomily without telling us their names when he mentions those who joined Somali and Ethiopian organizations? Well, these are mostly the same people who at different times and under different conditions struggled to the best of their abilities for the liberation of the Oromo people within the framework of Western Somali Liberation Front including the so-called Somali Abbo, and outside it. Some of them then formed the so-called Ethiopian National liberation Front. Some of the same peoplel finally tried to organize the first original and genuine OLF in 1973. True, they were not degree holders. Actually many were illiterate. Briefly, I want to name some of the leading figures. Waqoo Guutuu and his followers, Hussein Bunee and his followers, Elemoo Qilxuu and Haji Hussein Sura and their followers, finally Jaarra abbaa gadaa and his followers. These are all heroes of the armed struggle of the Oromo people mainly in the Arsi and Harar areas in the sixties and seventies. Jaarra is still struggling and lives in exile. These are people who confronted one of the most brutal military institutions in the world in the most difficult geopolitical regional and world conditions and gave up their lives for Oromummaa, to use the expression frequently used by our professor, at a time when some of the founders of the present OLF were either collaborating with the Haile Sellassie and then the Mengistu regimes, or went on pursuing calmly their careers, and higher studies peacefully, or else were members of study circles to promote peacefully general Oromo awareness. Here I am talking of what I personally know, not of hearsay, and I can go into some other related details if I so choose. But I like restraint when I deal with events past, unless I must explain something I consider vital. I have to consider the dialectic of freedom of expression, free will and legitimate silence.
I personally have immense respect for Oromos who struggled peacefully for equality, be it within Metcha Tulema or the Ethiopian student movement. It never occurs to me to underestimate their progressive role let alone denigrate the roles played by Oromos who paid for us in blood. Let it be clear, I do cherish the memory of all Oromos who sacrificed their lives under the leadership of OLF, even though I am convinced that this leadership is not qualified to lead the struggle of the Oromo people for liberation. On the contrary, I am convinced, it is there to slowly arrest our struggle for genuine liberation from within serving mostly its own selfish ends and global players determined to destroy the Oromo movement that aims at dismantling the Ethiopian empire. Period.
But why dismantle the Ethiopian empire? Most Oromos, including myself, do not see the possibility of democratizing Ethiopia under the supremacy of the Abyssinian minority rule. Unless Western countries, especially the United States and Great Britain, reverse their policies of blindly supporting the Abyssinian dictators all the time, especially the present fascist minority rule, most of militant Oromos will be forced to join the struggle alongside the Somali people, Shabab or no Shabab. Sooner or later, I think this is inevitable. Not only the Oromos but also other oppressed nations in Ethiopia such as Afar, Sidama, Adare etc have little choice. Sooner or later the mind and imagination of even ordinary Oromo Christians will stop to boggle at the idea and propaganda of Muslim threat and see the situation clearly for themselves.
I think the UN credibility in our region is at stake now more than at any time. It should at least openly condemn the ethnic cleansing and other atrocities daily committed by the present Tigray dominated regime against peaceful peoples. Besides, the UN Charter calls for people’s right to self-determination, while at the same time it states its opposition to any attempt at the violation of the territorial integrity of member states! Oppressed peoples will never surrender their rights because of this double standard.
Here I must also stress that despite my rants in bariisa.com against Western politics in Ethiopia, I do not believe that the world is a completely hostile place where only the strong have their way and the weak cannot survive. The world is changing in ways that even the best minds cannot precisely predict and the growing human awareness about justice and better and more humane life cannot be halted by any power.
The policies of divide and rule will not work indefinitely as human awareness keeps expanding constantly. In 1972, I stayed with Haile Fidda in Humburg for about a week. A little before we finally parted, I remember him asking me if I had headache. After a while, he then asked me what worried me most. I remember now saying to him it would not be very easy for me to explain his ideas to ordinary Oromo Muslims, for example, in Bale or Harar. His reaction was almost automatic. Turning to me sharply he said literally “Do not worry at all. Let them fight even as Muslims against Amhara domination.” I mention here this incident to stress that Oromo national self awareness is irreversible. It had reached a point of no return even before OLF came into being. Any one who tries to turn the clock back or arrest our struggle is being and will be swept away. The Arab Spring is also boosting the morale of the oppressed everywhere.
Haile Fidda was an Oromo Marxist intellectual of high quality from a Christian background. He was a leader of the Ethiopian Student Union in Europe at the time. I kept in touch with him by telephone and through correspondence in Oromifa till 1974. Unfortunately I lost more than 20 valuable letters by him addressed to me, when I was expelled from Syria by Hafiz Al Asad’ regime. Later, he unwisely supported the military regime under Mengistu conditionally only to be liquidated at the end. I had had complete confidence in him and was shocked that he did not inform me at all despite our intensive contact about his decision to support the new military regime.
I want to say a few more things about the ideas of Dr. Asafa: his long article revolves around how to strengthen Oromummaa, Oromo nationalism. I have read his article twice to get more closely at the gist of the matter. He seems to argue for a deeper understanding of the Gada system and perhaps a return to Waqeffata values to raise the level of Oromo nationalist self-awareness. He seems to spread the blames for our failures equally among the Oromo political leadership, the people and their enemies. Let me ask in general: how much most of the apparently logical political statements that most of us make about the oromo question do relate to the reality of our struggle? Do they reflect our existential truth? I just wonder. I have strong doubts. I do not think understanding the Gada system theoretically or a return to Waqeffata beliefs will in themselves help us much. How many of us have become more committed revolutionaries as a result of the deepened understanding of these systems? I cannot help smiling at myself when I look in Gadaa.com at the diagrams showing the Gada classes neatly or when I read very cut and dried essays on the topic… the naivety of it all!
OLF leadership has been misusing all possible nationalistic emotions and dispositions to mobilize support the easiest way. For two years I attended from time to time its mass rallies and festivities in Addis Ababa uninvited to learn how it worked. There was no real substantial human contact among people attending those rallies and festivities or between them and the leadership. But emotions there were more than enough! It started and ended with improvised and contradictory prayers by preachers of the three religions at the same time, creating highly suggestive supernatural and mystifying negative atmosphere followed by lots of gibberish, loud music and dance, with no revolutionary content, and of course the leaders talking down from above! Comparing OLF’s activities with that of the TPLF at the time, I realized how much most of us Oromos, including myself, are incurably naïve and looking constantly backwards to avoid risks and real commitment.
If we do not make a U-turn, I think it would take another century of more oppression and humiliation before we become qualified for real liberation struggle. This is my gut feeling. There is an old Chinese saying: If you do not change the direction, you may end up where you are heading. But back to the point, I honestly believe that there is not much of practical value for our liberation struggle that we can learn from the Gada system, great as it may have been at one point in our history, nor do we need preaching a return to the Waqeffata system. It is just simply impractical, waste of valuable energy and time. It is also highly misleading. Oromos following the three religions, Islam, Christianity and Waqeffata must and can, I am convinced, accept and love one another unconditionally without trying to convert one another. From here there is no limit to our movement forwards not backwards. We can achieve more self-awareness if we respect and love ourselves as we are now in reality instead of trying to repeat history. Let us look into our own double standards before blaming outsiders, or our enemies. The three religions are in themselves no obstacles to Oromo identity if we use natural wisdom in relating to one another without fear as dynamic human beings, human beings on the move. Besides, I firmly believe that Oromo politicians and political organisations should not meddle in religious affairs or misuse them for narrow and selfish political manoeuvring.
Politics is there to deal with public life. It is not there to prepare the people for an afterlife! It is about justice and law in here and now. Period. I do not think that OLF ever got this point right from the beginning.
Let us be precise about what we can practically learn from the Gada system when it comes to democracy and social justice. OLF has turned the Gada system into a subterfuge, an excuse to evade the real issues of organizational democracy and empowerment of ordinary members. Who attends its so-called congresses? Only members picked up from above. Right ? And yet we hear lots of nonsense about the Gada democracy.
In short, of all the great political problems facing the Oromo people and their revolutionary elite, if there is truly revolutionary elite at all, none, in my thinking, surpasses the relationship of national oppression to social injustice. If we manage to integrate the two, we can narrow the room for opportunism at many levels. You do not need to be a Marxist to see this. Here in Germany I think most of social democrats and even many of the Christian democrats do not only accept this in theory but are also really serious about it in practice.
What has been happening in the Ethiopian empire since its invention, and what is still happening is that the Abyssinian ruling elites and intellectuals, both Tigrayan and Amhara, and their Oromo stooges, are able to discredit everything that is constructive, be it in religion, socialism and democracy. They have left their indelible ugly marks everywhere with their constant contradictory propaganda and their indiscriminate violence. The result is complete cynicism among the oppressed population. Most people have lost hope and confidence in their own political elites. Paradoxically that is exactly what especially the present Tigray dominated ruling elite wants from the oppressed peoples.
I want to round off this long article by saying let us do all we can to get away from the Abyssinian political traditions, their interpretation of history, their reading of the present reality and their symbols of power. None of the opposition political organizations in Ethiopia to date, as fare as I know, allow their ordinary members to genuinely elect their leaderships democratically, the most shameful phenomena. When it comes to symbols, I would like to ask OLF members and their supporters a question. Why, in your euphoria, have you failed to see that OLF’s flag is only another configuration of the Ethiopian flag, red, yellow and then green colour. I would like to suggest only the blue with some stars in white that represent the Oromo democratic federation. But first we have to reform our thinking and orientation before we change our flag.