Let’s Build Multilingual Beautiful Common Home – Ethiopia!

 Let’s Build Multilingual Beautiful Common Home – Ethiopia!

Ethiopia in particular and Africa in general looks like a beautiful garden of flowers having different colors and forms. How a beautiful multi-lingual country and continent we have! Oromo elites in power need to keep this beautiful garden, especially by respecting both the competitiv Amarigna and Oromiffa. On the celebration of Ethiopian athlets in Finfinne recently, three Oromos in power (Adanech, Derartu and Qajela) gave speech in Amarigna, but not in Oromiffa. They actually had to use both. Since the time of Yekuno in 1270, Oromo elites have always been in power, but they all mistakenly prefered Amarigna to Oromiffa. I hope that genuine Oromo nationalists will control power in Finfinne palace soon and change this status quo to the legitimate leadership of Afaan Oromo in the federation.

If at all the people called Amhara exists, then that is because of the language Amharigna created around 1270 by Oromo elites of north Sheger and due to the associated identity called Amharanet. The conversion of Oromo ruling class from Oromummaa to Amharanet is still going on. The OLF tried to reverse this trend and it is to some externt successful. But, still the Oromo ruling elites led by Dr. Abiy Ahmed are prefering Amharigna to  Oromiffaa. As always, Oromo elites with this mindset are ruling Ethiopia. That is why I dare to say, no Amhara ruled, but Amharigna always dominated Ethiopia. Oromo nationalists led by the OLF hate such Ethipia, which they consider as Abyssinian empire now kept by the Biltsiginna regime. Only genuine democratization and promoting Afaan Oromo to its legitimate position can change this situation. The OLF and OFC as well as genuine Oromo nationalists in OPP should work on this. With such steps, Oromiffa can take over its legitimate leaderdhip in Ethiopia.

The beginning of Pro-Amarigna dictatorship is believed to be 1270, when Yekuno-Amlak with authoritarian mindset of Solomon dynasty took power from the democratic tradition of the Agaw in particular and the Oromo in general. Since then, authoritarianism of Christian kingdom dominated politics of Ethiopia. The Oromo liberation movement being led by the OLF tried to reverse this process in the last more than 50 years. The liberation struggle was successful 25% during the 1974 revolution, 50% in 1991 change and 75% since 2018 reformation. Now, we are in the eve of experiencing the highly wished 100% freedom from this Pro-Amharanet dictatorship and the pre-1270 Pro-Oromiffa democracy of Gadaa tradition will reflourish. At last, Oromo liberation movement led by the OLF shall fully prevail to establish Pro-Oromiffa democracy on the grave of Pro-Amarigna dictatorship. The currently ruling Oromo prosperitans will be the last to keep the status quo of domination by Amharigna. Oromiffaa shall get its natural leadership, replacing the hitherto domination. Ethiopia with the leadership of Oromiffa need to be the colorful Garden of diverse flowers including all languages of the country. That is why Oromo republicans now prefer to realize this Ethiopia instead of only forging the smaller Oromia.

Most of the Pro-Amarigna dictators from the Oromo and other non-Amhara elites are married to partners of Amara origin. They are mentally socialized prefering Amarigna, instead of respecting their natural identity. Dr. Abiy is classical example. He is married to an Amara lady and thus prefering Amarigna of his brothers in law, instead of respecting Oromiffa of his brothers by birth. He despices his own nationslism and values nationalism of his partner. This is the true mechanism how a lot of elites have given up their original nationalism and became mentally Amara. That is why I call them Pro-Amarigna dictators. This way, Agaws of Gojjam and Gondar became Amara as well as some Oromos of Shoa and Wallo have been converted to Amara. Many elites of different non-Amara nations in urban areas like Finfinne and Diredawa identify themselves as Amara. Even, those who didn’t explicitly give up their true identity practically serve Amarigna with the pretext of promoting Ethiopiawinet. I hope, slowly but surely this trend will change.

According to my hitherto information and knowledge, the Oromo have never been oppressed by alien forces, but used to fight against ourselves.  We started to be Solomnized 3000 years ago and we were striving to be Ge-esized and lately be Amharanized. The so called Habesha are such Solomonized Oromos, who slowly lost their Aadaa Oromo and Afaan Oromo to become part of the ruling Habesha. Thanks to the OLF, it changed this trend about 50 years ago, so that we started to look at our true identity of being Oromo the Cushites. Now, Ethiopiawinet in a sense of Kushawinet is flourishing on the grave of our false identity – the Solomonized Habeshawinet. This is happening under Oromo leadership of Ethiopia and we have to be ready for such trend in the coming about 3000 years. Nothing can change this fact on the ground. Our political fashion is changed from striving to be Amharic speaker to proudly maintaining our original identity of using Afaan Oromo. What yet not materalized to make this practical is the highly wished promotion of Afaan Oromo to federal working language.

It is a known fact that nation building process in the modern state of Ethiopia took place till the 1962 re-unification of Eritrea with Ethiopia. Then followed the famous (notorious) Ethiopian Students’ Movement (ESM) being divided into two movements: those who favoured class struggle and those who prefered national struggle. In 1991 those who opted for national struggle won the game. Since then, we do have three groups in the domination bloc of the Abesha (centeralist Amara elites, pseudo-federalist Tigrean elites, separatist Eritrean elites) and three in liberation camp of the Oromo (pro-independence, pro-federalism, pro-integration). The three domination forces are fighting each other for power in the region: Amaras want to comeback to influencial position, Tigreans need their hegemony back and Eritreans strive to get back their pre-1998 previlage.

When we look at the mindset of Oromo freedom fighters, we could classify them into three, based on their kaayyoo (goal) and on their approach to rivals:

– 1st generation groups were communist oriented, who believed in “my way or the high way” principle of the 1960s. Out of the three known types of post-freedom sovereignty (1. independent Oromia, 2. federal union & 3. integrated Ethiopia), they chose one and said “it is the only solution”. They considered Oromo nationals, who opted for the other two types as criminals and enemies to be destroyed. For instance, pro-independence OLF of Galaasaa, pro federation OFDM of Bulcha and pro integration OPLM in Meison of Haile Fida belong here.

– 2nd generation of 1990s were a bit open minded and entertained two of the three visions, but rejected one of the three vehemently. As example, pro-self-determination OLF of Daud entertained referendum on ‘independent Oromia’ vs ‘federal union’, but vehemnetly opposed a struggle for ‘integrated Ethiopia’ (geo-federation of Ethiopia); pro-federtion OFC of Marara supported referendum on ‘federal union’ vs ‘integrated Ethiopia’, but rejected a possible vote for ‘an independent Oromia’. These two organizations seemed to entertain a limited democracy, just trying to dictate the public at large not to excercise our full right of choice from the three options.

– 3rd generation of 2020s is yet to emerge clearly. There is no single organization now, which is ready to accept popular free will to choose one of the three types of sovereignty. Only few individuals are advocating these approach and may be certain politicians can be open for the three post-freedom eventualities. As an organization, ODF of Leencoo and ODP of Abiy initially seemed to develop in this direction. We hope Qubee Generation will be smart enough to be open for the three types of sovereignty and to forge an inclusive alliance of all freedom fighters from the three camps against Abesha’s system of domination. Common denominator for the three groups is freedom from the system domination by the Pro-Amharanet dictators and foster democracy under Pro-Oromumma leadership.

From the liberation forces (freedom fighters) in the country, we had, at the beginning, 1st generation, who believed in only one type of post-freedom sovereignty of Ethiopia: for instance, the pro-independence fronts like OLF-Q wanted only independent nation state, the pro-federalism forces like OFDM prefered only union of autonomous nations and the pro-integration like OPLM of Meison opted for only united country devoid of national autonomy of ethnic groups. These three 1st generation groups believed, as mentioned above, in “my way or the high way” principle.

Slowly, 2nd generation came up with the principle of accepting two possible post-freedom outcomes; for instance the OLF entertains both independence and federalism, while AG7 was open for federalism and integration. Both organizations/alliances were ready for referendum on their respective two options (OLF for referendum on independence vs federalism; and AG7 for referendum on federalism vs integration). OLF was not ready to entertain integration devoid of Oromo self-rule and AG7 was not ready to accept referundum for independence which risks territorial integrity of the country.

If we really are democrats as we usually want to present ourselves, we need to respect both post-freedom public verdicts: referendum on independence vs federalism as well as referendum on federalism vs integration. Upto now, there is no single organization to be such 3rd generation freedom fighter. There are individuals, who were ready to be open for the three types of post-freedom sovereignty. For example, Dr. Nagaasso Gidaada was part of the OLF to persue independence, then joined OPDO to respect federalism and finally led UDJ to promote integration agenda. He seems to be one of the few leaders, who are open for the possible three results. Such inclusive 3rd generation voices were coming in order to unify freedom fighters in the three groups (pro-independence, pro-federalism and pro-integration) against the system of domination. ODP of Dr. Abiy initially seemed to be open for cooperation with all the three groups, eventhough it is pro-federalism by itself. Its motto sounds, “where possible consensus on federalism, otherwise democracy (referendum) on independence vs federalism vs integration”.

We still hope for one AFD-type Oromo alliance to be forged as 3rd generation freedom fighter, being open for the three post-freedom opitions of Oromian sovereingty. But, was the ex-AFD a 2nd generation (accepting two options) or a 3rd generation (entertaining the three results)? Regarding Oromo polity, fact on the ground shows that there are three camps of 1st generation (pro-independence of Galaasaa Dilboo, pro-federalism of Bulcha Damaksaa & pro-integration of Haile Fida); two camps of 2nd generation (those accepting referendum on independence vs federalism like Daud Ibsa and those entertaining referendum on federalism vs integration like Marara Gudina); yet we need one camp of 3rd generation, which can respect both referenda: independence vs federalism vs integration). It initially seemed that Abiy Ahmed of ODP and Leencoo Lata of ODF were ready to play this role, but now Abiy prefered to keep the legacy of all Pro-Amharanet dictators at the cost of Oromummaa leadership. Be it this way or that way, all Oromo forces have changed their political fashion from craving to be Solomonized Amharic speakers to Re-Cushitized Afaan Oromo developers. May Waaqa help them and the Oromo!

Galatooma!