BBN Daily News November 23, 2016

Voice of Amara Radio – 23 Nov 2016

Ethiopia: Tourism Gears up to Mitigate Effects of Unrest

“13 Months of Sunshine” which served as the tourism motto for over 40 years into “Land of Origins.’

However, the ministry did not give any explanation for changing a slogan that is in the heart of millions of Ethiopians.

“13 months of sunshine” is the motto of Ethiopian Tourism Department. Ethiopia actually has its own calendar which has 13 months. In Ethiopia, the year is currently 2009 while the rest of the world is in 2016. Ethiopia also has its own clock.

The motto “13 months of Sunshine” has been used to tell the world that Ethiopia has different calendar that encompasses 13 months referring to the month of “Pagume.” The slogan also shows different seasons that appears in different parts of the country.

Besides changing this long serving motto, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism also planning to launch a campaign on November 30, under the name “Tena Yestelegn”.

Ethiopia: Tourism Gears up to Mitigate Effects of Unrest

www.addisfortune.com

The Addis Abeba Hotel Trade Sectoral Association (AHA) and Ethiopian Tourism Organization have announced that they will partner to use new methods to minimize the effect of the state of emergency on tourism. At the first annual Tourism Industry Day event organized by Jumia Travel on November 17, the General Manager of AHA, Ruth Luda, announced that a request has been presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other organizations. She explained that even though travel warnings for Ethiopia were issued in some countries, this advice does not include Addis Abeba. (The AHA was formed in 2005, with the aim of voicing the concerns of the Addis Ababa hotel industry).

“The main issue currently raised by foreigners is that international insurances are not willing to cover their costs” said Meron Tiruneh, the marketing manager at the Ethiopian Tourism Organization.

In order to solve this and other problems, the ETO has changed the logo, ’13 Months of Sunshine’ which served as the tourism Slogan for over 40 years into ‘Land of Origins’. It is also planning to launch a campaign on November 30, under the name ‘Tena Yestelene’, by formulating a five year strategy of raising awareness and image building.

“We still believe that Ethiopia is a great destination to tourists with high security levels”, said Alexander Burtenshaw, Jumia country manager.

Even though it has been only a year since it started operating in Ethiopia, Jumia is a well-known online booking platform in Kenya and South Africa.

15 trucks with their loads of const.steel rods vanish into the thick fog of Addis Ababa corruption.

By HEIDI PARKER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 16:33 EST, 23 November 2016 | UPDATED: 01:12 EST, 24 November 2016

It’s probably not how he envisioned himself spending the holidays.

But it looks like Kanye West will be forced to stay in hospital throughout Thanksgiving.

The 39-year-old was rushed to UCLA Medical Center after a reported breakdown on Monday

Hospital for the holidays: Kanye West will spend Thanksgiving at UCLA Medical Center with Kim Kardashian by his side (pictured June)

People reported that his wife Kim Kardashian left his bedside for the first time late on Wednesday, with a bodyguard in tow.

But the mag claimed she was expecting to return first thing in the morning.

A source claimed the rapper is ‘starting to feel more like himself, and that he understands the importance of ‘resting and getting help.’

‘They are taking it day by day. He understands that getting help at the hospital was necessary,’ they said.

The good wife: ‘He just needed some rest,’ the source said. ‘[Kim] is currently with Kanye right now at his side. Kim feels more connected to Kanye than ever. Their marriage is doing great’

Earlier Entertainment Tonight had reported Kanye was ‘doing much better’ since the scare.

It was added his wife Kim was by his side tending to his needs, and had even canceled an appearance in New York City to help him out.

‘He just needed some rest,’ the source said.

‘[Kim] is currently with Kanye right now at his side. Kim feels more connected to Kanye than ever. Their marriage is doing great.’

A source said he had a ‘mental breakdown’ from pushing himself too hard with his Pablo tour and design commitments.

Rest: The beauty’s show Keeping Up With The Kardashians had its season finale on Sunday

‘It was a combination of a lot of issues: stress, anxiety, paranoia. He just broke,’ the source previously told ET.

‘There have been signs recently of him just overwhelmed. Kanye hasn’t been himself for a while.’

According to UCLA’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital website, the process is very involved: ‘The patient will be seen by an emergency department physician who will perform a basic medical screening examination and determine whether the patient needs additional consultation from specialty services.

‘If indicated, the psychiatric consultant will then be called to assess the patient. This entire process can take anywhere from minutes to hours depending on the volume and severity of cases in the emergency department.’

Kim was ‘terrified’ when she heard the news of her husband’s breakdown.

‘She was so scared when she heard the news and rushed to his side,’ the source said. ‘There was no question about her staying in NYC. She had to be with him last night.’

Kris Jenner said on Monday Kanye was ‘exhausted.’

She added: ‘It’s a grueling tour.’

‘Kim is being amazing’ to her husband during his hospitalization, ‘as are all of his friends and team and inner circle,’ a source told People.

Kanye, 39, was at trainer Harley Pasternak’s home on Monday when he started ‘acting erratically,’ according to People.

A call was made at about 1:20pm for a disturbance.

He was later escorted to UCLA Medical Center and admitted ‘at will’ but under the advice of a physician after a ‘temporary psychosis’ brought on by dehydration and exhaustion, TMZ reported.

Meanwhile, Kim has been under a lot of stress too.

On October 3, she was tied, gagged and held at gunpoint at the No Address hotel apartment and robbed of her jewelry.

The mother of two was due to make her comeback to public life and her first red carpet appearance since the robbery at Denise Rich’s Angel Ball on Monday evening.

She was spotted flying to the Big Apple on Monday but returned back to LA following Kanye’s hospitalization.

Their children North, three, and Saint, 11 months, are currently in the care of their nannies while Kim is by Kanye’s side.

Kanye recently cancelled the last 21 stops for his Saint Pablo tour.

Another contributing factor to his health incident was the time of year.

His late mother Donda West died on November 10, 2007 at the age of 58 after complications from cosmetic surgery.

A source for People revealed that ‘the anniversary of his mom’s death is an aspect of what’s going on in that it’s added emotional stress.’

Adding that: ‘This time of year always brings him a lot of pain. He keeps that pain internalized, but sometimes will talk about how hard this time of year is for him.’

Strength: Their children North, three, and Saint, 11 months, are currently in the care of their nannies while Kim is by Kanye’s side; seen on September 9 in NYC

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Interview with Ahmed El-Basheer – SBS Amharic

Interview with Tekle Yeshaw SBS Amharic

Prof. Messay Kebede
 
I have read with great interest René Lefort’s article, “Ethiopia’s Crisis Things Fall Apart: Will the Center Hold?” With his usual perspicacity and deep knowledge of Ethiopia’s history and contemporary politics, Lefort analyzes the current crisis with penetration nourished with revealing details, often gathered from well-placed informants. One learns a lot from the article, but paradoxically one is also assailed with questions triggered by a vague feeling that the article downplays the essential factor of the whole crisis.

Lefort explains the current crises by three mutually enforcing factors: they are:  (1) “the weakening of the central authority,” following the demise of the strongman, namely, Meles Zenawi, which weakening strengthened peripheral attempts at emancipation; (2) “democratic aspiration” essentially originating from the sectors which, having benefited from the economic success of the regime, are now demanding for less authority and control; (3) “collateral damage from super-rapid growth” caused by the exorbitantly unequal enrichment of the ruling elites at the expense of peripheries and ordinary people.

When we combine the three factors, we get one commanding idea: the current crisis of Ethiopia is nothing but an outgrowth of the success of the ruling party. This idea is so pervasive that the whole article criticizes the ruling elite, not for the wrongness of its policy, but for being unable to deal with the negative fallouts of its success except by the intensification of suppression, as evidenced by the proclamation of the state of emergency. Nowhere do we find in the article the suggestion that the main cause of the crisis may be the inherently defective nature of TPLF’s social and economic policy.

Because Lefort perceives the crisis as an outgrowth, and not as the unfolding of an originally bad policy, he believes that the crisis is a call for the ruling elite to undertake the necessary reforms. He is accordingly disappointed by the apparent inability of the ruling clique to respond to the call in a constructive way. Yet, the main question should have been whether the ruling elite is anywhere near to acknowledging that it needs to reform itself. The answer is a resounding no! The proof of this is that Lefort cites senior officials who claim that “the current crisis is simply ‘the price of our successes’. It was preceded and will be followed by others, because it is nothing more than a stage, unremarkable and inevitable, on the path that will undoubtedly culminate in the nation catching up with developed countries in the next few decades.” In the eyes of these officials, the main culprits for the popular unrests are the diaspora, the opposition parties, Amhara chauvinism, the Eritrean government, secessionist Oromo forces, foreign governments, etc.

That is why it is naïve to expect reforms: the TPLF, which is the real force behind the EPRDF, is doing and has been doing what it had planned to do since it became an important guerrilla force, to wit, the establishment of a long-lasting hegemony of Tigrean elite on Ethiopia. For the TPLF, the question was never about the well-being of Ethiopia, but about an all-embracing hegemonic control of Ethiopia, one of its essential means being the policy of divide-and-rule or ethnic federalism. Accordingly, the ruling party sees the popular uprisings as nothing more than attempts to stand in the way of the hegemonic project. As such, they are not to be tolerated, but instead crushed violently and without mercy.

Unless the hegemonic agenda is viewed as the core issue, the intrinsic depravity of the regime does not stand out. Thus, Lefort makes the mistake of characterizing the federal government as a “center” opposing peripheries. In reality, the TPLF did not create a non-regional or cosmopolitan state machinery and elite, as did the imperial regime or the Derg; rather, what we have is a system of tight control of peripheries by a regional elite whose defining feature is its awareness of illegality inscribed in its minority status. This control is the very obstacle that blocks democratization and a fair distribution of resources. In a system constructed to perpetuate the hegemony of one regional elite, there cannot be fair distribution, any more that there can be an all-inclusive economic growth.

The main cause of the crisis is, therefore, neither the weakening of the center, nor the emerging democratic aspiration, still less the negative consequences of rapid growth; the main cause is the ethnic factor, that is, the economic and political dominance of a regional elite. What is needed is not the reform of the regime, but the dismantling of the hegemonic structure. The negative consequences are not regrettable or avoidable outgrowths, nor are the democratic aspirations derived from economic prosperity. They are but the very application of the original intent of the TPLF. They are not mistakes or deviations; they are implementations of an originally divisive political program, the only one liable to safeguard the supremacy of a minority elite. Far from engaging in reforms, the TPLF’s reaction to the popular demands will model itself on its close relative, namely, the Syrian regime. The proclamation of the state of emergency is the first step in a gradual escalation toward civil war.

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Ethiopia’s crisis: Things fall apart: will the centre hold? [RENÉ LEFORT- Open Democracy]

Fidel Castro has made what is likely to be his final speech to Cuba’s Congress, telling the assembled politicians that he would die soon but that the revolution’s ideals would live on.

The 89-year-old spoke after his brother Raul, 84, was re-elected as head of the Communist party – a position the younger Castro has said he will hold until retiring in 2018.

The cardiac surgeon from Sweden has been imprisoned in Ethiopia for several years and could be charged with additional crimes, Swedish Television reported.

Fikru Maru was jailed in 2013 and later sentenced to four years and eight months for having knowledge of corruption between a minister and a prosecutor. Maru has always denied any wrongdoing.

Now, he could be charged in connection with a fire at his prison that killed dozens of inmates in September.

The details surrounding the fire are unclear, but Swedish Television in Gävleborg reported that Ethiopian authorities have charged some 38 prisoners in court for causing the deadly blaze. Maru is believed to be one of them.

“They have apparently decided that he will not leave the country,” said Maru’s lawyer Hans Bagner to news agency TT.

Maru, who is reported to be seriously ill, has served much of his sentence and had hoped to be released early on account of good behavior. The new allegations would greatly complicate his release, Bagner said.

Patric Nilsson, an under secretary at the Swedish Foreign Ministry, said the office has information that an indictment may be on the way. He said the government is working on the case.

Maru’s “condition is serious, and it is vital that we, together with his family, try to find some solutions so that he can be cared for,” Nilsson told TT.

Source: Radio Sweden

Fidel Castro, Cuba’s former president and leader of the Communist revolution, has died aged 90, state TV has announced.

It provided no further details.

Fidel Castro ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost half a century before handing over the powers to his brother Raul in 2008.

His supporters praised him as a man who had given Cuba back to the people. But his opponents accused him of brutally suppressing opposition.

Obituary: Fidel Castro

In April, Fidel Castro gave a rare speech on the final day of the country’s Communist Party congress.

He acknowledged his advanced age but said Cuban communist concepts were still valid and the Cuban people “will be victorious”.

“I’ll soon be 90,” the former president said, adding that this was “something I’d never imagined”.

“Soon I’ll be like all the others, “to all our turn must come,” Fidel Castro said.

Fidel Castro’s key dates

1926: Born in the south-eastern Oriente Province of Cuba

1953: Imprisoned after leading an unsuccessful rising against Batista’s regime

1955: Released from prison under an amnesty deal

1956: With Che Guevara, begins a guerrilla war against the government

1959: Defeats Batista, sworn in as prime minister of Cuba

1960: Fights off CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion by Cuban exiles

1962: Sparks Cuban missile crisis by agreeing that USSR can deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba

1976: Elected president by Cuba’s National Assembly

1992: Reaches an agreement with US over Cuban refugees

2008: Stands down as president of Cuba due to health issues

Source: BBC History

Esat Radio Sat 26 Nov 2016

During the fight, Patriotic Ginbot 7 Movement for Unity and Democracy ranking official, commander Mesafent Tegabu nicknamed Gebrye refused to surrender and killed himself on the battlefield. When he was asked to surrender, commander Tegabu claimed that he is the son of King Tewodros and he would rather kill himself instead of giving himself up to the fascist regime. After fierce fight with heavily armed with Tanks and machine guns government troops, commander Tegabu refused to give himself up and shot and killed himself.He was living in Europe in Luxembourg with comfort life with his family and joined the struggle to emancipate Ethiopians from fascist regime that denies basic human right. Majority Ethiopians sent condolences to his family.In other development, fighting is going on between Patriotic Ginbot 7 and Ethiopian regime in different locations.

Voice Of Meret Ethio Israel

By Chombe Teshome
 
One should not need to sink into Falmanaa Sabaa’s psychobabble to surmise the tribal intellectual swamp the author of the piece grows out of. His piece “Is Oromo Fiduciary to Habesha and often demanded to confess its political strategy?” is a bigoted spew. It isn’t enlightenment Dr. Falmanaa has labored to imprint on us, but stereotype, scapegoat, and distilled ethnic hate toward other Ethiopians.  It would have been mind boggling, in this age and time, to find such a thoroughly hateful article written by a white nationalist, but to find a black bigoted Oromo, coming to the forefront should stop us in our tracks and seize our undivided collective attention.   Throughout the article, the author employs discriminatory categorizations to target Ethiopians who happen to disagree with his narrow nationalistic view of Ethiopia. The only Ethiopians spared from Dr.Falmanaa’s hateful harangue are those nationalists who he thought might be willing to put aside their Ethiopian fedora at his will. All other unabashed Ethiopians, regardless of their origin of nationality, have been treated as the enemy of Oromo.

Dr Falmanaa  has reserved his special venom for Ethiopians he called “hybrid PanEthiopians” and for the Oromo Ethiopians who stood for an inclusive united and democratic Ethiopia. The latter, according to Falmanaa, are not independent thinkers but the victims of the former manipulative nature. Through Dr. Falmanaa’s bigoted lens these pan Ethiopian are schemers who possess the superhuman ability to manipulate, con, and pull the proverbial wool over unsuspected Oromo eyes; thus, he warns, they must be considered the mortal enemies to the birth of Oromo Nation. Everything they do or undo, miraculously, he was able to trace and find  it in their innate hybrid nature. The more one examines Falmanaa’s article, these hybrid Pan Ethiopians seems to exhibit all the hallmarks of the Nazi characterization of Jews: selfish, divisive,  and manipulative  of natives. At the end of his article, Dr Sabba gives a nod and wink as to how to deal with these PanEthiopians.

  Dr Falmanaa has expounded further that although the forefathers of these so-called hybrids were servants of Amharas, these particular PanEthiopians are innately inclined to be radically more Pan Ethiopian than even Amharas themselves.  Like the house slaves of the Antebellum America south who had been entrusted by white slave masters, these PanEthiopians are suspected of supporting and protecting their Amhara masters. Luckily for Dr Falmanaa these phantom Amhara masters simply don’t exist except in the figment of the good Dr’s imagination. His pseudo-psychoanalysis never seems to relent in attacking these “hybrid-Ethiopians “that he considers a threat. He mercilessly stripped them of all heroes they considered to have had and calls them cowards. Even the positive sacrifices they made to improve the lives of landless Ethiopians is suspect in Dr. Falmanaa eyes because the slogan they marched under was “land to the tillers” as opposed to his preferred slogan “land to natives”. Mind you, in either case the beneficiaries of the reforms were one and the same people of Ethiopia who were not owners of the land they labored. The sacrifice Pan Ethiopians made to make the peasant the owner of their own land was not good enough for him to give them credit for.

The reason the kind of Tsegay Arrarsa, Falmanaa Sabaa (Phd) (probably the pen name for the former) and Leben Wako came out lashing because, notwithstanding their radical separatist propaganda, Oromos and other Ethiopian nationalities across the land have come together to form new partnerships, build bridges and support each other in their struggle for a democratic and just Ethiopia. This organic brotherhood and sisterhood relationship didn’t bode well for narrow minded nationalists who have been clamoring to aggrandize themselves as a leader of the Oromo. While the artificial wall that has been built by TPLF started crumbling, these hate monger secessionists felt that their cherished ideal construct of a separate Oromia had been unceremoniously neutered. 

Contrary to the wish of these radical separatist, many self-assertive leaders of the Oromo-Ethiopians have come to occupy the political stage bringing their vision of a United and just Ethiopia. After a lifelong struggle for Oromo people, these leaders have come to the realization, that no single nation will be free while other Ethiopians are under the yoke of oppression. These bold, visionary leaders have galvanized the hope that the half century long suffering of Ethiopian people finally can be curtailed. This unity of purpose among Ethiopians has sent shivers down the radical secessionist’ spine. This reality has completely unhinged Falmanna Sabaa which prompted him to dictate to his ilk how to deal with these Oromo-Ethiopians who happen not to share his vision “take your torch, find them out and discharge them away.” This terroristic threat didn’t come from a terrorist organization per se, but from a so-called PhD holder hiding behind a computer.

To counter the amalgamation of purpose among Ethiopian intellectuals of different hues, these radical secessionists have to come up with a categorization of Ethiopians by blood and by region. Just as the dead South African Apartheid system had categorized races by their cooperation in maintaining the racist system, Falmanna Sabba categorizes Pan-Ethiopians by their amenability to the aspirations of the Oromo secessionist agenda.  According to this narrow Oromo nationalist, Amharas in the north part of Ethiopia can be cajoled into partnership as long as they accept without question, to relegate Ethiopian nationalism to the back burner. Obviously, for Falamann Sabaa cooperation is a one way street. He will get what he wants, and the remaining Ethiopians will help him lift up the fulcrum and cheerfully dismantle Ethiopia.

The heartfelt gratitude by Falamann Sabba to Leben wako of London was a desperate attempt to hang on to his pipe dream. Falamanna Sabba’s shameful cockiness and wishful thinking are also on full display when he expresses his wish that at some point TPLF to come to its senses and wrap, pack and deliver Oromia on a silver platter to separatist Oromos. At the risk of being called rude Dr Falamnn  needs to face the cold truth; Ethiopia is built and defended by all Ethiopians. Even the wackiest TPLFties are not insane enough to abandon Ethiopia and shut the door behind themselves. The earlier this truth dawns on Dr Falamann the better.

The handful of radical Oromo separatist coming out and advocating openly for the dismemberment of Ethiopia, and talk of deAmahrizaton of Ethiopia is the least of Ethiopians worry. Actually, it is a blessing in disguise. Before, we didn’t have the foggiest Idea how deadly these radical Oromo separatist agenda had been, but now we do. We have to listen to them carefully, and ask those who habitually doublespeak to make a clear statement about their intentions.  Most PanEthiopians ask for clarification because individuals that crowd the airwaves make statements that are contradictory in nature. They cannot be for and against at the same time. When these contradictions are brought up for them to explain, they feign anger as to how we can pose this kind of question? These learned men need to bring themselves out of cognitive dissonance they comfortably reside. A statement I am both for separate Oromia and Ethiopian unity is a sophistry of unparalleled kind.

No one has attempted to change the radical Oroms stand on Ethiopia or demanded they submit to Ethiopian nationalism. However, what they have been asked time and time again was that to stop vacillating between the two and make their stand on Ethiopia unity clear.   Since few of these radicals dominate a handful stations and websites, that must have given them delusions of grandeur that they are on the cusp of determining the fate of more than 100000000 Ethiopians. It wouldn’t be long before they find out the futility of their pomposity. Either with them or without them Ethiopians from all nationalities and all walk of life will forge ahead to establish a democratic and just Ethiopia.

 
Esat Radio Sun 27 Nov 2016

by Tedla Woldeyohannes, Ph.D.*
 
For keen observers of the current Ethiopian politics, especially the writings, media interviews, and social media comments and posts by Oromo elites and activists, one topic has kept receiving a steady focus more than others: The role of Emperor Menelik II in the formation of the modern Ethiopian State and how largely negative and bad the emperor’s legacy is, especially for the Oromo people. In this piece, I sketch some major episodes in the Oromo Protest during the last one year to highlight the point that an attack on Menelik II and his legacy is not an isolated incident in the Oromo movement according to the Oromo elites; it is rather an integral part of it. One of my goals in this piece is to show why an attack on Menelik II is an integral part of the whole Oromo project according to the Oromo elites and activists. I submit that the dispute, claims and contentions about the meaning and significance of the Battle of Adwa[1], issues involving Addis Ababa from the Oromo elites and activists are also extensions or corollaries of the attack on Menelik II and his legacy. Also, the debate on whether there is an Ethiopian national identity, Ethiopiawinet, is an extension of the attack on Menelik II and his legacy. For the preceding reasons, I take it that to understand the significance of the attack on Menelik II is essential to a proper understanding of the project of the Oromo movement including a need to produce the Oromo Freedom Charter.

What Has Happened to the Immediate Causes for the Oromo Protest?

A year or so ago, the Oromo Protest began with the legitimate demands of the Oromos who suffered injustice under the current Ethiopian government. The injustice the Oromos have suffered under the current regime are part and parcel of the injustice the Ethiopian people have suffered under the regime in power for the last 25 years. We all know that the Oromo people in Oromia regional state have been mercilessly subjected to all sorts of mistreatment because they demanded the government to stop the ever-expanding land grab, to stop human rights violations, to allow peaceful protest to express their grievances,   to stop marginalizing the Oromos from the political space in Ethiopia, etc. However, in light of what has recently become the frequent topics of debate by the Oromo elites and activists, it looks like we are almost at a point when we need a reminder what triggered or started the Oromo Protest a year ago. The last several months the issues raised as part of the Oromo Protest are no longer what had triggered the Oromo Protest a year or so ago. The truth is that the Oromos who were initially protesting against the Master Plan, or the land grab in the Oromia Region, were not protesting against Menelik II and his legacy at that point, or even until now. If the regime in power did not engage in land grab and other unjust treatments of the Oromos, like the rest of Ethiopians, would the Oromo Protest have started as a protest against the bad legacy of Menelik II as we have been hearing lately? From the perspective of the protesters on the ground, based on the available evidence, the answer to this question is a resounding “no.” Imagine starting a protest against Menelik II’s legacy calling it as such and asking the regime in power to meet the demand. That would be a bewildering demand for the government. An important and inevitable question now is this: Why did those Oromos who have paid ultimate prices with their lives and those who have suffered life-altering injuries and imprisoned and tortured have paid all these prices? There is a need for a clear answer to the loved ones for the deceased and to those who will continue to be part of the Oromo Protest. The Oromo elites need to offer a clear answer without mixing the reason why the Oromos on the ground were protesting and their frequent and increasingly growing project of revisiting and reinterpreting Ethiopian history by way of attacking the legacy of Menelik II.

It is one of the purposes of this piece to seek a clear answer to the question: What is the ultimate goal of the Oromo Protest? Now we all know that the Oromo Protest has rapidly evolved into what it is now: a deconstruction of Ethiopian history, Ethiopian national identity, calling into question the meaning and significance of the Battle of Adwa.[2] Now it is absolutely crucial to understand the nature and the scope of the Oromo Protest or movement at this current stage. The answer the Oromo elites are presenting has frequently and increasingly comes in the form of engaging the issue of state formation in Ethiopia and with a claim that the Oromo nation has been colonized by the Abyssinia or the Ethiopian empire.

Menelik II: The Colonizer?

According to some Oromo elites, the answer to the question whether Menelik II was a colonizer is a resounding, “yes.”[3] In his response to my article on the Oromo National Charter[4], Prof. Ezekiel Gabissa writes, “The question of internal colonialism has been a subject of academic debates since the mid-1980s. In Ethiopian studies, the pertinent themes were outlined and discussed in several essays in The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia edited Donald Donham first published in 1986. The eminent sociologist Donald Levine describes the two sides as the “colonialist narrative” and the “nationalist narrative.”  These means the debate has ended in interpretive disagreement.  A generation of students in Oromia and other regions have [sic] up grown up learning the “colonialist narrative” version over the objections of the advocates of the “nationalist narrative.” This is a settled issue to need any explanation.”[5] From Prof. Ezekiel’s point of view, the debate whether the Oromos were colonized does not need further explanation. I disagree. We are not dealing with a mathematical or logical proof to suggest that historical disputes can be settled without a need for further explanation. At any rate, it is not the purpose of this article to engage in the debate whether Menelik II was a colonizer and whether the present regional state, Oromia, was once an independent nation which came under a colonial empire led by Menelik II.

In my view, to call the modern state formation in Ethiopia a case of colonialism seems to normalize and trivialize the European colonialism of Africa. This does not mean that one has to deny any injustice committed against any ethnic group in the present day Ethiopia in the process of state formation of modern Ethiopia. How we address the issue of injustice that took place under the modern state formation in Ethiopia need not be framed as an issue of colonialism. If it is framed as such, then the European colonialism of Africa and the state formation in Ethiopia would be considered the same phenomenon. Plus, even more surprisingly all non-democratic state formations in the history of the world would count as cases of colonialism, but that is too broad for a notion of “colonialism” to be of use to address issues that are rooted in the historical context of Ethiopia.  Having said this, I submit that the Oromo elites see a need to portray the modern state formation in Ethiopia as a case of internal colonialism because without this view a case to reclaim an independent nation, i.e., Oromia as a sovereign state, can hardly be realized. In other words, the colonial thesis in the modern state formation of Ethiopia is a necessary thesis for the Oromo elites. If a nation is colonized, the logical thing to do is to seek its independence as this has been the case for African countries. On what basis would the Oromo elites argue that they are not seeking an independent Oromia as a sovereign nation if they insist that Oromia has been colonized be the Abyssinian/Ethiopian Empire? The claim of colonialism suggests that what the Oromo elites are seeking is an independent Oromia despite the apparent denial by some of the Oromo elites.  Hence, for Oromo elites, Menelik II must be portrayed as a colonizer for one clear purpose: to seek an independent, sovereign nation, Oromia. Absent the colonial thesis, to seek an independent Oromia as a sovereign nation would be moot. Conversely, insist on a colonial thesis so that seeking an establishment or a rebirth of the Oromo nationhood becomes a legitimate issue; “legitimate, at least in the eyes of the Oromo elites. In my view, the Oromo elites need to come out and make their intentions clear to the Oromos who have been dying on the ground and to the rest of the Ethiopian people if seeking an establishment of Oromia as an independent nation is not their ultimate goal given their commitment of the colonial thesis. They also need to say why they need a colonial thesis if they are just seeking a just and peaceful and  democratic Ethiopian in which the Oromos will be a part of the rest of Ethiopians building Ethiopia going forward, definitely without the regime in power continuing to rule and ruin Ethiopia.

Independent, Sovereign Oromia

Why should anyone argue for the preceding view, i.e., Oromo elites are working to regain the independence of Oromia as a sovereign nation? Here are a few more reasons:

First, think for a moment how and why the recent “Oromos-only* conventions have been organized and what the focus of the Conventions in London and Atlanta was. Why Oromos-only? This question has a straightforward answer, though unconvincing: Because these conventions were designed to deliberate and discuss the issues that affect the Oromo people in Oromia. This straightforward answer is premised on the idea that the issues that affect the Oromos in Ethiopia are somehow unique and hence the need to address them by the Oromos-only first and foremost. But this premise is false. The issues that affect the Oromo people in the current Ethiopia are widely shared with the people of Ethiopia under the same authoritarian government. The Ethiopian authoritarian government jails, kills, harasses people from any ethnic group as long as their dissent threatens the safety of the regime in power. No one needs to dispute the fact that the Oromos and the Amharas are mistreated by the regime with greater frequency because the regime feels threatened   due to historical relations with the Amharas and the regime’s conception of the OLF as a threat to disintegrate the country. Returning to our point, for the Oromo elites and activists to exclusively focus on issues that affect the Oromos and everyone else in Ethiopia only by the Oromos alone is more plausibly in line with the claim I made above. That is, the desire of the Oromo elites is to exclusively organize the Oromos to address the issues that affect the Oromos, despite the fact that the issues that affect the Oromos are shared with millions of other Ethiopians. In my view, the best available explanation for this strategic move by the Oromo elites is this: Once the Oromo movement arrives at a stage when it appears feasible to seek independence for Oromia, all the things the Oromo elites have been doing in the meantime will be presented as evidence that the Oromos have arrived there by the efforts of the Oromos alone and no other group can have a say on the fate of Oromia. If this is not the best available explanation, how would the Oromo elites explain what they have been doing remains to be seen.

Second, there has been a discussion recently on whether there is a shared national identity for Ethiopians which some Oromo elites deny that there is such a shared national identity.  It is not the purpose of this article to engage in the debate whether there is a shared national identity for Ethiopians, which is a worthwhile topic that deserves a serious engagement elsewhere. My present interest is to make the following point: According to some Oromo elites, the Oromo identity that predates Menelik’s colonial conquest was the true Oromo identity and hence it needs to be restored, or regained, or reaffirmed for Oromos to be truly Oromos. In order to do that the Oromo identity must be distinguished from an imposed Ethiopian identity on the Oromos by the Abyssinian Empire. One can easily see that an attack on Menelik’s legacy crucially includes an attack on Ethiopian identity since an imposed Ethiopian identity on the Oromos is a direct consequence of Menelink’s colonialism, according to this reasoning. Hence, an Oromo identity without an imposed Ethiopian identity will reemerge as an Oromo identity only in an independent Oromia. This is a clear motivation why some Oromo elites engage in the debate on Ethiopian identity only to deny it. If this is not the reason why the Oromo elites want to deny Ethiopian identity as a shared national identity, what else motivates such a debate about Ethiopian identity? If all other ethnic groups and nationalities incorporated in the modern Ethiopia by Menelik’s southern expansion were to follow suit and deny a shared Ethiopian identity that would bring about a disintegration in an Ethiopian national identity, which amounts to a disintegration of Ethiopia as we know it. But is there a rationale to follow this reasoning following the Oromo elites lead? Apparently, the Oromo elites would answer this question in the affirmative since it would support their goal, the independence of Oromia that is free from a shared national identity with the rest of other nationalities in the present day Ethiopia. Think for a moment, once again, all the exclusions of other ethnic groups in most of the Oromo issues as the elite Oromos and activists have been doing. This almost complete disregard to other ethnic groups in Ethiopia is perfectly consistent with the claim I have been making so far that the desire for the Oromo elites is the independence of Oromia first and foremost without explicitly saying so despite the evidence that supports such a conclusion. I leave to the readers to develop the case of Addis Ababa and how some Oromo elites frame the issues involving Addis Ababa. I submit that it is another extension of an attack on the legacy of Menelik II.

Conclusion

Given the evidence that is available for any keen observer of current Ethiopian politics, I have argued that the best available explanation that unifies the Oromo movement according to the Oromo elites and activists is ultimately seeking the independence of Oromia as a sovereign nation. Short of this goal, it is deeply implausible to interpret all the evidence regarding the activities of the Oromo elites with another goal as the ultimate goal for the Oromo movement. Note that I did not claim that the Oromo people on the ground who have been killed, jailed and tortured have as their goal an independent Oromia as a sovereign state. Some might have such a desire or aspiration, but the evidence does not suggest that is why they have been protesting for a year or so. We all know what the demands were and the injustice the Oromos have been protesting against for which they have paid prices including the lives of many, in hundreds, if not in thousands just in one year alone. In my view, consistent with the argument above, the Oromo elites are working to put together a coherent idea that would serve as the cause worth dying for for the Oromo people, but without the Oromo people expressing that the ultimate goal they want to achieve is an independent, sovereign Oromia. If my claims so far are correct, which I think are correct given the evidence, the Oromo elites and activists need to make clear the ultimate goal of the Oromo movement so that people who face the brutal government need to have a clear goal for which they are paying a price including their lives. One of the chief motivations for my decision to write this piece is observing and reflecting on  an apparent mismatch between the actual reasons the Oromos on the ground have been paying prices including their lives, and what the Oromo elites and activists offer as the main goal of the Oromo movement in the last one year. If the Oromo elites speak for the actual Oromo people on the ground, it is a responsible thing to be on the same page with the people on the ground at least on being clear why the people on the ground are paying prices for.

Finally, it must be noted that I did not claim that the Oromo elites and activists are totally detached from the movement of the Oromo people on the ground. Absolutely not!  My main claim is that as opinion makers and shapers, the Oromo elites have as an ultimate goal for the Oromo movement the independence of Oromia as a sovereign nation without explicitly saying so for a political backlash such a view would bring about. This claim is based on the evidence presented above. It is for the Oromo elites to show that either they accept the claim I have argued for or they reject it or they show another more plausible explanation of the evidence on which my argument is based. If they accept it, that is an important clarification for the Oromo people as a whole and for the other peoples of Ethiopia. If they reject my claim, then it is also important for them to show where the mistake is. That would also add clarity to the ultimate goal of the Oromo movement. Now the most important question is: What is the official, ultimate goal of the Oromo movement according to the Oromo elites, if it is different from what I argued for above, i.e. seeking an establishment of Oromia as an independent, sovereign nation?

*Tedla Woldeyohannes teaches philosophy at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and he can be reached at twoldeyo@slu.edu

[1] For my response to a claim that  Menelik claimed that he was a Caucasian and the consequent trivializing of the significance of Adwa see, http://ecadforum.com/2016/05/26/ethiopia-dr-tsegaye-ararssas-caucasian-menelik/

[2] For an article that calls into question the role of Adwa in modern Ethiopian history see, Hassen Hussein and Mohammed Ademo, http://wpj.dukejournals.org/content/33/3/22.full.pdf+html

[3] See Asefa Jalata and Hardwood Schaffer: http://beekanguluma.org/index.php/2016/07/24/the-oromo-nation-toward-mental-liberation-and-empowerment-asafa-jalata-and-harwood-schaffer-paper-published-in-the-journal-of-oromo-studies-2016/

[4] http://www.ethiomedia.com/1016notes/7667.html

[5] See here, http://www.ethiomedia.com/1000codes/7755.html