Prof. Feqadu Lamessa for Salem-News.com
(a guide for foreign journalists on Oromos and Ethiopian history)
Courtesy: ayyaantuu.com
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(ADAMA, Ethiopia) - Recently, the Qatar-based media al
Jazeera has published several articles concerning the Oromo people of
Ethiopia. (http://www.
One of the benefits of this exposure is it forces
Ethiopian authorities to address human rights abuses in the country and
to let them know that the world is watching. Oromos and other Ethiopians
have been struggling for equal rights and democracy for decades. While
it is important to report about Oromo people' background and historical
perspectives, it is however vital that we report accurate information.
Instead of benefiting us, reporting inaccurate or biased information can
actually harm our struggle for democracy. Instead of creating national
consensus and peace, it can instigate bitterness and anger.
One of the reasons al Jazeera reported inaccurate
information about Oromo history is because it depended on one-sided
sources, especially from members or supporters of Oromo groups outside
of Ethiopia (diaspora OLF, OFDM etc). But nobody can blame al Jazeera
media because most people inside Ethiopia would be too scared to speak
or contribute. The only option al Jazeera or any foreign media has is
to use diaspora/refugee/external sources outside Ethiopia. This is a
dilemma all foreign media outlets face while reporting about third-world
countries like Ethiopia.
For educational purposes, some corrections are provided
below to fix inaccuracies reported on al Jazeera media regarding Oromo
history and our struggle for democracy. The corrections below are
supported by non-political scholars, but they might be rejected by
biased politicians (both from ruling party and from opposition party)
for the obvious reasons. However, they are based on historical
textbooks, European authors and scholarly accounts.
Fiction #1:
"Between 1868 and 1900, half of all Oromo were killed, around 5 million people"
Fact #1:
This
is one of the most repeated inaccuracies, usually told by Secessionist
Oromos, radical ethno-nationalist politicians outside the country or
pro-OLF history revisionist websites like gadaa.com
et al. However, the undisputed fact is that even the total Ethiopian
population (the sum of dozens of ethnic groups) was much less than 5
million in the late 1800s, let alone one ethnic group being 10 million.
So claiming that 5 million ethnic Oromos were killed by Emperor
Menelik's forces does not add up. The truth is several thousand Oromos
were in fact killed during battles of that era. It was not a "genocide"
as some politicians claim but it was a massacre of the ill equipped
southern forces defeated by the Shewan military of Emperor Menelik which
had more European weapons. Throughout those decades, the truth is more
Oromos were killed by other Oromos than by non-Oromos because competing
Oromo Clans often traded for weapons to have an upper hand against their
local competitors, who were often their fellow Oromo and Sidama
neighbors. And it was not the first lop sided victory of that era in
Africa because various communities from all corners of Ethiopia had
attacked one another during the "resource battles" and whichever group
had more modern weapons had the upper hand. To summarize, Professor
Mengistu Paulos of Jimma University said it best when describing right-wing Oromo liberation philosophy:--
"Most
fictional accounts of 'Oromo history' blindly accepted as facts by some
misled people are manufactured by former politicians turned
Pseudo-historians like OLF writer Asafa Jalata, who is renowned for
abuse of paraphrasing, often with out-of-context citations. For example,
while quoting the 19th century Russian Alexander Bulatovich (who
provided an 'educated guess' of annihilation of almost half Ethiopian
population by disease, famine and war, including internal conflict
between Oromo clans and with Abyssinians), the OLF-writer Asafa Jalata
infamously claimed half Oromo population was killed by 'evil'
Amharas. This was purposely done by Mr. Jalata to create a foundation
for ethnic hatred between Oromos and Amharas. Ironically, even Mr.
Bulatovich himself never had the capacity nor the legitimacy to do a
reliable census, as he spent just a couple of months walking around
Oromia and hunting elephants in 1890s."
Fiction #2:
"…. largely Muslim Oromo people"
Fact #2:
This
is a phrase seen in some media outlets but not most. Oromo people have
never been a predominantly muslim people. In fact, both Christianity and
Islam is not our ancestral religion because we have practiced an
indigenous traditional religion for centuries before. Gradually, Islam
and Christianity were both adopted (during Oromo migrations) by us and
imposed (during conquest of our lands by Abyssinian/Christians &
Somalis/Islam) on us thru out history. Even today, both the two major
religions have equal representation among Oromos. The latest official
2007 census showed that around 48% of Oromos practice Christianity (Both
Orthodox & Protestant) while around 47% of Oromos practice Islam.
Yet, word on the ground is that the Islam population might soon surpass
Christianity among Oromos in the future because Orthodox Christianity is
decreasing inside Oromia.
Fiction #3
"Abyssinians labelled Oromos the derogatory word 'Galla'"
Fact #3:
For
many decades, this false statement has been used by Oromo separatists
to create emotional resentment among Oromos against Semitic Abyssinians
(Amharas, Tigrayans and Gurages). The fact is the derogatory word
"Galla" was first used by Arab and muslim Somalis to describe Oromos as
"gal" meaning "outsiders" and "Pagans." Muslims used this label during
Oromo migration because Oromo people had their own religion which the
Muslims believed was paganism. Nonetheless, this derogatory word was
gradually adopted and used by other Ethiopians.
Fiction #4:
"Oromos were colonized by Emperor Menelik"
Fact: #4
Another
popular claim made by secessionist Oromo politicians (and usually
repeated by foreign journalists) is the fiction that Oromo people (as a
whole ethnic group) were colonized by another ethnic group. Usually, the
slogan goes "Abyssinians colonized Oromos" etc. This claim is popular
among the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) organization and consequently
among some Diaspora Oromo nationalists living in America and
Europe. While a different version or a re-arrangement of the wording
might still be true…in general, the Oromo nation as a whole was never
colonized by another Ethiopian ethnic group. To start with, even a
united one Oromo nation did not exist at those times. All non-political
historical textbooks show the existence of battles between multi-ethnic
BUT monolingual communities for many centuries through out Ethiopia.
Even in northern Ethiopia (traditional "Abyssinia") Oromos have migrated
and mixed so much with Tigrayans, Amharas, Afars etc for centuries that
the "Abyssinia" state itself was never a one-ethnic state. In fact,
even around the 1700s, Rayya Oromos and Yejju Wallo Oromos conquered and
dominated a portion of Amharas and Tigrayans; and thus made Afan Oromo
the official language of Abyssinia for that brief period. Meaning: clans
and ethnic groups have mixed up in Ethiopia for over a millennium but
the dominant ethnic group always imposed its language since it was
convenient. This linguistic domination however was not always as
exploitive and as vilified as it is today; because many of the ethnic
groups living along trade centers and trade routes often spoke the
languages of other ethnic groups already, because there was financial or
commercial incentive to do so. This is the background of the region.
Therefore, when it comes to the Emperor Menelik era, all historians have
argued that it is more factual to say a predominantly Amharic language
speaking community gradually conquered a predominantly Afan Oromo
language speaking community in the 1800s. So this does not mean an Oromo
ethnic group was conquered by an Amhara ethnic group. In fact, just
like Amharas of the north were divided,Oromos were also divided and in
conflict among themselves. The obvious evidence for this comes from the
fact that the Amhara Emperor Menelik was imprisoned by other Amhara
regional kings when he was younger. And when he was freed, Oromo clans
were also in fierce battles amongst each other, so much so that the
Tullama Oromo, Limmu and Macha Oromos created an alliance with the
Shewan Amharas of Menelik, leading to the infamous battles of 1880s that
led to this said alliance easily crushing the non-allied Oromos in
various bloody wars. In short, Oromos as a one whole were never
colonized by exclusively non-Oromos. In fact, the original founders of
the OLF organization themselves never believed it so they did not
emphasize the word "colonization" in the beginning. But in the
mid-1970s, OLF leaders needed to mobilize Oromos against Emperor Haile
Selassie (who was half Oromo himself) and to justify the call for
"Oromia independence" from "colonial Ethiopia." Therefore OLF had to
create a bad cop-good cop scenario for their convenience and simplified
history for their people to create national resentment. This helped OLF
to portray Oromos as suddenly being colonized by this foreign ethnic
group (Amhara) that we (Oromos) have never came in contact with
before. This is common tactic used by national liberation movements
around the world. The truth that most Ethiopians know is that Shewa
based Oromos and Amharas (ethnically mixed Ethiopians) were the main
creators of modern Ethiopia. In his book "Who are the Shoans," the historian and anthropologist, Dr. Gerry Salole once summarized that: "In
terms of descent, the group that became politically dominant in Shewa
(and subsequently in Ethiopia) was a mixture of Amhara and Oromo."
In
Conclusion, the above are 4 of the main issues that create confusion
for foreign journalists who report on Oromo people and Oromo politics in
Ethiopia. While it is vital that al Jazeera and other media outlets
cover the current suffering of Oromos and other Ethiopians, it is
necessary to report responsibly. Otherwise, creating confusion and
resentment between the younger Ethiopian population causes more problems
than solutions. In reality, not just Oromos, but all Ethiopians have
suffered under several governments and the only way they can achieve
freedom and lasting democracy is when united, not when divided by tribes
or not when being polarized by historical lies presented as truth. It
is important that foreign media outlets make corrections or report
accurate information to avoid inflammatory statements that are
destructive and counter productive against Oromos and all Ethiopian
people' ongoing struggle for democracy, development and justice.
Feqadu Lamessa is a former Adama University professor and writer
