July 29, 2013
Prof. Feqadu Lamessa for Salem-News.com
(A guide for foreign journalists on Oromos and Ethiopian history)
(ADAMA, Ethiopia) – Recently, the Qatar-based media al Jazeera has published
several articles concerning the Oromo people of Ethiopia. It is the
first international media outlet to extensively report on our people and
it should be praised for bringing our cause to the world stage.
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.
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