Military Force terrorizing peacefull oromo protesters in Borena Zone, O...

THE OROMO NATION: TOWARD MENTAL LIBERATION AND EMPOWERMENT

In the second decade of the 21st Century, the Oromo people face a monumental national crisis that requires their urgent recognition and resolution. The Tigrayan-led Ethiopian government has clearly recognized the potential of the Oromo nation and is determined to destroy and/or suppress it by engaging in state terrorism and genocidal massacres, conducting mass arrests, violating human rights, and eliminating opposition leaders and their potential successors while replacing them with Afaan Oromo speaking nafxanyas (colonial settlers) and Oromo collaborators. The current regime continues to expropriate Oromo economic resources—including land—and transfer them to Tigrayans and their regional and global capitalist supporters. This regime has also begun the practice of enslaving and selling young Oromo girls and girls of other nationalities to Arab countries that have no respect for human dignity and rights. All these have occurred in the era of globalization or transnational capitalism, as global, regional, and local forces have been integrated through the intensification of globalizing processes known as deepening and broadening. As a result, with the financial, military, diplomatic, and intelligence support of global and regional powers, the Tigrayan-led Ethiopian regime has been focused on dismantling and destroying the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)—the hallmark, symbol, pride, and hope of the Oromo nation—and other independent Oromo civic and political organizations. The attack on independent Oromo political and civic organizations and institutions was intensified before the Oromo national movement managed to achieve maturity. The consolidation of the Oromo national leadership and the maturation of Oromummaa (Oromo nationalism) are still incomplete. As such, the movement’s ability to defend itself from internal and external enemies has been significantly compromised. These challenges confronted the Oromo national struggle before the Oromo leadership was able to develop the ideological coherence and organizational capacity to catapult the Oromo national movement to an advanced stage. The crisis of the Oromo national leadership has emerged from both external and internal sources and Oromo nationalists urgently need to address both in order to find an appropriate solution. The impacts of external forces (e.g. Amhara-Tigray colonial structures and global capitalism) have been adequately addressed in books and scholarly articles. We now need to focus on the internal crises facing the movement’s leadership. In our attempt to examine this internal dilemma, we address four major interrelated issues. First, we provide historical and cultural background to contextualize the problem in question. Second, we explore how Ethiopian colonialism has affected the process of the formation of Oromo elites and leaders. Third, we identify and examine the connections between liberation knowledge, the inferiority complex, and mental liberation in the development of a revolutionary consciousness. Fourth, we share some ideas on how to promote the development of mental liberation as a means of constructing a revolutionary consciousness. In addition, we suggest ways to cultivate Oromummaa (culture, identity, and nationalism) so that a united Oromo national leadership may be forged—from the bottom up—around a common denominator, thus ensuring the survival and liberation of the Oromo nation and other captive nations from the yoke of Ethiopian colonialism and global imperialism. ¬ Conquest and colonial subjugation within the Ethiopian Empire Before Abyssinia/Ethiopia colonized the Oromo and other nations in the Horn of Africa with the help of European powers in the late 19th century, the Oromo presided over a form of republican government known as the gadaa/siqqee system. From the 15th until the mid-17th century, the gadaa/siqqee government was organized on three levels: national, regional, and local. According to Lemmu Baissa, the Oromo government “was led by an elected luba council formed from representatives of the major Oromo moieties…under the presidency of the abba gadaa and his two deputies…. The national leadership was responsible for such important matters as legislation and enforcement of general laws, handling issues of war and peace and coordinating the nation’s defense, management of intra-Oromo clan conflicts and dealing with non-Oromo peoples.” However, due to the geographical expansion of the Oromo territory and an increasing population, the central gadaa/siqqee government declined beginning in the mid-17th century and autonomous regional and local republics took its place. These regional and local governments formed pan-Oromo confederations to defend themselves from external enemies. The rule of law and social equality were the guiding principles of the gadaa/siqqee system. Although we have limited knowledge of Oromo history before the sixteenth century, it is reasonable to think that these people did not invent the gadaa/siqqee system while they were establishing Biyyaa Oromoo (what we now call Oromia). Historical studies suggest that during the 16th and 17th centuries, while various peoples were fighting over economic resources in the Horn of Africa, the Oromo were effectively organized under the national gadaa government for both offensive and defensive wars. According to Virginia Luling, “from the mid-16th to the mid-19th century the [Oromo] were dominant on their own territories; no people of other cultures were in a position to exercise compulsion over them.” The gadaa/siqqee government organized and ordered society around political, economic, social, cultural, and religious institutions. Bonnie Holcomb notes that the gadaa system “organized the Oromo people in an all-encompassing democratic republic even before the few European pilgrims arrived from England on the shores of North America and only later built a democracy.” This system exhibits the principles of checks and balances (through periodic succession of leaders every eight years), division of power (among executive, legislative, and judicial branches), balanced opposition (among five parties), and power sharing between higher and lower administrative organs to prevent power from falling into the hands of despots. Other principles of the system included balanced representation of all clans, lineages, regions and confederacies; the accountability of leaders; the settlement of disputes through reconciliation; and respect for basic rights and liberties. There were five miseensas (parties) in gadaa; these parties have different names in different parts of Oromia. All gadaa officials were elected for eight years by universal adult male suffrage. Colonialism and the Underdevelopment of Oromo Leadership The Ethiopian colonial state destroyed the leaders of the conquered nations in the Horn of Africa who fought against Abyssinian/Ethiopian colonialism, co-opting those leaders who would collaborate with the system as intermediaries. Abyssinian access to European guns, cannons, technology, diplomacy, and administrative skills were utilized in colonizing these various nations, the largest of which was the Oromo. This paper focuses on the experience of the Oromo as a case study of the ways the Abyssinian/Ethiopian rulers have systematically destroyed the leadership capacity of the conquered peoples. The Abyssinians systematically engaged in massacring and repressing Oromos while reorganizing Oromo society in order to control and exploit the Oromo people and their resources. Since the colonization of the Oromo people (as we shall see below), one of the goals of the Ethiopian state has been the destruction and underdevelopment of the Oromo people and their leadership; the Amhara-Tigray state has used both violent and institutional mechanisms to ensure that the Oromo people remain leaderless while it continues to repress and exploit them. To ensure its colonial domination, the Ethiopian state destroyed and/or suppressed Oromo institutions (e.g. the aforementioned gadaa/siqqee system, as well as an indigenous Oromo religion known as Waaqeefata) while glorifying, establishing, and expanding the Amhara-Tigray government and Orthodox Christianity. The state also sought to suppress Oromo history, culture, and language while promoting that of the Abyssinians. Ethiopian settler colonialism was firmly established in Oromia through the imposition of five institutional arrangements in order to tightly control Oromo society and intensify its exploitation: (1) garrison cities and towns, (2) slavery, (3) the colonial landholding system, (4) the nafxanya-gabbar system (semi-slavery), and (5) the Oromo collaborator class. The colonialists have been concentrated in garrison cities and towns and formulated political, economic, and ideological programs that they used to oppress their colonial subjects. The settlers expropriated almost all Oromo lands, and forced most Oromos to work on these lands without payment. The Oromo intermediaries have been used in subordinating the Oromo people to the colonial society. Many people were enslaved and forced to provide free labor to the colonial ruling class, while others were reduced to the status of semi-slaves so they could provide agricultural and commercial products and free labor for their colonizers. As a consequence of these efforts, the Ethiopian state successfully destroyed and/or suppressed Oromo institutions and independent leaders and replaced them with its own leaders and political, religious, and educational institutions; colonialism also fractured Oromo culture and identity. The Ethiopian state targeted any sense of Oromoness (Oromummaa) for destruction and established colonial administrative regions to suppress the Oromo people and exploit their resources. As a result, Oromo relational identities were localized and disconnected from the collective identity of national Oromummaa. On a national level, the Oromo were separated from one another and prevented from exchanging goods and information for more than a century. As a result, their identities were localized into clan families and colonial regions. They were also exposed to different cultures (i.e., languages, customs, values, etc.) and religions and have adopted some elements of these cultures and religions because of the inferiority complex that Ethiopian colonialism sought to create in them. Consequently, until Oromo nationalism emerged, Oromoness primarily remained on the personal and the interpersonal levels since the Oromo were denied the opportunity to form national institutions. In addition, today there are members of Oromo society and elites who have internalized clan and externally-imposed regional and/or religious identities because of their low level of political consciousness or because of opportunism on their part, exhibiting the lack of a clear understanding of Oromummaa or Oromo nationalism. Overcoming several obstacles, the founding fathers and mothers of Oromummaa created two pioneering organizations in the 1960s and 1970s: the Macha-Tulama Self-Help Association and the Oromo Liberation Front respectively. These organizations acted as a roadmap for the burgeoning Oromo national movement. Unfortunately, the national movement has since been confronted externally by the forces of Ethiopian colonialism – with assistance from their global supporters – and internally by an Oromo collaborator class that serves the interests of the oppressor of the Oromo people. Some Oromo elites have become raw materials for the Tigrayan-led Ethiopian regime and have implemented its terrorist and genocidal policies in the puppet parliament, the administration, and the army, and have participated in imprisoning and killing Oromo nationalists. These internal agents of the Ethiopian government have also participated in robbing Oromo economic resources. As Frantz Fanon notes, “The intermediary does not lighten the oppression, nor seek to hide the domination…he is the bringer of violence into the home and into the mind of the native.” The Oromo national struggle has to solve the internal problem of Oromo society before it can fully confront and defeat its joined external enemies. It is estimated that the Oromo intermediary elites are the numerical majority at the lower echelons of the Ethiopian colonial institutions. These intermediaries have joined the Tigrayan-created and -led organization known as the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) to satisfy their personal interests at the cost of the Oromo nation. It is true that every colonized nation has a collaborator class that fulfills its interests and the interest of its colonial masters. However, a few elements of this class clandestinely defend the interest of their people. For example, some Eritrean and Tigrayan intermediaries under the Amhara-led Ethiopia protected the interests of their respective people. What makes the Oromo collaborator class different, however, is its total commitment to serve the oppressor (except in a few cases) without being sympathetic to their own people. Ethiopian history demonstrates that key Oromo collaborators have been king makers and have protected the Ethiopian Empire without seeking authority for themselves and their people. “The oppressed learn to wear many masks for different occasions;” Frantz Fanon notes, “they develop skills to detect the moods and wishes of those in authority, learn to present acceptable public behaviors while repressing many incongruent private feelings.” Most Oromo members of the OPDO clearly exhibit such public behaviors. In every colonized society, those who collaborate with the dominant society are less competent and less accomplished, and yet they are “rewarded extravagantly with fame, fortune and celebrity status simply by their confirmation that the master’s consciousness and his reality is the correct way to think.” While imprisoning or killing independent Oromo leaders, the successive Ethiopian regimes have promoted to positions of authority less competent Oromo collaborators who have internalized and manifested their masters’ worldviews. The Oromo collaborator elites are politically ignorant and harbor an inferiority complex that has been imposed on them by the Amhara-Tigray colonial institutions. According to Hussein Abdilahi Bulhan, “Prolonged oppression reduces the oppressed into mere individuals without a community or a history, fostering a tendency to privatize a shared victimization.” Since they have been cut from their individual biographies and the collective Oromo history, members of the Oromo collaborator class only know what Amhara or Tigrayans have taught them and, as a result, they constantly wear “Ethiopian masks” that have damaged their psyches. The colonizer was never content with occupying the land of indigenous peoples and expropriating their labor; he also declared war on the psyches of the oppressed. By introducing an inferiority complex, the Amhara-Tigray state attacked the Oromo culture and worldview in order to alter the perspective of the colonized Oromo from independence to dependence; consequently, every colonized Oromo subject who has not yet liberated his/her mind wears an Ethiopian mask by associating his/herself with Ethiopian culture and identity. As Fanon asserts, “All colonized people—in other words, people in whom an inferiority complex has taken root, whose local cultural originality has been committed to the grave—position themselves in relation to the civilizing language…. The more the colonized has assimilated the cultural values of [the colonizer], the more he [or she] will have” imitated his/her masters. As European colonialists did, the Amhara-Tigrayan colonizers have manufactured the Oromo collaborator elites in order to use them in their colonial projects. According to Bulhan, “in prolonged oppression, the oppressed group willy-nilly internalizes the oppressor without. They adopt his guidelines and prohibitions, they assimilate his image and his social behavior, and they become agents of their own oppression. The oppressor without becomes…an oppressor within…. They become auto-oppressor as they engage in self-destructive behavior injurious to themselves, their loved ones, and their neighbors.” It is no wonder that some members of the OPDO, from ordinary individuals to high officials, engage in imprisoning, killing, and robbing members of Oromo society, particularly those whom they suspect of sympathizing with or supporting the Oromo national struggle. The Oromo self has been attacked and distorted by Ethiopian colonial institutions. The attack on Oromo selves at personal, interpersonal and collective levels has undermined the self-confidence of some Oromo individuals by creating an inferiority complex within them. Consequently, the manufactured Oromo elites are abusive to their people and they confuse their individual ambitions and interest with those of the Oromo nation. What Fanon says about other colonial intermediary native elites applies to the Oromo elites: “The European elite undertook to manufacture native elite. They picked out promising adolescents; they branded them, as with a red-hot iron, with the principles of Western culture; they stuffed their mouths full with high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck to the teeth.” Since most Oromo elites who have passed through Ethiopian colonial institutions have not yet achieved psychological liberation, they consciously or unconsciously prefer to work for their colonial masters rather than work as a team on the Oromo liberation project. What Walter Rodney says about the consequences of the colonial educational system in Africa also applies to the situation of Oromo intermediaries: “The colonial school system educated far too many fools and clowns, fascinated by the ideas and way of life of the European capitalist class,” he says. “Some reached a point of total estrangement from African conditions and the African way of life…. ‘Colonial education corrupted the thinking and sensibilities of the African and filled him with abnormal complexes.’” Similarly, some Oromo intermediaries who have passed through the Ethiopian colonial education system have been de-Oromized and Ethiopianized, and have opposed the Oromo struggle for national liberation. Colonial education creates submissive leaders who facilitate underdevelopment through subordination and exploitation. Considering the similar condition of the African Americans in the first half of the 20th century, Carter G. Woodson characterized the educated Black as “a hopeless liability of the race,” and schools for Blacks as “places where they must be convinced of their inferiority.” He demonstrated how White oppressors controlled the minds of Blacks through education: “When you control a man’s [or a woman’s thinking] you do not have to worry about his [or her] actions. You do not have to tell him [her] not to stand here or go yonder. He [or she] will find his [or her] ‘proper place’ and will stay in it.” The behaviors and actions of the educated Oromo intermediaries parallel what Woodson claims about the educated African-Americans. But, starting in the mid-20th century, most African-American elites developed nationalist political consciousness by overcoming their inferiority complex and participating in their national struggle for liberation. There are also biologically and culturally assimilated elements that like to disassociate themselves from anything related to the Oromo. Most biologically and culturally assimilated former Oromos, like their Habasha masters, are the defenders of Habasha culture, religion, and the Amharic language and the haters of Oromo history, culture, institutions, and Afaan Oromoo. Explaining similar circumstances, Fanon notes, “The individual who climbs up into white, civilized society tends to reject his black, uncivilized family at the level of the imagination.” The slave psychology of such assimilated Oromos has caused them also to prefer the leadership of the Amhara or Tigrayan oppressor. Through his seven years of experimentation and observation in Martinique, Frantz Fanon concluded that the dominated “black man’s behavior is similar to an obsession neurosis…. There is an attempt by the colored man to escape his individuality, to reduce his being in the world to nothing…. The [psychologically affected] black man goes from humiliating insecurity to self-accusation and even despair.” These conditions apply to all colonized, repressed, and exploited peoples. Therefore, some Oromos also face similar problems. Furthermore, the attack on Oromo families and national structures introduced psychological disorientations to Oromo individuals, and incapacitated their collective personality. The family—as a basic institution of any society—provides guidance in values, norms, and worldviews and acts as the educational and training ground for entry into that society. Because Oromo families have lived for more than a century under colonial occupation and because Oromo national institutions were intentionally destroyed or disfigured by Ethiopian colonial institutions, the Oromo people lack the educational, cultural, ideological, and experiential resources to guide their children in the process of building national institutions and organizational capacity. Oromo individuals who have lived under such conditions face social, cultural, and psychological crises and become conflict-ridden. Due to these complex problems, the low level of political consciousness, and an imposed inferiority complex, those who claim that they are nationalists sometimes confuse their sub-identities with the Oromo national identity or with Ethiopian identity. According to Fanon, “The neurotic structure of an individual is precisely the elaboration, the formation, and the birth of conflicting knots in the ego, stemming on the one hand from the environment and on the other from the entirely personal way this individual reacts to these influences.” The Ethiopian colonial system—as well as cultural and religious identities—was imposed on the Oromo creating regional and religious boundaries. Under these conditions, personal identities (e.g. religious affiliation) replaced Oromoness—with its unique values and self-schemas—and Ethiopianism replaced Oromummaa. Colonial rulers saw Oromoness as a source of raw material that was ready to be transformed into other identities. Since most of these individuals are psychologically damaged, they run away from the Oromo national identity. Are genuine Oromo nationalists free of these psychological crises? The Psychological Legacy of Ethiopian Colonialism Through political, educational, and religious institutions and the media, the Ethiopian colonial elites and their successive governments have continuously created and perpetuated negative stereotypes and racist values regarding the Oromo people and have led some Oromos to think negatively about themselves. That is why some Oromo parents reject Oromo names and give Amhara or Arab names to their children in order to assimilate them into the cultures they consider superior. Some educated Oromos also develop self-hatred and self-contempt and wear the masks of other people. Ethiopian colonialism and racism have made some Oromo elites hate their culture and language and avoid self-discovery. The process of de-Oromization creates alienation among some Oromos and imbues them with distorted perceptions of their own people. Everything Amhara-Tigray is praised and everything Oromo is rejected and denigrated; the colonialists have depicted the Oromo as barbaric, ignorant, evil, pagan, backward, and superstitious.

OLF Statement On the war Crime committed against OLA members by Ethiopian army agents

Oromia Shall Be Free!!!

After it was thoroughly defeated by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), the colonial army of the dictatorial regime of Ethiopia murdered members of the OLA by using poison in drinking water. This criminal and savage act is totally against a binding part of international law in the conduct of warfare. It is against the Geneva Protocol, a treaty that prohibits the use of poison in warfare.

The colonial army has continued to operate all over Oromia with the aim of holding back
the fast advancing Oromo people’s liberation struggle. In the military engagement
between the OLA and the Ethiopian colonial army on June 20-23, 2016 in south-eastern
Oromia, the OLA completely defeated the Ethiopian army unit. The Ethiopian army unit,
supported by “special force” was on search and destroy mission of the OLA in the Baalee
region of Elkarree, Gooroo and Haroo Dibbee districts. The OLA totally foiled the
mission when it killed 27 and wounded 18 of the enemy forces. In addition, the heroic
OLA captured four enemy soldiers and large quantities of military hardware. Thus, the
OLA annihilated the enemy forces and successfully foiled its mission to destroy the OLA.

The ongoing and recently intensified Oromo people’s peaceful struggle for liberation and
the advancing activities of OLA has greatly worried the Ethiopia regime and it is on the
verge of losing hope of survival. As a result, in its recent engagement with the OLA the
regime’s rogue army took a disparate act that clearly violates and contradicts the
international norm of warfare. After a recent encounter with the OLA and its total defeat,
the enemy Army poisoned members of the OLA. In Qaachan district of Baalee zone, the
enemy in a cowardly act poisoned the water well found in the locality of Gola Qararrii. As
a result, five members of the OLA were martyred instantly after drinking water from the
poisoned well.

In a similar situation, in 1981 the colonial army agents poisoned and killed a platoon of
the OLA in western Oromia. Thus, it has become the culture of the Ethiopian colonial
army to use inhumane and illegal means to fight the OLA. Such acts are a crime
under any manner of encounter of opposing forces and it is against the peace and
security of mankind and it constitutes a war crime.

The cowardly atrocities committed against the OLA members is a sign of
desperation and hopelessness of the Ethiopian regime that considers poisoning,
continued intimidation, killing, imprisonment and exiling of Oromo
revolutionaries, will not dampen the Oromo people’s determination and
commitment to heroically struggle for freedom and dignity. The OLF takes this
latest action of the regime as an intensification of its war against the OLF and the
Oromo people. The OLF will continue to defend itself and the liberation struggle
and calls upon Oromo people to intensify its struggle of self-defense by any
means necessary!

The Saga of Addis Ababa, the Master Plan & the Revolt of Oromos in TPLF/EPRDF’s Ethiopia

"Keep going, don’t ever stop. Keep going, don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going."
– Harriet Tubman

The quotation above is worth keeping in mind, when trying to make sense of the following interdisciplinary examination of the so called Addis Ababa Master Plan and its main effects i.e. the protracted and simmering mass protests that it ignited across Oromia, Ethiopia. Our inquiry primarily asks, what are the defining social and economic forces and relations that ignited the confrontations that led to this protracted conflict? Moreover, in our pedagogical practice we strive for a national self-consciousness. The focus is on how we can all struggle in unity, as individuals and compatriots, against supremacist domination, injustice and neo-colonial exploitation in all their varieties. An attack on any Ethiopian, regardless of ethnicity, is thus considered as an attack on all of us and the fundamental rights and dignity that define us as Ethiopians.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital is growing at a furious pace and urban architectural/infrastructural developments are running apace as steel, glass and concrete buildings seem to enmesh and emerge from the ground up. Traffic is clogging up the narrow streets. A new skyline is forming as material and social forces are bubbling up from below. Addis Ababa is growing upwards and outwards. Everybody marvels at the pace of change. Have you seen the underpass and the new Chinese made ‘light rail’ public transport train that crosses the city? Have you seen this or that intersection or building. These are popular subjects of conversation. The distance between Addis Ababa and the surrounding regions, seems to be closing, helped by more rapid and efficient transportation grids. You might say the city is undergoing an urban sprawl of sorts, and experiencing a rising population density as well. New buildings are emerging everywhere. The old city of our childhood is changing fast. Addis Ababa now is a city with an estimated population of around 4 million. While the city grows, most poor Addis Ababans have still no access to a hygienic modern toilet system that befits a city, and lack access to clean water. Both are in short supply in this naturally rich land. Still some form of rapid urbanization and demographic growth is visible to the naked eye. Electricity is also scant in Addis. Ferequa is a power sharing method introduced by the TPLF. Recently, the lights failed in a hotel inhabited by visiting foreign dignitaries. As usual, some rural folks (over 80% of the Ethiopian population) tend to migrate into the city, in search of wage employment. With few exceptions, providing employment is still the privilege of the state in Ethiopia. And as the old saying goes, in a country where the sole employer tends to be the state, political opposition implies death by starvation. Anyway, in this migratory trend, a few succeed in gaining some kind of employment, others become beggars or somehow homeless, and still some others move on to Middle Eastern destinations of domestic servitude; a great many become ensnared in a life of local penury and other gross social ills spreading across the breadth and depth of the wider urban landscape, also known as Finfine.

Ethiopia is a tough place to be born in, particularly if you are from the poorer and less powerful sector of society. Ethiopians have always been deprived of civic/political rights and landownership. Food insecurity is endemic in a society where all land is owned by the state or rather the party. Society is run by tired nineteenth and 20th Century ideologies and myopic policies. Peripheral capitalism grinds on in its extractive form. In the name of developmentalism and fighting poverty, the TPLF-led regime is promoting floriculture within 200 km radius of Addis Ababa and giving away 3 million hectares of virgin lowland areas and water to foreign capitalists, while the Ethiopian small holder’s plot is shrinking from about half a hectare (during Mengistu’s era) to only a quarter of a hectare now. In essence, Ethiopia is producing flowers and food for others, while its citizens go hungry or starve. One of the authorities thinks we are ‘taking off.’ Food availability for millions literally depends on the kindness of foreigners. Meanwhile, sanitation coverage in the country remains low even by Africa’s depressed standard; only 11% of the population was found to have access to adequate sanitation. Along with rapid urbanization, diseases associated with poor nutrition and scarcityof clean water are expanding. People in the capital can go for days without seeing water or electricity. Yet, the place is endowed with tremendous water resources and hopes to export hydroelectric power to neighbors. When GERD is finally constructed it will be the largest hydroelectric power facility in Africa.

As archaic and regressive as it is, ethnicity has become a fundamental organizing principle of social and political life. Every Ethiopian holds an ethnic ID. Moreover, Ethiopia is divided into nine major killils, or ethnic enclaves (Bantustans). In the TPLF’s architecture of domination known as ethnic federalism, an ethnic hierarchy prevails and the dominant Tigrean party-state is intrusive in every sphere of social life and sector of production. The political agenda of the ruling ethnic party, as the supreme law of the land, has subordinated the historic national interests of the Ethiopian state. Thinking freely and opposing the regime is criminalized. The ethnic party commands and polices everything, from its subject’s schooling, to their feeding and employment opportunities. All land is state-owned as is distributorship of seed and fertilizers. The TPLF occupies all the seats in parliament, except for one. Subjects are routinely infantilized. Let us recall Dowden’s description of the minority regime’s arrogant and tyrannical modus operandi ‘If you do what the party/government says,’ you get credit and assistance- land, water, seed and fertilizer services, ‘if you don’t you get nothing.’ Still, a certain process of urbanization and demographic multiculturalism is continuing; in the city, people of different ethnic groups tend to be working and living more tightly together, rather than apart. Everyone, regardless of ethnicity, will be required to somehow communicate with their neighbors. Generally speaking, the city tends to unify what the ethnic killils divide and segregate. By 2050, it is estimated that 70% of the world’s population will live in urban centers.

Ethnic segregation/isolation is more palpable in the less-urbanized and rural regions of Ethiopia. The TPLF-led EPRDF regime claims its support among the 80%, barely literate, rural folk it controls tightly through ownership of land and a formidable 5-1espionage apparatus. The regime is formally structured along ethnic federalist lines, or what was more appropriately and honestly termed as apartheid (aparthood) in South Africa. The federal designation is strictly formal, as separate ethnic based ‘homelands,’ sectarian privileges and inequalities are enforced at gunpoint in TPLF’s Democratic Republic of ethnic groups. The ideological attachment to democracy and the ‘people,’ is equally phony, as land robbery, demonization and persecution of other non-Tigrean ’peoples’ and ‘nationalities’ actually prevails, with Tigrai killil and its people (about 6%of the entire population) being the most advantaged. This minority group appropriates the lion’s share of the nation’s export-oriented political economy (land, offices, gold, airline and military. According to a recent World Bank report on public expenditure review, the TPLF or the federal authorities have never transferred more than 6% of the cash revenue to the regional states. In other words, 94% of federal budget is used wholly at the discretion of the ‘vanguardist’ TPLF. This is revolutionary democracy indeed. This all-powerful and sectarian ruling group drives the expansion of the city in its own particularistic interests.

At the root of the extended revolt throughout Oromia is the so called Master Plan. According to this contested plan, the expanding multiethnic city of Addis Ababa is set to absorb the surrounding villages and districts, including some 36 potential towns in what is known now as the Oromo Regional State. The city’s “Master Plan” is a huge municipal expansion scheme, officially predicated on the need to include and provide services to the impoverished rural areas surrounding the ever-expanding/urbanizing Addis Ababa metropolis. One wonders why not first provide basic services and sustenance to the urban poor already living within Addis Ababa proper? This would require a people-centered development agenda, rather than the rentier state-led one advocated by Meles’ cadres. Anyway, the city has some 29 rural Kebeles that provide gateways of expansion that bleed into the boundaries of Oromia.

That being as such, the growth of the city is as relentless as the ruling caste’s tyrannical craving for absolute domination and quick profits. During the Italian fascist invasion of 1936-41, the idea of Ethiopia represented a tabula rasa or a blank slate took root in the mind of the colonialists. This false but yet seductive assumption became pronounced in the writings of fascist ideologues, architects and urban planners. It did not matter that the capital has existed at least since 1889. Between1936-1941, the Italians declared that Addis Ababa should emerge anew from this ‘virgin fantasy.’ This fixed idea of a brand new colonial and fascist urbanism had a modernist appeal and was experimented on Addis Ababa. The idea was to rebuild the existing city ‘from the ground up’, so as to make it acceptable to the fascist’s modern tastes and aesthetic sensibilities. In the colonial scheme of things, Italian overpopulation in Italy was to find a safety pin in the colonies of the empire. Thus, the round houses (tukuls) of Ethiopians were declared unhygienic and irrational. Their primitive architecture was considered hazardous to health and offensive to Italians. They needed to be removed. This makeover of the imperial city into a modernist capital was to be achieved by adhering to Mussolini’s wishes of numerous sventramenti or demolitions within the city’s fabric. The rebuilding process was going to involve ruthless planning along rigid lines, with severe segregation between the races. The realization and extension of this city-wide modernization process, with few modifications, is currently known as the Master Plan.

Towards the end of April of 2014, Oromo higher education students began demonstrations against this type of TPLF-led demolition, confiscation of land and expansion of Addis Ababa into a mega metropolitan region, as outlined in the current “Integrated Master Plan for Addis Ababa.” In other words, the population wanted to have a say in what matters to their land and to them. At the time, the Tigrean chief (Abay Tsehaye) said boastfully that he would put the protesters/ demonstrators in their place, as ‘we will show them’. Ultimately, however, it was the protestors who showed their power to the authorities. The protests, at the time, began around the universities in the Oromo region of Ethiopia. Students alleged that the “Master Plan” was merely an excuse for land grab, or for robbing the Oromo people blind, and enriching the usual suspects of the ruling caste and their foreign partners. In other words, it is more of the same policy of scramble for prime property/resources that has already enriched a few well connected functionaries/operatives and TPLF’s top military brass now living in Addis Ababa. These set of preferential policies include granting privileged rights to land use and other properties by the regime to its supporters, foreign investors, assorted sycophants and relaxed credits to members of their own tightly knit Tigrean families. The battle cry of those in the streets was something along the lines that the Hagoses cannot enrich themselves with Dibaba’s ancestral lands.

Once the outrage exploded across Oromia, the TPLF-EPRDF regime responded by mass slaughter of the students. Soldiers simply shot at them. Some students died and others were injured. The ethnic surrogates were confused and their representativeness begun to be questioned; as with ANDM, so with OPDO now. Who do these parties really represent? Aba Dula called this state-sponsored mass murder a “Sihtet,” or a mistake. This savage policy of executing legitimate protesters was clearly a well-practiced criminal attitude, clearly not a mere and sudden mistake. Shooting at citizens peacefully demanding justice was normalized. It is now totally unacceptable to all decent Ethiopians and the progressive international community. In our view, the legitimate demands of the Oromo students and all Ethiopians for justice and equality, and the government’s blood thirsty response, should be examined more sanely and carefully. After all, Ethiopia is a member of the UN’s Human Rights Council. Was it not Mill who called democracy ‘a government by discussion’, rather than force/repression. It is time to bring forth important policy decisions concerning land ownership and use/abuse to public discussions. Here is a respected Ethiopian scholar’s opinion (Aklog Birrara, p. 129) on the elemental nature of this conflict. “The massive transfer of fertile farmlands from Ethiopian families, communities and the entire society to foreign investors is the last ominous indicator of a regime that is determined to rob the country and its people of their most critical natural resource assets, their honor, dignity and sovereignty – all done in the name of development and transformation”. In other words, the TPLF’ fights poverty’ by expropriating or usurping (grabbing) the land of Ethiopian families and disenfranchising its ancestral owners.

Waraana Adda Bilisummaa Oromoo - OLF Army

Waraana Adda Bilisummaa Oromoo - OLF Army

Ethiopia Runs Against Itself at the UN

Given the Ethiopian regime’s propensity for exaggerations, fabrications and outright lies, one cannot rely on its self-serving statements of bravado and self-aggrandizement when seeking the truth. Once again, the deceptive minority regime shamelessly toots its own horn on a bid to hoodwink the suffering people of Ethiopia and other gullible parties, by telling tall tales about its “win” at the Security Council. African states have been elected to as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council since the UN’s inception, but none has misrepresented the standard procedure at the UN as the regime ruling Ethiopia has done today.

Ethiopia’s election to the position is in no way a reflection of the minority regime’s “diplomacy”, and no doubt its patrons helped get it elected. The truth is that it ran uncontested as both Kenya and Seychelles withdrew their candidacy paving the way for Ethiopia. It is also not surprising that Ethiopia would garner so many votes, as all candidates that run uncontested tend to do so. Angola, who Ethiopia will be replacing, received 190 votes to earn its seat on the Council. While Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands competed for the two seats allocated for the Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG), Ethiopia was the sole candidate for the Africa seat.

Ethiopia’s election to the Security Council comes amidst the turmoil and chaos in the country. The Oromo Protests that began in November 2015 are threatening to engulf the whole country and the minority regime has resorted once again to using brute force to squelch the uprisings. The regime also launched another attack on Eritrea on 12 June 2016 and the border remains tense. It should be recalled that the last time Ethiopia was elected to the Council in 1989-90, similar conditions prevailed in Ethiopia, under the brutal Derg regime. It was overthrown in 1990.

Ethiopia’s assumption of a non-permanent member’s seat in the UN Security Council in January 2017 to serve a two-year term has been widely questioned for these and other reasons:

How can Ethiopia that has occupied sovereign Eritrean territories for over 14 years, in violation of international law and the over two dozen UN Security Council resolutions on the Eritrea – Ethiopia border issue, and is in violation of the African Union and UN Charters and the Algiers Agreements sit in judgement of other member states?

How can Ethiopia that is at war with its own people as evidenced by the genocides committed in the Gambela, Ogaden and Oromia regions of Ethiopia, and whose internal peace, stability and security is threatened by the uprisings across the country serve the interests of international peace and security?

How can Ethiopia that has pursued violence and war to achieve its domestic and international objectives in violation of the UN Charter which calls for the non-use of force; respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states; and the peaceful settlement of disputes, fulfill its mandate as a non-permanent member of the Council?

The Security Council is one of the six main organs established under the UN Charter. It is composed of 15 members—five permanent and 10 non-permanent. The five permanent Security Council members are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The General Assembly elects 10 non-permanent members for a two-year term. The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis. The African Group, Latin American and Caribbean Group, and the Western European and Others Group.