By Bakalcho Barii*
The Ethiopian Empire state is on the verge of collapse like other empires in history. The empire rulers can no more hide the Oromo struggle for liberation under the guise of territorial integrity. The Oromo question is the elephant in the room for the current Ethiopian rulers and its foreign backers, and any attempt to delay the inevitable would not be a wise thing to do before the people of the south and the Oromos take things in their own hand to stop the killings in their own backyards. Therefore, the immediate and urgent task for the Oromos and the southern nations is to intensify their struggle and realize the total victory that is within reach for the total emancipation of their people.
One would always ask how successive Abyssinian regimes managed to rule over the Southern nations, including the Oromos (currently known as the subjects or colonies), which constitute over half of the population of the Ethiopian Empire, for so long?
The answer to this intriguing argument could be (a) because the Abyssinians were and still are more intelligent and superior races compared to their subjects in the South; (b) because the Abyssinians were always supported and armed by foreign governments, who view the geo-political importance and proximity of the Ethiopian Empire to the volatile region of the Arabian Peninsula and the Suez Canal, where two-third of the entire world oil output is transported; (c) successive Abyssinian regimes managed to hold onto their Southern colonies (peoples of the South and the Oromos) due to the fact that the colonies themselves failed to wage coordinated and sustained struggle.
It is true that all of the above arguments hold strong truth in them by which successive Abyssinian regimes managed to deflect a century-old questions of freedom by southern peoples, but the degree to which these tactics were exploited depends on the then or current world political order.
For example, the first colonial ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, Menelik II, successfully managed to invade and conquer the South by exploiting the then disagreement among the European colonial powers, namely Italy, Britain and France, which were jostling to expand their empire. Emperor Menelik, not only exploited the then disagreement among the three European colonial powers, but managed to convince the three of them that, if they (the three European powers) armed him with modern weapons, he, on his part, was willing to provide the un-fêted access to the untapped human and natural resources of the his new colonies to all of the three European powers. With the help of these European powers, and the subsequent deal he made to give access to the rich ivory, gold and coffee of the new colonies, Emperor Menelik II got away with the unprecedented genocide he and his foot soldiers committed on the Oromos and other peoples of the South. According to some official and some unofficial documents, Menelik II has reduced the population size of the Oromo from ten million to five million. This indicates genocide has happened on unprecedented scale by Menelik II and his foot soldiers against the Oromos.
After the death of Emperor Menilik II, the next king of this new Empire was Haile Selassie I, who ruled the empire for nearly half a century. During his rein, Haile Selassie I employed both his predecessor’s tactics of presenting his empire as an Amhara Island surrounded by an unfriendly and hostile region. Just like Menelik II, King Haile Selassie effectively used both the direct and indirect rules (direct rule being the French colonial policy in Africa, and indirect rule – the British colonial rule) to rule his empire with iron and fist for such a long time. By direct rule, King Haile Selassie introduced and imposed Orthodox Christianity as the official religion of the empire against the traditional religions of the colonies. The Amahara culture and Amharic language were made the official culture and language of the empire by decree.
The Derg (the military junta), which ruled the empire from the 1970s to early 1990s, ruled and kept the empire intact using the guise of a popular revolution movement of the time, and by partially responding to the urgent demand of the popular demand, “Land to the Tiller,” and lip-service recognition of the existence of other nations and nationalities in the empire state. However, when it came to responding to the century-old demands of freedom by these nations and nationalities, the Derg junta employed the socialist revolution slogans, and under the guise of “protecting the boundaries and territorial integrity of the empire” to quash the dream of the Oromos and the Southern people to set themselves free and be counted as citizens rather than subjects.
The current TPLF regime of the late Meles Zenawi has been the most brutal, harsh and inhumane towards the Oromos and the Southern peoples when compared with Menelik II, Haile Selassie and the Military junta rules of the empire. Why are TPLF’s empire and the unprecedented scale of human rights abuses different from the past three regimes of the empire rulers?
Unlike the past three regimes, who rose from the Amharic-speaking Abyssinians, the TPLF originates from the much less population of the Tigray region, which comprises only about five percent of the current Ethiopian empire. Secondly, the TPLF rose from a century-old power struggle with its close kin, the Amharas, who defeated the Tigray king Yohannes IV. In other words, the TPLF came to power, not only to rule over the empire, but also to avenge their century-old wounds against their kin, the Amharas
Thirdly, TPLF cleverly learnt the shortcomings of the Amharas rulers over the colonies, and for the first time in the history of the empire, forcefully accepted the existence of independent nations like the Oromos, and allowed some form of self-rule and the use of their language in office and schools.
However, when it comes to responding to democratic and justice demands of the Oromo for total liberation, TPLF created a satellite organization that speaks the language of the indigenous population, and killed, harassed, displaced and jailed thousands of innocent Oromos. According to official reports by Amnesty International, Oromia Support Group and other local human rights bodies, there are currently close to 45,000 innocent Oromos in different TPLF incarceration cells.
The late TPLF ruler, Meles Zenawi, loudly and clearly declared on many occasions that, TPLF conquered the empire’s power by the use of guns and violence; therefore, it can only be forced out of power by those who can use the same tactics. This reminded me of that famous saying “power never gives up by will,” but only by force.
While committing unprecedented human rights abuses in glaring day lights against the Oromos, TPLF managed to harvest billions of dollars from its Western backers. Someone might ask how they managed to get away with these crimes in the 21st Century. The simple answer would be, TPLF successfully presented and sold itself as the best, the less brutal and the democratic of all the regimes the empire has ever seen. By portraying itself to its Western backers as less evil than all the past Ethiopian regimes, the current minority TPLF regime quickly jumped on the band wagon, and managed to receive billions of dollars and military aid to crash its opponents.
Of all the Abyssinian regimes, the current minority regime of the TPLF, not only committed unprecedented human rights atrocities against the Oromos and other nations in the South – its determinations to displace millions of Oromos from their ancestral land to the lowest bidder (not the highest bidder), destroy their forests by clearing in the name of development, and expose current and future generations of Oromos and the southern nations to environmental genocide.
In my conclusion of this article, let me make very clear to all of my southern friends and the Oromo nation that, in the history of human kind, empires were built and also destroyed by people on which the empires were built. As the famous quotes goes “power never gives up by will,” Oromos and other Southern nations have to intensify their struggle in all forms until the Ethiopian empire is dismantled like any other empires that were built and dismantled by the indigenous populations of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The challenge for the Oromos and the people of the South is that the old guards of the empire are so starved and furious by losing the empire they built to their junior partners (the Tigirians). These old guards of the empire barking loudly inside and outside of the country against the symbolic self-rule that is currently in-place, in the name of one person one vote, and as the guarantors of democratic rights slogans to undo the gains that we have earned by much blood and sacrifice.
The Ethiopian Empire state is on the verge of collapse like other empires in history. The empire rulers can no more hide the Oromo struggle for liberation under the guise of territorial integrity. The Oromo question is the elephant in the room for the current Ethiopian rulers and its foreign backers, and any attempt to delay the inevitable would be not a wise thing to do before the people of the south and the Oromos take things in their own hand to stop the killings in their own backyards. Therefore, the immediate and urgent task for the Oromos and the southern nations is to intensify their struggle and realize the total victory that is within reach for the total emancipation of their peoples.
May Waqaa bless our forefathers, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who paid the ultimate price for the dignity of the Oromo People and the southern nations.
* For any comments or suggestions, Bakalcho Barii can be contacted at bakalchobarii@gmail.com source ( http://gadaa.com/oduu/20991/2013/07/29/the-elephant-in-the-room-the-ethiopian-empire-state-and-the-oromo-national-struggle-for-liberation/ )
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