An Advice for Revolutionary Oromos

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

January 21, 2008

Through my extensive correspondence with Oromos allover the world, and through careful study of the number of hits received in every Oromo – related article of mine, I understand that there is a point missing in the fight in which the entire Oromo Nation – hereditary of the Noblest Traditions of Meroe and Kush – has been engaged from the first moment of the barbaric Amhara Abyssinian invasion of the Oromo Ethiopia at the end of the 19th century. This missing point is the subject of this article.

Photo: OromiaTimes Collection

As a matter of fact, the most popular article among all my Oromo-related articles was the historical analysis of the ´Meroitic Ethiopian Origins of the Modern Oromo Nation´ (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/21760). This means that the search for the Greatness of the Kushitic past, and the inquiry about the origins of the Kushitic Values, Soul, and Diachronic Identity is greater than the interest in the ongoing fight for independence and secession.

It shows something more critical; it demonstrates that the complete separation of the Oromos from the Amhara and the Tigray Abyssinians is not viewed by the Oromos in simple terms of political independence but as a Supreme Cultural Divide between Civilization and Barbary.

The Search for Oromoness

This is true; the Oromo secession from Abyssinia is not a matter of simple and superficial difference of political – ideological character, but the natural consequence of an immense gap between what outsiders would call ´profound difference between two cultures´, whereas experts would simply characterize it as conflict between Civilization (Kushitic Oromo) and Barbary (Semitic Amhara).

Even the term ´Oromo secession from Abyssinia´ that I have just used is not accurate; in fact, the correct term is ´expulsion of the Amhara invaders from the Oromo Ethiopian lands and Finfinne´ (fallaciously named Addis Ababa) in particular.

This personal experience of mine is in fact corroborated by what any simple reader who would search about the Oromos in the existing international bibliography would find; the books published about the Kushitic Oromo Nation, the articles, the analyses, the features and the reports elaborated about all things Oromo are characterized by a vibrant search for the Oromoness, the National Kushitic Oromo Identity. As a matter of fact, a great number of bibliographical items pertain to the Waqefanna, the traditional, monotheistic and aniconic, Oromo religion, and the Gadaa, the traditional Oromo social organization system.

At the Antipodes of the Oromos: the Amhara Evildoing

In fact, the reasonable and unbiased interest for a nation´s own past is a great proof of high cultural standards; it is very important to make our position clear. By ´reasonable and unbiased interest´, we mean an interest for true historical assessment, not historical falsifications machinated for political use.

To give an example, I will share my personal contact with hundreds of otherwise unknown (to me) Oromos who contacted me to thank me or ask various points of clarification; I never noticed the slightest nationalistic extremism in their interest about Ancient Meroe and the historical Ethiopia that is limited in the north of today´s Sudanese territory. Not a single sign of irredentism! This is a sign of high cultural level.

What is barbarism? Barbarism is to promote and diffuse the eradication of the ´Other´ in order to fallaciously portray your own self as (supposedly) ´larger´, ´bigger´, ´greater´, ´more important´, etc.

An excellent example is the Neo-Nazi barbarism of the ignorant and unqualified authors of the disreputable forgery published in Wikipedia under the title ´Habesha people´ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habesha_people). They are certainly typical racist Amharas covered by anonymity.

In that entry, all the subjugated and mercilessly tyrannized nations of the dictatorial realm, the Oromos, the Ogadenis, the Sidamas, the Afars, the Agaws, the Kaffas, the Kambattas, the Shekachos, the Anuak, the Wolayitas and others are mendaciously considered as ´Habesha people´, thus ridiculously raising the total Habesha population to 80 million!

I would call at this point every concerned Oromo, Ogadeni, Sidama, Afar, Agaw, Kaffa, Kambatta, Shekacho, Anuak, and Wolayita to write, protest, denounce, deplore, disparage, rebuke, refute, castigate and condemn the racist lies published in the aforementioned inconsistent text – forgery.

Similar attitude is demonstrated in the totally fallacious entry ´Ethiopia´ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia) whereby almost every sentence is a construction of lies and forgeries. This is a brilliant sample of History falsification geared for Neo-Nazi political purposes.

However, historical self-determination is not the best tool for a revolution that would end up with the Oromos as an Independent and Free Nation.

Interconnection

The missing point, which will prove to be key to success in the revolutionary process and the noble path of Independence, has one name: Interconnection.

Interconnection among oppressed and tyrannized peoples throughout Africa and the entire world. Certainly, interconnection presupposes study, contacts, knowledge, information, and establishment of parallels.

Oromos must first become extremely concerned with the Ogadenis, the Sidamas, the Anuak, the Afars and all the other tyrannized peoples of the Cenotaph Abyssinia. As the largest nation, in terms of population and socio-economic, educational, and political development, the Oromos should stretch a hand of help and cooperation to all the rest, particularly those with smaller population and with inexistent elite.

Oromo Sponsorship of Smaller, Tyrannized Nations

There are plenty of Oromo doctors, engineers, lawyers, and intellectuals in the Diaspora; but how many Sidamas? how many Afars? how many Anuak? It is the Oromos´ task to help selected Shekacho, Kaffa, Agaw, Kambatta, Wolayita and other youth get out of the Hell of Abyssinia, study and work abroad, and organize from there their nation´s struggle against the Neo-Nazi Amhara pestilence.

The Oromo struggle for global community awareness and the Oromo effort to illuminate the tragedy of Abyssinia´s subjugated nations and the Genocide committed by the successive Amhara and Tigray elites of murderous racists and merciless gangsters will be met with greater success when in parallel with the Oromos, the Ogadenis, the Afars, the Sidamas, the Anuak, the Shekachos, the Kaffas, the Agaws, the Kambattas, the Wolayitas have the possibility to get engaged in the demolition battle of the World History´s bloodiest and most criminal tyranny, fake ´Ethiopia´.

The numerous Oromo political parties and liberation fronts, organizations and associations, which – unfortunately – have not found thus far common ground and have not set up a common program of activities to destroy and dismantle the gangster state of fake Ethiopia, have still the possibility to cooperate in a first, most honorable project: the selection and the education of five youngsters from each oppressed nation of Abyssinia. Perhaps the Ogadenis should join this effort as they consist in the only other oppressed nation of Abyssinia with a numerous, educated and fully engaged, Diaspora elite.

Interconnection with Other Oppressed Kushitic Nations

This is just a first point of interconnection; there is more. Oromos, and Ogadenis of course (the method is actually key to success of any oppressed nation and its struggling elite), should be interconnected with the engaged elites of all other oppressed nations, who fight for Independence, Freedom, and Dignity.

The Furis of Darfur, the tyrannized Bejas of the Eastern Province of Sudan, the Dinkas and the Nuers of the Sudanese South with their traumatic experience of almost 50 years war against the Pan-Arabist, barbaric regime of Khartoum, are rich in experience neighbors. They need the Oromos as much as the Oromos need them.

Interconnection spans across Africa, and the Oromos´ Western brethren are the terrorized Berbers of Kabylia, in Algeria. The coordination of the oppressed Kushitic nations is of primordial importance.

Exchange and Cooperation between Oromos and Aramaeans

Interconnection is critical for political coordination, awareness campaign, international support, and experience exchange. The Oromos can gain tremendously from an exchange with the Aramaeans of the Middle East, who faced terrible prosecution from the English and the French missionaries in the Ottoman and the Persian Empires.

The false national name affair, so dramatically experienced by the Oromos because of the Abyssinian usurpation of the historically Kushitic Name of Ethiopia, would be highlighted as a typical means of colonial bias useful for the promotion of preconceived colonial schemes of disastrous consequences for the targeted nations.

In the case of the Oromos, the Abyssinians by usurping the Fair Name of Ethiopia tried to diffuse a historical forgery according to which Oromos and Amharas would be one people, just fake ´Ethiopians´ who speak Amharic and believe the anti-Christian, Monophysitic heresy of the Abyssinian Church. This would trigger the extermination of the Oromo Nation. It is a clear, merciless and inhuman, intention to perpetrate a Genocide.

In the case of the Aramaeans, the English and the French missionaries diffused historical falsehood among Araamaeans, who seeking protection against their own state (either the Ottoman Empire or the Safevid / Qadjar Iran) rejected their denomination to either become Catholic or adhered to Anglican Christianity. More specifically, the Anglican missionaries convinced those who adhered to their version of Christianity that they were not Aramaeans but descendents of the (extinct before 2600 years) Assyrians, and these Aramaeans started being indoctrinated with the forgery that their national identity was ´Assyrian´. The Catholic missionaries convinced those who accepted the Roman Pope´s primacy that they were not Aramaeans but Chaldaeans, who according to later, 20th century Assyriology were proven to be just one of the Ancient Aramaean tribes. The result was the current trichotomy of the already decimated by Sassanid Persian Shahs and various Islamic Caliphs Aramaeans, into Aramaeans, ´Chaldaeans´ and ´Assyrians´.

Oromos, Scots, and Tibetans

The Aramaeans are just one example of how Oromo interconnection with other colonially targeted nations can help deeper understanding and trigger cooperation. The Kosovars, the Turkmens of Iraq, the Baluchis of Iran and Pakistan, the Tibetans and the Turkic peoples of China, the Catalans and the Basks of Spain, the Corsicans of France and the Loris of Iran are other brethren of the Oromos in the Long and Holy Path of the National Independence.

One can enumerate many more peoples about whom the Oromos must first study and with whom they must ultimately cooperate at the international level. Who could be the Kushitic Oromos´ best ally if not the Scots, who have lost their national independence before 300 years, but preserved their hope, and are today very close to their ultimate goal?

In our world, with so many small nations still living under deplorable conditions of inhuman totalitarianism and dehumanizing deprivation, there are plenty of immoral politicians, diplomats and statesmen who deny independence to small nations just because they are small. Scotland gives the best answer to this incredible pledge.

In the Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320, which was submitted to the Pope of Rome by a delegation of Scottish noblesse, as a means to proclaim the Independence of Scotland as a sovereign state, it was stated that even if only 100 Scots were left in life, they would never accept to be under English rule!

Economic viability is not an issue for the authors of the text, namely two Scottish priests. The Ideal of Independence is highly portrayed in the text through examples from the – known through the Bible only at those days – 2nd millennium Antiquity, namely the Israelite Exodus from Egypt. It is to say few thousands of people, or even more markedly, as we said, 100 people suffice to shape an independent state!

That´s how Oromos and Anuak, Sidamas and Bejas, Iraqi Turkmens and Tibetans, Kosovars and Catalans will gain a lot through their interconnection with the Scots and all the nations that strive for National Independence.

And how great it would be, if some Oromo Elders traveled abroad to meet with the Dalai Lama, discuss similarities and parallels between Waqefanna and Buddhism, and envision the great perspectives of the Afro-Asiatic brethren, the Oromos and the Tibetans!

Note

Picture: Traditional Oromo Leather Shield; today´s best shield for the Oromos is interconnection with other nations striving for Independence.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis