March 18, 2007
As the Horn of Africa situation deteriorates and is about to become an Islamic Terror avalanche from Somalia to Mauritania, we find necessary to offer space to Oromo political leaders, who are the only guarantee for the West in the explosive volcano Abyssinia.
The paranoid dictator Meles Zenawi launched a supposedly anti-Islamist expedition to Somalia last December and January, and the result has been so far detrimental to all the African peoples who aspire to Democracy, Freedom and Progress, as well as to all those concerned with the Islamic Terror expansion. The deeply hated dictator proved to be good enough to generate a situation in which every oppressed people of the Horn of Africa is by now pushed to the hands of Islamist terrorists who - unhindered and calm - position themselves as ‘fighters’ for Africa’s Independence and for the end of the Western Colonialism.
To avoid an equation of the type “Islamists = African liberators”, America and Europe have to cooperate with the forbearers of African Democracy, the Gada system practicing Oromos, who make more than 40% of Abyssinia’s population and fight for independence. As the Oromo culture reflects the values of the traditional African spiritual wisdom and monotheistic religious system Waaqa, Oromos are the only sizeable African nation that has not yet been caught by the winds of religious fanaticism.
The rise of Oromos in supremacy at Finfinne (Addis Ababa) would bring forth the most effective break wave, as traditional African tolerance permeates also Christian and Muslim Oromos. Eliminating the reasons of dissatisfaction, oppression, stagnancy and misery remains the key to success in averting the East African Islamic Terror volcano that was created not by the Islamic Courts of Justice but by the Abyssinian tyranny and involvement in Somalia.
Mr. Aman Kedir Kamsare and the Front for Independence of Oromia will be among the Western World’s best interlocutors in tomorrow’s free Ethiopia that under Oromo leadership will generate great progress for the entire continent. We will publish Mr. Kamsare’s interview in two parts, the first focusing on aspects of the Abyssinian tyranny and the second referring to the present situation.
An Interview with Mr. Aman Kedir Kamsare, Vice Chairman of the Front for Independence of Oromia
- Aman, you belong to the leadership of the Front for Independence of Oromia, one of the most influential Oromo political fronts. What pushed you to get involved with politics? When did you start your political activities, and what are the aspects of your commitment to Oromia’s independence and national self-determination?
- A tremendous and shocking experience record consists in the main reason that pushed me to political involvement and activism relatively early in my life, at the age of 18.
Since my adolescence I lived in a very marked way the fact that my motherland, Oromia, and my people had fallen under the inhuman and barbaric Abyssinian colonialism. This life experience formed me and ultimately led me to the world of politics. In the beginning, it was not politics in the strict sense of the term, involving party activism; it was a real matter of survival, the ultimate choice between Life and Death.
To your surprise, my vision of an independent and prosperous Nation of Oromia does not emanate from academic analyses and university discourses. My parents were the first to instigate in my heart a real political vision; they were tragic victims of the Abyssinian colonial slavery. As a matter of fact, my mother and father played a great role in the formation of my independent political thinking. During my childhood, I experienced – immensely, strikingly and painfully - the burden of the abominable Abyssinian colonial yoke in all its ramifications: psychological, cultural, political, linguistic, and economic.
My parents were obliged to pay land rents in kind, hard labour and money, to the Abyssinian colonial nafxaynaas, who had enslaved the Oromians and our motherland by monopolizing the power of modern firearms.
When in the Primary School, I was called ‘Gallaa’ by the children of Abyssinian colonial settlers, and this term is definitely derogatory, tantamount to slave. I was looked down upon by the children of a foreign people that had invaded my country. I was despised by them because I was an Oromo, belonging particularly to the Arsi Oromo populace.
My identity as Arsi Oromo was the reason for humiliating treatment and flagrant discrimination against me during my early school life. “Shirrixaam Gaallaa” and “Shirrixaam Arusii” are the dehumanizing, insulting words that still echo in my ears. They bear witness to the unforgettable stigma and the absolute alienation that have been cast upon the Oromo people by the Abyssinian invaders, and they make me recall all the horrors of the Abyssinian colonial oppression that I experienced since those days.
Due mainly to these extreme experiences, I was left with no other choice than to choose between slavery and freedom, and to opt for either colonial domination and eternal humiliation or national dignity. It was only normal that I decided to be a free and independent person rather than a slave in the hands of Abyssinian masters. I decided to die a noble death rather than living a meaningless and humiliated life. That is why I joined the Oromo National Movement for Independence 30 years ago.
As it could be expected, my active participation in the Oromo Movement for Independence ended up with my imprisonment. I was detained for no less than 12 years without facing a trial.
In addition, I spent most of this space of time in maximum security cells. In a summarizing way, I should say that I experienced a lengthy and tortuous journey in the abyss of the Abyssinian colonial empire. It would take me months and years to narrate what the gangsters of the Abyssinian tyranny attempted in order to deprive me from my personal integrity and Oromo national pride.
- Would you introduce yourself to our readers? What is your connection to the Oromo national movements? Where have you been born? In what part of Abyssinia have you spent your childhood and adolescence? To what extent has your formation been influenced by your family background?
- I was born in Oromia, in the Arsi administrative region, in Arba Gugu province, in the Ciniinaa-Waragu village. To be honest, I do not know the exact date of my birth; this sounds strange in the Western world but it is a common story in obscurantist, backward Abyssinia. My parents were illiterate; they could not read and write; even today, Abyssinia’s miserable record of illiteracy is one of the highest in the world. I never got any written public document specifying the exact date of my birth. I personally decided on this for the first time, when I came to Norway as a bona fide political refugee with the help of Norwegian immigration office.
During my preliminary interview at the premises of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), I was asked when I was born, and I answered ”I do not know”. The constable went on, asking me when I would like to be born. I said that I would like to be born on the day I first stepped on the soil of Norway which is January 9, 1999. It was then that real life of free human being started for me.
As a matter of fact, I was born to a destitute family who could not make ends meet. My parents were an average Oromo family of cattle-breeders. We owned a small lot of land that could not cover our life needs, and as a consequence my father was obliged to work. He was the tenant farmer of one of the fiefdoms established by Abyssinian feudal lords in the Colle district of our colonized country, Oromia.
- What are your educational background and your cultural preferences and hobbies?
- I attended the Primary School of a Catholic mission, located at the village Waragu Daka Diima, in Arba Gugu province, Gololcha district. I then continued in the Secondary School of Cholle Qulullicha, another town in the Arba Gugu province.
I then enrolled in the Finfinne University (falsely called by the Abyssinian invaders as ‘Addis Ababa University’), Bahar Dar annex. There I took Pedagogical Science and English Language and Literature. Eager to advance, I pursued my studies at a later stage, and I got a B.A. degree in Socio-linguistics from York University, Great Britain. Last year, I completed my Masters’ degree studies in African English Literature in Tromsø University, Norway. Willing to continue, I have applied for Ph.D. level studies, and I am currently seeking ways to finance my studies (grants, scholarships, etc.). For the time being, I am working as English teacher in a High School supervised by Tromsø University, Norway.
Studying, reading and writing have become my inalienable parts of myself. Books and dictionaries are my closest companions and most intimate friends. I enjoy reading books on Oromo History; I also read much about various national liberation struggles. If I happen to disappear from my buddies for some time, they all know that I must be somewhere in a library buried among books! Yet, I do not see myself as a bookish person! I need all these data, and all the detailed information I get because I want to use them as a compass to direct myself, through the correct road map, to the Independence of Oro-biyyaa (Oromo Country).
When it comes to hobbies, I like sports and gymnastics. I do exercise myself every morning. Physical exercise has therefore become part of my daily life.
- Would you give our readers an outline of your professional experience?
- I am English language teacher, and an author focused on Oromo related subjects. As I settled in Norway and learnt Norwegian, I felt obliged to break ground, to make my language known to more people, and to compile a trilingual, English-Norwegian-Oromo dictionary. I believe this helped a lot in raising global awareness and in diffusing Oromo culture at a global level. In addition, I have composed an Oromo Grammar, a book that is the first of its kind so far.
- Today how do you evaluate the presentation of the Oromos and the Oromo Ethiopian culture within the Primary and Secondary Education in Abyssinia?
- The Abyssinian rulers have been working indefatigably to eradicate the Oromo national existence and identity since the early days of the colonization of Oromia. First, they occupied our country with the help of European military might, intelligence, and financial and logistical assistance. The completion of Oromia’s occupation was followed by subsequent extensive massacres, a real genocide that still remains quasi-totally unknown by the rest of the world. It was an intentional act bearing all basic aspects of Genocide. To give you an example, during the Amhara Abyssinian invasion of Oromia (1880 - 1890), the Abyssinian army, accompanied by gangs of thugs and pillagers, perpetrated horrible acts as following: they amputated hands and breasts of Arsi-Oromos who gallantly and heroically resisted the colonial invasion, besieged in a Aanole, a great historical place.
Facing barbaric occupation forces led by Menelik II of Abyssinia, the Arsii-Oromo martyrs paid with their blood their national Oromo pride and their willingness to preserve their freedom and independence. Thus, was written at Aanole one of the bleakest moments of African History. During a single battle, around 12000 Arsii-Oromo fighters, men and women, were mercilessly murdered.
Unique mass grave of such size throughout Africa, Aanole Cenotaph is the place where 12000 people were buried collectively by the Abyssinian criminals; the act consists in one of the most abominable deeds ever carried out in Africa.
The Aanole act of ethnic cleansing is a pale competitor of many other murderous acts perpetrated by the all-committed Amhara Abyssinian invaders of Ethiopia. The Gullalle and Abbichuu Oromos in the central Oromia were met with the same anti-human attitude of the Amhara Abyssinians, who have always been an alien element in Oromia. Aged and adolescent Gullalle and Abbichuu Oromos were burned alive, locked in their homes, by the rejoicing Abyssinian invaders who wished to clear Ethiopia from its indigenous population, when trying to complete the master plan of the Abyssinian invasion.. Great Oromian Heroes like Tufa Muna and Birraatuu Gole fell in that battle, becoming the best personification of Diachronic African Soul.
The African Genocide has its own Geography; following the battle of Calii Calanqoo, in the eastern part of Oromia, extensive massacres of defenceless Oromians generated rivers of blood that testify to the real nature of the intentional murders perpetrated by the alien Abyssinian invaders.
The perpetration of Abyssinian genocide of Oromo Cushites was complimented by further acts and policies targeting the total extinction of the Oromo Cushitic Nation; these criminal deeds were cultural and linguistic of character.
Immediately after the Abyssinian invasion of Oromia, the invaders launched the Amharization project, which was part of the plan to eradicate the Oromo Cushitic National Identity. In doing so, the illiterate generals of the barbaric and obscurantist Kingdom of Abyssinia tried to destroy the Oromo Gada socio-political system, which bears witness to authentically African concepts and practices of Democracy, having nothing to envy from Pericles’ Athens.
The Amharization / Abyssinianization plan advanced in parallel with another project, namely the diffusion of the heretic, monophysitic version of Christianity among the Cushitic Oromians. This heresy has nothing in common with Western Christian denominations, and many Catholic missionaries and explorers found unmerited death in the hands of the Amhara Abyssinian heretics. Read the Catholic Encyclopaedia in www.advent.org, entry Abyssinia, and you will get an introductory picture….
As a matter of fact, they dictatorially imposed changes of thousands of toponymics, and attempted to enforce change of personal names of Oromo Cushites. To give you an idea, Biqilaa became Bekkele and Marga was turned to Eshetu.
In addition, the Abyssinian invaders and their barbaric Debteras attempted to amharize Oromo national names, names of important historical places, names of Oromo religious places and holy shrines; at the same time, they desecrated these places and sanctuaries.
Then, Finfinnee, the historical capital of Oromia, was renamed as Addis Ababa, and Bushooftu was turned to Debra Zeit; Hadaama was disfigured to Narerth, Abboomsa was transvested to Tinsae Berihan, and so on and so on.…
This is not the end of the story. The analphabetic Amhara invaders imposed tyrannically the so-called Abyssinian educational system, which is a form of perpetuating barbarism and analphabetism, Hatred for the ‘Other’, and ignorance. They try to do their best to prevent foreign scholars from reaching Gueze manuscripts, because they cannot read and understand them anymore, their tradition being mostly oral! This barbarism and targeted illiteracy they attempted to diffuse among the occupied Oromos, preaching the dictatorial concept of the supremacy of one religion, one language, and one ethnic group under the rule of the Abyssinian absolute monarchy ‘by the grace of god’.
Subsequently, they forbade the exercise of Oromiffa, the Oromo language, the Gada, the Oromo socially established system of Democracy, Waaqaa, the historical Oromo religion, an absolutely monotheistic and aniconic system of religion, and in general the Oromo culture, the Oromo way of life as a whole.
Speaking Afaan Oromo (as Oromiffa is also called), exercising Oromo ritual ceremonies, and practicing the Gada system as national institution became capital crime. They tried to physically exterminate the Oromo nation and to spiritually enslave all the survivors. In a nutshell, the Abyssinian predators and their analphabetic and barbaric bogus-Christian clergy left no stone unturned to annihilate our human essence and destroy our national identity once and for all.
They called us as they keep calling us ‘Gaallaas’, a derogatory term which means slave or cruel. This criminal project of dehumanizing, stigmatizing and obliterating our human and national existence – this ongoing African Genocide – has been intensified and carried out in a far more sophisticated way down to the present day.
The present Abyssinian educational institutions are the authentic continuation of all the tyrannical practices of the Abyssinian monarchy or Communist tyranny. From Menelik to Haile Selassie, and from Mengistu to Meles Zenawi nothing changed, except the product wrapping has been updated. Every system changes to adjust itself to a new environment; Abyssinia can hardly carry out this sort of change, and this does not pertain to the antihuman, barbaric and criminal nature of the invaders’ regime that remains untouched..
In today’s Oromia, the educational system is the regime’s key tool in promoting the ideological, cultural, social, political and economic and ideological dominance of another variant of the Abyssinian ruling elites (i.e. the Tigray ethnic groups’ ruling elite led by the anachronistic, quasi-monarch Meles Zenawi). Never forget that the Tigrays do not represent more than 12% of the country’s population! The present day educational curricula in Oromia’s primary and secondary schools are a mere photocopy of the traditional, century-long Abyssinian colonial policy.
The Abyssinian educational system is genuinely totalitarian of nature, as it inculcates in the minds of the schoolchildren a forced concept of unity that is not accepted by all the oppressed peoples of Abyssinia, and a fake idea of ‘democracy’ that involves undisputed acceptance of the regime’s bogus-historical dogma. The creators and the beneficiaries of the current educational system are the newly settled Tigray colonial class and their surrogate organizations, the PEDOs. The people at the head of educational pyramid are exclusively Amhara-Tigray debteras and their puppets. The system does not accept genuine Oromos instructors and native teachers belonging to other non-Abyssinian, oppressed peoples who would challenge the officially imposed dogma.
American Chronicle
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Part II
Oromo Leader Kamsare to UN: Ostracize Abyssinia’s Rogue Thug Zenawi
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
March 26, 2007
Following the publication of Oromo Leader Aman Kamsare’s interview before a week, a great mobilization has taken place, and the case of the oppressed peoples of fake ’Ethiopia’ was given wide attention.
As more people allover the world realize that the murderous African dictator Meles Zenawi and his daeth squads cannot be further allowed to perpetuate their antihuman, totalitarian policies, this second part of Mr. Aman Kamsare’s interview sheds more light on the Abyssinian regime’s discriminatory policies, and on the ways Mr. Kamsare and the Front for Independence of Oromia (FIO)
challenge today’s most repellant African tyranny.
Having spent many long years in the inhuman Abyssinian prisons, the Oromo leader calls for Free Oromia, Humanism, Democracy, Freedom, and Human Rights’ Respect in one of the world’s most sensitive, strategic areas; this is the only way to avert the explosion of the African Islamic Terror Volcano that has been generated because of the inhuman policies practiced by the bogus-‘Ethiopian’ gangster state. The note at the end of the interview reveals the personality of the Visionary Oromo Leader Aman Kamsare.
Interview with Mr. Aman Kedir Kamsare, Vice Chairman of the Front for Independence of Oromia – Second Part
- What aspects of Amhara / Tigray Abyssinian oppression are unbearable and inhuman?
- What the Amhara / Tigray Abyssinian ruling classes have been and are currently doing against me personally, and against my nation as a whole, is totally inhuman, unbearable and barbaric. They destroyed our national existence in its entirety. They occupied our country by force and dismantled Gadaa, our centuries old, genuinely democratic socio-political system, replacing it by the Abyssinian feudal – monarchical administration that – exported to another country – took immediately a clearly colonial character.
More precisely, they divided our country into tiny provinces, and attempted to play colonial tricks by turning a group of Oromos against another. They arbitrarily imprisoned, killed, dislocated, and tortured an extraordinarily high number of our fellow country men and women. Furthermore, they robbed our natural resources, depriving us from our national wealth; Oromia was rich in gold and coffee, which became a monopoly of the Abyssinian colonial invaders.
On many occasions, Abyssinian soldiers and gendarmerie raped Oromo women and girls; they systematically burned our houses and our forests, causing therefore a dramatic transfiguration at the social level, and an environmental depletion as regards the ecosystem. In brief, they destroyed our national and natural environment.
Oromia, as African homeland without extensive contacts with other parts of the world, was relatively immune from a great number of diseases before the arrival of the Abyssinian invaders. They brought in various contaminations and diseases, such as syphilis and gonorrhoea. Generally, they did to us what English colonialism did to Kenya, what apartheid did to South Africa, and they did what all colonial powers did to the rest of Africa at the times of the colonization of this continent.
In the case of the Abyssinian invasion of Oromia, the difference lies only in the skin colour of the colonizer, our colonials’ skin is black whereas the other African peoples’ colonizers’ skin was white.
Sometimes it is even difficult to compare the Abyssinian brutality and inhumanity with that of the European colonizers. The Abyssinian attitude of the colonizers has been more crude, more barbaric and more intolerable than that of the Europeans. Saying this, I want merely to emphasize on the bitterness of Abyssinian oppression; it would never be my intention to opt for a colonial master instead of another, as I do reject colonialism in its entirety.
Personally, I fell victim of their inhuman treatment in very young age. As I mentioned already, without a trial, I was imprisoned, and I spent no less than 12 years of agonizing, traumatising and anguishing prison life in Amhara-Tigray colonial custody. During my long stay in prison, they violated my physical integrity as a person. They denied my inalienable right to peaceful life. They subjected me to extremely brutal physical tortures. Many times, they whipped me while they were drunk. They kept me alone in solitary confinements in the Alambakany, Ma’ikalawi, and Assallaa Karchalle jails, and in the Korea and Dhedheessaa concentration camps. In all these prisons, I was not only brutally tortured by the Abyssinian sadist soldiers but I was also afflicted by urine and forced defecation. They did not allow me to go to toilet on time. I had to manage to get to the toilet once every 48 hours, lest I be noticed by someone. I was not only tortured by various sadomasochistic methods, but also bred parasites, such as lice, fleas and rats.
By far, the most terrible kind of torture I experienced in the Abyssinian prison cells was mental torture. They used to threaten me with death. They let me believe that I was condemned – in absentia – to death. They repeatedly tried to force me to confess crimes that I had not committed barely for my belongingness to the Oromo people. They ceaselessly told me that they would execute me on the next day if I refused to confess what they demanded.
Along with my fellow inmates, I was forced to observe other prisoners digging their own graves. Is there anything more inhuman, unbearable and horrible than this?
- Would you describe the political situation in Abyssinia during the current Tigray-led regime?
- The political situation in Abyssinia during the current Tigray-TPLF led regime turns from bad to worse. It would not an exaggeration to characterize the current Abyssinian regime led by Meles Zenawi as neo-colonialist and crypto-fascist of nature. In order to hide its tyrannical and brutal nature, the Zenawi regime camouflaged itself behind a mask of democracy.
Democracy is a shield of mendacity due to which the Meles Zenawi regime confuses the international community, and gets assistance for its war project. There is a vast difference between words and deeds. Chanting the slogan of democracy and self-determination, the Zenawi regime imprisons, tortures and executes those struggling for genuine democracy and self-determination.
Throughout History, experience teaches that Abyssinian regimes and ruling elites cannot be democratic or manage to have a human face. Chauvinism, dictatorship, and totalitarian social traits are their common denominator. What we witnessed during the last two successive regimes is precisely the unfolding of these typified Abyssinian characteristics.
The defunct Communist military junta led by Mengistu Hailemariam revealed its true nature through a painful process that lasted almost two decades. The same thing holds true for the current Tigray Abyssinian regime led by Meles Zenawi. The typical features of all the Abyssinian regimes, including the recent TPLF regime, are chauvinism, inhumanity, and tyranny.
As it happened with its predecessors, the main strategic objective of the Tigray-led regime is to create an artificial Ethiopia that is dominated and controlled by the Tigray ruling elites. The tactics and the coverage they employ may vary, but the hidden agenda is always the same. And this is what we are attesting today, in front of our eyes…
I want therefore to underscore the fact that the TPLF oppressive regime led by Meles Zenawi proved to be the bitterest enemy of the people of Oromia. It waged an undeclared war against the Oromo people since its grip on power. Over the past fifteen years, it has conducted a selective extermination of the Oromians, who all desire fervently to become an independent nation. A great number of Oromians have been kidnapped by the regime’s assassination squads, and we have no information concerning their whereabouts and fate.
The TPLF regime did not only reveal its racist anti-Oromo face in the most hideous way, but it also did its best to make others hate the Oromo people. As soon as it seized the totalitarian state power, it devised a three-faceted anti-Oromo strategy:
a)dividing and ruling the Oromo people,
b)reorganizing and using the classical Amhara settler colonial class against the Oromians, and
c)pitting other oppressed peoples and ethnic groups of Abyssinia against the Oromo people, thus refuelling territorial conflicts.
The target behind all this was to finally crush the Oromo struggle for independence through all possible biases, involving of course extensive use of military force.
What few people understand is that the main objective of the recent aggressive attitude and war against the Republic of Somalia is the completion of the long-standing Abyssinian colonial project of destroying Oromia. By preventing Oromian fighters of independence from having a hinterland for their struggle, the Zenawi regime thinks ‘Oromia’ while talking ‘Somalia’.
- Would you describe the main fields of Human Rights' violations in Abyssinia?
- Human rights are violated in Abyssinia at all levels, from economic, to social, cultural, and political. To start with, the right of the Oromo people to self-determination is absolutely denied. The present Abyssinian colonialist regime recognizes the right of Oromo people for self-determination only in words. The theoretical acceptance of this right Is actually presented it as apologetics geared only for governmental propaganda; practically speaking it is meaningless. If there is a real right for self-determination in Abyssinia, it applies only to the ruling colonial Amhara and Tigray elites, and eventually to their satellite organizations.
The current Abyssinian regime does not only grossly violate peoples’ right to self-determination but it also severely abuses individual human rights. Abyssinia is a country in which the most elementary Human Rights are being constantly violated. In today’s Abyssinia, breaking the physical integrity of a person is not an exception but the prevailing rule and norm.
Above all, there is no law to guarantee the right to life. Arbitrary arrest, extra-judicial killing, and extensive torture are rampant under Meles Zenawi regime of Abyssinia. The right to one’s own property is totally abrogated. The land is massively owned by the ruling Tigray elite. It possesses absolute and unlimited power to evict the Oromo peasantry from their lands; the same applies to other non Abyssinian peoples.
- What are your relations and your differences with the OLF?
- My organization, Front for Independence of Oromia (FIO), has similarities and differences with the OLF and other Oromo liberation forces. We believe that our differences are reconcilable and can be bridged through constructive dialogue. Our basic concern is with the pro-Abyssinian elements that have infiltrated the leadership recently, and contributed to a revision of the original political program. We tolerated the internal weaknesses that permeated the OLF for decades. We tolerated the lack of experience and the incompetence of its leadership for we hoped it could be overcome through time. However, we could not accept that among the OLF leadership prevailed pro-Abyssinian and defeatist elements that promote policies of capitulation, therefore becoming sort of advocates of the Abyssinian pseudo-democracy and the globalization rhetoric. That is why we took some distance, dissociating ourselves from this group. We launched FIO without being antagonists with OLF in its entirety; we simply underscored our difference with the pro-Abyssinian elements among the OLF leadership, as this is crucial and fundamental. We categorically repudiate the recent political marriage consummated between the old Amhara-Abyssinian neo-colonial elites and the pro-Abyssinian faction of the OLF under the hypocritical pretext of alliance and tactics. This is totally unacceptable for us, and absolutely incompatible with our political position. However, we are currently focused on our own activities without comparing and/or contrasting with OLF.
We have a clear vision and a definite ideological outlook. Using the term ‘ideology’, I do not refer to the old polarization between the socialist and the capitalist worlds. I mostly mean the ideas that are the driving force in our struggle for independence, and the advocacy for the liberation of the people of Oromia.
We at FIO believe that a qualitative transformation can be brought about in our society chiefly through the development of the inner, behavioural, spiritual and cultural dynamics of our Oromo Nation.
Any external conditioning depends mainly on our internal characteristics; we should not forget this. In addition, we are fully aware that, however fine and attractive the help, the influence, and the impact of others may be, we can only genuinely transform our own reality, on the basis of a detailed, multifaceted and multi-dimensional knowledge of Oromia, of our Culture, of our People, and thanks to our own efforts and sacrifices. We strongly believe that national liberation and fundamental social change are not exportable commodities. They are mainly local, national phenomena and situations, no matter to what extent they may/might be influenced by favourable and unfavourable external factors. This means our destiny is in our hands.
We firmly believe that our fate is essentially determined and conditioned by the historical reality of our people. We do not dream to free ourselves by relying on external forces. We do not suffer from any ideological deficiency syndrome, and our minds are free of any self-deception strategy, unlike the pro-Abyssinian globalist elements.
For us independence is not given.
It is something that we can make.
We have clear political principles and program. Our guiding principle is the right of the people of Oromia for self-determination. I understand that the term self-determination can at times be illusive and very ambiguous. By self-determination we do not mean a form of state organization included within the Abyssinian totalitarian state. We do not consider self-determination as compatible with any sort of federation within, let alone union with, Abyssinia.
According to our definition, self-determination has nothing in common with the principle of joint-determination. Neither is it depending on electoral circumstances or constitutional machinations.
By self-determination we mean the formation of an Independent, Democratic, Republic of Oromia.
Nothing more and nothing less.
To achieve this goal we believe in, and work for, the complete eradication of Abyssinian colonialism. This signifies for us, Oromians, the ultimate the obliteration of slavery in Abyssinia and Oromia. However bitter our situation may be, this is a bitter truth, and we must acknowledge it. We tell this truth, without disguising it, to both our enemies and our friends. We just do not accept slavery. We actually never did.
This artificial fabrication, the Abyssinian or ‘Ethiopian’ Empire, was never a nation; it never became a nation. Even worse for its ruling classes, it was never accepted as the realm of a nation by the oppressed nations and masses. Under its various metamorphoses, it has always been an alien, imposed empire. Because of this, it has always been a moribund construction, a gradually decaying state liable only to natural death.
We have our clear strategic objectives. The formation of an Independent, Democratic, Republic of Oromia has three dimensions, which are complimentary and indivisible:
1. Territorial Integrity of Oromia. This means we stand for the restoration of the historical Orom-biyyaa. Sticking to our Principles and Ideals, we do not intend to inherit the artificial colonial boundaries that are irrelevant, a simple historical monument of undeserved experience. The international borders of Oromia will be the borders that pre-existed to the Abyssinian colonial invasion.
2. Popular Sovereignty in Oromia. This signifies that the supreme power in Oromia emanates from the People of Oromia. No other authority can be placed higher than our People in our country.
3. The rise of the Democratic Society of Oromia. By democratic social system, we refer to Gada, the historical, genuinely African system of Democratic Society that has for centuries reflected the Kushitic Values of Humanity, Fraternity, Justice, Equity and Freedom. In tomorrow’s Oromia, Gada will be the source of our Political and Constitutional Philosophy. As it can be easily deduced, Gada is diametrically opposed to the bogus-concept of the so-called “Abyssinian democracy”.
As I pointed out earlier, our mission is not to democratizing a colonial empire which is an obsolete system, but to definitely dismantle it. Our objective is not to replace colonialist rulers with new, this time Oromo native, oppressors and tyrants. We aspire to put an end to slavery and injustice in all their forms, be they internal or external. This clear position alleviates the eventual ‘threat’ of an Oromo elite rising to replace within the same state’s frame the Amhara – Tigray ruling class. This would change only the name of the tyranny, and is of purely anti-Oromo, anti-Kushitic character.
We have a realistic, national strategy. We do not indulge ourselves in a daydream of passivism. We are for peace and we are against defeatism. We shall not allow any further harm to be made to the Oromo Nation. We have the right to continue to exist and to prosper as a Great African Nation. Abyssinians have deployed their greatest effort to destroy us as a Nation. They never understood the language of Peace. The only language they understand is that of the gun. Consequently, a liberation war is not our choice. It is a reality - imposed on us. We are left with no alternative.
We die and bleed in our invaded country because we are still being Oromos. Anguished, we have been languished in the hell of the Abyssinian prisons because of our national identity. Our choice is either to perish or to accept slavery.
To survive from the long lasting Oromo Holocaust and live in National Dignity, we must defend ourselves. As we are devoured by the Abyssinian political and military hyenas, we are forced to oppose them by all means and make them harmless to our wives, children and the elders..
As a matter of fact, we have a realistic plan of action. We believe in action rather than empty words. We want to be judged not only on the basis of political discourses but mainly on account of our deeds.
- Are you happy with the international awareness and outreach work performed so far by Oromo intellectuals and political activists allover the world?
- No, I am not satisfied with the international awareness of our situation. Unfortunately, we are victims of a certain misunderstanding. To assess correctly, the international community seems not to have properly understood us. This is due to certain reasons.
One of them is the Abyssinian state’s monopoly of information. The international community is denied access to authentic information from original sources. They seem to be ‘forced’ to accept what the Abyssinian state’s representatives, the diplomats, ministers, and high administrators, narrate to them about Abyssinia, named ‘Ethiopia’. The international community has not yet shaped a perspicacious view into the realities of the Abyssinian tyranny. Their idea about the so-called ‘Ethiopia’ is a fiction.
Another reason is the fact that the European colonial powers have the interest to maintain the Abyssinian colonial empire, preserving the Amhara and Tigray elites in power. As a matter of fact, the artificial ‘Ethiopian’ empire was originally created by the European colonial powers themselves. One should not forget this historically reality. They used the small, anachronistic, medieval monarchy of Abyssinia, turning it to the cornerstone of the entire colonization of the Horn of Africa.
History teaches that Abyssinia was the only black kingdom – tiny at those days – that participated in the disreputable 1884 Berlin Conference that left bleak memories throughout the Black Continent where we call it “the Scramble for Africa”. Only after that day, the Abyssinian monarchy started expanding as a buffer colonial state geared to bring balance among the British, French, Italian and German zones of colonial division of Africa. All this happened to the prejudice of the Oromos, the Sidamas, the Ogadenis and the Afars, who have been gradually colonized by the Abyssinian monarchical tyranny.
I appeal to the democratic, freedom-loving international community. We are victims of injustice. We are being killed, imprisoned, tortured, and dislocated without the dictatorial state of Abyssinia being held responsible for any crime. We do not demand privileges.
We request that the fundamental Human Right, the Right to Self-Determination, the right to live in our own homeland, should be respected for the Great Historical Nation of the Oromos as well.
The international community should put themselves in our shoes so that they get an idea of how dramatic and inhuman our situation is.
- Would you explain to our readers the meaning and the identity of the 'Debteras'?
- Both Amhara and Tigray Debteras (the ruling Abyssinian elites) are of the same nature. They are fanatically religious and fervently chauvinists. Sticking to their heretic version of Monophysitism, they never accept that they are by nature equal with those they – shamelessly – consider as their subjects.
The medieval and totalitarian Debteras prefer to die rather than to accept that the Amhara and Tigray ethnic groups are equal with the oppressed by them non-Abyssinian peoples. Do not even mention the independence of these peoples!
The massively analphabetic Debteras are perilous indeed for the entire African continent; they have been accustomed with the idea of declaring wars after wars. They believe they have a kind of messianic right to rule and dominate others. Having a dangerous, racist and bogus-messianic vision about Abyssinia, they are genuine messengers of historical falsification, obscurantism, violence, hatred, and ignorance. They murdered many European explorers who intended to study their own, Abyssinian, past, and publish Cueze manuscripts. They are absurd, paranoid, and Oromo-phobic; they are characterized by suspicion against, and rejection of, the ‘Other’, whoever and whatever the ‘Other’ may be.
I have never come across an Abyssinian Debtera who would face the truth, and courageously and boldly accept the crimes committed against the Oromo people and other nations; let alone apologize!
In vain, and in striking contrast with today’s miserably low economic and technological level of underdeveloped Abyssinia, they keep preaching the glory of the past Abyssinian kingdom, eulogizing in racist terms the Abyssinian nation, language, and heretic religion.
Among themselves, they miserably compete with one another about who will kill more, who will imprison more, and who will plunder more; the concept of Crime against Humanity does not exist for them.
As it can be understood, in their mind they do not offer any space for the oppressed nations; and in their imperial tyranny, the only free space they offer to the oppressed peoples is at gunpoint.
- The Oromos are a sizeable Kushitic people of Africa; what are your connections and relations with other African Kushitic peoples, the Berbers of Atlas, the Haussa, and others?
- For me the national names Oromians, Kushites, Berbers, Hausas, Sudanese, and Egyptians are synonyms. They are variants denoting the same people under various linguistic designations. To commit a conscious mistake, I would name myself Kushite or Berber, Haussa, Sudanese and Egyptian rather than calling myself an Ethiopian. The Abyssinian Debteras have stolen the historically Kushitic name ‘Ethiopia’, falsely attributing it to their colonial empire, which was created with the help of the European colonial military machine.
- Mr. Kamsare, thank you for this interview.
NOTE
In the picture, behind Mr. Aman Kamsare, we can distinguish two red paintings; the one at the left was drawn by Ms. Inger Sitter, one of the most famous Norwegian painters, an impressionist. The painting’s title is ‘Red’ and it symbolizes power, life, and temperament. The painting to the right was illustrated by the world known Norwegian painter, Ms. Gunvar Advocat, Norway’s leading impressionist. Entitled ‘Red Diamond’, the painting expresses power and silence. Mr. Kamsare’s predilection for colour combinations involving black, red and white is only normal; these are the three colours of the National Oromo flag, which features three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red and white.
American Chronicle
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