AbebeB wrote: ↑16 Oct 2020, 14:33
የአባቶቻቸውን ሀይማኖት የጠሉት ኮ/ል አብይ አህመድ አሊ እና አቶ ደመቀ መኮንን ሐሰን የአያታቸው ሚንሊክን ፓለቲካ እንዴት ወደዱ?
ኮ/ል አብይ አህመድ አሊ
አቶ ደመቀ መኮንን ሐሰን
በአባቶቻቸው በኩል ከሙስሊሙ እምነት ተከታይ የህ/ሰባችን ክፍል የመጡ ሲሆን የሚከተሉት ግን የኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሂዶ ሀይማኖት (የደብተራ ወንጌል) እና የብልጽግና ወንገል ነው፡፡ ነገር ግን የሚከተሉት የፓለቲካ ሥርዓት ግን የተመሰረተው በሚንሊክ ቅኝ ገዥ ላይ ነው፡፡ ስለዚህ አነዚህ ሁለቱ ሰዎች ከኦሮሞነት መሸሽ የተያያዙት በአማራ እናታቸው ቅኝት ስለአደጉ የኦሮሞ የሆነውን ጠልተው እምዬ ሚንልክንና የአማራን ሀይማት መረጡ ማለት ነው፡፡
የአያታቸው ሚንሊክን ፓለቲካ እንዴት ወደዱ? The following is more or less the reason why:
• Ethiopia was not an invention by Emperor Menelik II. It is the most ancient nation-state, whose civilization predates almost every modern nation- state in Africa, Europe and Asia. Emperor Menilek simply completed the process of re-unification that began long before him, with Emperors Tewodros II, TekleHaimanot, and Yohannes the IV. These rulers were well-aware that they failed to restore the entire Ethiopia’s historical domains, having lost considerable portion to the European colonial conquerors. However, they did neither conquer nor acquire new lands beyond bringing together the two families, the north and the south, separated from each other for a short while due to the weakening of the central authority.
• Each of these emperors was supported by admirably able and talented generals, such as Ras Alula from Tegray, Ras Dareso from Gojam, Ras Gobena from Shawa, and Ras Makonnen of Harar, known as the four cornerstones of the Resurgent Ethiopia.
• Each of these rulers were of multi-ethnic background, so too were their leading generals as well as their armies.
• Unlike most of the nations of the world, where the core group in the central government forcefully imposed its creed and culture by destroying that of the periphery, Ethiopia, throughout its history, has always been a multi-ethnic, and a multi-religious nation-state, with a variety of life-styles, ranging from the Oromo pastoralists to sedentary population, specializing in diverse professions.
᎐ Contrary to other civilizations, the central government in Ethiopia never attempted to impose its worldview, or one specific ethnic identity, or culture. That is the only reason why in one of the oldest nation-states in the world (Ethiopia), there are still even today so many languages, ethnic groups, religions, and professions, and the people are the most hybrid, and the most tolerant in the world until, unfortunately, these crypto-ethnicists showed up, surprisingly quite unexpectedly.
• That Emperor Menilek II expropriated lands during the re-unification process and gave them to the Amharas is a gigantic myth, perpetuated by those who are ignorant of Ethiopian social milieu. .... To start with, Menilek’s army was multi-ethnic, the Oromo ethnic groups being its largest component, and its greatest beneficiary too, because they filled most of the administrative and military’s highest ranks. Both of Menilek’s policies, i. e. reunification and administration, have won deep admiration of the world’s renown writers, academics, statesmen, and the Europeans in his court, or those who accompanied him in his reunification campaign, and even his deadly enemies were no exception in admiring his leadership qualities. Contrary to the malicious portray by these crypto-ethnicists, these world renown personalities describe Menilek II as personifying the epitome of wisdom, and foresightedness, and as an exemplary to any civilized world.
• Ethiopians spoke and learnt Amharic, not because they were of Amhara ethnic groups (a thing that exists only in the minds of these writers). Amharic has been Ethiopia’s national language since time immemorial and every European traveler, or visitor (since the Middle Ages), attests this basic fact, that Amharic was spoken throughout the Ethiopian nation-state. Though only an elementary knowledge is needed to establish this fact, these writers however, the highest level of their education notwithstanding, seem incapable to tell the difference between ethnicity and the lingua franca of a country. It had become the dominant language not because imposed by the Amhara ruling class (which in reality hardly existed except in the imagination of these confused and ill-bred, and ill-educated narrow ethno-nationalists), but because the Ethiopian people found it to be the best and the ideal. It may have some remote connection with the region anciently known as Amhara, an area known as a melting pot of many cultures and religions, a true embodiment of actualEthiopia itself. Reliable studies suggest that no single ethnic group may own it, as it is a language developed largely as a result of pidginization and creolization out of several Ethiopian languages, and ethnic groups, in the style of Hausa, Swahili and the creole languages. It is indisputably rich, fluid, elastic, and sophisticated with no parallel in any Ethiopian languages and, in fact, most of the world’s languages. It is a language of Wax and Gold that one expects only from the Ethiopians, people endowed with pregnant wit and creative genius.
• The idea that people were forced to abandon their language and culture exists only in the fancy world of these writers’ imagination. If the Ethiopian government did not promote or encourage the study and learning of each ethnic group’s language, history or culture, it does not require great imagination to find out that the problem lies elsewhere: the country’s infant and struggling modern economy (with no potential to fund even the most basics), is responsible, and not politics. As someone born in the south, I would advise these writers to stop from patronizing the Southerners, by trying to be their spokespersons, or meddling in the affairs of, other Ethiopians. I am sure none of them want you to be their Moses. Just speak to your wretched self.
.......
Gada system, presenting to the naïve and unsuspecting westerners as an indigenous egalitarian democratic system, which in truth is a socio-political institution that is inherently criminal and terroristic with in-built genocidal features. We know from the history books, written by both locals and foreigners alike, that the Gada system is responsible for wiping out the whole gamut of civilizations from the face of Ethiopia by levelling to the ground cities, villages, and destroying cultures with its wanton and wholesale massacre of their innocent inhabitants, including children and pregnant women, cutting genitals, breasts and heads as trophies to feed and satisfy the exalted heroism of each successive Luba generation, which is naturally bent in outdoing its predecessor in savagery and barbaric cruelty.
Ethiopia and Menilek respected the time-honored cultures and languages of every ethnic group, whereas the Gada system obliterated them completely from the face of the earth, imposing, through mechanisms known as Gabar, Garba, Gudifacha or Mogasa, an Oromo identity, and reducing the entire population to a status that was not better, actually worse,than slavery. Idealizing this cruel and genocidal system as democratic is tantamount to glorifying Hitlerian Nazism or Southern USA Jim Crows as the highest manifestation of humankind’s political advancement. These intellectuals, instead of being ashamed of, or condemning it in the strongest term possible, or campaigning for a total banishment of what actually is a naked barbarism and anti-civilization, are actually and unashamedly trying to describe it in grandiose terms as being the sublime manifestation of Oromo society’s premature advancement in the art of governance.
Taken from: Address to the Oromo Intellectuals’ || Professor Haile M. Larebo
August 25, 2019
