Oropia is a Goal of High Confidence, Federalism is an Aim of Intermediate Confidence and Oromia is a Vision of Law Confidence!
No question that all Oromo nationals agree on one common goal of bilisummà/freedom. Where we may differ is in the type of walabummà/sovereignty we want to have after achieving freedom from any subjugation under Habesha elites. We do have three possible types of sovereignty: 1. an independent republic of Oromia, 2. genuine ethnic federal union led by Oromia, and 3. an integrative Oropia (Oromummà led Ethiopia). The first goal is what we planed as we had low confidence at the beginning of our struggle. The second aim is what we are entertaining now, during transitional time, with intermediate confidence. The third vision will be what we may develop in the future as we get high confidence to own and lead the whole country, which shall be de facto bigger Oromia being also designated as Oropia. It is clear that the Oromo society still entertains these three objectives regarding sovereignty (an independent Oromia, a federal Union and an integrative Oropia). There was no difference on the common vision: freedom from the oppressive system. The triangular post-freedom vision includes in summary:
– to materalize Oromia inside of Oropia as happening now; i.e federal Union.
– to implement Oromia neighbouring Abyssinia as one option of development from the federal Union; which is an independent Oromia.
– to realize Oropia as another option of federal Union’s further transformation, i.e an integrative Oropia.
Read more: https://orompia.wordpress.com/2023/04/2 ... ly-oropia/
Re: Oropia is a Goal of High Confidence, Federalism Aim of Intermediate Confidence and Oromia is a Vision of Law Confide
There was a time, when Oromo freedom fighters wanted to liberate Oromo people from any sort of subjugation in Abyssinian empire without trying to demarcate extra Oromia; for instance, we can mention the movements like Ràyyà Oromo revolt, Bàlé Oromo resistance, initiation of Maccà Tülama Association, Oromo struggle led by ME’ISON and IC’AT as well as formation of ENLF (Ethiopian National Liberation Front), which was forerunner of the OLF. Then, we came into a situation, which helped some Oromo nationals perceive, accept and respect the existence of Oromo national area in the empire, which was initially forged by Tülama Oromo: the Habeshanized Tülama (emperor Menilik) and the Non-Habeshanized Tülama (general Gôbanà), but yet without an attempt to separate this area from the empire, which is said to be build by blood and bone of Oromo people.
We also started to think, not only about existence of Oromo national area, but also about necessity of liberating this region in form of an independent Gadà Republic of Oromia. Now, there is even an idea of taking the whole Ethiopia as Oropia. These three visions (Oromia inside of Oropia, Oromia neighbouring Abyssinia and Oropia without Oromia) as well as the respective political movements are still entertained in Oromo society at large; common denominator of the three forces was achieving unconditional freedom of the Oromo from any sort of political domination, economic exploitation and cultural suppression. There is no organization in the name of Oromo struggling for the third version, but there are a lot of Oromo nationals in the so-called multinational Ethiopian parties having this vision.
That is why I do now think that Oromo national liberation movement has two wings and middle-body as three important positions, from where it is fighting against the enemy. One wing wants to change the whole Ethiopia, name the country, if necessary, as Oropia and promote Afan Oromo to federal working language of the country, but disregarding self-rule of Oromia; the middle-body wants to establish an independent Oromia, which will have an influential position in whole region of the Horn of Africa; another wing wants to liberate Oromia within Oropia and make it be leading nation-state of the whole country. These three parts of Oromo national liberation movement are now trying to harmonize their moves against our common enemy, i.e. against the dictatorial Abyssinianists. Accordingly, we do now find Oromo national liberation movement in all spectrum of opposition parties and liberation fronts against the oppressive system. Surprisingly, there is no organization on the ground to represent the whole national liberation movement coordinating and accommodating all three parts. This reality persuades us to think that Oromo liberation in one of three forms is inevitable, and the possible future three types of our sovereignty are not as such disadvantageous for Oromo people.
The three parts of our national liberation movement are results of three approaches we, Oromo nationals, do have towards our history. It seems that we are treating our history in three dimensions: (1) as only common proud history of Oromia and Abyssinia, such as the Adwa Battle; (2) as only conflicting parallel history of Oromia and Abyssinia, such as Minilik invasion and the so-called Oromo expansion; (3) as both common proud history and conflicting parallel history of Oromia and Abyssinia. Now, we do see that the consequences of the above three approaches are three possible destinies regarding future Oromian sovereignty. To achieve our freedom efficiently, despite these different views, we had to firstly try to fight together for our common freedom from the Abyssinianist elites’ system of domination, and now we need to choose one of the following styles/types of sovereignty based on the version of Oromo history we respectively do have in mind. It is clear that:
– those, who tend to accept both common proud part and conflicting parallel part of our history, opt for liberation in English style. The English people liberated themselves from the 700-years rule of Roman empire, forged England as autonomous region and united it with the neighboring others to form British United Kingdom; they also promoted English to working language of the Kingdom. Can’t Oromia, being autonomous and free from alien forces, be united with the neighboring autonomous regions to forge Oromia within Oropian union, similar to that of British United Kingdom and promote Afan Oromo to working language of the union?
– those, who perceive only conflicting parallel history, prefer liberation in Russian style. Russian elites dismantled the Soviet union and established Russian federation, which uses Russian national language, the federation which still does have an influence on its neighboring nations, because of its economic and military strength. Does this way of dismantling the empire and fostering the highly wished independent Oromia to have further influence over other liberated neighboring countries more advantageous than the first two types of sovereignty?
– those, who do believe in only common proud history, tend to choose liberation of Oromia in Indian style. Hindi people liberated all nations and nationalities in their region, and named the whole country as India, made Hind working language of Indian federation and, of course, they divided national area of Hindi into multiple federal regions. Why not we, Oromo people, be liberated with whole nations and nationalities in the empire, call the whole country ‘Oropia’ and promote Afàn Oromô to working language of the federation, with the historical local Odà’s of Oromia (Odà-Bisil, -Bulluqi, -Bultum, -Gàrres, -Makodi, -Nabé and -Rôbà) being future separate federal regions of the country?
All Oromo nationals are entitled to choose what we believe is the best for our nation; what matters, at last, is, of course, the voice of Oromo majority. I think, at present, Oromia’s self-rule and/or Oropian shared-rule should be agenda of Oromo people, in contrast to the federation or separation goal of Tigrayan elites. Interestingly, the three Abyssinianist groups (elites of Amara, Tigrai and Eritrea) have got only one option respectively in their political struggle: Amara elites still can only sing about Indian-style for they know that Amarinya has got privilege to be federal language of the empire; Eritrean elites, as minority at periphery, were so insecure to live within Ethiopia so they had only the alternative of separation (Russian-style); Tigrayan elites can neither have language privilege to opt for Indian-style nor the capacity to live alone as an independent nation in order to choose Russian-style, so they do stick to English-style. But, Oromo people being majority in the whole country can play all the three cards (English-, Russian- and Indian-style) as long as rule of game in the region will be freedom and democracy. So, let us, Oromo people, use our advantage and struggle with all pro-freedom and pro-democracy forces of the Empire against the system of domination to come to position of voting for one of these three options.
As far as I am concerned, all the three ways are not harmful, but the decision must be made by the politically-conscious Oromo polity and Oromo public per referendum, when the time comes. This short essay is a bitter pill I wanted to present to Oromo foes, who are nowadays delighted by observing division of Oromo national liberation vanguard (the OLF). For their information, OLF has got in its pocket, from the very beginning, only one goal of reedom, which, at the same time, can be interpreted as three types of sovereignty, and it plays with these three cards based on the objective reality it is in, i.e. according to the “here and now” of situations. Even though one aim of freedom is Oromo national self-determination, the three interpretations of the objective are:
– self-rule of Oromia within a shared rule of Oropia = internal self-determination of the nation,
– self-rule of Oromia without shared-rule of Oropia = external self-determination of the Oromo, and
– Oromian citizens’ freedom to have referendum on this issue of external self-determination Vs. internal self-determination.
We know that OLF permanently advocates for all the three: independence of Oromia, Oromos’ right to self-determination, and Ethiopian union of free peoples. It emphasizes one of these three interpretations according to the condition of time (according to the Zeitgeist). Whenever Abyssinianist elites become arrogant and start to sing about unconditional unity of their empire with suppression of Oromos’ national rights, it stresses the necessity of an independent Oromia, of course, undermining the possible union. The logic behind this position is that whenever there is suppression, there will be a move for separation. When some reasonable politicians from different nations in the empire start to recognize the God-given right of Oromo nation to self-determination, the OLF starts to play the card of an appropriate decision per referendum either for external self-determination or for internal self-determination. Now, the one structural OLF, which we, Oromo nationals, have believed to own, has been divided into three, each of the factions just taking as goal one of the three interpretations of the goal regarding sovereignty of Oromia:
– OLF appears to have the Oromo national self-determination as its goal, being open for both external self-determination and internal self-determination as far as the Oromo majority will decide for one of the two.
– ONP (Oromian National Party) seems to make no compromise on external self-determination.
– ODF favors internal self-determination of nations in Oropia so that it tries to seek cooperation with Oromo nationals in the ruling party, and at the same time, it strives for possible alliance with reasonable “pro-unity and democratic” Habesha opposition forces.
Anyways, a merdo (bad news) to foes of Oromo national liberation movement is that Oromo organizations will never give up the struggle for right of Oromo nation to national self-determination until Oromo people become determiners of our own destiny, be it within Oropian union or without the union. Otherwise, let’s differentiate rhetoric from real conviction. We have heard certain Oromo politicians talking about the “fact” that Oromo people do not want “secession.” But, I do consider that such talking about the Oromo wanting independence or not is wrong generalization. One thing we need to know as fact is that almost all Oromo politicians (including those who do make the above mentioned rhetoric), deep in their hearts, believe in right of Oromo nation to national self-determination. This is the hallmark of Oromo nationalists, and it is the aim of our mindset (that of our spiritual organization, the OLF). This mindset, the OLF, has got only one aim of freedom with three interpretations regarding sovereignty, but it also pursues the following three strategies with their respective rhetoric:
– OLF mindset in rebel organizations has got an explicit rhetoric of self-determination, i.e. in form of national freedom, be it within or without union, and it fights for this goal by all means,
– OLF mindset in opposition organizations has got the rhetoric of struggling for liberation in only Oropian context, but it covertly struggles for the same kaayyoo of self-determination,
– OLF mindset in the ruling organization has got the rhetoric, which says: “we have already achieved the liberation,” but yet it also covertly pushes for the same and similar objective.
So, our fellow Oromo nationals, let’s allow this mindset consolidate the freedom we already achieved in all the three ways, despite the rhetoric of some Oromo nationalists in the opposition and in the ruling Oromo organizations. Let our foes know exactly that, despite the different rhetoric, Oromo national liberation movement can never be stopped till it achieves Oromia’s sovereignty of any type. We only need to motivate ourselves just to make our respective rhetoric and to do our practice in national liberation movement on the way each of us chooses in order to come to the only one goal of national self-determination. We have to forget the rhetoric of Oromo politicians in the ruling party and in the opposition parties, who had their talks under the gunpoint of the dictators (they just dened right of Oromo people to self-determination at gunpoint), and let’s strive to achieve our objective, which is already determined by our mindset, the OLF.
I am personally against any sort of dictatorial unity, and I am supporter of possible union of free peoples in Ethiopia based on free will of respective peoples. Any unity without Oromo’s public verdict will fail, take it only 1 year, about 10 years or as long as 100 years. That is why I do advocate for lasting solution based on free will of all the stakeholders, instead of the temporary unity as wishy-washy solution. Some organizations had chosen unconditional unity of the country as precondition for an alliance against the regime, but the unity they do strive for will surely never last long, because it is not based on accepting the national self-determination of peoples, but based on predetermination of the future fate of peoples by only few elites. The future possible inclusive alliance against any system of domiantion must be based on a solid ground by taking self-determination of nations, rather than unconditional unity, as precondition for an alliance.
This way or that way, our foes need to know that, they can only manipulate and delay realization of Oromo’s right to national self-determination, but they can never hinder it. Oromo’s mindset is leading us to our only one objective, i.e. to national self-determination of Oromo people, however long it may take. Our enemies like it or not, in reality, almost all Oromo nationalists are led in our liberation struggle by this mindset. That is why International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote: “despite its organizational flaws and divisions, many ordinary Oromos retain an almost messianic belief in the OLF as major nationalist organization.” So, I would like to say: long live the OLF!
Just regarding some politically vigilant Oromo nationalists, I personally can understand when they do refuse accepting the name Ethiopia as belonging to Oromo people, but we need to dig deep to come to facts that the name Ethiopia is not far from history of Oromo people in particular, and from that of Cush in general. To illustrate this fact with concrete example, who was the warrior named Abraham Ashine (ashine means in Afan Oromo: ‘we have begotten a child’), the man who bravely conquered and ruled certain parts of Arabia as the ancient Cushitic Ethiopia used to include, not only the areas in the northeastern Africa, but also some regions in Arabia? The issue of this hero, Abraham Ashine, must be researched and role of the Oromo in ruling – even this part of Arabia, including Yemen, must be rightly interpreted. This story seems to show that the Yemenites and some other Asians themselves were/are Cushites and their tricolors, similar to that of Abbaa-Gadaa’s faajjii, show it all. Simply put, Oromo people can win only when we do understand our lost and real history. Oromo people now fighting against our own history of the Cushites (Ethiopiawinet in its true sense = Kushawinet = Oromummà) is not as such constructive. Agew dynasty of Elalibela and even Aksum history is not that of the “Semitic” as usually told, but part and parcel of Cushitic kingdoms. Can we really find ancient history that the Tigrayans did build in Aksum, which is not part of Cushitic civilization? Let alone Abyssinian history, we can further say that parts of the Arabian history are based mainly on Oromo’s (Cushitic) culture, because of the fact that Abraham Ashine, who conquered and ruled Arabia seems to be an Oromo in particular, and Cushite in general. Interestingly, even the name of the continent Asia is said to be derived from this Oromo name Ashine, according to some recorded histories, legends or stories.
The more we dig deep, the better we know our real history and the best we can be in a position to charter our future beneficial destiny. So let’s, Oromo nationalists, be sure that we are on the right line of understanding and interpreting our history and let’s look at the fact that, not only an independent Oromia of the Russian-style, but also an integrative Oropia of Indian-style or an inclusive federal Union of English-style can be the right goal, for which Oromo nationalists can fight. Now, we are fostering the transitional inclusive federal Union as a good prelude for either independent Oromia or integrative Oropia. Again, Oromia and Oropia can be perecursors to one another, thus the vision of sovereignty is triangular. In summary, we can shoot from our three positions to attack our main enemy, the oppressive Abyssinianist elites’ system of domination, which still acts against our Oromummaa by targeting specially Àdà-, Afàn-, Biyya-, Alàbà-, and Amanti-Oromo (Wàqeffannà). At present, very conscious harmonization of the three ideological positions in targeting our enemy in unison is the alpha-and-omega of Oromo national liberation movement in order to be successful in our struggle. As an effective and efficient symbol of this action in unity towards common purpose of Oromo’s freedom in form of national self-determination, the combination of Abbà-Gadà’s and OLF’s flags, which I once proposed, is neutral banner, behind which we all can rally. May Waaqa help us, all Oromo nationalists, to cooperate with each other, to coordinate our efforts and to move in unison towards our aim of freedom and sovereignty, be it in form of an an inclusive federal Union or an independent Oromia or an integrative Oropia. May He bless our country in one of the three forms
We also started to think, not only about existence of Oromo national area, but also about necessity of liberating this region in form of an independent Gadà Republic of Oromia. Now, there is even an idea of taking the whole Ethiopia as Oropia. These three visions (Oromia inside of Oropia, Oromia neighbouring Abyssinia and Oropia without Oromia) as well as the respective political movements are still entertained in Oromo society at large; common denominator of the three forces was achieving unconditional freedom of the Oromo from any sort of political domination, economic exploitation and cultural suppression. There is no organization in the name of Oromo struggling for the third version, but there are a lot of Oromo nationals in the so-called multinational Ethiopian parties having this vision.
That is why I do now think that Oromo national liberation movement has two wings and middle-body as three important positions, from where it is fighting against the enemy. One wing wants to change the whole Ethiopia, name the country, if necessary, as Oropia and promote Afan Oromo to federal working language of the country, but disregarding self-rule of Oromia; the middle-body wants to establish an independent Oromia, which will have an influential position in whole region of the Horn of Africa; another wing wants to liberate Oromia within Oropia and make it be leading nation-state of the whole country. These three parts of Oromo national liberation movement are now trying to harmonize their moves against our common enemy, i.e. against the dictatorial Abyssinianists. Accordingly, we do now find Oromo national liberation movement in all spectrum of opposition parties and liberation fronts against the oppressive system. Surprisingly, there is no organization on the ground to represent the whole national liberation movement coordinating and accommodating all three parts. This reality persuades us to think that Oromo liberation in one of three forms is inevitable, and the possible future three types of our sovereignty are not as such disadvantageous for Oromo people.
The three parts of our national liberation movement are results of three approaches we, Oromo nationals, do have towards our history. It seems that we are treating our history in three dimensions: (1) as only common proud history of Oromia and Abyssinia, such as the Adwa Battle; (2) as only conflicting parallel history of Oromia and Abyssinia, such as Minilik invasion and the so-called Oromo expansion; (3) as both common proud history and conflicting parallel history of Oromia and Abyssinia. Now, we do see that the consequences of the above three approaches are three possible destinies regarding future Oromian sovereignty. To achieve our freedom efficiently, despite these different views, we had to firstly try to fight together for our common freedom from the Abyssinianist elites’ system of domination, and now we need to choose one of the following styles/types of sovereignty based on the version of Oromo history we respectively do have in mind. It is clear that:
– those, who tend to accept both common proud part and conflicting parallel part of our history, opt for liberation in English style. The English people liberated themselves from the 700-years rule of Roman empire, forged England as autonomous region and united it with the neighboring others to form British United Kingdom; they also promoted English to working language of the Kingdom. Can’t Oromia, being autonomous and free from alien forces, be united with the neighboring autonomous regions to forge Oromia within Oropian union, similar to that of British United Kingdom and promote Afan Oromo to working language of the union?
– those, who perceive only conflicting parallel history, prefer liberation in Russian style. Russian elites dismantled the Soviet union and established Russian federation, which uses Russian national language, the federation which still does have an influence on its neighboring nations, because of its economic and military strength. Does this way of dismantling the empire and fostering the highly wished independent Oromia to have further influence over other liberated neighboring countries more advantageous than the first two types of sovereignty?
– those, who do believe in only common proud history, tend to choose liberation of Oromia in Indian style. Hindi people liberated all nations and nationalities in their region, and named the whole country as India, made Hind working language of Indian federation and, of course, they divided national area of Hindi into multiple federal regions. Why not we, Oromo people, be liberated with whole nations and nationalities in the empire, call the whole country ‘Oropia’ and promote Afàn Oromô to working language of the federation, with the historical local Odà’s of Oromia (Odà-Bisil, -Bulluqi, -Bultum, -Gàrres, -Makodi, -Nabé and -Rôbà) being future separate federal regions of the country?
All Oromo nationals are entitled to choose what we believe is the best for our nation; what matters, at last, is, of course, the voice of Oromo majority. I think, at present, Oromia’s self-rule and/or Oropian shared-rule should be agenda of Oromo people, in contrast to the federation or separation goal of Tigrayan elites. Interestingly, the three Abyssinianist groups (elites of Amara, Tigrai and Eritrea) have got only one option respectively in their political struggle: Amara elites still can only sing about Indian-style for they know that Amarinya has got privilege to be federal language of the empire; Eritrean elites, as minority at periphery, were so insecure to live within Ethiopia so they had only the alternative of separation (Russian-style); Tigrayan elites can neither have language privilege to opt for Indian-style nor the capacity to live alone as an independent nation in order to choose Russian-style, so they do stick to English-style. But, Oromo people being majority in the whole country can play all the three cards (English-, Russian- and Indian-style) as long as rule of game in the region will be freedom and democracy. So, let us, Oromo people, use our advantage and struggle with all pro-freedom and pro-democracy forces of the Empire against the system of domination to come to position of voting for one of these three options.
As far as I am concerned, all the three ways are not harmful, but the decision must be made by the politically-conscious Oromo polity and Oromo public per referendum, when the time comes. This short essay is a bitter pill I wanted to present to Oromo foes, who are nowadays delighted by observing division of Oromo national liberation vanguard (the OLF). For their information, OLF has got in its pocket, from the very beginning, only one goal of reedom, which, at the same time, can be interpreted as three types of sovereignty, and it plays with these three cards based on the objective reality it is in, i.e. according to the “here and now” of situations. Even though one aim of freedom is Oromo national self-determination, the three interpretations of the objective are:
– self-rule of Oromia within a shared rule of Oropia = internal self-determination of the nation,
– self-rule of Oromia without shared-rule of Oropia = external self-determination of the Oromo, and
– Oromian citizens’ freedom to have referendum on this issue of external self-determination Vs. internal self-determination.
We know that OLF permanently advocates for all the three: independence of Oromia, Oromos’ right to self-determination, and Ethiopian union of free peoples. It emphasizes one of these three interpretations according to the condition of time (according to the Zeitgeist). Whenever Abyssinianist elites become arrogant and start to sing about unconditional unity of their empire with suppression of Oromos’ national rights, it stresses the necessity of an independent Oromia, of course, undermining the possible union. The logic behind this position is that whenever there is suppression, there will be a move for separation. When some reasonable politicians from different nations in the empire start to recognize the God-given right of Oromo nation to self-determination, the OLF starts to play the card of an appropriate decision per referendum either for external self-determination or for internal self-determination. Now, the one structural OLF, which we, Oromo nationals, have believed to own, has been divided into three, each of the factions just taking as goal one of the three interpretations of the goal regarding sovereignty of Oromia:
– OLF appears to have the Oromo national self-determination as its goal, being open for both external self-determination and internal self-determination as far as the Oromo majority will decide for one of the two.
– ONP (Oromian National Party) seems to make no compromise on external self-determination.
– ODF favors internal self-determination of nations in Oropia so that it tries to seek cooperation with Oromo nationals in the ruling party, and at the same time, it strives for possible alliance with reasonable “pro-unity and democratic” Habesha opposition forces.
Anyways, a merdo (bad news) to foes of Oromo national liberation movement is that Oromo organizations will never give up the struggle for right of Oromo nation to national self-determination until Oromo people become determiners of our own destiny, be it within Oropian union or without the union. Otherwise, let’s differentiate rhetoric from real conviction. We have heard certain Oromo politicians talking about the “fact” that Oromo people do not want “secession.” But, I do consider that such talking about the Oromo wanting independence or not is wrong generalization. One thing we need to know as fact is that almost all Oromo politicians (including those who do make the above mentioned rhetoric), deep in their hearts, believe in right of Oromo nation to national self-determination. This is the hallmark of Oromo nationalists, and it is the aim of our mindset (that of our spiritual organization, the OLF). This mindset, the OLF, has got only one aim of freedom with three interpretations regarding sovereignty, but it also pursues the following three strategies with their respective rhetoric:
– OLF mindset in rebel organizations has got an explicit rhetoric of self-determination, i.e. in form of national freedom, be it within or without union, and it fights for this goal by all means,
– OLF mindset in opposition organizations has got the rhetoric of struggling for liberation in only Oropian context, but it covertly struggles for the same kaayyoo of self-determination,
– OLF mindset in the ruling organization has got the rhetoric, which says: “we have already achieved the liberation,” but yet it also covertly pushes for the same and similar objective.
So, our fellow Oromo nationals, let’s allow this mindset consolidate the freedom we already achieved in all the three ways, despite the rhetoric of some Oromo nationalists in the opposition and in the ruling Oromo organizations. Let our foes know exactly that, despite the different rhetoric, Oromo national liberation movement can never be stopped till it achieves Oromia’s sovereignty of any type. We only need to motivate ourselves just to make our respective rhetoric and to do our practice in national liberation movement on the way each of us chooses in order to come to the only one goal of national self-determination. We have to forget the rhetoric of Oromo politicians in the ruling party and in the opposition parties, who had their talks under the gunpoint of the dictators (they just dened right of Oromo people to self-determination at gunpoint), and let’s strive to achieve our objective, which is already determined by our mindset, the OLF.
I am personally against any sort of dictatorial unity, and I am supporter of possible union of free peoples in Ethiopia based on free will of respective peoples. Any unity without Oromo’s public verdict will fail, take it only 1 year, about 10 years or as long as 100 years. That is why I do advocate for lasting solution based on free will of all the stakeholders, instead of the temporary unity as wishy-washy solution. Some organizations had chosen unconditional unity of the country as precondition for an alliance against the regime, but the unity they do strive for will surely never last long, because it is not based on accepting the national self-determination of peoples, but based on predetermination of the future fate of peoples by only few elites. The future possible inclusive alliance against any system of domiantion must be based on a solid ground by taking self-determination of nations, rather than unconditional unity, as precondition for an alliance.
This way or that way, our foes need to know that, they can only manipulate and delay realization of Oromo’s right to national self-determination, but they can never hinder it. Oromo’s mindset is leading us to our only one objective, i.e. to national self-determination of Oromo people, however long it may take. Our enemies like it or not, in reality, almost all Oromo nationalists are led in our liberation struggle by this mindset. That is why International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote: “despite its organizational flaws and divisions, many ordinary Oromos retain an almost messianic belief in the OLF as major nationalist organization.” So, I would like to say: long live the OLF!
Just regarding some politically vigilant Oromo nationalists, I personally can understand when they do refuse accepting the name Ethiopia as belonging to Oromo people, but we need to dig deep to come to facts that the name Ethiopia is not far from history of Oromo people in particular, and from that of Cush in general. To illustrate this fact with concrete example, who was the warrior named Abraham Ashine (ashine means in Afan Oromo: ‘we have begotten a child’), the man who bravely conquered and ruled certain parts of Arabia as the ancient Cushitic Ethiopia used to include, not only the areas in the northeastern Africa, but also some regions in Arabia? The issue of this hero, Abraham Ashine, must be researched and role of the Oromo in ruling – even this part of Arabia, including Yemen, must be rightly interpreted. This story seems to show that the Yemenites and some other Asians themselves were/are Cushites and their tricolors, similar to that of Abbaa-Gadaa’s faajjii, show it all. Simply put, Oromo people can win only when we do understand our lost and real history. Oromo people now fighting against our own history of the Cushites (Ethiopiawinet in its true sense = Kushawinet = Oromummà) is not as such constructive. Agew dynasty of Elalibela and even Aksum history is not that of the “Semitic” as usually told, but part and parcel of Cushitic kingdoms. Can we really find ancient history that the Tigrayans did build in Aksum, which is not part of Cushitic civilization? Let alone Abyssinian history, we can further say that parts of the Arabian history are based mainly on Oromo’s (Cushitic) culture, because of the fact that Abraham Ashine, who conquered and ruled Arabia seems to be an Oromo in particular, and Cushite in general. Interestingly, even the name of the continent Asia is said to be derived from this Oromo name Ashine, according to some recorded histories, legends or stories.
The more we dig deep, the better we know our real history and the best we can be in a position to charter our future beneficial destiny. So let’s, Oromo nationalists, be sure that we are on the right line of understanding and interpreting our history and let’s look at the fact that, not only an independent Oromia of the Russian-style, but also an integrative Oropia of Indian-style or an inclusive federal Union of English-style can be the right goal, for which Oromo nationalists can fight. Now, we are fostering the transitional inclusive federal Union as a good prelude for either independent Oromia or integrative Oropia. Again, Oromia and Oropia can be perecursors to one another, thus the vision of sovereignty is triangular. In summary, we can shoot from our three positions to attack our main enemy, the oppressive Abyssinianist elites’ system of domination, which still acts against our Oromummaa by targeting specially Àdà-, Afàn-, Biyya-, Alàbà-, and Amanti-Oromo (Wàqeffannà). At present, very conscious harmonization of the three ideological positions in targeting our enemy in unison is the alpha-and-omega of Oromo national liberation movement in order to be successful in our struggle. As an effective and efficient symbol of this action in unity towards common purpose of Oromo’s freedom in form of national self-determination, the combination of Abbà-Gadà’s and OLF’s flags, which I once proposed, is neutral banner, behind which we all can rally. May Waaqa help us, all Oromo nationalists, to cooperate with each other, to coordinate our efforts and to move in unison towards our aim of freedom and sovereignty, be it in form of an an inclusive federal Union or an independent Oromia or an integrative Oropia. May He bless our country in one of the three forms