Amaranet and Oromummà are Not Only National Identities, but Also Political Ideologies!
By Fayyis Oromia*
Interestingly, out of all national identities in Ethiopia, both Amaranet and Oromummà are no more only national identities, but also political ideologies. Up to now, Amaranet was camouflaged as Ethiopiawinet and a lot of crimes have been done against the Oromo in particular and against all nations in general with the pretext of defending or promoting Ethiopiawinet. Ethiopia, in which Amarigna is dominating is de facto Amapia. The cvnning Amara elites know this fact very well and that is why they cry about Ethipiawinet day and night. Thanks to the OLF, this mask Ethiopiawinet is now slowly being removed, so that some Amara elites started to explicitly talk about trying to keep the domination of Amaranet, while fighting against Oromummà to defend the domination. That is why they overtly put Oromummà as their main enemy. Fact on the ground is that, if Ethiopia has to survive, she can only live as either Amapia (Amarigna/Amaranet dominated) or Oropia (Oromiffà/Oromummà led). The only way to avoid this development to Amapia or Oropia is to realise the vision of confederalists to foster a union of relatively independent Amaria, Oromia and other national areas.
The main reason for Fànnô movement not to be successful unlike Qérrô revolution is that it didn’t get enough support of the Oromo. It failed to get this support because of classifying Onegawinet, “Gàllà migration” and Oromummà as enemies of the movement. This foolish formulation of Fànnô elites costed them a lot. How can an intelligent sound mind can put Onegawinet (the true symbol of Oromo liberation struggle), “Gàllà migration” (the derogatory fiction used to denigerate the Oromo) and Oromummà (the basic identity of the nation) as foes of the movement and yet expect support from the Oromo? In this regard, Qérrô elites were very cautious and smart enough to win the hearts and minds of Amara people, so that Oromara project was successful to chase away Woyane from Finfinné palace. Fànnô leaders could have done the same to get rid of Biltsigina dictators. Instead, they tried to demonize Oromummà as an evil ideology against the existence of nations in Ethiopia. If Oromummà is so evil as described, then Amaranet, which could totally assimilate Agaws of Gojjam and Gondar as well as Oromos of Shoa and Wallo, must be very malicious like a Devil. If Oromummà is an evil ideology, then Amaranet must be that of Devil.
The conflict in Ethiopia was mainly based on religion identity during time of the Emperors (Christians vs Gàllàs vs Muslims) and on political ideology during Derg era (capitalists vs liberals vs communists). Since 1991 of Woyane rule, the political spectrum is actually based on Amaranet vs Federalism vs Oromummà. In the first case, Ethiopia was considered as Christian Kingdom and suppressed the Gàllàs (which was taken more as religious identity than ethnic group) and the Muslims. The Gàllas were the Nay-sayars, who vehmently opposed the expansion of both Christianitx and Islam from the middle east to the Horn of Africa and tried to defend their original native religion (Waqeffannà). During the brutal rule of Derg after the 1974 revolution, our conflict was mainly based on ideological difference according to the cold war in the globe. Now, the struggle is mainly between those, who want to maintain the hitherto domination of Amaranet/Amarigna, and those, who strive to promote Oromiffà/Oromummà to its legitimate leadership position in Ethiopia. The utopia vision of fostering democratic ethno-federation can only be a transitional solution in the process of transforming the Amaranet Dominated Ethiopia (ADE = Amapia) to Oromummà Led Ethiopia (OLE = Oropia). The question to be answered rightly is wether Biltsiginnà party of Dr. Abiy ist pro-Amaranet or pro-Oromummà. I think, as long as it keeps the domination of Amarigna at federal level, we can call the party pro-Amaranet, not necessarily pro-Oromummà as usually propagated wrongly.
Biltsiginnà of Dr. Abiy is ruling us not only by brute force, but also due to our weakness! Some elites from the two main competing nations (Amara & Oromo) are doing the bidding by default or by design. Why do elites from Amara and Oromo fail to learn in the last quarter of a century? Almost all Amara elites, who are still refusing to accept Oromia as a national state of Oromo people and some Oromo elites, who yet try to undermine Ethiopia as a common home are the beloved politicians of Biltsiginna.
Biltsiginnà encourages such rigid elites so that the two big nations (Amara and Oromo) neutralize each other, instead of cooperating on the common ground: self-rule of Oromia within shared-rule of Ethiopia; i.e by default self-rule of Oromia within shared rule of Oropia in the future. From the Oromo side, a lot of elites already moved to this middle ground, but from Amara elites very few took such pragmatic step. Is this may be due to the difference in time length of oppression the two nations experienced? The Amara suffered only in the last 30 years, whereas the Oromo endured it for about 150 years. It seems that the Amara elites need yet more than 100 years of oppression to make a compromise and come to the middle position. Alas!
Amara elites yet need to learn, accept and live in the future Orommummà led Ethiopia (OLE), which will be built on grave of the existing Amaranet dominated Ethiopia (ADE). Abiy Ahmed and his Biltsiginnà party are commited to keep the status quo of ADE, whereas genuine Oromo republican nationalists are dedicated to forge OLE. Take it how long it may, the transformation of ADE to OLE is imperative. An alternative to such transformation is an independent republic of Oromia. I personally favour the transformation for the fact that OLE is de facto Oropia. For the Oromo, the bigger Oropia is like gross salary, whereas the smaller Oromia is like net salary, which remains back if other nations decide to leave us. The Oromo should try to have the gross salary as long as it is possible.
I think it is the matter of time that Afàn Oromo will be the primary working language of Ethiopia (Oropia). Growth and promotion of Cushitic languages in the country will change the content of Ethiopia and Ethiopiawinet from the hitherto Habeshawinet to henceforth Kushawinet. It feels really good to see that finally Dr. Abiy and his Prosperitan supporters are realizing that revival of Agaw cultural and national identity is crucial for the reformation of Ethiopia from dictatorial false identity to its original true and wonderful Cushitic nature. It is important to promote and support Agaw nationalists so that they can control both Amara and Tigrai regions, where most of the population are originally Agaw, who were converted to Amarigna and Tigrigna speakers. These people of the two regions, who lost their identity need to come back to their proiori identity, i.e to either Agaw or Oromo origin. For this purpose, no need of losing time. Now, Oromiffa (spoken by almost 40% of Ethiopians) and Agawigna (language of about 20% of Ethiopian people) should be promoted to working languages of the federation. With such move, good ground for revival of the wonderful Cushitic Ethiopia will be prepared. This move ist in practice tantamount to transformation of Ethiopia to Oropia.
The currently flourishing Amara nationalism is one of the best success the OLF achieved. The OLF repeatedly persuaded and told Amara elites to take off their Ethiopiawinet mask and come out as Amara. They tried to resist this for the last 50 years and they used to hide behind Ethiopiawinet. Now, the OLF hijacked the trade mark (Ethiopiawinet) so that the Amara elites can no more hide behind such Ethiopiaeinet of Oromo version, in which Oromummà will be the main part (about 40%). It is good that they started to sing Amaranet, but their deadly mistake is that they curse and denounce Oromummà. This move against Oromo identity surely will cost them a lot. In the future, they surely will flee even from Amaranet and start to reclaim their priori identity (Agawnet or Oromummà). It is histotical fact that Agaw of Gojjam, Lalibella and Gondar as well as Oromo of Gojjam, Gondar, Shoa and Wallo were forced to be assimilated in to Amaranet starting from 1270 of Solomon dynasty.
It is clear that Abyssinians (Amara and Tegaru) are self denying Cushites (Afar, Beja, Agaw, Saho and Oromo, aka the ABASO), who lost their true identity during the 3000 years of Abeshanization process. They are Cushites with double mask: external mask being Ethiopiawinet and the internal one being either Amaranet or Tegarunet. Actually there is no ethnic Amara or ethnic Tegaru in a true sense, but there are only Amarinya speaking and Tigrinya speaking Afars, Bejas, Agaws, Sahos and Oromos.
Thanks to the liberation struggle of the Oromo and other Cushitic nations, Tegarus took off their external mask till 1991 and Amaras are now in a process to do it. That is why Amara nationalism is getting momentum at the cost of Ethiopian nationalism. Yet, at its beginning phase is the maneuver of casting off their internal mask in order to get back to their true self (Afar, Beja, Agaw, Saho and Oromo). This nice beginning is observed recently, so that Agaw nationalism in Abyssinia is flourishing. Reviving and thriving Agawnet is the best way of demasking Abyssinians by removing their both external and internal masks (Ethiopiawinet and Abeshawinet).
Abyssinians in Ethiopiawinet identity are simply like wolves in sheep skin, who are masked just to eat the sheep. They smartly usurped this name Ethiopia and camouflaged themselves in order to occupy and exploit the true Ethiopians (the Cushites) including the Oromo. Oromo elites and leaders should have tried to differentiate pseudo-Ethiopians from the true-Ethiopians and expose the wolves, instead of just teaching Oromo people to hate Ethiopia in general. That is why Oromo nationalists need to help our lost Cushites discard their false identities (Amaranet, Tegarunet and Ethiopiawinet) in order to reclaim their true self (Afar, Beja, Agaw, Saho and Oromo).
Just looking at the politics of the country, to be pragmatic in seeking solution for our problems, the common identity for all the Cushites can be both Ethiopian in a true sense or Oromian, because of the fact that the Oromo are Cush and Cush is Oromo, of course Oromo being the main stem of all other Cushitic nations. Thus, better is to use both Ethiopia and Oromia interchangeably as two possible names of our common home. That means, Oromia = formerly Ethiopia as defined is a union in which the following five points (FADOB-score) will be implemented: F = Freedom from the system of domination; A = Afàn Oromo as working language of federal government; D = Democracy as rule of game in the union; O = ‘Oropia’ instead of ‘Ethiopia’ as name of the union; and B = Black-Red-White as Cushitic flag of the Union. This Upper Nile country called ‘Oropia’ by the native owners of the land is used to be named as ‘Abyssinia’ by the Portuguese; ‘Cush’ by the Jews; ‘Alhabesh’ by the Arabs; ‘Punt’ by the Egyptians; and ‘Ethiopia’ by the Greeks.
In short, it is high time for Oromo nationalists to support their Cushitic sibling, the Agaw to revive and thrive both culturally and politically. They have to be in control of the northern part of Ethiopia. Agaw’s revival is in best interest of the Oromo. If not done by Dr. Abiy and his prosperity party, this nice project needs to be accomplished by Oromo republicans in OLA, OFC and the OLF. May Wàqa help all the Cushites!
Galatôma!
Read more:https://orompia.wordpress.com/2018/09/0 ... pia-oromo/