The fate of the Oromo under the rising Amhara racism
by Rundassa Asheetee
The Habasha Dabtaras always talk about history as if we live in the past. But none of us live in the past, only in the present, though our present is in the hands of the Tigre tribe.
Yes, there is what we call “history”, yet, history doesn’t just happen on it’s own but it is made by people. As such, when we look back into history, we find that people who made our lives so challenging today are the Dabtaras who love to talk about history.
Interestingly, as much as the Habasha Dabtaras are caught up in the web of history, the majority of us live in a moment that alway make us hurry to meet our life’s obligations. This is true even for Finfinnee, the city where the beggars, the street girls, the thieves, the spies, the buses and taxis that cary millions people from Bakanisaa to Birbirrsaa, from Boolee to Laaftoo, from Laga Haree to Awaaree, from Dukam to Qaallitti, from Laga Xaafoo, to Qaban’aa, from Bulbula to Halaltu cross each other in a seemingly endless stream of chaos.
While the majority Oromians are trapped in this fast-paced life commotion and chaotic momentum, the Habasha Dabataras beat the drum of the past, while arming their nafxanya relatives in Arbbaa Guguu, Minjar, Bulgaa and Wallo as we speak. But what would happen if we all live in the past just like these Dabtaras? How things would turn if all the Oromos go back to those critical moments where the Amhara’s king Minilik soldiers line up the Oromo mothers and young girls and cut off their breasts and force them to walk through the market while shouting “Ineen iyaayyeeh teqexaa! Ineen iyaayyeeh teeqexaa!”
Yes! if we live in the past like the Habasha Dabtaras do today, we would feel a great pain as our arms are mutilated and our breasts are cut off, our blood gushing out across Anolee and Calanqo. It is only then when we truly understand why the Habasha Dabtaras wish to return to the era that they see as a very important moment for them. If we put ourselves in their shoes and look back to their glorious days, we can see why history is very important to them.
Wise Oromians say, “an old man talks about past because he has no future, and a young men talks about future because he has no past”. Just as this proverb reminds us, for the Habasha Dabtaras, history was made in the past. However, for a forward looking progressive nation such as the Oromo, history is made in the present because the present is the foundation future.
When we compare these different world views, it becomes apparent that the threat to the survival of empire Ethiopia is the Amhara fanaticism and the Tigreans selfishness rather than Oromians desire to build better future for all those who live in empire Ethiopia. In recent years, the Amhara fanaticism is rising as they gained more confidence by the wavering away of the Tigreans power and by Oromians inability to deal with this inherent challenge. That of course connects us to the Habashas irrationality deeply etched into their consciousness.
When compared to what we can accomplish in the future however, our past is really rather trivial.
The Gadaa system was a mafia rule! etc and countless others slogans chanted by the Dabtaras lose significance when what we can accomplish now is understood properly, when mindless man who shout their heads off to intentionally hurt those whom they hate are reprimanded , when racist’s sick minds are cleansed, when the darkness of inferiority that threatened our originality is unveiled, when our borrowed identities are thrown away and our own true thoughts determine what is really important and what is merely trivial. Such moments of clarity can come to all of us, not when we create dramatic circumstance out of past but only when we focus on what really matters at present and in the future.
Clearly, the primary purpose of the 21st century Dabtaras is to make sure afaan Oromo is not spoken in empire Ethiopia and the Oromo culture is destroyed. The 21st century Dabtaras also know that they have been privileged in thousand ways and now they don’t like the feeling of losing it. Since 1991, they have been living under a very bad experience. Their cousins (the Tigreans) took away their power, the Oromians started practicing Hirrechaa and Waaqeffanna, afaan Oromo is recognized as one of world’s civilization and they are required to speak it whenever they go to Oromia. How can they differentiate bitter from sweet in this situation?. The problem though, there are consequences attached to our actions. Should they never looked down on the Oromo culture, they could have felt at home in Oromia and elsewhere today but that is not the case.