Bakalcho Barii

In his official comment as a president of the United States, in regard to the not guilty verdict by a Florida Jury on the case of  George Zimmerman murdering a black teenager, Trayvon Martin and the feelings of anguish and anger  among the Afro-American communities,  Barack Obama said”

“There are very few African American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me — at least before I was a senator. There are very few African Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.” 

By quoting President Obama and the feelings of race-relations in the United States, I am describing the feelings of millions of Oromo’s and Southern nations, including myself, who have suffered verbal and physical abuse, bullying and in-humane treatments in the hands of Abyssinians’ since colonization. There is no single derogatory term the Abyssinians’ haven not used to break the Oromo’s physically, socially, economically. What is so sad about the over 130 years episodes of Abyssinian colonialism in Oromia was that, even those Oromo’s and other nations, who denied their nations and their identities and took on the alien Abyssinian identities or “Ethiopiaew” , they never ever all  escaped the mistreatment, denigration , mistrust, abuse and all the derogatory name calling  by their Abyssinian masters.

Much has been said or written about how and when the Oromo and the Southern Ethiopian empire people’s and their country fell prey to the archaic , but brutal and savagery of the Abyssinian colonialism. Also, much has been said and written why Abyssinian colonialism with such inferior advancement  in any sphere of human development  compared with  the superior and democratic culture of the Oromo’s and the Southern nations have managed to invade and conquer them .

Although, there are those the likes of Richard Pankhurst and many pro-Abyssinian Europeans and American writers, who assert that the Abyssinian colonial expansion towards the Oromo and the Southern nations territories was an expansion by a better and civilized group to justify the Abyssinians claim of “ Menelik II conquered Oromo’s and Southern nations countries to enlighten the unenlightened and to teach them modern culture, and introduce religion to the pagans.”

On the other hand, there are those ,(the second groups) including  the Oromo’s and Southern nations scholars, who agree and argue that Abyssinians managed to invade and conquer their countries, not for their superior (actually the Abyssinians were and are less developed, uncivilized, savage, rudimentary compared to their new subjects), but because of the support, particularly the modern guns given to them by the then European colonial powers, who failed to agree on who should colonize the then Abyssinia itself.

The third groups of scholars argue that ,although the introduction and supply of modern guns by Europeans to the Abyssinians played a great deal in enabling the invading Abyssinian army, they point to the evidence  that an internal traitor(s), who sided with the Abyssinians against their own people for short material gain and fame. According to these observers, had the internal traitors were not there in siding with the enemy in crashing the indigenous resistance, the introduction and supply of modern weapons to the Menelik II army could have failed miserably . These groups point their fingers to the likes of the OPDO’s, who led the current wayyane army into Oromo areas and Gobena Dachi, who helped Menelik II army.

The main focus of this article is to expose and argue against the damage modern traitors in the Oromo liberation movement have inflicted so far and are committed to inflict more by siding with the enemy. These internal traitors  will use anything and all means to discredit the genuine and humble anti-Abyssinian colonial struggle  of the Oromo’s and the Southern nations to appease their  colonial masters for any short term individual and material gains. Here, it has to be noted that in the history of anti-colonial struggle in Africa, Asia, Latin America, there were those internal traitors who sided with the enemy until the last minute to delay or even defeat the inevitable anti-colonial war by the indigenous people. Therefore, the rise and fall of internal traitors in Oromo struggle is not new or exceptional to Oromo’s alone. Here, we can mention some few examples where the internal traitors fought to the end with the colonial army. In Algerian war of independence from the French and the East Timorese independent struggle, the internal traitors sided with the invading army until the last minute to bleed their own people.

Who are the internal traitors of the Oromo Liberation Struggle??

Before I embark on who are these internal traitors, who are bent on aborting the Oromo liberation struggle to ascertain their lost independence, I would like to quote what President Barack Obama  recently commented on the not guilty verdict by a Florida jury on George Zimmerman, who murdered a black teenager named Trayovan Martin. In his official comment as a president of the United States, Barack Obama described the feelings of Afro-Americans in the following way, quote “There are very few African American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me — at least before I was a senator. There are very few African Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.^”

By quoting President Obama and the feelings of race-relations in the United States, I am describing the feelings of millions of Oromo’s and Southern nations, including myself, who have suffered verbal and physical abuse, bullying and in-humane treatments in the hands of Abyssinians’ since colonization. There is no single derogatory term the Abyssinians’ haven not used to break the Oromo’s physically, socially, economically. What is so sad about the over 130 years episodes of Abyssinian colonialism in Oromia was that, even those Oromo’s and other nations, who denied their nations and their identities and took on the alien Abyssinian identities or “Ethiopiaew” , they never ever all  escaped the mistreatment, denigration , mistrust, abuse and all the derogatory name calling  by their Abyssinian masters.

The current online and other media abuse on Jawar Mohammed for only saying “I am Oromo First and Ethiopiawent was something imposed on me” is the extension of the long term Abyssinians’ abuse and mistreatments of Oromo’s and others in that evil empire. To be blunt, Abyssinians’ do care or worry about the exploitation of Oromo resources than the Oromo itself. As experience shows, If there is a means  and a way to get away with the Oromos and take hold of their resources, Abyssinians  will not back down to  achieve that goal. The current selling and displacing of Oromo’s from their ancestral land at any cost indicates to this fact.

While all the Oromo’s experiences and evidences with Abyssinians’ shows humiliation and the total disregard to their very existence, why some internal traitors are all bent on siding with the enemy against their people’s wishes and aspirations??  The simplest response to this question would be short term material gain and political power.

Let me go back to the main point of this article, which is “who are these internal traitors of the Oromo Struggle? All of the Oromo internal traitors, like all other internal traitors those who came and gone in human history have the same main characteristics.  This being, denying the existence of grievances caused by the enemy on their own people , and are prepared to prolong these grievances and  sufferings  of their people by siding with the enemy. The focus of this article is on pro-Ethiopian Oromo groups or parties. These Pro-Ethiopian Oromo groups all deny the century old colonial relations between the Oromo’s and the Abyssinians. They all attempt to reduce the anti-colonial Oromo struggle and equate it to class struggle. Another characteristics of Pro-Ethiopian Oromo groups is their attempt to be more Ethiopian than the Abyssinians themselves by bashing and denigrating all independent  Oromo organizations to be accepted as equal to their Abyssinians’ masters. Fore sample, before he launched his pro-Ethiopian Oromo party, Merera Gudina bashed, belittled and equated the OLF with an Organization headed by the current ODF president. Merera also made an attack by associating the OLF with that of protestant religion headed by the followers of that religion. Merera and his party did all these to be accepted as true “Ethiopiaew” in the camps both the Amahara and Tigre camps.

The Other group pro-Ethiopian Oromo group is the called the ODF. As we all know, all of the current ODF leaders are once the top officials of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). This group, like the Merera group, first targeted and attacked Oromo anti-Colonial struggle as irrelevant, outdated. The president of ODF even went further in his attack on the Oromo people by saying Oromo’s do not deserve independence because of globalization, the changing political dynamics of the East Africa region, and the growing size of the Oromo population. But he never substantiated his argument how and why one’s own population growth, globalization, and the changing dynamics of the East African region will only hinder the Oromo’s to be free. All the above factors used by the ODF president as hindrances to Oromo’s demanding their freedom, the opposite is true in past and present histories of mankind.  Although the term globalization is not new, it was globalization which enabled Europeans to conquer colonies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to search for raw materials for their industries at home. It was during recent globalized world, where many Europeans under the Russian empire, the former Yugoslavia, East Timor, Eretria, and South Sudan gained their independence. Therefore, there is no single grain of evidence which suggest(s) that globalization, population growth, and the changing political dynamics of the region will be an hindrances to the Oromo liberation struggle.

The sad part of ODF was not its anti-Oromo freedom struggle stand,  but how the so called ODF leaders  were hidden, protected and given a platform to promote their evil agendas within the Oromo Liberation camp. I remember when the current ODF president was given Oromo of the year by Oromo Studies Association (OSA) some years back. The current secretary of the ODF was the spokesperson of the OLF until the year 2012. The question(s) that dazzles many Oromo’s, including myself is how, why and by whom these internal traitors were protected to remain in the liberation camp until they revealed their true identity? Why OSA bestowed the Oromo of the Year title to the ODF president? Who are or were the OSA leaders who committed such acts? These are among the many questions the Oromo’s want to get an answer. The other intriguing question that needs an answer is such individuals as Brehanu Nega, Negasso Gidada, Merera gudina were invited and spoken without any challenges their anti-Oromo freedom struggle on different Oromo forums  organized by OSA.

By betraying and coming up with the old “Oromo’s are Ethiopians propositions,” ODF and other pro-Ethiopian Oromo groups crossed that imaginary line and showed us their contempt for the Oromo safuu and the millions of heroes, who have paid the ultimate sacrifice so that their people will live in peace and dignity among all nations of the world.

Bakalcho Barii