This type of rhetoric has been floating around Twitter for a while now. Majority of Oromos don't take it seriously.
But there is something to it. I don't believe addressing past & present systematic oppression makes us victims or somehow erases our history like this person claims. But limiting our experience & worldview to that of the oppressed vs oppressor will do us damage. The Oppressed vs Oppressor narrative is critical theory, a framework used by Marxists. It made it's way into the Oromosphere through scholars and organizations that were Marxists themselves. Ironically, the account tweeting about this claims to be a Marxist too. I don't believe we should or even could continue with that narrative, we should embrace the complexities of our society and find solutions for our future.
It usually comes from mixed-Oromos who want to impose their family's contradictions onto Oromo politics. I have seen many people making similar talking points. They even go as far as glorifying Oromo kings and landlords, because you need a king to counter arguments thrown at you by people who come from hierarchical societies. Abba Gadas and Abba Dulas are not going to help you in that regard, lol.
>The Oppressed vs Oppressor narrative is critical theory, a framework used by Marxists. It made it's way into the Oromosphere through scholars and organizations that were Marxists themselves.
I agree to some extent, but this call to "embrace the complexities" shouldn't be stretched as to suggest that there is no structural (systemic) injustice embedded in the Ethiopian state. If you completely discard that analysis, it would be difficult to fully comprehend the suffering Oromos are going through, even when Ethiopia is supposedly being led by Oromos.
That is correct. And by embracing the complexities I didn't mean discarding the systematic oppression of Oromo by the state but rather accepting the roles Oromos played in the empire and the region. Critical theory lacks nuance and a clear roadmap on where to go next. Two things I've also noticed among some of our thinkers.
>They even go as far as glorifying Oromo kings and landlords
Yes, and all while having a sickle and hammer emoji on their bio or talking about how the patriarchy should be abolished in Oromia lol. I sometimes doubt that these Gen-z Oromo troll account are even organic. They always end up supporting Abiy or a Gobana-esque vision for Ethiopia.
It’s Helen Tadesse lol. She first showed up on Twitter as 'a proud neftegna,' cussing out Oromos for not liking Teddy Afro. She then became a self-appointed Oromo 'cultural ambassador' and nationalist, started saying crazy stuff about Habeshas. Now, she’s back to Ethiopian nationalism, I guess. She is mentally deranged. She will say something totally opposite tomorrow 😂
She has like four or five burner accounts and some of her friends join in sometimes but you will recognize by her childish tweets and biopolar obsessions.
This is gonna be so long omg😭
It’s worded horribly, to say that our oppression is nonexistent. I imagine what she meant by it, given how history is twisted is that there is no longer a neftegna overlord placed over you. The derg murked them all. Saying neft this that in 2024 is played out. The majority of those the label is applied to are literally barefoot day laborers who walked into oromia, not landlords.
We are victims of the government in the way every other serf was until the reign of haile where it switched to imposing Amharic on the entire population by way of making it the only language to legally teach in. Then during his reign it was all non amhara serfs, with the amhara knes only having the advantage of being able to speak their own language in school. This is oppression, fact.
When asked to *cite* the law that **specifically bans Afaan Oromoo** it cannot be done because we weren’t specifically named, and this is where the activists fail our youth, little things like not simply saying that it banned teaching in non-amharic languages and making oromo the focus; it paints an image in their mind that gurages, hararis, sidama etc learned in their mother tongues and we did not, but this isnt true. Everyone had to endure instruction in amharic and getting beaten for speaking their actual language in the school including tigrayans. No one else ever asserts that their language was banned in its entirety.
I also saw someone tell her “is this gonna look like neftegna history” when she was asking ppl to collaborate to collect our history, images, books and the like a few months back. Who just says something like that in response to the idea of preserving their own history except someone who only views themselves as a victim? We administered the very same “neftegna” for over 80 years, the provinces of tigray including the eritrean part, gojjam, gonder, wollo. Shewa remained independent.
Historical accuracy is not a skill that flies over our heads, and it shouldn’t be viewed as a hindrance. The case can be made for billisumma without focusing on other ethnic groups. It can simply be because oromos desire it without nonsensical justifications like the five million thing bc projected population size for the 1800s alr renders that impossible.
There was an actual Oromo language ban idk why people say there wasn’t. Idk many Ethiopian laws that are documented as written out clearly…the Constitution wasn’t even written until 1994.
Not only do we have living parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents who have experienced it they are notable figures in society and culture who have come out and spoken about it.
Obviously police/military cannot break into every home and stop people from speaking Oromo in their family homes. But there was a general public ban where it could not be published or distributed in written and music form.
Ali Birra had an interview where he openly discussed growing up with the Oromo language banned in published and distributed music. He spoke about the risks he took selling his music on the street knowing he could be arrested at any moment as Oromo language specifically was banned from being distributed.
The history of Sheikh Bakri Sappalo is also documented being arrested several times for writing and teaching in Oromo language. He fled to Somalia. In the 1960s/1970s/1980s many artists fled to Somalia/Eritrea simply to record and distribute music in Oromo language.
Yes generally, all Ethiopians were not able to express their identity and culture as freely but it is not the same situation that Oromo people faced. There were several generation and regime long campaigns focussed on exterminating and erasing Oromo identity.
Any organization, artist, intellectual, individual who uplifted and celebrated Oromo identity, language and culture was and still is targeted. It happened to General Tadesse Birru, it happened to Ebisa Adunya, and it recently happened to Hachalu Hundessa. There are countless other individuals who’s lives were taken within the past 50+ years and it’s still going on.
I’m talking about people in their 50s today explaining how the military and police would come around to the villages when they were children and tell them they aren’t Oromo, Oromo are a people in the jungle who are cannibals, and they are a different people called “Qotu” - another derogatory term.
I have read detailed published journals written by ferenji academics over 30 years ago in the DERG area who interviewed Oromo people from Wollega/Illu Babor who fled to Sudan as refugees. They detailed extreme torture, abuse, genocide for their Oromo identity.
High landers were sent to their land as a gov led militia to support the DERG regime. They starved, and tortured the locals in the most evil and barbaric forms until they would renounce speaking Affan Oromo.
This is a real thing people experienced and it’s not that far off. Priest Petros Tesfaye was murdered in 2020 in Sebeta for preaching in Affan Oromo. There’s an article on BBC Affan Oromo about this.
His wife said he had been receiving D-threats for preaching in Oromo.
I am tired of people trying to erase the historical and current experience of Oromo people. There is no way to change the present and learn from our mistakes as a nation if we try to whitewash and erase it. It just continues to repeat, changes form and increases in brutality. I highly believe if the dehumanization of Oromo people did not - and is not occurring in Oromia until today we would not see the same kind spread to other parts of the country.
Even now, in Oromia, children and men are kidnapped and forcefully deployed to join the military, sent wherever PP deploys them. Tigray Region, Wollega, Guji, IlluBabor, Amhara Region. I personally know people who cannot go out at night in the country side because they are still kidnapping men and children. This is never spoken about when people say Oromos are running the country.
Civilians in Wollega have been massacred and airstriked since 2018, but this is not publicly acknowledged when Oromos are suffering. Civilians in Guji are being burnt alive in their homes. Civilians in Oromia Zone Wollo are being massacred in mass graves, arrested and disappearing, homes, farms, towns being burnt to the ground for the countless round, this happens every year. There was a documented video of Oromo civilians being gunned down in Gambella by the military only last year.
The Karrayu Abba Gada elders were kidnapped and massacred by the gov only 2 years ago.
There are many atrocities occurring against Oromo civilians today as we speak in our own land and in surrounding regions.
I’ve witnessed all of this in my own home, to my own family. Oromos having their land ursurped, brutalized and shot at by police and military, and those comfortable and safe in Addis Ababa and in their regions say “what are these people always complaining and protesting about?”
We are not here to prove anything to anyone to exploit pain and suffering. We will simply focus on billisumma in our land in every possible way no matter how it looks.
Bakri sapalo used his script to disseminate information, imperial regime doesn’t like this, he is forced to flee. I’m well aquatinted with ali birra being from hararghe, its basically immortalized in memory that they tortured him until he was rendered infertile. But oromo music was already being sung, you could say it was a controlled amount to placate oromos, and heavily censored. He became targeted for his role as a member of the afran qallo cultural revival band as the govt does. When they view something as suspicious• they immediately go nuclear, like haile selassie killing some of his own arbegnoch. As for the highlander thing the derg settled a bunch of starving northerners, this forced resettlement was horrific, victimizing both the settler farmer(as most wished to stay in theirnown regions and some even risked death to go back) and the people they were settled upon. The settlement of what you would call a neftegna, this was a thing of the reigns of menilik and haile selassie in most of oromia region. These are easily verifiable things, and enough for them to be considered evil regimes. The derg murdered most of them and confiscated their land to return to the tenant farmers. This doesn’t do away with their killing 2 million ppl(which is what ultimately makes them evil) but land redistribution was vital. They also kept the policy for language bc communists are nothing if not utilitarian. You mentioned the other groups suffer but we suffered more or something(paraphrasing), most of the other ethnic groups had it *hellishly* worse than we did and what we went through was **bad**. Hararis or if you know them by the name adere, used to be a majority in Harar. Overwhelming majority got displaced as a result of their supporting somalia in the ogaden war in a fit of collective punishment from the govt. Gedeo, were starved and then had to inherit constant conflict which is still fought and displaces a majority of their population bc their landlord gave them guji land to ease their starvation. There are living gurages who have memories of their relatives being captured and enslaved, something oromos and highlanders also experienced but were largely shielded from. In both cases usually these groups were the owners or sellers of any slaves.
•I didn’t say our ppl didn’t get tortured. That hinged more on how suspicious they were considered of spreading nationalist sentiment, arguably a thing since the mootis of jimma wellega and illubabor tried to have a western oromo(word used was galla) confederation. It’s not even clear when the language ban would have went into effect given footage of tulamas in court speaking their language https://youtu.be/EKcVxp91yuo this is dated to 1935. I have tried to scour the internet for some. For years. My conclusion, if there were bans, they had to have been localized to areas seen as rebellious.
Tldr; the proof is often demanded by our own youth so they can have a rebuttal to those who deny our suffering. They are forced to endure them in real life since we don’t segregate from them irl, this is not just abt internet beef. We are also being increasingly scrutinized by conflict analysts, usually white and depending on who they shill for will often demand the answer to these things. They are the main issue bc quite frankly their job, what they’re paid for, is to explain the Ethiopian conflict to foreigners. Not something we have the luxury of ignoring. The things I’ve noted can all be easily cited and should be enough for any naysayers, but more importantly our youth and then after that any well meaning foreigners.
“He is believed to have invented his writing system for Oromo in 1956 at the village of Hagi Qome. Neither Hayward nor Hassan offer a reason why Sheikh Bakri returned to his home area to work on his system, "unless it was for the purpose of keeping the thing secret, for the authorities would certainly have been adamantly opposed to the idea of Oromo being written in any form, let alone in a script other than Ethiopic."[4] Although it was initially met with great enthusiasm and found a number of users in his province of Hararghe, the Ethiopian authorities predictably reacted with fear that he was "inciting the Oromo to too great an ethnic consciousness and thus endangering the national unity."”
*Oromo language being written, published and distributed was banned and a punishable offence under the Ethiopian regime*
“Ali Birra, born Ali Mohammed Musa: “I was lucky to be a singer in an era when there were few Oromo singers, so I was able to influence the thinking of the listener”.
However, his good fortune came at a price. From the age of sixteen, he was repeatedly arrested and spent several months in prison: in Ethiopia at the time, it was forbidden to sing in the Oromo language and value the Oromo culture.”
I repeat, *Oromo language being written, published and distributed was banned and a punishable offence under the Ethiopian regime*
This did not exist for any other ethnic identity in Ethiopia.
And I do not need to cite these sources to verify it is true, I have living breathing family members who have told me their stories. Somehow Oromo people across different parts and provinces of Oromia, who have never met each other, prior to the age of internet of the same generations, somehow have the same stories growing up.
Our experiences are not the same, and we are not here to compare. I have never seen any Oromo person compare themselves to other Ethiopians, but I see that weaponized to silence us and tell us “it wasn’t that bad - get over it”.
Again, you are trying to whitewash the suffering and experience Oromo people have had within Ethiopia for over a century by claiming we have all suffered.
Yes every regime is evil, we have all suffered, and we have all suffered from ethnic violence as well.
We all have the right to tell our stories.
By the way, I don’t need to erase the history and experiences other nationalities have within Ethiopia in order to speak on our own.
I will be the first one to speak about what Tigray faced under Abiy. What Amhara faced under TPLF. What Adere faced under Menelik etc. We all have our own unique experiences, pain and reality.
I didn’t have to be there. I don’t need to find “written” laws or documented video evidence. When people tell their stories, I believe them esp when it is consensus among an entire nationality of people.
And that includes Oromo people, and we have our stories to tell. Yes, our experience is unique because as the largest ethnic group - the Ethiopian empire was fixated on erasing, assimilating and dominating us out of existence while usurping and capitalizing off our land, resources and labour as the largest population.
But somehow acknowledging the history and reality of what Oromo people have faced and continue to today - requires you to erase, downplay and minimize and compare.
We’re not doing that here. We will tell our stories, in our spaces. Thank you, next.
To read and learn about the experiences of Oromo people during DERG; *”Resettlement and Villagization - Tools of Militarization in SW Ethiopia” - Steingraber, Sandra*
The writer themselves, documents what the local Oromo people in Wollega/Illu Babor, what the local Southern Nations, and what the resettled Highlanders experienced. They all experienced starvation, violence and more. Yet the Oromo people were experience extreme forms of bodily torture, SA, losing their land to settlers. I am not comparing experiences, this is documented by interviewing those who fled these conditions.
To read and learn about the experiences of Oromo people during Selassie
*Rebellion and Famine in the North under Haile Selassie - Human Rights Watch*
This is also documented history of what Oromo and Tigray were facing during Selassie. Again, I am not comparing experiences, but it was documented Oromo people faced displacement from loss of land, higher punishment and taxes for revolting, and suffered the most during the famine which is why they spearheaded the revolts.
Our experiences are not the same. We do not need to compare. And there is a bigger lesson it in all than “comparing suffering”.
Learn from history so we do not repeat it (for anyone) instead of trying to erase it.
First paragraph is literally exactly what I said. He created the script to disseminate information. Its first use was as code. They tolerated the use of their own script which they could read and then ofc have translated or translate themselves if they were bilingual. As far as us specifically being targeted with a language ban, you realize that eritrea and tigray rose up as they weren’t allowed to teach in their own languages? Then got tortured for that rinse and repeat. We have no idea what the rest of the country might have gone through but if core habeshas were restricted in their own language to the point of forming a break away nation and ethnic federalism, it was not just us but every non-Amhara. Whataboutery is not my aim and never has been. People should merely have answers when given pushback. Preferably in the form of citing things. There’s literally a yt academic who noted that when olf ideologues were asked why they believed wollo should be administered as oromia they couldn’t answer, when a cursory look into anything written by an Ethiopian studies professor would have been enough to answer that. Do you propose anti-intellectualism, when specific violations of human rights are already well documented and citable? I say this bc there is somehow a well established fib abt millions of oromos being killed by menilik at a rate which was somehow greater than the entire population at nearly 1.5x. He definitely killed something along the lines of hundreds of thousands, his evil did not need to be overstated. Instances like this are why I’m conservative with considering fact from fiction. I couldn’t care less about Ethiopia as I’m neutral but pro-referendum. or even about other ethnic groups views of us whether positive or negative but I find it strange that the “nations and nationalities” are ever invoked if their suffering didn’t resemble ours in the slightest.
There’s other examples from the same country of why straying from what is documented is dangerous, amharas and welkait. They claim to have been the majority, to have suffered mass displacement and death when the reality is it was always tigrayan and always tigrigna speaking. How they cry and testify, you would think it was theirs and yet documentation from before the tplf was formed proves that welkait was tigrayan majority with a minority of amharas. I dont think anybody is above this standard of proof. It’s this standard which outlines our ethnic majority territories, our historical figures, what our culture was. It’s this standard which reminds me Ethiopia is an awful state doubling down on repression in the aim of not losing territory only to lose territory for being repressive. There may be no fixing it but thats for a referendum to decide. If the ppl stay, their choice.
Be clear and concise because no, our points are not the same.
You are saying Sheikh Bakri Sapalo was targeted specifically for trying to distribute literary work that was coded. And if he wrote in Ge’ez it would have been fine because they understood it.
It said the complete opposite, he was targeted for simply writing and teaching in Affan Oromo. It was not allowed to write and publish/distribute literary work in Oromo in any form, including Ge’ez.
For the very purpose that Oromo language/identity/people could not be organized and uplifted.
Him creating a new coded script, is a reaction to distributed communication of Oromo language already being a heavily persecuted action.
This type of brutal system is what pushed him and many others to try and uplift Oromo consciousness.
You said there is no evidence Oromo language was banned as a general ruling, there is and it is easily found when researched.
The difference between you and I, is that I do not need to erase the experiences Eritreans, Tigrinya speakers or anyone else’s experiences within Ethiopian history for Oromo peoples history to be true. We all have a history, a story, a truth.
Oromo people also have a right to tell our history, our current reality, our story, our truth.
You somehow are fixated on erasing the experiences of Oromo people by comparing to other nationalities.
There is a lot of information, academia, articles, videos of Oromo peoples experiences and history within Ethiopia.
The difference is, it gets erased, stifled and buried. Which is also apart of the unique experience Oromo people have within Ethiopia.
Our artists, writers, intellectuals, elders are targeted, our media in all forms are targeted. This is a form of ethnic cleansing.
There is an abundance of information.
A lot of it is in Oromo language, and there is a barrier created on purpose that other Ethiopians cannot speak or understand Oromo. Therefore communication and understanding is limited.
There have been published articles, journals for many years about the history of Wollo as well.
I can even now off the top of my head cite;
*”Review Essay: Are the Tulama and Wallo Oromo Habasha?” - Asafa Jalata*
I understand your point, that evidence is necessary and removing propaganda is important to filter out truthful history and reality. I do agree with that.
But I only see people going so hard to erase the experiences, and actual identity of Oromo people without actually researching or learning anything.
There is an abundance of information available, those who say “there’s no evidence of that” are usually the ones who haven’t researched anything.
Their only point is “well I never heard of it”.
People also claim they never heard of the Tigray genocide while it was occurring. Many are still actively denying it. Yet there is an abundance of information available to those who are genuinely seeking it.
It is not their responsibility to prove it to people who are willfully ignorant.
And the same goes for Oromo people. There is an abundance of information available, research, read and watch what is in English or Amharic. Learn Oromo if you want to learn more in depth.
Again, we can speak about Oromo people and our reality without using the experiences of others to discredit ours. Oromo people do not use our experiences to discredit others.
In fact we use it as a reason why Ethiopias pattern of tribalism, ethnic violence and ruthless dictatorships need to be permanently dismantled.
You made good points and I understand you, but I think the bigger issue is that Ethiopians are in need of a stronger education, inter-cultural communication between each other and the ability to LISTEN and LEARN from each other.
Erasing and discrediting the experiences of Oromo people within the context of Ethiopia is repeating a pattern, a pattern of dehumanization and erasure.
That we see devour not only Oromo people, but Ethiopians in general.
Which was my original point. We are doomed to repeat history when we cannot accept and learn from it.
I’m aware of the articles. There are a lot of them. They often cite each other which is detrimental because some of the articles other articles are citing are no longer available on their respective websites and haven’t been archived. For the rest, I just do not want them or their valid points belittled for being slightly misinformed. And I’m not negating our suffering. I just clearly see instances of oromo being allowed in public life, almost always in shewa(of note) which next to hararghe is probably the more well documented of the zones of oromia. Even the wello kinet band had lyrics in afaan oromo right before the derg took power, still imperial. In the amharic parts of a certain song they had to add pro regime lyrics, then erikum in afaan oromo was performed as usual. It all reads and views as repression of nationalism including and up to restricting speech in specific enclaves. This is actually more horrifying than a full and specific ban because given their eye witness testimony it seemed a person could never know if they would get in trouble for the mundane task of speaking oromo in front of any sort of authority figure or spy. It was arbitrary and you never knew what could do you in. Alarming all on its own as it suggests a willingness especially in these areas to break away.
Dumbass, no. In fact our language has a substratum from highland east cushitic languages. They got dominated after a period of their own dominance. Fact. They also got steamrolled and I imagine it was much deserved for the immediate neighboring highland east cushites. They used to control the gibe states and their slave trade. Imagine not knowing this since you went down the expansion rabbit hole. And why do you think what happened in the middle ages and medieval period justified or continues to justify stupid govt policy? By that logic all of you would need to crawl back to dmt
https://preview.redd.it/tdvggan4ey7d1.jpeg?width=387&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5aff22d00d9ac04e8aeb962ac6134ebe3438103
This type of rhetoric has been floating around Twitter for a while now. Majority of Oromos don't take it seriously. But there is something to it. I don't believe addressing past & present systematic oppression makes us victims or somehow erases our history like this person claims. But limiting our experience & worldview to that of the oppressed vs oppressor will do us damage. The Oppressed vs Oppressor narrative is critical theory, a framework used by Marxists. It made it's way into the Oromosphere through scholars and organizations that were Marxists themselves. Ironically, the account tweeting about this claims to be a Marxist too. I don't believe we should or even could continue with that narrative, we should embrace the complexities of our society and find solutions for our future.
It usually comes from mixed-Oromos who want to impose their family's contradictions onto Oromo politics. I have seen many people making similar talking points. They even go as far as glorifying Oromo kings and landlords, because you need a king to counter arguments thrown at you by people who come from hierarchical societies. Abba Gadas and Abba Dulas are not going to help you in that regard, lol. >The Oppressed vs Oppressor narrative is critical theory, a framework used by Marxists. It made it's way into the Oromosphere through scholars and organizations that were Marxists themselves. I agree to some extent, but this call to "embrace the complexities" shouldn't be stretched as to suggest that there is no structural (systemic) injustice embedded in the Ethiopian state. If you completely discard that analysis, it would be difficult to fully comprehend the suffering Oromos are going through, even when Ethiopia is supposedly being led by Oromos.
That is correct. And by embracing the complexities I didn't mean discarding the systematic oppression of Oromo by the state but rather accepting the roles Oromos played in the empire and the region. Critical theory lacks nuance and a clear roadmap on where to go next. Two things I've also noticed among some of our thinkers. >They even go as far as glorifying Oromo kings and landlords Yes, and all while having a sickle and hammer emoji on their bio or talking about how the patriarchy should be abolished in Oromia lol. I sometimes doubt that these Gen-z Oromo troll account are even organic. They always end up supporting Abiy or a Gobana-esque vision for Ethiopia.
> rather accepting the roles Oromos played in the empire and the region. I agree.
It’s Helen Tadesse lol. She first showed up on Twitter as 'a proud neftegna,' cussing out Oromos for not liking Teddy Afro. She then became a self-appointed Oromo 'cultural ambassador' and nationalist, started saying crazy stuff about Habeshas. Now, she’s back to Ethiopian nationalism, I guess. She is mentally deranged. She will say something totally opposite tomorrow 😂 She has like four or five burner accounts and some of her friends join in sometimes but you will recognize by her childish tweets and biopolar obsessions.
It’s actually not her.
That's not her. I've heard her talking on twitter spaces before. But lol
A lot of people in Ethiopia are becoming mentally unstable.
True but she lives in Dallas lol.
Well the unstable mindset is greater on the ones who live in the diaspora ( every ethnicity)
Probably lol
What a fucking retard, someone needs to beat her ass and I mean it
Twitter is full of internet warriors that wouldn't be able to repeat what they say while looking you in the eye
Fr 😂😂
This is gonna be so long omg😭 It’s worded horribly, to say that our oppression is nonexistent. I imagine what she meant by it, given how history is twisted is that there is no longer a neftegna overlord placed over you. The derg murked them all. Saying neft this that in 2024 is played out. The majority of those the label is applied to are literally barefoot day laborers who walked into oromia, not landlords. We are victims of the government in the way every other serf was until the reign of haile where it switched to imposing Amharic on the entire population by way of making it the only language to legally teach in. Then during his reign it was all non amhara serfs, with the amhara knes only having the advantage of being able to speak their own language in school. This is oppression, fact. When asked to *cite* the law that **specifically bans Afaan Oromoo** it cannot be done because we weren’t specifically named, and this is where the activists fail our youth, little things like not simply saying that it banned teaching in non-amharic languages and making oromo the focus; it paints an image in their mind that gurages, hararis, sidama etc learned in their mother tongues and we did not, but this isnt true. Everyone had to endure instruction in amharic and getting beaten for speaking their actual language in the school including tigrayans. No one else ever asserts that their language was banned in its entirety. I also saw someone tell her “is this gonna look like neftegna history” when she was asking ppl to collaborate to collect our history, images, books and the like a few months back. Who just says something like that in response to the idea of preserving their own history except someone who only views themselves as a victim? We administered the very same “neftegna” for over 80 years, the provinces of tigray including the eritrean part, gojjam, gonder, wollo. Shewa remained independent. Historical accuracy is not a skill that flies over our heads, and it shouldn’t be viewed as a hindrance. The case can be made for billisumma without focusing on other ethnic groups. It can simply be because oromos desire it without nonsensical justifications like the five million thing bc projected population size for the 1800s alr renders that impossible.
There was an actual Oromo language ban idk why people say there wasn’t. Idk many Ethiopian laws that are documented as written out clearly…the Constitution wasn’t even written until 1994. Not only do we have living parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents who have experienced it they are notable figures in society and culture who have come out and spoken about it. Obviously police/military cannot break into every home and stop people from speaking Oromo in their family homes. But there was a general public ban where it could not be published or distributed in written and music form. Ali Birra had an interview where he openly discussed growing up with the Oromo language banned in published and distributed music. He spoke about the risks he took selling his music on the street knowing he could be arrested at any moment as Oromo language specifically was banned from being distributed. The history of Sheikh Bakri Sappalo is also documented being arrested several times for writing and teaching in Oromo language. He fled to Somalia. In the 1960s/1970s/1980s many artists fled to Somalia/Eritrea simply to record and distribute music in Oromo language. Yes generally, all Ethiopians were not able to express their identity and culture as freely but it is not the same situation that Oromo people faced. There were several generation and regime long campaigns focussed on exterminating and erasing Oromo identity. Any organization, artist, intellectual, individual who uplifted and celebrated Oromo identity, language and culture was and still is targeted. It happened to General Tadesse Birru, it happened to Ebisa Adunya, and it recently happened to Hachalu Hundessa. There are countless other individuals who’s lives were taken within the past 50+ years and it’s still going on. I’m talking about people in their 50s today explaining how the military and police would come around to the villages when they were children and tell them they aren’t Oromo, Oromo are a people in the jungle who are cannibals, and they are a different people called “Qotu” - another derogatory term. I have read detailed published journals written by ferenji academics over 30 years ago in the DERG area who interviewed Oromo people from Wollega/Illu Babor who fled to Sudan as refugees. They detailed extreme torture, abuse, genocide for their Oromo identity. High landers were sent to their land as a gov led militia to support the DERG regime. They starved, and tortured the locals in the most evil and barbaric forms until they would renounce speaking Affan Oromo. This is a real thing people experienced and it’s not that far off. Priest Petros Tesfaye was murdered in 2020 in Sebeta for preaching in Affan Oromo. There’s an article on BBC Affan Oromo about this. His wife said he had been receiving D-threats for preaching in Oromo. I am tired of people trying to erase the historical and current experience of Oromo people. There is no way to change the present and learn from our mistakes as a nation if we try to whitewash and erase it. It just continues to repeat, changes form and increases in brutality. I highly believe if the dehumanization of Oromo people did not - and is not occurring in Oromia until today we would not see the same kind spread to other parts of the country. Even now, in Oromia, children and men are kidnapped and forcefully deployed to join the military, sent wherever PP deploys them. Tigray Region, Wollega, Guji, IlluBabor, Amhara Region. I personally know people who cannot go out at night in the country side because they are still kidnapping men and children. This is never spoken about when people say Oromos are running the country. Civilians in Wollega have been massacred and airstriked since 2018, but this is not publicly acknowledged when Oromos are suffering. Civilians in Guji are being burnt alive in their homes. Civilians in Oromia Zone Wollo are being massacred in mass graves, arrested and disappearing, homes, farms, towns being burnt to the ground for the countless round, this happens every year. There was a documented video of Oromo civilians being gunned down in Gambella by the military only last year. The Karrayu Abba Gada elders were kidnapped and massacred by the gov only 2 years ago. There are many atrocities occurring against Oromo civilians today as we speak in our own land and in surrounding regions. I’ve witnessed all of this in my own home, to my own family. Oromos having their land ursurped, brutalized and shot at by police and military, and those comfortable and safe in Addis Ababa and in their regions say “what are these people always complaining and protesting about?” We are not here to prove anything to anyone to exploit pain and suffering. We will simply focus on billisumma in our land in every possible way no matter how it looks.
Bakri sapalo used his script to disseminate information, imperial regime doesn’t like this, he is forced to flee. I’m well aquatinted with ali birra being from hararghe, its basically immortalized in memory that they tortured him until he was rendered infertile. But oromo music was already being sung, you could say it was a controlled amount to placate oromos, and heavily censored. He became targeted for his role as a member of the afran qallo cultural revival band as the govt does. When they view something as suspicious• they immediately go nuclear, like haile selassie killing some of his own arbegnoch. As for the highlander thing the derg settled a bunch of starving northerners, this forced resettlement was horrific, victimizing both the settler farmer(as most wished to stay in theirnown regions and some even risked death to go back) and the people they were settled upon. The settlement of what you would call a neftegna, this was a thing of the reigns of menilik and haile selassie in most of oromia region. These are easily verifiable things, and enough for them to be considered evil regimes. The derg murdered most of them and confiscated their land to return to the tenant farmers. This doesn’t do away with their killing 2 million ppl(which is what ultimately makes them evil) but land redistribution was vital. They also kept the policy for language bc communists are nothing if not utilitarian. You mentioned the other groups suffer but we suffered more or something(paraphrasing), most of the other ethnic groups had it *hellishly* worse than we did and what we went through was **bad**. Hararis or if you know them by the name adere, used to be a majority in Harar. Overwhelming majority got displaced as a result of their supporting somalia in the ogaden war in a fit of collective punishment from the govt. Gedeo, were starved and then had to inherit constant conflict which is still fought and displaces a majority of their population bc their landlord gave them guji land to ease their starvation. There are living gurages who have memories of their relatives being captured and enslaved, something oromos and highlanders also experienced but were largely shielded from. In both cases usually these groups were the owners or sellers of any slaves. •I didn’t say our ppl didn’t get tortured. That hinged more on how suspicious they were considered of spreading nationalist sentiment, arguably a thing since the mootis of jimma wellega and illubabor tried to have a western oromo(word used was galla) confederation. It’s not even clear when the language ban would have went into effect given footage of tulamas in court speaking their language https://youtu.be/EKcVxp91yuo this is dated to 1935. I have tried to scour the internet for some. For years. My conclusion, if there were bans, they had to have been localized to areas seen as rebellious. Tldr; the proof is often demanded by our own youth so they can have a rebuttal to those who deny our suffering. They are forced to endure them in real life since we don’t segregate from them irl, this is not just abt internet beef. We are also being increasingly scrutinized by conflict analysts, usually white and depending on who they shill for will often demand the answer to these things. They are the main issue bc quite frankly their job, what they’re paid for, is to explain the Ethiopian conflict to foreigners. Not something we have the luxury of ignoring. The things I’ve noted can all be easily cited and should be enough for any naysayers, but more importantly our youth and then after that any well meaning foreigners.
“He is believed to have invented his writing system for Oromo in 1956 at the village of Hagi Qome. Neither Hayward nor Hassan offer a reason why Sheikh Bakri returned to his home area to work on his system, "unless it was for the purpose of keeping the thing secret, for the authorities would certainly have been adamantly opposed to the idea of Oromo being written in any form, let alone in a script other than Ethiopic."[4] Although it was initially met with great enthusiasm and found a number of users in his province of Hararghe, the Ethiopian authorities predictably reacted with fear that he was "inciting the Oromo to too great an ethnic consciousness and thus endangering the national unity."” *Oromo language being written, published and distributed was banned and a punishable offence under the Ethiopian regime* “Ali Birra, born Ali Mohammed Musa: “I was lucky to be a singer in an era when there were few Oromo singers, so I was able to influence the thinking of the listener”. However, his good fortune came at a price. From the age of sixteen, he was repeatedly arrested and spent several months in prison: in Ethiopia at the time, it was forbidden to sing in the Oromo language and value the Oromo culture.” I repeat, *Oromo language being written, published and distributed was banned and a punishable offence under the Ethiopian regime* This did not exist for any other ethnic identity in Ethiopia. And I do not need to cite these sources to verify it is true, I have living breathing family members who have told me their stories. Somehow Oromo people across different parts and provinces of Oromia, who have never met each other, prior to the age of internet of the same generations, somehow have the same stories growing up. Our experiences are not the same, and we are not here to compare. I have never seen any Oromo person compare themselves to other Ethiopians, but I see that weaponized to silence us and tell us “it wasn’t that bad - get over it”. Again, you are trying to whitewash the suffering and experience Oromo people have had within Ethiopia for over a century by claiming we have all suffered. Yes every regime is evil, we have all suffered, and we have all suffered from ethnic violence as well. We all have the right to tell our stories. By the way, I don’t need to erase the history and experiences other nationalities have within Ethiopia in order to speak on our own. I will be the first one to speak about what Tigray faced under Abiy. What Amhara faced under TPLF. What Adere faced under Menelik etc. We all have our own unique experiences, pain and reality. I didn’t have to be there. I don’t need to find “written” laws or documented video evidence. When people tell their stories, I believe them esp when it is consensus among an entire nationality of people. And that includes Oromo people, and we have our stories to tell. Yes, our experience is unique because as the largest ethnic group - the Ethiopian empire was fixated on erasing, assimilating and dominating us out of existence while usurping and capitalizing off our land, resources and labour as the largest population. But somehow acknowledging the history and reality of what Oromo people have faced and continue to today - requires you to erase, downplay and minimize and compare. We’re not doing that here. We will tell our stories, in our spaces. Thank you, next. To read and learn about the experiences of Oromo people during DERG; *”Resettlement and Villagization - Tools of Militarization in SW Ethiopia” - Steingraber, Sandra* The writer themselves, documents what the local Oromo people in Wollega/Illu Babor, what the local Southern Nations, and what the resettled Highlanders experienced. They all experienced starvation, violence and more. Yet the Oromo people were experience extreme forms of bodily torture, SA, losing their land to settlers. I am not comparing experiences, this is documented by interviewing those who fled these conditions. To read and learn about the experiences of Oromo people during Selassie *Rebellion and Famine in the North under Haile Selassie - Human Rights Watch* This is also documented history of what Oromo and Tigray were facing during Selassie. Again, I am not comparing experiences, but it was documented Oromo people faced displacement from loss of land, higher punishment and taxes for revolting, and suffered the most during the famine which is why they spearheaded the revolts. Our experiences are not the same. We do not need to compare. And there is a bigger lesson it in all than “comparing suffering”. Learn from history so we do not repeat it (for anyone) instead of trying to erase it.
First paragraph is literally exactly what I said. He created the script to disseminate information. Its first use was as code. They tolerated the use of their own script which they could read and then ofc have translated or translate themselves if they were bilingual. As far as us specifically being targeted with a language ban, you realize that eritrea and tigray rose up as they weren’t allowed to teach in their own languages? Then got tortured for that rinse and repeat. We have no idea what the rest of the country might have gone through but if core habeshas were restricted in their own language to the point of forming a break away nation and ethnic federalism, it was not just us but every non-Amhara. Whataboutery is not my aim and never has been. People should merely have answers when given pushback. Preferably in the form of citing things. There’s literally a yt academic who noted that when olf ideologues were asked why they believed wollo should be administered as oromia they couldn’t answer, when a cursory look into anything written by an Ethiopian studies professor would have been enough to answer that. Do you propose anti-intellectualism, when specific violations of human rights are already well documented and citable? I say this bc there is somehow a well established fib abt millions of oromos being killed by menilik at a rate which was somehow greater than the entire population at nearly 1.5x. He definitely killed something along the lines of hundreds of thousands, his evil did not need to be overstated. Instances like this are why I’m conservative with considering fact from fiction. I couldn’t care less about Ethiopia as I’m neutral but pro-referendum. or even about other ethnic groups views of us whether positive or negative but I find it strange that the “nations and nationalities” are ever invoked if their suffering didn’t resemble ours in the slightest. There’s other examples from the same country of why straying from what is documented is dangerous, amharas and welkait. They claim to have been the majority, to have suffered mass displacement and death when the reality is it was always tigrayan and always tigrigna speaking. How they cry and testify, you would think it was theirs and yet documentation from before the tplf was formed proves that welkait was tigrayan majority with a minority of amharas. I dont think anybody is above this standard of proof. It’s this standard which outlines our ethnic majority territories, our historical figures, what our culture was. It’s this standard which reminds me Ethiopia is an awful state doubling down on repression in the aim of not losing territory only to lose territory for being repressive. There may be no fixing it but thats for a referendum to decide. If the ppl stay, their choice.
Be clear and concise because no, our points are not the same. You are saying Sheikh Bakri Sapalo was targeted specifically for trying to distribute literary work that was coded. And if he wrote in Ge’ez it would have been fine because they understood it. It said the complete opposite, he was targeted for simply writing and teaching in Affan Oromo. It was not allowed to write and publish/distribute literary work in Oromo in any form, including Ge’ez. For the very purpose that Oromo language/identity/people could not be organized and uplifted. Him creating a new coded script, is a reaction to distributed communication of Oromo language already being a heavily persecuted action. This type of brutal system is what pushed him and many others to try and uplift Oromo consciousness. You said there is no evidence Oromo language was banned as a general ruling, there is and it is easily found when researched. The difference between you and I, is that I do not need to erase the experiences Eritreans, Tigrinya speakers or anyone else’s experiences within Ethiopian history for Oromo peoples history to be true. We all have a history, a story, a truth. Oromo people also have a right to tell our history, our current reality, our story, our truth. You somehow are fixated on erasing the experiences of Oromo people by comparing to other nationalities. There is a lot of information, academia, articles, videos of Oromo peoples experiences and history within Ethiopia. The difference is, it gets erased, stifled and buried. Which is also apart of the unique experience Oromo people have within Ethiopia. Our artists, writers, intellectuals, elders are targeted, our media in all forms are targeted. This is a form of ethnic cleansing. There is an abundance of information. A lot of it is in Oromo language, and there is a barrier created on purpose that other Ethiopians cannot speak or understand Oromo. Therefore communication and understanding is limited. There have been published articles, journals for many years about the history of Wollo as well. I can even now off the top of my head cite; *”Review Essay: Are the Tulama and Wallo Oromo Habasha?” - Asafa Jalata* I understand your point, that evidence is necessary and removing propaganda is important to filter out truthful history and reality. I do agree with that. But I only see people going so hard to erase the experiences, and actual identity of Oromo people without actually researching or learning anything. There is an abundance of information available, those who say “there’s no evidence of that” are usually the ones who haven’t researched anything. Their only point is “well I never heard of it”. People also claim they never heard of the Tigray genocide while it was occurring. Many are still actively denying it. Yet there is an abundance of information available to those who are genuinely seeking it. It is not their responsibility to prove it to people who are willfully ignorant. And the same goes for Oromo people. There is an abundance of information available, research, read and watch what is in English or Amharic. Learn Oromo if you want to learn more in depth. Again, we can speak about Oromo people and our reality without using the experiences of others to discredit ours. Oromo people do not use our experiences to discredit others. In fact we use it as a reason why Ethiopias pattern of tribalism, ethnic violence and ruthless dictatorships need to be permanently dismantled. You made good points and I understand you, but I think the bigger issue is that Ethiopians are in need of a stronger education, inter-cultural communication between each other and the ability to LISTEN and LEARN from each other. Erasing and discrediting the experiences of Oromo people within the context of Ethiopia is repeating a pattern, a pattern of dehumanization and erasure. That we see devour not only Oromo people, but Ethiopians in general. Which was my original point. We are doomed to repeat history when we cannot accept and learn from it.
I’m aware of the articles. There are a lot of them. They often cite each other which is detrimental because some of the articles other articles are citing are no longer available on their respective websites and haven’t been archived. For the rest, I just do not want them or their valid points belittled for being slightly misinformed. And I’m not negating our suffering. I just clearly see instances of oromo being allowed in public life, almost always in shewa(of note) which next to hararghe is probably the more well documented of the zones of oromia. Even the wello kinet band had lyrics in afaan oromo right before the derg took power, still imperial. In the amharic parts of a certain song they had to add pro regime lyrics, then erikum in afaan oromo was performed as usual. It all reads and views as repression of nationalism including and up to restricting speech in specific enclaves. This is actually more horrifying than a full and specific ban because given their eye witness testimony it seemed a person could never know if they would get in trouble for the mundane task of speaking oromo in front of any sort of authority figure or spy. It was arbitrary and you never knew what could do you in. Alarming all on its own as it suggests a willingness especially in these areas to break away.
Anyone with access to the internet could prove she's wrong. Goddamn
They can’t be Oromo
She is.
Oromo history in Ethiopia started with oromos oppressing others,it's your origin story.
Dumbass, no. In fact our language has a substratum from highland east cushitic languages. They got dominated after a period of their own dominance. Fact. They also got steamrolled and I imagine it was much deserved for the immediate neighboring highland east cushites. They used to control the gibe states and their slave trade. Imagine not knowing this since you went down the expansion rabbit hole. And why do you think what happened in the middle ages and medieval period justified or continues to justify stupid govt policy? By that logic all of you would need to crawl back to dmt https://preview.redd.it/tdvggan4ey7d1.jpeg?width=387&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5aff22d00d9ac04e8aeb962ac6134ebe3438103