There is nought so finely spun
But it comes to the sun.
I ask Thee for a thoughtful love
Through constant watching wise,
To meet the glad with joyful smiles,
And to wipe the weeping eyes;
And a heart at leisure from itself
Too soothe and sympathize.
Anon
The Tigray dominated brutal regime in Ethiopia has been forced to admit its mistakes and has promised democratization at the level of empty words. But it is still killing and imprisoning innocent and peaceful people as usual. The gap between its words and actions is still stunning. True, it has released some political prisoners, but it has then declared the second state of emergency to make it impossible for them to get organized and call for election. It has forced its ceremonial prime minister out of office and come now with a new one, again from its own so-called coalition. It continues to scapegoat some bureaucrats at lower levels of its apparatus. The problem is that Abyssinia has a deep rooted conspiratorial political culture: speaking or behaving, so as to hide one’s real feelings, thoughts and plans, with the aim of misleading others and the world public opinion, a culture where ordinary people can only rarely expect to be treated with respect by the state, where men are still stronger than laws.. The feudal zeitgeist mixed with equally tyrannical Stalinist methods is still with us. It is simply horrible and unacceptable even by the standard of most of black African countries.
To a sober western observer it is hard to reconcile this reality of Ethiopia today with the gentle courtesy and pretensions to democracy and economic achievements by the Abyssinian leaders, academics and diplomats.
What is new is that the oppressed peoples, made docile and bowing for hundreds of years through systematic repression, have lost fear and are rising up together. The Oromo people are at the forefront of this peaceful resistance to oppression. It is for me unimaginable they would retreat to the mindset of paralytic fear, acquiescence and invisibility. Yet the Abyssinian ruling elites are still singing the glory of the unity of their empire that is not negotiable, apart from TPLF’s pretension on paper..
Of course we should not underestimate the difference between the TPLF and the Amhara cliques even though both are still determined to keep running their empire as before using different tactics as long as the tentacles of their power are intact. Despite its brutality, TPLF is still more flexible striving to stage more dramatic political stunts by making some concessions under its control to prolong its influence, while the Amhara elites are still burning with their declared and simmering hatred for the right of peoples to self determination even on paper. Royal arrogance and misreading human history have made their minds dull and uncompromising even in minor issues. They are still captives of false legends.
It is much too soon to write the obituary of the TPLF. On propaganda level, Tigayans are much ahead of Amhara groups in several ways.. This is undeniable. Otherwise their chauvinism is not different from Amhara chauvinism in its essence. Actually it can even be more violent and brutal on the ground. Its tanks marched on the Somali capital and, before that, it went to a devastating war with its historical allies in Eritrea mainly to prove to the Amharas its equal loyalty to the beloved empire. Saying this I must however add that at one time I thought that the Tigrayans in general must be potentially in a better position to understand the Oromo question than Amharas because they are also a divided nation who suffered under Italian colonialism and Amhara conspiracy and aggression. Now TPLF and EPLF have disillusioned me completely. Today I am free from that sort of illusion.
The Amhars are really deadlocked between their desire to challenge theTigray supremacy and their fear and mistrust of the great majority of the Oromo people. Their priority seems to sabotage the Oromo question. That is why they will never challenge the Tigray power on a large scale in the near future despite their uproar. TPLF knows this very well.
That is why we need to be more creative and vigilant than ever in our struggle for freedom from oppression. Still I am dismissive of the chances of bringing about any real change in the aggressive Abyssinian mindset. Oromo groups led by Merara Gudina, Bekele Gerba and Lenco Lata and many individuals including Jawar Mohammed think otherwise. I can only wish them good luck. Actually I hope that they will prove me wrong if they make the Abyssinian elite change its mindset to accept genuine equality.
I think it is much better for us to change ourselves instead, if we are serious, by strengthening our unity around clear aims. Let us be inspired by the Gada era before the divisive religious barriers were erected between us to divide and rule us for ever. We need a secular leadership that understands this, not just only on theoretical level but also in practice on organizational level. If we do this, it will be the end of Abyssinian supremacy one way or another. Our destiny is in our own hands. Let us stop blaming only others. We need of course all kinds of serious knowledge to succeed in our struggle, scientific as well as spiritual knowledge. So even while struggling for our liberation, education and self-education must be among our top priorities.
Some Oromo activists keep repeating that the Oromo people have no friends in the world. I do not buy that. First let us be our own friends in the face of the organized Abyssinian bullies who oppose our right to self determination. Then most of the world will stand with us in some important ways, if we insist on our right to self determination by all means. We should refuse to be distracted by those Oromos who are still proud of Abyssinian history such as the war of Adwa, an intercolonial war in which British and French colonial powers wanted to eliminate Italy from the race by supporting emperor Menelik.
I do not mean that all Oromos who participated in that battle were slaves. Actually many had been serving their own class interests long before the war, intermarrying with the Amhara feudal houses for their own well being. which led to the amharization of their children. Still much earlier partly similar facts, among other things, had led to the ultimate lose of a big chunk of Shoa and Wollo. The entire reality is still with us in a different way under the guise of modernity. Many Oromos are working within the Abyssinian dominated establishment only to ensure their livelihood and security. Will the new Oromo prime minister be able to change this picture instead of screening the Abyssinian domination as TPLF wants? Most Abyssinian elites are convinced, though they never admit this openly, that ruling Ethiopia is their preserve, a godsend. Again I am ready to be disproved by practice, not by empty words. One can never know everything. Let me interrupt myself at this point by quoting one of the poems I love most.
The shadow of death
Trust in that veiled hand, which leads
None by the path that he would go;
And always be for change prepared,
For the world’s law is ebb and flow.
From the Arabic
One can be deceived sometimes in the same way but not forever. Oromos have let themselves be deceived countless times mostly through wilful blindness ignoring the obvious at our peril. They have done that not out of stupidity but mostly in order to survive. I am not blaming them. But times are changing. And anyone who refuses to register this will suffer and cause suffering unnecessarily.
I do admit the brilliance of the modern Machiavellis of Abyssinia. They cultivate their intellectual capacities mostly only to misuse them systematically. Their voice can be resonant, masculine and, at times, even warm and their bodies well trained and impressive.. Yet on the slightest mental provocation they can put a gun to your head. The problem is they discount the depth of human consciousness and aspiration for freedom and justice. The secret Abyssinian formula to stop the present upheaval is to divide and rule complementing naked militarism.
We need to cultivate seriously our power of thinking rapidly and intuitively in a complicated world situation without wasting our times hesitating and unable to choose between different scenarios and alternatives.. The Abyssinian elites are desperate. They will not hesitate to engulf the oppressed peoples in ethnic conflicts to divert the attention from the main issue of democracy and freedom from oppression and repression. We need to be more careful now after the TPLF’s artifice and cunning that sparked atrocities between Oromos and Somalis.
But, as the anonymous poet says, we need also in our struggle for justice the power to soothe and sympathize even with those who describe us as separatists, considering us enemies of ” unity .” At heart we are not their enemies. They are their own enemies. They are the real enemies of the unity of their own unjust empire that is unquestionable. All we want is freedom from oppression. It is greed and the love of unjust power that drives the Abyssinian elites crazy. If we Oromos really wake up, Africa will wake up with us to a new bright reality in the most peaceful manner possible. We have a lot to offer. That is my conviction. Thank you.