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Adda Tokkummaa Bilisummaa Ummata
Oromoo Muddee 7, 2009 Ijjannoo ATBUO “Ibsaa fi labsa
Tokkoomuu Jaarmayoota, Gurmuulee Fi Qabsaa’ota Walaba Oromoo”
irratti Aajaa’ibni (diraamaan) ABOn jijjiiramaa maqaa “Tokkoomuu
Jaarmayoota” jedhuun taphatu kun, nama keessa hin beeyneef dhuugaa waan
fakkaatuuf, haqaa jirtu himuun barbaachisaa dha. IBSA.pdf Dhaamsa Aabboo Keennaa Eessan Geenne? Walaloo
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and contemplating the cancellation of her morning's English class. As she lay
on her bed in the eastern part of the country where she and six other GW
students were volunteering for the summer, she heard a knock at the
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jira. Qabxiileen marriin irratti godhame: Full report US diplomat killed in
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February 5, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — A U.S. young
diplomat has been found dead at his house in Addis Ababa last Saturday
however the circumstances of his death remain unclearas police has begun to
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News and Views published on this page are those of the authors and not necessarlly that of UOPLF |
Waaqo Guutu as a National Symbol in Oromo Nationalism
(Eshete Gemeda, Ph.D)
After
the 1880s new global order of colonialism, that is, after the decimation of
indigenous people and the expropriation of their land (Native land Act), the Oromo
found themselves in a traumatic situation in their homeland. The oppressed
nation was transformed into a new pool of cheap labour for farms of the
occupant nafxanyaa (Amhara) overlords of the North. The consequence of the loss
of the land and the absence of the rule of law actually means the galvanization
of political and social protests among the evicted Oromo peasants across the
annexed territory (Oromiyaa). This eventually generated patriotic movements in
the occupied land.
The 1960s Arsii-Bale uprising led by the popular hero activist,
Waaqo Guutu, against the despotic ruler (king), Haile-Sellassie of Abyssinia,
provides us with a number of scenarios taken from catastrophic experience in
which the disfranchised people, the Oromo, struggled to voice their resentments
to reverse the role relationship of the ruler and the ruled, the oppressor and
the oppressed. General Waaqo had a longstanding dream of optimism and a better
day in the midst of the nightmare that surrounded him. He categorically rejected
Abyssinian (Amhara) construction of history and colonial narrative stipulated
in the "Kibre Nagast" (the Glory of the king) and is viewed by the
posterity as a symbol of nation's dignity and freedom.
In heroic age societies, the great man is not he who tries to make
his voice heard through what we call pervasive relations based on
supperordinate; rather, through natural quality of enlisting or demonstrating
heroic actions which charaterize all prominent figures and cultured nations of
the past and present. One of the greatest personal qualities of Waaqo Guutu is
that he had a vision of a world in which there would be no indignity. In his
entire political life, the hero patriot fought for the ideas of popular
sovereignty preceding, that is, to emancipate the nation trampled over from the
pressing yoke of the ruling minority and promote a sense of national identity
and values without which self-assurance, the complete revision of the powered
and the disempowered cannot occur. Though time stood against him many times,
though his revolutionary voice may not be heard as he desired because of the
changing political fashion, the heroic actions and perseverance he had
demonstrated to bring the "bright day of justice" has a powerful
appeal to all those who sense the value of human freedom.
Within the context of liberation, nationalism is peculiarly the
product of the distinctive forces, which have gone into the shaping of the
modern world in which the rights of man is interpreted as the rights of
nations. Those forces are inherently and inevitably democratic in a sense that
they mobilize the submerged nations into new social and political roles.
Likewise, Oromo nationalism is the outcome of the active aspirations of the
changing political scene in which the Oromo people are striving to achieve a
sense of their own worth and of their legitimate rights.
In the history of mankind, the nationalist heroes function in the
culture as standard-bearers of the values and goals of their nations. For this
reason, they have become the national symbols, consecrated with monuments and
hagiographic literature. The heroes are champions of man's noble ambition to go
beyond the oppressive limits of human frailty to a fuller and more meaningful
life, to win as far as possible the self-sufficient manhood which refuses to
admit subservience and inequality of the human race. The noble cause Waaqo
Guutu fought for is part of this living testimony of human quality which needs
to be cherished by all the rising generations who work toward the building of a
great society having a deep sense of history. Waaqo is seen by Oromo nationals
as a uniter, tolerant and popular image whose objective is to bring hopes and
civil liberty. He emerged as a representative symbol of his time during one of
the momentous periods in Oromo history when the nation was heading for disaster
and Oromiyaa faced new challenges of savage act and hideous crimes of different
kinds.
After 1941, Emperor Haile-Sellassie gained power and imposed
arbitrary rule on Arsii-Bale regions, which in fact was not welcomed by the
Native population. Haile-Sellassie's Amharization policy and the reactionary
system of gabbaar (serfdom) provoked the already ongoing rebellion movements of
several decades (1930s, 1940s, 1950s). The continuity of destabilization and
eviction of the Native population fuelled rebellion resistance and people's
uprising of the 1960s, wherein General Waaqo played the central role. In the
contemporary political setting of the demand for the independent existence of the
Oromo, the rise of Waaqo as a famous guerrilla fighter is the result of the
break with the old order to regain dignity; and his revolutionary ideas have
marked the growth of modern Oromo liberation politics.
Until he departed us for his final resting place, General Waaqo
paid a great price to break the chain of the oppressors. He faced manifold
problems in the process of the rule and conquest in which he unflaggingly
protested against the statusquo. The whole scene of outstanding episodic events
of his time, the way he cherishes belonging together and common good of the
people to be liberated always rise before our eyes and remain with us.
Reminiscences about
General Waaqo Guutuu
My knowledge about General Waaqo Guutuu's deeds
are based on what I heard about him in the mid-1960s or read since then about
the Bale Oromo peasant uprising. However, most of what I will recount here are
ancedotes in the General's life which I got from two Oromo officers of the then
Ethiopian Air Force in 1970. I think that these anecdotes should be told
because they say a lot about Waaqo Guutuu as a person. The two Oromo officers,
a pilot and an engineer, met Waaqo Guutuu in relation to the settlement of the
Bale Oromo struggle sometime between March and June 1970. The Bale Oromo
uprising that brought more than three-fifth of Bale and parts of Sidamo under
its control came to an end in 1970 through negotiations between Waaqo Guutuu
and the Haile Selassie government. Waaqo Guutuu and his compatriots were forced
to accept the cease fire agreement because of political changes in
Having started negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the
conflict with the Ethiopian government, Waaqo and his compatriots accepted an
invitation to meet its representatives in Bale. According to my informant (the
pilot who took the government negotiators to site by a helicopter) the
following happened on the occasion. On arrival at the place of the planned
meeting Waaqo, who was expecting the Emperor to be present at the meeting,
asked why Haile Selassie was not there to meet him. He was told that the
Emperor will meet him in
Many of the army officers who were involved in the reception of the
Oromo freedom fighters on that eventful day in March 1970 were not only
affronted by General Waaqo's defiant and independent attitude, but a conflict
also arose among them. According to my informant, the Ethiopian military
officers were divided regarding what to do with the Oromo rebel: one group
argued that Waaqo and his group should be gunned down there and then while the
second group wanted to honour the words which were the basis for the meeting.
Those who wanted to kill General Waaqo insisted that he was an enemy of the
empire and that he deserved death there and then. If not to the Ethiopian
Empire, which was not only militarily strong but also overtly confident of
itself as a leading state in Africa, he was still a threat to the naftanya
settlers of Bale, Arsi and Sidamo if left alive (It should be noted here that
according to Ethiopian government records two generals, fifteen colonels and
over one hundred officers of lower ranks were killed by or had surrendered to
the Bale movement between 1964-1970. The number of ordinary soldiers who were
killed by the rebels ran perhaps into thousands). Fortunately, the views of the
group who insisted that the words which were given to the Oromo rebels should
be respected won the upper hand and Waaqo and his Oromo compatriots' life was
saved.
After some time, Waaqo and his group were received by Haile
Selassie in Finfinnee. To the great disappointment of General Jaagaama Keello,
who was their interpreter during the meeting with the Emperor, and the surprise
of the many high ranking civil and military officials of the empire in
audience, General Waaqo and his group refused to follow the example of General
Jaagaama and the other officials to bow for Haile Selassie.
General Waaqo's answer to Haile Selassie's paternalizing questions
was even more shocking to the officials. When the Emperor inquired, "Why
did you rebel against your King and country?", General Waaqo's unflinching
response was, "We rebelled to restore our rights which were robbed from us
by your government." Haile Selassie was cautious and did not want to
punish Waaqo and his followers for the rebellion or their defiant attitude. In
fact, his treatment of the rebels was considered magnanimous. General amnesty
for all those involved in the rebellion was proclaimed in Bale. However, that
did not mean the conditions which caused the Oromo uprising in Bale were changed.
Before returning home, the Oromo rebels were made to visit the
Ethiopian parliament in session and tour the Air Force base located in
Bishoftu. In Bishoftu, they were received by the Air Force staff and were shown
arround the base. Apparently, the purpose was to impress General Waaqo and his
party with the military might of the country. However, instead of being himself
impressed by the might of the empire which the planes and the officers
represented, it was Waaqo who impressed the airforce staff and trainees, many
of whom were Oromos at that time. While inspecting the planes General Waaqo was
commenting that, "fearing bullets from the grounds, the pilots of this and
that type of planes were droping bombs from far up in the sky often missing most
of their military targets but destroying the lives of civilians."
Ironically, the "ex-bandit" leader was fearlessly accusing the
imperial forces of cowardice and crime. It seems, from what I heard from my
informant (the engineer) that the self-confidence which radiated from Waaqo and
his comaptriots planted in the minds of many Oromo officers the notion that a
struggle for Oromo national liberation was not only just also possible. In fact
some of the young officers were "converted" to Oromo nationalism
following the rebels' tour of the Air Force base.
Thus it was the example set by General Waaqo Guutuu and other
national figures such as General Taddesse Birru which motivated many young
Oromo to join the Oromo struggle for national liberation in the 1960s and 1970s.
It is generally acknowledged that the OLF is an offspring of the Bale Peasant
Uprising and Macha Tulama Association.
I met General Waaqo Guutuu for the first time in
General Waaqo Guutuu struggled for the freedom of his people for
more than four decades. We owe him a great debt. He was and shall remain a hero
of the Oromo nation. His life was an epitome of dignity; he lived it with a
pride that befits only heroes. May his soul rest in peace. May Waaqayyoo give
his family the strength to bear this great loss.
Mekuria Bulcha
Eenummaan Dhalootaani
Eennummaa wajjiin dhalatan.Eennummaan,
Eennummaa ofii gatanii
Eennummaan ragaa ofii qabdi. Ragaa Eennummaa keessaa afaani fi
aadota sabni tokko qabu akkanuma seenaan sabichaa jiraachuu dha. Fakeennaaf
Gadaa yoo jedhamu, maqaa oromoo jedhutu wajjiin hidhaa qaba. Alagaan tokko
Oromoo biratti yoo gadaa maqaa kaase oromtichi bakkatti coraa isaatti
dhagahama. Eegasuu, eennummaa oromoo karaa gabroomfataan habashaa balleessaaf
harkisaa turee fi itti jiru irraa bakka isaatti debisee ijaaruun oromoo irra
jirti. Kunis, dalagaa ilma oromo mana isaa iraa jalqabee tahuu qaba.
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News and Views published on this page are those of the authors and not necessarlly that of UOPLF |