Page 122 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

Comparing the African American and Oromo Movements
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tially Oromos resisted slavery and colonization without systematically organizing
themselves.The Oromo cultural and political resistance continued after their enslave-
ment and colonization because they were assigned to the status of slaves and colonial
subjects and second-class citizens by the Ethiopian state. Because of the seriousness of
Oromo resistance to slavery and colonialism, it took more than 30 years to establish
Ethiopian settler colonialism and its institutions in various Oromo regions. Oromo
groups continued to challenge Ethiopian settler colonialism in attempts to regain their
freedom and independence.There were numerous local uprisings in different parts of
Oromia. Sometimes these local groups expelled the Ethiopian colonial settlers from
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their country. Although unsuccessful, some Oromo groups tried to use European
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powers, such as Italy and Great Britain, to regain their independence.
Despite all these resistance struggles, it took a long time to develop Oromo na-
tionalism when nationalism in different parts of colonial Africa emerged between the
1920s and the 1950s.The denial of formal education, the structure of Ethiopian colo-
nialism such that almost all Oromos lived in rural areas, limiting their economic par-
ticipation to agriculture, and tight political repression—all delayed the development of
Oromo nationalism. The Ethiopian colonial state and its institutions prevented the
emergence of Oromo leadership by coopting many of the intellectual elements and
liquidating the nationalist ones, by suppressing Oromo autonomous institutions, and
by erasing Oromo history, culture, and language. According to Mohammed Hassen,
“From the 1880s to the early 1960s, the Oromo suffered a great deal from the lack of
central leadership.It should be remembered that in the 1880s during the conquest and
colonization of Oromo territory, a large number of the Oromo people, together with
their leaders, were decimated. . . . Other Oromo leaders were coopted into the
Ethiopian political process. The basis for independent Oromo leadership was de-
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stroyed.” Despite the fact that Oromo individuals and various Oromo groups resisted
and fought against the combined forces of Ethiopian settler colonialism and global im-
perialism, a few Oromo elites and urbanites started to develop and manifest Oromo
collective consciousness and nationalism by the early 1960s.
The destruction “of Oromo national leadership, the tight control of the govern-
ment, the meagerness of a modern educational establishment, lack of transport and
communication systems and mass media, the absence of written literature in the
Oromo language and the limited nature of interaction among the Oromo in different
regions . . . may have contributed to retarding the growth of an Oromo national con-
sciousness before the beginning of the 1960s.” 40 For a considerable length of time,
Oromo lacked formally trained and culturally minded intellectuals.The Christianized
Oromo scholar and former slave, Onesimos Nasib, who was trained in Europe, and his
team Aster Ganno,Lidya Dimbo,and Feben (Hirphee) Abba Magaal,as well as another
religious scholar, Sheik Bakri Sapalo, pioneered the production of written literature in
Afaan Oromoo and tried to introduce literacy to Oromo society in the first half of the
twentieth century.To deny formal education to Oromos, the Ethiopian colonial gov-
ernment and the Orthodox Church suppressed the efforts of these scholars. It was not
only the Ethiopian government and its international supporters that hindered the
progress of Oromo society.The opposition of Somalia to Oromo interests also con-
tributed to the slow development of Oromo consciousness and nationalism.The So-
malia state that emerged with the liberation of Somalia in 1960 tried its best to
Somalize some Oromos and incorporate a part of Oromia to Somalia. While the
Ethiopian elites “feared Oromo nationalism as a major threat to the disintegration of