Page 123 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

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Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
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the Ethiopian Empire, Somali ruling elites regarded it as a dangerous movement that
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All these obstacles
would abort the realization of the dream of greater Somalia.”
hampered the development of Oromo nationalism for some time.
The development of colonial/peripheral capitalism in Oromia, the emergence of a
few conscious Oromo intellectuals and bureaucrats, the cumulative experiences of
struggle, and politicized collective and individual grievances—all facilitated the devel-
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opment of Oromo nationalism. Since the 1960s, some Oromos started to move to
cities where colonial settlers were concentrated. As the Oromo people flowed from
rural areas into cities, the condition of urban areas began to change.While a few were
successful and became petty traders, most became laborers or were unemployed.These
groups and students brought the Oromo language and culture to urban areas where
the colonialists were concentrated. An example of this was the formation of musical
groups, such as the Arffan Qallo and Biftu Ganamo musical groups in Dirre Dhawa.
It was not only the Oromo masses who were mistreated by the Ethiopian colonizers.
Those Oromo elites who joined the Ethiopian colonial institutions were not treated
as equal citizens. Since the colonial government ignored them, those few Oromo in-
dividuals who joined colonial institutions (such as schools, parliament, the army, and
the administration) and Oromo merchants began to think about ways to improve the
Oromo living standard. Despite their relative achievements, these individuals had in-
ferior status to Ethiopians due to their Oromo national identity.
Paradoxically, the idea of developing the collective consciousness of Oromo and
Oromo nationalism was initiated by a few Oromos who were educated to be mem-
bers of an Ethiopianized Oromo collaborative class,but who were not treated as equals
with Ethiopians. “Exclusion breeds failed assimilation,” Anthony Smith writes, “and
reawakens an ethnic consciousness among the professional elites, at exactly the mo-
ment when the intellectuals are beginning to explore the historic roots of the com-
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munity.” Since there has been a fundamental contradiction between the interests of
Ethiopian colonizing structures and the colonized Oromos, Ethiopian society could
not culturally and structurally assimilate the Oromo elites. The formation of the
Macha-Tulama Self-Help Association in the year 1963–1964 marked the public rise
of Oromo nationalism. 44 Since the Ethiopian Constitution did not allow the estab-
lishment of political organizations, emerging Oromo leaders formed this association
in accordance with Article 45 of his Imperial Majesty’s 1955 revised Constitution and
Article 14, Number 505 of the Civil Code as a civilian self-help association. These
Oromo elites, through forming this association in Fifinnee (Addis Ababa), the capital
city of the Ethiopian empire, started to articulate the collective grievances of the
Oromo people and formulated programs to solve some economic, social, and educa-
tional problems of Oromo society. Since the association was open to all interested eth-
nonational groups in Ethiopia, it embraced the principle of multicultural diversity. 45
According to Hassen, within a short time, the association “transformed itself from a
self-help development association in Shawan administrative region, into pan-Oromo
movement that coordinated peaceful resistance, and in turn gave birth to Oromo po-
litical awareness.This means that since their conquest in the 1880s, the Oromo devel-
oped a single leadership . . . for two interrelated purposes: economic, educational and
cultural development and to establish the political equality of the Oromo with other
peoples of Ethiopia.” 46
Despite the fact that Oromos provided resources to build Ethiopian infrastructure
and institutions, they were denied access to social amenities. Reflecting on this real-