Page 151 - 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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health centers and 2,470 health stations for more than 60 million people. Because of
economic, political, and geographical reasons, most Oromos do not have access to
these public facilities. More than 90 percent of Oromos live in rural areas, and almost
all of them have been made landless. Since urban areas in Oromia are mainly popu-
lated by Ethiopian colonial settlers and their collaborators, they are the ones that have
access to the limited public facilities, such as schools and hospitals, that are found in
Oromia.At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Oromo are one of the col-
onized population groups of the world that are exposed to the vagaries of nature and
the cruelty of colonial exploitation.
Oromo nationalists unsuccessfully attempted to change the ethnocratic and colo-
nial character of the Ethiopian state in the 1960s, 1970s, and the early 1990s.Without
being discouraged by the negative experiences of the Macha-Tulama Association,
some Oromo leaders who lived in the Middle East in exile created the Ethiopian Na-
tional Liberation Front (ENLF) in 1971 under the leadership of Sheik Hussein Suura.
Simply because this organization was created by Oromos, Ethiopians attacked it,
branding it as “narrow nationalist.” Since it was created on the eve of the 1974 un-
successful Ethiopian Revolution, and since it was not also endorsed by some Oromo
nationalists and other reasons, the ENLF was not successful. Most Oromo nationalists
rejected the notion of reforming Ethiopia after they tried many times and failed.The
toppling of the Haile Selassie regime by the popular demand of workers, students,
farmers, soldiers, and other sectors of society brought hopes for democracy, self-de-
termination, and social justice for all oppressed ethnonations and classes. Influenced by
these changes, some Oromo nationalists and Ethiopian intellectuals returned to
Ethiopia from exile to participate in the emerging popular revolution.
The military group of 120 members known as Derg in Amharic, meaning “com-
mittee,” captured state power by using the political opportunities of the popular de-
mands and crises and started to take popular actions, such as the “nationalization” of
both urban and rural lands and financial institutions. The policies of the military
regime were also influenced by the politics of leftist intellectuals who embraced a so-
cialist ideology. Haile Fida, a prominent Oromo leftist intellectual, and his associates
in the organization he led,All Ethiopian Socialist Movement, played a central role in
influencing some leaders of the new regime, particularly Colonel Mengistu Haile
Mariam.This man gradually emerged as the head of the state.Assuming that the na-
tionalization of the land would make the land collective property of the farmers, and
since most Oromos were landless and poor, Oromo intellectuals supported the pop-
ular policies of the regime until they later discovered that the regime was against their
fundamental interests. Zegaye Asfawu, a progressive Oromo lawyer, was appointed as
the minister of Agriculture and Land Reform and played a leading role in the for-
mulation and implementation of land reform policies until they were subverted by
the regime and he was sent to prison. Two prominent Oromo nationalists, Fakadu
Waqijira and Dima Noggo, also played important roles in policies related to land re-
form. By failing to understand the true nature of the Ethiopian state, Oromo social-
ists paid with their lives while trying to reform Ethiopia. Indirectly, these Oromo
socialists undermined the role of the Oromo national movement by opposing some
of its objectives.
After replacing the previous ruling class, the military regime intensified its institu-
tional violence against various liberation fronts, such that of Oromos, Sidamas,
Ogaden-Somalis, Eritreans and Tigrayans, and the Amhara-dominated Ethiopian Peo-