Page 177 - 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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2. Baro Tumsa was the Oromo nationalist who played a central role in establishing the
OLF after the Macha Tulama Self-Help Association was banned by the Haile Selassie
government in 1963 and its top leaders were killed or imprisoned.The author was pres-
ent at a secret meeting held at Leenco Lata’s home in Finfinee in the summer of 1974,
when Baro talked to the audience. I was impressed by his speech and still remember the
paragraph I quoted at the beginning of this chapter.There were several Oromo uni-
versity students from different parts of Oromia at this meeting.As a result of this meet-
ing, with other Oromo students like Sanbato Lubo, who gave his life for the Oromo
cause, we established a youth association known as Lalisa Nedjo. This youth organiza-
tion, in coordination with Burqitu Boji and Biqilitu Mendi, tried to coordinate some po-
litical activities in Western Oromia.
3. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Na-
tionalism, 2nd ed. (London:Verso, 1991).
4. Edward A.Tiryakian,“Nationalism and Modernity:A Methodological Appraisal,”in Per-
spectives on Nationalism and War, ed. John L. Comaroff and Paul C. Stern (Amsterdam:
Gordon and Breach Publishers, 1995), p. 218.
5. Amilcar Cabral, Return to the Source (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973); Gurtuz
J. Bereciartu, Decline of the Nation-State, trans. W. A. Douglas (Reno: University of
Nevada Press, 1994).
6. See Gurtuz J. Bereciartu, ibid., p. 129.
7. See John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State (Chicago:The University of Chicago Press,
1985).
8. For further understanding of the concept of ethnocracy, see Ali Mazrui, Soldiers and
Kinsmen in Uganda:The Making of a Military Ethnocracy (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications,
1975).
9. For details, see Bonnie K. Holcomb and Sisai Ibssa, The Invention of Ethiopia:The Mak-
ing of a Dependent Colonial State in Northeast Africa (Trenton, N.J.:The Red Sea Press,
1990); Asafa Jalata, Oromia and Ethiopia: State Formation and Ethnonational Conflict,
1868–1992 (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993).
10. The colonized Oromos were reduced to the status of semislaves and were divided
among Ethiopian colonial settlers and their collaborators to produce commodities for
local consumption and the international market.The Oromo gabbar did not have con-
trol over land he farmed, product he produced, his life or children.
11. See Bonnie K. Holcomb and Sisai Ibssa, ibid.;A. Jalata, Oromia and Ethiopia.
12. Bonnie K. Holcomb and Sisai Ibssa, ibid., p. 387.
13. William I. Robinson,“Global Capitalism and the Oromo Liberation Struggle:Theoret-
ical Notes on U.S. Policy Towards the Ethiopian Empire,” The Journal of Oromo Studies,
vol. 4, nos. 1 and 2 (July 1997), p. 10.
14. For details, see A. Jalata,“The Modern World-Economy, Ethiopian Settler Colonialism
and the Oromos,” Horn of Africa, vol. 13, nos. 3 and 4, vol.9, nos. 1 and 2, (1991), pp.
59–80; Evelyn Waugh, Waugh in Abyssinia (London: Longmans, 1936).
15. For details, see P. P. Garretson, A History of Addis Ababa from its Foundation in 1886 to
1919, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of London, 1974; Richard Pankhurst, Economic
History of Ethiopia 1800–1935 (Addis Ababa, 1968).
16. See Richard Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia.
17. For details see A. Jalata, Oromia and Ethiopia, pp. 83–114.
18. See William I. Robinson,“Global Capitalism and the Oromo Liberation Struggle,” pp.
1–46; Bonnie K. Holcomb, “The Tale of Two Democracies:The Encounter Between
U.S.-Sponsored Ethiopian ‘Democracy’ and Indigenous Oromo Democratic Forms,”
The Journal of Oromo Studies, vol. 4, nos. 1 and 2 (July 1997), pp. 47–82.
19. For details see A. Jalata,“Oromo Nationalism in the New Global Context,”The Journal
of Oromo Studies, vol. 4, nos. 1 and 2 (July 1997), pp. 83–114;A. Jalata,“US-Sponsored