Page 65 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
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these groups gradually recognize the irreconcilability of the contradictions between the
colonizing structure and the colonized peoples and begin to rediscover the cultural her-
itage of the colonized peoples. When this happens, as it did with the Oromo, these
groups identify themselves with the colonized peoples in the social process that Amilicar
Cabral calls the “return to the source,” and Gurtuz Bereciartu calls “national revindica-
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tion.” Through this social process these nationalist elements assist the colonized peoples
to reclaim and attempt to restore their lost cultural, political and economic rights and to
develop the collective consciousness of nationalism.This “national revindication” or the
“return to the source” involves ethnoclass consciousness due to the fact that the colo-
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nized peoples are culturally suppressed and economically exploited.
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This kind of nationalism is a form of liberation politics that challenges colonial or
racial/ethnonational domination. Hence, the Oromo struggle for self-determination is
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a form of liberation politics that challenges Ethiopian “ethnocratic” politics and at-
tempts to overthrow Ethiopian settler colonialism. The ethnocratic nature of the
Ethiopian state and its racist ideology has prevented this state from transforming itself
into a multicultural democratic and civic state that can protect the interests of all peo-
ples it governs regardless of their racial/ethnonational origins.The main objectives of
Oromo nationalism are: a change in the status of Oromos from historical obscurity to
global recognition; the liberation of the Oromo nation from Ethiopian colonial dom-
ination; the restoration of central aspects of the Oromo democratic heritage; and the
fundamental transformation of Oromia (the Oromo country) through establishing au-
tonomous or independent institutions.
Now we will identify and examine the chains of historical, sociological, and cul-
tural factors that have facilitated the emergence and development of Oromo nation-
alism, and then its main features, phases, objectives, and problems.
Historical and Cultural Background
With the help of European colonial powers, Ethiopians colonized Oromos during the
last decades of the nineteenth century; killed such a large proportion of the Oromo
population that most scholars of the Oromo consider it a genocidal campaign; expro-
priated the natural and economic resources of Oromia; destroyed or suppressed
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Oromo culture; and negated Oromo history. European imperialism and Ethiopian
colonialism in collaboration imposed on Oromos oppressive institutions such as the
nafxanya-gabbar system 10 (semislavery), slavery, garrison cities, the balabat system (the
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collaborative class), and colonial capitalism. According to Bonnie Holcomb and Sisai
Ibssa,“Advisers who represented various capitalist countries were initially involved at
every stage in forming the empire, and then at every level of government.These ad-
visers were the conduits through which the capitalist ideology, embodied in strategy,
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was implemented in shaping Ethiopia.” The relationship between these European
powers and Ethiopian colonialists was embodied in the exchange of raw materials on
one hand, and modern technology, armed forces, and administrative expertise on the
other.William Robinson expounds,“the world capitalist system made possible the cre-
ation of the Ethiopian state, and also made possible Abyssinian conquest of Oromia and
other groups. . . .The socioeconomic and class structure in Abyssinia was reoriented
toward integration into world capitalism. In this stage Oromia was captured by world
capitalism as a subordinate segment of the Ethiopian social formation. Oromia pro-
vided the labor and resources for the rapid transformation of Ethiopia’s socioeconomic