Page 64 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

CHAPTER III
The Oromo National Movement
I do not die in vain. My blood will water the freedom struggle of the Oromo people. I
am certain that those who sentenced me to death . . . will receive their due punishment
from the Ethiopian people. It may be delayed, but the inalienable rights of the Oromo
people will be restored by the blood of their children.
—Mamo Mazamir
We Oromos must capture state power by any means necessary.... In order to do this we 1
must clandestinely organize all sectors of our society. It is the responsibility of young ed-
ucated Oromos like you to disseminate this spirit of Oromo nationalism when you re-
turn to your respective communities.We can only change the deplorable condition of
our people by being tolerant to one another and reestablishing Oromo unity. In this way
we can build a strong organization, capture state power, and take actions that facilitate a
fundamental social transformation.
—Baro Tumsa 2

he Oromo national movement emerged as a cultural, intellectual, ideological,
and political movement in opposition to Ethiopian settler colonialism and its
Tparticular institutions that denied Oromos either historical space or au-
tonomous cultural, political, and economic development. It was Ethiopian colonial
and racial/ethnonational domination, political disenfranchisement and exclusion, cul-
tural destruction and repression, and massive human rights violations that stimulated
Oromo nationalism.This movement attempts to rediscover Oromo cultural heritage
and strives to combine it with a “modern” ideological discourse in its struggle against
Ethiopian colonial domination. Collective historical and contemporary grievances
and the heritage of cultural resistance combined with urbanization and formal educa-
tion to facilitate the birth of Oromo nationalism. Like other national liberation move-
ments that have gained political legitimacy because they base their struggle on the
3
grievances of collective memory to regain for the colonized peoples economic, po-
litical, and cultural rights the Oromo movement also used these devices to reject na-
tional subordination and cultural assimilation. 4
Colonialism not only creates collective grievances, but often it also creates a condi-
tion in which indigenous intellectual and professional groups emerge.Some elements of