Page 85 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
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the association.
As a result, he emerged as the leader of the association and started
openly to agitate for the Oromo cause. He was the Commander of the Rapid Force
(riot battalions), Deputy Commissioner of the Ethiopian Police Force, Commander of
the Territorial Army, and Chairman of the National Literacy Campaign.When this in-
fluential Ethiopianized Oromo turned to the Oromo cause and appeared in several
mass meetings to champion the political, cultural, and economic rights of Oromos
with other Oromo leaders, the Ethiopian government feared that this would promote
Oromo nationalism. When such mass meetings were held at Gulale, Kachis, Jeldu,
Kalacha, Bishoftu, Bako, and Dheera, local government branches attempted to disperse
168
As A. P.Wood puts it,“Although nominally a self-help association,
these meetings.
it began to articulate the dissatisfaction of the Oromo with the government and par-
ticularly with their position in society. This position . . . caused much government
169
concern and . . . the association was banned” in 1967.
Another reason for the government concern was the linkage of the association
with the Bale Oromo armed struggle (1963–1970). Leaders such as Adam Buna and
Haji Adam Sado had established a strong link between the two; this armed struggle
liberated almost 75 percent of the Bale administrative region in 1967 and expanded
170
Captain Mamo Mazamir, who was the most revolutionary ele-
to other regions.
ment of the association, encouraged the Bale Oromo armed struggle and expressed:
“The history of mankind shows that a people who rise in the struggle for freedom
and independence, in defiance of death, is always victorious. . . . The life and death
struggle of the oppressed masses in the Ethiopian Empire against the hegemony of the
Amhara and their allies headed by American imperialism is a sacred liberation strug-
gle of millions of oppressed and humiliated people.” 171
Furthermore, these leaders’ interest in Oromo history, culture, and language an-
noyed Amhara elites and the government because the latter thought that the Ethiopi-
anized Oromos would reject Oromo history, culture, and language that were targeted
for destruction. Baxter notes, “Oromo was denied any official status and it was not
permissible to publish, preach, teach or broadcast in Oromo. In court or before an of-
ficial an Oromo had to speak Amharic or use an interpreter. Even a case between
Oromos, before an Oromo speaking magistrate, had to be heard in Amharic.” 172 Since
the association, both leaders and members, defied the position of the Ethiopian gov-
ernment regarding the Oromo, the Haile Selassie government targeted the association
and its leaders.The crime of this association and its leaders was mainly to attempt to
reform Ethiopia so that Oromos and other oppressed peoples would be equal to
Amharas and Tigrayans by restoring their respective histories, cultures, and languages.
It was only Mamo Mazamir and Haji Robale Ture who indicated the need to go
beyond reforming Ethiopia.When Mamo Mazamir noted that “the militant members
are working now on the means of organizing a nationwide people’s movement which
is based on realizing the aspirations of Oromo people as a whole,” Robale Ture as-
serted that as “streams join together to form a river, people also join together to be a
nation and to become a country.” 173 As we will discuss below, the position of these
two leaders has emerged as the mainstream in the Oromo national movement because
of the opposition and cruelty of Amharas and Tigrayans to this movement.The gov-
ernment banned the association, labeling it a “tribal association,” and imprisoned the
top leaders and severely tortured and dehumanized them. It also killed some of these
leaders.The government sentenced Taddasa Biru and Mamo Mazamir to death and
later changed Taddasa’s death sentence to life imprisonment.Mamo was hung in 1968.