An Advice for Revolutionary Oromos

By Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis January 21, 2008

Interconnection among oppressed and tyrannized peoples throughout Africa and the entire world: the missing point for Oromos to achieve National Independence.

Through my extensive correspondence with Oromos allover the world, and through careful study of the number of hits received in every Oromo – related article of mine, I understand that there is a point missing in the fight in which the entire Oromo Nation – hereditary of the Noblest Traditions of Meroe and Kush – has been engaged from the first moment of the barbaric Amhara Abyssinian invasion of the Oromo Ethiopia at the end of the 19th century. This missing point is the subject of this article.

As a matter of fact, the most popular article among all my Oromo-related articles was the historical analysis of the ‘Meroitic Ethiopian Origins of the Modern Oromo Nation’ (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/21760). This means that the search for the Greatness of the Kushitic past, and the inquiry about the origins of the Kushitic Values, Soul, and Diachronic Identity is greater than the interest in the ongoing fight for independence and secession.

It shows something more critical; it demonstrates that the complete separation of the Oromos from the Amhara and the Tigray Abyssinians is not viewed by the Oromos in simple terms of political independence but as a Supreme Cultural Divide between Civilization and Barbary.

The Search for Oromoness

This is true; the Oromo secession from Abyssinia is not a matter of simple and superficial difference of political – ideological character, but the natural consequence of an immense gap between what outsiders would call ‘profound difference between two cultures’, whereas experts would simply characterize it as conflict between Civilization (Kushitic Oromo) and Barbary (Semitic Amhara).

Even the term ‘Oromo secession from Abyssinia’ that I have just used is not accurate; in fact, the correct term is ‘expulsion of the Amhara invaders from the Oromo Ethiopian lands and Finfinne’ (fallaciously named Addis Ababa) in particular.

This personal experience of mine is in fact corroborated by what any simple reader who would search about the Oromos in the existing international bibliography would find; the books published about the Kushitic Oromo Nation, the articles, the analyses, the features and the reports elaborated about all things Oromo are characterized by a vibrant search for the Oromoness, the National Kushitic Oromo Identity. As a matter of fact, a great number of bibliographical items pertain to the Waqefanna, the traditional, monotheistic and aniconic, Oromo religion, and the Gadaa, the traditional Oromo social organization system.