MORMIIN GIBIRA HUMNAA OLIII EESSA GAHE? GARAMITTI DEEMUU MALA?

MORMIIN GIBIRA HUMNAA OLIII EESSA GAHE? GARAMITTI DEEMUU MALA? 

                                                                                    ( jawar Mohammed )

- Gibirri daldaltoota irratti humnaa ol fe'amuun erga dubbii kaasee torban lama dabree jira. Daldaltoonni dura gibirri kaffaluu qaban kan bara dabreetin yoo walbira qabamu dachaa hedduun dabaluu isaatiin komii isaani gara waajjira galiiwwanii dhiheessan. Komiin isaanii garuu dhageettii waan hin argatiniif gara mormiitti jijjiramuu eegale. Daldaltoonni Calanqoo hiriira bahuun mormii kana eegalan. uummanni Gudar ammoo diddaa hojii dhaabuu labsate. Gincii, Ambo, Walisoof magaalonni naannoo sanii itti aanan. Naqamteetti cehuun magaalaan cal taate. Mormiin kun guyyaa har'aa gara Gimbii, Dambi Doolloo, Mandiifi Najjoo cehe. Takkuma takkaan Oromiyaa walgahaa jira. Gibirri kun hanga ammaa kan ifatti daldaltootatti ibsame Oromiyaafi magaalaa Finfinneeti. Finfinneen duubatti haa harkifattuu malee har'a naannoleen muraasni suuqiilee isaanii guutuu guutuutti cufachuun mormichatti dabalamanii jiru.

- Gara mootummaatiin hanga ammaatti yaadni amansiisaa ta'e hin dhiyaanne. Gibirri inumaatuu hin daballeefi dabaluun sirriidha yaadota jedhan wal dhoofsisaa jiran. Sababa labsii muddamaatiifi tarkaanfii humnaa fudhatamaa tureen uummanni guutuutti cabee jiilee harka kennee jira jedhanii waan jala muranii turaniif mormiin kun ni ka'a jedhanii gonkumaa hin shakkine. Kanaafuu, miira rifatuufi hamaa keessa bu'anii jiran. Har'a boru nurraa dhabbata jedhanii abdachaa turan. Ammas 'oolmaa boruu ilaallee tarkaanfii itti aanu murteessina' ejjannoo jetturra jiran.

- Dhimmi gibiraa waan nama hundaa lafee tuqu waan taateef akka laaftuutti akka mootummaan hawwutti addaan waan dhaabbatu miti. Magaalonni dura hojii dhaaban hojiitti deebi'uun abdii kenneefi ta'a, garuu dogongoranii jiran. Qabsoo nagayaa keessatti qoqqobbiin diinagdee biyyi guutuun bifa takkaan gabaa lagachuunis ta'ee dabaree dabareen gochuun lamaanuu bu'aa buusa. Kan bakka takkaa sun dhiibbaa yeroosiifi qara qabu ( immediate and sharp) uumuun mootummaa harka kan kennisiisu yoo tahu, kan dabareen godhamu waldura dhaabbannaa dheeressuun dhawaataan dhiibbaa guddataa deemu uuma. Keessattuu haala mootummaan tun keessa jirtuun kan walharkaa fuudhinsaa kanatu irraa ishii miidha. Sababni isaas olola biiyyi tasgabboofte jechuun ummataafi faranjii amansiisuuf duulaa jiran fashaleessa. Guyyaa tokko magaalaa lammaan takkas yoo cufatte, odeeffannoon isaa miidiyaan waan bahuuf isaan cinqaa deema. Dheerachuun sun immoo magaalonni haara galfachaa sirnicha dagachiisaa akka deeman isaan gargaara. Tooftaan walharkaa fuudhuun dheeratee deemuu kun gaafileen biraa ka'uun duula kanarratti qaamni hawaasaa biraas akka itti dabalamu karaa waan banuuf hammasuma dhiibbaa dabalaa dhufa. Kanaafuu magaalonni guyyaa addaa addaa diddaatti seenuun kun waan ishii gargaaru yoo itti fakkaate mootummaan dogongortee jirti. Kana jechuun ummanni bifa harca'een haa deemu osoo hin taane daldaltoonni akkuma wal mari'atanii waliigalaniin guyyaa isaanif tolu murteeffachaa deemuun faayidaa qaba.

Odeeffannoo hanga ammaa nu gaheen guyyaa sadan as aanu diddaan kun daran babal’achaa akka deemuuf karoorfame akeeka. Kunis Jimaanniifi Sanbattan lamaan guyyaa gabaa waan ta'eef tarkaanfiin diddaa fudhatamu dhiibbaa cimaa qabaata.

- Ammaaf mootummaan tooftaa mee bullee ilaalla ( wait and see ) jedhu hordofaa jirti. Tooftaa kana garuu guyyoota sadeen tokko ol obsitee turuu hin dandeessu. Ofiif jecha gaaffilee uummataa kana deebisuun ishii waan hin oolle. Akkuma gubbaa kanatti tuqne bubbuluun humna ummataa harcaasa jettee haa abdattuu malee dhugaan jiru tooftaan amma ummanni eegale kan humna isaa qosachaa kan mootummaa laaffisaa deemuuf isa dandeessisuudha. Muuxannoo waggoota lamaan dabranirraa horames laafaa akka hin taane hubachuun barbaachisaadha.

-Guyyoota itti aananitti magaalonni akkuma qophii fixataniin itti dabalamaa haa deeman. Magaalonni dursanii eegalan gaafa humni laaffate haara galfachuun tooftaa sirriiti. Naamusni, bilchinni tooftaa ittiin filatan ( wise tactical selection) fi tokkummaan adeemsaa barbaachisaadha. Guyyoonni sadeen itti aanan hedduu murteessaa waan ta'aniif magaalonni hanga ammaa hin hirmaatin saffisaan qophii xumuratanii tarkaanfii fudhachuun dhiibbaa dabaluufi haamilee waliif kennuuf murteessaadha.

Deliberate Distortions, Misconceptions, or both ?

 

Deliberate Distortions, Misconceptions, or both ?

                                                                                      ( By Tsegaye Ararssa   )

In the discordant noises around Finfinnee and the Oromo rights there, there are distortions that recur, often riding high on popular misconceptions about some basic facts regarding the city, the federal system, the constitution, etc. Below, I will raise some of them to help enhance our clarity on the matter.

1. Finfinnee is often portrayed, wrongly, as a Federal Territory. It is not. Finfinnee, as a capital city of the Federal Government (Art 49(1)), is only the seat of the offices of the Federal Government. In other words, it is the site from which the federal government and its officials operate. It is an Oromo city in which the Head Office, as it were, of the Federal Government is located. Incidentally, it is important to remember that there is no land constitutionally designated as a federal district or territory in the Ethiopian federation. Legally speaking, there is no territory that the Federal Government claims as "naturally" its own until it is so designated by law. This means the Federal Government does not own Finfinnee or any territory anywhere in Ethiopia except those that are legally transferred to it by law.

2. Many people mistakenly think that the federal government can rightfully legislate for the city just because it is the seat of its government. This mistaken belief is the reason that the (arguably unconstitutional) Revised Family Code is imposed, by default, on Finfinnee and Dirree Dhawa (when it was realized, soon after it was passed in Parliament, that such a code cannot apply in the states because the states are not subjected to the legislative jurisdiction of the federal government on family matters). This should make it clear to all that the Federal Government can not directly issue legislations for the city, as that task belongs to the city council (and the state the city belongs to, i.e, Oromia).

3. Many people wrongly assume that Finfinnee is a (city) state. Yes, there was a time when it was a self-governing region in its own right (1991-1994). But after the country was constitutionally 'reorganized' (albeit fakely) as a federation in 1995, the city is not a self-standing state. It is an Oromo city that serves as the seat of the Federal as well as the Oromia Government. Constitutionally speaking, it is a city whose population is entitled to a measure of self-governance within the framework of its own city charter. Legally, its charter is subordinate to the constitutions of Ethiopia and of Oromia.

4. There are also people who mistakenly think that the working language of the city is (automatically) Amharic (because of the wrong assumption that it is a federal city). Such people go on to assert that making Afaan Oromoo the working language of the city violates the constitution. It is important to remember that the Federal constitution is silent about the language of the city. Given the city belongs to Oromia, the working language of wider Oromia is automatically, or naturally, the working language of the city because this is sanctioned by the Oromia Constitution. Under the Charter, be it out of ignorance or arrogance, only Amharic is made the working language of the city. This neglect of Afaan Oromo in the Charter and extra-constitutional singling out of Amharic as a working language in a state whose language is Afaan Oromoo is of course unconstitutional seen in the light of Oromia's constitution. It is this kind of unconstitutionality and illegal linguistic displacement that should be corrected through the so called "special interest" law and subsequent constitutional amendment.

5. There are many, especially in the Ethiopian(ist) right, who maintain that the people of Finfinnee are denied representation in the House of Federation (HoF). This is based on the double misconception about the HoF and the "substance" of the inhabitants of Finfinnee. The first misconception confuses the HoF with the Senate. According to the Ethiopian constitution, the HOF is not a Senate. In fact, one can refer to it as the "upper house" only as a matter of speaking (or of habit) as it is anything but an upper house of a legislative body. Its raison d^etre is representation of "nations, nationalities, and peoples" in the interpretive task of adjudicating disputes over collective rights to self-determination (political, cultural, territorial, and economic). The second misconception relates to the "nature" of the inhabitants. Finfinnee's inhabitants, being predominantly settlers that came from all corners of the country (and legally not constituting a "nation, nationality, and people" as per the definition of art 39(5)), have no ethno-national identity to be represented in the HoF (other than the ones represented by the politicians from their homelands). Nor do they have any demands of ethno-cultural justice [language, culture, identity, self-determination, secession, etc] that they aspire to process in the HoF (other than those protected for them by their representatives from their homelands).

Some of the above (and many other) distortions are caused by misunderstandings complemented by underdeveloped political culture that also doesn't comprehend federalism. (Some of it is already symptomatic of the weak legitimacy the federalism and the constitutional frame thereof command.) A large part of it is however the result of deliberate distortion by a political prejudice clouded by moral blindness. Whatever the cause, it is not an excuse to rail against a people's God-given rights to their own city and their identity therein.

#FinfinneeisOromia, #HandsoffOromia, #OromoRevolution

Why EPRDF opted for a policy of Mutual self-annihilation on Addis Ababa ?

Why EPRDF opted for a policy of Mutual self-annihilation on Addis Ababa ?

                                                                                            ( Dr Birhanemeskel Abebe Segni )

In a tragedy akin to the Treaty of Wichale of May 2, 1889, the Ethiopian federal government is repudiating the self-governance rights of the Oromo people of themselves and their territory by trying to separate Addis Ababa from Oromia.

This is very problematic and evil by design which will undermine social harmony and peaceful coexistence among Ethiopians, and maybe even might lead to Ethiopia’s disintegration as a nation.

The issue is very simple for every living human being to understand. If Oromo lands where other Ethiopian ethnic groups settle in large number and live are snatched and taken away from the Oromo people under the pretext of Oromos have become minority in their own city or land or Oromos cannot govern other Ethiopian ethnic groups (which comes only out of the heart of a group who has extreme hatred and disrespect for the Oromo people), then, why on Earth will the Oromos allow for other ethnic groups to come and live among them in the first place?

This malicious and evil policy driven by shortsighted land grab agenda by few will force the Oromo people to adopt xenophobic attitude or not to allow anymore for other Ethiopian ethnic groups to live anywhere among the Oromo people. That is natural human instinct particularly when it is clear that the policy is not to live together with the Oromo people but to slowly take Oromo people's land by eliminating the Oromo.

This is not nuclear science. All Ethiopians who really care about Ethiopia and harmony among Ethiopians should just close their eyes for a minute and think about it. It is a nightmarish situation. I don’t understand why EPRDF is doing this against the Oromo people and the Ethiopian people unless the intention is something evil and sinister.

I strongly advise EPRDF and the Ethiopian government to immediately restore the status of Addis Ababa as one of the Oromia cities under Oromia jurisdiction, and decide upon the special interest of the federal government in Addis Ababa.

Imagine what will happen if the same situation is contemplated on Gonder, Bahir Dar, Mekele or Awassa? Will the Amhara or Tigray people sit idle?

How long could the EPRDF continue disrespecting the Oromo people and for what end?! If the EPRDF as a group thinks the Oromo people will not assert their rights in their own country and on their own land? Then, the EPRDF has little understanding of the Oromo people and the Ethiopian history! I don’t know why this policy of mutual self-destruction become a top priority for the EPRDF when there are many other policy options available to it?

The Question of Finfinnee: Beyond the Language of Favor or Appeasement

The Question of Finfinnee: Beyond the Language of Favor or Appeasement

                                                                                        ( By Tsegaye Ararsa  )

With the re-emergence of the talk about the so called Oromia's "special" interest law, the debate is raging in various corners on the identity, name, administration, language(s), etc of the city. In some circles, this debate is rife with the anxiety about the relationship between the Oromo and the city in the light of the anticipated relatively weightier presence of the Oromo in the city. The anxiety also betrays a particular kind of fear informed by the history of othering ideologies, discourses, and practises that effectively distanced the Oromo from the city while they are still there.

The othering practice was materially effected through military, political, legal, and administrative measures to dispossess, dislocate, and displace the Oromo.

In 130 years since the city's incorporation into the Ethiopian empire of late 19th c, the Oromo became a minority in their own city currently constituting only 19 % of the city's total population.

The name of the city was changed into Addis Ababa. The names of the villages and suburbs that constitute what has today become the 'Greater Finfinnee area' have also been replaced by Amharic names or some disfigured versions of the original Oromo names. The sites of public religious/spiritual, legal/adjudication, and political/legislative et al proceedings were transferred to sites of the garrison forces and the various service giving institutions that followed them. This and the near total destruction of the forest and natural environment has disfigured the city beyond recognition.

With the settlement of the new forces of conquest and their accompaniments and with legal and lawless eviction of the Oromo, the demography quickly started to change. With the city becoming the capital city of the empire, more and more settlers started to dwell in the city thereby diversifying its ethnic set up and configuration. Along with the change of demography came the change of culture, language, and identity.

The official privilege of a particular culture, language, and identity and acts of variously erasing the Oromo culture, language (Afaan Oromoo), and the repositories of identity (such as history, narratives, and memory) removed the latter from the city. Soon, these aspects of Oromummaa were exiled, physically, into the peripheries of the city and, temporally, into the past of the Ethiopian modernity, alias known as "Zemenawinet." With the renaming of places and designating sites, squares, streets, buildings, bridges, and schools almost exclusively serving to memorialize and monumentalize the settlers, the displacement of the Oromo was nigh complete.

Having thus pushed out the Oromo, the city styled itself 'modern' and thus different and distant from Oromos and the wider Oromia. The current legal excision that made it outside the politico- administrative jurisdiction of Oromia (since 1991) is a continuation of the tradition of alienating the city from Oromia only signifying and dramatizing the more violent practice of othering the Oromo from the polity (thereby excluding them from the city's and the wider country's political space).

The recent practices of aggressive land grabbing and massive evictions that penetrated territories beyond the confines of the city (typified by the Master Plan) provoked a massive popular anger densely saturated with deeper historic (political) grievances caused by the trauma of dispossession, dislocation, and exile (in one's own home).

When the resistance to the Master Plan morphed into the #OromoRevolution that shook the regime to its core, the TPLF/EPRDF regime started to talk about the need to legislate on the "Special interest' of Oromia, if only to appease the resisting youth and to calm them down as it also strives to remain in power.

To anyone who pays attention, the discourse on the special interest sounds more like a favour, a preferential treatment, the regime is according to Oromia and Oromos. To speak of a list of special interest to be granted to Oromia in what is its own land by the settlers already speaks volumes about how the guest (the settlers) has turned itself into the host and made a guest out of the host (the Oromos).

Some Modest Proposals

===============

It has to be stated clearly to all that the "special interest" is not a favor granted to Oromia. If anything, it implicitly 'validates' the settlers as having the authority to decide what Oromia deserves to get from them (who in actual fact have nothing to give as 'usurpers' of what is actually Oromia's).

Similarly, it is imperative to state explicitly that it is not favor that Oromia is demanding when it asserts its natural and constitutional rights over the city. It is seeking restoration into what is its own.

Seen in this light, it seems to me, anything done on Oromia's right over Addis Ababa should clearly spell out, at least, the following:

1. Finfinnee is an Oromo city. It belongs to Oromia. The Oromo ownership of the city shall be recognized in official words of acknowledgement of the original owners of the land in all public proceedings.

2. Oromia is the beneficiary of the "special interest" clause of the constitution. Any "special interests" to be stipulated are primarily the interests of the State of Oromia.

3. Finfinnee is the capital city of Oromia. As such, it shall have the right to build offices as necessary for its services and construct buildings for schools, cultural centers, and community centers. It shall also build places of residence for staff. It shall have free access to land as appropriate.

4. Finfinnee shall continue to serve as the seat of the Federal Government until such time as new capital city is designated or established through negotiation among the members of the Federation.

5. The city’s indigenous name, Finfinnee, shall be the official name of the city alongside “Addis Ababa,” an appellation imposed on it by the Empire in 1886.

6. Afaan Oromoo shall be the working language of the city as it is in the wider Oromia. In addition to Afaan Oromoo, Amharic (being the language that is currently widely spoken in the city) shall also be a working language of the metropolitan city government.

7 The Finfinnee metropolitan area shall have its own democratically elected government. The city's government shall be constituted and in accordance with the country's constitution, the electoral laws, the city's charter, and other relevant laws. The operation of the government shall also be guided by the principles of the country's higher laws, Oromia's constitution, its own City Charter, Oromia's Urban Governance Laws, and other laws of urban regulation.

8. The city government shall have the duty to inform, consult, and seek advice from the Government of the State of Oromia on all matters of common concern.

9. The Government shall be accountable to the State of Oromia. On issues extending to the wider Oromia, the city government and the government of Oromia shall exercise power of co-administration. There shall also be schemes of inter-city legal cooperation on matters of crime, forest and natural eco-management.

10. The constitutional human rights of all residents of the city shall be fully respected. In particular, they shall have full measure of self-government at the municipal level.

11. The rights of non-Oromo residents to mother tongue education shall be respected. Details shall be regulated by the directives of the Education Bureau. The culture, language, and heritage of Oromos in the city shall be promoted and properly memorialized through designating buildings, squares, places, streets, Halls, statues that monumentalize important Oomo suburbs, historical events, personalities, etc.

12. The government of Oromia shall have a reasonable share of the revenues raised in the city.

Qubee jijjiiruf sababni nama amansiisuu danda’u (justifying reason) sadarkaa amma irra jirru kanas ta’ee fuulduratti jiraachuu hin danda’u

Qubee jijjiiruf sababni nama amansiisuu danda’u (justifying reason) sadarkaa amma irra jirru kanas ta’ee fuulduratti jiraachuu hin danda’u



                                                                                                   

Dabalata: Sababoota jijjiiramuun Qubee mormamuuf

Qubee jijjiiruf sababni nama amansiisuu danda’u (justifying reason) sadarkaa amma irra jirru kanas ta’ee fuulduratti jiraachuu hin danda’u. Sababoota gara garaaf sirna barnootaa (curriculum) jijjiirun ni danda’ama ta’a. Qubee jijjiirun garuu abjuu yaadamuu hin qabne. Akkuma namni hedduun deddeebisee ibse, amma kan jijjiirame sirna barnootaa osoo hin taane Qubeedha. Kanaafuu osoo sababoota jijjiiramuun qubee mormamuuf hin ilaalin wantoota jijjiiraman ilaalun misha.

Maaltu jijjiirame?

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Namoonni hedduun “tartiiba Qubeetu jijjiirame” jedhanii dubbatu. Akka kootti garuu tartiibatu jijjiirame osoo hin taane tartiia Qubeetu bade. Wanti tokko tartiiba isaatu jijjiirame jechuuf jalqaba tartiibni jiraachuu qaba; ka’uumsa fi dhuma jechuudha. Amma kan ta’e garuu Qubeen eessaa ka’ee maal irratti akka dhaabatu beekun hin danda’amu. “L” irraa eegala haa jedhamu malee achii ka’ee Qubee kam irratti akka dhumu hin beekamu. “L” irraa kan eegalu barnoota Qubeeti malee tartiiba qubee miti. Akka kitaaba kutaa 1 sanatti “L”n torban tokkoffaa semisteera 1ffaa keessatti barsiifama jedha malee Qubeewwan A/Oromoo keessa jiran “L” irraa ka’amee akka tartiibeffamu hin kaa’u. Bakki itti tartiibni Qubee kanumti jijjiirame jedhame sunillee ta’u itti barsiifamu hin jiru. Barsiisan gaafa jalqaba kutaa eegalu “L” barsiisuu eegala malee tartiiba Qubee “L” irraa ka’ee “A M G …. “ jedhee barsiisuu hin danda’u. Yoo barsiisan fedhiidhuma isaatin illee “A B C D…” nan barsiisa jedhe hin danda’u; sababni isaa “torban jalqabaa “L” barsiisi” jedhamee kitaabuma mataa isaatin sagantaan baheeraf waan ta’eef. Barsiisichis Lesson plan isaa kanarratti hundaa’ee baafata waan ta’eef. Yoo akkasitti deemuu baate immoo itti gaafatama waan ta’eef. Kanaafi Qubeen tartiibni isaa ni bade ykn wal borce kan jedhamuuf. Gama biraatin immoo amala Qubee A/Oromoo kan ta’an kan akka dubbifamaa, dubbachiiftuu, sagalee laafaa, jabaa, dheeraa, gabaabaa, hudhaa, qubee dachaa haalli itti barsiifaman hin jiru (yoo jiraates heddu wal xaxaafi cimaadha).

Dabalataan wanti namni hedduun bira darbu tokko, jijjiiramni kan godhame tartiiba Qubee irrattii fi kutaaba kutaa 1 qofa irratti osoo hin taane qabiyyee kitaaba kutaa 1-8 irratti. Erga barataan kutaa 2ffaatti dubbisuu danda’ee kitaabonni afaanii kamuu mata dureewwan gara garaa jalatti dubbisa ijoollee barsiisu jedhamee yaadama.Dubbisni (passage) sun immoo waa’ee aadaa, duudhaa, seenaa, eenyummaa fi biyya ummata afaanicha baratuu calaqqisiisa.Amma kitaabota kutaa 2 ol jiran irratti jijjiiramni raawwate qabiyyee dubbisa kanaa jijjiirus ni dabalata. Kan duriifi kan ammaa qabiyyeedhan gargari jechuudha. Kitaabonni A/Oromoo nuti kutaa gad aanatti ittiin baranne waa’ee aadaa Oromoo, seenaa, afaanii, amantaa Oromoo fi Oromiyaa akkaan nu barsiisan. Loqodoota afaan Oromoo keessa jiran illee akka waltinaa’aniif dubbisni kun gahee guddaa qaba. Kitaabota ammaa kana keessatti wantoonni kun hanga ta’uu qaban hin calaqqisan. Har’a qofa osoo hin taane kitaabni Afaan Oromoo kitaabota kam caala yeroo yeroon jijjiiramaa ture.Fakkeenyaf yeroon ani kutaa 7/8 ffaa baradhu kitaabni tokko semisteera 1 qofa ittiin barannee jijjiirame.Maalifi jennaan ijoollee “amala balleessa” nuun jedhan.

Wal borcuun tartiiba Qubee fi kitaaba A/Oromoo maalif mormama?

Sababoota heddutu jiru. Isaan keessaa muraasni:

Hidhata Qubeen Oromoo waliin 

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Qubeen “A B C D …. “Ummata Oromootif eenyummaadha.Qor-qalbii ummataatin walitti hidhamaadha.Qubeen quba keenya. Akkuma qubni keenya bakka jiruu buqqa’ee bakka biraa akka dhaabbatu hin fuune qubeen keenya bakka isaa waliin borcuun hin danda’amu; kana gochuuf yaalun immoo yakka qaama namaa hir’isuuti; nama ajjeesudhas. Qubeefi kitaabonni Afaan Oromoo nuyiif huccuudha; huccuu Oromummaa.Erga Oromoon huccuu Oromummaa isaa dhabee qullaatti hafuu eegalee Dhaloonni Qubee kan Oromummaa isaa deebisee ofitti uffate karaa Qubeefi kitaaba Afaan Oromootini. Seenaa siyaasa Oromoo keessattis bakka addaa qaba.Lubbuu beektota hedduutu itti darbe. Lubbuu Dr. Hayilee Fidaa kan gandillee akka ergamaa waaqatti yaaddutu itti darbe. Kanaafuu Qubeen siidaa wareegamtootati.

Jijjiirama amma godhameen Qubee baruufi barsiisun heddu cimaa ta’uu

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Ogeessa afaanii ta’uu dhabus biyyuma fedhettuu, afaanuma kam keessattiyyuu otoo tartiiba qubee hin barsiisin afaan barsiisun hin danda’amu.Namni kutaa tokko gaafa eegalu sagalee fi jecha barachuun dura tartiiba, maqaa fi boca qubeelee addaan baasuu qaba. Amma kun hafuun isaa A/Oromoo fuulduratti akka afaan baratamuu hin dandeenye ta’u isa taasisa. Barachuun haa hafuutiii barsiisunuu akkaan cimaadha.Odeeffannoon ani barsiisota Afaan Oromoo kitaabicha barsiisuf yaalan irraa dhagayes kanuma mirkaneessa.

Sababni dhiyaatu sirrii miti

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Jijjiirama amma godhame kanaaf warri gocha kana raawwatan sababni isaan dhiyeessan, “ijoollen qubee dubbisuu dadhabde, kanaaf immoo sababni akkaataa qubeen itti barsiifamuu fi tarreefameedha” kan jedhu. Dubbiin kun dhara qofa osoo hin ta’in arrabsoodha. Waan kana namni hedduun waan deebii itti kenneef hin dheeressu. Dhugaan jiru garuu tartiibni Qubee A/Oromoo kan Ingiliffaa waliin kan wal fakkaatudha. Addunyaan qaroome waggoota kumaatamaaf kanumaan baree barsiisa.Namoonni hedduun Qubeen barreessuu kan baran beekumsa isaanii Ingiliffa keessatti qaban fayyadamaniiti, barsisaa malee kan qubeen barreessuu baraniif. Fakkeenya qabatamaa tokko isinitti himuuf Wasiillan/Abbeerawwan 4 kan bara Dargii Amaariffaafi Ingiliffaan hanga xiqqoo baratan nan qaba. Afran isaanituu erga Dargiin kufee mana barnootatti hin deebine.Garuu beekumsa xiqqoo Qubee Ingiliffaa qabaniin gargaarsa barsisaa tokko malee Qubeen barreessuu ofiin of barsiisanii itti fayyadamaa jiru. Kuni dhugaadha, jarreen kun lubbuun jiru.

Rakkoon Ijoollen Qubee barreessufi dubbisuu dadhabdeef sababa biraa qaba: kan akka dandeettii barsiisaa, imaammata barnootaa, qulqullinaa hanqina meeshaalee barnootaa ….. Qorannoon isaan nutti himanis kanuma agarsiisa.Rakkoon dubbisuufi barreessuu dadhabuu amala Qubeefi tartiiba isaatin wal hin qabatu jechuudha.Osoo akkas ta’ee namoonni gaafa Qubeen barachuun eegalamu ittiin barachuu eegalan Qubee hin baran ture, isayyuu yeroo barsiisan A/Oromoon leenjii digrii ykn dippiloomaa fudhate hin jirretti. Akka fakkeenyatti ani bara 1987 (E.C) yeroon mana barumsaa galu kan Qubee na barsiisan namoota ji’a 2/3 leenjii fudhatani. Akkasumayyuu ta’ee Qubeen barreessuu baruuf ji’oota 4 caala natti hin fudhanne.Seeran qubeessunis hedduu keenya hin rakkisu ture.Kanaafuu, bakka rakkoon jiru dhiisanii waan biraa irratti fuulleffachuun sirrii miti.

Seera-dhabeessumaa gocha kanaa

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Jijjiiramni afaan dhalootaa irratti godhamu kan ilaallatu abbaa afaanichaati. Kara deeman fedhe itti goree namaaf tolchuu hin danda’u.Jijjiirama afaan dhalootaa irratti godhamu kamuu (yoo barbaachise) raawwachuun dura abbaan afaanichaa irratti marii’atuu qaba; beektota isaatin ilaalamuu qaba. Amma kan ta’e garuu waan rifachiisadha. Jalqabatti, qorannoo jijjiirama godhame kanaaf sababa ta’e kan gaggeesse USAID kan jedhamu kan mootummaa Ameerikaan, keessumaa immoo alkallattiinis ta’u dhaabbata basaasaa Ameericaa, CIA’n to’atamuudha. Dhaabbata kana akka ummata Oromootti amantaa irraa dhabuuf sababoota gahaatu jira. Kana bira darbees USAID’n kana kan raawwate Ministeera Barnootaa waliin ta’eeti. Sababni Ebassay’n Ameerikaa gocha kana tumseefis shakkii keenya ol dabala.Dabalataan, akka heera mootummaatti dhamma afaan dhalootaa dhiisatii imaammnni barnootaa sadarkaa 1ffaatuu naannoo ilaallata. Amma garuu kan ta’e hojichi guutummaan oggansa Ministeera barnootatiin kan gaggeeffameedha. Ministeera kana waan hin amanneef heera mootummaa cabsuu qofaaf osoo hin taane sababoota heddutu jira. BBO hanga ta’e harka keessaa qabus fedhii ummataa nieega jedhaniif guutummaatti akka itti hin amanne waan heddutu nama taasisa.

Ministeerri Barnootaa afaan dhalootaa irratti waan takka illee dubbachuuf bu’uura heerafi seeraa hin qabu.Garuu akkuma agarre abbummaadhan hojicha oggane.Qola kitaabitaas yoo ilaalle abbaan kitaabichaa Ministeera Barnootaa ta’uu isaa agarsiisa.Kuni daba.Seenaa imaammata ummata Oromoo Afaan isaa dagachiisanii “Amaaressuu” (assimilate) gochuu jedhu keessatti qoodni Ministeera Barnootaa ol aanadha. Fakkeenyaf, bara 1933tti gorsa Tedla Haile irratti hundaa’un karaa nama bara sana Ministeera Barnootaa turee, Sahile Tsedalu jedhamuutin “Afaan Oromoo dabalatee afaanotni warra ‘haramanee’ badanii Amaariffaan bakka buufamuu qabu” jedhee imaammata barnootaa kan baase Ministeera Barnootaa har’aa kana. Kanaafuu, ammas taanan ijoolen Oromoo haala amma dhiyaate kanaan Qubee barachuu gaafa dadhabde “Qubeen Laatinii rakkoo waan qabuuf kan saabatiin akka barsiifamu” jedhee USAID waliin qorannoo nuuf gaggeessuu danda’a. Kuni shakkii kooti, duuba waan kanaa yoon ilaalu. Kanaafuu, gochi kun “Maaster Pilaanii Amaariffaa” ta’uu danda’a.

Namoota BBO keessa oggansa irra jiranis yoo ta’e sababni shakkamaniif ni jira. Itti Aantota Itti gaafatmaa BBO afur jiran keessaa namoonni sadii saba biraa ta’uu isaanitu himama. Kun shakkii namaa ol kaasa.

Dhuma irratti namoonni qophii kanaa keessatti qooda fudhatan karaa dorgommiifi beekumsa Afaan Oromoo irratti qabaniin osoo hin taane wal beekumsaafi hiriyyummaan kan waamamaniidha. Akkan shakkutti namoonni kun kan filatamaniif namoota qarshiidhan Oromoo gurgurachuu danda’an jedhamaniis kan waamaman ta’uu mala. Sababni isaa namoonni waan kana keessatti qooda fudhatan qarshii ofii kiishatti naqatanii akka nama homaa hin argineetti callisuun isaanii eenyummaa isaanii waan mul’isuuf. Hojii guddoo akkasii dalaganii “ani hin beeku, kan kutaa sanaan barreesse, kan kanaan barreese” jedhanii waakkachuun waan nama amansiisu miti. Otoo isaan jiranuu dabni guddaan kun Qubee irratti haggaamamuun isaa boruu Oromootif illee nama yaaddessa. Wanti hangas jabaan ummata jalaa dhokatee turuun isaa heddu nama yaachisa. Warra qophicha keessatti qooda fudhate qofa osoo hin taane akkuma ummataattiyyuu waan kana osoo hin beekin hangas turuun nama yaaddessa. Kun waan sadii natti mul’ise.Tokko, Oromoon qarshiidhan Oromoo guutummaatti gurguru jiraachuu isaa.Lama, wanti nuti hin beekne dabni jajjabduun heddu deemaa jiraachuu akka dandeessu.Sadii, Oromoon ummataaf dhimmamu jaarmayaalee murteessoo keessa jiraachuu dhabuu isaati.

Xumura

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Walumaagalatti, dubbiin qubee dubbii jabduu waan taatef oggansi OPDO haaran kitaabota qophaa’an kana fooyyessuu osoo hin taane guutummaatti hafanii ijoollen kitaabota kana dura turaniin akka baratan murteessun dirqama natti fakkaata. Sababni isaa waan namoonni isaan dura turan bukeessan defend gochuu dhiisanii waan ummanni jedhutti gurra qabuun faayidaa isaanif qaba jedheen yaada.

Horaa bulaa!!!!!

Tartiiba Qubeelee Afaan Oromoo jijjiiruudhaan kufaatii qulqullina barnootaa dandamachiisuun hin danda’amu.

Tartiiba Qubeelee Afaan Oromoo jijjiiruudhaan kufaatii qulqullina barnootaa dandamachiisuun hin danda’amu

                                                                                       ( Barreessaan : Abonketi Fayissa)

Oromiyaa keessatti sababa qulqullinni barnootaa kufeef, barattootni sadarkaa tokkoffaa Afaan Oromoo dubbisuu fi barreessuu dadhaban; kanaaf immoo furmaatni barbaachisaan tartiiba qubee afaanichaa jijjiiruudha jetti egaa warri OPDO. Kufaatiin erga uumamee booda sababa sababa hin taane tarreessuun hin barbaachisu. Duraan dursa sababoota kufaatii qulqullina barnootaa kana dhugaatti addaan baasuutu barbaachisa. Ani barnoota sadarkaa tokkoffaa Afaan Oromootiinan baradhe. Ammas mana barnootaa Oromiyaa keessa jiru tokkottin barsiisaa ta’ee hojjetaa jira. Hanqina dandeettiin dubbisuu fi barreessuu barattoota manneen barnootaa Oromiyaa keessa jiran mudateera jedhamaa jiran kanaaf sababootni dhugaa ta’an hedduun (kanneen siyaasaan hanqaaqaman dabalatee) kanneen dur yeroo aniyyu baradhu irraa eegalanii hanga ammaatti akka aadaa manneen barnoota Oromiyaa hanga fakkaataniitti wal harkisanii deemaa jiran keessa muraasa isaanii mee walumaan haa ilaallu.

1) Manneen barnootaa hedduu (kanuma ani amma keessa jiru kana dabalateeyyu) barsiisonni saayinsii barnoota Afaan Oromoo sirriitti baratanii gahumsaan eebbifaman yommuu gara manneen barnootaatti ramadaman OPDO n akka diinatti ilaalti. Kunis jalqabbiin afaan keenya, Afaan Oromootiin barachuu gumaata ABO fi hayyootni Oromoo hedduun irratti wareegamanii dhiiga isaaniitiin nuuf kennan waan ta’eef (OPDO’n ofii isheetiif gootas hayyuus hin qabdu), barsiisota kana garee ABO’tti ramaduudhaan dhugaa jiru ilmaan Oromoo barsiisu jedhanii shakku. Kanaafuu, bakkoota hedduutti barsiisota ciccimoo ta’an Afaan Oromoo akka hin barsiisne hojiirraa ari’aa; kaan immoo gosa barnoota biroo akka barsiisan dirqamaan godhamaa ture, jiras. Afaan Oromoon egaa barsiisota ( waan daree barnootaa seenaniif qofa namoota maqaaf barsiisaa jedhamaniin) fi waan ofitti amanamuummaa hin qabneef qofa OPDO’f amanamoo ta’aniin barsiifama. Namni ofiifuu sirriitti barreessuu fi dubbisuu hin dandeenye egaa afuura qulqulluu(?)tiin barataa eebbisee qulqullina barnootaa fidaaree?

2) Daree barnootaa tokko keessatti giddu-galeessaan barattoota 80 olitu barata. Kun immoo barsiisaan tokkichi/barsiistuu tokkittiin turtii wayitii tokkoo daqiiqaa 40-45 keessatti qabiyyee barnoota guyyuchaa barsiisee, hojii daree kennee, hanqina barattoota kanaa sirreessuudhaan guutuu mitiiti, maqaa isaanii hanga akaakayyuutti waamee fixuufiyyu ulfaataadha. Egaa barsiisuun akka qeesii habashaa bishaan facaasanii jamaa walitti qabame kana waliin gahuudhaaree?

3) Dhugaa dubbachuuf taanaan ofuma mataa koo irraa ka’ee yoon dubbadhe, ani barsiisaa ta’uuf hawwiis fedhiis hin qabun ture. Hiriyoonni koo hedduun amma waliin jirrus ta’e kanneen ani bakka biraatti beekus akkasuma. Garuu, biyya kana keessatti namni hunduu waan fedhii isaa barachuuf carraa waan hin arganneef barsiisummaa akka riqichaatti itti fayyadamee har’umaaf taatus mataa koo danda’ee jiraachaa gara biraatti ce’uuf qofan itti seene. Kanumaaf egaa barsiisaan hedduun yeroo ammaa kana kan inni barsiisummaa lagatee keessaa baqataa jiruuf. Ergan Oromiyaa keessatti barsiisaa ta’ee asis fedhii ijoolleen Oromoo waa beekuuf qabdu ilaalee dheebuu isaanii kana baasuuf hammamuu yoon carraaqe, bu’aa barbaachisaa buusee hin beeku. Namni waan fedhii fi jaalalaan hojjetu irratti bu’a-qabeessa ta’akaa!

4) Dareewwan barnootaa manneen barnootaa Oromiyaa keenyaas ta’an; kan Itoophiyaa martuu galma wal gahii beeloftootaati jedheen hiika ani. Maaliif jennaan, barsiisaan mindaa gahaa waan hin arganneef ni beela’a, barattoonni isaas tarsiimoo misooma baadiyyaa dadhabaa mootummaan dadhabaan miidiyaa irratti qofa odeessuuf baafateen maatiin isaanii waan hiyyoomaniif ni beela’u. Namni dhimma baruu-barsiisuu qabu hin jiru jechuu kooti. Waa’ee barnootaa odeessuun qofti manneen barnootaa fi hojmaata isaa irratti jijjiirama waaraa fidaaree?

5) Yeroo ammaa kana egaa hanqinni barsiisaa Oromiyaa qofa osoo hin taane guutummaa impaayerittii Ixoobiyaa kanayyu mudateera. Kafaaf immoo sababni ijoon isa gareen sobdootaa (mootummaan) manneen barnootaa heddumminaan ijaarree waan babal’isneefi tarsiimoo barnootaa daree tokko keessatti yoo baay’ate barsiisaan tokko barattoota afurtamaaf (1:40), jedhu qabannee hojjechaa waan jirruuf jedhu miti. Hojmaatni manneen barnootaa keessatti dura-taa’ota manneen barnootaa utuu gahumsa hooggansa mana barnootaa hin qabaatiin malaammaltummaa fi ergama OPDO galmaan gahuuf kaa’amaniin waan laamsha’ee fi yaada ani qabxii sadaffaa irratti eeruuf yaaleen barsiisaan garbummaa mana barumsaarraa hurii of baasuutti kutate. Isa kanaaf immoo mootummaan akka furmaataatti barattoota ofiifuu kutaa 10ffaatti kufan ganda keessaa barbaadee miindeffamanii akka isaan barsiisan godhe. Haala kana keessatti egaa qulqullinni barnootaa ergamaa waaqaatiin gara daree barnootaa haa dhufuuree?

6) Dubbiin garagaltoo taanaan tajaajilaa hawaasaa (civil-servant) biyya kana keessa jiru keessaa barsiisaan isa akka malee tuffatamaa ta’aa dhufeera. Dhawaatuma kanaatiin, hojiin barsiisummaa immoo jibbamaa dhufeera. Kun immoo sadarkaan ofitti amanamummaa barsiisotaa akka quucaruuf shoora mataa isaa taphateera. Hangamuu sabboonaa yoon ta’e; ijoollee Oromoo barsiisuuf yoon kutadhe, nama na tuffatu daree seenee dhugaatti barsiisuun ni ulfaata. Utuuma anuu barsiiseetii, hammi hubannaa barataa koo isiniin haa tilmaamamukaa!

7) Yeroo ammaa kanayyu, jechuun jaarraa qaroome kana keessattillee, maatiin ijoollee Oromoo hedduun aadaadhumaaf barataa mana barnootaatti ergaa jiru. Mee kanumti ilmi/intaalli isaa/ishee kutaa meeqa akka baratan hin beekneyyu haa dhibukaa! Barataan maatii isaatiin hin hordofamu; hin deeggaramu taanaan barsiisaa qofti qulqullinaa fi bu’aa barnoota irraa argamu gonkumaa fiduu hin danda’u.

Sababni inni biraan dhimma daree dhuunfaa jedhamu kanadha. Daree dhuunfaa jechuun kutaa tokkoo hanga afuriitti barsiisaan tokkichi/tokkittiin haa barsiisu isa jedhu. Barsiisaan sun ijoollee barnoota A,B,C,D… 0.1,2,3… jedhanii reefuu eegalan egaa akkuma mataa isaa/isheetti qaree doomsa jechuudha mitiiree? "Sa'a abbaan gaafa cabse, ormi ija jaamsa" jedha Oromoon. Kanaafuu, waa'een afaanii waa'ee eenyummaati. Abbaan argite lafumaa kaatee akka barbaadde gochuu hin qabdu; hin dandeessus.

Itti fufa…

Aboonkeeti Fayyisaati 

Caamsaa 6, 2017

Finfinnee

OPDO should walk away from signing any surrender agreement on Addis Ababa short of full Ownership Rights of the Oromo people on that city!

OPDO should walk away from signing any surrender agreement on Addis Ababa short of full Ownership Rights of the Oromo people on that city!

                                                                                             ( by Birhanemeskel Abebe Segni )

1. What is the current status of Addis Ababa?

For an outsider, Addis Ababa is the seat of the Ethiopian federal government. It is also the host city of the Headquarters of the African Union (AU), formerly the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and other international organizations, and diplomatic missions numbering over one hundred twenty embassies and consulates making it the diplomatic capital of Africa with the potential to become one of the leading world metropolis.

However, this very rosy picture becomes more murky and troublesome when one looks into the domestic sides of Addis Ababa. The domestic picture of Addis Ababa is in stark contrast to what it claims to portray itself nationally and globally. It is one of the most segregationist and discriminatory city in the world. It is built on evicting and dispossessing the Oromo people of their ancestral land through the war of conquest, and a predatory land grab policy that evicted and dispossessed the land belonging to the Oromo people.

In 1843, Major William C. Harris, the Head of United Kingdom’s Delegation who visited Ethiopia during that time and stayed with an Amhara warlords of the day vividly recorded in his book “The Highlands of Aethiopia (1844, Vols. I-III)” his eyewitness description of the carnage, the savagery, and the barbarity of those warlords on Oromo residents of Finfinnee. Major Harris’s Book Vol. II (p. 185-198) accounts on how tens of thousands of Oromo peaceful and unarmed residents of Finfinnee were massacred and destroyed by a European armed savages and warlords through its war of looting expeditions. In 1887, Addis Ababa was built on the graves of those brave Oromo heroes and heroines.

This agony of Oromo forefathers on whose grave Addis Ababa is built is the everyday agony and brutalizing memory every Oromo youth carries in his heart and lives with every single day. It is the cause for which every single Oromo will fight for and die for until the ownership rights of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa is fully and completely restored and respected.

Fast forward, over the last 25 years alone, Addis Ababa evicted close to one million Oromo residents from Oromo districts surrounding Addis Ababa silently and incrementally through systematic and consistent military style operations. In his Book “ The Meles Legacy: Addis Ababa, the Ownerless city”, Erimias Legesse, the Former State Minister for Ethiopian Government’s Spokesperson Office, accounted over 10 years he was in the Addis Ababa City Council alone, close to 150,000 Oromo families were evicted from their land, and their whereabouts are unknown.
When the recent French supported Addis Ababa Master Plan slated to evict twelve million Oromos in ten years’ time from 36 cities and seventeen woredas in Central Oromia zones was announced it triggered the memories of 1840- 1887 all over again. The Oromo people protested and drew the battle lines not to be played again.

2. How is the EPRDF handling question of the Oromo people over Addis Ababa?

In spite of the war of conquest partly mentioned above, no other Ethiopian regimes formally questioned the ownership rights of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa, since its creation in 1887, except the current EPRDF government of Ethiopia.

Let’s recap this. Under all previous Ethiopian regimes, including that of Emperor Menelik II, Lij Iyasu, Queen Zewiditu, Emperor Haile-Selassie, and the military regimes of General Teferi Bantii & Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam, the status of Addis Ababa as the seat of the central government and its status as the Capital City of Shewa Province has never been disputed or questioned or even debated!

Administratively, the Municipality of Addis Ababa was reporting to Menagesha Awraja, an area that covers pretty much the current Special Oromia Zone surrounding Addis Ababa. Menagesha Awraja in turn was reporting to the Shewa Province which in turn reports to the Ethiopian central government. At no time in its history was Addis Ababa separated from Shewa Province and placed under the political control of the Ethiopian central government let alone becoming a separate region except in the last 25 years.

The project of separating Addis Ababa from the Oromia State and that of the Oromo people started rolling as soon as the current government took the state power from the Derg Regime in 1991. As soon as it assumed the state power, the government of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi established Addis Ababa as a separate region, calling it Region 14, by proclamation No.7/ 1992 in 1992. Article 49 sub article 5 of the current federal constitution simply adopted the watered down version of this proclamation.

To avoid immediate backlash from the Oromo people, the newly crowned rebels recognized “the political rights and special interests of the Oromo people and region 4 over Addis Ababa” under Article 65 of Proclamation No.7/1992. The political rights and special interests of the Oromo people enshrined under this proclamation has never been legal elaborated or even get discussed. In short, Proclamation 7/1992 denied the Oromo population of the former Shewa Province their city in the name of self-administration, and the entire Oromo people the right to administer one of their city and the loss of the heartland of Oromia and their capital city with stroke of a pen.

In a further strategy to weaken the Oromo people’s ownership rights on Addis Ababa and empower Addis Ababa as a colonial enclave, the EPRDF government divided and disenfranchised Shewa Oromo population in the former Shewa Province into five zones which now includes West Shewa, North Shewa, South West Shewa, East Shewa, and the Special Oromia Zone surrounding Addis Ababa. A small part of the old Shewa province is also redistricted under the Amhara National Regional State with Debre Berhan as its zonal capital.

This strategy, which seems to have worked well until the #OromoProtests, was to divide and give the OPDO boys small balls for each one of them in their respective zones so that they will take off their eyes from the bigger ball while the big guys will play the national political and economic tournament with perfection with the bigger ball in Addis Ababa. The EPRDF sold this poly of creating six zones out of the previously one and very strong Shewa province as an administrative convenience for these newly created zones. In reality, none of the newly created zones gained any politically and economic advantage in the last 25 years except being weakened, impoverished, disenfranchised and gerrymandered to benefit the predatory beasts in Addis Ababa.

The current so called “talks” on Article 49 sub article 5 of the Federal Constitution’s “special interests clause of Oromia in Addis Ababa” is sequel two of the poly of the EPRDF to finish and perfect what the 19th Century war of conquest failed to do by completely separating Addis Ababa from Oromia and the Oromo people.

3. How is Addis Ababa treating the Oromo people now?

The policies of Addis Ababa toward the Oromo people has always been predatory. Its policies are premised on evicting, dispossessing, displacing and exploiting the Oromo to benefit, make room and place for non-Oromo settlers. Over the last twenty-five years, Addis Ababa is not only displacing and evicting the Oromo people, it is also the prison and torture capital of the Oromo people where all major torture centers and hidden prisons including Ma’ikalawi are located. Some call Addis Ababa the Gitmo of the Oromo people where tens of thousands of Oromos are tortured, killed, and detained.

Politically, economically and socially speaking, except for the nominal claim that Addis Ababa is the capital city of Oromia, Addis Ababa is the antithesis of everything Oromo. There is virtually no Oromo political, economic and cultural presence in Addis Ababa. All political, economic and cultural powers are fully in the hand of the settlers. Despised, marginalized and excluded in their own land, the Oromo people are considered as undesirables and strangers not welcomed in Addis Ababa, and are openly discriminated against.

According to the Addis Ababa City Charter, Amharic is the only official working language of the city. This means Afaan Oromo is legally and factually banned in Addis Ababa. Afaan Oromo speakers neither get employment nor public services this city provides through its public institutions. Afaan Oromo speakers’ political participation in Addis Ababa is unthinkable. Instead, the EPRDF government appoints Amharic speaking Oromo with no political constituency in the city as the Mayor of Addis Ababa to serve as a rubber stamp for the wish and whim of the deep state, and cow the Oromo people through well perfected political fraud.

There is no single Afaan Oromo public school or college in Addis Ababa. There is no single Afaan Oromo print or broadcast media for Afaan Oromo speakers in Addis Ababa. All Addis Ababa-based print and broadcast media outlets, theaters, and cinema centers, youth centers, museums, and city operated social institutions are legally banned from using Afaan Oromo. With the exception occasional translation services in court hearings, there is no single entity that provides even translation or interpretation services for Afaan Oromo speakers. All legal documents and court decisions are issued only in Amharic.

In fact, since the environment of discrimination is so pervasive and heavy, almost all private businesses and social institutions including churches, banks, hospitals, clinics, hotels, cafés, retail and wholesale shops conducts all their businesses only Amharic. One hardly finds Afaan Oromo speaking businesses or churches in Addis Ababa.

For Afaan Oromo speaking citizens of Addis Ababa, Oromo refugees in New York or Washington DC or Minneapolis have more self-worth and rights than Afaan Oromo speakers in Addis Ababa. Oromo speaker in Washington DC, New York or Minneapolis can get interpretation services in hospitals and other public institutions, a right an Oromo in Addis Ababa could not even contemplate.

Although it might be unfair to blame Addis Ababa for all the misery and ills of the Oromo people, it is fair to say that all the racist and discriminatory policies and laws against the Oromo people by the Ethiopian regimes continue to be hatched and nurtured in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian government’s monolingual language policies and systemic policies of exclusion and marginalization of the Oromo people from Ethiopia’s economically, politically and social systems are developed and executed with near perfection and exported to the rest of the country from here.

Addis Ababa is a city that aspires to become a global city before it becomes a city to its own people on whose land it is founded. Owing to this discriminatory and segregationist policies, the Oromo people’s relationship with this city is that of love and hate. They love it because they believe it is their city. They hate it because they are being segregated, discriminated and unwelcomed in it.

4. What is the demand of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa?

The demand of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa is simple and straight forward. It is the demand to right the wrongs listed above! It is the demand of ownership right of the Oromo people on their land and their city. It is the demand of the Oromo people to politically administer their city and have a part in its development. It is the demand for the Oromia national regional government to have a taxing power (the power to impose and collect tax) and police power (the power to issue laws and policies and enforce them) on Addis Ababa and to administer it.

Rejection of the Ethiopian government’s aggression and denial of self-governance rights of the Oromo people of themselves and their capital city, Addis Ababa, is at the heart of the #Oromoprotests that is going on for the last two years.

This demand of the Oromo people over Addis Ababa is best encapsulated in the single rallying cry of the #OromoProtests. It says “Finfinneen Handhura Oromiya ti!” in Oromo language. Loosely translated, it means “Addis Ababa is the heart, the umbilical cord & the center of Oromia!” It simply means Addis Ababa is the heartland of Oromia and Oromia’s capital city. The two are inseparable; one and the same! Oromia will not exist without Addis Ababa, and Addis Ababa will not exist without Oromia!

The slogan “Finfinneen Handhura Oromiya ti!” shows the undisputed ownership, full political and economic rights including the police and taxing powers of the Oromia State over Addis Ababa. The slogan shows Addis Ababa is inextricably connected with the dignity and the honor of the Oromo people.

The Oromo people have never ever lost, relinquished, nor abandoned their ownership rights on Addis Ababa, and never will! Not now! The future belongs to the Oromo people to right the wrongs and injustices perpetrated on the Oromo people in Addis Ababa and its surroundings. The OPDO has no political, legal or historical mandate from the Oromo people to sign any form of surrender agreement that undermines, diminishes, compromises or further complicates the fully political, economic and social rights of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa. Not now. Not ever!

5. Why has OPDO no legitimacy to sign the surrender agreement with EPRDF and Addis Ababa Municipality?

OPDO cannot spend the political capital it never had both among the Oromo people and the member organizations of the EPRDF. For the last 27 years of its existence, OPDO was literally homeless and never had a legally recognized capital city to govern the Oromo people.

Most people don’t know this very important fact. OPDO’s boutique offices in Addis Ababa has no legal basis to exist there. Neither the federal government’s constitution nor the charter of Addis Ababa city administration nor the constitution of Oromia recognizes Addis Ababa as the capital city of Oromia. Not even the internal party rules of EPRDF recognizes Addis Ababa as the political capital of OPDO, nominally the ruling party in Oromia.

The EPRDF, mainly the TPLF, decides where the OPDO should be in a given year depending on the political tempo of the Oromo people. Initially, in 1991, OPDO was kept in Addis Ababa because of the pressure from the OLF. Then, after the OLF got weakened, OPDO was sent to Adama. When the pressure mounted on EPRDF/TPLF from Matcha Tullama Self-Help Association, the Oromo students, and OFC, OPDO was returned from Adama to Addis Ababa where it still exists.

Now, the EPRDF and Addis Ababa city powerholders are talking to the OPDO on the “special interests of the Oromo people over Addis Ababa” because of the #OromoProtests while those Oromo leaders who voiced their concern with the Oromo people like Dr. Merara Gudina, Bekele Gerba and tens of thousands other brave Oromo leaders are languishing in prison.

For the EPRDF, OPDO, in spite of the good intentions and brave efforts of some OPDO leaders, are just a front to pursue their selfish economic, political and security interests in Oromia, and use it as a tool to appease the Oromo people when the going gets tough. All well-meaning and enlightened OPDO leaders from top to bottom knows this political reality and fact. And the Oromo people knows it very well.

Therefore, the OPDO has no political and legal mandate of its own to negotiate, compromise and agree to anything fundamental let alone sign off on the surrender agreement of any sort short of the full political, economic and social rights of the Oromo people over Addis Ababa.

If the EPRDF leadership and the powerholders in Addis Ababa want a legitimate and final solution on the question of Addis Ababa and other Oromo issues, please release the Oromo leaders in prison and negotiate with them and other rightfully designated Oromo people’s leaders.

It is important for the EPRDF leadership and the deep state in Addis Ababa to know that their political fraud of separating Addis Ababa from Oromia is dead on arrival. The Oromo people will never ever accept, negotiate or compromise on any gamesmanship and deception short of complete and clearly defined full political, economic, cultural and administrative rights of the Oromo people and Oromia National Regional State over Addis Ababa..