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Oromia Media Network Launch — Live! March 7, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, African Beat, African Music, Ancient African Direct Democracy, Dictatorship, Ethnic Cleansing, Finfinnee, Gadaa System, Hadiya and the Omo Valley, Human Rights, Human Traffickings, Humanity and Social Civilization, Ideas, Kemetic Ancient African Culture, Knowledge and the Colonizing Structure., Language and Development, Nubia, Ogaden, OMN, Omo, Omo Valley, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Artists, Oromo Culture, Oromo First, Oromo Identity, Oromo Media Network, Oromo Music, Oromo Nation, Oromo Social System, Oromo Sport, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Oromummaa, Poverty, Qubee Afaan Oromo, Self determination, Sidama, Sirna Gadaa, Slavery, State of Oromia, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, The Oromo Democratic system, The Oromo Governance System, The Oromo Library, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Theory of Development, Uncategorized, Wisdom, Youth Unemployment.Tags: Africa, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Governance issues, Horn of Africa, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights violations, Oromia, Oromia Region, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo culture, Oromo people, State and Development, Sub-Saharan Africa, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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Oromia Media Network Launch — Live! 1st March 2014
Millions of Oromos now have the chance to enjoy quality media focusing on the needs and aspirations of the Oromo people.
"The Oromia Media Network (OMN) is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit news enterprise whose mission is to produce original and citizen-driven reporting on Oromia, the largest and most populous state in Ethiopia. OMN seeks to offer thought-provoking, contextual, and nuanced coverage of critical public interest issues thereby bringing much needed attention to under-reported stories in the region. Our goal is to create a strong and sustainable multilingual newsroom that will serve as a reliable source of information about the Oromo people, the Ethiopian state, and the greater Horn of Africa region. " - http://www.oromiamedia.org/
Copyright © OromianEconomist 2014 and Oromia Quarterly 1997-2014. All rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Covering Africa: Facebook and The Future of Internet Connection in Rural Africa March 6, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, Facebook and Africa, Qubee Afaan Oromo, Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Facebook and Africa, Information and Development, Oromia, Oromo, Social Media and Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa
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'TechCrunch recently reported that Facebook is in talks to acquire Titan Aerospace, a drone-production company that has just started taking orders for its Solara 50. The drone is designed to fly at 65,000 feet, remaining above terrestrial weather. A typical launch sequence is initiated just after midnight, and the aircraft climbs under its own battery power. The Solara reaches altitude as the sun crests over the horizon and enters its standard day-night cycle. When the sun sets, the Solara shifts its propulsion, payload and systems to its battery banks. A battery-management system ensures voltage is maintained in the subzero atmosphere. It is designed to stay aloft for five years with a range or 2.5 million miles.'http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/africa-you-will-have-facebook/2014/03/06/e7287b9c-a557-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_graphic.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost
The Status of Africa's Economy and Its Underlying Structural Weakness March 6, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Development and Change, Economic, Economic and Social Freedom, Economic development, Horn of Africa, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, poverty, Social Sciences, State and Development, Sub-Saharan Africa, World Bank
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East Asian countries grew rapidly by replicating, in a much shorter time frame, what today's advanced countries did following the Industrial Revolution. They turned their farmers into manufacturing workers, diversified their economies, and exported a range of increasingly sophisticated goods.
Little of this process is taking place in Africa. As researchers at the African Center for Economic Transformation in Accra, Ghana, put it, the continent is "growing rapidly, transforming slowly."
In principle, the region's potential for labor-intensive industrialization is great. A Chinese shoe manufacturer, for example, pays its Ethiopian workers one-tenth what it pays its workers back home. It can raise Ethiopian workers' productivity to half or more of Chinese levels through in-house training. The savings in labor costs more than offset other incremental costs of doing business in an African environment, such as poor infrastructure and bureaucratic red tape.
But the aggregate numbers tell a worrying story. Fewer than 10% of African workers find jobs in manufacturing, and among those only a tiny fraction – as low as one-tenth – are employed in modern, formal firms with adequate technology. Distressingly, there has been very little improvement in this regard, despite high growth rates. In fact, Sub-Saharan Africa is less industrialized today than it was in the 1980's. Private investment in modern industries, especially non-resource tradables, has not increased, and remains too low to sustain structural transformation. The underlying problem is the weakness of these economies' structural transformation.
As in all developing countries, farmers in Africa are flocking to the cities. And yet, as a recent study from the Groningen Growth and Development Center shows, rural migrants do not end up in modern manufacturing industries, as they did in East Asia, but in services such as retail trade and distribution. Though such services have higher productivity than much of agriculture, they are not technologically dynamic in Africa and have been falling behind the world frontier.
Consider Rwanda, a much-heralded success story where GDP has increased by a whopping 9.6% per year, on average, since 1995 (with per capita incomes rising at an annual rate of 5.2%). Xinshen Diao of the International Food Policy Research Institute has shown that this growth was led by non-tradable services, in particular construction, transport, and hotels and restaurants. The public sector dominates investment, and the bulk of public investment is financed by foreign grants. Foreign aid has caused the real exchange rate to appreciate, compounding the difficulties faced by manufacturing and other tradables.
None of this is to dismiss Rwanda's progress in reducing poverty, which reflects reforms in health, education, and the general policy environment. Without question, these improvements have raised the country's potential income. But improved governance and human capital do not necessarily translate into economic dynamism. What Rwanda and other African countries lack are the modern, tradable industries that can turn the potential into reality by acting as the domestic engine of productivity growth.
The African economic landscape's dominant feature – an informal sector comprising microenterprises, household production, and unofficial activities – is absorbing the growing urban labor force and acting as a social safety net. But the evidence suggests that it cannot provide the missing productive dynamism. Studies show that very few micro enterprises grow beyond informality, just as the bulk of successful established firms do not start out as small, informal enterprises.
Optimists say that the good news about African structural transformation has not yet shown up in macroeconomic data. They may well be right. But if they are wrong, Africa may confront some serious difficulties in the decades ahead.
Half of Sub-Saharan Africa's population is under 25 years of age. According to the World Bank, each year an additional five million turn 15, "crossing the threshold from childhood to adulthood." Given the slow pace of positive structural transformation, the Bank projects that over the next decade only one in four African youth will find regular employment as a salaried worker, and that only a small fraction of those will be in the formal sector of modern enterprises.
Two decades of economic expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa have raised a young population's expectations of good jobs without greatly expanding the capacity to deliver them. These are the conditions that make social protest and political instability likely. Economic planning based on simple extrapolations of recent growth will exacerbate the discrepancy. Instead, African political leaders may have to manage expectations downward, while working to increase the rate of structural transformation and social inclusion.
Tribute to the Late Dr. Paul Baxter (1925-2014) March 4, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Aannolee and Calanqo, Afaan Publication, African Beat, Ancient African Direct Democracy, Colonizing Structure, Oromia, Oromo, Oromo Culture, Oromo First, Oromo Identity, Oromo Nation, Oromo Social System, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Oromummaa, Sidama, State of Oromia, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, Uncategorized.add a comment
The Oromo Studies Association's Tribute to the Late Dr. Paul Baxter (1925-2014)
It is with great sadness that the Oromo Studies Association (OSA) informs the Oromo and friends of Oromo about the passing away of Dr. Paul Baxter on March 2, 2014. He was 89. Dr. Paul Baxter was a distinguished British anthropologist who devoted his life to Oromo studies. He is one of the finest human being, who contributed immensely to the development of Oromo studies at the time when the scholarship on the Oromo people was extremely discouraged in Ethiopia. His death is a significant loss for his family, all those who knew and were touched by his humanity and kindness, and for the students of Oromo studies. Dr. Paul Baxter is survived by his wife, Pat Baxter, his son, Adam Baxter, and his three grandsons and their children.
Born on January 30, 1925 in England, Paul Trevor William Baxter, popularly known as Paul Baxter or P.T.W. Baxter, earned his BA degree from Cambridge University. Influenced by famous scholars such as Bronisław Kasper Malinowski, Charles Gabriel Seligman, and Evans Pritchard, Paul Baxter had a solid affection for social anthropology. He went to the famous Oxford University to study social anthropology.
It was at the zenith of the Amharization project of Emperor Haile Selassie that he developed a strong interest to study the social organization of the Oromo people. In fact, in 1952, he wanted to go to Ethiopia to study the Oromo Gada system. Let alone tolerating this type of research, Ethiopia was in the middle of the massive project to eradicate the memory of the Oromo from their historic and indigenous territories. The Assimilation policy was in the full swing. Little spared from an attempt was made to change everything Oromo into Amharic. Even the Oromo names of urban centers were rechristened into Amharic names. It is no wonder that Ethiopia was reluctant to welcome a researcher like Baxter who was looking for the soul of the Oromo culture in the homogenizing Ethiopian Empire. Nonetheless, the challenge did not bother the young and exuberant Baxter to pursue his studies. He was determined more than ever to study the social fabric of the Oromo nation. Failed to get permission to do research among the Oromo in Ethiopia, he went to the British Colony Kenya to study the Borana Oromo social organization in northern Kenya. He spent two years (1952 and 1953) among them, which resulted in his PhD dissertation: 'The Social Organization of the Oromo of Northern Kenya', in 1954. This research became a foundation for more of his researches to come and a reference for the students of Oromo studies. Besides, the research disqualified many of the myths and pseudo facts that assume the Oromos were a people without civilization, culture, and history. Dr. Paul Baxter did not stop here. He continued with his studies and spent several decades studying different aspects of the Oromo society. It was through his extended research among the Oromos that he deconstructed some of the myths that portrayed the Oromo people as a "warlike" or "barbarian" nation. The title of essays in his honor, in 1994, "A River of Blessings" speaks to his perception and reality of the Oromo as a peace-loving nation. In his article, "Ethiopia's Unacknowledged Problem: The Oromo," he highlighted some of the Oromophobic and barbaric manners of the Ethiopian Empire, and he suggested that peace with the Oromo nation was the only lasting panacea to the Ethiopian political sickening.
In his long academic and research career, he studied the Oromo from northern Kenya to Wallo and Arsi to Guji and so on. He edited a number of books on Oromo studies and published many other articles and book chapters in the field of social anthropology. He participated several times on OSA annual conferences. During the 1960s and 1970s, Dr. Paul Baxter was known as the finest living social anthropologist in the United Kingdom. Besides his impressive scholarship on the Oromo society, Dr. Paul Baxter's lasting legacy is that he educated so many scholars who have studied Oromo culture both in Kenya and Ethiopia. Dr. Paul Baxter's passion and determination will inspire the generation of students of the Oromo studies. Our prayers and thoughts are with his family, friends, and Oromos and friends of Oromo studies during this difficult time.
Ibrahim Elemo, M.D., M.P.H
President, the Oromo Studies Association
Mohammed Hassen, Ph.D.
Board Chairman, the Oromo Studies Association
A partial list of his scholarly works on the Oromo includes the followings:
1. "The Social Organization of the [Oromo] of Northern Kenya," Ph.D. Dissertation, Oxford University, 1954.
2. "Repetition in Certain Boran Ceremonies" In African Systems of Thought, ed. M. Fortes and G. Dieterlin, (London: Oxford University Press for International African Institute, 1960), 64-78.
3. "Acceptance and Rejection of Islam among the Boran of the Northern Frontier District of Kenya" In Islam in Tropical Africa, edited by I.O. Lewis (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), 233-250.
4. "Stock Management and the Diffusion of Property Rights among the Boran" In Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, (Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Haile Selassie I University, 1966), 116-127.
5. "Some Preliminary Observations on a type of Arssi Song" In Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Ethiopian Studies, ed. E. Cerulli (Rome: 1972).
6. "Boran Age-Sets and Generation-set: Gada, a Puzzle or a maze?" In Age Generation and time: Some Features of East African Age Oroganisations, ed. P.T.W. Baxter and U. Almagor, ( London: C. Hurst, 1978), 151-182.
7. "Ethiopia's Unacknowledged Problem: The Oromo", African Affairs, Volume 77, Number 208 (1978): 283-296.
8. "Atete: A Congregation of Arssi Women" North East African Studies, Volume I (1979), 1-22.
9. Boran Age-Sets and Warfare", in Warfare among East African Herders, ed. D. Turton and K. Fukui, Senri Ethnological Studies, Number 3, Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology( 1979), 69-95.
10. "Always on the outside looking in: A view of the 1969 Ethiopian elections from a rural constituency" Ethnos, Number 45(1980): 39-59.
11. "The Problem of the Oromo or the Problem for the Oromo" in Nationalism and Self-Determination in the Horn of Africa, ed. I.M. Lewis, (London: Ithaca Press, 1983), 129-150.
12. "Butter for Barley and Barley for Cash: Petty Transactions and small Transformations in an Arssi Market" In Proceedings of Seventh Congress of Ethiopian Studies (Lund: 1984), 459-472.
13. "The Present State of Oromo Studies: a Resume," Bulletin des Etudes africaine de l' Inalco, Vol. VI, Number 11(1986): 53-82.
14. "Giraffes and Poetry: Some Observations on Giraffe Hunting among the Boran" Paiduma: Mitteilungen fur Kulturkunde Volume 32 (1986), 103-115.
15. "Some Observations on the short Hymns sung in Praise of Shaikh Nur Hussein of Bale" In The Diversity of the Muslim Community, ed. Ahmed el –Shahi, (London: Ithaca Press, 1987), 139-152.
16. "L'impact de la revolution chez les Oromo: Commentl'ont-ils percu, comment ont-ils reagi?" In La Revolution ethiopienne comme phenomene de societe, edited by Joseph Tubiana, (Paris: l'Harmattan, Bibliotheque Peiresc, 1990), 75-92.
17. "Big men and cattle licks in Oromoland" Social change and Applied Anthropology; Essays in Honor of David David W. Brokensha, edited by Miriam Chaiken & Anne K. Fleuret,( Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), 246-261.
18. "Oromo Blessings and Greetings" In The Creative Communion, edited by Anita Jacoson-Widding & W. Van Beek (Uppsala, Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology , 1990), 235-250.
19. "Introduction "In Guji Oromo Culture in Southern Ethiopia by J. Van de Loo, ( Berli: ReinMer, 1991).
20. "Ethnic Boundaries and Development: Speculations on the Oromo Case" In Inventions and Boundaries: Historical and Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Ethnicity & Nationalism, edited by Kaarsholm Preben & Jan Hultin, (Denmark: Roskilde University, 1994): 247-260.
21. "The Creation & Constitution of Oromo Nationality" In Ethnicity & Conflict in the Horn of Africa, edited by Fukui Katsuyoshi & John Markarkis, (London: James Currey, 1994): 166-86.
22. "Towards a Comparative Ethnography of the Oromo" In Being and Becoming Oromo: Historical & Anthropological Enquiries, edited by Paul Baxter et al, (Uppsala: Nordiska Afikanistitutet, 1996): 178-189.
23. "Components of moral Ethnicity: The case of the Oromo." In Ethnicity and the state in Eastern Africa, edited by Mohammed Salih & John Markarkis, (Uppsala: OSSREA & SIAS, 1998).
"…The efflorescence of feelings of common nationhood and of aspirations of self-determination among the the cluster of peoples who speak Oromo has not been much commented upon. Yet the problem of the Oromo people has been a major and central one in the Ethiopian Empire ever since it was created by Menelik in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. If the Oromo people only obtain a portion of the freedoms which they seek the balance of political power will be completely altered. If the Oromo act with unity they must necessarily constitute a powerful force. … If the Ogaden and Eritrea were detached Ethiopia would merely be diminished, but if the Oromo were to detach themselves, then it is not just that the centre could not hold, the centre would be part of the detached Oromo land. The Empire, which Menelik stuck together and Haile Selassie held together, would just fall apart. The Amhara would then forced back to their barren and remote hills. … The slogan of the Oromo Liberation Front is 'Let Oromo freedom flower today! (addi bilisumma Oromo Ha'dararuu!).This may be a very over-optimistic hope but, if not today, the time of flowering and fruiting cannot be delayed forever."
Professor Paul Baxter, Manchester University, in his article
Ethiopia's Unacknowledged Problem: The Oromo
African Affairs 1978 Volume LXXVII (pp. 283-296) Published for Royal African Society by Oxford University Press.
US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ethiopia February 28, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, African Poor, Colonizing Structure, Dictatorship, Domestic Workers, Environment, Ethnic Cleansing, Finfinnee, Human Rights, Janjaweed Style Liyu Police of Ethiopia, Oromia, Oromo, Oromo Identity, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Uncategorized, Youth Unemployment.Tags: Developing country, Economic and Social Freedom, Economic development, Ethiopia, Governance issues, Horn of Africa, Human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights violations, Land grabbing, National Self Determination, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo people, Politics of Ethiopia, poverty, State and Development, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tyranny, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, World Bank
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Ethiopia:2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
By US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
27 February 2014
- The most significant human rights problems included: restrictions on freedom of expression and association, including through arrests; detention; politically motivated trials; harassment; and intimidation of opposition members and journalists, as well as continued restrictions on print media.
- Other human rights problems included arbitrary killings; allegations of torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; reports of harsh and, at times, life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; detention without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; a weak, overburdened judiciary subject to political influence; infringement on citizens' privacy rights, including illegal searches; allegations of abuses in the implementation of the government's "villagization" program; restrictions on academic freedom; restrictions on freedom of assembly, association, and movement; alleged interference in religious affairs; limits on citizens' ability to change their government; police, administrative, and judicial corruption; violence and societal discrimination against women and abuse of children; female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C); trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; clashes between ethnic minorities; discrimination against persons based on their sexual orientation and against persons with HIV/AIDS; limits on worker rights; forced labor; and child labor, including forced child labor.
- Impunity was a problem. The government, with some reported exceptions, usually did not take steps to prosecute or otherwise punish officials who committed abuses other than corruption.
- Members of the security forces reportedly committed killings. On August 8, security forces in Addis Ababa detained more than one thousand Muslims participating in Eid al-Fitr celebrations. Authorities released most of the detainees shortly thereafter, but there were credible allegations some of the detainees died while in detention. There continued to be reports of abuses, including killings, by the Somali Region Special Police.
- A few domestic human rights groups operated, but with significant government restrictions. The government was generally distrustful and wary of domestic human rights groups and international observers. State-controlled media were critical of international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch.
- The CSO law prohibits charities, societies, and associations (NGOs or CSOs) that receive more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign sources from engaging in activities that advance human and democratic rights or promote equality of nations, nationalities, peoples, genders, and religions; the rights of children and persons with disabilities; conflict resolution or reconciliation; or the efficiency of justice and law enforcement services. The implementation of the law continued to result in the severe curtailment of NGO activities related to human rights. In July 2012 the UN high commissioner for human rights expressed concern that civil society space "has rapidly shrunk" since the CSO law's enactment.
- The country has more than 80 ethnic groups, of which the Oromo, at approximately 35 percent of the population, is the largest. The federal system drew boundaries roughly along major ethnic group lines. Most political parties remained primarily ethnically based.
- Clashes between ethnic groups during the year resulted in injury and death. In January ethnic clashes broke out at Addis Ababa University reportedly due to anti-Oromo graffiti. The clashes resulted in injury to as many as 20 persons.
- The government, controlled by the ruling EPRDF, restricted media freedom and arrested opposition members. Constituent parties of the EPRDF conferred advantages upon their members; the parties directly owned many businesses and were broadly perceived to award jobs and business contracts to loyal supporters. Several opposition political parties reported difficulty in renting homes or buildings in which to open offices, citing visits by EPRDF members to the landlords to persuade or threaten them not to rent property to these parties. There were reports authorities had terminated the employment of teachers and other government workers if they belonged to opposition political parties.
- According to sources, the ruling party via the Ministry of Education continued to give preference to students loyal to the party in assignments to postgraduate programs. Some university staff members commented that priority for employment after graduation in all fields was given to students who joined the party. Authorities limited teachers' ability to deviate from official lesson plans. Numerous anecdotal reports suggested non-EPRDF members were more likely to be transferred to undesirable posts and bypassed for promotions. There were unspecified reports of teachers not affiliated with the EPRDF being summarily dismissed for failure to attend unscheduled meetings. There continued to be a lack of transparency in academic staffing decisions, with numerous complaints from individuals in the academic community alleging bias based on party membership, ethnicity, or religion. According to multiple credible sources, teachers and high school students in grade 10 and above were required to attend training on the concepts of revolutionary democracy and EPRDF party ideology.
- The state-owned Ethio Telecom was the only internet service provider in the country. The government restricted access to the internet and blocked several websites, including blogs; opposition websites; and websites of Ginbot 7, the OLF, and the ONLF. The government also temporarily blocked news sites such as al-Jazeera. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo! were temporarily inaccessible at times. Several news blogs and websites run by opposition diaspora groups were not accessible. These included Addis Neger, Nazret, Ethiopian Review, CyberEthiopia, Quatero Amharic Magazine, Tensae Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian Media Forum. Authorities took steps to block access to Virtual Private Network providers that let users circumvent government screening of internet browsing and e-mail. According to the International Telecommunication Union, approximately 1.5 percent of individuals used the internet in 2012. In March, Citizen Lab, a Canadian research center at the University of Toronto, identified 25 countries, including Ethiopia, that host servers linked to FinFisher surveillance software. According to the report, "FinFisher has gained notoriety because it has been used in targeted attacks against human rights campaigners and opposition activists in countries with questionable human rights records."
- Estimates by human rights groups and diplomatic missions regarding the number of political prisoners varied. The government did not permit access by international human rights organizations.
- All of the Ethiopian journalists, opposition members, and activists previously convicted and jailed under the antiterrorism proclamation remained in prison.
- On January 8, the Federal Court of Cassation denied journalist Reyot Alemu's appeal of her conviction on the charge of participating in the promotion or communication of a terrorist act. She was serving a five-year prison sentence.
- On May 2, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the sentences of journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega and vice chairman of the opposition front Medrek Andualem Arage for terrorism and treason. In September 2012 the government announced it asked the Federal High Court to freeze the assets of Eskinder and Andualem while investigating whether their assets were used in conjunction with the commission of the crimes for which they were convicted. The court had not issued a decision by year's end.
- The Federal Supreme Court upheld the 2012 convictions under the criminal code of Bekele Gerba and Olbana Lelisa, two well-known political opposition figures from the Oromo ethnic group, for conspiracy to overthrow the government and conspiracy to incite unrest. The Supreme Court subsequently determined the Federal High Court did not consider mitigating circumstances and reduced Bekele's sentence from eight years to three years and seven months. The Supreme Court also reduced Olbana's sentenced from 13 to 11 years. Courts convicted 69 members of Oromo political opposition parties, charged separately in 2011 under the criminal code with "attacking the political or territorial integrity of the state."
- See more at: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?dlid=220113&year=2013#wrapper
Ethiopia is a federal republic. The ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of four ethnically based parties, controls the government. In September 2012, following the death of former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, parliament elected Hailemariam Desalegn as prime minister. In national parliamentary elections in 2010, the EPRDF and affiliated parties won 545 of 547 seats to remain in power for a fourth consecutive five-year term. Although the relatively few international officials allowed to observe the elections concluded that technical aspects of the vote were handled competently, some also noted that an environment conducive to free and fair elections was not in place prior to the election. Authorities generally maintained control over the security forces, although Somali Region Special Police and local militias sometimes acted independently. Security forces committed human rights abuses.
The most significant human rights problems included: restrictions on freedom of expression and association, including through arrests; detention; politically motivated trials; harassment; and intimidation of opposition members and journalists, as well as continued restrictions on print media. On August 8, during Eid al-Fitr celebrations, security forces temporarily detained more than one thousand persons in Addis Ababa. The government continued restrictions on activities of civil society and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) imposed by the Charities and Societies Proclamation (the CSO law).
Other human rights problems included arbitrary killings; allegations of torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; reports of harsh and, at times, life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; detention without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; a weak, overburdened judiciary subject to political influence; infringement on citizens' privacy rights, including illegal searches; allegations of abuses in the implementation of the government's "villagization" program; restrictions on academic freedom; restrictions on freedom of assembly, association, and movement; alleged interference in religious affairs; limits on citizens' ability to change their government; police, administrative, and judicial corruption; violence and societal discrimination against women and abuse of children; female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C); trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; clashes between ethnic minorities; discrimination against persons based on their sexual orientation and against persons with HIV/AIDS; limits on worker rights; forced labor; and child labor, including forced child labor.
Impunity was a problem. The government, with some reported exceptions, usually did not take steps to prosecute or otherwise punish officials who committed abuses other than corruption.
Factions of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an ethnically based, violent, and fragmented separatist group operating in the Somali Region, were responsible for abuses.
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
Members of the security forces reportedly committed killings.
On August 8, security forces in Addis Ababa detained more than one thousand Muslims participating in Eid al-Fitr celebrations. Authorities released most of the detainees shortly thereafter, but there were credible allegations some of the detainees died while in detention.
There continued to be reports of abuses, including killings, by the Somali Region Special Police.
Scattered fighting continued between government forces – primarily regional government-backed militias – and elements of the ONLF. Clashes between ethnic groups resulted in injury and death.
b. Disappearance
There were several reported cases of disappearances of civilians after clashes between security forces and rebel groups.
Security forces detained at least 12 residents of Alamata town in the northern Tigray Region in January following protests against government plans to demolish illegal housing units. The whereabouts of the detainees remained unknown at year's end.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
The constitution and law prohibit such practices; however, there were reports security officials tortured and otherwise abused detainees.
Authorities reportedly tortured Solomon Kebede, a columnist with Muslim Affairs magazine (see section 2.a.).
Sources widely believed police investigators often used physical abuse to extract confessions in Maekelawi, the central police investigation headquarters in Addis Ababa. Human Rights Watch reported abuses, including torture, occurred at Maekelawi. In an October report the NGO described beatings, stress positions, the hanging of detainees by their wrists from the ceiling, prolonged handcuffing, the pouring of water over detainees, verbal threats, and solitary confinement at the facility. Authorities continued to restrict access by diplomats and NGOs to Maekelawi.
In 2010 the UN Committee Against Torture reported it was "deeply concerned" about "numerous, ongoing, and consistent allegations" concerning "the routine use of torture" by police, prison officers, and other members of the security forces – including the military – against political dissidents and opposition party members, students, alleged terrorists, and alleged supporters of violent separatist groups like the ONLF and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). The committee reported that such acts frequently occurred with the participation of, at the instigation of, or with the consent of commanding officers in police stations, detention centers, federal prisons, military bases, and unofficial or secret places of detention. Some reports of such abuses continued during the year.
Prison and Detention Center Conditions
Prison and pretrial detention center conditions remained harsh and, in some cases, life threatening. There were numerous reports that authorities beat prisoners. Medical attention following beatings reportedly was insufficient in some cases.
Physical Conditions: As of September 2012 there were 70,000-80,000 persons in prison, of whom approximately 2,500 were women and nearly 600 were children incarcerated with their mothers. Authorities sometimes incarcerated juveniles with adults and sometimes incarcerated small children with their mothers. Male and female prisoners generally were separated.
Severe overcrowding was common, especially in prison sleeping quarters. The government provided approximately eight birr ($0.42) per prisoner per day for food, water, and health care. Many prisoners supplemented this amount with daily food deliveries from family members or by purchasing food from local vendors, although there were unspecified reports officials prevented some prisoners from receiving supplemental food from their families. Medical care was unreliable in federal prisons and almost nonexistent in regional prisons. Prisoners had limited access to potable water, as did many in the country. Also water shortages caused unhygienic conditions, and most prisons lacked appropriate sanitary facilities. Many prisoners had serious health problems in detention but received little treatment. Information released by the Ministry of Health in 2012 reportedly stated that nearly 62 percent of inmates in various jails across the country suffered from mental health problems as a result of solitary confinement, overcrowding, and lack of adequate health care facilities and services.
The country had six federal and 120 regional prisons. The Ethiopian NGO Justice For All-Prison Fellowship Ethiopia (JFA-PFE) ran model prisons in Adama and Mekele, with significantly better conditions than those found in other prisons. There also were many unofficial detention centers throughout the country, including in Dedessa, Bir Sheleko, Tolay, Hormat, Blate, Tatek, Jijiga, Holeta, and Senkele. Most were located at military camps.
Pretrial detention often occurred in police station detention facilities, where the conditions varied widely. Reports regarding pretrial detention in police stations indicated poor hygiene and police abuse of detainees.
Administration: It was difficult to determine if recordkeeping was adequate due to the lack of transparency regarding incarceration. Authorities did not employ alternative sentencing for nonviolent offenders. Prisons did not have ombudspersons to respond to complaints. Legal aid clinics existed in some prisons for the benefit of prisoners. Authorities allowed the submission by detainees of complaints to judicial authorities without censorship. Courts sometimes declined to hear such complaints. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Federal Police Commission sometimes investigated allegations of abuse, although there were reports that detainees' discussions with them were not done in private, which could limit their ability to speak freely.
Authorities generally permitted prisoners to have visitors, although some police stations did not allow pretrial detainees access to visitors (including family members and legal counsel). In some cases authorities restricted family visits to prisoners to a few per year. Family members of prisoners charged with terrorist activity alleged instances of blocked access to the prisoners. There were also reports authorities denied those charged with terrorist activity visits with their lawyers, or with representatives of the political parties to which they belonged. In June prison authorities temporarily granted full visitation privileges to imprisoned journalist/blogger Eskinder Nega; previously, Eskinder was been permitted visits by a select group of individuals. Prison officials limited the number of individuals permitted to visit journalist Reyot Alemu.
Prisoners generally were permitted religious observance, but this varied by prison, and even by section within a prison, at the discretion of prison management. There were some allegations that while in custody authorities denied detainees adequate locations in which to pray. Prisoners were permitted to voice complaints about prison conditions or treatment to the presiding judge during their trials.
Independent Monitoring: During the year the International Committee of the Red Cross visited regional prisons throughout the country.
Regional authorities allowed government and NGO representatives to meet regularly with prisoners without third parties present. The government-established EHRC, which is funded by parliament and subject to parliamentary review, monitored federal and regional detention centers and interviewed prison officials and prisoners in response to allegations of widespread human rights abuses. The JFA-PFE was granted access to various prison and detention facilities.
Improvements: The government and prison authorities generally cooperated with efforts of the JFA-PFE to improve prison conditions. Reports indicated prison conditions, including the treatment of prisoners, improved upon the completion of a local legal aid clinic, although specific data was not available.
d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention
Although the constitution and law prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, the government often ignored these provisions. There were multiple reports of arbitrary arrest and detention by police and security forces throughout the country.
Civilians, international NGOs, and other aid organizations operating in the Somali Region reported government security forces, local militias, and the ONLF committed abuses such as arbitrary arrest.
The Federal Police reports to the Ministry of Federal Affairs, which is subject to parliamentary oversight. The oversight was loose. Each of the country's nine regions has a state or special police force that reports to the regional civilian authorities. Local militias operated across the country in loose coordination with regional and federal police and the military, with the degree of coordination varying by region. In many cases these militias functioned as extensions of local EPRDF political bosses.
Security forces were effective, but impunity remained a serious problem. The mechanisms used to investigate abuses by the federal police were not known. There continued to be reports of abuse, including killings, by the Somali Region Special Police. The government rarely publicly disclosed the results of investigations into abuses by local security forces, such as arbitrary detention and beatings of civilians.
The government continued its efforts to provide human rights training for police and army recruits. The EHRC trained more than 100 police officers and prison officials during the year and in 2012 on basic human rights concepts and prisoner treatment. The government continued to accept assistance from the JFA-PFE and the EHRC to improve and professionalize its human rights training and curriculum by including more material on the constitution and international human rights treaties and conventions.
Although the constitution and law require that detainees be brought to court and charged within 48 hours of arrest, authorities did not always respect this requirement. With court approval, persons suspected of serious offenses may be detained for 14 days without being charged and for additional 14-day periods if an investigation continues. Under the antiterrorism proclamation, police may request to hold persons without charge for 28-day periods, up to a maximum of four months, while an investigation is conducted. The law prohibits detention in any facility other than an official detention center; however, local militias and other formal and informal law enforcement entities used dozens of unofficial local detention centers.
A functioning bail system was in place. Bail was not available for persons charged with murder, treason, and corruption. In most cases authorities set bail between 500 and 10,000 birr ($26 and $530), which most citizens could not afford. The government provided public defenders for detainees unable to afford private legal counsel, but only when their cases went to court. While detainees were in pretrial detention, authorities sometimes allowed them little or no contact with legal counsel, did not provide full information on their health status, and did not provide for family visits.
Arbitrary Arrest: Authorities regularly detained persons without warrants.
On May 24, in the western state of Benishangul-Gumuz, local police detained Muluken Tesfaw, a journalist for the Ethio-Mihdar newspaper, who was investigating allegations that local officials unlawfully evicted ethnic Amhara residents from their homes. The journalist reportedly was not carrying his press credentials. On May 31, authorities released Muluken without charge.
Pretrial Detention: Some detainees reported being held for several years without being charged and without trial. Information on the percentage of detainee population in pretrial detention and the average length of time held was not available. Trial delays were most often caused by lengthy legal procedures, the large numbers of detainees, judicial inefficiency, and staffing shortages.
Amnesty: On September 11, in keeping with a long-standing tradition of issuing pardons at the Ethiopian new year, the federal government pardoned 498 prisoners. Regional governments also pardoned persons during the year. For example, the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) regional government pardoned 1,984 prisoners, the Oromia regional government pardoned 2,604 prisoners, and the Amhara regional government pardoned 2,084 prisoners.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The law provides for an independent judiciary. Although the civil courts operated with a large degree of independence, the criminal courts remained weak, overburdened, and subject to political influence. The constitution recognizes both religious and traditional or customary courts.
By law accused persons have the right to a fair public trial by a court of law within a "reasonable time," a presumption of innocence, the right to be represented by legal counsel of their choice, and the right to appeal. The law provides defendants the right against self-incrimination. The law gives defendants the right to present witnesses and evidence in their defense, cross-examine prosecution witnesses, and access government-held evidence. The government did not always allow defendants the right of access to evidence it held. The court system does not use jury trials. Judicial inefficiency and lack of qualified staff often resulted in serious delays in trial proceedings and made the application of the law unpredictable. The government continued to train lower court judges and prosecutors and made effective judicial administration the primary focus of this training. Defendants were often unaware of the specific charges against them until the commencement of the trial; this also caused defense attorneys to be unprepared to provide an adequate defense.
The Public Defender's Office provided legal counsel to indigent defendants, although its scope and quality of service remained limited due to the shortage of attorneys. Numerous free legal aid clinics around the country, based primarily at universities, provided advice to clients. In certain areas of the country the law allows volunteers, such as law students and professors, to represent clients in court on a pro bono basis.
On January 22, citing national security concerns, the Federal High Court closed the trial of 28 Muslims identified with July 2012 protests and one Muslim accused of accepting funds illegally from a foreign embassy. On December 12, the Federal High Court dismissed charges against 10 of the defendants and reduced charges against 18 others. Although the Federal High Court also closed the trial of 28 additional Muslims the government alleged to have links to al-Qaida and al-Shabaab, the court reopened the trial to the public on October 29. Both trials continued at year's end.
Many citizens residing in rural areas generally had little access to formal judicial systems and relied on traditional mechanisms of resolving conflict. By law all parties to a dispute must agree to use a traditional or religious court before such a court may hear a case, and either party may appeal to a regular court at any time. Sharia (Islamic law) courts may hear religious and family cases involving Muslims. Sharia courts received some funding from the government and adjudicated the majority of cases in the Somali and Afar regions, which are predominantly Muslim. In addition other traditional systems of justice, such as councils of elders, continued to function. Some women stated they lacked access to free and fair hearings in the traditional justice system because they were excluded by custom from participation in councils of elders and because there was strong gender discrimination in rural areas.
Estimates by human rights groups and diplomatic missions regarding the number of political prisoners varied. The government did not permit access by international human rights organizations.
All of the Ethiopian journalists, opposition members, and activists previously convicted and jailed under the antiterrorism proclamation remained in prison.
On January 8, the Federal Court of Cassation denied journalist Reyot Alemu's appeal of her conviction on the charge of participating in the promotion or communication of a terrorist act. She was serving a five-year prison sentence.
On May 2, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the sentences of journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega and vice chairman of the opposition front Medrek Andualem Arage for terrorism and treason. In September 2012 the government announced it asked the Federal High Court to freeze the assets of Eskinder and Andualem while investigating whether their assets were used in conjunction with the commission of the crimes for which they were convicted. The court had not issued a decision by year's end.
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the 2012 convictions under the criminal code of Bekele Gerba and Olbana Lelisa, two well-known political opposition figures from the Oromo ethnic group, for conspiracy to overthrow the government and conspiracy to incite unrest. The Supreme Court subsequently determined the Federal High Court did not consider mitigating circumstances and reduced Bekele's sentence from eight years to three years and seven months. The Supreme Court also reduced Olbana's sentenced from 13 to 11 years. Courts convicted 69 members of Oromo political opposition parties, charged separately in 2011 under the criminal code with "attacking the political or territorial integrity of the state."
The law provides citizens the right to appeal human rights violations in civil court. No such cases were filed during the year.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
The law requires authorities to obtain judicial warrants to search private property; police often ignored the law, and there were no records of courts excluding evidence found without warrants.
There were periodic reports throughout the year police carried out nighttime raids of Muslims' homes in Addis Ababa to collect evidence against persons they alleged to be terrorists. The government claimed the police had warrants.
Opposition political party leaders reported suspicions of telephone tapping and other electronic eavesdropping, and alleged government agents attempted to lure them into illegal acts by calling and pretending to be representatives of groups – designated by the country's parliament as terrorist organizations – interested in making financial donations.
The government reportedly used a widespread system of paid informants to report on the activities of particular individuals. During the year opposition members reported ruling party operatives and militia members made intimidating and unwelcome visits to their homes and offices.
Security forces continued to detain family members of persons sought for questioning by the government. There were reports unemployed youths who were not affiliated with the ruling coalition sometimes had trouble receiving the "support letters" from their kebeles (neighborhoods or wards) necessary to get jobs.
The national government and regional governments continued to put in place "villagization" plans in the Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, SNNPR, and Somali regions. These plans involved the relocation by regional governments of scattered rural populations from arid or semiarid lands vulnerable to recurring droughts into designated clusters. The stated purposes of villagization were to improve the provision of government services (i.e., health care, education, and clean water), protect vulnerable communities from natural disasters and attacks, and change environmentally destructive patterns of shifting cultivation. Some observers stated the purpose was to enable the large-scale leasing of land for commercial agriculture. The government described the villagization program as strictly voluntary.
International donors reported that assessments from more than 16 visits to villagization sites since 2011 did not corroborate allegations of systematic human rights violations in this program. They did find problems such as delays in establishing promised infrastructure from rushed program implementation. Communities and individual families appeared to have agreed to move based on assurances from authorities of food aid, services, and land, although in some instances communities moved before adequate basic services and shelter were in place in the new locations. International human rights organizations, however, continued to express concern regarding the villagization process. A report by the Oakland Institute in February stated that the military forcibly relocated communities and committed human rights violations in the Omo Valley. A report by the Oakland Institute in July asserted that, during a January 2012 assessment in the Lower Omo Valley, donor representatives heard testimony from community members regarding human rights violations.
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and press; however, authorities arrested, detained, and prosecuted journalists and other persons whom they perceived as critical of the government.
Freedom of Speech: Authorities arrested and harassed persons for criticizing the government. The government attempted to impede criticism through various forms of intimidation, including detention of journalists and opposition activists and monitoring and interference in the activities of political opposition groups. Some persons feared authorities would retaliate against them for discussing security force abuses.
Press Freedoms: The government continued to take actions to close independent newspapers. Regulators revoked the operating licenses of Addis Times magazine and Li-Elina newspaper in February and March, respectively, after independent editor Temesgen Dessalegn acquired them. The remaining 14 newspapers had a combined weekly circulation in Addis Ababa of more than 140,000. Most newspapers were printed on a weekly or biweekly basis, with the exception of the state-owned Amharic and English dailies.
The government controlled the only television station that broadcast nationally, which, along with radio, was the primary source of news for much of the population. Four private FM radio stations broadcast in the capital city, one private radio station broadcast in the northern Tigray Region, and at least 16 community radio stations broadcast in the regions. State-run Ethiopian Radio had the largest reach in the country, followed by Fana Radio, which was affiliated with the ruling party.
Government-controlled media closely reflected the views of the government and the ruling EPRDF. The government periodically jammed foreign broadcasts. The law prohibits political and religious organizations and foreigners from owning broadcast stations.
Violence and Harassment: The government continued to arrest, harass, and prosecute journalists. This included the prosecution of three persons associated with the defunct Muslim Affairs magazine under the antiterrorism proclamation.
On January 17, authorities arrested Solomon Kebede, columnist and managing editor of Muslim Affairs. They charged him along with 27 other Muslims in April under the antiterrorism proclamation.
The case against Temesgen Dessalegn, editor in chief of the defunct Feteh newspaper, continued. Charges against him included inciting and agitating the country's youth to engage in violence, defamation of the government, and destabilizing the public by spreading false reports. Mastewal Berhanu, former publisher and managing director of Feteh, reportedly left the country due to government harassment.
Censorship or Content Restrictions: Government harassment caused journalists to avoid reporting on sensitive topics. Many private newspapers reported informal editorial control by the government through article placement requests and calls from government officials concerning articles perceived as critical of the government. Private sector and government journalists routinely practiced self-censorship.
Libel Laws/National Security: The government used the antiterrorism proclamation to suppress criticism. Journalists feared covering five groups designated by parliament in 2011 as terrorist organizations (Ginbot 7, the ONLF, the OLF, al-Qaida, and al-Shabaab), citing ambiguity on whether reporting on these groups might be punishable under the law. Several journalists, both local and foreign correspondents, reported an increase in self-censorship.
The government used libel laws during the year to suppress criticism.
On May 15, police in Addis Ababa questioned Ferew Abebe, editor in chief of the Sendek newspaper, about 2012 articles that alleged the widow of former prime minister Meles Zenawi refused to vacate the prime minister's official residence after the death of her husband. Police requested that Ferew reveal his sources to them and would not disclose who initiated the libel claim against Ferew. Ferew posted bail and was released; authorities did not file formal charges by year's end.
The state-owned Ethio Telecom was the only internet service provider in the country. The government restricted access to the internet and blocked several websites, including blogs; opposition websites; and websites of Ginbot 7, the OLF, and the ONLF. The government also temporarily blocked news sites such as al-Jazeera. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo! were temporarily inaccessible at times. Several news blogs and websites run by opposition diaspora groups were not accessible. These included Addis Neger, Nazret, Ethiopian Review, CyberEthiopia, Quatero Amharic Magazine, Tensae Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian Media Forum. Authorities took steps to block access to Virtual Private Network providers that let users circumvent government screening of internet browsing and e-mail. According to the International Telecommunication Union, approximately 1.5 percent of individuals used the internet in 2012.
In March, Citizen Lab, a Canadian research center at the University of Toronto, identified 25 countries, including Ethiopia, that host servers linked to FinFisher surveillance software. According to the report, "FinFisher has gained notoriety because it has been used in targeted attacks against human rights campaigners and opposition activists in countries with questionable human rights records." A "FinSpy" campaign in the country allegedly "used pictures of Ginbot 7, an Ethiopian opposition group, as bait to infect users."
In March police arrested university student Manyazewal Eshetu, for posting allegations of government corruption on Facebook. Authorities later released Manyazewal without charge.
The government restricted academic freedom, including through decisions on student enrollment, teachers' appointments, and the curriculum. Authorities frequently restricted speech, expression, and assembly on university and high school campuses.
According to sources, the ruling party via the Ministry of Education continued to give preference to students loyal to the party in assignments to postgraduate programs. Some university staff members commented that priority for employment after graduation in all fields was given to students who joined the party.
Authorities limited teachers' ability to deviate from official lesson plans. Numerous anecdotal reports suggested non-EPRDF members were more likely to be transferred to undesirable posts and bypassed for promotions. There were unspecified reports of teachers not affiliated with the EPRDF being summarily dismissed for failure to attend unscheduled meetings. There continued to be a lack of transparency in academic staffing decisions, with numerous complaints from individuals in the academic community alleging bias based on party membership, ethnicity, or religion.
According to multiple credible sources, teachers and high school students in grade 10 and above were required to attend training on the concepts of revolutionary democracy and EPRDF party ideology.
A Ministry of Education directive prohibits private universities from offering degree programs in law and teacher education. The directive also requires public universities to align their curriculum offerings with the ministry's policy of a 70-to-30 ratio between science and social science academic programs. As a result the number of students studying social sciences and the humanities at public institutions continued to decrease, and private universities focused heavily on the social sciences.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The constitution and law provide for freedom of assembly; however, the government did not respect this right. Organizers of large public meetings or demonstrations must notify the government 48 hours in advance and obtain a permit. Authorities may not refuse to grant a permit but may require that the event be held at a different time or place for reasons of public safety or freedom of movement. If authorities determine an event should be held at another time or place, the law requires that organizers be notified in writing within 12 hours of the time of submission of their request.
The government denied some requests by the Semayawi (Blue) Party and Medrek, the largest opposition coalition, to hold protests in Addis Ababa, although the government officially permitted a June 2 Semayawi Party demonstration. The march was widely reported as the first mass outpouring of discontent permitted by the government since protests in 2005. The government subsequently allowed additional protests to take place in Addis Ababa and several other cities, although organizers in most cases alleged government interference, and authorities required several of the protests to move to different dates or locations from those the organizers requested. Protest organizers alleged the government's claims of needing to move the protests based on public safety concerns were not credible.
Local government officials, almost all of whom were affiliated with the EPRDF, controlled access to municipal halls, and there were many complaints from opposition parties that local officials denied or otherwise obstructed the scheduling of opposition parties' use of halls for lawful political rallies. There were numerous credible reports that owners of hotels and other large facilities cited unspecified internal rules forbidding political parties from utilizing their space for gatherings.
Regional governments, including the Addis Ababa regional administration, were reluctant to grant permits or provide security for large meetings.
The government arrested persons in relation to opposition demonstrations. This included a March 17 protest and a planned August 31 protest by the Semayawi Party. Authorities also arrested Unity for Democracy and Justice Party members before and after a July 17 protest.
On August 31, security forces raided the headquarters of the Semayawi Party to prevent a demonstration planned for the following day. Authorities reportedly temporarily detained 60 to 90 persons and beat some of them. The demonstration would have coincided with a mass public rally promoting interfaith tolerance organized by the government.
Beginning in late 2011 and continuing throughout the year, some members of the Muslim community held peaceful protests following Friday prayers at several of Addis Ababa's largest mosques, the Aweliya Islamic Center in Addis Ababa, and at other locations throughout the country. Most demonstrations occurred without incident, although police met some with arrests and alleged use of unnecessary force. For example, on August 8, security forces in Addis Ababa detained more than one thousand Muslims participating in Eid al-Fitr celebrations.
Although the law provides for freedom of association and the right to engage in unrestricted peaceful political activity, the government limited this right.
A report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association stated, "The enforcement of these [the CSO law] provisions has a devastating impact on individuals' ability to form and operate associations effectively."
The CSO law bans anonymous donations to NGOs. All potential donors were therefore aware their names would be public knowledge. The same was true concerning all donations made to political parties.
International NGOs seeking to operate in the country had to submit an application via Ethiopian embassies abroad, which was then submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Charities and Societies Agency.
c. Freedom of Religion
See the Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report at http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/rpt/.
d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of Refugees, and Stateless Persons
Although the law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, the government restricted some of these rights.
The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern; however, at times authorities, armed groups and the situation of insecurity limited the ability of humanitarian organizations to operate.
According to the UN, humanitarian organizations reported 36 incidents that impeded humanitarian work in the first six months of the year compared with 34 during the same period in 2012; 32 of these cases were in the Somali Region. The incidents included violence and hostility against humanitarian personnel, theft of assets, interference with the implementation of humanitarian programs, and restrictions on importation of personnel and goods into the country for humanitarian work. This data referred broadly to humanitarian work and were not limited to activities focusing on IDPs or refugees.
Although the Somali regional government granted several organizations access to Nogob (formerly Fik) to start humanitarian operations, access to areas in the Somali Region remained challenging due to continuing clashes between government forces and the ONLF, as well as reports of al-Shabaab elements operating in and around Somali refugee camps in Dolo Ado. Cases were noted in which NGOs were denied access to areas of operation despite agreements with regional officials. In numerous cases NGOs deferred travel to program activity sites due to insecurity. On June 13, suspected ONLF gunmen fired on a mobile health and nutrition team supported by the UN Children's Fund in Korahe zone and seriously injured one person.
In-country Movement: The government continued to relax but did not completely remove restrictions on the movement of persons into and within the Somali Region, continuing to argue the ONLF posed a security threat (see section 2.d., Internally Displaced Persons). Security concerns forced a temporary halt of deliveries of food and medicine in the limited areas affected by fighting.
The government continued a policy that allowed refugees to live outside of a camp. According to the Administration for Returnees and Refugee Affairs (ARRA), which managed the out-of-camp program, 3,412 refugees lived outside of the camps in 2012, compared with 1,294 in 2011. Prior to this policy the government gave such permission primarily to attend higher education institutions, undergo medical treatment, or avoid security threats at the camps.
Foreign Travel: On October 23, the government enacted a temporary ban on citizens travelling to the Middle East for employment. The ban did not affect citizens travelling for investment or business reasons. The government stated it issued the ban to prevent harassment, intimidation, and trauma suffered by those working abroad as domestic employees.
Exile: Several citizens sought political asylum in other countries or remained abroad in self-imposed exile.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated the total number of IDPs in the country as of June to be 363,141, an increase of 71,487 from the period January through March. The increase was mostly due to conflict and flooding in the Somali and Gambella regions. Drought also caused displacements during the year.
In January conflict between ethnic Oromos and Somalis over border demarcation and land ownership displaced approximately 55,000 persons from Gursum, Meyu, Kimbi, and Chinaksen districts in Oromia Region. Insecurity resulted in the delay of humanitarian assistance. The impacted population remained displaced at year's end.
Heavy rainfall in the Somali Region from late March to early April resulted in severe flooding in Faafan, Jerer, Korahe, Nogob, and Shebele zones, destroying homes and displacing thousands. Joint assessments by the United Nations, NGOs, and the government reported the floods affected 500 households in Kebredihar and 5,756 in the Mustahil, Ferfer, and Kelafo districts of Shebelle zone. Flooding from April to June displaced an additional 36,792 individuals in Ferfer, Kelafo, and Mustahil, and 6,657 individuals in the Kebrediar and Dobowein districts of Korahe zone.
During the year drought caused the displacement of more than 22,000 persons in Afar.
According to the IOM, an estimated 80 percent of all IDPs were considered "protracted" IDPs, for whom durable solutions (return to home areas, local integration, and resettlement in other parts of the country) were not possible at the time. This was due to lack of resolution of the conflict, lack of political decision or resources to support local integration, or undesirability of resettlement to other areas of the country.
The government, through the Disaster Risk Management Food Security Sector (DRMFSS) and regional and district administrations, encouraged humanitarian responses to internal displacement and facilitated assessments to determine humanitarian needs. Humanitarian organizations usually provided assistance received by IDPs. For example, both the DRMFSS and the local government helped to coordinate the humanitarian response following conflict between ethnic Somali and Oromo residents of East Hararghe zone, Oromia Region.
Access to Asylum: The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government has established a system for providing protection to refugees.
According to the UNHCR, the country hosted 423,851 refugees as of September. The majority of refugees were from Somalia (242,588), with others coming from Sudan (31,951), South Sudan (67,958), Eritrea (77,083), and other countries particularly Kenya (4,271).
The UNHCR, the ARRA, and humanitarian agencies continued to care for Sudanese arrivals fleeing from conflict in Sudan's Blue Nile State. The government also extended support to South Sudanese asylum seekers from South Sudan's Jonglei State; 5,776 of these asylum seekers crossed into the country by July, raising the total of South Sudanese asylum seekers to more than 67,000.
Eritrean asylum seekers continued to arrive in the country. This included a large number of unaccompanied minors. Many Eritreans who arrived in the country regularly departed for secondary migration through Egypt and Sudan to go to Israel, Europe, and other final destinations.
Employment: The government did not grant refugees work permits.
Access to Basic Services: The UNHCR and ARRA, with support from NGOs, provided refugees in camps with basic services such as health, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene. For those outside of camps, there were no reports of discrimination in access to public services.
Durable Solutions: The government granted refugee status to asylum seekers from Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. The government welcomed refugees to settle permanently in the country but did not offer a path to citizenship or facilitate integration. It permitted Eritrean refugees to live outside refugee camps provided they sustained themselves financially. The government provided some support for Eritreans who were pursuing higher education. During the first half of the year, approximately 2,600 refugees departed the country for resettlement.
The constitution and law provide citizens the right to change their government peacefully. The ruling party's electoral advantages limited this right.
Elections and Political Participation
Recent Elections: In August 2012, following the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the ruling EPRDF elected Hailemariam Desalegn to take Meles's place as chairman of the party and subsequently nominated him for the post of prime minister. In September 2012 parliament elected Hailemariam as prime minister.
In the 2010 national parliamentary elections, the EPRDF and affiliated parties won 545 of 547 seats to remain in power for a fourth consecutive five-year term. Government restrictions severely limited independent observation of the vote. Although the relatively few international officials allowed to observe the elections concluded technical aspects of the vote were handled competently, some also noted the lack of an environment conducive to free and fair elections prior to election day. Several laws, regulations, and procedures implemented since the 2005 national elections created a clear advantage for the EPRDF throughout the electoral process. There was ample evidence that unfair government tactics, including intimidation of opposition candidates and supporters, influenced the extent of the EPRDF victory. In addition, voter education was limited to information about technical voting procedures and was done only by the National Electoral Board just days before voting began.
The African Union, whose observers arrived one week before the vote, deemed the elections to be free and fair. The EU, some of whose observers arrived a few months before the vote, concluded the elections fell short of international standards for transparency and failed to provide a level playing field for opposition parties. The EU observed a "climate of apprehension and insecurity," noting that the volume and consistency of complaints of harassment and intimidation by opposition parties was "a matter of concern" and had to be taken into consideration "in the overall assessment of the electoral process."
The EPRDF's continued dominance was demonstrated in nationwide elections to local and city council positions held in April. EPRDF-affiliated parties won all but five of 3.6 million seats; 33 opposition parties boycotted the elections.
Political Parties: Political parties were predominantly ethnically based. The government, controlled by the ruling EPRDF, restricted media freedom and arrested opposition members. Constituent parties of the EPRDF conferred advantages upon their members; the parties directly owned many businesses and were broadly perceived to award jobs and business contracts to loyal supporters. Several opposition political parties reported difficulty in renting homes or buildings in which to open offices, citing visits by EPRDF members to the landlords to persuade or threaten them not to rent property to these parties.
There were reports authorities had terminated the employment of teachers and other government workers if they belonged to opposition political parties. According to Oromo opposition groups, the Oromia regional government continued to threaten to dismiss opposition party members, particularly teachers, from their jobs. Government officials alleged that many members of legitimate Oromo opposition political parties were secretly OLF members and more broadly that members of many opposition parties had ties to Ginbot 7. At the university level members of Medrek and its constituent parties were able to teach.
Registered political parties must receive permission from regional governments to open and occupy local offices.
Participation of Women and Minorities: No laws or cultural or traditional practices prevented women or minorities from voting or participating in political life on the same basis as men or nonminority citizens, although women were significantly underrepresented in both elected and appointed positions. The Tigray Regional Council held the highest proportion of women nationwide, at 48.5 percent.
The government's policy of ethnic federalism led to the creation of individual constituencies to provide for representation of all major ethnic groups in the House of People's Representatives. There were more than 80 ethnic groups, and small groups lacked representation in the legislature. There were 24 nationality groups in six regional states (Tigray, Amhara, Beneshangul-Gumuz, the SNNPR, Gambella, and Harar) that did not have a sufficient population to qualify for constituency seats based on the 2007 census; however, in the 2010 elections, individuals from these nationality groups competed for 24 special seats in the House of People's Representatives. Additionally these 24 nationality groups have one seat each in the House of Federation.
Women held three federal government ministerial positions and 152 of 547 seats in the national parliament.
The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials. Despite the government's prosecution of numerous officials for corruption, some officials continued to engage in corrupt practices. Corruption, especially the solicitation of bribes, remained a problem among low-level bureaucrats. Police and judicial corruption also continued to be problems. Some government officials appeared to manipulate the privatization process, and state- and party-owned businesses received preferential access to land leases and credit.
Corruption: The Ministry of Justice has primary responsibility for combating corruption, largely through the Federal Ethics and Anticorruption Commission (FEACC).
During the year the FEACC initiated criminal proceedings against the director general of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority, his deputy, and as many as 60 other government officials and private business leaders for alleged corrupt practices. Most trials continued at year's end, although some cases were dropped due to lack of evidence.
Whistleblower Protection: The law provides protection to public and private employees for making internal disclosures or lawful public disclosures of evidence of illegality, such as the solicitation of bribes or other corrupt acts, gross waste or fraud, gross mismanagement, abuse of power, or substantial and specific dangers to public health and safety. The law also specifically bars appointed or elected officials and public servants from making direct or indirect reprisals against whistleblowers.
Financial Disclosure: The law requires all government officials and employees officially register their wealth and personal property. The president and prime minister registered their assets. By the end of 2012, a total of 32,297 federal government officials registered their assets, according to the FEACC. The FEACC held financial disclosure records. According to the law, any person seeking access to these records may do so by making a request in writing, although access to information on family assets may be restricted unless the FEACC deems the disclosure necessary. The law includes financial and criminal sanctions for noncompliance.
Public Access to Information: The law provides for public access to government information, but access was largely restricted. The law includes a sufficiently narrow list of exceptions outlining the grounds for nondisclosure. Responses generally must be made within 30 days of a written request, and fees may not exceed the actual cost of responding to the request. The law includes mechanisms for punishing officials for noncompliance, as well as appeal mechanisms for review of disclosure denials. Information on the number of disclosures or denials during the year was not available.
The government publishes its laws and regulations in the national gazette prior to their taking effect. The Government Communications Affairs Office managed contacts between the government, the press, and the public; the private press reported the government rarely responded to its queries.
A few domestic human rights groups operated, but with significant government restrictions. The government was generally distrustful and wary of domestic human rights groups and international observers. State-controlled media were critical of international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch.
The CSO law prohibits charities, societies, and associations (NGOs or CSOs) that receive more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign sources from engaging in activities that advance human and democratic rights or promote equality of nations, nationalities, peoples, genders, and religions; the rights of children and persons with disabilities; conflict resolution or reconciliation; or the efficiency of justice and law enforcement services. The implementation of the law continued to result in the severe curtailment of NGO activities related to human rights. In July 2012 the UN high commissioner for human rights expressed concern that civil society space "has rapidly shrunk" since the CSO law's enactment.
Some human rights defender organizations continued to register either as local charities, meaning they could not raise more than 10 percent of their funds from foreign donors but could act in the specified areas, or as resident charities, which allowed foreign donations above 10 percent but prohibited activities in those areas.
One of several sets of the law's implementing regulations, commonly known as the 70/30 rule, caps administrative spending at 30 percent of an organization's operating budget. The regulations define training of teachers, agricultural and health extension workers, and other government officials as an "administrative" cost, contending the training does not directly affect beneficiaries, thus limiting the number of training programs that can be provided by development assistance partners who prefer to employ train-the-trainer models to reach more persons. The government addressed application of this regulation on a case-by-case basis. A Civil Society Sector Working Group cochaired by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and a representative of the donor community convened periodically to monitor and discuss challenges that arose as the law was implemented.
The government denied most NGOs access to federal prisons, police stations, and political prisoners. The government permitted the JFA-PFE, one of four organizations granted an exemption enabling them to raise unlimited funds from foreign sources and to engage in human rights advocacy, to visit prisoners. The JFA-PFE played a positive role in improving prisoners' chances for clemency.
Authorities limited the access of human rights organizations, the media, humanitarian agencies, and diplomatic missions to conflict-affected areas, although it eased such restrictions. Humanitarian access in the Somali Region improved in particular. The government lacked a clear policy on NGO access to sensitive areas, leading regional government officials and military officials frequently to refer requests for access to the federal government. Officials required journalists to register before entering conflict regions. There were isolated reports of regional police or local militias blocking NGOs' access to particular locations on particular days, citing security concerns. Some agencies limited project activities for security reasons.
Some persons feared authorities would retaliate against them if they met with NGOs and foreign government officials who were investigating allegations of abuse.
UN and Other International Bodies: Requests to visit the country from the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment remained outstanding.
Government Human Rights Bodies: The EHRC investigated human rights complaints and produced annual and thematic reports. The commission operated 112 legal aid centers in collaboration with 17 universities and two civil society organizations, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers' Association and the Ethiopian Christian Lawyers Fellowship. The commission also completed the preparatory measures to sign collaborative agreements with two additional universities. The EHRC reported its Addis Ababa headquarters resolved 90 percent of the 952 complaints submitted to it during 2012.
The Office of the Ombudsman has authority to receive and investigate complaints with respect to administrative mismanagement by executive branch offices. From September 2011 to September 2012, the office received 2,094 complaints. Of these, the ombudsman opened investigations into 784, and the office reported it resolved the remaining cases through alternative means. The majority of complaints dealt with social security, labor, housing, and property disputes. The Office of the Ombudsman did not compile nationwide statistics.
The constitution provides all persons equal protection without discrimination based on race, nation, nationality or other social origin, color, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, property, birth, or status, but the government did not fully promote and protect these rights. The constitution does not address discrimination based on disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape and provides for penalties of five to 20 years' imprisonment, depending on the severity of the case; the law does not expressly address spousal rape. The government did not fully enforce the law, partially due to widespread underreporting. Recent statistics on the number of abusers prosecuted, convicted, or punished were not available. Anecdotal evidence suggested reporting of rapes had increased since the 2004 revision of the criminal code but the justice system was unable to keep up with the number of cases.
Domestic violence, including spousal abuse, was a pervasive social problem.
Although women had recourse to the police and the courts, societal norms and limited infrastructure prevented many women from seeking legal redress, particularly in rural areas. The government prosecuted offenders on a limited scale. Domestic violence is illegal, but government enforcement of laws against rape and domestic violence was inconsistent. Depending on the severity of damage inflicted, legal penalties range from small fines to imprisonment for up to 10 to 15 years.
Domestic violence and rape cases often were delayed significantly and given low priority. In the context of gender-based violence, significant gender gaps in the justice system remained, due to poor documentation and inadequate investigation. "Child friendly" benches hear cases involving violence against children and women. Police officers were required to receive domestic violence training from domestic NGOs and the Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs. There was a commissioner for women and children's affairs in the EHRC.
Women and girls experienced gender-based violence, but it was underreported due to cultural acceptance, shame, fear, or a victim's ignorance of legal protections.
Harmful Traditional Practices: The most prevalent harmful traditional practices were FGM/C, uvula cutting, tonsil scraping and milk tooth extraction, early marriage, and marriage by abduction.
Marriage by abduction is illegal, although it continued in some regions despite the government's attempts to combat the practice. A 2009 Population Council study of seven regions found that 2.6 percent of married female youth reported their marriage occurred through abduction. The study found the rate to be 12.9 percent in the SNNPR, 4.4 percent in Oromia, 3 percent in Afar, and less than 1percent in Beneshangul Gumuz. The study did not include the Gambella or Somali regions. Forced sexual relationships accompanied most marriages by abduction, and women often experienced physical abuse during the abduction. Abductions led to conflicts among families, communities, and ethnic groups. In cases of marriage by abduction, the perpetrator did not face punishment if the victim agreed to marry the perpetrator.
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): FGM/C is illegal, but the government did not actively enforce this prohibition or punish those who practiced it.
Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment was widespread. The penal code prescribes penalties of 18 to 24 months' imprisonment, but authorities generally did not enforce harassment laws.
Reproductive Rights: Individuals and couples have the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of children and to have the information and means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. The 2011 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) indicated a modern contraceptive prevalence of 27 percent nationwide among married women, a twofold increase from the survey done six years earlier. The survey found 25.3 percent of married girls and women ages 15 to 49 had unmet family planning needs. The 2011 DHS indicated the maternal mortality rate was 676 deaths per 100,000 live births as compared with 673 per 100,000 reported in the 2005 DHS. The immediate causes of maternal mortality included excessive bleeding, infection, hypertensive complications, and obstructed labor, with the underlying cause being the prevalence of home births and lack of access to emergency obstetric care. Only 9 percent of women reported delivering in a health facility or with a skilled birth attendant.
Discrimination: Discrimination against women was a problem and was most acute in rural areas, where an estimated 85 percent of the population lived. The law contains discriminatory regulations, such as the recognition of the husband as the legal head of the family and the sole guardian of children more than five years old. Courts generally did not consider domestic violence by itself a justification for granting a divorce. Irrespective of the number of years the marriage existed, the number of children raised, and joint property, the law entitled women to only three months' financial support if a relationship ended. There was limited legal recognition of common-law marriage. A common-law husband had no obligation to provide financial assistance to his family, and as a result, women and children sometimes faced abandonment. Traditional courts continued to apply customary law in economic and social relationships.
According to the constitution all land belongs to the government. Both men and women have land-use rights, which they may pass on as an inheritance. Land law varies among regions. All federal and regional land laws empower women to access government land. Inheritance laws also enable widowed women to inherit joint property they acquired during marriage.
In urban areas women had fewer employment opportunities than men, and the jobs available did not provide equal pay for equal work. Women's access to gainful employment, credit, and the opportunity to own or manage a business was further limited by their generally lower level of education and training and by traditional attitudes.
The Ministry of Education reported female participation in undergraduate and postgraduate programs increased to 144,286 during the 2011-12 academic year, compared with 123,706 in 2010-11, continuing the trend of increasing female participation in higher education.
Birth registration: Citizenship is derived from one's parents. The law requires all children to be registered at birth. Children born in hospitals were registered while most children born outside of hospitals were not. The overwhelming majority of children, particularly in rural areas, were born at home.
Education: As a policy, primary education was universal and tuition-free; however, there were not enough schools to accommodate the country's youth, particularly in rural areas. The cost of school supplies was prohibitive for many families, and there was no legislation to enforce compulsory primary education. The number of students enrolled in schools expanded faster than trained teachers could be deployed.
Child Abuse: Child abuse was widespread. A 2009 study conducted by the African Child Policy Forum revealed prosecuting offenders for sexual violence against children was difficult due to inconsistent interpretation of laws among legal bodies and the offender's right to bail, which often resulted in the offender fleeing or coercing the victim or the victim's family to drop the charges. "Child friendly" benches heard cases involving violence against children and women. During the year the Federal Court of First Instance announced that tribunals hearing cases relating to families and children would keep extended hours to accommodate children's school schedules. There was a commissioner for women and children's affairs in the EHRC.
Forced or Early Marriage: The law sets the legal marriage age for girls and boys at 18; however, authorities did not enforce this law uniformly, and rural families sometimes were unaware of this provision. In several regions it was customary for older men to marry young girls, although this traditional practice continued to face greater scrutiny and criticism.
According to the 2011 DHS, the median age of first marriage among women surveyed between the ages of 20 and 49 was 17.1 years. The age of first marriage appeared to be rising. In 2005 the median age of marriage for women surveyed between 20 and 24 was 16.5 years, and while 39 percent of women between 45 and 49 reported being married by age 15, only 8 percent of young women between 15 and 19 years of age reported being or having been married.
In the Amhara and Tigray regions, girls were married routinely as early as age seven. Child marriage was most prevalent in the Amhara Region, where the median first marriage age was 15.1 years, according to the 2011 DHS, compared with 14.7 years in 2005. Regional governments in Amhara and, to a lesser extent, Tigray offered programs to educate young women on problems associated with early marriage.
Harmful Traditional Practices: Societal abuse of young girls continued to be a problem. Harmful practices included FGM/C, early marriage, marriage by abduction, and food and work prohibitions.
The majority of girls in the country have undergone some form of FGM/C, although the results of the 2009 Population Council survey suggested its prevalence had declined. Sixty-six percent of female respondents ages 21 to 24 reported they were subjected to FGM/C compared with 56 percent of those ages 15 to 17. Of the seven regions surveyed, the study found the rates to be highest in Afar (90.3 percent), Oromia (77.4 percent), and the SNNPR (74.6 percent).
FGM/C was much less common in urban areas, where only 15 percent of the population lived. Girls typically experienced clitoridectomies seven days after birth (consisting of an excision of the clitoris, often with partial labial excision) and infibulation (the most extreme and dangerous form of FGM/C) at the onset of puberty. The penal code criminalizes practitioners of clitoridectomy, with imprisonment of at least three months or a fine of at least 500 birr ($26). Infibulation of the genitals is punishable with imprisonment of five to 10 years. No criminal charges have ever been brought for FGM/C. The government discouraged the practice of FGM/C through education in public schools, the Health Extension Program, and broader mass media campaigns.
Sexual Exploitation of Children: The minimum age for consensual sex is 18 years, but authorities did not enforce this law. The law provides for three to 15 years in prison for sexual intercourse with a minor. The law provides for one year in prison and a fine of 10,000 birr ($530) for trafficking in indecent material displaying sexual intercourse by minors. The law prohibits profiting from the prostitution of minors and inducing minors to engage in prostitution; however, commercial sexual exploitation of children continued, particularly in urban areas. Girls as young as age 11 reportedly were recruited to work in brothels. Customers often sought these girls because they believed them to be free of sexually transmitted diseases. Young girls were trafficked from rural to urban areas. They also were exploited as prostitutes in hotels, bars, resort towns, and rural truck stops. Reports indicated family members forced some young girls into prostitution.
Infanticide or Infanticide of Children with Disabilities: Ritual and superstition-based infanticide continued in remote tribal areas, particularly South Omo. Local governments worked to educate communities against the practice.
Displaced Children: According to a 2010 report by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, approximately 150,000 children lived on the streets, of whom 60,000 were in the capital. The ministry's report stated families' inability to support children due to parental illness or insufficient household income exacerbated the problem. These children begged, sometimes as part of a gang, or worked in the informal sector.
A 2010 Population Council Young Adult Survey found that 82.3 percent of boys who lived or worked on the streets had been to or had enrolled in school, 26.4 percent had lost one parent, and 47.2 percent had lost both parents. Among these boys, 72 percent worked for pay at some point in their lives. Government and privately run orphanages were unable to handle the number of street children.
Institutionalized Children: There were an estimated 5.4 million orphans in the country, according to a 2010 report by the Central Statistics Authority. The vast majority lived with extended family members. Government orphanages were overcrowded, and conditions were often unsanitary. Due to severe resource constraints, hospitals and orphanages often overlooked or neglected abandoned infants. Institutionalized children did not receive adequate health care.
International Child Abductions: The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
The Jewish community numbered approximately 2,000 persons. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.
Trafficking in Persons
See the Department of State's Trafficking in Persons Report at http://www.state.gov/j/tip/.
Persons with Disabilities
The constitution does not mandate equal rights for persons with disabilities. The law prohibits discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment and mandates access to buildings. It is illegal for deaf persons to drive.
The law prohibits employment discrimination based on disability. It also makes employers responsible for providing appropriate working or training conditions and materials to persons with disabilities. The law specifically recognizes the additional burden on women with disabilities. The government took limited measures to enforce the law, for example, by assigning interpreters for hearing-impaired civil service employees.
The law mandates building accessibility and accessible toilet facilities for persons with physical disabilities, although specific regulations that define the accessibility standards were not adopted. Buildings and toilet facilities were usually not accessible. Landlords are required to give persons with disabilities preference for ground-floor apartments, and this was respected.
Women with disabilities were more disadvantaged than men with disabilities in education and employment. An Addis Ababa University study from 2008 showed that female students with disabilities were subjected to a heavier burden of domestic work than their male peers. The 2010 Population Council Young Adult Survey found young persons with disabilities were less likely to have ever attended school than young persons without disabilities. The survey indicated girls with disabilities were less likely than boys with disabilities to be in school; 23 percent of girls with disabilities were in school, compared to 48 percent of girls without disabilities and 55 percent of boys without disabilities. Overall, 47.8 percent of young persons with disabilities surveyed reported not going to school due to their disability. Girls with disabilities also were much more likely to suffer physical and sexual abuse than girls without disabilities. Of sexually experienced girls with disabilities, 33 percent reported having experienced forced sex. According to the same survey, some 6 percent of boys with disabilities had been beaten in the three months prior to the survey, compared with 2 percent of boys without disabilities.
There were several schools for hearing and visually impaired persons and several training centers for children and young persons with intellectual disabilities. There was a network of prosthetic and orthopedic centers in five of the nine regional states.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs worked on disability-related problems. The CSO law continued to affect negatively several domestic associations, such as the Ethiopian National Association of the Blind, the Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf, and the Ethiopian National Association of the Physically Handicapped, like other civil society organizations.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The country has more than 80 ethnic groups, of which the Oromo, at approximately 35 percent of the population, is the largest. The federal system drew boundaries roughly along major ethnic group lines. Most political parties remained primarily ethnically based.
Clashes between ethnic groups during the year resulted in injury and death. In January ethnic clashes broke out at Addis Ababa University reportedly due to anti-Oromo graffiti. The clashes resulted in injury to as many as 20 persons. In February clashes between members of the Afar, Somali, and Oromo ethnic groups in the eastern town of Awash Arba reportedly resulted in the deaths of more than 20 persons.
Authorities in the western region of Benishangul-Gumuz forcibly evicted as many as 8,000 ethnic Amhara residents from their homes; some of those evicted alleged police beat and harassed them because of their ethnicity. The regional president publically stated the evictions were a mistake and called on the evictees to return. Government officials also stated that victims would be compensated for lost property and any injuries sustained. Authorities dismissed several local officials from their government positions because of their alleged involvement in the evictions, and charged some of these officials with criminal offenses.
Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Consensual same-sex sexual activity is illegal and punishable by imprisonment under the law. There is no law prohibiting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. There were some reports of violence against LGBT individuals; reporting was limited due to fear of retribution, discrimination, or stigmatization. There are no hate crime laws or other criminal justice mechanisms to aid in the investigation of abuses against LGBT persons. Persons did not identify themselves as LGBT persons due to severe societal stigma and the illegality of consensual same-sex sexual activity. Activists in the LGBT community stated they were followed and at times feared for their safety. There were periodic detentions of some in the LGBT community, combined with interrogation and alleged physical abuse.
The AIDS Resource Center in Addis Ababa reported the majority of self-identified gay and lesbian callers, most of whom were male, requested assistance in changing their behavior to avoid discrimination. Many gay men reported anxiety, confusion, identity crises, depression, self-ostracism, religious conflict, and suicide attempts.
Other Societal Violence or Discrimination
Societal stigma and discrimination against persons living with or affected by HIV/AIDS continued in the areas of education, employment, and community integration. Persons living with or affected by HIV/AIDS reported difficulty accessing services. Despite the abundance of anecdotal information, there were no statistics on the scale of the problem.
a. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining
The constitution and the law provide workers, except for certain categories of workers primarily in the public sector, with the right to form and join unions, conduct legal strikes, and bargain collectively, although other laws severely restrict or excessively regulate these rights. The law specifically prohibits managerial employees, teachers, health care workers, and civil servants (including judges, prosecutors, and security service workers) from organizing unions. Other workers specifically excluded by law from unionizing include domestic workers and seasonal and part-time agricultural workers.
A minimum of 10 workers is required to form a union. While the law provides all unions with the right to register, the government may refuse to register trade unions that do not meet its registration requirements. The law stipulates a trade union organization may not act in an overtly political manner. The law allows administrative authorities to appeal to the courts to cancel union registration for engaging in prohibited activities, such as political action. While the law prohibits antiunion discrimination by employers and provides for reinstatement for workers fired for union activity, it does not prevent an employer from creating or supporting a workers' organization for the purpose of controlling it.
Other laws and regulations that explicitly or potentially infringe upon workers' rights to associate freely and to organize include: the CSO law; Council of Ministers Regulation No. 168/2009 on Charities and Societies to reinforce the CSO law; Proclamation No. 652/2009 on Antiterrorism. During the year the International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations noted the CSO law gives the government power to interfere in the right of workers to organize, including through the registration, internal administration, and dissolution of organizations, and that the Antiterrorism Proclamation could become a means of punishing the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression and the right to organize.
While the law recognizes the right of collective bargaining, this right was severely restricted. Negotiations aimed at amending or replacing a collective agreement must be completed within three months of its expiration, or the provisions on wages and other benefits cease to apply. Civil servants, including public school teachers, have the right to establish and join professional associations, but are not allowed to negotiate for better wages or working conditions. Furthermore, the arbitration procedures in the public sector are more restrictive than those in the private sector.
Although the constitution and law provide workers with the right to strike to protect their interests, the law contains detailed provisions prescribing excessively complex and time-consuming formalities that make legal strike actions difficult to carry out. The law requires aggrieved workers to attempt reconciliation with employers before striking and includes a lengthy dispute settlement process. These provisions applied equally to an employer's right to lock workers out. Two-thirds of the workers involved must support a strike for it to occur. If a case has not already been referred to a court or labor relations board, workers retain the right to strike without resorting to either of these options, provided they give at least 10 days' notice to the other party and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and make efforts at reconciliation.
The law also prohibits strikes by workers who provide essential services, including air transport and urban bus service workers, electric power suppliers, gas station personnel, hospital and pharmacy personnel, firefighters, telecommunications personnel, and urban sanitary workers. The list of essential services exceeds the ILO definition of essential services. The law prohibits retribution against strikers, but also provides for excessive civil or penal sanctions against unions and workers involved in unauthorized strike actions. Unions may be dissolved for carrying out strikes in "essential services."
The informal labor sector, including domestic workers, is not unionized and is not protected by labor laws. Lack of adequate staffing prevented the government from effectively enforcing applicable laws during the year. Court procedures were subject to lengthy delays and appeals.
Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining were not respected. Although the government permits unions, the government established and controlled the major trade unions. As it had for more than four years, the government continued to use its authority to refuse to register the National Teachers' Association (NTA) on the grounds that a national teacher association already existed, and that the NTA's registration application was not submitted in accordance with the CSO law. According to the Education International report to the ILO in 2011, government security agents subjected members of the NTA to surveillance and harassment, with the goal of intimidating teachers to abandon the NTA and forcing them to give up their long-standing demand for the formation of an independent union. In November 2012 the ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association expressed its concern with regard to serious violations of the NTA's trade union rights, including continuous interference in its internal organization that prevented it from functioning normally, as well as interference by way of threats, dismissals, arrest, detention, and mistreatment of NTA members. The committee urged the government to register the NTA without delay; to ensure the CSO law was not applicable to workers' and employers' organizations; and to undertake civil service reform to fully protect the right of civil servants to establish and join organizations of their own choosing.
While the government allowed citizens to exercise the right of collective bargaining freely, representatives negotiated wages only at the plant level. It was common for employers to refuse to bargain. Unions in the formal industrial sector made some efforts to enforce labor regulations.
Despite the law prohibiting antiunion discrimination, unions reported employers fired union activists. There were reports most Chinese employers generally did not allow workers to form unions and often transferred or fired union leaders, and intimidated and pressured members to leave unions. Lawsuits alleging unlawful dismissal often take years to resolve because of case backlogs in the courts. Employers found guilty of antiunion discrimination were required to reinstate workers fired for union activities and generally did so. While the law prohibits retribution against strikers, most workers were not convinced the government would enforce this protection. Labor officials reported that, due to high unemployment and long delays in the hearing of labor cases, some workers were afraid to participate in strikes or other labor actions. Antiunion activities occurred but were rarely reported.
b. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The law prohibits most forms of forced or compulsory labor, including by children, but it also permits courts to order forced labor as a punitive measure. The government did not effectively enforce the forced labor prohibition, and forced labor occurred. Both adults and children were forced to engage in street vending, begging, traditional weaving, or agricultural work. Children also worked in forced domestic labor. Situations of debt bondage also occurred in traditional weaving, pottery, cattle herding, and other agricultural activities, mostly in rural areas.
Also see the Department of State's Trafficking in Persons Report at http://www.state.gov/j/tip/.
c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment
By law the minimum age for wage or salary employment is 14 years. The minimum age provisions, however, only apply to contractual labor and do not apply to self-employed children or children who perform unpaid work. Special provisions cover children between the ages of 14 and 18, including the prohibition of hazardous or night work. The law defines hazardous work as work in factories or involving machinery with moving parts or any work that could jeopardize a child's health. Prohibited work sectors include passenger transport, electric generation plants, underground work, street cleaning, and many other sectors. The law expressly excludes children under age 16 attending vocational schools from legal protection with regard to the prohibition on young workers performing hazardous work. The law does not permit children between the ages of 14 and 18 to work more than seven hours per day, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., on public holidays or rest days, or on overtime.
The government did not effectively enforce these laws. The lack of labor inspectors and controls prevented the government from enforcing the law. The resources for inspections and the implementation of penalties were extremely limited. Despite the introduction of labor inspector training at Gondar University in 2011, insufficient numbers of labor inspectors and inspections resulted in lax enforcement of occupational safety and health measures and in increased numbers of children working in prohibited work sectors, particularly construction. The National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor was signed at the end of 2012.
While primary education is free, it is not compulsory, and net school enrollment was low, particularly in rural areas. To underscore the importance of attending school, joint NGO and government-led community-based awareness raising activities targeted communities where children were heavily engaged in agricultural work. During the year the government invested in modernizing agricultural practices and constructing schools to combat the problem of child labor in agricultural sectors.
Child labor remained a serious problem. In both rural and urban areas, children often began working at young ages. Child labor was particularly pervasive in subsistence agricultural production, traditional weaving, fishing, and domestic work. A growing number of children worked in construction. Children in rural areas, especially boys, engaged in activities such as cattle herding, petty trading, plowing, harvesting, and weeding, while other children, mostly girls, collected firewood and fetched water. Children worked in the production of gold. In small-scale gold mining, they dug their own mining pits and carried heavy loads of water. Children in urban areas, including orphans, worked in domestic service, often working long hours, which prevented many from attending school regularly. They also worked in manufacturing, shining shoes, making clothes, as porters, directing customers to taxis, parking, public transport, petty trading, and occasionally herding animals. Some children worked long hours in dangerous environments for little or no wages and without occupational safety protection. Child laborers often faced physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of their employers.
Also see the Department of Labor's Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/tda.htm.
d. Acceptable Conditions of Work
There is no national minimum wage. Some government institutions and public enterprises set their own minimum wages. Public sector employees, the largest group of wage earners, earned a monthly minimum wage of approximately 420 birr ($22). The official estimate for the poverty income level was approximately 315 birr ($16) per month.
Only a small percentage of the population, concentrated in urban areas, was involved in wage-labor employment. Wages in the informal sector generally were below subsistence levels.
The law provides for a 48-hour maximum legal workweek with a 24-hour rest period, premium pay for overtime, and prohibition of excessive compulsory overtime. The country has 13 paid public holidays per year. The law entitles employees in public enterprise and government financial institutions to overtime pay; civil servants receive compensatory time for overtime work. The government, industries, and unions negotiated occupational safety and health standards. Workers specifically excluded by law from unionizing, including domestic workers and seasonal and part-time agricultural workers, generally did not benefit from health and safety regulations in the workplace.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs' inspection department was responsible for enforcement of workplace standards. The country had 380 labor inspectors, but due to lack of resources, the labor inspectors did not enforce standards effectively. The ministry's severely limited administrative capacity; lack of an effective mechanism for receiving, investigating, and tracking allegations of violations; and lack of detailed, sector-specific health and safety guidelines hampered effective enforcement of these standards. In addition penalties were not sufficient to deter violations.
Compensation, benefits, and working conditions of seasonal agricultural workers were far below those of unionized permanent agricultural employees. The government did little to enforce the law. Most employees in the formal sector worked a 39-hour workweek. Many foreign, migrant, and informal sector workers worked more than 48 hours per week.
Workers have the right to remove themselves from dangerous situations without jeopardizing their employment. Despite this law most workers feared losing their jobs if they were to do so. Hazardous working conditions existed in the agricultural sector, which was the primary base of the country's economy. There were also reports of hazardous and exploitative working conditions in the construction and fledgling industrial sectors.
Read further @http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2013/af/220113.htm#
(OPride) — The United States in a scathing report on Thursday accused Ethiopia of curtailing freedom of expression and association, using politically motivated trials, harassment and intimidation of activists and journalists.
Ethiopia holds estimated 70,000-80,000 persons, including some 2,500 women and nearly 600 children incarcerated with their mothers, in severely overcrowded six federal and 120 regional prisons, the U.S. said in its voluminous 2013 Human Rights Reportreleased by Secretary of State John Kerry. "There also were many unofficial detention centers throughout the country, including in Dedessa, Bir Sheleko, Tolay, Hormat, Blate, Tatek, Jijiga, Holeta, and Senkele," the report said.
While it said pretrial detention in local police stations were marred with poor hygiene and police abuse, the report also highlighted impunity for security forces who often commit politically-motivated killings against dissidents and opposition party members as "a serious problem." The Ethiopian government rarely, if ever, took actions "to prosecute or otherwise punish officials who committed abuses other than corruption," the report added.
The report named some of the well-known political prisoners and journalists including Eskinder Nega, Bekele Gerba, Olbana Lelisa, Reeyot Alemu and Woubeshet Taye."Federal Supreme Court upheld the 2012 convictions under the criminal code of Bekele Gerba and Olbana Lelisa, two well-known political opposition figures from the Oromo ethnic group, for conspiracy to overthrow the government and conspiracy to incite unrest," the report noted.
"The Supreme Court subsequently determined the Federal High Court did not consider mitigating circumstances and reduced Bekele's sentence from eight years to three years and seven months. The Supreme Court also reduced Olbana's sentenced from 13 to 11 years. Courts convicted 69 members of Oromo political opposition parties, charged separately in 2011 under the criminal code with "attacking the political or territorial integrity of the state."
Gerba, who has fully served out his reduced time, was widely expected to be released last month. However, according to family sources, prison officials gave conflicting reasons for his continued imprisonment, including that his time at the Maekelawi prison doesn't count or his file was misplaced. Meanwhile, both Gerba and Lelisa are reportedly ill with restricted and limited medical care.
Terminally ill
Lelisa is a longtime Oromo rights activist with Oromo Peoples Congress (OPC), who rose through the ranks of the organization from a sole member to top leadership. He competed in the last three elections representing the Caliya district in West Shewa. He was elected to the Oromia regional parliament in 2005. He was subsequently arrested on concocted charges of plotting to overthrow government by working with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), recruiting youth for armed rebellion and for inciting the frequent youth revolt in Ambo and West Shewa.
Lelisa, who has so far served three years of the 11 years sentence, reports being mistreated while in prison. He has repeatedly been beaten by unidentified men at Kaliti prison with orders from security services. He has sustained serious wounds from the beatings by government agents who pose as prisoners, according to OPride sources. Lelisa, who is terminally ill and said to be on a long-term medication for undisclosed condition, had repeatedly appealed to the higher court about his mistreatment but received no response to date.
Singling out the Oromo
While the State Department's report is short on details, there are several evidences that show the Ethiopian government continues to single out Oromo dissidents. Last year, the OLF released a partial list (independently verified by a reputable OPride source) of 528 individuals sentenced to death and life imprisonment on purely political grounds.
The list includes names of individuals, their gender, and ethnic backgrounds. Underscoring the disproportionate repression of the Oromo, of the 528 individuals who were sentenced to death or life imprisonment by the Ethiopian courts, 459 are Oromo nationals followed by 52 Amhara nationals. "This list clearly indicates that the minority regime in Ethiopia is using its kangaroo courts for destroying Oromo and Amhara nationals who are viewed as potential threat to the regimes hold on to power," one informant, who asked not to be named, told OPride.
As documented by various international human rights organizations, today, it is a serious crime, under the Tigrean dominated Ethiopian government to support any independent Oromo organization. Thousands of Oromos have been imprisoned, tortured and killed extra-judicially for no apparent reason other than expressing Oromo national feeling and for their support of Oromo organizations such as the OLF.
The selective and systematic targeting of Oromo in Ethiopia by the current began in 1992 when the OLF which jointly ruled Ethiopia from 1991-1992 with the Tigrayan Liberation Front (TPLF) was banned and its members and supporters jailed for years and hundreds executed without due process of law. Although Oromia, the Oromo regional state in Ethiopia, is autonomous in name, the Oromo do not have any meaningful voice in the affairs of their own state, which is totally controlled by the TPLF.
The later represents no more than seven percent of the population of Ethiopia, while the Oromo, who constitute the single largest national group in Ethiopia and the third largest national group in the whole of Africa. The Oromo are denied the basic democratic rights to organize freely and legally and express their political opinions. There is no single independent newspaper or media outlet catering to the Oromo populace in their native tongue.
The TPLF fears the Oromo numerical strength deliberately characterizes all independent Oromo organizations, which it does not control as the "terror wing" of the OLF. The goal for such characterization is to persecute peaceful supporters of the OLF behind the façade of fighting against a " terrorist organization." Under the anti-terror law of the current Ethiopian regime, anyone who is suspected of peacefully supporting the OLF, could be sentenced to life imprisonment or executed. The above mentioned 459 Oromo nationals who were sentenced to death or life imprisonment are all suspected OLF supporters.
Destroying the lives of 528 innocent human beings on political ground is a crime against humanity, which must be condemned by all civilized nations. The tearless cry of the U.S. AnnuaL Human Rights report notwithstanding, at this moment no calling is more urgent and more noble and no responsibility greater for those who believe in human rights than raising their voice for pressuring the government of Ethiopia to free the 528 innocent individuals who were sentenced to death and life imprisonment on purely political grounds.
In the last year alone, two Oromo activists have died in prison under mysterious circumnances. Last year, OPride reported about the death in prison of former UNHCR recognized refugee, engineer Tesfahun Chemeda. Last month, a former parliamentary candidate from Chalenqo in Western Hararghe, Ahmed Nejash died in prison. According to an OPC source, Nejash successfully run and challenegd Sufian Ahmed, Ethiopia's Minister of Finance and Development, during the 2010 elections. He was subsequently arrested in 2011 alleged of being an OLF activist. Although his death recieved scant media coverage even within the Oromo community, a close relative of the late Jarra Abba Gadaa, Nejash is one of the veterans of Oromo people's struggle. "He was sentenced to seven years, which was also upheld by the higher court," the OPC told OPride source said. "He was in Zuway with Bekele and Olbana and he was healthy the last time I saw him in 2013."
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Democracy Is On Average Richer, Lets People Speak Their Minds, Shape Their Own And Their Children's Futures February 27, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Ancient African Direct Democracy, Corruption, Gadaa System, Oromo Social System, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Self determination, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, The Oromo Governance System, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Uncategorized.Tags: African Studies, Development, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Economic development, Economic growth, economics, Gadaa System, Gadaa: Ancient Africa (Oromo) democratic system is a form of direct democracy, Governance issues, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights violations, Oromia, Oromo people, Oromummaa, State and Development, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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"Democracies are on average richer than non-democracies, are less likely to go to war and have a better record of fighting corruption. More fundamentally, democracy lets people speak their minds and shape their own and their children's futures. That so many people in so many different parts of the world are prepared to risk so much for this idea is testimony to its enduring appeal."
Ethiopia: in 1972 not free, in 1991 partly free and in 2013 not free.
See chart by the Economist through the link and read the analysis@ http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21596796-democracy-was-most-successful-political-idea-20th-century-why-has-it-run-trouble-and-what-can-be-do
The protesters who have overturned the politics of Ukraine have many aspirations for their country. Their placards called for closer relations with the European Union (EU), an end to Russian intervention in Ukraine's politics and the establishment of a clean government to replace the kleptocracy of President Viktor Yanukovych. But their fundamental demand is one that has motivated people over many decades to take a stand against corrupt, abusive and autocratic governments. They want a rules-based democracy.
It is easy to understand why. Democracies are on average richer than non-democracies, are less likely to go to war and have a better record of fighting corruption. More fundamentally, democracy lets people speak their minds and shape their own and their children's futures. That so many people in so many different parts of the world are prepared to risk so much for this idea is testimony to its enduring appeal.
Yet these days the exhilaration generated by events like those in Kiev is mixed with anxiety, for a troubling pattern has repeated itself in capital after capital. The people mass in the main square. Regime-sanctioned thugs try to fight back but lose their nerve in the face of popular intransigence and global news coverage. The world applauds the collapse of the regime and offers to help build a democracy. But turfing out an autocrat turns out to be much easier than setting up a viable democratic government. The new regime stumbles, the economy flounders and the country finds itself in a state at least as bad as it was before. This is what happened in much of the Arab spring, and also in Ukraine's Orange revolution a decade ago. In 2004 Mr Yanukovych was ousted from office by vast street protests, only to be re-elected to the presidency (with the help of huge amounts of Russian money) in 2010, after the opposition politicians who replaced him turned out to be just as hopeless.
Between 1980 and 2000 democracy experienced a few setbacks, but since 2000 there have been many
Democracy is going through a difficult time. Where autocrats have been driven out of office, their opponents have mostly failed to create viable democratic regimes. Even in established democracies, flaws in the system have become worryingly visible and disillusion with politics is rife. Yet just a few years ago democracy looked as though it would dominate the world.
In the second half of the 20th century, democracies had taken root in the most difficult circumstances possible—in Germany, which had been traumatised by Nazism, in India, which had the world's largest population of poor people, and, in the 1990s, in South Africa, which had been disfigured by apartheid. Decolonialisation created a host of new democracies in Africa and Asia, and autocratic regimes gave way to democracy in Greece (1974), Spain (1975), Argentina (1983), Brazil (1985) and Chile (1989). The collapse of the Soviet Union created many fledgling democracies in central Europe. By 2000 Freedom House, an American think-tank, classified 120 countries, or 63% of the world total, as democracies.
Representatives of more than 100 countries gathered at the World Forum on Democracy in Warsaw that year to proclaim that "the will of the people" was "the basis of the authority of government". A report issued by America's State Department declared that having seen off "failed experiments" with authoritarian and totalitarian forms of government, "it seems that now, at long last, democracy is triumphant."
Such hubris was surely understandable after such a run of successes. But stand farther back and the triumph of democracy looks rather less inevitable. After the fall of Athens, where it was first developed, the political model had lain dormant until the Enlightenment more than 2,000 years later. In the 18th century only the American revolution produced a sustainable democracy. During the 19th century monarchists fought a prolonged rearguard action against democratic forces. In the first half of the 20th century nascent democracies collapsed in Germany, Spain and Italy. By 1941 there were only 11 democracies left, and Franklin Roosevelt worried that it might not be possible to shield "the great flame of democracy from the blackout of barbarism". Read further @
21 Things They Never Tell You About Poverty & Poor Countries February 27, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, African Poor, Agriculture, Aid to Africa, Dictatorship, Domestic Workers, Economics, Economics: Development theory and Policy applications, Environment, Ethnic Cleansing, Food Production, Oromo, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Poverty, Self determination, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Theory of Development, Uncategorized, Youth Unemployment.Tags: African Studies, Developing country, Development, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Economic development, Economic growth, economics, Governance issues, Horn of Africa, Human Rights and Liberties, Land grabs in Africa, Oromia, Oromo people, Sub-Saharan Africa, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, World Bank
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- Poverty-as-rule-not -exception is difficult to bend our minds around because we tend to base our views about the world on direct experience. If people around us seem mostly well-fed and content, then why shouldn't everybody else be? We still don't know as much as we should about poverty and we try to ignore poor people. Most people's experience of the global poor is the waiter at their table or the pool attendant, the ones lucky enough to have jobs. Only by direct experience and immersion in local circumstances is it possible to have a vague inkling of what it might be like to be genuinely destitute. There's no obligation on holidaymakers to go wandering around in slums, but anybody who claims knowledge about deprivation should experience or observe it first-hand for themselves, ideally for a long time.
- Which undermines my first four points. As Morten Jerven says in his book Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled By African Development Statistics And What To Do About It, "the most basic metric of development, GDP, should not be treated as an objective number but rather as a number that is a product of a process in which a range of arbitrary and controversial assumptions are made." Jerven finds that the discrepancy between different GDP estimates is up to a half in some cases. This supports my experience from working in the least developed countries, where statistics offices are usually underfunded and don't have the resources to collect data often or well enough.
- There's a kind of false scientism: foreign academic economists spend ages refining complicated econometric models despite the raw material being rubbish. In the absence of good numbers, the only immediate alternative is to live in a country, to use good theory and to rely where necessary on case studies and even anecdote.
- A report from Oxfam last month pointed out that 85 people, about as many as would fit on a double-decker bus, own as much wealth as the bottom half of the world's population.
- The Spirit Level by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson shows that equality is good for everyone. Redistribution reduces poverty and makes life better for the rich in the form of less crime, better education and a more cohesive society. Global inequality is getting worse, not better. If we don't radically reduce inequality the poor will eat us, so aid isn't an option, and it's not about the rich world "saving" the poor. It's essential for everyone.
- Although things are improving, a huge chunk of the world's population remain poor. Over a fifth of humans, 1.29 billion, are considered extremely poor . In effect the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Europe, the United States and the Middle East scrape by on 75 British pence a day adjusted for the cost of living in each country. About a third of the world lives on less than $2 a day. The poorest half of the world – 3.5 billion people – own only 0.71% of the world's wealth between them.
- A billion people live in chronic hunger. Nearly a third of all children are chronically malnourished, which unless addressed before the age of two often leaves them stunted and mentally impaired. A sixth of the world's adults can't read or write and many more have only rudimentary literacy. Sub-Saharan Africa has only two doctors for every 10,000 people, which is partly why on average its inhabitants live to an average age of 56.
- Rather than a term like "developing" to describe these people and countries, the travel writer Dervla Murphy's phrase "majority world" is more accurate.
- "The four basic needs: food, housing, clothes and medicine must be cheap and easy for everybody. That's civilisation", says Jon Jandai, a farmer from northeast Thailand. I'd add primary, secondary and tertiary education, too.
- Lower income countries have leapfrogged some technologies. For example many will never install fixed telephone lines because mobile coverage is so good. Vast numbers of people will never touch a PC, doing all their computing on a smartphone or tablet.
- The governments of poor countries should be more adventurous, leapfrogging ideologies too. Some proponents of economic growth argue that environmental sustainability and a focus on happiness will handicap poverty reduction. But it could enable some countries to prioritise the important things in life. Endless growth is impossible and undesirable.
- Beyond a certain point rich inefficiency is the real problem. Why do developing countries ape the development paths and economic structures of the West? We are wage slaves who perform bullshit jobs so that we can service our mortgages. The advance of the car ruined everyone's quality of life so that a minority can sit in air-conditioned metal boxes in jams. Clever though-leadership in the majority world could lead the way for the rich. Bhutan's idea of Gross National Happiness is an example.
- There's plenty of food to go round. World agriculture produces 17% more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago despite a 70% population increase, due to rising yields, higher farming intensity and more use of land. The real problems are the system of distribution and energy use. If the rich world didn't hog all the food and produce it inefficiently there'd be enough for everyone.
- The amount officially spent on each poor person globally is US$20 a year, according to the World Bank. The amount has doubled in the last decade following a dip in the late 1990s. But several opinion polls show that rich country inhabitants think they're much more generous than they really are. Americans think that their government spends 28% of the budget on aid when it's really about 1%. Brits are almost as bad. The result of this widespread overestimation of generosity is that many people in rich countries want to cut aid.
Originally posted on Emergent Economics:
Ethiopia's Land & Water Grabs Devastate Communities: New Satellite Imagery Shows Extensive Clearance of Land Used By Indigenous People to Make Way for State-Run Sugar Plantations February 25, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa Rising, African Poor, Agriculture, Aid to Africa, Development, Dictatorship, Domestic Workers, Environment, Ethiopia's colonizing structure and the development problems people of Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Food Production, Hadiya, Human Traffickings, ICC, Janjaweed Style Liyu Police of Ethiopia, Kambata, Knowledge and the Colonizing Structure. African Heritage. The Genocide Against Oromo Nation, Land and Water Grabs, Land Grabs in Africa, Ogaden, Omo, Omo Valley, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Nation, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Self determination, Sidama, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, African culture, African Studies, Developing country, Development, Economic and Social Freedom, Economic development, Economic growth, economics, Ethiopia, Gambella and Omo Valley, Genocide against the Oromo, Human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Land grabbing, Land grabs in Africa, National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromia Region, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo culture, Oromo people, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tyranny, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Water and Land Grabs in Ormia, World Bank
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'Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to 200,000 agro-pastoralists, is under development for sugar plantations and processing. The early stages of the development have resulted in the loss of land and livelihoods for thousands of Ethiopia's most vulnerable citizens. The future of 500,000 agro-pastoralists in Ethiopia and Kenya is at risk.' – Human Rights Watch
(Nairobi) – New satellite imagery shows extensive clearance of land used by indigenous groups to make way for state-run sugar plantations in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley, Human Rights Watch and International Rivers said today. Virtually all of the traditional lands of the 7,000-member Bodi indigenous group have been cleared in the last 15 months, without adequate consultation or compensation. Human Rights Watch has also documented the forced resettlement of some indigenous people in the area.
The land clearing is part of a broader Ethiopian government development scheme in the Omo Valley, a United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, including dam construction, sugar plantations, and commercial agriculture. The project will consume the vast majority of the water in the Omo River basin, potentially devastating the livelihoods of the 500,000 indigenous people in Ethiopia and neighboring Kenya who directly or indirectly rely on the Omo's waters for their livelihoods.
"Ethiopia can develop its land and resources but it shouldn't run roughshod over the rights of its indigenous communities," said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The people who rely on the land for their livelihoods have the right to compensation and the right to reject plans that will completely transform their lives."
A prerequisite to the government's development plans for the Lower Omo Valley is the relocation of 150,000 indigenous people who live in the vicinity of the sugar plantations into permanent sedentary villages under the government's deeply unpopular "villagization" program. Under this program, people are to be moved into sedentary villages and provided with schools, clinics, and other infrastructure. As has been seen in other parts of Ethiopia, these movements are not all voluntary.
Satellite images analyzed by Human Rights Watch show devastating changes to the Lower Omo Valley between November 2010 and January 2013, with large areas originally used for grazing cleared of all vegetation and new roads and irrigation canals crisscrossing the valley. Lands critical for the livelihoods of the agro-pastoralist Bodi and Mursi peoples have been cleared for the sugar plantations. These changes are happening without their consent or compensation, local people told Human Rights Watch. Governments have a duty to consult and cooperate with indigenous people to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources.
The imagery also shows the impact of a rudimentary dam built in July 2012 that diverted the waters of the Omo River into the sugar plantations. Water rapidly built up behind the shoddily built mud structure before breaking it twice. The reservoir created behind the dam forced approximately 200 Bodi families to flee to high ground, leaving behind their crops and their homes.
In a 2012 report Human Rights Watchwarned of the risk to livelihoods and potential for increased conflict and food insecurity if the government continued to clear the land. The report also documented how government security forces used violence and intimidation to make communities in the Lower Omo Valley relocate from their traditional lands, threatening their entire way of life with no compensation or choice of alternative livelihoods.
The development in the Lower Omo Valley depends on the construction upstream of a much larger hydropower dam – the Gibe III, which will regulate river flows to support year-round commercial agriculture.
A new film produced by International Rivers, "A Cascade of Development on the Omo River," reveals how and why the Gibe III will cause hydrological havoc on both sides of the Kenya-Ethiopia border. Most significantly, the changes in river flow caused by the dam and associated irrigated plantations could cause a huge drop in the water levels of Lake Turkana, the world's largest desert lake and another UNESCO World Heritage site.
Lake Turkana receives 90 percent of its water from the Omo River and is projected to drop by about two meters during the initial filling of the dam, which is estimated to begin around May 2014. If current plans to create new plantations continue to move forward, the lake could drop as much as 16 to 22 meters. The average depth of the lake is just 31 meters.
The river flow past the Gibe III will be almost completely blocked beginning in 2014. According to government documents, it will take up to three years to fill the reservoir, during which the Omo River's annual flow could drop by as much as 70 percent. After this initial shock, regular dam operations will further devastate ecosystems and local livelihoods. Changes to the river's flooding regime will harm agricultural yields, prevent the replenishment of important grazing areas, and reduce fish populations, all critical resources for livelihoods of certain indigenous groups.
The government of Ethiopia should halt development of the sugar plantations and the water offtakes until affected indigenous communities have been properly consulted and give their free, prior, and informed consent to the developments, Human Rights Watch and International Rivers said. The impact of all planned developments in the Omo/Turkana basin on indigenous people's livelihoods should be assessed through a transparent, independent impact assessment process.
"If Ethiopia continues to bulldoze ahead with these developments, it will devastate the livelihoods of half a million people who depend on the Omo River," said Lori Pottinger, head of International Rivers' Ethiopia program. "It doesn't have to be this way – Ethiopia has options for managing this river more sustainably, and pursuing developments that won't harm the people who call this watershed home."
Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley is one of the most isolated and underdeveloped areas in East Africa. At least eight different groups call the Omo River Valley home and the livelihood of each of these groups is intimately tied to the Omo River and the surrounding lands. Many of the indigenous people that inhabit the valley are agro-pastoralist, growing crops along the Omo River and grazing cattle.
In 2010, Ethiopia announced plans for the construction of Africa's tallest dam, the 1,870 megawatt Gibe III dam on the Omo River. Controversy has dogged the Gibe III dam ever since. Of all the major funders who considered the dam, only China's Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) provided financing (the World Bank, African Development Bank, and European Investment Bank all declined to fund it, though the World Bank and African Development Bank have financed related power lines).
The Ethiopian government announced even more ambitious plans for the region in 2011, including the development of at least 245,000 hectares of irrigated state-run sugar plantations. Downstream, the water-intensive sugar plantations, will depend on irrigation canals. Although there have been some independent assessments of the Gibe dam project and its impact on river flow and Lake Turkana, to date the Ethiopian government has not published any environmental or social impact assessments for the sugar plantations and other commercial agricultural developments in the Omo valley.
According to the regional government plan for villagization in Lower Omo, the World Bank-supported Pastoral Community Development Project (PCDP) is funding some of the infrastructure in the new villages. Despite concerns over human rights abuses associated with the villagization program that were communicated to Bank management, in December 2013 the World Bank Board approved funding of the third phase of the PCDP III. PCDP III ostensibly provides much-needed services to pastoral communities throughout Ethiopia, but according to government documents PCDP also pays for infrastructure being used in the sedentary villages that pastoralists are being moved to.
The United States Congress in January included language in the 2014 Appropriations Act that puts conditions on US development assistance in the Lower Omo Valley requiring that there should be consultation with local communities; that the assistance "supports initiatives of local communities to improve their livelihoods"; and that no activities should be supported that directly or indirectly involve forced evictions.
However other donors have not publicly raised concerns about Ethiopia's Lower Omo development plans. Justine Greening, the British Secretary of State for International Development, in 2012 stated that her Department for International Development (DFID) was not able to "substantiate the human rights concerns" in the Lower Omo Valley despite DFID officials hearing these concerns directly from impacted communities in January 2012.
Ethiopia: Land, Water Grabs Devastate Communities | Human Rights Watch
Why Should We Protect Endangered Languages? February 24, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Ethiopia's colonizing structure and the development problems people of Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Finfinnee, Janjaweed Style Liyu Police of Ethiopia, Kambata, Kemetic Ancient African Culture, Language and Development, Nubia, Ogaden, Omo, Omo Valley, Oral Historian, Oromia, Oromia Support Group, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Culture, Oromo First, Oromo Nation, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Oromummaa, Qubee Afaan Oromo, Self determination, Sirna Gadaa, State of Oromia, The Oromo Library, Theory of Development, Toltu Tufa, Uncategorized, Wisdom.Tags: Afaan Oromo, Afaan Oromo Kushitic Kemetic language, African culture, African Studies, Development and Change, Genocide against the Oromo, Human Rights and Liberties, Oromia, Oromo, Oromo culture, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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The 'Africa Rising' Narrative: A Single Optimist Narrative Masks Growing Inequality in the Continent February 24, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, Colonizing Structure, Corruption, Development, Dictatorship, Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Food Production, Human Rights, International Economics, Land and Water Grabs, Land Grabs in Africa, Ogaden, Omo, Omo Valley, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo Identity, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Poverty, South Sudan, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, Tyranny, Uncategorized, Youth Unemployment.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Developing country, Development, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Economic growth, economics, Ethiopia, Gadaa System, Genocide against the Oromo, Governance issues, Horn of Africa, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights violations, Land grabs in Africa, National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromo culture, State and Development, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tyranny, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, World Bank
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"Compare that with the mean wealth of a South African at $11,310, Libyan ($11,040) and Namibian ($10,500). While the average Ethiopian has his asset base standing at a mere $260 despite years of economic growth and foreign investment – wealth has not filtered through to the people. With this kind of glaring inequality between and within countries, the "Africa Rising" narrative risks masking the realities of millions of Africans struggling to get by in continent said to be on the move." http://www.africareview.com//Blogs/Africa-is-rising-but-not-everywhere/-/979192/2219854/-/12at0a8/-/index.html?relative=true
"Africa Rising" is now a very popular story – a near-universal belief that the continent is the next investment frontier after more than a decade of sustained high growth rates and increased foreign direct investment.
We even now have memes for this new narrative.
But some people have their doubts about this whole "Afro-optimism" talk – they say Africa isn't really rising.
They argue that Africa's low levels of manufacturing and industrialisation discredit the continent's "growth miracle". Its share of world trade is remains very small compared to Asia.
Well, Africa cannot be reduced to a single narrative. We have been victims of this before – for hundreds of years the continent has always been seen in a kind of Hobbesian way – where life is poor, nasty, brutish and short.
Now, there is a minority global elite working round the clock trying to turn this long-held view of a continent.
While I do not begrudge them for their PR efforts – we cannot mask the glaring inequality in Africa by developing a new optimist narrative about the continent.
There are many stories about Africa. Not just one.
While the sun shines bright in Namibia, not the same can be said of Malawi where the government is bankrupt or the Central African Republic (CAR) where sectarian violence is increasingly becoming genocidal.
Pretty much everyone else in the world seems accustomed to the living hell that is Somalia.
But we have also come to a consensus that Botswana and Ghana are the model countries in Africa.
South Africa is a member of the BRICS. While the petro-dollars are changing the fortunes of Angola – it has grown its wealth per capita by 527 per cent since the end of the civil war in 2002.
Not much can be said of South Sudan. Oil has not done anything despite pronouncements by the liberation leaders that independence holds much promise for the young nation's prosperity.
The country imploded barely three years into into its independence.
This is the problem of a single narrative – it is indifferent to the growing and glaring inequality in Africa and its various political contexts.
Many Africans still have no access to the basic necessities of life. Millions go to bed without food and die from preventable diseases.
Others live in war-ravaged countries in constant fear for their lives. You can bet the last thing on their mind is not a blanket "rising" narrative about Africa and the promise it holds. That is not their Africa, its someone else's.
Yes. "Africa Rising" may be real. But only to a small minority.
Wealth distribution
A report by New World Wealth highlights the variations in wealth distribution across the continent's 19 wealthiest countries.
Africa's total wealth stood at $2.7 trillion last year down from $3 trillion in 2007 after taking a hit from the global financial crisis.
These 19 countries control 76 per cent while the remaining 35 scrape over $648 billion. And most of this wealth is concentrated in northern and southern Africa.
The western, central and eastern regions have some of the poorest individuals on the continent with the highest per capita wealth from this group – with the exception of Angola – coming from Nigeria at $1,350.
Compare that with the mean wealth of a South African at $11,310, Libyan ($11,040) and Namibian ($10,500).
While the average Ethiopian has his asset base standing at a mere $260 despite years of economic growth and foreign investment – wealth has not filtered through to the people.
With this kind of glaring inequality between and within countries, the "Africa Rising" narrative risks masking the realities of millions of Africans struggling to get by in continent said to be on the move.
The sun may be shining bright in Africa – but only in favoured parts of it.
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Saba Oromoo fi Sirna Gadaa (The history of the Oromo nation and the Gadaa System) February 22, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Ancient African Direct Democracy, Gadaa System, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Nation, Oromummaa, Sirna Gadaa, The Oromo Democratic system, The Oromo Governance System, Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, African culture, African Studies, Ancient African Direct Democracy, Caffee, Democratic African institution, Democratic system, Development and Change, Gadaa System, National Assembly, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo people, Oromoo, Oromummaa, Parliament, Sirna Gadaa, Social Sciences
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Saba Oromoo Fi Sirna Gadaa
Dhibbaa alagaa bitamuu waggaa dhibbaa Oromoo irra turuurraa kan ka'e hedduun ummata Oromoo har'a Oromummaa isaa haa beeku malee, seenaa ummanni kun keessa dabree as ga'e ragaa qorannoon deggaramee barreeyfame irraa wanti inni hubatu baay'ee xiqqaadha.
Ammaas tanaan seenaa ummaata guddaa kanaa guutumatti barreeyfamee jira jachuu utuu hin ta'in gaaffiilee Oromoon tokko ofgaafatuufiis tahee, seenaa dharaa diinni Oromoo irratti odeessuuf deebii ga'aa ni taha waan jedhamuuf; kunoo seenaa Oromoo kan sab-boontoota ilmaan Oromootiin haala rakkisaa keessaaa barreeyfamee, akka ummaata keenya gargaaruuf asirratti maxxansine. Nuti maxxansitootni kan keessa qabnu gulaala dogongora qubee dabree dabree mul'atuufi maxxansaa qofa malee, qophiin isaa kan sab-boontoota ilmaan Oromoo tahuu isaa osoo hin hubachiisne bira hin tarru.
Barbaachisummaan barreeyfama kanaa bal'inaan seenaa irratti waan kaa'amee jiruuf, Oromoon ani eenyu? Maddi koo eessa? Daangaan koo eessa? Firaafii diinni koo eenyu kan jedhu hundi haala gahaatiin deebii quubsaa akka argachuu dandayu shakkii hin qabnu.
Sirna gadaa
Hamma kiyyoo kolonii jala hin seeniniti Oromoon sirna ittiin bulan kan mataa isaanii qabau turan. Maqaan sirna kanaas Gadaa jedhama. Sirni kuniis bal'aa ture. Dhimma jireenya ummata Oromoo fuula hundaan kan ilaalu sirna siyaasa, aada diinagdeefi amantiiti. Sirna hawaasaa guutuu ture jechuudha. Sirni Gadaa sirnaafi seera Oromoonni ittiin walbulchu, kan duulee roorroo ofirraa ittisu, kan dinagdee isaa ittiin tikfatuufi dagaagfatu, akkaata inni itti waliin jiraatuufi kan hawwiin dhala Oromoo cufa ittiin guutu ture.
Sirn kun haala Oromoonni tokkummaan isaanii laaffate kan itti roorrisaa turan Habashaafi Affaar ofirraa deebisuu dadhabe keessatti, haala hawaasaa ilaalerraa, jaarraa 14ffaa keessa biqiluu jalqabee suuta guddatee deeme. Oromoota sirna akkasii jalatti qindeessuudhaaf yeroo dheeraa fudhate. Oromoota gosatti hiraman walitti fidanii sirna tokko jalatti walitti qabuun kufaatiifi ka'uumsaa yeroo dheeraa gaafate. Gara walakkaa jaarraa 15faa isa lammaffaa keessa sirna gutuun argamuu dandaye.
Akkaata himamsa aadaa Boorana kibbaa keessatti yeroon itti Gadaan dhaabbate kanumaan walkipha. Akka mangoddoonni Booranaa himanitti Gadaa jaaruuf yaalii dheeraan eega godhame booda, Gadaan yeroo dheeraaf bifa hojechuu dandayu dhaabbate. Gadaa kanatti Abbaan Gadaa Gadayyoo Galgaloo ture. Raabni isaa (yeroosii) Yaayyaa Gulleelee jedhama ture. Eega gaafasii jalqabee Booranni Abbootii Gadaa 61 lakkaawa. Kanarraa waggaa saddeet saddeetiin yoo herrgne (Gadaan tokko waggaa 8) 61X8 = 488 taha. Eega Gadaan ijaarame, akka himamsa manguddootti Booranatti waggaa 488 taha jechuudha. Barri isaa 1499tti dhihaata. Kanaaf, sirni kun ijaaramuun isaa walakkaa jaarraa 15ffaa isa lammaffaa keessa kan jedhame dhugaa taha.
Sirna Gadaa keessatti wanni hundi gadaan walilaala. Lakkooysi yeroo, aadaan, amantiin, jireenyi hawaasaa, ittisi biyyaafi kkf hundi hidhata Gadaa qabu, fakkeenyaaf sadarkaalee Gadaa, goggeessa Gadaa, abaluu abaluu..jiru. kun, eegaa Gadaan sirna kabajamaafi guutuu akka ture mirkanessa.
Bara itti Gadaan sirna gutuu ture sana akka silaa tahutti galmeessuun hindandaymane. Hammi galmeeyfame baay'ee yaraadha. Sana keessaahillee irra guddaan kan baroota dhihooti. Waa'een isaa hammi beekamu baay'ee yaraadha. Guddinaan odeeffannoon argaman oduu afaaniin kan daddabraniidha. Isaaniis bakka bakkati garagar tahu. Sunillee Gadaan Caffe Caffetti deebi'uu haa agarsiisu malee, tokkummaa sirna kanaaf ragaa kan tahu haftee sirna kan Gadaa Booranaa har'aalee haga taheefuu hojjataa jiruudha. Kanaaf, waa'ee sirna Gadaarratti hangi hubatame xiqqaadha. Waliigalatti sirna kana caalatti hubachuudhaaf qormaata cimaa sirna Gadaa kan mul'isan armaan gaditti ilaalla.
uunkaa jereenya hawaasaa
siyaasaa sirna Gadaa
aadaa sirna gadaa
amantii sirna gadaa
1. Uunkaa jireenya hawaasaa
Hawaasa keessatti dhalli namaa kophaa hinjiraatu. Kophaas hindalagu. Namoota biraa wajji jiraata, hojjataas. Jireenyi dhala namaa walitti hidhaataadha. Hawaasa Oromoo bara Gadaa keessaa yoo fudhannee akkaataa jiruufii jireenya Oromoo, akkaataa qoodama dalagaa, hariiroo ummanni Oromoo hawaasa keessatti waliinqabau, sirna Gadaa keessatti qaama tokko. Akkaataan polotikaa sirnichaas uunkaa jireenyya hawaasa Oromootti hidhamee jira.
Uunkaa jireenya hawaasa sirna Gadaa keessaa hubachuuf waan kanaa gadii hubachuun barbaachisaadha. Suniis:
a. Goggeessa Gadaa (Miseensaa) fi Marsaa Gadaa
b. Hiriyyaa
c. Ilmaan jaarsaafii ilmaan Kormaa
d. Sadarkaalee Gadaafi Murnoota Gadaa
a. Gaggeessa Gadaa(miseensa) fi Marsaa Gadaa:
Gadaan tokko waggaa saddeet qaba. Waggaa saddeettan waliin GADAA TOKKOTTI YEROO ITTI AANGOON polotikaa warra Gadaa tokko harka jiraatuudha. Kanaaf, Gadaan waggaa saddeet saddeetiin lakkaawama. Waljijjiiraas. Waggaan saddeettan Gadaa tokko maqaa mataa isaa qabaata. Gadaa tokkicha maqaa adda addaa qabaatu. Kun Goggeessa Gadaa ykn miseensa jedhamee waamama. Kun hawaasa Oromoo keessaa, bakka gargaraatti maqaa adda addaa qabata. Jechuun:-
Boorana keessatti- Goggeessa Gadaa jedhama.
Tuulama keessatti- Miseensa jedhama.
Arsii keessatti- Miseensa jedhama.
Gujii keessatti-Baallii jedhama.
Ituu keessatti-Miseensa jedhama.
Qormaata Gadaa Oromoo bakka bakkaarratti godhameen lakkooysi Goggeessa gadaa bakka heddutti shan. Kan kanarraa adda tahees nijiraa. Fakkeenyaaf Boorana keessatti Goggeessa Gadaa torba qabaatu jira. Maqaan isaaniifi tartiibni isaaniia kopha kophaafi beekamaadha. Hoggaa Goggeessi Gadaa jiran tartiibaan deemanii raaw'atan gara isa jalqabaatti deebi'uudhaan marsaa tokko tahu. Goggeessi Gadaa tokko bakka heddutti waggaa 40 booda malee, hin deebi'u. Fakkeenyaaf Ituu keessatti Goggeessi Gadaa (missensi) jiran, Hormaata, Sabbaaqa, Dibbeessa, Fadataafi Daraaraadha. Kanneen tariiba maqaa Gadaawwan waggaa saddeet saddeetiin deeman tahanii Daraaraan gaafa raaw'ate Hormaatatti deebi'a jechuudha. Yeroon kun itti raaw'atee deebi'ee marsuuf naannawuu marsaa Gadaa tokko taha. Marsaan Gadaa tokkoo waggaa 40 qabaata. Goggeessi Gadaa shanan, walitti marsaa Gadaa shanan jalqabarraa ka'anii tartiibaan deemanii xumuramanii marsuuf gara isa jalqabaatti kan deebi'an kun "marsaa Gadaa(Gadaa cycle)" jedhama.
Yeroo idiletti laalamu jireenya nam tokkoo keessatti, Marsaa Gadaa lamaatu jira. Isaaniis, Marsaan duraa Gadaa abbaa yeroo tahu, inni lammaffaa Gadaa ilmaati. Ilmi Marsaa tokko fixee, Gadaan isaa kan abbaa tahe, kan itti aanu kan ilmaan isaa taha jechuudha. Akkuma kanatti itti fufee dabra.
Eega, bakka heddutti Marsaan Gadaa waggaa 40 akka qabaatu olitti ilaalleerra. Arsii keessatti miseensi Gadaa tokko waggaa 16 waan qabuuf kanarraa adda. Kanarraa Marsaan Gadaa Arsii keessatti waggaa 80 taha jechuudha.dagaagina keessaa Gadaan eega Caffetti qoodamee, as lakkooysifi maqaan Goggeessota Gadaa Marsaa Gadaa tokko keessa jiranii bakka adda addaa tahuun mul'ateera. Kanaas, qabsiisuuf armaa gaditti mee haa ilaallu. Maqaan Goggeessota Gadaa bakka garagaraatti:-
Goggeessa Gadaafi Marsaan Gadaa waan hiriyymummaafi aangoo polotika ilaaluun hariiroo murteessa qabu. Sanaas bal'inaan booda laalla.
B. Hiriyyaa:-
Hiriyyaan warra goggeessi Gadaa isaanii tokko taheedha. Kana jechuuniis hawaasa Oormoo keessatti warrii waggaa Gadaa keessatti dhalatan hundiifi kan maqaan Goggeessa Gadaa isaanii yoo dulloomoo tahanillee wal'irraa bu'ee yookaa tokko tahee hiriyyaadha. Ijoolleen waggaa Gadaa 1-8 jidduufi gaheeyyiin waggaa Gadaa 45-56 jidduu yoo Goggeessi Gadaa isaanii tokko tahe hiriyyaa tokko jedhamu. Marsaan Gadaa naannawutti walitti fidee ijoolleefi jaarsoolii hiriyyaa taasisaa. Marsaan Gadaafi Goggeessi Gadaa akkanatti hiriyyummaa murteessu. Hawaasa Oromoo keessatti hiriyyaan akka obbaleeyyaniitti wal'ilaalu. Ayyaana gurguddaafi beekamoorratti hiriyyaan wal argee waliin turuudhaan walfaarsa. Jaalalti walii, walamanuun, waliif dhimmuun, walgargaaruun…kkf hiriyyaa biratti jabaadha. Aangoo polotikaa keessatti paartii tokko tahu.
Kanaf, hiriyyummaan karaa hawaassfi polotikaa Oromootaa walitti hidhuudha. Waa'een hiriyyaa hoggaa akkas tahu, ijoolleefi ga'eessoota maaltu walitti fidee hiriyyaa godha? Gaaffiin jedhu ka'uun nimala. Gaaffi kana deebisuuf, nama Goggeessa Gadaa isaatiin Gadaa keenya jedha. Gadaa isaa faarsa, kabaja. Kanarraa akka ilaalcha polotikaa baraatti hubachuuf waan Paartii ilaaluun gaarii taha. Hawaasa keessatti paartiileen uumamtu turan jechuudha. Goggeessi Gadaa shanan paartiilee shan kan ijoolleefii manguddoota hiriyyaa godhuus paartii tokkicha waliin qabaachuudha.
c. Ilmaan kormaafi Ilmaan jaarsaa:
sirna Gadaa keessatti Ilmaan kormaafi Ilmaan Jaarsaa qoodameef beekama. Kan hawaasa bakka lamatti qooduudha. Kun jireenya hawaasa Oromoo bara sirna Gadaa keesaatti akkaataa Qabannoo aangoo polotikaa kan murteessuudha. Warra aangoo polotikaa qabachuuf deemaniifi kanatti hawasa qooda. Kuniis, waggaa Gadaa wajjiin walitti hidhataadha. Carraan aangoo polotikaa keessaa qooda qabaachuufi dhiisuun isaa yeroo itti dhalaterratti hundeeyfama. Kanaaniis ilmaan Oromoo yeroo dhalatanirraa kaasee ilmaan kormaafi ilmaan Jaarsaatti qoodamu. Akkaataan qoodamaa kuniis, seera umamaa kan hordofu qaba.
Ijoolleen Abbootiin isaanii sadarkaalee Gadaa keessa seenanii yeroo isaan aangoo polotikaa qabachuttii dhihaatan ykn qabatan (gadooma keessa) dhalatan " ilmaan kormaa" jedhamu. Isaaniis, bara Gadooma abbootii isaanii keessa (waggaa 40 abbootii isaanii eeganii) kan dhalatan waan tahaniif sadarkaa Gadaa keessa seenuudhaan miseensa paartii tahuu dandayan. Kanaaf aangoo polotikaa keessaa qooda fudhachuu dandayu.
Ilmaan Gadooma abbootii isaanii (aangoo polotikaa qabachuu) dura ykn booda dhalataniifi abbootiin sadarkaalee Gadaa seenuu hindandeenyerraa dhalatan hundi "ilmaan jaarsaa" jedhamu. Ilman jaarsaa warra sadarkaalee Gadaa seenanii miseensa paartii tahuu hindandeenyedha. Kanaafiis aangoo polotikaa keessaa warraa qooda fudhachuu hin dandeenyeedha. Ilmaan jaarsaa warra waliin dhalatan hundaan hiriyyaa tahuu dandayu, jechuun ilmaan kormaa wajjiinillee hiriyyaa walii tahuu dandayu.
Eega, hawaasa keessatti Gadoomuuf carraa kan qaban ilmaan kormaa thuu hubanne. Ilmaan kormaa gaafa dhalatanirraa kaasee sadarkaalee Gadaa seenanii akkuma gudachaa deemaniin dalagaa garagaraarratti dirqama polotikaafiis qophaawan. Kun dirqama isaaniiti. Ilmaan jaarsaa garuu, waa'een waan qoratamuufi baratamu hundaaf dirqamuun yoo hawaasicha keessa jiraachuu dandayuuf tahe malee, itti hin dirqaman. Ilmaan Oromoo akkanatti qoodamuun bakka heddutti mul'ate. Gadaa Boorana, Maccaa, Tuulamaafii Gujii keessatti qoodamni kun jira. Qoodamni yoo hinjiraanne tarii Gadaa Arsii, Ituufi Humbanna keessatii tahuu hin'oolu.
d. Sadarkaalee Gadaafi Murnoota Gadaa:
Akkaataa waggaa dhalootaatiin gurmuu ykn murni ilmaan kormaa tartiibaan keessa dabran sadarkaa Gadaa jedhama. Sadarkaan Gadaa maqaa gurmuu waggaa dhaloota ilmaan kormaati jechuudha. Gurmuu kanaan akkaataan jiruufi jireenya dhala Oromoo hundaatu keessatti murtaawa. Ilmaan kormaatu kormaatu keessa daddabran yoo tahellee, jirenya dhala Oromoo karaa polotikaa, amanti, aadaa, dinagdeefi waraanaafi kkf keessatti kan ilaalu addatti maqaa haaqabaatan malee akkaataan guddinaa, dalagaafii jireenyaa, kan ilmaan Jaarsaa wajjiin tokkuma. Karaa polotikaatiin garuu, garaagarummaa guddaatu jira. Tahullee sadarkaaleen Gadaa jiruuf jireenya dhala Oromoo mara calaqqisiisa. Sadarkaalee Gadaa garagaraakeessatti ilmaan Oromoo dirqama (dalagaa) adda addaatu isa eeggata. Yeroon isaas osoo hin gahinnillee waan beekamuuf sadarkaa itti aanuuf isa qopheessaa ture.
Sadarkaa Gadaa tokko waggaa saddeet qaba. Waggaa saddeet saddeettan kanaan namni Oromoo hamma gaafa dulloomee du'utti hawaasa keessatti bakkafi qoodama dalagaa qabaata. Sadarkaaleen Gadaa ilmaan kormaa keessa dabran bakka gariitti amala addaa yoo qabaatanillee waliigalatti akka armaa gadiitti keenya.
1. Dabballooma waggaa 0-8
2. Gaammoma waggaa 9- 16
3. Dargaggooma waggaa 17- 24
4. Kuusoma waggaa 25- 32
5. Raaboma waggaa 33 – 40
6. Gadooma waggaa 41- 48
7. Yubooma waggaa 49- 56
Gadaa Tuulamaa keessatti Gadoomni waggaa 32 – 40 gidduutii waan taheef kana yaadachiisuun barbaachisaadha. Armaa gaditti sadarkaalee Gadaa jiraniifi murnoota Gadaa isaanii laalla.
1. Dabballooma
Kun jecha dabballee jedhamu kan Gadaa Booranaarraa fudhatameedha. Ijoolleen dhiiraa Gadooma abbaa isaanii keessatti dhalatan Dabballee jedhamanii yaamaman. Ijoolleen kun waggaa saddeet hamma fixaanitti Dabballetti beekamu, Boorana keessatti Dabballee haa jedhaman malee, bakka biraatti maqaa biraa qabu. Fakkeenyyaaf:
a. Tuulam keessatti – Itti makoo jedhamu.
b. Ituu keessatti – maxxarrii jedhamu.
c. Gujii keessatti- Suluda jedhamu.
Sadarkaan Gadaa kun bakkayyuu waan jiruuf walitti qabatti Dabballoota jechuun hin badu. Dabballoomanii sadarkaa Gadaa isa dura ilmaan kormaa akka dhalataniin itti seenaniidha. Sadarkaa Gadaa kanatti ijoolleen hojii beekamaa hinqaban. Naannoo qa'ee turanii toohannoofi tajaajila guddaadhaan guddatan. Ilmaan kormaa sadarkaa kana:
a. Boorana keessatti ilmaan Dooriiwwaniifi warra Gadaati.
b. Tuulam keessatti Foollee jedhama
2. Gaammoma:-
jechi kun sadarkaa Gadaa Boornaa keessaa maqaa gaammee jedhamurraa kan fudhatameedha. Ilmaan kormaa sadrakaa Dabballoomaa fixan Gaammotti dabru. Waggaa 8 – 16tti akkaataa itti rifeensii isaanii qoramurraa yoo jedhame dhugaadharraa hin fagaatu. Ijoolleen dhiiraa sadarkaa Gammomaarra jiran:
a. Booran keessatti – Gaammee xixiqqoo jedhamu.
b. Tuulama keessatti – Dabballee jedhamu.
c. Gujii keessatti – Dabballee jedhamu.
d. Ituu keessatti – Ruuboo jedhamu.
Gaammoonni sadarkaa Gadaa yeroo itti ijoolleen jabbiilee tiksan, hojii warraarratti gargaaraniifi loon tiksaniidha. Dalagaa kanaafi kana fakkaatanitti haa bobbahan malee, sadarkaa kanatti tohannoo warraa ala hin bahan. Yeroo kanatti taphatanii caalatti walbaruu jalqabu.
1. Dargaggooma
Yeroo kana kan itti dargaggooman waan taheef, sadarkaa Gadaa kanaas bakka gargaraatti maqaa garagaraa waan qabuuf sadarkaa kanaan, Dargaggooma jedhama. Ilmaan kormaa sadarkaa lammaffaa fixanii waggaa 16 – 24 jidduu:
a. Booran keessatti – Gaammee Gurguddaa jedhamu
b. Tuulam keessatti – Foollee jedhamu.
c. Gujii keessatti – kuusa jedhamu.
d. Ituu keessatti – Goobam jedhamu.
Dargaggoomni sadarkaa itti namichi toohannoo warraarraa hillee walaba tahaa deemuufi warrarraa fgaatee soch'auu dandayuudha. Akkasumas, yeroo itti jabina, beekumsafi jagnummaa ofii mul'isuu jalqaabniidha. Jiruu dhufataa deemuudhaan yeroo itti ofdandayutti tarkaanfataniidha. Hawaasichaa bu'aa buusuufiis kan keessatti ofqophessu. Dalagaarratti bobbahanii, loon fagaatanii bobbaasuu, ol'aantoota isaanii wajjiin deddeemuu, adamoo bahuufi bineessoota loonirraa ittisuudha.
4. kuusoma
kuusomni sadrkaa loltummaati. Naannoo garagaraatti ilmaan kormaa sadrkaa kanaa adda addaa qabaatanillee Booran keessatti kuusa waan jedhamaniif kanarraa fudhannee kuusoma ittiin jenne.
Murni kun:-
a. Boorna keessatti – Kuusa jedhama.
b. Tuulama keessatti – Qondaala jedhama.
c. Gujii keessatti – Raaba jedhama.
d. Ituu keessatti Raaba jedhama.
Hawaasa Oromoo bara sirna gadaa keessatti, kun murna lolu ture. Waggaa 25 – 32 jidduu kan tahan dirqama loltummaa qabu. Namuu roorroo biyyarra geesse ittisuuf waan ittiin lolu- xiyyaas tahee, eeboofii gaachana mataa isaatii qopheeyfatee farda lolaas qabaate taha. Lolli argamnaan akka dhagayeen qophaawee walgurmeessee duula. Kanatti dabalee waan dhimma biyyaa ilaalan yeroo kanaa kaasee qorachuu dandaya. Sadarkaan kun, Tuulamaafi Ituu keessatti yeroo itti ilmaan kormaa aangoo qabachuuf ofqophessan, sadarkaa 4ffaa tahuudhaanifi dirqama loltummaa qabaachuudhaan tokko yoo tahan kaanirraa kanaan adda bahu.
1. Doorama
Bakka heddutti sadarkaa itti aangoo qabachuudhaaf ilmaan kormaa qophii barbaachisaa godhaniidha. Yeroo kana keessatti dhimma biyya, bulchiinsa, sera, aadaa, amantiifi seena dabre baratu. Waa'ee sirna Gadaa caalatti hubachuu dandayu. Haalli isaanii warra biyya bulchuu ykn qondaaloota Gadaa wajjiin walitti hidhataadha. Bakka warrii Gadaa itti murtii seeraa kennan, dubbii gosaa ilaalanfi marii godhanitti argamanii irraa baratu. Bakka aadaafi amantiitti argamanii sirna qalbifatu. Caffee yaa'ii Gadaarratti argamanii murtii kennuudhaan hojiidhaan ofqaru. Hayyoonniifi manguddoonni biyyaarraa qoratanii barachuudhaan beekumsa isaanii bal'ifatu. Biyya keessa sossohanii ummataan walbaruu, akkanatti aangoo polotikaaf ofqopheessu jechuudha.
Sadarkaan kun, Tuulamafi Ituu keessatti isa afraffaadha. Ilma kormaa sadarkaa kanaa, akkamu asii olitti kaa'ametti Tuulama keessatti qondaala, Ituu keessatti Raba jedhamu. Sadarkaan Gadooma isaanii waggaa 32- 40 jiddutti waan tahaniif, isaan keessatti dalagaa akkanaa (doorama) kan qaban wagaa 23-32 jidduutti kan jiran Tuulama keessatti Qondaala, Ituu keessatti Raaba, akkanatti ofqopheessu.
Boranaafi Gujii keessatti ammoo, yeroon aangoon qabanna tartiibaan waggaa 45-53ttifi waggaa 40-48tti waan taheef, yeroon itti aangoof ofqopheessan kun waggaa Gadaa 32-40 jiddutti taha. Arsii kessattiis akkanuma.
Sadarkaa Dooramaa Booranaa keessatti iddoo lamatti qoodama. Isaniis Raabamaafi Doorama tahu. Raaboonni yeroo itti ilmaan kormaa Raaba tahan jedhamu, waggaa 32-40 jiddutti. Waggaa 41-45tti Doorama jedhama. Inniniis yeroo itti ilmaan kormaa Doorii jedhamaniidha. Kanaaf, sadarkaadhaan bakka itti garaagarummaan jiru tokko kana taha. Kuniis kan mul'ateef dagaagina sirni Gadaa arge keessatti jijjiiramni waan argameefi. Yoo sadarkaa kana ilaalle ilmaan kormaa sadarkaa shanaffaatti (waggaa 32-40 jiuddutti)
a. Tuulama keessatti- Luba jedhama.
b. Ituu keessatti – Doorii (Raaba-dorii) jedhamu.
c. Boorana keessatti – Raaba dorii jedhamu.
d. Gujii keessatti – Doorii jedhamu.
Idileen sadarkaa kanatti kan ilaalle garuu, Dooramni qophii aangoo qabachuuf godhamuudha.
6. Gadooma
sadarkaa itti ilmaan kormaa aangoo polotikaa qabataniidha. Yeroo itti warri Gadaan isaanii geessee biyya bulchan, seera ilaalan, dubbii Gosaa furaniidha. Sadarkaa Gadaa kun Tuulamafi Ituu keessatti isa shannaffaadha. Boorana, Gujiifi Arsii keessatti ammoo, isa jahaffaadha. Ilmaan kormaa sadarkaa Gadooma Booranaafi Gujii keessatti Gadaa; Tuulamafi Ituu keessatti Luba. Ituu keessatti Raaba doorii jedhamu. Yeroo Gadoomaa:
a. Tuulama keessatti – waggaa 32-40tti
b. Ituu keessatti – waggaa Gadaa 32-40tti
c. Boorana keessatti – waggaa Gadaa 45-54tti
d. Gujii keessatti – waggaa Gadaa 40-48tti
e. Arsii keessatti – waggaa Gadaa 40-48tti taha
Bakka heddutti Gadooma keessatti ilmaan kormaa martinuu sadarkaa Gadaa keessaa hamma guutuu biyyatti dhibdee polotikaa, dinagdee, hawaasafi waraanaa cufa furuuf itti gaafatama qaba.
7. Yubooma
Sadarkaa gadaa, murni itti aangoo Gadaarra ture aangoo eega gadi dhiisee itti dabruudha. Gadaa jaarsummaa ykn manguddummaati. Sadarkaa kana keessatti ilmaan kormaa akka hangafaatti ilaalamu. Dalagaan isaanii warra Gadooman gorsuu, qacheelchuu, maandhaa isaanii kan tahan gorsuu, leenjisuufi barsiisuudha. Gara boodaatti hojiirraa walaboomanii ta'anii sadarkaa itti aangoo dhiisanii soorama seenaa kana keessa kan jiran (kan Yubooma)
a. boorana keessatti – yubaafi booda Gadamoojji
b. Tuulam keessatti Yuba
c. Ituu keessatti Lubajedhamu.
Aadaa sirna gadaa
Dhallii namaa akkaata itti naannoo isaa hubatee, itti jijjiiru qaba. Kana keessatti hooda, safuu, beekumssa, qaroomaafi yaadumsi qooda guddaa kennu. Kun hundi dinagdeefi polotikaa sirna hawaasaarratti hundeeyfamau; kanneenirraa calaqqisa argamaniidha. Akkaataaan itti dhalli namaa naannoo isaa hubatee jijjiiru, daawwannoo dinagdeefi polotikaa kan tahe kun aadaa jedhama.
Sirna Gadaa keessaas aadaan maddu jira. Akkaataa dinagdeefi polotikaa issaarraa aadaan hawaasa Oromoo keessatti, bara Gadaa dagaagee beekamaa ture. "aadaa Gadaa" jedhama. Kuniis sirnicha sirna aadaa fakkeessa. Hubannootni karaa cufaa jiru akka aadaatti fudhatamee hawaasa keessatti fudhatama. Kabajaa, safuu, hoodaafi kkf qabaatee mul'ata.
Hoodni, safuufi amantiin sirna kana keessa ture hundi nama hunda biratti fudhatamee kabajama; sanii ala bahuun hawaasaa ala tahutti waan fudhatamuuf nam-tokkoo kaasee hamma maatiitti, maatiirraa kaasee hamma sabaatti qaama walii tahanii jiraatu. Akkaataan jireenya maatii, fuudhaafii heerumaa, hariiroon uumaa, baasiin gumaa, adabni seeraa cabsaniifi kkf hundi aadaa waan tahaniif fudhtamoo turan. Akka bara saniitti eenyulleen aadaa kana nifudhata. Murtiin du'aa yoo itti dabrellee namni sun aadaa waan taheef, beekee eegumsa tokko malee, taa'ee adaba isarritti raaw'atamu eeggata jedhamee himama.
Waliigalteen jaalalaan, tokkummaan waliinjiraachuuniis aadaa jiraachaa ture. Aadaa kanaa ala bahuun, badii isa sadarkaa oliitti waan fudhatamuuf, namuu aadaa tahuu isaa waan beekuuf sirna Gadaa keessa jiru kabajee osoo keessaa hinbaasin kabajee jiraata.
Heeraafii seerri biyyaa akka aadaatti fudhatamee jabaata, kabajamaas, waan jiruufi jireenya ofii ittiin geggeeffatan taheef seeraafi heerri ni kabajamu jechuudha. Waan sirna kana keessatti tahan hundi akka aadaafii amala biyyaatti fudhatamee kabajama. Akkaataan qabannoo qabeenyaa itti loon bobbaasan, looniifi bishaan eelaa baasan, itti qotaniifi akkaataan itti waa horatanii dhimma ittiin bahan aadaa Gadaa keessatti gamtoomaafi marabbaatu calaqqisa. Namuu qabeenya mataa isaa qabaatee irratti mirga guutuu qaba. Kan dhabe, kan balaan uumaafi lolli dhaqqabe, kan dhukkubsateefi abaarri itti dhufe, … hundaa suphuufi hadhaadhiyyuun beekamaadha. Har'allee Boorana keessatti "Buussaafi Gonfa" kan jedhamu aadaa osoo hin badin jiruudha. Namuu waan waliin horate waliin dhimma bahuurraa dabree hawaasa keessatti walbadhaasuufi walgargaaruun aadaa Gadaa keessatti beekamaadha.
Aadaa kanaafi kana fakkaatan ala bahuun hawaasa keessaa nama baasa. Jechuun adaba namarratti seeraan dabru malee, waan halaba (out-casted) nama taasisan jiru. Isaan keessaa haraamuu, caphanaa,…fikkf beekamoodha. Namni haraamuu, caphana,.. jedhamee gosa keessaa bahee namummaa dhabee kophaa jiraata; kophaa godaana, qubata. Gargaarsi hawaasummaa keessati godhamuuf irraa dhaabbata. Gatamuun kana fakkaatan waan jiraniif namuu aadaa Gadaa keessaa kabajee jiraata.
Sirna Gadaa keessatti yeroo garagaraatti aadaan jireenya hafuura ilmaan Oromoo calaqqisan jiru. Isaan keeessaa, ayyaanootni beekamoon kabajamuun waan jiraatani. Ayyaanoota kana keessaa kan sirna Gadaa keessaa jireenya polotikaa ilmaan Oromoocalaqqisu ayyaana buttaati. Guutuu hawaasichaa keessatti yeroo itti aangoon polotikaa Gadaa tokkorraa kanitti dabru, ayyaana kanarratti horiin (loon) qalamanii, nyaachisni guddaan godhama. Sirba, tapha, faaruufi wanni kana fakkaatan ayyaanicha ho'isan addatti beekamoodha. Ayyaana buttaa malee, kanneen sirna kana fakkaatanii maqaa mataa isaanii qaban sadarkaa oliiti dhaabbata tahanii yeroo beekoomaatti kabajaman hedduudha. Isaan keessaa garii maqaa dhawuuf:
Boorana keessatti ayyaana Guduruu buufachuufi qumbii walirraa fudhachuu.
Arsii keessatti ayyaana baraartiifi guduruu, gurra uraafii jaarraa qaluu
Tuulam keessatti ayyaana dhagaa kooraafi jaarraa
Gujii keessatti ayyaana bantii haaddachuu
Kanneenii alattiis, cidhni gargaraa yeroo beekamootti bakka bakkatti godhamu, amantiiniis qaama aadaa hawaasichaa waan taheef, ayyaanni amantii sirna Gadaa calaqqisan bakka hundatti godhamaa ture. Ayyaana kana namuu Qaalluu (geggeessaa amantii) muuduudhaan eeyba kadhata, waaqa (rabbi) isaa galateeyfata; biyyaaf nagaya kadhata; hormaatarratti milkaa'uufi ilmaan isaa, uummtaafi mataa isaaf, fayyaafi jireenya kaadhata. Eegaa, kun aadaa amantii sirna Gadaa keessaa isa tokko. Aadaa Oromoo kan bara sirna Gadaa keessatti yeroon baay'ee barbaachisaadha. Guyyaa, ji'a (baati), waggaafi Gadaa lakkaawuudhaan hawaasa Oromoo sirna kan jalatti qindeessuun qaama aadaa ture. Kanaafiis, hawaasa Oromoo keessatti qaroomni (civilization) addunyyaf gumaache kalandarii Oromooti. Kalandariin Oromo kuniis, astronoomiin kan qoratamee argameedha. Ji'a waggaa dhaloota, bara Gadaa, guyyaafi ji'a ayyaanaa lakkaawanii add baafachuuf tattaafii qormaata ji'a, urjiifi aduu irratti godhamaniin qarooma Oromoota adda godhuufi dagaagina argameedha.
Akkaataa kalandarii Oromootti ji'i (baatiin) tokko guyyaa 29.5 qaba. Waggaan tokko ammoo, ji'a 12 ykn guyyaa 354 qaba. Kanneeniis addaan kan baafataman:
ba'uu, seenuufi guddina addeessaa (ji'a) lakkaawuu
bakka, teessuma, mul'ina urjiilee keessaa buusaa, bakkalcha, … to'achuufi jala bu'anii hordafuudhaan tahu.
Hojii mataa isaanii godhanii hordafuudhaan kan hawaasicha beeksisan, beektoota astronoomiiti. Isaaniis beekumsa qaban kana kaaniif dabarsuurratti barnoota laatu, shaakalsiisu. Guyyootiin ji'a tokkoo soddomitti dhihaatan hundi maqaa mataa isaanii addatti qabaatu. Guyyootii jiraniif maqaa 27tu jira. Har'a Boorana keessatti hojjetaa jiru. Maqaan 27n tartiibaan guyyootii 27f tahanii hoggaa xumuraman gara isa jalqabaatti deebi'anii ammaas marsuuf itti fufu. Maqaaleen 27n kun:
Maqootiin kun hundi hiikkaa mataa isaanii qabu. Inniniis urjii, bakkalcha fi ji'arratti huundeeyfamee hiikama. Yeroo hiikamuus ayyaana guyyootii sana ibsu. Fakkeenyaaf, Gidaadaafi Gabra naannaa kan jedhaman ayyaana carraa gadheeti. Inni hiikaa hangafaa waan qabuuf, dureettiin jaalatama waan ibsuufi gaafa wanti hojjetan hundi, waan namatti tolaniifi ayyaana carraa gaariidha. Namni dhalatu ayyaana akkamiirra akka dhalate kanneen irraa himama. Eegaa, hundi qarooma Oromoota haatahan malee, sirna Gadaa keessatti aadaa tureedha.
Waggaa tokko keessa kan jiran ji'ooti (baatiileen) Oromoo 12n maqaa mataa isaani qabu. Isaaniis bakka garagaraatti maqaa adda addaa qabaatu. Ji' 12n wagga tokko keessa jiran keessa guyyaa 354 akka jiran olitti kaafneerra, ammaas ni yaadachiifna. Maqaan ji'oota Oromoo bakka bakkaatti:
Walumaagalatti aadaan calaqqisan akkaataa dinagdeefi polotikaa sirna tokkoo, akkaataa dhalli namaa ittiin naannoo isaa hubatee jijjiiru tahuu olitti ilaalleera. Sirna Gadaa keessattiis ummanni Oromoo aadaa walii galatti bifa armaan olii qabaatu akka qabu, aadaa kanarraahiis qaroomni ummata Oromoo kalandara mataa isaa qabaachutti akka geesse hubanna. Aadaa sana keessaa immoo amantiin maddee maal akka fakkaatu kophatti ilaalla.
Amantii sirna gadaa
Amaantiin Gadaa ummanni qabaatu keessaa tokko waan sirna Gadaa keessatti hojjetaman aadaa tahee qaama Oromootaa akka ture olitti kaafneerra. Inniniis waan sirna sana gadi jabeesse akka tahe hubatamaadha. Aadaa jiran keessaahiis amantiin hordafamaa ture, sirnicha utubee kan jabeesse dha. Amantiin aadaa haatahuu malee, mataa isaatiis sirna Gadaa keessatti waan aadaa tahan hundaa kan jabeesseedha. Kanaaf amantiifi aadaan tokkummaa akka qaban ifaadha.
Jireenya hafuura qabu keessatti dhalli namaa, hubannoota naannoo isaarraa qabuun waan amanu qabaachuu waan malu, bara Gadaa keessattiis ummanni Oromoo waan itti amanu qaba ture. Inniniis waaqa jedhamee yaamama. Waaqni waan hundumaa ol kan tahe, hunda kan tolcheefi kan uume, waan hunda kan dandayu, … tahuu isaatti amanama. Ormootaafi waaqa kana kan walqunnamsiisan qaalloota jedhamu. Hojiin isaaniis akka qeesotafii sheekootaati.
Qaaloota yeroo jennu akka bara dhihoo keessa ummata samuuf jecha sobanii, gowwoomsanii irraa waa guurratan akka qaallichaa Habashaamiti. Qaalloonni Oromoo bara sirna Gadaa ummata, uumamaafi biyyaaf waaqa kadhatu; galateeffatu, ummata eeybisu, looniifi madhaaniif rooba kadhatu, warra bira dhaqanii waaqa kadhachuuf isaaf muudaniif eebba keennu. Dalagaa kana fi kana fakkaataniin akka ummanni amantii Waaqatti amanuufi hordofu godhu; ummataafi Waaqa walqunnamsiisu.
Oromoonni karaa Qaalluu Waaqaan walqunnamuu malee, akkaataa biraas niqabu. Kuniis yeroo garagaraarratti ofiis waaqa kadhachuufi galateeyfachuudha. Bakki itti waaqa kadhatan, galateeffataniis galma ijaarame keessa, muka jala, gaararraa malkaa gubbaa,…dha. Kanneen utuu kana godhanii, yeroo yerotti dhaqanii Qaalluu muudu. Ayyaanni amantiis yerootti ayyaaneeffataman nijiru. Isaaniis warraa akka
Ateetee- Kan dubartootaati. Inniniis kan mucaa argachuuti.
Nabii – Kan abbootiiti.
Jaarri ayyaana nagayaa, tikfama namaa, looniifi qa'eeti.
Abdaarrii-ayyaana dachii midhaan baasisuuti
Qaallonniis sirna ayyaana amantii kanarratti ummata gorsu, jajjebeessu. Qaalluun eessaa baha? Gaaffiin jedhuu ka'uun nidandaya. Gosa keessaa Qaalluun bahuu dandayuufi hin dandeenye jiru. Inniniis waanuma hangafummaafi quxxusummaa hawaasa Oromoo keessa turerraa tahuun nimala. Qaalluun gosa beekamaa keessaa baha. Achi keessaa bahee gosoota hafniifiis Qaalluu tahu. Hundaaniis muudama. Qaalluun gosa beekamaa keessaa haa bahu malee, tokko qofa taha jechuumiti. Maadhee hawaasa olii sana keessaa dabalanii jiraachuu dandayu. Garuu isaan keessaa tokkootu hundarra kabajaa qabaata. Isaanutuus yeroo ayyaanaa muudatti muudamaas. Fakkeenyaaf Boorana keessatti Qaalloota (laduu) shana jiran kan Maxxaarrii sadaniifi kan Karrayyuu tokkoofi kan Odituu tokko keessaa hunda caala kabajaman Qaalluu Odituuti.
Qaalluun isa oliiti jechuudha. Booranaa alaas qaalluun kana muuduuf Oromoonni lafa fagoo deemanii dhaqu. Kanaaf, sadarkaa qabu; warri gad hafan isaa gaditti dalagu jechuudha. Qaalluun abbaadhaa ilmatti dabree dhaalama deema. Namchi mataan amantii Qaalluu hoggaa jedhamu, haati mana isaa ammoo, qaallitti jedhamti. Qaallitiiniis akkuma qaalluu kabajamtuudha. Ilma hangafaatu yeroo abbaan isaa du'u dhaalee qaaluu tahuuf carraa duraa qaba.
Sirna Gadaa keessatti muuda Qaaluu kan yeroo malee, ayyaanni guddaan muuda jedhamu jira. Inniniis jidduu Gadaa tokkootti yeroo (si'a) beekamaafi dhaabbata tokkotti yaha. Ayyaana kanarratti Oromoonni dhaqanii galma isaatti qaalluu olii muudu. Sirna tahu keessatti yeroo kanatti eeyba Qaalluu fudhachuun beekamaadha. Namoonni lafa fagoorraa ka'anii dhaqan, ganda isaatti muudu, achitti qalanii nyaatu, nyaachisuusi.
Eegaa, walumaagalatti dalagaan Qaalluu inni tokko namaafi waaqa walqunnamsiisuu akka tahefi jireenyi hafuura Oromootaa maal akka fakkaatu ilaalleerra. Qooda Qaalluufi amantiin sirna Gadaa keessaas sirni kun sirna amantii tahuu fakkeessa. Dhugaan isaa garuu sirna amantiis, ofkeessaa qabaachuudha.
Qoodni Qaalluun qabu kan biraa aadaa Oromoo kan sirna Gadaa keessaa tiksuufi too'achuudha. Kanarratti bakka guddaa qaba. Akka aadaan sirna kanaa hin dabnefi seerriifi heerri sirnichaa hin banne qaceelcha. Ummata biratti karaa aadaafi amantii fudhatama guddaa guddaa waan qabuuf, yaada ummataa (public opinion) dhufata isaa jalaa waan qabuuf aadaa Oromoo tiksuufi daandii sirna Gadaarratti too'achuu dandaya. Waan haraamuu, caphana,… gatama namatti fiduu dandayanirraa ummata eegu dandaya.
Kanneenirratti dabalee qoodni guddaan Qaalluun qabu jireenya polotikaa sirna Gadaa too'achuufi qajeelchuudha. Murtii polotikaarratti fuulaan yoo qooda hin fudhannellee, waan yaada ummataa of harkaa qabaniif qajeelchuufi karooraratti qooda guddaa kennu. Filmaata qondaaloota Gaddfi marii biyyaarratti argamuudhaan gargaaru. Filmaata qondaaloota Gadaarratti yaada ummataa sassaabuudhaan irratti hundeeyfamanii ija filmaata godhamee adda baasanii labsu. Marii seeraafi heeraarratti argamanii akka seerriifi heerri Gadaa hin dabneef gorsuufi qajeechuudha. Qoondaaloota Gadaa aangoo qabatan sirnaan muudu, eeybisu. Kanaaf, amantiin sirna Gadaas karaa kanaafii kana fakkaataniin jireenya polotikaa ummata Oromoo qajeelchuurratti qooda guddaa qaba.
Eegaa xumuruudhaaf, geggeessaa amantii kan tahe Qaalluun jireenya hawaasa Oromoo sirna Gadaa keessatti qooda guddaa sadii qabaata. Isaaniis:-
qooda amantii – namafii waaqa walqunnamsiisuu
qooda aadaa- aadaa sirna Gadaa eeguuf, tiksuufi too'achuu
qooda polotikaa- filmaatarrattiifi marii biyyaa kan seeraafi heeraarratti too'achuufi qajeelchuudha.
Dhumarratti aadaan, polotikaafi amantiin walitti hidhatoo tahuun ifaadha.
Godaansa Oromoo Jaarraa 16ffaan duratti
Ummata akka waan hinsossoonee kana akka garaa, dhagaa ykn galaanaa godhanii fudhachuun hin tahu. Ummatni kamiyyuu ni sossoha, bakka takka gadhiisee bakka biraatti ni godaana. Seenaa ummatoota addunyaa keessatti godaansa heedduu argina. Sababootii godaansaa uuman akkuma biyya sanaafi haala yeroo sanaarratti hudeeyfama. Kanaaf sababootii godaansa uuman bal'aafi hedduudha. Haa tahuu malee, warri keessaa gurguddaa tahan nijiru:
haalli qilleensaa geeddaramuun balaa dhufee jalaa dheessuuf,
lakkooysi ummataa sanaa hedduu dabaluun dhiphina lafaa dhalatu keessaa bahuuf,
lola ummatoota olla jiddutti dhalaturraa kan ka'ee jalaa dheessuuf, kun ammoo lafa bal'ifachuuf tahu nidandaya. Seenaan godaansa Oromoo kan jaarraa 16ffaan duraa haala kana keessaa tokkorratti hundeeyfamuun nimala.
Madda ummata Oromoo yeroo ilaalletti Oromoon Baddaa Baaleefi gam tokkoon Sidaamoo keessa yeroo dheeraaf akka jiraataa ture mirkana'ee jira. Kana jechuun Oromoon hangaa jaarraa 16ffaa keessatti naannoo kana duwwatti murtaa'ee jiraataa ture jechuumiti. Godaansa haala akkasiitiin dhiheessinu warri barbaadan Qeesoota Amaaraati. Godaansi ummata kamiyyuu ballama qabatee jaarraa akkasiitiin godaana hinjedhu. Godaansi sossohiinsa ummata dhawaataan, suuta suutaan, yeroo dheerinaa keessa kan mul'atudha. Waan jaarraa tokko keessatti jalqabee dhumatuusiimiti.
Herbert S Luwis madda saba Oromoo argacuuf afaanoota Kushoota bahaa bakka 24tti qoode. Afaanoota isaanii karraa kan ka'e, durattii isaa kun lammii tokko turan jedhe. Yroo dheeraa keessa lakkooysii namaa babal'achurraa kan ka'e walirraa fagaatanii qubacuun, lammiin adda addaa dagaagan. Walbiraa godaanuun isaanii kun yoomifii akkamitti akka jalqabameef wanti beekamu hinjiru. Sababnii isaa garuu, waa asii olitti ka'erraa tokko tahuun nimala.
Lammiin affaariifi Saahoon dura godaanuu waan jalqaban fakkaata. Gara kaabaatti baay'ee fagaatanii kan qubatan, isaan kana. Lammiin kun lameen, yeroo dheeraaf waliin jiraataa turanii booda foxxqanii akka qubataniidha. Bara dhihoo dura akka waliin turan, afaan isaanii walitti seenuun ragaa nitaha. Lammiin Somaalee itti aanee sossohee waan gara bahaafi kibbaa qubate fakkaata. Ar'a Somaaleen Oromoorraa gara bahaafi kibbaa, Affaarirraa ammoo, gaara kibbaa qubattee jirti. Akka Herbert S. Luwis jedutti isaan kanatti aanee kan godaane Oromoodha. Affaar, Sahoo,Somaaleefi Oromoon hoggaa naannoo sanarraa sossohan Kuushootni bahaatti hafan ammoo, naannoo ha'a irra jiraatan keessa babal'atan malee hedduu hinsossoone.
Ormoon naannoo Mandayyoo, Dallofi Jamjam bara dheeraa jiraataa turanii dhawaata lafa naannoo isaaniitti siqaa, irra jiraataa dhufan. Yeroo isaan itti naannoo Baaleefii Saidaamoorraa sossohanii hamma Wallootti qubatan waan beekamuumiti. Garuu yeroo dheeraa keessa tahuun hinmamu. Eega Affaarootnifi Saahootni naannoo amma jiran keessa jiraachuu jalqabanii ykn, isaanumatti aananii godaananii qubacuun waan malu.
Akkaata godaansa Oromoo kan ofumaan deemaa ture kana, isa jaarraa 16ffaatti akeekuun hin tahu. Abbaa Baahireenuu yeroo akkaataa godaansa Oromoo barreeyse:
Booranni biyya isaarraa yeroo godaanu hundaan hindeemu, warri deemuu hin baebaanne nihafa. Kuniis waan mootii hinqabneef namni isaan ajaju hinjiru. Abbaan akka barbaade hojjata" jedhe. Bartels namchi jedhamu ammoo, akkaata godaansa Oromoorratti yeroo barreeyse: nama Oromoo tokko gaafatee deebii argate:
Yeroo tochoonu, ilmi hangafni bakka itti dhalateetti hafa. Ilmi quxxusuun dabranii lafa haaraya barbaadu. Ilmaa warra hangafaa naannotti hafan ammoo, firoota isaanii barbaaduu ka'anii godaanu" jedhee jira. Ragaa kana lamaanirraa kan hubachuu dandeenyu, Oromoon godaanee daangaa Keeniya kaasee hamma daangaa Tigreetti qubachuu kan dandahee, yeroo dheeraa keessa akka tureedha. Jaarraa 16ffaa keessa yeroo Baahireen barreeyse baayyinni ummata Oromoo meeqa taha? Akaa inni jedhutti utuu godaansi Oromoo yeroosunii jalqabee ilmaan quxxusuu duwwaan dabranii kan qubatan yoo tahee, lafa har'a Oromoon irra jiraatu firfirsanillee wal hingayan jechuudha. Kanaaf Oromoon jaarraa 16ffaa keessa godaanuu jalqabee utuu hintaane, jaarraa hedduun dura suuta suutaan, ilmi quxxisuun dabree qubachaa, lafa margaafi bishaan qabu barbaadaa godaane. Haalli jaarraa 16 ffaa keessatti mul'ate waan gara biraa waan taheef bakka isaatti laalla.
Duraani Oromoonni lammi tokko tahee osoo jiraatanii gosa Booranafi Bareentummati adda bahan. Bareentumafi Booranni osoo naannoo Baaleefi Sidaamoorraa gara bahaa jiraatanii lakkooysi namaafi horiin saanii baay'achuun gargar fagaatanii qubachuu jalqaban. Ilmaan Bareenummaas akka walitti heddommaachaa deemaniin adda adda bahanii qubachuu jalqaban. Ituufii Humbanni Mormorirraa ka'anii gara bahaatti sossohanii osoo adda hin bahin naannoo Odaa Bultum qubatan. Odaan Bultum kaarra Qurquraarraa gara kibbaatti hamma km 3 fagaatee argama. Ituufi Humbanni osoo adda hinbahin bakka Odaa Bultum kana
Akkaataa bultuma Oromoon Gaddaan duratti.
Sirna Gadaan duratti akkaataa bultuma Oromoo akkam akka ture wanti beekamu hinjiru. Qesoota Amaaraa tahee, seenaa barreeysitoonni gara biraa waa'ee Orommoo kan barreeyssuu jalqaban jaarraa 16ffaa booda ture. Kanaf sanaan dura seenaan Oromoo ture himamsa aadaarraa, yoo argame malee wanti galmaa'e kan jiru hinfakkaatu. Haa tahuu malee, himamsa afaaniitfi akkaataa dagaagina hawaasaarraa kan hubachuu dandeenyu nijira.
Akkaataan dagaagina hawaasaa dhala namaa kamiyyuu sirna keeessa dabru niqaba. Haalli hawaasni Oromoo bara Gadaa duraafi booddee keessa ture calaqqiinsa akkaataa bulmaata isaa ka duraanii nuuf ibsuu ni dandaya. Akkuma ummata kamiyyuu hawaasni Oromooo gamtooma Doofaa durii keessa turuun isaa waan hin'ooleedha. Kuniis akkaata qabeenya dhuufaa turerraa calaqqisa. Ormoon waan tikfattee tureef qabeenya dhuunfaa loon yoo tahe malee, lafti qabeenya gamtaa ture. Kanaa wajjiin kan ilaalamu haala walbulchiinsa isa jidduu tureedha. Hamma hawaasaatti Oromoon guddatee sadarkaa gosa gahetti manguddoo walbulchuun saa hin'oolle. Kabajaa manguddoon hawaasa Oromoo keessatti qabu har'allee aadaa Oromoo keessatti ni calaqqisa. Hamma Gadaan dhufee bakka qabtetti, manguddootaan buluun kun sadarkaa sadarkaan guddataa dhufuun hinhafne.
Haalli kun akkamitti ture? Akkamitti hojjachuu dandaye? Wanti kana calaqqisu boodana dabree maali? Hawaasa Oromoo keessatti aadaan jalqabarraa ka'ee gad dhaabbate hariiroo hangafaafi quxxusuuti. Hariiroon kun dura sadarkaa maatii keessatti gad dhaabbate. Ilmi hangafni kabajamuu qaba. Warri quxxusuu isa hordofu. Waan inni jedhe dhagayu. Hariiroon kun maati duwwaa keessatti hin hafu. Akkuma hawaasni sun dagaaguun hangafaafi quxxusuun ibidda, manaafi gosa keessattiis hojiirra oola. Ibiddi hangafaafi quxxusutti adda bahee walkabjuuniifi waliif abboomamuun buluun dhalate. Hariiroon ku yeroo dheeraaf hawaasa Oromoo keessatti hojjate.
Goso tokko keessa karra hagafaafi quxxusuu nijiraatu. Maanguddootni karra hangafaa keessa jiran biyya (gosa) bulchuurratti qceelfama kennu. Karri quxxusuu tahan warra hanagafa kana jalatti gurmaawu. Sadarkaa gossaattiis hariiroon kun ittifufa.
Gositi hangafni yeroo warra kaan qaceechu, geggeessu warri quxxusuun isaan jalati walitti qabamu. Gosootni kun akkasitt walitti dhufanii tokkooma gosaa (tribal confederacies) tolfatan. Tokkoomni gosaa kun ammoo, walkeessatti hangafaafi quxxusuu qabu. Hawaasa Oromoo keessatti akkaataan hangafaafi quxxusutti qoodamuun kun qoodama karra cimdii" ( bi social differentiation) jedhama. Sirni bulmaataa karra lamatti qoodamuun bu'ureeyfamu ammoo, sirna qoodama karra cimdii taha. Hamma Gadaan dagaagutti akkaataan bulmaata Oromoo sirna kanaan ture.
Sirna kana keessatti manguddoonni qooda lammii guddaa qabu. Manguddoota lammii keessaa ammoo, kan warra hangafaa hunda dursu. Waldhabbii gosoota giddutti ka'u manguddoota kanaatu ilaala. Gosoota Oromoo keessaa Booranni hangafa. Kanaaf waldhabbiin gosa bareentumaa, fakkeenyaaf Arsiifi Macca giddutti yoo ka'e, manguddoota Booranaatu ilaala. Haalli kun gosa, karra hundumaa keessatti akkasitti hojjata. Ummata ollaa wajjiin waldhabbiin yoo argamees, gumaabaasuufiis tahee, falmu, lola waan ilaaluufi dantaa lammii saanaa guutummatti manguddootaan ilaalamee murtii godhata.
Sirni manguddootaan qaceelu amaluma hawaasa doofaa taheellee kan Oromoon dhaabbate jabaa tahuun isaa, hangafaafi quxxusuun qaceeluu isaati. Sirna isa booddee Oromoon tolfatee ittiin walbulcheef bu'ura kan qabuudha. Sirna Gadaa keessatti hawaasni Oromoo gartuu lamatti qoodamee ijaarame. Gartuuleen kun aadaadhaan hangafaafi quxxusutti beekamu. Garuu waltoo'achuufi walgituurratti walqixa. Fakkeenyaaf qoodamni akkasii Boorana keessati Sabboofi Goona, Maccaa keessatti Booranaafi Gabaro, Ituu keessatti Kuraafi Galaan, Humabnna keessatti Qal'oofi Anniyya jedhamanii beekamu. Haaluma qoodama gosa keessa duraan tureetu Sirna Gadaa keessattiis ga-dhaabbate jechuudha. Kanaaf Oromoon osoo sirna Gadaatiin as hin bahin, sirna qoodama karra cimdii kanaan walbulchaa ture jechuun nidandeenya.
Meelba:- bara 1522-1530
Gadaan duraa Melba jedhama jedhu. Bara Gadaa Melbaa kana Oromoon abbaa duulaa itti ijaaree yeroo duraatiif gurmuun duulutti bobbaase. Baalli weeraruu jalqaban. Namichaa Amaara Faasil jedhamuu wajji wal lolanii inniis duularratti du'e. Duula Oromoo isa jalqabaa kanaan amaarri "dawwee" jedhan. Afaan Amaaraatti dawwee jechun, dhukkuba lamxii jechuudha
Muudana:- bara 1531-1538
Mebatti aane kan Gadaa fudhate Muudana jedham. Bara Muudana kana seera jajjabaa lama tumatan. Lubni hundi duula akka duuluufi laf haaraya baasan malee, meendhicha akka hin hidhanne kan jedhu ture. Baalli kan Melba weeraruu jalqabe Muudannii dhufatee hamma qarqara laga Awaashitti irra qubatan. Barri Gadaa Muudanaa kun bara Islaamoonni Imaam Ahmadiin geggeefamanii Kiristaanootaan lolaa turani. Lola diinootni isaa lamaan wal lolaa jiran kan Oromoon faana bu'aa ture. daareel Baates namichi jedhamu kana hogga ibsu:
"lolli Kiristaanoota Habashafi Islaamoota ture, Poortugaal gargaartee Imaam Ahmed mohamullee hin dhaabbanne. Waggootii dheeraaf dabree dabree deemsifamaa ture, gaallaa (Oromoo) haala kana duukaa bu'anii too'ataa turan. Gartuun lamanuu waan miidhameef lafa isaanii deebifachuuf ….yeroo itti eeggachaa turan"jedha. Lolli amantii yeroof akkasiit qabbanaawullee Oromoon lola isaa itti fufe. Muudanni Gadaa isaa fixee Kiiloleetti dabarse.
Kiilolee:- bara 1539-1546
Kiiloleen duula bal'isee DAWAAROO rukutuu jalqabe. Yeroo gabaaba keessati handhuura Dawaaroo gahe. Galaawudoos mooti Habashaa waana isaa kan nama Adaal Mabraq jedhamuun hoogganamu Dawarrootti bara 1545tti erge. Waraanni Adaal Mabraq harka Oromootti baqe, inniniis lbaqatee laga Awaash cehe.Dawaaroo kan jedhamu Arsii har'aatt akeekuun ni dandayama. Galaawudoos Islaamoota mohuu dandahullee Oromoobiyya isaaf lolu mohuu hindandeenye. Kiiloleen Gadaa isaa fixee Biifoleetti dabarse.
Biifolee:- bara 1547-1554
Galaawudoos Adaal Mabraq moohamuu dhagayee humna isaa waliti gurmeessee, waraana warra Poortugaaal fogargaarsisee Oromootti bara 1548tti duule. Humna guddaan itti haa duulu malee, Galaawudoos Oromoo mohuu dadhabee, dahannoo jabaa qotatee Dawaaroo keessa qubate. Oromoonni achitti iti marsanii lolan. Lolli sun guyyaa kudhalama deeme. Oromoonni gootummaan lolanii gaafa 12ffaa waraana Habashaa dahannoo isaa keessatti itti seenaanii hedduu irraa fixan. Ajajaan waraana Poortugaal Ayrees Deez jedhamu madaawee boodarratti du'e. Waraanni Habashaa moohame. Biifoleen duulaa isaa itti fufef Awaash cehee Faxagar waraanuu jalqabe. Hatahuu malee, Biifoleen akka Luboota isa duraa lafa haaraya qabachuudhaan hinmilkooyne. Habashoonni dhiibbaan Oromoo gara qa'ee isaaniitti dhihaataa waan deemeef jabaatanii dura dhaabbatan. Galaawudoos humna Habasha gurmeesse ofirraa ittise. Gama lachuu namni dhube baay'ee guddaa ture. biifoleen Gadaa isaa raaw'atee Michilleetti dabarse.
Michille:- bara 1555-1562
Michilleen Gadaa isaa kana keessatti namni diina hinajjeefne akka hin fuune, akka rifeensa mataa hinhaaddanne seera baase. Akka jedhamuttiis bara Gadaa Michillee kana Oromoon fardaan loluu jalqabe. Kanaaf lafa fagoo deemee lola gochuu jalqabe. Bara Michillee kana Galaawudoos waraana isaa Faxagar keessa jiru namicha Hamalmaal jedhamuti kennee bataskaana Imaam gube ijaarutti deebi'ee ture. bara 1555tti Michilleen Hamlmaaliin bakka Dagoo jedhamutti waraanee moohe. Hamalmaal moohamuun Faxagariin guutumatti harka Oromootti deebise. Faxagar Enriif Karrayyuu har'aani taha. Michilleen Faxagar irra dhaabbatee Cafaat, Bazimoofi Daamoot salphatti rukutuu jalqabe. Gibeen qabachuuniis yeroo kana jalqabe. Bara Michillee injifannoo guddaan argame garuu, Islaamootarratti ture. islaamoonni eega Imaam Ahmed boodde weerara guddaa kiristaanatti bobbaasuu hindandeenye. Hatahuu malee, geggeessaan Islaama Harar Amiir Nuur jedhamu humna walitti qabatee bara 1559tti Habashatti duulee ture. amiir Nuur Galaawudoosiin lolee moohe. Galaawudoos lola sanirratti du'e. Amiir Nuur osoo inni injifannoo argatetti gammadee ayyaaneeffachaa jiruu Oromoonni magaalaa Harar seenanii barbadeessan. Oduu kana dhagahee osoo inni gara Harar deebu'utti jiruu Michillee bakka Tulluu Hazaaloo jedhamtutti haxxee hidhee rukute. Lola taherratti Oromoonni haa dhuman malee, Amiir Nuur ni moohame. Waraanni saa harka loltuu Oromoorratti akka dhadhaa baqee dhume. Lubbuun kan keessa bahan xiqqaa ture. lolli Tulluu Hazaaloo biratti tahe kun, yeroo dheeraaf Kiristaanaafii Islaama gidduutti lola deemaa ture addaan kute. Humni Oromoo jabaachuun warra wal lolaa turan gidduutti nagaya buuse.
Michillee booddee duulli Oromoo karaa lamaarraa tahuu jalqabe. Isaaniis:- Oromoota Walloofi Maccaafi Tuulama. Wallo keessati kan Gadaa fudhate Harmuffaa jedhama. Kan Tuulama ammoo, Hambisaa jedhama. Lachuu saanii bara 1563-70tti Gadaarra turan. Hambisaan duula gurguddaa Shawaa keessatti haa godhu malee, Amaara dhiibuu hin dandeenye. Mootiin Habashaa Minaas akka jabatti Hambisaafi Harmuffaa dura dhaabbate. Osoo isaaniin loluu du'e. Malaak Saggad ykn Sarta Dingil kan jedhamu itti dabree aangoo Habashaa qabatee lola ittifufe. Hambisaaniis lafaa haaraya osoo hinqabatin Minas wajjiin lola gurguddaa osoo godhuu Gadaan isaa dhumeeRoobaleetti dabarse. Harmuf Awaash cehee Affaarootafi Habashootatti duuluu jalqabe. Gi'orgis Haaylee kan jedhamu bakka qacinaafi Wayaata jedhamutti lolee Moo'e. Affaarootaas lolee naannoo Angootttifi Ganyi jedhamtu qabatee taa'e. Bakka kanarraa Amaara Saaynitiifi Bagamidritti duuluu jalqabe. Harmuuf bara Gadaa isaa Affaaroota, Argoboota, Doobotafi Amaaroota Ganyiifi Angoot keessa turan waraanee ofjala galchee gosa moggaase. Harmuuf Affaaroota humna isaanii cabsee baay'ee xiqqeese. Harmuuf Gadaan isaa dhumee Robaleen harka fudhate.
Robaleen:- bara 1571-1578
Malaak Saggad Roobalee Shawaa keessatti dabarsuu dhoorke. Ofiis garuu Roobalee dhiibuu hindandeenye. Shawaa keessatti haala akkanaan jiru Roobaleen Walloo Bagamidir seenee lola jalqabe. Yeroo kana Malaak Saggad saffisaan gara Bagaamidir deebi'ee Roobalee bakka wayinaa Dagaa jedhamutti lolee Roobaleen moohame wallotti deebi'e. Roobaleen hoggaa Malaak Saggfad gara Bagaamidir deeme, duula Shawaa keessatti jabeessee Amaaroota gara hallayyafi olqatti naqee biyya qabate. Malaak Saggad deebi'ee Roobalee dhiibuu hindandeenye. Gadaan isaanii dhumee lamaanuu Birmajiif bakka gaddhiisan.
Birmajii:- bara 1579-1586
Bara Gadaa Birmajii Oromootni Amaara hedduu muddanii qaban. Birmajiin Wallo Bagamidir seenanii Amaaroota hedduu fixan. Aantoot Malaak Saggad lolarratti dhuman. Amaara Bagamidir akka malee hollachiisee. Birmajiin Tuulamaafi Macaa lafa fardi isaa dhaquu dandayu mara deemee qabate. Amaarri gara hallayyaafi holqatti galtee dhokatte. Osoo gaarri, hoqiifi hallayyaan hinjiru tahee, namni hafu hinjiru jedhaa ture barreeysaan Habashaa Alaqaa Atsimeen. Malaa Saggad oliifi gad fiigutti yeroo isaa fixe. Birmajiin Shawaa laga Jamayii cehee Waqaa qabatee Amaara lafa Oromoo keessa qubatte Habashaarraa kute. Achirraa Gojjaamiifi Daamoot waraanuu jalqabe. Malaak Saggad nama Daragoot jedhamu akka Gojjaamiin ittisuuf itti erge. Birmajiin lola Daaragootirratti du'e. Haa tahu malee Birmajiin gara dhuma Gadaa isaati jala Gojjaam keessatti moohame. Biramjiin bakka lachuutti Gadaa gad dhiisanii Mul'atatti dabarsan.
Mul'ata:- bara 1587-1594
Bara Gadaa Mul'ataa kana Walloon hedduu hinduulle. Yeroo lama duwwaa Godaritti duulee saamee Wallotti deebi'e. Qubatee waan taa'e fakkaata. Mula'ati, Maccaafi Tuulama duula isaa itti fufe. Bifa lolaa geeddaree Amaara karaarratti gaadanii ajjeesuu jalqaban. Gaara gidduufi saaqaa dhiphoo ta'an jiddutti eegee Amaara murachuu jalqabe. Kanaaf Amaarri bara sana lafa sodaatu bira hoggaa gahewalitti lallaba, walwaama dabra ture jedhama. Bakka fardasaaf mijjaa'u Gondariifi Gojjaam keessa gulufee basha'e. Boodaas achi quabatee taa'e. Amaarri araarfachuu jalqabdee, suuta suutaan walmakuu jalqaban. Haa tahu malee, lolli isaan jiddu hindhaabbanne: isaan keessa warri gurguddaan:
Jaarraa 17ffaa jalqabarratti (1605-1617) bara mooti Habashaa Suusiniyoos Oromoon Bagamidrifi Gojjaamitti duulaa ture, garuu ofirraa ittisan.
1620 Oromootni Walloo Bagamidriti duulan.
Qaabsis Paaris (Paris chronicle) jedhamu lolli gurguddaan baroota 1639, 1643, 1649, 1652fi 1658tti akka tahan galmeessee jira.
1661 Oromoonni Walloo Warra HimannooGondaritti duulanii Faasilaa Dasiin lolan.
1683-1688 Oromoon Guduruu Habashaa lolee moohe.
1709 bara Tewoofiloos mooti Habashaa ture Oromoon Amaaratti duulee ture.
Jaarraa 18ffaa kaasee lolli xixiqqaan Amaaraafii Oromoo jiddutti deemaature. Amaaroonni Oromoo ofitti qabuu (firoomfatuu)jalqaban. Waldhabbii isaan jidduu jirurratti akka Oromoon isaan gargaaru hawwachaaturan. Yeroon itti Oromoon waardiyaa mooti Habashaa tahee qa'ee(gibbii) isaaniitti galees niture. Habashoonni walii isaai fonqolchuufi aangoorraa turuufiis Waraana Oromootti yeroon dhimma ba'aa turan niture.
Duula Oromoo kana booddee haala akkamiitu Gaafa Afrikaa keessatti dhalate? Humni Oromoo jechuuniis maal uume? Hamma Oromoon Gadaan of hinjaaranitti miidhaa gurguddaan irrgahaa akka ture beekamaadha. Yeroo sanaas Kiristaanootnifi Islaamootni duula wailrraa hincinne walirratti oofaa turan. Gaafni Afrikaa bakka lolaa turte jechuun nidandayama. Oromoon Gadaan ijaaramee as bahuun, madaala humna Gaafa Afrikaa keessatti jijjiire. I) lola Kiristaanaafi Islaama jidduu nidhaabe. 2) hawwii babal'achuu Habashaan qabu dhaabee walitti isii suntuurse. 3) Oromoo kabajamaafi sodaatamaa taasise. 3) Mootummaa Islaama Harar dhawee walitti bute. 5) daangaarratti waldhiibuufi lola xixiqqaa tahan malee, nagaya gara jaarraa lamaaf Gaafa Afrikaatti buuse.
Madaalli humnaa kan yeroo dheeraaf ture, kan jijjiiramuu jalqabe walakkaa jaarraa 19ffaa booda eega meeshaan lolaa haarayni harka Habashoota seene ture. Yeroo kanarraa kaaseeti kn Oromoon caphee kolonii Habashaa tahuu kan jalqabe. maddii: marsaa alaabaa
Seenaan haayyoota Oromootin barreefammee kunoo as isiinif jira. Dubbisaati baradhaa. yoo barruu seenaa biraa qabaattan tessoo firstname.lastname@example.com irratti nuf ergaa.
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Seenaan qorannoo ykn barnoota akka ummanni tokko itti jiraataa tureedha. Seenaan saba tokko yeroo jennu qorannoo ykn barnoota waa'ee shanyii saba saba saniiti jechuudha. Seenaan sabni tokko akkamitti jiraataa ture? Haala akkam keessa dabre? Ogummaa akkam qaba ture? Aadaan isaa maal fakkaata? Kan jedhaniifi gara biraas kaasee deebii itti barbaada. Gabaatti, seenaan qorannoo ykn barnoota haala shanyyiin (sanyyiin) ummata biyya tokkoo karaa dina'gdeefi hawaasummaa keessa dabreedha.
Ummanni tokko haala jireenya isaa hubachuuf abbootiin abbootii isaa ykn shanyyiin isaa haala keessa dabran qorachuu barbaachisa. Haalli ykn akkaataan jireenyi shanyii ofii keessa dabre jireenya har'aa irratti calaqqiinsa ni qabaata. Isa ha'aa hubachuuf isa dabre qorachuun barbaachisaadha. Kaleessi yoo hin jiraanne har'i hinjiraatu. Waan shanyyiin keenya keessa dabree as gahe qorannee baruun kan har'aa ijaarachuuf baay'ee barbaachisa. Kaleessi har'a, har'i boru maddisiisa. Kan dabre yoo hinhubatin kan har'aa hubachuun, kan har'aa yoo hinhubatin kan boruu qiyaasuun hinkajeelamu.
Namni seenaa abbootii isaa, kan shanyii isaa hinbeekne jaamaadha. Bishaan gabatee irra jiru, kan gara barbaadanitti oofamuun wajjiin walfakkaata. Namni seenaa irraa hinbare, badii seenaa deebisee dalaguuf dirqama. Namni seenaa shanyii isaa hinbeekne, maqaa, aadaafi sabummaa isaa gatee kan alagaa fudhachuuf tattaafata. Ummanni Oromoo seenaa boonsaa, biyya badhaatuufi aadaa dagaagaa qaba. Ilmaan Oromoo hedduun garuu, kan waan hinbeeyneef alagatti ofharkisuu kan barbaadan nijiran. Seenaa saba ofii baruun eenyummaa ofii nama barsiisa. Firaaf diina adda baafachuuf nama gargaara. Walumaa galatti, seenaa saba ofii beekuun sab-boonummaa dagaagsa.
Seenaa saba keenyaa kan boru itti boonnu duwwaafi miti. Tahuus hin qabu. Mataa ofii dabree beekuufi yaadachuuf barra. Barree ammoo dabarsinee barsiifna. Kanaaf ilmaan Oromoo hundi seenaa Oromoo baranii dabarsanii barsiisuun dirqama taha. Seenaa dabrerraa kan barree yaadachuuf, jireenya keenya har'aa hubachuuf nu gargaara. Madda rakkoo keenya har'aa baruuf, seenaa abbotiin teenya dabarsan beeku qabna. Rakkina har'aa furuuf mala lafa kaayyachuuf seenaa dabre beekuun hedduu barbaachisaadha. Rakkinaafi guddina sabni keenya keessa dabree as gsahe yoo beekne kan boruu yaaduu dandeenya. Daandii qabsoon keenya fudhachuu qabu tolchuufi tolchinees sirritti ta'uu isa kan itti ilaallu calaqqee seena Oromoo keessatti taha. Seenaa dabre kan fagoofi dhihoo, yaadaafi ilaalcha keenya irratti ifaan ykn osoo hin mul'anne dhiibbaa niqabbata. Seenaa keenya ka barruuf, ofii hubannee akka sirritti galmeessinee dhaloota boruutiif dabarsuudhaafi. Waanti nuti har'a hojjannu , boru seenaa taha. Kanaaf Oramoo kan tahe hundi seenaa shanyyii isaa baree dabarsee barsiisuun haalaan barbaachisaadha.
Barbaachisummaa seenaa baruu erga hubatamee, gaaffi ka'antu jira. Seenaan Oromoo barreeyfamee jiraa? Eenyufaatu barreeyse? Yoo hin barreeyfamne tahe akkamiti barreeysuun dandayama? Gaaffiileen kan fakkaatan hedduun ka'uu mala. Osoo deebii gaaffiilee kanaa kennuu hinyaalin dura madda seenaa waan athan keessaa lama qofa yoo ka'aan gaarii taha.
Maddi seenaa ummata tokkoo inni duraafi guddaan seenaa afaanii(oral history) fi aadaadha. Hamma sadarkaan dagaagina hawaasummaa tokkoo barreeysaan waa galmeessuun hinjalqabaminitti, seenaa dhalootarraa dhalootatti himamsa afaaniitiin dabraa dhufa. Abbaan ijollee isaatti "dur shanyiin keenya akkasiti bulaa ture, bara akkasii rakkina akkasiitu tur, dur jireenyi akkas ture" jedhee yeroo itti odeessu, seenaa dabarsaa jira jechuudha. Sabootni hedduun har'allee afaan isaaniitiin barreeysuu hinjalqabne nijiran. Seenaan saboota akkasii barreeyfamuuf maddi guddaan seenaa afaaniifi aadaa isaaniiti taha.
Seenaa tokko qorachuuf ykn barreeysuuf maddi lammaffaan waan galmeeyfameedha. Beektoonnif qorottoonni haala jiruufi jireenya, aadaafi afaan ummata tokkoo yeroo galmeessan seenaa dabarsaa jiru. Waan beektoonni ykn qorottoonni barruudhaan har'a lafa kaayan, boru kaan itti dhufee barata ykn irra dhaabatee xiinxala. Seenaan ummata tokkoo nama isaa keessa dhalateen barreeyfame irra wayyinni hinhafu. Inninuu, yoo namni sun dhiibbaa adda addaarraa qulqulluu tahe malee, mudaa qabaachuu nidandaya. Keessattu yeroo seenaa uummata gara biraa barreeysan jibba, jaalalalfi dhiibbaa adda addaarraa qulqulluu yoo hintaane badii guddaan dalagamuu nimala.
Seenaa tokko qorachuufi baruuf madda waan tahan keessaa guddaa lama kaafnee jirra. Eegaa, seenaan ummata Oromoo barreeyfamee jiraayi? Ykn ummanni Oromoo seenaa qabaayi? Gaaffiilee jedhan laaluu ni dandeenya.diinootni ummata Oromoo, 'Oromoon seena hinqabu' jedhu. Ummanni seenaa hinqabne hinjiru. Namni tokko hoo seenaa mataa isaatti,seenaa jireenyaa niqaba. Seenaan ummata sanaa barreeyafamee jiraachuufi dhiisuun waan gara biraati. Diinootni Oromoo seenaa hoggaa jedhan waan galmeeyfame qofa ifdura qabu. Seenaan ummataa hedduun barreeyfamuu kan dandaye erga beekkumsi barreeysuu argame booda ture. Har'allee afaanotni tokko tokko barreeysaa hin qaban, seenaan saboota akkasii karaa lamaan qoratama.
seenaa afaanii
waan alagaan, waa'ee ummata sanaa barreeyse irraa taha.
Ummanni Oromoo afaan isaan kan barreeyssuu jalqabe bara dhihoo keessa. Kanaaf ilma Oromoo tokkoon seenaan isaa galmeeyfamee jira jechuu hindandeenyu. Bara dhihoo as garuu, ilmaan Oromoo tokko tokko seenaa saba isaanii barreeysuuf tattaafataa jiru. Haathu malee seenaan Oromoo himamsa afaaniifi aadaatiin dhalootarraa dhalootatti daddabraa har'a as gahe jira. Seenaa saba keenyaa qorannee galmeessuuf, seenaan afaaniifi aadaa madda guddaadha. Haa tahu malee, himamsi afaanii lakkuma bubbuluun jijjiiiramaa hiikkaafi ilaalcha adda addaa fudhachaa akka deemu irraanfachuun namarra hinjiru. Har'a seenaa keenya qorachuuf himamsa afaaniitti daballee maddi gara biraa kan seenaa afaan keenyaa (oromiffaa) tiifi antiropolojii taha.
Antiroppolojiin saayinsii qorannoo waa'ee dhala namaa, aadaa, hoodaafi amantii, akkaataa jireenya isaa irratti godhamuudha. Kanaaf seenaa afaanii kan dhalootarraa dhalootatti daddabraa dhufeefi, qormaata afaniifi antiroppolojii irratti godhamu walqabachiifnaan seenaan dhugaa barreeyfamuu nidandaya.
Seenaa Oromoorratti qormaanni godhamuu qaba hoggaa jennu, seenaan Oromoo akka waan tasa hinbarreeyfamneetti fudhachuu hinqabnu. Oromoonni seenaa ummata isaanii barreeysuu kan jalqaban dhihoo kanatti haatahuu malee, namoonni alagaa hedduun seenaa Ummata Oromoo barreeysanii jiran. Har'aas kan qormaata godhaa jiran hedduudha. Anmoota alaagaa kan seenaa Oromoo barreeysan gosa sadihitti, qooduu nidandeenya.
Isaaniis: 1)qeessota Habshaa,2) waarra Orooppaa 3) Araboota. Isaan kana tokko tokkoon haalaallu.
handhuura godhatanii turan. Arsiin ammoo, naannoo sanarraa gara bahaatti sossohee Ituufi Humbannatti aanee qubate. Ilmaan Bareentoo keessaa gara kaabaatti fagaatee kan qubate Walloodha.
Ilmaan Booranaa ammoo, adda bahanii gosti Booranaa xiqqoo gara kibbaatti siqee qubate. Achirraa godaansa haga laga Xaanaa Keeniyaa keessatti deeme. Gujiin naannoo Jamjamirraa hedduu osoo hin fagaatin achumatti lafa bal'ifate. Booranni kaabaa (Maccaafi Tuulama) gara kaabaatti sosshan. Naannoo Shawaa har'aa eega gayanii booda Macc gara dhihaatti godaanee qubachuu jalqabe.
Godaansi Oromoo kun yeroo kam akka tahe beekuun nama dhibullee jaarraa 9ffaa ykn 10ffaa dura akka tahe beekamaadha. Naannoo jaarraa kanatti Oromootafi Habashoota jidduu (gidduu) wallolli akka ture barreeyfamee jira. Jaarraa kana keessa hoggaa Islaamummaan Shawaa seenuu jalqabe Oromoon akka achi turees waan hubatameedha. Ormoon yeroo lafa kanatti godaane, ummatni gara biraaa irra jiraachuuf dhiisuu irraa wanti beekamu hinjiru. Habarlaand akka jedhutti naannoo Shawaa har'aatti yeroo Oromoon godaane lafti duwwaa turuun nimala jedha. Namichi Poortugaal Franaaz jedhamubara 161tti yroo naannoo Gojjaamii ka'ee gara qarqara galaanaatti deemu argee akka barreeysetti " Kibba laga Abbayya keessaa Oromoonni nijiru. Isaaniifi Innaariyaa gidduu garuu, lafti duwwaadha" jedhee ture. Kanaaf lafti Oromoon itti godaanerraa guddaan duwwaa lafa daggala qabu akka ture hubatamaadha.
Seenaa Barreeysitoota Habashaa
Seenaa Oromoo inni jalqabaafi qabatamaan qeesii Amaaraa, abbaa Baahiree jedhmuun bara 1593tti barreeyffame. Barreeyfama Baahireen duratti wanti qabatamaan barreeyffame waan jiru hinfakkaatu. Abbaa Bahireen Amaara waan taheef seenaa Oromoo tan inni barreeyse mudaa gurguddaa qaba. Bara inni barreeysaa ture (jaarraa 16ffaa) keesssa Oromoon duula lafa isaa falmachuurra waan tureef hijaa(haloo) Oromoo bahuuf poolisii (imaammata) hordafamuu qabu lafa kayuuf barreeyse.
Mootoota habasha yeroo sana turan gorsuuf barreeyse. Akeekni Baahiree jabinni Oromoo eessaa akka maddufi dadhabiinsi Habashaa maala akka tahee xiinxaluu ture. Seenaa Oromoo ija diinummaatiin laalee barreeyse. Bahireen seenaa kitaaba isaa "ye Gaallaa Taarik" jedhu yeroo barreeyse akkas jedha. "seenaa Gaallaa barreeysuu kaniin jalqabeef, lakkooysa gosa isaanii, nama ajjeesuuf qophii tahuu isaaniifi amala saanii kan gara lafina hinqabne beeksisuufi. Seenaa ummata gadhee kanaa maalif barreeysite, osoo kan ummata gaariidhaa jiruu jedhee yoo namni nagaafate, "kitaaba keessa laali, seenaan Mohammadiifi mootoota Islaamaatu barreeyfamaa jiraamiti?..jedhee jalqabe.
Baahireen ilaalcha ummata Oromoof qabu seenaa kitaaba isaa keessatti xumure. Jibbiinsaafi diinummaa Oromoorraa akka ifatti mul'ata. Haala kanaan yeroo barreeyse Baahireen dogoggora gurguddaa keessa seene. Seenaa Oromoo dabsee waan barreeysseef, seena barreeysitoota isa booddee barreeysaniis karaarra dabsee jira. Daba inni hojjate kana booqannaa itti aanu keessatti laalla. Seenaa Oromoo guutumaatti, akka mata dureetti fudhatanii akka baahireetti hin barreeysin malee, qeesoota qabsiisa mootoota habashaa barreeysan, qabsiisa isaanii keessatti waa'ee Oromoo kaasanii jiru. Haa tahu malee, ija diinummaatiin waan qabsiisaniif seenaa Oromoo hedduu dabsan. Qeesiin Atsime gi'orgs jedhamu seenaa Oromoo akka baay'ee nama dinqutti barreeyse. Namummaa oromoo haga haalutti gahee "ilmaan sheeyxaanaa" jedhee barreeyse. Alqaa Taayyee kan jedhamu ammoo, "innas tawuqaallan Gallaa indeet ka baahir indewaxaa" jedhee haala baayyee fokkisaan barreeyse. Yeroo qeessotni kun waa'ee Oromoo barreeysaa turan, yeroo Oromoon itti jabaa ture. Jabinaafi laafina Oromoo baranii akkaataa itti dura dhaabbatan qiyaafachuuf ture. Eega Oromoo cabasanii koloneeffaatan boodaas, seenaa Oromoo barreeysuu nidhaaban. Warri Orooppaas akka hinbarreeysine dhiibbaa irratti godhuu jalqaban. Walumaa galatti waan qeesootni kijibduun Habashaa dabsanii barreeysan sana, seenaa dhugaa kan qormaataan bira gahame barreeysuudhaan kijibdoota Habashaa faalleessuun haalaan barbaachisaadha.
Seena barreeysitoota Awrooppaa:
Namoonni biyya Orooppaa sababafi yeroo adda addaatti naannoo Kaaba Baha Afrikaa dhufanii seenaa barreeysan nijiru. Isaan kun heeddu waan tahaniif gosa gurguddaa lamatti qoodnee ilaluu dandeenya.
waarra amantii babal'isuutiin biyya Orooppaarraa dura biyya Habashaa kan dhufan warra Poortugaal turan. Isaan kun jalqabaa jaarraa 17ffaarraa kaasanii Habashaa seenuudhaan dame amantii kristiyaanaa -Kaatolikii babal'isuuf tattaafachha turan. Habashootaaf jaalalaafi maraarfannoo gudda qabu turan. Habashoonni tuqamuufi miidhamuu hinjaalatan turan. Habashoota gara amantii isaaniitti hawwachuuf tattaafataa waan turannif, waan mootoota Habashaa dallansiisu hin barreeysine. Seenaa Oromoo yeroo barreeysaniis akkuma Habashootaatti barreeysan. Namichi Poortugal-Manu'eel de Almeedaa jedhamu, yeroo seenaa Oromoo baarreeyse, Baahireerraa fudhatee ijaa jibbiinsaan barreeyse. Kanaaf waan isaan barreeysan hoggaa xiinxalmuufi kan warra kaanii wajjiin ennaa walbira qabamu seenaa Oromoo barreeysuun nidandayama. Tahaas jira.
Biyya Daawwatootafi Qorottota:
Biyya daawwatoonni haala, akeekaafi yeroo adda addaatti dhufan, biyya daawwataa fakkaatanii dhufuudhaan kan mootuummaa isaaniif basaasan nituran. Waarri kaan immoo qormaata ji'ograafii ykn saayinsii gochuuf warri dhufaniis turan. Bifa adda addaan haa dhufan malee isaan kun waan argan, ummata, aadaaa, afaaniifi akkaata jireenyaa biyya sanaa barreeysanii jiru. Namoota alagaa waan tahaniif waan ijaan arkan malee, ofii isaaniitiin ummata haaseessuudhaan kallattiin waa baruu hindadayan. Nama afaan isaanii hiiku barbaadu. Kanaaf hangi isaan seenaa barreeysuuf deeman heedduu xiqqaadha. Aadaafi maalummaa ummata sanaa baruudhaaf, yeroon isaan keessa turaniis waan xiqqaa tahuuf, hubannaan isaaniis akkasuma taha. Dhiibba malee waan hojjetaniif hanga dhaga'aniifi arkan qulqullutti barreeysuu saanii hin oolamu.
Namoonni Arooppaa seenaa Oromoo, Orommtarraa qoratanii barreeysaniis nijiru. Oromoonni gabrummatti gurguramanii boodaa namooni Arooppaa tokko tokko baitatanii bilisoomasaniis nijiru. Gabroota bilisooman kanrra seenaa Oromoo waari qoratanii barreeysaniis nituran. Haala kanaan bara 1830fi 1840 namoonni Arooppaa kan seenaa Oromoo barreeysuuf carraaqan nituran. Qorannoo seenaa keenyaa kan har'a godhamaa jiruuf, kun madda tokko tahee argama.
Jalqaba jaarraa 20ffaarraa kaasee seenaa qorattootni Arooppaa, seenaa Oromoo barreeysuuf yaalii guddaa godhaa turan. Keessattuu bara Haayle Sillaasee keessa carraaqiin isaan godhaa turan guddaa ture. Mootoonni Habashaa, akka seenaan Oromoo hin barreeyfamne mala adda addaatiin dura dhaabbachaa turan. Waan qeesotni isaanii dur barreeysanillee dhoksuudhaan, gara biraatiniis akka hin barreeyfamne ittisaa turan. Har'aas itti jiru. Akka seenaan Oromoo hin barreeyfamne, dhiibbaan isaan godhan: tokkoffaa namni akkeka kana qabu, akka dhiisuykn akka kun hindandayamne godhanii itti dhiheessuudhaan harkatti busheessuuf yaalu. Lammmaffaa, akka eehama argatee qormaata kana hingoone karaa itti cufu. Haa tahuu malee, qormaata ummatoota naannoo Kaaba Baha Afrikiirratti godhame keessaa kan Oromoorratti godhameefi godhamaa jiru baayyee guddaadha. Waa'ee ummata Oromoo qorachuun mata duree qormaata guddaa tahee jira.
Seenaa Barreeysitoota Arabaa
Seenaa ummatoota Gaafa Afrikaa warra barreeysan keessaa Arabootiin warra duraati. Keessattu eega amantiin Islaamummaa Gaafa Afrikaatti babl'achuu jalqabe, Araboonni bifa lamaan dhufuu jalqaban. Kuniis bifa amantii babal'isuufi nagadaan ture. Araboonni bifa kanneen keessa tokko ykn lachuutuu, waa'ee Oromoo galmeessanii seenaa barreeysanii jiru. Har'a seenaa Oromoo barreeysuuf qorachuuf maddi tokko barreeysaa Arabootaa taheeti argama. Akkauma haalaafi yeroo isaan barreeysanitti, akkasumas ilaacha isaanirraa kan ka'e, barreeysan isaanii mudaa qabaachuu nidandaya.
Seenaa Oromoo qoratanii barreeysuuf, madda adda addaafi mudaa isaan qaban ilaallee jira. Madda jiran kanatti dhimma bahuudhaan seenaa haqaa barreeysuuf, maddi amansiisaan himamsa afaanif aadaa Oromoti taha. Seenaan afaanii akka barri dheeratuun, ilaalchaafi muxannoo haaraya dabalataa akka demu yaadachaa, qormaata godhamuun seenaa keenya barreysuu nidandeenya. Jarsooliin Oromoo kan seenaa dur beekan utuu hin dhabamin waan godhamuun irra jiru. Maddi kun gayuu akka dandayu irraanfachuun nurra hinjiru.
Hunda caalaa seenaan Oromoo dgaagsuufi guddisuuf qoodni qabsoon qabu guddaa akka tahe dagachuun namarra hinjiru. Sadarkaa har'a ummanni Oromoo ABO jalatti hiriiree kallachaa isaa waliin qabsoorra waan jiruuf, waa'ee ummata Oromoo baruuf gaaffiin ka'aa jiran guuddaadha. Har'a waa'ee Oromorratti qormaata guddaatu beektoota bijyya baayyeen godhamaa jira. Keessattu waggaa 10rnan dabranii as qormaatni kun dabalaatuma jira. Kun tolatti kan dhufe utuu hin tahin, dhaabni waa'ee ummata kanaaf falmu waan jiruufi. Qabsoo godhuun seenaa dabaa jiru sirreessuudha dandaya. Dur namootni hedduun maqaa Gaallaa jedhu malee, maqaa Oromoo hin beekan. Har'a garuu maqaan Oromoo jedhu hundaan beekamee jira. Kun bu'aa qabsoo keenyaati.
Koloneeffattoonni yoomillee taanaan, ummanni isaan koloneeffattan seenaa qabu jedhanii hin yaadan. Seenaa ummata koloneeffatanii dabsanii ykn akka waan hin jirree godhanii dhiheessu. Seena oromoos kan qunnamte kanuma. Qabsoon arra godhaa jirru, seenaa ummata keenyaa gaddhaaba, baduurraa hambisa, alagaan akka qoratuuf karaa bana. Qabsoo keenya finiinsuun sagalee ummata Oromoo baay'atee akka dhagayamu godha, fedhii alagaan waa'ee isaa baruuf godhu guddisee, qormaata irra bal'aatiif karaa bana. Kaanaaf seenaa keenya haga har'aa alagaan barreeyfamee ija qeeqaafi xiinxalaan barata, sabbontonni Oromoo seenaa dhugaa qoratanii bareeysuuf dirqamni akka irra jiru yaadachiifna. Haga har'aatti kan argamees firii qabsoo keenyaati.
Seenaa Barreeysitoota Arabaa
Seenaa ummatoota Gaafa Afrikaa warra barreeysan keessaa Arabootiin warra duraati. Keessattu eega amantiin Islaamummaa Gaafa Afrikaatti babl'achuu jalqabe, Araboonni bifa lamaan dhufuu jalqaban. Kuniis bifa amantii babal'isuufi nagadaan ture. Araboonni bifa kanneen keessa tokko ykn lachuutuu, waa'ee Oromoo galmeessanii seenaa barreeysanii jiru. Har'a seenaa Oromoo barreeysuuf qorachuuf maddi tokko barreeysaa Arabootaa taheeti argama. Akkauma haalaafi yeroo isaan barreeysanitti, akkasumas ilaacha isaanirraa kan ka'e, barreeysan isaanii mudaa qabaachuu nidandaya.
Seenaa Oromoo qoratanii barreeysuuf, madda adda addaafi mudaa isaan qaban ilaallee jira. Madda jiran kanatti dhimma bahuudhaan seenaa haqaa barreeysuuf, maddi amansiisaan himamsa afaanif aadaa Oromoti taha. Seenaan afaanii akka barri dheeratuun, ilaalchaafi muxannoo haaraya dabalataa akka demu yaadachaa, qormaata godhamuun seenaa keenya barreysuu nidandeenya. Jarsooliin Oromoo kan seenaa dur beekan utuu hin dhabamin waan godhamuun irra jiru. Maddi kun gayuu akka dandayu irraanfachuun nurra hinjiru.
Hunda caalaa seenaan Oromoo dgaagsuufi guddisuuf qoodni qabsoon qabu guddaa akka tahe dagachuun namarra hinjiru. Sadarkaa har'a ummanni Oromoo ABO jalatti hiriiree kallachaa isaa waliin qabsoorra waan jiruuf, waa'ee ummata Oromoo baruuf gaaffiin ka'aa jiran guuddaadha. Har'a waa'ee Oromorratti qormaata guddaatu beektoota bijyya baayyeen godhamaa jira. Keessattu waggaa 10rnan dabranii as qormaatni kun dabalaatuma jira. Kun tolatti kan dhufe utuu hin tahin, dhaabni waa'ee ummata kanaaf falmu waan jiruufi. Qabsoo godhuun seenaa dabaa jiru sirreessuudha dandaya. Dur namootni hedduun maqaa Gaallaa jedhu malee, maqaa Oromoo hin beekan. Har'a garuu maqaan Oromoo jedhu hundaan beekamee jira. Kun bu'aa qabsoo keenyaati.
Koloneeffattoonni yoomillee taanaan, ummanni isaan koloneeffattan seenaa qabu jedhanii hin yaadan. Seenaa ummata koloneeffatanii dabsanii ykn akka waan hin jirree godhanii dhiheessu. Seena oromoos kan qunnamte kanuma. Qabsoon arra godhaa jirru, seenaa ummata keenyaa gaddhaaba, baduurraa hambisa, alagaan akka qoratuuf karaa bana. Qabsoo keenya finiinsuun sagalee ummata Oromoo baay'atee akka dhagayamu godha, fedhii alagaan waa'ee isaa baruuf godhu guddisee, qormaata irra bal'aatiif karaa bana. Kaanaaf seenaa keenya haga har'aa alagaan barreeyfamee ija qeeqaafi xiinxalaan barata, sabbontonni Oromoo seenaa dhugaa qoratanii bareeysuuf dirqamni akka irra jiru yaadachiifna. Haga har'aatti kan argamees firii qabsoo keenyaati
Ummata Oromoo
Ummanni Oromoo jedhamu Gaafa Aafrikaa keessa kan jiraatudha. Kan inni dubbatu afaan Oromooti. Ummanni Oromoo walitti ejjee osoo addaan hincitin, godina kana keessa qubatee argama. Bakka bal'aa irra haaqubatuu malee, afaan tokkicha kan hundi itti waliigalu qaba. Kaabaa-Kibbatti, Bahaa-Dhihatti ummata aadaa tokkicha qabuudha. Diinagdeedhaaniis walirratti irkannoo cimaa qaba. Bara dheeraaf walabmmaan jiraataa turee, dhuma jaara19ffaa keessa alagaan kan koloneeffatameedha. Har'aas waliin dhaabbatee bilisummaa isaatiif lolachaa jira. Kanaaf akkaataan yaadasaa walfakkaata, hawwiifi fedhi siyaasa tokkicha qaba. Kaanfi ummnni Oromoo kan saba tokko kan jedhamuuf.
Damee dhala namaa Afrikaa keessatti argaman keeessa, Orommoon damee kuush jalatti argama. Dameen dhla namaa Afrikaa keessatti argaman:
Haam ykn kuush
Buushmeen ykn Hotteentoos
Negirilloos jedhamu. Dameen kuush bakka gurguddaa lamatti addaa qoodaman. Kuush Kaabaafi Bahaatti warri argaman:
Beejjaa , Berberiins (barbara,nuuba), Oromoo, Sumaaleefi saboota Kibba empaayera Tophiyaa jala jirani, garuu isaan dhiiga Neegiroo wajjiin walmakuun hin'oolle. Misroota duriifi haaraya. Ummata kana keessa hammi hammi tokko dhiiga gara biraa makachuu hin'oolle.
Kuush (haam) Kaabaa keessaatti warri argaman ammoo, Berbersii, Siraanaayikaa, Trippolitaaniyaa, Tuniisiyaa, Aljeeriyaa, Berbersii Morookkoo, Tureegfi Tiibuu saharaa fuulbe dhiha Suudaaniifi Gu'aanchee warra kanaari Aayland keessaati.
Ummanni Oromoo saboota Gaafa Afrikaa keessatti argaman keesssaa isa guddaadha. Lakkooysi ummata Oromoo kan har'a kolnii Toophiyaa jala jiru duwwaan miliyoona 20 ol nitaha. Biyyoota Afrikaa keessaa kan baayyina namaatiin Oromoo caalan afur qofa, akka sabaatti yoo fudhanne, sabni Oromoo, saba tokkicha guddaa Gaafa Afrikaa, tarii kan Afrikaati. Ummata Empaayera Toophiyaa har'aa kessaa walakkaa ol kan tahan Oromoota maqaa "Gaallaa" jedhu.
Ormoon maqaa gaallaa jedhu kanaan akka ofi hinyaamne, seenaa barreeysitoonni raagaa nibahu. Fakkeenyaaf namichi Chaarles T. Beke jedhamu bara 1847tti yeroo barreeyse- "isaan maqaa boonaa Ilma Oromoo" jedhuun ofwaamu, garuu warri Habashaa Gaallaa jedhuun waamu" jedhe. Ummanni Oromoo eega maqaa kanaan ofhinwaamne, maddi isaa eessa taha? Hundee maqaa kanaatiifi hiikkaa isaarratti wanti odeeyfameefi barreeyfame hedduudha.
1. Oromoon dur hogguu lola dhaqee, yeroo moo'ee ykn moo'amee jedhu " Kootta ni gallaa" jedhee walwaama. Kootta nigallaa isa inni jedhurraa maqaan "gaallaa" dhufe warri jedhan nituran.
2. Oromoon dur gaala waan tiiysuuf, akkasumaas fe'atee waan demuuf yeroo inni gaala jedhu dhagayanii 2. "gaallaa" ittiin jedhan jedhu:
dur ummata gosa "Gool" jedhamuutu Faransaayii keessa ture, maqaan achirraa dhufee jedhanii warri odeessu nijiru.
Namichi Yihuudii kan Abbaa Balzezar Tellez jedhamu ammoo, jechi "Gaallaa" jedhuu kun afaan Hibiruufi Giriikirraa dhfeedha jedha. Afaan hibiruufi Girikii kessati "gala2 jechuun "aannan" jechuudha. Kanaaf achirraa dhufuun nimala jedhu.
Habashoonni ammoo, maqaa gaalaa jedhu kanaaf hiikkaa kannanii jiru. Namichi kassate Birhaan Tassammaa kan guuboo (kuusa) jechoota afaan Amaaraa barreeyse yeroo hiike: Gaalaa jechuun aramanee, yaal salaxxanee, cakkanyi, ye amaaraa xilaat" jechuudha, jedhee jira. Barreeysaan amaaraa gara biraan ammoo, dhugaa jiru lafa kaayee jira. Maqaa Gaallaa jedhu kan kanneef warra Habashaa,warra qomaaxaafi beela biyya keenyati fideedha. Akka inni jedhetti "isaan Oromoodha ofiin jedhan, garuu Amaarri immoo, "Gaallaa" jedhaan" maqaa kanaan dura Oromoo yaamuu kan jalqabe Amaara tahuun ifa ta'a. Biyyoonni ollaafi warri Arooppaas isaanirraa fudhachuun isaanii dirree ta'a.
Amaarri maqaa kanaan Oromoota yaamuun jibbiinsaafi diinummaa, akkasumas garaagarummaa karaa amantii isaanii gidduu jirurratti kan hundaa'eedha. Kuniis battala Oromootaafi Habashootni walqunnamanitti, Oromoon amantiilee guddaa lamaan keessaa hinqabu ture. Habashoonni lafa Oromoo irraafudhachuuf fedhii waan qabaniif, Oromoon ammoo, biyyaa saa irra jabaatee waan ittiseef, jibbiinsaafi diinummaa guddaatu gidduu isaanii jira. Kanaaf maqaan "Gaallaa" jedhu kan diinni Oromootaaf baaseef, maqaa balfachuufi tuffii tahee argama.
Har'a Oromoo ta'ee kan maqaa Gaallaa jedhuun ofwaamu hinjiru. Yoo jiraatees nama doofa (sodaataa) isa dhumaa ykn qaamaan duwwaa utuu hintaane, kan sammuu dhaaniis gabroome qofa. Seenaa qorattoonni addunyaa, gaazeexoonni biyya adda addaafi raadiyoon addunyatti lallaban hundi maqaa "Gaallaa" jedhu dhiisanii Oromotti dhimma bahaa jiru. Kun bu'aa qabsoo Oromoo akka tahe ifaadh
Madda saba Oromoo
Maddi ummata tokko lafa akkasii, goleefi boolla akkasii keessaa jedhanii himuun baay'ee nama rakkisa; hin barbaachisuus ture. Ummanni tokko akka bineessaa boolla keessaa jiraataa turee, gaaf tokko akka waakkoo kan olba'uumiti. Idiletti maddi saba sanaa damee dhala namaa irraa gosa akkasii keessaati jechuun nigaya ture. Madda saba Oromoos hoggaa xiinxalan haala kana hordafuun quubsaa ture. Haa tahuu malee seenaa Oromoo warri barreeysan dabsaa waan turaniif dirqitti waa'ee madda Oromoo kaafnee xiinxaluun barbaachisa taha.
Maddi saba Oromoo eessa? Gaaffii jedhu namoonni adda addaa akka adda addaati deebisu. Isaan kaan akka yaada isaan dhiheessanitti yooo adda qoodne:
Waan qeesoonni Habasha barreeysan,.
Aafrikaa alaa dhufe warra jedhan
Aafrikaa keessaa golee tokko lafa kaa'uu warri barbaadaniifi
Himamsa afaan Oromootaatti adda baasuu nidandeenya
Isaan kana tokko tokkoon haalaalluu.
Waan qeesootni Habasha barreeysan
Qeesotnii Habashaa Oromoo ija diinummaatiin waan laalaniif kan isaan barreeysan dhugaa irraa fagoodha. Jibbiinsi isaan Oromoodhaaf qaban waan guddaa taheef, haga namummaa Oromoo haalanitti gahu.
Alaqaa Taayye kan jedhu "akkata Gaallaan bishaan keessa itti bahan beeksisa." Jedhee barreeyse. Gaalloonni bishaan keessaa waan bahaniif qurxummii hin nyaatan. Kanaafiis bishaanitti waaqeeyfathu jeddha.
Astime Gi'orgs kan jedhu ammoo, Gaallaan ilmaan sheeyxaanaati jechuu kajeela. Kanaan utuu hindhaabbatin oduu afaanii kan balfachuuf odeeffaman fhudhatee hiddi sanyii Oromoo gabra jadhee barreeyse. Namichi Jalqaba laali Maatewoos jedhamu tokko gabra heedduu qaba ture. Gabroota isaa kana waan miidheef jalaa badanii biyya (lafa) gara kibbaa jirutti galan. Namoonni amala gadhee qabaniifi yakkaman badanii itti dabalamuudhaan achitti walhoran. Kana boodde Habahsaa weeraran jedhee barreetsee jira. Qeesootni Habashaa kun madda Oromoo barreeysina jedhanii tuffiifi ija jibbansa Oromoof qaban dirretti himanii jiru. Wanti isaan barreeysan kan dhugaarraa fagaate waan taheef hedduu wajjiin cinqamuu hinqabnu.
Aafriika alaatti akeekuu warra barbaadan
Hindii:- Oromoon Aafriikaa ala, hindiirraa dhufe warri jedhaniis nijiru. Oromoon dur biyya Hindii keessa jiraataa turer , booda bidiruudhaan garba Hindii cahee gara Maadagaaskar dhufe. Achirraa gara Taanzaaniyaatti cahee booda Keeniyatti babal'ate jedhu. Gaarri Kilmanjaaroo jedhamu afaan Oromootiin tulluu janjaaroo jechuudha jedha. Monbaasaa jechuun bobbaa sa'aa jechu, Naayroobi jechuun naaroobi, keeniyaa jechuun keennya jechuudha jedhu. Maqaalee kana Oromoon keennuufi ykn akka tasaatti walkiphuun nimala. Garuu Oromoon Hindiirraa dhufuu har'a wanti mirkaneessau hinjiru. Ummata har'a Hindii keessa jiraatan keessa kan aadaadhaafi seenaadhaan Oromoo fakkaatan tokkolleen hinjiru. Oromoon beekkumsa bidiruu tolchuus hinqabu. Kanaaf garba Hindii guddaa kana akkamitti cehuu danda'a? Oromoon Hindiirraa dhufe jechuun dhugaa hintahu.
Faransayii :- Oromoon dur Faransaayii ture; kan jechuu barbaadaniis nijiru. Biyya Faransaayii keessa gosa Gool jedhamtu ture. Kanaaf Oromoon (Gaallaan) achirraa dhufuun nimala jedhu. Haatahuu malee kana wanti mirkaneessu hinjiru.
Faarsii:- Oromoon Faarsiirraa dhufe jechuu warri barbaadan nijiru. Kanaas Islaamoota qarqara Galaanaa jiraatantu jedhu. Namichi M.D Abdi'e jedhamu yeroo galmeessu hundeen ykn shanyiin saba Oromoo ijoollee dubraa obbalaa sadii turan. Isaaniis dubartoota Jarusalaam(Iyyerusalam) ; booda sanyiin isaanii walhoranii baay'anaan mootummaa Kibbaa isaanii (Arabiyaa) jiru weeraran. Sana booddee karaa Baab-el-mandab gara Aafriikaatti cehann jedhu.
Konii Israa'eel:- seenaa barreeysaan Yehuudii kan abbaa Belzezar jedhamu ammoo, waan dinqii katabe. Oromoonni kolonii Israa'eel turan jechuu barbaade. Abbaan Belzezar Tellez akka jedhutti dur ummtni kun adii ture. Israa'iiliitu isaan bulchaa ture. Bara Israa'iloonni faca'an ummatni kun Aafrikaatti cehanii naannoo kaaba baha Afrikaa keessa qubatan jedha. Kun eegaa yaada tasa namaaf hinfudhatamneefi waan mirkana tahees kan hinqabneedha.
Yaadni Oromoon Afrikaa alaa dhufe jedhu dhugaa waan hinqabneedha. Seenaa mirkanii hinqabne akkasii tana fudhatanii babal'isuuf warri tattaafatan akeeka qabau. Keessattu warri seema Afrikaa alarraa waan dhufaniif kan Oromoos kanatti harkisuu barbaadu. Oromoon osoo Hindii, Fransaayii, ykn giddu galeessa bahaarraa dhufe tahee ummatni aadaan, afaaniin, qaamaafi seenaan Oromoo wajjiin walfakkaatu achitti argamuutu irra jira. Garuu har'a Hindii, Fransaayiifi Faarisii keessatti kana hinarginu. Kanaafu maddi saba Oromoo Afrikaa alaamiti. Ummatni Oromoo, ummata Afrikaa qulqulluu keessaa isa tokko thuun hin mamsiisu.
Afrikaa keessa golee tokko warri akkekuu yaalan
Ummatni Oromoo ummatoota kuush keessaa tokko akka ta'ee mamiin hinjiru. Kuush ammoo, damee dhala namaa keessaa isa tokko tahee Afrikaa keessatti kan argamuudha. Kanaaf Afrikaa keessaa bakka madda Oromoo akeekuuf yaalame haalaallu.
Duuchaa dhumtti Oromoon toora sabbata lafaa (equator) irraa dhufe warri jedhan nijiru. Maddi ummata Oromoo ammoo, Hora Viktooriyaati warri jedhaniis nijiru. Oromoon Suudaan keessaa bakka Sinaar jedhamuu ka'ee karaa Gojjaamiifi Tulluu walaliin seene warri jedhaniis nijiru. Jechoonni kun hundinuu waan qorannoodhaan mirkanwuu qabaniidha.har'a ummatoota Burundiifi Ruwaandaa keessa jiraatan keessaa sanyiin isaanii gara Oromootti warri dhihaatan nijiru. Garuu Oromootu dur achi turee irraa godaneefi, isaantu gara sanatti godaananii wanti beekamu hinjiru. Qormaata gahaa barbaada.
Qeesiin Amaaraa Abbaa Baahiree jedhamu bara 1593tti hoggaa waa'ee ummata Oromoo barreeyse.
Oromoonni gara dhihaarraa laga biyya saanii kan galaana jedhamu cehanii, bara Atsee waang Saggad gara huduuda Baallii dhufa" jedhee ture. Algni galaana jedhamu har'a adda hinbahu. Oromoon lagaan galaana jedhee ni waama. Tarii inni Abba Baahireen jedhu kun laggeen gannaalee, wabee, saganfi walmal ykn Dawwaa keessaa tokko tahuun nimala. Naannoo Baalli jedhamu kutaa har'a Baale jedhamuun walitti fakkeessuun hintahu. Seena qorqttoonni Baahiree booda garii haala gaafas Oromoon lafa isaa deebifachuuf sosso'aa itti ture hubachuu dhbuu irraa, waan Baahireen barreeyse fudhatanii waan Baahireen barreeyse fudhatanii madda ummata Oromoo himu. Haathuu malee, Baahireen madda Oromoo Afrikaa keessatti akeeka malee ala hinbaafne.
Maddi Oromoo Afrikaa kessa tahuu isaa seena barreessitoonni hedduun amananii jiru. Haathuu malee, Afrikaa keessaa naannoo Kaaba-Bahaa tahee achi keessatti golee tokkotti Oromoo murteessuuf warri tattaafatan nijiru. Isaan kana keessaa warra bebeekkamoo duwwaa ilaalla. Namni biyya Xaliyaanii Enrikoo cheruulii jedhamu, maddi saba Oromoo fiinxee Gaafa Afrikaa, Kaaba bahaa Somaaliyaa naannoo mijerteeniyaati jedha. I:M: Luwiis kan jedhamuus waan Cheruuliin jedhe kan fudhachuudhaan seenaa Somaalee barreeyse. Obboo Yilmaa Dheereessaas yaaduma Cheruulii kan hundee fudhachuun maddi OromooKaaba-baha Soomaaliyaati jedha. Cheruulli irraa jalqabanii seenaa qorattoonni yaada kan dhugoomsuuf akkas jedhan: "maddi Oromoo Majarteeniyaa ture. Somaaloonni yeroo sana Oromoorraa gara Kaabaa naannoo Barbaraafi Zayilaa turan. Jaarra 1ffaa ykn 11ffaa keessa Arbitichii Sheek ismaa'il jedhamu biyya Somaalee dhufe. Dubartii Somalee fudhee gosa daroot irraa hore. Qur'aana isaan barsiisee Islaameesse…jaarraa12ffaa keessa bakka turan -Barbaraafi Zayilaarraa warraaqanii Oromoo waraanuu jalqaban. Oromoon dura dhaabachuu waan hindandayiniif jalaa siqaa Ogaadeen seenan. Booddee Somaaloonni waan itti jabaataniif, Oromoonni jalaa sossohanii Waabi Shabeellee cehanii qubatan.
Yaadni isaan dhiheessan akka tocho'iinsa (godaansa) Oromookan jaarraa 16ffaa ragaa ni taha kan jedhaniidha. Yyadni kun Oromoofi Somaalee gidduu karaa antrippoloojii hidhata jiru haaluudha. Oromoofi Somaaleen yeroo kamii jalqabanii adda bahanii, kopha kophatti gara sabaatti dagaaguugu jalqaban gaaffii jedhuuf deebii gahaa dura argachuu barbaachisa. Tarii yeroon Oromoofi Somaaleen gosa tokko turanii waliin naannoo jedhame keessa jiraatan jiraachuun nimala.
Yaadni Oromoon Kaaba baha Somaaliyaarraa madde jedhu hamma 1963tti beektoota baay'een waan fudhatamee ture. Yaada kana kan faalleessu qorannoon godhomee Habarlaand nama jedhamuun ture. Oromoon Somaaliyaa keessaa dhibamee dhufe osoo hintaane, baddaa Baalee keessa jiraata ture. Habarland hoggaa kana ibsu. Oromoonni kan maddan Kaaba Somaalee keessa osoo hintaane baddaa Baalee irraati. Achitti gosa tokko tahanii horii horsiifachuu qofaan utuu hin thin qotiinsaan bulan. Dongoraadhaan qotuu turan. Garbuus facaafatu. Booda walitti baay'anaan karaa hundaan, gara Somaaletti hamma Bur-haqabaafi Mija-rteenitti, gara Booranaafi Keeniyaatti hamma laga xaanaatti, gara Habashaattis hamma daangaa Tigraayitti, hamma Suudaaniifi hararitti bittinnaa'an" jedhe.
Habarlaandaan kan irratti dabalee yaada Oromoonni Somalootan dhibaamanii gara naannoo har'a jiraatanitti faca'an jedhu kun waan hinfakkaanne tahuu isaa ibsa. Yaada Habaralaandi kan kan warrra kaanirraa kan adda isa godhu, Oromoon baddaa Baalee keessa qubatee qonna qotataa kan ture malee, jaarraa beekama tokko keessa akka awwaannisaa ka'ee kan godaane akka hintaane ibsuu isaati.
Yaada Habarlandaa kan deeggaru, seenaa qorattoonni adda addaa yaada darbatanii jiru. Charles T.beke barreeyfama isaa kan 1847 barreeyse keessatti Oromoon lafa gammoojjii, lafa naannoo Somaaleeti kan dhfteemiti jedha. Naannoo isaan dura turan, lafa gaara qabu, baddaa tahuu qaba jedha.bifti Oromoo akka inni ummata gammoojjii (negiroo) hin taane ragaa nitaha. Habashaarraa gara kibbaa ummata jiraataa ture, lafti isaa badda, nannoon isaa galaanni ykn bishaan guddaan turuu nimala. Beekeen yaada isaa akkasitti hogga lafa kaayu, kan Habarlaandi wajjiin waliitti dhufa. Tellez kan jedhamuus Oromoon lafa Baalliifi galaana hindii gidduu jiru keessaa jiraataa ture jedha. Kanaaf wanti qorattoonni kun jedhan idileetti Oromoon lafa baddaa kaaba baha Afrikaa keessa jiraataa ture kan jedhuudha.
Hunda caalaatti qorannoo irraa bal'aa gochuudhaan, uummatni Oromoo ummata Afrikaa qulqulluu tahuu isaa kan addeesse Harbert S. Luwiis jedhama. Waa'ee madda saba Oromoo qorachuudhaaf S.Luwiis waan lama gurguddaa irratti hundaawe.
Qormaata afaanoota kush Bahaafi
Himamsa aadaati.
Luwis afaanoota ummatoota kuush afurtamii-torba keessaa kan Kuusha bahaa warra baay'ee waliitt dhihaatan 24 qorate. Afaanootni kun, akka walfakkaatanitti bakka afuritti qoode. Afaanootni kaan bara dheeraaf wailirraa adda waan turaniif malee, hundi isaanii dur tokko akka tahan addeesse. Herbert.S.Luwis ummatoota Kuush bahaa keessaa kanneen baay'ee Oromoo wajjiin walfakkaatu qoratee, madda Oromoo hoggaa ibsu:
Hunda caalaa afaan isaanii Afaan Oromoo wajjiin kan walfakkaatu kan ummata Koonsoo, Gidoollee, Gatoo, Arboora, Gaawwata, Waraasa, Tsemaayiifi Galab kan isaan argaman Toophiyaarraa gara kibba har'a biyya Gamuugoofa jedhamtu keessa., Hora Abbyyaafi Caamoorraa gara kibbaatti nannooa laga Sagaanifi Duulee keessa. Jaarraa baay'een fuuldura afaan Oromoo afaanoota jara kanaa wajjiin tokkicha tur. Booda eega afaan hunda isaanii adda babahee raaw'atee Oromoon gara dhihaarraa kan hafe gara hundatti yeroo socha'u jarri kaan achuma biyya isaanii kan duritti hafan. Kanaafiis Oromoonni tooruma Haroo Abbaayyaatiifi Caamoo naannoo lageen saganiifi Duulee turan jedhee jira. As keessaatti Harbert S.Luwis warra kaan caalaa bakka beekamaa tokko lafa kaayuuf carraaqe. Qormaanni inni godhe kun, saboota kaani wajjiin walbiraqabee waan taheef irra bal'aadha. Haatahuu malee, Oromoon bara kanarraa kaasee akkamitti saboota kanaa wajjiin adda bahee kophatti saba tahuu jalqabe gaaffiin jedhu ammallee qormaata barbaada. Sabootni ollaa walii jiran waldhibuu nijiraata, yeroo tokko inni tokko jabaatee hoggaa lafa isaa bal'ifatu, lafti isa kaani ammoo nidhiphata. Haalli kun wal jijjiree jiraata. Qormaata Harbertirraa akka hubannutti maddi saba Oromoo naannoo lageen saganiifi Duuleeti. Garuu madda saba Oromoo lafa dhiphaa akkasii keessatti hidhuun qormaata boru godhamuuf nama rakkisa. Qormaata gara biraatiin utubamuu qaba. Jalqaba laali
Madda ummata Oromoo bira gahuuf, himamsi aadaa bakka guddaa qaba. Seenaan afaaniin dabru madda seenaa keessaa isa jabaa tahullee waan bara dheeraan duraa himuurraatti mudaa hinqabaatin hin hafu. Hammi afaaniin waltti dabarsaa fidan yeroo wajjiin ni jijjiirama, kaniis irraanfatamuun nimala. Haatahuu malee, seenaa tokko barreeysuu keessaatti qooda guddaa qaba. Xasoo Magiraa qormaata seenaa Oromoo godhe keessatti himamsa aadaaf bakka guddaa kenne jira. Manguddoota Oromoo kutaa adda addaa keessa jiran gaafatee, hundi saanii naannoo walitti dhihoo tahe akka himatan bira gahe.
1. Jaarsooliin Ituufi Humbanna (Harargee) afaan tokkoon mormorii dhufne jedhu. Mormor kutaa Baalee naannoo Dalloofi Mandooyyuu jedhaman keessaa qarqara laga Gannaaleetti argama.
2. Jaarsooliin Arsii naannoo Bareedduu Kurkurruu jedhamu himatu. Kuniis Baalee keessatti lageen walamaliifi Mannaa giddutti argama. Laggeen kun Baddaa Baalee keessaa burqanii Konyaalee Dalloofi Mandooyyuurraa yaa'anii Gannaaleetti galu.
Oromoon Wardaayi Keeniyaa keessatti kan argaman Tullu Nam-durii dhufne jedhu. Mangddoonni Booranaas Tulluu Nam-durii kana himatu. Tulluun Nam-dur kan argamu Baalee keessaa Koonyaa Dalloofi laga walmaliifi Gannaalee giddutti.
Oromoonni Maccaafii Tuulama oggaa gaafataman afaan tokkoon, Haroo Walaabuu himatu. Walaabuun kan aragamu Baale keessa Konyaa Dalloo laga Gannaalee qarqaratti ganda Bidree jedhamtu cinatti.
Ormoonni Gujii bitaafi mirga laga Gannaalee naannoo Girjaarraa dhufne jedhu. Girjaan kutaa Sidaamoo Awraajjaa Jamjam keessatti gara mummee laga Gannaaleetti argama.
Eegaa himamsa aadaa kanarraa akka hubatamuu dandayutti Oromoon Afrikaa alaa akka dhufe wanti akeeku hinjiru. Oromoon as Afrikaa keessaa akka ture, keessattuu Kaab baha Afrikaa keessa akka ture argisiisa. Himamsi aadaa kun kan akeeku Ormoon Kutaalee har'a Sidaamoofi Baale jedhaman keessaa Konyaalee Dalloo, Mandooyyuufi Jamjam keessa akka jiraata tureedha. Ormoon yeroo dheeraadhaaf naannoo kan jiraate jechuun ni dandaya. Haa tahuu malee, Ormoon asitti dhalate jechuuf qormaata irra bal'aa kan hariiroo ummatoota kuush wajjiin jiru xiixaluu barbaachisa.ummatni tokko gaafuma tokkotti bakka tokkotti kan dhalatuumiti. Dagaagina dhala nama kan yeroo fudhatu keessa dabree kophatti bahee ummata mataa isaa dandahe taha. Xumuramuudhaaf kan jedhuu dandayu, ummatni Oromoo ummata Gaafa Afrikaa keessaa isa tokko, damee kuush keessatti argama, yeroo dheeraa irraa kaasee kaaba-baha Afrikaa keessa jiraate, har'aas jiraataa jira.
Lola Amntiifi Miidhaa Oromoorra gahe jaarraa 10ffaa _15ffaa
Amantiin Kiristaanaafi Islaamaa Gaafaa Afrikaa walduraa duubaan seenaan. Amantiin Kiristaanaa jaarraa 4ffaa keessa warra Habashaa keessaa seenee amantii warra mootii tahe. Mootoonni Habashaa Kiritaanummaa fudhatanii saboota kaaniis fudhachiisuu jalqaban. Amaantiin Islaamaa gara Afrikaatti kan cehuu jalqabde Jaarraa 7ffaa keessa ture. Nagadaafi Islaamummaa babal'isuun walqabatanii gara Afrikaa qarqara galaana diimaarraa bakka heddutti faca'e. Jaarraa 10fi12 giduutti lafaa qarqara galaana diimaa bira dabree godina kana keessatti babal'achuu jalqabe. Hawwiin babal'achuu amantii kana lamaanii, waldura dhaabbatee lola lubbuufi qabeenya ummata godina kana balleessuuf deemsifame. Lolli kun keessattuu ummata Oromoorraan miidhaa gudda gahe.
Oromootniifi Affaarootni walitti aananii qubatan. Giddu saaniitti lafa irra tiikfatan bal'ifachuuf waldhiibuu irratti lolli sadarkaa adda addaatti ture. Lafa bishaaniifii margaa qaburraa waldhiibanii gumaa gidduu isaaniitti argamu manguddoota gosaan fixachuun niture. Haalli kun garuu eega amantiin Islaamaa Affaaroota seenee jalqabe bifa amantii babal'isuu dabalatee cimaadhufe. Affaarootni lafa Oromoorraa dhiibanii qabatan mootooma Islaamaa tolfachuu jalqaban.
Affaarootni amantii Islaamummaa fudhatanii mootooma dhaabbachuu haajalqaban malee, haalli isaan keessa turan gaariimiti. Islaamummaa hundaan hinfudhanne, kanaafuu isaan jidduu waldhabbiin niture. Tokkooma gosa tokkicha jalatti waan hin sassaabamneef haala faffaca'ee keessa turan. Mootoomni Islaamaa dhaabbataniin xixiqqoo faffaca'oo turan. Mootoomni Islaamaa hoggaas uumaman Ifaat, Adaal, Harar, Awwusaa,…turan. Mootoomni hoggaa Ifaat keessatti dhaabbate Walashama jedhamee beekama.
1. Motomni Islaamaa kun hawwii lama-sdii qabu turan. Isaaniis:
2. Amantii Islaamaa babal'suu
3. Daandii nagadaa harkatti galfachuufi
4. Daga gabbataa tahe qabachuudha.
Kanaaf Oromoota olla isaanii jiran dhiibuu jalqaban. Jaarraa 13ffaa keessa Oromoota naannoo Faxagariifi Dawwaaroo keessaa arihanii dhufatan, achiirraa dhaabbatanii Baalliifi Daraaratti duulanii Oromoota amantii Islaamaa Fudhachiisan. Bakka kanatti mootooma Islaamaa tolafatan. Babal'ifannoon Islaamaa kun Habashoota yaaddeesse. Hawwii isaan Kiristaanumma babal'isuuf qaban dura dhaabbate.
Islaamummaan babal'atee, Oromoota daga isaaniirraa dhiibee yeroo daga kiristaanaatti dhihaate kana, Habashoonni rakkina keessa turan. Yeroon kun yeroo mootummaan Aksum caphee harka Agawutti gale, lolli Agawootaafi Habashoota jiddutti tahe, yeroo humni isaanii itti laaffisuudha. Eega Agawuun qabatees lolli Habashoota jiddutti deemaa waan tureef, humni isaanii keessatti nilaaffate. Mootonni Agaw kan Zaaguwee jedhamee beekamu, hamma walkkeessa jaarraa 13ffaatti irra turee booda moo'ame. Habashoonni aangotti deebi'an. Habashoonni eegasii human isaanii jabeeyfatanii dhiibbaa Islaamoota ykn Affaarootaa dura dhaabbachuu jalqaban.
Bara 1250rraa kaasee lolli kiristaanafi Islaama jiddutti yeroo dheeraaf godhame jalqabe. Habashoonni Affaaroota ofjalatti gabbarsiisuu, dagaafii mantii isaanii babal'ifachuuf babal'ina amantii Islaamaa dhaabuuf; Affaarootniniis daga bal'ifachuufi, babal'ina amantii kiristaanaa dhaabuuf tattaafataa turan. Lamaanuu daga Oromoo kan hoggaa Affaarootni dhunfatanirratti waan walqunnamaniif lolli hedduun lafa Oromoorratti tahan. Wallolli Kiristaanaafi Islaama giddutti jalqabame itti fufe, bara Imaam Ahmed sadarkaa guddaarraa gahee hamma Oromoon Gadaan ofjaaree ka'etti deeme. Habashoonnifi Islaamoonni daga Oromoo Faxagar, Dawwaaroofi Baalli keessatti wallolanii qabeenya Oromoo saamuudhaan dabree ofcimsaa turan. Lola kana keessatti hedduu kan hubame Oromoodha. Ormoon qabeenya saamamee, lubbu namni heedduu irraa dhumanii, miidhaa guddaan irra gahe. Umanni Oromoo diina isaa lachuu ofirraa lolaa lafa isaa deebifachuuf tattaafachaa ture.
Lolli Habashootaafi affaaroot jidduu bara mootii Habashaan Yagiba Tsiyoon (1285-94) jalqabame. Yagibaan Tsiytoon Adaalitti duulee cabsee irra aane. Duula isaa kana booddee Islaamoota wajjiin araara uume, akka nagadoonni Islaamaa biyya seenaan yeroo eehamu, isaafiis karaan kennamee ABUNA alaa fidachuu dandaye. Yagbia Tsiytoon gaafa du'e ijoolleen isaa aangoorratti walqabuu jalqaban. Haala kana keessatti Habashaan deebi'ee laaffate. Affaarootni haala kan hubatanii ifatti weeraruuf human walitti qabachuu jalqaban. Yeroo kan Habashoonni Affaarootaaf daga dhiisanii araaraman. Araarri kun ammallee fedhii babal'ifannoo Islaamaa quubsuu didee ifaan ifatti weeraruuf qophii gochuu jalqaban. Dhiibbaan Islaamootaa Habashoota walitti itichee sabboonummaa keessatti dagaagse.
Yagiba Tsiyoon booddee waggaa saddeettamaaf Habashoonni eega waljeeqanii booda Amde Tsyoon (1314-44) aangoo qabate. Amde Tsyoon Habashaa daddaaqamuu kana keessaa baasee walitt itichee jabeesse. Kanaaf bu'ureessaa mootummaa Habashaa jedhamee beekama. Bara isaa keessa Habashoonni weerara gurguddaa Affaarootarratti oofanii milkaawan. Amde Tsyoon lola isaa ifatti rukutuun jalqabe. Sulxaan Ifaat bulchaa ture, haqaddiin nama jedhamu ture. Haqq-ad-diin Habashaa loluudhaaf osoo qopkhirra jiruu, ergamaa Habashaa kan Kaayroodhaa galu Islaamummaa fudhachiisuuf yaalee dinnaan ajjeese. Amde Tsyoon kana sababa godhatee bara 1328tti Ifaatitti duula bobbaase. Ifaatiin rukutee moo'e. Haqqaddiin booji'ame. Amde Tsyoon Faxagaariis rukutee eega ofjala galchee booda oobaleessa Haqqaddiin Sabnaddiin itti shuume. Eega Amde Tsyoon deebi'e booda Sabnaddiin Habasharratti fincila kaasuu yaade. Mootummaan Islaama Adiyyaafi Baaletti ergatee akka issaf tumsan gaafate. Agawuttiis dhaamsa ergee akka isaan keessaan itti ficilanii humna mootichaa tamasaasan gaafate. Akeekni isaa Habashatti, karaa lamaa sadiin duulanii of giddutti rukutuu ture. Amde Tsyoon garuu mala isaani kana dafee bira gahee, diinoota saa tokko tokkoon rukutuu jalqabe. Dura hadiyyaa cabse, achii Faxagar, itti aansee Dawwaaroofi Ifaat rukutee cabse. Affaarootiifi Islaamoonni akkasitti saphatti kan cabuu dandayaniif 1 ) mootummaa xixiqqotti waan adda qoodamanii turaniif 2) ummanni isaanii irra guddaa waan tiikfatteefi godaantuu waan tahaniif ture. Amde Tsyoon Faxagar, Dawwaaroo, Ifaatfi Hadiyyaa dhunfatee nama Jamaal addiin jedhamu irratti shuumee gara daga issaatti deebi'e.
Kun lola Habashootaaf Affaaroota jidduu hoggaa tahu Faxagariifi Dawwaaroo keessattiis Oromootaafii Habashoota gidduutti lolli niture. Bara 11329-32tti hoggaa Amde Tsiyoon Faxagariifi Dawwaarotti duulaa ture, lola guddaatu tahee ture. Lola kanan Oromoota hedduutu dhume, qabeenyaan saamamee daangaa hinqabu. Lola balleessi kan lubbuufi qabeenya hinbararre waan taheef, Oromoonni Faxagariifi Dawwaaroo gad dhiisanii jalaa godaanuun dirqii itti tahe. Deebisaanii qabachuuf haa lolan malee, bara Amde Tsiyoon kana keeessatti Oromootni osoo dhiibamnii qarqara laga awaashiin gayan. Ormoon waan qabu fudhatee sababa jalaa godaaneef, keessa qubatanii bulcuu hindandeenye. Duula isaa qideeyfachuuf akka tahuufitti Amde Tsiyoon kaampii waraanaa Manzitti tolfate. Bara isaa kanaa jalqabee Habashoonni qubsuma waraanaa lafa Oromoo keessatti ijaarrachuu jalqaban.
Affaarootni eega bara Amde Tsiyoon cabanii moohamanii hamma 1441tti bayyanachuu hindandeenye. Ifaatiifi naannoo sanarraa fagaatanii ofjaaruu jalqaban. Dakar, Harariifi Awusaatti deebi'anii humna isaanii jabeeyfatanii duulaa turan. Garuu habashaa injifachuu hindandeenye. Bara 1441tti Affaarootni Adaal jedhaman Habashatti lola bananii mohaman. Affaarootni naannoo Awusaafi warri amantii hinfudhatiniis bulchiinsa Habashaa didanii walaqabatanii ficila kaasan. Baayidaa Maariyam (1478-94) waraana karaa lama 1473/74tti itti erge.waraanni lachuu nimoohame. Injifatamuun waraana Habashaa kun jabinafi ol'aantummaa isaa dhabamsiise, eegasii humni gad deemuu jalqabe.
Lolli Oromootaafi Habashoota jidduu hoo? Oromoon bara Amde Tsiyoon Faxagariifi Dawwaaroo keessaa dhiibamanii qarqara laga hawaash ga'anii lolli hindhaabbanne. Mootoomni Habashaa kan Amde Tsiyoon booda dhufaniis Oromoo dhiibuurraa turan. Bara Zara Yaaqoob (1434-68) mootii Habashaa ture waraanni Habashaa Baallii keessatti dhiibachaa ture. Yeroo tokko waraanni Zara Yaaqoobfi Oromootni naannoo Haroo Laangannootti wallolanii turan. Oromoota Baallii keessaa baasuuf haa dhiibaman malee, daga sana dhufachuu hindandeenye. Kuniis Oromoonni looniifi ilmaan isaanii jalaa godaansisanii gaafa dadhabban waan miliqaniif ture. Waraanni Habashaa daga isaarraa fagaatee dhufe kun, waan nyaatu dhabee yeroo beela'u deebi'ee galuuf dirqame. Waraana laafee jiru kana Oromoon karatti eegee daguun rukutee hedduu irraa fixe. Kanaaf lafa Oromoo keessa qubachuu hindandeenye.
Bara 1445tti Oromootni Dawwaroo deebifachuuf lola itti banan. Zara Yaaqoob itti duulee injifate. Waraanni Habashaa duula godhee eega raaw'ate booda gara daga isaatti yeroo debi'u Oromonni ammoo lola jalqabu. Haala duula ba'uufi galu kana xiqqeessuuf, Habashoonni boroo Baallii keessa qubsuma waraana gara biraa tolfatan. Achirraa Dawwaarootti duuluu jalqaban. Lolli kun haaluma kanaan takka ka'ee takka dhaamaa, hamma bara 1468tti itti fufe, dhumarratti Zara Yaaqoob Dawwaaroo keessatti lolarratti moohamee harka Oromootti du'e.
Zara Yaaqoob booddee Baa'ida Maariyam (1468-78) aangoo qabatee duula Oromoorratti godhuu ittifufe. Duula inni Baallii qabachuuf godhe keessatti Oromootni humna isaarraa hedduu fixan. Yeroof Oromo cabsuu dadhaban. Habashoonni qubsuma waraana isaanii kan bara Amde Tsiyoonfi Zara Yaaqoob lafa Oromoo keessatti tolfatanirraa ka'anii salphatti Oromoo weeraruu jalqaban. Lolli gurguddaan Dawwaaroo, Baallifi Faxagar keessatti deemuu jalqabe. Oromoon yeroo kanatti ofijaaree waan hinjirreef midhaa guddaan irragahe. Oromoon dhiibamee Awaashirraa gara kibbaatti ittifame. Naannoo kanatti ittifamuun saas akka inni ofjaaruuf isa dhiibe.
Lola Guddaa Jaarraa 16ffaarraa jalqabe
Ummanni Oromoo jaarraa 13ffaarraa kaasee diinoota lama: Habashootaafii Islaamoota ofrirraa lolaa ture. dinoota kana lameeniis miidhaa guddaatu irra gahaa ture. ofirraa ittisuuf haa faccisu malee, hamma sirna Gadaan ofjaaree jabaateetti akka humnaatti gad ofdhaabuu hindandeenye. Kanaafuu jaarraa 14ffaafi 16ffaa gidduutti Islaamoonnifi Kiristaanoonni Oromoo saamuudhaan dagaagaa turan. Garuu Oromoon walakkeessa jaarraa 15ffaarraa kaasee sirna Gadaa ijaarratee cimaafi jabaataa waan dhufeef roorroo gara lachuun itti dhufu ofirraa ittisuuf lafa isaa deebifachuu jalqabe. Haa tahuu malee, faaraan Oromoo kan cime jaarraa 16ffaa keessa ture. jaarraa 15ffaa keessatti waraana Habashaa wajjiin bara Zara Yaaqoobfi Ba'ida Maariyaam naannoo Hora Laangannoofi Baalli keessatti wal lolanii turan. Lolli jaarraa 16ffaa keessatti deeme ammoo, hundi isaa Gadaan geggeeffamaa ture. lubi tokko akka sadarkaa aangoo qabachuu gahen lolli bifa haarayaan deemaa ture. kanaaf duula Oromoo hubachuuf Luboota ka'anii Gadaa fudhatan waliin laalla.
Weerara Islaamaafi Haala Oromoo
Bara Baa'ida Maariyam waraanni habashaa maoohamee humni isaanii laafachaa deeme. Islaamoonni sana booddee human isaanii jabeeyfataa deeman. Bara Naa'ood (1494-1508) moohe keessatti haala isaan gidduu qabbaneessuuf gamni lachuu fedhii qabuture. Affaaroonni Adaal haala kana osoo argisiisaa jiranii Amiirri Harar- Mahfuuz kan jedhamu Habashaarratti lola bane. Naa'ood yeroof haa injifatuu malee, humni Islaamootaa walqunnamtii Islaamoota addunyaa wajjiin waan qabaniif daran jabaataa deeme. Habashoonni kan hubatanii isaaniis Kiristaana Arooppaatti, keessaahuu Poortugaalatti hidhachuu carraaqan. Bara 1509tti namicha Maatiwu jedhamu Armaantich gara Poortugaalitti ergatan. Haalli kun eega Naa'ood du'ee ilmi isaa Libana Dingil jedhamu ijoollee waan taheef Haati isaa bulchaa turteedha.
Libana Dingil (1508-40) guddatee eega aangoo qabatee haala nagayaan Islaama wajjiin jiraachuu jedhu kan Heleenaa (haadha isaa) geeddaree lola jalqabe. Adaaloonnis ofijaaranii gargaarsa alarraa argatanii waan turaniif Habashaarratti lola labsan. Bara 1516tti Adaaloonni Faxagar qabachuuf weerara jalqaban. Mahaafuuz lola kana keessatti du'e, lolli labsame hamma Imaam Ahmad Ibni Ibrahim al Gahaaztti bakka hin geenye.
Imaam Ahmad (1506-43) ykn Giraanyi Ahmad kan jedhamu ijoollumma isaa lafa Hubta jedhamu kan Baddeessaafii Harar gidduutti dabarse. Imaam Ahmad loltuu jabaa tahee guddate. Human waraanaa walitti qabatee Amiira Harar ajjeesee aangoo qabate. Eega sanaa human isaa guddifatee lolaaf ofqopheessutti ka'e, bara 1527tti human Habashaa kan Adaliin weeraru deemu lolee injifannoo guddaa irratti argate. Lola kana booddee Imaam Ahmad waraana isaa qabatee lola jalqabe. Bara 1529tti bakka shuburaa kuraa jedhamutti waraana Habashaa lolee moohe. Waraanni isaa garuu tiikfattootafi godaantootarraa waan ijaarameef, akkasumas gosa isaatiif waan abboomamaniif lola kan booddee ni faca'e. Kanaaf waggaa lama keessatti waraana haaraya ijaarrachuun dirqii itti tahe. Waraana isaa duwwaaaf ajajamu waggaa lama keessatti ijaarrattee lola itti fufe. Bara 1531tti Dawwaaroofi Shawaa qabate. 1533tti ammoo, Amaaraafi Laastaa dhufate. Baallii, Sidaama, Hadiyyaafi Guraagee yeroo tokkotti ofjala galche. Bara 1535tti Tigree weeraree qabatee habashaarraa harka guddaa qabate. Bakka dhaqetti Islaamummaa fudhachiisaa, bataskaana dhabamsisaa deeme. Liban Dingil gargaarsa Poortugaal gaafate osoo hindhaqqabin lolarratti du'e, Ilmi isaa Galaawudoos (1540-59) itti dabree moohe. Poortugaal waraana nama dhibba afur, qawwee wajjiin ergee ture, Liban Dingil bira gahe. Waraanni Kiristaanootaafi Ahmed Giraanyiis ni faca'e. Haa ta'uu malee, humni habashaafi Islaamootas hedduu hubamaee laffate. Haalli kun Oromoon biyya deebifachuurratti hedduu gargaare.
Duula Oromoo jarraa 16ffaa
Jaarraa 13ffrraa kaasee hamma dhuma jaarraa 15ffaatti Oromoon rakknaafi roorroo guddaa jala ture. Yeroo kana ture yeroo inni daga isaarraa dhiibamee laga Awaash gamatti ittifame. Yeroo kan ture yeroon lolli amantii kan Islaamootaafi Habashootaa gidduutti deeme hedduu isa miidhe. Sababnii saa maalirraa madde? Sabani guddaan jaarmaya isa tokkeessu dhabuusaati. Akkuma Oromoonni adda fagaatanii qubataniin gosa gosaan buluun waan isaan tokkeessu dhabame. Oromootni gosuma gosaan miidhaan isaan mudate malee, sirni walitti isaan itichee waliif tumsiisu hinturre. Kanaf roorroon guddaan irra gayuu dandahe.
Jaarraa 15ffaa keessa hawaasa Oromoo keessatti dagaagni argamuu jalqabe. Sirni tokko isaan taasisee roorroo alagaa ittiin ofirraa ittisan dagaagee hawaasa guutummaa dhaqqabuu jalqabe. Sirni haarayni biqilaa ture kun, yeroo dheera keessa kan dhufe tahullee Oromoota irree jabeessee akka lafa isaanii deebifataniifi roorroo alagaa akka ofirraa deebisan gargaare. Oromoos ummata sodaatamafii kabajamaa taasise. Sirni kuniis Gadaa dha. Jaarraa 16ffaa kaasee ummata Oromoo seenaa keessatti kan beeksiseefi harka isaatti kan hambise sirna kana. Ummanni Oromoo gara jaarraa sadii rakkinaafii roorroo isarra gahee ture ofirraa deebisuuf Gadaan ofijaare. Abbaa Bokkuu tokko jalatti walgurmeesse. Haala siyaasafi waraanaa jabaa tolchee ijaarrate. Jaarmaya isaa kanaan ummatoota naannoo isaa jiran caalatti jabaatee humna sodaatamaa tahe. Daga isaarraa qabatame deebifachuuf duula gurguddaa jaarraa 16ffaa jalqabarraa kaasee eegale, humni jajjaboon kan Habashootaafi Islaamootaa lolaan waldadhabsiisanii waan turaniif haala aanjaa argate.
Duula biyya isaa deebifachuuf Oromoon jaarra 16ffaa keessatti jalqabe kan seenaa barreeysitoonni haala adda addaatiin dhiheessuu barbaadu. Sababoota duulli kun itti dhalachuu dandayan akka adda addaatti himu.
Brus namich jedhamu yeroo burqaa laga Naayil (abbayya)qorachuuf kbiyya Habashaa dhaqe, waa'ee Oromoo qoratee akkas jedhe. "duratti osoo gara daangaa Habashaa hindhufin dura isaan ((Gaalla) walakkeesa Ardii Afriikaa jiraatu turan. Lafti jalaa olka'uu jalqabnaan gost isaanii tokko tokko godaanuu jalqaban. Dura gara bahaa galaana Hindiiti sossohan. Achiti walhoranii gara kaabaatti qaceelanii Dawwaaroofi Baallii qubataan. Gost torba walaqabatnii garaa dhihaatti sossohanii kibba laga Abbaayfi naannoo Gojjaam keessa qubatan. Gartuu sadaffaan ammoo, gosa torba tahee walkeessatii hafanii achirraa gara kibbaatti babal'atan" jedhee ture.
Akka Brus jedhu kanatti sossohiinsa Oromoo kan kaase lafti jalaa olka'uudha. Lafti kun yoom olka'e? Akkamitti? Olka'e kan jedhuuf garuu wanti ibsu hinjiru.
Charles T. Beke bara 1842/3 yeroo Habashaa keessa ture waa'ee babal'ifannoo Oromoo waan qorate niqaba. Oduu afaaniin daddabru Habashootarraa qoratee kan inni lafa kaa'e: "Bara dur Gaallaan doko (savage) ture. beekumsa waan tokko hinqabu, qonna hinqotu, loon hintiiksu, uffata hinbeeku, ija mukaa funaanee, hidda harkaan qotee nyaata ture, dubartiin Amaaraa ykn Kristaanaa tokko bidiruu(qorii) tokkotti nyaata, uffata, eeboo, gaachanaafi mia garagaraa guuttattee baahar gamatti argite. Gaallaa dokoon mia kana yeroo argan baay'ee diqisiifatan, nyaaticha dhandhamanii itti tole, uffata ofitti kaa'an, mia gara biraas ilaalanii itti gammadan. Bakka burqaa qabeenya kanaa qabaachuu qabna ja'anii bahara sana cehanii, gara Kiristaanaa dhufan. Kana booddee waldhabbiin dhalatee lolli tahee biyya Habashaa qabatan" jedhama jedhe.
Bekeen waan akka oduu afaanitti dhiheessu kana keessatti sababa babal'ifannoo Oromoo ibsuuf yaale. Oromoo cabsuuf, tuffachuufii seenaa isaa gara dabarsuuf kan odeeffamuudha malee, dhugaa tokkollee ofkeessaa hinqabu.
Charles T. Bekeen ammallee itti fufee oduu afaanii kan Oromoota Walloo biratti odeeffamu jedhee barreeyse jira. Akka oduu isaa kanatti durii:-
"Oromoon Hawaash gamaa dhufe. Osoo bahara kana hincehin duratti qarqara isaa loon tiikfatuu turan. Gaaftookko binessi jabbii tokko arihee bahara kana ceesise. Jabbiin kun laga sana ceetee achitti walhorte. Galgala hogga gaallaan loon bishaan obaafachuu dhaqu gaaddidduu loon baay'ee arge. Akka hinliqinfamneef harka walqabatanii laga cehanii loona sana dhaalan. Booda biyyi itti tollaan achuma turan. Walhoranii baay'anaan hamma daangaa habashaatti babal'atan" jedha. Oduu afaanii fakkeessanii duula Oromoo akkanatti ibsuu barbaadu.
namich J. Hultin jedhamu ammoo, babal'ifannoon Oromoo haala adda addaarraa tahuun nimala jedha. Akka inni jedhutti haalli qilleensaa waan geeddarameef bishaaniifi marga barbaacha sossohan. Kun sababa tuhuu nidandaya jedha. Garuu eega haalli qilleensaa deebi'ee tolee margaafi bishaaniis argame, maallif babal'i'annoon kun itti fufe jedhee ofgaafata. Kanaaf jedha: J. Hultin, akkaata sababa babal'ifannoo Oromoo ibsuudhaaf haala hawaasa dinagdeefi siyaasaa hawaasa Oromoo qorachuu feesisa jedhee cufe.
Namichi Poortugaal kan Amaanu'eel de Almaad jedhamu sababa babal'ifannoo Oromoo akkaataa lamatti hima. Tokkoffaa Habashoonni amantii katolikii fudhachuu waan didaniif waaqni isaa adabuudhaaf dha'ichaa Gaallaa kana itti erge. Osoo amantii kana fudhatanii kun hundi irra hingayu jedhee barreeyse. Lammaffaa bineessa Liqimsaa jedhamtu naannoo Gaara walaabuu bira isaan facaase. Abbaan muuda isaanii naannooo Walaabu kana jiraata. Naannoon Walabuu lafa baay'ee dinqiiti. Loon adaadii aanna baay'ee keennitu waan tureef namni qotuuf hinrakkatu. Aannan dhugee jiraata. Booda bineessi Lliqimsaa jedhamuu kan bifa saa gegeeddaratu namaafi loon nyaachutti ka'e. Kan baqatanii hamma Habashaatti babal'atan. Kun eegaa waan Almaadaan babal'ina Oromoo itti ibsuu yaaleedha.
I.M.Lewis ammoo, Oromoon babal'achuu kan jalqabe waan Somaaleedhaan dhiibameef jedha. Yaada isaa kana kan deeggaran barreessitoonni maddi saba Oromoo Somaaliyaa keessa warra jedhaniidha.
Asmaaroom Laggasee ammoo, sababni babal'ifannoo Oromoo tahu baay'achuu lakkooysa namaati jedha. Lakkooysi ummata Oromoo jaarraa 16ffaa keessa waan dabaleef lafti itti dhiphannaan irraa godaanuu jalqaban jedha.
J.Hultin ammoo, akka sababaatti hin dhiheessin malee babal'ifannoo Oromoo kan gargaare Gadaan ijaaramuu isaati jedha. Lubi aangoo irra jiru osoo gad hindhiisin, lafa haaraya dabalee qabachuu qaba. Kanaaf akkuma Lubni haarayni dhufee aangoo fudhateen lafti itti dabalameen Oromoon babal'atee lafa guddaa qabachuu dandaye jedha.
Kitaaba(seenaa saba Oromoo fi Sirna gadaa)Birraa/Fulbaana 1995)
(Toleeraa Tasammaa Hundasaa Waaqwayyaa) irraa.
Copyright © Oromianeconomist 2011 and Oromia Quarterly 1997-2011, all rights are reserved. Disclaimer.
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How to end poverty? February 22, 2014
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"Nations fail economically because of extractive institutions. These institutions keep poor countries poor and prevent them from embarking on a path to economic growth. This is true today in Africa, in South America, in Asia, in the Middle East and in some ex-Soviet Union nations. While having very different histories, languages and cultures, poor countries in these regions have similar extractive institutions designed by their elites for enriching themselves and perpetuating their power at the expense of the vast majority of the people on those societies. No meaningful change can be expected in those places until the exclusive extractive institutions, causing the problems in the first place, will become more inclusive." http://otrazhenie.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/how-to-end-poverty/#
"If we are to build grassroots respect for the institutions and processes that constitute democracy," Mo Ibrahim writes for Project Syndicate, "the state must treat its citizens as real citizens, rather than as subjects. We cannot expect loyalty to an unjust regime. The state and its elites must be subject, in theory and in practice, to the same laws that its poorest citizens are." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mo-ibrahim/africa-needs-rule-of-law_b_4810286.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
Originally posted on Otrazhenie:
I was always wondering about the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity. More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? As J.W. Smith points it, with the record of corruption within impoverished countries, people will question giving them money as such 'donations' rarely 'reach the target'. Building industries instead? While that approach seems to provide better results (see few examples described by Ray Avery in his book 'Rabel with a cause'), it still did not provide a silver bullet solution, as it does not address the roots of poverty and prosperity.
From Christian Bowe
Economics: The Comparative Advantage & Opportunity Cost February 22, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Comparative Advantage, David Ricardo, Economics, Economics: Development theory and Policy applications, Food Production, International Economics, International Trade, Opportunity Cost, Oromia, Specialization, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, Uncategorized.Tags: Comparative Advantage, David Ricardo, Developing country, Development, Development and Change, Diversity and Trade, Economic and Social Freedom, economics, Opportunity Cost, Oromia, Specialization, Tade, Wealth
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Why States Commit Genocide February 22, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Colonizing Structure, Dictatorship, Ethiopia's colonizing structure and the development problems people of Southern Ethiopia and the Omo Valley, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights, Janjaweed Style Liyu Police of Ethiopia, Land Grabs in Africa, Nubia, Ogaden, Omo, Omo Valley, Oromia, Oromia Support Group, Oromia Support Group Australia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Identity, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Self determination, Sidama, State of Oromia, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Developing country, Genocide, Genocide against the Oromo, Governance issues, Human rights violations, National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tyranny, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, World Bank
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It wasn't always like this. Before nationalism, empires frequently ruled territory that contained many diverse peoples. The Habsburg family once ruled over the Spanish, Dutch and Austrian nations, along with many of the nations of Latin America. The Romans ruled hundreds of peoples great and small, from Greeks to Gauls to Britons to Iberians to Gallicians to Egyptians to Thracians to Illyrians to Carthaginians to Numidians and on and on. Before nationalism, peoples would rather submit to foreign conquerors than risk the loss of life and limb, and as a result conquerors rarely engaged in genocide except as a means of exacting vengeance on foreign rulers who defied them (as the Mongols and Assyrians were wont to do). Empires often took some of the vanquished as slaves, but rarely did empires kill thousands or millions of defenseless people deliberately and systematically for the sole purpose of decimating another nation. Instead, empires often brought conquered peoples into their trade networks, recruited them into their armies, and, eventually, even granted them citizenship rights. By treating conquered people well, they could in time acquire their loyalty.
Nationalism changed all of that. By placing lexical priority on independence and self-determination, all foreign occupiers become villains regardless of whether they are benign or malevolent in their treatment of the occupied nation. In this day and age, even members of a nation like the Scots, which enjoys spectacularly generous subsidies and full voting rights from the British government in Westminster, desire independence purely on the basis that some Scots are nationalists and believe that nothing less than full self-determination does their nation justice. If good treatment doesn't buy loyalty, occupiers quickly find that they are without incentives to treat subject peoples well or to attempt to integrate them into their states. Nationalism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy–if occupiers have nothing to gain by offering fair terms of cooperation, they will not offer them, and the subjugation nationalists fear becomes reality precisely because they fear it and refuse to cooperate with the occupier.
The occupier is left with two choices:
Get Out.
Kill Them All.
Often times, occupiers choose to abandon whatever ambitions they might have had and leave in defeat and disgrace. But this doesn't always happen–some leaders correctly reason that if they could just replace the existing population with their own people, they could pacify the territory and keep the resources it provides. If those leaders have the stomach for it, they will do the following:Systematically murder the resisting nation.
Colonize the extinct nation's territory with their own citizens.
If we want to prevent genocide, we need to prevent occupiers from having to choose between defeat and genocide.Why States Commit Genocide
by Benjamin Studebaker
Originally posted on Benjamin Studebaker:
A Cascade of Development on the Omo River:Lake Turkana at Risk from Dams and Plantations February 20, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, African Poor, Agriculture, Aid to Africa, Climate Change, Colonizing Structure, Corruption, Culture, Development, Economics, Environment, Ethnic Cleansing, Food Production, Human Rights, Land and Water Grabs, Land Grabs in Africa, Omo, Omo Valley, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Self determination, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, African Studies, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Gambella and Omo Valley, Gibe III Dam, Gibee River, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights violations, Lake Turkana, Land grabbing, Land grabs in Africa, National Self Determination, Omo River, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, State and Development, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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Omo River, Lake Turkana at Risk from Dams and Plantations
Dams and irrigated plantations being built in Ethiopia will bring major changes to the flow of the Lower Omo River, which in turn will harm ecosystem functions and local livelihoods all the way to the river's terminus at Lake Turkana in Kenya. More dams are planned for the basin that would compound the damages.
Here we outline some of the basic changes that can be expected as a result of these developments, and include resources on where to get more information.
The Gibe III reservoir is expected to start filling at the beginning of the next Kiremt rainy season (approximately May 2014); filling the reservoir will take up to three years. During this time, the river's yearly flow will drop as much as 70%.
The Gibe III will provide stable flows year-round that will enable the growth of large commercial agricultural plantations in the Lower Omo. The Kuraz sugar plantation and additional areas identified for cultivation could eventually take almost half of the Omo River inflow to Lake Turkana.
These projects will cause a decrease in river flow and the size, length, and number of floods, which will be disastrous for downstream users. This is the first year in which runoff from the Kiremt season, which is vital for flood-recession agriculture, restoration of grazing areas, and fisheries production, will be almost completely blocked.
Changes to the flooding regime will disrupt fish spawning cues and decrease productive habitat for fish in Lake Turkana and the river. Lake fish catches may decrease.
Because the Omo River contributes almost all of Lake Turkana's inflows each year, these developments could cause a big drop in lake water levels. Lake Turkana is projected to drop by about two meters during the initial filling of the dam. If current plans to create new plantations move forward, the lake could drop from 16 to 22 meters. The average depth of the lake is just 31 meters.
Climate change could worsen the water situation in the Omo. More extreme droughts and unpredictable precipitation patterns, combined with higher temperatures (which increase evaporation), could cause further stress to a region that already experiences extreme precipitation variability. There is evidence that there will be a drying trend and warmer temperatures.
The Gibe III and associated irrigation projects will limit people's mobility and ability to practice diverse livelihoods, which are important ways people in the region have adapted to climate variability in the past.
The primary means of livelihood for about 500,000 people will be dismantled by the Gibe III and large-scale commercial agriculture. Conflicts over scarce resources are expected to increase.
Africa Must Industrialize: The Time IS Now February 20, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, African Poor, Agriculture, Aid to Africa, Development, Economics, Economics: Development theory and Policy applications, Environment, Food Production, Oromo, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, Uncategorized, Youth Unemployment.Tags: Africa, African culture, African Studies, Developing country, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Economic development, Economic growth, economics, Horn of Africa, Human rights violations, Land grabs in Africa, National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Social Sciences, Sub-Saharan Africa, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, World Bank
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As the current economic growth did not result from value addition and increased manufacturing, but instead from increases in world commodity prices, it makes the region susceptible to commodity price volatility. If commodity prices fall, Africa's impressive economic growth might grind to a halt — thus, the dire need for diversification through industrialization. Even if commodity prices stay high, natural resources are not infinite and they must be managed with sagacity.
As recommended by the 2013 Africa Progress report, it is advantageous for African governments to fully implement the Accelerated Industrial Development for Africa (AIDA) plan, signed in 2008 in Addis-Ababa. The AIDA is a comprehensive framework for achieving the industrialization of the continent. If Africa can successfully steward its natural resource wealth, investing it wisely and using some to industrialize, then whether the resources run out or not or whether commodity prices fall, Africa would be on a good economic footing.
Moreover, not only will industrialization create the environment for adding value to Africa's natural resources, but it will also provide much needed employment at various stages of the value adding chain for Africa's 1.1 billion people — leading to wealth creation.
Industrialization will address many development gaps in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these gaps, as noted in a UNECA Southern Africa Office Expert Group Meeting Report, include:
Africa's high dependence on primary products
Low value addition to commodities before exports
High infrastructure deficit
High exposure to commodity price volatility
Limited linkage of the commodities sector to the local economy
Poorly developed private sector, which is highly undercapitalized
Limited commitment to implement industrial policies
Limited investment in R&D, science, innovation and technology
Low intra-Africa trade
Slow progress towards strengthening regional integration
The Time is Now
Is Africa ready? The answer is an emphatic yes. The phenomenal growth is one reason why Africa is ready, but growth on its own is not enough. Other conditions need to be considered: Does the continent have access to enough raw materials for production? What is the proximity of these natural resources to the continent? Is there adequate land, labor, and capital? These are the traditional factors of production or inputs to the production process.
Yes, Africa has access to the raw materials necessary for production. Unlike already industrialized nations who have to import raw materials from Africa and elsewhere over long distances, Africa enjoys close proximity to these resources.
With regards to the factors of production, Africa is the world's second largest continent and therefore is home to plenty of land — most of which is arable.
Africa is also the world's second most populous continent. The average age of an African in Africa is under 19 years. This means Africa has enough manpower or labor to industrialize.
Capital refers to man-made products used in the production process such as buildings, machinery and tools. Africa does have a measure of this, but instead needs to do more in this area — hence the need for greater infrastructural and skills development. In fact, African policymakers as well as their counterparts in the developed world should realize that it is high time for a shift in the nature of aid to the continent — from primarily monetary aid to the type of capital aid needed for industrialization.
Finally, when Africa successfully undergoes industrial development, its huge populace will serve as a market for the outputs of its production processes; any excess supply can be exported and swapped for foreign exchange. Africa is ready and the time for it to industrialize is now.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer's editorial policy.
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Dependency Aid is Dysfunctional: Time for Self-sufficiency February 19, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, Agriculture, Aid to Africa, Development, Economics, Economics: Development theory and Policy applications, Food Production, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, Uncategorized.Tags: Africa, African culture, African Studies, Aid and Development, Developing country, Development, Development aid, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Land grabbing, Oromia, Social Sciences, Sub-Saharan Africa, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, World Bank
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Against the dysfunctional dependency foreign assistance, Clare Lockhart in World Affairs argues for cheaper, smarter and stronger aid that creates self-sufficiency.
'Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid . . . . It's not just aid, it's trade, investment, social enterprise. It's working with the citizenry so that they can unlock their own domestic resources so that they can do it for themselves. Think anyone in Africa likes aid? Come on.'
Putting these "Fish for a Lifetime" approaches into effect will require some major shifts. It will involve looking not to how much money was disbursed, or how many schools were built, but to value for money and return on investment. And instead of propping up a vast technical assistance industry of varying and often indifferent quality, a higher priority will be placed on conducting a "skills audit" of key personnel—from doctors and teachers to engineers and agronomists—who can be trained internally rather than importing more costly and less invested technical assistance from abroad.
'It is also important under this new paradigm to distinguish between "aid" (such as life-saving humanitarian assistance and the financial or material donations it requires) and "development engagement," which is something quite different. Development engagement can be low-budget, and should be designed to move a needy country toward self-sufficiency—so that the state can collect its own revenues and the people can support their own livelihoods—as soon as possible. Many recipient countries have enormous untapped domestic resources, and with some effort devoted to increasing those revenues and building the systems to spend them, could assume much more of the responsibility of meeting their citizens' needs.'
But a strategy is only as good as its execution. Implementing development policies and programs correctly will require a clear-eyed look at the way programs are designed and implemented, and a re-examination of the reliance on contractors. There is no substitute in the long term for unleashing a society's domestic potential of human, institutional, and natural capital through a well governed country.
'Having judged the development programs of the last decade to be failures, many in the US now call for development budget cuts and wearily espouse isolationism. But it is a classic example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Failed methods do not mean that the goal of international development must be abandoned. Development needn't be an indulgent venture in charity, or risky business, or a road to nowhere paved with good intentions. A more hardheaded approach, one that creates self-sufficiency rather than dependency, is the new beginning that the development world has been waiting for.' – http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/fixing-us-foreign-assistance-cheaper-smarter-stronger
In 2002, during the early stages of Afghanistan's reconstruction process, I sat in a remote part of Bamiyan Province with a group of villagers who told me how excited they had been several months before, when a $150 million housing program from a UN agency had been announced on the radio. They felt the program, which promised to bring shelter to their communities, would transform their lives. They were shocked, however, to discover soon after that this program had already come and gone—with very little change to their lives. Indignant, as well as curious, they decided to track the money and find out what had happened to the program that, as far as they were concerned, had never been. Becoming forensic accountants, they went over the files and figures and found that the original amount granted by the UN had first gone through an aid agency in Geneva that took twenty percent off the top before sub-contracting to a Washington-based agency that took another twenty percent. The funds were passed like a parcel from agency to agency, NGO to NGO, until they limped to their final destination—Afghanistan itself. The few remaining funds went to buy wood from Iran, shipped via a trucking cartel at above-market rates. Eventually some wooden beams did reach the village, but they were too heavy for the mud walls used in construction there. All the villagers said they could do was cut up the wood for firewood, sending $150 million literally up in smoke.
With examples like this, it's really no surprise that a growing chorus of commentators claims that foreign development is expensive, ineffective, and often resented by the intended beneficiaries. In The White Man's Burden, for instance, William Easterly provides a searing critique of this do-good mentality, which he shows often causes more harm than help. In The Crisis Caravan, Linda Polman documents the unintended consequences of humanitarian assistance. In Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo argues that aid serves to fuel corruption and lack of accountability among elites.
Critics of US assistance build on this narrative to paint a picture of an America overstretched and in decline, wasting money abroad in a futile effort to serve its uncertain foreign policy objectives, and call for cutbacks and disengagement.
The US has spent $100 billion in nonmilitary funds to rebuild Afghanistan. Yet, after a decade of mind-bending mismanagement and unaccountability, it seems all for naught.
Some of America's recent engagements abroad have indeed been marked by extraordinary waste and poor design. As Joel Brinkley described in an article in this publication one year ago ("Money Pit," January/February 2013), American aid to Afghanistan has at times been extravagantly wasteful, as when a contractor overbilled the US government by $500 million. Brinkley also points to the general practice of outsourcing aid projects to contractors with little oversight. Such failures undermine confidence in the very notion of US efforts in confronting poverty and call into question our ability to deal with conflict through "soft power."
But this criticism misses an important distinction: it is not the principle of engagement, but the way many development projects work that has led to failure. There is, in fact, an alternative way of engaging abroad to promote stability and prosperity with more lasting effect and at a far lower cost than what has become a discredited status quo.
This alternative approach recognizes that there is no shortcut to development that circumvents the citizens and governing institutions of the country. It recognizes the prominent role of entrepreneurial and civic activity. It demonstrates an understanding that institutional change requires years, not months. It has been practiced by a number of farsighted development programs that have reinforced principles of partnership and local ownership of the policy agenda. This "Learn to Fish for a Lifetime" model seeks to build up local institutions that provide security, good governance, and other elements of self-sustaining economic growth. It takes advantage of the things that America knows how to do well: mobilizing investors, firms, universities, and other potent but underused tools that leverage private capital to deliver a kind of development that far outlasts the initial intervention. Many of the activities undertaken with this model actually generate enough revenue to pay back the initial investment, meaning that foreign development projects could someday operate at or close to "net zero" expenditure to the US taxpayer, a particularly appealing prescription in an era of harsh fiscal realities.
Putting "Fish for a Lifetime" approaches into practice, however, requires rejecting the prevailing approach, which makes for a complicated and ultimately self-defeating operation, in favor of one that emphasizes return on investment, both financially and in terms of improved conditions on the ground.
My own wake-up call to the yawning gap between the intentions and impact of major development programs came in that remote part of Afghanistan, soon after the Taliban had fled. Stories similar to the one I heard have been documented by the US special inspectors general for Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction. But it is not just in combat zones where billions of taxpayers' funds have created disappointment. After Haiti's tragic earthquake in January 2010, world powers promised to "build back better" and citizens internationally joined them in committing billions of dollars to that country's reconstruction. Aid programs in Haiti were notoriously dysfunctional even before the earthquake, but in the scramble to provide help after the catastrophe, funds and opportunities were squandered on an even grander scale. More than three years on, results have fallen far short of the promise. It is what one commentator and Haiti expert, Jonathan Katz, bleakly referred to in the title of his book on the aftermath of the earthquake: The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster.
Haitian President Michel Martelly has been vocal in his criticisms of the effort, too: "Where has the money given to Haiti after the earthquake gone? . . . Most of the aid was used by nongovernmental organizations for emergency operations, not for the reconstruction of Haiti . . . . Let's look this square in the eye so we can implement a better system that yields results."
As Mark Schuller documents in his book Killing with Kindness, foreign donors directed the money to a network of NGOs that bypassed the Haitian government's policy framework and the implementation capacity of its private sector, and thereby failed to meet the priorities of its citizens. Haitian organizations saw very little of the investment they needed to rebuild their society, but instead were overwhelmed by a vast aid machinery that parachuted down upon them with its own rules and priorities and complex bureaucracy.
Failure, as Haiti showed, does not come from a shortage of money or goodwill. Rather, the aid business has been afflicted by a set of institutional pathologies that almost guarantee failure. Projects designed in national capitals and foreign embassies are often divorced from the realities of the local lives of the people they intend to help, while the long time frames and rigidity of design mean that by the time a project rolls out, it is often irrelevant, even if money actually arrives after the overhead is paid to the food chain of delivery organizations. Multiple contractual layers mean too much of the original project money never even leaves international capital regions—especially Washington.
In Banda Aceh, Indonesia, analysts report how an NGO spent nearly $1 million of European Commission money on a project to construct eleven boatyards intended to stimulate the livelihoods of local fishermen, but in the end only created ten boats, none of them seaworthy.
Somewhere along the way, incentives have become skewed. Project managers and contractors alike are monitored mainly for whether the money in their charge can be tracked, rather than for whether aid activities have any transformational power. For many aid agencies, moreover, running projects has become the goal, rather than seeking to foster institutions and build productive partnerships among governments, firms, and communities. The metrics track whether a project was completed and the money disbursed, not whether sustainable institutions were left after the money had come and gone.
Finally, much of what has become standard procedure in the development business distorts local markets and displaces market activity. Every time a wheat consignment is distributed for free, for instance, local farmers see the market price for their locally grown wheat decrease. In Afghanistan in 2003, after a large-scale World Food Program wheat distribution, farmers threw up their hands and simply let their crops rot because aid had collapsed the market. Nor is it only farmers who are affected by thoughtless charity. Every time solar panels, water pumps, tractors, or cell phones are handed out for free, a local supplier can no longer sell and install his inventory, and a small business that might have long-range prospects for hiring and supporting several people is smothered.
The perversity of incentives operating in the aid and development field is no longer a trade secret. It has caught the attention of even some of the founders of the modern aid movement. "Aid is just a stopgap," the pop star Bono, one of the forces behind putting charity to Africa on the map through the Live Aid concerts, told an audience at Georgetown University in November 2012. "Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid . . . . It's not just aid, it's trade, investment, social enterprise. It's working with the citizenry so that they can unlock their own domestic resources so that they can do it for themselves. Think anyone in Africa likes aid? Come on."
In an apparent one-eighty from his earlier focus on simply mobilizing aid donations, Bono's Live Aid partner, Sir Bob Geldof, has followed suit by launching an infrastructure investment firm for Africa, proclaiming, "I want to leave behind me firms, farms, and factories."
While the stories of what didn't work in Afghanistan have grabbed the headlines, there have also been several examples of successful development engagement there. The National Solidarity Program in Afghanistan, for example, has directly reached more than thirty-eight thousand villages since 2003. Under its approach, a block grant, ranging from $20,000 to $60,000, goes directly to a bank account held by the village council, or Community Development Council. The village doesn't have to apply for the funds, but if it wants to, it must follow three simple rules: elect or appoint the council, ensure a quorum of residents attend meetings to choose projects, and post the accounts in a public place. To date, the program has disbursed more than $1.6 billion, and the village councils have completed more than seventy thousand projects—roads to the local markets, water canals, and generators and microhydro systems that electrify the area.
In one case, thirty-seven villages trying to combat the loss of women in childbirth got together and pooled their money to build a maternity hospital. In another case, one hundred and eighty-five villages pooled their money to create a watershed management system, vastly expanding the land they could cultivate. NGOs are involved in these projects as facilitators who support the village through the complex transactions that it must undertake, but unlike in the traditional model of development, they don't hold the purse strings or oversee the implementation of projects. The US Agency for International Development is now part of an international consortium that contributes to the program costs.
Similar projects exist at even greater scale in Indonesia and Pakistan. In Indonesia, the National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM) works in more than eighty thousand villages across the nation. The program formed in 1998, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, with the imperative to benefit communities directly with cash. Neither the government's social safety nets nor the NGOs could do this alone, and so a partnership between governments and communities was established. Over time, the program has evolved to include micro-finance and other investment facilities, barefoot lawyers programs, and the construction of schools—all managed directly by the villages themselves.
According to official numbers, one of the PNPM programs, PNPM Mandiri Rural, reached four thousand three hundred and seventy-one sub-districts by 2009, and saw the construction or rehabilitation of ten thousand kilometers of road, two thousand and six bridges, two thousand nine hundred and eighty-six health facilities, and three thousand three hundred and seventy-two schools, in addition to the construction of public sanitation facilities and irrigation systems. These projects increased per capita consumption gains by eleven percent and reduced unemployment by one and a half percent. PNPM can accomplish all of this because of an open planning process by which projects are targeted to meet demand as expressed by the community rather than by officials thousands of miles away.
In a similar operation in Pakistan, the Rural Support Programs Network (RSPN) partners with three hundred and twenty thousand community organizations, covering five million households and thirty-three million people. These organizations have led responses to the earthquakes and floods, organized micro-finance and health insurance schemes, and built and operated schools, clinics, roads, and hydropower schemes.
This family of homegrown programs in Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Pakistan, and similar ones in Colombia, Mexico, and India, have proven it is possible to reach communities directly and at scale, cutting out the layers of contractors and NGOs that function as middlemen, while making communities the implementers of their own development in projects that achieve real results.
We really don't need to look far afield to find approaches that work. There are a number of distinctly American approaches to development that have delivered in the past but have fallen unaccountably into disuse. Take the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948, a framework that for a while worked exceptionally well, but whose practices have been strangely forgotten in recent decades. At its core was the idea of facilitating "the achievement by the countries . . . of a healthy economy independent of extraordinary outside assistance." The act's programs, including the tremendously successful Marshall Plan, were geared toward the institutional and economic self-sufficiency of the recipients, with a central premise that the program could be judged a success only if it reduced the need for aid, rather than perpetuating it.
The Marshall Plan worked for the countries it sought to benefit and worked for the donor as well, paying the US back dividends both economically and in security terms far above its costs. This did not happen by chance. One of the participants in this plan, the political scientist Herbert Simon, describes in Administrative Behavior the painstaking organizational design that went into fine-tuning its approach. George Kennan, in a now-declassified memo from 1947, argued that "it is absolutely essential that people in Europe should make the effort to think out their problems and should have forced upon them a sense of direct responsibility for the way the funds are expended. Similarly, it is important that people in this country should feel that a genuine effort has been made to achieve soundness of concept in the way United States funds are to be spent."
Other lesser-known US development programs similarly brought impressive results with moderate or no cost to the US taxpayer.
In the aftermath of the Korean War, South Korea had one of the lowest GDPs on earth, but between 1966 and 1989, it raised its GDP by an average of eight percent per year. Behind this story lies a dedicated effort to foster local capacity and industrial-led growth, backed by a US partnership. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson agreed with President Park Chung-hee of South Korea to help establish the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and assembled a team of leading scientists and technical experts to form and plan the institute. KIST aimed to nurture Korea's own technical and managerial capacity to lay the basis for its economic transformation, rather than remain dependent on foreign management and input for its projects and companies. Korea is now one of a handful of nations that combine GDP per capita in excess of $20,000 with a population of more than fifty million people.
The South Korean government and the US government each contributed $10 million to KIST at its founding, and Washington used a similar model when it helped establish the Saudi Arabian National Center for Science and Technology (SANCST) in 1977. Saudi funds went to the US Treasury, which in turn paid for the technical assistance required for the center and a range of other initiatives.
Many of the best development initiatives are not directed by governments, but by the private sector and its use of market mechanisms. One example is the involvement of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in the Afghan telecom sector. In 2002, Afghanistan had sparse telephone coverage, with access only either through a small number of fixed lines or very expensive satellite coverage. The UN proposed that the telecom sector should be addressed through an aid-driven approach, whereby funds would be used to contract with a major cell phone provider to set up services that would provide coverage to key embassies and aid agencies, at an estimated cost in the tens of millions of dollars. But, in line with how cell phone services are organized in any developed country, it was decided instead that rather than being paid by the government or aid agencies, the telephone company would bid for the license to operate a commercial service, with the proviso that services include a certain level of coverage and standard of quality.
The tender process went ahead. Several international companies registered their interest, but many expressed reservations about the level of risk they would be undertaking. This is where OPIC stepped in to draw up a risk guarantee for possible political and security problems. With an expenditure of just $20 million, this agreement provided sufficient confidence in the telecom sector for investment to proceed. By now, several billion dollars have been invested, more than sixteen million phones purchased, significant revenues generated via taxes to the Afghan government—and the $20 million guarantee was never called upon because the risks feared by the private companies never materialized. In this case, a risk instrument was able to pave the way for new market opportunities and to provide an essential service. Contrast that with the typical aid approach, which would have distorted the market, squandered money, and likely produced, at best, ambiguous results.
A similar example came out of the Caribbean. Before 2007, individual insurance companies were reluctant to insure Caribbean islands for hurricane and earthquake damage, the liability being considered commercially too risky. But then the World Bank's Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) was created, pooling risk to enable governments in the area to purchase affordable insurance. CCRIF was designed to protect Caribbean countries from the financial fallout of a natural disaster, offering each country timely and flexible payouts. The group can respond more quickly and more efficiently to a member country in need than can the sort of chaos of good intentions that descended on Haiti, as was demonstrated in its response to Hurricane Tomas in 2010. Barbados, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines received fifty percent of their payouts within days.
In contrast to a top-down, statist aid paradigm, these "Fish for a Lifetime" approaches are all designed to unlock and leverage the value from within the society, state, and market. They all start with the operating principle of co-designing programs with the citizens and leaders from the country concerned. Where there is a market, they do not seek to use grant capital. Once the initial intervention is over, success is judged by whether or not the innovations designed for the crisis are sustainable. This approach is geared toward increasing the self-sufficiency of the country concerned, and in particular boosting its economy and generating its own revenue and tax base.
While the treasuries of most Western countries may be afflicted by the constraints of austerity budgeting, there are vast amounts of private investment capital looking for opportunities. Many of the countries that are seen as the neediest destinations for aid are also considered by emerging market investors as the fastest-growing in the world—Rwanda, Nepal, Indonesia, and India. Infrastructure projects from power to roads and ports can and do attract private capital, and public funds can be used for risk guarantees or as co-investments rather than grant aid for these projects. Rather than seeking to maximize aid, such an approach seeks to maximize the return on investment to the society concerned.
Putting these "Fish for a Lifetime" approaches into effect will require some major shifts. It will involve looking not to how much money was disbursed, or how many schools were built, but to value for money and return on investment. And instead of propping up a vast technical assistance industry of varying and often indifferent quality, a higher priority will be placed on conducting a "skills audit" of key personnel—from doctors and teachers to engineers and agronomists—who can be trained internally rather than importing more costly and less invested technical assistance from abroad.
It is also important under this new paradigm to distinguish between "aid" (such as life-saving humanitarian assistance and the financial or material donations it requires) and "development engagement," which is something quite different. Development engagement can be low-budget, and should be designed to move a needy country toward self-sufficiency—so that the state can collect its own revenues and the people can support their own livelihoods—as soon as possible. Many recipient countries have enormous untapped domestic resources, and with some effort devoted to increasing those revenues and building the systems to spend them, could assume much more of the responsibility of meeting their citizens' needs. Getting the toolbox right requires instruments that can best support this approach: the OPIC, enterprise funds, chambers of commerce, public diplomacy, scholarships, international financial institutions, trade measures, and the National Academies, among others.
But a strategy is only as good as its execution. Implementing development policies and programs correctly will require a clear-eyed look at the way programs are designed and implemented, and a re-examination of the reliance on contractors. There is no substitute in the long term for unleashing a society's domestic potential of human, institutional, and natural capital through a well governed country.
Having judged the development programs of the last decade to be failures, many in the US now call for development budget cuts and wearily espouse isolationism. But it is a classic example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Failed methods do not mean that the goal of international development must be abandoned. Development needn't be an indulgent venture in charity, or risky business, or a road to nowhere paved with good intentions. A more hardheaded approach, one that creates self-sufficiency rather than dependency, is the new beginning that the development world has been waiting for.
Clare Lockhart is the coauthor, with Ashraf Ghani, of Fixing Failed States and the director of the Institute for State Effectiveness, an organization devoted to finding, documenting, and facilitating better approaches to engaging abroad.
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Afaan Oromo After 100 Years of Disincentives: Toltu Tufa of the Afaan Publications on radio with Jon Faine on the Conversation Hour at ABC Studios Melbourne February 19, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Afaan Publication, Africa, Humanity and Social Civilization, Kemetic Ancient African Culture, Language and Development, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Artists, Oromo Culture, Oromo First, Oromo Identity, Oromo Social System, Oromummaa, Qubee Afaan Oromo, Self determination, Sirna Gadaa, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, The Oromo Democratic system, The Oromo Governance System, The Oromo Library, Toltu Tufa, Uncategorized.Tags: Afaan Oromo, Afaan Oromo Kushitic Kemetic language, Afaan publication, Africa, African culture, African Studies, Development and Change, Gadaa System, Genocide against the Oromo, Kushitic Languages, Language and Development, National Self Determination, Oromia, Oromia Region, Oromiyaa, Oromo people, Oromummaa, Qubee Afaan Oromo, Toltu Tufa, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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AFAAN Publication: Commemorating UNESCO's International Mother Language Day on Feb. 21, 2014; Highlighting Past Achievements; and Laying out Plans for 2014
February 21 is UNESCO's International Mother Language Day. AFAAN Publications' successful campaign to raise funds to produce children books in Afaan Oromo is the highlight of 2013. The Oromo language, Afaan Oromo, is Africa's 4th most widelyspoken language, which was banned for 100 years until 1991. AFAAN Publications is based in Melbourne.
AFAAN Publication recounts the 2013 successfulfundraising campaign by recognizing some of the international cities which supported the Melbourne's drive to create children's books in Afaan Oromo, and AFAAN Publications was also featured last week on 774 Radio ABC Melbourne.
The communications team is available for comments and interview via telephone. Enquiries can be made via email on email@example.com
AFAAN Publication: Commemorating UNESCO's International Mother Language Day on Feb. 21, 2014; Highlighting Past Achievements; and Laying out Plans for 2014.
Copyright © OromianEconomist 2014 & Oromia Quarterly 1997-2014, all rights are reserved. Disclaimer.
Africa: Agribusiness Feeds the Rich; Small Farmers Feed the Rest February 18, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Africa, Africa Rising, African Poor, Agriculture, Aid to Africa, Climate Change, Colonizing Structure, Corruption, Development, Domestic Workers, Economics: Development theory and Policy applications, Environment, Ethnic Cleansing, Food Production, Human Rights, Knowledge and the Colonizing Structure. African Heritage. The Genocide Against Oromo Nation, Land Grabs in Africa, Ogaden, Omo, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Nation, Oromo the Largest Nation of Africa. Human Rights violations and Genocide against the Oromo people in Ethiopia, Self determination, Slavery, State of Oromia, The Colonizing Structure & The Development Problems of Oromia, The Tyranny of Ethiopia, Uncategorized, Youth Unemployment.Tags: Africa, African culture, African Studies, Developing country, Development, Development and Change, Economic and Social Freedom, Economic development, Economic growth, Family Farm in Africa, Industrial Agriculture, Land grabbing, Land grabs in Africa, Oromo, Oromo people, Small Farm, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tyranny, World Bank
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"Agribusiness feeds the rich; small farmers feed the rest. Yet we have a strong interest in feeding the world and are concerned that food conferences dominated by agribusiness directly threaten our ability to produce affordable, healthy, local food.Solving world hunger is not about industrial agriculture producing more food – our global experience of the green revolution has shown that the drive towards this industrial model has only increased the gap between the rich and the poor. Feeding the world is about increasing access to resources like land and water, so that people have the means to feed themselves, their families and their communities. Small family farms produce the majority of food on the planet – 70% of the world's food supply! If conferences, like this one, exclude the voice of small farmers, then the debate about feeding the world is dominated by the rich and the solutions proposed will only feed their profits."
A farming revolution is under way in Africa, pushed by giant corporations and the UK's aid budget. It will surely be good for the global economy, writes Sophie Morlin-Yron, but will Africa's small farmers see the benefit?
Many millions of small farmers that were once merely poor, will be propelled into destitution, the chaff of a neoliberal market revolution as pitiless as it is powerful.
World leaders in agriculture and development gathered in London last week at the The Economist's 'Feeding the World Summit' to discuss global solutions to tackling Africa's food security crisis.
At the event, which cost between £700 and £1,000 to attend, industry leaders spoke of new innovations and initiatives which would help fight poverty, world hunger and malnutrition, and transform the lives of millions of farmers worldwide.
Just one farmer
But there was only one farmer among the speakers, Rose Adongo, with barely a handful more in the audience. A Ugandan beef and honey farmer, Adongo was unimpressed by the technical solutions offered by the corporate speakers.
For her, the main issue was land ownership for farmers – and desperately needed changes in Ugandan law, under which women have no right to land ownership even though 80% of the country's farmers are women, and they produce 60% of the food.
If only a woman could own land – currently passed down from father to son "she can produce more food". Besides that she wanted cheaper fertilisers and an end to the desperate toil of hand working in the fields. Much of the land is currently plowed by hand which "can take weeks to do".
Among the excluded …
But many were excluded from the event – and desperately wanted their voices to be heard. Among them was Jyoti Fernandes, from The Landworkers' Alliance (member of La Via Campesina), a producer-led organisation representing small-scale agroecological producers in the UK.
"Agribusiness feeds the rich; small farmers feed the rest", she said. "None of our members could afford to attend the Feeding the World Summit.
"Yet we have a strong interest in feeding the world and are concerned that food conferences dominated by agribusiness directly threaten our ability to produce affordable, healthy, local food.
Solving world hunger, she insisted, "is not about industrial agriculture producing more food – our global experience of the green revolution has shown that the drive towards this industrial model has only increased the gap between the rich and the poor."
Improving access to land and water
"Feeding the world is about increasing access to resources like land and water, so that people have the means to feed themselves, their families and their communities.
"Small family farms produce the majority of food on the planet – 70% of the world's food supply! If conferences, like this one, exclude the voice of small farmers, then the debate about feeding the world is dominated by the rich and the solutions proposed will only feed their profits."
As Graciela Romero of War on Want commented in The Ecologist last week, it is that small farmers are feeding the world – not corporations:
"Millions of small-scale farmers produce 70% of the world's food. Yet they remain excluded and forgotten from exchanges which affect their livelihoods or concern how to end world hunger."
Private investment
Among the 27 speakers at the event were Nestlé Head of Agriculture Hans Joehr, Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant, Cargill Vice-Chairman Paul Conway, UN Secretary General for Food Security and Nutrition David Nabarro, and representatives from the World Food Program and World Vision.
And despite the involvement of some NGOs, academics UN officials, the main topic of discussion was private sector investment in agriculture.
Lynne Featherstone, a junior UK minister for International Development, said the way forward is newly developed efficient fertilisers, pest tolerant crops and private sector investment:
"There is substantial room for improvement, and helping farmers increase productivity while consuming fewer inputs is a priority. With partners such as CGIAR we have developed more efficient fertilisers and pest tolerant crop varieties."
UK spending £280m to support private sector engagement
She also outlined the Government plans to invest £280m from its aid budget funding in businesses and organisations under the Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (AFNC).
This private sector initiative – which has also involves 14 Governments – ostensibly aims to lift 50 million people in Africa out of poverty by 2022, by attracting more private investment in agriculture. Featherstone explained the rationale:
"Economic growth in these countries is best achieved through agricultural growth, which has the power of raising incomes and getting people out of poverty. And the private sector can catalyse that agricultural growth with sustainable agricultural investment."
But is it really about land grabs?
But critics fear that is has rather more to do with getting governments on-side so corporations can carry out land grabs – taking the best watered and most fertile land away from African farmers and delivering it up to investors to plant cash crops across the continent, while turning once independent small farmers into a a proletarian underclass of landless plantation workers and rootless urban workers.
Paulus Verschuren, Special Envoy on Food and Nutrition Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands attempted to strike a balance:
"We are not going to fix the zero-hunger challenge without involving the private sector, but we need to set the criteria for these transformational partnerships. They need to have a business outcome and a development outcome."
Corporations keen to help small farmers …
Representatives of major food corporations also insisted that they wanted to work with small farmers and help them to produce their crops efficiently while meeting development objectives.
Nestlé's Corporate Head of Agriculture, Hans Jöhr, claimed to be willing to work with small farmers as well as large to fulfil development objectives and improving resource efficiency:
"The issue of feeding the world has to been seen in perspective of rural development, and not only technology", he said. "And it's definitely not about talking small versus big farmers, I think that was really the yesterday talk. It's about people, individuals, it's about farmers.
We cannot go on polluting and destroying
"So in this meeting about farmers, when we are talking about farmers, we are going back to what we have listened to, the restrictions we all face in business is natural resources, natural capital. It's not only about the land, it's mainly about water.
"This leads us to looking into production systems and methods and understanding that we cannot continue to go on with polluting destroying and depleting natural resources and with wasting them.
"Farmers who don't know how to farm waste a tremendous amount of natural resources and agricultural materials because they don't know how to store, and are not linked to an outlet to markets. That means that we have to help them better understand the production systems."
Productivity must be raised
Vice Chairman of Cargill, Paul Conway, emphasised the importance of secure land ownership: "The number one thing here isn't technology, it isn't finance, it's security of tenure of the land, which is absolutely critical."
And Monsanto's CEO Hugh Grant played down the importance of genetic modification in improving crop yields in Africa, from 20 bushels of grain per hectare to India's typical level of 100 bushels.
"There is no reason Africa shouldn't be close to India, it's all small-holder agriculture. Why is it 20 today and not 90? Now forget biotech, that's eminently achievable with some sensible husbandry and land reform ownership, the tools are in hand today."
"We have set goals to double yields in the next 30 years with a third less water, agriculture gets through an enormous amount of water. The first 70 per cent of which goes to agriculture, the next 30 per cent goes to Coke, Pepsi, swimming pools and everything you drink and all of industry, and that isn't sustainable.
We believe our sole focus on agriculture is vital as the world looks to produce enough nutritious food to feed a growing population while conserving, or even decreasing, the use of precious natural inputs such as land, water and energy."
Farmers 'invisible and irrelevant'
But Mariam Mayet, Director of African Safety for Biosafety – which campaigns against genetic engineering, privatisation, industrialisation and private sector control of African agriculture – was not convinced.
To the constellation of famous speakers and corporate representatives, she said, small farmers were a simple obstruction to progress:
"We know that all of African farmers are invisible and irrelevant to those at this summit. These producers are seen as inefficient and backwards, and if they have any role at all, it is to be forced out of agriculture to becoming mere passive consumers of industrial food products.
"Africa is seen as a possible new frontier to make profits, with an eye on land, food and biofuels in particular.
"The recent investment wave must be understood in the context of consolidation of a global food regime dominated by large corporations in input supply such as seed and agrochemicals especially, but also increasingly in processing, storage, trading and distribution.
"Currently African food security rests fundamentally on small-scale and localised production. The majority of the African population continue to rely on agriculture as an important, if not the main, source of income and livelihoods."
Can the chasm be bridged?
If we take the sentiments expressed by corporate bosses at face value – and why not? – then we do not see any overt determination to destroy Africa's small farmers. On the contrary, they want to help them to farm better, more productively and efficiently, and more profitably.
And perhaps we should not be surprised. After all that suits their interests, to have a growing and prosperous farming sector in Africa that can both buy their products and produce reliable surpluses for sale on global food markets.
The rather harder question is, what about those farmers who lack the technical or entrepreneurial ability, the education, the desire, the extent of land, the security of land tenure, to join that profitable export-oriented sector? And who simply want to carry on as mainly subsistence farmers, supporting their families, producing only small surpluses for local sale?
The small subsistence farmer has no place
Stop and think about it, and the answer is obvious. They have no place in the new vision of agriculture that is sweeping across the continent, with the generous support of British aid money.
Their role in this process is to be forced off their land – whether expelled by force or by market forces – and deliver it up to their more successful neighbour, the corporation, the urban agricultural entrepreneur, to farm it at profit for the market.
And then, either to leave their village homes and join the displaced masses in Africa's growing cities, or to stay on as landless workers, serving their new masters.
This all represents 'economic progress' and increases in net production. But look behind the warm words – and many millions of small farmers that were once merely poor, will be propelled into destitution, the chaff of a neoliberal market revolution as pitiless as it is powerful.
Is this really how the UK's aid funds should be invested?
Sophie Morlin-Yron is a freelance journalist.
Oliver Tickell edits The Ecologis
A landmark G8 initiative to boost agriculture and relieve poverty has been damned as a new form of colonialism after African governments agreed to change seed, land and tax laws to favour private investors over small farmers.
Ten countries made more than 200 policy commitments, including changes to laws and regulations after giant agribusinesses were granted unprecedented access to decision-makers over the past two years.
The pledges will make it easier for companies to do business in Africathrough the easing of export controls and tax laws, and through governments ringfencing huge chunks of land for investment.
The Ethiopian government has said it will "refine" its land law to encourage long-term land leases and strengthen the enforcement of commercial farm contracts. In Malawi, the government has promised to set aside 200,000 hectares of prime land for commercial investors by 2015, and in Ghana, 10,000 hectares will be made available for investment by the end of next year. In Nigeria, promises include the privatisation of power companies.
A Guardian analysis of companies' plans under the initiative suggests dozens of investments are for non-food crops, including cotton, biofuels and rubber, or for projects explicitly targeting export markets.
Companies were invited to the table through the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition initiative that pledges to accelerate agricultural production and lift 50 million people out of poverty by 2022.
But small farmers, who are supposed to be the main beneficiaries of the programme, have been shut out of the negotiations.
Olivier de Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said governments had been making promises to investors "completely behind the screen", with "no long-term view about the future of smallholder farmers" and without their participation.
He described Africa as the last frontier for large-scale commercialfarming. "There's a struggle for land, for investment, for seed systems, and first and foremost there's a struggle for political influence," he said.
Zitto Kabwe, the chairman of the Tanzanian parliament's public accountscommittee, said he was "completely against" the commitments his government has made to bolster private investment in seeds.
"By introducing this market, farmers will have to depend on imported seeds. This will definitely affect small farmers. It will also kill innovation at the local level. We have seen this with manufacturing," he said.
"It will be like colonialism. Farmers will not be able to farm until they import, linking farmers to [the] vulnerability of international prices. Big companies will benefit. We should not allow that."
Tanzania's tax commitments would also benefit companies rather than small farmers, he said, adding that the changes proposed would have to go through parliament. "The executive cannot just commit to these changes. These are sensitive issues. There has to be enough debate," he said.
Million Belay, the head of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), said the initiative could spell disaster for small farmers in Africa. "It clearly puts seed production and distribution in the hands of companies," he said.
"The trend is for companies to say they cannot invest in Africa without new laws … Yes, agriculture needs investment, but that shouldn't be used as an excuse to bring greater control over farmers' lives.
"More than any other time in history, the African food production system is being challenged. More than any other time in history outside forces are deciding the future of our farming systems."
AFSA has also denounced the G8 initiative as ushering in a new wave of colonialism on the continent.
Music of Africa:Oromo Recording Artists Abbush Zallaqaa and Haacaaluu Hundessaa at Voice of America (VOA), African Beat February 16, 2014
Posted by OromianEconomist in Abbush Zallaqaa, Africa, African Beat, African Music, Development, Finfinnee, Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, Humanity and Social Civilization, Language and Development, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Artists, Oromo Culture, Oromo First, Oromo Music, Oromo Social System, Oromummaa, Self determination, State of Oromia, The Oromo Democratic system, The Oromo Governance System, Uncategorized.Tags: Abbush Zallaqaa, Africa, African Beat, African culture, African music, African Studies, Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, Konso, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo, Oromo Artists, Oromo culture, Oromo music, Oromo people, Oromummaa
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