http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/07/oromo-nationalism-rise-ethiopia-201472981456841809.html
Oromo nationalism on the rise in Ethiopia
Protests and online activism in recent months have brought a resurgence of
ethnic Oromo nationalism in Ethiopia.
William Davison Last updated: 29 Jul 2014 09:35
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Aslan Hasan, a student belonging to the Oromo
ethnic group in Ethiopia, was called either a guilt-ridden terrorist who
committed suicide or an innocent victim of brutal state repression,
depending on who you listen to.
His death came following a bout of violence in May, when Oromo students in
several towns protested against a government plan for the capital Addis
Ababa to expand into Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia's largest and most
populous federal region with around one-third of the nation's over 90
million people.
Security services said Hasan hanged himself in his cell after being
arrested for a grenade attack that occurred at Haramaya University in the
east of the country. Online Oromo activists such as Jawar Mohammed say
Aslan, 24, had his throat slit by police on June 1 while in custody after
being snatched four days before. A witness said it appeared his neck had
been cut and his eyes gouged out.
Oromia Regional State is Ethiopia's largest and most populous federal region
Ethiopia's government is frequently accused of trampling on
constitutionally protected ethnic rights as it prioritises security,
political stability, and public infrastructure investments to drive growth.
While technocrats have devised a rational scheme to manage a bulging city,
the red-hot political issue of Oromo rights was barely considered,
according to an Addis Ababa University academic who wishes to remain
anonymous. "They think something is good, they go for it," he said about
the ruling coalition's top-down methods. "It's a done deal, it's not
consultative at all."
Jawar and other Oromos - including normally acquiescent Oromo members of
the ruling political group - say the "integrated master plan" is an
annexation of their territory that will weaken the ethnicity politically
and also lead to the eviction of Oromo farmers from their land on the
periphery of Addis Ababa. Oromos claim the capital city, which they call
Finfinne, as their own, and in 2004 protested against the government's
attempt to change their capital to Adama.
Deadly protests
The most serious unrest in May took place in the western town of Ambo and
involved a student protest-turned-riot, with buildings damaged, cars
torched, and civilians shot dead by security forces. At Haramaya, a grenade
was chucked at students watching a televised football match. Officials
blamed Oromo separatists; activists pointed a finger at agent provocateurs
from the regime. In the southeast of Oromia, grainy video purports to show
security forces firing on students around Madawalabu University at Robe. An
independent assessment estimated as many as 50 people died.
The lack of clarity epitomises the propaganda battle raging inside Ethiopia
- and online - amid fear of retribution and a paucity of reliable
information. Few if any independent journalists or bloggers operate in the
hotspots, and Ambo, for example, was placed on lockdown by security
services when violence broke out. Two Peace Corps volunteers who blogged
about the unrest - saying police killed two of their unarmed neighbours
away from the protests - fled the country soon after.
While debate continues about exactly what happened, the protests indicate a
growing and potentially important trend: a resurgence of Oromo nationalism
that's increasingly driven by online activists.
During the demonstrations, US-based Jawar, a graduate student at Columbia
University, acted as a central hub to distribute information from Ethiopia
via Facebook and Twitter: posting photos of dead students and sharing news
of protests under way. Cooperation between disaffected Oromo students and
savvy mobilisers in the diaspora presents a fresh and substantial challenge
to a government that still has work to do in resolving the centuries old
issue of unmet Oromo demands for fair treatment and representation.
"The recent Oromo protests and the new online activism is significant,
mostly because it represents a fresh, much younger generation of Oromo
nationalists, and signals that Oromo nationalism is durable politically,"
said Michael Woldemariam, an Assistant Professor of International Relations
at Boston University.
Since moving into Ethiopia's highlands in the 1600s, the Oromos have been
discriminated against by the ruling Tigray and Amhara classes, who often
saw them as "uncivilised", according to historian John Markakis. The Oromos
were largely excluded from national political power until 1991, when the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which was allied with other rebels, helped
overthrow a military junta.
But the OLF soon left the transitional government after falling out with
the dominant Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The OLF has been in
rebellion ever since and was classified as a terrorist group by lawmakers
in 2011.
For the past two decades, the Oromo People's Democratic Organisation (OPDO)
has represented Ethiopia's Oromo in the country's ruling Ethiopian Peoples'
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition. But the Oromo opposition
claim the OPDO has been subservient to the country's Tigrayan political
elite, and too weak to promote the community's interests.
'Fractious political debates'
Jawar's political profile soared a year ago when he said on Al Jazeera's
current affairs show The Stream that he considered himself an "Oromo first"
before he considered himself an Ethiopian. This put him at odds with many
in the opposition, who think the current federal system that promotes
ethnic rights undermines national progress and unity. Advocates of a
unitary state promote a proud history of Ethiopia's ancient highland
civilisation and resistance to European colonialism led by Amharas.
Ethiopia's 1994 constitution promotes ethnic rights by organising the
country into federal states partly on the basis of "language and identity";
recognising all Ethiopian languages equally; respecting ethnic identities
and non-harmful cultures; ensuring representation of ethnic minorities in
both chambers of legislature; and, controversially, by providing mechanisms
for all groups to try and become federal states and for states to secede
from the federation.
In recent decades, Oromos have been weakened by fractious political debates
about the nature of the self-determination pushed for by the OLF. Jawar
said a new breed of educated, technocratic Oromo activists is revitalising
the cause by moving beyond this factionalism. They have set up the Oromo
Media Network and held "Oromo First" speaking events in the US. Jawar said
they have begun to bring OPDO and OLF members closer together, and plan to
work with the rest of the domestic Oromo opposition, who will be trying to
break the EPRDF's stranglehold on parliament in elections next year.
The old days of single language, single community dominance, will not come
back.
- Jawar, US-based Oromo activist
Recent government arrests of opposition politicians and bloggers suggest
that will be difficult, said Woldemariam. "The existence of armed Oromo
opposition makes the task of the non-violent opposition who participate in
the electoral process a lot more difficult," he said.
At the end of last year, the activists cut their teeth by taking on and
beating multinational giant Heineken by pushing drinkers to #BoycottBedele
- a local beer owned by the Dutch brewer that planned to sponsor concerts
by Ethiopian pop star Teddy Afro. The reason was that the Amhara singer
allegedly praised as a "holy war" the late 19th-century military expansions
by Emperor Menelik II, who was also an Amhara, that resulted in the
incorporation of the Oromo and other southern groups into what became the
modern Ethiopian state.
The Oromo movement now faces two comparable political challenges, according
to Jawar: convincing the Amhara that "the old days of single language,
single community dominance, will not come back", and targeting the Tigrayan
elite's control over the country's government, security services, and
economy.
"We have to make sure they cannot have free rein on our resources and
there's a number of tactics in place to make sure that succeeds," Jawar
added.
Jawar preaches peaceful civil resistance, yet admits this may not be
sustainable. He said he told top security officials that law-abiding
protests would be confined to campuses and that they only spread and became
unruly after police attacked the demonstrators.
"It might be a challenge for the Oromo who believe in non-violence to
maintain control over the population, given the kind of killing the
government undertook," Jawar said. "Armed struggle might become the
permanent form of response."
Received on Tue Jul 29 2014 - 15:36:05 EDT