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Rastafari Speaks Archive 1

Ethiopian Elite need more proof?

Posted by Malik on April 04, 19101 at 14:44:55:

In Reply to: Oromo,Garvey posted by Malik on April 03, 19101 at 14:57:28:

:Anybody out there?????? Was this as surprising as Menelik conquerig Oromia(Ethiopia) with tons of European weapons??? Somebody hollar about the plight of the Oromo people as it relates to Haille Sellasie. The amazing contradiction that it manifest for many Pan African rastas or simply those that see Haille Sellasie as a redeemer of Black people. I mean you folks did do your research before becoming a rasta did you not? I mean you studied the mans leadership and his views didn't you? Surely you know that "Jah Rastafari" never changed the status quo regarding the Oromo and in fact banned their language under his rule just for starters? Hello .....is .....anybody....out ....there??
Yours

Malik,

Hello all. This is my first post to this board and I hope to be educated. I have a few questions and would love for you to email me at kingm70@excite.com with any info/answers/views etc. First question: Do rastafarians find any contradiction in regards to the treatment of the Oromo people under his rule? (Don't know who the 30-50 million Oromo are , go to http://www.oromo.org to find out, specificaly look on the left for Oromia and Oromo People,Summary Info) It seems quite amazing to me that most Rastas I have spoken to have no ideal who the the Oromo are or simply in denial about their explotation and second class citizenship under many Ethiopian leaders including Haile Selassie.
: Next question: Do rastafarians find any contradictions with the status they bestowe upon Marcus Garvey in the culture and the overwhelming bitterness and criticism Garvey eventualy directed at Hailles Selassie??
: As I said I would love to get response at kingm70@excite.com. I will also check the board.
: Regards,

: Malik, happily agnostic

Voice of Oromiyaa

Colonization of Oromiyaa

The long dream of Abyssinia to occupy Oromiyaa and its southern neighbors became reality with the help of European arms, advisors, some of whom were directly involved in the war of occupation against Oromo and the south.

"Britain, France, Italy, and Russia poured arms and some military advisors into Ethiopia, each believing it would require a corresponding measure of local leverage." (Lewis)

Menelik was able to amass, a tremendous amount military hardware.

" ... he (Menelik) was able between 1880 and 1900 to import over one million rifles, a quantity of hatchkiss guns and military pieces, also making use of French and Russian military experts to train his soldiers in their use. No other pre-colonial African state had been able to build such an armory. (Luckman and Bekele)

Under such conditions, Menelik II, Amhara King of Shewa was able to occupy and colonize Oromiyaa and southern region. Menelik created a settler colonial rule over Oromos and other southern people. Many of the newly occupied or colonized people were captured and sold into slavery, and the ramining were placed in a situation that is no better than slavery. It is Italian occupation of Ethiopia that abolished slavery in Ethiopia. The defeat of Italy in World War II, and the return of Haile Sellasie to power brought more misery to Oromos and people of the south. Please refer to the page on Oromo resistance to Abyssinian colonialism for more details.

Menelik II, the slave trading Abyssinian king of the nineteenth and twentieth century was responsible for the massacre and disappearance of millions of Oromos, Sidamas, Wolayta, Somalis, and others. He was responsible for the physical and psychological torture of the Arsi Oromos at Anole, where his soldiers chopped off every man’s arm, and every woman’s breast.

“When the people came, they were told to enter the narrow pass one by one. All males who entered were cut off their right hands on orders of Ras Darge. The Shoans (conquerors) tied the hand they cut to the neck of the victim. In the same manner, the right breasts of women were also cut and tied to their necks. As a result everybody who went to Anole … returned by (sic) losing his right hand and (her) breast. This widely known as “Harka Mura Anole” )Abas Haji. 1982)

Menelik was a notorious slave trader, who sold Oromo and southern peoples’ prisoners of war into slavery. He also encouraged his generals to raid villages, capture slaves, and sell the captives into slavery and surrender some as gift or tax to him.

an oromo writes-Prove me wrong and show the evidence (any HIM speach) that promotes the freedom and equal right for all Oromos, not just the ones that wanted to be anexed to Ethiopia.

Until the last quarter of the 19th century, the Oromo people had been an independent nation. As a sovereign nation, they had developed and used a unique democratic system known as Gada. This system being ubiquitous across the Oromo land had influenced and guided the way of life of the nation in political, economic, and social arenas. It guaranteed respect for political rights, equal economic opportunity, and full participation in all spheres of social milieu for every citizen. As a result, the Oromo people had been among the well-organized and led community of nations that enjoyed freedom, peace, and prosperity for several centuries.

However, by the turn of the 20th century, the Oromo nation lost its sovereignty. For generations, Abyssinian rulers had ambition to conquer and rule the Oromos and other peoples south of Abyssinia. But every venture they made to invade their neighbours had never been easy. They found it quite frustrating and at times humiliating. The Oromo people put up fierce resistance and defended their country often repulsing and inflicting humiliating defeat on the invading army of Abyssinians. This has dashed the aspiration of Abyssinian until the European powers of the time involved in the politics of the region. Such involvement has ultimately altered the balance of power in favour of the Abyssinians. With the material, technical, and moral support of Europeans, the war of colonization that the Abyssinians launched against the Oromo people for years finally succeeded. Consequently Oromia has been annexed and incorporated into the Ethiopian Empire.

To conquer Oromia, the architect of the Ethiopian Empire, Minilik II waged the most vicious war against the Oromo people. In effect, Mililik actually conducted a genocidal war to exterminate the Oromo people. Supplied with modern armaments and guided with the advice of military strategists of European powers, the army of Abyssinia for the first time overran the Oromo defense force. The Oromo fighting force with much less sophisticated weapons was ruthlessly killed by Minilik’s army. Captives were massacred or sold as slaves. The army indiscriminately burned alive the elderly and children they encountered all across Oromia. They terrorized and plundered the Oromo people. Such a wide spread brutal action of the army reduced the once prosperous people to abject poverty. The Oromo people were exposed to war induced famine. As a result of the incessant war of colonization for nearly two decades and famine, historians indicate that Oromia lost about half of its population.

The Oromo people who survived the genocidal war and the generations that followed have experienced the rule of the most anachronistic colonial system ever seen in the history of mankind. Their colonial experience began under the rule of Minilik. This became the beginning of what the Oromos referred to as the Dark Age of their history. Minilik dismantled their democratic and egalitarian system of administration and replaced it with his colonial rule. Under his rule they lost all legal and political rights as a nation. With no rights of any kind, the Oromos became literally items to be owned, bought and sold: slaves.

Oromo people struggle for independence
By Jaraa Aba Sabaa, in Green Left Weekly, no. 234. 6 May, 1996
The Oromo people are the single largest indigenous ethnic group of Africa. They live in east Africa in several countries, but mostly in Oromia, now included in Ethiopia.

The Oromo people are crying out for their freedom but the west continues to ignore these cries. Thousands are killed and many more forced to leave their country. Today there are more than 250,000 Oromo refugees throughout Africa. Some sources suggest that up to 20,000 Oromo people are still political prisoners.

The oppression of the Oromo people has been a linchpin of neo-colonial policy since last century. As Oromos number in the millions and have traditionally lived in much of the north-east of Africa, their subjugation was critical for neo-colonial ``stability'' in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Until 1934, southern Oromia maintained its independence, and between 1928 and 1936 the Oromo Independence Movement rose up in northern Oromia.

After an internal power struggle among the Abyssinian ruling clique, in 1930 Haile Selassie came to power. Selassie's strategy relied on dividing the Oromo people - establishing regional administrations and coopting a section of the educated Oromo population. Under this regime the Oromo people faced probably their worse oppression.

In 1974 the super-exploited Oromo peasantry revolted by refusing to pay the 75% of their produce in tax required by the Selassie regime. The revolt started in the north, spread throughout Ethiopia and played an important role in the collapse of the regime. While the Oromo gained same temporary respite, the new Mengistu regime proved to be another dictatorial yoke.

Mengistu used the Oromo people to wage his war against the Eritrean independence struggle. Some 80% of army used against the Eritreans was composed of Oromo. Knowing that they could not win without Oromo support, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front established the Oromo People's Democratic Organisation (OPDO).

The development of some links with the Oromo national movement and formation of the Ethiopian People's Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPDRF) helped bring about the end of the Mengistu regime and the establishment of a new republic, inaugurated August 21, 1995.

While the new regime has allowed for some Oromo autonomy, including the restoration of the Oromo language, the Oromo people remain without the statehood that they demand. The current regime has minimal Oromo support, mainly the OPDO, with which Negaso Gidada, the new regime's president, is associated. (A largely ceremonial role is reserved for the president under the new constitution.)

Most of the Oromo people's national organisations remain outside the EPDRF. This includes the Oromo Liberation Front, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia and two other Oromo organisations. Only the OPDO is formally aligned with the EPDRF.

With the increasing pressure on the new regime to consolidate the structural adjustment program begun in 1992, there is likely to be a range of further austerity measures. Privatisations already began in 1995.

This sort of pressure is likely to lead to further national conflict in east Africa. The starting point for real progress must still be the self-determination of the Oromo people.

Oromo
Location: The Oromo people live in Ethiopia where the population is sixty million and the Oromo people comprise the largest ethnic group of approximately thirty million. Their original homeland was Oromia, which is now Ethiopia and some Oromos still live in northern Kenya.

History: Just like other ethnic groups living in Africa, the Oromo people lost their sovereignty to the government of Ethiopia and continual political and social oppression during the twentieth century. However, since their cultural identity remains strong, most Oromo people still consider themselves Oromo rather than Ethiopian. The long dictatorship of Haile Selassie of the Amhara ethnic group tormented the Oromo people harshly by banning the Oromo language and establishing Amhara culture as the culture of all Ethiopia. The Oromo people overthrew Haile Selassie in 1974 with the help of a grass-roots Oromo resistance movement. Unfortunately, the communist government resumed the oppression and persecution of Oromo people. The United States began accepting refugees from Ethiopia in the late 1970's. After 1991, the United States stopped accepting refugees from Ethiopia, so the Oromo people who wanted to immigrate to the United States had to apply for visas.

Language: Nowadays, the Oromo people of Ethiopia are allowed to speak their own language which is Oromiffa. The Oromo language was banned under the Mengistu's communist government and the Oromo people were forced to speak Amharic in schools or in the public sphere for decades. Thus, Oromos who grew up in urban areas speak Amharic while Oromo in the rural area speak Oromiffa. Many Oromo refugees prefer to speak Oromiffa because they are proud of being Oromo.

Religion: The Oromo people worship one God, Waaqa. Waaqa is responsible for everything that happens to human beings. Some Oromos in the United States have adopted Islam and Christianity while maintaining the concept of Waaqa. In the Oromo nation, Muslims and Christians have mixed peacefully.

Links:

"Oromo. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001" Bartleby.com (2000) http://www.bartleby.com/65/or/Oromo.html 25 February, 2001.

References:

"Oromo-Britannica.com." (1999-2000) http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/7/0,5716,58877+1+57442,00.html 23 January 2001.

"Oromo Cultural Profile." University of Washington. (20 December 1995) http://healthlinks.washington.edu/clinical/ethnomed/oromocp.html 23 January 2001.

The Matcha-Tulama Association was first established in 1963 under the then emperor Haile-Selassie, as an Oromo self-help organisation for community development. As it grew into a pan-Oromo movement that highlighted the socio-economic and political plight of the Oromo, the Haile-Selassie despotic regime saw it as a danger to its colonial autocracy, and thus began a vicious machination to ban it. In October 1966, the regime arrested the whole executive leadership, some of whom were sentenced in a mock justice from few years imprisonment to death.

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PROPHET MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY BROUGHT THE VISION *N *NM*
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BETTER TO STAND IN LOVE THAN FALL IN LOVE.
PROVERBS10:18&19
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VERY INTERESTING RESPONSE.
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Ethiopian Elite need more proof?
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the true cause of the rastafarI movement
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