The Engine of Tigreans nationalism
The narrative that the Tigreans have an old and venerable heritage long before any one has always been the source of Tigreans superiority complex. It is this notion what made Qadaamawii Wayne Harineet Tigrai to believe that the Amharic speaking people colonized the greatest kingdom of Axum that existed before 300 A.D, and vigorously promoted the idea that they are the ancient source of Ethiopianism, thus must become the rulers of empire Ethiopia.
After the original Wayaanee leader Mangasha Siyum agreed to disarm and became the governor of Tigrai, the idea of expanding Axum beyond Tigrai continued to flourish in the minds of the sons of Tigrai feudal barons, who formed the TPLF. Being born during the time when the capitalists were trying to revive their interest they lost to communism, particularly in empire Ethiopia, the TPLF was welcomed by western religious and spying establishments and received all the guns, the food, clothing and the ammunitions they needed and fought the communist government of Ethiopia led by Mangistu and won in 1991.
Since they occupied Oromia and the rest of the empire, the Tigrai built thousands of educational institutions, world class airports, long and wide roads that connected the Tigre province to the Sudan and Djibouti ports. Further, they built profitable business empires i.e…, the Almada clothing, Mesfin Engineering, Mesob concrete Guna corporation, Mega net corporation, Sur construction, Trans Ethiopia, HIT Mechanization, Ezana, Medebayi Tabor, Tenbela, Myisi and Saba gold and mineral enterprises etc.
Like any colonizing forces do, the Tigreans then transferred large existing machinery from the rest of the country to Tigrai and soon they amassed wealth and made the poverty stricken Tigrai an equal partner of the industrialized countries around the world. As their power increased and they adopted to the cunning world politics, they corrupted large institutions such as the State Department of America and got the support they needed to suppress the Ogadenia and Oromia liberation movements. Being fully convinced by the TPLF claims, Mr. Obama went to Finfinnee and declared that the TPLF was a democratically elected government of Ethiopia and Suzan Rice reaffirmed her uninterrupted support of the TPLF. She even insulted those who complain against the Tigre rulers that they are “stupid medieval period people.”
As the Tigre tribe colonial rule went on, slavery struck a severe blow at the Oromians and the Ogadenians. Emboldened by their achievement, the Tigreans pushed forward the process of victimization of the Oromo people and evicted thousands of Oromians from their own land, denied them not only their homeland but also their identity. In the process, the Tigreans thrived economically with the labor of those whom they pay minimum wages and with the gold, coffee and other agricultural prodcuts that they exported and kept the money in their private accounts all over the world. When the Oromo people opposed to this robbery, the state of emergency was declared and Oromia failed under the Tigre colonial army rule once for all. At this point, the OPDO members role end up serving their Tigrean masters, the same way the enslaved Africans served their white masters. This process denied the Oromo people the right to have a say in their own political affairs.
Because they retained the boundaries established by the Tigre colonists, the Somalis, the Oromians and the Ogadenians led to fight each other, one side being aided by the Tigre colonist army, the Agazii. These artificially created disagreements among these groups stifled the natural cooperation which they need to remove the Tigre colonialism out of their land, although the agreements reached between the OLF, ONLF, Sidaamaa and Benishangul Liberation fronts has shown that they can cooperate, of course only if the Tigreans are not there to sabotage the process as they often do. In other matters, these groups and the Amharic speaking people, aka \”Amhara\” generally remained aloof from each other and therefore politically and economically weak.
Over-whole, the problem of reaching out to the people so varied in their political background is complicated by distrust planted by the Tigre colonialists. The Amharic speaking groups conventional thinking that the Oromo identity must be destroyed for empire Ethiopia to live remained to be the major challenge. For the Amharic speaking people, Ethiopia is not a bureaucracy, but it is a human like creature, that suffers from allergy if afaan Oromo is spoken around it. These groups believe that Ethiopia, on the other hand, thrives when it is fade alien divisive ideologies, and when artificial boundaries produce hostility between Boranaa, Gujii, Gabraa, Somali and Garrii, Shawaa, Wallaggaa, Harargee, Jimmaa etc. They want the term Shawaa, Nazareth, Debre-zeyit, Hagere Hiwot, Addis Ababa, Asebe-Teferi, Addis Alem to flourish so that Oromummaa will be destroyed and Amharic will flourish.
From economic development front, the Tigre colonists continued to tell the world that empire Ethiopia’s economy has been growing 11% for the past twenty five consecutive years even when reality shows that people still earn their livelihood by tilling their farms and from their herds. What is true however is that the GDP growth the Tigreans continue to lie about was driven by world’s response to the demands of their large population. China, India and the middle eastern countries industries which extracted resources out of the African continent funded most of the roads and other infrastructure such as railways generally tied to exporting and farming. Looking at what these big countries are doing to feed their rapidly growing population, it is easy to conclude that the TPLF team GDP growth claim shows insufficient evidence. But even if their claim can be true, until this tribe is rooted out of empire Ethiopia, the entire population is bound to a cycle of violence and will remain perpetually dependent upon foreign aid and development, and increasingly distrustful of the Tigreans and the outside world that help them kill the Oromo people.
no matter how it is presented, the rural parts of empire Ethiopia, including all the towns and cities population remained poor and defiant against the Tigre colonization. The only developed city hidden from the robed nation is the province from where the Tigrean rulers descend. Of course, the fact that most Finfinnee city duelers tend to be more interested in bettering their temporal life continue to created a highly volatile political climate as well.
The future of Oromia
As we contemplate our new opportunities to liberate ourselves from slavery, we must recognize that we have a long tradition of fighting for our freedom. True, our ability to organize ourselves according to the Gadaa system is complicated by the factors explained above and by the powers that compete for our natural and human resources, one being the European colonialism and their faith based divisive ideologies. Each facet of these ideologies present a different challenge to our unity although we are told that diversity is not the source of divisions but balance.
Notwithstanding, our salvation from this confusion is our ability to understand that Africa was the center of civilization, unlike the Tigreans Axum civilization copied from the Portuguese missionaries. The Gadaa system for example was largely inspired by Arias and Athenasius of Cush civilization era that was destroyed by the spread of the Arab influence of eighth century. Waaqeffannaa, Dhibaayyuu, Ateetee, Irreechaa etc, Cushitic religious rites only remained in the pockets of east Africa, Oromia today.
In spite of all the hurdles described above, some progress have being made in the area of increasing level of literacy among the Oromo youth and the revival of the Oromo identity albite the limitations put forth by the TPLF that aggressively seek to better it\’s own tribe\’s lives at the cost of the Oromo nation. That means, even the Tigreans outright invasion of Oromia has provided the Oromo people with tremendous experience and confidence in their ability to fight colonialism with determination and vigor as seen in these past two years liberation war that threw off the yoke of the Tigre colonization.
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