Gobana as a political cancer in the Oromo body
Politics
First and foremost, it is of capital importance to understand what the Oromo mean when they accuse one of being a gobana. In Oromia, the word gobana literally means full moon. That is, the name Gobana is the eponym of "Gobana" - the full moon. In this case, the name Gobana does not have any political connotation. Later on, it acquired a political meaning. It is to this political meaning of the name "Gobana" that this article turns. In addition, the article also highlights the new political line, the arguments and the failures of the group that split from the OLF and chose to advocate for the democratization of the Ethiopian empire instead of advocating for the independence of Oromia.
The name Gobana acquired a new meaning as a political word after Gobana Daacee, one of the prominent and the most gifted Oromo military leaders who betrayed his country, in the late nineteen century and came to be known as the most treacherous figure in the Oromo history. In that betrayal, Gobana assisted Abyssinia in the conquest of Oromia, his own country. He helped an Abyssinian King in the formation of Ethiopian Empire. That conquest led to the genocidal slaughter of the Oromo people, to their enslavement and dehumanization, to their human and physical exploitations and to the loss of their sovereignty. History bears witness that half population was slaughtered; Oromo civilizations were destroyed, their governmental, cultural and the religious centers were decimated during Abyssinian conquest aided by Gobana Daacee. That conquest epitomized the mutilation of limbs of men, women and children of Oromo people. Today, remains of those mutilated Oromos at Aannole stand as testimony to that crime. Hence, it is not hard to understand why Gobana's name denotes a political meaning of traitor, betrayal, sellouts and collaborationist. So, the contemporary use of the word "gobana" is a term specifically used to describe traitors and collaborationists- - those who betray their country and people. In general, in today's Oromo political parlance, "gobana" (for male), or gobanee (for female) or "gobanism" (goobanummaa) signifies to be the name for the whole political phenomenon of collaborationism, capitulationism and alliance with the enemy of ones country and people. Hence for the Oromo, Gobana or Gobanism denotes the alliance, the collaboration and the collusion of local renegades with the colonialist forces. All in all, Gobanism is a political and ideological alliance of the local renegades with the colonial power to serve the colonial interest.
The political betrayal and capitulation of Gobana Daacee and his alliance with Abyssinian rulers was instrumental in the fall of Oromia under the yoke of Abyssinia colonization. With the fall of Oromia, the Abyssinians, the conquerors, planted or erected their flag in the heartland soil of Oromia. Along with their flag, Abyssinians rulers extended their colonial administration in all directions, across the width and breath of Oromia. With that, they incorporated Oromia into Abyssinia. The incorporation of Oromia and others nations and nationalities in the south into Abyssinia enabled Abyssinian rulers to form the empire- - the Ethiopian empire - under which we find ourselves today. It is to uproot this empire, ist flag and its administration from Oromia soil that the Oromo people have been fighting since their occupation a century ago. It was for this objective that the OLF was established in 1973 by the Oromo nationalists. However, having abandoned that objective the new Gobanas (the Asmara group, a.k.a ShaneeQinijit) have been busy defending this empire by spreading the gospel of Ethiopian democratization -to the world communities.
Since 2001, in the diaspora, we have come across sundries of local capitulationists, turncoats, the fifth columns and the licensed agents of colonialism known as the neo-Gobanas. Neo-Gobana or new gobanas refers to the extremist right-wing reactionary elements in the Oromo society that ally with the colonialists to maintain the colonial empire. While neo-Gobanas are the extremist reactionary forces, there are also various Gobanas that include the opportunists, the double-talkers, and the pretenders, the half-hearted and uncommitted ones. When the new Gobanas and the nationalists are at each others throat and when the debate is hot, the later group step back and take a backseat, looking inside from far away, waiting to join whichever side wins the political battle. These are spineless groups that only go after their personal interests. Both new gobanas and these groups incarnate the whole ideas of political sellouts of their predecessors, Gobanaa Daacee. The groups betray their country for selfish reasons. That is when their country is under foreign occupation and the people struggle for their independence, these groups and their likes are only concerned with fulfilling their selfish needs and desires, by allying themselves with the colonialist forces. Such are persons of dead souls. And so, Gobana's name and his apostles, as exemplified by these groups and their likes, go down in Oromo history as shameful and disgrace of the nation and as a synonym for traitors, collaborators, and capitulationists.
Again since its split from the OLF in 2001, these neo-gobanas as represented by Shanee has been crisscrossing continents- Europe, America and Africa, going from country to country, such as US, Norway, France, Germany, and Kenya - asking each Government of those countries to mediate to reconcile between itself and the colonial authorities so as to help save the Ethiopian empire. But the empire is in terminal crisis and cannot be saved. All the same, the Asmara group still hopes to save it. To this effect, Shanee has recently turned to the "prominent" individual personalities such as Prof. Ephraim Isaac and others to help mediate to reconcile between itself and the colonial regime as a means to work together to preserve the empire. And so to impress the colonial regime, it has engaged in a grandiose theatrical drama of preaching its gospel of democratization of Ethiopia, through all its political propaganda outlets.
Using history as a mirror, one can connect the recent political dots to show the lingering of the political line of Gobana in Oromia. As such these dots have become a political cancer to the Oromo political struggle. This political line is sharpened with skills, uses new approach, and is taken up by the group that split from the OLF in an effort to undermine the OLF itself and the struggle for independence of Oromia.
The dots are as follow:
In his 1999 book, The Ethiopian State at the Crossroads, Leencoo Lata, the former Vice Chairman of the OLF and later the architect of the infamous "Agenda for Peace" which is now-familiarly known as the agenda for "Democratization of Ethiopia", presented his "alternative vision, a new political line" for Ethiopian empire. He says his alternative vision for Ethiopia is "the birth of New Ethiopia –an Ethiopia owned and governed by representatives of all her component communities." Following his lead, some prominent members of the OLF have adopted this new political line. With the adaptation of this new political line, these leaders have abandoned their former political line, the struggle for the independence of Oromia. Before the change of their political line, in their capacity as the prominent leaders, they have inspired, encouraged, and sent thousands of Oromo youths to war fronts to fight in the war of liberation against the Ethiopian Army for liberation of Oromia. In that fight, those Oromo youths have paid the ultimate sacrifice in their lives. Many perished. Many were maimed and many are still languishing in colonial concentration camps. These Oromo heroes and heroines took the order from their leaders who have inspired them. And without shirking their national obligation, they went into battle with determination, resolved to kill or die for their country, in the belief that their leaders will be with them through and through, in all trials and tribulations, both in good and bad times, and never betray them and the cause for which they were asked to sacrifice their precious lives. However, some of the leaders who have inspired these youths and encouraged and sent them to the war fronts, turned their back on them and walked away from these brave men and women and from the cause for which they were asked to fight and die. Here the question one may ask is how these leaders and their followers can explain their contradictory new political line. That is, the political line of its struggle for "the birth of New Ethiopia" versus the OLF's political line of the struggle for the birth of New Oromia - -free and independent Oromia, for which so many Oromo heroes and heroines sacrificed their lives, the living their livelihood. What should be clear here is that the vision, the mission and hence the political line of this group has changed. That change led to the conflicts of vision, of mission and of the political line of the Asmara group, and of the OLF. Hence, the vision the new Gobanas held and the mission they have been advancing in the interest of Ethiopia are morally and politically incompatible with the vision and mission of the OLF and that of Oromia. It is a betrayal of trust and of the cause.
Leencoo Lata says that his new vision is "an Ethiopia owned and governed by representatives of all her component communities." But, he failed to tell us how an empire can be "owned and governed by" the colonizer and the colonized "component communities" alike. Again, he does not tell of any empire in history that had ever been owned and governed by the colonizer and the colonized alike. If one glances centuries back or more, there were great and powerful empires that appeared in history. Among them were the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, the French Empire, the Russian Empire and others. History tells us that none of these empires were owned and governed by the empire builders and the vanquished, those who fell under the empires.
In his testimony at EU parliamentary hearing on May 18, 2006, Hassan Hussein, as a Foreign Relation Officer of the Asmara group (aka Shanee) echoed Leencoo Lata's "Ethiopia at the Crossroads" in stating, "It is an understatement to say that Ethiopia is at a crossroads." Here what he meant by this is that Leencoo Lata was soft in expressing the gravity of the situation that empire is facing. In his own words, the empire is not only at a crossroads but it is fast 'descending into chaos" and disintegrating giving ways to the independence of those colonized peoples, the independence that he opposes. Hassan does not want the empire that raised him to be disintegrated; does not want it to descend into chaos, but he wants it to be glued together by the help of external powers. Furthermore, as a resistance to Oromia independence, Hassan Hussein in his testimony at EU Parliamentary hearing just a few days before the declaration of the formation of alliance (AFD) on May 21, 2006 says this, in regard to the 1992 election. Had the EPRDF allowed all parties to participate, Hussein say "election could have led to the creation of a government that represented all of the diverse groups that live within the political boundaries of the Ethiopian state." This is a sad story. Hassan did not understand the purpose for which the OLF needed that election. The OLF needed that election not to create a representative government "of all the diverse groups" as Hassan Hussein wants us to believe, but to form a legally legitimate body (parliamentary body) of the colonized peoples to facilitate the legal dissolution of the empire. Hence, the OLF saw the participation in the election as a means to peacefully hold referendum on independence. That was why the elders at their general meeting told the OLF that "the time is now for independence". They did not ask for representative government "of all the diverse groups" as Hassan Hussein wants us to believe so as to divert the direction of the struggle. This was understood by the Oromo and the colonizer alike. For EPRDF, it was a means for reconsolidating Abyssinian dominance in a new form in the empire. Once the EPDRF found out that competing with the OLF was disadvantageous to it, it turned against it. That was why it interrupted the process and resorted to vicious violence to stop it. Only Hassan Hussein and his group failed to understand it, then and even now.
Furthermore, Hassan again failed to mention at this EU parliamentary hearing that Oromia is a colony of Ethiopia. And that Ethiopia is an empire constituting many colonized nations each of which are struggling for their independence. Instead of this, he tried to mislead the lawmakers by implying that Ethiopia is one people(nation) composed of various political groups. He told these lawmakers that what Ethiopia need is a unity government that represents the "diverse groups that live within the political boundaries of the Ethiopian state". On the contrary, however, the OLF says "Oromia is an Ethiopian colony with full legal and political right to be independent." And to that effect it reaffirms that "OLF has been waging diplomatic and armed struggle for the realization of this right." By avoiding telling the true nature of Ethiopia as a colonial empire, Hassan Hussein has grossly failed to show the character and nature of Ethiopia. Interestingly enough, On May 21, 2006, a few days later after Hassan Hussein's testimony at EU Parliamentary hearing, AFD (Alliance for Freedom and Democracy) was formed. It was a highly coordinated move and immediately Hassan Hussein was placed at its helm of AFD foreign affairs section. AFD is a collusion of renegade Oromo group and the right-wing Ethiopian political organizations, namely Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP) and Ethiopian People's Democratic Patriotic Forces (EPPF). AFD's core is Amhara and that of EPRDF is Tigray. Both have capitulationist elements of Oromo nationals within them, the purpose of which is to put a democratic face on the colonial empire so as to mislead the world communities.
Hence the configuration of forces at clash in Ethiopian empire, to maintain the empire must be understood. On the one hand, the clash is between Shanee in AFD and OPDO in EPRDF. The clashes of both are to strengthen the power of their respective masters in the struggle to control and maintain the empire. And on the other, the struggle is between the Amhara elites in AFD that had lost power with the collapse of Derg's military regime and the new Tigrean elites who have seized the pinnacle of imperial power when the DERG regime fell.
On June 17, 2006, three months after AFD was formed, Shigut Geleta, the Head of Foreign Relations of the Asmara group (aka Shanee) in Europe, made a speech to "8 heures les Nouvelles d'Addis", Paris, France, telling the audience that "AFD has a noble goal that accommodates all those who stand for justice, equality, freedom and democracy" adding new criteria to the name AFD, justice and equality. While adorning AFD, Shigut Geleta, as his entire fellow Asmara group has failed to tell the audience that Oromia is a colony of Ethiopia and that the Oromo people's struggle is for independence of Oromia. As history teaches us, there had never been justice, equality, freedom and democracy in all empires known to mankind. The Ethiopian empire cannot be the first. Ethiopia is a colonial empire. As all empires before it, it was formed by committing destruction and genocide on other independent and sovereign nations. Then, the vanquished people were subjected to brute rule- - the rule of violence and venality. Today in the Ethiopian empire, the vanquished and colonized peoples are struggling to free themselves so as to reclaim their lost independence. Therefore as long as there is a colonizer and colonized, there always exist the struggle, war of liberation, conflicts and clashes between those who want to maintain the colonial empire and those who want to liberate themselves from the shackle of the colonialism. This means colonialism and independence are intrinsically opposed to each other. They are in conflicts. Hence Shigut Geleta's singing of the "noble goal" and gospel of justice, equality, freedom and democracy to Ethiopian empire, in front of international audience, on international stage, is in polar opposite of the yearning of the Oromo people. The Oromo people are yearning for free, independent and sovereign Oromia the Oromia that shines justice, liberty, equality, freedom and democracy in it contrary to Shigut Geleta's contradictory theatrical drama at Les nouvelles d'Addis, the empire by itself, by its formation, and so in its character and nature, is antagonistic to justice, equality, freedom and democracy.
Moreover, Shigut Geleta also told the audience that "The absence of justice, equality and peace in Ethiopia has made Ethiopia as the prison house of nations and nationalities." This argument of Geleta does not hold water. It is not the absence of justice, equality and peace that made Ethiopia the prison house of nations and nationalities. The reason Ethiopia is the prison house of nations and nationalities is: the conquered and colonized nations and nationalities are imprisoned and unjustly kept in it. These nations and nationalities want to get out of the prison. They want their freedom. But the prison house gatekeepers want to hold these conquered nations and nationalities in the prison house. Hence, there cannot be justice, equality and peace in the prison house. The absence of justice, equality and peace in Ethiopia are the symptoms- - the symptoms of the root cause. The root cause being, Ethiopia is an empire; it is a colonial state. Therefore, empire by its formation and by ist nature cannot have justice, equality and peace for the people it conquered and colonized. For the colonized nations and nationalities to have justice, equality and peace, first and foremost, the root cause has to be removed. That is, the prison house has to be dismantled. Hence Ethiopia has to be completely decolonized, not to be preserved in the form of "multi-nation state", as Shigut Geleta advocates.
Further, Dawud Ibsa Ayana, the current chairman of the Asmara group (aka Shanee), in his interview with Les nouvelles d'Addis in March 29, 2007, responded to the question posed to him as "Knowing that Oromiya's independent would be the end of Ethiopia, do the people inside the front ague about Ethiopia's unity issue?" His response was:
Yes, the political program of the OLF say self-determination but, having this program, we joined the transitional government in 1991 with the vision of making Ethiopia equal for all and to participate in changing the situation in Ethiopia so that Ethiopia will be owned by all and become a common and democratic state for all the nations, nationalities and people, big and small.
This response is clearly in contradiction of what the OLF has been struggling for. The reason Dawud Ibsa Ayana gave as to why the OLF joined the transitional government was misleading. In the interview, Dawud Ibsa Ayana wants the world to believe that the OLF joined the 1991 Ethiopian transitional government "with the vision of making Ethiopia equal for all … so that Ethiopia will be owned by all." Not true. The OLF joined the transitional government to dismantle the empire. No one doubts today, including the Shanee group itself, that Ethiopia is an empire. But Empires cannot "be owned by all" and they cannot be democratized as Dawud Ibsa Ayana wants us to believe. Knowing these facts the OLF joined the transitional government, in 1991, not to democratize it, not for the Oromo and other colonized peoples to own it, but to smoothly facilitate its demise, to peacefully dismantle it and to help all colonized people to make a peaceful and orderly transition from colonial occupation to free and independent states of their own. Time and time again, history has shown the contradictions inherent in the colonial system have never brought democracy to the empires and have never brought the empires to be owned by all. Those contradictions have brought the collapse and demise of all colonial empires and the Ethiopian empire cannot be an exception.
Dawud Ibsa did not stop with this. He an equivocally told the interviewer that the OLF want, "to transform itself into a party" in Ethiopia. There is no evidence to this claim. Any person familiar with the OLF political program disputes this assertion as utterly not true. At no time since its inception, the OLF has written about or spoken of its interest to become a party of Ethiopia. Again he went on saying because of EPRDF's refusal to negotiate with the OL the "OLF remains a front-against its will." This statement is starkly stunning. It is a begging statement. Basically, it says the OLF wants to be a loyal party if the empire's guardians would accept it as such. It is a statement of a condition of surrender and capitulation. The OLF continues to be a front and remains as such. It is not a front against its will; it is a front of its own will, with determination and resolution to fight the war of liberation until the liberation of its country. As long as Oromia is under the illegal colonial occupation, the OLF will remain a Liberation Front.
With this interview, Dawud Ibsa Ayana set a stage for his group's next move. The move he choose and set in motion was to legally challenge the OLF and if successful to strangulate and stop the activities of the members of the OLF in the diaspora through the court system. With this mission in mind Shanee filed lawsuit against officials and members of the OLF. The move was part of resistance to the independence of Oromia and its people's struggle. The move was to thwart, to strangulate, suffocate and cripple nationalists' activities in the diaspora who are the members and officials of the OLF. To implement this mission, Taddassa T. Ebba, as Shanee representative in US, took the first move in filing lawsuit at the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota, USA on July 19th of 2007. He wrote a letter of affidavit to the court asking the court to stop the OLF members and officials from using the OLF name, its emblems and its flag and claiming that OLF is a "trade name". In that letter he presented his educational credentials to the court to support his claim so as to help him win the case, listing his credentials as to the schools he went to, the degrees he earned, the posts he held as Asst. Professor, as researcher and as teacher both in Ethiopia empire and USA and his work experiences in diplomatic, political, Humanitarian areas and the longevity of his membership in the OLF so as to influence the court in its verdict in favor of Shanee.
On July 11, 2007, a week before the hearing, Ebba submitted this statement of Affidavit to the court:
I, Fido Taddasa Ebba, do hereby submit this statement to establish the status of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in the USA and to re-affirm that there is only one OLF in the USA. At present, I am representative of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and work from the OLF Washington, DC office. I have been a member of OLF for 30 years and held various posts in the organization. I hold MS. and Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada respectively. I have worked as Asst. Professor, researcher, and teacher in Ethiopia as well as in USA. In addition I have also worked in political, diplomatic, and humanitarian areas.
His statement of affidavit by itself is not important. It is not significant by itself. What is important is the purpose for which it is written. What really Ebba wanted this affidavit to accomplish is the question, one may ask. The purpose of the affidavit is to assist the court in denying the members and officials of OLF in the diaspora from using the OLF name, its emblems and its flag. To convince this court, he presented four things that are vital in aiding the court. One is he presented himself as the representative of the OLF. The second is the status of the OLF in USA and the third is that there is only one OLF in the USA and the fourth is his own credentials.
I agree with Ebba that the OLF has a legal status in the USA and that there is only one OLF. On the other, however, it is utterly wrong for Ebba to present himself as the representative of the OLF. One must understand that an organization is its program. When one talks about the OLF, for instance, one is talking about the OLF political program of 1973 as amended in 1998. Since its formation OLF has been guided by the principles, the objectives, the ideals and ideas enshrined in its political program. As one may well recall, in 1998 Taddasa T. Ebba, in collaboration wit Leencoo Lataa, signed an accord with TPLF, accepting the disarming of OLA, the renunciation of armed struggle and the acceptance of the Ethiopian constitution abandoning the political program of the OLF. That led to the split of his group from the OLF in 2001. And since, he has been campaigning on the behalf of Ethiopia Empire. And now this splinter group is a member of AFD, the Ethiopian party. But Taddasa T. Ebba still says, "I am representative ofthe OLF." This begs a question, if one does not believe in liberation or if one abandons the political program for liberation, how can one claim to be a representative of a Liberation Front? For what purpose? Such is hypocrisy and doubletalk, the purpose of which is to confuse and mislead international communities.
One may wonder as to how Ebba's resume can help to decide the case. This writer believes that courts make decision looking at the historical precedence of the organization and prevailing facts, not at what school one went to or what degree one earned or what experience one acquired. The reason is simply the historical precedence shows the trend undertaken by the organization and the facts speak to the truth, not to hocus-pocus as that presented by Shanee. Again, one may ask, if Taddassa T. Ebba is able to present his resume to the foreign court in this way to win the case in favor of Abyssinia, against the cause of his people and his country, what credentials would Gobana Daacee have presented to a foreign court, had he been alive today? By all accounts, not much. Gobana never got formal education, not to mention of a University education and earning a degree. Again Gobana and his generation of Oromo of the time had no contact with foreign powers of the time and had no regional and global information and so were not politically exposed to the intrigues and games of international politics, laws and diplomacy of the time, as Ebba and his associates of today. On this account, one may even be tempt to give the benefit of doubt to Gobana Daacee than to his followers of today - the new Gobanas, who have been committing the most heinous crimes against their former comrades, their country and their people in pursuing the interest of the colonial empire and their own selfish interest utilizing their education and their exposure to the knowledge of regional and global information, as a
vehicle. It is, therefore, clear that Ebba used his credentials and the information he is exposed to, to advocate for, defend, advance, promote, and foster the interest of Ethiopian empire at the court, instead of the interest of the Oromia, and the Oromo people who raised and educated him.
To understand Gobanism in its core, one has to connect the dots. Just visit the group's paltalk room. In so doing, one can understand the political inner thinking of the group and the extent to which the group is politically divorced from the Oromo struggle. As soon as one opens "Oromiyaa Galma Qabsoo Bilisummaa Oromoo" one encounter the group's slogan that reads "We are pro OLF, ULFO & AFD." That is an apostasy without doubt. As aforementioned, AFD is the collusion of Oromo reactionary forces that includes at the core CUDP and EPPF, the anti Oromo political forces, the forces that do not even recognize the principle of the inalienable rights of nations in Ethiopian empire to self-determination including and up to independence. One cannot be pro OLF and ULFO and at the same time pro AFD. That is one cannot be pro liberation and at the same time pro anti liberation. To say one is pro OLF, ULFO and at the same time pro AFD is a self contradictory argument. It does not make sense and no logic to it.
Not only this, just two weeks before the formation of AFD, this group attempted to organize a forum in coordination with its counter parts - - the supporters of CUDP and EPPF in Chicago, IL, on April 1, 2006. Flyers for public invitation were sent out. Those flyers carried slogan that reads, 'The Sun has risen in Ethiopia. Darkness is no more!' This is the group that later became the apologist of the AFD. It is this group, Hassan Hussein referred to as "our constituencies around the world", in his testimony at EU parliamentary hearing, that he said supported his group's idea of to begin "a new beginning" – the formation of government of Ethiopian empire including the regime now in power. Hassan Hussein also told the EU lawmakers, "our constituencies in the country" want his group to make peace with regime. What he meant "our constituencies in the country" is the group's contact persons—new Gobanas at home, in the like of Negasso Gidada, Negusse Biratu and the likes. Negasso Gidada has made this clear after he met and consulted with Leencoo Lata and his group during OSA conference of August 2007, in Minneapolis, MN, in which he told the interviewer that "the OLF (read as Asmara group) has fully joined OPDO, ONDM/AESM, ONC, PDFME and OFDM parties by changing its goals from radical independence to the democratization of the Ethiopian State" and so he asked others to help this "pro-unity OLF", both "financial and diplomatically". This is a confluence of the new Gobanas in the diaspora with their counter part new Gobanas in Oromia to undermine the Oromo struggle and hence to confuse the world communities. It is these groups that Hassan Hussein collectively referred to as "our constituencies inside the country and around the world" in his appealing to the EU parliament members to convince them to help mediate between itself and the colonial regime. So far Shanee is waiting in state of inertia with saliva dripping from its jaws, in the hope that EU may influence Meles Zenawi to take it into his arms. Shanee wanted to utilize EU only for the sake of its own face saving. But Meles Zenawi does have any intention of accepting Shanee without humiliating it. That is, Shanee has to completely accept and comply with all the conditions that he may ask of it. He makes sure that Shanee understands the violation of any condition lands it in jail or to its kiss of dust, as all Gobanas before it. That is the price new Gobanas have to accept, as all those Gobanas before it.
Above all else, one must make it clear to oneself that from today's Oromo national struggle to the American Revolutionary war of two-century ago and every stops in-between, at every historical junction, the colonized nations, including the Oromo people, have opposed colonialism. Just as Oromos are fighting colonialism, colonial occupation and colonial rule, so did the other colonized nations before them. It is in the intrinsic nature of peoples and nations to fight for their dignity, honor and respect and for the independence of their country. In this case again one can observe that from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to Fidel Castro of Cuba and every stops in-between, nations and their nationalists and patriots oppose foreign political domination, economic exploitation and national degradation. For this, nations fight for their national dignity, honor and respect. Hence, one must therefore understand that the primacy of Oromo struggle is for national sovereignty, political independence, separate statehood and national power. And with this, this struggle is also a struggle for national dignity, national honor and respect. That means independent Oromia cannot be subservient to any power on earth, real or perceived. It was for these mentioned purposes that Oromo nationals joined the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). To this effect, it came to be our commonly held-belief that everyone who joined the liberation front was for liberation; everyone was nationalist; everyone was patriotic; everyone was anti Ethiopian colonial empire; everyone was believed not to compromise on the question of Oromiyaa independence and on the formation of free and independent government of Oromiyaa.
However as we now find out, this was not true. That is, to believe that everyone who joins the liberation front is to liberate ones country was a myth, not a reality. More to the point, as the Oromo struggl began unfolding, serpents slither into the nationalist camps, in the form of Shanee. That is, record numbers of individuals posing as nationalists joined the liberation front on the behalf of the colonizer to undermine the liberation movement from within. These are individuals with split loyalty. They wrap themselves in the OLF flag, carry the OLF emblems, an swear in the name of the OLF. And yet, they fight the OLF itself and what its flag stands for. They have been working shoulder-to-shoulder and hands-in-gloves with Eritrean Abyssinian government that officially declared as its long-held political position to help maintain the "unity of Ethiopia" in conspiring against the OLF and the Oromo struggle. The purpose of which is to weaken the OLF so as to reverse the Oromo national struggle for independence. They penetrated and joined the liberation movements, professional organizations, Scholarly Associations, community organizations, youth associations and various social clubs in disguise with the purpose in mind to reverse the struggle of the people. Once they joined, they resorted to dissemination of propagandas through it propaganda outlets so as to earn support for AFD and engage in political polarization of Oromo nationals so as to divide them and to achieve the intended mission for Ethiopian empire.
In conclusion, since the late nineteenth century, the term Gobana has acquired a new political meaning after Gobanaa Daacee. The new political meaning of the name Gobana is synonymous with traitor, collaborationist, capitulationist, and fifth column. It is the slipping away of the spirit of nationalism and the pride in Oromia and its people. Commonly, it refers to the collusion of local renegades with the enemy. Ist derivative is Gobanism (Goobanummaa), is a political apostasy; a political sellout and surrender. Specifically, it is a political alliance of the local renegades with the enemy of their country. With this, the new political line of some Oromo elements has been discussed. The hard fact that one has to understand is presented. That is the colonial regimes, or organizations, or parties cannot bring justice, freedom, equality, liberty, peace and democracy to those colonized nations and nationalities that are fighting for their own independence. Neither can AFD or EPRDF. It is also a political naiveté to dream of the empire to be "owned and governed" by the victor and the vanquished alike, as some Oromo nationals want to convince us. This is a new political line. The paradigm we are seeing today is not only new Gobanas turning their back on the Oromo struggle and walking away from the brave men and women of Oromia who paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives or their livelihood and the cause for which they were asked to fight and die not only their collaboration and alliance with enemy of their country, and not only their abandonment of the objective of Oromo struggle, but also their filing of lawsuit against the OLF, its officials and members in the Diasporas to impede their activities. All in all, the new Gobanas' objective is to strangulate, suffocate, stifle, and cripple the nationalists and in the end, to neuter the Oromo national struggle so as to preserve the status quo of the colonial empire, the empire their predecessor Gobanaa Daace helped create. In this struggle to defend the Oromo struggle against Gobanas' political line, the means is to stand up strongly for the principles of the struggle and the cause of the people and unmask the new Gobanas, their nature and character, and their relation to external forces so that the people understand them and run them out from among themselves.
Leenjiso November 2007
