By Leenjiso
Horo
April 2014
The
legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great
example
Benjamin
Disraeli
The 15th
day of April/Caamsaa is the Memorial Day of the Oromo Martyrs. For this,
on this day of April, we come together to commemorate the fallen Oromo heroes
and heroines. This day has been designated as the Memorial Day of Oromo
Martyrs at the meeting of the National Council (Gumii Sabaa) of Oromo
Liberation Front held in 1984. Since then, the Oromo have been
observing this Memorial Day and it has gained widespread acceptance and popular
support among the Oromo people and the Oromo nationals in the Diaspora. This
day is popularly known as Guyyaa Yaadannoo Gootoota Oromoo.
Every
nation has a day set aside for the remembrance of those who gave their lives
for the defense of their country; for freedom, liberty and dignity of their
people. This is also true for the Oromo nation. For the Oromo,
Guyyaa Gootoota Oromoo is especially important and significant for two
reasons. One is for no other people have given so many martyrs in the
defense of their country and nation for over a century consistently without
giving up the struggle and without failing to sacrifice their precious
lives. The struggle and sacrifice are still continuing. The second
significance of this day, as noted above, is this: on this day of 15th of April
1980, the whole leadership of the OLF was murdered by a splinter group of
Somalia Army while this leadership was on a diplomatic mission to Somalia
. Such a massacre of a whole leadership of an organization is the first
in history.
Throughout
our long history of occupation, each time an Oromo man, woman, or child stood
up against the colonialist, he or she is brutally murdered. Every Oromo
man, woman, or child who refused to give up his/her name, religion, language,
national identity has been ridiculed, humiliated, despised, castigated, and
denied opportunities. So, it is these nationals as a whole that through
their resistance to colonial occupation and through their fighting against it
that pulled the Oromo nation one step back from the abyss of extinction.
These nationals chose death over betrayal of the struggle for independence of
Oromiyaa. Hence, these martyrs form the core of Oromo history. They
are the ones who bravely and selflessly with determination defended and still
defending our existence as a nation and as a people. It is these nationals
who fought and still fighting for the independence of Oromiyaa even to the
point of giving up their own lives so that we could continuously have before us
example of self-sacrifice which would serve to encourage us to preserve
ourselves today and our country for future generation.
The
legacy of our martyrs is a sacred obligation for each and every one of us to
fight for our country to liberate, defend and protect it. But the
question to be raised is this: have we Oromo nationals at the present time
lived up to this obligation? It is clear that some nationals do indeed
lived up to this obligation, while others not. It is also true some Oromo
have fulfilled or fulfilling this obligation more thoroughly than others.
Today, as it always has been, is the call of the time that all Oromo
nationals fulfill their obligation so as to expel the enemy from their
country-Oromiyaa.
This
Martyrs Day is meant to commemorate the Oromo heroes and heroines who had
fallen in the defense of and in liberation struggle of Oromiyaa beginning with
its colonization to the present and to commemorate those who had been massacred
by the successive Abyssinian colonial regimes. Throughout the history of
colonization of Oromiyaa, massacres and persecutions have been with the Oromo
people. Today, under the Tigrayan occupation army the massacres and
persecutions of the Oromo have surpassed that of its predecessors
combined. The Oromo people have been targeted for a total
annihilation. Along with this, the plunder, the stealing and the looting
of Oromo resources and the environmental degradation in Oromiyaa and mutilation
of Oromiyaa itself have been undertaken. These are unparalleled in the
history of colonial occupation of Oromiyaa.
Here are
the names of heroic leadership who were murdered on the 15th of April 1980
:
1. Magarsaa
Barii (nom de guerre Barisoo Waabi)-Secretary-General of the OLF;
2. Demise Tacaane
(nom de guerre Gadaa Gammadaa);
3. Abboma Mitikku
(non de guerre Abbaa Xiqii);
4. Yiggazu
Banti(nom de guerre Doori Barii);
5. Falmataa Gadaa
(aka. Umar, Caccabsaa);
6. Fafamaa
Doyyoo;
7. Irrinaa
Qacale(non de guerre Dhiba);
8. Dhaddachaa
Mul'ataa;
9. Dhaddachaa
Boruu and
10. Marii
Galan.
One really
needs to understand that 15th day of April is the commemoration of these
martyrs as well as the past, the present, and the future martyrs. On this
day, we think of martyrs; retell their stories and their heroic did and
remember their names. It is also a day for the inheritance of their great
examples. In the light of their sacrifices, we must make a firm
commitment for which these patriotic nationalists gave their lives. This
is the only fitting way to commemorate our martyrs. For this, we must be
determined to preserve the very things for which they gave up their lives- the
independence of Oromiyaa, the liberty, dignity and honour of their people.
In this
struggle of ours, we must understand that in the condition we are in now, the
international community will not note us. It no longer remembers what we
say at forums, and meetings. Our letters to Presidents, Prime Ministers,
the Secretary-General of UN, Senators, Congressmen and women, Governors,
Mayors, and to the Editors of Newspapers and the Media outlets do not mean
anything to them. We must learn lessons from Cambodia , Rwanda , Darfur ,
Bosnia and etcetera. Genocides were committed in these countries while
the international community was watching on. Despite these, some Oromo
nationals are still foolishly penning their hopes on the international
community particularly on western countries. These Oromo nationals
miserably failed to understand that the Tigrayan regime is client of the
western governments. For this, they do not pay attention to us, but
international community can never avoid our direct action if we fight; if we
build uncontested liberation military might and make the empire ungovernable,
then and only then, everybody will pay attention to us. We are in a
protracted national liberation struggle. We have to earn the name
liberation by our action. We have to make sure that the Oromiyaa's soil
burn the enemy feet and the Oromiyaa's air burn the enemy faces. The
Oromo roads have to be hostile to the enemy. We must make Oromiyaa a
graveyard of the enemy-the TPLF. For these, we must fight on the ground-in
the valleys, plains and villages everywhere across Oromiyaa. No Oromiyaa
land be left for the enemy to walk on. "Once we have a war,"
remarked Ernest Hemingway, "there is only one thing to do. It must
be won. For the defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen
in war." We are the living example of the conquest. The
success of Amhara at the Berlin Conference of 1884/85 was followed with
Tigrayan success at the London Conference of 1991. Both Conferences
facilitated the conditions for the Abyssinians for the conquest of
Oromiyaa. With the Berlin Conference, over five million Oromo were
exterminated; many sold into slavery; the land was taken away and the remaining
Oromo population became landless-tenants and their institutions were destroyed.
A century
later, in a political maneuver at the London Conference of 1991, the TPLF
grabbed opportunity to occupy Oromiyaa and has become master over it.
With this, the use of violence, disrespect for the Oromo nation, illegal
method of acquiring Oromo properties, and killings of Oromo become the Tigrayan
methods of rule. This is what the Tigrayan regime of TPLF is and has
been. Long before arriving in Oromiyaa, the Tigrayan elites saw the
control of Oromiyaa and the annihilation of Oromo as its only option to rule
the Ethiopian empire. For this, as soon as it entered Oromiyaa, it
disrespected our people, threatened and endangered their wellbeing and then it
resorted to widespread wave of annihilation throughout Oromiyaa. Then, by
the law of conquest, it began grabbing Oromo land, creating and securing
settlement sights for Tigrayans and other non-Oromo from across the empire in
Oromiyaa, while evicting the Oromo population from their lands to make way for
the newly arriving settlers. This has been organized by the Tigrayan
elites who stand to gain from the crimes against the Oromo people. These
heinous crimes committed in Oromiyaa against the Oromo people are all
perpetrated with planning, organization and access to the empire resources
including weapons, budgetary, distention facilities and mass media.
In London
Conference, the "Oromo delegates" lost in the battlefield of the game
of politics, whereby rivals maneuver for control of the issues and outcomes,
practicing a brutal form of politics in which loss often equals death.
The Oromo loss is attributed to those who went to the London Conference on
their own without securing authorization from the collective leadership of the
Oromo Liberation Front, its members, supporters, and the Oromo people.
Because of this failure, the Tigrayans grabbed the opportunity to win and enter
Oromiyaa. This led to a renewed wave of Oromo genocide and mutilation of
Oromiyaa by the Tigrayan regime of Meles Zenawi. This must be reversed
sooner than later. The TPLF must be expelled from Oromiyaa and its
leaders must be brought to justice for the genocide they committed on the Oromo
people.
For
over a century, the Oromo patriotic nationalists had been sacrificed their
lives for independence fighting against Abyssinian colonial occupation of
Oromiyaa and many are still sacrificing in the struggle. Therefore, it is
for us the living, rather, to dedicate ourselves here and now to the unfinished
cause for which our heroes and heroines those who had fought and fallen and
those who are still fighting have thus far so nobly advanced. It is
rather for us the living to dedicate ourselves to the great task standing
before us-that from those honored martyred we take increased devotion to the
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here and
now decisively resolve that those who martyred shall not have martyred in
vain-that this great nation of ours shall have a birth of new Oromiyaa-an
independent Democratic Republic of Oromiyaa-and that independent Oromiyaa shall
establish an independent government of the people, by the people, for the
people of Oromiyaa.
The lesson
of Oromo martyrs is the love of Oromiyaa, identification with it; loyalty to
the Oromo nation and determination to fight for independence if necessary unto
death. This is what the brave sons and daughters of Oromiyaa had done in
their fight against the occupier of their country. These patriotic
nationalists brought Oromiyaa to light and put it on the map through their
sacrifice and action. They embody great virtues; they stand for great
principles; they illustrate noble qualities. It is for these, the colonialist
guns and swords, its prisons, tortures, and the killings could not kill their
spirit of fighting and their love for their people and country.
Kidnappings, arrests, persecutions, concentration camps, secret cells, and the
death squads did not deter them from their struggle for independence. All
these, strengthened their attachment to the love of their country and people
and so strengthened their resolve to fight for the independence of their
country and for freedom, liberty, justice, and dignity of their people.
History teaches us that no amount of arrests, persecutions, killings, rapes,
tortures and plundering can stop a nation that is determined to struggles for
their liberation and human dignity. And so nothing can stop the Oromo
nation and their nationalists from the struggle for the independence of their
country-Oromiyaa. These are the lessons to be learned from the Oromo
martyrs and should indelibly be written upon minds of present generation and
the new generations to come.
There is
only one thing which can be dangerous to the liberation of Oromiyaa and to the
Oromo national existence as a nation. That is the indifference of our own
nationals to the cause of their people. Other than this, nothing an
outsider can do will ever permanently harm us, but the collaboration with the
colonialist against independence of Oromiyaa and the attitude of indifference
and neglect on the part of some of our own fellow nationals to the Oromo
national liberation struggle will surely be the dangerous ones. Such
individuals are those whose spirits are broken, determination effaced and their
courage fled. Such are individuals that lick the enemy hand that smite
them. These individuals are the profiteers in the blood of their
people. And they are dangerous to the national liberation struggle.
For a
national liberation struggle to be successful first it needs strong
organization; it needs nationalists with high spirit, determination, and
courage to fight. Second, it needs unity of members and leaders on common
objective; along with these there must be internal peace, political stability
and a unified central leadership and command with common vision. To win a
war without these is impossible.
"Culullee
dhibbaa mannaa Risaa tokko wayya," says the Oromo proverb.
Metaphorically speaking it means, strong organization is better than
hundred weak ones. Looking back at the Oromo history, we see this to be
true. During the war of Oromiyaa conquest in the late nineteenth-century,
there were many Oromo kingdoms and many regional Abbaa Duulaas/Defense
Ministers. Each of them was not strong enough by themselves. On the
other hand, they did not unite to stand against the enemy. Consequently,
they were defeated one by one by the Army of king Menelik. Again, in 1991
there were five Oromo political organizations against one Tigrayan
organization-the TPLF. All of them were unable to stop the TPLF from
entering Oromiyaa. Again, after it entered Oromiyaa, they were
unable to expel it from their country. The reason was simply there was no
unity among Oromo political organizations.
The saddest
of all is, most of the leadership of the Oromo political organizations are
living in exile. Leadership in exile is a wrong model of
leadership. Even during the dark days of Dergue regime, no Oromo
political leadership ever left the country to live in exile. This is
first time in the history of the Oromo national liberation struggle for the
leadership to be in exile. History teaches us that no a Liberation Movement
has ever liberated its country from colonial occupation without its leadership
embedded within it. Moreover, never in history a leadership has ever
liberated its country from foreign occupation from exile. Hence, it is
vitally important for the Oromo political organizations to re-visit and
re-examine the mistakes they made in the past so as to rectify them and unite
the organizations into one-single whole with unified Central leadership and
command. And the Politico-Military leadership should be in the country.
Let this Memorial Day of the Oromo Martyrs guide us in this direction.
On this
Memorial Day of Oromo Martyrs, let us dedicate ourselves to the struggle for
independence of Oromiyaa in unity and harmony. Let us be worthy of the
example of our martyrs. Let us honour their memory in this most suitable
way by preserving the very ideas, values, principles and goal for which these
Oromo nationalists martyred for-the independence of Oromiyaa.
Finally, I would like to say this, that it
is also important to set the Oromo Genocide Memorial Day or Guyyaa Yaadannoo
Sannyii Duguuggaa Oromoo aside for the remembrance of those millions of Oromos
exterminated by the colonialist regime of King Menelik II during his war of
colonial conquest of Oromiyaa. To establish such a Memorial Day for the
victims of genocide is important. We do not have to wait until
independence to set a day for observation. Such a Memorial Day will lead
to greater unity among the nations and nationalities who were the victims of
genocide of King Menelik II of Abyssinia . Let us do our part first.
Oromiyaa
Shall be free!