Photo: Oromo Leader Roba Butta (Real Name: Goro Bubbe) in 1901 (Shortly After the Fall of the Arsi Territory). Photo by the French Traveler Du Bourg de Bozas; Photo Acquired from Gadaa.com Oromo Documents Archives, and Was Not Part of the JOS Article
By Abbas Haji, Journal of Oromo Studies, Volume II, 1995
” … They restored and enlarged the old kingdom of Shoa. But it was not the same kingdom. It was larger, and because the Galla were too numerous to be exterminated or expelled, they had to be incorporated.”M. Perham
Introduction
Perham’s (1969) statement above, which has become classic, reflects the prevailing conception of traditional historiography on which much of modern official imperial history is founded, deliberately or not, confuses restoration with colonial conquest, and colonization with internal (civil) war. This imperial ideology is based on the myth of three thousand years of history that Ethiopia was always united, that the whole of Eastern Africa belonged to Abyssinia, and that the peoples who inhabited these regions were their subjects. In fact, it was the Oromo (or their country) who were most affected by this myth as Menelik claimed the “country all the way south to Mombassa” which seems to have corresponded to some Amhara legends of Oromo’s country of origin.Read more at gadaa
Perham’s (1969) statement above, which has become classic, reflects the prevailing conception of traditional historiography on which much of modern official imperial history is founded, deliberately or not, confuses restoration with colonial conquest, and colonization with internal (civil) war. This imperial ideology is based on the myth of three thousand years of history that Ethiopia was always united, that the whole of Eastern Africa belonged to Abyssinia, and that the peoples who inhabited these regions were their subjects. In fact, it was the Oromo (or their country) who were most affected by this myth as Menelik claimed the “country all the way south to Mombassa” which seems to have corresponded to some Amhara legends of Oromo’s country of origin.Read more at gadaa
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