The Last Ethiopian Standing: Yilma Bekele

Odaa Gadaa | July 20, 2013

Sincere thanks Mr/Ato Yilma for telling us you the last Ethiopian standing. We know that we are killing people who are none sense like you. We know that the man you called us the “Tikur ferenj” just because we used the alphabet that suits our language is either physically or altogether dead. We know “kinijit” party which was systematically raised by you and your likes is completely eradicated. We know those organization like G7 and the like that try to revert the rights and relief our people are somewhat enjoying now are just dreaming. We know that they will never achieve their goal. . We know that you are dying too, and our people are building their hope and future on the dictators’ graves like you.

But you are not alone. You and some of the leftovers from old “neftegna” camp are scrawling on the ground like snakes and trying to bite our heroes and heroines. You, Mesay Kebede, Alemayehu G.M Tesfaye Demelash, Fikre TOLOSA and few other illiterates are still throwing you poisonous fangs to our leaders and intellectuals while clearly indicating the era of the death of your thoughts. Thus, you do not have to tell us as we already know it. Your and your likes dream will never be accomplished on Oromo people. Why do you do bother asking all those questions in you dirty yucky writing? Are you still thinking that you have any tiny right to speak or write about Oromo people? You did give you that right or are you still in dreams? You first get up of your dream of controlling and sucking Oromo resources. You we never even get the smell of it.

You have to be off bed and plan your future, not for Oromo people. You have no right to write about Oromo at all. Do you remember, if you have good mind, that you grandfather write that the Oromo came out of Indian Ocean? What else good you can write better than your last generation? No one toady is persuaded with your dirty propaganda. That time is gone. Even today Oromo are not the victim of you fake politico-religious Orthodox. Have you heard what your dummy priest did in 1992 in Ambo on the day of Epiphany? What did the Oromo to him? If you try to fool our people, you will never get them again. First, they will no more listen to you. We already thought them their friends and their foes. Second today, thanks to our heroes and heroines we have more intellectuals than our enemies, we have better understanding of the world than you guys you still linger in the past. You always forget or deliberately ignore that we know and we built the first democratic community in the world and you try to teach us. When fools go out of the way and everybody ignores them, they consider themselves as having better understanding and better knowledge.

You and your likes in the neftegna camp are like such fools. What makes you annoyed with the best analysis made by Jawar? What makes you angry if I am Oromo first? Was that false that you hypocrites insulting people, degrading their view, culture, religion and language? How you thinking these people will identify themselves as the identity you killed in them for more than a century? How you forget that Ethiopia was the prison of nations, a blood stained country, and an empire of the vampires? You think that you are building Ethiopianism by depriving Oromo and other nations of their identity? You tried it for more than 100 years and you fall out with it. Oromo has already awake and you never sting us. We never aspire to live with you; if we do we already knew you are not good guys to be good friends. Social change and advancement has come to our people and we are the people of the next generation. It is normal to fight death while dying physically or socially. Go fight your death; not our intellectuals. It is for your good if you respect Oromo’s self rule; if not, you will be put out of the way. Take out the plank in your eye first and then you would be able to see the problems of other persons.

By Odaa Gadaa

>ayyaantuu

Jawar Mohammed’s Clarification on Minnesota Speech

In recent weeks, several video clips from my speeches at various events have been systematically edited to present a narrative that portrays me in the worst moral and political light. The latest of these doctored videos are pieced together to create the impression that I was advocating violence against Christians in Ethiopia. Needless to say, this is a calculated and horrendous political strategy so commonplace in the Ethiopian political landscape. Let me say as clearly as I can: I find such views so revolting and so repugnant that it has no place in any civil political discourse. Whatever motivated those who engaged in EPRDF style character assassination, this past week has given us an impeccable evidence about the state of our media and the place of truth, and journalistic ethics in their operations.  It is also ironic that many of the individuals and  groups engaged in this propaganda are the same people who  went a long way to disparage me as ’naïve’,  ‘spineless’, and ‘passivist’ for writing and speaking about nonviolence. Given the sensitivity of the issue and the malicious manner in which these videos were edited and presented, I want to take this opportunity to explain the context in which that particular speech was delivered.

On May 25, 2013, I was invited to speak at a town hall gathering organized by Risala International, a consortium of three Minnesota-based mosques. There were several prominent spiritual and secular leaders from various communities in North America. Present were also representatives from the Minnesota delegation to the U.S. congress. Based on my own observation and the organizers account, the audience consisted of Muslim Oromos, non-Muslim Oromos, non-Oromo Muslims, and Ethiopians of other faiths.

As I do with every invitation, I asked the organizers to give me a specific topic to address, a language of their preference, and format of the presentation. In this case, the organizers asked me to analyze whether the Oromo struggle and ongoing Muslim protests for religious freedom are complementary or contradictory. I prepared my presentation in Afan Oromo, however, after learning there were attendees who do not understand the Oromo language, I ended my comments with a rather condensed summary in Amharic. Given the moderator was flying the ‘times up’ sign on my face, I did not have the privilege of explaining my point in details

It was at the end of that comment that I made a statement which led to a controversy and used by interested group to advance their own political agenda. I said where I grew up, where Muslims make up majority, there is a broad consensus that people would stand up and fight; and the saying goes, they would fight with what is traditionally known as Menca in Afaan Oromo. Here I was trying to underscore the point that even if politically powerless, being numerical majority brings about a sense of collective security which leads people to confront the abusive state  head on forcefully. Hence, this serves as a restraining factor against those who seek to undermine their dignity.  In contrast, where the politically oppressed is also numerically outnumbered, the sense of vulnerability might lead to submission to injustice; consequently enabling the oppressive system to violate their rights with no fear of repercussion.

Every normative community has its own unique way of assigning and discerning meaning in a text or utterance. The expression I used is a sarcastic expression used for a humorous effect. Although it did not occur to me at the time, sarcasm, like satire and irony, works precisely on the slippage between what is said and what is meant. It is often joked among Oromos that Manca is a weapon of pride in Hararghe, as Shimala (a stick) is in Shawa, Eboo (a spear) is among the Arsi, Togorri for Karrayyuu  and so on. These cultural expressions make meaning only within the cultural geography in which they are uttered. I suspect that the majority of the participants attending the consortium understood that the expression is intended not as a statement of fact but as sarcastic expression that signifies almost the opposite of what it seems to say. However, when several versions of the video—some of it doctored to generate the political effects needed by my detractors—several friends, colleagues, and other individuals who did not understand this cultural context expressed their disappointment, hurt, and even a rage. I fully regret these unintended consequences and the lack of foresight on my part.

I understand that a lot of Ethiopians disagree with my views and I welcome all constructive debates and criticisms. However, taking my statements out of context and juxtaposing unrelated events for mere character assassination is not only malicious but also an outdated political tactic. In this era of heightened instant communication lies have a shelf life of minutes before being countered by facts. But during that short lifespan, they could cause serious harm, not so much to their targeted subject, but more so to the unsuspecting general public.

If it is of any help, those who want to mislead the public should know that I am a product of an interfaith marriage. My father was a Muslim and my mother was from an Orthodox Christian background. Moreover, my wife is a Lutheran. I do not advocate religious freedom and interfaith understanding and tolerance because it is fad of the time. I was raised with and live by those values.

Now let me return to the real issue at stake. I would like to remind all that the defamation campaigns, including the distortion of this video followed the  Al Jazeera program that focused on the plight of the Oromo people, in which I was a panelist. The frenzy has now gone beyond defamation and verbal threat. Abdi Fite, a young Oromo journalist was recently ambushed in Washington DC, physically attacked and threatened with knife to his throat. This attack happened following a video Abdi released sharing his perspective on being an Oromo. Those who are trying to silence the Oromo voice through physical and symbolic violence should reflect on history and revise their strategy. My reading of history is that  targeting Oromo individuals have not yielded the intended result of destroying the struggle of Oromo People.

The Oromo people have a just cause that no amount of violence nor distortion can delegitimize. The Oromo nation has produced and continue to produce sons and daughters that pick up and carry the flag when one comrade falls. For those who are still attempting to recycle the old divide and destroy tactic, be sure that Oromos have  a time tested culture and system that cherishes its diversity  and  promotes pluralism. Oromos are masters of coexistence with their neighbors. They are also fierce warriors in defense of their sovereignty. The just Oromo struggle is about restoring dignity to a  people who have been ruthlessly denigrated, and violently subjugated. It is a struggle that gives back to the people their right to self determination in its fullest sense. This sacred goal must be achieved no matter the cost.

 >gulelepost