Singer Eebbisaa Addunyaa was gun down by Woyyaane 17 years ago, August 30, 1996

Jafar Abafogi/facebook | August 30, 2013

It has been 17 years since Eebbisaa Addunyaa, the famous revolutionary Oromo nationalist and patriotic singer was murdered by Woyyanee security forces on the street of Finfinee. The extremely fearless and vocal advocate of the Oromo people, was gunned down in his home, along with his friend – Tana Wayessa, on August 30, 1996. “Today, Friday August 30th, we mark the 17th Anniversary of the his Execution. Eebbisaa is an inspiration to all of us. Not only because he changed the Oromo nation with his music, but for the fact that he “did not give up or give in” no matter how bad the oppression got. He continued to be a voice for the voiceless people until his last breath. They killed Eebbisaa; but they will never kill his work or the cause for which he was martyred for. sirboota eebbisaa keessaa amma yoonatti kan sammuu dhalataa oromoo keessaa baduu dide yeroo hunda kan yaadannoo ta’ee argamu duuti eebbisaa amma yoonatti kan dhugaa hin fakkaatne keessaa geerarsa isaa keessatti**Yaa bunaa hin daraarinii amman harree bitutti yaa du’aa nan waaminii yaa biyyee nan nyaatinii amman bilisummaa ija kiyyaan argutti** kan jedhee geerare amma yoonatti sammuu ilmaan oromoo keessaa kan hin haqamne ta’ee argama . Ebbisa was born in Dembi Dollo, southwest of the Western Wallaga region of Oromia. With two younger brothers and three sisters, Ebbisa was the eldest son in his family. He was a very talented and respected young person. He attended Oliiqaa Dingil Primary School, Qellem High School, and then passed the national examination for Higher Education to attend a university. 

In 1991, while waiting for admission to an university, the military regime of Ethiopia was overthrown by OLF, TPLF, and EPLF forces. In Ebbisa’s hometown of Dembi Dollo, OLF forces had set up a strong military base. At that time, Ebbisa was very aware of the deteriorating Oromo condition and the need for self-determination for the Oromo people; hence, to support the Oromo struggle for national determination, he joined the OLF. He was trained to be a cadre (Dabballee), and being exceptional at that, he became a Dabballee/cadre trainer in the Dembi Dollo OLF military camp. But beyond his abilities within the military, Ebbisa was also musically talented; he played many instruments and was a gifted vocalist. Because of this, he joined the OLF music band and played a significant role in pushing forth Oromo culture, music, and identity.

Throughout 1991 and 1992, Ebissa travelled through various regions within Oromia (the south, southwest, center, and western) to perform and sing; his songs were not only cultural, but they were revolutionary. They were songs that strongly emphasized the sufferings of the Oromo people and ways through which the Oromo people should demand justice. On a personal level, Ebbisa was a very kind person; he truly loved and cared for the Oromo people. He provided his assistance and care to individuals, his relatives, his sisters, brothers, etc. to anyone who needed help or were having troubles. Ebbisa was a very popular, well-admired, nationalist musical artist. Ebbisa was also known to be a very brave individual. Even after the OLF went underground and its leaders where banished from the country, he continued to sing about the criminal activities that the Ethiopian government was heavily engaging in. He was extremely fearless, daring, and publically vocal about the Ethiopian regime’s terrorist tactics against the Oromo people and continued to also support the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

Because Ebbisa was so courageous, so openly vocal about the murders and injustices that the Ethiopian government was committing, he himself became a large target of the Ethiopian government. According to the Oromia Support Group Press Release No 17, a 26 year-old Oromo who was a friend of Ebissa and who was helping him by transporting him to performances recognized clearly that Ebbissa was under government survelliance and was being monitored by government agents. On August 30th, 1996, Ebbissa Addunya was assassinated in his own home by woyyanee security agents in Finfinne. The following is an account from the Oromia Support Group Press Release No 14 in October 1996: Oromo nationalist singer Ebbisa Addunya and his friend Tana Wayessa were shot dead by government gunmen on August 30th [,1996]. They were at Ebbisa’s home in the Shiromeda area, No 094, Higher 13, Kebele 01, north of the American Embassy in Finfinee, when gunmen burst in.

Eyewitnesses claim the bodies were dragged from the house and put in a Land Rover with a government license plate. The security men who carried out the murders first cleared the street. Residents who looked out of their houses after the gunfire were told to get back indoors. The bodies were recovered [the] next day from the morgue at Menelik II hospital. But even after Ebbisa was murdered, Ebbisa’s family became a target as well; they were repeatedly mistreated in the hands of OPDO security agents in Dembi Dollo due to their relation to Ebbisa. His brother Ashanafi has been repeatedly imprisoned by Wayyene and OPDO agents. May his soul rest in peace, he will never be forgotten. Qabsoon itti fuffaa*** !!

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Aayyoo Makka remembers the battle of Dhombir

by Abdullatif Dire

(OPride) – “It was a grievous experience,” said Makka Bariso somberly recounting her unspeakable ordeals under successive Ethiopian rulers starting with emperor Haile Selassie.

Makka — or as she is affectionately called Akkoo meaning grandmother in Oromo — is the oldest wife of the late Hajii Adam Jilo Webo, a prominent figure in the Oromo struggle for freedom. Webo died in exile in 2005 after decades of resistance against three Ethiopian regimes, including the current one.

Aayyoo Makka, who came to the U.S. in 2007, now lives with her grandson in Minneapolis, thousands of miles away from her homeland, which she profoundly misses. Born sometime in 1910s in the Bale zone of Oromia region, Akkoo spent her early childhood herding cattle when not tending to house chores. Like most women of her generation, Makka, who did not attend school, married Webo at an early age. She led a good and happy life amid her extended family network, since they had a lot of cows, camels, and goats – thanks to the abundance of grazing land in the area.

I spoke to Akkoo as part of upcoming plans to tell the untold stories of many unsung heroes and heroines in Oromo struggle during a commemoration of the 50^th year anniversary of the onset of Oromo people’s armed resistance against Ethiopian tyranny.

“I never even told these stories,” said Makka as her face glowed and her voice sank. “Now, I am ready to use the rest of my life to tell them, if God willing, so that your generation will finish what your forefathers started a half century ago.”

In early 1960s, conflicts began to pile up over grazing land rights, unbearable taxation, land inheritance and classification, and religion between indigenous Oromo farmers and armed Abyssinian settlers in the Bale region. The Oromo were dispossessed and systematically impoverished while corrupt and incompetent Ethiopian elites expropriated their land. Estimated at over 40 million, the Oromo are Ethiopia's single largest ethnic group.

Absent a democratic means to channel their grievances, a gallant son of Oromo, General Waqo Gutu Usu, began to clandestinely mobilize locals to check exploitations and repressions of the Ethiopian empire through a language the empire understood best – armed resistance. He subsequently went to Somalia and acquired military training and arms giving him some firepower. This movement, sometimes dubbed the Bale Oromo rebellion or uprising, paved the way for Oromo people’s ongoing quest for self-determination by putting up the first most serious challenge to the Ethiopian empire. Waqo and the movement he helped inspire remain the beacons of Oromo resistance. He died in exile in 2006.

During a recent visit, Makka told me her near-death ordeal in one of these battles, when Ethiopia’s mechanized army raided her village with dreadful war machines like jets and tanks – to “punish,” for once and all, mindless nomads, as the empire then pejoratively referred to a peasant army that confronted it with outdated rifles acquired from Somalia.

Makka vividly recalls a scene of mayhem during this battle when helicopters came making a reconnaissance and suddenly began bombing the villagers as they prudently tried to escape. “It was a little before Thuhur [the noon prayer] when we ran to the bushes grabbing only things that were at our sight as helicopters hovered over us to map the area and then jets came to unleash their death dealing weapons,” said Makka.

She serenely looked up at the sky, raised her hands to a level of her chest and said, “Galanni ka Rabbiti, hanga hardhaa ka na jiraachise” –Praise be to the Lord who let me live till this day.

“I took my two youngest kids and run as fast as I could into the bushes. The helicopters flew above us once to capture photos and then, returned to destroy whatever was captured,” said Makka as sadness took over her face. “I cuddled up the kids and laid on top of them to hide as the firings rattled the area.” Makka talked about one incident she still regrets as tears gushed down her cheeks. She remembers leaving behind a young woman who had given birth just few weeks before this date. The woman was later found dead hugging her child after the mayhem.

Makka said her survival was almost miraculous as bullets torn the trees around her. She remembers confused and terrified neighbors coming from their hideouts when the jets were gone. Some cried for their loved ones killed during the aerial bombardment while others began desperately searching for those missing. I was amazed by how the distant memories of trepidations and tribulations of a nonagenarian woman from a war torn country continues to prevail.

A series of battles during this period are famously known as Weeyra Dhombir – named after the assault rifle used by the Oromo fighters. The first battle took place at Malka Anna near Ganale River in 1963 – sowing the seeds of Oromo people’s armed resistance against the Ethiopian empire – and this year marks its 50th anniversary. To remember this landmark event, a celebration will be held at Saint Thomas University in Saint Paul, Minnesota on Oct. 20, 2013.

Makka never dreamt she would leave her country, let alone crossing an ocean to live in a country where she now finds herself a perfect stranger. Prior to her resettlement in the States, the only thing Makka heard about America was that Haile Selassie’s fearful military machines came from America, a country that humbly welcomed her family. Makka, who spent over a decade at a Kenyan refugee camp, highly appreciates the freedom she has in the U.S., even if adjusting to the American lifestyle has not always been so easy.

“Back home people knew their neighbors, and you’d go talk to them for hours,” she said comparing the two worlds during my visit on a recent Sunday afternoon. “Here, you don’t know your next door neighbor’s name. Even, if I do I can’t talk to them because I don’t speak English.”

Makka valued speaking in Afaan Oromo as we conversed in the Arsi dialect. Language remains one of her biggest challenges in the U.S. as she still struggles to speak English. She loves talking to younger kids but can’t always understand them, as many Oromo children born in the diaspora do not speak Afaan Oromo very well. Although she enjoys the luxury of her new life, Makka said, “Biyya teenna baay’ee yaade”— I miss my country so much.

Despite these challenges, Aayyoo Makka remains positive and jovial. She has strong spiritual and emotional connection to Oromia. She was delighted to see pictures from my recent trip to the homeland, including some of Mada Walabu, her place of birth. With most of her peers long rested, Makka hopes to visit home soon so as to ease her protracted homesickness and smell the scents of Oromia once more.

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* The author, Abdullatif Dire, is a third-year Physiology student at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He’s the recipient of 2011 Gates Millennium Scholarship [OPride’s profile here]. He can be reached at aadire2015@gmail.com.

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