Empire Federalization as a political scheme to undermine the Oromo struggle for independence

By Leenjiso Horo* | March 2014

Introduction
The purpose of this article is two folds.  On one hand, it is to make a distinction among the forms of federalism; and on the other, to underscore that federalism is a wrong political answer to a colonial question.  Hence, from the outset I would like to state that empire federalization is against the right of colonized nations to self-determination, and so it is against the colonized people’s legitimate yearning and aspirations for freedom, national independence, and statehood.  Federalism of the Empire-State of Ethiopia is hostile to the necessity of establishing independent Democratic Republic of Oromiyaa.  Hence, to suggest Ethiopian empire’s federalization, including colonized Oromo people in it, is tantamount to a roadblock in the path of the Oromo struggle for national liberation.

The federalization of empire approach to the colonized people’s struggle for independence is incompatible with the history of all societies hitherto known to history, and hence to suggest empire federalization is not only politics of bankruptcy, but it is also a political moral hazard.  Indiscriminate usage of the term federalism is to obscure the purpose it is intended to serve, and hence to invite confusion.  In history, federalism has never been sought as an answer to the people’s struggle for independence from empire.  Such question has never been raised in the history of people’s struggle against colonial occupation.  The former Oromo Dialogue Forum (ODF) and the now Oromo Democratic Front (ODF) has committed a political blunder and logical fallacy so as to present misrepresentation of historical facts.  Its Political Program says, “The ODF shall strive to establish a democratic federal republic in Ethiopia, where sovereignty shall be shared between states and the federal government.”  Ethiopia is an empire, and the campaign for empire federalization is the height of the ODF’s political absurdity.  In this case, its mystification of empire federalization is to engage in political sophistry in order to invite confusion, to neutralize and demobilize nationals, to produce paralysis and create capitulation.  In so doing, Ethiopian Empire’s federalization is intended as a means to undermine the unity of Oromo and their national liberation movement. And so, its argument of empire federalization has to be ditched in its entirety.  The purpose of this article is to demystify the politics of empire federalization by explaining what federalism is all about, and what purpose it is intended to serve.

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