Waaqayyo/God Does not Teach Oromo People to Give up Their Father’s Land

By Wake Jio Garbi*

Wake Jio Garbi

Preliminary Remark

In this article I will reflect on the Biblical teachings in relation to the current Oromo people peaceful protest against the so called ‘Addis Ababa Integrated Master plan’. It attempts to justify the need of more actions to stop the human rights violations, extra judicial killings, and torturing engineered by the TPLF dictatorial government. Further, it urges the entire Oromo people to be more united than ever in order to enhance the revolutionary movements.

1. Perspectives from the Bible - Old Testament

In the Old Testament, the book of 1Kings 21, Naboth refused to give up his vineyard, the land that he inherited from his father and was murdered for his refusal. “…there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab the king of Samaria. Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it worth. But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbids that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” (1Kings 21:1-3). The account ‘give me your vineyard’ seemed to be started as a simple real estate transaction. The vineyard was near to the royal house of Ahab that he was willing to trade it or to pay for it in order to have it for luxury or superfluity. However, for Naboth this vineyard was his everything: food, water, shelter, history, and identity that he can’t trade it for anything. Therefore, Naboth’s response ‘The Lord forbids that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers’ is tantamount to saying ‘no’. The answer of Naboth to the king reflects the history of land during his time. In Israel, land was believed to be inheritance from Yahweh/Waaqayyo, parceled out to individual tribes and families according to the will of God (Leviticus 25:15, 23, 25; Numbers 36:7; Ezekiel 46: 18).

In Oromo culture too, land is given by God (Waaqayyoo) to a mankind. Thus it is deeply rooted in our belief that Waaqayyo gave us the land on which we reproduce and populate. As such we ought to stand for the birthplace right and that this is the will of Waaqayyoo. He gave the land to our ancestors and we inherited it from them, and this continues and the inheritance goes to the future generation. Otherwise it would mean disgracing the will of Waaqayyoo and His gift according to the Bible teaching I cited above. Giving up our own land, there is no way we can claim others land.

Coming back to the Bible teaching, Ahab brooded or sulked and refused to eat. His wife Jezebel came and asked him why he was so sullen and didn’t eat. The King answered her that Naboth refused to give him his vineyard which is near the palace. Jezebel promised Ahab that she will do whatever it takes to get him the vineyard of Naboth and encouraged the king to eat (1king 21:4-7). Thus subtly Jezebel prepared a means to murder Naboth just because he refused to give up his father’s land. She wrote letter in Ahab’s name, sealed and sent them to the elders and nobles dwelling in the city. In the letter she urged the elders to proclaim fasting, to gather people and to make Naboth sit in front of the people while two men give false witness against him (Naboth) saying “You have blasphemed against God and the King”. Then they take him out to stone him to death. The inhabitants of the city did as Jezebel ordered them to do and reported that Naboth had been stoned and died. Obviously, Ahab agreed with his wife to write and seal the letters in his name. It was a traitorous plan that the collaborative classes of Ahab in Jezreel set Naboth in a high place of decency and honor which was actually untrue and stoned him and killed him with lies from mouths of two men (1King 21:8-14).

In like manner Oromo individuals, social group leaders, supporters and members of political organizations are accused based on false allegations, tortured to death and imprisonments. In other words the Oromo nationalists who stand against the TPLF’s exploitations natural resources experience similar history of Naboth as briefly narrated above. TPLF politicizes and accuses the Oromo who speak against the exploitations and dominations by the TPLF-led dictators as narrow nationalists, anti-peace, and anti-development elements. The current peaceful protest in Oromia against the so called ‘Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan’ is comparable to the response of Naboth to Ahab who planned to evict him from his heritage above. Of course, there have been some prodigals (the lost Oromo who implement the colonial agendas of TPLF) blindly accuse Oromo national struggles.

God shapes, rebukes, and corrects political leaders through his servants (2 Chronicles 16:9). Christians challenge tyrannical governments in order to fulfill their Waaqayyo given roles (Psalms 127: 1). Spiritual leaders in Oromia should take courage to say ‘yes’ when ‘yes’ is needed and to say ‘no’ when ‘no’ is needed to TPLF tyrannical government. As spiritual leaders and as theologians we have to be voice for the voiceless; we have to encourage and educate our people to reject slavery and to defend their Waaqayyo given right peacefully ensuring that everybody has equal dignity before Waaqayyo. It is not surprising that TPLF always labels any Oromo who say ‘no’ to the government’s systematic exploitation as member of the Oromo liberation Front/OLF and punish them. As we know, the TPLF has imprisoned over 40,000 Oromo nationalists, and has been torturing and killing thousands of Oromo with false accusation. However, this strategy of TPLF works no more, for the more this dictator government pushed down the struggle of Oromo, the more Oromo raise up. The sudden occurrences of waves of protests by the Oromo all over the World and in Oromia are indicative of the fact that there is no way to give up the land of their fathers and forefathers to any robber or conqueror.

When Ahab strived to possess the land, Waaqayyoo has sent Elijah the prophet to the king and rebuked him that he killed the innocent man (Naboth), made blood of Naboth licked by dogs and possessed his land. The prophet explicitly speaks what the king does is injustice and Waaqayyoo does not tolerate it. Thus Waaqayyoo warned the king to reexamine his deed and repent, but he was not willing to listen to the prophet. Rather Ahab attempted to attack Elijah saying that ‘you are my enemy’. In fact he continued to do evils after evils. But these evils led to the failure of his kingdom and to his own death. Not only this, his son and wife Jezebel paid for the wrongdoings of Ahab in life. Interesting enough, after Naboth died his land was not owned by Ahab or by the royal family, but it was given to heirs of Naboth (1King 21:29; 2King 9: 24-26).

For the believers, the narrative about Naboth and Ahab above warn that liars like the heavy-handed TPLF-led government to take-off their merciless yoke of exploitations and dominations from the Oromo people. The Bible warns them saying; do not evict poor farmers from their century- old places of birth and heritages; otherwise the rages of Waaqayyoo that came upon Ahab will also find you!

TPLF never hear the opposition parties and human rights activists who have been pressing the government to stop human rights violation in the Ethiopian Empire. The government showed zero tolerance to opposition parties’ leaders and their members, journalists who actually expose the injustice and freedom fighters, and continued killings after killings, cheatings after cheatings and whatever one calls crime against humanity. It is part of our spiritual call to denounce such acts in any society and to stand with the victims. Thus we cannot sit and see TPLF evict our people from their land without their willingness and exploit our resources while thousands of our people are stricken by hunger, and while this dictator kill our fathers, mothers and children, and persecute Oromo human rights activists. The word of Waaqayyo encourages us to stand with our people and struggle to promote justice, peace, democracy and freedom (Jer 22: 3, Proverb 31:9).

Moses chose to suffer with his own people rather than enjoying pleasures of sin. He couldn’t deny the problem of his people and cooperate with the Pharaoh who enslaved Israelites to whom he belongs (Exodus 5: 1ff). The book of Hebrew 11:25 tells us that Moses chose to suffer with and for his people rather than cooperating with those who intimidate, discriminate, and kill his people. For Moses, there was no popularity and privilege than liberating his people from bondage of slavery in Egypt. What about us today? The more Moses pressed Pharaoh to let Israelites free and the more his people(Israelites) got awareness to resist slavery, the more Pharaoh expressed his disapproval even with further maliciousness and tranny (Exodus 5:5-19). Moses continued to mobilize the people to promote civil disobedience by leading them. Lastly, they managed to break through the colonial yoke of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 6:6ff). Israel moved out of Egypt seeking their liberty. In like manner Oromo have no choices left to them, but seek liberty peacefully which they attempted to but denied by the oppressors who wish to control Oromia in a round about ways, like by redrawing parts of Oromia towns and farm lands under the Municipality of Finfinnee.

There was time when the people of Israel accused Moses whom God sent for them to set them free slavery in Egypt (Number 25: 5). No less than this that we also accuse our earlier political leaders saying that they are the causes for the stagnation of the struggle for freedom of Oromo. The reality is that they did the best they could. Of course as human being it may be true that they have weakness; but they still deserve our appreciations for they have brought the struggle to this level. More importantly this is not the time to go back and search for weaknesses defiling and humiliating each other. Rather it is the time for us to come together and plan the way ahead of us. It is time to put our human and natural resources together in order to achieve justice and true democracy in Oromia.

2. Perspectives from the Bible- New Testament

Jesus had great charisma of leadership, unspeakable potential of argumentations. As such the authorities of the time could have given Him high positions as well as respect in the Roman Empire of Jerusalem. Instead He identified himself with the oppressed, the poor, and the marginalized section of the society. He spoke on their behalf. He proclaimed that He came to set the oppressed free (Luke 4: 15-18). There was large number of Jewish who opposed the Roman Empire’s ruling system and were persecuted, burned alive, and killed. Jesus boldly proclaimed that He came to set these oppressed people free. His proclamations have theological and political implications. Theologically, Jesus came to this Word to free people from Demonic power and to win them for eternal life. Politically, He taught them freedom to those under oppression by tyrannical governments. It is obvious that this teaching has political implication in our current context. Waaqayyo created Oromo people free and wants us live in freedom. This should not be taken as going out of the Christian teaching. This is about understanding the fundamentals the teaching and fulfilling what it requires of us the believer.

The authorities in the Roman Empire during Jesus time were attempted to persuade Jesus not to expose their cruelty over the people under their leadership in public sphere. The Roman rulers who had been ruling over people of Israel judged Jesus on false accusation that Jesus blasphemed God and the king, Caesar. They sentenced him to death penalty though He was blameless and liberator.

Enemies of our freedom use different strategies to keep us under their rules. For instance, misusing religious philosophies, they have derailed our uninformed Oromo brothers and sisters from the path of seeking freedom. These are persons who are not cleaver enough to mark the boundaries between religion and standing against unjust treatments in the hands of the dictators (Joshua 5:13).

The Bible teaches Christians to obey the rulers as long as the governments obey the will of Waaqayyo (Rom 13:1-3). If the rulers are cruel and attempt to abandon truth and justice, Christians ought to obey Waaqayyo than rulers (Acts 5:29). For instance, Herod ordered the wise men- the Magi- to return with information regarding the whereabouts of the baby Jesus so that he can easily get where Jesus was and kill him, but they disobeyed the king Herod and returned to their country by another route (Math 2:1-12). When the government attempts to kill those who struggle to free the oppressed, it takes people to break the law made by oppressors. TPLF, on the one hand, is sending its merciless federal police and armies to occupy almost every city, school and university in Oromia; the armies and federal police have been hunting down barehanded peaceful protesters since April 26, 2014. On the other hand, it (TPLF) is sending its cabinets all over Oromia to deceive Oromo by the name of forgiveness, reconciliation, peace and unity. Oromo people should know that such false propaganda of unity, reconciliation, peace and forgiveness has nothing to do with our legitimate question of freedom from TPLF oppression. The armies of this dictator government should take off their fingers from their weapons and stop killing our people inhumanly, and then we will sit for reconciliation. On top of that, the reconciliation, unity, and forgiveness TPLF and some prodigal Oromo are trying to persuade Oromo people have nothing to do with truth and justice. Because reconciliation, forgiveness, peace and unity can be practiced only after truth is established. Oromo people have been protesting peacefully to establish such truth, yet the TPLF has been answering by killing, torturing, and putting thousands of them in jail.

Conclusion and Recommendation

The article explored that the Bible never teaches Oromo people to give up their land to oppressors. I have three points to make as a conclusion to my article:

1. The Church in Oromia and around the world should declare ‘spiritual boycotting’ against TPLF regime. What I mean by ‘spiritual boycotting’ is that the church should stop praying for the strength and success of the TPLF regime who is conducting crime against humanity by killing barehanded peaceful protesters, torturing innocent people, and imprisoning thousands by false allegation. The church should rather pray to Waaqayyo so that He would give wisdom and strength for the oppressed to cope with the catastrophic situation in Oromia and to continue peaceful protest in order to free themselves from colonial yoke of TPLF. Additionally, the church should stand with the voiceless and denounce that the regime is committing crime against human dignity which is unacceptable in the sight of Waaqayyo.
2. Call upon Oromo all over the World to hold hand in hand and continue peaceful protest and civil disobedience until we end the injustice that reigned in Oromia. We have obligations to air our voices non-stop to the international communities that TPLF-led dictatorial regime in Ethiopia has continued torturing, imprisoning, jailing and killing peaceful Oromo protester and not to implement the so called ‘Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan’ aimed at dismantling Oromo from his ancestral land in disguises.
3. All Oromo political parties should come to the table and discuss how to form a united front to make an end to the TPLF’s colonial rule in Oromia, etc. Let me finish with the Oromo saying: “Nutu kan waliiti”. “Harreen wal dhiitti malee ilkaan wal irraa hin fixuu”

                                        Truth prevails!

Waaqayyo bless Oromia!!!

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* The author is currently studying a dual masters degree program in Theology (MA) and in Society and Global Issues at the Norwegian School of Theology and can be reached at waktheophilaw@gmail.com.


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