The Oromo Gadaa Civilization: Documentaries on Gumii Gaayyoo and Other Odaa's/Congresses in Oromia

In Photos/Videos: Millions Celebrate the Largest Festival in Africa – Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) at Hora Arsadi in Bishoftu, Oromia (October 5, 2014)

Irreecha (Oromo Thanksgiving) is a celebration of the coming of the new Birraa (Spring) season in Oromia. Though it is celebrated by many millions throughout Oromia, the celebration at Hora Arsadi (Lake Arsadi) in Bishoftu, Oromia, is the largest of all. The celebration at Hora Arsadi has been identified as the largest festival in Africa, and there’s a proposal submitted to UNESCO to register it as the Cultural Heritage of the world.
Here’s a look at this year’s Irreecha at Hora Arsadi (photos and videos from social media).

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Oromo Scholars Raise Critical Question on Ownership of Nile Waters

By Bosona T, (A note from an international Conference)

“Who Owns the Waters of the Nile?” – Oromo scholars raise critical questions regarding the waters of the Nile on Nordic African Days 2014 held in Uppsala, Sweden

Two Oromo scholars, Professor Mekuria Bulcha¹ and Dr. Techane Bosona^2, have participated in the Nordic African Days 2014 Conference held on 26-27 September in Uppsala (Sweden), and have discussed both the open and hidden conflicts over the waters of the Nile. Their paper titled “Who Owns the Waters of the Nile? Reflections on the Conflict between Ethiopia and Egypt over the Ethiopian Grand Dam” was presented on the Panel – The Horn of Africa in Quest for Harmonious Coexistence of State and Society. In their joint paper, the two Oromo scholars raise both interstate and intrastate (hidden) conflicts over the waters of the Nile. They argue that although the threat of the Abyssinian kings to stop the flow of the Blue Nile to Egypt was mere bluff in the past, today it is becoming real through the construction of the Ethiopian Grand Dam. The Ethiopian authorities say that they have sovereign rights over the waters that originate in their territory and will build the dam as planned. On their part, the Egyptians are threatening Ethiopia saying that they will defend their “rights” by any means. Describing statistically the great decrease in the volume of the flows of the Nile in tandem with a great demographic increase in the Nile River Basin the authors predict exacerbated conflict over access to fresh water in the future. Intrigued by the manner in which the two states are articulating their “rights” and claims over the Nile waters, they ask the question: “Who Owns the Waters of the Nile?” Pointing out that 86% of the waters of the Nile that reaches Egypt originates from Ethiopia, and that about 60% of that (86%) is from Oromia which is the actual “water-tower” of northeast Africa in general, these scholars raise the question whether the indigenous peoples such as the Oromo, the Gumuz and the Anuak have any rights over the Nile waters or not. They also question whether the claims of the two states are based on moral or legal precepts and argue that treaties which do not take into account the rights and interests of the indigenous peoples of the Upper Nile River Basin are bound to exacerbate interstate animosities and intensify the unacknowledged intrastate conflicts particularly in Ethiopia.

The authors describe the causes and extent of the accelerated destruction of forests and wetlands in Oromia, Benishangul and Gambella, and analyze the threat which it poses in terms of regional food and water security in general, and argue that this is at least as alarming as the ongoing construction of the Grand Dam. They also raise and analyze intrastate conflicts over access to water and land, particularly as consequences of land grabbing, which they say, are neglected in both academic and political discussions. Describing the ongoing conflict between the Oromo people and the Ethiopian state, and analyzing the 2014 mass massacre perpetrated by the Ethiopian security forces on Oromo students who participated in peaceful protests against land and water grabbing, displacement and environmental destruction as an example, they point out that, in general, the threat posed by intrastate conflicts could be greater compared to the interstate hostility between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Dam.

The paper has attracted the attention of many scholars, human rights’ activists and international journals. For example, COSPE (an NGO based in Italy and working in the fields of development and human rights in 30 countries around the world), Journal International Relations and Diplomacy, and Journal of US-China Public Administration (both based in New York, USA) have sent formal requests to publish and disseminate the paper mentioning the fact that the issues raised during presentation are very important from both academic point of view and activism to raise awareness among civil society.

The Nordic Africa Days (NAD) is the biennial conference and is organized in the Nordic countries in rotation. The theme of this year’s conference was “Misbehaving States and Behaving Citizens? Questions of Governance in African States.” The conference was structured into 29 panels and about 167 papers were presented. The two distinguished keynote speakers were Dr. Mo Ibrahim of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Professor Morten Jerven of the University of Vancouver, Canada, addressing the theme from different angles in their speeches entitled “Why Governance Matters” and “Africa by Numbers: Knowledge & Governance” respectively. More than 240 academicians and professionals have participated from all over the world and about 25 participants were researchers from universities and research institutions in Africa.
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Professor Mekuria Bulcha is a historical and political sociologist and author of many widely read books and articles. He can be reached at Mekuria.Bulcha@mdh.se or mekuriabulcha@gmail.com
Dr. Techane Bosona has a PhD in Logistics Engineering and Management from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden. His scientific articles on logistics of food, agriculture and water resources management are available online at ScienceDirect (Journal of Biosystems engineering, Journal of food control)  and Scientific Research portals. He is a former Chief Engineer of Oromia Water Works and currently a researcher at SLU University. He can be reached at Techane.Bosona@slu.se or tg.bosona@live.se. 


=>ayyaantuu

Ethiopian diplomat flees US to dodge prosecution

By Mario Trujillo

An Ethiopian diplomat who allegedly fired a gun during a protest this week at his country's embassy in Washington, D.C., has left the United States to escape prosecution.

The State Department on Thursday confirmed that it had asked Ethiopia to waive the diplomat’s immunity so he could be prosecuted in U.S. courts, which was refused.
 

"In this case, we requested a waiver of immunity to permit prosecution of the individual involved in that incident," State Department press secretary Jen Psaki said. "The request was declined and the individual involved has now left the country."

Diplomats are expelled from the United States when their host country declines to waive diplomatic immunity.

Psaki, who did not identify the diplomat, said once expelled, individuals typically are not allowed back to the U.S. for any other reason but prosecution.

The Secret Service responded to reports of a gunshot at the Ethiopian Embassy compound on Monday and detained an individual believed to have fired the shot.

No injuries were reported from the incident, which was partially caught on camera with a man in a black suit wielding a handgun amid a small crowd of people before the gunshot is heard.

Reuters reported the man turned himself into authorities but he was not arrested because of his diplomatic immunity.


=>thehill

Two female Oromo refugees died and about ten others wounded due to brutal actions of human smugglers

By Boruu Barraaqaa
October 2, 2014 (Cairo, Egypt) — On September 10, 2014, about ten Oromo refugees were terribly loaded on a Toyota pickup to flee Khartoum, a city where the Ethiopian government thugs abduct any body they want at any time. When they started their journey from Khartoum, the refugees had a dream to reach Cairo safely, at least to get some security relief and enjoy a better life. Unfortunately, what happened to them in the middle of the Sahara desert on September 14, 2014, turned their dream untrue.
According to the information obtained from the survivors, the human smugglers who were illegally transporting these poor Oromo refugees were turned extremely violent for unidentified reason, just after crossing the Sudanese-Egyptian border. They tried to rape the female refugees, but the male refugees who were on the same vehicle opposed this attempt and combated the transporters, showing a relentless bravery.
It was in this scary situation that an unidentified police vehicle was suddenly emerged from behind and the transporters managed to escape hastily. They were driving with the highest speed furiously in the terribly windy and hazardous rocky desert, and finally tipped over. The result was so sad, in which two of the refugees namely Fatuma Mohammed Hundesa and Nahira Abamacha died instantly and about eight others were seriously wounded. Those who died were never buried properly, the report added.
A number of sources confirm that hundreds of female Oromo refugees have been raped, beaten, tortured, infected with diseases like HIV Aids and finally died over the last five years alone, while they were trying to find their way from different areas of Oromia to Khartoum. In last April, just in an area where this fresh sad incident happened, about eight Oromo refugees were captured by the Egyptian police, detained for four months and finally deported back to Ethiopia.
Currently, due to a developing tight diplomatic relations between the governments of Ethiopia and Sudan, Oromo refugees residing in Khartoum are experiencing day and night hunt by Woyane security agents. Fearing not to be abducted by these brutal thugs, they are forced to flee further to Egypt, daring the harsh clandestine journey of the trans-Sahara.


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To end Oromo political paralysis, let more women lead

(OPride) — In July 2006, about 60 Oromo youth met in Minneapolis, Minnesota for what was initially planned as a leadership conference. At the end of the three-day gathering, which featured, among other activities, leadership exercises, social activities and speeches by invited guests, the attendees formed the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA).

It was meant to serve as an umbrella organization for Oromo youth groups around the world (in part because most of the delegates at that conference came representing their local youth associations).

After years of lethargy, IOYA is showing signs of rejuvenation, and deserves all our support. On September 26, IOYA leaders co-presented a report on the rights of children in Ethiopia along with the Minnesota-based Advocates for Human Rights at the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, Switzerland. During the weeklong engagement, IOYA representatives participated in several meetings discussing human rights issues related to Oromo, spoke at a side event looking at diaspora engagement on human rights (with Ethiopia as a case study) and met with the U.N. Committee in a 2.5 hour, closed-door session.

There are several reasons for IOYA's resurgence. Two of them are worth mentioning here. First, most of the organization's earliest protagonists have moved on. This created an opportunity for younger leaders to calibrate the organization's mission and vision in the context of the current state of Oromo affairs.

“Seeing its decline was particularly devastating to me,” Amane Badhasso, the current IOYA president, told OPride during a recent interview. “That is why we dedicated several months to formulating strategies to revive IOYA. We are determined to strengthen IOYA's capacity as an international organization and build global networks not only to advance our goals but also to ensure the organization’s sustainability.”

Badhasso and her executive board members seem to be doing a phenomenal job in that regard. In 2011, IOYA appeared on the brink of dissolution because no one was willing to step up and take over the reins from the then-outgoing board. Despite this, however, even through years of ups and downs — which in all fairness is not unique to IOYA — its leaders continued to hold annual meetings and partner with Oromo community organizations on human rights causes.

The 2012 executive board faced a unique challenge: guiding IOYA through a year of transition and rethinking its mission. They set in motion the changes that enabled the current board to revive the organization's advocacy arm in few months. The new vision emphasized leadership training, cross generational dialogue, networking and the creation of "a space to address issues pertaining to Oromo communities in the diaspora.” In some sense, this was a slight departure from the organization's initial goal and proved key to the current turnaround.  

In 2006, there was a palpable sense of urgency to define the place of youth in Oromo struggle and for the youth to take leadership roles within their diaspora communities. The enthusiasm and sense of Oromummaa at the conference was overwhelming -- so much so that everyone cried at the farewell gathering. The sense of shared passion and dreams made saying goodbye that much harder. Over the years, many had told this writer that it was "the best summer and event" of their lives. A handful of the attendees, including some who met for the first time, have built long term personal relationships and friendships.

But in restrospect there was also a clear lack of strategy on that which the group set out to do. For the first few years, IOYA organized well-attended human rights rallies in Minnesota and Washington, D.C. It issued press releases reacting to human rights violations in Ethiopia, including a government crackdown on their peers at home.

But it's fair to say that IOYA fell far short of becoming a formidable umbrella organization for Oromo youth around the world. It faced many hurdles, including lack of clarity around membership, dues, etc. Its main problem has always been leadership and inability to translate the overly broad mission and vision into actionable advocacy.

The new leaders have now taken IOYA through the corridors of the United Nations. No small feat. Much of IOYA's success seems to be a result of collaboration with others and changes in leadership.

In June, IOYA launched a three-day social media campaign to demand the release of Oromo students arbitrarily rounded up by Ethiopian security forces during #OromoProtests. The initiative generated a lot of awareness and media coverage. But it also afforded the group an opportunity to partner with The Advocates. On July 1, 2014, IOYA and The Advocates submitted a detailed report to the United Nations Pre-Sessional Working Group of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The report, which focused on the government crackdown on Oromo students, identified numerous violations of the rights of children in Ethiopia. It concluded that children of certain ethnic groups, particularly ethnic Oromos, face severe discrimination and rights violations. Other issues pertaining to liberty, security, privacy, freedom of expression and association, family, basic health and welfare, education and leisure and cultural activities were also included in the report. The high-level advocacy at the U.N. is a result of that ongoing collaboration with The Advocates.

The second reason for IOYA's comeback has to do with the makeup of its leadership. Unlike previous  years, the last two IOYA boards were largely made up of women. This sounds hasty and simplistic, but it is important in the context not only of IOYA's remarkable achievements but also the makeup of Oromo political and civic leadership. To the writer's knowledge, no other Oromo organization, anywhere, has more women in the position of leadership than IOYA. In fact, it's been said that to some extent the paralysis in Oromo struggle can be attributed to the lack of Oromo women's participation. This is not to say Oromo women did not contribute to Oromo struggle or activism. They do. But rarely are they given leadership roles. Their contribution to the struggle, arts, academia and other areas of Oromo life is seldom acknowledged.

Two years ago, OPride put out a banner with a photo of about a dozen Oromo martyrs during the annual memorial. Readers immediately noted the absence of a single woman martyr on that poster. The Internet is awash with photos of Oromo leaders, past and present. But one would be hard pressed to find an image of Oromo heroine along with her male counterparts. This need to change. More girls and women need to be recognized and encouraged to take leadership roles in our communities and youth organizations. IOYA offers the clearest example of efficiency and effectiveness when women take leadership roles.

 

*Photo credit Amy Bergquist via IOYA's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/IOYANetwork

 

 

=>opride

The nation killer-Ethiopian development; Aljazeera report on Ethiopia