Can Eastern African peoples finally find a short way to Democracy, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, and Historical Authentic Identity? What could ensue from the establishment of post-colonial, liberal, democratic administrations in all that large part of Africa that stretches in the south of Egypt and in the north of South Africa? Freedom for the Oromos and Great Perspectives for the Horn of Africa area
By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Can Eastern African peoples finally find a short way to Democracy, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, and Historical Authentic Identity? What could ensue from the establishment of post-colonial, liberal, democratic administrations in all that large part of Africa that stretches in the south of Egypt and in the north of South Africa?
An independent Oromo state named 'Ethiopia'
When seceding from the present tyrannical state of bogus-Ethiopia, the independent Oromos will be determined to call their new, free, country ‘Ethiopia’. The Abyssinians will not have the possibility to call their area ‘Ethiopia’ too! They will be free to call their area ‘Abyssinia’, ‘Amhara’, ‘Axum’ or anything else.
One should expect a real earthquake, following the independence of the Oromos. The tectonic mega-event will cause a chain of secessions from the present tyrannical state of bogus-Ethiopia, and we have to expect that tyrannized Sidamas, Ogadenis, the rest of the south, as well as the Afars will have their own countries. As far as the present ruling ethnic groups of bogus-Ethiopia (Amharas and Tigrays) are concerned, we may assume that there will possibly be two different states, one centralized around Axum and Mekele, and another extended around Gondar. The former represents the realm of the Tigray and the latter that of the Amhara. It may look like an ultra-split, but this is the only viable and at the same time reasonable and rationalistic solution.
It is necessary that all the various peoples of the area enjoy their full freedom and independence first, that they better study and delve into their past second. Achieving a significant degree of self-conscience is determinant for any people allover the world. Self-knowledge is essential, and yet so many peoples of the Horn of Africa area have been prevented from this privilege, since this situation of ignorance and confusion was the main target of the colonial powers. Following these early steps, free democratic life, freedom of movement, thought, expression and cult, the establishment of a civic society, the various countries that will emerge from the collapse of colonial structures such as Sudan, 'Ethiopia', Somalia, etc will have the possibility to consider their chances of uniting economically and politically.
Europe should be taken as an example in this regard! Because they separated first (with the collapse of the Communist regimes), the Czech Republic and Slovakia were able to meet again and become one country along with many others this time, within Europe. Modern European History proves that free consultation, free deliberations, free negotiations of free, independent, democratic peoples, citizens and leaders is the only way to a possible multicultural Europe.
Fighting for freedom of expression, and freedom of vote, facing the brutal methods the Amhara/Tigray tyrannical regime attempts to employ against the oppressed masses of Oromos, Sidamas, Afars, Ogadenis and others, this is the task of the day for the various political organizations and parties of the Oromos. Today, the Oromos' first concern is to envisage the perspective of disentangling from the Amhara racist and tyrannical regime. For tomorrow the concern will be to prove that the Oromos can arrange their affairs far better when alone, free, and independent, and finally, at a later stage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Finfinne (not Addis Ababa anymore) will consider options towards greater Eastern African designs.
Envisioning a role for the forthcoming independent Biyya Oromo state
Ultimately, the Oromos can become the regional Eastern African superpower and shape the future of the Horn of Africa region. Actually, any country, small or large, new or old, can become a regional locomotive for the development and the progress. If we see things beyond the unavoidable splitting of both, Sudan and Abyssinia, we realize that there are still large countries in the Horn of Africa area, having larger population than what a newly independent Oromo country is supposed to represent. Tanzania is already home to 37 million people, whereas Kenya has a population of 32 million people, big countries.
But what are their GDP, their per capita GDP, and their fixed line, mobile line, Internet penetration? It is obvious that for any country there are many other parameters to take into consideration: education, number of students, universities, foreign direct investment, balance of payments, exports/imports, economy growth, industry growth and so on. A country never becomes a leader just because of representing a large, or the largest, population. If this were the case, we would all be ruled by China and India! But these two countries are not as important as the US, France, Great Britain, Germany, Russia! France led the anti-US front before the Iraq war, not China! On the international scene, Italy is more important than India! Last year, when its interests were threatened in Sudan, China did not dare to veto! So, when it comes to parameters like the aforementioned, what matters is the shrewd and sharp thought, the anticipation of things to come, the conceptually rich mind, the in-depth knowledge of the facts and the issues, and consequently the introduction of highly advanced plans and viable projects of great perspective.
Until now, all the countries of the Eastern Africa have plunged into the marshes of underdevelopment for various reasons. It is to be hoped that a new force, a new state, with a youthful approach to politics, will introduce a wide range of new concepts and ideas, forcing therefore the rest to follow and catch up with.
The Oromo liberation leaders argue namely ‘that the Oromos should not repeat the practice we have seen in Abyssinian politics’. This is very positive a perspective; the prevailing Abyssinian practices of ethnic oppression must soon cease to be the recourse of ignorant dictators.
Envisioning the Biyya (country) Oromo as a regional superpower, in terms of a locomotive of development, of a multipartite, multicultural, multi-religious and multiethnic way for common progress and peace, is today a great task for Oromo intellectuals and expatriates.
How this will be achieved? Certainly the way will be through education, culture and political mobilization. The formation of a young class of specialists and technocrats able to run a modern country, not an archaic dysfunctional replica of today’s Abyssinia, the preservation and the cultivation of the Oromo culture and the study of the Kushitic – Oromo past, always interconnected with modern, fresh approaches to and concepts of the Humanities, and the general political mobilization that will enhance the sensitivity in terms of the African solidarity, against the only African colonial regime – that of the Abyssinian tyrants – and against the Western democratic involvement, these are the aspects of the triptych of the Oromo liberation and ultimate independence.
Of course, one must expect a great European interest, but one must rely on one’s own forces, effort, and commitment. Contrarily, more can be expected from America, a country of definite anti-colonial principles, beliefs, ideas and policies. The archaic structure of the Abyssinian state must not be permitted to exist anymore; it consists in such a flagrant rejection of the concept of the Human Progress towards Humanism and Democracy that it should not be allowed to develop its Christian Monophysitic religious extremism anymore.
More and more people in the correct positions in America understand that religious fanaticism is a problem, whether it comes from Saudi Arabia or from Abyssinia. It is always criminal whether Ossama bin Laden mobilizes ignorant people to kill Westerners or Abyssinian Debteras drum up ignorant, starving people to attack Christian Catholic or Protestant monks in Abyssinia. Obscurantism runs high, and thousands of valuable Gueze manuscripts – totally incomprehensible to the quasi-illiterate Monophysitic monks of Abyssinia – are out of reach for any serious Western scholar because of the Amhara Debteras’ fear that the Western scholars will unveil negative points of the Axumite/Gondar medieval rulers!
No one in America wants a Monophysitic – heretic – Christian Khomeini-like rule from Gondar or Axum in order to propagate theories of a forthcoming fight between his ‘Jesus’ and a supposed Anti-Christ. The radicalization of the Muslims in Abyssinia – as a result of the Christian – Muslim confrontation – could trigger negative developments throughout the Middle East and Africa.
Pondering on Axes of Oromo Foreign Policy
Examining the issue first through a historical perspective, we come to notice that the Kushites always expressed an interest for the Middle East and the Mediterranean World. Egypt had a lot of interests in the Aegean, in Cyprus and in Palestine. Ethiopian Meroe was in continuous contact with the Roman world, a statue’s head of Octavian Augustus was found at Meroe itself (present day Bagrawiyah in Sudan), embassies were constantly exchanged, stylistic architectural influences seem apparent either in the imperial baths at Meroe or at the so-called ‘Roman kiosk’ temple of Naqa, just to mention a few indications, and then in the Atlas North-Eastern African region, Khammitic Berbers intermingled with Carthaginians.
Later on, the authorities of the Kushitic Christian state of Makkuria, the central of the three Christian Sudanese kingdoms, had certainly strong contacts with the Greek Patriarchate at Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, since Makkuria introduced both Greek language as holy, religious language, and Makkurian language (a later form of Meroitic), written in Greek characters, as administrative language. All this testifies to great exposure to and exchange with the Middle East and the Mediterranean world.
In our times, all the geo-political and geo-strategic interest of an independent Oromo state must be directed towards the Horn of Africa area. This interest must be common everywhere in the area of the aforementioned countries. For every local tribe, people and state, the interest must be extended up to the 'new' 'borders' of this vast union (as sizeable as Brazil, around 8.2 million km2). Major projects should be commonly undertaken at the level of construction, communications, industrial development, education, tourism, services and so on. So the general interest should focus on this regional development. By lowering up to annihilating taxes among the member states, one would create an initial tendency that could be accentuated by big projects in construction and education. The area must act as a center of radiation, and this is not going to happen by means of reference to other areas, be they the Middle East, India or Europe.
An independent Oromo state should express a great part of concern and effort to bring down the nefarious and ominous ideology of Pan-Arabism that brought about the tyrannical imposition of Arabic language throughout the so-called Arabic speaking countries, a policy that results from the 2-century long colonial brainwash campaign named ‘Arab nationalism’. As a good example of local obscurantism, one can refer to the fact that in all the Arabic speaking countries, the realm of the so-called ‘Arab world’, fewer books are annually translated from all the languages of the world into Arabic than in Greece from all the languages into Greek. And yet, tiny 10 million people Greece is a very mediocre European country! Comparison with Turkey would also be disastrously prejudicial to the so-called ‘Arabs’!
A large Horn of Africa Union
There should not be a friction among Africano-centrists and Middleasterno-centrists! Countries emanating from the splitting of the two tyrannical, colonial states, Sudan and Abyssinia, plus all the other countries of the Horn of Africa Union, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, as well as Yemen, Oman, Mozambique, and Madagascar, are – and must feel they are – an entirely different area, a vast middle zone between Africa, Asia, India, the Middle East and the rest of the world. This will bring them closer to each other, and closer to success.
There is a great logic behind this multilingual, multicultural, multiethnic and multi-religious Union. It is not just the historical stamp left by Yemen that had first colonized - for a long period - the Eastern Coast of Africa, from the Horn area itself down to Dar es Salam in present day Tanzania during the Antiquity.
A correct understanding of the dynamics of the global world we are currently living in leads anyone to realize that only big state-units are going to survive and play a significant role in the future. A 60 or 80 million people country is not important anymore; I do not refer to Turkey and to Pakistan, but to France and Germany! It is not without reason that it was suggested that, if Europe does not advance according to the interests of the Franco-German axis, the two countries should abandon the Union, implementing a full fusion. For underdeveloped countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh or Indonesia, 130 or 220 million people do not create a real market that could guarantee growth and development. If this is the situation, geographic location matters a lot!
‘Accumulating’ 160 million people in a small corner of India, and ‘unfolding’ them around a vast strategic area are two different situations. On the other hand, 220 million people scattered on a multitude of islands, like the Indonesian Archipelago, cannot be easily interconnected, and then communications become either slow or expensive!
The geographic location matters not only in itself but in its relationship with other landmasses and/or countries. Indonesia is the natural passage from Australia to China. This does not imply a great system of communication, since Australia may be rich but is a small 20 million people country. In addition, Indonesia is to be found at the edge of dense navigation channel, namely the Malacca Straits. On the other side of Sumatra Island, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand complete a picture. Perhaps there too, a Union between Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the French Indochina countries, plus Philippines and Burma could be envisaged, but the disparities are of colossal dimensions. It is not sure at all that the leading regional financial tiger Singapore and the economically developed and advanced Malaysia and Thailand would be willing to create a commercial, economic, cultural and – even more so – political Union with poor and backward countries like Indonesia, Philippines, and Myanmar that are exposed to various religious radicalisms and extremisms (Islamic, Christian and/or Buddhist).
The geographic location of the Horn of Africa countries is very privileged indeed. From Egypt to South Africa, and from the borders of Central Africa and Congo to Oman and the Straits of Ormuz, a vast landmass and an immense sea space control a great part of the global communications and network connections. All the communications of Europe, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean worlds with Eastern Africa, India, South-East Asia, and China, and vice-versa pass from here. All the communications between the South African countries with the Middle East and Eastern Europe and vice versa also pass through there. The area is by nature the open window of the entire African continent to India. It can become the exclusive passageway between India and Europe. Furthermore, this geomorphic unit is the gateway of China to Africa that is not only a target market but the best place for the future need of China to outsource in a way to dominate the global industrial scenery. This is something we have not yet seen! Outsourcing has become a concern or a practice for America, Europe and Japan. The overheated economy of China will soon face the need for outsourcing. The Horn of Africa area is the best place for industries targeting Africa, Middle East, Europe and Russia. Odessa and Novorossiysk, for instance, are closer to Port Sudan than to Shanghai!
The combination of the geomorphic particularities, the linguistic variety, the cultural propinquity, and the common stagnant socio-economic situation, as well as the mutual desire for progress and development, change, freedom and democracy, plus the bulk of 250 million people, consist in the ingredients of a success story that the various invited peoples must express their worst self to make it impossible to come! That is why Oman and Yemen should join their African counterparts, after quitting the abominable and hilarious Arab League, an organization that attempts to impose a bogus-historical dogma, that is the existence of supposedly ‘Arab’ peoples in its state-members.
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