ETHIOPIA-KENYA: Who rules the range?

Photo: Andrew Heavens/Flickr

For pastoral communities, the rangeland is perceived as a single, communally-owned economic resource (file photo)

LONDON, 24 October 2011 (IRIN)- The border land between Kenya and Ethiopia is a vast, open plain under a big sky. Hard red earth shows through the thin grass of the sun-baked landscape, an expanse of thorny scrub, flat-topped thorn-trees and tall red anthills. There are no fences or other visible boundaries, and few people, just occasional groups of cattle or goats with their herders. To the untutored eye it can look like empty land, where wandering nomads graze their animals at random.

But there is nothing random about it. This unpromising landscape can provide a good living for livestock if it is carefully managed, and the herds are kept on the move across the seasons so they make the optimum use of each area of pasture and each water source. Over the years, the herders have built up a great body of expertise about how best to manage the area's resources.

And the land is also definitely not "empty" in the sense that it belongs to no one - the people of the area are quite clear about whose land is whose, in terms not of individuals, but of different communities.

Sara Pavanello, who has just completed a three-year study of how natural resources are managed in the area, says: "The pastoralists I spoke to very often used collective terms, saying for example, 'Our resources, we decide, we manage…' For pastoral communities, the rangeland as a whole is perceived as one single economic resource that’s communally owned, even if this tract of rangeland has been divided by the international border. At the same time different ethnic groups own, or exercise control over specific territory and the natural resources found within it." ...read more

Recollection of Some Facts of Oromo Struggle

Gubirmans.com

‎"The way national liberation movements and multinational organizations view the Mallas regime are different. The multinational organizations want Minilik’s throne on which he is sitting by any means possible. His recognition of the existence of nations and nationalities, other than theirs, was also considered as betrayal of heritages of the scramble for Africa. National liberation organizations had no interest in the throne, but ask him to take it out of Oromiyaa. They take to be recognized as a people, not as gift of a Nafxanyaa, but natural law. They demand from him the secession of occupation. He has to pack and leave Oromiyaa for Oromiyaans. This, they believe, could materialize peacefully unless the colonizer insists on violence." By Ibsaa Guutama

“Independent State of Oromia, a Bargaining Chip” – Dima Noggo Sarbo

www.oromoaffairs.blogspot.com

In an interview he gave to ESAT (Amhara Satellite TV program) lasting about 90 minutes, Dima Nego gave a lengthy account of the Oromo struggle, the OLF, his involvement in the front and in the transitional government of 1991 in which he served as the minister of information and his opinion on the way forward.

Much of what he told the Habshaa TV station was narration of what has been in the public domain for a long time except for a few pieces he dropped in the course of the interview. Two such information that stood out for many of us were Dima’s claim to first chairmanship of the OLF and his assertions about the “true” intentions of the founders of the organization when they included the realization of independent state of Oromia in their political program.

Does Dima truly understand the implications of what he said?

Simply put, Dima is asserting that our fallen heroes, the likes of Elemo Qilxuu, Gen. Taddasaa Biruu, Magarsaa Barii, Muhe Abdo, Baaroo Tumsaa, Mullis Abbaa Gadaa and more lied to those selfless Oromo youth they put in harm’s way. Besides lying to all, these true sons of the Oromo people who paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives never intended to bring about a liberated and decolonized Oromia into existence; never did they intend to dismantle the Ethiopian empire and the colonial administration. Dima would have us, and his Amhara audience, believe that the ones alive today, the likes of Jaarra Abba Gadaa, Dhugaasaa Bakakkoo, Galaasaa Dilboo, Ibsaa Guutamaa and more continue to lie to us even after 40 years. Our artisits, the likes of Ebbisa Addunyaa and Usumayyoo Muusaa paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives for a cause they were cheated into joining. The hundreds of thousands of our brethren who heeded the call of the OLF and joined the front, those who have fallen in the battle fields of Oromia to enemy fire, those who were murdered by consecutive Abyssinian governments, those who endured detention and torture for tens of years were all deceived. There is no other way of understanding Dima’s responses. ...READ MORE