Oromo Persecution and Discrimination in Ethiopia and Renaissance for Justice and equality for all

The book is an expanded adaption from an extensive independent study under the title Exploration of Socio-political History of the Oromo Nation of East Africa and Prognosis of its Future Perspectives. The study was outlying to the conventional Abyssinia-centered Ethiopian history and a partial departure from the academic tradition of Ethiopian Studies and Oromo Studies. It was a case study conducted in an advocacy world view and an atheoretical framework. It employed the historical parallel and the center-periphery approaches as objects of the study. The book narrates the socio-political history of the Oromo nation in the Horn of Africa. It accentuates the pressing problems of the Oromo in modern Ethiopia and identifies the loss of the socio-political center as an urgent problem. It sets a new grand narrative and a unifying vision for the Oromo nation and advocates for its peaceful and democratic rise to the socio-political center in modern Ethiopia and East Africa. It envisions Kushite Ethiopia and Kushite Ethiopian nationalism as the future of modern Ethiopia and East Africa.

Focusing on the issue of the Oromo national struggle for liberation, statehood, and democracy, this book critically examines the dialectical relationship between Ethiopian colonialism and Oromo culture, epistemology, politics, and ideology in the context of the accumulated collective grievances of the Oromo nation. Specifically, the book identifies chains of sociological and historical factors that facilitated the development of Oromummaa (Oromo nationalism) and the Oromo national movement. It demonstrates how the Oromo national movement has been challenging and transforming Ethiopian imperial politics, tracks the different forms and phases of the movement, and maps out its future direction. Currently, the Oromo are the largest ethno-national group and political minority in the Ethiopian Empire. They were colonized and incorporated into Ethiopia as colonial subjects in the last decades of the 19th century through the alliance of Abyssinian/Ethiopian colonialism and European imperialism. Since their colonization, the Oromo people have been treated as second-class citizens and have been economically exploited and culturally and politically suppressed. Despite the fact that Oromo resistance to Ethiopian colonialism existed during the process of their colonization and subjugation, it was only in the 1960s and 1970s that Oromo nationalists initiated organized efforts to liberate their people. Presently, Oromo nationalism plays a central role in Ethiopian politics.

This book is not a definitive history of the Oromo people, but an attempt to provide an account of the struggle of the Oromo people to affirm their place in history. The Oromo people make up a significant portion of the Horn of Africa population. They account for approximately half of the population of Ethiopia. Oromia is a title used to refer to the Oromo as a political, cultural and social entity. The Oromo people living in the Horn of Africa share a common language and a homogeneous culture. During their long history the Oromo developed their own cultural, social and political system known as the Gadaa system. It is a uniquely democratic system governing life from birth to death. Ecologically and agriculturally Oromia is the richest region in the Horn of Africa. Livestock products, coffee, oil seeds, and spices are the center of the economy. Mineral resources also are a part of the Oromo economy, and wild life is abundant in their homelands. Living in East African nations, the Oromo people are largely unknown to most of the world; this work lifts up the people, their culture and their struggles. Political turmoil in Ethiopia and elsewhere in East Africa has resulted in a large Oromo population dispersed around the world. It is a community bound together by a concern for their homeland -- Oromia. Book jacket.

Approximately 200 pages of essential vocabulary, common phrases, grammar, and verb conjugations for the Afan Oromo (Oromiffa) language. Written from the perspective of a native English speaker - useful for anyone visiting or working in Ethiopia's Oromia region. A great tool for Oromo-Ethiopian diaspora to teach children their native tongue.

Eshete Gemeda is researcher at the University of Southern Denmark - Institute of Literature, Cultural Studies and Media. --Book Jacket.

This book analyzes the development of indigenous religious, commercial, and political institutions among the Oromo mainly during the relatively peaceful two centuries in its history, from 1704 to 1882. The largest ethnic group in East Africa, the Oromo promoted peace, cultural assimilation, and ethnic integration.

The earliest registered civilization is probably the civilization of Cushitic speaking peoples spearheaded by ancient Egypt. The Oromo are of the Cushitic speaking stock. Missing links of that civilization are hoped to be found in the language and culture of the Oromo nation of East Africa. It is not too late for researchers of ancient civilizations to turn their attention towards East Africa, specifically Oromia. The first step towards this may be learning their language. This little book will offer you that opportunity. It is presented in a possible easy but sure way to help you understand its basics.

In Locating Politics in Ethiopia's Irreecha Ritual Serawit Bekele Debele gives an account of politics and political processes in contemporary Ethiopia as manifested in the annual ritual performance. Mobilizing various sources such as archives, oral accounts, conversations, videos, newspapers, and personal observations, Debele critically analyses political processes and how they are experienced, made sense of and articulated across generational, educational, religious, gender and ethnic differences as well as political persuasions. Moreover, she engages Irreecha in relation to the hugely contested meaning making processes attached to the Thanksgiving ritual which has now become an integral part of Oromo national identity.