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.

First full-length history of the Oromo 1300-1700; explains their key part in the medieval Christian kingdom and demonstrates their importance in shaping Ethiopian history.

The book examines, compares, and contrasts the African American and Oromo movements by locating them in the global context, and by showing how life chances changed for the two peoples and their descendants as the modern world system became more complex and developed. Since the same global system that created racialized and exploitative structures in African American and Oromo societies also facilitated the struggles of these two peoples, this book demonstrates the dynamic interplay between social structures and human agencies in the system. African Americans in the United States of America and Oromos in the Ethiopian Empire developed their respective liberation movements in opposition to racial/ethnonational oppression, cultural and colonial domination, exploitation, and underdevelopment. By going beyond its focal point, the book also explores the structural limit of nationalism, and the potential of revolutionary nationalism in promoting a genuine multicultural democracy.

This work examines the Ethiopian imperial conquest and Oromo military resistance and the consequent feudal political economy and administration, centre periphery relations, the origins of identity based conflicts and continuity and change in Oromo s socio-political institutions."

This work examines the philosophical origins of Oromo egalitarian and democratic thoughts and practice, the Gadaa-Qaalluu system, kinship organization, the introduction and spread of Islam and the consequent socio-cultural change. It sheds light on the advent of the Ethiopian empire under Menelik II, its conquests and Arsi Oromo fierce resistance (1880-1900), the nature and legacy of Ethiopian imperial polity, centre-periphery relations, feudal political economy and its impacts on the newly conquered regions with a focus on Arsi Oromo country. The book also analyzes the root causes of the national political crisis including, but not limited to, the attempts at transforming the empire-state to a nation-state around a single culture, contested definition of national identity and state legitimacy, grievance narratives, uprisings, the birth and development of competing nationalisms as well as the limitations of the current ethnic federalism to address the national question in Ethiopia.

This book identifies and examines the role of Baro Tumsa in clandestinely bringing together a few Oromo nationalists of diverse backgrounds from all over Oromia, the Oromo country, to establish the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) between the late 1960s and the mid- 1970s in Oromia and Ethiopia. The Haile Selassie government's destruction of Oromo movements, mainly the Macha-Tulama Self-Help Association (MTA), was an immediate reason for the birth of the front. While most Oromos have supported and sympathized with this liberation organization, the colonizers and their agents have vilified and attacked it to make the Oromo society leaderless. For almost a half-century, the OLF has been struggling to uproot Ethiopian (Amhara-Tigray) settler colonialism and its institutions from Oromia to end the domination and exploitation of the Oromo. The book also examines the roles of leaders and social movements in organizing oppressed peoples for collective actions by creating organizations that have visions and missions to liberate themselves. It is a case study of global social movements and leadership studies.

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.

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.