A new play highlights Oromos quest for cultural identity
by Mohammed Ademo
May 2, 2012 (opride) – More than 200 people packed into the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, Minn. to watch the play, ‘Oromiya’s Retun’ on Sunday, April 29.
For many in the audience, this was the first time they ever heard the name Oromo or Oromiya. Set in an ancient Oromo country, in north east Africa, the 30-minute play by Jerrie Steele, presented by Bedlam’s Cedar Riverside Art Zone for Youth, was based on a book by Janet Curiel and Lina Abdulaya, Once Upon a Time in Oromiya (Sheeko Sheeko): An East African Traditional Folktale.
“When I read the book, I needed to understand more about the Oromo people,” said Steele in an email to OPride. “I was moved to tears as I read about some of the abuses they have endured and the assault on their language and egalitarian way of life.”
Played by a diverse cast of local East African actors, the show was a nostalgic look at Oromiya’s glorious past. This was evident from the name chosen for the play as well as the names of some of its cast members like Oromiyaa, Kush River, Waaqa, and Gadaa.
Shortly after 7p.m., in accordance with an Oromo custom, the soldout play opened with a blessing from Mr. Galata Dagago, a local Oromo elder. Dagago offered a brief overview of the Gadaa system, a democratic political and social institution that once governed the life of every Oromo. Speaking through a translator, Dagago said Gadaa was an egalitarian system where everything and everyone was respected, even animals and trees.
It was also what inspired Steele to frame the play around Oromo people’s cultural heritage. “I believe their [Oromo] society may have been the forerunner of democracy as we know it today,” she said. As an African-American playwright, Steele found parallels between African American history and the plight of Oromo as marginalized and abused people.
It was a chilling effect through my spine ,pride and hopefulness
I felt while watching. Great job by all oromummaa convicted
Individuals .count me in by any measure this to be advanced
To its highest peak . My greatest thanks to ayyaantuu ,gadaa.com
And all other oromia meia out lets except tplf cloned oromo
Speaking maggots.
God bless Oromia .oromia is a nation
No question that Oromo and Oromia shall be free, slowly but surely, according to the roadmap given by Fayyis Oromia regarding the Oromo liberation struggle as wrtitten here:
“… To illustrate, the importance of the unity of purpose among the Oromo liberation fronts, let me use the following metaphor by applying the five colors used in the faajjii’s/flags of Abbaa-Gadaa and OLF to represent the possible five steps and stages needed to move from the state of suffering under colony towards the future optimal bilisummaa Oromo and walabummaa Oromia. To move from the colonial “Ethiopian unity” of the Abyssinian elites to the free Oromian union envisioned by the Oromo nationalists, these five steps and can be undertaken or the five stages can be achieved one after the other. Just to categorize some Organizations and to give them certain political color, we need to divide the karaa/xurree bilisummaa (the roadmap of the Oromo liberation movement) in to five blocs or stages and paint each of them with the five colors:
- the first bloc/part/stage of the roadmap is colored with white, symbolically the phase of the Ginbot-7′s unitary Ethíopia devoid of Oromia, but have respecting Oromo people’s national right for freedom/bilisumma at heart, which is the same to what the OLF being acitve (for example) in ME’ISON tried to achieve and now considered as an obsolete political move and belongs to the past. We have already travelled this bloc or moved up to this first stage till 1991.
- the second part or stage is colored with yellow, which represents the status quo, the present Woyane’s evil and temporary pseudo-federalism, where in reality Oromia is under occupation of the Woyane forces, but where the OLF is doing its job infiltrating (for instance) the instrumental OPDO and try to keep the already achieved minimum political victories from set back.
- the third part/stage is the future short-term goal of the Oromo liberation movement in the form of true Oromian autonomy (genuine killil-federation) as planned by the OLF operating (for example) in Group-7 and this bloc can be painted with the green color.
- the fourth part/stage of the roadmap can be given the red color and it is the middle-term goal of the Oromo liberation movement; i.e an Oromian independence, which is indispensable and envisioned by the OLF operating (for instance) in the ULFO.
- the final, optimal, highest and fifth part/stage is represented by the black color, which symbolizes Oromian union (supra-national union of independent nations in the Horn region) as a long-term goal which is necessary to unite all Oromo in the Horn from Meroe to Mombaasa. As far as I know, the OLF didn’t yet explicitly stress this final move as a goal.
Whereas we have certain Oromo organizations claiming to be in exclusively green and red uniform, none of the structurally existing Oromo liberation forces seems to be exclusively and explicitly in black uniform, even though all do have the potential to be; here again black being the final and lasting goal which can serve the interest of all the stakeholders in the Horn region. This stepwise move from one stage/bloc to the next/highest level is like the liberation journey from garbummaa under the Amhara rule till 1991 in a symbolical Djibouti (white) and from the border town of Ayisha (yellow) representing the status quo under Woyane —– through Oromian autonomy symbolized by Diredhawa (green) —– and through Oromian independence represented by a move to Adama (red) —– to the final goal in the form of Oromian union, which is given the symbol of arriving at Finfinne (black).
This liberation journey first towards Diredhawa, then to Adama and at the end to Finfinne is the optimal and progressive move, in which all Oromo freedom fighters can take part. All of them can wear together yellow uniform for the sake of hindering any possible backward and regressive move to Djibouti, the backward move for which almost all Amhara forces do struggle. Then, all of the Oromo freedom fighters can have green uniform to move together to Diredhawa followed by changing the uniform to red in order to push further towards Adama, and finally all these nationalists can together put on black uniform to move to Finfinne, the most beneficial type of Oromian sovereignty… ” http://ayyaantuu.com/horn-of-africa-news/oromia/unity-of-purpose-to-empower-oromian-liberation-forces-for-victory/#more-6590
Hi Bilise,
you are absolutely right! Eventhough the revolutionary approach of the pro-Walabummaa forces is stronger, the reality seems to favour the evolutionary move of those, who want to progress through genuine Oromian autonomy within Ethiopian union towards Oromian independence within African union. But yet both the revolutionists and the evolutionists should learn to recognize, accept and respect each other!
Hi Bilise and her/his supporters:
Donot try to bring up the confusion Ginbot 7 was planted in OLF via its trojan horse (Kemal gelchu’s OLF) for about three years. Here after, the oromo people never trust this group. It has already lost its legitimacy. It is upto the oromo people to give final verdict on what kind of sovereignty it wants. The role of OLF is just to arrange/pave/ the way for the oromo people to exercise its right to self determination. Let alone this Ginbot 7 funded /sponsored/manipulated organization, even a true oromo political group has no right to impose Ethiopian unity on the oromo people.