Watch the condescension oozing out of Ato Lencho Bati as he talks to Ephrem Madebo and Obang Metho. Let me tell you about how much Ethiopia persecuted you and your kind, he seems to be saying. The same thing that those born of the 1960's Marxist Students' Movements, including EPLF and TPLF propagandists, used to say. Come, let us save you from the nasty Amharas/Ethiopians. The TPLF continues to boast today how it freed 'nations nationalities and peoples', in other words everyone who is not Amhara from the Amhara.
The history of Ethiopia is no darker than that of anywhere else. We can of course create narratives to make it so. We can also create narratives to make it white as snow. Those who want to deconstruct and then rebuild Ethiopia prefer the dark picture to justify their deconstruction. Those of us, and this would include Prime Minister Abiy, who understand that deconstruction (aka revolution) is a recipe for conflict prefer the middle way. We understand that the most peaceful, meaningful, and constructive change is one that is build on the past prefer a realistic, middle narrative, a story with good and bad, but that we can be proud of and that can galvanize us into a conflict-free nation.
I have no problem with Oromo nationalism as an ideology insofar as people can have whatever ideology they want. If they believe that Ethiopia should be a nation of nations, then that is fine. If they believe in an independent Oromia, even, that's fine. There is no "normative" problem with that. But don't base it on a lie. Don't distort Ethiopian history and reality. Why? Primarily because this distortion is a source of hatred and conflict. After all, what would be the result of talking about slave trade in Ethiopia with the implication that Southerners were slaves and Amharas were slaveowners, while not mentioning that the Oromo Abba Jifar(s) ran the biggest slave markets and had probably the most slaves of any rulers? The implication is that Amharas (aka Abyssinia and Ethiopia) are evil while the rest, including Oromos, are pure! Of course such narratives are an integral part of ethnic conflict that we have in Ethiopia today.
As I have said before, ethnic nationalism can stand on it's own - it doesn't need false and conflict-inducing narratives. "I want an Oromo homeland in which my Oromuma is reflected and I feel at home." This is a positive and sufficient justification for Oromo nationalism. I urge Oromo nationalists, especially moderate ones, to take this route. I know that the thesis/anti-thesis or persecuted/persecutor approach is tempting as easily galvanizes support. And we have seen it work to that effect in Ethiopia. But we have also seen that it is no more than a win-lose proposition, one that stokes conflict and in the end becomes lose-lose.
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