We, Oromo People - liberation forces, political organizations, community and religious associations, and concerned individuals - gathered here at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada from August 2-4 hereby state the following facts regarding the Oromo people.
- That Oromo are an indigenous people of the Northeast African region known as the Horn of Africa whose population numbers approximately 25 - 30 million. It is the largest single national group by far in that part of Africa, and second only to the Hausa in the continent, yet relatively few in the international community including in Africa are familiar with even the name, let alone the condition of this major population. The primary reason for this lack of awareness about the Oromo lies in the history of the making of Ethiopia.
- That Oromo people were forcibly occupied by Abyssinia through military conquest when an empire to be known as Ethiopia was formed in the late 1800s. Henceforth Oromo history, culture, language, economy, and political system were swallowed up and presented to the world as part of Ethiopia. Everything known as "Ethiopian" was, in reality, an Abyssianian-controlled image of an empire made up of conquered peoples and their conquerors. How did this come to be? Always with outside assistance, the Abyssinians dominated the Oromo and others through a colonial process. First the Abyssinians carried European-supplied guns to conquer massive unarmed Oromo armies raised under the indigenous Oromo Gada system of administration. Then the independent form of Oromo democratic government was dismantled, the Oromo language was suppressed by replacing it with the official national language, Amharic, and official forms of Oromo religious and cultural expression were denied. All this was made possible by the introduction of a European-inspired form of colonial administration known as the Ethiopian government. In the eyes of Oromo who are ruled by this tool of repression, the Ethiopian government has created nothing but the conditions for Oromo enslavement.
- That Oromo lost self-sufficiency, the right to determine how our land is utilized, and the right to benefit from the fruits of our creativity and to labor on our own land and to utilize the resources that were our heritage from our forefathers. Our material basis, which shaped our culture, has been eroded and we lost the opportunity to protect arid nurture our heritage. We lost the opportunity to develop our language and to watch our children participate as equals in school and to proceed with confidence into adulthood. We have lost our traditions as our culture was curtailed, our religion outlawed, and our freedom of expression denied by the Abyssinians who rule over us. This is a historical fact. This is not up for debate. We have lost our dignity. We have been dehumanized by Abyssinians who rule us not even by the force of their own weapons or the power of a government that they built with their own skill but by the power of a state whose armament and design were imported from superpowers.
- That colonization of the Oromo and other conquered peoples by Ethiopia could not have taken place at all and could not be continued without the active economic and political sponsorship of Abyssinia by a succession of superpower patrons, starting with the French and British at the time of military conquest. This was followed by the patronage of Abyssinia by the United States, then also by the Soviet Union when it took over support of Ethiopia in the 1970s. These patrons provided the arms, they provided the resources and often they provided even the design for the domination of the Oromo and other colonized peoples. The current support that the United States and its European allies make available to the EPRDF-led government in the name of democracy is a continuation of the pattern of strengthening the hand of a group of Abyssinians, in the current case, Tigray, which enables them, despite their small size and peripheral location, to continue imposing the colonial administration on Oromiyaa. This has all been done in the name of stability.
- That Oromo people as a nation aspire to reinstate their independence. Virtually all Oromo nationalists share this aspiration. They are committed to reclaiming their nationhood and undoing the damage to them that was begun when the Oromo were forcibly incorporated into Ethiopia, stripped of their lands, their resources, their rights and their freedom. The Oromo reject the authority of the government of Ethiopia over them, a government that was established solely for the purpose of protecting the gains of conquest and sustaining the unequal relationship between the peoples who were conquered and those who benefited from the conquest. That government exists to preserve the advantages of the conquerors. Repression of the Oromo is one of the main safeguards they employ to ensure their supremacy in ruling Ethiopia. The Oromo want no part of this arrangement. They want to be free of it.
- That conditions which allow the continued misery of the Oromo, both the impoverishment and lack of recourse, have to be changed. As a nation, the Oromo agree on this. But not only are these conditions not being changed, they are being reinforced, most recently under the guise of "democracy" as introduced by the EPRDF, sponsored with great fanfare by the United States. This "democracy" is nothing more than a newly revised formula for reimposing control and repression upon the Oromo and the other subjugated peoples in Ethiopia; it is serving to continue Abyssinian domination over Oromo territories, resources and people who strongly desire liberty and vividly recall the true democracy of their ancestors.
- That Oromo, instead of sharing in any progress claimed for Ethiopia, have had the experiments of "modernization," then "socialism," and now "democracy" carried out at their expense. Oromo labor has always been the basic requirement for operation of the country, and their land and resources used as bait to attract investment to the country. Far from benefiting from such attentions, Oromo have become increasingly impoverished and deprived even when the general level of the rest of the society has risen. Conditions for the Oromo continue to worsen as long as they remain locked in a subordinate relationship with Ethiopia that they did not choose or submit to. In order for the Oromo position to be clear and understandable, certain issues should be made manifest.
- Although the Tigray-led EPRDF did not create the system of repression that causes great suffering among the Oromo, they eagerly stepped forward to accept the task of sustaining it, modernizing it and expanding it. They wrapped the unequal relationship in the cloak of democracy and presented to the world as a fundamental change in government. The international community has been invited to share in developing the new Ethiopia, and has responded enthusiastically. However, their efforts lead only to continually deepened inequality because the basic structure of Ethiopia's relationship with the Oromo remains unchanged. None of the policies of the EPRDF-led government of Ethiopia has made any progress toward reversing or undoing the pattern of repression against the Oromo.
- When the Abyssinian Tigray decided mid 1991 to allow only Oromo individuals who had conceded to join Tigray-generated political parties to participate in the elections of 1992, they stepped right back into defending the pattern of Abyssinian domination of the Oromo. They suppressed all independent Oromo forms of expression, closed the offices of independent political parties, rounded up independent Oromo leaders and local candidates, and prevented the - elections from proceeding with independents participating. Once they had closed off any avenue of expression not controlled by the EPRDF, all subsequent grandstanding about democracy rang hollow to the Oromo.
- The US-led Western powers immediately supported the EPRDF and went along with the suppression of the Oromo. Although we Oromo ourselves are ultimately responsible for undoing what has been done to us, the West should shoulder some of the responsibility for our condition. The West should realize that they have committed a crime against the largest nation in the area and acknowledge that without Western support the Ethiopians could not have committed the wrong that has been done.
- Oromos who once shared a common territory, religion and language have been separated into artificial units for the purposes of colonial administration. Religious changes were introduced in several ways, first by forcibly baptizing as Orthodox Christians entire populations of conquered peoples as part of the act of conquest, then by imposing laws requiring all burials of conquered people to take place in the graveyards of the settlers; churches, by appropriating money for the support of the settlers' buildings and personnel in conquered territories, and by disallowing any form of public expression of traditional Oromo religion. One widespread response to these repressive policies was massive conversion to Islam by Oromo population of the south and east as a form of resistance to Orthodox Christian domination. The result of these divisions introduced among the Oromo is a certain territorial identification with the colonial region created by the colonizer, and a diversity of religious experience among Oromo. This must be understood as natural and accommodated. Oromo must make an effort to know about and learn to respect and tolerate each other's differences for the common good. We must realize that none of this diversity of region or religion threatens a person's Oromo character.
- Hence Oromo should build institutions that guarantee the equality of all members and protect all aspects of each member's experience and interest. Only by doing this will the Oromo be prepared to transfer the working features of these organizations to the construction of state institutions that guarantee the equality of all citizens and protect and defend the diversity and the interest of all citizens. We should understand that such institutions can only be built by Oromos applying Oromo principles and finding ways to express Oromo values in modern forms of organization.
- A/ One of our biggest challenges in the short term is to find ways to absorb Oromo who have acquired the Abyssinian culture of suspicion and intrigue which so often undermines Oromo patterns of openness and public trust. We should help those Oromo who have adopted an Abyssinian hatred for the Oromo, who dislike being Oromo themselves and see their own culture as inferior. We should not despise them, rather we should teach them. They are expressing their experience. Bringing these people out of the darkness of ignorance is an important part of the Oromo struggle for independence.
- B/ We have to consider the expectations of our peasant farmers and livestock herders, who are around 90% of our population. Their great interest, expressed in every way available to them, is to work and live in peace according to the laws and moral values of their fathers and mothers. Of all sectors of Oromo society, they have been the most critical of the Ethiopian domination. The Ethiopian government that rules them is not of their own making, the laws by which they are judged are not morally acceptable to them, and the most recent breed of Tigray settler arriving to enforce an unjust rule on them in the name of "democracy" has only increased their burden and further offended their sense of justice. Their resistance is deep and continuing. They are expecting their learned and educated children to offer some form of solution to their miserable predicament.
- C/ Each set of Oromo actors has a role to play and must be included as part of the solution to the Oromo crisis - wage earners, business people, students, bureaucrats, religious leaders, etc.
- D/ At a time when our elite are being attracted and controlled by multi-national and international companies, when the global economy is unitarized, at a time when the Marxist-Leninist model is discredited, even the socialist model is discredited, the market economy has been proven not applicable, where the elite democracy promoted by the West clashes with local demands, and where all negotiations have failed - these are the conditions under which the Oromo people together plan their future.
- E/ But we must understand that if we do not go about planning the future of free Oromiyaa and communicate with each other at every step along the way, maintaining and defending our gains along the way, the alternative is acceptance of living as slaves on our own land.
- A/ One thing should be very clear in considering the Abyssinian reaction to the prospect of Oromo independence. Abyssinians are very threatened by the prospect of Oromo independence from Ethiopia. The Abyssinians have been the beneficiaries of the Ethiopian state since its inception. It alone has enforced the dominance of the minority Abyssinian languages and culture over all other peoples and secured their sense of superiority. The Abyssinians, whether Amhara or Tigray, have always opposed and will continue to oppose any attempt by the Oromo to challenge the power or the rule of the Ethiopian government. And they are armed.
- B/ Abyssinians, in order to retain dominance over the Oromo, can be expected to put up a challenge not only to diffuse Oromo independence, but also to undermine the survival of the Oromo after independence. For the Oromo, the Abyssinian challenge is not difficult to recognize or deal with because they are so single-mindedly focused against Oromo aspirations. However, since the Oromo conflict is open at this stage, Abyssinian settlers, who learned the Oromo language from the people they were sent to rule, are able to penetrate the Oromo movement at the level of rank and file. It would be foolhardy to underestimate them, especially since their interests are so well-defined.
- From outside the rank of Abyssinia and the confused Oromo a challenge is posed to Oromo independence by Europeans, America and beyond. These external forces somehow have developed a strong interest in the outcome of our decision to seek independence. The United States and Europe have specific interests, primarily focused on the stability of trade of commercial concerns around the Indian Ocean. Even though the size of the multinational investment in Ethiopia is small, it is held for largely strategic purposes, to maintain relative stability in that region of the globe. Ethiopia has served well as a client state in the past and has only recently agreed to cooperate again as a major participant in the Rapid Defense Forces for Africa and the Gulf region. These superpowers are victims of a fear of the unknown if Ethiopia is dismantled. Abyssinians, as can be expected, play up that fear in a self-serving manner. What is not considered by the US and its current allies is the degree of instability that has been introduced by dampening the hopes and aspirations of people promised democracy only to have it snatched from their grasp within days and hours of a scheduled election.
- Oromo at this stage of their history know who they are as a people and know what they want with a confidence that is undimmed. Their goals are specific: Oromiyaa shall be independent, and an independent Oromiyaa shall develop a democratic state.
- The Oromo people have made their choice crystal clear. They have hurtled themselves against the Ethiopian state for decades now. They want a free Oromiyaa. They have always wanted it. They want it even more keenly now following the bitter disappointment and dashed hopes of a promised democracy, which was cruelly denied them in the end. Under such conditions what are the duties and responsibilities of Oromo in Diaspora? Their choices are two: join the people in seeking independence or oppose their desire. There is no real option; we know this because none of us is satisfied with our plight or the plight of our people. Those who do choose to oppose independence can join in the struggle on the side of Ethiopia and Abyssinia or simply step aside. Their numbers are tiny.
- Those who choose to join in the effort to attain independence for Oromiyaa have a big job to do. Taking into consideration all the international, regional and local conditions that affect the Oromo at this point in history, we must plan. We must find way to plan together, to get input and the participation of all segments of Oromo society. That is the only way that we can incorporate and utilize the experience that our people have had living on the underside of a colonial empire throughout the twentieth century.
- The only way to determine what is correct for us is to know what is understood and affirmed by the Oromo people. What makes sense to them in their situation and what makes sense to us, too, is what will work for the nation as a whole. This means that we must start with what is tangible.
- As we begin to think about the institutions that reunite our people at an organizational level, we do not need to totally reject all modes of organization of politics, economy and production that have been developed since Gada flourished. For example, there are aspects of planned and market economy that are compatible with the Gada system if they are integrated according to the ideological dictates of Oromo norms and values. In other words, the Oromo Gada would provide the basic integrating principles for the incorporation of elements into the unfolding Oromo state structure.
- Today our struggle has no single leadership and the various leaders are weak. This is the reality. Also we have no concrete blueprint to follow that tells us where we start and where we end. As a result our objective has become a mere slogan. Our struggling people are not only facing the enemy, but they are facing each other. We Oromo organizations and individuals are in a position of painfully knowing our problems but not knowing how to get around them. We are afraid of what might happen if we take a step, even a tiny step into the unknown . We are fearful of what will happen if we turn the page, and as a result, fear has become our worst enemy, paralyzing us all. Our challenge now is to overcome that. We must gather up our courage, break into political and psychological new ground and come together.
- We understand that Oromo were colonized not as Muslims, Christians or Waaqeffataa, not as one region or another, but as Oromo. That is what we all had in common. What we lost was our nationhood. What we share as nationals is the solid ground from which we act. This is what makes our cause a national question. We seek an answer for our nation as a whole, not for just one part of it or another. None of the features that distinguish one sector of Oromiyaa from another runs as deep as our nationhood, whether they were present before or after conquest. Our internal differences can be resolved according to our own forms of reconciliation which honor Oromo respect for diversity and wide experience. One of the joys and befits of our independence will be to deal with each other according to law and institutions built upon Oromo values and sense of justice rather than operating according to foreign notions of force and control. Together we dream of the day when we endorse a constitution for our land, which embodies an Oromo rule of law.
Declaration:
We the Oromo people, gathered here in Toronto Canada August 2-4 understanding that the Oromo people as a nation aspire to be independent from Ethiopia and have determined to form an independent democratic Oromo state, hereby declare the following:
Let it be known that henceforth the Oromo people reject and refuse recognition of authority of the government of Ethiopia over the Oromo people. We also declare that Ethiopia's claims to jurisdiction over Oromo affairs are illegitimate, null and void.
- That any international or local organization, private or public, religious or secular, working in Oromiyaa under the authority and direction of the Ethiopian government is wittingly or unwittingly participating in policy which undermines the cultural and economic viability of the Oromo people and damages their prospects to regain self-sufficiency and to make a positive contribution to the community of nations.
- That unless they make specific, informed efforts to prevent it, international (The World Bank, IMF and Business Corporations) and local organizations cooperating with Ethiopia will become instruments in the Ethiopian assault on Oromiyaa. They must avoid the experience of many organizations who have entered the country with high hopes for the purpose of accomplishing some overtly humanitarian, religious, developmental or educational goal, only to learn in hindsight that their efforts in both material and human expenditures played into an ongoing attempt to keep the Oromo and other targeted regions politically and economically powerless.
- That any business or corporation operating in or seeking to enter Oromo regions in Ethiopia at the behest of or under contract with the Ethiopian Government arrive in Oromo territory in the position of an invader, without the invitation, approval, or cooperation of the people indigenous to the region. The consequences of these arrangements lead the increasing impoverishment of Oromiyaa and the intensification of Oromo subjugation within Ethiopia. With Oromiyaa functioning independently, Ethiopia can no longer assure businesses to secure access to Oromo lands, labor, or resources. Businesses, which bypass the Oromo to enter Oromiyaa remain illegal, and will only contribute to the cause of instability in the region.
We further affirm that we recognize the power and potential for popular democracy and justice contained within the Oromo language and culture, in the traditions of Gada and in the democratic value system that they embody.
We also recognize that, despite long standing efforts to suppress it, the Oromo heritage holds in it the power and potential to build an independent Oromiyaa by fashioning the social and political means to implement and protect Oromo formulations of justice and democracy.
We regard these values and the continuing commitment to them by the Oromo people as a nation to be a firm basis for the building of the future Oromiyaa. Hence, we formed Gumii Qaxxaamuraa / Transitional Council to form Gumii Bilisummaa Oromiyaa / Oromiyaa Liberation Council.
The participants of the 1998 Toronto convention accept the positions stated in the Toronto Accord and Declaration and agree that our primary purpose is to strengthen the Oromo people's ability to achieve the objective of the Oromo struggle for freedom (Bilisummaa) that has been waged differently by several Oromo liberation forces.
In order to collaborate and coordinate the efforts of the existing Oromo liberation forces towards achieving the liberation of Oromiyaa, we agreed to form and empower a council to be known as Gumii Bilisummaa Oromiyaa / Oromiyaa Liberation Council
Oromiyaa Shall be free !