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Many Abyssinians dared protest against several articles of mine in the past, pretending that I exaggerated my deprecating description of their colonial country – that they fallaciously re-baptized ´Ethiopia´. Some Europeans and Americans wrote to me, asking whether my texts consist in an odd hyperbole.
In fact, I never said it all; perhaps because my sojourn in the world´s most tyrannical and most discriminatory country was brief; perhaps because I am still more of a Historian than a professional Human Rights activist.
A proper answer must given to all of them, and an authentic testimony must reach the UN, the US, the EU, and all the administrations that still stick to respect for Human Rights and Human Values.
When it comes to the appalling Eastern African tyranny, few people in the world have the experience and the exposure a leading Oromo intellectual has had.
In several forthcoming articles, I will publish an interview with Mr. Rundassa Eshete, Chairman of the Oromian National Academy, who lives peacefully in America, practicing Waaqeffannaa, the historical Oromo religion. Mr. Eshete will not interpret and will not denounce as I have done so far.
He will narrate facts that I have not dared imagine as possible to happen; Mr. Eshete, poet, author, and free thinker, will shed light on undeniable facts perpetrated in Neo-Nazi Abyssinia.
It is up to democratic people allover the world to decide whether a state will that can be allowed to further exist.
Mr. Eshete´s first part of the interview is mostly focused on his family background, the persecution of all his family members, his personal exposure to tyranny, his academic formation, and his great trajectory from Oromia to America through the former Soviet Union.
Interview with Mr. Mr. Rundassa Eshete, Chairman of the Oromian National Academy – Part I
Mr. Eshete, would you please narrate for our readers your family background and studies, presenting a brief profile.
Rundassa Eshete - I was born on November 17, 1966 in Central Oromia, in a village called Bojji which is located between two small towns, namely Gudar and Ambo to a large, well known family. When I was 8 years old, the revolution that removed the Hailesilase government from power started. As a result, my family lost vast lands that they had owned for centuries, various other types of personal property, and not only material goods but also their dignity to the lampoons and the hooligans who were trained by the Soviet KGB networks in Ethiopia.
My father, who had been known for his anti-Haile Selassie government stand, was then considered as feudal landlord blameworthy, who according to the communist slogan of the time should be killed. My father predicted this action coming and went into hiding; he managed to disappear for an entire decade only to end up in a communist´s underground dark prison.
As far as my grandparents are concerned, my great-grand father, Ibsa, and his brother, Osho, were well known for their vigorous resistance against the Amhara / Tigre invasion led by Menelik in the Jibat and Macha region; they engaged ceaselessly in fighting and prevailed many times.
Before the Abyssinian army invaded the Jibat and Macha regions of Oromia, and after the beginning of the occupation, my great-grandparents lived according to the Gadaa laws. Quite distinctly, one of the Gadaa centers was named Odaa Bisil in honour of my great-grandfather's elder brother, Bisil Gurre. He had become famous for his creative and innovative approach to the Oromo democratic social order that we currently call "Gada system". He even designed a better method of transforming it into a full-fledged decentralized system of government, thus enabling the Oromo nation to appreciate the benefits of having a purposeful and rational, legislative apparatus able to provide the society with check and crosscheck possibilities and maintain social connectivity and balance.
It is therefore only normal that my father, Eshete Hunde, and my mother, Nagase Banti, never missed any celebration and any ritual stipulated by the Gadaa system. They never stopped worshipping Waaqa (God) following the Oromo Atete, Irrecha and Waqefata ceremonials in which Waaqo is always thanked for His compassion, mercy, and kindness, and His blessings are praised as the reason for Oromia´s unlimited wealth.
After the entire property of my family had been confiscated, and after my father had disappeared, I went to live in Finfinnee. However, when my older brother with whom I had lived for a while was thrown into jail for a crime called "promotion of a narrow nationalist agenda", I tried to find several family friends to live with; but they had all gone to prison.
Life had turned truly difficult for me as a feudal landowner´s son; part of my worst experience was spent in the Kebele jails where I was repeatedly incarcerated.
I was first imprisoned when I was just 9 years old; the location was the notorious Ambo police station whereby my entire family had been incarcerated. Most of us were congested into one large filthy room, and stained with the blood dripped out of bodies beaten with cruelty. My mother was lucky enough to have been arrested in one of the offices that was relatively clean. One horrific image that my memory brings often back to my mind is that of my cousin, Buqisa Tesfaye, who was beaten up until he lost senses. Then, his father, Obboo Tesfaye Weld-Aregay, a man in his late fifties, moved back to the corner of the prison room where I was and whispered to me "go help your brother". Even though I tried to make my cousin Buqissa sit, I could not manage it because he was larger than me. The whole room was filled with wounded people, who looked homeless and were all crying or moaning with no one coming to their aid. The circumstances I lived in that prison were horrendous. It was almost impossible to have access to a sort of small container to defecate, and as one can imagine the room was insupportably malodorous. For this precise reason, it was a heaven for insects and parasites as blood, urine and feces were abundant. The insects and the parasites were so fat that they popped up so easily when one touched them. The majority of people in that jail could only crawl on the floor because of their sickness and/or wounds, looking more like very ill dogs instead of humans. Most horrific was to hear a young boy´s desperate plea to his torturers who yelled at him so loudly.
After five months in Ambo jail, I was released but only for a few of days; then, I was arrested again, and I found myself in another jail, in a town called Ginchi, located 75 kilometers away from Ambo town. The reason for this second arrest was the following: as I had been released, I got on a minibus, heading for Finfinnee where I was planning to find some relatives to stay with.
As we stopped in Ginchi at the check point, the police came in and demanded that all those who did not have an identification card to step out. Two other men and I got out. Immediately after the police searched the minibus passengers, the driver was allowed to continue, and the three of us were taken to the police station and automatically thrown into jail. I was left there in a 12 ft by 12 ft room with nine mates. After having spent there a few weeks, I continued pleading to the guard, who used to open up the jail door to let us sit on the porch for half an hour or so. Then, I heard that there was an old lady living in that town who was a relative so I wrote to her a letter begging her for a bottle of water, but the police man told me that she would have nothing to do with the son of the feudal exploiter. After three months spent there, even the guards started feeling sorry for me, wondering "what should we do with this little boy?". Finally the guard convinced his boss to allow him to take me back to Ambo, my place of origin. So, a policeman forced a dump truck traveling through the town to stop and take me with in order to drop me back in Ambo prison that I had left three months earlier.
My prison life did not end there but it continued through many prisons in Gudar, Mojo, Mega, Yaa-bal'o, and Mizan Teferi towns and in the notorious prisons of he capital, Finfinnee, namely Kefitenya 8, Kebele 9, and Kebele 10. All the prison sentences were due to my family background problems and my unwillingness to attend the regular Communist Youth Association Sunday meeting whereby attendance was a must for anyone wishing to have a calm life without troubles with the Mengistu pro-Communist government.
Due to these developments, during my teenage, I had only myself to rely upon and I finally managed to find a place to live and a job to survive. Many times, I was sent to prison for simple reasons such as trying to bale hay to earn money or avoiding the mandatory communist youth association meetings.
At one point, while trying to find an exit, I was very desperate; thank God, a guy encouraged me to escape to Kenya. I left without saying a word to anyone. After a month of exhausting travel, at times by bus, at times on foot, crossing jungles, I happened to get caught – along with others – near the border of Kenya. Then, I crossed the worst period of my life for about 16 months jailed in Ya-bal´o prison. After getting out of that jail, I faced another adversity; another attempt to escape through the eastern borders was also spoiled, and I was thus left with nothing but lost hopes.
Anyhow, I found a way for myself to continue my life through studies, high school and university, at least as long as I wasn´t on the run or in prison. I managed to get good grades, got a high school certificate, and finally was accepted to Finfinnee University. Following this path, I was eventually able to apply for a scholarship and then, after a long period of despair, find a way out of the country.
Under what circumstances and for what reasons you left Abyssinia?
Rundassa Eshete - It was through this scholarship program that I was finally able to put an end to the terrible conditions of life that I had faced in Ethiopia; however, that scholarship chance had its own limits and limitations as it enabled me to pursue studies in another communist country.
My first choice was to attend a university in the USSR, and secondary choices were two other former communist countries, namely East Germany and Poland. My back thought was to escape when the airplane would land in Greece. The plan failed because our passports were taken away from us, and no students were allowed to get off the plane.
Thus, I left Abyssinia where I had lived under terrible circumstances for a cold, lifeless, difficult situation, that of a foreign student in the former Soviet Union, and more particularly the state of Ukraine. I was there between 1988 and 1993, which was a period of upheaval during which the entire Communist World collapsed. After I graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Kharkov (state) University, I applied for another scholarship for a Graduate School in the States, and like that I was finally able to reach America. Of course, there were various formalities to undergo and even obstacles to overcome before I reach the New World at last.
As you lived in several countries, what is your idea about the knowledge different people have about Abyssinia, the various oppressed nations and the colonial nature of that state?
Rundassa Eshete - What was the most surprising discovery for me is that majority of the average people in both, the former Soviet Union and America, are totally unaware of almost anything happening outside their own country. As a matter of fact, I found very few people in either the former Soviet Union or America to know sufficiently enough about their own country or be involved in various societal activities.
As you know very well, the history of Ethiopia was written and popularized allover the world by those who got paid. Most importantly, the Tigre/Amhara ruling class knew the interests of the Western World and played along that line. By doing so, they used the Westerners to expand Ethiopia´s mythical story. Because of that, no one throughout the globe has ever been able to vaguely imagine, let alone accurately know, the extent of the Human Tragedy caused by the Abyssinians in Ethiopia where the breasts of millions of Oromian women breasts and the arms of millions of Oromian men have been mercilessly cut off.
The entire world never imagined that a country could ever exist where the victims of deliberate and intentional amputation would have been forced to proceed through the market places – with the amputated members tied on their necks – in order to provoke panic of fear among the survivors of a Genocide.
This unique country in the world is the colonial empire of Abyssinia.
Mr. Rundassa Eshete´s second part of the interview will be published in a forthcoming article.
In fact, I never said it all; perhaps because my sojourn in the world´s most tyrannical and most discriminatory country was brief; perhaps because I am still more of a Historian than a professional Human Rights activist.
A proper answer must given to all of them, and an authentic testimony must reach the UN, the US, the EU, and all the administrations that still stick to respect for Human Rights and Human Values.
When it comes to the appalling Eastern African tyranny, few people in the world have the experience and the exposure a leading Oromo intellectual has had.
In several forthcoming articles, I will publish an interview with Mr. Rundassa Eshete, Chairman of the Oromian National Academy, who lives peacefully in America, practicing Waaqeffannaa, the historical Oromo religion. Mr. Eshete will not interpret and will not denounce as I have done so far.
He will narrate facts that I have not dared imagine as possible to happen; Mr. Eshete, poet, author, and free thinker, will shed light on undeniable facts perpetrated in Neo-Nazi Abyssinia.
It is up to democratic people allover the world to decide whether a state will that can be allowed to further exist.
Mr. Eshete´s first part of the interview is mostly focused on his family background, the persecution of all his family members, his personal exposure to tyranny, his academic formation, and his great trajectory from Oromia to America through the former Soviet Union.
Interview with Mr. Mr. Rundassa Eshete, Chairman of the Oromian National Academy – Part I
Mr. Eshete, would you please narrate for our readers your family background and studies, presenting a brief profile.
Rundassa Eshete - I was born on November 17, 1966 in Central Oromia, in a village called Bojji which is located between two small towns, namely Gudar and Ambo to a large, well known family. When I was 8 years old, the revolution that removed the Hailesilase government from power started. As a result, my family lost vast lands that they had owned for centuries, various other types of personal property, and not only material goods but also their dignity to the lampoons and the hooligans who were trained by the Soviet KGB networks in Ethiopia.
My father, who had been known for his anti-Haile Selassie government stand, was then considered as feudal landlord blameworthy, who according to the communist slogan of the time should be killed. My father predicted this action coming and went into hiding; he managed to disappear for an entire decade only to end up in a communist´s underground dark prison.
As far as my grandparents are concerned, my great-grand father, Ibsa, and his brother, Osho, were well known for their vigorous resistance against the Amhara / Tigre invasion led by Menelik in the Jibat and Macha region; they engaged ceaselessly in fighting and prevailed many times.
Before the Abyssinian army invaded the Jibat and Macha regions of Oromia, and after the beginning of the occupation, my great-grandparents lived according to the Gadaa laws. Quite distinctly, one of the Gadaa centers was named Odaa Bisil in honour of my great-grandfather's elder brother, Bisil Gurre. He had become famous for his creative and innovative approach to the Oromo democratic social order that we currently call "Gada system". He even designed a better method of transforming it into a full-fledged decentralized system of government, thus enabling the Oromo nation to appreciate the benefits of having a purposeful and rational, legislative apparatus able to provide the society with check and crosscheck possibilities and maintain social connectivity and balance.
It is therefore only normal that my father, Eshete Hunde, and my mother, Nagase Banti, never missed any celebration and any ritual stipulated by the Gadaa system. They never stopped worshipping Waaqa (God) following the Oromo Atete, Irrecha and Waqefata ceremonials in which Waaqo is always thanked for His compassion, mercy, and kindness, and His blessings are praised as the reason for Oromia´s unlimited wealth.
After the entire property of my family had been confiscated, and after my father had disappeared, I went to live in Finfinnee. However, when my older brother with whom I had lived for a while was thrown into jail for a crime called "promotion of a narrow nationalist agenda", I tried to find several family friends to live with; but they had all gone to prison.
Life had turned truly difficult for me as a feudal landowner´s son; part of my worst experience was spent in the Kebele jails where I was repeatedly incarcerated.
I was first imprisoned when I was just 9 years old; the location was the notorious Ambo police station whereby my entire family had been incarcerated. Most of us were congested into one large filthy room, and stained with the blood dripped out of bodies beaten with cruelty. My mother was lucky enough to have been arrested in one of the offices that was relatively clean. One horrific image that my memory brings often back to my mind is that of my cousin, Buqisa Tesfaye, who was beaten up until he lost senses. Then, his father, Obboo Tesfaye Weld-Aregay, a man in his late fifties, moved back to the corner of the prison room where I was and whispered to me "go help your brother". Even though I tried to make my cousin Buqissa sit, I could not manage it because he was larger than me. The whole room was filled with wounded people, who looked homeless and were all crying or moaning with no one coming to their aid. The circumstances I lived in that prison were horrendous. It was almost impossible to have access to a sort of small container to defecate, and as one can imagine the room was insupportably malodorous. For this precise reason, it was a heaven for insects and parasites as blood, urine and feces were abundant. The insects and the parasites were so fat that they popped up so easily when one touched them. The majority of people in that jail could only crawl on the floor because of their sickness and/or wounds, looking more like very ill dogs instead of humans. Most horrific was to hear a young boy´s desperate plea to his torturers who yelled at him so loudly.
After five months in Ambo jail, I was released but only for a few of days; then, I was arrested again, and I found myself in another jail, in a town called Ginchi, located 75 kilometers away from Ambo town. The reason for this second arrest was the following: as I had been released, I got on a minibus, heading for Finfinnee where I was planning to find some relatives to stay with.
As we stopped in Ginchi at the check point, the police came in and demanded that all those who did not have an identification card to step out. Two other men and I got out. Immediately after the police searched the minibus passengers, the driver was allowed to continue, and the three of us were taken to the police station and automatically thrown into jail. I was left there in a 12 ft by 12 ft room with nine mates. After having spent there a few weeks, I continued pleading to the guard, who used to open up the jail door to let us sit on the porch for half an hour or so. Then, I heard that there was an old lady living in that town who was a relative so I wrote to her a letter begging her for a bottle of water, but the police man told me that she would have nothing to do with the son of the feudal exploiter. After three months spent there, even the guards started feeling sorry for me, wondering "what should we do with this little boy?". Finally the guard convinced his boss to allow him to take me back to Ambo, my place of origin. So, a policeman forced a dump truck traveling through the town to stop and take me with in order to drop me back in Ambo prison that I had left three months earlier.
My prison life did not end there but it continued through many prisons in Gudar, Mojo, Mega, Yaa-bal'o, and Mizan Teferi towns and in the notorious prisons of he capital, Finfinnee, namely Kefitenya 8, Kebele 9, and Kebele 10. All the prison sentences were due to my family background problems and my unwillingness to attend the regular Communist Youth Association Sunday meeting whereby attendance was a must for anyone wishing to have a calm life without troubles with the Mengistu pro-Communist government.
Due to these developments, during my teenage, I had only myself to rely upon and I finally managed to find a place to live and a job to survive. Many times, I was sent to prison for simple reasons such as trying to bale hay to earn money or avoiding the mandatory communist youth association meetings.
At one point, while trying to find an exit, I was very desperate; thank God, a guy encouraged me to escape to Kenya. I left without saying a word to anyone. After a month of exhausting travel, at times by bus, at times on foot, crossing jungles, I happened to get caught – along with others – near the border of Kenya. Then, I crossed the worst period of my life for about 16 months jailed in Ya-bal´o prison. After getting out of that jail, I faced another adversity; another attempt to escape through the eastern borders was also spoiled, and I was thus left with nothing but lost hopes.
Anyhow, I found a way for myself to continue my life through studies, high school and university, at least as long as I wasn´t on the run or in prison. I managed to get good grades, got a high school certificate, and finally was accepted to Finfinnee University. Following this path, I was eventually able to apply for a scholarship and then, after a long period of despair, find a way out of the country.
Under what circumstances and for what reasons you left Abyssinia?
Rundassa Eshete - It was through this scholarship program that I was finally able to put an end to the terrible conditions of life that I had faced in Ethiopia; however, that scholarship chance had its own limits and limitations as it enabled me to pursue studies in another communist country.
My first choice was to attend a university in the USSR, and secondary choices were two other former communist countries, namely East Germany and Poland. My back thought was to escape when the airplane would land in Greece. The plan failed because our passports were taken away from us, and no students were allowed to get off the plane.
Thus, I left Abyssinia where I had lived under terrible circumstances for a cold, lifeless, difficult situation, that of a foreign student in the former Soviet Union, and more particularly the state of Ukraine. I was there between 1988 and 1993, which was a period of upheaval during which the entire Communist World collapsed. After I graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Kharkov (state) University, I applied for another scholarship for a Graduate School in the States, and like that I was finally able to reach America. Of course, there were various formalities to undergo and even obstacles to overcome before I reach the New World at last.
As you lived in several countries, what is your idea about the knowledge different people have about Abyssinia, the various oppressed nations and the colonial nature of that state?
Rundassa Eshete - What was the most surprising discovery for me is that majority of the average people in both, the former Soviet Union and America, are totally unaware of almost anything happening outside their own country. As a matter of fact, I found very few people in either the former Soviet Union or America to know sufficiently enough about their own country or be involved in various societal activities.
As you know very well, the history of Ethiopia was written and popularized allover the world by those who got paid. Most importantly, the Tigre/Amhara ruling class knew the interests of the Western World and played along that line. By doing so, they used the Westerners to expand Ethiopia´s mythical story. Because of that, no one throughout the globe has ever been able to vaguely imagine, let alone accurately know, the extent of the Human Tragedy caused by the Abyssinians in Ethiopia where the breasts of millions of Oromian women breasts and the arms of millions of Oromian men have been mercilessly cut off.
The entire world never imagined that a country could ever exist where the victims of deliberate and intentional amputation would have been forced to proceed through the market places – with the amputated members tied on their necks – in order to provoke panic of fear among the survivors of a Genocide.
This unique country in the world is the colonial empire of Abyssinia.
Mr. Rundassa Eshete´s second part of the interview will be published in a forthcoming article.
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