What the Groups of Oromo Liberation Activity (GOLA) Must Do to Liberate Oromia (Part VI)
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
September 16, 2008
In a series of 15 questions, I presented a picture of missing endeavours and projects that the existing liberation fronts and independence movements failed to either completely materialize or partly promote. To mend the situation, I suggested that all Oromos contribute to the formation of Groups of Oromo Liberation Activity – GOLA, as the best means to achieve Liberation and National Independence. I then examined how the GOLA can be incepted, and how they can keep Amhara intruders faraway.
In this article, I will expand on the function of the Groups of Oromo Liberation Activity (GOLA) and focalize on the projects and endeavours that Oromos have to undertake, organizing themselves in numerous small GOLA units, in order to lead the struggle for National Independence. Before going through this, I will reply to the comment of an unknown Oromo; as my article has been republished and/or quoted in several Oromo portals (for which I am thankful), a reader posted a brief text that deserves attention. I will first re-publish the comment and then analyze.
In Politics, Too Much of Investigation and Retrospection can bring Pessimism
Comment - By Dabalaa (http://www.oromoindex.com/News/24246.html)
I am sorry to say that OLF has sold Oromo's struggle to 0.5cent. Oromo has died, imprisoned, expelled from land, etc. etc. because of OLF. Now everything left empty, sorry, sorry, sorry! I am afraid that OLF going to disintegrate the Oromos, so better to stop its history here.
Analysis
In many previous articles within this series, I insisted on the need of just leaving the past aside; many Oromos have a negative idea about different political parties and liberation movements, disapproving comments on these parties´ and movements´ political choices and overall policies, and complaints with respect to the treatment these political parties and liberation movements offered to various Oromos, known or unknown.
Criticism is necessary in every society, social circle, political context, association, company or corporation; criticism is in fact the fresh breeze that in and by itself reconfirms that the sociopolitical context is functional, vivacious, efficient and still serviceable. Without it, we enter into the totalitarian realm of prefab ´people´, mere humanoids made in a way to believe altogether the same theory that is offered to them, and without realizing its fallacy.
However, when the criticism has already led to a conclusion, there is no need for turning back.
I don´t want to comment on the subject itself of the aforementioned comment; I don´t believe that anyone, any Oromo and any Oromo-phile, will get some benefit if going through an exhaustive enumeration of oversights and misconceptions, poor struggle contextualizations, and structural weaknesses of the various Oromo organizations.
One obvious event is undeniable: Oromia is not yet free; and that´s enough – as problem.
So, this lets us understand it all; either good or wrong, all the political formations of the Oromo Nation did what they could, and we know the result. There is no need for pessimism for that!
Perhaps it would be worse, if an independent Oromia were nothing more than a seemingly independent nation – tool in the colonial hands of a great power that would exercise its influence in order to ´liberate´ the Oromos first, and then to use them.
What matters is the future; and that´s why everything relevant to the past must be put aside; there are plenty of projects the Oromos, acting within Groups of Oromo Liberation Activity (GOLA), can achieve and materialize, thus bringing the liberation closer, and the materializing the dream of an Independent Oromia.
How the Groups of Oromo Liberation Activity (GOLA) can function
As every GOLA unit consists of three or four Oromos, they will have to arrange their time schedule under best terms of time management. With the subdivision of the work done and agreed upon, they will be able to arrange the sequence of their meetings and the proceedings of their work.
Some GOLA units will need Internet connection, whereas others will necessitate simple PCs for their projects´ elaboration. When a project will be completed, then Internet connection will be needed for the proper diffusion, but this may come after six months, or more - one year or two.
Several GOLA units will definitely have to be established in Finfinnee and will involve contacts with embassies and consulates; other GOLA units will need to be close to remote villages or their members will have to travel often to these places.
There will be GOLA units with such a project scope that it will be up to Diaspora Oromos to undertake their formation and proceedings.
These initial notes help clarify that in this effort of the entire Oromo Nation, all the Oromos have to contribute according to their possibilities, advantages, knowledge, and relevance. This is critical, because it helps harmonize all parts of the Oromo Nation. I will therefore give an example.
There is a need to write down traditional Oromo poetry that has been preserved orally - through the ages.
And there is a need to write letters to US Senators and Congressmen to inform them about issues of Human Rights violations carried out against the Oromos.
The common understanding is that three Oromos in Dembi Dollo may not have the facilities and the capacity needed to properly address US Senators and Congressmen in English; perhaps they may have no Internet connection or not even a computer. There is no need for them to assign this task to themselves.
On the contrary, they can certainly collect and write down all the traditional Oromo poetry that can be possibly registered in Dembi Dollo. They can write it on paper or, if they happen to have a computer, in many Microsoft Word documents. They can even raise among themselves the fund needed for video and tape recording of samples of the local poetry. Part of the fund raised may at the end be used for a trip to Finfinnee, as this will be needed in order to facilitate contacts with others and the uploading of the project on the web (blog and website).
Through this, it becomes clear that everyone willing to contribute to the Groups of Oromo Liberation Activity (GOLA) and the liberation of Oromia should configure his/her tasks on the basis of his/her possibilities.
The aforementioned approach demonstrates also the need for some GOLA units of awareness; but this is part of the projects and endeavours that should be undertaken by several GOLA units in occupied Oromia. Oromo villagers living in remote areas should be contacted and mobilized by the GOLA units of awareness. Thus, although in remote places, they will be stimulated to form their own GOLA units and carry out the tasks that they can possibly undertake.
However, on the other hand, two GOLA units may carry out projects that are related to one another, without the GOLA members obligatorily knowing one another; one GOLA unit may undertake the project ´Violations of Civil Rights in Parts of Borana´. They may launch a (UK - based) website (as one member may be in London, one in Finfinnee and two in Borana) specialized on this.
Three other Oromos, living in three different European capitals, although totally unrelated to the aforementioned GOLA, as soon as they notice the project and the website, may assign to themselves the regular translation of the website´s texts to German, Italian, Dutch and French, and the management of the four respective websites.
Again, another four Oromos, unrelated to the aforementioned two GOLA units, may give themselves the task of diffusing the news, reports, features and articles of the aforementioned websites (the original and those dedicated to its translations) to all the members of parliaments, all the political parties, members of academies, professors of faculties of Economics and Politics, NGOs, religious, cultural and social associations in all the countries involved and many more.
What projects, endeavours and tasks must be carried out at the primary stage in order to promote the Oromo liberation struggle and drive the Oromos to the most desired, ultimate goal of National Independence?
Basic Directions for GOLA Projects and Endeavours
There are four basic directions of activities to undertake, two internal and two external; by ´internal´ I mean activities to be carried among Oromos, which implies that mere knowledge of Afaan Oromo is enough as qualification (not for all of them however). Furthermore, the term ´external´ refers to outreach activities vis-ŕ-vis all independent states and all other subjugated nations. The four basic directions of activities of the GOLA members are the following:
1. Propagation of the Oromo Cause at the international level. This is an external direction.
2. Denigration of the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian barbarism, racism, totalitarianism, historical forgery, inhumanity, sociopolitical misery and meanness, obduracy and malignancy at the international level. This is also an external direction.
3. Collection of information pertaining to the Oromo Nation (from Human Rights violations to cultural, historical, economic, political and social issues). This is an internal direction; it is clearly understood that without this range of activities, the aforementioned type no 1 of activities will be very difficult or impossible to materialize (or poorly materialized and ineffective).
4. Promotion of the Oromo solidarity and political – military cooperation. This is also an internal direction.
The Oromo struggle for liberation and national independence hinges on wide propagation of any Oromo – related issue. There must be more than 20 Departments of Kushitic and Oromo Studies throughout the world. The activities carried out by GOLA units will not create these departments, but will certainly make the need felt by different academic, intellectual and journalistic establishments in various countries.
Oromo – related issues must become the subject of precipitated bibliography, frequent articles and features, reports, lectures and public speeches, radio and TV emissions throughout the world.
Some Oromo must give themselves the challenging task of learning a foreign language and becoming sort of ambassadors of good will for the sake of their subjugated nation.
More analytically, I will enumerate the basic tasks per category of activity in a forthcoming article.
Note
Picture: Oromo fighters. Good news from the warfront, without earlier preparations involving the participation of all the Oromos, do not necessarily lead to a great success and national independence.
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