By Ethiopia is gripped by a renewed wave of state repression and a pervasive Orwellian type of misinformation campaign. In recent months, the Oromo people have borne the brunt of state violence that is twisted by a narrative of reversal, ironically marking them as perpetrators of genocide or ethnic cleansing. The latest series of alleged massacres against minorities in Western Oromia and the current war on Tigray all attest to this broader pattern of repression.
In this piece, we join hands from across the age rift of generations to track the massive misinformation unleashed against Oromos and highlight its devastating impacts. We leave the analysis and spin to analysts and politicians and simply look at the evidence-base of these devastating allegations.
The Shock
The targeted assassination on June 29, 2020, of our beloved artist and national icon, Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, hit us like a ton of bricks. Before we could recover from the shock, an avalanche of tragedies bombarded us when thousands of Oromos, including prominent political leaders, were arrested, and mourners protesting the political assassination were gunned down.
The turn of events after the assassination has been horrific. The renewed wave of state repression and an unbelievable misinformation campaign unleashed against Oromos bombarded us. It cascaded any progress we had hoped to see in Ethiopia. As a society, we did not get the opportunity to mourn the young storyteller who deeply touched us all from across generations or process the loss we felt for an artist that could beautifully capture Oromo history in a rhythmic song. Instead, we were forced to defend our identity as if it was a crime for the incidents that followed.
An anti-Oromo narrative and fabricated documentaries fueled social media and counter campaigns by fellow Ethiopians against #OromoProtests, a reboot of the nonviolent grassroots movement led by Oromo youth to end systemic violence. Counter-demonstrators chose to dehumanize young Oromo men (Qeerroo) and women (Qarree) and label them as extremists and terrorists. At our protest-mourning rallies, fellow Ethiopians shouted at us with hate words such as killers, butchers, and monsters. We were hurt and confused. We thought we were the victims. To see ourselves through the eyes of those who see us as criminals sent shockwaves through our community.
What was saddening was that these Qeerroo and Qarree are the backbones of change and brave souls who toppled the previous repressive regime and brought the current government to power. The lives of their peers were sacrificed to bring forth the change and the government that they had thought would benefit not only Oromia but Ethiopia as a whole. How can fellow Ethiopians forget the sacrifices of the Qeerroo and Qarree movement so abruptly?
Our young men and women are being imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by the same regime that they had hoped will usher in a brighter future. How can our fellow Ethiopians dehumanize us for protesting against the killing and heavy-handed suppression of Oromos? But this time, even human rights organizations who used to document the victimization of Oromos are making Qeerroo as perpetrators of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Our shock has no bounds.
It is our most beloved artist who was assassinated. It is Oromo political leaders who were unlawfully imprisoned. It is Oromos who were gunned down when they took to the streets protesting the killing of their beloved icon. It is Oromos who were rounded up in mass arrest (more than 9,000 jailed in the crackdown). It is Oromo prisoners who languish in overcrowded squalid makeshift prisons in the face of COVID-19, against the advice of Human Rights Watch and the Red Cross. It is Oromos who have been disarmed while Amharas are being armed. It is Oromos who are killed both by the military and militias and by organized armed vigilantes. If genocide is happening in Ethiopia, it would be against Oromos, not by Oromos.
With the alleged Gulliso massacre in West Wallaga on November 2, the spread of vast misinformation demonizing Oromos is taken to a whole new level. Major media outlets and human rights organizations reacted instantly, blaming the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) for the senseless massacre. That was taken as uncontested truth. The judgment was instant and coordinated.
This also reveals a double standard because over 400 Oromo’s have been killed in Wallaga alone, an area that has been under command post since 2018. Interestingly, during the alleged massacre, there were no reports of a dispute between the ruling military and OLA.
The impact of this is devastating because, often, the OLA and Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) are code words used to demonize Oromos. Indeed this was entered into Wikipedia instantly attaching the Oromo name to the massacre so that search engines in the entire world can easily pick the message.
With this, our own confusion and self-doubt are taken to a whole new level. Are we making a serious mistake? So are we not the innocent victims we have known ourselves to be? What do Oromos benefit from this massacre? At the same time, it is also clear to us that we are being struck by the arsenals of a coordinated propaganda campaign.
But where does this misinformation come from? Why the coordinated attack against Oromos? What purpose does it serve? What is the evidence-base of such an attack? Might our fellow Ethiopians have credible evidence to demonize Oromos for the violence? We want to examine the evidence of the violence without painting Oromos as innocent saints and abdicating our responsibility or minimizing the pain of our fellow Ethiopians.
The Evidence
What is the evidence-base that led our fellow Ethiopians and human rights organizations to claim that Oromos carried out the July 2020 violence? What led them to mark Oromos as perpetrators of a heinous massacre in Gulliso? Hard as it is to prove innocence once marked guilty, our purpose is not to produce such proof of guilt or innocence. It is to dispute the context-stripping of these allegations and examine them within the inseparable broader patterns of victimization in Ethiopia.
Immediately following the assassination of Haacaaluu, many were killed, beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and raped. Oromia Media Network (OMN) and Oromo News Network (ONN), the only independent Oromo media houses from which we got reliable information, were raided and their journalists arrested.
The Internet was shut down immediately. We were left in total darkness on what was happening to our families and communities in Ethiopia. The task of reporting any evidence was left to around 90 state-owned and state-aligned overwhelmingly Amharic media. These outlets monopolized and manipulated every information coming out of Ethiopia.
Initially, mainstream media outlets reported on the assassination of Haacaaluu and the historical marginalization and ongoing victimization of Oromos in Ethiopia. The news after weeks of communication blackout completely reversed these stories. We were bombarded with reports of destructive Qeerroo, angry mobs of young Oromos on a rampage. It painted a picture of organized youth with a list of names selectively targeting and killing minorities and destroying their properties. These accounts reverberated through global media outlets.
Faulty journalism and selective reporting neglected or suppressed crucial evidence. For example, eyewitness accounts show that no ethnic group was particularly targeted and that the youth on a rampage was not from the local community. This implies that the perpetrators were brought in by other organized forces. However, government officials who revealed evidence of a different reality on the ground were thrown in prison. By the government’s own account, two-thirds of 68% of the 167 victims were Oromos. Yet, the fact that Oromos were victims of the violence both in the loss of life and the destruction of property was suppressed.
Despite all this evidence to the contrary, and despite major global media highlighting the complexity surrounding the July violence, selective reporting reduced the issue to Oromos killing Amharas. Faulty information continued to come out, adding religious layers and referencing the violence as Oromo Islamic extremists brutally killing Amhara and other Christians, including Oromo Orthodox Christians.
The massacre in Gulliso comes on the heels of these already entrenched narratives. Survivors of the pogrom said that the assailants told them they were members of the OLA. That was reported raw. No investigation into the veracity of the claim. Were they really OLA? Can other armed groups mislead us by falsely claiming they were OLA? Although OLA spokesperson denied involvement and condemned the heinous act strongly; and there was evidence suggesting the involvement of other armed groups, that information was suppressed.
The judgment that Oromos carried out the massacre was instant. State-controlled and state-aligned Ethiopian media had a field day. International media and human rights organizations chimed in, including Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International. Normally Amnesty does its research before passing judgment. This time, the group hit the press instantly. To us, such instant responses betray prior understanding and foregone conclusions, reflecting the incredible success of the massive misinformation campaign.
Another connection was added when the Office of the Ethiopian Prime Minister insinuated that OLA was trained and armed by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). By this time, the state was preparing for war against the rulers of the Tigray state. It has since declared war on TPLF and this massacre adds to the justification of the campaign against both Tigray and Oromia. This wave of repression points to the overall pattern by which innocent people in Agaw, Benishangul-Gumuz, Qimant, Ogaden, Sidama, Wolaita, and others are attacked. It is an attack on Ethiopia’s multinational federation. It speaks to the brutality with which unitarist forces of domination are trying to dismantle the constitution in a bid to “Make Ethiopia Great Again.”
When a sinister wave of propaganda making is involved, we may never know the truth.
We know, however, that human rights organizations are investigating Haacaaluu’s assassination and the aftermath of the July violence. Nonetheless, to date, no investigation has come out with evidence of who committed the atrocities. In the absence of credible evidence, selective reporting filled in the gap and fueled the propaganda war against Oromos. The deception and manipulation of information is of Orwellian proportion.
Although coming in drips and drops, taken together, the meta-narrative accused Oromos of carrying out ethnic cleansing and genocide against minorities in Oromia. This generated a complete narrative reversal, categorically changing Oromos from victims to perpetrators of violence. It also painted Oromos as Islamic terrorists and extreme ethno-nationalists bent on breaking up Ethiopia.
We believe that this is the result of well-organized and well-coordinated political activity. The deception and manipulation of information fit the Orwellian depiction of a totalitarian regime. We have come to a place where we find it hard to decipher between truth and untruth or half-truth of what the propaganda machine spits out.
The devastating psychological warfare of the coordinated propaganda is intended to impact Oromos both in Ethiopia and the diaspora. Indeed, a group has claimed to have organized a network of Ethiopians around the world and it has launched a pervasive campaign, targeting Oromos. This group uses particularly hateful language describing Qeerroo but it also summarily labels Oromos as radicalized ethno-nationalists.
While the assault on Oromo identity has been ongoing in the Ethiopian social media, this particular call intensified the urgent call on Ethiopians to target Oromo individuals and organizations by splashing their names, addresses, and places of work on the Internet.
In our view, it is the twin processes of selective reporting and suppressing available information, rather than well-researched evidence, that resulted in the broader conclusion that Oromos are killing Amharas. But what are the impacts of such unfair construction of information?
The Impact
As a direct link to damaging the reputations and ruining the livelihoods of innocent Oromos, the statement of Minority Rights Group was used to condemn innocent Oromos as terrorists accused of living in western countries and inciting violence in Ethiopia. War is declared on our Oromo identity and institutions that nurture this identity.
In the diaspora, Oromo intellectuals, academics, activists, opinion-makers, community leaders, and youth activists are targeted. They are harassed as terrorists inciting violence that killed many Amharas and Christians in Ethiopia. Their lives, livelihoods, and workplaces were harassed and threatened by relentless campaign calls and complaints by Ethiopian propagandists.
Online Oromo music studios, Facebook, and YouTube accounts of Oromo journalists and social media activists were constantly targeted, reported, and taken down. Prominent activists were intimidated by threats of lawsuits and to their physical safety.
We are still living through the COVID-19 pandemic. The lives of people in our communities have been drastically impacted not just by the worries of contracting COVID-19 but also by the loss of jobs and finances. Their stress levels are heightened. The negative stories they hear from media outlets and their families add extra layers of a burden on their day to day lives.
Young Oromos hear about the pains their families went through and the generational trauma that Oromos suffered. Yet history continues to repeat itself. Even living in the diaspora, our youth are “segregated” for embracing their culture and identity. As a direct impact of the misinformation campaign, they face a shift in the atmosphere when they identify as Oromo and raise concerns about the unjust killings by government forces in Ethiopia.
In addition to the injustices they suffer because of the color of their skin, young Oromos encounter bullying and racist remarks from fellow Ethiopians because of the campaign against their Oromo identity.
Social media outlets are steeped with images demonizing Qeerroo and linking them to Islamic terrorism. They are targeted as a direct impact of the misinformation. The majority of #Oromoprotests and virtual campaigns across the diaspora are organized by Oromo Youth. These are first but mostly second-generation Oromos who face multiple systemic barriers and injustices in Western countries. Although they are not raised in Ethiopia, these youth have a deep sense of connection to their parents’ homeland and pay hefty emotional investment in seeing democracy flourish in Ethiopia.
As a direct impact of this misinformation, the hunting down and killing of Qeerroos, academics, and self-respecting Oromos in Ethiopia has gone to a whole new level. Jailing and murdering of self-respecting Oromos have intensified. Eyewitness accounts reveal a staggering number of killing and maiming of protestors. Oromo Orthodox Christian priests who called for teachings in their language have been harassed and murdered. Oromo institutions like Gadaa and Siinqee are relentlessly attacked. Oromos are constantly disarmed while the highest level of government is calling to arm Amharas.
Our loss is pervasive. While the emotional and financial toll of this propaganda is hard to bear, the deepest psychological impact of grieving the loss of Haacaaluu and all the Qeerroos and Qarrees, and the imprisonment of our leaders and thousands of innocent Oromos is much harder. The misinformation hit us before we had a chance to mourn all these layers of our tragic loss.
What is most unbearable was the assault on our sense of self, how we see ourselves. This was a massive assault on the deepest core of our being, our deepest sense of identity as Oromos.
Both in Ethiopia and the diaspora, Oromos are targeted by a devastating massive misinformation campaign categorically painting us as killers, butchers, and monsters. Everywhere we looked these devilish images of Oromos peered at us. With such devastating psychological anguish and tarnished identity, we could not lift our heads as self-respecting Oromos and live our day-to-day lives. Only now are we beginning to regroup and push back.
The final impact of this massive propaganda war is the loss of our hope for building democracy in Ethiopia. Demographically, culturally, economically, and geographically, Oromos constitute the glue that holds Ethiopia together. Living with almost all nations, nationalities, and peoples of Ethiopia, Oromos are the key to the unity and democracy of the country.
We cannot imagine beating down on the largest nation so mercilessly and savagely and still hope to keep Ethiopia together, let alone democratize. This is the biggest loss not only for us and for Ethiopia but also for the entire region and the world.
In Conclusion
It is sad to see ordinary folks taking the brunt of the suffering caused by the pervasive misinformation campaign. It is sad to see ordinary folks murdered to fulfill the crazy dreams of domination by a few elites. The peoples of Ethiopia and any freedom-loving, justice-seeking citizen of the world must cut through the rhetoric of misinformation and find out the truth.
We fear that this well-orchestrated propaganda and psychological war marking out Oromos as “genociders” is a campaign to render the brutality that is already unfolding and impending genocide against Oromos. We fear that the smear campaign is the tip of the iceberg to justify a further attack on Oromos and wage a full-scale atrocity against them. This massive propaganda war has made Qeerroo into a name that evokes hateful terror. This seeks to justify the current intense hunt and ongoing murder of young Oromos.
We fear that this propaganda war is a smokescreen hiding Amhara ethnic nationalism behind pan-Ethiopian nationalism, a dangerous Ethiopian version of “Make America Great Again.” We fear that this far-right Make-Ethiopia-Great-Again extreme nationalism and extreme patriotism aims to scrap the country’s multinational federalism and reinstate an assimilationist unitary system.
Ethiopia cannot afford to hunt down Oromos like it is now doing. This is not sustainable. Ethiopia cannot afford to eat away at the fabric of its constitution. There is no hope of democracy by beating down the largest of its national constituencies. To democratize Ethiopia, Oromia must be democratized.
At last, a well-articulated and accurate description of the real threat to the integrity of Ethiopia.
Well done Martha and Bontu.
Galatooma
Fascists Abiy Ahmed publicly, inside AEC/EEC Hall in Addis Ab aba, said: “If they don’t support me/my party, I shall crush/exterminate the Oromos in such a way that they can’t recover as Oromo even after 1000 years”. He is doing it. How is this seen in the eyes of International Humanitarian Conventions/Laws?
Not a scholarly article as i expect when i start reading it. You all oromo political elites look sumptuous from afar but when someone examine you cautiously nearer you are definitely a chaff not a grain. I’m sorry to say this but it is a reality. Last time when i read Jawar Mohammed’s article in addis standard i feel the same way. The course of Ethiopian politics has been changed but you refuse to do so. A couple of months ago i thought jawar know the poitics well but i misperceived him. He is not different from you just another blatant person among the swarm.
Such is the the level of the socio-political discourse in Ethiopia that when you do not have any substantive, analytical point of view to debate on the merit of this well-written and -articulated Oromo’s reality, you started attacking the messenger. The sad thing is that the Ethiopian empire is on ablaze because some groups in Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed included, do not believe in dialogue and political discourse, but rather chaos and war. Unfortunately, we all are bound to reap the benefit.
a person who can’t debate and convince vomits like you. Who are you after all to blame the brilliant best international political analyst Jawar Mohammed?
You could have played the ball as civilized player would have done; not the player. This is What we call argumentum add hominem.
“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.” That’s how it is. Let’s see if that sort of mentality saves Ethiopia and its latest political project described as “a changed political course” above.
Yonatan Mechal: akkababihin ikuwan bebeki hunet yemitired ayimesilm. Minalbat wedesewunet bitimeles aynihm mayet, a’imirohim sewu min indemiyasib lemeredat yichil yihonal.
Innate and natural savagery– yemilewetewu wede sewunet sinni meles bichaa newu!
The on going undeclared/declared on civil war on ethnic Oromo/Tigire respectively in #Ethiopia 🇪🇹 is to replace the current Democratic multinational federalism by an imperial regime buried 50yrs ago #through_brutal_military_crackdown_not_by_referendum. A daydream in 21st century n multinational county. To enforce the rule of law is a #mask
It is a well-written article, but it is full of grievances and unsubstantiated accusations. Most of them exaggerated and taken out of context; for example, “Oromos are constantly disarmed while the highest level of government is calling to arm Amharas”. The issue of arming Amharas was raised in the contexts of massacre of Amharas in Benishangul. It was not an official policy or we have no evidence if it ever materialized. In addition, the writer seems to feel threatened by the political climate of the country, especially the article seems uncomfortable with Amharas emerging assertiveness. He wants to see Oromos at the center of the new Ethiopia as he says, “Oromos are the key to the unity and democracy of the country.” And he suspects that Amhara nationalism is behind the misrepresentation of “Oromo” in the media, “we fear that this propaganda war is a smokescreen hiding Amhara ethnic nationalism behind pan-Ethiopian nationalism, a dangerous Ethiopian version of “Make America Great Again.”
Oromos like any other people groups in Ethiopia are key to the democratization process and they should play a crucial role in the process. It is better for the country that all Ethnic groups come together and charting their future on equal footing. The country does not need to look like Oromos or Amharas. if we can build a country based on the rule of law, justice, democracy, truth and fairness, we will have a better future that may address all our personal and group concerns. Please spend your time on finding common grounds that benefit everyone in the country not just one single ethnic group. try to challenge other groups without denying their miseries or downplaying their grievances; a reasonable human being shares others suffering. A suffering of an Oromo is a suffering of humanity. No reasonable person turns a blind eye to the suffering of his fellow country men and women. At deeper level, I am disturbed by the implicit signals of the article. It may perpetuate hate against ethnic Amharas as they are involved in the mischaracterization of Oromo’s political interests as the article claimed or suspected. This can be tantamount to a subtle call for the persecution of Amharas as they are hindering something good that is coming for a specific people group.
You can do better and bring peoples together for the benefit of all. In a just political arrangement, we all benefit. Oromos culture and heritage are also the treasure of all Ethiopians. I think all reasonable Ethiopians are happy to buy all Oromo heritages that are good and beneficial for all humanity. We all share some kind of Oromoness in our Ethiopiwanit. We can do more to expand and update Ethiopiawinet by integrating overlooked cultural heritages of all ethnic groups. Let us not write as if we are living in a doomsday scenario. No one benefits from politics of grievances; it brings hopelessness and depression. Oromos and Amharas should work together as twin sons and daughters of Ethiopia. All types of mischaracterization and misrepresentations need to stop somewhere.
Thank you Yodham! Here is to a great critical response. The comments are affirming and punching at the same time. They deliver an effective critique without drawing a sword. They invite to a conversation without losing their critical edge or plunging into blame. Just the right mix of critique and affirmation. We are inspired to engage in this conversation.
“It is better for the country that all Ethnic groups come together and charting their future on equal footing.” We can’t agree more. It is in this spirit that we offer this article. We seek to be heard, so we can also hear others. We seek mutual understanding with Ethiopia’s diverse peoples to chart our future together on equal footing. But mutual understanding requires a level playing field of power where everyone speaks for itself without overstepping their boundaries and imposing their will on others. We week Ethiopia that reflects all of us.
Our article is seen as “full of grievances…. No one benefits from politics of grievances; it brings hopelessness and depression.” Here again, we agree. But the goal of our article is not to pour out or politicize grievances. It is to examine the evidence-base of the barrage of misinformation bombarding the world with a specific image of Oromos. Redressing grievances nurtures hope and mutual trust.
“The issue of arming Amharas was raised in the contexts of massacre of Amharas in Benishangul.” This is an excellent critique providing the missing specific context calling for arming Amharas. What we are still missing, though, is the broader context of the normative narrative asserting that carrying arms is integral to Amhara culture and identity. Imagine the terror this means for those who are regularly disarmed.
“The article seems uncomfortable with Amharas emerging assertiveness.” Here our discomfort is misplaced and here is why. We welcome and support increasing Amhara assertiveness in seeking justice and fairness. The threat is Amhara domination, where assertiveness oversteps its boundaries and seeks to bring back and reimpose Imperial Ethiopia with the familiar Amhara domination.
“At deeper level, I am disturbed by the implicit signals of the article. It may perpetuate hate against ethnic Amharas…” We hear you deeply. We feel your being disturbed. And we hope you feel our fear as well, that Amhara nationalism is hiding behind pan-Ethiopian nationalism. This is where we believe all sides need to grow beyond just being “reasonable human beings” and offer each other empathy.
Here we want to clarify what we mean because empathy can be tricky. Empathy as treating others as we wish to be treated (the Golden Rule) is great. But we believe it is better if we treat others the way they wish to be treated. This is because usually how we wish to be treated may not be how others wish to be treated. Our size may not fit theirs.
Thank you both Yodham and Marta. I hope such civilized exchanges of ideas can expand among all communities anf loosen the tense situation on the ground that is taking us as a nation to the edge. May we all give a chance to listen to others’ grief and be the starting point for the healing process.🙏
The article was well articulated and showed the reality on the ground in Ethiopia.
Yonatan Mechal – Based on your replies to this article, it is obvious, you are one of them of whom are described in the article insighting hate and spreading misinformation about other ethnics and specifically on OROMOS’.
It is obvious based on you replies that you do have hate for Oromos’.
In my opinion, the article is well written and to the point. If for you, the article is not academically written, it is not for you to judge but live it to the scholars to judge and comment on the article.
I am not sure if you are a scholar, but if you are, your rational of giving true opinions of once writing is out of line.
With one word this article is: lamentation! With the second word: nonsense! Why?
Oromo, like may other ethnic groups in Ethiopia is a resilient group and will overcome the challenges with other fellow other Ethiopians. What is the point of this writing? What is the message, what is the solution proposed? We are living in Ethiopia and raising a proud Oromo and Ethiopian children regardless of all the challenges. Yea, life throws at as a lot of daily challenges and we are matured and strategic enough to peacefully overcome them. If you cannot withstand what you mentioned as a false propaganda, what you supposed to overcome then?
Guddadhumee, utuu barressutti hin fiiginii!
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