The politics of linguistic homogenization in Ethiopia and the conflict over the status of afaan Oromoo

African Affairs

Volumn 96, Issue 384, 1997, Pages 325-352

  Bulcha, Mekuria ^a  

^a UPPSALA UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPING COUNTRY; ETHNIC CONFLICT; LANGUAGE POLICY; LINGUISTICS; OROMO PEOPLE; STATE BUILDING;

ETHIOPIA;

EID: 0031426924     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007852     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. Exact census figures are not available for the different ethnic groups in Ethiopia. Most scholars estimate the Oromo to be between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of the total population of Ethiopia which is about 55 millions.
2. The quotation is from Edward Ullendorf's book, The Ethiopians. An introduction to country and people (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 3rd ed., 1973), p. 111, but it also reflects the official as well as the dominant group's view of Ethiopian identity before 1974.
3. Karl Deutsch, Nationalism and Social Communication: An enquiry into the foundations of nationality, (MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. 2nd edition, 1962), p. 173.
4. For example, Rustov notes that in Sri Lanka, the 'Sinhalese Only' campaign of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the 1950s led to an upsurge of militant Tamil sentiment which developed into a separatist Tamil movement in the 1980s. See Rustov, 'Language and Modernization, and Nationhood - An attempt at typology', in J. Fishman, C. Ferguson, and J. D. Gupta, (eds),The Language Problems of the Developing Nations, (John Wiley & sons, London, 1968) p. 104.
5. J. A. De Obieta-Chalbaud, 'Self-Determination of peoples as a Human Right', Plural Societies, XVI, 1 (1986), p. 63.
6. See Mekuria Bulcha, 'The Language Policies of Ethiopian Regimes and the History of Written Afaan Oromoo', Journal of Oromo Studies, I, 2 (1994), pp. 91-115.
7. See Mohammed Hassen, 'History of the Growth of Written Oromo Literature', in C. Griefenow-Mewis and R. M. Voigt (eds), Cushitic and Omotic Languages (Rudiger Köppe Verlag, Köln, 1996), p. 250-51.
8. See, for example, Richard Pankhurst, 'The Beginnings of Oromo Studies in Europe', Africa, XXX (Rome, 1976), pp. 171-206.
9. See Mekuria Bulcha, 'Onesimos Nasib's Pioneering Contributions to Oromo Writing', Nordic Journal of African Studies, 5, 2 (1995), pp. 36-61.
10. H. Kohn, The Age of Nationalism (Harper, New York, 1962), p. 143. Urpo Vento writes that the significance of the publication of the Bible in Finnish 350 years ago 'for the Finnish literary language and the Finnish world view has been at least as great as the Kalevala's'. See Urpo Vento, 'The Role of the Kalevala in Finnish Culture and Politics', Nordic Journal of African Studies, 1, 2 (1992), p. 94. The Kalevala, a body of folklore and epic poems collected and compiled by Elias Lönnrot, is considered as the foundation for the emergence of Finnish national consciousness in the nineteenth century. The Kalevala is seen as the symbol of Finnish national identity.
11. H. Kohn, The Age of Nationalism (Harper, New York, 1962), p. 143. Urpo Vento writes that the significance of the publication of the Bible in Finnish 350 years ago 'for the Finnish literary language and the Finnish world view has been at least as great as the Kalevala's'. See Urpo Vento, 'The Role of the Kalevala in Finnish Culture and Politics', Nordic Journal of African Studies, 1, 2 (1992), p. 94. The Kalevala, a body of folklore and epic poems collected and compiled by Elias Lönnrot, is considered as the foundation for the emergence of Finnish national consciousness in the nineteenth century. The Kalevala is seen as the symbol of Finnish national identity.
12. Terfasa Digga, 'A Short Biography of Onesimos Nasib: Oromo Bible Translator, Evangelist and Teacher', BA thesis in History, Haile Selassie I University, Addis Ababa, (1973), p. 49. See also Nils Dahlberg, Onesimus: Från Slav till Bibel Översättare (Stockholm, 1932).
13. Terfasa Digga, 'A Short Biography of Onesimos Nasib: Oromo Bible Translator, Evangelist and Teacher', BA thesis in History, Haile Selassie I University, Addis Ababa, (1973), p. 49. See also Nils Dahlberg, Onesimus: Från Slav till Bibel Översättare (Stockholm, 1932).
14. G. Aren, Evangelical Pioneers in Ethiopia: Origins of the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EFS Förlaget, Stockholm, 1978), p. 427.
15. Aren, Evangelical Pioneers in Ethiopia, p. 427-28.
16. For a discussion of the predominance of linguistic concerns over religious ideology in the opposition of Amhara priests and officials to the Oromo Bible and the evangelical movement in Wallaga, see Bulcha, 'The Language Policies of Ethiopian regimes', pp. 95-97.
17. G. B. Gragg, Oromo Dictionary (African Studies Center, Michigan State University and Oriental Institute University of Chicago, Michigan, 1982), p. xvi.
18. See Margery Perham, The Government of Ethiopia (Faber and Faber, London, 1969) p. 308. Promised autonomy, the Oromo Kings of Jimma and Leeqa Naqamte (Wallaga) submitted to Menelik without fighting in 1882. During his reign Menelik kept his promise and the Mootii (royal houses) of two Oromo regions continued to rule their respective territories. Haile Selassie abrogated this accord.
19. Bonnie Holcomb and Sisai Ibssa, The Invention of Ethiopia: The making of a dependent colonial state in Northeast Africa (The Red Sea Press, Trenton, 1990), p. 196.
20. A. Sbacchi, Ethiopia Under Mussolini: Fascism and the colonial experience, (Zed Books, London, 2nd ed. 1989), p. 160.
21. P. Gilkes, The Dying Lion: Feudalism and modernization in Ethiopia (Julian Friedmann Publishers, London, 1975), p. 213.
22. Sbacchi, Ethiopia Under Mussolini, pp. 160-161.
23. See for example, Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, p. 379; Gadaa Melbaa, Oromia: An introduction, (Khartoum, 1988), p. 122.
24. See for example, Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, p. 379; Gadaa Melbaa, Oromia: An introduction, (Khartoum, 1988), p. 122.
25. Kenya National Archive, NFP Political, Records Miscellaneous, PC/NFD/4/1/3/, Nairobi, Kenya.
26. Kenya National Archive. PC/NFD/4/1/3.
27. Perham, The government of Ethiopia, p. 354.
28. Cited in Harold Marcus, Ethiopia, Great Britain and the United States, 1941-1974: The politics of Empire, (University of California Press, Berkeley), 1983, p. 23.
29. Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, 379.
30. Sbacchi, Ethiopia Under Mussolini, p. 224.
31. G. A. Lipsky, Ethiopia: Its people, its society, its culture, (HRAF Press, New Haven, 1962), p. 11.
32. Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, pp. 377.
33. Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, pp. 379-80.
34. Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, pp. 379.
35. Christopher Clapham, 'Centralization and Local Response in Ethiopia', African Affairs, 74, 294 (1975), p. 80. Both Margery Perham and Christopher Clapham do not deny the oppression of the Oromo and other nationalities under Ethiopian regimes, yet they seem to abhor the view that the Oromo might establish their own state. To be fair, Perham's attitude to the Ethiopian state seems to be quite ambivalent. While she advocated the assimilation of the Oromo into the Amhara state, she also commented: 'The provisions in the United Nations Charter for the direction of international interest upon the conditions of the backward people who have been annexed to the empires of foreign rulers, which have been willingly accepted by Great Britain, would seem to apply with complete propriety to the regions and people conquered by Menelik'. Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, p. 366.
36. Christopher Clapham, 'Centralization and Local Response in Ethiopia', African Affairs, 74, 294 (1975), p. 80. Both Margery Perham and Christopher Clapham do not deny the oppression of the Oromo and other nationalities under Ethiopian regimes, yet they seem to abhor the view that the Oromo might establish their own state. To be fair, Perham's attitude to the Ethiopian state seems to be quite ambivalent. While she advocated the assimilation of the Oromo into the Amhara state, she also commented: 'The provisions in the United Nations Charter for the direction of international interest upon the conditions of the backward people who have been annexed to the empires of foreign rulers, which have been willingly accepted by Great Britain, would seem to apply with complete propriety to the regions and people conquered by Menelik'. Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, p. 366.
37. Czeslaw Jesman, The Ethiopian Paradox, (Oxford University Press, London, 1963), pp. 57-58.
38. Ernest Gellner, in his Nations and Nationalism (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1983), noted: 'At the time of the temporarily successful Somali advance against the Ethiopians in the 1970s, it was plausible, and from the Somali point of view attractive, to present the Oromo as a kind of a human population without a set form, a pre-ethnic raw material, waiting to be turned either into Amharas or into Somalis by the turn of political fortune and religious conversion'. See pp. 84-85.
39. Imperial Decree, No. 3, of 1994.
40. Imperial Decree, No. 3, of 1994.
41. Paul T. W. Baxter, 'Ethiopia's Unacknowledged Problem: The Oromo', African Affairs 77, 308 (1978), p. 288.
42. Copper, R. and Fasil Nahum, 'Language in Court' in M. Bender, R. Cooper & C. Ferguson (eds), Language in Ethiopia (Oxford University Press, London, 1976), pp. 256-263.
43. R. Balsvik, Haue Sellassie's Students: The intellectual and social background of revolution, 1952-1977 (East Lansing, Michigan State University, 1985), p. 7.
44. Balsvik, Haile Sellassie's Students, p. 10.
45. Computed from C. McNab, Language Policy and Language Practice, PhD thesis, Institute of International Education, University of Stockholm 1989, Table 6.7, p. 75.
46. Nagassa Ejeta, cited in McNab, Language Policy and Language Practice, p. 135.
47. It was this, rather than the incapacity or unwillingness to learn the Amharic language, which often led to the very high rates of school drop-out mentioned by several writers. It is interesting to note that not only the less-educated teachers but also graduates from teacher training colleges were responsible for this sort of psychologically and socially damaging behaviour. When I was in school, we had in grade six, an Amhara (from a naftanya background) who taught us science. He used to 'supplement' every roll call by making derogatory remarks about our Oromo names and culture. Partly because of him many of the older pupils stopped coming to school.
48. Supporting this view, Edward Ullendorff, in The Ethiopians, first published in 1960, argued that the monophysite Christian Abyssinians (Amhara-Tigre) alone embody and represent Ethiopia, internally as well as in the eyes of the outside world. In a 20 page long chapter devoted to language, Ullendorff makes mention of afaan Oromoo in three lines. All in all the non-Semitic languages, spoken by about 75 per cent of the Ethiopian population were mentioned in only nine lines. Ullendorff argued, 'We shall mainly confine ourselves . . . to Semitic languages of Ethiopia, since they express the "real" Abyssinia as we know it and are the virtually exclusive carriers of Ethiopian civilization, literature, and intellectual prestige'. (1973 ed., pp. 111-12). Ullendorff's book was used as a text book at the University in Addis Ababa, and won him the Haile Selassie I Prize in 1972.
49. Edmond Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia. From Empire to People's Republic. (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1988), p. 140.
50. Lemma Arity, cited in McNab, Language Policy and Language Practice, p. 59.
51. K. E. Knutsson, 'Dichotomization and Integration: Aspects of inter-ethnic relations in Southern Ethiopia' in F. Barth (ed.), Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1969), p. 98.
52. Hassen, 'The Growth of Written Oromo Literature', p. 81.
53. Shayk M. Rashad, cited in Hassen, 'The Growth of Written Oromo Literature', p. 81.
54. McNab, Language Policy and Language Practice, p. 81. She writes 'Languages of major ethnic groups were not even permitted to be used if that group was not seen as potentially a danger to the central government. Therefore Oromigna, . . . was not used for broadcasting.' She is completely wrong. Ethiopian regimes saw the Oromo as a source of danger to their rule and repressed their language and identify more than any other ethnic group in the empire.
55. The use of the Oromo language is widely spread among ethnic groups such s the Burji, Gurage, Kaficho, etc. In 1982, the present author while conducting research among Berta refugees in the Sudan found that more than 90 per cent of them spoke Oromo. The Berta who inhabited a sub-province in western Ethiopia since the 1880s, constitute since 1992 one of the autonomous ethnic regions created by the present regime.
56. R. L. Cooper and S. Carpenter, 'Language in the Market', in Language in Ethiopia, pp. 244-255.
57. Between 1830 and 1962, the French administration attempted to bring about linguistic homogeneity of its Berber and Arab subjects in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Compared to imperial Ethiopia, France had several means at her disposal to carry out the task. The French had communication facilities which were far superior to that which the Abyssinians possessed. According to Charles F. Gallagher, 'North African Problems and Prospects: Language and identity in Fishman, Ferguson, and Das Gupta (eds) Language Problems of Developing Nations, pp. 129-149, by 1962, as many as 12 million (41.·4 per cent of the total population) North Africans were speaking French; 2·5 million (8·6 per cent) could read and write in it. But learning French did not make Algerians Tunisians and Moroccans into Frenchmen. French rule and culture was resisted and North Africans chose to remain Arabs and Berbers or Tunisians, Algerians and Moroccans.
58. McNab, Language Policy and Language Practice, p. 64.
59. R. L. Cooper, 'The Spread of Amharic', in Language in Ethiopia, pp. 289-304.
60. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia, p. 162.
61. Several members of the association made very generous material contributions towards the construction of schools.
62. Reported in The Ethiopian Herald, 3 August 1968.
63. Regarding the role of the Macha Tulama Association in the awakening of Oromo national consciousness see Mekuria Bulcha, 'The Survival and Reconstruction of Oromo National Identity', in P. T. W. Baxter, Jan Hultin and Alessandro Triulzi (eds), Being and Becoming Oromo (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, 1996), pp. 48-66. In the same volume, see also Mohammed Hassen, 'The Development of Oromo Nationalism', pp. 67-80.
64. Regarding the role of the Macha Tulama Association in the awakening of Oromo national consciousness see Mekuria Bulcha, 'The Survival and Reconstruction of Oromo National Identity', in P. T. W. Baxter, Jan Hultin and Alessandro Triulzi (eds), Being and Becoming Oromo (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, 1996), pp. 48-66. In the same volume, see also Mohammed Hassen, 'The Development of Oromo Nationalism', pp. 67-80.
65. Balsvik, Haile Sellassie's Students, pp. 280-281, wrote that, 'A letter to News and Views [a student paper] in 1964 resentfully noted . . . the development of provincial languages and customs and that "tribal languages" such as Tigrinya, Orominya, and Guraginya were increasing spoken on the campus. The lack of objection to Amharization revealed in this comment was probably quite common, especially among Amhara students, before the level of consciousness about the ethnic issue prevented such comments from appearing in student papers.
66. One of these publications, Kana Bektaa? ('Do You Know?') was from 1969-71 and took up cultural, linguistic and historical themes in order to make its readers aware. Another document, The Oromos: Voice against tyranny, (1971), described the oppression that the Oromo suffered under Amhara colonial rule and called upon its readers to rise up and fight for freedom.
67. For a detailed description of the role of modern education and the intelligentsia in the development of Oromo nationalism, see Mekuria Bulcha, 'Modern Education and Social Movements in the Development of Political Consciousness: The Case of the Oromo', African Sociological Review 1 (1997), pp. 30-65.
68. See the 'Programme of the National Democratic Revolution', Basic Documents of the Ethiopian Government, (1977).
69. See Mekuria Bulcha, 'The Language Policies of Ethiopian Regimes', pp. 108-109.
70. The Political Programme of the Oromo Liberation Front, Finfinnee, 1976. An OLF occasional publication states: 'All the legal methods used to revive and popularize Oromo national culture and language have always been met with violent repression by the Ethiopian authorities. Our people had no choice but to resort to violent resistance to maintain their national identity and restore dignity and honour to their culture and language.' See Oromia Speaks, 3 (1981), p. 4.
71. The Political Programme of the Oromo Liberation Front, Finfinnee, 1976. An OLF occasional publication states: 'All the legal methods used to revive and popularize Oromo national culture and language have always been met with violent repression by the Ethiopian authorities. Our people had no choice but to resort to violent resistance to maintain their national identity and restore dignity and honour to their culture and language.' See Oromia Speaks, 3 (1981), p. 4.
72. Mohammed Hassen, 'The Growth of Written Oromo Literature', p. 85.
73. See for example, Ulrich Braukämper, 'Ethnic Identity and Social Change Among Oromo Refugees in the Horn of Africa', Northeast African Studies, 4, 3 (1983), pp. 1-15.
74. J. Tobiana, 'The Linguistic Approach to Self-Determination', in I. M. Lewis (ed.), Nationalism and Self-Determination in the Horn of Africa, (Ithaca Press, London, 1983), pp. 23-30.
75. See for example, Abdullahi A. Shongolo, 'The Poetics of Nationalism: A poem by Jaarso Waaqo Qoot'o', in Being and Becoming Oromo, pp. 265-290.
76. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism, (Verso, London, 1983), p. 77.
77. Ben Barber, 'Coming to Life: Will the Oromos' Cultural Revival Split Ethiopia?', Culture - Crossroads, 1994.
78. See Mekuria Bulcha, 'Priests, Religion and Language in Ethiopia', The Oromo Commentary, IV, 1 (1994), pp. 8-12; and Thomas Zitelmann, 'The Return of the Devil's Tongue: Polemics about the choice of the Roman alphabet for the Oromo language', The Oromo Commentary, IV, 2 91994), pp. 24-28.
79. See Mekuria Bulcha, 'Priests, Religion and Language in Ethiopia', The Oromo Commentary, IV, 1 (1994), pp. 8-12; and Thomas Zitelmann, 'The Return of the Devil's Tongue: Polemics about the choice of the Roman alphabet for the Oromo language', The Oromo Commentary, IV, 2 91994), pp. 24-28.
80. Barber, 'Coming to Life'.
81. The first to point out that the Ethiopic script was unfit to write Oromo sounds was the German missionary, J. L. Krapf in 1843. See J. Krapf and C. W. Isenberg, Journals of the Rev. Messrs. Isenberg and Krapf, Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, Detailing Their Proceedings in the Kingdom of Shoa, and Journeys in Other Parts of Abyssinia, in the Years 1839, 1840, 1841, and 19842 (London 1843; Frank Cass & Co. reprint 1968), p. 175. Enrico Cerulli in his The Folk-Literature of the Galla of Southern Abyssinia (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1921), p. 15, also pointed out that reading Oromo in the Ethiopic characters is 'like deciphering a secret writing'.
82. The first to point out that the Ethiopic script was unfit to write Oromo sounds was the German missionary, J. L. Krapf in 1843. See J. Krapf and C. W. Isenberg, Journals of the Rev. Messrs. Isenberg and Krapf, Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, Detailing Their Proceedings in the Kingdom of Shoa, and Journeys in Other Parts of Abyssinia, in the Years 1839, 1840, 1841, and 19842 (London 1843; Frank Cass & Co. reprint 1968), p. 175. Enrico Cerulli in his The Folk-Literature of the Galla of Southern Abyssinia (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1921), p. 15, also pointed out that reading Oromo in the Ethiopic characters is 'like deciphering a secret writing'.
83. Kifle Djote, 'A Glance at Oromo Arts and Literature', The Oromo Commentary, III, 2 (1993), pp. 20-24.
84. Nairn, Tom. The Break-up of Britain, (New Left Books, London, 1977), p. 340,
85. cited in Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 77.