On Sunday more than 20,000 people gathered at Millenium Hall to welcome activist and artist Tamagn Beyene. In his first address to the public since his arrival activist, Tamagn Beyene extended his hand to prominent Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed.
It was a rare scene when activist Tamagn publicly request for activist Jawar Mohammed to join him in working together. The main reason why the two activists were not on the same page was due to their differences in their approach towards a better Ethiopia. Tamagn believes in one Ethiopia mainly dismissing any form of ethnic organizing in order to bring change while Jawar believes in ethnic federalism.
Later on today activist Jawar Mohammed on his Facebook post politely rejected the offer that was extended from Tamagn Beyene. In his post, Jawar Mohammed stated that it’s too late to join forces with Tamagn as his struggle transformed at a bullet speed from Resistance Politics to Governance Politics.
Another key point raised by activist Jawar also highlighted the success of ethnic-based resistance for his success while attributing all ethnically organized resistances such as Qerro, Fano, and Zerema.
In the same post, Jawar informally addressed the unionist or ethio nationalists by referring to their struggle as a failure and that his ethno centric based movement was the reason for them to enjoy their freedom in today’s Ethiopia.
Contrary to his first-day address at Millenium Hall Activist Tamagn Beyene today didn’t mention Jawar in Bahir Dar. Rather he called for Amhara nationalists to not feel intimidated or ashamed to embrace Ethiopian identity and not to geographically bound their identity.
