Addis Ababa should be at the center of our resistance

By Fitsum Fekade

Oromo nationalists have gotten a lot wrong but as the saying goes,  even a broken clock is right twice a day. They have rightly calculated that whoever controls the capital, center/seat of power, controls the nation. However, they have also calculated merely holding political office won’t assure generational ethnic domination. After all, in its current form, Oromo nationalism is on a conquest to create an empire within a nation. To that end they have been working on a plan to incorporate Addis Ababa into the Oromia region.

If their plan succeeds, it achieves the goal of socio-economic dominance by one Ethnic group as long as a nation called Ethiopia exists. They know Addis’s incorporation into Oromia means the threat of seceding/disintegration will hold even more power over Ethiopians. They essentially would create an Ethnic ruling class and region holding the rest of the country hostage. And if the scenario of Ethiopia’s disintegration did in fact play out, their prospective nation would be in control of Ethiopia’s most economically and diplomatically vibrant city. A city built with the hard-earned resources and contributions of all Ethiopians for a century and a half.  

This is not mere conjecture, Oromo nationalists, including ruling party officials, have openly declared Oromia’s ownership of Addis Ababa. For example, during a press release on Sept 25^th 2018, five Oromo-Nationalist parties declared that Addis Ababa was part of Oromia and that any argument otherwise was a threat to the “existence of the Oromo People”. They further noted, it was with the permission and good will of the Oromo people that any non-Oromo resided in the capital.  The ruling party on its part has taken the groundwork of controlling Addis Ababa’s bureaucracy. Since Abiy Ahmed’s rise to power, the city has had two mayors. Both of them were non-Addis residents and were unelected; rather both were hand selected from Oromo Prosperity party. It is almost as if the ruling party is sending a message that no other Ethnic group can ever lead the city nor can the city have the privilege of self-administration. 

Now one can say Addis Ababa’s problems are a symptom of what ails our country, which is a winner takes all Ethnic political system, and they would be right. And at this moment, the political force that has no organized opponent is the Oromo-nationalist political force. In the past five years it has claimed ownership of Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Harrar, Wollo from Amhara region, parts of Benishangul, has had skirmishes with Somali region & Sidama region over land claims and has been eying Gurage Zone for incorporation. Other regions are also sitting ducks waiting their turn to be swallowed. 

 Inside Oromia region it has displaced hundreds of thousands from Guji zone, killed and dislocated hundreds of thousands of Amhara residents in Oromia and burned/destroyed multiple churches just to list a few; how ironic,  for a political force that claims to have fought for equality, diversity and self-governance. Of Course its history both before and after its rise to power is mired in barbaric violence disguised with false narratives. 

One might be tempted to ask then, why can’t Addis Ababans organize and confront this existential threat? Addis Ababans have a long history of political movements that dates back to Haile Selassie’s reign. They have a history of being the match that starts a political fire that has taken down regimes. From being the center of the student movement that brought down the monarchy, to EPRP’s urban warfare against the Derg and to challenging TPLF/EPRDF rule multiple times most significantly in the aftermath of the 2005 election.

However, TPLF’s survival through brute force during the tumultuous 2005/2006 protests meant that Addis Ababa would not be a threat to its rule anymore. Universities were filled with cadres to make sure students could not organize, sometimes even intentionally fomenting ethnic tensions to prevent students from banding together. It made sure the social fabric of the city came apart at the seams as communities that had lived together for decades were dislocated and fragmented throughout the city in the name of construction. No one knew it then but the groundwork was being laid for what was to come.

And now, during this regime, attempts to organize peacefully have been met with intimidation, imprisonment and deadly force. One such attempt at resistance was the formation of the Balderas party, led by the renowned activist and journalist Eskinder Nega. Rallies and meetings were disrupted, meeting venue owners were intimidated into cancelation, party leaders were imprisoned and Addis Ababan youth were shot down and thousands were detained. Even as recently as a week ago the Enat party was forced to cancel its general meeting after the meeting venue was closed by “orders of government officials”.  It’ll take years, years that we don’t have, if ever for Addis Ababans to recover from the two-decade long campaign against them. Even then, one city cannot take on a regime that has no qualms about Ethnic cleansing and mass murder. The daily Ethnic based mass murders and dislocation in Wollega and other parts of Oromia are a precursor of what will happen in Addis Ababa and resisting alone will only make things worse.

In its continued effort to take over Addis the ruling party is making multiple moves. Recently for example Oromia regional forces have started prohibiting any movement from the Amhara region into Addis Ababa. There is no obvious reason for this, yet some regime cadres speculate that they are trying to prevent some political agents from coming into Addis and foment instability. This is nothing more than cheap propaganda fueling hate and distrust towards a specific ethnic group.

 As part of this campaign, they have announced a formation of a new city called Shegger, that will envelop Addis Ababa on all sides. Shegger is another name sometimes used for Addis Ababa, and it’s not a coincidence the “new” city was given that name. It was an implication of the plan for this city to encroach into parts of Addis. Not long after the announcement of the formation of the city, Oromia regional forces started the demolition of homes and shops owned by non-Oromo residents. 

The president of Oromia region noted in a speech, during the inauguration of the new city, that one of the purposes of this city was to “protect” & “defend” Addis Ababa. As far as we know Addis Ababa is not a border city, there are no hostile foreign neighbors trying to attack it. So the logical question becomes, who are they trying to protect the city from?  

Rather, the purpose of the blockade and encirclement is threefold. It is a well-known fact that Oromo Nationalism has viewed the Amhara people as an enemy and currently sees them as a threat to its power. Thus, imposing a blockade is a psychological op signifying the relegation of the Amhara to the “periphery”. It is a theater to demonstrate the end of Amhara people having a voice at the center of power; the consolidation of hegemony by Oromo nationalism in all things Ethiopia.

Second it sends a message to Addis Ababans, who will resist the imposition of a new identity on them. A message that they are isolated and that a siege can be implemented if need be. Again, this is not just conjecture, it is an open secret that this regime has no qualms about using violence, starvation and chaos for social engineering. As noted above, it has used this strategy to homogenize the Oromia region for five years now, it’s not a stretch to think that some version of it can be used on Addis Ababa.

Third, it is a message to the other regions and Ethnic groups, that if Addis Ababa can be taken, then there is no point resisting Oromo nationalism’s advance on their region when the time comes. Furthermore, it’s a declaration that from now on, Oromo Nationalist permission & goodwill will be needed to exist in the country.

 This is why it’s important for Ethiopians to formulate strategies to back any plans of incorporating Addis Ababa into the Oromia region.

So then, what is the solution? First, it is important to underline what Addis Ababa’s liberation and independence from the control of one Ethnic group means for Ethiopia as a whole. Addis Ababa might be the only thing we have in common in this divided and contentious political climate. Every Ethiopian regardless of her/his ethnicity or religion has contributed in building and maintaining Addis Ababa. Every Ethiopian has a stake in the city. No Ethiopian needs permission or good will from anyone to travel to, dwell in, work in or visit the capital.

Second, Addis Ababa’s independence prevents Ethiopians from being held hostage by an extremist and greedy political class that is Oromo Nationalism.

Third, Addis Ababa’s ability to self-administer will set a precedent for the rest of the country. As noted above, for all its promises of respecting diversity and self-administration, what Ethnic based political order has done is create Ethnic prisons that strive for Ethnic homogeneity in their prospective regions and political hegemony for their ethnic group on the national stage.

Consequently, liberation of Addis Ababa can’t just come from within, it has to also come from without. Addis Ababa is not just the responsibility of its residents, it’s the responsibility of every Ethiopian. The fate of Addis Ababa will determine if we can have a negotiated political dispensation or leave the country in the hands of a voracious political class that will eventually lead to an implosion leaving us all empty handed. Oromo Nationalism has become an existential threat to Ethiopians and thus needs to be confronted. It is a political force that has squandered a historical opportunity to showcase what it had promised but instead has revealed its true nature. It is the antithesis of self-administration and diversity; in its true form it imposes its identity, language and beliefs on others; it is of a colonial mindset. The only way to force its winner takes all mentality into moderation is by making it realize that it cannot win, that in fact it can lose or a no winners all losers scenario leading to mutual destruction. Addis Ababa has to become our common agenda and winning this struggle will pay dividends for all Ethiopians. Addis Ababa should be at the heart of our resistance against hegemony.