Ragaan gaaffii fi deebii kanaas haga Dr. Saandraan gaafa sana argatutti, girgijjii (shelf) mana kitaabaa keessa iddoo tokkotti awwaalamee ture.
Tarii seenaan ijoollee kanaa dhokatee hafa turee? Moo ammas seenaa ijoollee kanaa baruuf waggoota 100 ol eegna turre?
Barruu kanaan qabiyyee kitaabichaa, eenyummaa barreessituu, seenaa ijoollee muraasaa fi dhimmoota biroo isin baruu qabdan, gaaffiifi deebii Dr. Sandra Shell waliin taasfinee fi ragaalee kitaabicharraa arganne qixeeffanneerra. Dhiyaadhaa.
Dr. Saandraan dhamaatii waggoota hedduun booda kitaaba matadureen isaa Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa jedhu ji’oota muraasaan dura maxxansiifte.
Ijoollee kanneen keessaa harki 30 abbaafi haadha hin qaban ture. Kanaafis sababni inni guddaan beela hamaa seenaa Itoophiyaa keessatti isa hamaa tahe ‘Bara Beeliyyaa’ jedhamu kan bara 1887’rraa eegalee biyyattii darare akka tahe dubbatti Saandraan.
Bara hamaa kanaanis roobni bara 1887tti caame, bara 1992tti irra deebiin roobe. Waggoota shan guutuuf hongee guddaan lubbuu hedduu balleesse.
Ijoollee kana keessaa tokko kan turte Bishoo Jaarsaa waan yaadattu, abbaa fi haatishee dhibee bara sana hongee waliin dhufe sanaan lubbuu dhabuu dubbatti.
Kana malees hongee kanaan walqabatee dhukkuba horii babal’ateen, horiin harki 95 tahu biyyattiirraa dhabamuu ragaaleen ni mullisu.
Akka Dammaan jettutti gabbarri dirqamaan ta’ee kan qormaatarra nama buusu ta’uu hin malu. Gaarii kan ta’u kan giidoo ilma fuudhuu ilaalcha keessa galche yoo ta’edha.
“Dirqama gabbaruu qabda kan jedhamus hafu qaba. Yoo diyaasporaan mallaqa guddaan gabbare hiyyeessi hoo maal haa ta’u?”
Takkatuu shimii dhahii
Takkatuu shimii dhahii
Sin faarsaa hin gammadinii
Sin abaaruu hin booyinii
Morma jala sidhahanii
Afaan sihidhanii yaa loonii
Bonni hin jiruu bonni illee fagaatee
Lama bullaan arfaasaan dhihaatee
Loowwan maal hin taanee
Loowwan gaafa shunee
Isin bannaan bannee
isin gallaan gallee
Looni yaa loonishee
Kan siqabu boonee
Kan sidhabe boo’ee
Kan sidhabe boo’ee
In March 2015 Dr. Birhanemeskel Abebe, a renowned Ethiopian academician, came up with “Top Ten Reasons why Afaan Oromo should be the federal working language”. His observation reminded me of my own M.A. thesis defended in 2003 Ethiopian Academic Year at Addis Ababa University (AAU). The title of my thesis was “Ethiopia’s Choice of Federal Working Language and Its Implications for Non-Amharic Languages: The Case of Afaan Oromoo”. The overall thesis was devoted to theoretical understanding of the general principles and international comparative experiences, and practical consequences of choosing working language/s in multilingual countries. It explored the reasons used (and should be used) for adopting working language/s. In this brief reflection, I would like to build on the ten points raised by Dr. Birhanemeskel based on the major findings of my thesis.
Before listing the top twenty three compelling reasons one by one, however, it is important to make clarifications on some points that are commonly misunderstood by many. First, the term ‘working language’ is not the same with the term ‘national language’. A working language is a procedural administrative or office language. It is a language that is given a unique legal status in supra-national organizations such as the UN and the AU, federation or province or other body as its primary means of government communication: in short public service delivery language. The term ‘official language’ may not necessarily mean office language. This is so because official language (legal status) is often connected with wider political issues of sovereignty, nationalism, and the rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, including immigrant communities. (Abraham, 1990). The term ‘national language’ elevates the language in question to the status of the national identity/citizenship, the national flag and the national anthem (Mputubwele, 2003).
Secondly, the working language of the Federal Government of Ethiopia is not the same with the working language of Ethiopia. This is the most mistaken or confused among scholars too. Ethiopian federation has several working languages in different jurisdictions. Thus, Ethiopia has not one but several working languages. More specifically, Amharic is not the only working language of Ethiopia; it is the only working language of the federal government (See FDRE Constitution, 1995: Article 5).
Why Afaan Oromoo as another federal working language
I targeted Afaan Oromoo for the fact that it is the largest mother tongue in Ethiopia spoken by 34% of the country’s population followed by Amharic which is spoken by 29%, according to a 2007 report by the Central Statistic Authority (CSA). Other non-Amharic languages might be researched for similar reason.
Accordingly, below is the a quick list of the top 23 justifications for considering Afaan Oromoo as the other working language of the federal government of Ethiopia.
The first (1) is the right to non-discrimination at the hands of the state due to language, which is stipulated in Art. 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right and Art, 1 of the Convention against Discrimination in Education of 1960.
The rights of individuals belonging to linguistic minorities to participate effectively according to Art 2 of the 1992 UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities.
Collective equality of linguistic groups.
For the state legitimacy purpose (Turgeon and Gagnon, 2013).
Symbolic social identity (primordial benefit) of the working language choice.
Demographic factor: the numerical size of the speakers of a certain language in proportion to the whole population (sliding scale model) is the most frequent reason (See, for example, a memorandum signed between the Union and individual States of India in 1956; See also Part IV of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, 1992).
Tax consequences of language choice: the state has the burden to exactly compensate those who must learn the chosen language (in terms of time, money and moral) through negative taxes (receive a subsidy) (Pool, 1991).
To rectify historical linguistic central injustices which promised that “We, the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia… Fully cognizant that our common destiny can best be served by rectifying historically unjust relationships” (Preamble of the Constitution).
Power sharing requires language: The composition of the federal leadership has to reflect the diverse society it claims to represent.
To enhance national consensus and unity, and discourage separatist nationalism.
Freedom of expression aspect of federal language choice: The right to express opinion freely implies the right to do so in the language of one’s own choice in accordance with Art 19, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Mass media consequences of federal language choice: the chosen language will be given a favor (through the state subsidy and private business preferences) in broadcasting media, print media and online media.
Language is part of the medication. The language in which patients are treated in federal hospitals matters.
For the purpose of democratic participation: “Where political debate is conducted in the selected language, the speakers of other languages are at a disadvantage” (Patten & Kymlicka, 2003).
Federal language choice has federal culture choice implication. Language carries culture. Take for instance music programs of federal media such as ETV (now EBC) and FM 97.1.
The economic contribution of linguistic groups: Major sources of incomes including drinking water.
Geographical settlement and geopolitical significance of the language (Kebede, 2005).
It is an opportunity for non-Afaan Oromoo speakers who want to learn Afaan Oromoo and wish to integrate into and work in the regional state of Oromia (for both public and private purposes).
Trans-national reasons: Afaan Oromoo is the third largest indigenous mother tongue in Africa (Mohammed, 2010).
Civil service employment reason: everywhere the working language is the property of those who use it as a mother tongue or who can learn to use it as well (Weinstein, 1983); See also Federal Civil Service Employment Reports). Restricted participation eventually means that one group is dominated by another.
Material or wealth consequences of language: disagreement over the working language is “a disagreement about who shall participate in power, wealth and prestige” in a given jurisdiction (Weinstein, 1983: 15).
The capital (seat) of the Federal Government is located in the state of Oromia whose working language is Afaan Oromoo. This capital is also the capital of the Oromia regional state. And last
Experiences of multilingual countries: federal working languages of Canada are two, Switzerland (three), Belgium (three), South Africa (eleven), India (two), Singapore (four), Fiji (three), Nigeria (one foreign language), and Cameron (opts for two foreign languages).
Ed’s Note: Milkessa Midega is a PhD Candidate at the Addis Abeba University (AAU) Center for Federal Studies. He can be reached at: milkessam@gmail.com.
Nowhere in the world has the government of the country refused to speak the language of the majority of its people. It is weird, unthinkable, unjust, undemocratic, immoral, and absolutely unacceptable. Ethiopia is all of these. The Ethiopian federal government and two of its largest cities do not speak the language of the majority of the people, Afaan Oromo. This is a preliminary outline to say the obvious. Make Afaan Oromo legally and unconditionally the working language of the federal government of Ethiopia and the two largest cities of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa.
Here are the top ten reasons why:
1. Demographic Reasons: Afaan Oromo, the language of the Oromo people, is the single most widely spoken language in Ethiopia and the fourth largest African language in terms of the number and size of speakers. It is spoken in at least three countries outside Ethiopia. Although statistical data’s may vary, about 50% of the Ethiopian population are estimated to speak Afaan Oromo. In comparison, only about 29.1% of the entire population of Ethiopia speaks Amharic, the legally imposed official language of the Federal government and the two largest cities of Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa. Given this demographic weight; it is unjust, undemocratic, and discriminatory to say the least not to use the language of the majority of the people as working language of this multinational and multilingual country.
2. Geographic Reasons: All of the segregationist entities including the federal government, the Addis Ababa City Administration, and the Dire Dawa city administrations are based in and hosted in the Afaan Oromo speaking Oromia National Regional State. Yet, due to the discriminatory and exclusionary Amharic only language policy, the federal government institutions and these two large cities do not speak the language of the host people and the host state. These entities which feels like an occupying force rather than a governing force cannot continue as Amharic speaking island in the middle of the sea of Afaan Oromo speaking population while fully relying on the resources of the Oromo people for their existence including food, water, electricity, ports, waste disposals and roads at a very high human, financial and environmental cost to the Oromo people and the Oromia state.
Photo – Irreecha, Thanksgiving holiday of the Oromo people
3. Unity of the country as a Reason: The exclusionary Amharic only language policy is antithesis of the multilingual and multicultural nature of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian federal government and the two segregationist cities under its administration have an urgent national duty, if they care, to abolish this divisive and dangerous policy that undermines the equality, mutual respect and peaceful coexistence of the Ethiopian people. Ethiopia cannot continue as united whole with its current segregationist policy which benefits one segment of the population while fully excluding the other segment of the population.
4. Economic and job opportunities: This segregationist and exclusionary Amharic only language policy of the federal government and the two largest cities of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa have fully and completely excluded Afaan Oromo speakers from all federal, municipal, corporate, and private jobs as well as all economic and business opportunities including the right to do business and live in these jurisdictions unless one speaks Amharic. All employees of the federal government and these two largest cities are 100% Amharic speakers. Less than 10% of ethnic Oromos who were assimilated into Amharic speaking are presently employed both in the federal government institutions and by these two segregationist cities. Even worse, none of the federal government offices and offices of these two cities including hospitals, businesses and all other service providers provide translation services for Afaan Oromo speaking customers and users. Yet, Afaan Oromo speakers and their state, Oromia, is the economic backbone and major sources of export and tax revenue for the federal government and these two segregationist cities.
5. Representational Reasons: The Ethiopian federal government institutions and its bureaucracies; and the two major cities of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa legally excluded Afaan Oromo speakers by adopting Amharic as their only working language. Under this condition, it is very hard to either say Afaan Oromo speakers are represented in the Federal Government and these two cities or the federal government and these two cities represent the Afaan Oromo speakers. The rootless Amharic speaking ethnic Oromo political appointees the government and these two cities flag as representatives of the Afaan Oromo spearkers are outlaws who don’t even represent themselves. Even the percentage of assimilated, culturally and linguistically disconnected ethnic Oromos employees in Ethiopian federal institutions and the institutions in these two major cities as a whole are less than 10%. This is in a country where the Oromo people constitute more than 40% of the total population.
6. Legitimacy Reasons: The government that does not speak the language of the people it claim to govern neither do speak for that people nor do legitimately represent the interests of that people. For the Ethiopian government to be considered legitimate representative of the Afaan Oromo speaking population, it must speak Afaan Oromo and be the representatives of the interests of the Afaan Oromo speakers at all levels of its institutions not just in nominal political appointee positions and portfolios.
7. Justice, Equality, Equity and Fairness Reasons: Justice, equality, equity and fairness demands equal opportunity and equal treatment of Afaan Oromo speakers on equal basis as the Amharic speaking segment of the population. The Amharic only language policy of the federal government and the two segregationist cities have completely left the Afaan Oromo speaking population outside all economic, social, religious and educational institutional framework creating a country where close to half of its population lives in subhuman situation without any single institution of their own. The Ethiopian federal government and these two largest cities must not only immediately abolition this unjust, discriminatory and apartheid language policy but also invest financial and human resources to create Afaan Oromo economic, religious, cultural and educational institutions; and adopt economic empowerment policies that will remedy and address the historical injustice Afaan Oromo speakers passed through and are passing through right now.
8. Multilingualism to Create Bond among various nations and nationalities: The Amharic only policy that was intended to assimilate over 80% of the Ethiopian population into the Amharic speaking few or exclude them from the political, economic, religious, and social structure and institutional fabrics of the Ethiopian state has created a very racist and hate groups who don’t accept and respect the equality of various nations, nationalities, languages and various ethnic identities. This dangerous policy has now lent legitimacy to the development of racist and hate groups who claim to struggle for the ‘unity of Ethiopia in the name of this Amharic only langue policy’ to openly discriminate, propagate hatred towards non-Amharic speakers, and even issue racist political manifestos in a way that will destroy the social bond among various nations and nationalities of Ethiopia. The main targets of these hate and racist groups incubated and developed through this Amharic only racist policy and bigotry are the Afaan Oromo speaking population of Ethiopia.
9. One language and one ethnic hegemony policies will kill Ethiopia: Diverse and pluralistic Ethiopia can only stand on the acceptance of the policy of unity through diversity. The two most important challenges that works against this most important policy presumption to keep diverse and united Ethiopia are the effort to create one ethnic hegemonic state and the Amharic only language policies. These are two equally cancerous and terminal policies that will kill Ethiopia. Ethiopia will only continue to exist on multinational and multilingual federal structure where mutual respect and peaceful coexistence of its multiple nations and nationalities are protected and respected by institutionalizing constitutional system of governance where fair economic power and political power sharing mechanism are legally established. Making Afaan Oromo the working language of the federal government and the two largest cities will open the door to save this sick and disabled country that now operates with less one third of its potentials.
10. Language as Core factor in Human Development: The only means and avenue through which any human society could produce, develop, exchange and disseminate knowledge and information for self-actualization, economic and social development is language. The Ethiopian federal government and the two segregationist cities of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa denied the Afaan Oromo speaking population of Ethiopia this fundamental, inalienable and basic rights through its Amharic only policies. No wonder Ethiopia is the tail of the world and at the very bottom in human development index.
As a conscientious member of the Afaan Oromo speaking society and because of the above listed reasons and so many others, I call upon the Ethiopian government to immediately and unconditionally abolish the Amharic only language policy and make Afaan Oromo the working language of the federal government and the two largest cities of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa.
Ethiopia must end its political, economic and social exclusion and marginalization of Afaan Oromo speakers from federal institutions and the Addis Ababa city administration claiming non-existing language laws and language policies as the basis of these exclusions.
Ethiopia never had formal language laws and language policy in its history to exclude the use of Afaan Oromo. The so-called language related provision in the federal constitution is not self-executing law. It needs language policy and language law for it to be legally enforced in the court of law or followed by any government institutions.
Alternatively, even if one claims that there is constitutional self-executing law, it does not bar the use of Afaan Oromo by federal institutions and Addis Ababa City Administration.
More importantly, Addis Ababa city administration does not need any federal authorization to adopt right away Afaan Oromo as its working language on equal footing with Amharic.
There are many Ethiopia’s own language use practices that will enable the federal government to adopt Afaan Oromo as its working language without needing any law or policy.
For instance, there is no law or language policy that says Ethiopia will use English in its international communication. Yet, the country is using English in its international communication in spite of the absence of language law or language policy.
Similarly, if we look at Ethiopia’s medium of instruction both at secondary and university levels, there is no language law or language policy issued to mandate Ethiopian academic institutions to teach in English.
If we look at the past practices of the Ministry of Education, there is no law that mandated the inclusion of Geez, a language used in church liturgy with zero living speakers, on Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Exam(ESLCE) while willfully excluding Afaan Oromo or other languages with tens of millions of speakers from ESLCE.
If there is any legal basis for all these unregulated language uses, the only document one may find is the educational curriculum prepared by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. That means, all these messes were done at the free will of unelected and unauthorized experts at the Ministry of Education whom the Ethiopian people have zero knowledge even about their existence.
Similarly, there is no clearly drawn language use policy that regulates the Ethiopian federal media outlets to broadcast in any given languages including in Afaan Oromo. It is pretty much the discretionary decision of these entities.
If unelected, unauthorized and obscure curriculum developing experts at the Ministry of Education or media companies were given so much power in deciding on what languages our educational system or media uses or not uses; we expect our elected, legally authorized and publically known officials including the Ethiopian federal parliament, the federal judicial and executive organs to use Afaan Oromo in conducting their business.
Afaan Oromo speakers who constitute more than 50% of the Ethiopian population cannot wait until the constitution is amended or language use laws or policies are issued to get services from the federal government and Addis Ababa city administration.
The degree of exclusion and marginalization of the Oromo people in Ethiopia is unbearable. The Oromo people cannot remain excluded from their own country. All cities, religious institutions, media outlets and federal government entities in Oromia, including in Addis Ababa, must serve the Oromo people in Afaan Oromo.
Furthermore, since both the federal government institutions and Addis Ababa City Administration are exclusively located in the Oromia National Regional Government where the working language is legally Afaan Oromo, there is no federal law or policy that prohibits the federal government and the Addis Ababa City Administration from conducting their Business in Afaan Oromo.
In fact, both the federal institutions and the Addis Ababa City Administration must use Afaan Oromo, the official working language in Oromia, to conduct their business in Oromia Region according to the Ethiopian federal constitution which recognizes the rights of regional governments to use the language of their choosing as their working language.
1st Afaan Oromo Dictionary published in 1842 in London.
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Yesterday is not only History, but also one of the evidence you can define where you was and how you and your culture, language, history was so powerful and gaint too.
This Oromo Language[Afaan Oromo] Dictionary show the same, and Its one evidence that how Afaan Oromo was a great Language in the ethiopia Empire in 18th Century. We are proud that Oromo and Oromo Language[Afaan Oromo] was a great Nation and Language respectively in the ethiopian Empire before 1 and half century. Now We are recovering our Nation and language accordingly.
Accordingly We, Qubee Generation(Qeerroo) are working hardly in focus to make our language great again and it will be Federal Working language very soon.
Afaan Oromoo, a highly developed spoken language, is at the top of the list of the distinct and separate 1000 or so languages used in Africa. Afaan Oromoo speakers are spread over a wide geographic area; not only in Ethiopia, but also in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, South Africa, Libya, Sudan and others parts of the continent. In spite of its importance as a vernacular widely spoken language in the Horn of Africa, Afaan Oromoo, remains one of the least studied languages. It’s the 3rd most spoken of African’s languages next to Kiswahili and Hausa.
Afaan Oromoo today lacks a developed literature, and has less printed materials than any language with a comparable number of speakers. This does not mean, however, that the Oromo have not tried to develop their language. Starting from the first half of the 19th century, Oromo religious leaders and scholars have attempted to discover scripts suited for writing Afaan Oromoo. The work of Sheik Bakri Saphalo is one such attempt.
The underdeveloped status of Oromo literature is mainly attributable to the #Amharization policy of consecutive Ethiopian governments over the last one hundred years. These governments have not only neglected, but have also actively suppressed the development of Oromo literature.
The adoption of a script for Afaan Oromoo has been a burning issue. Even now a day, sympathizers of dead feudal system are blindly suggesting Sabean script for writing Afaan Oromoo, and many others just for purpose of creating a homogeneous Ethiopian society and identity through the medium of Amharic.
Afaan Oromoo had remained essentially a well-developed oral tradition until the early 1970’s when the Oromo Liberation Front (#OLF) began to use it as an official language in the liberated areas. Additionally, the Front adopted the Latin script as its official alphabet.
About five months after the collapse of Mengistu’s regime in May 1991, the OLF convened a meeting of Oromo scholars and intellectuals on November 3, 1991. The purpose of the meeting was to adopt the Latin script the OLF had been using or suggest an alternative. Over 1000 men and women attended the historic meeting which met in the Parliament Building in Finfinnee. After hours of discussions and deliberations, it was unanimously decided that the Latin script be adopted.
Some of the reasons for this landmark decision are:
1- The Sabean syllabary, too, was suggested as another alternative. However, its roughly 250 characters are too unwieldy to adapt to Afaan Oromoo. It must also be added that the Sabean syllabary not only fails to indicate vowel length and gemination (a doubling of a consonant), but also slows down a writer’s speed since each symbol, which cannot be written cursively, must be printed (spelled alone).
2-Afaan Oromoo, excluding those represented by P,V,Z, has 34 basic sounds (10 vowels and 24 consonants). One possibility is to invent 34 signs corresponding to each of these 34 sounds. As it is impractical and unnecessary effort to invent new script, instead, it was decided that the Latin alphabet be adopted. This decision is historic because the alphabet is the most highly developed and the most convenient system of writing, readily adaptable to Afaan Oromoo. Additionally, These 37 characters (or 52 if the capital letters are considered important) can be learned in less than a month.
3-Practical Reasons: – The Latin alphabet was adapted to many languages including English, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Somali, Swahili, Sidama, Hadiya, and Others.
Qubee Afaan Oromoo also aligned itself with so many countries that use Latin script. One obvious advantage of this is that an Oromo child who has learned his own alphabet can learn, for example, the form of the English script in a relatively short period of time. Another practical reason is its alphabetic writing’s adaptability to computer technology.
The adoption of a script for Afaan Oromoo has been a burning issue. Even now a day, sympathizers of dead feudal system are blindly suggesting Sabean script for writing Afaan Oromoo, and many others just for purpose of creating a homogeneous Ethiopian society and identity through the medium of Amharic.
