Enesuma mokrew neber quanquaw endixefa
BeAmarigna teshefino zelalem endinor Oromiffa
yihen yemesele yequanqua Angafa
endet techequno yinoral beAmaroch zelefa?
Lelochim bizu alu emixebqu worefa
endegna quanquachew adgo beAlem endisfafa!
Another sad news to the unitary chauvinists! Oromiffa is now a working language in Canada city halls.
All what these chauvinists want to see in Ethiopia is one Amhara culture, one Amharic language and one Amhara Monarchy. They see Ethiopia only from Amhara point of view which makes them Ethnocentrists. They feel like they are entitled to oppress other cultures, languages, nations and nationalities and have Ethiopia solely as their private property that they could do whatever they want with. They show total disregard for what the rest of the non-Amhara people want.
When we decided to teach our youngs using their mother tongue, they cried foul and tried every thing to stop us. When we decided to use latin alphabets instead of Ge’ez out of necessity, again they cried and they still are trying to impose Ge’ez on us. I don’t know why they are defensive but they don’t want to see Oromos and other non-Habeshas developing their culture and language.
Whatever Hebesha’s sloppy excuse is to impose their language and tradition, Oromos make up almost 40-50% of the population in Ethiopia and our language Oromiffa is spoken not only by us but by variety of people who live in our midst. Therefore Afan Oromo should have an official language status just like Amharic. There are many countries with diverse population and that have more than one National and/or official languages. Canada, Nigeria, New Zealand, Mauritania, Pakistan and Senegal to mention a few.
We don’t have anything against Amharic. Actually we use it ourselves in spite of Amharas calling us “tebtaba”, “gemed af” for just trying to speak their language. On the other hand many of the well known literature giants in Ethiopia have been and still are Oromos. Take for example Poet Laurreate Tsegaye Gebremedhin, Bealu Girma, Alemtsehay Wodajo, Kibebew Geda, Tilahun Gugsa, Tilahun Gessessee and many more. Oromos have contributed equally if not more for development of the Amharic language.
If Oromos developed Amharic language selflessly, then why would Amharas get mad when Oromos try to develop our own language too? Amharas should have been grateful for our contribution to the development of Amharic language and should have tried to reciprocate the same but alas they are always trying to hold us down.
I just want to let you know that I liked the poem “Oromiffa Yisfafa” it is different, nice, short and to the point.
Hello,
Good news for Oromic speakers in Canada; by the way which dialect of oromic are we talking about?
And how is it a victory against “Amhara”. Have they started governing Canada ?
YOU SAID “All what these chauvinists want to see in Ethiopia is one Amhara culture, one Amharic language, one Amhara Monarchy.”
I really do not know what you are talking about; what has been spread in Ethiopia since Menelik time is not Amhara culture; it’s Western Culture and the English language. We have been in the process of Westernization. I do not see it slowing down with Globalization at full force, to be honest.
to condom “Amhara” for the things they did not do is a pure hatred and demonization of the Amharic speakers. In addition, the Monarchy is called “Solomonic ” not “Amhara”. It seems to me that you like to associate everything bad to Amhara so as to demonize the word Amahar itself (I know it has been domonized already).
YOU SAID “[Amahara] don’t want to see Oromos and other non-Habeshas developing their culture and language. ”
Dear, the so called amharas have been so busy Westernizing themselves up, I really do not think they have given a hoot about other cultures development (including their the so called Amhara culture); after all, they even failed to develop the Amharic language. How can a language that does not even have a decent dictionary envied is beyond me. The Amharic language is so inadequate for use in the modern world that it brows from English dictionary like ….
In conclusion, Amhara/Amharic , Oromo/Oromic and other ethiopian cultural manifestations are as primitive as yesterday.
I am one of those who is convinced Ge’ez or/and Tifinagh alphabet should be used by not only Oromos but the entire African descents
given that both have been developed by black people in the land of Africa.
The use of Latin Alphabet for Oromic language was not necessity; it was a revenge of sort, which I think is ironic since Europeans are the worst colonizers the world has ever seen. Europeans actually believed/believe Africans were/are subhumans- incapable of “high culture”. Shouldn’t we at least use Alphabets invented by Africans ?
P.S Habesha is not Amharic ; may be Ge’ez is.
Ohhh dear, well, its obvious that once you set your mind to do even this kind of mischiefs, you can actually.
Don’t simply read the word democracy and equality the way western academicians and NGO’s define it. Please go and listen to the practitioners and leaders as well and you will learn that things can not be measured at the binary scale of yours (black or white, day or night, on or off, 1 or 0).
Between 0 and 1 you have infinitely many real numbers, and thats how reality is as well, there are infinitely many realities as there are bound to be many individuals, including oromians in the shaping of our country, to pick from.
We simply choose depending on how we perceive our current reality and how we are as a human being. So main part of this story is about YOU, and the other minor part is off-course the current reality, and I am not in denial that the amharic is a language dominating the current Ethiopian scene, and I am myself an amhara, but I wouldn’t mind for a second to learn and do my conducts with oromiffa. But tell me to what good would a nation be needing to go through this kind of re engineering when the world is tending to other developmental matters. Aren’t we looking away from the set of neck-breaking issues of what actually is impeding our development, don’t we need to regroup and focus, instead of creating this side walks. Don’t we need to act as human beings (i.e. learning beings, learning from others mistakes). The world is uniting and we are breaking up. Sooo sad.
I hope you will fail with what I think you are aiming, and if you don’t let it be known that there are many in this world, past and present that have succeeded doing wrong things, so you would be part of that group and nothing more.
Harar, nobody is demonizing Amaharas. I stated the facts for you. They don’t want schools in Oromia use books written in Oromiffa; they don’t want students to be taught with their mother tongue; they don’t want Oromiffa to be Ethiopia’s official language even though it is spoken by the majority of the population. Now isn’t this a legitimate question to raise?
You said it is not Amhara culture and language that is dominant in Ethiopia instead it is western. In that case why don’t we use English language if it is so dominant in Ethiopia? You’re making untrue statements here. Whether, Amharic is developed as other languages is not the question here. The question is Oromiffa needs to be developed whether you like it or not!
You seem to confuse the origins of Ge’ez. Ge’ez does not have African origin. Ge’ez is a Sabean script that was developed in South Arabia by Canaanites and other people. The habeshas stole it and now gloat like they invented it.
http://www.historytoday.com/historicaldictionary.aspx?m=476&amid=2769
Another link here
http://oromantic.com/2008/04/20/duality-of-ethiopianism/
On the other hand, latin is what the whole globe use and Oromiffa has a need to use it because for long vowels and some sounds in Afan Oromo, your scripts are deficient while latin could easily solve those problems. And don’t forget, after all it is our language and we have a choice of whatever alphabets we want to use.
gobezu, you hope for us to fail. How nice of you? How does making “side walks” bad for our future. Whenever you build a road you should build sidewalks too because you never know who is going to need it. How is making Oromiffa which is spoken by majority of people in Ethiopia considered as shifting focus from development. And how did you equate the use of Oromiffa as official language along Amharic and possibly English with breaking up of the country? If you ask me, it actually has the opposit effect. When you let people learn, work and communicate with their own language and when you change the society into a multicultural arena, it will speed up the development we need. Otherwise it would be the first class citizens enjoying everything and the second class citizens living under oppression. So my advice to you, do what you preach. If you think there are infinite REAL numbers between 0 and 1, try to recognise them and find them solution. I for one say, our problems are real and we need real solutions.
i guess this discussion was over before it started. you have your mind setup and is so full of hatred and is so much up for revenge that you don’t even see that side walks means drawbacks, and the way you took my choice of word “sidewalk” and put it in your metaphor as side walks of roads was just typical for how you like to perceive things, just twist them to your current mindset, and never take things at face value trying to understand them with best intent. its all in your wordings “own language”, as if one is born with a language, you simply learn it when you get to this world, and look what you are preparing for the coming generation, a boiling plate full of hatred and conflicts
honestly, if this was the right time for me personally discussing this issue, where i would start was YOU as a person and dig more into it, because it all seems to be in YOUR head and no where these problems of yours exists, at least to the extent you promulgate that its of an issue. i suggest anyone who might have time on their plate to do just that, learn to know this individual first
just as a final word from me, before bailing, i am not only hoping that you fail, i know you will fail, because what you are doing is soo wrong, even if you would manage to constitute new languages and do whatever you gradually find right to split a country, because i hope dearly that you realize that that is exactly what you are doing putting forward this symbolical excersises of a language, against all odds and tides, succeeding in doing wrong things is for me equated with failing
“They don’t want schools in Oromia use books written in Oromiffa; they don’t want students to be taught with their mother tongue;”
when was the last time you went back to oromia?? all of these things you said are mostly wrong. let alone denying oromos these rights, today, they are enforcing oromiffa schools and institutions inside amhara dominated regions in oromia (like finfinne, adama)
you need to stay uptodate.
gobezu, I don’t know where you are getting the hatrade and revenge smell from but I could assure you that this blog is hate free and a medium for healthy discussions. Having Oromiffa as another official language seems only right considering the fact that almost half of the population use it. The article talks about other nations use of such linguistic equality. Contrary to your claim of being a breeding ground for hatrade, conflict and breaking up, it has the a real advantage of strengthening unity because everybody would be happy. A win-win situation. Here is a quote that shows Indias experiance with this kind of deal:
“In retrospect, however, linguistic reorganization seems rather to have consolidated the unity of India.” Source
TDM, there were several incidents in various parts of Oromia that Amharas tried to stop that. Of course they failed. I was just talking from experiance. The issue at hand, Oromiffa is still not recognized as an official language and we’re saying it should be as soon as possible.
Oromantic, you are crazy.
Geez is one of the few “indiginous” african writing invetions. You need to get that “yemenite” myth out of your head. Cant you oromo ethnonationalists even be honest for once. Evertything is anti Amhara. UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCEAS. You guys just want a genocidal war to take place. You guys are nazi like in your obsession with anti amaraism. No wonder why you have the egyoptian anti ethiopian commentating on here. The backlash is begining agaist all the oromos who have spent there lives demonizing the amhara and ethiopia. We amharas (gondere really) are going to start to push back, we are not ignoring these attacks anymore. We have ignored you as crackpots but we must defend ourselves from the vicious attacks by oromonazi’s on forums, books and you tube.
Did you say “indiginous”?! Please don’t make me laugh, Mr. self acclaimed Colonialist! Here is something for you to read.
Why are you reacting this way? Don’t you think Oromiffa should be a national language?
Dear Orrrrrrrrrrrrrooooommooo,
I came across with your “baby-blog” while browsing for the descent word “Amharic”. I am not surprised by your belief as you were raised in “No where”, it is not the first time you are trying to insult the true Ethiopian peoples language. Please try to save resources such as paper and pen/pensil by using Amharic or Geez rather than the longest words of Greek/Latin, please.
Orrrrrrrrrrrrrooooommooo! This word can be wrriten by using just 3 words in Amharic. Whether you believe it or not, we do not hate all creatures except those bare-mind guys like you! Visit us wherever we are, you will start to be a human being!
Amharic Forever!
Please stop trying to impose your stolen archaic alphabets on us. We prefere to use latin and there is nothing you could do about that. If you can’t live with that, all I have to say to you is “Too Bad for you but you should probably try to get over it”.
Btw, you sound like an EMPTY CAN. LMAO
Fear! That’s what makes people resist changes like these. Fear of losing control: of old ways, or old friends/allies. If those pro-the-change were considerate enough to try and create awareness (that you have more to gain than lose in changes like these) so these parts of society could be made less ignorant, things would have run more smoothly than they did. Lording it over them, even blaming them for all the wrongs done in time past, that’s what we have witnessed in the last 17 years and the method that’s causing alienation b/n people. I’m not saying you need anybody’s “BeGo fiQad” (good will/conscent/go-ahead) to try and develop your language, Oromantic. But I don’t see what good antagonizing a whole lot of people would do any of us unless we value the feelings of “getting even” and/or “proving ourselves” more than creating a harmonious relationship b/n people. It’s like that word in the bible, “you reap what you sow”. If you sow in hate, you harvest hate. You sow with care, you make friends. Isn’t our past enough to show you don’t profit by looking down on people and trying to turn them against one eachother?!
Take it how you will, but that’s my two cents.
Personally, I am a huge fan of learning new languages. Ge’ez, Oromigna, Arabic, Russian, German + Spanish making the top five+1. Ge’ez, because I’m an Amharic literature student. Oromigna, because I’m part Oromo. Arabic, because I want to read the Qur’an and understand what the hoo-haa is all about. Russian, because Russian books were the only light at the end of the tunnel when I was growing up. German, because I would rather read Kafka in the language he wrote. Plus Spanish, to help me survive when I finally go to California and my better half.
^^ Your lopsided judjment is baffling to say the least. Who is antagonizing whom? It is our language that used to be outlawed; it is our language that still is not official language in spite of being spoken by more than half of Ethiopian population; it’s Oromos that are called “”gemed aff”, “tebtaba” and other demeaning names for trying to speak Amharic. Habeshas are dictating us to use their Geez fonts when in fact we, the owners of the language, found latin alphabet to be better suited for us linguistically. We have been helping Amharic grow altruistically but we don’t get appreciation for all that. And when we start to focus more on our own affairs, we’re rediculed and are being called names. Hmmm
Get yourself a mirror and take a good long look at yourself, babe. They have turned you into one of them!
Who are these ppl you’re talking about of changing me? Alians? lol
Per your suggestion, I stood barenaked in front of the mirror and looked at my beautiful reflection. I’m not going to lie; I don’t have a six-pack ab but I have a well-built and very well proportionated posture. I danced a little bit infront of the mirror because I couldn’t contain myself and asked the mirror
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?”
and the mirror replied
“You, my king, are fairest of all.”
Ha!
Well proportioned posture and a sense of humor. Not bad. Not bad at all. Work on some of them [ugly] issues, and what have you got? An awesome brother a beautiful Bereduu Oromo would be lucky to land someday. Oh yeah… your poems.. they could use a little polishing as well.
My beautiful orom@ntic bird has already landed on my hand - and on my lap too hehe and she sings to me sweet melodies everyday.
On a side note, I love the Beatles!
I’m not naive enough to think any of my works are perfect. There is always room for improvement but I could assure you that there are no “ugly issues” that stem from me whatsoever. Of course, there are some “ugly” commenters here and I make sure I let them have it everytime!
Ofcourse not
Anywho, glad to know the bird has been found and chripping in your life and on your laptop. I’d check her out when the ethionet.et server works faster. The only thing that bothers me is how come this blog doesn’t have more readers.? I mean, you have so much to say on the oromo issue, still.. the folks who check out your blog (and bother to comment on it) don’t seem to be many. Infact, i won’t be exaggerating if i said they don’t seem to be as much as, say, my own blog (which doesn’t have anything to say about anything important really, except poor lil moi and poor lil moi has never been important, and “tiGefabetalech”). So.. what’s up with that?
Well, this is what’s up.
You said, “The only thing that bothers me is how come this blog doesn’t have more readers.?”
How do you know how many readers this blog has? You are just assuming, no?
You mistakenly took the number of commenters as a measuring stick for site traffic. Even though that could be taken as an indicator in some cases, the real measurment is what the statistics board shows. And what I see there is vey encouraging because I attracted many times more readers than other blogs out there - yours doesn’t even come close to my rating. FYI, not too long ago, Orom@ntic blog has been featured as one of the top 100 blogs that are growing fast. Check it here.
When it comes to my audience, which is mostly Oromos, you can see even from other Oromo sites that we read Oromo related stuff but for some reason we don’t comment that much. May be that explains why I never commented on your blog *hint hint* I really don’t care whether ppl comment or not; what I really care about is getting my message accross and in that respect, the feedback I’m getting in many ways shows I’m doing better than I expected.
I appreciated your concern but let not your heart be troubled lol - I’m doing good so far and plan to do even better in the future.
That maybe true, my friend. It may not. From what i’ve observed as a blogger, if you don’t have readers that “are bothered enough” to leave a comment, then it’s your word against mine. Still……….. I was neither accusing nor comparing your blog to mine. I was just making a seemingly obvious observation (for i really found your blog impressive) and wondering if, perhaps, the comments you get are mostly harsh and you delete them.
Anywho.. I wish you good luck. Awesome photo of Tirunesh and her husband, btw!