Oromo studies scholars bring important issues to the table at ASA meeting in Indianapolis

Fifteen fellow Oromo studies scholars from around the world presented papers on a wide range of topics under six panels, making this the largest presence of any panels from the Horn of Africa in the program as well as actually in the conference rooms of JW Marriot hotel in the beautiful and cold city of November Indianapolis.

A few scholars were new entrants into the field of Oromo Studies with brand new focuses such as gender issues, nagaa, Oromo ecotheology, the state of religions in Oromia and Ethiopia, genocide and land grabbing, among others . Well established topics in social sciences such as the conquest and domination of Oromia by Abyssinian northerners were part of the panels. Veteran Oromo studies scholars reinforced their previous work and introduced some newer developments in their fields.

In contrast, there was not single Ethiopianist panel at this year’s African Studies Association conference. A few angry Habesha walked into one panel and resorted to ad hominem attacks and vented instead of engaging in rational discussions on historical and ongoing issues, including the fact that Menelik II committed genocide and mutilated limbs and breasts in Annoolee and Chelenko in Oromia of the last quarter of 19th century when the Oromo lost half its population to that genocide. The extremist Abyssinians in the room denied that Menelik II chopped of breasts of women, and limbs of men, commonly rendered in Afan Oromo as “Harma Muraa Aannolee and Harka Muraa Calanqoo.”