Gambella Stateless Nation by O'Kono
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to inform
interested researchers, academicians, world governments, non-governmental
groups, and laypersons who want to expand their knowledge about Gambella and
its people. This paper intended mostly to focus on the history of Anywaa people
as well as the Gambella region of Ethiopia with the analysis of recent cause of
conflict that has rocked Gambella.
Introduction
Gambella is a stateless nation that has
been ruled by the Ethiopian government since 1956. Although Ethiopian government
took over Gambella administrative role after the Britain left Sudan, Gambella
remained relatively peaceful until the late 1970s. This paper will contribute to the existing
body of knowledge about the history of the people of Gambella and their struggle
for equal justice and equity.
There were number of factors that were
attributable to changes in Gambella dated in the early 1900-1990s. Among those factors were:
I.
The influx of South Sudanese in 1960s-72 during
Sudan’s first civil war where South Sudanese rebel movement Anya nya I used Gambella to stage armed struggle against
the Arab Islamic dominated Khartoum government;
II.
Over taxation and mistreatment of Gambella
people by Ethiopian government in early 1900s to 1960s;
III.
Forced conscription by Ethiopian to fight the Ethiopian-Eritrean civil war at
that time in 1960-91 and Ethio-Somali war in 1970s;
IV.
The second influx of South Sudanese to
Gambella in 1978-91;started by Anyanya II and the Second Sudanese civil war by
the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A);
V.
Resettlement of highlander Ethiopians
during the late 1980s famine;
VI.
Ethiopian People Democratic Revolutionary
Front (EPRDF) 1991-present.
All of the above six historical events
have contributed to instability and loss of lives in the Gambella region to
present day. First South Sudanese armed struggles have forced Gambella people
to fight for the liberation of south Sudanese people from the Arab dominance
due in part the people of Gambella mainly Anywaa are divided between Sudan and
Ethiopia. This division happened after colonial Britain ruled Sudan and the
frontier. Prior to that Anywaa people were in their own territory governed by
their own kings and chiefs. Peace was highly maintained. In the 1900s to late
1960s, Ethiopian government was involved in taxing Anywaa people without
representation in the government of Ethiopia. Slavery business was recorded.
Numbers of Anywaa people were abducted and sold to slavery by Ethiopian
government. During the Ethio-Eritrea civil war Anywaa were forced to join
national service to fight in the north. This had a major outcome for the Anywaa
people because not only were they dying in the north, but also there was only
one high school in Gambella region where students were captured in classroom or
at night to join the army. Because of the forced enlistment, high numbers of
students ages fifteen and above left school or town and sought refuge in gold
mining area were there were no primary schools not to mention high school. This
recruitment intensifies each year as the government of Ethiopia continued to
lose the war from the north. The cases of abuses had gone up. Due to that in late 1970s, Gambella
people decided to establish a rebellious against the central government. They
established what was called Gambella People Liberation Movement (GPLM). When
the government learned that GPLM was conceived to put up assistance, the
response was by far inhumane. Human rights abuses were committed against the
Anywaa.
Another episode was the second
influx of South Sudanese refugees to Gambella to fight the Sudan government.
They were under military wing known as Sudanese People’s Liberation Army
(SPLA). Given the estimated less densely populated Gambella, South Sudanese
people were nearly outnumbered the people of Gambella mainly the Anywaa who
live in constant villages. Other Gambella ethnics live in remote areas whereby
the South Sudanese people did not affect their villages. This had negative
consequences on the Anywaa people. The population of South Sudanese were estimated
nearly 400, 000 whereas Anywaa people was less than. The majority of South
Sudanese were young males. After they acquired military training, on their way
back to Sudan to fight the Sudanese government, they began to rape Anywaa
women, committed atrocities against Anywaa. Ironically, when they were fleeing
to Gambella, it was Anywaa people who provided them food and safety. They
continued to abuse Anywaa until 1991 when GPLM and EPRDF took power after
toppling Ethiopian government.
Then in 1980s, famine had made
Ethiopian government to settle nearly 60,000 highlander Ethiopians to Gambella
region. This is the same years when numbers of South Sudanese were quite high
in Gambella as well. Even though these famine victims were highly welcomed by
Gambella people, the central government armed them with AK-47 as for
protection. Nonetheless, it was not long when they turn against their host, the
Anywaa people. It was bad.
The last but not least Ethiopian
People Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPRDF) which is controlled by Tigrain
People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Despite the fact that EPRDF/TPLF was GPLM
allied, they turned against Anywaa people as soon as they took over the
government. One good thing EPRDF/TPLF did was the elimination of SPLA from
Gambella territory. Had SPLA stayed for another year they would have wiped out the Anywaa people. To present, EPRDF/TPLF, has targeted and committed deplorable gross human rights violation in the Gambella region. They killed Anywaa
elites, forced them into exiles, or imprison them. More details are discussed
later in the paper.
However, there are two analyses we can
conclude on the EPRDF/TPLF. It is all about power and economic control. They
want to control Gambella so that they can do whatever they want to satisfy
their political and economic interests. The people of Gambella are ethically
different in physical appearance, language, culture, and religious beliefs.
Gambella people are Protestants whereas the highlanders Ethiopian for the most
part are Orthodox, Muslims, and Protestants. Furthermore, the majority of them
come from resource-depleted area so they want to control economic power in the
Gambella region. Although those are striking concerns, there are many more
problems still to be discussed in the body of the paper. There is linear
relationship between power, economic control, and violence against Gambella
people by Ethiopian government.
Gambella
Gambella and its Anywaa people are one of
the world’s most neglected populations, living in a remote and isolated region
of Africa. Gambella is located in the southwestern Ethiopia and southeastern
South Sudan. It is approximately the
size of Republic of Rwanda, or U.S. state of Massachusetts, with an approximate
population of about a million. To the present day, the indigenous people of
this region have relied on the elderly for general wisdom, storytelling, tracing
the history of their people, and maintaining a traditional political system
with the history of the land and its boundaries.
Due to lack of established documentation
on Gambella, the history of their people and lands, this information has not
been recorded until recent times, and their geo-political experience is unknown
to the outside world. That is why today,
there is insufficient literature published or disseminated on the Anywaa
people. There is only a small amount of
information published on the Anywaa, and that was in 1930’s by social
anthropologists who were interested in Anyuak/Anywaa political system after the
Anywaa rejected Britain colonialism. Some of the Gambella indigenous include
Majang/Majanger, Opo, and Kumo, Olam, and Dhowak/Surma people. Recently the Nuer ethnic from South Sudan
have been included in the Gambella nation.
Colonial Britain gave them Ethiopian citizenship status in exchange for
the land in the Ilemi Triangle (correctly spell as Olimi Triangle, which was
named after an Anyuak King of Okwa village).
The Sudanese government at the time was not happy with the colonial
behavior of awarding its citizens [Nuers] foreign citizenships
[Ethiopian]. To complicate and make things
worse, Nuers acquisition of illegal citizenship by colonial Britain was never
resolved between Ethiopia and Sudan because WWII broke out. To this day, the border issue remains a
serious problem (Collins, 1983).
Gambela is a nation presently under the
rule of Ethiopia since 1956, when Britain left Sudan and ceded Gambella to Ethiopia.
They did this without the consent of the Gambellan people. According to Robert
O. Collins, a Sudanese delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sayyid M.O.
Yassein and Ethiopian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Blatta Dawit Ogbagzy,
and including, Ato Menassie Lemma, from the Finance Ministry, met in Addis
Ababa on April 26, 1956. They agreed to hand Gambella over to the Imperial
Ethiopian government on October 15, 1956.
Prior to colonial Britain in Sudan, Gambella was a free state and people
ruled through its Chiefdoms and Kingdoms.
The colonial British called
the Gambella/Anywaa territory a ‘frontier,’ meaning a meeting place for those
who are not planning to stay. The
British intention was to settle border disputes with Sudan at the expense of
Ethiopia by giving away unwanted or undesirable territory, which they assumed
was part of Ethiopia. They failed to
realize that Gambella/Anywaa territory was not part of Ethiopian land. Thus, Gambella and the Anywaa people today remain
a stateless nation under the oppressive regimes of Ethiopia because it was
annexed by colonial Britain and given it to Ethiopia without the consent of its
people.
Theoretical Framework
The all situation of Gambella or
Anywaa problems with Ethiopian governments can be conceptualized with the
theory of political opportunities and violent political conflict. These
theories highlight the connection between political structures, the
distribution of political power, and collective action, according to (Jenkins
and Perrow 1997; Tilly 1978; McAdam 1982; Jenkins 1985; Jenkins and Schock
1992; Tarrow 1989, 1994; Jenkins and Klandermans 1995). These theories assert
that coercive behavior of governments should influence violent political
conflict. Government would put sanction against dissidents, which tend to
increase the level of violent political conflict since a coercive method of
action taken by governments to suppress dissidents will instigate violent
standoff. The basic assumption of these theories is that the sources of
discontent that lead to violent political conflict are inherent in all
societies and that the occurrence of political violence environment is a
function of the political opportunities ( Schock, 1996). When we examine the
conflict of Gambella by the Ethiopian government in the recent decades, they
established economic inequality and political opportunity structures whereby
Gambella people cannot equally participate in economic development or political
structures. As a result, violence political conflict has flared up.
Anywaa /Anyuak
The question many may ask is, how did the
Anywaa people govern themselves before they fell under the rule of Sudan
presently South Sudan and Ethiopian administrations? Their Kings and Chiefs ruled the Anywaa.
Still today, some part of Anywaa land, particularly in South Sudan, is still
ruled by Kings and Chiefs.
The Anywaa people live along the rivers of
Agewi, Obooth, Akobo, Gilo, Alwero, and Openo between Ethiopia and South Sudan.
The Anywaa have inhabited this region for over 600 years. The Anywaa are
traditionally farmers who cultivate varieties of millet, corn, sesame, beans,
tobacco, and bananas, among other crops (Evans-Pritchard, 1942).
Historically, the Anywaa are Nilots part
of Luo tribe. The Luo area racial group
who are scattered across thousands of miles in Eastern and Central Africa. Fr.
Crazzolara (1950: 5), noted, “The tribe into which the original group of the
Luo/Lwo divided after leaving their country of origin in Egypt, are as follows,
1. Boor, 2. Jo- Luuo, (Thuri, Bwodho,
Jur), 3. Collo (Shilluk), 4. Anywaa, 5.Paari (Lokooro, Ber, Nyorro), 6.Acholi,
7.Alur, 8. Jo-Pawir (Jur), 9. Lango, 10.Kumam, 11.Jo- Pa- Wiir alias
Jo-Ka-Weer, 12.Jo-Pa- Adhola, 13. Jo-Lwo (JaLuo), 14. Barabaig.”The Luo are
presently found in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Anywaa society is divided into many
patrilineal clans. The members of the
same clan elect their headman or King/Chief from the sons of a predecessor. The
villagers will provide support to their leader with farm work, fish, meat, and
entrust their communal drums and dance-ground to his custody (Evans-Pritchard,
1942).These traditional leaders have political systems that are and have always
been similar to a true nation. There are judicial, executive, and defense
branches. A few villages, like Okwa for
example, had both a King and a Chief.
King is head of the government and Chief is head of the land, orthe ‘Land Master,’ who carries out land
acquisitions and distributions should new comers want to move to the area. In
addition, there was an Earth Master who
blesses hunting and fishing fields. For instance, if it were fishing reason,
the earth master would be the one who must bless the lakes, rivers, or hunting
fields before anyone could fish or hunt.
The Earth Master is more respected by everyone than the Chief or
King. The King or Chief cannot ignore
Earth Master blessing power.
The penalty
for those who break traditional norms is that they would be cursed, and thus
risk being attacked by snakes, crocodiles or some other terrible calamity. In
villages where there are both a King and a Chief, the King would be the head of
state and the Chief the head of the land. If someone broke the law, the
executive (King/Chief) would convene the court with his judicial branch to
resolve the issue. If there were a war, the head of defense would lead the
force with guidance from the head of the village, a King or Chief. If a murder
was committed, the King or Chief would order an investigation into the cause of
death. If it was an accidental death,
usually the alleged would be ordered to pay punitive damages. In the worst
cases, if the murder was intentional, the accused could be put to death in
public.
The
laws have always been well defined across the Anywaa culture, even though its
own King or Chief governs each village.
Nonetheless, there is no written constitution or body of law. The Anywaa
constitution remains an oral tradition. For many centuries, this unwritten
constitution made Anywaa land one of the most stable, and peaceful regions in
the entire African continent.
Lucy Mair’s (1962) extensive study
of what she terms, “minimal governments in stateless societies,” gives many
examples of the complex and varied ways in which disputes in such communities
are resolved. For instance, writing in
1962 in her book Primitive Governments, she describes how the Anuak people of
Africa dealt with violent disputes:
“In an Anuak Village [disputes] are
talked out in the presence of the headman and elders, and the nearest approach
to a verdict is the consensus of opinion reached in this public discussion. A
headman is entitled to formal respect, and this imposes a certain order upon
the proceedings. The idea that revenge for killing could be pursued within the
limits of so small a community as an Anuak village is as unthinkable there as
anywhere else, but the Anuak way of preventing this is for the killer and his
kin to leave the village till the anger of his victims has had time to cool
(Mair, 1962: 49).”
Communities such as the Anuak
maintained a relatively high degree of social order through a variety of
ingenious methods that were rarely based on large inequalities of status or,
indeed, wealth. Anywaa village’s territory could
stretch over 30-50 square miles, within which specific parts of the territory
would be reserved for fishing, gaming and hunting. Anywaa village political/geographical
boundaries were always well drawn within the Anywaa country. All knew this and no one can violate village territory
without permission or the violator will be fined.
Basically, the Anywaa people have
lived in autonomous villages governed by clearly defined rules. If the Chief abuse his power, the villagers
would rally behind another aspirant Chief (son of a Chief not just an ordinary
villager). However, a King cannot be
overthrown or replaced until death, when his son will be crowned and assume the
responsibility. In the worst-case, if he has no grown son, a kin would take
over. Anywaa-land was divided in two
types of traditional government systems, Kingdoms and Chiefdoms. For example,
Kings ruled Adongo, Tier Nam and part of Nyikani and Chiefs ruled Ciro, other
part of Nyikani, Gilo, Lul, and Openo.
Stateless Nation to
Nation/State: Future of Gambela
Gambela has an oral history of nearly 3000 years of being a free nation. Following cession of Gambella to Ethiopia in
1956, the people of Gambella begun to experience much oppression at the hands
of Ethiopian governments. The people of
Gambella were, often massacred, forced to work, and sold into slavery.
For example Majid Abud al-Ashakr who
was a Syrian born in 1884, was brought up in a Syrian orphanage in Jerusalem,
after both of his parents were killed by the Turkish. In the nineteenth century,
he accompanied a Danish missionary to the hadramut where he experienced a host
of adventures, and then ended up in Harrar, Ethiopia in 1906. Majid liked Ethiopia where he worked with a
German merchant; learned Amharic and acquired a managerial post with Idliba
Hassan’s in Gore, in the western part of Ethiopia, thepresent-dayOromiya
region. While in Gore he won the
confidence of Gore governor Ras Tassama, who later accorded him with estate at
a place called Gomera near Gore from the emperor Laj Yasu in 1914. Majid, to prove his loyalty to the emperor,
led an Ethiopian punitive expedition into the Baro (Openo) river bank/Salient
in 1916 to punish the Anywaa who refused to recognize Ethiopian sovereignty and
to wage guerrilla warfare across the frontier into the Sudan. At that time, he
managed to defeat the Anywaa in a bloody fight at Itang on the Openo riverbank
and he had to withdraw before carrying out hostilities in the Sudan (Collins,
1983). Thereafter, Majid return to
highlands, and his affiliation with Emperor Laj Yasu earned high respect. For
the next ten years, he lived quietly on his estate in Gomera until Haile
Seassie appointed him as Frontier. In 1932, Haile Selassie appointed Majid to
be the head of the frontier region of Gambella. In early 1933, Majid again
marched on Gilo Anywaa with his 360 well-armed men to punish the Anywaa. Sudan leadership reinforced the Pibor and
Akobo resistance, and supported them with warplanes to prevent the Anywaa
fleeing across the frontier from Majid’s army and to aide Majid’s
movement.
During that time, British officials
in the Sudan did not trust Ethiopia or Majid.
In 1934, Majid went back to Gambela with the new title, “Imperial Agent
for the Nilotic Tribes of Illibabor [Gore] and Sayo-Wallega Province, (Collins,
1983:380).” He came with several hundred
men with machineguns. To his surprise
while, he was collecting taxes in Gambella region, a great numbers of Openo’s
Anywaa devastatingly attacked him on May 26.
Luckily, his machine guns and his life were spared, but his leg was
badly shattered. Sixty of his strongmen
were killed on the spot, and the remaining retreated toward Gambella town. The
police from Gambella managed to rescue him.
In that raid, Majid lost everything he had: baggage, ammunition, guns,
large quantities of currency, and only half of his men were able to get back
(Collins, 1983). It was a great
humiliation and shock to Majid, the British, and Haile Selassie. Few people
know much about these conflicts and the human rights abuses because those who
documented the events, like Dr. Collins, were from the West and the material
they published could not be disseminated to readers back in Ethiopia or Sudan.
This part of the Anywaa history still remains alive in the oral tradition and
is kept by a few elderly individuals.
From the1960s to early 1991, the Gambella
people were often conscripted involuntarily to fight the civil war in the
northern part of the country Tigray region (the then Eritrean province that
became an independent nation 1993) and Ethio-Somali war in 1970s. During this time, Gambella had only one high school,
three middle schools, and a few elementary schools. To this day, Gambella has
only two community colleges; one teachers training college of liberal arts, and
another is an Agriculture college which finally upgraded to Gambella University. The federal government of Ethiopia has
refused to build a university in Gambella despite the major contributions
Gambella has been making to Ethiopia since Italian war (WWII). During WWII when
Italy troops took over Ethiopia, and King Hale Selassie sought Britain military
power to liberate Ethiopia, Anywaa/Anuak were divided, whereby one group
supported Italian and the other with British.
The Anywaa people, at the time, had fallen out with British because the Anywaa
of Adongo (present-day South Sudan) attacked colonial army of Britain when they
infiltrated their territory in 1912 with intention to colonize Anywaa.
The place where the initial attack took place remains a living shrine site.
Because of this embarrassment, British became furious with the Anywaa people.
In 1937, about 30 Italian officers and some 4,000 troops mainly of Eritreans,
Somali, Anywaa, and Oromo, captured Maji town from the Ethiopians, which at the
time was governed under the British appointed adviser Lieutenant Colonel
D. A. Sandford (Collins, 1983).
Late Ethiopian, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was
asked if he would someday consider building a university in Gambella. He replied, “. . . not during my time, maybe
someone after me.” Imagine, Ethiopia is currently constructing thirteen new
universities across their country. The
Gambella airport is also way below acceptable standards whereas Ethiopian
government has built a university and modern international standards airport in
Somali region. Is this a skin color issue?
I think so. Meles Zenawi died in July 2012 without proposing a
university to be built in Gambella. However, there were some of his points which had contributed to peace building in Gambella and his refusal to recognize Nuer as Ethiopians.
Forced conscription caused the majority
of Gambella youth to dropout of schools and sought refuge in Damballa, a gold
mining district (presently known as Dima Woreada). This dropout rate has contributed to the high
illiteracy rate in the region. As a result, in the late 1970s, Gambella formed
an armed group tonight the Ethiopian government in order to establish
self-autonomy. The armed group was
called the Gambella People’s Liberation Movement (GPLM), and Agwa Alamo led
it. They fought alongside the present
ruling party’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). In1989, the GPLM and
TPLF, among other rebel groups, formed an umbrella organization called
Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). In 1991, this coalition toppled Ethiopian
government forces, known as the Dreg, and they formed a government. GPLM’s mission was to establish full
autonomy, whereby the people of Gambella have the unconditional right to elect
or remove their leaders whenever the majority decides to do so.
Unfortunately, in 1992 because of the conspiracy by bodies which did not want to see stable Gambella region, GPLM forces assassinated their leader, Mr. Agwa Alamo. After that, everything fell apart. Okello
Oman who was GPLM security chief was appointed as president of Gambella. He remained in that office until 1997 when he
was unconstitutionally removed by EPRDF and beaten nearly to death. President Okello Oman died five years later
from an illness related to the EPRDF brutality. The EPRDF only wants a symbolic
leader, not someone who will argue with them.
As a famous saying in Ethiopia goes, “if a color of something is red and
EPRDF agent tells you it is green, you better say it is green or you will be in
deep trouble.” One can imagine what kind of a government it is that does not
respect the people’s leaders.
During the infamous famine of
1980’s, the Ethiopian government had relocated over 60, 000 settlers from all
over Ethiopia into the Gambella region without the knowledge or permission of
the Gambella citizens. These immigrants were forcibly settled among the Anywaa
villages. They were skeletons when they were
brought to Gambella. Colleges and universities students throughout Ethiopia
were sent to build settlements for the settlers, locally known as Kambata at
the time. The truth is they were not
Kambata, but a mixed group of people consisting mainly of Amhara, Tigare,
Oromo, Adinya, Wolaita, and Kambata. The unspoken mission of the government was
to assimilate the Gambella people through intercultural marriages with the
settlers. In addition, the government
armed the settlers with assault rifles. Non-governmental organization like
Cultural Survival has documented these mass settlements and forced conscription
of Anywaa people to fight in Ethiopian wars.
In short time, the settlers started
mistreating their hosts, the Anywaa people.
They illegally erected checkpoints in the middle of villages, and it was
common for them to beat up Anywaa villagers.
For example, in a village called Okuna (Okunakijang) in Abobo Woreada,
the settlers thoroughly abused the Anywaa people.
I remember an incident that took place in
Okunakijang. I was in the 4th grade in 1988, and on Okuna’s
elementary school soccer ground. A young
man from a settler community from mender
ane or (village #1), of which the majorities were Kamabta people, was
returning from Village # 2 where he worked in construction. He decided to stop by the soccer game on his
way home to play a bit before heading home.
It was late and getting dark. The game was about to end. However, he
asked some of his friends in the fields if he could replace one of them so he
can play. His friends refused. Finally,
he went to his goalkeeper friend and he managed to convince him. Therefore, he
became a goalkeeper. Coincidently he was drunk. Unfortunately, in a matter of
minutes highlander who was a nurse in mender ulete (village #2) shot a
high-flying ball. This young man failed
to catch the ball and the ball landed on his chest. He died instantly. When the
message reached village #1 they assumed the Anywaa players killed their
son. At that time, I lived in teachers’
compound few yards from the soccer field. Teachers were a mix of Anywaa people
and highlanders. The village #1
residents instead of trying to find the cause of the death pick up their guns
and machetes marched toward the teachers’ compound with intention to massacre
the Anywaa teachers. When we heard, our
community decided to sit and wait for them to come. We did not have any means to defend ourselves
but we relied on the power of our land because we had not committed any
crime. By the will of God, someone who
was among the players managed to inform them that the incident was not caused
by Anywaa rather a nurse from village #2.
Then, they headed to village #2, luckily the settlers in village #2 were
also armed thus they were able to protect the nurse. The nurse was evacuated to
Gambella town and then later he was assigned to different location.
I personally felt much relieved and safer
after moving to Abobo town in 1989 because Okuna was so insecure and the settlers
were making their own laws to justify harming the Anywaa. At that time,
they could commit any crime against the Anywaa and get away with it because the
government was behind them.
Again, in Okuna, in September 1991, when
the then government was overthrown, mender
arate (village #4) residents, who were mostly Tigare, blocked the road to
Abobo town so that Okuna people could not flee.
Next, these villagers killed four Anywaa travelers who were on their way
to Abobo. The death of these four
individuals had turned Okuna into battleground. The family of the victims
retaliated on settlers by killing many of them.
As a result, the government of EPRDF/TPLF to this day, has turned Okuna
into their slaughter ground. They
accused Okuna people of carrying out the massacre against the settlers;
meanwhile it was settlers who initiated the violent acts. They hold so much unfounded resentment
against the people of Okuna, but it is based in their failure to investigate
the root causes of the bloodshed.
Okunakijang people are known throughout
Anywaa-land for their unconditional welcoming, love, friendly, and
warm-heartedness. Indeed, they did
initially welcome the settlers with their open hearts. Unfortunately, the lack
of good governance by previous and present regimes have resulted in tragic
conflicts and caused the loss of many precious lives.
In December 13, 2003, the Ethiopian
National Defense Forces (ENDF) collaborated with their highlander counterparts
and committed atrocities which independent human rights observers have called
genocide against the Anywaa elite and its community leaders, including a
pastor. Many Anywaa were jailed for
years without due process. Since then, more
than 10,000 civilians have fled to neighboring and other countries. New York
based Human Rights Watch (March 2005), investigated and published a report
titled, “Targeting the Anuak: Human Rights Violations and Crimes against Humanity
in Ethiopia's Gambella Region.”
In 2010, the Ethiopian federal government
introduced what they called “Villagization” in Gambella region. The government claimed that the scheme was
designed for fast-paced development in the region in terms of infrastructure,
health facilities, education, and agriculture. Ironically, this plan has
resulted in the forced displacement of about 70,000 people over 3 years so that
mega-agribusiness firms can make massive land-grab farmlands. Another report published by Human Rights
Watch titled, “Waiting Here for Death,” confirmed these government manipulations,
mismanagement, and human rights violations against the Gambella people. As a result, those who resisted the
government eviction were forced into exile, put in jail and large numbers of
youth were killed.
In summary,
although Gambella region has exhibited developmental progress under EPRDF
regime, it is not satisfactory to the people of Gambella. The Ethiopian
government and highlanders (alternatively Abyssinian)
people still deliberately treat Gambella as a peripheral state, and therefore
they do not give it the needed developmental attention they provide to other
northern or southern regions of the country.
The theories of economic inequality, political opportunity structures,
and violent political conflict can explain those human rights abuses.
The highlanders treat the people of
Gambella as second-class citizens. The
highlanders maintain a practice of racial inequity to keep darker skinned
people inferior to them. The
highlanders, whose their ethnic origins are still questionable, assume they are
better than the dark-skinned Gambelleans.
The highlanders are the result of interracial marriages with the Arabs,
Turks, and Persians among others before they settled to present day
Ethiopia. This is well recorded by
archeologist, biologists, and researchers.
The majority of highlanders to present day still refer to Gambella
people as slaves because they believe the darker skinned person is the slave he
becomes. Paradoxically, Habasha are the
very same people who possessed so much pride in the discovery of the ancient
human Lucy, who has been proven the mother of all modern human beings. Who was Lucy? She was a dark-skinned
African. This misguided education about
how slavery came into being is unacceptable and deplorable. Indeed, Gambella is very rich with minerals,
farmlands, and water resources however, it will not fully develop as long as
the highlanders political leadership, and economic monopoly continue to stand
in the way of progress. Despite of the
unfounded dominance of the Habasha, the people of Gambella have no intention to
seek statehood or independence as the EPRDF/TPLF regime claim. Instead, the Gambella people will continue to
struggle for their basic human rights and full autonomy. The majority of Gambella people believe that
without Hong Kong like autonomy, the survival rates of Gambella indigenous will
be very slim. The governments of the
Ethiopian-backed highlanders have exerted too much destructive pressure on
Gambellan people and believe they are better than the Gambella. This is
delusional ideology by the majority of the Habasha people. Above all, Gambella will prevail and
Ethiopian history will be rewritten with the Gambella people included and
playing a major role.
-------------
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