Nazi Youth Songs and the Oromo Regional Anthem
Abiy Ahmed’s Regime spreading Hate and Ethnic Apartheid
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
“…Oromia we will wash 150 years of filth from your land with our blood….”
In all of recorded African and Ethiopian history there was no region or land called Oromo or Oromia until 1994 when the TPLF created 9 ethnic “Bantustan” regions in Ethiopia out of the 14 existing provinces. This was an obvious divide-and-rule scheme aimed at controlling and remaining in power as was imposing the ethnic apartheid constitution on Ethiopia. After 27 years, in 2018, the opportunistic Oromo nationalist extremists climbed to power after intensified resistance in the so-called Amhara Region and to a lesser extent the so-called Oromo Region following a series of massacres by the state. This caused the unraveling of the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) which was dominated by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). In 2018, Abiy Ahmed and his Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO; now called the Oromo Prosperity Party) came to power promising ‘reform’ which has now been exposed to be a mere staying in power stint by former EPRDF ruling political elites. It is to be noted that Hailemariam Desalegn in an interview right after the 2018 transfer of power was quoted as saying “we knew that our time was up when the Amharas revolted”.
Since 1994, the so-called Oromo Region was led by the OPDO, which was part and parcel of the ruling EPRDF coalition. The party was responsible in instilling hate against ethnic Amharas through false historical events and fictional incidents that were embedded in the curriculum of the region. Throughout the 30 years OPDO was in power in the region, children were taught to hate ethnic Amharas (a practice that was undertaken in other regions of Ethiopia too). Abiy Ahmed's current regime including his henchmen, Shimelis Abdisa (currently leading the so-called Oromo Region) and Adanech Abiebie (un-elected Mayor of Addis Abeba) were part of this autocracy of OPDO that ended up demonizing Amharas in the so-called Oromo Region. In the present-day, Amharaphobia among Oromo extremists can be attributed to indoctrination which was instilled through the regional curriculum and regional anthem, which contains overt hate speech, encourages ethnic cleansing and contains supremacist undertones. Excerpts from the lyrics include:
*** “…Oromia we will wash 150 years of filth from your land with our blood…” ***
*** “…We are filled with blind rage when we think of what neftegna (code word for Amhara) have done to you…” ***
*** “…We were slain like sheep and left to die...” ***
Ample historical evidence tells that the Oromo invaded the Ethiopian central and northern highlands at the end of the 1500’s on the heels of an apocalyptic and completely destructive invasion by the Adal Sultanate under Imam Ahmad bin Ibrahim (Aḥmad Ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghāzī) who was a proxy of the Ottoman Empire. In his chronicle Futuh Al- Habasha it details how his army razed to the ground thousands of Ethiopian cities, churches, and infrastructure such as the metropolis city of Barara (modern-day Addis Abeba). Although the Ethiopian empire led by the Solomonic Emperor Gelawdewos, an Amhara, and his princes defeated Ahmad, the country was left vulnerable. Using this opportunity, the Oromo chieftains (the Lubas) and their tribes opportunistically invaded Ethiopia in a series of violent invasions often called the Oromo migration or conquest. This migration was marked by brutal acts of ethnic cleansing, genocide and forced assimilation that forever changed the makeup of Ethiopia’s demography. Historical records documented mutilations, exterminations and castrations by the invading Oromo tribes, which practiced a violent form of animism. Records also indicate at least 29 ethnolinguistic groups were rendered extinct by these invasions and demonstrate how the regressive and inhumane Gadaa system was used as a tool to forcibly assimilate, enslave and eliminate these groups. To this day, practitioners of the Gadaa system wear a phallic-shaped ornament on their foreheads to symbolize bravery – a vestigial remnant of the castrations which took place during the Oromo conquest.
Oromo extremism took hold in Ethiopia after the 1974 communist revolution, through President Teferi Banti (an ethnic Oromo), President Mengistu Hailemariam (an ethnic Oromo), PM Tesfaye Dinka (an ethnic Oromo) and now continues under Abiy Ahmed Ali’s fascist Oromo regime. The downward trajectory of Ethiopia can easily be observed from 1974 until present day and the correlation with these nationalist extremists. They have been indoctrinating the Oromo youth, the Qeerro, for decades with hate-filled and false stories and songs. The effects of this indoctrination can be observed through the Qeerro which have been active participants in ethnic cleansing, genocidal massacres and other violations against ethnic Amhara people and other non-Oromo groups in the Oromo Region of Ethiopia. This has today manifested itself in the genocide against Amharas and many other groups, which is expected to intensify if left unchecked.
Currently, Oromo extremists disproportionately control the office of the PM, Mayoral office in Addis Abeba, many federal/ministerial offices, top military positions and various sectors. These forces have imposed a policy of forced assimilation onto residents of Addis Abeba, a city of 86 ethnic identities to sing a Nazi-like anthem, which promotes ethnic hatred and incitement of violence. This policy led to peaceful demonstrations by students who rejected imposed identity and hate speech, which was in violation of their personal freedoms. To muzzle the students, the illegitimate mayor of Addis Abeba, Ms. Adanech Abiebie, another hardline Oromo extremist sent her troopers into the schools, which have killed over 10 minor-aged students and imprisoned over 200 juvenile students, teachers and parents. Since this wave of arrests, authorities have also intensified demolitions of homes belonging to non-Oromo residents (especially ethnic Amhara residents) in various suburbs of the city. When residents opposed the action, they were subjected to beatings, imprisonment, harassment and more. APU believes this too is part of the ruling Oromo extremists’ project to ethnically cleanse and homogenize various areas to expand the borders of the so-called Oromo Region. It is also noteworthy that Abiy Ahmed and his former co-conspirator Lemma Megersa (another Oromo extremist) stated their intent to implement demographic change during a public meeting of Oromo leaders held in February 2019 at the office of Abiy Ahmed. They effectively stated that in order to control urban politics they intend to illegally settle 500,000 to 1,000,000 ethnic Oromos in Addis Abeba at the expense of forcefully expelling and cleansing Amharas.
The students, teachers, parents and other residents of Addis Abeba must continue their right to refuse to be subjected to forced assimilation, indoctrination and dilution of their respective identities by the ruling clique of fascist Oromo extremists. Taking this all into consideration, APU:
✔ calls on all Amharas and Ethiopians to continue the resistance against Abiy Ahmed’s ethnic apartheid regime.
✔ calls on the international community to condemn these heinous acts in Addis Abeba and the so-called Oromo Region and promote independent investigations into the human rights violations and crimes of genocide.
✔ demands that the Amhara People’s Negotiation Delegation (APND) be included in all discussions pertaining to Ethiopia to promote inclusivity. APU firmly believes that lasting peace and stability can only be established when the victimized Amhara people are made part and parcel of all Ethiopian issues.
From the Weiner Holocaust Library
❖ Music was a key element of Nazi propaganda. Prominent, recurring themes were nature (often used metaphorically) and the military as well as classic children’s songs – songs that I still sang in school in the late 2000s.
❖ In 1981, artist Tomi Ungerer said in an interview: “I don’t do it anymore, but up until a few years ago, whenever I got a little depressed, I automatically started singing Nazi songs and everything would become sturdy and forward again… It was a good medicine. Because these songs were injected into me like a drug. You know, if you take heroin, it stays in your blood for a whole year. And if you were brought up by the Nazis, these Nazi songs stayed in your brain for twenty, thirty years.”
The Oromo regional anthem has had the same effect on the Qeerro, Oromo Special Forces and Oromo politicians, as the Nazi songs on the youth who would later on become storm troopers, members of the SS and the mobile death squads known as the Einsatzgruppen. The unimaginable horror stories coming from towns and cities in the socalled Oromo Region such as Tole and Kiremu are indicative of the merciless cruelty with which Amharas are being massacred.