Article Archives – Page 2 of 4

Article | Commentary | Opinion | Politics
Oromos and the Architecture of AuthoritySurvival, Role Discipline, and Institutional Design
By Dereje Hawas (PhD, Elec Eng) Posted on2026-03-102026-03-06
Calls for unity within the Oromo political sphere have become increasingly frequent, yet unity alone does not produce strategic effectiveness. This article argues that the deeper problem is the lack of an effective architecture of authority capable of assigning roles, managing disagreement, and converting mobilization into institutional power. Drawing on the historical experience of 1991 and the 2014–2018 mobilizations, it examines why fragmentation persists and outlines the institutional design needed for durable political authority.
Read More Oromos and the Architecture of AuthoritySurvival, Role Discipline, and Institutional Design
Article | Economy | Politics
Between Water at the Margins and SurvivalEnvironmental Precarity and the Political Economy of Inequality in Oromia
By Yadessa Guma (PhD, Anthropology) Posted on2026-03-052026-03-01
2 Comments
This article examines a troubling visual and empirical phenomenon: images circulating of Oromo women in the Rift Valley of Oromia risking life and health to fetch water for their families. Understanding this image demands situating it within the broader environmental distress (drought and water scarcity) in southern and eastern Oromia, the pervasive rural poverty that structures everyday life, and the stark contrast with development and economic dynamism in Finfinnee. Using mixed methods—qualitative visual analysis and synthesis of secondary data—we trace the structural causes and propose integrative solutions that move beyond short-term humanitarian responses towards sustainable water governance, gender-sensitive livelihood support, and equitable development planning.
Read More Between Water at the Margins and SurvivalEnvironmental Precarity and the Political Economy of Inequality in Oromia
Article | Commentary | ⏭
Wallaga and the Politics of FaçadeEight Years of Rhetoric, War, and Recalibration
By Yadessa Guma (PhD, Anthropology) Posted on2026-02-222026-02-21
1 Comment
Eight years after branding Wallaga as too dangerous to visit, Ethiopia’s leadership now stages high-profile tours through a region devastated by war, displacement, and militarization. This article examines how early political rhetoric securitized Wallaga, normalized extraordinary violence, and reshaped policy under the guise of reform. By tracing the arc from fabricated fear to choreographed presence, it asks a hard question: does visibility signal stabilization—or merely a recalibrated façade masking unresolved brutality?
Read More Wallaga and the Politics of FaçadeEight Years of Rhetoric, War, and Recalibration
Article | Op-Ed | Politics | ⏭
Oromos and the Rising Risk of Regional War: Power, Leverage, and Post-War Reality
By Dereje Hawas (PhD, Elec Eng) Posted on2026-02-222026-02-16
War is not decided by outrage, slogans, or population size, but by organization, internal consolidation, and clear political priorities. As tensions re-emerge in northern Ethiopia, Oromos face a strategic question: will they shape a potential regional war’s outcome, or be shaped by it? Demography and geography create leverage only when converted into disciplined coordination. The lessons of 1991 and 2018 show that mobilization without institutional capacity yields participation without authorship.
Read More Oromos and the Rising Risk of Regional War: Power, Leverage, and Post-War Reality
Article | Op-Ed | Politics | ⏭
Ethiopia, Empire, and the Architecture of Perpetual Violence
By Elemoo Qilxuu (MA, Political Science) Posted on2026-02-202026-02-20
Video footage circulating on social media showing ENDF forces deliberately destroying grain stored in Amhara farmers’ warehouses stopped me cold. If you were challenged to write an essay on this sadistic act, what would your take be? How would you title it—The Banality of Cruelty in a Militarized State? When the State Trains Young Men to Laugh at Hunger?
For me, this footage reveals far more than a single atrocity. It exposes something deeply rotten—structural, inherited, and unresolved—at the core of an empire called Ethiopia.
Please bear with me. Stay with me for a brief but unflinching analysis of what lies beneath the surface.
Read More Ethiopia, Empire, and the Architecture of Perpetual Violence
Article | Op-Ed | Opinion | Politics | ⏭
The Policy of Lying: How Power Is Sustained by Fabrication
By Elemoo Qilxuu (MA, Political Science) and Roobaa Hawaas (MA, Psychology) Posted on2026-02-062026-02-05
Ethiopia has crossed a moral and political threshold. Lying is no longer an occasional deviation but a governing method. From the fabricated pretext of the Tigray war to the attempted rewriting of Eritrea’s role—publicly rebutted by Gedu Andargachew—the pattern is unmistakable. When power substitutes for truth, institutions collapse, Parliament applauds falsehood, and citizens are conditioned to accept governance without reality. This is not political spin; it is rule by fabrication.
Read More The Policy of Lying: How Power Is Sustained by Fabrication
Article | Opinion | Politics | ⏭
The PP Regime Now Has the Accolade: No Other Ethiopian Regime Has Acted Against the Oromo People So Intensely in Such a Short Time
By Kumaa Daadhii (PhD, Political History) and Olii Boran (PhD, Sociology) Posted on2026-02-022026-02-01
3 Comments
The inauguration of the Shebele Resort near Jijigaa under the PP regime of PM Abiy Ahmed is more than a development event; it is a political statement. Held without Oromo representation in an Oromo city, and amid ongoing violence in eastern Oromia, the ceremony signals the normalization of exclusion and the quiet ratification of a long-contested administrative arrangement. What was once presented as a temporary “loan” of Jijigaa has now hardened into permanent political appropriation, with profound consequences for constitutional order and regional stability.
Read More The PP Regime Now Has the Accolade: No Other Ethiopian Regime Has Acted Against the Oromo People So Intensely in Such a Short Time
Article | Campaign | Human Rights | Politics | ⏭
Aabbuu Seeraa: Building Progress on Indigenous Erasure
By OROMIA TODAY Posted on2026-01-302026-01-24
In Aabbuu Seeraa, thousands of indigenous Oromo families are being displaced to build a flagship airport. Model houses are showcased to project “modernization,” while most households remain without shelter, land, or livelihood—and those who protest face detention. This is not opposition to development; it is a demand for development as a social contract. Minimum conditions are proposed for legitimacy, including housing, livelihood restoration, heritage and environmental protection, demographic sensitivity, perpetual stakeholding, and independent international assessment.
Read More Aabbuu Seeraa: Building Progress on Indigenous Erasure
Article | Opinion | Politics | ⏭
Lidetu Ayalew, Finfinnee, Oromia, Federalism, and the Perils of Principle-free Politics
By Elemoo Qilxuu (MA, Political Science) Posted on2026-01-162026-01-15
When politics loses its grammar, words stop meaning what they mean and power begins to masquerade as principle. In critiquing Lidetu Ayalew, this piece is not about personal disappointment but about a deeper political failure: the refusal to accept irreversible facts of federalism, Oromo self-rule, and historical reality. Denial is not argument. Semantic inversion is not moderation. And restoration politics, however eloquent, cannot substitute for credible, principled leadership.
Read More Lidetu Ayalew, Finfinnee, Oromia, Federalism, and the Perils of Principle-free Politics
Article | Opinion | Politics | ⏭
OROMIA TODAY – Basic Politics Lessons 101For members of political parties in general and the Prosperity Party in particular
By Malkkaa Beenyaa (MA, Social Psychologist) Posted on2026-01-092026-01-09
It has become increasingly clear that many party members lack even a basic understanding of the norms, limits, and responsibilities of political life. A dangerous assumption has taken root: that once a party forms a government, it automatically owns the state. This false belief is where criminality begins, now an everyday occurrence under the Prosperity Party. Written as Politics Lessons for reflection rather than insult, this article helps members identify where political participation ends and personal liability begins, concluding with Safuu as a moral anchor in public life.
Read More OROMIA TODAY – Basic Politics Lessons 101For members of political parties in general and the Prosperity Party in particular
Article | Language | Research | ⏭
Amharic Language Shift Among Agaw, Qimant and Oromo CommunitiesAnd Why These Amount to Ethnocide and Must be Reversed
By Yadessa Guma (PhD, Anthropology) Posted on2026-01-042026-01-02
This article synthesizes sociolinguistic research on language shift among Agaw, Qimant, and Oromo communities in northern Ethiopia to explain why Amharic replacement is best understood as a long-term institutional process rather than a sudden loss. Drawing on comparative evidence, it argues that “Amhara” functions historically as a linguistic–social formation shaped by schooling, administration, and mobility incentives, while showing how minority languages can persist, decline, or revive depending on intergenerational transmission and institutional support.
Read More Amharic Language Shift Among Agaw, Qimant and Oromo CommunitiesAnd Why These Amount to Ethnocide and Must be Reversed
Article | Op-Ed | Politics | ⏭
Erasing Oromia: How a Fringe Party Exposed the Complacency and Paralysis of Oppressed Nations and Nationalities of the Ethiopian Empire
By Elemoo Qilxuu (MA, Political Science) and Olii Boran (PhD, Sociology) Posted on2025-12-072025-12-06
A fringe party’s audacious proposal to erase Oromia and other regions of the oppressed nations and nationalities has exposed a deeper crisis: the entrenched complacency and political paralysis of the majority. This is not merely the aggression of a fringe party attempting to erase Oromia and other regions; it is the predictable outcome of a majority conditioned to tolerate the intolerable. Ethiopia’s tragedy persists because boldness from the few meets silence from the many.
Read More Erasing Oromia: How a Fringe Party Exposed the Complacency and Paralysis of Oppressed Nations and Nationalities of the Ethiopian Empire
Article | Opinion | Politics | ⏭
The Politics of Spite—How Oromia’s Foundations Expose the Empty Ambitions of a Troubled Region
By Elemoo Qilxuu (MA, Political Science), Kumaa Daadhii (PhD, Political History) and Olii Boran (PhD, Sociology) Posted on2025-11-122025-11-09
Oromia now faces a widening expansionist push—driven by local opportunists, reinforced by external actors, and carried along by a region long caught up in the politics of spite that has defined the Horn. These forces promote territorial fantasies that collapse under scrutiny. The article argues that only a free, self-determined Oromia can break this cycle, restoring stability to the Horn and creating the conditions for a genuine synergy of prosperity with its neighbors.
Read More The Politics of Spite—How Oromia’s Foundations Expose the Empty Ambitions of a Troubled Region
Article | Op-Ed
A Reactor in a Tinderbox: Why Ethiopia’s Nuclear Ambition Demands Global Scrutiny
By Biqila Bariso (PhD, Physics; MSc, Cognitive Sci.) Posted on2025-09-282025-09-28
1 Comment
Ethiopia’s push for nuclear power station is less about energy need than regime vanity, pursued by a leader who weaponize conflict, neglect citizens, and disregard safety. With a record of atrocities, proxy wars, and environmental neglect, entrusting such a volatile state with nuclear materials risks catastrophe not just for Ethiopia, but for the entire region.
Read More A Reactor in a Tinderbox: Why Ethiopia’s Nuclear Ambition Demands Global Scrutiny
Article | Op-Ed
The Amhara Elites’ Monumental Failure in Insisting on a Dead Language for Primary Education
By Olii Boran (PhD, Sociology) Posted on2025-09-182025-09-18
The push to impose Ge'ez as a subject in Ethiopian primary schools in the Amhara region has reignited debate on the futility of elevating a dead language. Across history, such languages remain confined to liturgy or scholarship, never revived as mediums of modern schooling. Insisting otherwise is political miscalculation that risks alienation instead of cohesion.
Read More The Amhara Elites’ Monumental Failure in Insisting on a Dead Language for Primary Education
Article | Essay | Op-Ed | Politics | ⏭
Intellectual Capital Deficiency in GovernancePart One — Why the Horn of Africa Is a Global Case Study
By Malkkaa Beenyaa (MA, Social Psychologist) Posted on2025-08-082025-08-08
1 Comment
This article applies the Intellectual Capital framework—widely used in business and development—to the sphere of governance. Using the Horn of Africa as a case study, it explores how deficiencies in Intellectual Capital weaken state resilience, fuel instability, and block long-term solutions, while offering insights relevant to governance challenges worldwide.
Read More Intellectual Capital Deficiency in GovernancePart One — Why the Horn of Africa Is a Global Case Study

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