Sidama and Wolayita Outcry Amhara and Tigray Racism and Forged 'Ethiopian' History

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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[ Posted On: 2007-10-05 ]

Pertaining to earlier articles, debates and polarizations around the unique Abyssinian racism, and historical forgery, this article – written by the Sidama Intellectual Side Goodo – analyzes basic aspects of the inhuman Amhara and Tigray Totalitarian: the use of derogatory names, in order to racially degrade great historical nations like the Sidamas, the Oromos, the Wolayitas and others, as practiced by the entire Amhara and Tigray population, underscores the gravity of the Abyssinian Racism and Inhuman Totalitarianism.

This appalling phenomenon is not only limited in the tyrannical elites of the uneducated and quasi-totally illiterate Amharas and Tigrays, but also concerns the entirety of these peoples who tyrannized a great number of African peoples for more than a century.

The problem is better perceived in the light of the fact that the Amhara and Tigray Racism was never challenged by any governmental change; monarchical, communist or pseudo-republican, the appalling Abyssinian tyranny never allowed a single indigenous intellectual or politician to rise and castigate the Amhara and Tigray inclination to Racism Unlimited.

This will be extensively tackled in forthcoming articles related to the most heinous, most totalitarian and most revengeful Fascist political group of today's Abyssinia, fallaciously re-baptized 'Ethiopia': the Kinijit aspiring dictators.

The international community cannot allow the existence of a perilous for the International Security Racist Nation; in the same way the Germans have undergone an international tutelage after WW II, the Amhara and the Tigray tyranny must be dealt as a potential threat for the entire world, the oppressed peoples of bogus-Ethiopia must be liberated, and the Amharas and Tigrays must finally be brought to Modern World, Democracy, Enlightenment, and Respect of Other Nations. At all costs.

We publish here the first part of Mr. Side Goodo's article; although it evolves around the racist use of derogatory misnomers by the Amhara and Tigray criminal invaders of the Sidamas, the Oromos, the Afars, the Wolayitas, the Ogadenis and so many other peoples, it offers an insightful into critical aspects of the Modern Sidama and Wolayita History.

There are no people called "Sidamo": stop the use of "Sidamo" misnomer!

By Side Goodo

Introduction

Time and again the Sidama people have rejected the use of the derogatory term "Sidamo". The term was a deliberate fabrication by the invading Abyssinian soldiers of King Menelik, as part of their campaign to humiliate, undermine and subjugate the then newly conquered territories in the South of the country.

This article is motivated by the outrageous statements made by Eremias Woldemikael during his debate with Kambata Xola of Sidama National Liberation organization (SNLO) regarding the Abyssinian occupation, subjugation and exploitation of the Sidama land. Eremias writes:

"When I was referring to Sidama and Oromo relationship, I was using the term 'Sidama' in a historical sense. Historians use the term 'Sidama' to refer to peoples that lived South of and including some part of Shewa. The term "Sidamo" is used to one of the ethnic groups of those peoples. As you may know the region was conquered by the Oromo during their expansion in the 16th c. For further information on the distinction between Sidama and Sidamo, see J.S. Trirmingham's Islam in Ethiopia pp. 179-185 and Mordechai Abir's Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes pp.73. By making this distinction, I hope you do not feel like I am trying to lecture you about your culture or ethnicity. I am simply trying to explain the context of my discussion".

I am shocked to read the above statements in the 21st century. I agree with Eremias, on one point, however. Abyssinians do not know anything and do not want to now anything about non-Abyssinian peoples such as Sidama. They must be taught not only about democracy, respect to human dignity and the rule of law, but also the fact that there are other proud nations in Ethiopia who have their own history, who know their history very well and who can articulate it at least as much as the Abyssinians do regarding their peoples.

- Who is Eremias to tell us who we are, and who wrote what sort of irrelevant stories about us?

We, the Sidama people know very well where we originate from, when and where we first settled in Ethiopia, and when and how we came to our present land. Quoting irrelevant literature written on Sidama by foreign transcribers of Abyssinian rulers, narrating that the Oromos conquered us in the 16th century, which they did not, is as outrageous as it is any blatant distortion of our history.

Sidama history is briefly presented in the next section, to help Abyssinians like Eremias awake up in the future. The origin of the misnomer "Sidamo" is elaborated in section 3 of the article. Section 4 presents further evidence of deliberate name changes by Abyssinian rulers in Sidama. Finally, section 5 concludes the article.

An overview of the History of Sidama people

The Sidama people live in the southern part of the present day Abyssinia ('Ethiopia'), in the Horn of Africa. They belong to the peoples of Kushitic origin that occupy the vast area of northern and eastern Africa extending from Algeria to Sudan, and throughout the Horn of Africa to Tanzania.

The most notable peoples of Eastern Kushitic origin, to whom the Sidamas belong as well, include the Saho in Eritrea, the Oromos, the Hadiyas, the Afars, and the Somalis in Abyssinia; the Somalis, especially the Degodai tribe in both Somalia and Kenya; the Randle and Sakuye in Kenya, and many others in Eastern and central Africa. The Sidamas, along with the Agew and the Bejas, were the first settlers in the northern highlands of the present day Abyssinia, before the arrival of the Yemenite origin Abyssinians.

At present, the majority of the Sidamas live in the Southern part of Ethiopia with notable geographical features, like lake Awassa in the North and lake Abaya in the South. Nowadays, the population of Sidama Land is about 5 million people. However, during the course of the great popular migration from the North and the East to the South, some Sidamas were left behind and were later scattered into different parts of the country and even beyond.

One example of such groups of people related to Sidama includes those who live around river Dawa in South Eastern Abyssinia and North Eastern Kenya. The Dawa river was the turning point in the history of the migration of the Sidama people from North to the South. These people now speak Somali language and identify themselves as Digodai, the clans of which include several clans in Sidama.

The most notable of these clans is Fardano whose name is maintained both in Sidama and Somali Digodai tribe with out slightest modification. Other people who have even greater affiliation to the Sidamas and their culture and language and who were only recently separated from the present day Sidama Land include the Alaba, the Tambaro, the Qewena and the Marako.

These groups of the Sidama people live in the western vicinity of the present day Sidama Land. This latter group of Sidama people are called Western Sidamas. The transcribers of the Abyssinian rulers whom Eremias quotes as his authentic sources on Sidama were misled by post-Menelik Abyssinian writers into believing that there were two different groups of peoples called "Sidamo" and Sidama. That is not only totaly incorrect but also absolutely outrageous!! The reasons are presented in the next section.

The Origin of the Misnomer "Sidamo"

When Baalichcha Worawo, the last king of Sidama Land, made the Wuchale type treaty with Bashah Aboye, Abyssinian General of the Menelik era, who led the invading Abyssinian armies in the Sidama Land first in 1891, the latter asked the King of Sidama what was the name of his people.

King Baalichcha Worawo told him that his people were called Sidamas. However, Beshah Aboye never used the name Sidama to refer to this people. This was because it was part of the Abyssinian occupation and subjugation policy to humiliate the occupied territories' populations, and to degrade their identity either by selling the peoples as slaves or using other mechanisms, notably by calling them by inferior names.

Accordingly, Beshah Aboye and his soldiers refused to call the people in their real name, and started to call them "Sidamo" to imply their inferior status now under occupation. However, because the treaty between Beshah Aboye and King Baalichcha failed to work, Beshah Aboye's army was defeated, and he retreated back to Shewa. The Sidama land was free once again, although this was for a brief period.

When Beshah Aboye arrived back in Finfinne, he reported to Menelik that he encountered some people called "Sidamo" who repulsed his army. Thus, the term "Sidamo' was first coined by Beshah Aboye and his soldiers in 1891. That was how the term emerged. There have never been any people called "Sidamo" down to our times.

Abyssinians had to change the direction of their attack against Sidama Land from the northwestern tip of Sidama Land near lake Awassa where Beshah Aboye had been defeated by Baalichcha Worawo to the remotest eastern highlands of Hula that are adjacent to Bale, in today's Oromia region. This time, another general of Menelik, called Leulseged (probably a Tigre, judging by his name), launched a massive military attack that was better prepared in terms of armament and ammunition; there could not be any comparison between the Abyssinian army weaponry and the traditional elementary tools with which the Sidamas had to defend the Sidama land. Leulseged was able to invade Sidama Land, and establish his first administrative post in Hula which they later called Hagereselam town in the mid 1890s.

Later in the 1890s, Leulseged forced Baalichcha Warawo to join him in his campaign to conquer the Konso Land, in the South of Sidama. King Baalichcha had no power to refuse to accompany Leulseged because his land was now under occupation. King Baalichcha Worawo was taken to the Konso Land with the pretext of assisting the conquest, olly to be assassinated there by Leulseged. His mule called Laango, on which Baalichcha had travelled to Konso, came back home travelling an amazing distance of over 200 kms by its own.

To date the Sidama people lament about Baalichcha's assassination, by saying that: "Warawo Baalichcha, diinu galafati ma manchi shaalicha. Gaangichosi Laango, Baalichchi gorena bae dagu gaango", roughly translated as " the enemy brutally murdered the beloved King of Sidama. But his mule escaped and came home alone!!".

After the Conquest of the Sidamas, the Gedeos, the Gujis, the Borana Oromos, and other smaller Kushitic nations at the South of Sidama, the entire area of Sidama Land, and the south of Sidama, including Wolayita, starting from Tikur wuha in Awassa town up to Moyale on the Kenyan border, had been named the "Sidamo" province by the successive Amhara rulers until the early 1980s, when the military Junta reduced the size of the "Sidamo" province by separating Wolayita and Borana from it. This province was totally dissolved, when the TPLF fabricated another pseudo-region called the South Ethiopia Nations and Nationalities and People's Region in 1993.

The Wolayita people, who bordered western Sidama Land, also resisted the Abyssinian occupation very strongly. After they were defeated, their King Xoona was captured by Menelik's army, and taken to Finfinne, only to be killed there.

Due to their fierce resistance, the Wolayita people were given the derogatory name of 'baria' (slaves) and were harshly mistreated by the Abyssinians. They were sold as slaves throughout the country.

Even worse, as result of their resistance, their name was deliberately changed from Wolayita to "Wolamo". This underscores the earlier reference to the racist and criminally inhuman Abyssinian strategy that involved name changes. The formation of the infamous Wolamo term for an entire province, which included Sidamas, Gedeos, Burjis, Wolayitas, and the Guji and Borena Oromos, was a deliberate policy of humiliation.

This aimed at degrading the occupied nations, subjecting them to a psychological torture, and taming them for permanent slavery. Until recently, the Wolayita people were called the "Wolamo" which is an outrageously derogatory and insulting misnomer.

While the "Wolamo" misnomer is less frequently used at present, the Sidama people are still being insulted on daily basis by Abyssinians like Eremias Woldemikeal through use of the derogatory misnomer "Sidamo". This is an abuse of the right of the Sidama people to be called by their right identity.

If people like Eremias will not unconditionally stop from continually insulting the Sidama Nation through use of the derogatory "Sidamo" misnomer, Sidamas will refer the case to the relevant international Justice instances, mobilizing the International Public Opinion, Governments, and Human Rights Organizations.

Another outrageous statement by Eremias Woldemikael is the following:

"Now, I understand you are concerned only about the Sidamo people who still very specifically use that term for their ethnicity. I have read some about them but I am open to any new information you can contribute to my knowledge of the people and their issues."

Who use the term "Sidamo" to refer to 'their' ethnicity? Nobody! We the Sidama people in Sidama Land with capital at Awassa, never called ourselves "Sidamo" in our entire history.

The other Sidama people, the Alabas, the Qewena, the Xambaro and the Marakko, never called themselves "Sidamo" either. The Woalyitas, the Gedeos, the Burjis, the Guji and Borena Oromos, on whom the use of the name "Sidamo province" was imposed, never accepted that name, nor anyone of them used the term "Sidamo" at any time.

So which ethnic group uses the fallacious and derogatory term "Sidamo" at present? Where did Eremias read about this non-existent ethnic group? If Eremias is able to distort the truth at present, when numerous Sidama intellectuals allover the world are prolific in providing the correct information about the Sidama Nation, one can imagine how his uneducated ancestors, the 19th century Amharas and Tigrays, were able to distort our names and history without any hindrance.

It is however amazing to assess the extent to which the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinians are unwilling to learn from their past malpractices and policies and to accept the Historical truth, rejecting the fabrications and the forgeries machinated by their rulers and written down by some foreign opportunistic transcribers who served as chroniclers of the Abyssinian kings.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 49, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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