This Month in Recorded Oromo History – Highlights

Below are highlights of events in recorded Oromo history during the month of October. Most of these entries were acquired from Gadaa Melbaa’s “Oromia: An Introduction to the History of the Oromo People,” and Ibsaa Guutama’s “Prison of Conscience.” For more Oromo history, please visit the Oromo Chronology @ Gadaa.com

Date	Event
October 1986	The Oromo National Liberation Movement On a cold October day in 1986, long-time Maa’ikalaawii (Central Prison) Oromo nationalist prisoners of conscience: Muhee Abdoo, Gazaheny Kaasaahuun, Yiggazuu Waaqee, and Kabbadaa Damissee were dragged out of their cells and executed by cold-blooded security officers of the Derg regime inside a military intelligence compound in Kotebe, a Finfinne suburb. J/ Muhee Abdoo was a member of the Oromo Liberation Front’s Senior Leadership and an active member of the Students Movement during the 1974 revolution that uprooted feudalism from the Ethiopian empire. During the Students Movement, together with his comrades, J/ Muhee Abdoo was also a vanguard member of the USUAA (University Students Union of Addis Ababa/Finfinnee) leadership. Obbo Gazaheny Kaasaahuun (Beekaa) was the first deputy chairman of the All-Ethiopia Trades Union (AETU). AETU was reorganized in 1977. Soon after, the executive committee was disbanded by the Derg with charges of political sabotage. Obbo Gazaheny Kaasaahuun was accused of being a member of the OLF and thrown to prison. Army Lieutenant Yiggazuu Waaqee fell into Derg hands while fighting with the Oromo Liberation Army (WBO) against the Derg fascist forces in eastern Oromiyaa in late 1970′s, and he was brought over toMaa’ikalaawii for torture. Well before his fall into enemy’s hands, Lt. Yiggazuu Waaqee gallantly led a company of Derg’s fully armed Oromo soldiers under his command to join the Oromo people’s armed resistance movement led by WBO, which was reorganized in the mid-1970’s, when peaceful efforts to solve the century-old conflict between Oromiyaa and the Ethiopian empire were met violently by the Derg. Since the mid-1970’s, the Oromo people rose up once again and restarted the armed resistance movement under WBO. J/ Kabbadaa Damissee was an active member of the Oromo revolutionary youth nationalist movement of the 1970’s. J/ Kabbadaa Damissee fell into Derg’s hands, alongside his comrades J/ Shorroo Gammachuu and J/ Dajanee Damissee, during one of the most daring military operations of the early years of WBO. The military operation’s mission was to set up a base behind enemy lines near Ambo, central Oromiyaa, in order to expand the armed resistance movement. To this end, a guerrilla unit, led by J/ Shorroo Gammachuu, J/ Kabbadaa Damissee and J/ Dajanee Damissee, was dispatched to the Gudar river valley, northwest of Ambo, from the eastern Oromiyaa WBO base. The operation rekindled the 1974/1975 General Taddasaa Birru-led armed rebellion in central Oromiyaa. Though the mission was exposed to the enemy and the group fell into Derg’s hands while in transit to the Gudar river valley, the heroic deeds of the three Oromo nationalists hold a key chapter in the history of Oromiyaa’s struggle for freedom and justice.
15 October 1966	The Macha-Tuullama Welfare Association (MTWA) General Taddasaa Birru stated at a meeting in the town of Dheera in Arsi, Oromiyaa, that the political goal of MTWA was to restore the inalienable rights of the Oromo people. He went on to say that the Oromo had nothing to expect from the Amhara rulers, and they would have to depend on themselves.
October 1929	The Rayya Oromo Revolt of 1929 The Oromo fighters of the revolt in Yejju and Rayya controlled a large part of their area and closed the trade route that connected Dasee, the capital of Wallo, to the south. In a battle with the government forces in October 1929, the Oromo fighters captured 2,000 rifles and 12,000 cartridges.
October 1886	Leading Up to the Battle of Chelenko On its way to the Harar city, Menilek’s army had to fight several battles against numerous Oromo communities on the way.  In October 1886, at a place called Tuullu on Burqa river, the enemy suffered heavy losses.  The Abyssinian army, led by one of Menilek’s leading generals, Wolde Gabrel, was encircled and routed. Those who survived fled back to Shawa in disarray, including Wolde Gabrel himself.