Ethiopia celebrated Adwa victory 123rd anniversary

Now this is the day we as people of color should celebrate this day with pride and passion. I have come across some comments by some confused old countrymen denigrating the unimaginable feat our fathers achieved on a ruffian European power. The topic should have been or focused on the battle and the victory not on what happened since them. There are a lot of questions that I have been asking on incidences and developments that took place before or after this glorious victory.

The emperor should be commended for his ability to mobilize such huge army(willing to fight I may also add) and also for letting his generals come up with a well coordinated winning plan. Whether we like to hear it or not the victory of Adwa(as decisive one) stands alone as beacon for the colored to be very proud of. My credit to him stops there. What he and his right hand general Gobena had done, destructive pillaging in many parts of the country is a different bowl game. His other generals such as Balcha, Moroda, Jote, Aba Jifar, Dinegde, Abu Shaitan and others like them had laid siege in many other parts of the country including in the vicinity of my own hood. Some of these chiefs were very active in the lucrative slave trade owning specific routes for such despicable and shameful act. No wonder why all these generals were so fanatics about the Emperor. I have been begging for answers since I read about these powerful generals especially Gobena, Kumsa and Jote as to why they paid allegiance and became such fanatic supporters to a ‘prison escapee’. Did a 21 year old ‘convict’ with less than a dozen empty handed guards in his command possess such a supernatural power to cast a spell on these powerful warlords? Ok, Kumsa and Jote came into the fold later on but how about Gobena with his powerful army of fierce fighters? So what happened or how could that happen? As a layman in history I don’t really have amicable answer and I want historians(our own) to come up with factual material. I need ocular proofs. What was the justification for Gobena to submit to a 21-year old runaway convict called not Menelik but some other commoner name? I mentioned Gobena here more than any other Oromo names because he has been the most vilified Oromo by bigots and use a nomenclature made of his name to insult others including this writer. If any historian tries to tell me that he was ‘cheated’ then I would tell such historian to stop insulting me and every other Oromo. Gobena was not that stupid and we Oromos have the capability and the intellect to pick out a cross-eyed bee from out of a huge stinging swarm. So don’t even think about it!!!! Also, if someone tries to justify his/her assessment in reference to some books penned by some foreign writers, it ain’t gonna fly with me either. I will give you an example. I had seen an excerpt from an 1895 edition of the New York Times about a telegram it received from a reporter stationed in Massawa. It was 1895 and that Italian reporter was there to witness the arrival of thousands of Italian soldiers disembarking from ships that just arrived from his/their homeland. They were heading to the warfront to kill every hostile ‘nigger’ that came their way or stand in their way. You can tell the purpose of the telegram. In the telegram the reporter tried to tell the world how Menelik slaughtered tens of thousands and took in tens of thousands more as prisoners that same year and they were all Oromos. He mentioned Oromos because he knew they were his and Crispi’s government’s worst nightmare if a war broke out. So how come the Oromos fought with such enthusiasm and fervr and played a critical role in the outcome of the Battle Adwa just a few months after that telegram was dispatched from Massawa? Again, if you try to tell me they were connived or they did not know about the massacre that was running amuck in their huts and villages, again I will tell you to stop insulting me. Try something else. A lot more needs to be studied about this battle and the historical victory achieved by my grand cousins along with their brothers from Amhara, Tigrai and many other regions. Again, the topic here is and should be about that battle and that battle alone. What happened aftermath of March 01, 1896 is a totally different issue that needs to be examined independent of books written by outsiders with ulterior motives. I have read enough already of that sort from the accounts penned down by Wahhabi elements since the 13th and 17th centuries. And we have so many enlightened scholars of our own very much capable of telling the truth and nothing but the truth about it. I don’t want ibn-Legesse to tell me about it either.

It has also been a long journey since 1896. It is so a grey area which has been used by bigoted elements with the main agenda of founding a fiefdom to call it their own. Or re-founding a fiefdom their grandfathers gave away without putting up even a token resistance. And that ain’t gonna happen either. As far resistance by others like my own Itu clan, all you have to do is wake up Abu Shaitan and he would be very, very happy to tell you all about it. That dear countryman historian Obbo Bahru and Professor Marcus have mentioned all about it. That is all I am saying!!! So let it rip!!! Rain it down on me dear countrymen!!! Until you do that there will be no stopping this diehard, beyond-repair Afro-centric man of color from basking in ravaging pride from the victory his grand uncles achieved on that fateful day. Nothing!!!!

Hermanos Etíopes, deben sentirse orgullosos por la sangre etíope que corre por vuestras venas. Miren la maravillosa historia que tiene Etiopía como cuna de la humanidad, como país jamás nunca colonizado. Dejen los problemas tribales a un lado y sean un pueblo unido y fuerte. Desde afuera los observamos con orgullo y admiración. La Unidad es la única meta aceptada.
Binguel
JahBless