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Articles 1 - 11 of 11
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Gadaa (Oromo Democracy): An Example Of Classical African Civilization, Asafa Jalata
Gadaa (Oromo Democracy): An Example Of Classical African Civilization, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
The paper briefly introduces and explains the essence of indigenous Oromo democracy and its main characteristics that are relevant for the current condition of Africa in general and Oromo society in particular. It also illustrates how Oromo democracy had functioned as a socio-political institution by preventing oppression and exploitation and by promoting relative peace, security, sustainable development, and political sovereignty, and how the gadaa system organized Oromo society around economic, cultural and religious institutions. Finally, the paper explores how the Oromo movement for national self-determination and multinational democracy struggles to revive and revitalize the Oromo democratic tradition.
Imperfections In U. S. Foreign Policy Toward Oromia And Ethiopia: Will The Obama Administration Introduce Change?, Asafa Jalata
Imperfections In U. S. Foreign Policy Toward Oromia And Ethiopia: Will The Obama Administration Introduce Change?, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
This paper argues that because of its perceived strategic national interest and the wrong advice it received from experts and racist assumptions about the Oromo, the U.S. government has allied with the Tigrayan minority elites to form a colonial government and to suppress the Oromo national movement. Thus, the major question becomes will the Obama administration respect the rights of African peoples in general and that of the Oromo in particular?
Terrorism From Above And Below In The Age Of Globalization, Asafa Jalata
Terrorism From Above And Below In The Age Of Globalization, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
This paper explains how the intensification of globalization as the modern world system has increased the oc- currence of terrorism from above (i.e. state actors) and from below (i.e. non-state actors). We cannot adequately grasp the essence and characteristics of modern terrorism without understanding the larger cultural, social, eco- nomic, and political contexts in which it takes place. Since terrorism has been conceptualized, defined, and theo- rized by those who have contradictory interests and objectives and since the subject matter of terrorism is com- plex, difficult, and elusive, there is a wide gap in establishing a common understanding among the …
The Ethiopian State: Authoritarianism, Violence And Clandestine Genocide, Asafa Jalata
The Ethiopian State: Authoritarianism, Violence And Clandestine Genocide, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
“Modern” Ethiopia has been created and maintained through the achievement of external legitimacy. As the European colonial powers such as Great Britain, France, and Italy enabled the Abyssinian (Amhara-Tigray) warlords to create the modern Ethiopian Empire during the last decades of the nineteenth century, successive hegemonic world powers, namely England, the former USSR, and the United States, has maintained the existence of various Ethiopian government until now. At the same time, the successive Amhara-Tigray regimes have failed to achieve internal legitimacy among the more colonized peoples while maintaining some degree of legitimacy among the minority Abyssinian population. While authoritarian rule …
Urban Centers In Oromia: Consequences Of Spatial Concentration Of Power In Multinational Ethiopia, Asafa Jalata
Urban Centers In Oromia: Consequences Of Spatial Concentration Of Power In Multinational Ethiopia, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
This paper examines the essence and characteristics of cities and urban centers in Oromia and the major consequences of the centralization and spatial concentration of Habasha (Amhara-Tigray) political power in a multinational Ethiopia. It speci!cally demonstrates how the integration of indigenous Oromo towns into the Ethiopian colonial structure and the formation of garrison and non-garrison cities and towns in Oromia consolidated Habasha political domination over the Oromo people. Ethiopian colonial structure limited the access of Oromo urban residents, who are a minority in their own cities and towns, to institutions and opportunities, such as employment, education, health, mass media and …
Being In And Out Of Africa: The Impact Of Duality Of Ethiopianism, Asafa Jalata
Being In And Out Of Africa: The Impact Of Duality Of Ethiopianism, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
This article critically examines how the duality inherent in the concept of Ethiopianism shifts back and forth between claims of a “Semitic” identity when appealing to the White, Christian, ethnocentric, occidental hegemonic power center and claims of an African identity when cultivating the support of sub-Saharan Africans and the African diaspora while, at the same time, ruthlessly suppressing the history and culture of non-Semitic Africans of the various colonized peoples, such as Oromos. Successive Ethiopian state elites have used their Blackness to mobilize other Africans and the African diaspora for their political projects by confusing original Africa, Ethiopia, or the …
Struggling For Social Justice In The Capitalist World System: The Cases Of African Americans, Oromos, And Southern And Western Sudanese, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
This article identifies and examines the processes through which the social justice movements of African Americans in the US, Oromos in Ethiopia, and Southern and Western Sudanese in Sudan emerged, and the successes and failures of these movements in a global and comparative perspective. It specifically explores four interrelated issues. First, the paper deals with some theoretical and methodological insights. Second, the piece explains how the racialized capitalist world system and its political structures facilitated the creation of the states of the US, Ethiopia, and Sudan and legalized racial/ethnonational oppression, colonialism, exploitation, and continued subjugation. Third, it explains comparatively the …
State Terrorism And Globalization: The Cases Of Ethiopia And Sudan, Asafa Jalata
State Terrorism And Globalization: The Cases Of Ethiopia And Sudan, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
This article compares the essence and effects of Ethiopian and Sudanese state terrorism by focusing on the commonalities between the two states. These peripheral African states have used global and regional connections and state terrorism as political tools for creating and maintaining the confluence of identity, religion, and political power. Ethiopia primarily depends on the West, and Sudan on the Middle East, since Christianity and Islam are the dominant religions in these African states respectively. While the Ethiopian state was formed by the alliance of Abyssinian (Amhara-Tigray) colonialism and European imperialism, the Sudanese state was created by British colonialism known …
Comparing The African American And The Oromo Movements In The Global Context, Asafa Jalata
Comparing The African American And The Oromo Movements In The Global Context, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
The African American and Oromo movements have been anti-colonial struggles, and they have aimed to dismantle racial/ethnonational hierarchies legitimated by the ideology of racism in the hegemonic state of the United States and the peripheral and imperial state of Ethiopia.
The Place Of The Oromo Diaspora In The Oromo National Movement: Lessons From The Agency Of The "Old" African Diaspora In The United States, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
Just as European and African slave traders merchandised Africans and created the old African diaspora, successive colonial and authoritarian regimes2 of Ethiopia forced some Oromos out of their homeland, Oromia, and caused them to settle in the West. The displaced Oromo entered the United States as one of the "new" African diaspora groups four centuries after the old African diaspora began to be created. In the process, the Oromo diaspora emerged on the world stage. Whereas the old African diaspora lived under racial slavery and segregation for almost three centuries, the new African diaspora communities such as the Oromo came …
Sociocultural Origins Of The Oromo National Movement In Ethiopia, Asafa Jalata
Sociocultural Origins Of The Oromo National Movement In Ethiopia, Asafa Jalata
Sociology Publications and Other Works
This paper examines social and cultural factors that have necessitated the emergence of the Oromo national movement. Since their incorporation into Ethiopia, the Oromo have lost their autonomous cultural and social development. With the help of the European colonial power, the Ethiopians effectively occupied Oromia, expropriated Oromian economic resources, established settler colonialism, and repressed Oromo culture and negated Oromo history. The colonial settlers created oppressive institutions that facilitated the extraction of Oromo produce and labor. The Oromo have become second class citizens and lost political freedom and institutional power. Recently Oromo cultural resistance has been transformed into the Oromo national …