Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization: Comparing the African American and Oromo Movements

225 Pages·2002·0.91 MB·English

by  Asafa Jalata

Fighting Against the Injustice
of the State and Globalization
Comparing the African American
and Oromo Movements
Asafa Jalata
FIGHTINGAGAINSTTHEINJUSTICEOFTHESTATEANDGLOBALIZATION
© Asafa Jalata,2001
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2001 by PALGRAVETM
175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 and
Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE is the new global publishing imprint of St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly
and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 0–312–23972–6 hardback
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jalata,Asafa,1954-
Fighting against the injustice of the state and globalization :comparing the African
American and Oromo movements / Asafa Jalata.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–312–23972–6
1. Oromo (African people)—Government relations. 2. Ethiopia—Ethnic relations.
3. African Americans—Government relations. 4. United States—Race relations. 5.
Racism. 6. Pluralism (Social sciences) I. Title.
DT390.G2 J35 2001
305.8’00963—dc21
2001021866
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Letra Libre,Inc.
First edition:December 2001
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
To Zeituna,Beka,and Kulani
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Contents
Preface vii
Chapter I Introduction 1
Chapter II The Development of African American Nationalism 23
Chapter III The Oromo National Movement 55
Chapter IV The Impact of U.S.Foreign Policy
on the Oromo National Struggle 89
Chapter V Comparing the African American
and Oromo Movements 107
Chapter VI Beyond Nationalism:
The Challenges of a Genuine Multicultural Democracy 133
Notes 153
References 193
Index 211
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Preface
F
ighting against the Injustice of the State and Globalization:Comparing the African
American and Oromo Movementsgrew out of my personal life experiences as an
Oromo/African/Black and my scholarly interests as a critical social scientist.
I was born and raised in Oromia (Ethiopia).Since my people,the Oromo,have been
the colonial subjects of Ethiopia for a little more than a century,I personally know
the bitterness of being treated as a second-class citizen.I remember the cultural hu-
miliation I went through when I was receiving colonial education.My refusal to ac-
cept second-class citizenship in the Ethiopian empire and my determination to
oppose Ethiopian settler colonialism encouraged me to participate in the Oromo
national movement.When the Ethiopian government targeted Oromo nationalists
for assassination or imprisonment,I was forced to seek political asylum.As a result,
I ended up in the United States as a political refugee in the early 1980s.
After living in the United States and observing the conditions of African Ameri-
cans,I developed a keen interest in exploring the parallel patterns of racial oppression
and exploitation,the racialization/ethnicization of state power,and the way the sub-
jugated ethnonations respond to colonial institutions to change their subaltern posi-
tions in the modern capitalist world system.The idea of writing this comparative book
came to maturation through my experience of teaching various courses,such as Race
and Ethnicity,African and African American Studies,the Modern World System,and
the Sociology of Development,at the University of Tennessee.I experimented with
my theoretical ideas on my undergraduate and graduate students,who were eager to
learn and to comment on the experiences of African Americans and Oromos in the
global context.Some of my former graduate students are professors today,and we still
maintain our intellectual relationship and dialogue.
Further,this book reflects my accumulated research experience and scholarship in
the fields of sociology,political economy,and African and African American studies.I
have been researching and writing on the struggles of Oromos and African Americans
for some time.My personal and intellectual experiences have enabled me to write this
comparative and challenging book, which goes beyond the limitation of current
scholarship.By challenging the paradigm of intellectual elites and their knowledge of
domination,this book develops an alternative knowledge of liberation.
I have benefited from the suggestions,comments,and critiques of several colleagues
in writing this book.My colleagues and friends Bonnie K.Holcomb,Bill Robinson,
Faye Harrison,Jon Shefner,Sisai Ibssa,and Baissa Lemmu read drafts of the book and
provided important feedback that assisted me in refining my arguments and ideas.I
have also greatly benefited from my discussion with my colleague Sherry Cable on
theories of social movements. My intellectual discourse with scholars from various
viii • Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
backgrounds,including the fields of anthropology,sociology,political economy,and
political science,has increased the interdisciplinary content of the book.
I also thank the staff of Palgrave,Global Publishing at St.Martin’s Press,including
senior editor Karen Wolny,Ella Pearce,Kristine Larson Vesley,Matthew Ritter,and
Meg Weaver for working diligently to publish this book.I also appreciate the typing
assistance I received from Beka Jalata,Sandy Coward,Betty Lou Widener,and Anne
Galloway.Zeituna deserves special appriciation for paying for the preparation of the
index.
The encouragement and support that my wife,Zeituna Kalil,provided me is always
appreciated.Beka and Kulani,our son and daughter,deserve special appreciation for
not complaining too much when I was spending long hours on this project.
Asafa Jalata
Knoxville
May 2001
CHAPTER I
Introduction
T
he main purpose of this book is to examine,compare,and contrast the African
American and Oromo1movements by locating them in the global context and
by showing how life chances changed for these two peoples and their descen-
dants as the modern world system became more complex and developed.Since the
same global system that created racialized and exploitative structures in African Amer-
ican and Oromo societies also facilitated the struggles of these two peoples,this book
demonstrates the dynamic interplay between social structures and human agencies in
the system.African Americans in the United States and Oromos in the Ethiopian em-
pire developed their respective freedom movements in opposition to racial/ethnona-
tional oppression, cultural domination, exploitation, colonial domination, and
underdevelopment.Although the focal point of this book is comparing and contrast-
ing the African American and Oromo movements,related topics explored include the
limits of nationalism, and the potential for revolutionary nationalism in promoting
revolutionary multicultural democracy.
These two ethnonational minority groups are similar in numerical size,but differ-
ent in political strength.The size of African American and Oromo populations are al-
most the same: about 30 million each. But African Americans constitute only 13
percent of the U.S.population of 270 million;Oromos are estimated between 40 per-
cent and 60 percent of the Ethiopian population of 60 million. Because of the
Ethiopian colonial politics,disagreement arises over the actual size of the Oromo pop-
ulation.While African Americans are one of the ethnonational minority groups in the
United States in number as well as in political and economic power,the Oromos are
the largest ethnonation in number,and yet have little political and economic power
in Ethiopia.Since the African American case is widely known and often considered a
paradigmatic case of racial/ethnonational oppression,the Black movement is well rec-
ognized.In contrast,the Oromo collective grievances and national struggle have been
denied legitimacy both regionally and internationally.
African Americans were forced to enter into the global capitalist system via racial
slavery in the seventeenth century.Oromos were forced into that same system during
the last decades of the nineteenth century after this system had gained strength and
intensity through colonialism and slavery.In 1619,twenty Africans (seventeen men
and three women) were brought by a vessel to a place the newly arrived English set-
tlers called Jamestown,Virginia.These Africans became “indentured servants who had
bound themselves to work for masters for a specified length of time in return for pay-
ing the cost of their transportation across the Atlantic.Indentured servitude had come