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Sidama: Post-Abyssinian Conquest The Abyssinian kings, who tried for a long time to expand their authority to the neighbouring areas, repeatedly attacked the Sidama nation. Although the attacks were repulsed several times, in 1893, king Menelik of Shawa succeeded to bring the Sidama nation under his colonial rule with the help of European powers and firearms that the Sidamas did not possess. As the result, his armed soldiers called nafxanyas were settled on Sidamaland. The Sidama people were robed; they became landless and forced to farm, to build houses, and to work for the nafxanyas. They were also obliged to pay numerous taxes which were often very hard to meet. Those who resisted the Abyssinian conquest, and later those who have been unable to serve the settlers or to pay the heavy taxes, were forced to leave their country. And others were used to transport the wealth of the Sidama nation, such as ivory and gold, for the nafxanya chiefs and absentee landlords who resided in the empire's capital. Most of these people never came back. The Sidama farmers were reduced to complete serfdom, subjected to wanton brutality and wretched life. After Menelik, successive Abyssinian rulers tightened their grip on Sidama by attempting to destroy the identity of the people and the very existence of the nation. By using brutal state apparatus at their disposal, they intensified the exploitation and oppression of Sidama. Then the history of the Sidama nation was falsified to justify their occupation. The Sidama language and culture was suppressed, and the colonial language Amharic and Abyssinian culture were imposed. The Sidama people became colonial subjects without human rights. This tragic situation was concealed from the international public by meticulous propaganda and lies of Abyssinian elite and their external protagonists who rushed to present the history of the empire and denied the historicity of its colonies. The reality is, the Ethiopian Empire State, with its present boundaries did not exist before the scramble for Africa. Contrary to the myth that it existed for more than 3000 years, Ethiopia, in its present shape, was formed by Abyssinian military conquest during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The conquest succeeded only when the European colonial powers of the time provided Abyssinian rulers with massive armaments, thus enabling it to subdue and conquer neighbouring nations. The world never knew the suffering of the Sidama and other oppressed nations under Abyssinian rule. The social, economic and political oppression and atrocities perpetuated by Ethiopian regimes against the Sidama people have forced them to fight in order to regain their freedom and democracy.
The Struggle Over the last century, the struggle of the Sidama people to throw off the colonial yoke continued overtly and covertly in various forms and intensity. In the 1960s, when most African countries gained their independence, Emperor Haile Selassie, who ruled the empire for more than forty years, was successful to save the empire from decolonisation. By using the alliance of foreign powers, he was able to maintain the subjugation of Sidama and other nations. But his rule was never permanent. In 1974, the imperial regime of Haile Selassie was replaced by a military government known as the derg. Despite the initial promises and rhetoric aimed at land holding system and the abolition of the mainly Abyssinian feudal structures, the transfer of power from one Ethiopian regime to another did not improve the lot of the Sidamas. Indeed the policies of successive regimes towards the oppressed nations in Ethiopia remained the same. The derg violently suppressed all peaceful attempts for the right of national self-determination. Peoples under Ethiopian domination were then forced to strengthen their armed struggle as the only means left at their disposal to seek their right to self-determination. Now the conflict in the Horn of Africa has escalated and the dictatorial government has been confronted by widespread wars of liberation. Like its predecessors, the derg, searched for external support to maintain its rule. Support came from the then Soviet Union and its allies who were also looking for a foothold in the region. The military government received armaments worth billions of dollars along military advisers. Cuba also offered tens of thousands of troops. In collaboration with its new allies, the military junta carried out ruthless, inhuman policies and campaigns of genocide to silence the legitimate demands of the Sidama and other nations in different parts of the Empire. Yet the derg had not succeeded. Despite the derg's military superiority, the Sidama and other fronts continued to struggle resolutely for their right of self-determination. The military government was unwilling to seek peaceful and democratic solution to the problem of different nations under its domination. Finally, the derg collapsed in 1991 due to fierce struggle waged by different liberation movements. But the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling hard core, and its instrumental umbrella, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), led the newly formed transitional government, and hijacked the chance for national self-determination. From the very beginning, the TPLF/EPRDF was bent on domination and the continuation of the old policies of the Empire State. It created surrogate groups for almost all national groups; it also harassed and tried to discredit liberation movements. In a brief span of time, the transitional arrangement was effectively dead when the TPLF forced the national liberation organisations out of the political process. In doing so, the regime continued the policies of its predecessors with brutality. It drafted a constitution of its liking which, in theory, included the right of nations to self-determination but which, in practice, cannot be implemented, given the EPRDF's single party domination. It also introduced a bogus federal system in which Sidama is not even a regional state. Sidama is called a zone and merged with other southern nations without their consent. At present, the regime is waging vicious war with the neighbouring countries causing untold suffering to Sidama and other peoples of the Empire. Time and again, the Empire State is conflict-ridden, unjust and brutal. It does not seem that there could be any peaceful solution to intractable problems. Therefore, the Sidama people have no choice other than strengthening their resistance against tyranny. They cannot accept to live under Abyssinian domination. The continuation and strengthening of the struggle is imperative. By recognising these facts, the Sidama Liberation Front revised its political, economic and social programmes to correctly guide the struggle to national self-determination. In this endeavour, the Front cooperates with the oppressed people and their political organisations that struggle for similar objectives. It forges relations based on equal partnership and voluntary cooperation on mutually desirable goals. It cooperates with those who believe in democracy, justice, and human rights and respect the struggle of the Sidama people for self-determination.
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