Unless one cries louder like that Penyikaw woman who defied her abuser, no one would have noticed her grave suffering. Years ago, Gambella activists used this metaphor in their campaigns. There was a story about a Penyikaw woman, beaten by her husband, who tried to kill her; he asked, if you insult me again, or I will kill you, and she yelled back to him, "Kill me, kill me", with a wheezing voice. Suddenly, an unknown man appeared from nowhere and knocked out the machete from her husband's right hand, freeing her throat. Luckily, he was a cousin of her husband, if it had been someone else, it could have been worse, because in Anyuawa culture, only families can intervene in family matters, especially in the case of wives and husbands. The point is that if that woman had not cried, no one would have heard her suffering and no one would have been able to help her. Despite its sad ending, it is also one of hope and triumphalism against draconian husbands, a retrograde culture that prohibited any community members from intervening in feuds between husbands and wives. In the media a few years ago, peasant uprooting and displacement from the lands were widely discussed, and many talking heads referred to the EPDRF regime's brutality as unprecedented throughout Ethiopian history. The story resembles of Latin American story. In a story a Latin American guy once argued to his friends that the dictatorship Argentina experienced was unprecedented in Latin American history, everyone looked at him with astonished eyes, more than Chile's Augustino Panoche dictatorship, really?
Everyone yelled! You must be kidding. There was a blast of bazooka laughter from everyone. In this article, I asked, what about the conflict between the Derge regime and the Ajumara people? My personal opinion is that the Derg brutal regime was one of the worst regimes Ethiopia has ever had. As a rule, I do not like comparing regimes, especially dictatorial regimes, because there is nothing good about them, therefore all dictatorial regimes are the worst, evil to human progress. A few years ago, I asked some Gambella compatriots in the diaspora if they knew anything about the Derge confiscating Ajumara land? There was no word said to me as they all stared at me from top to bottom. No one seems to know anything, no one seems to be able to guess anything. Then I concluded they had no idea. Honestly, the Anyuak people aren't very good at telling children stories. It was something I witnessed many years ago when I was in Malakal, South Sudan Shilluk country. The Shilluk spoke of Anyuawa- Shilluk separation with convincing narrative history, but I and others aren't aware of it. There has been no oral transmission of such history to the present generation by the Anyuawa stock, we were unaware of such history. In any case, to get to my point, I said the first victims of the land grab in our land were the Ajumaranian people, who were evicted from their homes by the brutal Derge regime. It is not important that I go into detail, but I have some friends in the United States, Australia, Canada, as well as all the beloved mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters of the Ajumara victims of the Derge regime's impunity policy. The Ajumara tragedy has happened, and no one has talked about it, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen, that's why there's new resettlement called Dozeroleme today. It was the government of the day that confiscated the lands of the Ajumaranian people and gave them away freely to merchants and highlanders. In the wake of the loss of their property, lands, and belongings, the Ajumaranian people received no compensation from the government. Besides causing injuries, the authoritarian leaders of the day convinced the Ajumara people to leave their lands by telling them flagrant lies about upcoming developments they didn't deliver. Therefore, Ajumara lands were forcefully seized from the Ajumara people and freely distributed to merchants and highlanders without their consent. The government failed to compensate the Ajumaranian people for the loss of their property, lands, and belongings. Along with inflicting injuries, authoritarian leaders also deceived the people, selling their lands lucratively to private business groups by spreading false flagrant lies about upcoming industrialization. We were moving people so that we could build industries, manufacturing, and create jobs across the city, they said. Till now, nothing has changed on the ground, the gospel about development coming to our land is still being repeated to our people.
Ajumuras have a short history: the first Anyuawa visitors to Gambella town inscribed the name Ajumara kagn, which means here I have rested before proceeding to the market. This is how history unfolded. In later years, many Anyuawa people from different geographical areas settled there. The people who lived in Ajumara were from every place in Anyuawa-land, or in other words, they were amalgamations of every Anyuawa from every place in Anyuawa-land. Ajumara is home to many of Gambella's best-known local political activists. In other words, it has produced a number of top public figures. However, despite being surrounded by such impeccable politicians in the entire state of Gambella, none of them dared speak out about the suffering and trauma the Ajumara people had to endure. There has been no mention of the plight of the Ajumara people. While it is possible to interpret the silence of liberal tendencies as cooperation with ineffective policies, that is not the case. Rather, it's a case of liberal naiveté, negligence, and irresponsibility. According to an ancient adage, no one would know about someone until someone told them, rather than being recognized by someone, by everyone. Thus, so many de facto quasi-states around the world who call themselves independent are awaiting recognition from some entities until they are recognized by the UN or the International Community. That is, unless somebody speaks up, they will have to wait on the line for a very long time. I am done. Goodbye
The author of the article is Namphili Otho Gilo. He can be reached at amhare14@gmail.com.
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