According to Tip O'Neil a quarter century ago, politics is local, and so are the Gambellian daily concerns more than ever. As opposed to advanced industrial societies, Gambella's people have no such concerns. No matter what form imperialism takes, they do not practice it. Their lives are not influenced by imperialism, regardless of its form. Gambella and its people have no say in this matter. Those were the days when politics belonged to us, and political decisions were made by us. Anything that was not of our native sense was disregarded, thrown out as trash that did not belong to us. There were no lickers from the Gambella people going to the enemy camps giving information that might endanger or damage the political activities in our land during those times, and there was not much room for eavesdropping. There may have been some, but they were nobody. It had been like that until two strangers appeared out of nowhere. They were 'Dubb-e'dda, a true metaphor for the sudden appearance of something from nowhere, whether it is a course or a fortune. Rather than a fortune, the two gentlemen named Beyera Tojie and Fetsium, were curses sent by the Lucifer devil in charge, filled with evil spirits if I recall correctly. Even so, everyone knows they are from the highlands of Ethiopia rather than the lowlands. They arrived in Gambella during a time of overflowing rivers, there's no ways, means that could make people going or reaching other places. The flooded waters separated people involuntarily, people were isolated, punished by nature. We were isolated from one another by the natural disaster, the wild animals, including predators, were far away in remote regions, so bush meat animals were scarce. The savannah grass was tall and sharp like knives and needles even a wrangled seasoned hunter couldn't brave its treacherous cutting grass, difficult to overrun. In the same way that the skies were blue, the Chowie's land was blue like water as well. A time of year when small, mass fish migrate upward, filling rivers northward, known to the locals as adapae (mass fish). Due to the worst winter on record, our land wasn't very suitable for the two men, since everything green in the fields had already been harvested and stored in the grain stores. The land they were going to was not adequately described by those who sent them there. None were unaware of our presence, but actors in the geopolitics of the region were. The information they had about us was sketchy at best. Although we knew they were coming, we knew they had arrived in Gambella, and we knew where they were, they did not know we heard of them. As the Igboland people say, they didn't realize they were being watched by our wide kolokolo eyes. They have, however, started asking who has clout in my town without taking the time to relate to the environment. Unfortunately, they were given raw information about Gambella and its political actors from others. Fetsium and Beyera, despite their lack of knowledge of Gambella's culture, social, and political development, led from the very first moment to act like fools. Even so, local revolutionaries disapproved of them, and many reacted negatively to them. Both local politics and the general public lost respect for them. It is important to remember, when traveling abroad, to always be aware that one is a foreigner. An understanding of what is legal where one is versus what is illegal elsewhere is essential. It means knowing what one can and cannot do when one is away from home. We welcomed both men when Gambella nationalism was at its height, when everything in the Gambella was about Gambella, first, Ethiopia second, and Gambella was the focus of all discussions, everywhere in the Gambella. Gambella was our top priority! This reminded me of the political counterargument I encountered a while back. At that time, some Anyuawa misunderstood our concept of Gambella nationalism, thinking we were advocating a position that excluded them from the collective identity; this was both correct and incorrect, since we did not advocate any form of Anyuawa identity, but were correct on territorial identity but denied them political irredentism temporarily. Irredentism was not our top agenda. We were not ashamed to discuss Gambella first, since one must have a place or space to start, as in logical development theory. From the moment Beyera Tojie, Fetsium, found themselves in a foreign land inhabited by Nilotic people of different cultures, they knew they were in the wrong place. We knew they had trouble understanding the locals in our town based on their encounters with them. The Havanna (Beyera Tojie), as we called him back then, graduated from an elite military political school, the Cuban military academy. He was an excellent orator, but he delivered a lot of bullshit. Even though Beyera claimed to be an expert on Latin American politics, he was naively shallow, constantly referring to Latin America's struggle against imperialism, particularly Cuba, and urging our people to fight the Americans. However, the question in the minds of those who attended those meetings at that time was, where and what is American imperialism? Why is that? How can one explain imperialism to the peasants in Anyuawaland, who mattered no matter what? No one in Gambella had heard of America, and neither did they know where the two political cadres came from or what country sent them. They don't even know the capital city of their country. Their response to Gambellian back then was counterproductive and meaningless. It is still impossible for the Gambella people to engage in useless political activities, and imperialism is not their enemy. It was locusts, however, that were their greatest enemy in their farms. In fact, they had no idea what imperialism was. It was like a doctor explaining heart problems to a patient, and when the patient asked, he said OKAY even though he didn't understand the terms. First of all, who cares if imperialism is a form of capitalism? People who wish to inform us about the ugly side of imperialism are good at telling us about it since they have no idea better. We are not interested in capitalism, imperialism, socialism, or communism. Rather than lectures on imperialism, the Gambella people needed schools, transportation, jobs, clean running water, health clinics, good roads, and farming tools. Beyera and Fetsium were teaching nonsense at the wrong school. An anthropologist does not go to Yanomamo Amazonian country to teach people clothing, but to study how they live, learn their culture, not impose his own. An anthropologist would not antagonize natives against each other in the first place, let alone spread hatred against people 10,000 miles away as his or her sole topic of research as Beyera and Fetsium did among Gambellian. The problem is that neither Fetsium nor Beyera convinced anyone. Instead, they confused them. Furthermore, neither Beyera nor Fetsium attempted to understand the social structure of the Gambellian people, nor did they gather public opinion before expressing their toxic opinions, which would have prevented them from making statements that would have caused division and squabbling. It was reported that Beyera had been seeking me and other close associates of mine that others had brought to his attention. My popularity is unrelated to my town affiliation, but I am popular regardless of it. Yes, I was most popular at the intersection between my neighborhood and beyond. Ajumara was dominated by me and other popular residents. Back then, we were the talk of the town, and the Ajumara was called the home of the radicals, but I have no idea what they meant. However, I am impossible to miss. It is reported that Beyera was pursuing me at all costs in the town, but I was not hiding, and he was pursuing me at all costs. He did not understand that I made myself accessible to everyone because of my public persona. Do not worry, I said this man wasn't looking for me. But tomorrow, I will track him down. In the event that the mountain had not come to Mohammed, then Mohamed was said to have walked to the mountain and commanded it to leave his path. My goal is to find out what I owe him, why he is looking for me. And will tell him to leave me alone. It's offensive for Beyera, to roam the streets looking for me now, it's a breach of Anyuawa customs. This is where I grew up, this is where my people live, and this is where I belong. He doesn't belong here; he's not from here. It's not appropriate for him to blow horns on the street since he's, our guest. In addition, who is he? In my opinion, he shouldn't blow horns. Would anyone be able to tell me if I'm overreacting? Everyone said no, no one seemed to react differently. Since he landed on our soil, they said, he contaminated our political climate. It seems obvious, doesn't it? I cannot imagine any of us traveling to his country and persecuting, intimidating the people of Arusi using guns over them there. We read your mind, my brother (or (coki' as we called it at the time). We fully support your decision to inform him that revenge politics are not appropriate here. Through his actions, he had no chance of creating a rift between us. It has been reported that he has already cultivated antagonism among the youth of Chowie. It should not happen that way. We must nip all of his early divisive activities in the bud before they spread. Our people find it disgusting that Highlanders think they are better than the natives they have dealt with when they enter the land of Urubulu. Since more than fifty years ago, the Golden Land of Pa-Anyuawa has welcomed Highlanders, but only a handful respect our culture, speak little of our language. It is beyond absurd that settlers are now challenging indigenous institutions as a result of recent political developments. At present, settlers are pushing for the teaching of their language in regional schools without any cultural association. A city resident said that's wrong. Our intention is not to limit their use of their ethnic languages or customs in Gambella, but rather to let them refine them within their own communities. Nevertheless, their bravado and insistence that Gambellian follow their culture has hardened our hearts towards them. Here we are witnessing the rise of cultural neocolonialism. There are still many historical mistakes that many of our countrymen need to rectify, and they must do so without delay. It is imperative that foreigners on our lands cease to play a role in the political development of the Gambella people. In the past, Marxist-Leninist cadres brought there from the hinterland have dictated the political life of the Gambella, much like they are done today by refugees who are not even Ethiopian citizens, ordering the native to surrender their natural rights, it is a choice between following them or risking being destroyed by their aggressive primitive actions. In addition to aggrandizing territories, or gerrymandering territories, their politicians incorporated some Anyuawa zones through special territorial policies. Despite being disputed by the official demographic count, they still refused to back down, even though they inflated their demographic numbers. According to them, democracy is not the political party as we know it, it's their ethnic numbers. Thus, high ethnic citizen numbers have been given the name democracy in certain geographic areas, as they believe these regions represent democracy in its ideal form. Nevertheless, in the past, such dreadful yardsticks of tactics have been used by revolutionary Marxist and Leninist forces to make people conform to their will, and when they were not right, the damage they have caused has to be repaired today. Those are the same yardsticks used today. In other words, some people have been dwarfed or belittled, afraid, but they joined the government institutions anyway, not because they wanted to belong but to protect themselves. It is true then, as it is true now, that public and government institutions favor those in their spheres of influence; without their support and approval, no one can be politically active. It was then that in order to succeed, pass something, climb something, or be recognized from near and far, one had to become a revolutionary or comrade, or both. At that time, anything that was not revolutionary was regarded as backward, retrograde, and a threat to progress. During those days, it was hard to distinguish between real revolutionaries and fake revolutionaries. Nobody knows what happened to many good revolutionaries who were lost, never found. In the same way that chickens hate their useless eggs, the fake revolutionaries brought down the real revolution. Everyone thinks they know something about someone they have never met or seen. That era made it hard to distinguish between politicians and non-politicians. Nowadays, everyone pretends to be something they are not. In the same way that is happening now, there were a lot of impersonators and delusional participants in the Anyuawa politics. Although many Anyuawa people know of institutional malfunctions and malaise, they are afraid to speak out against government policies and have shielded themselves from challenging government officials. The politicians kowtowed the masses, the masses frightened joined the spoiler camps in an effort to gain power. The hills of the Land of Gambella, inhabited by the Anyuawa people, was the site of so many revolutionary zealots back then. We had a low level of political development, so we had qualitatively few true revolutionaries, rather than quantitative mass revolutionaries. Those were the real sons and daughters of yesterday, without a doubt, we were proud of them. Their time was filled with pride. They were proud boys, oath keepers of our land of Chowie, described by Didumo Boungul as proud boys of town, quote, "They walked like masters of the land, unafraid of anything, head held high" of course, they were unquestionably masters of Chowie, they were Chowie servants. There is no question about it. Even though, in the end, they were abandoned, uprooted, and thrown away by the dark forces of dooms, just because they love their country dearly. But that’s politics, no one has monopoly on politics. Good day Amigos!!
The author of the article is Namphili Otho Gilo. He can be reached at amhare14@gmail.com.
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? 
