The
Anuak are a riverine people who live along the banks and rivers of
southeastern Sudan and western Ethiopia, in the Gambela Region
As the sources of the water they drink and the food
they eat, it can be said that their lives are closely attached to the
rivers on which they are living. It is because of this secret of their
lives that the Anuaks have the great deal of love to their rivers. They
adore them through songs and give them the names that show their daily
connection to them in so meaningful ways.
I can say that I was one of the privileged Anuak boys
who had the opportunity to join school at early stage of age because of
the presence of the American Missionaries who opened a primary school
in Aganga, Pignudo where I started my education. It was really an
interesting moment to start learning how to pronounce the letters in
Amharic and English which were considered as foreign languages in Anuak
land at those days. I was very curious to know more about the characters
of the letters of these foreign languages and that curiosity might have
helped me to succeed in my learning process all the way to the
university level.
When I grew up as a small kid in the village where I
was born, I knew all the names of the main rivers found in the Anuak
land. I knew that all the names were the words originated from the Anuak
language until one day I came across something which surprised me the
most in all my life. At that particular day, our Geography Teacher was
giving us a lesson about the rivers of Ethiopia and the places where
they were located. What had surprised me the most was that looking at an
alien name (word) given to the river which was clearly pointed out on
the map to be located in Gambella. As I said, I knew very well all the
names of the main rivers which were located in Anuak land. But here, our
teacher was telling us that there was a river in Gambella by the name
called “Baro”. I really could not believe what I was hearing at that
moment. When I composed myself and came back to my senses, I realized
that the river that was labeled by the name “Baro” was the river I used
to know by the very name “Openo” since my childhood. I think what I felt
at that moment must be the same feeling with other Anuak boys who came
across to learn about this alien word given by a strange person to their
biggest and the most important river in their land.
I said it is the most important river in the sense of
its economical aspect. This river used to be a connection line between
Gambella and Khartoum through which the manufacture goods like salt,
sugar, textiles and other goods were transported to Anuak land during
the navigation periods in the rainy seasons. Here, the teacher should
not be blamed as he was taught in that way.
To give answers to the questions of “Who gave the
name Baro to the river Openo” and “Why he did so ‘’, let’s look at the
history of Ethiopia during the eras of Emperor Minilik and Emperor Haile
Sellassie very briefly. As we all know, before Emperor Minilik came to
power, the span of the administration areas of those rulers who called
themselves as king of kings in Ethiopia was mainly limited to the place
used to be called Abyssinia which comprises the Northern part of the
present Ethiopia particularly the regions of Tigray, Gondar (Begemedir),
Wollo, Gojam and some parts of the Northern Shoa. After becoming
Emperor and knowing that no other king in Abyssinia land that seemed to
challenge him, Minilik started expanding his kingdom by moving South and
West wards where different kingdoms and chieftains were still ruling
their respective localities in their own ways of administration. The
move which was initiated by Minilik did not go through easily as it was
thought. Along the way, he was confronted by many resistances from
different kingdoms and chieftains and during these confrontations many
lives were lost and properties were destroyed as history can witnesses.
In the case of Gambella, even though many lives were
also lost, the adventure of Emperor Minilik could not materialize on the
ground in establishing his administration like what he did in other
places. He was, of course, challenged by the Anuak Traditional kings and
Chiefs. During those confrontations, I suspect, the natural environment
might have played great roles against his armies which means that the
weather condition of the area might have played positive roles in favor
of the kings and chiefs of the area. When Minilik passed away, Lij Eyasu
took over as the leader in Ethiopia. In his turn, Lij Eyasu wanted to
finish the job which was started by Minilik in Gambella. In the same
way, Lij Eyasu did not succeed in the effort he made to conquer the area
until a warrior from Syria called Majid who was living in Gore area
came to his assistance and helped him to fight against the Anuak Chiefs
along the river Openo. Majid had briefly succeeded in defeating some
Anuak Chiefs though. But, this didn’t stay longer as he was pushed back
and forced to retreat to his base called Lo-Majid in the present day
town of Gambella. Finally, he returned back to Gore without bearing any
fruit of success in the effort he had made. As many of my readers may
recall, it was only during the era of Emperor Haile Sellassie when some
parts of Gambella came under the direct control of the central
administration in Addis Ababa.
From this short historical narration, we can deduce
that Minilik had faced a lot of challenges and resistances in the
process of expanding his kingdom. Haile Sellassie followed his footsteps
for the same reason with lesser confrontations in magnitude. Having
these points in mind, let’s see the main point of this article.
To my understanding, Minilik and Haile Sellassie had
many similarities than their differences. They looked alike in the ways
they imposed their kingdoms on others by force. Both of them did not
give any piece of dime in terms of respecting the values, norms and
cultures of the people they had invaded. They wanted to Amharize the
whole country and let all ethnic groups of Ethiopia speak only one
language, practice only Amhara culture and follow only one religion
(Orthodox Christianity). In general speaking, they wanted to put all
Ethiopians in one jacket that they had sewn according to their own
tastes. The differences they had were very few. For example, they were
slightly different in the way they gave names to the places and ethnic
groups they invaded. Most of the names given by Minilik were derogative
in their very nature. You can easily understand what I am talking about
here by recalling the names given to some ethnic groups which were still
in use in the country few years ago. The name “Addis Ababa” which was
given by his wife to replace the Oromo word “Finfine” can be taken as
exceptional case here. This case by itself needs other explanation which
I am not going to deal with it here.
In contrast, when we try to examine some names of the
places that were given by Haile Sellassie such as Nazerat (Adama),
Debre-Zeit (Bishoftu), Hossana (Wachemo), and Berhane-Selam (a small
village near Edeni in Gambella), we can sense that these names had
religious backgrounds. Haile Sallassie used to impose his kingdom making
sure that three pillars of his administration were in place in the
first days or weeks he occupied certain places. These pillars
(Administration office, Police Station, and Orthodox Church) were
playing great roles in paralyzing the physical, psychological, and
emotional strengths of the invaded people very seriously.
It can be said that it is a natural behavior of human
kind to show bad feelings and react unfriendly to whoever giving back
some sort of challenges in one way or the other. The fact that Minilik
faced strong and fierce resistances from the people he invaded and this,
in turn, incurred many lives to his armies, it can be said that it was
natural for him to behave and treat the people who fought against him in
a cruel way like he did at those days. But, this should not be taken as
an excuse as he had committed heinous and inhuman atrocities on many
innocent individuals and ethnic groups in Ethiopia which cannot be
denied by anybody in any way.
Many of you may agree with me that the atrocities
that were committed by the above mentioned two Emperors at those days
are still serving as sources of the hatreds and mistrusts which are
manifesting in different forms even in the contemporary Ethiopian
politics. This is my personal understanding and I am ready to hear from
anybody who may have intention to convince me otherwise.
As it was already mentioned above, Minilik was given
hard time by Anuak Traditional kings and Chiefs in Gambella. Knowing
that those who gave him challenges were the indigenous Anuak people with
dark skins, the only thing he could do was to insult them and gave a
derogative name to their beautiful river that flows throughout the year
into the swamps of South Sudan. He had nothing to do then, but to rename
the graceful river that used to embody an Anuak name “Openo” by an
alien word “Baro”. Without any ambiguity, it was Minilik who gave the
word “Baro” as a name to river Openo because of the deep hatred against
the Anuak people who did nothing wrong, but to protect themselves and
their territory against the invader. The meaning of “Baro” was,
therefore, originated from an Amharic word “Bariya” which means slave.
For the sake of information, there are still some people in Ethiopia, as
we speak today, who call any person with dark skin as bariya (slave) as
if they were white people. For me, these types of people are sick with a
disease called “Ignorance”. They don’t know that slavery has nothing to
do with the colors of the skins of individuals. Had they known that the
activities of slavery had started within the white societies in Europe
before even the slave trade had emerged on the soils of Africa, these
ignorant people would have thought twice whenever they want to use that
word.
As a concluding remark, I have the following few
words to say. For many years the word “Baro” has been used as a name for
river Openo which is a derogatory word in its meaning and it is an
insult to the people of Gambella without any reasonable doubt. I know
that the damage was made many years ago, but I think it is not too late
to fix it. This is not the first incident in its kind and will not be
the last evil thing to be committed against other people on this planet
of ours. It is, therefore, a high time for the Regional Assembly of
Gambella to put this very important issue on top of its agenda. The
Regional Assembly or Regional Government has to start consulting the
stake holders to pave a way that will enable to bring back the original
name “Openo” which was labeled with a derogatory word “Baro’’ without
the will of the people. Let the Regional Government prepares various
forums where it can consult with the people of the region to figure out
what their feelings look like and what action should be taken in a
civilized way.
Another assignment that the Regional Government of
Gambella has to do is to give a proper name to the Airport. There is no
reason in any way to call an Airport after the construction company that
constructed it. It is a laughable matter to stay this long calling it
MECOD (Mekelakiya Construction Dergit) which was the Defense Forces
Construction Company during the Dergue regime. In my candid opinion, it
should be called after the name of the place on which this Airport was
constructed. The name of that place is called Namakuo. Therefore, the
proper name should be “Namakuo Airport”.
To support this argument, many Regional States in
Ethiopia had already taken measures by bringing back the original names
of many places which were replaced by the two Emperors mentioned earlier
in this article. Across the border, there were countries in Africa
which were called by the names given by colonial powers like Gold Coast
and Rhodesia which were renamed as Ghana and Zimbabwe respectively after
independent. The Government of South Africa has renamed the city of
Johannesburg to its original name and the Government of Zimbabwe has
decided recently to bring back the original name for Victoria Falls on
the river Zambezi. These are few examples that I can give at this moment
in order to show you that what you are going to do is not a crime.
Rather, it is a noble thing that you can do for your people and region
at this historical moment. I wish all my readers a “Happy New Year’’.
Sincerely,Cham Ugala Uriat at cham_ug@yahoo.co.uk
Source: Anyuak Media
No comments:
Post a Comment