Geography:
The country of the Oromo is called Biyya-Oromo (Oromo country) or Oromia (Oromiya). Oromia was one of the free nations in the Horn of Africa until its colonization and occupation by Abyssinia at the end of the nineteenth century. In the east it is bordered by Somalia, Afar lands and Djibouti, in the West by Sudan, in the South by Somalia, Kenya and others and in the North by Amhara and Tigre land or Abyssinia proper. The land area is about 600,000 square kilometers.

The physical geography of Oromia varies from rugged mountain ranges in the centre and north to flat grassland in most of the lowlands of the west, east and south. Similarly, there are many rivers and lakes in Oromia. Many of the rivers flow westwards into either the Blue Nile or the White Nile, and others flow eastwards to Somalia and Afar land.

The climate is as varied as the physical geography, although close to the equator (to the north of it), because of the mountain ranges, high altitudes and vegetation, the climate is very mild and favourable for habitation. Snow can be found on the mountains such as Baatu and Karra. In the medium altitudes (1800-2500 m) the climate is very mild throughout the year and one of the best. Up to 80 per cent of the population lives at this altitude and agriculture flourishes. The low altitude areas (below 1500 m) in west, south and central part are relatively warm and humid with lush tropical vegetation.

People:
Population
The Oromo people are one of the most numerous in Africa. Census data are not reliable but there are probably twenty million people whose first language is Oromo and who recognise themselves as Oromo. In older literature they are often called Galla. Except for a relatively small number of arid land pastoralists who live in Kenya, all their homelands lie in Ethiopia, where they probably make up around 40 percent of the total population.

Language
The traditional Oromo language is Oromiffa, the written form of which has recently changed to use the Roman alphabet. Oromiffa was banned during the regime of Haile Selassie, and Amharic was the only language taught in schools or used in the public sphere for decades. Thus Oromos who had formal education or grew up in urban areas can speak and write Amharic, while people in the countryside who were isolated from educational campaigns have continued to speak Oromiffa. Some Oromos may also speak Tigrigna, Somali, Arabic, or Swahili, but most Oromo refugees prefer to speak Oromiffa as a matter of cultural pride. Literacy in English is limited but growing, as more people take English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.

Religion
Traditional Oromo religious belief centers around one God, Waaqa, who is responsible for everything that happens to human beings. As Oromos adopted Islam or Christianity, they maintained the concept of Waaqa and incorporated their beliefs into the new religions. Another large percentage of Oromos are Christian. Christians are primarily Catholic or Adventist rather than Orthodox, as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is associated with the dominant Amhara cultural group. Within the Oromo nation, Muslims and Christians have mingled peacefully. Those Oromos whose traditions still mirror the traditions of "Waaqefataa" are less organized, less visible and therefore less understood.

Culture
The Oromo enjoy a homogeneous culture and share a common language, history and descent. Prior to its colonization, the Oromo had common political, religious and legal institutions. The Oromo people have a rich folklore, oral tradition, music and art. Although much of this culture and these traditions have survived harsh suppression, much has been forgotten and lost.

Economy
Oromia has the potential to be one of the richest countries in Africa. Agriculture is the backbone of its economy and it is the means of livelihood for more than 90 per cent of the population. There are a great variety of farm animals and crop plants. The Oromo specialise in animal husbandry through their long tradition as herdsmen. Cattle rearing (pastoralism) are still the main occupation of many Oromo.

The main crops that are merchandised are coffee and chat (a stimulant shrub). Coffee is a major foreign currency earner for Ethiopia. The plant originates in the forests of Oromia and neighbouring areas. Kafa and Limmu are considered to be the cities where coffee originated. Coffee has always been the main export product, it represents more than 60 per cent of the foreign earnings of successive Ethiopian colonial regimes.

The forests of Oromia are a source of excellent timber. Although the major portion of the forests has been destroyed since its occupation, some still remain in the south and west. However, this is threatened by mismanagement, particularly through the fast the expanding state farms and resettlement programmes. In addition to timber trees, medicinal plants and trees producing different kinds of gums, grow in abundance. Myrrh, frankincense and Arabic gum are gathered from the wild trees.

Oromia also has important mineral deposits. There are gold mines at Adola and Laga Dambi in the Sidamo and around Nejjo, Asosa and Birbir river valley in Wallagga regions. Other important minerals found in Oromia are platinum, sulphur, iron-ore, silver and salt. In 1986, the Ethiopian government announced the discovery of a new deposit of natural gas in Baale.

The hundreds of hot springs scattered over Oromia are also of economic importance. Thousands of people, including foreigners, visit these springs for their medicinal and recreational value. They are a great potential source of thermal energy. Rivers, streams and springs are plentiful. The rivers have many fails that could be used to generate electric power with little effort. The extent of this electric power could easily satisfy the power needs of Oromia and several neighbouring countries.

History
Prior to colonization
Prior to its colonization, the Oromo people lived under a remarkable and relatively complex age-grade based indigenous democratic system known as a "Gada" in which political, military and other leaders including legal experts are elected for non-renewable eight-year terms.
The Gadaa system has been undergoing changes since its inception to accommodate the development of society. Gadaa is a highly developed form of democratic life. It is a system that organises Oromo society into groups or sets of about 11 that assume different responsibilities in society every eight years.

The foundations of the Gadaa system, starting around the end of the eighteenth century, were brought about mainly by events set in motion both from inside and from outside the Oromo society. In most communities the Gadaa system declined because of the protracted wars that preceded the onset of colonization. The end of the eighteenth century was marked by constant wars and skirmishes, which gave the war leaders a mandatory power. This weakened the outstanding democratic features of the Gada system. The second important factor that contributed to the weakening of the Gada system was the coming of new beliefs and religions. Islam and Christianity have significantly affected the culture of the Oromo people.
Thirdly, the changes in the mode of living of several Oromo communities, as a result of the interaction of all these factors, were probably one of the important causes that led to the decline of the Gada system. These and other related factors led to the emergence of a new social system, which had a significant impact on the original ideals of the Gada values, which provided the Oromo nation admirable strength to fight against any external aggression and later the colonial occupation.

Colonization and Resistance
The Oromo were colonized during the last quarter of the 19th century by Abyssinia with the help of the European colonial powers of the day. The colonization process that brought about the present geographical shape of Ethiopia took the Abyssinians nearly 40 years. Present day Ethiopia is an outcome of the scramble for Africa conspired in 1884/85 in Berlin.

The successive colonial regimes banned all political, social and spiritual institutions of the Oromo and those of other colonized Peoples. During Emperor Haile Selassie’s regime (1930–1974), the only organizations allowed, under a strong vigilance, were a few self-help associations. In the beginning of the 1960s, there were three Oromo self-help associations which had their offices in Addis Ababa (Finfinne) namely the Jibat and Macha, Metta Robii, and Tulama Shawa self help associations. These three associations merged in 1963 and formed the Macha-Tulama Self-help Association.

It embraced all Oromos irrespective of religion and region and other non-Oromo nationalities who accepted the objectives of the association. The formation of the Macha-Tulama Association was a basis for the subsequent centralized leadership of the Oromo struggle for liberation.

The Oromo and other peoples, which were conquered, neither accepted the colonial hegemony nor assimilated with the colonisers. The Oromo resisted Ethiopian colonial expansion and domination both militarily and culturally in localized and scattered ways during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

Oppression was especially harsh and brutal under the imperial rule of Haile Selassie, of the Amhara ethnic group. During the reign of Haile Selassie the Oromo language was banned and speakers were privately and publicly ridiculed. The government did everything in its power to ensure the domination of the Abyssinian language and cultures over the Oromo people. Drought, famine, war and ill-conceived policies brought millions to the brink of starvation in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1974 this helped topple Haile Selassie. A self-proclaimed Marxist junta under which thousands of opponents, many of them Oromo, were purged or killed replaced his regime. Property was confiscated and defence spending spiralled.
With the overthrow of the junta in 1991, the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) dominated the ruling government of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic (EPRDF), and joined with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in co-authoring a democratic charter. Subsequently, the TPLF, consolidated its grip of power and further continued to deny Oromos their political autonomy. Like its predecessors, the government dominated by the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front was vicious in its brutality against the Oromo people.

On may 15th 2005, Ethiopia held its third multi-party general elections, the first official result showed that the ruling party and opposition won roughly the same number of seats. This led to fraud allegations from the opposition parties. With tensions flaring high, and demonstrations where held in the capital Addis Ababa, at least 36 people died during violent clashes in which police opened fire on protesters. Mass arrests by police locked up more than 2000 people.

On June 8 2005, Dawud Ibsa, the chairman of Ethiopia's rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) said that his group would not accept the government's rigged victory in disputed general elections that where held on May 15. He warned that the conflict will widen unless the international community comes out with a very committed stance to avert this situation.

Organizations:
The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) is a political organization established in 1973 by Oromo nationalists to lead the national liberation struggle of the Oromo people against the Abyssinian colonial rule. The emergence of the OLF was a culmination of a century old yearns of the Oromo people to have a strong and unified national organization to lead the struggle. The fundamental objective of the Oromo liberation movement is to exercise the Oromo peoples' inalienable right to national self-determination to terminate a century of oppression and exploitation, and to form, where possible, a political union with other nations on the basis of equality, respect for mutual interests and the principle of voluntary associations. The Oromo people's quest for their right to self-determination is just and legitimate. The aspiration of the people to regain their fundamental freedom is in line with the principle enshrined in the charter of the U.N. The OLF is struggling to enable the Oromo people to realize this fundamental right and bring an end to century old oppression. OLF's commitment to this objective is based on a democratic principle, that the Oromo people are endowed with the right to decide the type of sovereignty they want to live under and the type of political union they want to form with other peoples. The change made by the Tigrean regime, that grabbed power from the Amhara rulers in 1991, is far from enabling the Oromo people and others to realize this fundamental right. It is merely a cosmetic change intended to affect the momentum of our just struggle. The OLF reiterates the struggle of the Oromo people is not directed against any people but the system of oppression. In fact the OLF and the Oromo people are committed to the noble cause of laying a foundation for union of free peoples on the basis of their freely expressed will. The Oromo Liberation Front joined UNPO on 19 December 2004.

Statistics:
Area: 600.000 km2
Population: 30 million
Language: Oromiffa
Religion: Islam, Christianity and traditional Oromo belief