Though I live in Canada, I also have not seen Hagos for more than two
decades. Like those who asked for the whereabouts of Hagos, many of us who knew him in the good old days have
wondered why he went into total silence specially after the TPLF took over
Addis Ababa and the EPLF, in collaboration with the former, declared the
independence of Eritrea.

I remember a big conference held at Conrad Grebel University
College in Waterloo, Ontario in 1987 where only Hagos and I were the
staunch defenders of Ethiopian unity among representatives of the EPLF,
TPLF and OLF who took to task the very existence of the country by
claiming that it is a prison-house of nationalities created by Emperor
Menelik in the 19th century, that ought to implode. Both of us with a good
historical background on Ethiopia, demolished their myth until even the
Eritreans who were saying that they were never part of Ethiopia until
1952 were forced to admit [when I confronted them with tracts from
Alvares’ book which I had with me] that Emperor Libna Dingil leased Massawa
to the Portuguese in 1520, that yes, it indeed was part of Ethiopia but
that Italian and British colonialism had also created conditions which influenced the Eritreans to go the “colonial” way.

The TPLF contingent, as usual, chameleon-like and deceptive, tried
to present themselves as Ethiopians who were simply interested to
overthrow the Derg and bring people-oriented civilian rule to Ethiopia.
Hagos, who was sitting next to me, I remember, murmured in my ear: “Paulos,
we should expose their hypocrisy because despite their pretences to
gain support among Ethiopians, they have already signed over the
independence of Eritrea.” So we hammered them on their stand but as usual, they
evaded the issue, but were clearly cowed.

When the OLF representative claimed that their question was also like Eritrea’s – a “colonial question” – the EPLF delegate retorted, “No,
yours is different; you are Ethiopians like the Tigrayans.” When the
OLF delegate reminded him admitting to my argument that hundreds of
years ago, you were part of Ethiopia and now you claim to be colonized, how
can that fly because Oromia was incorporated by conquest only in the
19th century, he replied, “yes, you were colonized in the 19th century”
but since then you have become Ethiopians. Ours is different because we
were on our own when the UN federated us with Ethiopia in 1952.” The
OLF rep. who expected support from the EPLF was clearly baffled and even
angry.

Then my turn came. I pointed out – and Hagos added to my points – that Oromia was not newly
colonized by Menelik though some in the south were incorporated into
the empire by Menelik who had purchased plenty of firearms the Oromos did
not have. We reminded them that the Oromos were ruling Ethiopia from
Gondar from the 1770s to 1855. We reminded them that sometimes they had
even Oromo speakers [e.g. Emperor Iyoas] among them crowned. They could
not challenge these historical facts. In closing, I informed them in no
uncertain terms that I am an Oromo through and through but that I am
proud of being an Ethiopian who believes that the economic, cultural and
linguistic problems of the Oromos and the Eritreans can be solved
simply through the adoption of democracy for the whole country rather than
the secession of its disparate parts.

When
you contact him, please ask why his polemical and pungent pen went
silent at exactly the time it was needed the most (since 1991…), when
Ethiopia’s unity was challenged, its dismemberment became real, and its future
survival left in limbo!

Regards,
Paulos Milkias Ph.D.

—–
Dr. Paulos Milkias teaches Humanities and Political Science at Marianopolis College/Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.