Open Response to Yilikal Getnet , chairman of
the ‘Blue Party’. Stop saying “I know for you” Since We Know for
Ourselves !!, Part I and II
July 23, 2013
Part I
For Various Logical Reasons, it is better to Use Latin script instead of Geez for Afan Oromo Writing
In May 22, 2013,
Life Magazine conducted an interview with
Yilikal Getnet
, a chairman of the ‘Blue Party’. During the interview, Yilikal
underlined that Geez is better to write Afan Oromo. Hence, I am writing
this article to provide my personal opinion on Yilikal’s view or dream.
In Ethiopian Politics, saying “I know for you” remained a problems.
Rulers think and said that they know for the people. The problem seems
still exist in some party leaders. Recently, Yilikal Getnet, chairman of
the ‘Blue Party’ said that”—
I don’t see anything new. Afan Oromo is
not created in EPRDF time. It was there before. But to develop the
language, it would have been better to use Geez instead of Latin
alphabet. EPRDF deliberately used this issue like colonizers to rule
over the people.”
This statement is not justifiable and convincing when we see it from
different perspectives. First, an Engineer cannot be a linguist. An
Engineer cannot do the works /activity perfumed by linguist or vice
versa. The two are from two different world. Yilikal Getnet is an
engineer by profession, though not clearly known whether he is a
Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Water, etc., Engineer. Being an Engineer,
Yilikal advice the use of
Geez Alphabet to write Afan Oromo. How
he can comment on language issue? Hence, his comment have no any
professional base. It appears that the Engineer did not know for
himself, let alone for others. He is simply get in when he is no
concerned. If his Amhara relatives heard him, they would have say “
Hinde Hirgo Zinbi Zimbileh Tilk Atbel.”
His comments seem “I know For You and do as I said” But I claim that
the Oromo linguists know about their language and can logically select
the script that is appropriate for Afan Oromo.
The second is that Yilikal did not provide a single reason how and
why Geez is better than Latin alphabet for Afan Oromo. He simply said
“to develop the language, it would have been better to use Geez instead of Latin alphabet” He
did not explained how the use of Geez help the development of Afan
Oromo. Concrete reason is needed here! Yilikal failed to justify the
importance and appropriateness of Geez script for Afan Oromo. On the
other hand, various Oromo and other scholars provide different reason
for using Latin alphabet and for not using Geez script.
Let alone the scholars, ordinary man and woman can provide justification for this. For example, Bonsa, a
Blogger, replied to Yilikals idea saying ”
You
have no idea the linguistic incompatibility between the Sabean script
and the Oromo language. It is not about having some difficulty here and
there. The Sabean script utterly and completely fails to convey the
language. That is why Oromos refused to use it and it is Oromos and only
Oromos who know what they want and what works for them..” Details on why and how Latin script is selected for Afan Oromo writing will be presented in Part II.
Yilikal also said
“EPRDF deliberately used this issue like colonizers to rule over the people.”
As far as my knowledge is concerned, EPRDF did not decide the alphabet
that should be used to write Afan Oromo. In November 1991, OLF called
Oromo scholars and intellectuals a general meeting. Tilahun(1993:36)
described the objective of the meeting as
“The purpose of the meeting was to adopt the Latin script that OLF had been using or suggest an alternative.
”
Hence, the information given by the Engineer is not based evidence. As
he is an Engineer, Yilikal have no detail data on the issue he is
explaining.
For these reasons, it is important to show historical development of written Afan Oromo. In addition, how, when, and why
Latin Alphabet is decided to be used for writing Afan Oromo is needed to elaborated.
This will be presented in Part II. Engineer Yilikal Getnet and others like is highly recommended to read the next part so that he will know why Oromos use Latin script.
Part II : Open Response to Yilikal Getnet , chairman of the ‘Blue Party’
In part I of my letter to Yilikal Getnet, I indicated how his ordinary dream to use Geez to write
Afan Oromo is failed to be
justifiable
and convincing when we see it from different perspectives. In Part II, I
briefly described the historical development of
Written Afan Oromo and
reasons for using Latin Script to Write Afan Oromo. I hope it will be good lesson for Yilikal and others.
The Development of Written Afan Oromo
Afan Oromo is the second widely spoken indigenous language in Africa
south of the Sahara (Mekuria,1994; Mohammed,1994). Afan Oromo is widely
spoken in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somali, Sudan and Tanzania (Tilahun, 1993).
Besides, Afan Oromo has long history of and well developed oral
tradition. Despite of this and the size of its speakers as well as its
value as widely spoken language in the Horn of Africa, it remained as
unwritten language for long period of time. As Tilahun (2006:113) stated
“Until recently, Afan Oromo remained an oral rather than literary
language.” This is because of different factors.
Factors that Delayed the Development of Written Afan Oromo
Different interrelated factors have been forwarded by scholars for
the delayed and clumsy transition of Afan Oromo from oral to written
language. For example, Tilahun (2006) indicated that the transition was
mainly delayed by Political reason. He further stated that rather than
promoting the development of the language, the past governments of
Ethiopia discouraged the use of Afan Oromo even from private
conversations. Under the consecutive imperial as well as the dictatorial
regimes of Ethiopia, writing in other natives languages of “Ethiopia”
except Amharic is strictly forbidden. Supporting this, Mohammed
(1994:86) stated “— it was not permissible, to write, preach, teach
and broadcast in the Oromo language in Ethiopia until the early
1970s.” Other linguistic groups are forced to read and write in Amharic
by forgetting their own.
The Ethiopian governments had neglected and actively suppressed the
development of Oromo literature and other groups whose native language
is not Amharic. For this reason, Afan Oromo today lacks a developed
literature and has less printed materials (Mekuria, 1994: Mohammed,1994
; Feyisa,1996). In addition to the prohibition of learning and
writing in Afan Oromo by law by the past Ethiopian rulers, Feyisa (1996)
mentioned different factors that impede the development of written Afan
Oromo such as lack of trained linguists in the language, lack of Afan
Oromo training Academy and lack of suitable scripts. Further, Tilahun
(2006) argued the factors could be subsumed under political factor.
Despite the political suppression on the development of Afan Oromo,
the Oromos at home and Diaspora, and other interested individuals did
not simply accept the suppression condition and look the situation as it
is. Rather they made different attempts at home and abroad to overcome
the condition and contribute their own share to development of written
Afan Oromo (Feyisa, 1996). For example, Tilahun (1996:131) said” Since
the early 1970s, Oromo nationalists and scholars have made tremendous
effort to develop it as a literary language.” In addition, before a
decade or more, Afan Oromo has been written for various purpose using
different scripts such as Arabic, Ethiopic as well as Roman scripts
(Hayward and Mohammed, 1981).
Attempts to Write in Afan Oromo by the Oromo People
The history of written Afan Oromo was started in the first part 19
th
century. Religion especially Christian and Muslim and Oromo scholars
played a pivotal role in the development of Afan Oromo literature and
writing system. With this regard, Mekuria(1994:91) noted that “Oromo
religious leaders and scholars have attempted to make Afan Oromo a
literate language. In1950s, an attempt was also made to develop an
alphabet suitable to Oromo sounds.” The next section illustrates
attempts made to develop written Afan Oromo.
Feyisa(1996) and Tafari (1999) stated that the first attempt to write
in Afan Oromo was made by Oromo themselves and the first script used
was Arabic. This was come to existence through the expansion of
religion, especially Musilm among the Oromos. Tafari(1999:113) stated
that “After long period of Islamic education and Arabic literacy, the
idea of using Arabic alphabet for Oromo language was raised.” There are
different to examples to support this.
Concerning the use of Arabic script to write Afan Oromo, Feyisa(1996)
illustrated that Wallo Oromo have used the Arabic Alphabet to write
religious poetry in Afan Oromo. Feyisa further explained that since the
beginning of 19
th Century Afan Oromo was used as a
correspondence among all the Oromo kings and it was language of
education in five Jimma States and in Wallo. In addition, the Muslim
Oromos in Arsi, Bale and Hararghe areas used Arabic script to write Afan
Oromo. The Arabic alphabet was used basically to write religious poems
and praise poems for the Muslim saints. With this regard, Tafari(1999)
mentioned that scholars such as Sheikh Ahmed Siraji, Sheikh Mohammad Asi
Haba and Sheikh Mohammed Aliy Ta’oo used Arabic script and composed
religious poem and different materials in Afan Oromo. Thus, it can be
said that Arabic language and Islamic education made great contribution
for the development of written Afan Oromo, at least in its early
beginning. But the unsuitability of the alphabet to Oromo language is
believed to limit the expansion of written Afan Oromo in 19
th Century (Tafari,1999).
Attempts to Write in Afan Oromo by Foreign Scholars
In addition to the attempts of Oromo people, foreign scholars write
Afan Oromo using different scripts. According to Feyisa(1996) Bruce, a
Scottish traveler, is the first European who collected a few words and
develop sentence structure in Afan Orom using Latin script. After Bruce,
various European scholars, who kept in touch with Oromo in Africa and
Europe and working with them, were interested to study Afan Oromo and
attempted to write Afan Oromo in Latin as well as Ethiopic scripts.
One of the attempts to write Afan Oromo was made by Ludwig Krapf. He
came to Ethiopia for missionary activity and latter, he was highly
interested to study and write about Afan Oromo (Krapf,1840). On his way
to Showa(around 1839), he met several Oromo’s and gathered some
information on Afan Oromo, culture and religion(Mekuria,1994). Krapf
recognized the importance of Afan
Oromo
for
missionary purpose in Northeast Africa. For this reason,, he was
interested to study Afan Oromo after he arrived at the court of the king
of Showa. While at the court of’ the Shoan king, Krapf began to study
Afan Oromo
with the assistance of his servant. Hence, Krapf studied Afan Oromo
in
its natural surroundings. Then, he published a book in 1840. In his
book, Krapf specifically focused on the script that should be used to
write the language and he described the situation that exists before the
beginning of his writing as follows:
Whereas the [Oromos] are in want of letters, the choice of
Alphabet for their language depends on who first begins to write it. If
the writer be a native of Abyssinia, he will no doubt choose a form of
letters from his own alphabet [Ethiopic or Geez]: and many Abyssinia, in
fact, on seeing me occupied with the study of [Oromo] language,
endeavored to persuade me to adopt the Ethiopic character (
Krapf,1940:20).
From the quotation, one can understand that Afan Oromo had no one
decided script of writing and selection of the scripts depends on the
first who began to write it. However, if the Abyssinia (Amhara and
Tigre) starts the writing, he/she will use Ethiopic script for writing
Afan Oromo. Krapf also disclosed that the Abyssinia people attempted to
convince to make him use of Ethiopic Alphabet after they were aware that
Krapf was interested to study Afan Oromo. This shows that the
suppression on Afan Oromo was started long years ago. But Krapf(1840)
reported that he did not follow the advice given to him. His
Justification was that” —because the Ethiopic Characters present great
difficulty to writing as well as to memory” (Krapf, 1840: 21).
Further, Feyisa(1996:22)stated that”—he [Krapf] observed a number of
problems with the use of Geez script to write in Oromiffa[Afan Oromo].
Through trial and error, Krapf discovered that Geez was unsuitable for
writing Oromiffa. He noted that Geez alphabet does not include some of
the major phonological distinctions in Oromiffa and fails to express
some particular sounds in it.” To solve the perceived limitation of
Ethiopic alphabet, Krapf used the Roman script to write Afan Oromo.
In addition to the early attempts made by the Oromo themselves and
the Europeans described above, various Oromo scholars attempted to
developed and adapt the script of Afan Oromo suitable for writing the
language. Among these, the works of two Oromos namely Sheikh Bakri
Saphalo and Onesimos Nasib, are worth mentioning. These scholars
contribute their own share for and played great role in the development
of written Afan Oromo. Below an attempt is made to show how they
attempted to developed the writing system of Afan Oromo.
The Contribution of Onesmosi Nasib to the Development of Afan Oromo Writing
Onesimosi translated different materials to Afan Oromo. Mekuria(1994:94) mentioned the works of Onesimos saying
“Onesimos
wrote and/ or translated most of them between 1885 and 1898. During
those thirteen years, he translated seven books, two of them with Aster
Ganno. He also compiled an Oromo-Swedish Dictionary of some 6,000
words.” However, the translation of
The Bible to Afan Oromo was the most significant contribution made by Onesimos
. According Mekuria(1994), his translation of the Scriptures is regarded by historians and linguists as a great
intellectual feat and a remarkable accomplishment for a single individual.
Further, Feyisa(1996:22) explained the contribution of Onesmos Nasib
by saying” He was a real pioneer in Oromiffa literature. His translation
using the Geez alphabet with an additional glottal letter for ‘
dh’
is still the standard work in the field, and without doubt he was a
father of Oromiffa literature.” He wrote Afan Oromo in Ethiopic
script.
The Contribution of Sheik Bakri Sapalo to the Development of Afan Oromo Writing
According to Hayward and Mohammed (1981), Sheikk Bakri was a prolific
writer. Starting from his early teaching, he began to write in Afan
Oromo. In addition to this, he invented an indigenous Oromo alphabet
(Feyisa,1996). The development of the indigenous alphabet is said to
have taken place during 1956, at the village of Haii. Hayward and
Mohammed (1981:553) described his invention as ”
It does seem highly
likely that Shaykh Bakri was the first Oromo who saw clearly the
problems inherent in attempting to write the Oromo language by means of
orthographic systems which had been devised primarily for other
languages.” He was interested to develop an indigenous alphabet in
that he had strong nationalistic aspiration and felt that possessing
glorious historical traditions and a uniquely democratic society,
lacking a means of writing as a great problem. Feyisa(1996:22) stated
that” He devised scripts an indigenous and original system of writing as
part of his attempt to overcome problems of orthography in writing
Oromiffa. He devised scripts which were different in forms , but
followed the symbol-sounds forming patterns of Geez system.”
Having developed the alphabet, the Sheik Sapalo taught it to all his
students and to others as well. Then, people began to exchange letters
in the new alphabet. In addition to letters, Sheik Bakri himself
employed his alphabet for writing his poems and other works, and
manuscripts of these are also reported to be in existence. It is
claimed that there are still people who can use it.
After the news of the development of the scrip of Afan Oromo was
spread rapidly, it encountered negative reaction from the officials of
the area. Nevertheless, Sheik Bakir Sapalo continued to use his own
alphabet for writing. Hence, Sheik Bakir contributed his own share in
the development of Afan Oromo writing by developing unique script.
The Adoption of Latin Script, Qubee, as Formal Orthography of Afan Oromo.
As described the preceding section, Afan Oromo has been written for
different purposes using different scripts by various individuals.
During the previous governments, Afan Oromo was not used as a medium of
instruction. However, after1970s the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) began
to use it as official language in the librated areas (Tilahun, 1993).In
addition, after 1991, it was proclaimed that the native languages can
be used as medium of instruction as well as can be studied as a subject
of a study. Thus, there is a need to develop one formal script that can
be used by all speakers of the language uniformly.
Around 1970s both Sabean and Latin were suggested to be the scripts
of Afan Oromo. During this time, Mengistu partially lifted the ban on
the use of Afan Oromo and allowed the use of Sebean script
(Tilahun,1993). However, in November 1991, five months after the
downfall of Mengistu, OLF called Oromo scholars and intellectuals a
general meeting. Tilahun(1993:36) described the objective and the
participants of the meeting as
“The purpose of the meeting was to
adopt the Latin script that OLF had been using or suggest an
alternative. Over 1000 men and women attended the historic meeting
which met in the Parliament Building in Finfinnee.” After long
hours of the discussion, it was decided that the Latin script was to be
adopted. There are different reasons for the adoption of Latin script.
However, the major ones are linguistic, pedagogical and practical
reasons.
The first was linguistic reason. On the meeting, Sebean
script was suggested as an alternative. However, it was agued that its
roughly 250 characters are too clumsy to adapt to Afan Oromo. Tilahun
also indicated the weakness to adopt Sabean saying” It must also be
added that the Sabean syllabary not only fails to indicate vowel length
and germination, but also slows down a writer’s speed since each symbol,
which cannot be written cursively, must be printed.”(1993:37). Afan
Oromo, excluding those sounds represented by P,V,Z, has 34 basic sounds
(10 vowels and 24 consonants). Thus, for linguistic reason, it was
decided that the Latin alphabet be adapted to Afan Oromo.
The second one is pedagogical reason. According to
Tilahun (1993), the 37 characters (or 34+ P,V,Z) can be learned in less
than a month. In fact, only 32 symbols (minus the 5 double vowels) need
to be recognized. For an Oromo learning these signs and sounds they
represent, the task is even much easier It may take a non-Oromo a little
longer because producing the sounds-especially those not found in
his/her language-takes time.
Practical reason is the third reason for the adoption of Latin script.
Latin script was adapted to many languages of world. Thus, Qube Afan
Oromo aligned itself with the so many countries of the world that use
Latin script. For example, one practical advantage that is an Oromo
child who has learned his own alphabet can learn the form of the English
script in a relatively short period of time. Another practical reason
is that its alphabetic writing’s adaptability to computer technology
(Tilahun,1993). To sum up, the decision to adapt Latin Script as the
writing alphabet of Afan Oromo was made by talking the above three main
reasons into consideration. Subsequently, Afan Oromo was made the medium
of instruction for elementary level and administration in
Oromiya.(Mekuria,1994). After the adoption, different textbooks and
other useful reading materials began to be published by the new
alphabet. In September 1993, school instruction was legally launched in
Afan Oromo for the first time.
Hence, the use of Latin Script for Afan Oromo writing is based
on scientific evidence. Not based on the dream of keeping fake
Ethiopianism. Engineer Yilikal should have to know these facts before
opening his mouth.
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