Yonas Biru, Ph.D
The story behind the statute is that Emperor Menilik brutalized Oromo women going as far as cutting their breast to terrorize the Oromo and force them into subjugation. The first time the story of breast mutilation was ever written was in 1999 in a book titled “የቡርቃ ዝምታ – የታሪካዊ ልብ ወለድ ድርሰት” (The Silence of Burqa: A Fictional History Essay.” It was written by a Tesfaye Gebreab, a TPLF cadres of Eritrean origin.
The Silence of Burkqa is based on an Oromo folklore about a river that was flowing underground. The story is that the river sank underground feeling ashamed by the people of Oromo who were not able to win their freedom. The folklore was that it would reemerge and flow overground, only after the people of Oromo win their freedom.
The utterly disgraceful Oromo political elites adopted Tesfaye Gebreab’s fiction as a real story and insist it is a historical fact. Soon after the TPLF was dethroned, some Oromos started to speak up. For example, On April 21, 2019, Addisu Arega gave a speech on the topic. He sated: “Time and resources were spent [by TPLF] to create an intractable conflict between Amhara and Oromo. Tesfaye Gebreab’s book is one example.”
Here is his statement verbatim. “አማራ እና ኦሮሞን የማይታረቁ እና አብረው መኖር የማይችሉ ለማስመሰል ገንዘብ ተበጅቶ ብዙ ስራ ሲሰራ ነበር። ከዛ ውስጥ አንዱ በተስፋዬ ገብረአብ የተፃፈው የቡርቃ ዝምታ መፅሃፍ አንዱ ነው።” Soon after, he faced a coordinated attack from extremist tribal Oromos who demanded for his resignation. He was forgiven after he issued a public apology, attributing his statement to his ignorance and lack of experience.
Addisu was not the only Oromo who accused TPLF of concocting the Anolee story. Merera Gudina, the chair of the most prominent Oromo opposition party shares Addisu’s opinion. Speaking of TPLF Merera said: They built industries in Tigray. For us they build a statue, symbolizing a mutilated breast (እነሱ መቀሌ ላይ ትልልቅ ኢንዱስትሪዎችን ይገነባሉ ለኛ ግን የተቆረጠ ጡት የሚያሳይ ሃውልት ይሰሩልናል. Shamefully, this has not stopped Merera Gudina from using the Anolee fabricated story for political gain.
