Why is Fano Stronger in Gojam Compared to Other Amhara Regions?

Yonas Biru

Of recent, I have become a target of an Amhara Shene cabal (Dr. Bruke Lemma) who accuses me of “acting as a mouthpiece for the monstrous autocrat [Abiy Ahmed], advancing the Oromummaa agenda, and infiltrating and undermining the Amhara leadership.”

The idiocy of the Ethiopian politics is often attributable to people who accidentally find interest in politics, straying out of their areas of expertise such as accounting and engineering. These are professions guided by handbooks. The accountant is advised if the debit and credit lines are not equal ችግር አለ ማለት ነው. The engineer is reminded “ድልድይ ስትሰራ ሲቢርቶ እና ብረት ተጠቀም.”

Politics is too complex to be reduced to a handbook. When engineers and accountants try to become political analysts, they get lost. I thought this may be Dr. Bruke’s problem. My curiosity prompted me to check his expertise. I found out he holds a PhD in biodiversity. This is the study of እንቁራሪት፣ እንሺላሊት፣ ጉሬዛ፤ ቢራቢሮ፣ ከርከሮ፣ ጊንጥ and ሸለ ምጥማጥ, among others. His was an intellectually ambitious and rather audacious jump in pay grade to go from studying እንሺላሊት to analyzing human interactions in a complex game of politics.

Some may see the above paragraphs as an unnecessary distraction. Such people miss the point that without understanding the accidental oddballs who infest our political landscape one cannot understand the over-supply of idiotic cacophony that has overcrowded rational discourse.

Dr. Bruke’s ad hominem against me was triggered by one of my articles titled “Critical Steps to Jumpstart Fano’s Stalling Momentum,” dated Nov. 19, 2023. My article’s objectives were three.

• Bring to light “current realities and painful undercurrents that the government and the Fano enterprise must come to terms with.”
• Show “the war is fought between a government that is in a cult-like trance sleepwalking into an endless war and an Amhara uprising that lacks political technology and theology to realize its full potential to score a definitive political victory.
• Help “bring Fano’s political and military spheres into alignment and show a path for a strategic political and military victory.

The article opened with the following short paragraph about the Prime Minister (Boy King):

“Since the Fano uprising, the Boy King’s God-like Omnipotence and Satanic Malevolence have been successfully challenged. Consequently, Oromummaa’s mass eviction and mass murder policies of ethnic cleansing have waned to a significant degree.”

It went on further to highlight:

“The government must come to terms that the use of drones and tanks against Fano fighters and civilian targets will certainly not bring the Fano enterprise to its knees. To the contrary, it will galvanize the people and draw even the most reluctant Amhara into the war theatre. The government must also come to terms that the Boy King has lost his trustworthiness, owing it to his betrayal of everyone who trusted him, his pathological tendency to lie, and most of all his lack of human sympathy.”

Prior to this, I have written many articles reiterating the same points. For example, in August 2023, I published a proposal for Fano Manifesto in which I described the Fano movement as follows:

In the unmitigated Oromummaa zeal for hegemonic subjugation, the people of Amhara are seen as a stumbling block. Therefore, Amhara is targeted as enemy number one. Words cannot describe the evil and savagery of Oromo-PP and Oromummaa against the Amhara. Fano raised arms as a matter of self-defense and survival against such a force that is hellbent on subjugating or annihilating it…

I have also authored seven articles on Oromummaa and Gadda with such titles as (1) “The Oromummaa Politics: Weaponized with Lies and Soaked in Blood”; (2) “Oromummaa is a Low Grade Nazification Movement”; and (3) “Slavery and Terror Were Integral Parts of the Gadaa System.”

My position on Oromummaa has made me a target of leading Oromummaa intellectuals including the God father of the Oromummaa political theology (Professor Asafa Jalata) in over half a dozen published articles. One such article characterized me as “the leader of the Amhara supremacist Nafxanyaa, an Amhara version of the American Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the most hateful and violent group in history.”

It takes an organic idiot dumbified by a hermitized culture to accuse me of “acting as a mouthpiece for the monstrous autocrat [Abiy Ahmed] and advancing Oromummaa’s agenda”.

Considering the shortcomings of the Fano establishment, my article highlighted:

The Fano ecosystem including its diaspora support base needs to accept two fundamental points. First, in and of itself, having morally, legally, and politically justified cause for an armed uprising does not lead to a political victory. Second, military strength is a necessary condition for political victory, not a sufficient one.

The uprising of Fano is the best thing that has happened to Ethiopian politics since the savagery of Oromummaa invaded the political market. However, the sad reality is that Fano’s Military offensive appears to have stalled or at the very least lost its initial momentum.

This is attributable to the fact that the military uprising is conducted in a political vacuum. Fano needs to come to terms that its military advance is undermined by the lack of an inclusive political architecture with a robust political strategy and a viable endgame along with a flexible roadmap.

Anybody who thinks Fano will march into Addis under current circumstances is an Uber-idiot. Furthermore, anybody who knows anything about anything related to political conflict resolution and coalitions formation knows the እድር-ወ-ፅዋ tradition that relies on the science of አንተም ተው አንቺም ተይ doctrine of እርቅ will not work to unite different Fano factions. Such conflict resolution traditions were effective in the 19th and early 20th century. They do not work in the 21 century!

I consistently named the Eskinder Nega and Shaleka Dawit Woldegiorgis team as a liability to the Fano movement. In this regard, I stressed:

Fanos success depends on its ability to fend off political extremists hovering inside and outside of its enterprise. The sooner it repulses such characters, the sooner it will achieve its full potential.

Regarding Eskinder I wrote, he was an award-winning and praiseworthy human rights warrior. But his extremist tendency, checkered track record, and demonstrated inability to make strategic decisions in complex and uncertain situations make him unfit to be a political leader. The people he appointed as his right hand is a telling example. First it was Ermias Legesse and then Shaleka Dawit. He should have limited his role to being the symbol of the resistant movement without seeking a political leadership position.

My view on the Shaleka is that he is a liability for the Fano movement. He lacks political savviness, diplomatic subtlety, and moral fortitude to lead any political movement. For example, his public statement that “ኢትዮጵያ የሚያስፈልጋት አማራ አማራ የሚሸት መንግስት ነው” was idiotic and a fodder to extremist Oromummaa forces. He also has questionable track record with undesirable baggage.

The very people who in August and November 2023 threw an avalanche of ad hominem toward me turned around and signed a petition demanding the Shaleka to resign, accusing him of undermining the Fano movement. The Shaleka was forced to resign. In the meantime, the Fano enterprise unceremoniously pushed out Eskinder from the movement.

In What Way Did Eskinder and Shaleka Dawit Undermine the Fano Movement?

After he fled Addis Ababa, Eskinder was protected by Gojam Fanos. At the time, Fano was led by Dr. Wondewosen who was later arrested after the Information Network Security Administration (INSA) intercepted his telephone conversation with Meskerem Abera and found his location.

Under Dr. Wondewosen leadership, Fano had a designated underground team that was supposed to fill potential leadership void if the leaders were arrested or killed. Undermining the designated successors, Eskinder with pressure from Shaleka Dawit and Ethio-360 extremist Amhara Shene clowns declared himself the Leader of Fanno and appointed the Shaleka as his international spokesperson.

This sent a shock wave through the Fano ecosystem both at home and in the diaspora. Their action divided the movement into pro-Eskinder (mostly extremist forces) and anti-Eskinder groups. Pro-Eskinder forces were primarily diaspora forces. It had little to no fighting force on the ground.

The strategy was to use diaspora forces as a leverage to hijack the Fano movement at home. Shaleka mobilized over a million dollars from the diaspora to help finance the Fano movement. He required Fano leaders across the Amhara tribal land to pledge allegiance to Eskinder to get a share of the diaspora funds that were collected in the name of all Fanos.

Some Fano groups threatened Eskinder. In the meantime, members of the diaspora community who were active in the fund-raising drive tried to appeal to the Shaleka to stop his backdoor political manipulation. The Shaleka ignored their appeal. This led ZemedeKun Bekele (a member of Amhara Shene himself) to write to his 330,000 social media followers, stating:pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

“… እኔን ተዉኝና እናንተው እንደልማዳችሁ [ገንዘብ አሰባስቡ] ብላችሁም አልሰማኝ ብላችሁ በግድ አስገብታችሁኛል። ከገባሁ አይቅር እንግዲህ እኔ ዘመዴ አይቶ ማለፍ፣ ሴራ መታገስ አይሆንልኝም እና እንደተለመደው እንደፈረደብኝ የጭቃ ዥራፌን ላነሳ ነኝ። ቀልድ የለም። … እስክንድር በጎጃም አደጋ ቢደርስበትም ተጠያቂነቱ ከራሳችሁ ላይ አይወርድም። በተለይ ሻለቃ ዳዊት ወልደ ጊዮርጊስ ይሄ እርስዎንና ቲሞትን ይመለከታል። …የጎጃም የዐማራ ፋኖዎችም ነገሮችን በጥበብ ለማለፍ ስሩ። የሕዝብ አደራ ስላለብኝ ማንንም ሳላስፈቅድ ቀኝ ትከሻዬን ስለሸከከኝ ብቻ ይህንን ጽፌአለሁ።”

Even those who initially supported Eskinder’s team turned against it, accusing Shaleka Dawit as the culprit. They presented Eskinder as a victim of the Shaleka.

Why is the Amhara Shene’s Attack Against Me Revived After My Position Proved Right?

As noted above, my article that triggered the current onslaught against me was published on Borkena News on November 19, 2023. Dr. Bruke’s ad hominem was published a week later, on November 26. Why is it revived and widely circulated now?

The person who is spearheading the redistribution campaign is the Swedish Professor Girma Berhanu.

He is one of the key figures in the Eskinder-Shaleka-Ethio-360 establishment.

This is puzzling. When it comes to exposing the evils of Oromummaa, “ባባቷ እምላለሁ አባቴን አስክዳኝ” እንዳለው ዘፋኝ, the Swedish Professor አባቱን ተቶ በኔ ይምል ነበር. In one of his articles, he wrote “Dr. Yonas

Biru has aptly captured the Oromummaa evil agenda.” In his articles he extensively borrowed from my published pieces. He quoted 637 words or a page and a half from my work in just one of his articles. I am also aware that he has been widely circulating my articles to friends and relatives as a compelling analysis that “destroyed the Oromummaa ideological base.”

Of recent, he is widely sharing Dr. Bruke’s articles that markets me as a “ሆዳደር መፃጉዕ (Hunchback) who is serving Oromummaa’s agenda.” One thing is for certain. A unified Gojam Fano was established after the Shaleka-Eskinder-Ethio-360 circle lost its influence – just as I predicted it would. As members of Shaleka-Eskinder-Ethio-360 groupie, the good professor and Dr. Bruke are venting their anger and resentment by throwing their Amhara Shene hoots of disdain at me.

Why is Fano Stronger in Gojam Than in Other Parts of the Amhara Tribal Land?

Fano in Gojam not only survived the Shaleka/Eskinder/Ethio-360 divisive agenda but also managed to establish the strongest and most unified Fano to date. The question is: What sets Gojam apart from Fanos in Shewa, Gonder and Wello. The answer to this question is key to establishing a political architecture to unify Fano across the Amhara tribal land.

There are several factors. Chief among them is that Gojam is relatively more homogenous in terms social demography. For one it is considered the Bible belt of the Orthodox Community. Thought it has considerable Muslim community, they exist outside of the political power centers.

Fano in Wello exists in a region where Christians, Muslims Amharas, Oromos and Afars and to some degree Tigryans live together. The political power centers in major cities are notably diversified. The same is true to some degree in Gonder where there is a significant politically active Muslim community in political power centers. For example, when Jawar was trying to organize the Muslim community, his target was Gonder, not Gojam. Further, intermarriage rates between Amhara-Tigray and Amhara-Eritrea is common in Gonder. Shewa is also a reasonable diverse region. Therefore, establishing a unified Fano in Wello, Gonder and Shewa is more challenging than in Gojam.

It is time for the Fano enterprise to pause, reflect, retrospect and take midcourse correction where needed to bring its political end goal and military means into balance. Such a pivot is an absolute necessity to thwart its diminishing chances of success and align its trajectory to its strategic political goal.

Unifying Fano under a common political architecture requires a methodical process. First is to establish a political platform to develop a common agenda, and a robust strategy along with a concomitant roadmap and flexible and adaptive end goal. The agenda-setting and roadmap-building efforts must be transparent and inclusive to provide opportunity to all stakeholder to participate.

Unity that is based on a political agenda, strategy, roadmap, and end goal will change the social psychology of not only Fanos but also anti-government forces in the other tribal homelands. It helps to relieve lingering doubts between different social groups and as such inspire confidence and trust in the common agenda. Once a consensus on a minimum program is established, it will be easier to have different Fanos – small and large – coalesce around it. It will also open the door for a broader coalition with other movements in other tribal lands.

This has been my publicly expressed view in numerous articles and interviews with many social media outlets. In what way does this serve “as a mouthpiece for the monstrous autocrat [Abiy Ahmed] and advance the Oromummaa agenda?” ዶክተር ብሩክ ለማ ዝም ብሎ እንሽላሊት እና እን ቁራሪት ሲያባርር ቢውል ይሻለው ነበር። Politics is a complex topic outside the boundaries of his pay grade.

He Raised a big issues which made Oromuma politicians a big concern,
Then they sabotaged and killed him ! pic.twitter.com/VZbnpFZMCH

— TibuEthዮጵያ ( ቲቡ) (@Tibuethiopia) March 10, 2024