Afan Oromo first transmission

December 2013 marks the 39th year since the first transmission of the 'Afan Oromo' program on the state-owned 'Ethiopian Radio.' The 'Afan Oromo' program of the 'Ethiopian Radio' began in December 1974 - prior to that, Afan Oromo was banned from being transmitted on radio or, for that matter, from being used in all official arenas; even after 1974, the ban on Afan Oromo in official arenas continued - rendering the 1-hour per day 'Afan Oromo' radio program a token effort by the Ethiopian empire. At the beginning, there was hope that the 'Afan Oromo' radio program would be an outlet for Oromo stories; however, soon after its first transmission, the 'Afan Oromo' program degenerated into the mouthpiece of the Ethiopian empire in Afan Oromo. To relate it to current affairs, the recent SABC's (South African Broadcasting Corporation's) interview with Capt. Gutu Dinka (the real "interviewee") and the so-called Prof. Mamo Muche epitomizes the relationship between the Oromo people and the 'Afan Oromo' program of the 'Ethiopian Radio.' The real storyteller is subdued to voicelessness, and those in the Ethiopian empire speak their version of the story on the airwaves. Unless the Oromo nation develops own modern media outlet to tell the Oromo stories, the nation's long walk to freedom will be prolonged - the struggle should never be to demand the oppressor to also speak in Afan Oromo (i.e. in addition to the oppressor's language), but for the oppressed to develop modern media outlet to stop voicelessness in this era of modern media.

* Photo: From Gadaa.com's Archives (An Elder Being Interviewed by Citizen/Radio Journalists - date: late 1970's; Oromo elders are considered a library with archived oral history and wisdom of the Oromo).