The mistake of establishing an Amhara regional state in the early 1990s, created the space to reconfigure an Amhara identity and an expansionist Amhara nationalism that has now become the source of destabilization in the country.
This ambiguous state of affairs, in which the Oromo were nominally free, whilst in practise still colonised, was one of the most dangerous and critical of times in their history.
The fundamental paradox of Adwa is this: the very Ethiopia that inscribed with anti-colonial meanings after its victory over European colonialism was a colonizing state itself.
A popular Ethiopian nursery rhyme goes አበበ በሶ በላ። Abebe, the most common name for boys in Amharic, eats beso, a traditional breakfast meal made out of barley. In the second line, Caala, equally common a name for boys in Afaan Oromo, grabs …a dagger!