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.
If Oromo elites do not learn from the tragedy of the association, their fate in the 1990s will not be different from the fate of the leaders of the association in the 1960s.
I thought Afaan Oromo would not be able to endure and that Wallo’s fate was looming up for all Oromiyaa. So, though I had no money for the project, I made up my mind to try to save my language from sinking into oblivion by recording at least part of its vocabulary on paper.
