Bakkalcha (በከልቻ) Newsletter’s No. 1 Handwritten Copy and the Need to Take the Facebook “Share” to the Next Oromo Village and Town, Learning from the Previous Generation

In the mid to late 1970’s, when the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) revamped itself for the coming fierce struggle against remnants of the NeftegnaSystem and the brutal military dictatorship that was serving the interests of the Neftegna System, it launched newsletters in Afan Oromo and Amharic to educate and awaken the Oromo people. One of such newsletters was Bakkalcha (በከልቻ) – which was the official Amharic voice of the Oromo Liberation Front from 1976 to early 1980’s. Bakkalcha (በከልቻ) was handwritten by Oromo Nationalist activists and then duplicated through copiers for distribution to villages and towns across Oromia and beyond. In those days, duplicating machines were not readily available like today, thus whenever there was no such duplicating machine around them, the activists wrote thousands of copies by hand – day and night – to make the newsletters ready for distribution to educate and awake the Oromo people. From East to West Oromia – from North to South Oromia – the newsletters were distributed by ordinary people to other ordinary people to bring about the extraordinary change the people sought in Oromia – that extraordinary change advocated by ordinary people was FREEDOM – BILISUMMAA! In the mist of the total darkness, Bakkalcha (በከልቻ) and the other OLF newsletters shone like a morning star and advocated to quench the Nation’s quest for freedom and democracy.

Today, it is no secret that the new Tigrean Neftegna Ethiopian government has made free press impossible in the Ethiopian empire. Today, for a nation of 40-million Oromos, there is no single newspaper in Afan Oromo. In addition, the Tigrean Neftegna Ethiopian government has blocked the Oromo people from the Internet. The penetration rate of the Internet in the Ethiopian empire is the lowest in the world; even the state-less Somalia has better access to the Internet than the Ethiopian empire. The reason the Tigrean Neftegna does not want Oromia to get connected to the Internet is to keep it in total darkness. This generation must shutter down this total darkness, and take the Facebook “SHARE” to Oromian villages and towns by duplicating and distributing information found on online Oromo media sites. “SHARE” the information by printing, duplicating and distributing it. This generation must be the morning star for Oromia by tearing down the information darkness that the Tigrean Neftegna government has put the Oromo people in. Until the dawn of freedom, the morning star must shine in Oromia.

Here’s the handwritten ORIGINAL copy of Bakkalcha (በከልቻ) No. 1 from ~1976: