By Laalo Guduru*
A certain commenter on OPride.com regarding Olaanaa Abbaaxiiqi’s article, “Ignore Leenco Lata’s compromise idea at your own peril,” motivated me to write this article. Here is what the commenter said:
“Olaanaa Abbaaxiiqii,
“Thank you for this eloquent piece. I love the Titanic analogy. How so true! The warning signals you point out are so vividly clear – for those who have open eyes, I mean. The sad reality is that such great ideas and their bearers are trashed in Oromo mediascapes. If only we had a wee bit of respect for ourselves, we would also respect others. But alas!
“Instead of respectful disagreements, for an entire week now, I’ve been hearing the overwhelming negative voices of spin doctors and outright haters. A terrible spew of hate has been spilling into the Internet. Rather than taking responsibility, I’ve been observing Oromos battering and scapegoating Leenco for their own sins.”
Olaanaa Abbaaxiiqii responded,
“Thank you for daring to offer a respectful alternative voice! Thank you for daring to go against the grain. With this beautiful antidote to the poisonous week, I can now go back to work. Peace. Nagayaan.“
This hit me, and I started to think, “Why do they hate Leenco so much?” and that question begot another question, “Is there any underlying psychological condition for this hatred?” I confess, I am neither a psychologist nor a psychiatrist, and I don’t play one on TV. My little knowledge in psychology comes from some undergrad courses in college – which in reality means nothing, and from personal reading, which again is scattered, and does not amount to much. Therefore, please accept my convoluted explanation of the root cause of the irrationality of the section of the Oromo Diaspora with a grain of salt.
First, let it be clear that I am not talking about all Oromo Diaspora, and second, let it also be clear the haters are not as numerous as they appear to be, or as they want us to believe. I did conduct my very unscientific survey to understand who they are. I have clear evidence that a closely knit group of Diaspora Oromos have taken upon themselves, have motivated each other, and recruited some more, and visited every Oromo website or used the social media outlet by creating different accounts and names to trash Leenco in connection with this recent trip to Ethiopia. Notwithstanding this, I am not saying their number is insignificant, and it does not also, by any means, imply that everyone who has written against Leenco belongs to this group.
In fact, I do not also claim that every Leenco hater hate him for the same reason. In order to understand the root cause of the hate, one needs to understand who members of the Oromo Diaspora really are. This is not an easy undertaking. To know who they really are, you need to know where they have come from; how and why they had left their country; what had happened to them before they left and on the way coming here. You also have to understand what has happened to them after they have come here. How are they coping with life in foreign countries? How many years have they been here? Do they have jobs, careers, etc. – are some of the questions you have to ask. On top of that, it also requires the understanding of political psychology of émigrés in general.
A number of the loudest Oromo Diaspora Leenco haters, unfortunately, include Oromos who, at one time or another, had been active in the Oromo national liberation movement at different levels. Some, in fact, had suffered severe torture or long imprisonment, or had been in the armed conflict and had gone through a lot of trauma at the battlefield. As a result, some of these have untreated PTSD. When untreated, PTSD leads to recurring stress and anxiety, which result in outbursts of anger or rage. This anger is usually directed at people close to them, including people they used to adore. People with PTSD are more likely to have a personality disorder. They also are more likely to have depression and to abuse substances.
It is very hard for this group to conduct a rational political discourse without losing their temper or resorting to irrational malicious slander. Rather than condemning this group, we should rather understand the circumstances that landed them in such situation, and show them empathy and tolerance. These are victims of our resistance against oppression, thus, they should be celebrated and supported, but at the same time, they need psychological help.
Staying with the theme of mental condition, it is fair to say that, even beyond those who suffer from untreated PTSD, most of us who grew under the system of oppression are in one way or another psychologically affected. This is, at least, what the research of Dr. Grygier found. Oppressive environment produces certain measurable changes in personality. Dr. Grygier studied the mentality of Polish displaced persons in various camps and prisons, and produced a book dealing with personality changes, and more specifically, changes in the psychological aspect of culture, under oppression. His research, among others, concluded (1) that oppression tends to produce an extra-punitive attitude in the oppressed, diverting aggression to external persons and situations; (2) that it leads to psychopathy and crime; and (3) that, under foreign oppression, the psychological aspect of culture acquires the character of a psychopathic deviation.
The extra-punitive attitude is especially prevalent in response to frustration. Most Diaspora Oromos are, no question, except for those who are in denial, frustrated in the state of the Oromo struggle. As a result, the response of some becomes extra-punitive; that is, they cast the blame on others. For example, relatively younger individuals, who could have stayed back home and struggled against oppression either in a peaceful resistance manner or otherwise, find others like Leenco at fault for the decline of the movement. Not only that, they direct their anger and indignation toward him, and never look for a second at themselves and blame themselves or other factors as part of the cause. It is always somebody’s fault, and that somebody is usually Leenco. By pointing to this, I am not at all trying to blame the victims of oppression for the psychological stultification that oppression caused them. I am simply trying to understand the cause of their bizarre response they exhibit to people who have different ideas from them.
Just imagine how many Oromos have emigrated to Europe, U.S.A. and Australia in the last 20 years. And the vast majority of them are relatively between the ages of 18 and 40. If I am not mistaken, when Leenco and most of his comrades went into the bush to struggle for the cause they believed in, they were under 35. What standing would a person less than 40 years old have, who had abandoned the struggle back home and come to a foreign country to critic Leenco or anyone else, for that matter, for not fighting. Why wouldn’t they do the fighting themselves, rather than expecting only few individuals to die for them?
So what is the explanation? Why would such individuals who run away from where the struggle is, direct their blame day and night towards Leenco? The simple answer is because they have a deep-seated need to resolve their guilty conscious. They are cowards, and they know it. And for that, they always subconsciously blame themselves, and so they have a need to shift the blame from themselves to another. The more they blame others, the more they think they are free from the blame. They use Leenco as a way of cleansing themselves of their “sin.” It is this that the commenter on OPride.com called scapegoating in their comment. In scapegoating, feelings of guilt, blame and suffering are transferred away from a person or group so as to fulfill an unconscious drive to resolve or avoid such bad feelings. This is done by the displacement of responsibility and blame to another who serves as a target for blame both for the scapegoater and his supporters. (See http://www.scapegoat.demon.co.uk/)
One aspect of psychopathy that oppression produces is meanness. This is defined as lacking empathy and close attachments with others, disdain of close attachments, use of cruelty to gain empowerment, defiance of authority, and destructive excitement seeking. Some among Oromos clearly exhibit these symptoms in how they act against each other. If you carefully look at most of the comments directed at Leenco and follow some of the interviews that are full of callous uncalled name-calling, you can also clearly observe this. It is so unfortunate that, as victims of oppression, we unwittingly become complicit in our oppression by dragging down our leaders. We serve our oppressors by creating an environment that could not produce future leaders who could lead us in our struggle for liberation and equality.
Those myopic who lack imagination and foresight, of course, will not realize the long-term societal consequence of such irresponsible actions. Because they don’t realize the long-term effect, they cheer, clap and encourage them, thus adding to our national misery. Naturally, we don’t want to create demigod of our leaders, however, neither do we want to create an environment that discourage capable leaders from stepping forward to lead us. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have become so good, as a nation, at bringing down our leaders, the giants who could have taken us to the next level.
For others, the issue of Leenco is very personal. They cannot stand him because they don’t measure to him. His very existence is a testament and a daily reminder of their inadequacies. Contrasting themselves with him magnifies shame that can threaten their self-stability. Therefore, to protect their self-worth, they try to diminish him by devaluating him. Because they don’t measure to him, they try to bring him down to their own level by every means possible.
This brings me to a beautiful parable that I recently came over. It’s a conversation that a small eagle is having with an old owl about how some chickens wanted to pull her down to their level. Here is how it goes:
“They are angry with me, because I know what I am.” Said, the little eagle. “How do you know that they are angry with you?” “Because, they despise me for wanting to soar, they only want me to peck at the dirt, looking for ants, with them. But I can’t do that. I don’t have chicken feet, I have eagle wings.” “And what is so wrong with having eagle wings and no chicken feet?” Asked the old owl. “I’m not sure, that’s what I’m trying to find out.” “They hate you because you know that you are an eagle and they want you to think you are a chicken so that you will peck at the ground looking for ants and worms, so that you will never know that you are an eagle and always think yourself a chicken. Let them hate you, they will always be chickens, and you will always be an eagle. You must fly. You must soar.” Said the old owl.” ― C. JoyBell C.
There you get it; this is what it is for the other group. They want Leenco to be chicken with them. They resent his venture to soar, and try to put around his legs every wait they could marshal, to fetter him with their words, and everything they can, so that he would not be able to take off. At most, if they fly, they want to fly as high only as pigeons or sparrows could go, and hate his gut that he wants to soar to greater heights. The problem is, Leenco has no tolerance for such mediocrity. He always reads, develops himself, grows even bigger and broader wings, and based on new facts and conditions, he changes his mind, comes with new ideas and dares to put it into practice against all odds. In short, he always wants to soar up and up.
If he stumbles sometimes, it’s because he tries. He has a vision and remains focused no matter what the obstacle. He has an incorrigible can-do attitude that is not diminishing with age. As athlete Ojo Michael E. stated, “If you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights. But if you run with dogs, you will learn how to bark.” Whether we agree with his political program or not, let’s not be accomplice to those who try to shackle him, let’s rather in unison say, soar Leenco, soar! Let the eagle fly!
* Laalo Guduru: laaloguduru@gmail.com