the continuing practice of eviction and land dispossession, all in the name of the Addis Ababa Master Plan. This Master Plan expands the territory of Addis Ababa into the neighboring Oromia regional state which ignited rage about ethnic discrimination. For Oromo people in many parts of Ethiopia, the Master Plan expansion also heightened their yearning for independence. On the day of a cooperative meeting organized by a Korean NGO, I learned about the sociopolitical meaning of the tree under which the villagers were gathered. It was under this Oda tree that many historical events took place, including the massacre at Aanolee. But the Oda tree had a longer history as the meeting place for the Gadaa system, the traditional political organization of Oromo people, because the Oda tree can provide shade for hundreds of people. Oromo people are proud of the democratic characteristics of Gadaa system and often proclaim that Oromo people invented a democratic political system 400 years ago, before Americans founded a democratic country in the western world. Indeed, the center of the Oromia state flag prominently features the symbolic Oda tree.
In Iteya, there are two places that people simply call ‘Korea’: an elementary school and a public health training center where I live. Both buildings were constructed by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), which also sends volunteers. In the public health training center, I found several memorials for the Korean War. Photos of families holding portraits of their fallen soldiers are displayed prominently in the lounge. In the auditorium, a huge placard explaining Ethiopia’s participation in the Korean War covered the entire back wall. Some Arsi Oromo people argue that the Korean government concentrates their global health and rural development projects in the Arsi Zone because many Arsi Oromo soldiers took part in the Korean War. This connection is why the Korean global health program has spaces designed to remember the Korean War. In the middle of my field year, political unrest concerning Oromo people went on for more than three months over
In some ways, one can argue that the Oromo people’s democratic alternatives were more successfully navigated in today’s political climate than they were in the past. Although the Gadaa system does not actively exist anymore, the symbolism of holding community meetings under the Oda tree and inscribing the symbol of Oda tree in the regional flag demonstrates Oromo people’s yearning for some kind of return to democratization. As Walter Benjamin once said, holding onto fragments of the past, such as the Gadaa system and the Oda tree, can overcome the present and give hope to the future, in this case, a future of democratization and independence. A new Oda tree has been planted in the middle of the public health training center as a gesture to this symbolic future.
Image 3: Oda tree in the Korean public health training center
VOLUME 9 | 2015 / 2016 NEWSLETTER
35