Highland Ethiopian’s Settlement causes catastrophe to the Anuak People

Gambela is an Anuak land that had no colonizer or country that had violated its sovereignty for centuries. The Anuak land is ruled by kings and chiefs of Anuaks until the intruding of British in 17th & 18th century. British had made an attempt to control the Anuak’s kingdom which resulted into bloodshed that caused heavy losses to British in 1912 in a battle led by Major C. H. Leveson who was defeated by King Akway Ucham followed by Ethiopian invasion led by Majid Abud al-Askar on 26 May 1934 who lost in similar way to chief Urubulu.

The repulsion of both foreigners’ intruders had left both governments planning for revenge which had been interrupted by the World War II. It was later during civil war in Sudan in 1956 and birth of communist regime in Ethiopia in 1974 that rocked the Anuak’s kingdom. The communist government in Ethiopia had dismantle the Anuak’s political structure and let the Anuaks vulnerable to the current occupation and settlement of highland Ethiopians in Anuaks’ land which is the core topic of this article.

Settlement has been used as a means of occupation and elimination of indigenous people from their land by European in America and Australia. The impact of settlement had been severe and devastating on the indigenous people in both countries and left a scar that won’t disappear for centuries. The indigenous people have been hunted like animals, position and infested with uncommon diseases that wiped them out of their land.

This might be a lesson learnt by Ethiopia government these days and found it feasible to adopt in order to subdue and control the Anuaks and take their ancestral land they have occupied for centuries. Ethiopia had made first settlement in the Anuaks land in 1985 in pretext of 1984’s drought that killed many Ethiopians; however, it was reversed by the change of government that took place in 1991. The second attempt which is in progress now is done in pretext of sham regional developing scheme.

As I had mentioned in one of my article “Impact of Gambela development on the Anuaks”, thousands of highlanders had been brought in as laborers to work in cotton plantation ignoring the unemployed Anuaks or indigenous people in the region who have been forced out of their land and left with nothing for living. This is a new strategy of settlement to avoid the massive operation like it was done in the past by Col. Mengestu H/Mariam in 1985 in order not to alert the indigenous people of the intentional occupation. 

The current settlement and the pervious one had already created series damages in the region. The Anuaks who are the first victims of settlement had been exposed to assimilation, depression, prostitution, crime, and communicable diseases such as HIV AIDS and others. The most current incident is that unknown disease had broken out in Abobo district the development site, killing many people and hospitalized large number of people. The majority of the victims were both male and female teenagers. This epidemic had broken out after villagers had been confronted by the government to vacate the villages for the development projects because their land has been allocated to the developers from highland Ethiopia.

As to the latest information from Abobo district, Ethiopia government has done nothing to investigate the cause of the death of the residents. This could be a plot to make Anuaks die out in peace without violence like that of December 13, 2003 that claimed more than four hundreds lives and forced thousands to exile when government took a genocidal action against the Anuaks. So far many similar actions had been done such as deploying HIV Positive prostitutes screened from Addis Ababa’s sex businesses to Gambela, medicine and food positioning. All these were design to decline the number of Anuaks rapidly. From 1985 up to today, Anuaks have experienced a drastic population decline ever than before.

What can we do then to reverse the evil act of Ethiopia government against the Anuak society? I cited the case of America and Australia as example. In these countries, churches and others citizens who have great humanitarian feeling for human being had fought for the right of the indigenous people and some did scarified theirs life to reverse the atrocity of settlers. Do we have the same churches and citizens who do likewise in Ethiopia? I don’t think so. If they are they will be overpowered by the government as we have witnessed in civil right activities in the past.

Therefore, I would like to call upon all Anuaks communities overseas and Anuaks’ friends to stand up against this settlement aim at the extinction of Anuak tribe. We have to call upon international communities as we did on December 13, 2003 to reverse this catastrophe our people are facing at home.

This piece is written by Ojulu Odola. You may reach me via Ojulu@oputsnet.com.au.