Dr. Fikre Tolossa: A Presentation of new book entitled “True origin of Oromos and Amharas”

by Berhane Tadese /New York City/

Hosted by Ethiopian Community Mutual Association (ECMAA), Dr. Fikre Tolossa came to New York City on Saturday, December 10, 2016 to talk about his new book entitled “True origin of Oromos and Amharas”. Dr. Fikre Tolossa is a poet, playwright and an author. His new book has new revelation on Amharas and Oromos origin that have never read anywhere else. The book also explained that the name Ethiopia is derived from “Ethiops”, descendants of one common origin. He dismissed the name Ethiopia as originating from the ancient Greek. Many previous books written about Ethiopia’s history do not focus and address true origin Amhara and Oromo groups. They describe the Amharas and the Tigrians in the north as a Semitic group and the Oromo and the other southern ethnic groups as Cushitic. Dr. Fikre Tolossa’s new book challenge this assertions and describe the origin of the various ethnic groups in Ethiopia as decedents of the ten brothers of the same family. He tries to uncover the origin of Ethiopia going back to 4000 years.

Today the face book generations politics focus in current ethnic power politics rather than the common history of the various ethnic groups of Ethiopia. Now, Dr. Tolossa’s untold history of Ethiopia discover the common heritage and origin of the Amhara and Oromo people. It is an unprecedented revelation for most ordinary Ethiopians. The academicians and historians are now set in motion to examine his researched findings.  Dr. Fikre presented his work as educational contribution to the new generation. He claimed that all ethnic groups as Ethiopians faced many challenges. He referred historical instances where the gallant Ethiopian people stood side by side to defend the country from foreign invaders. The book also asserts that the current distorted view of Ethiopian history in some quarters  imply that the Amhara’s ruled Ethiopia by force imposing their power and will on Oromos and other ethnic groups as false presentation of history of Ethiopia. In fact Dr. Tolossa in his book demonstrates that the roles and contribution the Oromos made in the making of Ethiopian state and history. He states that the kings of Ethiopia during the last 700 years were or have an Oromo ethnic back ground.

In addition the book covers several significant topics on current Ethiopian issues such as:

• The impact of the of the late 1960^th Ethiopian student movements on current ethnic politics in Ethiopia.
• The history and use of Latin alphabet for Oromo language and engage the reader to examine whether the Geze alphabet would be better than the Latin alphabet for the writings of Oromo language.

This book presents a new and fresh perspective on Ethiopian history using ancient Ethiopian documents as its primary source. I urge all Ethiopians interested in the history of Ethiopia to get hold of the book and read it.

This presentation was held at 220 Manhattan Avenue in New York City. Quite a good number of people from New York metropolitan area attended the presentation. At the end of the meeting the author gave answer to several questions raised by the attendees. The Ethiopian community mutual assistance association (ECMAA) regularly invites Ethiopians and interested individuals in the metropolitan area to attend events, book reviews and presentations. It sponsors on relevant topics of Ethiopia. Stay tuned!