Draped in traditional colors, including the red, white and black of the Oromo flag, crowds descended on the shores of Lake Hora Arsadi, 50 km southeast of Addis Ababa, for the annual Irreecha festival.
Accounting for about a third of Ethiopia’s 120 million people, the Oromo are the largest of 80 distinct groups that make up the vast, ethnically diverse nation in the Horn of Africa.
“The Oromo people come to the lake to give thanks to God for the change of the rainy season from winter to spring,” said Sabkebar Gezu, a 35-year-old small business owner.
To mark the passing of the seasons, participants, young and old, in Irreecha dip flowers in the lake and sprinkle themselves with holy water, amid traditional songs and dances in colorful outfits.
The Oromo are almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. Many call God Waaqa, and some still practice local beliefs that revolve around this life-giving ancestral deity.
In recent decades, there has been a revival of Oromo identity, long suppressed under successive waves of Ethiopian rulers, and traditions like the long-banned Irreecha have re-emerged.
“Our strength”
Tola Micha, wearing a striped tie in Oromo colors, remembers the revival of Irreecha in the late 1990s after the fall of the military-Marxist Derg regime in 1991.
At the beginning, there were “a few hundred”: “Now there are many of us and I am proud of it,” said the 52-year-old.
“Ireecha is our fist. This represents our strength.
Sabkebar said Irreecha was a “major” festival for his people, but despite the celebrations, he did not forget that there were “still many unresolved questions regarding the Oromo”.
“The past generation made a sacrifice so that our generation could come here and celebrate it,” he said. Among the crowd, political chants interspersed the lively singing and dancing.
“We are marginalized! “” was one refrain, while others spoke of the desire for greater respect as a people and concerns about Oromos in prison. Others called for an end to the violent armed conflict raging in Oromia, a restive region and homeland of the Oromo.
Violence
Oromia is plagued by armed violence and anti-government insurgencies and has witnessed ethnic massacres during the last years.
In 2018, Abiy Ahmed became the first Oromo to lead Ethiopia, and many hoped for greater representation and respect for a long-marginalized people.
But many Oromo complain of continuing political and economic persecution, even under the leadership of one of their own.
Many Irreecha attendees struggled to avoid discussing the thorniest political issue, but echoed broader concerns about Oromo identity and their place in Ethiopia.
“We cannot say that the issue of the Oromo people is completely resolved, but it is better than before,” said Kiya Tadessa, a 24-year-old NGO worker.
Ababa Korsa, a 30-year-old accountant, said the right to celebrate Irreecha “was not given to us for free and many shed their blood and their sacrifices were paid for.”
“Even today we cannot say that we are fully liberated and many problems remain unanswered,” he said.
“However, part of it is better to come here and celebrate our culture freely.”
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