SIZE- 375,000 Square Miles, or, 600,000 square kilometers; Larger than France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium & the Netherlands combined.
POPULATION- 40 million; 3rd. largest nationality in Africa; single largest nationality in East Africa.
RELIGION- Waaqa, Islam, Christian.
RESOURCES- Breadbasket of the Horn of Africa -cereals including wheat, barley, sorghum, maize, tafi; exports includes coffee, oil seeds, hides and skins; it has the largest livestock holding in Africa; forestry - houses all the forest and wildlife reserves of the Horn including unique species like Nyala-lbex, Colobus monkey and the red fox. minerals - two of three mineral belts of the region including gold, silver, platinum, uranium, marble, Nickel, and natural gas.
HISTORY- Locale of the 3.5 million year old Lucy, or Chaltu in Oromo, Croatia of the Upper Nile known and recorded in history by such names as Punt, Cush, and Ethiopia, has hosted numerous pioneering human achievements including the development of the earliest pebble tools (circa 70,000 BC), the domestication of animals (circa 5000 BC), and regional trade in antiquity in gold, ivory, myrrh and frankincense with Pharoahnic Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia. Early in history, the Oromo developed an indigenous democratic system similar to the Grecian Polls called Gada in which elected officials including the Abba Gada(President), the Abba Dula (Commander of the Army), the Abba Hori (Chief of the Treasury), and nine Hayyuus (Judges) assumed public office for non-renewable 8 year terms. With universal male training in warfare including equestrian skills, archery and the martial arts, the Oromo remained independent until the last decade of the 19th century, when Abyssinians from the North aided by modern European arms, managed to conquer them. Since then, successions of autocrats from Menelik to Mengistu have systematically suppressed Oromo culture, looted Oromo resources, divided the people by region and religion in the idiom of Ethiopian unity, thusly fostering instability, war and famine.
POLITICAL OBJECTIVE- The fundamental political objective of the Oromo people is to exercise their inalienable right to national self determination to liberate themselves from a century of oppression and exploitation, and to form, where possible, a political union with other nations on the basis of equality, respect for mutual interests and the principle of voluntary associations.
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