| Western Oromia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | |||||||||
| Capital | Gore | ||||||||
| Historical era | Second Italo-Ethiopian War | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Macha Oromo Confederation, also known as the Western Oromo Confederation or simply as Macha Oromo, was an Oromo separatist movement in Abyssinia during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The movement sought to split off from Abyssinia and become a mandate of the United Kingdom, but gained no international recognition.
Captain Esme Nourse Erskine was the British Consul at Gore from 1928 to 1936. During the Italian invasion 1935-1936, Erskine helped the Western Oromo Confederation chiefs with their application, which he probably drafted, to the League of Nations, in which Oromo chiefs asked “to be placed under a British mandate … until we achieve self government”. He forwarded the applications to the British Foreign Office. The British government declined to forward these applications to the League of Nations.
References
- London Gazette 4 December 1928 Issue 33444 page 7975.
- Morton, C. (2020). The Anthropological Lens: Rethinking EE Evans-Pritchard. Oxford University Press, USA. DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198812913.003.0006. p.149/150. Photographs of the applications, dated 25 May 1936, are in the National Archives, FO 371/20206.
- National Archives, FO 371/20206 and Heli von Rosen (2013), Gustaf von Rosen: An Airborne Knight-errant (English translation Printed privately), p.81 Carl Gustaf von Rosen: An Airborne Knight-errant - Heli von Rosen - Google Books.
Sources
- Smidt, Wolbert. "Western Galla Confederation". Encyclopaedia Aethiopica.
- Gebissa, E. (2002). The Italian Invasion, the Ethiopian Empire, and Oromo Nationalism: The Significance of the Western Oromo Confederation of 1936. Northeast African Studies, 9(3), new series, 75-96. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41931281
- Zewde, B. (1987). An Overview and Assessment of Gambella Trade (1904-1935). The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 20(1), 75-94. doi:10.2307/219279