Baro Tumsa
Baro Tumsa was an Oromo pharmacist, lawyer and Oromo nationalist and political activist, who was instrumental for the creation of the Oromo Liberation Front. .
Early life
Baro Tumsa was born in 1938 in Bodji Karkaro, Wallaga, Oromia. His father, Tumsa Silga, and his mother, Nasise Chiracho, died while he was very young and so he was raised by his elder brother, Gudina Tumsa. He had one sister, Rahel, and two brothers, Gudina and Nagassa.Education and political activism
Education
Tumsa completed primary education and part of his secondary education in the town of Nekemte, Wallaga, and later in Bishoftu, East Shewa. Subsequently, he joined the then Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa and graduated with BSc in Pharmacy, in 1966. Tumsa was mentored and encouraged to study Law by the likes of Dhinsa Lepisa, and Baqala Nadhi from the Macha and Tulama Self-help Association and, he re-joined Haile Selassie I University Law School, where he completed his legal education. His LLM thesis entitled "Decentralisation and Nation Building" remains a seminal piece on the issue of national question in the Ethiopian Empire..Political activism
Membership of the MTA
The Macha and Tulama Self-Help Association attracted Oromo students from Haile Selassie I University, including Tumsa, Lieutenant Mamo Mazamir, Ibsa Gutama, Mekonnen Gallan, Taha Ali Abdi, and many others. With the exception of Mamo Mazamir, who was martyred in 1969, the rest were founding members of the Oromo Liberation Front in 1974. Besides Tumsa, Mazamir was among the university students who contributed to the radicalization of the Association. This establishes a direct link between the transition from the Macha and Tulama Association to the OLF.Leader of Student Movement
Tumsa, as the Chairman of Ethiopian Student Union, and his fellow Oromo, the President of the Parliament secretly arranged for the staging of the first ever 'Land to the Tiller' demonstration against the Haile Selassie regime. Tumsa, cognisant of the fact that the Oromo were usurped from their ancestral land by the colonial settlers, is credited for the coining of the slogan 'Land to the Tiller'. The university students not only energized the movement but also raised the famous slogan of 'Land to the Tiller' which became the binding revolutionary slogan for the Ethiopian student movements both at home and abroad. From that day until the unseating of the imperial government, this slogan was never missing from the almost annual event of student anti-government demonstrations. Today, after nearly a half-century, the new generation of Oromo students are rallying under the slogan 'the matter of land is the matter of life' in their resistance against farm-land grabbing.Organizer
Tumsa is admired for two things: First, by his deep and profound understanding of the Oromo cause as a colonial question and his leadership in organising the Oromo was a distinct political force. Second of all, he is revered for his unequalled natural talent of bringing people together. He was singlehandedly instrumental in bringing Oromo from all regions and background together and cementing their unity. Among the Addis Ababa-based underground movement, Tumsa and Rev. Gudina Tumsa played a crucial role in keeping alive the spirit of resistance. They both gave their lives for the Oromo cause.Ideologue and Founder of the Oromo Liberation Front
Tumsa was instrumental in the formation of the Oromo Liberation Front. It was he who organized a secret conference in Addis Ababa in December 1973. Among the participants, Hussein Sura, the leader of Beirut-based organization, Elemo Qilixxu, the leader of Aden-based Oromo National Liberation, and Baker Yusuf, came from the Middle East. Several individuals from different regions of Oromia also participated in that conference, out of which the OLF was formed in early 1974. According to Olana Zoga, the author of History of Macha and Tulama Association, under the leadership of Tumsa, undergroundmembers of the Association which gave rise to the OLF took advantage of the February 1974 Revolution and contributed to the overthrow of Haile Sellassie's regime in four ways: First, its members effectively used the limited freedom of the press, which flourished in Ethiopia from March to June 1974 for the purpose of exposing Oromo colonial experience. Second, its parliamentary members regularly challenged many of the regime's policies. Third, its members conducted agitation among the university and high school students. Fourth and most important, the underground members of the military police forces were instrumental in organizing the committee of the men in uniform. From this aspect it is very clear that the OLF grew out of the underground Macha and Tulama Association, and it is firmly rooted in Oromo national consciousness and it bases its ideological fire on Oromo nationalism. Consequently, it can be said that the emergence of a national movement indicates that a population or social group has reached a new stage on the road to nationhood: the transition to political action. The nation, or the sections of a population that consider themselves to be a nation, attempt to create their own state.