Western Galla Confederation Explained
| Conventional Long Name: | Western Oromia |
| Era: | Second Italo-Ethiopian War |
| Life Span: | 1936 |
| P1: | Ethiopian Empire |
| Flag P1: | Flag of Ethiopia (1897-1936; 1941-1974).svg |
| S1: | Italian East Africa |
| Flag S1: | Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg |
| Capital: | Gore |
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.[1] 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.[2] The British government declined to forward these applications to the League of Nations.[3]
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
Notes and 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.
