Dreaming phase is the most crucial for decolonization in any freedom struggle. Here is where the full panorama of possibilities are expressed, considered through debate, consultation, and building dreams on further dreams which eventually becomes the flooring for the creation of a new social order.

It is during this phase where people colonized are able to explore their own cultures, their own aspirations for their future, considering their own structures of government and social order which encompass and expresses their hopes. So crucial is this phase that it must be allowed to run its full course. If the dreaming is cut short by any action plan or program designed to create a remedy meeting the perception of the issue at a premature stage, the result can prove disastrous.

This phase is mostly associated with the formation of a fetus in a mother’s womb. That fetus must be allowed its time to develop and grow to its full potential. To attempt to rush the process, bringing baby out earlier than its natural time, could prove dangerous if not disastrous.

An examination of the Pacific as well as the world’s decolonization pattern may be helpful. There are many instances in which people who underwent “decolonization” merely underwent a change in position of the colonizer. See, for example, the constitutions of the newly emerged Pacific island nations as well as African nations. Do they reflect more closely the social and legal culture of the immediate preceding colonizer or of the indigenous culture? Are those documents truly reflective of the hopes and aspirations of the people previously colonized? Or do they represent the colonial mentality which pervades the society at the time of foreign departure? Were they written or advised by colonial experts coming from a mindset of Western political structures or were they drafted by the people themselves?

True decolonization is more than simply replacing indigenous or previously colonized people into the positions held by colonizers. Decolonization includes the reevaluation of the political, social, economic and judicial structures themselves, and the development, if appropriate, of new structures which can hold and house the values and aspirations of the colonized people.

In Oromia, the dreaming is now vibrant. One on-going process is the struggle for self- determination. Organizations like Oromo Liberation Front are attempting to address the self-determination question. Some have gone so far as to declare themselves the government pro tem pending success in achieving international recognition as an independent nation. Others are gathering and forming coalitions to promote continuing discussion on Oromia’s future. Still others are dedicated to remaining part of the Ethiopian state but having the indigenous people given formal recognition and equivalent treatment as many Ethiopians, a nation within a nation approach.

As the intensity in the debate of Oromia’s future gains greater momentum, there is a matching hunger for solid background information and new visions upon which the dreaming can be built.

For more information about Colonisation and Decolonisation Process: https://advocacy4oromia.org/resources/processes-of-colonization-and-decolonization/