The Viability of the Economy of Oromia: A Point of Departure

The Oromo, an oppressed, colonized, ethno-national group within Ethiopia, are engaged in a struggle to achieve full political and economic participation within a national entity. Given an undernourishment rate approaching 50 percent and an agriculture which provides a means of livelihood for 80 percent of the labor force, any future leadership will have to address the interrelated issues of agriculture and economy. An examination of production numbers indicates that an independent Oromia would not be at an agricultural disadvantage when compared with remaining as a participating entity within the present boundaries of Ethiopia.

Policies directed toward overcoming undernutrition cannot be formulated apart from understanding the implications of the nature of economic exchange which is assumed to be non-coercive. In the case of food, this thesis argues that the non- coerciveness assumption does not hold, resulting in the lack of market access to food— undernutrition and death—for those lacking adequate monetary or production resources. Two additional constraints that must be taken into account are the lack of price responsiveness in aggregate agriculture which results in long periods of low prices for primary crop products and the fallacy of composition which calls into question the practice of assuming that a development activity that works in one nation will work well if others implement the same development activity.

While economic theorists argue that conventional economic theory is an objective, value-free description of a natural human process that is true for all times and all places, there is sufficient basis to argue that conventional economic theory is value-laden and socially constructed in such a manner as to enhance and reinforce the dominant Western set of values and the existing power structures and mechanisms for the distribution of goods and services. If economic systems are socially constructed, then alternative socially constructed systems are possible. This thesis proposes using a dynamic concept of wealth in combination with the culture, values, and traditions of the Oromo as a point of departure for conceptualizing an economic system that may be better suited for establishing a viable economy of Oromia than the conventional model.