#OSA2017#Notocensorship

#OSA2017 #Notocensorship

The Oromo Studies Association (OSA) is a scholarly association established with the goal of promoting “studies on and relevant to the Oromo people.” Like any such collective academic enterprise, it has its weaknesses and strengths. So it is right to denounce the association for its weaknesses but to criticize it for not indulging in censorship says a lot about the person hurling those insults than it says about the association. 

As a scholarly association dedicated to “the study and documentation” of the history and culture of the Oromo people, a politically marginalized group of people that have been fighting to claim a seat at the epistemic table, its job is to provide platforms for scholars and researchers to present their research.  You can disagree with the scholarly merit of particular claims or papers but to pronounce the death of ‘the association’ just because it offered its platform to individuals or views that you disagree with, with such grotesque hyperbole, shows just how intolerant your thin skin is. It is absurd to suggest that a scholarly association will cease to exist if it didn’t censor views unpalatable to some of us.

OSA is not a political organization. It is a scholarly association. Scholarly associations are there to promote academic inquiry and defend the freedom of thought and expression, not to engage in unbridled censorship. If you are calling for the death of this association in the name of the struggle of the Oromo people for freedom and justice, just remember that your struggle is not about dismantling oppression and oppressive structures. You are looking to install your own version of the oppressive structures we now have. #OSA2017.                          By Awol Kassim Allo