Hiriira Spatiotemporalities: Mapping Oromo Women’s Liberation in Post‐Imperial Berlin

In September 2020, Oromo women marched through the streets of Berlin, Germany, demanding recognition for their struggle. This protest march, called a Hiriira in the Oromo language, offers a case study into the entanglements between settler colonial Ethiopia, Germany’s post-empire, and the forces of oppression which link them. This paper uses the spatiotemporal reckonings generated from the Hiriira perspective to understand violence and elucidate the practices of resistance that have emerged despite it. These contrasting ways of viewing space and time are expressed through the tension between imperial spatialising, a way of knowing the world that is imperial and oppressive in nature, and geography guraacha, a Black and Blackened way of knowing space with a particularly Oromo perspective. The result is a type of mapping, tracing the Hiriira route across Berlin while describing the histories that shadow these streets, and the pathways towards liberation that Oromo women are organising.

Ji’a Fulbaana bara 2020 keessa dubartootni Oromo qabsoo isaanii beekumtii akka argatu gochuuf biyya Jarmanii, magaalaa Barliin keessatti diddaa dhageessisuuf daandii irraa bahan. Diddaa muliisuuf daandii irraa bahun, Afaan Oromoon Hiriira jedhamu, dhimma wal-xaxaa walitti hidhata qabu, sirna koloneefatoota qubattummaa Itiyoophiyaa, Impaayeera Jarmanii fi humnoota cunqurssaa kan walitti isaan hidhu yookin haariroo isaan gidduu jiru irratti, qoorannoo (case study) geggeessuuf carra kenna. Barreeffamni kun, tilmaama yeroo fi iddoo ilaalacha keessaa galchuun, akeeka Hiriirchaa irraa hubannoo gaj’ina fi akkaataa diddaan gindeefame irraa maddeetti fayyadama. Iddoo fi yeroo akka faallaatti ilaalun kan ibsamuu dhiphina Iddoo impaayeraan murteeffame, addunyaa impaayeera uumamaan cunqursaa ta’e fi geograafii guaracha, beekumsaa iddoo guraachifame, addatti akeeka Oromo ilaalchise walfalmii gidduu jiruu dha. Bu’aan isaas gosa kaartaa, karaa Barliin Hiriiri qaxxaamuree hordofuun seenaa daandii kana isa golgamee osoo ibsu, fi daandii gara bilisummaa dubartoonni Oromoo qindeessaa jiran ibsudha.