The following quotation from Bahrey, (in Beckingham et al, 1954), vividly illustrates typical Abyssinian cultural, religious and racial biases against Oromo. From his writing, it is evident that he was biased against Oromo. It was first written around 1590 by a monk called Bahrey and henceforth European historians and others almost invariably accepted this story as a fact. The so called " Galla invasion of Ethiopia" is also a tale. old men amongst the Azebu and Rayya Galla dismiss talk of their being comparative newcomers." As recorded by Greenfield (1965), Oromo reject the view that they were late arrivals, ". According to Perham (1948): "the emigrant Semites landed in a continent of which the North-East appears to have been inhabited by the eastern groups of Hamites, often called Kushites, who also include the Gallas." Paulitschke (1889) indicated that Oromo were in East Africa during the Aksumite period. Several authorities have indicated that the Oromo were in fact in the North-eastern part of the continent even before the arrival of the Habasha. It is a myth created by Abyssinian court historians and monks, sustained by their European supporters and which the Ethiopian rulers used to lay claim on Oromo territory and justify their colonization of the Oromo people. The history of the arrival of the Oromo people in the sixteenth century in East Africa from outside is a fabrication and denial of historical facts. treating a myth of origin as a historical fact) or, more seriously, that Oromo were latecomers to Ethiopia and hence, by implication, intruders and not so entitled to be there as the Amhara." the contention that the first Oromo had actually emerged from water and therefore, had not evolved to the same level of humanity as the Amhara (i.e. On this issue, based on the points made in The Oromo's Voice Against Tyranny, Baxter (1985) remarked, ". Abyssinian clergies even contended that Oromo emerged from water. Others have advocated that during the same period the Oromo crossed the Red Sea via Bab el Mandab and spread westwards. For instance, the Abyssinian court historian, Alaqa Taye (1955), alleged that in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries the Oromo migrated from Asia and Madagascar, entered Africa via Mombasa and spread north and eastwards. In spite of the fact that there are several indications and evidences that Oromo are indigenous to this part of Africa, Abyssinian rulers, court historians and monks contend that Oromo are newcomers to the region and did not belong here.
Bates (1979) contends, "The Gallas (Oromo) were a very ancient race, the indigenous stock, perhaps, on which most other peoples in this part of eastern Africa have been grafted." Available information clearly indicates that the Oromo existed as a community of people for thousands of years in East Africa (Prouty at al, 1981). Their physical features, culture, language and other evidences unequivocally point to the fact that they are indigenous to this part of Africa. The Oromo form one of those groups which spread southwards, and then east and west occupying large part of the Horn of Africa. The various Cushitic nations inhabiting north-east and east Africa today are the result of this dispersion and differentiation. It was most probably from there that they subsequently dispersed and became differentiated into separate linguistic and cultural groups. The land of Cush, Nubia or the ancient Ethiopia in middle and lower Nile is the home of the Cushitic speakers.
The Cushitic speakers have inhabited north-eastern and eastern Africa for as long as recorded history. A brief look at the early history of some of the peoples who occupied north-eastern Africa sheds some light on the ethnic origin of Oromo. The Oromo are one of the Cushitic-speaking groups of people with variations in color and physical characteristics ranging from Hamitic to Nilotic.
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