Rooted in a kind of existential crisis,В Maalan JiraВ was a powerful indictment of the disquieting Oromo experience and the fundamental structural anomaly built into the very fabric of the Ethiopian state. [They demolished that landscape that was never meant to be demolished Referring to experiences of dispossession and landgrabs that led to the eviction of more than 150,000 Oromo farmers from around Addis Ababa, he sang:Дiiganii gaara sanaa gaara diigamuu hin mallee The song was a kind of an ethnographic foray into the precarious existence of the Oromo within the Ethiopian state where the conditions for cultural intelligibility вЂ“ of visibility and audibility вЂ“ were determined according to templates hostile to the Oromo. In June 2015, he released his mesmerising single track, Maalan Jira (What existence is mine), in which he condenses the history and story of the Oromo people with an astonishing depth. He wrote most of the lyrics in prison, and the record-breaking album propelled the 22-year-old to national stardom.

In 2009, Haacaaluu burst onto EthiopiaвЂ™s music scene with his first album, Sanyii Mootii (Royalty). Having never been charged, he was released after five years. It helped him understand the precarity and vulnerabilities associated with his identity, it gave him time to read Ethiopian history, it made him a revolutionary agent and a voice for change. It shaped him into the towering musical genius and the cultural and political icon that he became. Prison did not break HaacaaluuвЂ™s determination. In 2003, at the age of 17, he was accused of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an Oromo nationalist organisation which at that time was banned, and was sent to jail. In high school, Haacaaluu joined a school club where he began singing and participating in a clandestine student movement at a time when high schools and colleges became dissident political spaces and came under intense government surveillance and policing. Haacaaluu attended school in Ambo, a city that came to symbolise and represent the tenacity and unyielding determination of the Oromo protest movement of 2015-2018. The state violence triggered growing resistance within the community He came of age at a time when the ruling elites saw the Oromo as a potential threat and Oromos from all walks of life were subjected to widespread repression based on actual or imputed opposition to the government. With the support of his mother, Haacaaluu honed his craft at a young age while looking after cattle on the outskirts of Ambo. His father wanted him to study medicine, but Haacaaluu showed little interest in academic studies.ДЇrom early on, he had a passion for art and music. From humble beginnings to international fameД«orn in 1986 in Ambo, a storied city in the Oromia state about 100km west of Addis Ababa, Haacaaluu was the fifth son of Hundeessa Bonsa, an electricity department employee, and Gudatu Hora, a stay-at-home mum. His assassination sent shockwaves across the country, particularly in Oromia, the Oromo-majority region of Ethiopia, and triggered major protests in Addis Ababa and elsewhere.ДЄt least 160 people have been killed in the ensuing clashes and more than 1,000 arrested, including leading figures of the Oromo opposition parties, such as Jawar Mohammed, Bekele Gerba, Shigut Geleta, and others.ДЄmid the violence, millions of Ethiopians are mourning the death of a towering artistic figure who inspired a peaceful political struggle against repression and paved the way for major political change. When Haacaaluu was assassinated by unidentified assailants on June 29 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia lost not just a strikingly talented musician, but also a political and cultural icon.

His intensely political lyrics both refined and clarified the enduring nature of state-sponsored Oromo marginalisation. Haacaaluu inspired the Qubee generation (ethnic Oromos born after Ethiopia was restructured along ethno-linguistic lines in 1991 and educated in their mother tongue) and his music served as a rallying anthem during the 2015-2018 Oromo protests and beyond.

Such was the explosive impact of HaacaaluuвЂ™s songs that many within his Oromo community saw him as indispensable to their struggle for political emancipation. Haacaaluu Hundeessa, the undisputed king of contemporary Oromo music of resistance (also known asВ Geerarsa), did. There are not many artists in East Africa who get to witness their own stellar achievement in their lifetime.

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