1939–1979
Disappeared after 1977 detention; death disputed
Ethiopian Marxist leader of MEISON and drafter of the Derg's national-democratic program
His August 1977 arrest and subsequent disappearance mark the Derg's turn from the EPRP onto its own former MEISON collaborators. His death around 1979 is reported by several sources but unconfirmed in date and circumstance.
Ethiopian Marxist politician who led and chaired the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON). Born in Arjo, Welega (Oromia); he studied in France in the early 1960s, taking a Marxism closer to the Soviet model, and after the revolution began he returned and co-founded the Progressive Book Store with Negede Gobeze. In December 1975 the Derg secretly created the Provisional Office for Mass Organizational Affairs (POMOA) and made him chairman; he drafted the Program for the National Democratic Revolution, announced by Mengistu on 20 April 1976. He was captured outside Addis Ababa on 26 August 1977 and held in the Old Gebbi, and Human Rights Watch records that he disappeared after several months in prison. His reported death around 1979 remains unconfirmed in date and circumstance. Also known as Haile Fida Kuma, he is remembered as the 'Father of Qubee Afaan Oromo'.
Also known as: Haile Fida Kuma · Haaylee Fidaa
Activities and affiliations
-
–1977
All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON)Main
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1968Helped found MEISON at the 8th ESUE congress and organized and led the Oromo students' study group in Europe
- 1973Published the Oromo grammar Hirmaata Dubbi Afaan Oromoo in Paris, written in qubee
- 1974–1975Returned to Ethiopia and co-founded the Progressive Book Store with Negede Gobeze
- 1975.12Appointed chairman of the Derg's secretly created Provisional Office for Mass Organizational Affairs (POMOA)
- 1976.04Drafted the Program of National Democratic Revolution, whose adoption Mengistu announced on 20 April
- 1977.08Went underground with the MEISON leadership, was captured on 26 August and detained in the Old Gebbi
Related historical events
Oromo-language research, the qubee alphabet, and a contested legacy
Haile Fida was preoccupied with the problem of writing Afaan Oromo from his student years in France. In 1968, under his leadership, Oromo students in Europe organized a study group on Oromo language and history; in 1972 the group issued a report adopting the Latin alphabet for writing Afaan Oromo. The following year, in 1973, he published with the group an Oromo grammar, Hirmaata Dubbi Afaan Oromoo, in Paris, using the qubee alphabet. He continued this work after returning to Ethiopia, and it was reported that he completed a manuscript of an Oromo dictionary before he was detained, but the manuscript was apparently lost.
Qubee was adopted as the official script of Afaan Oromo in 1991, when Oromo scholars gathered in Finfinnee, building on work done in prisons, conflict zones, exile and academic institutions. In 2020 Wollega University named its Afaan Oromoo academy after him, and in 2025 the Oromo Research Association posthumously recognized his contributions. The script's political effects were nevertheless disputed: a critic such as Getachew Haile argued that qubee 'fueled ethnic division under the guise of liberation'. His death is reported as having occurred around 1979, without a confirmed date or circumstance, and the unfinished work, including the linguistic projects, places this legacy among the contested ones of the Ethiopian revolution.