03/19/2025
In Memory of a True Amhara Hero, a F"ano Pioneer: Shaleqa Wubante Abate (Major General, Posthumous)
By: F'ano Eyasu Abate
Historically, remarkable heroes and heroines have hailed from the Amhara Nation. However, the persistent anti-Amhara narrative over the last five decades, to be exact, has deprived this nation of a champion truly embodying the spirit of this trans-generational heroism. The institutionalization of ethnic politics has further exacerbated this situation, as the anti-Amhara narrative has served as a unifying force for various ethnic nationalists, facilitating the emergence of a new social and political class coalesced on this narrative—ethnic entrepreneurs—and effectively blocking the path for the emergence of an Amhara champion in the country’s political landscape. This dynamic has now been deeply entrenched within the country’s polarized institutions, resulting in the plight, persecution, and alienation of the Amhara across numerous regions and leading to escalating violence and genocide against the Amhara in various aspects of their lives, compelling them—invoking their natural right and instinct—to fight back for their survival, mustering whatever resource and will they have at their disposal. In this context, the Amhara F"ano Revolution gained significant momentum and became a full force of reckoning in late July 2023.
Here comes into the frame of this Amhara F"ano Revolution one of its biggest faces and indeed its imposing and shining star, Major General Wubante Abate (afterward, Wube). Having personally experienced the brutalities of ethnic entrepreneurs and their hate-mongering toward the Amhara while working as part of the federal and regional security apparatus, he made a communion with the cause of the Amhara Nation. To this effect, he developed the mentality of Blood and Iron to restore Amhara’s rightful place in Ethiopia, for the ethnically charged and institutionally beefed-up political adversaries of the Amhara have been hell-bent on profiting from the nonstop, deliberate exclusion of the Amhara people. Hence, when in 2018 Brigadier General Asaminew Tsige made the move from Bahir Dar to reorganize and then strengthen the Amhara Region’s security force and structure, Wube was the first to accept this call of duty for his people. During General Asaminew’s time and the North Ethiopian War (November 2020–October 2022), Wube took a leading role with other big-name F"ano leaders and his compatriots in defending the Amhara people. He was a skilled military strategist and tactician, and this was matched by his political acumen in Amhara nationalism. He had a clear view of what current and future Amhara politics needed to be. He dreamed of the emergence and then institutionalization of Amhara nationalism that works day and night, first and foremost, for the Amhara people.
Determined by such military and political conviction, he first spearheaded the F"ano revolution, which erupted in Gondar town in late July 2023. However, confronted by the stark reality that the F"ano Revolution was in great need of institutional standing and the genocidal government’s firm stance to destroy Amhara towns and cities and cause countless civilian casualties to break the F"ano resistance, we [guided by Wube’s effective leadership] decided to recenter our movement to rural areas and build our way back to controlling cities and towns. It was a masterstroke at its best, for this decision increased manyfold the institutional capability and standing of the F"ano Revolution, thereby resulting in the swelling of Amhara rural areas with F"ano freedom fighters. To the satisfaction of Wube and us [his compatriots], both veterans and newcomers, this decision proved to be instrumental among the scattered-found F"ano groups to ponder on the significance of forging a new institutional facet.
It is in this facet that Wube’s enduring legacy comes to the fore. He successfully brought together F"ano groups operating in the South Gondar Zone under one umbrella, Guna Kifletor, the first of its kind in the Amhara F"ano struggle and military institutionalization. Wube’s institutional breakthrough became the currency and the template for other F"ano groups operating in the region, resulting in the formation of several Kifletors, eventually clearing the path for the emergence of military commands across the four traditionally known provinces of the region. Not only militarily, Wube was also an adept politician who had an excellent reading and understanding of the breadth and depth of Amhara politics and its nationalism thereof. It was this strong ideal and conviction he had in Amhara nationalism that made him the target of a smear campaign—a smear campaign very much instigated and propagated by the very enemies of the Amhara people. What saddened him most was that it mainly came from those who were dressed as Fano. In his last media briefing, he clearly articulated that he is accountable solely to the Amhara people. He stayed true to his word and oath until the day of his martyrdom on March 18, 2024.
It is thus the responsibility and historical obligation of all the Fano forces to sustain the dream of Wube and continue institutionalizing the Amhara F"ano until a seamless one-F"ano organization that functions based on trust and brotherhood is formed. Hence, when we commemorate the first anniversary of Wube’s martyrdom, I call upon all F"ano forces to join hands and direct their attention toward annihilating the enemies of the Amhara people.
Long live Wubantemism!!
Wubantenet Lezelalem Yinur!!
We will surely rewrite Amhara’s history!
Victory to F"ano!
Amhara shall prevail!
