Ilinesh Qannoo—Mother of the Struggle—has fallen. A giant loss to the Oromo nation. Ilfinesh was a living archive of Oromo memory, a voice that refused to be outlawed, a woman who turned melody into testimony. Through her music, she carried the soil of rural Oromia and the fire of a people’s longing for dignity. She sang of joy, yes—but also of erasure, and of the refusal to be erased. For that, she was detained. Multiple times. She did not stop.
In her final years, too frail to stand, she was carried to gatherings—not as a relic, but as a living flame. Her presence alone could transform a room. Her words cut deeper still: “OLA is a sphinx; no one can defeat it.” She was movement embodied. She was Oromo womanhood: keeper of language, weaver of memory, guardian of a culture that has outlasted every attempt to bury it.
Her passing follows the loss of two other towering figures of Oromo music and cultural history: Ali Birra, a father of modern Oromo music, and Hacaaluu Hundeessaa, an inheritor who carried that artistic and cultural legacy to a new generation.
These losses remind us that mourning alone is not enough. Their songs, recordings, photographs, interviews, manuscripts, and stories constitute an invaluable part of Oromo collective memory and must be systematically preserved. We therefore call upon Oromo universities, cultural institutions, scholars, artists, community organizations and familiesto work together toward establishing a permanent Oromo Music, Art and Cultural Archiveto collect, digitize, document, study, and preserve this heritage for future generations.
To honor Ilfinesh Qannoo—and the generations of artists represented by Ali Birra and Hacaaluu Hundeessaa—is not merely to remember them, but to protect and fulfill the promises of the struggle they served—remembrance without resolve is merely ritual. To remember them is not enough. To protect what they protected—that is the only worthy tribute.
OLF-OLA High Command
September 6, 2026
#Oromia #Ethiopia
