OromoWear Celebrates Black History - Derartu Tulu

Black History Month is a time to reflect and celebrate the achievements and stories of trailblazers that look like us. As a diaspora, we are often not exposed to the contributions that Oromo people have made specifically to Black History. We wanted to highlight a few that you may or may have not heard or known about. It is a great source of inspiration and motivation for people like ourselves to understand that those before us endured tremendous battles but were able to accomplish such feats through preservice.

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Derartu Tulu

We are highlighting the brilliant athlete that is Derartu Tulu.

Derartu Tulu is the first black African woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics in 1992.

She pulled off a spectacular victory to win the gold medal in the 10,000m final at the Barcelona Olympics.

South Africa was the first of the African countries to participate in the Olympics however due to the systemic racism of apartheid, South Africa almost always only sent white athletes to compete at the Olympics. Sub-saharan African countries were not even visible at the games until the late 50’s and 60’s.

But as African countries became more visible at the games, Ethiopia and other participating African countries were not nearly sending enough Women to compete. At last then sent over Deratu Tulu who ran that final neck and neck with Elena Meyer, a white South African, to beat her out to set Olympic history.

Her win later carried hopes that will continue to inspire many more African female athletes to run for their dreams.