[영문]In the time of HIV/AIDS, epidemics for which we have no vaccinationor cure, public health is bound entirely to depend on the traditionalhealth education strategies to stop or contain this disease.This reality demands that we travel extra miles and thoroughlyemploy every health promotion tool at our disposal. The OttawaCharter for health promotion stressed the need for public policyto create supportive social conditions for health. This necessitatesa commitment to enduring social conditions for health and raisestopics that have been neglected by the traditional public healthscholars. A close examination of the colonial language policy ofEthiopia reveals that language is not value free and is intermingledwith power and has significant public health impacts. In this paper, Icritically examine Ethiopian language policy within the frameworkof health promotion and demonstrate the ways in which such policycreates a barrier for the Oromo people in making life choices. Additionallyit hinders them from ensuring the conditions in which theycan be healthy. This paper addresses a gap in the research literatureon the impacts of colonial language policies on health promotion.