UNIT SEVEN

INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS AND

EXTERNAL RELATIONS, 1941–1995
7.1. Post-1941 Imperial Period

7.1.1. Restoration and Consolidation of Imperial Power and External Relations

A. Ethiopia and Britain

• In the post-1941 period, Britain recognized Ethiopia’s status as a sovereign state with mutual
diplomatic accreditation.

• But it continued to exercise the upper hand because of

• the role it played in the liberation of Ethiopia from Fascist rule.

• Another reason for the preponderant influence of Britain in Ethiopia’s domestic and international
affairs was
• the continuation of WWII (1939-45) which required adequate provision for the Allied defense
to win the war.

• Accordingly, despite protests, the British considered Ethiopia Occupied Enemy Territory
• The 1942 and 1944 agreements that Emperor Haile-Selassie I was forced to sign with
the British show the ascendancy of the latter.

• The 1942 agreement gave Britain a final authority over

• Ethiopia’s foreign affairs

• territorial integrity

• Administration

• Finances

• the military and the police.

• The British minster in Ethiopia enjoyed precedence over other foreign diplomats in
Ethiopia and Britain was to approve employment of other nationals by Ethiopian
• Even more, British citizens held key posts in Ethiopian administration as advisors
and judges,

• While at the same time they maintained total control over the country’s police
force which was set up in February 1942.

• Additionally, British aircraft had exclusive aviation rights and the emperor had to
obtain approval from the Commander in Chief of the British Forces in East Africa,

• Sir Philip Mitchell, to implement sovereign matters such as

• declaration of war or state of emergency

• Britain also decided details in terms of war
• disposal of Italian prisoners of war

• civilians and the administration of Italian properties in the country.

• In terms of finance

• the British assumed control over currency

• foreign exchange as well as import-exports.

• The Emperor resented such restrictions to his powers and made some diplomatic engagements.

• With this and the help of the USA and friends of Ethiopia such as Sylvia Pankhurst, Britain
relaxed the restrictions imposed upon the Ethiopian government.
• The second Anglo-Ethiopian agreement, signed in 1944, shows some of the concessions
the emperor won from Britain.

• According to this agreement

• the priority accorded to the British minster over all other foreign diplomats in Ethiopia
was lifted.

• The Ethiopian government could now employ non-British foreign personnel and it regained
control over a section of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, a vital line of external
communication.

• Control over this route assured Ethiopia

• free access to foreign goods

• The British also agreed to evacuate their army from the region once they equip Ethiopia’s
military force- a task mandated to the British Military Mission to Ethiopia (BMME).

• The BMME assisted the government of Ethiopia in organizing, training, and administration
of its army until 1951.

• Haile-Selassie I Harar Military Academy was modeled after a British Military Academy
called Sandhurst.

• Britain did not, however, yield to Ethiopia’s territorial demands during the negotiation for
the 1944 Agreement.

• The Ethiopian government requested union of Eritrea with Ethiopia claiming that it was
historically, culturally, and economically inseparable from Ethiopia.
• Both Eritrea and Ogaden were part of the Ethiopian empire before they fell into Italian hands in 1890
and 1936

• But Ethiopia’s claims to the two territories were met with little sympathy from the British.

• Britain insisted that Ogaden should be merged with the former Italian Somaliland and British
Somaliland to form what they called “Greater Somalia”.

• Similarly, the western and northern lowlands of Eritrea were intended by the British to be part of Sudan.

• Further, they wanted to integrate the Tigrigna speaking highlands of Eritrea with Tigray to form a
separate state.

• As a consequence, in September 1945 at the London conference of Allied powers Ethiopia’s claims to
Eritrea and Ogaden were rejected.
• The territorial issues were resolved only after a decade.

• In 1948, the British left parts of Ogaden, and in 1954 they withdrew from the region.

• In Eritrea people were divided; those who wanted a union with Ethiopia rallied
behind the Unionists.

• The Liberal Progressive Party and later the Muslim League rallied people who sought
for separation and independence.

• In 1948, the question of Eritrea was referred to the UNSC by Britain, France, U. S. A.
and U. S. S. R.

• The UN appointed a commission of five men from Burma, Guatemala, Norway,

Pakistan and South Africa to find out actual wishes of Eritreans.
• After a period of investigation:-
• Guatemala and Pakistan recommended granting Independence to Eritrea
• Norway recommended union with Ethiopia
• South Africa and Burma recommended Federation.

• On December 2, 1950 UN Resolution 390V granted the Federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia
which came into effect in 1952.

• However, this arrangement did not satisfy both unionists and the independence bloc;
thus, sought to unmake the federation to fit their respective interests.

• On November 14, 1962, the Eritrean Parliament, under pressure from the Ethiopian
government,

• resolved to dissolve the Federation placed Eritrea under the imperial umbrella.
 B. Ethiopia and the U.S.A
• The first official contacts between Ethiopia and the United States of
America traced back to 1903.
• when the two countries signed a Treaty of Friendship and Commerce with
the USA delegate led under Robert P. Skinner.
• The relations between the two countries had been in the doldrums
because of the Tripartite domination of the Ethiopian diplomatic scene
until the early 1940s.
• Following the Second World War, two super-powers,
• the Soviet Union
• the United States emerged.
• In Ethiopia and the Horn, British pre-dominance in 1940s was replaced by
the dominance of the United States in 1950s.
• In his efforts to ensure his sovereign political authority from British domination, to
modernize his country and consolidate his power, Haile-Selassie I turned towards the
United States as a powerful ally than Britain.

• American interest in the region began to grow especially after they acquired a
communication base in Asmara known as Radio Marina from the Italians.

• The radio station was later on renamed Qagnew after the Ethiopian force that fought
on the side of the Americans in the Korean War (1950-3).

• In 1943, the Ethiopian vice Finance Minister, Yilma Deressa, visited the US to request

expertise to assist the country's development.

• In response, USA extended the Lend-Lease Agreement with Ethiopia and sent a
technical mission led by Perry Fellows in May 1944.

• Emperor Haile-Selassie I and the American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, met in

Egypt and discussed
• Recognition of an American Sinclair Company to prospect for oil in Ogaden at
the beginning of 1945.

• By granting a concession to the company, Ethiopia sought to reassert its rights in the
region as much as it was eager to exploit a lucrative natural resource.

• The renewed contact between the two countries was concretized with the signing of
two agreements in the 1950s.
• First, the Point Four Agreement enabled subsequent American assistance in
education and public health was signed in 1952.

• Second, the Ethio-US Treaty that granted a continued American use of the
Qagnew base in return for military assistance was signed in 1953.

• These two agreements in general but the latter in particular defined the Ethio-
American partnership in the following decades.

• Following the 1953 treaty, the US launched a military aid program named the
American Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to equip Ethiopia’s armed
forces.

• The MAAG was to train 60,000 Ethiopian soldiers in three separate divisions.
• In the year between 1953 and 1968, over 2,500 Ethiopians received various forms of
military training in the US.

• It was in the army that American military assistance and training was most noticeable.

• By 1970, sixty percent of US military aid to Africa went to Ethiopia.

• In the period between 1946 and 1972, US military aid was over 180 million US Dollar.

• Anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, naval craft, infantry weapons and some times even
uniforms like field jackets were of American origin.

• Civil aviation, road transport, and education were other spheres that the Americans
took active part.
• From 8 September to 15 December 1945, the founding conference of the UN was held
at San Francisco.

• There, the Ethiopian delegation approached American delegates for assistance to form
a civilian airline.

• Hence, an agreement was concluded with Transcontinental and Western World Airline
(TWA).

• That established Ethiopian Air Lines (EAL) in 1946 with five C-47 warplanes that served
during WWII and of which three were converted to passenger version DC3.

• In 1962, EAL entered the jet age.

• Meanwhile the shortage of trained Ethiopian personnel slowed the progress towards
the Ethiopianization of the EAL.

• For almost three decades since the signing of the agreement with the TWA in 1946,
key management and executive posts of the Ethiopian airline were seized by
expatriates notably by the Americans.

• EAL got its first Ethiopian national pilot, Alemayehu Abebe, in 1957 and Colonel
Simeret Medhne became the first Ethiopian General Manager of EAL in 1971.

• The Imperial Board of Telecommunication was established with the help of

International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) organization between 1950 and 1952.
• In January 1951, with financial loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (IBRD),

• The Imperial High Way Authority (IHA) was set up based on the model of the US
Bureau of Roads.

• It continued to be run by Americans until 1962.

• Together with ELA’s domestic network the improvement of road transport along with
communication services played important role,

• In facilitating national integration and the speedy transport of such lucrative

commodities as coffee.
• In the field of education, American presence was particularly evident in the university
and high schools.

• A variety of American scholarship programs under USAID and African American Institute
African Graduate Fellowship Program (AFGRAD) offered opportunities for many
Ethiopians to go to the United States for their second and third Degrees.

• Meanwhile, many American volunteers came to Ethiopia to teach in Ethiopian schools

under the Peace Corps Program,

• Other foreign countries with significant presence in Imperial Ethiopia include Sweden
and Norway whose advisors were entrusted to the Air force and navy successively
• Germany and Israel trained and equipped the Police Force while the Swedes supported
the Imperial Bodyguard and the Harar Military Academy was entrusted to British
trained Indians.

• In 1956, the Qoqa Dam was built with war reparations money that the Italians agreed
to pay.

• This was followed by the return of the Statue of Judah in 1972, which Italians had taken
during the occupation period.

• Russians established good relations with Ethiopia through their exhibition, library
around city hall, post office, mathematics and literature.
 7.1.2. Socio-Economic Developments
• Ethiopia and the Horn is one of the regions in the world where early domestication of
plants and animals took place.

• The mid-twentieth century witnessed that there was low development in

industrialization, meant that Agriculture was the leading economic sector in providing
employment for about ninety percent of the population,

• Generating about seventy percent of the national GDP and supplying almost hundred
percent of the country’s income from export trade.

• Therefore, the landholding which was a primary means of production was vital.

• Generally, peasants in the northern and central highland parts of Ethiopia held land in
the form of rist.
• In the 1970s, more than sixty-six percent of the peasant farmers cultivated less than
0.5 hectares.

• In southern Ethiopia, government grants were made by the Government for large
number of its supporters and tenancy was widespread.

• The disparity of landownership between north and south Ethiopia by the middle of the
twentieth century can be seen from the proportion of tenants to landed peasants.
• It was only minority religious and occupational castes who suffered from tenancy in the

north

• While the tenant population as percentage of total rural population in newly

incorporated regions varied from 37 percent in former Sidama Governorate

• General to a staggering 73 percent in Ilu Abba Bor, and 75 percent in Hararghe, whereas

tenancy in northern provinces averaged 11 percent.

• Tenants surrendered up to 60 percent of their produce to landlords who mostly lived in

towns or the capital.

•In addition to formal tributes, there were sundry payments that smallholder and landless farmers

had to make,

•such as “voluntary” contributions to self-help funds for projects from which they rarely benefitted.

•Sharecrop tenancy arrangements in the country were so onerous that increasing production only

increased the exploitation of peasants.

•Similarly, the extreme taxation to which smallholding peasants were subjected to was potent

enough to discourage peasants from maximizing production beyond subsistence levels.

• From 1953 to 1974, the annual growth rate of agricultural production was only 2.4

percent which was lower than the 2.5 percent population growth rate.

• As a consequence, Ethiopia ranked among the countries with very low per capita

income.

• The deteriorating condition of the country’s economy posed a threat to the social

and political stability of the country and thus, the regime’s power.

• This coupled with external pressure from donors, induced the government to

establish a Land Reform Committee in 1961.

•This later became the Land Reform and Development Authority that grew to

become the Ministry of Land Reform and Administration.

•Yet no meaningful reform was implemented because it would affect the vested

economic and political interests of landlords who at that time had taken hold of

government.

•In 1960s and 1970s commercial agriculture was expanding especially in southern

Shewa, the Setit-Humera region on the Sudan border, and in the Awash valley.
•The mechanization of farming in these areas led to eviction of tenants.
•Profitability of agriculture led some landlords to work the land by themselves.
•Sometimes they rented the land under their ownership to whoever offered them better price in
cash (as opposed to the sharecropping tenancy practice); a price paid in advance and for longer
periods.
•The effect of all these was the eviction of tenants.
•Furthermore, the government attempted to enhance the productivity of small farmers through
launching comprehensive agricultural package programs.
• The most notable in this regard were the Chilalo Agricultural Development Unit

(CADU) and Wolayta Agricultural Development Unit (WADU).

• CADU was launched in 1967 through the initiative of the Swedish International

Development Authority (SIDA) while the World Bank supported WADU.

• The major objective of the package programs was demonstrating the

effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural packages to pave the way for

subsequent nationwide emulation of the intensive package approach.

• Nonetheless, the plan was conceived and implemented without undertaking the
•Although few participant small farmers gained real benefit, farmers with large land-holdings took

the lion’s share of the benefits accrued from these projects.

•The unintended outcome of CADU was aggravating tenant eviction. WADU initiated by the World

Bank was more successful in promoting re-settlement.

•Since the 1950s, the government formulated strategic plans for economic development and this

came in a series of five-year plans.

•The First Five Year Plan (1957-1961) targeted the development of infrastructure.
• The Second (1962-1967) turned towards mining, manufacturing and electricity.

• The Plan also mentioned major constraints to the development of the agricultural
sector, although in very general terms.

• The Third (1968-1972) gave priority to large scale agricultural development and
‘bringing higher living standard’.

• The package projects noted above were part of the third plan.

• Following these plans, the Ethiopian economy witnessed some progress

particularly after 1950.
• Overall, domestic output increased nearly three and a half times and even better

progress was registered in manufacturing.

• The number of industrial enterprises grew to over four hundred and the industrial

working force to nearly sixty thousand.

• The electricity supply and infrastructure expanded considerably.

• Road and air communication enabled linkage of parts of the country.

• The emergence of new towns and the development of city life hastened

urbanization.
•Moreover, public revenue and expenditure both grew nine times and tenfold, respectively.

•Banking facilities expanded and the State Bank of Ethiopia was formed in 1942.

•In 1963 it was divided into the Commercial Bank and the National Bank of Ethiopia.

•Also a private bank, Addis Ababa Bank was established in 1963.

•The capital Addis Ababa became a continental capital when the UN Economic Commission for

Africa (ECA) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) were established in 1958 and 1963

respectively.
•Overall, there was relatively high level of modernization that was reflected in many facets of life: music,

sports, cuisine and dress styles.

•Yet, much of Ethiopia remained traditional with a low living standard and Ethiopia was a least developed

country in global terms.

•While the manufacturing sector contributed less than five percent of the national income, industrialization

was spatially limited in the capital and its vicinity in addition only to Asmara and Dire Dawa.

•The manufacturing sector only produced light consumer goods.

• Moreover, industrial investment was also primarily of foreign origin.

• For example, the Ethiopian share in capital was hardly more than twenty percent for

Wonji-Shewa and Methara sugar factories which were largely Dutch-owned.

• Above all, the absence of meaningful land reform constrained the forces of production in

the countryside where the majority of the population lived.

Consolidation of Autocracy
•The post-liberation period witnessed the climax of the emperor’s power.

•As in the period before, at the center of post-1941 national policies was the state’s

enduring interest to curb the political and economic bases of the power of regional lords

in favour of the monarch.

•After he was restored to the throne in May 1941, Emperor Haile-Selassie embarked on

consolidating his power.

•This was made possible through the ureaucratization of government, the building of a

national army and a centralized fiscal system.

•In order to fill-in the expanding bureaucracy, education was promoted at both school and college levels.

•While primary schools had already been established prior to 1935, secondary schools were opened in the post

1941 period.

•The Haile-Selassie I Secondary School, founded in 1943, and the General Wingate School, established in 1946,

became the two most popular and prestigious secondary schools.

•A significant number of the educated elites in the 1950s attended either of these two schools.
• In 1950, the University College of Addis Ababa (UCAA) was inaugurated.

• This was followed by the Engineering and Building College in Addis Ababa, the
College of Agriculture in Alamaya (Hararghe), and the Public Health College in
Gondar.

• These various colleges were brought together to form the Haile-Selassie I

University in 1961 which again was re-named Addis Ababa University after the
outbreak of the Revolution in 1974.
• The post-1941 political order was dominated by Haile-Selassie that both the state and the

country came to be identified with the emperor.

• Significant urban landmarks such as schools, hospitals, theatre halls, stadiums, main

avenues and squares in the country bore the name of the Emperor.

• It was common for students to chant songs praising the emperor who would then gift

them with sweets or fruits on holidays such as Ethiopian Christmas on January 7.

• The emperor’s birthday and coronation day were national holidays where large sum of

money was spent.

• Yet another major pre-occupation of the imperial regime was the strengthening of the

military and security apparatus.

• The ministries of Defense and Interior, in charge of maintaining publicsecurity,

consistently received the highest budgetary allocations.

• For example, out of the country’s total budget of ETB 38 million in 1944/5 fiscal year,

nearly 11 million was allocated for the Ministry of Interior of which security absorbed
almost 5 million and about 8 million went for war.
• Figures show over 80 million allocation for Ministry of Defense and nearly 60 millionfor

Ministry of Interior, out of about 400 million ETB in 1967.

• Ironically although the emperor anticipated that the military that was composed mainly of

the army, the police force and the Imperial Bodyguard would suppress opposition to the

regime, they themselves rebelled more than once.

• It failed in 1960.

• It was more successful in 1974.

• The traditional aristocracy although made to enjoy urban and rural property, had lost most

of its political privileges.

• Based on the traditional shum shir, the emperor appointed and demoted his
ministers, most of whom had humble origins.

• In 1943, the emperor appointed eleven ministers to draft laws and appoint junior
officials but their subservience to the monarch was stated in explicit terms.

• For example, it was only in 1966 that even the prime minster was allowed to
select his cabinet members to be approved by the emperor.

• RasBitweded Mekonnen Endalkachew served as prime minister from 1942.

•Next to Mekonnen Habte-Wold (1949-58), whose brother, Aklilu, became the last prime minister

of the imperial regime (1961 -74), Yilma Deressa left the strongest mark on the Ministry of

Finance.

•But the most powerful of the ministers in the post-1941 political order was Tsehafe-Tizaz Wolde-

Giorgis Wolde-Yohannis who headed the strategic Ministry of Pen in the period 1941 -55.

•Besides Wolde-Giorgis held the portfolios of Justice and Interior on various occasions that he

was the defacto prime minister in the above stated period.

• Wolde-Giorgis’access to the emperor and the latter’s trust in him made him so powerful.
• In general, members of royal family, leading nobility and the Abun still were
members of the crown council, which was an advisory body to the emperor.

• In 1959, the Emperor’s private cabinet was set up as a high-level advisory body to
the emperor and developed into agency doing intelligence.

• In 1955, Haile-Selassie promulgated a new constitution, revising the first

constitution issued in 1931.

• American advisers like John Spencer as well as Tsehafe-Tizaz Wolde-Giorgis

WoldeYohannis and Tsehafe-Tizaz Aklilu Habte-Wold were in the drafting
committee of the 1955 revised constitution.
• More than its predecessor, the 1955 revised constitution provided the basis for the consolidation of absolutism
in Ethiopia.

• About 36 articles of the 1955 constitution dealt with

 the question of imperial succession and

 the emperor’s privileges.

• In the final analysis, however, neither the constitution nor the Parliament that it created put a limit to the
autocratic power of the emperor.

• He was the head of the three branches of government:

 The executive,
 The legislative and
 The judiciary.
• The idea of a constitutional monarchy was never materialized.

• Human rights and civic liberties were restricted and violated.

• Regional identities, needs and feelings were ignored in the interest of centralization

• As the years progressed, the emperor started to dedicate his attention to foreign affairs.

• He played a significant role in the Non-Aligned Movement and the drive for African unity
and this increased his international stature that finally resulted in the birth of the
Organization of African Unity at the summit of heads of African states held in Addis
Ababa in 1963.

• But his preoccupation with international affairs detached the emperor from the
domestic affairs that he became careless of the signs of trouble at home.
7.1.3. Oppositions and the Downfall of the
Monarchical Regime

A. Plots and Conspiracies

• Various sectors of the society opposed the imperial rule before the 1974
Revolution broke out.

• . After the 1960 Coup d’état, however, oppositions gained wider mass support
and came out more open.

• Some leaders of the resistance movement against fascist rule were opposed to
the restoration of the emperor to the throne for he fled the country when it
needed him most whereas others wished for a republican government
• One notable patriot who resented the fact that he was not given a stature
recognizing his contribution to the Resistance was Dejazmach Belay Zeleke.

• The emperor made Belay governor of a southern province of Gojjam with the
rank of Ras because he wanted to remove him from his base in Bichena in eastern
Gojjam.

• Belay rejected the offer and was even more dissatisfied at dignified positions of

• Ras Haylu Belaw (Governor General of Gojjam)

• Bitweded Mengesha Jembere (Deputy Governor General of Gojjam).

• In February 1943, forces from Debra-Marqos and Addis Ababa invaded Belay’s
district.

• After fighting for three months, Belay surrendered, was detained in Fiche.

• where he tried to escape and return to Gojjam a few months later, but was
captured with his brother Ejigu.

• Taken back to the capital, Belay was finally hanged and killed in public.
• Bitweded Negash Bezabih was a vice minister and Senate President in the
emperor’s administration after liberation.

• He plotted to assassinate the emperor and proclaim a republic in 1951.

• In the process, some military officers like Beqele Anasimos were attracted to the
plot, but Dejach Geresu Duki, another patriot, whom the plotters had
unsuccessfully approached to recruit to their cause, exposed them.

• Finally, the plotters were tried and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment
after being arrested during one of their clandestine meetings
• The most fierce and sustained opposition to the emperor came from Blatta Takele WoldeHawaryat.

• who couched a plot in constitutionalist terms using Yohannes Iyasu as front and with the support of
some contingents of the army.

• But the plot was uncovered and he was detained. In 1945, Blatta Takele Wolde-Hawaryat was
released and appointed as deputy Afe nigus.

• Yet, he was involved in another plot in 1946 and was detained up to 1954. Upon his release, he
once again became Vice Interior Minister and Afe nigus.

• He tried to assassinate the emperor on November 17, 1969, but his final plot failed and he
barricaded himself in his house and engaged in a shoot-out with the police in which he was killed.
• The most serious challenge to the emperor’s authority came in 1960 in the form of a
coup attempt.

• The abortive Coup d'etat of 1960 was led by the Neway brothers,

• Brigadier General Mengistu Neway: the head of the Imperial Bodyguard

• Girmame Neway : Girmame attended Haile-Sellasie I Secondary School, and then

the University of Wisconsin where he received his B.A and M.A. Degrees from Columbia

• He was also president of Ethiopian Students Association during his stay in the USA
• As governor of Wolayta, Girmame’s activities were alarming to the regime.

• He monitored police activities, introduced a settlement program in which he

distributed government holdings to landless peasants and ordered written
tenancy agreements.

• However, unable to criticize Girmame’s intentions HaileSelassie sent him to Jijiga

where he continued as radical reformer.

• He oversaw the digging of new wells while improving the old, set up clinics,
schools etc.
• Together with his brother General Mengistu Neway, and others the two
brothers started detaining ministers and other members of the nobility when
the emperor was on state visit in Brazil.

• They also took over the radio station and spoke about the backwardness of
the country than other newly independent African states.

• The crown prince Asfawosen was said to be a salaried constitutional monarch.

• The prince delivered a speech on Radio Addis explaining the rationale of the
coup in which he promised the establishment of new factories, schools etc.
• On 14 December 1960, a new government was declared
 Ras Emiru HaileSelassie as Heade

 Major General Mulugeta Buli was as chief of staff of the armed forces

 Brigadier-General Tsige Dibu was to lead the Imperial Bodyguard and the Police
Force
 Colonel Workneh Gebeyehu was security chief.

• However, the army and the air force refused to side with the rebels and with the support
of the Americans and the blessing of the patriarch.

• The loyalists led by General Merid Mengesha, Ras Asrate Kassa etc attacked the plotters.

• The rebels asked for a cease-fire which the loyalists rejected.

• Finally, they had to run for their lives but only after killing the ministers and other
dignitaries they had detained at Geneta L'uel palace.

• In the meantime the emperor entered the capital. Finally, Girmame died fighting
in the outskirts of the capital

• Mengistu was captured and hanged after trial.

• The regime made some concessions after the failed coup attempt, but failed to
address the root causes that triggered the coup itself.

• Thus, opposition to the imperial regime was only to grow stronger that led to the
outbreak of the 1974 Revolution.
 B. Peasant Rebellions
• The post-liberation period also witnessed growing opposition among peasants in different
parts of the country against Haile-Selassie’s regime

• Peasant revolts, although on a small scale, were especially numerous in the southern
territories, where the imperial government had traditionally rewarded its supporters with land
grants thereby reducing the local peasantry into tenancy.

• It is not possible in the space of a brief essay such as this to discuss the numerous peasant
rebellions in the entire country.

• But an effort will be made to canvas major eruptions in the country with the intent of showing
some of the deficiencies of the system
The Woyane Rebellion
• The first peasant resistance against imperial rule took place in Tigray, known in history as
the Woyane rebellion.

• The term Woyane means 'revolt' in Tigrigna language.

factors caused the Rebellion

Peasants felt victimized by corruption

Greed of the territorial army unit stationed in the region

 general administrative inefficiency

The peoples of Wejjerat and Raya-Azebo had wanted to maintain their local autonomy
that the government violated

The 1942 land decree which forced peasants to pay tax

• As such, the Woyane rebellion was as a continuation of the government’s
punitive campaign against the region’s peasants in the late 1920s.

• The dress rehearsal for the major confrontation took place on January 11, 1942
where the imperial force was crushed and humiliated by Raya-Azebo peasants.

• On May 22, 1943, the rebels scored an astounding victory fighting an even larger
and well-equipped government army in Addi Awuna, 15 kms away from Hewane
in southern Tigray.

• Soon small towns around Meqelle like Qwiha and Enda-Iyyasus, and Meqelle
itself on October 14, 1943 fell in rebel hands

• expanded to Kilte-Awlalo, Wuqiro etc in eastern Tigray.

• Such initial advances of the rebel forces, however, did not last long.

• In October 1943, the imperial army under the command of Abebe Aregay with
the support of the British Royal Air Force crushed the rebellion.
The government exiled or imprisoned the leaders of the revolt.

The imperial regime reversed the 1942 land decree,

The Wejjerat and Raya-Azebo lost their automous status,

Raya-Azebo was made part of Wollo.

 The Yejju Rebellion
• Overt rebellion of Yejju peasants in Wollo during Haile-Selassie’s rule occurred
three times.

• In 1948, peasants rose against the system after their appeal against land
alienation was ignored by the government.

• With Qegnazmach Melaku Taye and Unda Mohammed in the forefront, peasants
stormed and freed inmates held in Woldya prison.

• The nech lebash were called to control the unrest and eventually the leaders
were publicly flogged.
• Throughout the 1950s, localized skirmishes between government forces and
peasants expanded to Qobo, Hormat, Tumuga, KarraQore etc led by prominent
figures like Ali Dullatti (Aba Jabbi)

• In 1970 peasants revolted against the introduction of mechanized agriculture that

encroached on pastureland and killed Qegnazmach Abate Haylu

• who was a member of the local nobility and direct beneficiary of the new
development.

• Finally the rising was suppressed by the local militia

 The Gojjam Peasant Rebellion
• In 1968, another violent peasant uprising set off in Gojjam caused by the government’s
attempt to implement new tax on agricultural produce which the parliament adopted in
November 1967.

• The nobles of Gojjam refused to accept any limitation upon the prevailing land tenure
system and successfully battled the regime over this issue.

• Although the expansion of central authority by appointed officials and the development
of infrastructural works required a parallel increase in tax payments, it was fiercely

resisted by the local gentry.

• In 1950, a revolt broke out in Mota, Qolla-Daga Damot and Mecha districts led by
people like Dejach Abere Yimam.

• As a result tax rate was reduced by 1/3, Kebede was removed and replaced by
Haylu Belew, a hereditary ruler of Gojjam.

• Later, Haylu’s Shewan successor named DejjazmachTsehayu Enqu-Selassie forced

handouts to build the emperor’s statue in Debra Marqos.

• Besides, peasants were ordered to pay tax arrears and register their arms with
fees.
• Meanwhile, peasants were victimized by the ravages committed by the nech
lebash in the pretext of eradicating banditry.

• With all the above unfolding, an attempt was made to introduce the new
agricultural tax and this finally sparked the 1968 uprising led by veterans of the
resistance period, who had taken titles for themselves such as leul and fitawrari.

• The rebellion spread throughout Gojjam except Agaw-Midir and Metekel which
alarmed the government.

• Finally the rebellion was subdued by the combined forces of the army, police and
nech lebash by the end of 1968.
The Gumuz Rebellion

• The Gumuz staged major armed rebellion against the regime of Emperor Haile-
Selassie in 1952/3.

• The movement is named after one of its famous leaders, Aba Tone.

• Aba Tone served the imperial regime with

A position of Aba Qoro (head /chief of a sub- district)

Responsible for collection of taxes

Maintenance of law and order

Mobilization of the people for public works in time of peace

 Mobilization for war in cases of conflict.

• As with the other peasant rebellions, the Aba Tone armed uprising had its roots in:

• administrative injustice,

• land and taxation policies of the imperial regime.

• Aba Tone sided with the local people who were discontented with:

• the system of government and administration of Emperor HaileSelassie in general and

• heavy taxation and mal-administration in particular.

• Although Aba Tone reported the complaints of the peasants to higher government
authorities in Najjo and Gimbi, they were not in a position to solve the problem.

• Meanwhile, the Gumuz were determined not to pay taxes unless the government took
appropriate measures to address their concerns.
• Finally, an open clash broke out between the policemen and the Gumuz when tax
collectors with the backing of the police force attempted to force the people pay
land taxes.
• The situation soon grew into an open rebellion against the government leading to a
general breakdown of law and order in the region, particularly in places like
• Gaba Robi

• Tullu Lubu where the first clash had occurred.

.
• In the event of the initial combat between the government’s expeditionary forces
and those of Aba Tone the latter had obtained an upper hand over the former.
• Nevertheless, the government forces were soon reinforced with more weapons and
manpower
• Aba Tone and his followers were outgunned and outnumbered and thus, the
government was able to put down the uprising.
• Aba Tone was captured and later released on pardon.
• The Gedeo Peasant Rebellion
• As in many parts of rural Ethiopia, the major source of peasant discontent in Gedeo
was land alienation.
• The dispossession of land from the indigenous peasantry was unabated particularly
following the introduction of land measurement in the 1920s.
• In the 1960s, the Gedeo witnessed an unprecedented level of land expropriation by
members of the northern nobility who were vying for coffee farms.
• Petitions and appeals to higher authorities to curb the continued land alienation proved
futile.

• Then peasants refused

• to pay erbo (1/4 of agricultural produce payable to landlords),

• armed themselves with traditional weapons like spears, swords and arrows and

• clashed with the imperial army at Michille in 1960.

• That is why it was known as the Michille rebellion.

• Over a hundred peasants lost their lives in the fight while much of their property was
destroyed.

• Finally, Afe Nigus Eshete Geda, fined the elders locally called the hayicha accused of
supporting the rebellion.
 The Bale Peasant Rebellion
• The Bale peasant uprising, which lasted from 1963 to 1970, presented the most
serious challenge to the Ethiopian government.

• The causes of the uprising were multifaceted.

• The indigenous peasants largely became tenants on their own land after the
introduction of the qalad that initiated land measurement in 1951.

• Peasants also suffered from

• high taxation,

• religious and

• ethnic antagonism
• that reached to unprecedented level after the appointment of Warqu
Enquselassie as governor of the territory in 1963.

• The predominantly Muslim population resented the imposition of alien rule from
the northern and central highlands parts of the empire and thus, political and
cultural domination by Christian settlers.

• Further, the government of Somalia extended material and moral support to the
rebels as part of its strategy of reestablishing a “Greater Somalia”.

• The revolt broke out in El Kerre led by people like Kahin Abdi.
• Initially, rebel groups conducted hit-and-run raids against military garrisons and police
stations separately.

• Soon, however, they tried to coordinate their military activities under an umbrella
organization named the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), engaging in
conventional wars against government forces.

• Haile Selassie tried to win loyalty of the people by developing alliances with notable
Oromo leaders.

• Although this strategy enabled the emperor to recruit some members of local ruling
houses in the service of the imperial system, it failed to contain the popular revolt.

• Instead, it quickly spread to Wabe, Dallo and Ganale under the able leadership of Waqo
Gutu and others
• In Gola-Abbadi forest, rebels went to the extent of attacking two government airplanes
which campaigned against them with support from the Americans and Israeli.

• Further, the rebels killed

• Girazmach Beqele Haragu of Adaba in 1965

• Fitawrari Wolde-Mika’el Bu’i of Dodola and 1966

• In December 1966, the government put Bale under the martial rule of WoldeSelassie
Baraka, the head of the army’s Fourth Division.

• In 1967, the army, police, Territorial Army (beherawi tor), settler militia (nech lebash)

and volunteers (wedo zemach) launched massive operations against the province.
• Meanwhile, the rebels lost Somali support after Mahammad Siad Barre took over the
Somali government in 1969 and found it impossible to sustain their campaigns in
southeastern Ethiopia.

• The rebellion ended in 1970s after some of its popular leaders including the self-styled

general Waqo Gutu surrendered to government forces.

 C. Movements of Nations and Nationalities
• Oppositions to the imperial rule did not come only from individuals, peasants, students and the
army.

• The question of nations and nationalities for equality, freedom and autonomy was also assuming
a siginificant development towards the end of the imperial regime.

• Among the movement of nations and nationalities of this period, the Mecha-Tulama movement
of the Oromo deserves a special treatment here.

• In January 1963, the Mecha-Tulama Welfare Association (MTWA) was formed with the objective
of improving the welfare of the Oromo through the
• expansion of educational,

• communication and

• health facilities in Oromo land.

• Founding members of the association included Colonels Alemu Qitessa and Colonel
Qedida Guremessa, Lieutenant Mamo Mezemir, Beqele Nedhi, and Haile-Mariam
Gemeda.

• In the next two years, the association attracted large number of Oromo elites, including
such high-ranking military officers as Brigadier General Taddesse Birru.

• Although the Mecha-Tulama Association had its root in the will and commitment of a
few Oromo elites to mobilize support for the development of Oromo inhabited
territories, it soon transformed into a pan-Oromo movement coordinating countrywide
peaceful resistance against the regime.

• This is evidenced by the successful rallies the association organized in, Gindeberet,
Dandi, Arsi (Dera and Iteya), etc.
• The association raised contentious issues such as land and expressed its dissatisfaction
with the condition of the Oromo in the society during mass rallies as well as in private
meetings.

• The regime was alarmed by the activities of the association and determined to curb the
movement before it crystallized into an organized liberation front.

• Meanwhile, leaders of the association plotted to assassinate the emperor and change
the regime on the anniversary of his coronation in November 1966, but the plot was
foiled by security forces.

.
• This coupled with a bombing incident in one of the cinemas at the capital in
which the association was implicated led the government to move swiftly and
violently to ban the association’s activities.

• Mecha-Tulama was dissolved in 1967 following the imprisonment and killing of its
prominent leaders such as Mamo Mezemir and Hailemariam Gemmeda by the
regime’s forces

• Brigadier General Taddese Birru was captured while retreating to the bush and
eventually sentenced to death.

• Later the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was exiled
to Gelemso where he stayed until the outbreak of the 1974 revolution
• In 1975 the Derg executed Tadesse on allegation of instigating armed struggle.

• The brutal suppression of the Mecha-Tulama Association, however, did not end the
struggle of the Oromo for justice, equality and liberty.

• In 1971 an underground movement called the Ethiopian National Liberation Front

(ENLF) was formed by Oromo elites, perhaps by former members of the association.

• The Front maintained contact with student circles and other opposition figures in and

outside Addis Ababa.

• The aim was to coordinate local resistance towards a common goal of liberation,
although thwarted by the regime’s security forces.

• The regime’s unwillingness to accommodate the legitimate and peaceful demands of

various Oromo groups for equality within Ethiopia transformed Oromo nationalism into
militancy for self-determination.

• In 1973, some members of the ENLF and other Oromo nationalists formed the Oromo
Liberation Front (OLF) with the aim of establishing an independent State of Oromia.

• The following year, OLF launched an offensive against the imperial regime in Hararghe.

• After the revolution, OLF increased its military activities because the Derg would not
allow the Oromo to elect their rulers and use their language in schools and

newspapers.
• Accordingly, the armed struggle which set off in the eastern part of Ethiopia extended
to other Oromo inhabited areas such as Arsi and Wallagga.

• But the biggest military challenge to the imperial regime came from Eritrea.

• As we have discussed above, Eritrea was integrated into the Ethiopian empire.

• The measure consolidated internal and external opposition to the union and led to the
formation of liberation movements based in Eritrea and abroad.

• Although some liberation movements had taken shape as far back as the late 1940s,
they did not seem to have much of an impact.

• In 1958, a number of Eritrean exiles had founded the Eritrean Liberation Movement

(ELM) in Cairo.
• In 1961, the ELM evolved into the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) or Jabaha in Arabic.

• Hamid Idris Awate who fired the first bullet of the Eritrean armed struggle (he is the
one who ‘started the armed struggle’).

• By 1966 the ELF challenged imperial forces throughout Eritrea. In June 1970, two
splinter group liberation movements emerged from the ELF.

• These were the Popular Liberation Forces (PLF) and the Salfi Natsenet Eritrea (Front for
Eritrean Independence).
• The PLF was formed in the Red Sea area led by Osman Salah Sabbe while Salfi Natsenet
Eritrea (Front for Eritrean Independence) emerged under the leadership of Isayas
Afeworqi.

• In early 1972, a new coalition of forces composed of Eritrean Liberation Front-Popular

Liberation Front (ELF-PLF) led to the founding of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front
(EPLF) or Sha'abiya in Arabic.

• After a long and bloody civil war, the EPLF was able to establish its hegemony over the
independence movement.

• Finally, the EPLF succeeded in achieving de facto independence in 1991 and which
eventually was comfirmed through referendum in 1993.
 D. The Ethiopian Student Movement (ESM)
• The regime was not only challenged in the provinces.

• In fact, the Ethiopian student movement was building up in the center as a strong opposition against the
regime.

• Although the movement started within the university, students had turned into a radical opposition and
were already marching on the streets from 1965 onwards and by 1968, it was spreading to high schools.

• The parliament’s rejection of tenancy reform bill in 1964 triggered student protest in the following year
demanding “Land to the Tiller”.

• Factors that contributed to sharpening the students’ ideology include the 1960 coup, students’
increased awareness of the country’s socio-economic and political conditions vis a vis other African
countries which they learned from scholarship students from different parts of Africa, and the Ethiopian

University Service (EUS).

• Launched in 1964, the EUS required the students to teach and offer other services to
the community usually in the provinces.

• In 1964 the emergence of a radical group of students with Marxist-Leninist leanings

known as “the Crocodiles” marked the increased militancy of the students.

• Side by side with the radicalization of the movement, students formed the

• University College Union (UCU) to coordinate their activities in 1962 and then the

• National Union of Ethiopian University Students (NUEUS) 1963.

• In February 1965, the Main Campus Student Union (MCSU), and the University Student

Union of Addis Ababa (USUAA) with its paper Tagel (Struggle) were established.
• Outside the country, students were organized under the

• Ethiopian Students Union in North America (ESUNA) with its paper called
Challenge and
• the Ethiopian Students Union in Europe (ESUE) with its paper Tateq (Gird yourself)
in the USA and Europe.

• ESUNA and gave ideological support to MCSU and USUAA.

• Throughout the 1960s a rallying cry of student demonstrations was “land to the tiller”,
but other local and global issues were also raised. .
• For example, students protested against the minority white regime in Southern
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1968, while at other times they expressed their solidarity
with the people of Vietnam.

• In the national arena, students protested against Shola Destitute Concentration

Relief Camp and fashion show and educational reform in 1966 and 1969
respectively

• With the students’ demands for the respect of the rights of nations and
nationalities, the government was alarmed and started taking measures against
leaders of the movement ranging from press campaigns to detentions and
killings.
• . Furthermore, the regime deported large number of students to the torrid Gibe river
valley in 1972

• Meanwhile, students’ opposition was aggravated to armed hijacking of Dc-aircraft.

• By early 1970s, the student movement coupled with other under-running issues such
as
• rising inflation,

• growing discontent of urban residents,

• corruption and

• widespread and yet covered-up famine especially in Wollo all prepared a fertile
ground for a revolution.
 7.2. The Derg Regime (1974-1991)
• The mass uprising that finally put an end to the old regime came in February 1974.

• From January 8 to 15 1974, soldiers and non-commissioned officers stationed at a frontier post Negele-
Borana mutinied protesting their bad living conditions.

• In the process, they detained the commander of the ground forces who was sent to pacify the situation.

• The soldiers made the commander eat their food and drink their water so that he could witness the
kind of life they were living.

• Also, soldiers of the Second Division in Asmara, the Fourth Division in Addis Ababa and the Air Force in
Debre-Zeyt (Bishoftu) mutinied demanding salary increment and political and economic reforms.

• The various units then set up a coordinating committee which became a precursor of the later Derg, in
order to coordinate their actions.
• Teachers throughout the country protested against the implementation of an education
reform program known as Sector Review, which they deemed was disadvantageous for
the poor and biased against them.

• Although the Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA) had coordinated demonstrations

against the program already in December 1973, it called for a general strike demanding a
number of other social reforms on 18February1974.

• On the same day, taxi drivers went on strike demanding increase in transport fees (fifty
percent) due to rise of petrol prices that followed the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur war of 1973.

• Students, workers and the unemployed youth joined the protests and vehicles particularly
buses and luxury private automobiles were attacked.
• The government responded by suspending the Sector Review,

• By reducing petrol prices

• By raising the salaries of soldiers.

• Although Endalkachew seemed to gain the support of a group of officers within

the army, promised to introduce reforms, including
• Constitutional reform

• Included highly educated and progressive ministers into his cabinet

• On March 8, the Confederation of Ethiopian Labour Unions (CELU) played a

successful general attack.
• It was only a matter of time before the strikes and protests spread to the
provinces.

• A major popular demonstration was made on April 20 by about 100,000 Muslim

residents of the capital and their Christian supporters who came out demanding
religious equality.

• In the meantime, the soldiers, through their various committees, were also taking
their own measures.

• The coordinating committee of soldiers and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs)

set up in February had been joined by officers, such as Colonel Alem Zewd
Tessema of the Airborne Brigade, who then became its leader.
• In the meantime, the soldiers, through their various committees, were also taking their
own measures.

• The coordinating committee of soldiers and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) set up

in February had been joined by officers, such as Colonel Alem Zewd Tessema of the
Airborne Brigade, who then became its leader.

• In April, the Committee, perhaps with an involvement of Endalkachew, arrested Aklilu

and hundreds of other high-ranking officials of the regime.

• The Minister of Defense, Lt. General Abiy Abebe, who had noticed the growing power
of the Committee as well as series of demonstrations and strikes, set up what was
called the National Security Commission to restore order and respect for the authority
of the government.
• The leading opposition against the Endalkachaw cabinet were the students.

• But the students were less organized to achieve their goals and eventually, the
struggle was hijacked by the soldiers.

• The Derg was officially formed on June 28 1974 when it held its first meeting at
the headquarters of the Fourth Division.

• “Derg” a Ge’ez word for “Committee” was the shorter name given to the
Coordinating Committee of representatives from various military units: the
Armed Forces, the Police and the Territorial Army.
• However, officers above the rank of major were suspected of supporting the old
regime and therefore were not included.
• Major Mengistu Haile-Mariam of the Third Division of Hararghe,

• the vice-chairman Major Atnafu Abate of the Fourth Division,

came to be key figures.

• For some time the Derg exercised power parallel with the Endalkachew’s cabinet
and the emperor tied up in a dual state, trying to keep a balance between the
two.

• However, on August 1, Endalkachew was imprisoned and replaced by Lej Mikael

Emiru as prime minister.
• Meanwhile, the Derg continued arresting other members of the regime whom it
considered obstacles to the revolution.

• The Derg also tried to define its ideology and declared the motto, “Ethiopia
Tikdem” (“Ethiopia First”), “Yaleminim Dem” (“Without any bloodshed”) .

• The Derg continued systematically working to isolate the emperor and removing
the supports of his imperial power.

• A strong propaganda campaign was launched against the regime and the
widespread corruption of government functionaries.
• Two enterprises, Anbessa Bus Company and the St. George Brewery in which the
emperor and the imperial family had more fifty percent stake were nationalized.

• Moreover, a British documentary film disclosing the hidden horrors of the Wollo
famine precisely served the awaited interest of the Derg.

• Finally, on September 12, Emperor Haile-Selassie I was deposed and detained at

the Fourth Division headquarters.

• The Derg then proclaimed itself the Provisional Military Administrative Council
(PMAC) and assumed full powers.

• All strikes and demonstrations were immediately banned.

• Very soon, civilian revolutionaries, who had started calling for the establishment of
a provisional people’s government, started gathering around the Confederation of
Ethiopian Labor Unions (CELU),

• The military government also opposed by

• The University teachers’ group known as Forum.

• The students.

• Sections of the military,

• The Army Engineers Corps,

• The First Division (the former Bodyguard),

• The Army Aviation,

• However, the Derg was not prepared to make compromise on any ground.

• Instead, it imprisoned the leaders of CELU and a leader of the Forum group.

• On October7, the militant Engineers were violently crushed in a tank assault

which took the lives of five soldiers and there was massive arrest afterwards.

• The motto of “Ethiopia First, without any bloodshed” thus failed as early as
• On November 23, an even more violent phase started.

• Lieutenant General Aman Mikael Andom, chairman of the PMAC was shot dead
after a disagreement within the Derg over the Issue of Eritrea.

• Aman Mikael Andom who was of Eritrean origin believed in peaceful approach
against some radical members of the Derg particularly the First Vice-Chairman
Mengistu HaileMariam, who advocated for a military solution.

• The killing continued and the Derg announced execution of some 52 prominent
members of the old regime who had been detained and half a dozen other
leaders of the military units who had opposed the Derg as a “political decision.”
7.2.2. Attempts at Socio-
Economic Reform
• The Derg took a series of measures that aimed at fundamentally transforming the country.

• In December 1974, what was called the Edget Behibiret Zemecha (Development Through
Cooperation Campaign) was inaugurated.

• In this campaign, all high school and university students and their teachers were to be sent to the
countryside to help transform the life of peasants through programs

• literacy campaigns

• the implementation of the awaited land reform proclamation.

• However, the campaign was opposed by most of the civilian left as a system that the Derg
designed to remove its main opponents from the center.

• To appease the oppositions, the Derg changed its slogan of “Ethiopia First” to “Ethiopian
Socialism”.
• It also adopted slogans like

• Ethiopian Unity or Death

• Revolutionary Motherland or Death

• Every Thing to the War Front

• Produce while Fighting or Fight While Producing etc

• Finally, in March 1975 the Derg made a radical land reform proclamation which

• abolished all private land ownership and set the upper limit on
family holdings at ten hectares.
• The proclamation also provided the establishment of peasant associations which
were to be implemented with the cooperation of the zemach.

• On 26 July 1975 another proclamation

• nationalized all urban lands and extra houses.

• In April 1976, PMAC proclaimed National Democratic Revolution Program and set
up the Provisional Office for Mass Organization and Affairs (POMOA) with the
objective of organizing and raising the political consciousness of the masses.
• The campaigns showed Derg’s belief in mass mobilization to achieve a cause.
• “Green Campaign” of 1978 aimed at bringing about rapid economic development

• the literacy campaign aimed at irradiating illiteracy

• “Red Star Campaign” of 1982 that aimed at solving the Eritrean problem.

• Of these campaigns, only the literacy campaign registered some degree of

success.

• The land reform proclamation did put an end to landlord exploitation but it has

failed to make the peasant master of his land because now the state took over

as ultimate owner, with the peasant associations serving as its agents.

• The cooperatives only led to monopolistic government enterprises such as Ersha
Sebil Gebeya Dirijit (Agricultural Marketing Corporation), resettlements and
villagization

• On the other hand,

• nationalization killed private initiative and introduced a highly bureaucratized

management of resources.

• The state, with its significant role and growing proportion now gained
tremendous capacity to reward or penalize
• The Derg used peasant associations to control the countryside and the urban
dwellers’ associations (kebele) to control the towns.

• The kebele became battleground when the struggle between the Derg and the
Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) (formed in Berlin in 1972) reached
its bloodiest phase in 1976/7.

• The EPRP targeted kebele leaders and assassinated them while they in turn led
the government’s campaign of terror against the EPRP called the “Red Terror”, as
opposed to the “White Terror” of the EPRP.
• Initially, the leftist opposition to the Derg came from two rival Marxist-Leninist
political organizations called
• The EPRP

• The All-Ethiopian Socialist Movement (acronym in Amharic, Meison).

• In October 1976 the Marxist Leninist Revolutionary Organization (MLRO) was

formed with its first Secretariat being Tesfaye Makonin.

• Later, it was merged to form the Ethiopian Marxist Leninist Democratic Union
(UMLO) but was purged by the military junta in June 1979.

• After the land reform proclamation, Meison ceased its opposition to the Derg by
adopting what it called “critical support” and tactically formed an alliance with
Derg which helped it gain more organizational strength.
• In the meantime the Derg pushed by the dominant leftist political culture
systematically abandoned “Ethiopian socialism” and embraced Marxism-
Leninism.

• With the setting up of the POMOA, Derg proclaimed the National

Democratic Revolution Program which was the Chinese model for socialist
revolution and had identified feudalism, imperialism and bureaucratic
capitalism as the three main enemies of the people.

• In a few months, Derg’s leftist political organization known as Abyotawi

Seded (Revolutionary Flame) was launched.
• In 1977 an alliance called Emaledeh (the Union of Ethiopian Marxist–Leninist
Organizations) was established as prelude to the formation of one vanguard
party.

• The Emaledeh was composed of

• Meison

• Abyotawi Seded (Revolutionary Flame)

• Wezlig (Workers League) founded by Dr. Senay,Malerid

• Ech’at (the Ethiopian Oppressed Masses Revolutionary Struggle) founded by Baro Tumsa.

• That said, the Emaledeh was beset by power struggle from the outset as each
organization competed for supremacy instead of working together to realize the
original objective of the organization
• Meanwhile, the struggle between the EPRP and the Derg and its allies
had created a civil war scenario since September 1976

• when EPRP militants were arrested and executed by the Derg and
supporters of the Derg were assassinated by EPRP squads.

• EPRP had also attempted to assassinate Mengistu himself in mid-

September.

• In what followed, the Derg attacked EPRP with large-scale arrests of its
members and sympathizers and massive search and destroy campaigns,
particularly in Addis Ababa.
• In late 1976, the Derg itself was ideologically divided and with the internal struggles,
Mengistu had eliminated two powerful members of the Derg and potential rivals of his
power and influence, Major Sisay Habte and Major Kiros Alemayehu.

• Many other key members of the Derg were accused of being EPRP members or
sympathizers.

• On their parts, other members such as Lieutenant Alemayehu Hayle and Captain Moges
Wolde-Mikael resented the growing dictatorial power of Mengistu and his alliance with
Meison and other pro-Derg leftist organizations.

• With the help of the chairperson, Brigadier General Teferi Benti, they then successfully re-
organized the structure of the Derg in such a way that Mengistu was marginalized.

• On 3February 1977 Mengistu hit back with a coup against Teferi. Eventually
• Eventually, Teferi and other anti-Mengistu Derg members were
executed.

• After the coup, Mengistu HaileMariam assumed the chairmanship of

the Derg and the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

• He then filled the top positions in the Derg with his loyal supporters.

• Within just a year, the only remaining outstanding Derg member, Lt.
Colonel Atnafu Abate, was charged of impeding the revolutionary
process was executed
• Then Mengistu and his civilian left allies unleashed what they called
the “Red Terror”

• Initially targeting the EPRP and later including other opposition

organizations, including
• EPLF
• Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)
• Meison after its break up from the Derg.

• EPRP had to take its only option of turning to rural guerrilla warfare as
internal split within it hastened its collapse.
• In the meantime, the Derg faced another challenge.

• In the summer of 1977, the government of Somalia led by Siyad Barre waged a large-scale
war against Ethiopia.

• The Somali National Army crossed the border into Ethiopia and carried out military
operations in Degahbour, Kebridehar, Warder and Godey taking control of Jijiga and large
scale pockets of western regions in the first two weeks of the war.

• Within a couple of months, the cities of Harar and Dire Dawa were endangered.

• Yet Somalia’s did not last long. The government mobilized a force of about 100,000 peasant
militia and other forces that were trained at Angetu, Didessa, Hurso, Tateq and Tolay in a
short time with the help of USSR advisors and equipment.

• Finally, with 17,000 Cuban troop and the help from Southern Yemen Democratic Republic
the Somali National Army was defeated at Kara-Mara near Jigjiga on March 4, 1978
• In early 1977 the Derg had severed relations with the USA as the American
cultural and military institutions ended their operation in the country.

• This was preceded by

• the termination of the Ethio-USA 1953 mutual defense agreement.

• After a month, Mengistu concluded agreements with Moscow for

• economic

• cultural

• military co-operation.

• The relations between Ethiopia and the Soviet remained strong until the end
of the military regime.
• In the north, Eritrean insurgents had encircled Asmara while a pro-
monarchy organization, the Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU), was
marching inroads from the Sudan in the Satit-Humera region.

• Yet, by the end of 1978, the EPRP had been contained in the towns.
And the Eritrean insurgents had been pushed back.

• EDU was crushed near the Ethio-Sudan borderland in places like

Metema, Abder Raffi and Satit-Humera.
• The Union of Ethiopian Marxist-Leninist Organizations fell apart once Meison defected the Derg and
its leaders were consequently either killed or arrested as they tried to retreat to the countryside.

• The other three member organizations Ech’at, Wezlig, and Malerid were successively expelled from
Emaledeh and their leaders and members executed or detained.

• It was only Mengistu’s Seded that remained as the authentic Marxist-Leninist organization in the
country.

• The strategy of merging political organizations for party formation was then replaced by recruitment
of individuals loyal to Mengistu Haile-Mariam.

• In December 1979, the Commission for Organizing the Party of the Working People of Ethiopia
(COPWE) was established with this motive.

• In September 1984, the Workers’ Party of Ethiopia was inaugurated during the celebration of the
tenth anniversary of the coming of the Derg to power.

• It was given that Mengistu became the new party’s secretary-general.

• In order for the government to have a more direct societal control, there was the need
for restructuring of mass organizations which took place after the formation of the party.

• It started with workers who had challenged the Derg right from the start, and on January
6 1977, the CELU was replaced by a government-controlled All Ethiopia Trade Union
(AETU) which was later re-named Ethiopian Trade Union (ETU).

• This was followed by the formation of the All Ethiopia Peasants’ Association (AEPA) which
ensured the government’s control over peasants.

• Later AETU was renamed Ethiopia Peasants’ Association (EPA).

• Established in 1980, the Revolutionary Ethiopian Women’s Association (REWA) and

Revolutionary Ethiopian Youth Association (REYA) played similar role, rallying women and
the youth behind the state.
• It was when Shengo (PMAC National Assembly) proclaimed the People’s Democratic Republic of
Ethiopia (PDRE)

• In 1987 that such elaborate organizational set-up designed to ensure total control of society
reached its peak. With the birth of the PDRE, the Derg officially ceased to exist.

• A typically Communist constitution already on its way

• Colonel Mengistu had become

• President of PDRE

• secretary general of WPE

• Commander in chief of the national armed forces
• Fisseha Desta as Vice President while Fiqre-Sellassie Wegderes headed the Council of Ministers
as Prime Minister with five deputies.
• Finally it turned out that Mengistu could not stay in power more than four years after he was proclaimed
president of PDRE.

• The dictator, who had maneuvered the urban left and had gone ruthless in the process, fell under the attack
of rural-based guerrilla movements.

• Rural-based movements fighting for national self-determination thrived as liquidation of the urban-based
multi-national movements like the EPRP and Meison intensified in the center.

• These included the

• Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), active mainly in the Wallagga region

• the Islamic Front for Liberation of Oromia, based in Hararghe

• the Afar Liberation Front, the Sidama Liberation Front

• the Beni Shangul Liberation Front and the Gambella Liberation Front. Some of these fronts appeared
only in the last days of the Derg.

• The two significant liberation fronts which could be considered to have jointly brought about
• In 1984/5 a more devastating famine than the one in 1973/4 indicated the failure of the Derg’s economic policies
especially in agricultural production and marketing.

• In the late twentieth century, Ethiopia had experienced two major famines that had rose up national and
international mobilization and created bad image on the country in international scene.

• These were the 1972-4 and 1984-5 famines caused by a variety of interrelated factors which include environmental
crises (notably drought), economic, social causes as well as political factors.

• The state responded to the latter

• By resettling the affected people in less affected areas of western Ethiopia.

• The government responded to the famine by ignoring the problem for some time and then only to introduce its
controversial policy of massive resettlement of the affected peasants, mostly of Tigray and Wollo provinces, in
south-western Ethiopia.

• The villagization program that followed the resettlement further alienated the majority of peasants.

• It was in this context that the guerrilla forces scored remarkable victories against the regime forces towards the
end of the decade
• International politics too did not carry on serving Mengistu’s interest as his ally, the Soviet Union
ceased to be the source of his external support.

• Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost, (openness) in 1985 aimed
at making Soviet communism more efficient and humane was a failure and the Soviet Union
collapsed as a major world power.

• Even worse, the United States who the Derg had never been friendly with became the sole
arbiter of international affairs.

• Although Mengistu now tried to improve relations with the Americans, they were more directed
towards to his opponents, the EPLF and the TPLF, who they believed had fully abandoned
Marxism Leninism.

• In March 1990, the Derg proclaimed a mixed economy policy which seemed to come just late.
• The government’s military failure came after defeating the invading force of Somalia; the Derg
turned its forces to the north, with the rather too assured slogan that “the victory scored in the
east will be repeated in the north.”

• Initially the plan seemed to go well when the EPLF forces pulled back under the massive assault
launched by the Derg, which regained control over the rebel’s major strongholds in 1976/7.

• However, the retreated EPLF forces were not driven out of their fortress at Naqfa in northern
Eritrea.

• In March 1988, EPLF scored a major victory at Afabet, north of Asmara, from its stronghold in
Naqfa-Raza.

• When in 1990, EPLF forces captured the port town of Massawa, it became only a matter of time
before the capital, Asmara, also fell to them.
• The final decisive blow to Mengistu’s regime came to be administered by the
TPLF that aimed to secure the self-determination of Tigray within the Ethiopian
polity.

• The TPLF, at its inception, was grounded on the cumulative grievances of Tigray
people against the successive regimes of Ethiopia. To address the problems,
Tigrayan students created the Political Association of Tigrayans (PAT) and the
Tigrayan University Students’ Association (TUSA) in the early 1970s.

• PAT developed into a radical nationalist group calling for the independence of
Tigray, establishing the Tigray Liberation Front (TLF) in 1974.
• In TUSA, there emerged a Marxist leaning group favouring national self-
determination for Tigray within a revolutionary transformed democratic
Ethiopia.

• Whereas the multinational left movements such as the EPRP and MEISON
advanced the view that the problem of Ethiopian nationalities could be
resolved through class struggle, the Marxists of TUSA argued that due to the
existing inequalities among

• Ethiopian nationalities, revolutionaries must use the struggle of Ethiopian

nationalities for self determination as the launching pad for the ultimate
socialist revolution
• In February 1974, the Marxists within TUSA welcomed the Ethiopian
Revolution, but opposed the Derg as they were convinced that it would
neither lead a genuine socialist revolution nor correctly resolve the
Ethiopian nationality question.

• Three days after the Derg took power, on 14 September 1974 the Mahber
Gesgesti Bihere Tigray (Association of Progressives of theTigray Nation),
also known as Tigrayan National Organization (TNO) was established.

• TNO was to prepare the ground for the future armed movement of Tigray.
• The TPLF started in February 1975 as a small guerrilla band in the northern region of Ethiopia and
eventually grew to provide the core of the Ethiopian government.

• Before it turned to confront the Derg, the TPLF was engaged in a bloody struggle with the
Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Army, EPRA (the armed wing of the EPRP), EDU, ELF, and TLF.

• The Derg initially thought that TPLF was a mere creation of the EPLF to be vanished once EPLF
was crushed and thus underestimated its potentials.

• This made it possible for TPLF to strengthen its forces and when the Derg opened offensives
against it in the early 1980s, TPLF, which had built strong army was able to successfully fight back.
• In February 1989 TPLF scored its most decisive victory at Enda-Selassie, Western Tigray, after a
series of other military successes.

• At the victory of Enda-Selassie, tens of thousands of government troops were captured and their
commanders were either killed or captured.

• This resulted in the withdrawal of all government troops from Tigray. TPLF then took control of
the whole of Tigray and then started marching into the neighboring provinces.
• Meanwhile, the prevalent accumulated dissatisfaction with Mengistu’s regime
and the exhausting war in the north had been high especially in the higher
echelons of the army.

• In May 1989, commanders of almost all military units, coordinated and led a coup
against Mengistu when he left the country on a state visit to the German
Democratic Republic, East Germany.

• However, the coup was poorly organized that loyal palace troops encircled the
leaders before they could even announce their intentions to the public.

• Mengistu returned triumphantly to take his revenge which he did.

• The coup leaders were all imprisoned or executed

• TPLF, which after liberating Tigray, continued to move forward and made the necessary organizational
adjustments forming a bigger front known as the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front
(EPRDF).

• The member organizations were

• TPLF, the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (EPDM), a fragment group of the EPRP which had
begun to play a significant role in many of the military campaigns, the Oromo People’s Democratic
Organization (OPDO) and the Ethiopian Democratic Officers’ Revolutionary Movement (EDORM).

• Other Liberation Fronts including

• The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)

• Afar Liberation Front

• Sidama Liberation Front

• Gambella Liberation Front

• Beni Shangul Liberation Front also became active

• In 1990 and 1991 in consecutive and stunning campaigns, EPRDF forces drove the Derg out of
Gondar, Gojjam, and Wollo and parts of Wallagga and Shewa and approached the capital from
the north and west.

• In 1990 Oromo forces dismantled the Derg army of the 131st Brigade in battle that liberated
Asosa and Bambasi in the then Wollega province.

• In the meantime, negotiations for a peaceful end to the conflict were underway between the
government and the EPLF and the TPLF in Atlanta, Nairobi, and Rome.

• In May 1991, while the last of these negotiations were going on in London, series of events put
an end to the regime.
• On May 21, Mengistu fled the country

• first to Nairobi
• then to Harare (Zimbabwe).

• There remained no resistance left that the Derg troops could put.

• In London, the government delegation could not bargain anymore after the flight of the president.

• EPLF forces entered Asmara and Assab and announced the de facto independence of Eritrea.

• The PDRE Vice President, Lt. General Tesfaye Gebre-Kidan appealed for an end to the civil war on
May 23 1991.

• Prime Minister Tesfaye Dinqa left for the London peace conference mediated by the U.S.A’s
Foreign Affair African Service head Mr. Herman Cohen on May 27 1991.

• In the early hours of May 28 EPRDF forces triumphantly entered Addis Ababa
7.3. Transitional Government
• On 1 July 1991, a handful of organizations of which some were organized along ethnic
lines assembled to review the draft Charter prepared by the EPRDF and the OLF.

• The gathering was called

• The Peace and Democracy Transitional Conference of Ethiopia.

• The USA was at the forefront in providing the necessary diplomatic backing for the
Peace and Democracy Conference.

• The Conference was attended by delegates from the UN, the OAU, the G7, the US, the
USSR, Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti and Eritrea.

• Eritrea was represented by its future president, Isayas Afeworki.

• The Conference debated and approved The Transitional Charter on the basis of which the
Transitional Government of Ethiopia was created.

• Representatives of 27 organizations formed a Council of Representatives (COR) which acted

as
• a legislative body (‘Parliament’).

• This transitional parliament had 87 seats of which 32 were taken by the EPRDF and the
remaining 55 seats were divided among the 23 non-EPRDF organizations.

• At the same time, a Council of Ministers was formed as an executive branch, with Meles
Zenawi as the President of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE).

• Meles Zenawi then appointed a Prime Minister (Tamirat Layne) and a seventeen-member
Council of Ministers. Key posts were given to members of the EPRDF and OLF.
• In December 1994, the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of
Ethiopia (FDRE) was ratified, taking effect following federal elections in mid-1995.

• The constitution stipulates that the country would have nine federated states
based on identity and settlement patterns.

• The federal arrangement sought to decentralize power to the regional states by

accommodating the country’s various ethno-linguistic groups.

• After the election

• Meles Zenawi assumed the premiership

• Dr. Negasso Gidada became head of state.

• Meanwhile, EPLF set up a Provisional Government of Eritrea in 1991.

• This was followed by

• A referendum to decide the fate of Eritrea in which the majority of the

population voted for independence from Ethiopia.
• In May 1993, the Government of Eritrea was formed with

• Isayas Afwerki becoming the first elected president of the country after
independence.
Thank You