Four ethnic Amharas were killed and forty injured in Dodola district, west Arsi zone on Wednesday and Thursday, following unrest caused by tensions between security forces and influential journalist and activist Jawar Mohammed, local authorities and residents said. Though the unrest was sparked because of anger at the federal government for the alleged threat posed against Jawar, attacks have taken ethnic and religious turn in some areas. Residents said that armed youth from the surrounding areas of Dodola described as Quero stormed the town and torched homes and properties owned by the Amhara ethnic groups, predominately Orthodox Christians. A student by the name Zinabu was attacked and killed in his own house on Wednesday, a resident of Dodola told VOA Amharic. Many Amharas later fled to Kidane Mehre Church located in the outskirts of the town, seeking for shelter, according to the resident. A grenade was thrown at the church several hours later, injuring dozens, the resident said. “The injured were transported to the hospital on the following day, after army members assured us that things were back to normal. But just before arriving in hospital, a mob stopped the vehicle and brutally killed three of the injured,” one resident told VOA. Sajin Hajii, the Dodola security head acknowledged the deaths in an interview with VOA on Thursday night. He said the incident occurred on Wednesday after supporters of Jawar made rallies in the town, and things unexpectedly spilled into conflict between the Oromo and Amhara youths. “Then burning houses were started around two in the afternoon, and we tried to intervene. But it continued till evening,” he said. The security head confirmed about the deaths in the vehicle, saying one was found dead on the spot and two others died in hospital.

There are also reports that that non-Oromos had been attacked, with their properties looted and burned in Dire Dawa, Harar, and Hammarressa.

Image: Supporters of Jawar Mohammed outside his home in Addis Ababa after he accused security forces of trying to orchestrate an attack against him. AFP.

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It is with great interest that I have read René Lefort’s analysis and prognosis of the political situation of Ethiopia in an article titled “A flicker in the Gloom.” There is no doubt that the recent bloody disturbances have not only exposed the deep divide threatening the stability and unity of the country, but they also gave a clear picture of what is in store if nothing is done to reduce the violent tendency of the political fractures. Lefort’s analysis looks pertinent, indeed. It starts from the observation that the coalition of parties that rule the country is unable to govern because it is contested both locally and at the national level by “informal local groups of influential personalities or new community groups.” This loss of authority and control to groups that are often armed is evidenced by the widespread insecurity and the frequent ethnic clashes at the local level and by indecisions and discords at the national level.

Without a prior agreement between the contending forces and the return of some stability and security, the scheduled election cannot produce any outcome that has a remote chance of being considered as legitimate.

To this already tense situation are added two exacerbating factors, namely, the upcoming scheduled national elections and the project to merge the ruling coalition of parties into one party. The exasperating impact of the two upcoming events is but obvious. National elections will not only increase the competition between different parties and influential leaders, but, more importantly, the absence of accepted norms and rules, the persistence of insecurity, and the wide ideological disparities among the contending forces make impossible the reaching of a minimum of consensus over the results, whatever the results may be. Without a prior agreement between the contending forces and the return of some stability and security, the scheduled election cannot produce any outcome that has a remote chance of being considered as legitimate. In other words, the election, assuming that it can still take place or avoid any major disruption, will not provide any solution to issues dividing the country, and this is contrary, says Lefort, to Abiy’s expectation that it “will finally be legitimate enough to build a coalition which can set the course to resolve two key issues.”

As to the project of unifying the ruling party into one party, in addition to alarming ethnonationalist groups within the ruling coalition as well as in various opposition parties, has already led to the formation of open alliance directed against Abiy and his followers. This alliance of ethnonationalist forces, which also comprises the TPLF, constitutes by far the greatest threat to Abiy’s premiership. Because the ethnonationalist opposition is both internal and external, it does not give Abiy much room to maneuver; worse, it is progressively pushing the country to the edge of the precipice.

What is noteworthy is that, after underlining the political impasse of the country, Lefort admits that both poles, namely, “Abiy pole” and the “ethnic federalist pole”, “would eventually need to become decidedly multi-ethnic.” One is tempted to ask, why then speak of impasse? If both poles cannot but accommodate the reality of a multiethnic Ethiopia, where is the ideological chasm that separates them? Lefort’s insight is true: the survival of Ethiopia as one country, to which all the major parties seem to subscribe, at least officially, depends on the recognition and acceptance of its multiethnic political representations. Accordingly, this fact should be the basis for a broad agreement as regards the upcoming election and the prospect of forming a governing coalition if the results are not decisive enough to produce a ruling majority.

Lefort’s article does not clarify the mystery of the political impasse even as the major parties agree on the essential issue, namely, on the need to include in their program the reality of a multiethnic Ethiopia. Yet, the underlining issue that causes the rift is anything but elusive, for the issue is not so much the acceptance or not of multiethnicism as the hegemonic aspiration of some of the contending parties. Since its very inception, the Ethiopian federal system has operated under one hegemonic party, the TPLF. The expectation of change following the collapse of the rule of the TPLF was the establishment of a true, democratic federal system. But neither the TPLF nor ethnonationalist elites were willing to work for the implementation of a federal system free of the patronage of a dominant party, even though the main reason that brought about the change was the refusal of the TPLF to give up its domineering position.

Despite this clear demonstration that federalism in the TPLF style does not work, ethnonationalist elites, especially among the Oromo elite, pursue the goal of taking up the position previously occupied by the TPLF. Hence their opposition to Abiy: they accuse him, in concert with the TPLF, of not defending the interests of the Oromo and, worst still, of contemplating to get rid of the federal system. In their eyes, on several grounds, including the fact that the Oromo youth spearheaded the uprising against the TPLF and paid the heaviest sacrifice, it is the turn of the Oromo elite to rule Ethiopia. And Abiy should act less as the prime minister of Ethiopia than as the representative of the Oromo elite, much like Meles prioritized the interests of the Tigrean elite.

This competition has two facets: the one involves Oromo ethnonationalist radicals, the other has to do with the TPLF’s desire to regain its previous position by fomenting widespread unrest and insecurity.

This is to say that the sole political issue that is behind the insecurity problems, the clashes between ethnic groups, and the threat to the unity of the country is this competition for a hegemonic position. This competition has two facets: the one involves Oromo ethnonationalist radicals, the other has to do with the TPLF’s desire to regain its previous position by fomenting widespread unrest and insecurity. The only obstacle standing in the way of these projects is Abiy and his ideology of “medemer” To all appearances, the understanding that any resumption of a hegemonic rule in the federal system will definitively break up the alliance between the Oromo and the Amhara (otherwise known as oromara)––which alliance constitutes the cornerstone of the unity of the country––seems to be at the root of Abiy’s vision. Ethnonationalists want Ethiopia only in their own terms so that its survival is never an absolute; medemer sees survival as the continuation of past history but amended by the implementation of a democratic and collaborative relationship between ethnic groups.

The manner “victims” constructed the offender u-turned and became the mirror through which they see and value themselves.

I see no better way to validate this cultural transformation than to refer to the way an Oromo intellectual, Asefa Jaleta, described the situation in the Horn of Africa prior to Menilik’s expansion. He writes: “the Oromo and the Abyssinians were the main contenders in the Horn of Africa” (Oromia & Ethiopia, 1993, p. 8). This competition for hegemony resulted in the victory of Abyssinians because European colonialist forces provided Menilik with firearms, thereby thwarting the Oromo project of a “permanent dominance over Abyssinia” (Oromia & Ethiopia, p. 22). What else is Asefa doing but portraying the Oromo and the Amhara in exactly the same terms? As was the case with the Woyanne narrative on the superiority of the Tigrean people, with today’s Oromo ethnonationalists, the imperative is to revive and implement the hegemonic design that was thwarted by Menilik, who was but a stooge of European colonialism. The disease eating the Ethiopian social fabric may, therefore, be summarized thus: the manner “victims” constructed the offender u-turned and became the mirror through which they see and value themselves. This volte-face feeds on the pursuit for hegemony that is tearing up the country, thereby blocking the democratic resolution of the serious and pending problems.

The irony about the rise of ethnonationalist ideology in Ethiopia is the transformation of victimhood into its opposite, that is, into a hegemonic mentality. Since the 60s, Oromo and Tigrean elites have described themselves, no doubt based on some true historical facts, as victims of Amhara domination. To support their struggle, they have produced narratives that deliberately disparaged and at times distorted Ethiopian history and social relations. Unfortunately, the concepts they have constructed to describe Amhara elite and domination boomeranged on them so that they began to see themselves through the same lens. They thus generated a culture that aspires to be as domineering as the Amhara they constructed. The consequence is that they could find no other way to regain their self-respect than through the installation of their own hegemonic rule.  

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There’s been a lot of talk about harmful water hyacinth, locally called Emboch, that invaded most of the Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes water and what it means for the surrounding populations that share the lake. One of the lakes infested with the water hyacinth is the Lake Ziway (or known as Batu Dembel), third-largest of the seven Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes. Covering a 434 sq km, the freshwater ecosystem is reputed for its prolific birdlife and rich fish fauna. It is also home to a small resident population of hippos. Five volcanic islands dot Lake Ziway’s surface, with hiking trails, forests, and ancient monasteries to discover. The largest of the five islands on Lake Ziway is known as Tullo Guddo, the site of the ancient hilltop monastery, which reputedly housed the Ark of the Covenant for over seventy years in the 9th century. The monastery houses several illuminated fourteenth-century Geez manuscripts.

Ethiopia Observer spoke with Ziway Lake Tourist Guide Associations Chairperson, Abule Tumuni about the harmful weed that has been thriving for the past two years. Abule says that solid waste in the form of trash, litter, garbage, mostly originating from the surrounding farms,  is the main factor in the thriving of the invasive aquatic plant. Urgent measures need to be implemented to remove it, he said. Abule said communities around the lakeshore are facing an unpredictable future should the weed which has invaded around seven km of the shore continues to flourish. You can view the video broadcast (Amharic) on Ethiopia Observer’s YouTube page.

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• Polarized residents crave unity amid violence, anger

A deadly clash a month ago has put residents of the Bale Robe in a state of shock and bitterness. Fear and anxiety are still reigning in the city, Ethiopia Observer’s Zion K reports.

«You look so hurt and bitter. I do understand why,» Abune Henok, the Bishop of the West Arsi Diosese told audiences gathered at St. Gabriel Church in Bale Robe some two weeks ago. He came from Shashemene to Robe with other religious leaders to give support to the Orthodox Christian community, which has been the target of deadly attacks a month ago. He said he was here to console, and also appeal for forgiveness and show act of love.“ Despite the circumstances, we will never lose hope. These atrocious gestures make us firmer in the faith and stronger,” he said.

Robe, located 455 km from Addis Ababa and 14 km from Goba, has been regarded as a model of ethnic and religious tolerance and cohabitation. But that has been under increasing threat in the past two decades.  A radicalized form of Islam that is out of touch with Ethiopia’s primarily moderate religious practices is taking roots there, observers say.

Established in 1930, the town grew steadily, in large part due to its strategic location at the junction between the vast high plains of northern Bale and the southern and eastern lowlands. The town saw its glorious period after the political capital was moved from the Christian-majority Goba in the late 90’s. Robe serves as a point of departure for expeditions for Sof Omar cave and Sheikh Hussein shrine. A Muslim-majority town,  it is home to over 20 mosques and three churches. « The area itself had traditionally held an important position as the core area for the Walashe clan (claiming the Abaa Boku) and was connected to the gadda system (Hora Boku) as a place for toga, that is executions of criminals, » wrote Terje Østebø, a scholar and author of Localising Salafism: Religious Change Among Oromo Muslims in Bale, Ethiopia.

Though the tragic event that occurred in Robe on October 23 and the ensuing days was in connection with the high-profile activist and media mogul, Jawar Mohammed, as was reportedly the case in other Oromia towns such as Dodola, Kofele, Dinsho, Adama, the attack had a different twist, said residents. Here in the town of 120,000 inhabitants, the people who orchestrated the attack were not Querros but organized religious extremists who used the occasion to unleash a campaign of terror against the minority Christian community.

According to the list compiled by the Committee of priests and deacons of Churches in Robe town, five Orthodox church members (Christian Tulama Oromos) were killed and 22 (Amhara and Oromo Christians) wounded, twelve of them badly. Seven are being treated in Hawassa Referal Hospital, three in Addis Ababa, two in Goba Referal Hospital, ten in their own houses, » the report reads.

Two of the five bodies were reportedly decapitated. People bore witness to horrific scenes of broken, dismembered bodies, blood on the floor, parents paralyzed with grief and wreckage of glass and shattered households.

Addressing the church gathering, Abune Henok says the victims were killed for the sole reason of being Christian. He called for prayer « for those who have died, for their families and the entire community » and asked that Mary, the Mother of God, would console them all. “There is a flood of pain, hurt, disappointment, sadness, and heartbreak because such acts are being carried out. After all, Orthodox are part of this land and part of its fabric,” Abune Henok added.

A number of restaurants, hotels, and houses belonging to Christians were set on fire. According to the committee’s report, about 7.5  million birr worth of damages were done in the Metaferia Deneke Hotel, about 4.7 million birr in Elshaday Hotel, about 5.5 million Birr in Balageru Hotel, about 5.5 million birr in Harar Hotel, 5.5 million Birr in Meskel Hotel, 1.9 million Birr in Kidus Michael Hotel and 2.5 million Birr in Habehasha Hotel.

Even before this tragedy, Orthodox members in the town complained of being singled out for wearing Christian imagery and harassed. The spread of the Saudi Arabian Salafism strands of Islam has transformed the town from a peaceful place known for farming and commerce and religious tolerance into a hotbed of violent militancy. Young bearded men in ankle-length trousers stroll the streets, women cover themselves thoroughly. Buses carrying Christian pilgrims from Goba to Gishen were reportedly attacked and their windshields smashed a few months back. Differences and arguments also arise among local Muslims populations regarding the commemoration of the Prophet’s birthday and the veneration of the Sof Omar cave that reportedly served as a refuge for Sheikh Sof Omar Ahmed in the 11th century.

However, it was when Jawar Mohammed signaled his followers that his security guards were to be changed that unprecedented wave of violence unleashed. In Robe and other towns in Oromia, supporters came out in force to support the activist. In Robe, a three-day violence ensued in which Jawar’s supporters  — clashed with crowds whom they labeled as not showing enough solidarity for their cause. «Our leader is Jawar, Jawar is the father of Querro, » the protesters chanted, according to the DW Amharic radio report.

An attempt was made to burn down a church building. Witnesses were quoted by the radio station as saying that certain among the protesters took down a flag in the church compound and burned it down and attacked people living around the churches. A witness told Ethiopia Observer that certain elements arrive at houses owned by Christians on rickshaws. «They would knock at the door and would kidnap anyone who came to open the door, » he says. The Christians took revenge on Muslim communities for the violence they suffered and five Muslims were reportedly killed. A Mulsim cafe called Welmel was set on fire.

There were deaths and casualties in other towns such as Adama, Dodola, Dire Dawa. Up to 86 people have been killed died in the regional state of Oromia, according to the official report released a few days later. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed denounced an “attempt to turn the current crisis into an ethnic and religious crisis”. He said that 40 Christians and 34 Muslims were among the dead.

In Robe, the violent interactions and anguish would continue with the publication of a video that went viral online and offline. The video depicted an unidentified man delivering a notorious hate speech before a large crowd who took part in a funeral in the town for three Muslims who died in the violence. Rambling, the speaker urged the Oromos not to work, trade or deal with “Dorzes,” or “Neftegnas,” the latter being a euphemism for the Amharas.

A witness told DW that some did listen to the incendiary message and evicted tenants on the following days. The Robe town mayor, Adem Omar quickly issued a statement saying that the message does not represent the hospitable people of Robe and Bale. « These are people who came from outside with specific assignment and they tried to sow a seed that causes division and hatred in the town. But this would only make us more united than before, » a Muslim elderly, Kedir Sulyman, who participated in a recent forgiveness and reconciliation ceremony said.

The tension also spilled to the Madda Walabu University and many students left the university compound, fearing assaults and seek shelter in the churches and police stations. An online photo shows students spending the night sitting on benches and sleeping on the floor in the classroom hall in a deplorable state. The students had yet to return to the university.

Officials urged religious leaders to stop the clashes and bring the situation under control. On November 5, a forgiveness and reconciliation ceremony was organised by Abba Gada, church and mosque leaders. The initiative was led by Dr. Girma Amente, Deputy Chief Administrator of Oromia regional state and the ceremony was attended by Abba Geda of the Tulema and secretary of Abba Gedas, Gobena Hola, Kesis Belay Mekonnen of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Abba Gada from Oda Roba (Bale) Oda, Ali Mohamed Serur. Prayers were said by each participant and everyone participated in a communal meal of reconciliation.

There were community discussions held in every Kebele in the ensuing days. Committees have been established to document and investigate damages in detail and special bank accounts were opened to collect donations to compensate for the damages.

Somber atmosphere

Now, a month after the attack, the normalcy of everyday life seems to have somewhat returned to Robe. Clean-up activities are in full swing and shops have reopened. But the mood remains gloomy.

Though local officials are widely criticised for doing nothing to stop the attack, the deputy mayor of the town, Seifu Ismael, appeared on state TV a week ago to say that 102 persons are in custody. Assefa Tefera Dibaba, a poet, researcher and an Oromo activist who attended the reconciliation ceremony told Ethiopia Observer that “the people of Bale Robe whom I talked to blame government officials in the area for not making quick and genuine attempts to control the situation before it spread like a wildfire.” “The violence is very concerning. It seems to be part of a larger trend of polarization and conflict in Ethiopian society,” said Andrew DeCort, director of the Institute for Christianity and the Common Good. “Urgent creative, proactive initiative is needed to promote the preciousness and protection of human life in Ethiopia,” he told Ethiopia Observer.

Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Please cite Ethiopia Observer prominently and link clearly to the original article if you republish. If you have any queries, please contact us at ethiopiaobserver@protonmail.com.

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The story behind the vintage photo

Recently at a photography studio in Haya Hulet area of Addis Ababa, my attention was captured by a faded black and white photograph that was lying on the counter, evidently to be retouched. In it, a young man in a suit is depicted with his arm around a grown lion. I inquired the owner about it and sensing my keen interest, he assured me he could ask the person’s phone number for me, which he did a few days later. I contacted the man, an amiable person, and readily agreed to an interview the following week.

Seventy-two-year-old Mekonen Girma was sitting in the salon, visibly frail in his twilight years, with a white beard and hair and a forbidding expression. Almost unrecognizable as the exuberant, vibrant man I had seen in the photo. 

The photo was taken two years before the downfall of the Emperor Haile Selassie, he told me. He was 25 then. The lion, called Mekuria,  had been kept a favouite friend in the palace. It was taken around Addis Ababa by the Ethiopian Imperial Guard for large public gatherings and holidays such as Meskel celebration.  It was even brought to the airport to welcome dignitaries. Mekuria was about seven years old, Mekonen recalls. He must have weighed about a hundred and eight kilograms and he had a nice, distinctive full mane. He was so popular among the members of the Imperial Guard that they named their football team after him, Mekonen says. There was another one and younger called Kojo, he added.

Not everybody was a fan of posing for photos with the cat, Mekonen recalls. Many feared the lion as it could retain its wild instincts no matter how ‘tame’ it appeared. But he said there was not an accident that he heard of.

Keeping the lions as pet seemed fitting for the Emperor, as one of his titles, was Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Mekonen says. Lions were taken from the wild for his private menagerie. At the palace, some of the lions were not tamed and they had to be kept in a grassier enclosure, fed by few experienced keepers, Mekonen recalls. Vistors could only see them from the towers, he said. Their descendants have lived in Addis Ababa Zoo, opened in 1948 and  Jubilee Palace ever since. (Talk has it that they would move to the newly built Unity Park built at the Ara Kilo Palace.)

Mekonen’s role in the Imperial Guard was to create and operate turret (alow armored tower, typically one that revolves, for a gun in a tank or Jeep.) He was also sought after to modify the tower on trucks that were used to move the lions around for the celebrations.

Mekonen reminds me he was a civilian and he learned the job when he went to in Asmara as a teenager and worked with the Italians as a mechanic, where he also perfected his Italian. In Addis Ababa, he went to the Tegbared Technical School on the night shift to fix an engine.

After the demise of the Emperor, he continued working at the army’s heavy vehicles repair garage located at Jan Meda until he retired in the late 90’s, he told me.

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Sudanese authorities have arrested hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants in a series of raid operations in the capital Khartoum last week.

The arrests are part of the crackdown the authorities have launched against immigrants that they accuse of entering the country illegally or working without proper permits, the Voice of America’s Amharic service reported.

Some Ethiopian immigrants contacted by the VOA said that the random and brutal raid was carried out against Ethiopian nationals, including those authorized to work and who have lived for several years in the country.

Ethiopian Ambassador to Sudan, Shiferaw Jarso confirmed on Thursday that hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants were jailed this past week in Khartoum, Omdurman Prison, according to VOA. He also said that heavy financial penalties are being imposed upon the immigrants by improperly and quickly conducted trials. Some are asked to pay from 50-100 thousand Junaih, an issue that he has brought to the attention of Sudanese officials, he said. The Ambassador said he held a meeting with the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok who expressed his sympathy with the plight of the immigrants and promised to discuss the matter with relevant bodies and stop the crackdown.

Shiferaw strenuously objected to complaints about the embassy’s failure to provide assistance to the immigrants. He said some of the arrested Ethiopians had not heeded consular advice to regularize their papers.

It is not clear what prompted the move but Sudan has long been a key transit route for thousands of immigrants, especially those arriving from Ethiopia and  Eritrea.

Photo: Shiferaw Jarso in a meeting with the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok

The post Sudan arrests hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants appeared first on Ethiopia Observer.

By Major Yared Bitaw

In December 1960, while Emperor Haile-Selassie (1892-1975), the last emperor of Ethiopia, was visiting Brazil, members of the security and military forces led by the commander of the Imperial bodyguard, Gen. Menghistu Neway attempted a coup d’état. The coup was put down by force, but its after-effects had reverberated as the first and important revolt against the archaic feudal system which was finally abolished in 1975. As we approach the 60th anniversary of the abortive coup, Ethiopia Observer is publishing a reminiscence of a man who took an active role in the process.

A popular Ethiopian musician had been, at one time, reminding the public that ignorance is bliss. In this respect, a historic event had taken place in Gondar during the reign of Emperor Haile-Selassie. As it had happened, accompanied by his retinue, the emperor was driving from the airport at Azezo to the palace at Gondar. Many people who were lining both sides of the road were appealing to the Ethiopian leader with the traditional words “Abiet! Abiet” – meaning roughly: “Hear us O King!” The Lord Chamberlain got down from his car and asked those who were voicing the appeal what administrative wrongs were being done to them. “No wrongs were done to us. We just thought why we should keep quiet when the Emperor was driving past his people.”

In accordance with the dictates of religious tradition, most Ethiopians used to regard the monarch as the representative of God on earth. It was, therefore, normal to cry “Abiet! Abiet!” whenever the Emperor was passing by. As I see it, it was in allusion to such people that the musician cited above was saying that ignorance was bliss.

It is self-evident that children of the nobility and the aristocracy were being provided with educational opportunities abroad during the reign of Emperor Haile-Selassie. However, beginning from 1941 in particular students of humble origin were being also sent abroad for further education.

Let us, for instance, take into consideration what had happened in the field of education in the military field. Through educators made available to Ethiopia by the Swedish government, a military school was established in Addis Ababa where high-ranking officers had received training in three continuous rounds.

When Ghirmame Neway and Gen. Menghistu Neway carried out an unsuccessful coup d’etat against the Haile-Selassie regime in December 1960, therefore, both soldiers and civilians had – in the words of the Derg regime – acquired a high sense of political awareness. It was a matter of general joy then that the number of educated and enlightened Ethiopians was constantly growing. That is, ignorance was no longer bliss.

The 1960 Coup

In my opinion, the December 14, 1960 disturbances were wholly the brainchild of Ghirmame Neway. However, because the movement had to have a military component for success, it had to have the backing of General Menghistu. It is evident that for a number of years the two brothers were discussing between them what to do about the oppression experienced by the Ethiopian people under the feudal regime.

When it was realized that the attempted coup d’etat had fizzled out by the third day (a Friday) when the Imperial Bodyguard was in disarray, Ghirmame had addressed the rebellious officers at the Guenet Leul palace at Sidist Killo in the following words: “Everything has not gone according to plan. However, since we have failed in our mission, it is our sacred duty at least to rid Ethiopia of these bloodsuckers [referring to the ministers and dignitaries to be shortly executed]. So don’t grieve over the matter.” That was the gist of the statement made by him.

There was no sign of panic, regret or hesitation visible in his face before, during or after the high-ranking officials and dignitaries were executed.

There are people who would say that the attempted coup d’etat had ended in utter fiasco. This is true. However, one can only reach such a conclusion when one examines the event in a general way. The monarchy, which was regarded as an idol in Ethiopia for centuries on end, was reduced to dust by the Dergh regime because of the precedent laid by the December disturbances of 1960.

My Own Duties

As soon as I reported for work on Wednesday (December 14), Gen. Menghistu congratulated me by shaking my hand. Not motivated by nor in deference to him, I expressed my heartfelt acceptance of the aims of the military movement. He then took me aside and told me that it was my duty to be in charge of the officials who were detained in various rooms of the military headquarters. Before my arrival, an armed man was in charge of the detainees in every room.

Although I did not share any political or military secrets, I was a wholehearted supporter of the attempted coup d’etat. However, in order not to be irrationally motivated, I consulted Major Tefera Wolde-Tensay, who was a close friend of mine, on the aims and objectives of the movement. That way I received a general briefing on the military and political situation. Beginning from his participation in the Korean War, Tefera Wolde-Tensay had won great renown in the Imperial Bodyguard through his military feats. Through the leadership provided by him, a military camp was captured in Korea along with its commanding officer. This was a matter of great pride to the whole of Ethiopia.

My duties at the Imperial Bodyguard headquarters came to a close at around 8.0p.m Thursday. I was ordered by Gen. Menghistu to send all the officials and dignitaries under detention to the Guenet Leul Palace. According to a previous order given to me by the general, I was supposed to spend the night at the Bodyguard headquarters and to report to the palace the following Friday.

At the Palace

As soon as I reached the palace Friday morning, people were talking about those who had changed sides in reference to Gen. Merrid Mengesha and Gen. Kebede Guebre “So-and-so has proved to be a traitor!” That was the news of the day. I had no particular responsibilities from Friday onwards. Except for Ghirmame Neway, everybody else had lost all hopes.

Colonel Workineh was writing down something which I do not remember word for word in a book of honor. The gist of the message was that the Ethiopian people should make all efforts to take the movement that they had begun to its logical conclusion. Gen. Menghistu leaned down over the shoulders of Workineh, read the message and expressed the opinion that they should all put their names under the message addressed to the Ethiopian people – and did so himself. Ghirmame was the third man to append his signature to the message. Major Yohannis Misikir was the last officer to sign the book of honor. Major Tesemma and myself failed to append our signature to the message through general negligence. Nobody had also asked us to do the signing.

Later, accompanied by a few of us officers, Gen. Menghistu left the Bodyguard headquarters to visit the troops who were guarding the palace. As soon as the visit was over, the troops deployed there retreated from the vicinity of the palace. This is to say that the palace was deprived of any defensive forces.

The step that the general then took was to have the Empress brought from her private villa near the American embassy to the palace for joining the officials under detention. Major Tesemma, myself and two other officers whose names I do not remember conveyed the order to this effect from Gen. Menghistu to Col. Angagau at the Empress Menen villa. “Leave me alone, go away, there is nothing I know about it,” he shouted back at us. This was immediately followed by volleys of shots from the loyal troops surrounding the place. It was a miracle that none of us were wounded considering that the troops were so close to us. When I now reflect on the incident, it seems to me that we had won some admiration for our pioneering derring-do from the soldiers. As soon as we drove back and reached the Martyrs Monument in Sidist Killo, we escaped safe and sound from machine-gun firings from American jets overhead and were back in the palace. We then informed Gen. Menghistu that Col. Angagau had deserted the movement.

It was clear to all that the movement of the Imperial Bodyguard was losing more and more ground and that the Army, supported by the people, was getting more powerful. The Imperial Bodyguard was thus asserting its superiority only over those it was holding hostage in the palace.

It is not the aim of this memorandum to downgrade the roles that Police Gen. Tsige Dibou and Col. Workineh, whose loyalty was always under suspicion, were playing in the attempted coup d’etat. As far as I am concerned, I had twice spoken to Col. Workineh. He had told me on Wednesday when we were at the military headquarters that he was not one of the coup plotters. Before we went our separate ways, I had also assured him that there was nothing I had known about the movement. On Friday morning, before the American Ambassador came to the palace, he drew me aside and offered me his advice in the following words: “Yared, why are you staying behind? Go and look after your children. There is no reason why you should die the death of a dog.” A few minutes later the usual rumors were going around: “Workineh has deserted! Workineh has deserted!” This had followed the fact that after talks held with the American Ambassador at the palace, Workineh and Tesemma Wakjira had left on the pretext of seeing back the envoy and had not returned.

Around 3 p.m. on Friday, those of us who were guarding the palace, excluding the prisoners, were between twenty-five and thirty soldiers. The prisoners were in two groups. The Crown Prince and Ras Imru were in one room. The rest of the prisoners were kept in a basement cell. Then the palace was surrounded by the army. Exchanges of fire were taking place and these were getting more and more ferocious. The stage was being set for night combat.

In accordance with the wishes of Ghirmame Neway, those prisoners who were being held hostage in the basement were executed in less than ten minutes. Following this, we got out, held defensive positions and started fighting for our lives.

The Army got closer and closer from all directions and used tanks for attacking our positions. It is to be recalled that on Wednesday and Thursday the people were applauding the actions of the Imperial Bodyguard. Now, the people began to march to the palace by condemning the “traitorous” deeds of the Imperial Bodyguard and by expressing support for the Emperor. I saw two or three people falling on the street when shots were fired at them from an automatic weapon by the general. “Surely, they are unarmed civilians,” I pleaded with the general.  He stopped shooting and said, “The Emperor is responsible for it all.” On my part, the hand grenade that I threw from the balcony of the palace at a tank failed to explode. I was not saddened much by this. In fact, I was congratulating myself on this failure.

Gen. Menghistu began to be worried with regard to the severity of the attack on the palace. He told his officers, “Instead of dying in the rubble of the palace, it is better for us to perish while fighting.” So we tried to retreat through the back gate. As we were getting out through that gate, we heard the sounds of shots from behind. An officer who had claimed to have witnessed the sad event told us that Gen. Tsige had committed suicide. Before we had completely left the place, one shot was fired by one of us in the basement. It was reported that Major Yohannis Misikir had killed himself. Because I was aware of the fact that he was standing on my right, I looked back and saw him lying dead on the floor.

To be continued.

Main Image: GERY Gerard Paris Match Archive 22 décembre 1960

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The post The Ethiopian Coup d’Etat of December 1960: A Personal Account appeared first on Ethiopia Observer.

By Major Yared Bitaw

In December 1960, while Emperor Haile-Selassie (1892-1975), the last emperor of Ethiopia, was visiting Brazil, members of the security and military forces led by the commander of the Imperial bodyguard, Gen. Menghistu Neway attempted a coup d’état. The coup was put down by force, but its after-effects had reverberated as the first and important revolt against the archaic feudal system which was finally abolished in 1975. As we approach the 60th anniversary of the abortive coup, Ethiopia Observer is publishing the second installment of the reminiscence of a man who took an active role in the process. You could find the first installment here.

Times of Retreat

When we left the palace through the back gate, we did not encounter any members of the Army there. We made for the Raguel Church in Entoto through the Medhane Alem Church in Kechene. Our adventure thenceforth I would name “Times of Retreat”.

As soon as we reached Kechene Medhane Alem Church, Gen. Menghistu wanted to take off his military hat and to wrap himself in disguise with a cotton garment. He bought such a garment from a peasant who was driving his donkey to the marketplace, put it on; and we continued our journey.

As soon as we reached Raguel Church, night was approaching. We, therefore, decided to pass the night there. Consequently, we held a meeting for deciding on our future course of action. Various routes of escape were discussed during the meeting. One could go to Sudan through Gojjam; and one could make for Somalia through the Ogaden. The question was how to get to the Ethiopian border.

One could hide in the bush during daytime and travel under the cover of darkness. It was also possible to travel by day under the guise of peasants. Both were fraught with danger. It was particularly thought to be difficult to travel by day because of the conditions of the hairstyle. Whether one was traveling by day or night, I had the idea that doing so together was not advisable. However, I was reluctant to suggest that we should retreat individually and not as a group. This was because I had known that neither Ghirmame nor the general was favorably disposed towards those who had wanted to flee as individuals.

As we were sleeping during the night, a shot was fired by one of us. We were overtaken by panic and inquired what had happened. We were told that the general’s driver, Takele, had committed suicide. A little later on in the wee hours of Saturday morning, we hid in dense bush behind the Raguel Church.

We bought something to eat from a nearby village and stayed there until we could see our way around. Saturday evening, we traveled east until midnight by following the riverbed. On the pretext that I was going to the toilet, I finally abandoned the group.

By eating ripe ears of corn, by sleeping by day and traveling under the cover of darkness, I reached a friend’s house near Mount Yerer. From there I studied under what conditions members of the Bodyguard who were surrendering themselves to the army were being treated through my own informants. And, on Wednesday, I surrendered to the army with my arms.

I spent the morning at the third battalion where I had surrendered; and I was taken in the afternoon to the Jubilee Palace – now the National Palace. At that moment in time, the major preoccupation of the Emperor was to examine pictures of officers like Col. Workineh who had died and to interview others who were charged with high responsibilities. Addressing Major Tefera, the Emperor was asking him persistently: “How can you betray us Tefera?” To this, Major Tefera was thoughtless enough to reply: “Your Majesty, I didn’t betray you. Didn’t you tell us to obey our commanders? What I now find regrettable is that I did not arrest Gen. Merrid in accordance with the order given to me.”

During the interview, the Emperor was on his throne, flanked by Gen. Merrid Mengesha and other high-ranking military officers. It is said that Major Tefera was sentenced to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment for making the foregoing daring statements.

However, I was not summoned before the Emperor; and was, instead, taken at 7 p.m. to the Fourth Army Division near the Railway Station. In so far as my own contribution to the history of the December disturbances is concerned, I was playing a very minuscule role. That is perhaps why I was not presented to the Emperor for questioning.

Fourth Division

Before being justly or unjustly committed to various prisons, all of us were detained for six months at the Fourth Division. An investigative commission was then set up. What we had done individually and collectively were being meticulously looked into. As soon as the preliminary investigations were carried out, the wheels of justice began to turn slowly following the political decision made by the Emperor that the matter should go to courts. My own case was one of them. Lt. Digaf Tedla was the third defendant with Gen. Menghistu who was arraigned before a court of justice as one of the officers who had carried out the execution of the officials and dignitaries. The charge against Lt. Digaf was based on the allegation by a man whose life was saved mysteriously that he had seen him shooting the group of officials.

Lt. Digaf had called his own witness that he was not at the palace at all during the disturbances. However, for fear of being incriminated himself, the officer did not want to confirm this fact to the court.

I do not remember if Lt. Digaf had asked me to testify for him. I did not also hear the officer refusing to testify for him. However, what I can never forget is that Lt. Digaf was smiling so broadly when I assured him that I would testify that he was not at the palace on that tragic day. I did not get overly worried about the aggravating consequences of the testimony for my own case. It is clear that I was at the palace from Friday morning to 4 p.m. when we had fled. That is why I was confident that my testimony would absolve Lt. Digaf’s name of guilt.

On the appointed date, I was taken to a court presided over by three judges. I explained to the court that when the execution took place Lt. Digaf was not present at the palace at all. One of the judges was a high-ranking military officer. The rest were civilians. It was there that I saw Gen. Menghistu before he was hanged. The general himself had known that Lt. Digaf was not anywhere near the scene of palace carnage; and he supported my own testimony with his signature.

Finally, the military judge unequivocally accepted my own testimony. By doing so he succeeded in saving the life of Lt. Digaf. If I were asked what contributions I had made to the December disturbances, it is what I had done to save the life of an innocent man like Lt. Digaf.

Members of the preliminary investigation commission were hand-picked from the Army and the police force. Our cases were then submitted to a higher commission. The investigation was mostly concerned with a few officers who were thought to have been deeply involved in the attempted overthrow of the imperial regime. It is estimated that these officers did not number more than twenty.

 As one of the innocent suspects, I tried to explain to the commission that I was not a party to any secrets regarding the plot. I was particularly alarmed by the following question: “According to your own statement you were at the palace from Friday morning to Friday evening. If that is the case, it means that you have witnessed the execution of the officials and dignitaries. Or, where were you then?”

My answer was the following: “The officials were said to have been executed in a basement room of the palace. However, I was, most of the time, on an upper floor of the palace. When I was there, I could not say whether the sound of gunfire was coming from inside or outside the palace.”

Question: By the way, when did you learn about the execution of the officials and dignitaries; and from whom did you learn it?”

Answer: It was Negash who told me about it.” I remembered that he had fled and; that he did not surrender to the army. I replied in the foregoing manner to save my own neck. However, my exact position at the palace was as follows. I was in a basement room. Ras Abebe Aregay and Ato Makonnen Habte-Wold (I don’t know about the presence of others) were told that they were free to leave; and were shot in their back on the doorstep of their room. I did not see how those who were in the reception room were executed. However, it was my belief that the decision that they should be killed was made by the two brothers. I had also witnessed the fact that both Ghirmame and Gen. Menghistu were personally taking part in the shootings. Still, I have not seen any other person who was pulling the trigger during the execution.

At the conclusion of the investigation, when Negash was eventually arrested, I was asked to testify on what I had said about him. On my refusal to do so, I was cross-examined thoroughly; and my testimony was later ignored.

To say more on the investigations, during imprisonment one of the most unbearable things in life is to be completely isolated from society. If one is in prison, and if one can chat with other prisoners, this too is a great privilege.

During the week when thorough investigations were being conducted some officers were taken away from the common room and were kept in solitary confinement. One could not see other people or talk to them. One could not tell whether it was day or night when one is in solitary confinement in a dark room. I was one of the innocent suspects among the detained officers.

When I was in solitary confinement for 18 days my hands were in chains except when I was eating something for a brief moment. We were taken to the investigation room by night. After the investigations were conducted we were threatened with torture, being told indirectly that we would be severely beaten up. Even if I was scared to death, the answer I was giving was carefully considered. However, what had helped me most was the nonsensical character of the question directed to me. The following are some of them: “Were you ever sent to India for military training? Was a new car bought for you when you returned from training abroad? Were you a special advisor to the general by working in a new military directory? Have you given orders to some officers to look after the safety of their superiors?”

The questions all boiled down to this: “Were you a party to military secrets as a cream of the Bodyguard officers?” When they could not get anything out of us that way, people who could obtain confessions through torture were sent to us. These people began to ask me the questions put to me by the investigating commission all over again. When the same answers were given to them, manacles appeared. I had never seen such formidable manacles before. My hands were tied behind my back. They would stop for a moment and repeat the questions. When they continued tightening the screw on the manacle, I could not give an answer through exhaustion.

There was no fear in my deadened mind. My body was insensible to the torture. However, I was under the constant impression that I had shed all my blood through my fingers. Another thing I remember is that I was in tears with floods of sweat flowing over my body. I do not remember how I eventually got back to the darkroom. The following morning, I realized that my left hand was paralyzed.

We were finally all taken to the common prison room. The rest of the officers were subjected to similar torture. Some of them, like Major Tefera Wolde-Tensay, were subjected to more severe torture. Because of the torture, to this day, the small finger of my left hand had lost its feeling of touch. The Red Cross was eventually granted permission to come to our assistance. I do not know to what extent the pills I was given had helped alleviate my suffering. Still, my due thanks must go to all those who had come to our assistance by defying the political pressure applied against them.

As soon as the military investigation into our political activities was carried out, sentences were served on us on two counts. 1) Officers and civilians against whom sufficient evidence was gathered should be individually brought before the courts which should punish them according to their guilt. 2) Some eight of us against whom there was not sufficient evidence were sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment not by the courts but by officers who had not sat in judgment over our cases. It was decided that the rank and file of the Imperial Bodyguard should be released from detention and should serve in the Armed Forces.

Prison

Most of us were imprisoned in Addis Ababa. There were also other civilian prisoners who were found guilty of making some contributions to the military plot morally and materially. One of these civilians was Assefa Dula who had chosen to throw his weight behind the movement by responding adequately to the national call. It was a well-known fact among Ethiopian intellectuals that Assefa Dula was a lawyer who had a highly perceptive mind.

It is not without reason that I mention the name of Assefa Dula. Many years ago, I came across the fame of the courageous lawyer when he was acting as attorney to one officer who was being court-martialed led by the Ministry of Defense. I could not forget to this day to what extent the witness for the defense was confounded by the cross-examination to which he was subjected by Assefa Dula. Even if the attorney for the defense was speaking with courage, it was difficult to doubt his power of persuasion.

Most of us officers were living in overcrowded rooms in the central prison. The only exception was Assefa Dula. He was an honored prisoner because he was a conscientious and outspoken man who had always stood for the cause of the oppressed masses.

It is a well-known fact that the Haile-Selassie government was being sustained by the feudal aristocracy. That demonic government was oppressing and exploiting the people as an elect of God. There is a popular Ethiopian saying that a fragile eggshell can occasionally break a piece of rock. It is to be recalled that the son of Ras Mesfin was taunting Assefa Dula with a racist slur. It was customary in Ethiopia to submit to such insults slavishly. Otherwise, confronting insult with insult would be tantamount to challenging the authority of the Emperor in person. It is sad to observe that being governed by being constantly humiliated is in practice to this very day.

As it would be remembered, hospitals were ordered by palace dignitaries not to provide medical treatment to Assefa Dula when he was mortally wounded during his shoot-out with Jarra Mesfin.

The December disturbances were the outcome of a popular uprising. It is, therefore; only legitimate to consider the sacrifices incurred by Assefa Dula through his death on September 14, 1967, as martyrdom on behalf of the downtrodden people of Ethiopia. Both the popular uprising of 1960 and the martyrdom of Assefa Dula were revolts against feudal oppression. There is no doubting the fact that to call someone the son of a pauper or the offspring of a slave is a serious offence against an entire people.

That is precisely why all the people of Ethiopia from the lowest to the highest were on the side of Assefa Dula – who was given a hero’s burial – when he fell on the battlefield by getting rid of the arrogant son of a notorious feudal bloodsucker.

Otherwise, the rest of us prisoners were being treated as decent human beings with our military titles intact – and without being subjected to hard labor. We were allowed to receive food from our relatives twice a week; and our prison terms were reduced from three to two years. When we were finally released, however, we had to sign an agreement that we could only live in rural centers by leaving Addis Ababa. We thus left the city for our particular places of choice.

Exile

Some ten of us officers chose to live in Nazareth (Adama), about 100k.m. south-east of Addis Ababa. Among these, Captain Solomon Wolde-Tsadik, Major Berhanu Guelet and myself decided to rent a house and live together. When we were in prison we were eating the meals provided to others. However, in exile we were being paid pocket money to eat what we liked; and to live as we wished. Later, the Council of Ministers proved unhappy with the pocket money being paid us. It, therefore, made the ministerial decision that all of us living in exile should earn our bread through the sweat of our own brows. So we did everything in our power to look for jobs; and lead a peaceful civilian life.

Of course, as a result of the uneasy political situation then prevailing, both private and public institutions were reluctant to provide employment opportunities to former rebels without authorization from the authorities. Personally speaking, I got a job at the nearby Wonji Sugar Mills by presenting to the factory a permit for work from Brig. General Yilma Shibeshi, the Emperor’s Security chief. 

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The post The Abortive Coup d’Etat of December 1960: A Personal Account (Part Two) appeared first on Ethiopia Observer.

Four mosques were attacked in the Amhara region of East Gojam Zone, Mota town on Friday evening. Hotels and other commercial institutions owned by Muslims were vandalized or set to fire, according to the Amhara Region Muslim Affaires President,  Sheik Sead Ahmed. The incident has provoked widespread condemnation from Muslims and Christians alike and protest in many parts of the country. Twenty-one persons suspected of burning down the mosques have been arrested, the Zone’s police department has said.

How did the violence unfold?

According to a witness contacted by BBC Amharic, around 5 PM while a prayer was being held in Mota Giyorgis Church, smoke was observed rising from the roof of the church, though its exact cause was unknown. Men and women living in the surrounding area rushed to contain the fire with buckets of water and succeeded after some efforts. However, a group of youth who were convinced that the fire was a result of foul play headed to burn mosques, the witness was quoted as saying.

The witness has pointed out that  Christians and Muslims have long lived amicably in Mota and that many Muslim brothers have joined forces with the Christians to help put out the fire on the Giorgischurch.« Even today they were coming to us, asking us to provide them with water jerrycans for pouring out on the fire. The atmosphere was one of solidarity and peace .»

The resident who says that Friday’s incident was caused by a group of youth who were driven by whipped up emotion, opines that setting the mosque on fire did not sound like a premeditated act.  The Municipal Council member of the Mota town, Haji Yunus Edris told the BBC that “most of the burned shops were shops belonging to the Muslims. Pharmacies and containers have been burned and looted in the commercial area called Arat Be Arat, » he was quoted as saying.

Haj Yunus said that as long as he was concerned there was not a problem in the relationships between the Muslim community and the Christian community that would have led to what happened on Friday. He added that although there have been some issues between the Muslim communities, this cannot in any way be linked to the latest incident.

The letter from Mota town’s Muslim Affairs Council

Another witness also says that there has not been a quarrel between Christian and Moslems in the area but there have been some tensions between the pre-existing « Korefi » Muslim and the newly arrived Wahabi Muslims, as quoted by the BBC. After a recent meeting between the two sects ended in the fallout,  the« Korefi »members wrote a letter saying that « the hardliners are trying to create a division between us and the Christians. » Explaining that there was a process of reconciliation between the ‘Korefi’ Muslims and the Wahhabi, the witness said he heard of the letter sent to authorities written by the former stating that « they would not be held responsible for what would happen to the Christians,” and the letter caused apprehension among residents.  (The letter signed by Jemal Getaw and written on November 15, 2019, the Mota town’s Muslim Affairs Council representative says that secret meetings have been held in Marzeneb Hotel a number of times by certain groups claiming to represent the Muslim community, without the knowledge of the Council and concerned about their motives, the Council members have approached the town’s security office to present their concerns. The letter also says that given the importance of the issue,  the Council decided to send a formal letter.)

 After this content of the letter made public, fear rose among the Christian community that “Muslims could attack us at any minute,” the witness said.

But the witness says he finds it hard to believe that foul play caused it. “Think about it. Who could enter into the church’s interior at 5 PM and set fire to it?” he was quoted as saying.

« Not an isolated incident »

However, many Muslim activists who follow the events from afar do not agree with the version that the attack was the result of divisions between the Muslim communities and the supposed letter that created fear among the Christians. Ahmedin Jebel, a prominent Muslim scholar, and author, says the latest attack on mosques on Mota town was not an isolated incident or a marginal phenomenon. For instance, he said last year three mosques had been burned in Amhara region’s Estetown (southwards of Debre Tabor) and its environs. No action was taken against the culprits and even charge was not lodged, he said.  At the time, he and other members of the IslamicAffairs Supreme Council talked to the head of the Amhara regional state’s security branch General, the late Asaminew Tsige about the issue after visiting the area but his response was « the Muslims are fighting against each other, dividing themselves as Sufi and Salafi and please help us with that. »

Moonira Abdelmenan, a journalist and activist wrote on her Facebook page that « burning out of the mosque in Ethiopia is the result of a wave of animosity, systematic discrimination, abusive and propaganda campaign against Muslims, both in the region and across the country, » she said. Moonira pointed finger at the region’s security branch complicity and failure to prevent the attack. She said the police and the government should take measures to help ensure protective security and basic safety for mosque premises.

“United response”

On Monday, faith leaders from the federal, state, and zones visited the affected religious institutions in Mota and discussed with local communities to calm potential tensions, according to state media. The leaders made a call to unite against those who seek to create discord, uncertainty, and fear in the communities.

The post What happened in Mota? appeared first on Ethiopia Observer.

Children of Hope, The Odyssey of the Oromo Slave from Ethiopia to South Africa (review) 2019 by Shama Books Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 334pp Price. 340 ETB

In Children of Hope, Zimbabwean-born Sandra Rowoldt Shell traces the lives of sixty-four children, most of them belonging to the Oromo ethnic group, who were enslaved in different parts of Ethiopia during 1888 and 1889. While the children were heading to Arabia on vessels, we learn that they were liberated by the British warship in Tadjoura, taken to the harbor of Aden in Yemen, and ultimately sent to thousands of kilometers away in South Africa. There in Eastern Cape, they were handed over to Lovedale Missionary Institution, a mission church, and school who made willing converts among them.

In this historical reference, the academic librarian and archivist Shell, based at South Africa’s Rhodes University, details the experiences of the captives tracing the traumatic experience caused by forcible removal from their homelands, the many hardships of a dependent life in an alien land, the story of struggle for survival and their quest to forge a path towards their future. Comparing the children by age, sex, ethnic group, method of capture and the details of their enslavement and transfer, the author enables a sobering look at a grave history that has been absent from national narratives for too long. The author does not refrain from making general and sweeping statements about the politics, the actors and the process involved in the event, which often came as provocative and partisan.

The Structure of the Book

The book’s eleven chapters are divided into five parts. Her « Introductory Ruminations » sets the context and goals of the book. In 1972, she began working for Rhodes University’s Cory Library for Historical Research in the Eastern Cape and came across several entries reading « Galla Slaves, » in the various card catalogue. That piqued her curiosity to discover who they were and what their link to Eastern Cape was. As she puts it, «The flame of what would prove to be a lifetime interest in and fascination with these Oromo children-their origins and their outcomes-was ignited within me there in the Cory Library over forty years ago. » However, it was only in 2013 that she came to write her Ph.D. thesis entitled « From Slavery to Freedom: the Oromo slave Children of Lovedale, » presented to the University of Cape Town.

The existence of « a rare and immediate collection of first passage narratives », transcribed and edited by the missionaries have served as the basis for the thesis and book.  (No wonder most part of the book reads like a doctoral thesis.) In analyzing the interview transcripts, the author provides considerable information about the children’s places of origin, orphanhood, family composition. Shell reveals how the children were enslaved by members of their families or neighbours and how the high rate of orphanhood contributed to their enslavement. We learn that, a total of 12.8 percent of the slave children were full orphans, 17.4 percent were paternal orphans, and 1.2 percent were maternal orphans. A solid 15.1 percent of the children were pawned sold by members of their families or by neighbors for example, with the death or absence of parents and their tender years being a key factor affecting their vulnerability. 

The second part recounts the story of the moment and modes of capture, the identity of those who kidnapped the children, whether the children were sold for money or bartered for food or goods. A graph is used to show the range of ethnicities and places of origin of the captors, under a quarter of the children (23.3 percent) identifying the Sidama as the raiders who enslaved them. « Almost one-tenth of the captors were from Sayo, an Oromo kingdom ; a further 8.1 percent of the captors came from Kaffa ; 4.7 percent were from Leka (Now a part of modern Oromia). » The author acknowledges that there is a degree of ambiguity surrounding the term « Sidama ». « The word means “Abyssinian” in Afaan Oromoo. There is also a small ethnic group situated farther south named the Sidama, … », she explains. The inclusion of the narratives and graph indicating the length of time the children spent on the road, from the slaves’ home to the coastal entrepots and changing hands « up to ten times. » is an important part of this part.

The third part, which has four chapters, is the heart of the book. It narrates the children’s interception to Aden, soujourn in the desert and the onward voyage, by sea and land to Lovedale and education at Lovedale. What emerges is during the 6 years the children spent at Lovedale most of them proved to be good students, achieving « higher class positions than could have been anticipated, » and on good terms with their South African mates. Fifty-one were baptized into the Free Church of Scotland  and thirteen were admitted to full membership of the church between 1891 and 1895, we learn on page  150. Here, the book pulls togheter insights from the previous sections. Four in five survived and left the school as young adults in seeking out job opportunities. One-third of the twenty-three settling in the diamond-rich area of Kimberley, six in Port Elizabeth and four in Cape Town, embarking on different walks of life. 

The final chapter includes reflections and appenidces, that sums up the aims of the author – to uncover the reasons for the purchase of slave children; and to illustrate their experiences and the narratives that the Scotland mission recorded about the lives of the sixty-four individuals.

The Book’s project and Weakness

One of the shortcomings of Shell’s book is that her own comments about the Oromo people, their ways and those of today’s society that are packed with a trove of ideological assumptions and one-sided reflection.  The 64 children who had been enslaved in ther lands located to the south, southwest, and southeast of Ethiopia belonged to different ethnic groups, Oromo, Kafficho, Shankella, Gurage, Yambo and others, as the author herself indicated.  But a good part of the book, including the title, gives the impression that Oromos were the only people enslaved.

As with a number of Oromo scholars and activists (the influence of Professor Mekuria Bulcha, whom she thanked in the acknowledgment  for his elucidations about the Oromo people, is obvious), Shell delivers a devastating indictment of Menelik’s atrocities and his active « expansion » of the slave trade during the latter decades of the nineteetnh century. Shell says little, if anything, about how the Gibe and Kaffa kings enslaved and sold the children of parents too poor to pay their taxes, even though this was recorded on numerous slavery histography. Abba Jiffar II, the Sultan of Jimma at the time of the Menelik’s invasion, was reputed even to have paid his medical fees in slaves.

Dirk Bustorf of Hamburg university in an entry in Encyclopedia Aethiopica wrote that « in their history, most ethnic groups in southwestern and southern Ethiopia were exposed to enslavement but often also enslaved war captives for domestic usage and trade. The Nuer enslaved the Komo, the Majangir were raided by Anwaa, and highlanders, the so-called Gimira groups, Mer, Seko, Nayi, Cara) were victims of Oromo raiders as well as campaigns of the Hinnario and Kafa kings. The large requirement of the Kaffa kingdom in slaves were supported by captives of war from its vassal states of Konta, Dawro, and Kunca,» he quipped. Donald Levine in Greater Ethiopia wrote that a large part of the increased slave trade in the first half of the nineteenth century consisted of Oromo captives being sold by other Oromos.

Shell’s narrative attempts to rewrite the historical record to serve the purpose of politics. She, for example, suggests that the Oromos have populated the Ethiopian highland plateau for millennia against the historical assertion they have entered and settled during the seventeenth century.  But there is disappointingly little evidence for her argument except for her citation of the Oromo scholar Mohammed Hassen’s The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History who in turn cited the British army officer and colonial administrator, Sir Darrel Bates. The Oromo « were a very ancient race, the indigenous stock, perhaps, on which most other peoples in this part of eastern Africa had been grafted, »  goes Batte’s quote. A more probing attitude to the claim, though, would have strengthened her book. In his review of Mohammed Hassen’s The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, Harold Marcus asks why make such sweeping claims on the bases of tenous material. « The answer lies in the politics of ethnic competitions in Ethiopia. If the Oromo inhabited the country’s central highlands before their historic invasions of the seventeenth century, then current politicians characterize Semitic speakers, who have long dominated modern Ethiopia, as colonialists,» Marcus quipped.

Such loose rhetorical and extravagant claims do not help make that vital point but distract from it. This point was not lost on another foreign reviewer, Sandra E. Greene who reviewed Shell’s book for the American Historical Review, December 2019. « Shell’s analysis of the political conditions in the region, both in the nineteenth century and today, as well as her description of the Oromo communities from which the majority of the children came are also colored by her own political sentiments. She speaks forcefully in support of the political interests of the Oromo people, past and present and can, at times, romanticize the Oromo as a whole by noting how all « live in harmony with nature »(162), » she wrote.

Rather hard-to-explain omissions are the failure to use the study of Timothy Fernythough’s « Slavery and slave trade in Southen Ethiopia in the 19th Century », in Clarence Smith 1989, « Revisiting Slavery and the Slave Trade in Ethiopia » by Giulia Bonacci and Alexander Meckelburg, published in North East African Studies Vol, 17 Nov 2, 2017, and the entries in Encyclopedia Aethiopica, under the titles, Slave trade from ancient times to the 19th century written by Richard Pankhurst, Red Sea slave trade in the 19th century, written by Jonathan Miran, slave raiding in the 19th century, by Dirk Bustorf, domestic and court slavery by Dirk Bustorf, Wolbert Smidt’s 2010 ‘Slavery and politics’.

By Way of Conclusion

This shortcoming does not, however, affect the quality of the book’s overall merit in bringing to light a story ignored from the Ethiopian stage. This will surely open a conversation about childhood enslavement and the practice of slave trading that will lead to further discussion.

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It has been a number of years since the “Ethiopian History” course has been canceled from Ethiopian colleges and universities for its supposed biases and question of inclusiveness. A new textbook has been written by a government-appointed panel of four academics to replace the former one. But the new one is also sparking controversy. In the first series of articles on the subject, Ethiopia Observer publishes an opinion piece from a US-based Ethiopian scholar who describes the work as “an embarrassing one” and tainted with omissions of facts or even utter falsifications of the truth.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education has recently published history teaching material for students of higher learning institutions, entitled “Module For History of Ethiopia And The Horn For HLIS [Higher Learning Institutions Students, hereinafter “the Module”]”. The writers of the Module are four academicians: Drs. Surafel Gelgelo, from Addis Ababa University, Deressa Debu of Jimma University, Dereje Hinew of Wallaga University, and Mr. Meseret Worku, from Dabre Tabor University. These are undeniably men (unfortunately there is no woman), with considerable academic credentials. Three of them are honored with terminal degrees in the field of history, and the two (Surafel and Deressa ) have monographs apparently by the same publisher, VDM Verlag Dr. Muller, which is known for publishing “works that received a passing grade”, and is described as “a predatory vanity press” which, contrary to its claim of being an academic publisher,  does “not apply the basic standards of academic publishing”.

The Module is divided into seven units, and an introductory chapter. The first discusses the nitty-gritty of history, including its meaning and use, sources and methods, and its geographical context. The second deals with the peopling of the region and cultural evolution. The following three units are dedicated to polities, economy, and socio-cultural processes in the successive centuries: from the early period to the end of the 13^th centuries is dealt in unit three, and those up to 16^th century are addressed by unit four, whereas unit five discusses those from the early 16^th to the end of the 18^th century. The last two units, namely six and seven, deal with internal and external social and political dynamics and the forces at play, the first, from1800-1941, and the second, up to 1994.

The Module aims to achieve identical assets that most western institutions of higher learning intend to equip their freshmen and sophomores through their required core curricula courses, which stress, among other things, the attainment of the following specific objectives as their goal:

• Ensure that student possesses fundamental intellectual skills among which the most significant include critical thinking and writing;
• Broaden student’s perspective beyond that afforded by his/her major or minor, instilling in him/her sense of appreciation of the inter-relatedness of knowledge;
• Facilitate student’s search for identity and meaning, emphasizing his/her national heritage, and his/her connectedness to the broader world;
• Foster ethical behavior, civic engagement and leadership in his community, nation-state and beyond.

In the pursuit of this consciousness-raising and self-empowering effort, it can be quite confidently stated that no other subject is as crucial as history. The writers of the Module seem to be aware of this fact, as they state that its purpose “is to help students understand a history of Ethiopia and the Horn from the ancient to 1994 as a base for shaping and bettering of the future”.

It is the worst kind of history filtered to serve the needs of the regime in power, written by selecting only those facts that “prove” its perspective, or just to make its constituents feel good.

For history to attain this high objective, it should be understood and taught in all its complexities, both the pleasant and unpleasant, the heroic and the disastrous. Failure to adhere to this basic rule will result in bad history. We know that as there is good history, equally there is also bad history. Only good history will serve as a good guide to illuminate and shape students’ lives and problems. Good history takes into account as much evidence as it can and makes the most reasoned judgment as it can.  The Ministry’s Module badly fails to meet this challenge. It can be confidently stated that it is the worst kind of history filtered to serve the needs of the regime in power, written by selecting only those facts that “prove” its perspective, or just to make its constituents feel good.

In fact, no academic discipline in Ethiopia had become a subject of so much ridicule, controversy, contention and propaganda as does the country’s history. Each regime that followed the monarchical rule has used and abused it for its political agenda, blaming it for the depth and extent of the country’s social malaise, justifying its cruel and rapacious rule, and to engineer a new society in its own image. Both the Derg and the EPRDF regimes have practically transformed the country’s population into a human guinea-pig for their contemptible ideological laboratory. Their experiments miserably failed, but they left complete mayhem behind.

Derg believed that the backwardness of Ethiopia was due to its exploitative social structure, where a handful of feudal lords in cohort with their twin bedfellows, the Church and the monarchy, abused the masses for millennia, exploiting their land and labor. However, Derg’s attempt to build a socialist El Dorado through an exported foreign doctrine, Marxism-Leninism, was nothing but an extreme disappointment. The Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front [EPRDF], which ousted Derg, fared no better. Primarily because as a hodge-podge of individuals and groups, handpicked by the victorious Tegrean nationalist liberation front [TPLF], a guerilla band, assumingly fostered and groomed by the Eritrean Liberation Front, has no national vision of any sort beyond hatred and blatant discriminatory rule, perhaps quite unheard and unseen in Ethiopia’s millennial history. TPLF attributed Ethiopia’s backwardness to the trinity of [USA] imperialism, monarchical feudalism and, what it described as, the Amhara overlord-ism, namely economic exploitation and political oppression. With its surrogate, EPRDF, TPLF vowed to fight tooth and nail, these evil trio. Accordingly, a constitution was drafted, followed by an administrative system that created ethnic enclaves, which apparently seemed to be useful instrument for the government’s agenda: to eliminate, hunt down, and drive back, the oppressive Amhara to their putative homeland. Yet TPLF’s saga ended with the Front itself being unceremoniously driven back by a sustained popular protest to the land of its origin.

What is amazing and extraordinary in all these developments is not only the fact of these regimes’ fanatical adherence to their elusive and ill-begotten mythology but also their inability to learn from their predecessors’ historical mistakes.  Beyond pontificating to be all-knowing, the regimes demonstrated their utter ignorance of Ethiopian history and social milieu. Whatever history they claimed they knew, happened to be a figment of their imagination, not reality.

This is the context in which the Ministry of Science and Higher Education module is written. It is apparently part of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister, Doctor Abiy Ahmed’s grand vision of future Ethiopia. Abiy seems to have a good intention of bringing Ethiopia to its past historical height. As many understand, in the imagination of many nations in Asia, Europe and Africa, Ethiopia’s image is that of a shining black nation that served as a torch of freedom, a model of peaceful co-existence of disparate religions and languages, a country of proud ancient civilization. However, the vast chasm exists between Abiy’s speech and practice, and the Module typifies this abnormality. It is my conviction that the Module’s underlying interest is nothing else but the perpetuation, and therefore legitimization of, the usual false narrative by the new governing elite in the new dressing.

The major shortcoming of the Module lies in the very government’s attempt to dictate what the higher education institutions should teach. Institutions of higher learning are communities of scholars and students, assembled with a mission to preserve, interpret, cultivate, advance and disseminate knowledge for its own sake rather than for any immediate political, social, or economic goal. It is these institutions, and not the government, who own the curriculum, with the power to develop, amend, change, or dispose of. By writing down, or stipulating, what course and how the higher learning institutions should teach, the government is clearly infringing on the very basic and sacred rights of these institutions.

 It is an established fact that for several thousand years and until the end of the 18^th century, written history was the political history of the upper classes, by the upper classes, and for the upper classes, which are made up of small ruling elite (stories of kings, their governments and wars), and their immediate servants, the clergy and the clerks. As the focus of history is on change, it is quite wrongly believed that this group alone was responsible for any changes in the human sphere. It alone was in a position to shape the course of history through its policies, leadership, personality or creativity. So, until a few decades back, the lower classes, that is the vast majority of the human population, made only sporadic appearances on the stage of history as starving masses, or the suffering masses, or the rebellious masses, or served as tourist attractions, or crowd scene to highlight the visibility and presence of a high-class officials in their midst. As we know it, the writing of local and ethnic history is a very recent phenomena everywhere, including the west, and Ethiopia is no exception to this general global trend. Yet contrary to what some say, no ethnic group in Ethiopia has been the subject of so much historical interest as the Oromo ethnic groups were. Not only that. Some of the most prominent Ethiopian history writers themselves since the early days of their expansion, such as Dajach TakleSellassie, known as Tinno, and Abba TaklaIyesus Wakjira, just to mention a few, were scholars with Oromo background.

The Module’s close reading suggests that the present ruling elites appear quite inebriated with what they claim Oromo’s uniquely distinctive culture, particularly as manifested in the Gada system, and other related institutions, such as Gudifecha and Mogasa. Overwhelmed by the “Gada euphoria”, the authors of the Module seem to have ignored the basic tenets of historical methodology, confusing myth with facts, lies with truths, opinions with certainties, and making judgements, that are lopsided, unashamedly biased, and mystifyingly false. They write profusely about the Oromo, ignoring, or simply making passing remarks on, other nationalities. According to them, the Oromos are the largest ethnic groups not only in Ethiopia, but in Africa as well (a statement lately echoed by the Prime Minister Abiy himself). Yet they provide no tangible evidence to back up their position beyond making such general public pronouncements.

According to the module, the Oromos had already possessed quite sophisticated astrological know-how that enabled them to establish the oldest calendar in the planet, which went back to 9000 years (p. 63).

For many Ethiopian and foreign scholars, Gada is an ossified primordial and atavistic political institution, historically notorious for both its genocides that wiped out several ethnic groups from their homelands, and militaristic conquests that turned prosperous cities into deserts. Merid Wolde Aregay, a scholar on the Oromo migration, in his thesis, Southern Ethiopia and the Christian Kingdom, 1508-1708 with Special Reference to the Galla Migration and their Consequences, 1971), states that “each new luba inaugurated its eighth-year term by launching offensives for new conquests… Those who suffered most were the Muslim towns and cities (p. 334); The Oromo “fell on every town and village and destroyed over 100 towns (p. 348)”.

As regards the much-celebrated Mogasa, Merid has this to say: the Oromo “maintained the distinction between themselves and the subjugated peoples by adopting the social system that fitted their needs, they made sure that the strangers were kept out of the age-sets….”

In the eyes of “the peasants, “the Oromos” were not mere intruders, but aliens and enemies, who had caused much damage and upset their sedentary way of life (p. 417)”.

The writers, however, present a rosy picture of the democratic Oromo movement. They are completely silent about the wholesale devastation of cities, massacre of populations, and destruction of civilizations. They do not, however, extend such kindness to others.

A careful reader of the Module will notice that Ethiopian history is portrayed as a continuous and sustained struggle between power-hungry northerners (whom they call with so many confusing terms, The Abyssinians, or the Christian Kingdom, or the Ethiopian Empire, just to mention a few)  who are bent in dominating others and peace-loving Muslim sultanates, or the Oromos in the medieval ages;  and again, between colonialist Shawans and their northern Christian allies, as represented by Emperor Menilek and his Oromo collaborators, who conquered inherently democratic and peace-loving Oromos and other minority ethnic groups. Thus, Menilek’s unification effort is presented as brutal colonial conquest, which in some extreme instances, as in Arsi’s case, involved the use of biological warfare, accompanied by breast mutilation and limb amputation and castration (p. 136).  Yet they have offered no shred of evidence in support beyond their audacious claim.

Beyond their attack of the ‘Abyssinian Empire’, the writers reserve the vengeance of their deleterious pen to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. They assert that the Church followed the footsteps of the conquering northern ‘Christian kingdom’. The conquered people were converted by force, and with the monopolization of burial places by the Church, total surrender became their fate (39).

The Module ends with a perfunctory review just in a single paragraph the EPRDF’s coming to, and consolidation of, power, including its over twenty-seven years’ rule. Reflecting the government’s propaganda, the authors describe the notorious ethnic enclaves that the TPLF invented as based “on identity, language, settlement patterns and peoples consent”, and the non-sensical federal arrangement of the language-based states as a wise creation intended to “rectify past injustices and imbalances perpetuated by an unrepresentative state through the decentralization of power … by accommodating the country’s various ethno-linguistic groups. (highlight is mine)” (p.194).

Definitely, the conclusion is most fitting summary that clearly indicates the true character and significance of the Module: a government ploy to present to the young students as normal and as a true reflection of the people’s will a tottering and unjust political order.

With these few pointed observations, I halt my remarks. However, I feel obliged to stress an absolute lack of additional readings for students to further their knowledge and curiosity beyond those provided by the Module/textbook, the absurdity of monolithic assessment method (only essay questions are provided), a cumbersome cacophony of names and words that may do nothing good but crush to the ground the student in agony and destroy his enthusiasm for any effective learning; the enormity of grammatical inaccuracies, typographical oversights, syntactical errors, and poor choice of words.

Finally, unless there is some covert and ulterior motive, perhaps intended to appease certain quarters or a few self-serving and narrow ethno-nationalists, who find even the mere mention of the name Ethiopia hard to swallow,  the term “And The Horn” in the title of the Module, is quite misnomer, not to say superfluous, as there is no relevant discussion concerning other surrounding Horn states beyond a few uninteresting remarks.

From an honest historian’s perspective, the Module is nothing, but the regime’s hidden propaganda parading as an academic history course.

From an honest historian’s perspective, the Module is nothing, but the regime’s hidden propaganda parading as an academic history course. From the start to finish, it is an embarrassing document, and any serious historian will be faced with no other option but to throw it out – lock, stock, and barrel. The design and instruction of an academic course is the preserve of higher learning institutions. It is for them to take the responsibility to develop their students’ curriculum freely and responsibly, and for the government to keep far away from it.

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It has been a number of years since the “Ethiopian History” course has been canceled from Ethiopian colleges and universities for its supposed biases and question of inclusiveness. A new textbook has been written by a government-appointed panel of four academics to replace the former one. But the new one is also sparking controversy. For a second series on the subject, Ethiopia Observer is publishing an article based in an interview conducted with an archaeologist and heritage management teacher at Addis Ababa University, Mengistu Gobezie who says the module is culpable of some serious lapses.

In my view, the module demonstrates five glaring shortcomings. Firstly, in an apparent attempt to redress past historical underrepresentation, it has chosen to be restricted and rather parochial in scope and accordingly sidelines the national history, with a selective focus on certain ethnic communities. It glosses over and trivializes the greater national history and reframes and reconstructs selective regional history at the expense of the big picture. Even though the module is supposed to be a national history, one is hard-pressed to find the nation’s history in the book. In the introduction, it is stated that the module aims at « making this course as inclusive and representative as possible; the module also includes regional histories across the period,» but as it turns out, it is neither inclusive nor representative. Rather, it is thin on detail, partisan on its treatment and devoid of a shared national vision. Histories of certain regions loom large while other regions are pushed to the background.

Omissions about the contribution and achievements of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

The second problem is the module’s exploration and depiction of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. By largely ignoring its contribution, achievements, and rich national legacy, it rather focuses on the negative aspects of history. For example, in the section dealing with the history of religion and religious process, the module devotes disproportionately much attention to « indigenous religions », particularly on the waaqeffata. In comparison, Orthodox Christianity has not received as close attention. In Ethiopian religious history, the faith that deserves considerable treatment and with a rich history that can be analyzed in detail is Orthodox Christianity, yet it is unjustly presented in a demeaning and contemptuous way.  The module acknowledges the existence of the Bete Isreal but it says they « began to be clearly noticed in the 4th century AD when the community refused to be converted to Christianity.” But there has been no evidence offered to support the claim. Narrating the history of Judaism in such a manner is likely to offend the community concerned and is not appropriate.

Another incendiary claim is EOC spread to central, south, east, and western parts following their conquests by the northern Christian kingdom. «People were baptised as government obligatory decree. Lately, monopolization of burial places by Church forced people to accept Tewahiido. » On the other hand,  when it relates the introduction of Islam in Ethiopia, the module alleges that the Aksumite king who sheltered Prophet Mohammed’s followers was converted to Islam, citing « a grown tradition, chiefly in Arabic sources and among Ethiopian Muslims. »  Accordingly,  it goes on to say that « Islam was introduced to the Horn of Africa not through Jihad, but through trade routes. »  When we look at this, we could see the extent of the misrepresentation, distortion and assertions without evidence than with those with evidence. Another account in connection with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is that « the people especially in Arssi, Bale and Hararghe adopted Islam en masse as opposition to the imposed EOC.» This is wrong, and purposely deceptive. In another account of how Chrisitan faith comes to Ethiopia, the module contends that it came to Ethiopia from Egypt. But the truth is different. Ethiopia has not imported Christianity from Egypt. As a matter of fact, it is one of the first Christian countries in the world. It was the first patriarch in Ethiopia who was consecrated in Egypt in the fourth century, but he was not even Egyptian.

A mixture of grand and unsupported generalization about the Oromo

The fourth one is the module furnishes an unbalanced account of certain ethnic groups, particularly that of the Oromo. Actually, the Oromo history is part and parcel of our history but it should be presented with evidence that could be established. The module claims the Oromos were one of the Ethiopia’s primordial people, who lived in the north, west, central and south of Ethiopia and even goes as far as saying that the Oromo had already settled in the whole parts of East Africa before the first millennium, which is nothing more than a fairy tale that will collapse under historiographical scrutiny.

Inaccuracies about the Zagwe dynasty

Lastly, another inaccurate statement that should be mentioned is with regards to the Zagwe dynasty. At some point, it was stated that the Zagwe dynasty stretches from 1150-1270 whereas, on another page, there is a reference saying the Lalibela period lasted from 1160-1211. First, it is astonishing that the module could give such precise years, again without providing any evidence. There are ample credible references and chronicles that show that the establishment of the Zagwe Dynasty goes back to the end of the tenth century and lasts for about 300 years, a fact that the textbook writers disregarded. But they appear to have no qualms about making allegations which are either false or entirely unsupported by the evidence. Even the illustrations and maps are not dated and the sources are not given. This is alarming considering that the material would be put out statewide to be used as instructional material. Manufacturing myth and deliberate fabrication could only deepen existing divisions, not build national unity.

Interview conducted with Alemayehu Anbese of Addis Admass. Translated from Amharic into English by Arefaynie Fantahun.

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• Ethiopian premier offered lavish praise for the crown prince of Abu Dhabi

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he offered to mediate between the United Arab Emirates and Israel during an official visit to Israel on October 20, 2019.

In an interview with an entertainment talk show host, Seifu Fantahun held in connection with the Ethiopian Christmas, Abiy recalled a meeting he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year. « When I was with prime minister Netanyahu, we talked about the regional issue,” said Abiy. “And I told him about Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, (the ruler of the United Arab Emirates) and how a good and wise leader he was. I told him that I could arrange a meeting between them if he was interested to meet him. Ethiopia could play a role in hosting the talks,” Abiy said.

Abiy quoted his Israeli counterpart as responding, « Just by looking at images of Abu Dabi, you could tell that he is a brilliant leader. »  But Abiy did not say if Netanyahu accepted the offer or not.

The UAE does not recognize Israel as a state, and the two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations. However, Netanyahu and senior officials have in recent months talked of secret ties with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to reports.

This is not the first time Abiy Ahmed offered to serve as a mediator between two feuding countries. Last year, he also offered his mediation to settle a diplomatic spat between Abu Dhabi and Somalia, in what is seen as an effort to place himself and his country at the top of the Mideast diplomatic order.

Abiy spoke of his admiration for Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and described him as a great leader and generous supporter during an interview with the Seifu show. « We have talked a number of times about world affairs, politics, future technology. He has an amazing perspective. And his generous financial support. During the past year, UAE has done a tremendous lot for the Ethiopian government. For example, he (the Crown Prince) has extended for us a year’s supply of fuel with payment delayed for 12 months. We were supposed to pay every three months. This was with no interest, which means a lot to us to ease a foreign exchange problem. »

In addition to this, the oil-rich Gulf state is implementing around 30 -40 projects to maintain the supply of clean drinking water in the Afar region and Bale, Abiy said.  

A month after taking office, Abiy visited the UAE capital to meet the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Nine days later, the Crown Prince came to Addis Ababa for what was described as “a bilateral meeting,” and announced a $3 billion support package.

Image: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, and Abiy Ahmed, tour the Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

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The commander of the Oromo Liberation Army’s (OLA) western front, Kumsa Diriba (better known as Jaal Maro) fighting the government has denied on Tuesday allegations that he has been receiving any help from Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF).

The OLA emerged from the remnants of the OLF’s military wing formerly led by Dawud Ibssa and supported and hosted by Eritrea in the past as part of the proxy war the Eritrean regime was waging against the government of Ethiopia. The members have arrived in Addis Ababa on August 2018 as part of the reforms launched by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and some of them have been integrated into the Oromia regional security forces in line with a January 2019 “reconciliation pact,” signed by the regional state government and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

OLA, now acting independently from OLF, is battling the federal army in the western Oromia and has been linked to the recent abduction of dozens of Dembi Dollo University students and the assassination of higher government officials from the western Oromia and Benshangul region, allegations the group rejects.

Speaking to the BBC Amharic, Jaal Maro said that there was no TPLF involvement. « We would work with anybody who supports the Oromo people’s cause. We have every right to do so. It could even be with Satan himself. If it to liberate the Oromo, we are open to joining forces with any party, » he said in a telephone interview published on BBC Amharic website Wednesday.  « However, despite the rumor, there is a good reason why we cannot collaborate with TPLF as our wounds are too deep, » he was quoted as saying.

Jaal Maro also said there has been pure and simple fabrication about his presence in Mekele, the capital of Tigray and even his premature death. He said he is currently « safe and sound in the coffee woods of Wollega. »

Asked how he happens to respond to calls while the area has been cut off from the telephone and internet network, Jaal Maro said: “Since the government has not succeeded in having dominance over our army, they are trying every means to subjugate us”. But he said that he is effectively able to communicate with members of his army.

The TPLF that has dominated the Ethiopian political scene for the past 27 years is using conventional methods of protest, agitation and, according to some, insurgent activities to rally against the Abiy Ahmed administration.

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Emperor Haile Selassie. By Bereket Habte Selassie. (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2014. Pp. 147. $14.95.)

Reviewed by Charles W. McClellan

This slim volume by distinguished scholar of African studies and law, Bereket Habte Selassie is part of Ohio University Press’s “Short Histories of Africa” series. This offering evinces the OUP’s progression from its usual focus on South African personalities.
Unquestionably, Emperor Haile Selassie is among the preeminent figures of twentieth-century Africa, although today’s students know little of him. Excellent biographies exist of the emperor, including a dictated two-volume autobiography, but need for a work oriented specifically for students in introductory courses on world and African history remained. Bereket Selassie’s offering fills that void. As an insider, Bereket possesses intimate knowledge of the emperor’s administrative style but also finds himself at odds with the pace of change and the emperor’s Eritrean policy. Bereket’s personal recollections may appear self-serving to some, but overall they are more instructive than detracting.

Editorial restrictions undoubtedly limit Bereket’s breadth of content and analysis of issues, but he has done well in capturing the essence of the man and the challenges he confronted. An earlier generation perceived the emperor as a stoic, enigmatic character intent on modernizing his country while defending it against the last vestiges of European colonialism. The younger generation knows little of this, and its references to Ethiopia revolve more around images of drought, famine, Live Aid, and Jamaica’s Ras Tefarians.
As successor to visionaries like Tewodros and Menilek II (some would include Lij Iyasu), Haile Selassie conceptualized modernization more by what his European travels suggested than by any deep understanding of the complex processes involved. For that, he placed great faith in the Ethiopian youth he would educate, trusting in their knowledge, experience, and loyalty. He could be harsh on and admonishing of those who failed or resisted his charge. Building upon a rudimentary Italian inheritance, he brought considerable change to administrative and tax structures and expanded communications by air, land, and electronics. But agriculture and land reform were largely untouched. The capital, Addis Ababa, generally reflected his legacy: a record that was rather spotty—more facade than reality. His constitution, though introducing limited democracy, nevertheless left him firmly in charge; he seemed genuinely surprised and aggrieved by the failed 1960 coup and by the subsequent student movement questioning Ethiopia’s progress.

Even after the disaster of the Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1941), he remained committed to collective security, supporting the United Nations’ efforts with Ethiopian troops in Korea and the Congo. He embraced the American Peace Corps early on; widely admired, they too became a target and fulcrum for the emerging student movement. Inspired by Ethiopia as a symbol of pan-Africanism, the emperor utilized his prestige to establish the Organization of African Unity (now African Union) headquarters in his capital, although he certainly found Nkrumah’s vision for the continent suspect.

The emperor’s vision of modernization, commitment to collective security, and methods of utilizing authority are all fundamental issues that ideally promote student intellectual engagement; Bereket Selassie carefully frames the basic issues of Ethiopian historiography for debate. Despite omissions, this work should stimulate broader discussion and therefore be widely recommended to student examination.

Charles W. McClellan Radford University

Originally published in The Historian, Volume 78, 2016-Issue 4

Main Image: Emperor Haile Selassie in Geneva in 1935. Photograph: Lucien Aigner/Corbis

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Pro-government journalist defects while covering UK-Africa summit

A journalist who accompanied Ethiopian delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonnen to the UK’s Africa investment conference held yesterday and today has stayed behind, Ethiopia Observer has learned. 

Bilal Worku, a journalist at the Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), was supposed to attend the UK-Africa summit and send dispatches to the state broadcaster. But the first day he arrived there, he walked out of his hotel in the middle of the night, and never came back, Ethiopia Observer heard from members of the delegation. Bilal was to have flown to the Swiss city of Davos on Tuesday with the rest of the delegation for the 50th World Economic Forum. The delegation members have heard that the journalist is staying with friends in London while waiting to apply for refugee protection to enable him to stay in the country. Reached on Facebook, Bilal declined to be interviewed about his defection.

This followed the June 2019 defection of another senior EBC journalist, Getachew Chane, who vanished after having traveled to Canada with President Sahle-Work Zewde.

During his several years at EBC, Bilal has provided coverage from the official viewpoint and he has had educational and travel opportunities as a privilege. He completed his Master’s degree in journalism at the Addis Ababa University in 2017, funded by the government. His graduation paper was entitled « The practice and challenges of media coverage of entrepreneurship issues in Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC): Media coverage of entrepreneurship in Ethiopian State Media ».

Bilal has a wife and two daughters in Ethiopia.

Several state media journalists in the past have used conferences and sports tournaments hosted in western countries as an avenue to seek a better life, even though some might have genuine concerns about their safety back home.

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Yonas Admassu, who died February 11 at age 71, was a writer who made lasting contributions to Ethiopian literature as a poet, essayist, literary critic, and editor. Dr. Yonas, who was an Associate Professor in the Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature at Addis Ababa University, wrote poems both in Amharic and English. Issues of a significant era in his country’s history, particularly the hardships that consumed the country after the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie and the rise to power of the communist junta, in whose terror thousands died, find expression in his work. While a university student, Yonas actively participated in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party’s armed rebellion against the Derg, before fleeing his country for the United States where he had stayed for about two decades. While there, he earned his master’s degree in African studies and his doctorate in Comparative literature at the University of California (UCLA). The following untitled poem was published in 1994 in UFAHAMU, Journal of the African Activist Association, a publication of UCLA in which he served as a member of the editorial board.

UFAHAMU, Journal of the African Activist Association, University of California, Volume XXII 1994

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As the death toll from the deadly coronavirus has jumped to 81, hundreds of Ethiopian nationals stranded in the Chinese city of Wuhan are demanding to be repatriated. Several countries have promised to repatriate their nationals blocked in China. The United States, UK, France, Japan, and Spain have already mobilised plans to remove their citizens from Wuhan. However, the Ethiopian Embassy in Bejing told Ethiopian students to wait calmly for instruction and updates from the Chinese Government.

Several of the students criticize the limited information given by their government, which did not announce any repatriation arrangements. Yabu Yilma, a student at the Hubei University Of Technology at Wuhan wondered what exactly means waiting calmly and how long that would be. Anxiety is mounting among the small Ethiopian community in Wuhan, four days after their city was in lockdown. «The hardest part is that we don’t know how long it will last,” said another Ethiopian student. “We want to be evacuated as soon as possible, we are living in limited resources,” he said.

The Ethiopian Embassy in Bejing said no Ethiopian had so far been infected. The Embassy has confirmed that there are 291 Ethiopian students are currently trapped in that area. The Embassy on its Facebook page wrote this afternoon that consular officials in Beijing were in close consultation with the Consulate General of Ethiopia in Chongqing and the Wuhan Ethiopian Students Association.

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The vice-chair and an executive committee member of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), Fetlework Gebregziabher (known as Monjorino) said she was fired not because of poor performance but solely for her dissenting political stance. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dismissed Fetlework a few weeks ago, naming the former Minister of Trade Melaku Alebel as her replacement.” Thanking you for the contribution you have made as Minister of Trade and Industry since October 16, 2018, I would like to inform you that you are being terminated from your post as of January 15,” reads the short letter signed by the Prime Minister.

The Prosperity Party (PP) spokesperson Awolu Abdi later suggested that the minister had been replaced because of unsatisfactory performance and for deliberately obstructing the execution of public services. Fetlework said in an interview Monday with the VOA Mekele reporter the claim is way off the mark and an excuse to cover the real motive.

She said until her dismissal she received no bad performance evaluation either from the Prime Minister or the Cabinet.

The comments marked the first time Fetlework has opened up about the discord that led to her dismissal. ‘I was fired because my party TPLF refused to join the Prosperity Parity. I am entitled to my conviction but the current government does not obey legal rules. There is nothing else, my firing was motivated by that,» she said.

In December 2019, the ruling coalition announced a historic merger among the constitutive parties in the EPRDF (except the TPLF) that led to the founding of the PP. «I and my party believe that this is not the time to implement the Prosperity party’s policy because people have voted for EPRDF’s policy and program. This is how it should be until the next election,» Fetlewok said.

Asked if the constant antagonistic statements coming from TPLF have been exacerbating the already tense relationship with Abiy administration, she argued that by doing that TPLF was not trying to achieve anything other than communicating its stances to the public and government.

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Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his administration is working hard to overcome the myriad of challenges that the country is facing despite « the politics of conspiracy and intrigue. »

During a parliament question-and-answer session on Monday, Abiy said the intricate networks stemming from the previous administration are proving to be « the toughest challenge for our government. »

« The network which reaches down to the lowest-end of government administration has the capacity to immobilize everything,» he told parliamentarians.

He said: « Understanding the intricate and complex network was a challenge by itself. Breaking the network is quite tricky. When we set ourselves to the task of breaking the network, we soon found out that, it is an intricate web involving the lowest units of government bureaucracy. »

The Prime Minister said bringing down the politics of conspiracy and intrigue has remained a challenge. « But rest assured that we are committed to ensuring the survival of the nation. We shall overcome the obstacles. »

« The boat (Ethiopia) was sinking but we managed to keep it afloat. The whole world is witness to this, » Abiy said.

Regarding the kidnapped Dembi Dolo University students, the Prime Minister said no group has claimed responsibility. « When Boko Haram captures people, they take responsibilities, but in this case, no group has come forward. From what we know so far, no one was wounded, » he said.

A task force led by the Deputy PM and the Minister of Peace is monitoring the situation closely and is doing all possible to safely recover the abducted citizens, the Prime Minister said.

Progress has been achieved towards security in the Guji zone of Oromia region, but the situation in West Wollega is still a long way to go, Abiy lamented. « As always, we work to find a peaceful solution. But in a country that is embracing democratic pluralism, you can’t have two military forces operating.» What is being done there is forcing the government to use force, Abiy said.

Abiy has said his government had foiled planned attacks in the country by suspected Al-Shabaab terrorist group. He said the terrorist group has tried to recruit young people in the Oromia and Amhara regions.

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