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A lively historical account of the rise of Ethiopia's student
movement by one of those involved, its role in overthrowing the
imperial regime, and its impact on the shaping of the country's
future. Finalist for the Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize to the author
of the best book on East African Studies, 2015. In the second half
of the 1960s and the early 1970s, the Ethiopian student movement
became the major oppositionforce against the imperial regime in
Ethiopia, ultimately playing a fundamental role in the shaping of
the country's future political and social development. Bahru Zewde,
one of the students involved in the uprising, draws on interviews
with former student leaders and activists, as well as documentary
sources, to describe the steady radicalisation of the movement,
characterised particularly after 1965 by annual demonstrations
against the regime and culminating in the ascendancy of
Marxism-Leninism by the early 1970s. In 1969, the students broached
what came to be famously known as the "national question",
ultimately resulting in the adoption of the Leninist/Stalinist
principle of self-determination up to and including secession. On
the eve of the revolution, the student movement abroad split into
two rival factions - a split that would ultimately lead to the
liquidation of both and the consolidation of military dictatorship.
Bahru Zewde is Emeritus Professor of History at Addis Ababa
University and founding Fellow and Vice President of the Ethiopian
Academy of Sciences. He has authored many books and articles,
notably A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1974 and Pioneers of
Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the Early
Twentieth Century. Ethiopia: Addis Ababa University Press
This collection analyses the approach taken by the current
government of Ethiopia to deal with the massive human rights
violations that took place from 1974 to 1991 under the Derg. How
was an autocratic emperor replaced by a totalitarian dictator? An
unexpected popular upsurge in February 1974 made the ancien regime
of Emperor Haile Selassie buckle. The Derg, a group of army
officers led by an obscure and ruthless major Mengistu Hailemariam,
seized power by military coup in September 1974 and removed the
Emperor. What was the 'red terror'? The callous executions of
members of the old regime initiated a cult of violence. The Derg
were united by the shedding of blood. Search and destroy campaigns
against militants led on to the full-blown 'red terror' in which
thousands of the regime's opponents were brutally murdered in the
streets. In what way was 'transitional justice' administered? The
main officials were found guilty of genocide and crimes against
humanity by the Ethiopian Federal High Court and sentenced to life
imprisonment. Some of the minor officialshad already been sentenced
to death, whilst President Mugabe has given Mengistu Hailemariam
sanctuary in Zimbabwe. KJETIL TRONVOLL is Professor in Human
Rights, Peace and Conflict Studies at the Norwegian Centre for
Human Rights, University of Oslo; CHARLES SCHAEFER is Associate
Professor of African History, Valparaiso University; GIRMACHEW
ALEMU ANEME is a Research Fellow at the Norwegian Centre for Human
Rights, University of Oslo.
Updated and revised edition. Bahru Zewde has updated the first
edition, adding a new chapter and taking the history through to
1991. 'The new chapter enhances the value of the book as the best
historical introduction to modern Ethiopia. The account of the
Revolution, contained in 41 pages, is nuanced and worthy of
attention in its own right... In short, the updating of an already
indispensable book.' - Donald Crummey in JOURNAL OF MODERN AFRICAN
STUDIES NorthAmerica: Ohio U Press; Ethiopia: Addis Ababa U Press
A lively historical account of the rise of Ethiopia's student
movement by one of those involved, its role in overthrowing the
imperial regime, and its impact on the shaping of the country's
future. In the second half of the 1960s and the early 1970s, the
Ethiopian student movement emerged from rather innocuous beginnings
to become the major opposition force against the imperial regime in
Ethiopia, contributing perhaps more than any other factor to the
eruption of the 1974 revolution, a revolution that brought about
not only the end of the long reign of Emperor Haile Sellassie, but
also a dynasty of exceptional longevity. The student movement would
beof fundamental importance in the shaping of the future Ethiopia,
instrumental in both its political and social development. Bahru
Zewde, himself one of the students involved in the uprising, draws
on interviews with former student leaders and activists, as well as
documentary sources, to describe the steady radicalisation of the
movement, characterised particularly after 1965 by annual
demonstrations against the regime and culminating in the ascendancy
of Marxism-Leninism by the early 1970s. Almost in tandem with the
global student movement, the year 1969 marked the climax of student
opposition to the imperial regime, both at home and abroad. It was
also in that year that students broached what came to be famously
known as the "national question", ultimately resulting in the
adoption in 1971of the Leninist/Stalinist principle of
self-determination up to and including secession. On the eve of the
revolution, the student movement abroad split into two rival
factions; a split that was ultimately to lead to the liquidation of
both and the consolidation of military dictatorship as well as the
emergence of the ethno-nationalist agenda as the only viable
alternative to the military regime. Bahru Zewde is Emeritus
Professor of History at Addis Ababa University and Vice President
of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences. He has authored many books
and articles, notably A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1974 and
Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the
Early Twentieth Century. Finalist for the Bethwell A. Ogot Book
Prize to the author of the best book on East African Studies, 2015.
Ethiopia: Addis Ababa University Press (paperback)
The place of intellectuals (in the broad sense of the educated
elite) in society has varied in place and time. The higher the
level of industrial development, the less influence they seem to
exercise. Thus, while intellectuals may be sought as advisors and
members of think tanks in the so-called First World, they are
rarely seen exercising direct state power. The situation is
different in the so called Third World, notably Africa. The
educated elite has historically seemed destined - by social
ascription or self-arrogation - to play a central role in the
exercise of state power. In Africa alone, the first generation of
post-independence rulers - Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Leopold Sedar
Senghor of Senegal, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania - provides us with
ample evidence to appreciate this reality. In Ethiopia, too,
intellectuals have played a role and exercised an influence
disproportionate to their size. This can be divided broadly into
two phases, with the Italian Occupation (1936-1941) forming an
important watershed between them.The pre-war intellectuals were
preoccupied with a whole gamut of concerns ranging from educational
development to fiscal reform. They had an essentially reformist
agenda.The Fascist Italian invasion and the subsequent occupation
not only terminated their careers but also - through its merciless
policy of liquidation of the educated elite - created a gap in
intellectual activity in the immediate post - Liberation years. The
second period of intellectual intervention could thus begin only in
the late 1950s. It revolved mainly around Ethiopian students
(mostly at the tertiary level at the initial stage), both at home
and abroad. This eventually evolved into what came to be known as
the Ethiopian Student Movement. The movement could be said to have
gone through three successive stages: self-awareness, reformism,
revolutionary commitment. There is general agreement that the year
1965, when students came out onto the streets with the slogan of
Land to the Tiller, marked the beginning of the third stage. It is
this third stage that is the focal point of this study. For it
constitutes the crucial period that forms both the backdrop and the
essence of the changes that have come to affect fundamentally the
Ethiopian state and society - changes that are yet far from over.
The Fourth Congress of the Association of African historians was
held in Addis Ababa in May 2007. These 21 papers are a key
selection of the papers presented there, with an introduction by
the distinguished historian Bahru Zewde. Given the contemporary
salience and the historical depth of the issue of identity, the
congress was devoted to that global phenomenon within Africa. The
papers explore and analyse the issue of identity in its diverse
temporal settings, from its pre-colonial roots to its cotemporary
manifestations. The papers are divided into six parts: Pre-Colonial
Identities; Colonialism and Identity; Conceptions of the
Nation-State and Identity; Identity-Based Conflicts; Migration and
Acculturation; and Memory, History and Identity. The authors are
scholars from Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Bahru Zewde is Emeritus Professor of History at Addis Ababa
University, Executive Director of the Forum for Social Studies, and
Vice-President of the Association of African Historians. He was
formerly Chairperson of the Department of History and Director of
the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University.
Amongst his publication is A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1991.
In this exciting new study, Bahru Zewde, one of the foremost
historians of modern Ethiopia, has constructed a collective
biography of a remarkable group of men and women in a formative
period of their country's history. Ethiopia's political
independence at the end of the nineteenth century put this new
African state in a position to determine its own levels of
engagement with the West. Ethiopians went to study in universities
around the world. They returned with the skills of their education
acquired in Europe and America, and at home began to lay the
foundations of a new literature and political philosophy. Pioneers
of Change in Ethiopia describes the role of these men and women of
ideas in the social and political transformation of the young
nation and later in the administration of Haile Selassie.
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