Revolution, the Derg and the Red Terror
A popular uprising topples the emperor, but a military committee, the Derg, seizes power, nationalises the land and wages a campaign of mass killing against its rivals.
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia — Alex de Waal (Africa Watch), Human Rights Watch (1991)
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
By the early 1970s Haile Selassie’s empire was creaking. Most peasants, especially in the south, were tenants paying up to half their harvest to landlords. Students chanted “Land to the tiller”. A famine in Wollo in 1972–73 killed tens of thousands while the government hid it, until a British television documentary by Jonathan Dimbleby exposed it in 1973. In early 1974 rising prices, an army mutiny, strikes and student protests shook the regime.
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
The creeping coup
A committee of junior officers and soldiers, the Derg (“committee” in Ge’ez), took control step by step. On 12 September 1974 it deposed the 82-year-old emperor, who died in custody in August 1975; the regime blamed illness, but later evidence pointed to murder. In November 1974 it executed about sixty former officials without trial. The Derg declared Ethiopia a socialist state, and in March 1975 nationalised all rural land, abolishing the landlord class at a stroke; urban land and rental houses followed. Tens of thousands of students were sent to the countryside to teach literacy and explain the revolution.
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
The Red Terror
The revolution’s civilian left split. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) demanded civilian rule and began assassinating Derg supporters in what it called a “White Terror”. In 1977, Major Mengistu Haile Mariam, who had emerged as the Derg’s strongman by killing his rivals, declared a “Red Terror”. Neighbourhood associations (kebeles) and militias hunted down suspected opponents, mostly young people. Bodies were left in the streets of Addis Ababa with placards, and families were sometimes charged for the bullets before they could collect them.
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
How many died is unknown. Africa Watch’s careful, conservative estimate ran to tens of thousands; others have estimated 100,000 or more, and some Ethiopian researchers suggest far higher figures. Whatever the number, a generation of educated young Ethiopians was killed, imprisoned or driven abroad, which is one reason the diaspora in the US and Europe grew so large.
- Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia — Alex de Waal (Africa Watch), Human Rights Watch (1991)
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
Wars on every side
In 1977 Somalia invaded the Ogaden, the Somali-inhabited east. The Soviet Union and Cuba switched sides to back the Derg, which repelled the invasion in 1978. But the regime faced long insurgencies by the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, fighting for independence since the 1960s, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), founded in 1975. Mengistu built one of Africa’s largest armies, with conscription feared in every village. Forced resettlement and “villagisation” programmes uprooted millions.
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia — Alex de Waal (Africa Watch), Human Rights Watch (1991)
The fall
As Soviet support faded in the late 1980s, the rebels advanced. In May 1991 Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe, the EPRDF coalition led by the TPLF entered Addis Ababa, and the EPLF took Asmara. A long Special Prosecutor’s trial followed; in 2006 Mengistu and others were convicted of genocide, a sentence later raised to death on appeal. He has never been extradited.
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
The Derg years still shape Ethiopia: in the state ownership of land, in a culture of caution about speaking out, and in the empty chairs at many family tables.
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
The Red Terror was state murder of a generation of young idealists, often teenagers. Bodies were displayed in the streets with signs, and families had to pay for the bullet to retrieve them. Justice came late and was incomplete.
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
Some veterans and older Ethiopians credit the Derg with abolishing feudal landlordism, spreading literacy and defending Ethiopia's territorial unity against Somalia and secessionists, while admitting its crimes.
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
No reliable count exists. Africa Watch gave conservative estimates of tens of thousands killed in the Red Terror; other estimates run to 100,000 or more, and some Ethiopian researchers suggest far higher figures. Deaths in the wars of the period were greater still.
- Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia — Alex de Waal (Africa Watch), Human Rights Watch (1991)
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
Why it matters today
The revolution ended three thousand years of monarchy and abolished landlordism, changes many Ethiopians still see as necessary. But the Red Terror left almost every educated family of that generation with someone killed, jailed or exiled, and a deep habit of political fear. The land is still owned by the state, a legacy of the 1975 reform. Mengistu Haile Mariam, convicted of genocide in absentia, has lived in exile in Zimbabwe since 1991.