The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF

Aregawi Berhe is a research associate at the Afrika Studiecentrum, Leiden, the Netherlands.
He is grateful for the comments of Jon G. Abbink as well as those of an anonymous referee.
1. Former senior TPLF members Giday Zera-tsion, Kahsai Berhe and the present author
have written critical articles on their differences with the TPLF leadership after they broke with
the organization. Though valuable documents, they were not published and remain in private
hands.
2. Solomon Gashaw, ‘Nationalism and ethnic conflict in Ethiopia’, in Crawford Young (ed.),
The Rising Tide of Cultural Pluralism: The nation-state at bay (University of Wisconsin Press,
Madison, WI, 1993), p. 156.
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE’S
LIBERATION FRONT
A
REGAWI
B
ERHE
ABSTRACT
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), at its inception, was
grounded in an ethno-nationalist consciousness generated by the cumula-
tive grievances of Tigrayans against successive central governments of
Ethiopia. An association of Tigrayan elites, the urban-based Tigrayan
National Organization (TNO), prepared the groundwork for the for-
mation of the TPLF. The TPLF, for its part, utilized class and ethno-
nationalist ideologies to mobilize Tigrayans until it ousted the Mengistu
government in 1991. This article analyzes how this ethno-nationalist
organization emerged, grew and finally came to dominate Ethiopia — a
state with an emerging multi-national character.
L
ITTLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THE
T
IGRAY
P
EOPLE
’
S
L
IBERATION
F
RONT
(TPLF). Even less has been written by any author with
inside knowledge.
1
As a founding member of the TPLF, who was part of
its leadership for eleven years, I believe I have something relevant to share
on this subject with anyone interested in contemporary political develop-
ments in Ethiopia.
The TPLF started in February 1975 as a small guerrilla band in the
northern region of Ethiopia and eventually grew to provide the core of the
Ethiopian government. It was originally an ethno-nationalist movement
that aimed to secure the self-determination of Tigray within the Ethiopian
polity. It succeeded in mobilizing the people of Tigray to such extraordi-
nary effect that, in 1991, it won state power in Ethiopia in the name of the
Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The latter
— the government of Ethiopia today — is often accused by opponents of
being ‘simply a Tigrean front’.
2
During an armed struggle that lasted for
16 years, the TPLF mobilized Tigrayans behind the front and created a
569
African Affairs (2004), 103/413, 569–592
© Royal African Society 2004
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adh024
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Page 2
large and disciplined army that defeated not only rival liberation fronts but
also the military government itself, one of the strongest in Africa.
The historical roots of the problem
The recorded history of Ethiopia as a state has its origins in the third
century
AD
in the present Tigray region, then known as the kingdom of
Aksum. The Aksumites developed their own civilization as illustrated by
their script, Ge’ez, their number system, Kutir, and their calendar, Awde-
Awarih, which are still in use at the present time. In
AD
340, the Aksumite
king Abraha (Ezana) adopted Orthodox Christianity,which quickly became
the religion of the inhabitants of the region and provided the symbolism
and substance of the royal ideology. With Aksum as a pivot, an empire
expanded over the Ethiopian highlands. Present-day Tigrayans who are
situated at the centre of this ancient civilization have indeed something to
be proud of.
The Aksumite civilization, however, did not last longer than the seventh
century. The gradual loss of dynamism of the centralized state in turn gave
rise over the centuries to the emergence of local kings and princes, often
entangled in endless wars for supremacy. By the nineteenth century,
northern Ethiopia (Tigray and present-day Eritrea) was divided into no less
than twenty-four independent units, according to the writer Zewde Gabre
Selassie,
3
and contained many more firearms than any other region in the
country. During the period 1830 to 1850, Gabre Selassie notes, there were
28,000 matchlock guns in Tigray, while Begemidir, Shoa, and Wollo had
4,000, 1,000 and 1,000 respectively.
4
Firearms became abundant in Tigray
partly because it was so often the gateway for incursions by foreign invaders.
The period of anarchy from 1760 to 1855, which totally undermined the
Ethiopian state, was known as the Zemene Mesafint (‘Era of Princes’). At
that time, war became a common occurrence and the gun a highly prized
asset, particularly in Tigray, competing with the tradition that had persisted
for centuries of resolving conflicts by peaceful means through religious
leaders and shimagiles,groups of notables and influential elders who mediate
parties in conflict. In most cases they preside on their own initiative but are
sometimes invited to do so.
Amid this anarchy, Kassa Hailu, a rebel from Gondar, succeeded in
becoming emperor, taking the name of Emperor Tewodros (1855–68) after
defeating all the local kings and princes or rases. He managed at last to res-
urrect in Ethiopia the semblance of a unitary state based on the Aksumite
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3. Zewde Gabre Sellassie, Yohannes IV of Ethiopia: A political biography (Clarendon Press,
Oxford, 1975), pp. 2–3.
4. Ibid., p. 19.
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Page 3
religious ideology. Kahsay Mircha, a rebel from Tigray, succeeded Tewodros
as Emperor Yohannes (1872–89), and was crowned in Aksum. Despite their
success in re-establishing the Ethiopian state, the reigns of these two
emperors were never stable or peaceful, due to both internal conflicts and
external invasions. Locally, lords who aspired to power were likely to rebel
whenever conditions were favourable. There were countless local wars both
between regional chiefs but also, more intensely, to resist the emergence of
Kassa Hailu and later Kahsay Mircha as Emperors Tewodros and
Yohannes. Also, external forces, including Britain in 1868, Egypt in
1875–76, Sudanese Mahdists in 1889, and Italy in 1887–96 and 1935,were
responsible for a series of incursions that made the defence of the country
the main preoccupation of the rulers and the people, thereby making stable
life almost impossible. Tigrayans, living in the gateway to Ethiopia, carried
the greatest burdens of war.
On top of these wars, famine was taking its toll, dislodging the working
population and dismantling the fabric of the society that had been built up
over centuries, beginning with the Aksumite civilization.The peasant popu-
lation was constantly forced to side with one or the other warlord in their
battles and to feed their predatory armies. The spiralling combination of
foreign assaults, local wars and deadly famines left Tigray in utter destitu-
tion. As John Young observed, ‘In the period between the death of
Yohannes in 1889 and the present day an estimated seventeen famines have
struck Tigray, the biggest being in 1958–9, 1965–6, 1972–4, and 1983–4’.
5
During these periods millions of people died and still more were displaced
from their homes.
Subsequent leaders of Ethiopia — Emperors Menelik II (1889–1913)
and Haile Selassie I (1930–74) — were not concerned to address or attempt
to mitigate the dismal state of Tigray, but both fought extensive wars in this
Ethiopian gateway, notably at the battles of Adwa (1896) and Maichew
(1935) respectively. During Menelik’s reign, Gebrehiwet Baykedagne, a
political economist of the time, wrote:
. . . there are hardly any Tigrayan youth left in their birthplace, Tigray. Like a swarm
of bees without their queen, they are aimlessly scattered in four corners of the earth.
Some people ridiculed their widespread poverty. Unfortunately, whilst other people
live in tranquillity, Tigray has never been free from wars, leave alone outlaws and
bandits.
6
This situation seemed to have no end. While regions adjacent to Tigray
were also substantially affected by these calamities, the southern part of
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
’
S LIBERATION FRONT
571
5. John Young, Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia:The Tigray People’s Liberation Front, 1975–1991
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 49.
6. Gebre-Hiwet Baykedagne, Emperor Menelik and Ethiopia (Swedish Mission, Asmara,
1912), p. 12.
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Page 4
Ethiopia was relatively stable and gave sanctuary to the fleeing Tigrayans,
but also gave them derogatory names.
When in 1942–43 peasants in central and southern Tigray began to rebel
out of desperation, they were met with a harsh response. Haile Selassie’s
government in collaboration with the British Royal Air Force (RAF), after
dropping warning leaflets addressed to ‘the Chiefs, Balabats — people of
Tigre province’ on 6 October 1943, devastated the region including
Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, throughout the rest of that month. This
quelled the Tigrayan peasant uprising, known as Woyane, meaning ‘revolt’.
7
Thousands of defenceless civilians lost their lives as a result of aerial bom-
bardment. It is recorded that ‘on 14th October [1943] 54 bombs dropped
in Mekelle, 6th October 14 bombs followed by another 16 bombs on 9th
October in Hintalo, 7th/9th October 32 bombs in Corbetta’.
8
Repression
did not stop there. The people of Tigray region were forced to pay large
sums of money and their land was confiscated and distributed to loyal
gentry as a punishment and as a deterrent to future revolt. A new taxation
system was imposed that ‘cost the peasants five times more than they had
paid under the Italians’.
9
In the name of centralization, Haile Selassie took
away regional power from hereditary leaders and gave it to loyal Showan
administrators.
10
This predicament again raised the level of collective
resentment, taking the form of ethno-nationalist sentiment against the
Showan ruling class at the centre. As Gilkes rightly observed, ‘indepen-
dence from Shoan (sic) rule was raised as a rallying cry and proved
popular’.
11
The punitive measures of the central government, and
especially the memory of the RAF bombardment of Mekelle on behalf of
Haile Selassie’s government, became grievances rooted in popular memory.
British administrators in Eritrea in the late 1940s had a strategic interest
in supporting the popular call of Tigrayans that their hereditary leaders
should rule their region, thereby creating a growing awareness of Tigrayan
nationalism. Moreover, ‘Before the British the Italians had already
advanced this policy in what they named politica tigrina’.
12
Ras Mengesha
Seyoum, the last hereditary governor of Tigray, made some attempts to
572
AFRICAN AFFAIRS
7. On the Woyane, see Gebru Tareke, Ethiopia, Power and Protest: Peasant revolts in the 20th
century (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991); Patrick Gilkes, The Dying Lion:
Feudalism and modernisation in Ethiopia (Julian Friedman Publishers, London, 1975); John
Markakis, National and Class Conflict in the Horn of Africa (Zed Books, Atlantic Heights, NJ,
1990).
8. Gilkes, The Dying Lion, p. 180.
9. Haggai Erlich, ‘Tigrean nationalism, British involvement and Haila-Sellasie’s emerging
absolutism — northern Ethiopia, 1941–1943’, Asian and African Studies 15, 2 (1981), p. 219.
10. Showa is a region from which the Amharic-speaking ruling elite of Ethiopia, who
monopolized top political and administrative positions, came. This class of Showans governed
the rest of Ethiopia from the beginning of the nineteenth century, the period of consolidation
of the Ethiopian empire.
11. Gilkes, The Dying Lion, p. 187.
12. Erlich, ‘Tigrean nationalism’, p. 195.
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Page 5
introduce industry to the region, but without success. Tigrayans were
obliged to migrate to the former Italian colony, Eritrea, or to Addis Ababa
and other cities in southern Ethiopia in search of work, as conditions were
relatively better there. But at the same time it earned them a number of
derogatory names that wounded their pride. Tigrayans’ mobility was sar-
castically compared to that of a Land Rover jeep, to describe how they
roamed over large areas of the country. It was said that Tigray was con-
demned to ‘growing rocks’ instead of grain. Generations of Tigrayans grew
up with deep feelings of desperation.The neglect of Tigray in the 1900s up
to the revolution of 1975 was generally perceived by them as a deliberate
and systematic policy of the Showa-Amhara ruling class in order to weaken
and demoralize the Tigrayans. This view was a reflection of the historical
rivalry of the two ruling houses and the Tigrayan and Amhara aristocratic
classes; it should be emphasized that, as Hizkias Assefa rightly puts it, ‘this
situation does not mean that the great majority of the Amhara people have
been “dominators” or beneficiaries of the political, economic or social
system that bore their name’.
13
These were all factors that nurtured Tigrayan ethno-nationalism, includ-
ing a cultural domination reflected in the linguistic disparities within the
empire. In 1972–74, the worst famine on record left more than half the
population of Tigray destitute.The failure of the state to resolve the resent-
ments simmering throughout the country tended in the end to encourage
people to seek a solution in their own localities, producing a series of ethno-
nationalist mobilizations. Thus, not only local grievances but also a general
resentment directed against holders of power at the centre acquired expres-
sion in the form of ethno-nationalism, gradually building up and being
passed on to the next generation. There was gradual erosion of the auth-
ority of the central government, and an increasing number of sporadic
rebellions, locally known as shiftinnet.
14
The end of the empire
For years, then, struggles were taking place in Tigray in various forms
against Emperor Haile Selassie’s monarchical rule. This background
created the conditions for the eventual emergence of the TPLF and its
rapid growth. Legal and illegal political associational activities, strikes,
underground movements, sporadic armed rebellions and even appeals for
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
’
S LIBERATION FRONT
573
13. Hizkias Assefa,‘Ethnic conflict in the Horn of Africa: myth and reality’, in K. Rupesinghe
and V. A. Tishkov (eds), Ethnicity and Power in the Contemporary World (UN University Press,
Tokyo, 1996), p. 35.
14. For a broader understanding of shiftinnet, see Timothy Fernyhough, ‘Social mobility and
dissident elites in northern Ethiopia: the role of banditry, 1900–1969’, in Donald Crummey
(ed.), Banditry, Rebellion and Social Protest in Africa (James Currey, London and Heinemann,
Portsmouth, NH, 1986), pp. 151–72.
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Page 6
divine intervention were some of the modes of struggle waged to challenge
the rule of a repressive regime and to mitigate Tigrayans’ misery.
Although such anti-government movements were taking place in other
parts of Ethiopia as well, including armed uprisings in Bale (1963–68),
Gojjam (1967) and Eritrea from 1961, none of them was successful in
toppling the national government. Finally, however, in February 1974, a
spontaneous revolution broke out at the centre of the empire, galvanizing
the entire Ethiopian population and bringing about a dramatic change in a
government that had appeared invincible. Almost without resistance, the
once mighty emperor was overthrown, and the whole monarchical struc-
ture and feudal system collapsed. But it was only to be replaced by a
military dictatorship of the worst type. The subsequent military regime,
which adopted Marxism as its ideology, was even more brutal than the
imperial administration in its dealings with those Ethiopians who aspired to
democracy and justice, and especially so with regard to the Tigrayans and
other marginalized nationalities whose demand was self-determination.
Roughly speaking, this demand for self-determination implied autonomous
administration, a fair distribution of political power, and equal recognition
of culture, language and religion.
Following the February revolution, already by July 1974 political power
was in the hands of the military. The armed forces were better organized
than any other socio-political group in the country because of Ethiopia’s
long-standing military tradition. On 12 September in the same year, the
military junta known as the Derg put Emperor Haile Selassie under house
arrest and officially declared its seizure of power. Colonel Mengistu Haile
Mariam emerged as the leader of a government whose motto was ‘Ethiopia
First’. Its ideology was oriented towards both nationalism and moderniz-
ation, and was thus ‘directed against the weakening of the state by “seces-
sionist” movements’.
15
In this respect, ‘Mengistu’s regime in no time
revealed itself as essentially no different from the previous regime towards
the assertive ethnic-nationalities, only this time accompanied by the harsh-
ness of military dictatorship’.
16
The Derg regarded Ethiopia as a mono-
lithic society, thereby declaring any ethno-nationalist grievance or demand
for self-determination as contrary to Ethiopian unity and interests. Its
superpower ally, the Soviet Union, supported this rigid stand of central-
ization both ideologically and politically. Nationalists who opted for some
sort of regional autonomous rule or self-determination,which by no means
amounted to a demand for secession, were prime targets of the Derg’s
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AFRICAN AFFAIRS
15. Fred Halliday and Maxine Molyneux, The Ethiopian Revolution (Verso, London, 1981),
p. 29.
16. Aregawi Berhe, ‘Ethiopia: success story or state of chaos?’, in Ronaldo Munck and
Purnaka L. de Silva (eds), Post-modern Insurgencies:Political violence,identity formation and peace-
making in comparative perspective (Macmillan, Basingstoke and St. Martin’s Press, New York,
2000), p. 99.
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Page 7
assault. It was during this period of political uncertainty and terror that
many socio-political groups emerged as national and multi-national political
organizations to challenge the dominance of the military.
How the armed struggle began
Throughout the 1950s and ’60s there had been rebels attempting to
create a movement with a broad perspective. In the tradition of Haile
Mariam Reda, who led the Woyane, the Tigrayan peasant revolt of
1942–43, Gessesew Ayele (widely known by his nickname Sihule) was one
person striving hard to create a broad-based rebellion against the govern-
ment. By the same token, the eventual founder of the Eritrean Liberation
Front (ELF) that set out to wage an armed struggle in Eritrea in 1961, Idris
Awate, started his career as a shifta or bandit. Gessesew Ayele (Sihule) was
one of several Tigrayans who had contacts with Idris Awate. Many politi-
cally conscious Tigrayans showed sympathy and admiration for the insur-
gents in Eritrea, not because they supported the secessionist agenda that
was gradually taking shape, but out of their resentment against the govern-
ments that left the people of Tigray in misery and despair. Emulating the
Eritrean movement as a courageous challenge, many radical elements had,
since 1970, been forming groups that contemplated an armed struggle to
assert the rights of the Tigrayans for equality and fair treatment. Besides
Sihule, other individuals involved in such arduous challenges included
Amare Tesfu, Tekeste Wubneh, Mussie Kidane, Gebre Meskel Hailu,
Raswork Ketsela, Mulu Tesfay, Atsbaha Hastire and the present author. In
1973, for instance, a group led by Amare Tesfu was on the verge of starting
an armed rebellion in Tigray but was thwarted by a split that occurred at
the last minute concerning the nature of the Eritrean fronts with which a
working relationship was to be established. Amare and Tekeste recom-
mended co-operation with the ELF,while others favoured the rival Eritrean
People’s Liberation Front (EPLF).
Initially,when the Showan-Amhara-dominated regime of Emperor Haile
Selassie was overthrown in 1974, it was hoped that a new government would
address the plight of Tigrayans, but such expectations were soon dashed as
the military took full power towards the end of that year. The military
regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam wasted no time in proving to
be the worst enemy of Tigrayan aspirations. Thus, there emerged many
Tigrayan ethno-nationalist groups unwilling to negotiate with such a regime,
but determined to assert their rights through the ‘barrel of the gun’.
17
The
Tigrayan National Organization (TNO), soon to become the TPLF,was only
one of these.The genesis of the TNO will be described in more detail shortly.
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
’
S LIBERATION FRONT
575
17. ‘Political power grows out of the barrel of the gun’ was Mao’s dictum frequently reiter-
ated by the revolutionary generation of the time, ethno-nationalists and multi-nationalists alike.
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At the same time, there was a growth of other associations that were not
overtly revolutionary in nature. This included student associations. Tigray
had no university or college until the mid-1990s. Indeed, as recently as the
1950s, it had only four high schools, without adequate teachers or facili-
ties, for a population of about 3.5 million people. High school students were
engaged in sporadic movements to protest about the dismal conditions of
their schools and the misery reigning in their region in general. For some
time they had no associational structure to pursue their demands, but with
the collaboration of the last imperial governor of the region, Ras Mengesha
Seyoum, a semi-legal cultural association called Tigray-Bahli was formed
by the efforts of people like Ato Gessesew Ayele,Ato Hagos Alemayehu and
others. In this association hundreds of students and teachers participated
actively to promote their culture and assert their Tigrayan identity. Yet, the
obstacles posed by the central government were so many that the associ-
ation fizzled out in a matter of two to three years.A weekly newspaper called
Semyenawi Kokeb (‘Northern Star’) was also established, but that too did
not last long.
In the Haile Selassie I University (now renamed Addis Ababa Uni-
versity), however, the political atmosphere was, to a certain extent, con-
ducive to students articulating their grievances and coming together to
form associations, but not without cost. Thus, most students from Tigray,
when they went to the university, saw it as part of their student life to
participate actively in protests that called for change either at national or
regional level. This was why many university students from Tigray played
such a prominent role in the struggle against Haile Selassie’s feudal regime.
Their aim was not the restoration of Tigrayan hegemony over the whole of
Ethiopia as some politicians have presented it. The university at Addis
Ababa became the venue where politically minded teachers and students
from all districts of Tigray converged and discussed issues concerning the
whole of Tigray. Land degradation, recurring famines, massive unemploy-
ment, political marginalization, cultural domination and different aspects
of social problems were some of the issues that arose, and their solutions
were debated by students. They compared the level of the problems with
those in other regions of Ethiopia, believing that conditions in Tigray were
by far the worst. This assessment was often expressed sentimentally, in
relation to the past glory of Tigray and its standing in the history of the
Ethiopian nation.
The pan-Ethiopian student movement was growing in scope from the
second half of the 1960s. Earlier prominent activists of the Tigrayan
students’ movement included Sibhatu Wibneh (killed by Haile Selassie’s
security agents in 1970), Giday Gebrewahid (killed in mid-1975 by the
Derg soon after it came to power), Amare Tesfu (also killed in early 1975
by a group called the Tigray Liberation Force, of which he was a member),
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Tesfay Teklu, Mitiku Asheber, Abebe Tesema, Atsbaha Hailemariam,
Gebrekidan Desta and Rezene Kidane, among others. In the early 1970s
the Tigrayan University Students’ Association (TUSA) was formed. TUSA
pledged to function not only in Addis Ababa but also in Tigray when the
university closed for the vacations. Many Tigrayan university students,
including all the founding members of the TNO, were involved in the
association’s activities during both the academic year and the vacations. As
members of the university community, they were also participating actively
at all levels of the Ethiopian student movement, in many cases taking a
leading role. Meles Tekele — later killed by the Derg — and Abay Tsehaye,
who still survives in the EPRDF leadership today, were TUSA members
who led the editorial branch of the university students’ union. The present
author headed the university’s political science students’ association for a
year (1972–73), and Berhane Eyasu, a leading member in the Ethiopian
People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP), who was to be killed fighting the
Derg, was also a TUSA activist before he joined the EPRP.
In Addis Ababa,TUSA’s function was limited to discussions of a political
nature and to contacting influential people like parliamentarians, business-
men and professional personalities from Tigray to persuade them to con-
tribute something tangible to mitigate the dismal situation in Tigray.
Occasional papers like Etek (‘To Arms!’) and Dimtsi Bihere Tigray (‘Voice
of the Tigrayan Nation’) were produced and distributed free of charge.
Such activities were agitational in nature and broadened the link among
Tigrayans engaged in various walks of life. The contribution of Tigrayan
parliamentarians like Ato Gessesew Ayele (Sihule), Ato AsfawWoldearegay,
Ato Alemseged Gebre Egziabiher, Weyzero Tsehaytu Gebreselasie, Keg-
nazmach Teklit Mekonen, Ato Zenawi Tokola and others, both in terms of
financial input and many aspects of advice,was immense. Intellectuals and
professionals, among them Ato Bekele Berhane, Dr Assefa Abraha, Dr
Itbarek Gebre Egziabiher, Ato Tsegaye Hailu, Ato Hagos Atsbaha, Ato
Kidane Asayehgn, Ato Aynalem Aregehegn, and Dr Tesfay Berhe, gave
initial support to the movement. Such people and many others saw them-
selves as victims of ethnic repression and political persecution. Ato Alem-
seged G. Egziabiher, for instance, had to spend months in poor conditions
in prison under the Haile Selassie regime on account of his progressive
views as a parliamentarian.
TUSA’s major activities, however, were carried out in the eight awrajas
(districts) of Tigray, particularly during the Ethiopian winter when the uni-
versity was closed for vacation. Supplementary education for high school
students, development projects such as reforestation, and political awareness-
raising on fundamental problems and their solutions, were the focus of the
association’s activities. Educational and developmental activities were
carried out with legal permits and the co-operation of the then governor of
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
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577
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Tigray, Ras Mengesha Seyoum, who, on one occasion, when TUSA’s
leading members approached the Ras in Addis Ababa, went so far as to
criticize openly various government ministers, particularly the minister of
education, for standing against his developmental policies in Tigray.
TUSA’s political awareness programme, however, was carried out without
the knowledge of the provincial government authorities, which would cer-
tainly have thwarted every activity of the association if they had known that
they themselves were being blamed for collaborating with the oppressors in
the central government. Ras Mengesha himself was seen as an accomplice
of the ruling group both by marriage and class interest, hence an element
to be removed by the wind of change.
While advancing the associational programme, clandestine groups were
organized to study Marxist dialectics, the class struggle, the national
question and other revolutionary issues of the time. These study groups
used every legally permitted opportunity in their activities to disseminate
their revolutionary ideas with the aim of raising the level of consciousness
of the people as a whole. The dissemination of nationalist revolutionary
ideas was carried out through leaflets, songs and informal discussions,
which were carefully crafted so as not to antagonize the conservative
peasant society of Tigray. No mention of Marxist rhetoric was made outside
the young educated revolutionaries. In those days everyone seemed moti-
vated to exchange revolutionary ideas advocating change. The call for
armed struggle to get rid of the oppressive feudal regime was entertained
more often than it was mentioned.
Within TUSA, a politically conscious group by the name of Mahber
Gesgesti Bihere Tigray (MAGEBT), aimed at creating a higher form of
organization, evolved at the beginning of 1974. Literally translated, the
name means the Association of Progressives from the Tigray Nation, but
for convenience it was called the Tigrayan National Organization (TNO).
The TNO was later to become the mother organization of the TPLF.While
these TNO-led activities were under way, another group called the Political
Association of Tigrayans (PAT), led by Yohannes Teklehaimanot and Gebre
Kidan, was involved underground in a purely political mobilization of
Tigrayans against the Ethiopian regime. This association advocated the
outright independence of Tigray and later emerged as an armed organiz-
ation known as the Tigray Liberation Front (TLF). It was the TNO that
was to evolve into the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and, after
sixteen years of guerrilla war, was to become the government of Ethiopia.
The TNO was established at a meeting held on 14 September 1974,
attended by seven university students: Zeru Gessese (Agazi),
18
Fantahun
578
AFRICAN AFFAIRS
18. The names in brackets were given to the respective individual members of the organiz-
ation in the early days of the struggle to disguise their real names for fear of enemy pursuit.
Some of those listed have retained these pseudonyms.
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Page 11
Zeratsion (Giday), Mulugeta Hagos (Asfeha), Ambay Mesfine (Seyoum),
Alemseged Mengesha (Hailu), Amha Tsehaye (Abay) and the present
author (Berihu). The seven met in an inconspicuous café in Piazza, in the
centre of Addis Ababa. Ato Gessesew Ayele (Sihule), twice a member of
parliament and still a popular representative of Tigrayans at the time,
belonged to this group but could not attend the meeting for security
reasons. All these people had known each other for years, working together
in the struggle against the repression of the Tigrayans in particular and the
Ethiopian peoples in general.
The aim of the 14 September meeting was, first, to reach a common
understanding of the nature and disposition of the Derg’s regime with
respect to the self-determination of Tigray and the future of democracy in
Ethiopia; second, to reflect upon what form of struggle to pursue and how
to tackle the main challenges that would henceforth arise; and third, to
outline how to work and co-ordinate activities with the Ethiopian left which
hitherto had operated according to much broader revolutionary ideals.
These grand ambitions were not new. Those at the meeting had previously
been reflecting on these matters informally. Thus, by the end of the day
they had drafted a two-page general guideline.
19
The guideline declared that:
• The strategy of the movement is the formation of a democratic
Ethiopia in which the equality of all nationalities is respected.
• A national armed struggle should be waged that would advance from
the rural areas of Tigray to the urban areas.
• The movement should be led by an urban-based organization known
as the Tigrayan National Organization until such time as the armed
struggle could begin.
It was unanimously understood that the TNO was a preparatory stage for
the armed struggle. The founders of the TNO collectively assumed many
tasks including undertaking propaganda and political work to prepare for
the ensuing armed struggle, recruiting individuals to be members of the
TNO from which later combatants in the armed struggle could be
recruited, collecting materials and information necessary for the struggle,
and so on. To accomplish these and other broadly defined tasks, the TNO
founders had to organize closely the active elements in the association and
political movements with which they were in contact so far and on which
they would rely for the painstaking fight ahead. It is therefore necessary to
give a short account of the activities in the association and of the political
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
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19. This two-page guideline should be located in the archives of the TPLF as a classified
document. Access to such documents is only possible with the permission of Meles Zenawi,
the current Prime Minister.
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movements from which the TNO sprang and on which it would depend so
heavily in the ensuing sixteen years of armed struggle to bring down the
military government. The TNO had contacts with many radical Tigrayans,
and later it was not difficult to assemble them in the TPLF. The TNO’s
immediate goal was achieved when it transformed itself into an armed
organization, the TPLF, in February 1975.
Political ideologies
The Ethiopian student movement of the 1960s and ’70s was marked by
an unprecedented political radicalism. It was dedicated to struggle against
imperialism and feudalism — systems that were believed to have kept
Ethiopia in the most backward stage of development. Most of the younger
generation who had passed through high school and university were revol-
utionary enthusiasts belonging to this ideological and political wave. Their
dream was to change Ethiopia’s dismal backwardness in a revolutionary
manner. At times they played the role of an opposition political party. The
experiences of the Bolsheviks’ Russia, Maoist China, Ho Chi Minh’s
Vietnam and Che Guevera’s internationalism were espoused as guiding
precedents to redeem Ethiopia from its predicament. The revolutionary
student generation of that time was, as it later proved, ready to make any
sacrifice to undo the grip of imperialism and feudalism in the country.This
revolutionary fervour was part of the international wave of the 1960s.
Marxist revolutionary ideals were thought to be impeccable, the only appro-
priate guiding tenets through which the country was to be transformed from
its backwardness.
Although class-based ideological orientation was prevalent among the
student body, ethno-national mobilization was also a concomitant ideo-
logical stance in the students’ movement. Marx’s stand on the Irish national
question — that it had to be resolved if the British proletariat were to
advance to socialism — was recalled to justify the question of nationalities
in Ethiopia.The theories of Lenin and Stalin on the national question were
also used as tools for combating national oppression in Ethiopia. In
Leninist fashion, revolutionary students referred to Ethiopia as the ‘prison
house of nationalities’.
The ethno-nationalist sentiment in the young educated class was
strengthened by several factors. On the one hand, the monopoly of power
by the dominant Showan-Amhara feudal class, that fostered its ethnic
hegemony and kept Ethiopia in the dark, was the prime cause for ethnic
resistance. On the other hand, the influence of the previous rebellions in
Tigray (the 1942–43 Woyane), in Gojjam (the 1967 revolt), in Bale (the
1963–68 rebellion) and in Eritrea (the 1960s–70s armed struggle) served
as historical precedents to challenge the existing oppressive state of affairs.
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Those who came from marginalized ethnic nationalities wanted to assert
their hitherto neglected identity and equality by all means possible. Revol-
utionary students from the dominant nationality, the Amhara, as well,
vigorously upheld, as a matter of principle, the right of nations to self-
determination. Wallelign Mekonen (an Amhara from Wollo region)
produced an outstanding article on the national question in Ethiopia, in
November 1969 in which he stated that ‘Ethiopia was not a nation, but a
collection of nationalities ruled by the Amharas. To be an Ethiopian, you
will have to wear an Amhara mask.’
20
Moreover, the negative and repres-
sive reaction of the state to such sentiments and the dreadful conditions in
the various localities that were the heartlands of different ethnic groups
were other important factors that solidified ethno-nationalist sentiments
among the various ethnic groups.
Members of the TNO, who either saw no contradiction or ignored any
incompatibility in espousing the class and ethno-national forms of struggle
simultaneously, actively participated in both. It was assumed that the ethno-
nationalist movement, if and when it was guided by a Marxist ideology,was
a sub-set of the class struggle, the former levelling the way for the latter.
For them, the struggle for the creation of a democratic Ethiopia was tan-
tamount to bestowing the right to self-determination on its component
parts, with all the people able to live harmoniously in a fair political and
economic relationship. Those who saw the ethno-national struggle as a
tactic to achieve equality within a united Ethiopia and not as a strategy for
secession were unaware of the turns and zigzags that ethno-nationalist
mobilization could take. They were not able to see that ‘The more politi-
cized ethnicity becomes, the more it dominates other expressions of
identity, eclipsing class, occupational, and ideological solidarities’,
21
and
that ethnic struggles can become ominous. The young revolutionaries
focused only on the positive contribution of ethno-nationalist mobilization
as the most effective and shortest way to uproot the oppressive system.
Their attitude was in conformity with Horowitz,when he wrote that ‘Ethnic
affiliations provide a sense of security in a divided society, as well as a source
of trust, certainty, reciprocal help, and protection against neglect of one’s
interests by strangers’.
22
In this political atmosphere, the progressive Tigrayan students who
formed the TNO also continued to participate actively in the pan-Ethiopian
student movement. They played a role in all the major political activities
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
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20. Wallelign Mekonen, quoted in Kiflu Tadesse, The Generation:The history of the Ethiopian
People’s Revolutionary Party (Part 1) (The Red Sea Press, Trenton, NJ, 1993), p. 54.
21. Milton J. Esman, Ethnic Politics (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1994), p. 15.
22. Donald L. Horowitz, ‘Democracy in divided societies’, in Larry Diamond and Marc F.
Plattner (eds), Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and Democracy (Johns Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore, MD and London, 1994), p. 49.
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Page 14
that were to bring about the downfall of Haile Selassie’s monarchy. When
the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), more widely
known as the Derg, took over, they still persisted in forming a pan-
Ethiopian front that could get rid of the military administration and insti-
tute a civilian participatory democratic system. TNO members (later
subsumed into the TPLF) played a major role, among other things, in
exposing the vices and the cynicism behind the Derg’s 1975–6 ‘Campaign
of Development and Co-operation’, a scheme that was intended to disperse
the student body and control or eliminate its radical elements. Later, it was
discovered that eight prominent members of the TNO, because of their
high profile in revolutionary activities, were on the hit list of the Derg’s
security office. The revelation of the existence of this list forced not only
those named but also other radical Tigrayans to go underground or
withdraw from areas of the country controlled by the Derg and find shelter
in rural Tigray or abroad. Some of those who stayed behind in the Derg-
controlled area — revolutionaries like Meles Tekle, Giday Gebrewahid,
Abraha Hagos and many others — were soon killed by the Derg.Those who
left for rural Tigray went not just in search of shelter but also to find ways
and means to launch resistance against the government. It was these
realities that led the TNO to transform itself into the TPLF and engage in
armed insurrection within months of the Derg’s take-over. For TNO
members, it was clear that the intellectual debate that emerged in the early
days of the revolution would soon come to an end with the inevitable estab-
lishment of the military, the best organized section of society. The
TNO/TPLF went so far as to warn those political groups that were hesi-
tating between working with the Derg and standing firm against it to take
the latter position before it was too late.
Tigray on the eve of the insurrection
The population of Tigray in the 1960s was estimated to be nearly two
million.
23
The 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia recorded
it as 3.1 million.
24
This census does not include Tigrayans living outside
the region, estimated to be more than one million. More than 75 percent
of the population of Tigray even now speak Tigrigna, a spoken and written
language that had been forbidden by the central government since the
1940s for use in schools, law courts and other official organs. The other
languages spoken in Tigray are Afar, Saho, Agew and Kunama. More than
90 percent of the people at the time the armed struggle began lived in the
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AFRICAN AFFAIRS
23. Markakis, National and Class Conflict, p. 250.
24. Population and Housing Census Commission, The 1994 Population and Housing Census
of Ethiopia (Government of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 1996), p. 10.
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Page 15
rural areas and worked in agriculture, with a small percentage of pastoralists
living in the lowlands. In the densely populated highlands, because land was
privately owned for generations in a system known as rist in which every
family member could claim a plot, land fragmentation increased the
fragility of agricultural production, forcing the bulk of the peasantry to live
far below subsistence. Still worse, recurring famines (like those of 1972–4),
as a result of drought and locusts, claimed the lives of tens of thousands
of peasants. Government authorities not only neglected the plight of the
people but also continued to levy numerous taxes that it was practically
impossible for the peasants to pay. As a result, thousands of peasants aban-
doned their villages with or without their families. It was common to observe
desperate families seeking shelter in churches and mosques and begging for
food in the streets. Life was often intolerable and desperation reigned.
When the revolution of 1974 uprooted the imperial system, there was a
general desire in Tigray for change.Through songs,writings and other avail-
able means people voiced their readiness to pay any price in the struggle
that could bring them a better future. A series of events like the dramatic
fall of the Emperor, the flight of the hereditary provincial governor of
Tigray, Ras Mengesha Seyoum, and the seizure of power by an unknown
group, was witness to the confusion that reigned during this period of the
early 1970s.
The persistent call of the young educated class — basically students and
teachers — for radical change, with the self-determination of Tigray as a
rallying slogan, inflamed popular aspirations. The imposition of central
control, domination by the Showan-Amhara ruling class, heavy taxation,
and the failure of leaders to improve the wretched life of the people, includ-
ing that of the Showan peasantry whose life was no better than that of the
rest of the peasant population, were sources of complaint in every forum.
It has been said that ‘The most painful cut of all was the banning of the
Tigrai language in a region where, as late as the mid-1970s, only 12.3 per
cent of the males claimed to speak Amharigna and only 7.7 per cent could
read it’.
25
In the rural areas,while farming, and while celebrating religious holidays
or attending a wedding ceremony, men and women alike routinely sang
songs that either evoked the dismal conditions they had to endure or looked
forward to the moment when they could rebel against the repressive system.
In a predominantly peasant and illiterate society like that of Tigray, ideas
are usually communicated orally and are well expressed through songs.Two
of the popular songs that reflected the feelings of anger went as follows:
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
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583
25. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Ethnic Conflicts and the Nation-State (Macmillan, Basingstoke and
St Martin’s Press, New York, 1996), p. 168.
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Page 16
Tigray kinday maalti kitsebeyeki, (Tigray, how long should I linger?)
Ab balijay geyre kimalaalki (Let me get ‘it’ [the gun] for you)
Gobez Tigray! Gobez Tigray! (Brave of Tigray! Brave of Tigray!)
Zebenka iu tsemede bieray! (Now is your time to mount the ox/weapon)
Students used to write, demonstrate, organize in study groups and sing
songs of a revolutionary nature that were more straightforward and pro-
grammatic. University students took the lead in these revolutionary activi-
ties, confining their Marxist rhetoric to the company of their peers and
expounding the national self-determination of Tigray within the conserva-
tive peasant society. The ethno-nationalist cry was stretched so far as to
invoke the martyred patriots of the 1943 Woyane while hailing their own
movement as the second Woyane. The presence of the elderly Sihule as a
leading figure also helped to popularize the nationalist stance of the
movement and divert attention from the Marxist posture of the students.
Almost every Tigrayan, even the feudal lords and the clergy,who might have
to lose some of their privileges after the revolutionary struggle, seemed to
approve of the call for self-determination, the vision of the educated young
generation, and their efforts to realize it. It was in these circumstances that
the TPLF emerged.
From TNO to TPLF
The core task set by the TNO was to prepare the groundwork for the
armed struggle. All other activities of the TNO revolved around this central
objective. Many university and high school students, teachers and civil
servants were recruited as members of the TNO with the objective of
waging the armed struggle. Although all members understood that the
direction of the TNO was to enter upon an armed movement, only the
younger and more able ones were advised to engage in mental and physical
preparation for the protracted war ahead. They were encouraged to read
about experiences of guerrilla movements in Algeria, China, Cuba, Eritrea,
Guinea-Bissau,Vietnam, and so on.The endurance and revolutionary disci-
pline exhibited in these revolutions were emphasized. The older members,
on the other hand, were advised to keep a low profile and to work under-
ground in towns controlled by the government in order to provide support
for the forthcoming armed struggle. Recruiting and organizing urban
dwellers in cells and supplying them with propaganda materials and other
necessary things like medicine, plus collecting money and stealing relevant
information from the enemy camp,were some of the tasks assigned to them.
Another important task the TNO undertook was establishing a working
relationship with the two existing Eritrean fronts, the EPLF and ELF, for
practical reasons.Although the EPLF claimed to be ‘more progressive’ than
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Page 17
the ELF, and the ELF similarly claimed to be ‘more truly nationalist’ than
the EPLF, the TNO regarded both fronts as nationalist organizations
fighting for the independence of Eritrea. The TNO undertook no research
on this matter, and no formal discussion took place in order to reach this
position on the nature of the fronts and the future of Eritrea. The TNO
adopted this view purely for pragmatic reasons and without serious thought
about its consequences. TNO leaders focused only on the support they
could procure from the Eritrean fronts to facilitate their struggle against the
military regime in Ethiopia.
Because of geographic proximity and language similarity, it was not diffi-
cult for Tigrayans to trace and contact ELF or EPLF fighters. Above all, a
sympathetic attitude on the part of Tigrayans towards the Eritrean fighters
was taking shape in the university,where some Eritrean students were trying
to break the exclusively nationalist stance and forge a people’s movement
all over Ethiopia. When TNO leaders contacted the ELF, the response was
not completely positive.This was because another Tigrayan group, the TLF,
led by Yohannes Tekle Haimanot and Gebre Kidan Asfaha, had already
established a working relationship with the ELF, making the TNO a
somewhat unattractive option to the latter at that time. Perhaps also the
ELF might have considered the TLF as more truly nationalist, since it
upheld the independence of Tigray, similar to the Eritreans’ position. The
response from the EPLF, on the other hand,was prompt and positive. Two
factors might have expedited this reply. First, the EPLF must have been
aware of the fact that its arch-rival the ELF had already established working
relations with a Tigrayan front, the TLF, that could help it expand its area
of operation. Secondly, a group of founders of the EPRP were already in
the field with the EPLF, but their relationship was not going smoothly, since
the former were not able to adopt a clear-cut position on the question of
Eritrean independence.
As communication proceeded for more than five months via letters,
Mehari Tekle (Mussie), an EPLF fighter but a Tigrayan by birth, finally
emerged to facilitate matters. He met with two TNO representatives,
Seyoum and Aregawi, in the outskirts of Asmara in November 1974. Initially,
the TNO leaders thought Mussie was a contact-person representing the
EPLF, but in their first formal meeting with him they discovered that, with
the consent of the EPLF leadership, he was coming to join the TNO and
fight for the self-determination of Tigray. He also disclosed to the TNO
leaders that many other Tigrayans who had been fighting on the side of the
EPLF were eagerly talking about an armed struggle commencing soon in
Tigray and that they were keen to come to their region to fight the enemy.
It had been a common experience for Tigrayans going to Eritrea in search of
work to join the Eritrean fronts to fight the government that was the cause
of their misery. Girmay Jabir, Iyassu Baga, Marta Kahsa, Haile Portsudan
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
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Page 18
and Kokeb Wodi-Aala were among such fighters. As it emerged later,
Mussie was to be a very important link in many aspects. At a critical time
(the end of 1974 and the beginning of 1975) when the ELF and EPLF
were ferociously competing to gain more ground from the demoralized and
retreating Ethiopian government forces, Mussie was the one who main-
tained the link between the EPLF and the TNO. The situation was other-
wise very difficult to handle for inexperienced TNO leaders in a territory
with which they were not familiar.
In the initial discussions with Mussie, the first issue of concern was
military training, since none of the founders of the TNO, except Sihule,
had any military experience whatever. TNO members, most of whom were
university and high school students plus a few teachers,were keen to engage
in training. Mussie informed the TNO that the EPLF was willing to train
as many Tigrayans as the TNO could yield. He also made it clear that the
EPLF leadership would like to see fewer student trainees and more
peasants, the rationale being that the peasants could endure hardship in the
rural circumstances to which they were accustomed.The TNO leaders were
not convinced of this argument, but nevertheless proceeded to recruit
peasant trainees as well.The EPLF’s wish to increase the number of peasant
recruits in the future TPLF army was eventually to have the effect of
neutralizing the educated element in the guerrilla army, which otherwise
would have continued to scrutinize critically and challenge the manner of
leadership at all times, as experienced in the Menkae incident of 1973.
26
It was not difficult to raise recruits for military training. The first group
selected for such training in the EPLF-liberated area arrived in Asmara in
January 1975, a month before the TPLF declared its existence in Tigray.
Among these future tegadelti (fighters) were Abay Tsehay, Hailu Mengesha,
Sahle Abraha (Seye), Atsbaha Dagnew (Shewit),Yohannes Gebre Medhine
(Walta), Tikue Woldu (Awealom) and Legese Zenawi (Meles). The last-
named is the current prime minister of Ethiopia. They had to remain for
some days in hotels in Asmara, as the route to the EPLF field of operation
including Asmara itself had become a war zone, in which it was unsafe to
travel unarmed. During this somewhat chaotic situation, Meles vanished
from the group that was due to move to the field whenever the situation
permitted. Within a few days, however, the situation was calm, and under
the guidance of Mussie, the group, minus Meles, slipped out of Asmara at
night and after two days arrived at the nearest EPLF training camp, Riesi
Adi. There, they started rigorous military training immediately. A month
later Hailu and Abay, on their way with a mission to Tigray, found Meles
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AFRICAN AFFAIRS
26. Menkae refers to an attempt by cadres in the EPLF to democratize the organization,
which the leadership labelled as ‘anarchism’ and crushed by harsh military measures. For
details see Markakis, National and Class Conflict.
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Page 19
75 kilometres from Asmara, in Adi Quala where his mother comes from.
They demanded an explanation for his separation from his comrades in
Asmara. The normally eloquent Meles had nothing plausible to say about
this, and has never given an explanation to this day. The matter was glossed
over in favour of more pressing matters at the beginning of the armed
struggle, but the mystery of his unexplained absence continues to hang over
Meles.
Back in Tigray, the assignment of assembling peasant trainees was
assumed by Sihule and his younger brother Berhane Ayele (Fitewi) in their
home district of Shire. Sihule was to emerge as the single most important
figure in establishing the armed struggle and in the origin of the TPLF, as
we shall shortly see.The two brothers concentrated on recruiting active and
motivated peasants who could cope with the rigorous military training
required. In a matter of three days, some thirty individuals from both
peasant and urban backgrounds, including a few students like Niguse Taye
(Kelebet), were contacted and volunteered to join those who had already
started training in Eritrea.Agazi and Seyoum led this group all the way from
Tigray to Eritrea across enemy-held territory. They joined the first group
and in less than three months had graduated from their training and were
ready for combat.
In the town of Enda-Selassie, Shire, where Sihule was the indispensable
host, the rest of the TNO members were organizing themselves for the
declaration of the beginning of the armed struggle in the countryside of
Tigray. For more than a week, most of the TNO leaders (among them
Sihule, Giday, Asfaha, Seyoum, Agazi, and the present author) had been
discussing and making preparations for when, how and where to start the
long awaited war. On the recommendation of Sihule, it was decided to start
the armed struggle from Dedebit as soon as possible. Other colleagues who
joined this group at this preparatory stage were Asgede (a former soldier in
the Ethiopian army), Kahsay Berhe (Misgina), Michael, Melay and Abraha.
It was believed that the armed struggle should begin before the ultra-
nationalist TLF, the Ethiopian ‘Bolshevik’ EPRP and the monarchist
Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU), all of which were poised to fight the
Derg from Tigray, could gain ground.
The final preparation for commencing guerrilla warfare was concluded at
Sihule’s home. Sihule made available three rifles, and a fourth came from
Giday who had pilfered it from his father in his absence. Field equipment
and other logistics were either bought or collected from members and sup-
porters and assembled in Sihule’s house. Sihule’s family prepared a few
days’ rations for the contingent that would march to Dedebit. On the last
day before the group’s departure to Dedebit, where the first engagement
was to take place, Sihule’s house looked like the military base of a small
contingent. The future guerrilla fighters were dressed in khaki clothes
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suitable for the heat and rough terrain. All wore shorts and the locally made
sandals known as temalatet — most of them for the first time. Everyone was
given a pack of about 20 kg to carry. A mule was bought to help carry extra
provisions. As the family was preparing what was necessary for the field, the
strange scene in their house puzzled all of Sihule’s children, some of whom
were crying because they thought that they were going to lose their father
forever.
At midnight on 18 February 1975 (11 Yekatit 1967 by the Ethiopian
calendar), Fitewi led the way to avoid the police and the government militia.
The group headed for Dedebit, about 80 kilometres from Shire and 900 km
from Addis Ababa — a journey which took two nights. Dedebit became the
starting point and the initial base area of the TPLF. Dedebit saw the begin-
ning of the armed struggle and the birth of the TPLF. The TPLF referred
to its struggle as the Kalai Woyane (‘Second Woyane’), referring to national
self-determination against an oppressive state. From here on, the TPLF
took over the TNO, all of whose activities and members automatically
became part of the TPLF. The time span in which the TNO was formed
and transformed into the TPLF was short, but this swift development at
the time of the Derg has to be seen in the light of the Tigrayan struggle
which had been simmering for decades. Tigrayans in general and the
founders of the TNO/TPLF in particular were more than ever ready at this
revolutionary period to assert their rights in the most effective way.
The military Derg with its radical slogans — mostly borrowed from the
revolutionary university students — might have attracted many Ethiopians
who were seeking change. The TNO/TPLF leaders, however, did not
believe that the spontaneously assembled military officers would live up to
their revolutionary promises. This time, many Tigrayans, including the
founders of the TNO/TPLF, were determined to create a homegrown
organization that could put forward the legitimate interest of the Tigrayans
and find a lasting space in Ethiopian power politics. This was in actual fact
the essence of the struggle for self-determination, for which thousands of
Tigrayans were yearning. Moreover, with its nationalist slogan of ‘Ethiopia
First’, the Derg’s attitude towards ethno-nationalist movements was so dis-
cordant that the TNO/TPLF leaders who saw the rocky path ahead, were
forced to expedite the challenge in its highest form — armed struggle.
The role of Sihule
27
In traditional Tigray, in the rural areas, hardly anyone took the students’
voice seriously at first. When it came to waging an armed struggle, elders
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AFRICAN AFFAIRS
27. Although Sihule is the ‘field name’ given in the armed struggle to Gessesew Ayele, people
liked to call him by this pseudonym as a sign of respect.
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would immediately scorn the students, mocking them with remarks like
‘they must be joking’, or ‘they will go back to their mothers tomorrow’.This
attitude presumably developed from the harsh experiences of vicious wars,
in Ethiopia in general and in Tigray in particular, in which endurance was
tested and scrutinized by others. The key to changing this attitude was
Gessesew Ayele, known as Sihule, who was much older than the young
revolutionary students he joined in the TPLF to wage an armed struggle in
the 1970s.
Sihule was in his late fifties when he left his family and his well-paid
government position as a member of parliament to start the armed struggle
with a few young university students in their twenties. It was not the first
time that he had rebelled against a repressive system: as a boy of 14, he had
resisted the Italian fascist army that occupied Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941,
going with his uncle as far as the southern front to fight the invaders. After
the war, he worked as an Ethiopian representative in British-administered
Eritrea. In 1962, he rebelled against Haile Selassie’s government. At one
point he met Idris Awate, a leader of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF),
to discuss the creation of a united front of struggle, although this did not
materialize because of the secessionist stance of the Eritrean movement.
Coming of age in the Ethiopian struggle against the Italian occupation,
Sihule was politically formed in the era of Ethiopia’s struggle for moderniz-
ation and democratic revolution of the 1960s and early ’70s. He was an
ardent Ethiopian who never embraced the secession of Tigray as an option,
unlike some of his young revolutionary comrades. He was a fighter who
always rebelled against higher authorities whenever he observed them
failing to render justice to the ordinary people.
Sihule’s rebellious character in imperial Ethiopia, where absolute loyalty
to the higher authorities was not to be questioned, gained him popularity
not only in his own district of Shire but also in the whole province of Tigray.
Whether or not he held a government post, his house at Enda-Selassie,
Shire,was the venue for peasants with problems who came to seek his advice
and to persuade him to use his influence to find solutions. Sihule held
positions in government on many occasions, but when he found himself at
loggerheads with senior authorities, including Ras Mengesha Seyoum, the
last hereditary governor of Tigray, he more than once went back to his own
locality to pursue his rebellious life. In early 1970, the people of Shire voted
overwhelmingly for him to represent them in the Ethiopian parliament,
where he argued bravely against many odds. Time and again, he spoke not
only for the cause of his own constituency but also for the Ethiopian people
as a whole. After the installation of the Derg, he took up arms against the
military dictators who had toppled Haile Sellasie’s regime, in spite of the
fact that the new rulers had promised to elevate him to higher posts in view
of his background and popularity.
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
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Gessesew Ayele ‘Sihule’ was more than just one of the founders of the
TPLF: he was someone whose background and personality made an
immense contribution to the smooth development of the TPLF, especially
in the initial stages. He was instrumental in organizing the start of the TPLF
military activities, when the armed struggle led by the TPLF against the
Derg began on 18 February 1975. Dedebit, in the remote hills of western
Tigray,was selected as the place to start the armed struggle because Sihule
had prior knowledge of this area and, more importantly, he had the respect
of the people living in the villages adjacent to this terrain. Otherwise, the
people in these villages would definitely have been hostile to the unknown
students whose activities had previously been only in the towns. When rep-
resentatives of the people in Shimelba, Tselimoye and Adi-Mohamedai,
three villages surrounding Dedebit, were approached by the TPLF to
render their support, they did not hesitate. This compliance was granted
not because they understood the objectives of the emerging front, nor
because of the young revolutionary students, but simply because Sihule,
whom they knew very well, was involved. Thus, it was not surprising that,
for some months, the TPLF was referred to not by its proper name, but as
a group that belonged to Gessesew Ayele.
Gessesew Ayele acquired his nickname ‘Sihule’ at the beginning of the
armed struggle in February 1975, in reference to the eighteenth-century
Tigrayan warrior and kingmaker Ras Mikael Sihule, whose power was felt
as far as Gondar and Wollo. Ras Mikael Sihule was known for his decisive
action in getting rid of emperors he thought illegitimate and replacing them
with those of his own choice. He overthrew King Ioas in 1769 and ‘was
responsible for placing the next two Emperors on the throne’.
28
Sihule had
a large extended family and was married to Weyzero Zimam Gebre Hiwet,
who supported him throughout his rebellious life.They had seven children.
Although he was known as a good family man, this did not stop him from
once again engaging in the armed struggle against the new military dicta-
tors that was to cost him his life in 1976. Even his rivals respected him.
Asked about the death of her husband, Weyzero Zimam often says ‘Nebir
bitemot lij tekta’
29
(‘if a leopard dies, she leaves behind her offspring’).
Without the popular Sihule, the unknown TPLF would have found it
difficult to survive and prosper in the district of Shire. The whole area in
the 1970s was infested with shifta. Almost every sub-district of Shire con-
tained two or three renowned shiftas who had under their command groups
ranging from five to thirty in number. Some of the leaders of these shifta
bands were essentially of a criminal type, like Alem Eshet, who considered
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28. Gilkes, The Dying Lion, p. 7.
29. She also said this in an interview with the daily Addis Zemen, Meskerem 9, 1991
(Ethiopian calendar.).
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himself in sole command of his domain. The more powerful shiftas had
considerable numbers of automatic rifles.They knew the rugged and rocky
terrain like their own backyard and could manoeuvre effectively.They could
have swept from their territory any unfamiliar group like the TPLF, if it
had not had Sihule. But the reputation of Sihule, and of his younger brother
Berhane Ayele, was sufficient to intimidate every group of shiftas in the
district. At that early stage of the struggle, even fellow peasant fighters used
to treat the student fighters as ‘kids who only know how to play with paper’,
believing that leadership should rest with peasants who knew how to handle
a gun. From the start, Sihule gave the TPLF the legitimacy and popularity
that none of its other members could provide. So it was that an organiz-
ation with its roots in a provincial tradition of armed resistance was able to
equip itself with a sophisticated political ideology and eventually to take
over state power.
Self-determination: a postscript
At the foundation of the TPLF, ‘self-determination’ was understood to
mean autonomy or self-rule for Tigray in a democratic, poly-ethnic Ethiopia.
Later, in the early days of the struggle, self-determination was interpreted
by an ultra-nationalist group within the emerging TPLF to mean secession
from the Ethiopian nation-state, with the aim of establishing an indepen-
dent republic of Tigray, as declared in the TPLF manifesto of 1976. This
standpoint of an independent republic was included in the manifesto by the
group that had been given responsibility for drafting and printing it, which
incidentally happened to be the core of the ultra-nationalist section,
included Abay Tsehay, Sibhat Nega, Seyoum Mesfin and Meles Zenawi,
the current prime minister. The idea of secession, however, was contem-
plated only by a section of the leadership and not by the rank-and-file of
members or by the people of Tigray, who constituted the historic core of
the Ethiopian polity. This extreme position was challenged as soon as it
emerged and was relinquished straightaway, since it had no popular support
but remained for some time a source of subsequent splits in, and defec-
tions from, the organization.
In 1978, the secession option was proclaimed to have been dropped, after
pressure from an internal opposition and from other Ethiopians who saw
no future in secession. Ironically, external pressure, particularly from the
EPLF, also played a significant role in the fight against the secessionists.
Another wedge that was to emerge within the TPLF in the early 1980s
was that caused by the development of an ultra-left ideological brand of
Marxism-Leninism (Stalinism specifically) which culminated in the for-
mation of a group called the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray (MLLT)
in 1986. Although the MLLT seems nowadays to be out of sight, the
THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE
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ideology it extolled was the source of divisions and defections that by and
large have been racking the organization from within to this day.
The inclusion in the current Ethiopian Constitution of a right to seces-
sion for every nationality (article 39.1), and the adoption of ‘revolutionary
democracy’ as a guiding ideology by the current government, are intrinsi-
cally linked to both the ethno-nationalist and ultra-leftist stances of the
faction led by Meles Zenawi, who governs Ethiopia today.
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