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A Weekly Digest
of
African Affairs
how strong is
THE DERGUE?
Amidst the complex
political tangle in Horn of
Africa, few questions are
more difficult to answer
with any certainty than
that of the strength of the
government which
presently rules Ethiopia
from Addis Ababa. Run
by a military committee
(called 'the Dergue') that
emerged in the revolution
against Haile Selassie's
feudal regime in 1974, the
Addis government has had
to cope with numberous
armed insurrections and
profound ideological
struggles, as well as
drought, famine, and all
the chronic economic pro
blems of oil-importing
African states. The
Dergue has survived all
this, but some of its
challengers carry on their
battle:
Part II
The Nationalist
Challenge
The government's
vulnerability stems in
large part from Conflicts
with roots extending deep
into regional history
conflicts largely resistant
to, though affected by,
larger' geopolitical con
cerns. Best known are the
disputes over Somali
speaking areas in the east
and south, and the long
fight -for independence
from Ethiopian rule by the
former Italian colony of :
Eritrea in the north. Both
conflicts continue, the
Somali struggle now at a
rather low ebb of guerrilla !
action, the Eritrean con-;
flict focusing militarily on
numerous unsuccessful
Ethiopian efforts to oust,
the Eritrean People's
Liberation Front (EPLF),
and secondarily the
Eritrean Liberation Front
(ELF), from strongholds
in northern and western!.
growing in importance,
are the opposition
movements in Tigre pro
vince and among the
Oromo -people in eastern
and southern Ethiopia. In
Tigre province, bordering
Eritrea, the Tigre People's
Liberation Front (TPLF)
now claims to control
80 of the rural areas of
the province, which has a
population of some five
million people. The Tigre
area, though linked as
is the Amhara heartland
to ancient and medieval
Ethiopian history, has a
tradition of resistance to
close Amhara control
since the expansion of the
Ethiopian empire under
Menelik in the late 19th
century.
The TPLF, which ad
vocates self-determination
for Tigre and equal na
tional rights within an
Ethiopian state, was
founded in 1975. It has
had to fight not only
against the Addis govern
ment but against a conser
vative movement based in
Tigre (the Ethiopian
Democratic Union), and
against the EPRP, which
for a time established a
rural base in the area. But
now it appears to have
won substantial support
among the peasantry, and
to have gained military
strength from an alliance
with the EPLF of Eritrea.
In recent months, say
TPLF sources, Ethiopian!
government forces in the
province have reached:
some 40,000 but they have
I only been able to regain
control of number of
towns in major campaigns
jin April and August. And
,the government repres
sion, the movement's
leaders say, has won their
cause new support among
,the peasantry.
Also . little-known out
side Ethiopia is the move-
Eritrea- - ' -TTiejiK' .among :ne groma-
Mmt nKorvorc m people, who constitute
that in spite of some
military successes, the Ad-,
dis Ababa government has
in both arenas failed to
convince large numbers off
people that their future'
lies within Ethiopia. In-J
stead, the brutality of thej
war has reinforced opposi-;
tioh to Ethiopian control
and produced a massive
refugee flow (as many as.
one million to Somalia,!
some 500,000 into Sudan), j
Less well-known, but'
some forty per cent or
more of the population in
present-day Ethiopia and
are also scattered over a
wide area, from Wollo
province in the north to!
around the Amhara;
heartland oh the east,
isouth and west. Oromos
jwere active in the 1974
revolution, and promi
nent, for example, in the
All-Ethiopian Socialist
Movement (MEISON), an
organization of civilian
revolutionaries that sup
ported the Dergue until
the two groups clashed in
August, 1977.
With time, however,
many among- the Oromo"
came to see the new Ethio
pian government as a
reproduction of Haile
Selassie's Amhara
dominated state in
another guise. The Oromo
peasantry in the south,
which had been incor
porated into the Ethiopian
empire in the late 19th
century, was released
from feudal obligations
that had imposed a
crushing burden and
they still retain an in
dependence, and capabili
ty to keep their,
agricultural surplus,
which they did not have
before. But the military
government's exactions of
conscripts for the army
and militia, along with ,
disputes over control in
the peasants' associations,
helped to maintain old
grievances and build new
ones. Several prominent
members of the Dergue of
Oromo region were purg
ed in February, 1980, ac
cused of ties- .with the
Oromo Liberation Front,
further increasing feelings
that the Oromo were not
represented.
The OLF has thus won
a larger following for its
advocacy of independnece
for Oromia, their term for
the Oromo-inhabited
areas. Though vearlier it
might have opted for in
clusion in a revolutionary
Ethiopia, the movement
now bases its claims on the
view that the Ethiopian
empire established by
Menelik has the same
status as did European
colonialism, and that the
areas colonized have the
right to independence.
Illustrative of Oromo
grievances , is .the, , widely
praised literacy -program -itself.
In its first stages,
the program was directed
primarily at the urban and
small town population,
disproportionately
Amhara, while the rural
phase is just getting under
way, its success yet to be
evaluated. And Oromo
critics say in fact little
teaching goes on in
Oromigna; furthermore, '
the script used is the
Amharic script. Oromo
nationalists say the Latin,
script is more appropriate'
for their language, and the
OLF has developed its
own set of literacy texts, in
Latin script, used in areas
they control.
Conflicting Cfaims
To Legitimacy
The extent of OLF
operations is hard to
determine, but the move
ment says it has carried
out guerrilla attacks in
Arussi, to the southeast of
Addis Ababa, and
Western Shoa (where they
claim a stronghold near
Gedo), as well as in the
provinces of Hararghe,
Bale and Sidamo. In
western Oromo areas
(Gamu Goffa, Kaffa,
Wollega), they claim
political backing, but no
armed actions.
In Bale and Sidamo, the
Somali-backed Somali
Abo Liberation Front
(SALF), a rival group,
had attempted to win sup
port from Oromo people
as well as Somalis. But the
movement is now ap
parently in decline, the
majority of its central
committee having
fas, s2fii' V w
' 1 ' " rr
YUSUF AND FRIENDS
Music majors at St. Augustine's College, Raleigh, join Yusuf And Friends, a dynamic jazz
group based in Durham. The occasion was the closing program in St. Aug's Black History
Month observarrce. L-R: Salim Ibn Malik, bassist; Ms. Renee Davis, a senior music major;
Yusuf Salim, pianist; Eve Cornelious, vocal stylist; Hassan Ibn Dawud, percussionist; and
Ms. Elaine Hobbs, a sophomore music major.
defected to the OIF,
which has gained support
from some sectors of the
government of Somalia.
Ethiopia's leaders now
appeal not only to tradi
tional Ethiopian (their op
ponents say Amhara) na
tionalism, but also to
Marxist-Leninist theory to
support their legitimacy
against insurgent
movements calling for
self-determination for op
pressed nationalities.
Lenin's legacy is am
biguous, both in theory
and in practice, but in the
Soviet Union, where in
some cases dissident na
tionalities were retained
by force, their incorpora
tion has been aided by
significant economic
development, as well as by
education and political
organization of the
minority nationalities. In
Ethiopia, questions re
main as to whether the
central government will be
able to deliver sufficient
benefits to build such a
bulwark against opposing
movements, thus counter
ing the historic legacy of
Amhara domination..
The Dcrgue's op
ponents, however, have
comparable problems in
establishing a credible
prospect for winning their
goals. International and
African support is
minimal, since their objec
tives defy the established
concensus that existing na
tional boundaries are
sacrosanct. Enircan. ii n
true, can point to the fact
that their territory, loo,
was a colonial entity, in-'
corporal ed forcibly into
Ethiopia. And the
Tigreans would apparent
ly be satisfied - with
autonomy rather than in
dependence, provided it
was 'genuine.' The other
opposition movements,
however, must fight an
even steeper uphill
diplomatic battle. They
also claim that the case of
'Ethiopian colonialism' ii
unique, but most African
nations, with their com
plex mixtures of ethnic
groups, are understan
dably reluctant to see a
precedent established for
creation of hew states.
Ideological, the EPLF
and the TPLF bast their
claims for so!iuarity
abroad not only on na
lional rights but on their
own efforts to build new
socialist societies in the
areas they control ef
forts they claim are more
genuine and successful
than those of the Ethio
pian government. And
both movements, while
opposing Soviet and
Cuban aid to their oppo
nent, have refrained from
identifying those countries
as 'strategic enemies.' The
OLF and the Western
Somali Liberation Front
(WSLF) seem to have less
idologically defined,
populist and nationalist
perspectives.
MCDMEESWIIiE
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You get waited on by someone who
knows you, instead of merely being
someone standing in line.
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