In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Northeast African Studies 6.3 (1999) 11-25



[Access article in PDF]

1960, the Year the Sky Began Falling on Haile Sellassie

Harold G. Marcus
Michigan State University


In December 1960, 1 while the emperor was making his way home from Brazil to save Ethiopia from an attempted coup, as he saw it, the students of Addis Abeba made their first move to save Ethiopia from autocracy and feudalism, as they saw it. The opening gambit of their strategy, which ended with the emperor's deposition in September 1974, can fairly be stated to have begun on the afternoon of 14 December 1960, when University College of Addis Abeba leaders met General Mengistu Neway, commander of the bodyguard and leader of the dissidents, at Bodyguard Headquarters. They liked his description of high-ranking government officials and members of the royal family, imprisoned as hostages the previous night, as "lice sucking the [blood of] Ethiopian society . . . A burden to the country," and grew enthusiastic as he discussed correcting deteriorating economic conditions and social injustice. When several students commented that intellectuals must be heard, Mengistu let them believe that "somehow, distantly, we would be able to participate," and urged the students to act on behalf of the new government. 2

At a meeting that night in the cafeteria of University College, students revealed more confusion than conviction about the crisis. They neither knew what a coup d'etat was nor how to mount a demonstration. Spokesmen for the bodyguard lied in saying that the military was united against a corrupt central government, pandering to their idealistic audience with attractive notions of justice for the peasant and the worker. "They. . . spoke about our own ideas, however unexpressed these had been. It was like Jesus healing the cripple. We had the same feelings of joy the cripple must have had. The incredible, a miracle had happened." Based on such wishful thinking, the students came to believe that the coup would succeed and voted to demonstrate on its behalf. [End Page 11] They worked during the night composing slogans and songs, making banners out of bed sheets and writing a manifesto. 3

The document was naive, pretentious, and patronizing, though an augury nonetheless of the more sophisticated and ideological statements of the self-conscious, activist student movement of later years. The novices explained Ethiopia's backwardness as stemming from the government's unwillingness to permit the newly educated to modernize the country. The ignorant and traditional bureaucrats in charge of the ministries denied the students their "due rights . . . to develop our dear country, to civilize our country, and to lead our dear country towards a prosperous future." The new government, on the other hand, would allow students to assist in development, and they were "ready to render . . . advice and service" based on their "extensive study of history and extensive research into the world of today." Ethiopia's aristocrats controlled land and exploited the urban and rural poor through high rent and taxes, but the new government would remove the inequity, "opening a . . . door to a progressive and prosperous future for Ethiopia and its people." 4

The manifesto placed the students and their successors at the epicenter of Ethiopian politics, as they left the relative safety of the enclosed campus for the rough-and-tumble of the capital. Singing, waving placards, and yelling slogans, the young people marched from the upper town toward army headquarters. Their main message was simple and to the point:

Wake up, compatriots! Do not ignore history. Break the bonds of your slavery and renew your freedom today. Wake up! Wake up! Do not ignore history. Safeguard your dignity, and you will be rewarded with eternal happiness. Wake up! Wake up! Do not ignore history. 5

Their unfurled banners proclaimed: "For everyone—a bloodless revolution; Let us stand peacefully with the new government of the people; Our goal is Equality, Brotherhood and Freedom." Bystanders did not know what to make of the marchers and their messages, but there was "confused curiosity," a better response than the platoon of loyalist soldiers who, weapons ready, refused...

pdf