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LAYERS OF TIME PAUL B. HENZE first visited in 1962, as an officer of the U.S. Foreign Service. He was designated Political Counsellor of the American Embassy in in 1968, and served there till August 1972. In 1977 he was appointed as a senior staff member of the National Security Council under Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Carter administration and was involved firsthand in the dramatic events of 1977 -80 in the , undertaking three official missions. On retiring from government service at the end of 1980, Henze became a Wilson Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution. He joined the RAND Corporation as a Resident Consultant in 1982. PAUL B. HENZE Layers of Time A History o.f Ethiopia

palgrave LAYERS OF TIME Copyright © 2000 by Paul B. Henze Softcover reprint of the hardcover 18t edition 2000 978-0-312-22719-7 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address: PALGRAVE, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE is the new global imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd. (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd.) First published in the United States of America, 2000 2nd impression, 2001

ISBN 978-1-4039-6743-5 ISBN 978-1-137-11786-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-11786-1

Library of Congress Catologing-in-Publication Data Henze, Paul B., 1924- Layers of time: a history of Ethiopia / by Paul B. Henze. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 978-1-4039-6743-5 1. Ethiopia-History. I. Title DT381.H465 2000 963-dc21 99-33311 CIP Transferred to Digital Printing 2012 CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgements page xi Note on Dates and Names xv Glossm), XVI Acronyms xviii

Chapters 1. Layers of Time: The Geological and Human Foundations of Ethiopia: 1 The Rift Valley and the Mediterranean 1 Early man in Ethiopia 4 The beginnings of civilization 10 Trade and travel from the Mediterranean world 15 South Arabia and Ethiopia 19 2. The Aksumite Empire: Ethiopia as a World Power 22 The rediscovery of Aksum 22 From city states to Empire 26 Coinage and Christianity 30 Architecture and artifacts 34 Language, writing, and evangelization 37 The final flowering of Aksum 39 The rise of Islam 42 30 Medieval Ethiopia: Isolation and Expansion 44 The decline of Aksum 44 The 49 The (Falashas) and the Kebra Negast 53 The Solomonic restoration 56 Iyasus Mo'a and Tekle Haymanot 60 From Amde Tseyon to Zara Yakob 63 The Christianization of and 72 Language, art, and culture 76 4. Ordeal, Recovery, Decline: Ethiopia and the World around it on the Threshold of Modern Times 83 The growth of Muslim power in the Horn of Africa 83 Turks and Portuguese 85 Ahmad Gragn's assault on the Christian kingdom 86 v vi Contents

The advance of the Oromo 90 Portuguese success and failure 92 The Gondarine era 100 Europeans and Ethiopia 107 Ref:ions and borderlands 110 5. The Empire from Atrophy to Revival: The Era of the Princes and Tewodros II 119 The era of the Princes 119 Missionaries 125 The rise of Shoa 127 Tewodros II: from victory to disaster 133 6. Yohannes IV and Menelik II: The Empire Restored, Expanded, and Defended 144 Menelik, King of Shoa 144 Menelik and Yohannes IV: competition and accommodation 146 The challenge ofItaly 154 The end of Yohannes IV 159 Emperor Menelik II and the Powers 160 The prelude and the Battle of 167 Menelik's triumphal decade 171 Trade and diplomatic relations with America 176 The significance of Adwa 180 Menelik 's final years 185 7. The Rise of : Time of Troubles, Regent, Emperor, Exile 188 Tafari's early years 189 Time of troubles 191 Ras Tafari and Empress Zewditu 198 Tafari and the outside world 199 Reform and opposition 202 Emperor Haile Selassie I 205 Economic development 209 under Italy 210 Mussolini prepares to absorb Ethiopia 214 The Italian invasion 216 Europe, America, and the Ethiopian crisis 220 Africa Orientale Italiana (AOI) 223 Resistance 227 Contents VII

8. Ethiopia in the Modern World: Haile Selassie from Triumph to Tragedy 229 Liberation 229 Ethiopia, Britain and the United States 235 Imperial consolidation 237 The "disposal" ofEritrea 240 Formalization of the American relationship 245 The Wryane rebellion 248 The Constitution of 1955 252 The Bodyguard Coup of 1960 253 Aftermath of the coup: education 256 Aftermath of the coup: government and foreign affairs 258 The legacy of the coup 259 Insurgency in Bale 260 Intellectual life, literature and art in the 1960s 265 A quarter century of economic development 269 The end of the Eritrean Federation 273 Ethiopia's international position at the beginning of the 1970s 279 9. Revolution, War, and "Socialism": The First Decade of the Derg 282 Prelude to revolution 282 Ferment tums into revolution 284 The Derg and Eritrea 287 The proclamation ofEthiopian "Socialism" 290 Moscow's dilemma 295 The United States and the Derg 297 The Ethio-Somali war and Soviet intervention 300 The struggle in Eritrea 303 Consolidation of the Soviet relationship 304 10. The End of the Derg: The Victory of the Northern Guerrilla Movements 308 The Great Famine and its consequences 308 The revolution unravelling 311 A surprising Israeli initiative 315 Reform and aftermath - too little too late 316 Relations among guerrilla groups - positioning for victory 320 United States involvement becomes decisive 323 viii Contents

The dog days of the Derg 327 The Derg disintegrates and EPRDF forces enter the capital 329 The rebel movements become governments 330 11. Ethiopia Resurgent: on the Threshold of the 21st Century 334 From the TGE to the FDRE and independent Eritrea 334 Looking backward 338 Looking forward 341

Bibliographic Guide to Further Reading 344

Index 361 ILLUSTRATIONS

between pages 46 and 47 The High Semien, the "Roof of Mrica" Rock carvings near Kersa, Arsi Sabaean temple at Yeha, Tigray, 7th century BC Stela Park, Aksum Fallen monolithic Aksum stela Church of Abba Libanos, 6th-century monastery atop Debre Damo, Tigray 16th-century mosque, Massawa New mosque at Negash, Tigray Pages from Tullu Gudo Book of Saints (14th century) Castles at Peasant farmer plowing

between pages 146 and 147 , King of Shoa, receiving gifts from the Harris expedi- tion, Ankober, 1841 Slaves being led to the coast, 19th century Church of St Michael, Ankober Magdala burning, 17th April 1868 Emperor Yohannes IV Emperor Menelik II Empress Taitu Betul Church of Enda Giyorgis, Adwa Ras Tafari and Princess Menen Asfaw at the time of their marriage, 3 August 1911 Emperor Haile Selassie, Bath, 1937 between pages 288 and 289 Haile Selassie with Mao Zedong, Beijing, October 1971 Painting of Mengistu Haile Mariam Revolution Square, Addis Ababa, 1980 Kiros and Ali, Kishe resettlement site, 1987-an example of the Derg's policy of ethnic mixing Derg soldiers expelled from Eritrea, July 1991 Lenin's statue: in place; painting of it being pulled down by the crowd; fallen and dumped at the edge of the city Bullet-ridden portrait of Mengistu, June 1991 Classical Arab street architecture, Massawa Oromo farmer in Arsi with his 12 children, 1989 IX MAPS

Ancient Ethiopia xx Medieval Ethiopia xxi Modern Ethiopia xxii

Provinces, 1946-1980 XXlll Federal Ethiopia (since 1994) xxiv

x PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Since the fall of the Derg in 1991, Ethiopia has once again become open to the world. Officials, businessmen, scholars, students and tourists visit it in increasing numbers. Exhibitions, new archaeo• logical discoveries, reports and articles in journals and even news• papers (many of them available on the Internet) now draw attention to the country's long history, its culture, its art, and the immense variety of peoples and ways of life that exist there. How did it all happen? Time and again I have been asked to recommend a com• prehensive history of the country, one extending from very ancient times to the modern era. I decided three years ago to write one myself. Like many Americans, I became aware of Ethiopia as a boy of eleven when news of Mussolini' s invasion shocked the world. As a young adult I read several of the classic travel accounts - Nesbitt's Desert and Forest, e.g. - well before I had an opportunity to set foot in the country in 1962 when I spent a week there at the end of a long official visit to Africa. I resolved to go back as soon as I had the opportunity. In 1968 I requested assignment to the American Embassy in Addis Ababa and had the good fortune to be selected. These were the last years of the imperial era when the whole coun• try was open. It was easy to make friends with Ethiopians at all levels of society. Compared to the developed world, Ethiopia was still backward, but it was enjoying a level of peace and prosperity it had never attained before in its long history. It was also beginning to outstrip the capacity of the last Lion ofJudah to lead it onward, but when I said good-bye to him in August 1972, I found him alert and abreast of developments in the world. I described impressions of some of the people and places I encountered in travels during those years in Ethiopian Journeys, 1969- 1972, I a book written in 1973 but not published until four years later when the military junta that seized power in 1974 had plunged the country into chaos. In 1977, when I joined Zbigniew Brzezinski as a senior staff officer of the US National Security Council, I found myself in the thick of Ethiopian affairs again and was officially involved in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa for the next four years. When President Carter sent me to Ethiopia in September 1977 to find out whether the country was falling apart, I met Mengistu Haile Mariam in Haile Selassie's palace. He and the country had fallen into a deep crisis. But on the streets and in the countryside I sensed that

1 Ernest Benn, London, 1977. Xl xii Preface and Acknowledgements the country was rallying to defeat the invading Somalis. On return to Washington I advised the President that the United States should not give up on Ethiopia - it would somehow survive its travails. The Soviets, whom Mengistu admired, drove the Somalis back, but in the following years did little else to help. When famine struck in the mid-1980s, Americans and Europeans led the world in coming to the rescue. As Mengistu worked himself ever deeper into diffi• culties, the United States again took the lead in facilitating his de• parture and a peaceful transition to a new government. I made nine visits to Ethiopia during the Derg era, the first two official, the other seven after I left US Government service at the end of 1980. Most of these visits lasted several weeks. I traveled throughout most of the country. First as a Fellow of the Wilson Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution and afterwards as a Resident Consultant at RAND's Washington office I was con• tinually involved in research, writing and lecturing on Ethiopia and neighboring countries. I came to know all the leading exiles who escaped or defected from Mengistu's regime, as well as the major guerrilla leaders who defeated the Derg from the inside. On 28 May 1991, the day the Derg finally collapsed, Meles Zenawi tele• phoned from London and asked me to come to observe the transi• tion. I spent most ofJune and July 1991 in Ethiopia and, as of early 1999, I have made nine visits to the country since totalling almost three-quarters of a year. I was an observer in the 1993 referendum in Eritrea and have visited it on four other occasions. I have trav• eled to all parts of Ethiopia to see the process of recovery under way and have spent many weeks in remote regions in the northern coun• tryside in historical and cultural research. I have published more articles on Ethiopia than I can count during the past quarter century. I have also published three books and several monographs on Ethiopia and the Horn. I have always regarded myself more as a participant in history than as an aca• demic historian. I was persuaded three years ago that I should capi• talize on my firsthand experience, my reading, and all my other contacts and involvements with Ethiopia by writing a comprehen• sive history of the country. This book is the result. I hope it will be read with pleasure and benefit by a wide audi• ence - ranging from travellers to the country, journalists and diplomats in need of background and reference material, to Ethio• pian intellectuals and Ethiopians in all walks oflife, not in the least students who have had precious little to read about their own his• tory during the past two decades. I have tried to reflect as much of the latest and best research as possible. Ethiopia's long history still has many shadowy and blank spots. There is controversy about facts Preface and Acknowledgements xiii and dates, let alone interpretations of events and motives of lead• ers. I have tried to avoid arcane and pedantic detail, but I have had to point out areas and issues of uncertainty. I have not hesitated to offer judgments and opinions. I have tried to enliven all the chap• ters with quotations from participants in the history I recount. I have also included recollections of my own experiences where they make personalities and events alive. I have made a continual effort to put Ethiopia's history into per• spective. Ethiopia has been an important part of my life, but by the time I became involved with it, I had already studied and worked in, and on, several other parts of the world: Germany, Eastern Europe, Russia and her colonies, especially the Caucasus and Cen• tral Asia, and Turkey. I gained my first intense experience of the world as an eighteen-year-old soldier in World War II and crossed into Germany in September 1944. I have had the good fortune to be close to many of the other great events of the twentieth century ever since. Experience and knowledge of old countries undergoing change and development and recovering from the effects of au• thoritarian abuse and totalitarian zeal have deepened my under• standing of Ethiopia. The late Hugh Seton-Watson, who was my good friend, wrote nearly forty years ago: Of all my travels I think the most enlightening were in the Balkans, whose combination of intellectual subtlety and crudity, of tortuous intrigue and honest courage revealed more truths about the political animal man than are to be found in most textbooks of political science. 2 I can say the same about my travels in Ethiopia and my excursions through its history. I have no sympathy with the naive deconstruc• tionists who denigrate Ethiopia's historical experience and claim that the country is an artificial, even mythical construct. Its people have always known that it is one of the oldest political entities in the world. Ethiopia is a country where history is always alive. The land• scape reflects it, as do the faces of the people. Ethiopia's history is worth telling. I have been fortunate in having many Ethiopians and foreign scholars of Ethiopia read the eleven chapters which follow. All have been helpful. Some have provided additional facts and kept me from making errors. Nevertheless I am sure there are imperfections and omissions. Some of my conclusions may be debatable. I am eager to hear them debated and to participate in the process.

2 Neither War nor Peace, Methuen, London, 1960, p. 15. xiv Preface and Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements lowe gratitude to many people who have aided and supported me in producing this book. As important as any are the hundreds - perhaps thousands - of Ethiopians who have offered hospitality, information and insights into their country in my travels through most parts of it over three decades. I am grateful to the US Govern• ment for the opportunities it gave me to live in Ethiopia, revisit the country again and again, and become involved in relations with it at critical periods in its history. Over the years a succession of Ameri• can ambassadors and their staffs, both Americans and Ethiopians, have provided me with hospitality on the beautiful embassy "cam• pus" in Addis Ababa. I am thankful to them. It is obvious that a book as comprehensive as this rests on the work of generations of travellers, archaeologists, scholars, diplomats and others who have explored Ethiopia, lived and worked there, and studied the country and its peoples. I have drawn on much of this literature and provided references for those who wish to read more deeply. In the course of writing these chapters I have enjoyed the good will and direct support of several dozen Ethiopian and ferenji scholars. I will list only those who provided specific informa• tion or suggestions, reviewed drafts, or served directly as sources of fact and interpretation: Asfa Wossen Asserate, Bahru Zewde, Kathryn Bard, Stanislaw Chojnacki, Christopher Clapham, Haggai Erlich, Thomas Kane, Richard Pankhurst, Shifferaw Bekele, Taddesse Tamrat, Teshome Gebre Mariam and Wudu Tafete. Judgments and conclusions, of course, are mine, not theirs. They share no respon• sibility for errors and omissions I may have made. No one has been more supportive and helpful than my wife Martha whose knowledge and understanding of Ethiopia extends my own. Over thirty years she has been a lively and perceptive com• panion on my travels. She has been invaluable as a reviewer and critic of everything I have written. Finally I would like to express my deep appreciation to Michael Dwyer who persuaded me to write this book. He and Christopher Hurst have led me through the process of editing and publication with keen interest and professional skill.

Washington, DC PAUL B. HENZE August 1999 NOTE ON DATES AND NAMES

There is no universally recognized system for transliterating Ethio• pian languages into the Latin alphabet. To avoid adding to the con• fusion I have refrained from inventing my own or from using diacritical marks for words and phrases in or other Ethio• pian languages. In reproducing names of places and people I have used forms which are simple and familiar in current international usage and which approximate local pronunciation. In citations the spelling or transliteration of the original source is used; therefore the reader will notice inconsistencies from time to time. The glos• sary includes terms in Amharic or other languages used in the text. The Ethiopian calendar runs from September to September and is thus seven or eight years behind the Gregorian calendar. Ethio• pian months do not match ours, but overlap. All years and specific dates have been transposed into the Gregorian calendar. In the rare instance where an Ethiopian date is cited, it is preceded by "EC". Ethiopians do not use surnames. The same system is used by both Christians and Muslims. An individual's name consists of his proper name followed by his father's name. Individuals are, there• fore, normally referred to by their proper (i.e. first) name. Both the proper name and the father's name may have two components; thus a name may consist of three or four words. In addition secular or religious titles may be added to one or both names. I have tried to include all titles used in the text in the glossary. Many Ethiopian names are, in effect, phrases. I have translated many in brackets. Wives do not take their husbands' names. Three courtesy titles are used in Ethiopia: Ato (Mr), Woizero (Mrs), and Woizerit (Miss).

xv GLOSSARY

ABBREv1ATJONS Amh. = Amharic; bot. = botanical; Gz. = Ge'ez; reI. = religious abba father (reI.) Abbay Abun(a) bishop, patriarch amba flat-topped mountain, mesa amoZe salt bar arbanya partisan, Patriot atse emperor, king (title) bahr, bahir sea, lake bet house birr silver, basic unit of currency bisi "man of" (Gz.) Bitwoded "Beloved", privy counsellor (title) buna coffee chat Catha edulis, shrub whose leaves are chewed as a narcotic (bot.) Dejazmach "Guardian of the Gate", count, general (title) Derg committee, common term for the communist regime, 1974-9l. echege archbishop, traditional head of the Monastery of Debre Libanos Enderassie Viceroy (title) enset(e) Ensete edulis, false banana (bot.) eqabet treasury gadla chronicle genet paradise Germawi Imperial, exalted (title) gesho Rhamnus prinoides, leaf used as a fermenting agent (bot.) gra, gragn left habesh Abyssinian hizb people Itege Empress (title) Ityopya Tikdem "Ethiopia First", Derg slogan ketema fortified camp, town

XVI Glossary xvii kosso tree whose blossoms are used as a vermifuge Leul Prince (title) Liquamaquas personal aide, alter ego (title) lisan language, tongue Meridazmach "Reserve Commander", "Chief of Staff" (title) merikani white cotton cloth neftanya rifleman, settler negarit ceremonial drum negash ruler king Negusa negast King of Kings, Emperor (title) nug Guizotia abyssinica, Niger flower, safflower (bot.) Orit Old Testament (rel.) quanqua language Ras Duke, literally head (title) samena worq wax and gold Shaleqa Major (title) shengo assembly, parliament shifta outlaw, bandit shumshir shifting of officials, shuffle tabot sacred tablet of a church, ark talla home-brewed beer tarik history tezkar commemorative feast forty days after a death timqat baptism tsadkan "Righteous Ones" (Gz.) worq gold zemecha campaign ACRONYMS

AAU Addis Ababa University AOI Africa Orientale Italiana BIEA British Institute in Eastern Africa (Nairobi) CELU Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions COPWE Committee to Organize the Workers' Party of Ethiopia DUPE Democratic Unity Party of Ethiopia EDU Ethiopian Democratic Union ELF Eritrean Liberation Front ELM Eritrean Liberation Movement EOC Ethiopian Orthodox Church EPDM Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement EPLF Eritrean Popular Liberation Front EPRDF Ethiopian Popular Revolutionary Democratic Front EPRP Ethiopian Popular Revolutionary Party ESUNA Ethiopian Students' Association of North America FDRE Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia HSI Haile Selassie I HSIU Haile Selassie I University (AAU after 1975) IEG Imperial Ethiopian Government IES Institute of Ethiopian Studies IMF International Monetary Fund JIES Journal of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies MElSON All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (Amh.) OLF Oromo Liberation Front OPDO Oromo People's Democratic Organization PDFJ Popular Front for Democracy and Justice (Eritrea) PDRE People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (third phase of the Derg) PGE Provisional Government of Eritrea PMAC Provisional Military Administrative Committee (first phase of the Derg) PMGSE Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia (second phase of the Derg) TPLF Tigray Popular Liberation Front TGE Transitional Government of Ethiopia "VPE Workers' Party of Ethiopia (Amh. ESP)

xviii MAPS N SOUTH ARABIA

Takondoo°Cohalto (Coloa) °Matara Vaha 'babra Damo Gobedra"o 0 Aksum HEJAZ ~a9ash Semien o 50 Mountains "kin' .... \\ . PUN T: ~~;.::~~ ::. Kassalao

I Aksumo I \' .. :. ;~ °Negash : .; .. :- :=-\ .. .. ,T :.... :...... ;...... I SemIS!, --;. 1(Si8l :.. ~;> ...... : I~,g~n.!,!!,!s~: ______!~

~t\ ····Lak' CD ~;;. '. Tans ...... ,./ ..

..... :., ...... : .::; (SASU ?) {ake Beseka Melka Kontoure~ ...... :" MtZuquallai,.·· .. ··.·· : • 0 flLake Zway .... .' ...... fnya~ ......

q~~' .if} \0" · :·.. ?f

o 250 "------' \"l,.':;!l,~ km

Ancient Ethiopia

xx N

.. '\• .;, Kassala :'" 0 ,"

......

• Gunda Gunde ...... Aksumo • Abba Gerima II~~~V • .. ... Abuna Yemata ... ; WAG

;...... SEMVEN ;'Sekota, 0 .Wokro± Meska Ienos Ch.st ...... '.u.no. BEGEMDS!)ER;.•..• '. •. L~!:belao •.G .~.~~Ia Maryam ...... • " Lake Tana. Yedibba Maryam .... / VEJJU ...... ,...... ,.... ;;Lake Haiq ...//.....

MerTule Maryam •.:... Gishen. Maryam GOJJAM ± ,:. MANZ . ..DebreWorq ../ • VI FAT AGAWMEDE~, ~i~~) ADAL ~;~-;·Nil. DAMor ..... Debre Libanos o Dakar?

SHOAEtissa. (:--"

WAJ? ···,GURAGE ...... ···/·······DAWARO? \

HADlVA ...... "

.... : <...... '::: BALI ? ...... •...... 0",0.// ;...... \ ~oo:. \, km

Medieval Ethiopia

XXI N

...... ~... ·c...... IS) :. -Z>'" ~\

Lake Turlcana (Rudo/Q

Modern Ethiopia

xxii N SAUDI ARABIA

/

SUDAN

1000 o, , km

Provinces, 1946-1980

xxiii N SAUDI ARABIA , ••-....J ..J \"'-, ( . .• IERITREA oSana'a ',"Independent since 1 993" ~ .. J'''.,..,..., .. r---. •• YEMEN . \ '\ SUDAN ,1,,,,-..I'-,TIGRAY \. ", i;J , ) Ass ,...), '\ '\ 'rJ f"jLake Tana -\. t' AFAR " J,:1f -'-->..- /DJI " ") Bahr Dar I ~ '//"\>:",::,:,.:' I ~ AMHARALAND / _~ BENI- SHAI'!.GUL.:.., \ ( •• """";. . J '-.'"""- r' "l. " ,,-.... -.. ~ I '1 -I...,--",...... \J. J) )-J DI~ioAWA.. \ 0H . , c,... ( 0 ~ 8rgeISa l(O~OMIA ADDlsABAe'bLC,-L/ HARAR, "~OMALILAND .-J " f',\. *_""... " \-.....,' ; I J ... ~ /GAM BELA'r v') ) ( I ...... "" "I.. ' , • "",,-_.,-f -'--.,..1 j \ ./' l ~~ • _ 1... '\ __ ...l • SOUTHERN r / \ PEOPLES' '""'-.:, ' SOMALI, '. STATE ~) • \...-~ ,--...... ,J (' ,,/ SUDAN \ ~ f .. _ .. .J •• ------' " •• ,-•• -J~.,..r·-L7/"--~EPUBLIC of 10~O '---k:-m--' KENYA (" SOMALIA

Addis Ababa and Harar are city states; Diredawa is a separate administrative region.

Federal Ethiopia (since 1994)

XXIV