Rethinking the Ethiopian Red Terror: Approaches to Political Violence in Revolutionary Ethiopia

Wiebel, J.; Admasie, S.A.

Abstract

This article examines the role of trade unions and of the Kebele - the most local urban administrative structures of the Ethiopian state - in the making of the red terror, a period of unprecedented political violence that closely followed upon the Ethiopian revolution of 1974. Drawing on a broad range of new source materials - from labour union files to oral histories and East German State Security archives - the article shows how the red terror was in large part the product of synergies between diverse groups and actors within these structures, and how it was rooted in histories, motives and collaborations that have scarcely featured in the historiography of revolutionary Ethiopia. In turn, the red terror radically reshaped both trade unions and Kebele administrations, affording Ethiopian state actors unprecedented means of control over civil society and over urban residents.

Citation

Wiebel, J., & Admasie, S. (2019). Rethinking the Ethiopian Red Terror: Approaches to Political Violence in Revolutionary Ethiopia. Journal of African History, 60(3), 457-475. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853719000768

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 30, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Nov 29, 2019
• Publication Date: Oct 30, 2019
• Deposit Date: Sep 10, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 20, 2019
• Journal: Journal of African History
• Print ISSN: 0021-8537
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-5138
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 457-475
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853719000768
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1292850