Overthrow of Haile Selassie 1974: The Derg Seizes Ethiopia

The overthrow of Haile Selassie on 12 September 1974 ended the reign of Ethiopia’s last emperor and one of the world’s oldest monarchies. A committee of soldiers known as the Derg, which had gradually taken control during months of strikes, mutinies and protests, deposed the 82-year-old ruler. The revolution that followed turned Ethiopia into a Marxist military state and led to years of civil war and mass killing.

Background

Haile Selassie, born Tafari Makonnen, became regent in 1916 and was crowned emperor in 1930. He led Ethiopia’s resistance after the Italian invasion of 1935, returned from exile in 1941 and became a respected figure in world affairs and a founder of the Organisation of African Unity, headquartered in Addis Ababa from 1963.

At home, however, power remained concentrated in the court, the nobility and the Orthodox Church. A revised constitution in 1955 created an elected lower house of parliament, but it had little real power, political parties were not allowed, and the emperor kept the final word on appointments, laws and the army. Most peasants were tenants who paid a large share of their harvest to landlords. In December 1960 members of the Imperial Bodyguard attempted a coup while the emperor was abroad; it was crushed, but it showed that discontent had reached the elite. The annexation of Eritrea in 1962 sparked a long war, and students in Addis Ababa campaigned under the slogan “land to the tiller”.

Famine and the crisis of 1974

From 1972 drought and famine struck the province of Wollo and parts of Tigray. Estimates of the deaths vary widely, from about 40,000 to 200,000. The government played the disaster down. In October 1973 the British journalist Jonathan Dimbleby’s television documentary “The Unknown Famine” brought it to world attention.

At the same time, the rise in oil prices that followed the Yom Kippur War pushed up fuel and food costs. In January 1974 soldiers at Negele in the south mutinied over poor food and water. In February teachers, students and taxi drivers went on strike, and further army units rebelled. On 27 February Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold resigned and was replaced by Endalkachew Makonnen, who promised reforms.

The creeping coup

In June 1974 a group of officers and soldiers formed the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police and Territorial Army, which became known as the Derg. It had around 100 members, mostly junior officers and non-commissioned officers, elected by their units. Its slogan was “Ethiopia Tikdem”, meaning “Ethiopia first”.

The Derg moved step by step. It arrested ministers and nobles, replaced Endalkachew in July, dissolved the emperor’s private council and took over his properties. The press was encouraged to accuse the court of corruption and indifference to the famine. Because the Derg presented itself as a reforming movement that wanted change without bloodshed, many Ethiopians at first welcomed its actions.

On the evening of 11 September 1974, Ethiopian television broadcast a version of Dimbleby’s famine film, reportedly intercut with scenes of palace luxury. The next morning, 12 September, Derg officers read a proclamation deposing the emperor. Haile Selassie was driven away from the palace in a small Volkswagen car and held under arrest.

From revolution to Red Terror

The Derg set up the Provisional Military Administrative Council, at first under General Aman Andom, a popular officer. On 23 November 1974 Aman was killed while resisting arrest, and on the same night some 60 former officials, including two former prime ministers, were executed without trial. The event became known as “Bloody Saturday”.

The Derg declared Ethiopia a socialist state in December 1974, nationalised banks and industries, and in March 1975 nationalised all rural land and formally abolished the monarchy. Haile Selassie died in custody on 27 August 1975.

Major Mengistu Haile Mariam emerged as the dominant figure and took full control in February 1977 after a shoot-out in which the head of state, Tafari Benti, was killed. Mengistu launched the Red Terror against the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party and other opponents in 1977–78. Tens of thousands of people were killed, and bodies were often left in the streets. Many witnesses reported that families had to pay for the bullets used in an execution before they could recover a relative’s body. With Soviet and Cuban help, the regime also repelled a Somali invasion of the Ogaden in 1977–78.

Key people

Haile Selassie (1892–1975) ruled Ethiopia as regent and emperor for almost 60 years. He is revered in the Rastafari movement, which regards him as divine.

Mengistu Haile Mariam (born 1937) led the Derg and later the Workers’ Party of Ethiopia. He fled to Zimbabwe in 1991 and was convicted in absentia of genocide by an Ethiopian court in 2006.

Aman Andom (1924–1974), a general of Eritrean origin, was the Derg’s first chairman and was killed when he opposed harsher measures.

Tafari Benti (1921–1977) succeeded Aman as nominal head of state and was killed in the power struggle of February 1977.

Consequences

The Derg ruled until May 1991. Its years saw forced resettlement and villagisation programmes, wars against Eritrean and Tigrayan insurgents and the Ethiopian famine of 1983–85, which killed hundreds of thousands. In 1991 rebel forces led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front took Addis Ababa, Mengistu fled, and Eritrea became independent in 1993.

Abroad, the revolution moved Ethiopia from the American to the Soviet camp. The United States, long the emperor’s main ally, reduced and then ended military aid, while the Soviet Union and Cuba sent advisers, weapons and, during the Ogaden war, thousands of Cuban troops.

In 1992 the emperor’s remains were found under a building in the palace grounds. He was given a funeral and reburied in Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa in November 2000.

Myths and facts

Myth: the emperor was overthrown in a single sudden coup. The revolution unfolded over about seven months, as the Derg removed pillars of the old order one by one before deposing the emperor.

Myth: Ryszard Kapuściński’s book “The Emperor” is a factual record of the court. The Polish journalist’s famous 1978 book is literary reportage based on interviews, and historians and Ethiopian critics have pointed out exaggerations and errors. It is better read as a portrait of absolute power than as a history.

Myth: the famine film was broadcast in its original form. The version shown on Ethiopian television on 11 September was an edited one designed to discredit the emperor; the exact edits are described differently by witnesses.

Timeline

• 1930, 2 November: Haile Selassie is crowned emperor.
• 1960, December: An attempted coup by the Imperial Bodyguard fails.
• 1974, January–February: Army mutinies and strikes; the prime minister resigns.
• 1974, June: The Derg is formed.
• 1974, 12 September: Haile Selassie is deposed.
• 1974, 23 November: Aman Andom and about 60 former officials are killed.
• 1975, March: Rural land is nationalised and the monarchy is abolished.
• 1975, 27 August: Haile Selassie dies in custody.
• 1977, February: Mengistu takes full control; the Red Terror follows.

Why it matters

The fall of Haile Selassie ended a monarchy that claimed roots stretching back centuries and replaced it with one of Africa’s harshest Cold War regimes. Ethiopia’s revolution shows how famine, economic shock and a self-confident army could bring down an old order, and how quickly revolutionary promises gave way to terror.