The Ethiopian Revolution

The Ethiopian revolution has been the most momentous upheaval yet seen in twentieth-century Africa. Overthrowing the dynasty of Haile Selassie, which traced its origins to Solomon and Sheba, the revolution has unleashed a far-reaching transformation within Ethiopia and an international conflict that has made Ethiopia one of the flashpoints of the New Cold War. Fred Halliday and Maxine Molyneux have twice visited Ethiopia and have interviewed, there and abroad, the widest range of participants — government officials and underground civilian opponents, Eritrean and Somali guerrillas, diplomats of east and west, representatives of Arab and African states. After an introductory chapter in which they analyse the theoretical problems posed by the Ethiopian revolution, they survey both the development of a post-revolutionary regime within the country and the many conflicts that have rent the Horn of Africa in its wake. They pay special attention to the social changes introduced by the military government, the clashes between civilian and army factions, and the underlying causes of the war in Eritrea. Critical of both the regime and its opponents, Halliday and Molyneux provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date study of this epochal chapter in modern African history, one which, they argue, may prefigure the pattern of social and political conflict elsewhere in the third world over coming decades.