2014 marks the fortieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Ethiopian revolution and the seizure of power of the Derg (Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army), a process that deeply transformed social, political and economic relations in the country. The IISH - which has its regional office for Sub-Saharan Africa located in Addis Ababa - has for some time hosted a number of documents relating to the revolutionary and post-revolutionary period.
Over the last year, however, a more sizeable collection on the period has been acquired.
This period in Ethiopian history saw the emergence of a flurry of organisations and publications that espoused Marxism. Secondly, the Marxist classics were translated in large numbers and made available widely within the time span of months following the beginning of the revolution. A third source of material relating to this period is a more recent flurry of biographical texts by participants at the time.
The IISH has put together a collection of these materials, comprising, among other things:
- about 400 leftist Ethiopian journals
- 267 Issues of the weekly newspaper of the Ethiopian Workers' Party
- about 40 books and booklets on Marxism published in Ethiopia
- about 20 translations of Marxist literature, including the classics
- about 30 biographies by participants in the Ethiopian revolution and historical accounts of related events.
For those interested in getting acquainted with the materials of the Ethiopian revolution, or read the Marxist classics in Amharic: they are available in IISH's Reading Room.
Text: Andreas Admasie
