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Peasant Resistance in Ethiopia: the Case of Weyane*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Gebru Tareke
Gebru Tareke
Affiliation:
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, N.Y.
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Extract

Weyane was a spontaneous, localized peasant uprising with limited objectives. It occurred in 1943 because several disaffected social groups in the eastern part of Tigrai believed that they could defeat or at least extract substantial concessions from a weak transitional government. The multiplicity of objectives roughly correspond to the divergent interests of the participants: the sectarian nobility wanted a greater share in the regional reallocation of power, the semi-pastoral communities of the lowlands were interested in pre-empting feudal incorporation, and the highland cultivators wanted to terminate the excessive demands of officialdom and militia. The convergence of these forces made Weyane possible; the disorganization of the ruling strata and the subsequent defection of a segment of the territorial nobility enormously enhanced the peasants' capacity for collective action. But this very heterogeneity comprised the peasants' objectives. The revolt lacked a coherent set of goals, nor did it have a specific program for social action. The rebels attacked neither the legitimacy of the monarchy nor the ideological basis of the Ethiopian aristocracy. In the end, Weyane buttressed the feudal order, and was probably instrumental in strengthening Ethiopia's neo-colonial link with the West. In the aftermath of rebellion, the Tigrai nobility did get its rights and prerogatives recognized, to the same extent that the nobility in the other northern provinces did. The government undercut the nobility's political autonomy, but paid the price of reinforcing their social position. On the other hand, in reaction to Weyane, the state destroyed the social basis of clan authority and autonomy, and reduced the Raya and Azebo to landless peasants. Weyane marked the end of conflict between centrifugal and centralizing forces, but did not eliminate the social roots of popular protest.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 77 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 See, for instance, Markakis, John and Ayele, Nega, Class and Revolution in Ethiopia (Nottingham, 1978), 27, 39.Google Scholar

2 Since space does not allow us to give a full account of the genesis and course of the rebellion, only a skeletal outline of the main events in the conflict is provided below.

3 Thirty-four British officers were involved in the operation. Cottam, Brigadier A. E., ‘Interim report – Tigre operations’, 18 October 1943, FO 371/35608. (Public Record Office, London.)Google Scholar

4 Haile Mariam Redda, interviewed in Addis Abeba, 23–25 April 1974. There is no basis on which we can accurately account the actual number involved on both sides. While government sources are incomplete, informants could speak vaguely in suspiciously exaggerated terms like ‘large’ and ‘huge’.

5 W. E. M. Logan, ‘Summary of air operations in Tigrai,’ October 1943, FO 371/35608.

6 Lt.-Col, G. Peirson, ‘Account of the operation’, FO 371/35608; Haile Mariam Redda, 24 April 1974.

7 ‘List of prisoners’ (n.d.), Ministry of Interior Archives – Tigrai (henceforth MI A-T), 11736; Shum Tsiraa Sebhatu Wolde Gabriel, interviewed in Mekele, 13 April 1975; Wolde Aregai Gebru to Tsehafe Tizaz Wolde Giorgis, Mekele, 16 January 1945 (8 Tir 1937), MIA-T 21/3. Dates in parenthesis are of the Ethiopian calendar, which is different from the Gregorian calendar. In the Ethiopian calendar the year begins on 11 September and lags either seven or eight years behind. Between 11 September and 31 December the lag is seven years, and from 1 January to 10 September, eight years.

8 Suspected of complicity in the revolt, Mengesha was tried and sentenced to death, but later pardoned by the Emperor. In 1961, following the death of his father in an abortive coup, he was appointed governor of Tigrai, where he remained until the demise of Haile Selassie's regime in 1974.

9 Haile Mariam was detained first in Illubabor and then in Gemu Gofa until 1967. In 1975 the post-revolutionary regime appointed him head of the militia in Tigrai, ironically to suppress what has come to be known as the ‘Second Weyane’, the current insurgency in the province.

10 Cottam, ‘Interim Report’, FO 371/35608. According to the same source British personnel suffered one killed and two wounded.

11 Major-General Issayas Gabre Selassie, unpublished manuscript in the possession of his cousin, who preferred to remain anonymous, and consulted in Addis Abeba, January 1974.

12 Peirson, ‘Account’, FO 371/35608; Cottam, ‘Interim Report’, FO 371/35608.

13 Yemane Hassan to Minister of Interior, Maichew, 6 January 1945 (28 Tahisas 1937), MIA-T 11/36; Yemane Hassan to Ras Abebe Aregai, Maichew, 1 January 1945 (23 Tahisas 1937), MIA-T 11/36; Major Hodgson to Provincial Advisor to Minister of Interior, Addis Abeba, 25 February 1944, MIA-T 11/36.

14 The rist tenurial system guaranteed peasants belonging to the same fictive descent group direct access to land and a considerable degree of control over the land they cultivated. Rist was hereditary and inheritance bilateral, children of both sexes claiming roughly equal portions. The classic study of this intricate system is Hoben's, AllanLand Tenure among the Amhara of Ethiopia (Chicago, 1973).Google Scholar

15 The period between the 1890s and 1920s was one of great hardship for the peasantry, for they were frequently hit by droughts, locusts, outbreaks of epidemics, and civil wars. See Baikedagn, Gabre Hiwet, ‘Ate Minilik ena Itiopia’, Berhan Yihun (Asmara, 1912), 341–342;Google ScholarPankhurst, R., ‘Some factors depressing the standards of living of peasants in traditional Ethiopia’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, iv, 2 (July 1966), 45–68, 76–79;Google ScholarWylde, Augustus B., Modern Abyssinia (London, 1901; Westport, Conn., 1970), 774–775;Google ScholarBent, J. Theodore, The Sacred City of the Ethiopians (London, 1896), 11–12, 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Ingda, Gabre Wold Work, ‘Ethiopia's traditional system of land tenure and taxation’, translated from Amharic by Mengesha, Gessesse, Ethiopia Observer, V, 4 (1962), 325.Google Scholar

17 Gult was a socially appropriated right to land, the cultivators who worked on it and their produce, and was normally granted by the king or his representatives to servants of the state in lieu of salary. A grant entitled holders to the following: (a) exemption from tribute or tax on their rist lands, or payment at reduced rates, and (b) the right to exact tribute due to the state and retain part or all of it. Hoben, , Land Tenure, 5–6, 73–79.Google Scholar

18 Wold, Gabre, ‘Ethiopia's traditional system’, 326.Google Scholar

19 I am grateful to Alem Seged Hailu of Syracuse University who brought this to my attention.

20 Fitawrari Belai Woldiye, interviewed in Addigrat, 22 April 1975; Fitawrari Tessema Tesfai, interviewed in Addigrat, 23 April 1975; Haile Mariam Redda, 23 October 1974. See also Peirson, ‘Account’, FO 371/35608.

21 Peirson, ‘Account’, FO 371/35608.

22 Ibid.

23 Their pay was approximately eight Maria Theresa dollars per month; they had no rations and practically no facilities to buy them in the field. Kifle Dadi to Minister of Interior, Mekele, 27 May 1943 (19 Ginbot 1935), MIA-T 11/36; Balambaras Tekka Wolde Rufael, interviewed in Mekele, 15 April 1975; Belai Woldiye, 23 April 1975.

24 Peirson, ‘Account’, FO 371/35608, and also Cottam, ‘Interim Report’, FO 371/35608.

25 In 1935–6 the Raya and Azebo allied with the Italians against the Ethiopian state, and as the Commander of the Fascist forces acknowledged, ‘They rendered signal services to our cause throughout the campaign…’, Badoglio, Pietro, The War in Abyssinia (New York, 1939), 45–46;Google Scholar see also Tessema, Kebede, Yetarik Mastawesha (Addis Abeba, 1970), 144, 157.Google Scholar

26 Trimingham, J. S., Islam in Ethiopia (London, 1965), 192, 194–195;Google ScholarRossini, Conti, ‘Voggerat, Ria Galla e Zobul’, Africa, LVI (1938), 88–99.Google Scholar

27 The main motive for the inter-communal raids was economic as much as it was ritual. They were waged primarily for the spoils of war, especially cattle and camels, but also were important social events in which the young demonstrated their qualities as warriors and potential ceremonial leaders, thus enhancing their prospects ‘for marriage and political office’. This was in essence an initiation rite institutionalized to legitimate and safeguard the authority of elders. J. Millard, ‘Report on the Azebo and Raya Gallas (1942)’, FO 371/35608; Haile Negussie, interviewed at Debub, 19 April 1975; Abba Habte Mariam Tedla, interviewed in Mekele, 6 April 1975.

28 Selassie, Zewede Gabre, Yohannes IV of Ethiopia: A Political Biography (Oxford, 1975), 48;Google Scholar Emperor Minilik to Dejazmatch Gabre Selassie, Addis Abeba, 18 July 1906 (10 Hamle 1898), MIA-T 6320/37.

29 In 1942 the Ethiopian government carried out a punitive operation against the Raya and Azebo purportedly for their refusal to refrain from raiding their neighours and for interfering with activities along the Asmara-Addis Abeba road. Millard, ‘Report’, FO 371/35608; Negga Haile Selassie, ‘Report on the Campaign’, Addis Abeba, nd, FO 371/35608; R. G. Howe to A. Eden, Addis Abeba, 1 October 1943, FO 371/35627.

30 Amin, Samir, Unequal Development: An Essay on the Social Formations of Peripheral Capitalism (New York, 1976), 15.Google Scholar

31 Upon his return in 1941 the Emperor detained Ras Seyoum Mengesha in Addis Abeba while the British exiled Dejazmatch Haile Selassie Gugsa from Asmera to the Seychelles. In 1946 the latter was extradited to Ethiopia only to be condemned to solitary confinement for twenty-three years. Steer, George L., Caesar in Ethiopia (Boston, 1937), 145;Google ScholarAddis Zemen, 11 January 1975 (3 Tir 1967).

32 R. G. Howe to A. Eden, Addis Abeba, 30 November 1943, FO 371/35608; also anonymous to R. H. D. Sanford, Addis Abeba, 1943, enclosure, FO 371/35608.

33 Fitawrari Aleme Teferru, interviewed in Mekele, 10 April 1975; Aleqa Fisseha Tekle, interviewed in Wukro, 20 April 1975; Wolde-Leul Seyoum, interviewed in Addis Abeba, 25 October 1974.

34 R. G. Howe to G. Mackereth, Addis Abeba, 15 October 1943, FO 371/35608. But that was only one side of the story. The other part was the Emperor's fears of British intentions in the north. Since the British had appointed Seyoum Mengesha over Tigrai and Eritrea without consulting him, the Emperor was suspicious of their motives and feared a possible secession of the north from the rest of the country. See G. Mackereth, ‘Memo’, 25 September 1943, FO 371/35608.

35 Sebhatu Wolde Gabriel, 13 April 1975; Wolde-Leul Seyoum, 25 October 1974; Aleme Teferru, 10 April 1975.

36 Bayiu Wolde Giorgis to Leul-Ras Seyoum, Addis Abeba, 7 December 1943 (29 Hidar 1935), MIA-T 11/36; Gabre Hiwet Meshesha to Bitweded Mekonen, 11 November 1943 (3 Hidar 1935), MIA-T 11/36.

37 Aleme Teferru, 10 April 1975; Fisseha Tekle, 20 April 1975; Wolde-Leul Seyoum, 25 October 1974.

38 Tessema Tesfai, 23 April 1975; Wolde-Leul Seyoum, 25 October 1974; Fisseha Tekle, 20 April 1975.

39 Aleme Teferru, 10 April 1975; Fisseha Tekle, 20 April 1975; Girmai Mengesha, interviewed in Mekle, 7 April 1975.

40 Sissay Shumiye to Minister of Interior, Mekele, 29 October 1945 (21 Tikimt 1937), MIA-T 11/36; Anonymous to Minister of Pen, Mekele, 21 October 1945 (13 Tikimt 1937). MIA-T 11/36; Security Department of Ministry of Defense, ‘Report’, Addis Abeba, 1942 (1934), MIA-T 11/36; British Legation to Foreign Office, Addis Abeba, 4 December 1944, FO 371/41466.

41 The group reportedly fabricated a story about a diamond that dropped from heaven at the Church of Mary in Aksum for the youngest son of Ras Gugsa, Kifle-Tsion, as evidence of his divine selection for the kingship. Anonymous, ‘Memo’, 19 December 1945 (11 Tahisas 1937), MIA-T 21/3; Fisseha Tekle, 20 April 1975.

42 Levine, Donald N., Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture (Chicago, 1965), 243–244.Google Scholar

43 Getahun Tessema to Director of Public Security, Addis Abeba, 16 January 1943 (8 Tir 1935), MIA-T 11/36; Kifle Dadi to various bandit leaders, Mekele, 21 December 1943 (13 Tahisas 1935), MIA-T 11/36; Kifle Dadi to Minister of Interior, Mekele, 24 April 1943 (16 Ginbot 1936), MIA-T 11/36.

44 Prominent among them were Haile Mariam Redda, Belai Woldiye, Yikuno Amlak Tesfai, Fassil Teferri, Hadera Tedla, Belai Gugsa and Assefa Derso. Getahun Tessema to Director of Public Security, 16 January 1943, MIA-T 11/36; Haile Mariam Redda, 23 October 1974; Belai Woldiye, 24 April 1975.

45 Belai Woldiye, 22 April 1975; Haile Mariam Redda, 23 October 1974.

46 Belai Woldiye, 22 April 1975; Kegnazmatch Gessesse Woldiye, interviewed in Addigrat, 21 April 1975.

47 R. G. Howe to A. Eden, Addis Abeba, 30 November 1943, FO 371/35608; Gessesse Woldiye, 21 April 1975. Haile Mariam claimed that he travelled to Addis Abeba not to seek appointment but to gather military intelligence. Not only Is this claim contradicted by his uncles, Belai and Gessesse Woldiye, but it also seems highly improbable.

48 Belai Woldiye, 22 April 1975; Haile Negussie, 19 April 1975.

49 Tsegai Gebru, interviewed in Mekele, 7 April 1975; Belai Woldiye, 22 April 1975; Haile Mariam Redda, 23 October 1974.

50 Anonymous to Minister of Interior, ‘The people of Mekele District and their plight’, Mekele, 29 June 1943 (21 Sene 1935), MIA-T 11/36; Zewengel Gabre Kidan, interviewed in Addis Abeba, 6 June 1975; Tekka Wolde Rufael, 15 April 1975; Luel Ras Mengesha Seyoum, interviewed in Arlington, Virginia, 7 December 1980. According to Mengesha the misuse of the traditional afersata (public gathering) was a source of peasant discontent. It was customary to coerce peasants either to deliver up criminals or bear a collective penalty arbitrarily imposed at an afersata by an official or officials.

51 Haile Mariam Redda, 23 October 1974; Tessema Tesfai, 23 April 1975; see also Kifle Dadi to Minister of Interior, 27 May 1943 (19 Ginbot 1935), MIA-T 11/36.

52 Mousnier, Roland, Peasant Uprisings in Seventeenth-Century France, Russia and China, trans. Brian, Pearce (New York, 1970), 348.Google Scholar

53 ‘Provincialism’ is generally understood to mean ‘a host of parochial identities, sectional loyalties, and local vested interests…’. Markakis, John, Ethiopia: Anatomy of a Traditional Polity (Oxford, 1974), 45.Google Scholar

54 Gilkes, Patrick, The Dying Lion: Feudalism and Modernization in Ethiopia (New York, 1975), 188.Google Scholar

55 Mousnier, , Peasant Uprisings, 343–344.Google Scholar

56 Gilkes, , The Dying Lion, 191.Google Scholar

57 Markakis, and Ayele, , Class and Revolution, 33–34.Google Scholar

58 See Firebrace, James and Smith, Gayle, The Hidden Revolution (London, 1982).Google Scholar