Republicans on the Throne is a memoir spanning the author Tekalign Gedamu’s early life during the waning days of the old feudal order, his six-decade career in the United Nations, the African Development Bank, and the government of Ethiopia. The book describes the author’s university education and early career as an international civil servant. It focuses on Ethiopia’s modernization and her painful quest for democracy. For a brief spell, the author was privileged to be an eyewitness and a modest participant to that process.
Republicans on the Throne offers a glimpse into the problems of a new educational system. The expansion of education left in its wake a demand for more fundamental reforms which Emperor Haile Selassie’s government was increasingly unable to meet. The result was a coup d’état in 1960 that failed, and another in 1974 that succeeded and triggered a ‘Marxist’ revolution that promised a new era of equality, democracy, and revitalized nationalism. The book examines closely the fundamental forces behind the revolution along with its failed attempts to improve the country’s fortunes on both the economic and political fronts.
Seventeen years later, left wing insurgents in the North who had been active throughout the revolution, overthrew the government, allowing the country’s northernmost province to secede and install a regime guided by yet another brand of Marxism (the Albanian variety) at a time when the ideology was entering a period of historic decline.
The book provides an assessment of the policies and practices of the new rulers, how the country is faring under their leadership, and concludes that major challenges remain in the struggle for democracy, fundamental freedoms, national cohesion, and the fight against poverty.
The legacy of the country’s past, the continuing struggle for democracy, and the likely direction of the country’s future are the central concerns of the last part of the book. While there is little doubt that the curtain has fallen on Ethiopia’s monarchy, this has not prevented a new breed of tyrants from taking power. Ethiopia’s heritage of autocracy therefore survives, but in a far less paternalistic and more sinister form than before. This leads many to be apprehensive about the prospects for democracy and other key challenges. But the author remains hopeful and offers his perspective in the concluding chapters of the book.
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: THE TWILIGHT YEARS OF MONARCHY
Chapter 1: A Glimpse of Feudal Life
Growing Up with Grandparents
Getting Started in School
My Father’s Side of the Family
Chapter 2: Being Groomed for a Post Feudal World
Guinea Pigs for a New Secondary School
Undergraduate Days
Graduate Studies in the United States
Chapter 3: Early Career and a Surprise Coup D’État
New York: Learning the Ropes
Addis Ababa: The First Few Months
The 1960 Coup D’État
Settling Down to Work
The Birth of the OAU
The Harvard Interlude
Chapter 4: More on the 1960 Coup D’état
The Antecedents of the Coup Germame Neway: The Angry Young Man Behind the Coup
Chapter 5: In the Service of the Imperial Ethiopian Government: The Initial Three Years
An Ethiopian UN Expert to Ethiopia
A Curious Call From the Prime Minister
The Technical Agency
The Development Bank of Ethiopia: Chairman Haddis Alemayehou and a Contentious Board Meeting
The Glasgow Interlude
Haddis Alemayehu and his Instructive Anecdotes
Chapter 6: In the Service of the Imperial Ethiopian Government: The Succeeding Three Years
Trials and Tribulations at the Planning Commission
Highlights of Development: The Story of Ethiopian Airlines
Socialist Countries and Ethiopia’s Development
More on Highlights of Development: The Man at the Centre
PART II: FIN D’EPOQUE
Chapter 7: The Monarchy on the Eve
The Gathering Storm
The Ominous Famine
An Army Mutiny, the Quadrupling of Oil Prices, and a Tottering Government
Chapter 8: The Interregnum: The Opening Four and a Half Months of Endalkatchew Makonnen’s Premiership
A Hesitant Minister
Uncertain Reforms
The Travails of Resignation
Crisis of the Congo Veterans
Birth of the Dergue and the Demise of Endalkatchew Makonnen
Chapter 9: The Interregnum: The Closing Forty-One Days of Michael Imru’s Premiership
PART III: TRANSITION TO AN UNCERTAIN REPUBLIC
Chapter 10: The Contrived Revolution
Forces Behind the Upheavals of February/March 1974
The Emperor Deposed
Chapter 11: March Towards Bloody Saturday
Enter Aman: A Much Acclaimed But Tragically Inadequate Leader
Bloody Saturday: The Final Act of Fin D’Époque
Chapter 12: The Initial Policy Orientations of the Military
Ethiopian Socialism (Hibrettesebawinet)
New Relations With Soviet Russia
Land Reform: Manipulating a Wrong-headed Policy
More Instances of Cabinet Manipulation
Military Obduracy
Chapter 13: The Parting of Ways
My Delayed Exit
Mengistu Becomes Top Dog
Looking for a Job and the Elusive Exit Visa
PART IV: EXILE YEARS AND THE BIRTH OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC
Chapter 14: The African Development Bank
A Nice Little Challenge
Negotiations with Prospective Member States
The Bank Goes Global
The Years of Growth
A Short Honeymoon
Vice President: A Post More Vicious Than Presidential
A Reluctant Vice-President and the Predictable Adieu
Chapter 15: Mengistu Falls and a Second Republic Takes Shape
The Cartographic Nationalist Flees and the Guerrillas Take Over
The New Rulers and Their Political Vision
Chapter 16: The Bank of Abyssinia: A Short Stint Turned Long
A Homecoming With Misgivings
Launching a New Private Bank
Initial Objectives
Hurdles Along the Way
Chapter 17: Retirement: Working With Charities
A Johnny-Come-Lately Rotarian
The Hamlin Fistula Hospital
The Gondar Development Association
The Institute of Ethiopian Studies
Jember Teffera’s Urban Renewal Project
Alemnesh Mogesse’s Children’s Support Project
Chapter 18: Retirement: A Disagreeable But Not Unexpected Episode
A Visit by the Federal Police
Detention and its Compensations: The Many Faces of Prison
Detention: Further Compensations
PART V: WHITHER ETHIOPIA
Chapter 19: Footprints of History
A Bird’s Eyeview of the Recent Past
The Heritage of a Multicultural Polity
The Legacy of a Nation State
A ‘Minimum Cultural Base’: Yet Another Legacy
Chapter 20: The Shape Of Things To Come
The External Environment
The Domestic Front
Globalization
Chapter 21: Conclusion
Further Thoughts on National Cohesion
Lessons From India and China
Final Words
APPENDIXES
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Notes
Glossary of Amharic Terms
Index