On Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa

I lived in Ethiopia from 1971 to 1974, before and during the revolution that culminated in the overthrow of Emperor Haile Sellassie on 12 September 1974, and his replacement by a military committee known as the Dergue. I worked as a librarian in what was then called Haile Sellassie I University, and moonlighted as a news announcer at an independent radio station, RVOG. I started writing about Ethiopia only after I had left the country to move to Tanzania, and after I was able to gain some limited perspective on an extraordinary four-year period in my life.

Decoration

Writings

♦ Soviet and Russian research on Ethiopia and eastern Africa: a second look in the context of the area studies crisis. In: Africa in Russia, Russia in Africa: three centuries of encounters, edited by Maxim Matusevich (Trenton NJ: Africa World Press, 2007), pages 133-151. Click here to view or download the PDF file, 1.5 Mb.

♦ Spirituality, reality and history. African Agenda vol.1 no.8, 1995, pages 52-53. Review of books by Roderick Grierson (African Zion), Richard Pankhurst (A Social History of Ethiopia) and Sven Rubenson (Tewodros and His Contemporaries). Click here to view or download a PDF, 385 Kb.

♦ A Soviet view of Africa: an annotated bibliography on Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall, 1980. Now out-of-print. Click here to order a used copy.

♦ The Ethiopian revolution. Daily News [Dar es Salaam], 13 September 1975, p.5. Review of Raul Valdes Vivo's book Ethiopia: the unknown revolution . Click here to view or download a PDF copy [300 Kb.] or here for a better-quality JPEG image [3.5 Mb.]

♦ The Ethiopian student movement in the struggle against imperialism, 1960-1974. Paper presented to the Annual Social Science Conference of the East African Universities (12th: Dar es Salaam: 20-22 December 1976). Click here to view or download a PDF [63 Kb.] or here to view an HTML version, also mirrored here and here. A substantial excerpt was also featured with some comment on the Mestawot blog, here.

♦ The rise of the Amhara state. African Review [Dar es Salaam] vol.7 no.3/4, 1977, pages 106-109. Click here to view or download a PDF, 300 Kb.