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We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers and to Justin Willis for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this article. The first author received financial support for the research on which this article is founded from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Corresponding author: Jacob Wiebel, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
In 1974, the long reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I was brought to an end by a succession of protests, mutinies, and demonstrations that evolved into ‘sub-Saharan Africa's one undoubted social revolution’.1 A quick succession of changes, including the establishment of a military government, the abolition of the monarchy, and wide-ranging land reform, radically reconfigured Ethiopia's political structure and social relations. In light of the extensive violence of the following years, many Ethiopians soon forgot that the radical changes that swept across the country in 1974 had initially been celebrated as Abyot yale menim dam – a revolution without [the shedding of] any blood. Amid the turmoil generated by the Ethiopian revolution, unprecedented political opportunities emerged: initiatives were launched to empower hitherto marginalised groups, fierce public debates took place over the path to a more equitable society, and new political movements were formed. Yet, accompanying and punctuating these changes were increasing instances of armed confrontation and state violence against dissenting groups. In urban Ethiopia, such conflict culminated in the Red Terror of 1977 and 1978, in which the country's new military government, known as the Derg, sanctioned and facilitated the systematic extrajudicial repression of opposition organisations. A decade after its end, a prominent Derg official described the Red Terror as ‘violence which had no parallel in Ethiopian history’.2
It is certainly true that even in a century of Ethiopian history that has seen violent colonial occupation, border wars, decades of civil war, and repeated famine, the Red Terror stands out as one of the most egregious instances of systematic human rights abuses.3 Tens of thousands were murdered, the precise number elusive because killings were often secretive and decentralised.4 Tens of thousands more were extrajudicially detained and heavily tortured. Hundreds of thousands found their lives transformed by the period's violence: losing children, siblings, relatives, or friends, or living with physical and psychological impairments caused by torture. Many were forced into...