Activities and affiliations

What people did, and whom they served in that activity.

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Political and party leadership · Workers' Party of Ethiopia people 1

Political and party leadership × Workers' Party of Ethiopia ×

Mengistu Haile Mariam

መንግሥቱ ኃይለ ማርያም
Political and party leadership Workers' Party of Ethiopia Ethiopia Ethiopia 1937–

Consolidation of Derg rule

At a Derg meeting he vowed of the aristocrats who called dark-skinned, kinky-haired people slave "Barias": "I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!"

A leader of Ethiopia’s Derg, the military committee emerging from the 1974 revolution. He consolidated predominance after the 1977 power struggle and led military and party-state institutions. Land reform and state-led development proceeded amid political repression and prolonged war.

Career timeline
  • 1957Graduated Holetta Military Academy, commissioned second lieutenant
  • 1974Derg member (Third Division representative)
  • 1974–1977Deputy chairman of the Derg
  • 1977–1987Chairman of the Derg, head of the military regime
  • 1984–1991General Secretary, Workers' Party of Ethiopia
  • 1987–1991President, People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
  • 1991Fled into exile in Zimbabwe