Ethiopian Marxist leader of MEISON and drafter of the Derg's national-democratic program
His August 1977 arrest and subsequent disappearance mark the Derg's turn from the EPRP onto its own former MEISON collaborators. His death around 1979 is reported by several sources but unconfirmed in date and circumstance.
Ethiopian Marxist politician who led and chaired the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON). Born in Arjo, Welega (Oromia); he studied in France in the early 1960s, taking a Marxism closer to the Soviet model, and after the revolution began he returned and co-founded the Progressive Book Store with Negede Gobeze. In December 1975 the Derg secretly created the Provisional Office for Mass Organizational Affairs (POMOA) and made him chairman; he drafted the Program for the National Democratic Revolution, announced by Mengistu on 20 April 1976. He was captured outside Addis Ababa on 26 August 1977 and held in the Old Gebbi, and Human Rights Watch records that he disappeared after several months in prison. His reported death around 1979 remains unconfirmed in date and circumstance. Also known as Haile Fida Kuma, he is remembered as the 'Father of Qubee Afaan Oromo'.
Career Timeline
- 1968Helped found MEISON at the 8th ESUE congress and organized and led the Oromo students' study group in Europe
- 1973Published the Oromo grammar Hirmaata Dubbi Afaan Oromoo in Paris, written in qubee
- 1974–1975Returned to Ethiopia and co-founded the Progressive Book Store with Negede Gobeze
- 1975.12Appointed chairman of the Derg's secretly created Provisional Office for Mass Organizational Affairs (POMOA)
- 1976.4Drafted the Program of National Democratic Revolution, whose adoption Mengistu announced on 20 April
- 1977.8Went underground with the MEISON leadership, was captured on 26 August and detained in the Old Gebbi