Women in Revolution

EPRP women at an International Women's Day rally, 1975 or 1976

“Women,” as Mao Zedong is supposed to have said, “hold up half the sky.” But the story of the world's revolutions has often been one of inadequately addressing the concerns of women, and failing to understand how crucially intertwined is the struggle for women’s liberation with the overall political struggle for a better world. It seems that there was some consciousness of the importance of organizing women among Ethiopian leftists, but that it took a bit of a back seat. In his books on the EPRP, Kiflu Tadesse refers a few times to the EPRP wanting to organize a women's organization, but suggests such an effort was only embryonic. Carried over from the days of student activism, the leadership of the movement seems to have been mostly male.

Bahru Zewde convened a retreat in 2005 for veterans of the Ethiopian Student movement to discuss the politicization of that movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and recorded this retreat in the extraordinary book Documenting the Ethiopian Student Movement: An Exercise in Oral History (FFS, 2010). Veterans of the student movement and revolutionary period testified to their experiences. Importantly, several women were asked to contribute. Here, Original Wolde Giorgis shares her experiences:

“It was most assuredly true that even those male members of EPRP reputed to be well-read never accepted female leadership; this was openly expressed in meetings...[yet] women contributed immensely in (EPRP) squads and other activities. I remember an incident at the Darg [sic] Interrogation Center where an interrogator wondered aloud what sort of discipline could have been instilled in women members that enabled them to withstand such tortures as having their breasts set ablaze by torched newspapers. Those heroic young women endured it without divulging any information. Women, contrary to popular belief, are singularly tenacious....Women...have proved themselves equal to the task, this is undeniable....” (Bahru, p. 125)

Hiwot Teffera's Tower in the Sky is a must-read on this subject. A young female militant of the EPRP, Hiwot becomes involved personally with one of the EPRP's controversial leaders, Getachew Maru, but carries on the work of the party faithfully until she is eventually imprisoned by the Derg. It's really an inspiring and tragic story, though she raises many questions about the factionalism with EPRP.

Pro-Derg official International Women's Day rally, 1978

A young French tourist Hubert Tabutiaux attended the Derg's Addis Ababa celebration of International Women's Day in 1978. Describing the event as impressive but clearly unspontaneous, he documented the day in a series of photographs, and reports on the photo above, “Under a placard showing a picture of the Great Helmsman, the rows are formed. The rather inscrutable faces bear witness to the pretty artificial atmosphere of this forced celebration, but can also be due to the presence of the camera.” There are more really interesting photos of the day on his website.

(Top photo from Goh Magazine, 1976; lower photo from Hubert Tabutiaux, 1978)