Aida Buzuayehu - International Community School of Addis Ababa

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Derg was a communist military party that came to power in Ethiopia after
Emperor Haile Sellasie had temporarily left Ethiopia. It then ruled the country from
1974 until 1987. ‘Derg’ in Amharic means ‘committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and
Territory Army’ (Zewde, 55). It was these people that executed and imprisoned
thousands of its rivals without a legitimate trial. The Derg was officially announced
June 28 1974 by a group of military officers in order to maintain law and order. The
cause of this perpetual dilemma is the impotency of the government following major
decline in the armed forces of Ethiopia earlier that year. However the members of the
Derg were not directly involved in this insurrection nor were this the first military
committee established. In addition, over the following months revolutionary groups in
the Ethiopian military came to the conclusion that the Emperor was acting on behalf of
the hated aristocracy, and when a group of notables petitioned for the release of a
number of government ministers and officials who were under arrest for corruption and
other crimes, the announcement of the Derg occurred (Zewde, 56). Although the
emperor at the time was Emperor Haile Sellasie, there were in fact many other key
figures in the regime. Oppressors such as Empress Taitu, Mengistu Haile Maryam as
well as his wife etc, were vital people that caused major events in Ethiopian history. In
the context of Ethiopia, Eastern Africa and Africa in general a woman in power is often
an unsightly scenario. Women were oppressed and discriminated against for many
years. However it hasn’t always been this way, in fact before the Derg women were
2