Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia

Almost unnoticed in the wake of the overthrow of Emperor Haile-Selassie the coming to power of the military and the ongoing independence struggle in Eritrea a band of students launched an insurrection from the northern Ethiopian province of Tigray. Calling themselves the Tigray People''s Liberation Front (TPLF) they built close relations with Tigray''s poverty-stricken peasants and on this basis liberated the province in 1989 and formed an ethnic-based coalition of opposition forces that assumed state power in 1991. This book chronicles that history and focuses in particular on the relationship of the revolutionaries with Ethiopia''s peasants.