Emperor Tewodros

Emperor Tewodros appears in the account as a historical precedent that Mengistu used to frame his own rule. The comparison linked Mengistu, now the unchallenged leader of the Derg, to a monarch remembered for refounding the Solomonic Dynasty after a period of decline.

Historical Precedent

The passage identifies Tewodros with the restoration of the Solomonic Dynasty in the mid-nineteenth century. His significance here is less a separate account of his reign than the political meaning attached to his legacy: he represented the recovery of an Ethiopian monarchy after decline.

Mengistu’s Imperial Presentation

In 1978, four years after the overthrow of Haile Selassie, Mengistu presided over a national anniversary celebration from the former emperor’s Grand Palace. He sat in a gilded armchair as the parade passed; official functions had returned to the palace, where he also occupied Haile Selassie’s old throne. Against that visual return to imperial settings, Mengistu began comparing himself to Tewodros, casting his leadership in the light of a predecessor who had restored the dynasty.

Revolution and Reversal

The Tewodros comparison belonged to a broader shift in the Derg’s public posture. At the beginning of the Revolution, officials had rejected signs of wealth and sophistication as remnants of the old order. By around 1978, a minister recalled, luxury had become accepted and then expected: senior officials wore designer clothes and enjoyed the best homes, cars, whiskey, champagne, and food. The return to the palace and the invocation of an imperial restorer thus accompanied a reversal of the revolution’s earlier ideals.