« Éduquer nos sœurs opprimées » : urbaines diplômées et paysannes dans la révolution éthiopienne (1974-1991)

Abstract

Starting in 1979, the military government that took power in the 1974 Ethiopian revolution launched a national literacy campaign to build the socialist nation. Tens of thousands of young city-dwellers were sent to the countryside to educate the peasant population. The experience of these young instructors offers a privileged vantage point for observing the social dynamics of the revolution through gender and class relations. Studying official and activist documents as well as interviews conducted among former instructors allows to understand how the latter took responsibility for their role and interacted with peasants, and enables to identify the possibilities opened up by the revolution and the uses women have made of them. This approach requires, first, to consider the academic and political socialization of educated urban women under the preceding regime as well as the revolutionary discourse regarding the “woman question”. It contributes to ongoing research on how women used the policies of otherwise authoritarian socialist regimes to win greater autonomy and recognition.