The origins of the Tigray People's Liberation Front

Abstract

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), at its inception, was grounded in an ethno-nationalist consciousness generated by the cumulative grievances of Tigrayans against successive central governments of Ethiopia. An association of Tigrayan elites, the urban-based Tigrayan National Organization (TNO), prepared the groundwork for the formation of the TPLF. The TPLF, for its part, utilized class and ethnonationalist ideologies to mobilize Tigrayans until it ousted the Mengistu government in 1991. This article analyzes how this ethno-nationalist organization emerged, grew and finally came to dominate Ethiopia a state with an emerging multi-national character. LITTLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THE TIGRAY PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT (TPLF). Even less has been written by any author with inside knowledge.1 As a founding member of the TPLF, who was part of its leadership for eleven years, I believe I have something relevant to share on this subject with anyone interested in contemporary political developments in Ethiopia. The TPLF started in February 1975 as a small guerrilla band in the northern region of Ethiopia and eventually grew to provide the core of the Ethiopian government. It was originally an ethno-nationalist movement that aimed to secure the self-determination of Tigray within the Ethiopian polity. It succeeded in mobilizing the people of Tigray to such extraordinary effect that, in 1991, it won state power in Ethiopia in the name of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The latter the government of Ethiopia today is often accused by opponents of being 'simply a Tigrean front'.2 During an armed struggle that lasted for 16 years, the TPLF mobilized Tigrayans behind the front and created a Aregawi Berhe is a research associate at the Afrika Studiecentrum, Leiden, the Netherlands. He is grateful for the comments of Jon G. Abbink as well as those of an anonymous referee. 1. Former senior TPLF members Giday Zera-tsion, Kahsai Berhe and the present author have written critical articles on their differences with the TPLF leadership after they broke with the organization. Though valuable documents, they were not published and remain in private hands. 2. Solomon Gashaw, 'Nationalism and ethnic conflict in Ethiopia', in Crawford Young (ed.), The Rising Tide of Cultural Pluralism: The nation-state at bay (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 1993), p. 156.