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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Excerpts from the Prison Diary of Ahadu Saboure |
Author: | Kane, Thomas L. |
Year: | 1991 |
Periodical: | Northeast African Studies |
Volume: | 13 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 59-71 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
Subjects: | offences against national security diaries (form) Politics and Government |
About person: | Ahadu Saboure (1925-) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/43660337 |
Abstract: | Ahadu Saboure (born in 1925) began his career in 1941 as a fee collector for the Dire Dawa Municipality (Ethiopia). Between 1943 and 1974, he was First Secretary in the Ethiopian Consulate in Djibouti, Director of the Department of Documentation of the Ethiopian Ministry of Information, and Ambassador to Somalia. In 1974, he was appointed Chief Executive of Hararghe Province and he held that post until August 1975, when he was suddenly arrested, brought to Addis Ababa and imprisoned in the basement of the assembly hall along with other political prisoners. He was never informed of the charges on which he was arrested, and he was not given either a hearing or a trial. He was finally released during a general amnesty in September 1982. During his incarceration, he kept a diary which he had begun while still chief executive of Hararghe Province. His diary contains not only a record of his prison experiences but recollections of his past life and interviews with his fellow prisoners. The excerpts published in this paper, translated from Amharic, illuminate a few of the key circumstances of the early days of the Ethiopian revolution: the arrest of the Aklilu Cabinet, the actions of the Endalkachew Cabinet, the condition of the Emperor, the execution of the key people of the Emperor's government and the day on which Mengistu Haile-Maryam rose to power. Notes, ref. |