The Derg or the Red Terror




The Derg or the Red Terror
(or the story of how I came to be born in America) 

During the reign of Ethiopia's last emperor, Emperor Haile Selassie, a deadly famine gripped parts of Ethiopia. Reluctant to sully the administration's reputation, Selassie attempted to cover up the famine rather than address it. Civilians caught wind of this and became infuriated. University students went to the affected areas and photographed the devastation and deaths caused by the famine. They released these photos to international news outlets and soon Ethiopians around the country were aware of what was happening. Images of the famine were heavily circulated in the Western media and came to define Ethiopia in the West. This occurred in the 1980s.

Enraged that Emperor Selassie would do nothing about the famine, civilians and the military staged a coup and forced him out of power. Unfortunately, the military leaders formed a new government that was not any better than Selassie's rule. They did nothing about the famine, refused to give power to civilians and instead formed a dictatorship. Their solution to growing uprisings by civilians was to kill any and all dissenters. Most of these dissenters were student protesters who were being killed and jailed left and right. It was a terrifying time in the country, when the government persecuted anyone suspected of opposing them.

My parents were both student protesters at the time of the Derg/Red Terror. My mother's brother Teferi was killed by the government for being part of the opposition. Scared for their lives, my parents and many other Ethiopians fled the country. The Derg is responsible for the significant influx of Ethiopian migrants to America and other countries in the 1970s and 80s. Around the time my parents came to America, it was the only country accepting refugees. European countries had stricter immigration laws at the time, even for refugees. And that is how I came to be born in America.




Hyphenated Ethiopian third culture kid. Twitter: @moonchereka

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