Mengistu Neway

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This is an
Ethiopian name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name
; this person is referred to by the given name Mengistu.
A black and white photograph of Mengistu Neway
Mengistu Neway

Mengistu Neway (1919 – 30 March 1961) was an Ethiopian commander of the

1960 coup attempt with his younger brother Germame Neway
, for which he was sentenced to death.

Mengistu and his brother were members of a well-established noble lineage called Moja, an

Shewan family clan which had supplied the Ethiopian government a number of soldiers and governors for a century, but at the time of the 1960 coup had fallen out of favor. Ethiopian observers, noting that the Moja had a tradition for favoring reforms, later speculated that their coup could be explained in terms of Ethiopian lineage politics. Christopher Clapham rejects this interpretation, noting "this is at best an oversimplification, in that some Mojas remained loyal to the Emperor, while several non-Mojas were actively involved; and there has been no evidence that Mengestu and Germame took the lead because of their Moja ancestry."[1]
Clapham's opinion as on outside however reflect a peripheral and nondefinitive insight. Members of the Ethiopian nobility and even royal houses have been known to choose and to switch between feuding sides in power struggles. The Moja had been instrumental as Kingmakers in Menelik II's, Zauditu I's and Eyasu V's ascent. Eyasu's offensive and insulting attitude towards Fit. Habtegiorgis Dinegde, Minister of War, Justice, and above all husband to Woiz. Altayework Habte, one of the Moja's three principal heads was the last straw in not only Habtegiorgis but many Moja allies such as Dedj's Wordofa Chengere, Dedj. Abebe Tufa leaving the Eyasu camp.

Early life

Mengistu was of ethnic

Asrate Medhin Kassa, Mered Mangesha, Aman Michael Andom and Mulugeta Bulli.[7]

After Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia, Mengistu became a colonel in the Ethiopian army, and in April 1956 he was made commander of the Imperial Bodyguard, replacing General Mulugeta Bulli.

Belay Zelleke,[8] and was entrusted with apprehending the conspirators in the 1951 attempt to assassinate Emperor Haile Selassie which was led by another former Arbegna Nagash Bazabeh.[9]

1960 coup

With the support of the Police Commissioner Brigadier General

Ethiopian Church rallied to support the Emperor, and by 19 December the coup was crushed, although 15 of the 21 notables taken hostage were killed, including Mulugeta Buli.[10] The hostages were machine gunned in the Green Salon just before the coup leaders retreated from the Palace compound. Among the important personages executed by the Mengistu's forces were Ras Abebe Aregai, the leading anti-fascist resistance leader against the Italian occupation; Ras Seyoum Mangasha
Prince of Tigray, Abba Hanna Jimma, the Emperor's confessor, almoner, and administrator of his personal household; Dejazmatch Letyibelu, a prominent resistance leader during the Italian occupation and nobleman with close ties to the Emperor; Lidj Lema Wolde Gabriel, Mayor of Addis Abeba at the time and several others.

General Tsege was killed in the fighting; Colonel Werqneh committed suicide.[11] Mengistu and Germame evaded capture until 24 December 1960 when they were surrounded by the army near Mojo. Rather than face capture, Germame committed suicide; Mengistu surrendered. He was put on trial which cause a sensation as he appeared in open court completely unrepentant. Accused of slaughtering the Emperor's loyal servants, General Mengistu is said to have replied "I did not kill His Majesty's friends, I only wiped the dirt from his eyes". It is said the Emperor was inclined to commute his death sentence to life in prison, but the powerful families of the victims of the Green Salon massacre were outraged at the idea, and the Emperor allowed the death penalty to be carried out. General Mengistu was hanged a few months later, on 30 March 1961.

His second wife and widow, Woizero (Mrs.) Kefey Taffere, died in April 1999 having subsequently remarried. Woizero Kefey as a descendant of the Zagwe dynasty, was a member of the Wagshum family, which by the Imperial decree of Yikuno Amlak I are only second to the restored Solomonic Dynasty in their claims to the Imperial Throne of Ethiopia. She was a member of the upper levels of the Ethiopian aristocracy. General Mengistu is survived by his two sons, Neway Mengistu and Germame Mengistu.

Notes

  1. ^ Christopher Clapham, "The Ethiopian Coup d'Etat of December 1960", Journal of Modern African Studies, 6 (1968), pp. 498 - 500.
  2. OCLC 67838121
    .
  3. ^ Bahru Zewde, Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia (Oxford: James Currey, 2002), p. 27
  4. ^ Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia, second edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2001), p. 211
  5. ^ Anthony Mockler, Haile Selassie's War (New York: Olive Branch, 2003), pp. 124-132
  6. ^ Mockler, Haile Selassie's War, pp. 169f
  7. ^ a b Mockler, Haile Selassie's War, p. 403
  8. ^ John Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay: A personal account of the Haile Selassie years (Algonac: Reference Publications, 1984),p. 130n
  9. ^ Bahru Zewde, A History, p. 210
  10. ^ Edmund J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1988), pp. 132ff
  11. ^ Clapham, "Ethiopian Coup", p. 497

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