4 - The Process of Radicalization

Summary

Now is the time to clear your throats and speak, to clear your minds and think … A time has come when you can feel that you are above animals.

Conventionally, the year 1965, when Haile Sellasie I University (HSIU) students marched on the streets of Addis Ababa chanting ‘Land to the Tiller’, is seen as a landmark in the history of the Ethiopian student movement, heralding the start of a new era of revolutionary commitment. But, it makes greater sense to view 1965 as the culmination of a gradual process of radicalization rather than the birth of a new phenomenon that it is generally portrayed to be. In this regard, the coming of African scholarship students in 1958 forms an important development in increasing the political consciousness of Ethiopian university students. The 1960 coup d'état, in spite of its failure, also opened a new era of political opposition to the imperial regime by daring to challenge a system that was generally viewed as sacrosanct. The coup almost inexorably led to the tug-of-war around the College Day between the palace and the student leaders that resulted in the abolition of the boarding system in 1962 and the end of royal patronage. From then on, the process of radicalization continued, abetted, not created, by the radical group that came to be known as the Crocodiles. The ‘Land to the Tiller’ demonstration of 1965 represented the final moment of rupture, ushering a series of demonstrations and rallies and ultimately leading to the adoption of Marxist-Leninist ideology. We shall now examine by turns these various stages in the process of radicalization.