The untold stories of militiamen from Gojjam, Ethiopia: voices of distress and desperation from the Ogaden and Eritrean fronts, 1977–1991

IF 0.9 3区社会学 Q2 AREA STUDIES

Journal of Eastern African Studies Pub Date : 2021-10-02 DOI:10.1080/17531055.2021.1989137

Fantahun Ayele

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using untapped archival documents from the Däbrä Marqos provincial archives in Gojjam, and the archives of the Ministry of National Defence (MOND) in Addis Ababa, this study attempts to investigate the untold stories of militiamen drafted into the Ethiopian army in 1977 on the eve of Somalia's invasion of Ethiopia and in the wake of the fall of many towns in Eritrea in the hands of insurgents. These men played a critical role in reversing these threats (temporarily in the case of Eritrea, on a much longer-term basis in that of Somalia), and their impact on the region's history was massive. The archival evidence gathered from the former Gojjam province sheds new light on their personal lives, and the dislocation for those left behind, which is often missing from the larger histories of the Därg's wars. Those stories have been substantiated by interviewing ex-militiamen. Many of the stories revealed in the archives are quite disturbing – broken marriages, emotional distress, separated families and the like. This study, thus, attempts to show the importance of ‘history from below’ in the construction of narratives of the Ethiopian revolutionary wars.

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埃塞俄比亚戈贾姆民兵不为人知的故事:1977-1991年欧加登和厄立特里亚前线传来的痛苦和绝望的声音

本研究利用Gojjam的Däbrä Marqos省档案馆和亚的斯亚贝巴国防部(MOND)档案中未开发的档案文件，试图调查1977年索马里入侵埃塞俄比亚前夕和厄立特里亚许多城镇落入叛乱分子手中之后，被征召到埃塞俄比亚军队的民兵的不为人知的故事。这些人在扭转这些威胁方面发挥了关键作用(在厄立特里亚的情况下是暂时的，在索马里的情况下是长期的)，他们对该地区历史的影响是巨大的。从前Gojjam省收集的档案证据揭示了他们的个人生活，以及那些留下的人的流离失所，这在Därg战争的更大历史中往往是缺失的。对前民兵的采访证实了这些故事。档案中披露的许多故事都相当令人不安——婚姻破裂、情感困扰、家庭分离等等。因此，本研究试图展示“来自下层的历史”在构建埃塞俄比亚革命战争叙事中的重要性。

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来源期刊

Journal of Eastern African Studies AREA STUDIES-

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

7.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Journal of Eastern African Studies is an international publication of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, published four times each year. It aims to promote fresh scholarly enquiry on the region from within the humanities and the social sciences, and to encourage work that communicates across disciplinary boundaries. It seeks to foster inter-disciplinary analysis, strong comparative perspectives, and research employing the most significant theoretical or methodological approaches for the region.