Mengistu Haile Mariam (In power: 1977 – 1991)
Unfortunately, it is often the case that one authoritarian ruler is just replaced by another one. In the case of Ethiopia, the long reign of Emperor Haile Selassie was ended by a military coup which would bring one of the cruelest leaders to the head of an African nation, Mengistu Haile Mariam. Under his repressive rule, many were hunted down and killed. But his biggest claim to infamy was his reaction (or lack thereof) to the massive famine that struck the country in the early 1980s which killed hundreds of thousands.
Mengistu was born in 1937 in the capital, Addis Ababa. His father was a soldier in the Ethiopian army which is probably what influenced his son to follow in his footsteps. Mengistu was mentored by an army general and rose steadily in the ranks. After receiving some military training in the United States, Mengistu began to speak out against the class structures in society – and against aristocrats in particular. In 1974, after years of declining public sentiment, a faction of the army, calling themselves the Derg, overthrew the rule of Emperor Selassie. It was rumored that Mengistu himself executed Selassie by smothering him with a pillowcase in 1975. Something which he has denied.
In 1977, Mengistu successfully maneuvered himself into power and declared himself a Marxist. He nationalized the economy and stripped the influential Ethiopian Church of its land and wealth. However, it was his economic reforms and policies which directly contributed to the great famine in the country that began in the early 1980s. An estimated 1.2 million people would perish from famine-related hunger. Images of this famine contributed to the 1985 Live Aid concert organized by Bob Geldof. Millions were raised but questions remain whether it actually benefited the victims of the famine. In 1990, the Soviet Union ended all support to Mengistu and pressure mounted against his rule. In May 1991, the opposition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front army advanced on Addis Ababa and Mengistu fled into exile in Zimbabwe. He lives there to this day but with the recent fall of Robert Mugabe, the possibility of extradition to Ethiopia to address his crimes has arisen.