which was saved from collapse only by a huge influx of
weapons and troops from the Soviet Union and Cuba later
in November of that year.
In 1978 the regime organized a national celebration
marking the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of Haile
Selassie. By this time Mengistu was the unchallenged
leader of the Derg. As his residence, the place from where
he would rule Ethiopia, he had chosen Selassie’s Grand
Palace, left unoccupied since the monarchy was abolished.
At the celebration, he sat on a gilded armchair, just like the
emperors of old, watching the parade. Official functions
were now held once again at the Grand Palace, with
Mengistu sitting on Haile Selassie’s old throne. Mengistu
started to compare himself to Emperor Tewodros, who had
refounded the Solomonic Dynasty in the mid-nineteenth
century after a period of decline.
One of his ministers, Dawit Wolde Giorgis, recalled in his
memoir:
At the beginning of the Revolution all of us
had utterly rejected anything to do with the
past. We would no longer drive cars, or wear
suits; neckties were considered criminal.
Anything that made you look well-off or
bourgeois, anything that smacked of
affluence or sophistication, was scorned as
part of the old order. Then, around 1978, all
that began to change. Gradually materialism
became accepted, then required. Designer
clothes from the best European tailors were
the uniform of all senior government officials
and members of the Military Council. We had
the best of everything: the best homes, the
best cars, the best whiskey, champagne,
food. It was a complete reversal of the ideals
of the Revolution.
Giorgis also vividly recorded how Mengistu changed
once he became sole ruler:
The real Mengistu emerged: vengeful, cruel
and authoritarian … Many of us who used to
talk to him with hands in our pockets, as if he