Mengistu Haile Mariam Quotes

#1. Mengistu seemed to symbolize the revolution. He was the baria, the slave who overthrew the master, the member of the conquered tribe who got even with the conquerors, the poorly educated son of a servant who rose against the intellectual elite.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#2. We thought that the proletariat would eventually run the world. But it is the Americans who have assumed that position ... The American people have changed.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#3. Mengistu is a barbaric and cruel creature who becomes happy with the death of human beings.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#4. Everything Mengistu has done since 1977 has been to place himself in a position of uncontestable power. Neither Haile Selassie nor any of the previous emperors had this insatiable thirst for power.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#5. When was in prison I admired him for his moral strength ...
Of his period in power I can see few results. Apartheid no longer exists, at least to all appearances, but no one understands what the new government in South Africa is doing.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#6. After Mengistu consolidated his power in 1978, his personality gradually began to change. His ability to listen and his patience faded away. We could now see these qualities were pretences only; he had been putting on his best behavior in his bid for support.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#7. Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#8. Mengistu does not understand the meaning of self-determination, either historically or in the abstract. He cannot conceive of a nation as anything but an absolute centralized authority, totalitarianism, for his rule is nothing less than that now.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#9. In this country, some aristocratic families automatically categorize persons with dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair as "Barias" [Amharic for slave] ... let it be clear to everybody that I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#10. Africa's downfall has always been the cult of the personality. And their names always seem to begin with M. We've had Mobutu and Mengistu and I'm not going to add Meles to the list.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#11. I'm a military man, I did what I did only because my country had to be saved from tribalism and feudalism. If I failed, it was only because I was betrayed. The so-called genocide was nothing more than just a war in defence of the revolution and a system from which all have benefited.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#12. One of the fundamental preconditions of successful socialist construction is to ensure the people's readiness to defend themselves from the ravages of probable regional or global wars on the basis of the balance of forces generating from the basic contradictions of our epoch.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#13. From now on you must pray for your people and yourself three times a day.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

#14. I am a revolutionary; my life is dedicated to freeing the people.

Mengistu Haile Mariam