Negasso on Meles

Dandi, Negasso’s path is the result of collaboration between Dr. Negasso Gidada and journalist Daniel Tefera. Daniel coauthored the memoir based on a series of interviews he had conducted over a period of three months. He wrote down and arranged the material in the first person and Negasso edited and approved every chapter. Thus, though Daniel actually did the writing, it is reasonable to consider the work an autobiography.
The chapter on the relationship between Negasso and Meles makes a good reading, which is the focus of this post. It emerges that Negasso is a proud socialist in his politics, which is one of the reasons he favored TPLF, which grew out of the Marxist-oriented student movement against the Haile Selassie regime. Marist-Leninist explanation for the poverty of the mass of the population had validity for the TPLF at the start, which Negasso found appealing too. But to Negasso’s bewilderment, Meles started quietly dropping references to Marxism and pursued a political philosophy more acceptable to the West. This development left Negasso “deceived” and “angry,” a recurring state of mind in “Dandi.”
How well does Negasso channel his former comrade and current enemy?

Negasso’s personal revolution: from apologist to critic

Negaso Addis Journal

On 22 August 1995, a mild-mannered soft-spoken man, Negasso Gidada- who represented the Oromos- became president of the newly-formed Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. His position was largely ceremonial as real power rested with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Yet the occasion was depicted as a watershed heralding a new chapter in the country’s history in general and the Oromo people in particular.
Before his appointment as president, Negasso, was minister of information, and was closely allied to the EPRDF against the armed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Earlier when he was in Germany, Negasso was president of the Oromo Students’ Association, an organization affiliated with the OLF. Eventually, he administered the OLF’s financial department before he parted his ways.