Abiye Abebe Explained

Abiye Abebe
Office:Minister of Defence
Term:28 February 1974 – 22 July 1974
Primeminister:Endelkachew Makonnen
Predecessor:Merid Mengesha
Successor:Aman Andom
Office2:President of the Senate
Term2:15 July 1964 – 28 February 1974
Monarch2:Haile Selassie I
Predecessor2:Le'ul Ras Asrate Kassa
Successor2:Legislature abolished
Office3:Governor-General of Eritrea[1]
Chief Administrator (1960–1962)
Chief Executive (1959–1960)
Term3:20 May 1959 – 12 February 1964
Monarch3:Haile Selassie I
Predecessor3:Bitwoded Asfaha Woldemikael as Chief Executive
Successor3:Le'ul Ras Asrate Kassa
Father:Liqa Mequas Abebe Atnaf Seggad
Birth Date:1917
Birth Place:Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Empire
Death Place:Akaki Central Prison, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Spouse:Princess Tsehai Haile-Selassie
Woizero Amarech Nasibu
Native Name Lang:am

Lij Abiye Abebe (Amharic: አብይ አበበ; born 1917  - 23 November 1974) was an Ethiopian politician and son-in-law of Emperor Haile Selassie.

Biography

Son of Liqa Mequas Abebe Atnaf Seggad, Abiye was born 1918 in Addis Ababa as a Lij. He attended the Holeta Military Academy.[2] In the 1940s and 1950s he was Minister of Defence, and later served as Minister of Justice and Minister of the Interior.[3] He chaired the High National Security Commission during the Ethiopian Revolution until his arrest by the Derg on 16 July 1974.[4] Lt. General Abiye was serving as Chief of the General Staff when he was arrested.

According to John Spencer, when Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold sought to resign his post in 1973, he suggested to the Emperor that he be replaced by General Abiye. Other sources indicate that Aklilu Habte-Wold's rival Prince Asrate Kassa was the person who put General Abiye forward as a fellow aristocrat. However Abiye consented to becoming Prime Minister only if his nomination, and those of his cabinet, were approved by the Ethiopian parliament, a condition Emperor Haile Selassie found unacceptable. As a result, Haile Selassie decided to appoint Endelkachew Makonnen Prime Minister instead.[5] Abiye was one of 60 former government officials executed the night of 22–23 November at Akaki Central Prison by the Derg.[6]

General Abiye was married three times. At Addis Ababa, on 26 April 1942, he married Princess Tsehai of Ethiopia who died in childbirth a year later. After this marriage, Lt. General Abiye Abebe was accorded the dignities and protocol rank of the Emperor's son-in-law, even after he remarried. In 1946, married Woizero Amarech Nasibu, daughter of Nasibu Zeamanuel, and then in 1970 to Woizero Tsige Aynalem, his widow, with whom he had three chlildren, Phebe, Berkinesh, and Abiye.[7]

Career history

Honours

National

Foreign

Notes and References

  1. In 1959 the legislatively-elected post of Chief Executive was replaced by the imperially-appointed office of Chief Administrator. On 15 November 1962 Eritrea became an ordinary province of Ethiopia, and the office was in turn replaced with that of Governor-General.
  2. Book: Shinn, David H. . Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia . 3– . 2 . 2004 . Scarecrow Press . 9780810865662 .
  3. Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia, second edition (London: James Currey, 2003), p. 205
  4. Andargachew Tiruneh, The Ethiopian revolution, 1974-1987 (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 68
  5. Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay: A personal account of the Haile Selassie years (Algonac: Reference Publications, 1984), p. 337
  6. Marina and David Ottaway, Ethiopia: Empire in Revolution (New York: Africana, 1978), p. 61
  7. News: Chu . Jane . What We Carry: The Medals of Abiye Abebe . 23 January 2024 . Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage . July 2, 2022.
  8. Book: Shinn . David. Ofcansky . Thomas. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia . 2013 . Scarecrow Press . 978-0-8108-7457-2 .
  9. Nationaal Archief, inventory 2.02.32, dossier 373, registry number 854