Analysing the Ethiopian Revolution: a Rebuttal

Abstract

The Africana section of The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. XIX, No. 4, December 1980, pp. 685–91, features a ‘cautionary tale’ written by John M. Cohen that is devoted to a critique of published treatments of the Ethiopian revolution. In particular, Cohen purports to show that important data on post-coup food production had neither been consulted nor considered in a previously published study of the impact on the nation's agricultural sector of the radical legal and policy measures introduced by the Derg. He further introduces estimates of food-grain production based on Ethiopian Government and U.N. F.A.O. sources which he finds ‘probably more reliable’ than those cited in the earlier article. On the basis of these official statistics, Cohen then disputes the conclusion that the Derg carried out sweeping land reforms without inducing a short-run decline in domestic harvests. He concludes with a call for ‘more thorough research in government and donor archives’.