Berhanu Nega
Encyclopedia
Berhanu Nega was elected as mayor of Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 in the Ethiopian general elections, 2005
Ethiopian general elections, 2005
Ethiopia held general elections on May 15, 2005, for seats in both its national and in four regional government councils. Under pressure from the international community, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi promised that this election would be proof that more democracy would come in this multi-ethnic...

. He is a founding chairman of the Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice
Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice
The Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice is a political party in Ethiopia. It was founded by Professor Mesfin Woldemariam. At the last legislative elections which were held on 15 May 2005, the party was part of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy that won 109 out of 527...

 and a Deputy Chairman of Coalition for Unity and Democracy
Coalition for Unity and Democracy
The Coalition for Unity and Democracy is a coalition of four existing political parties of Ethiopia which combined to compete for seats in the Ethiopian General Elections held on May 15, 2005. Its leader is Dr...

 (CUD), for whom he served as chief election campaign strategist. He is also the co-founder of Ginbot 7, an opposition party.

Early life

Born in Debre Zeyit
Debre Zeyit
Debre Zeyit is a town of Ethiopia, lying south east of Addis Ababa. Since the late 1990s it has been officially known by the Oromo name, Bishoftu, which was its name until 1955...

, Berhanu attended Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa University is a university in Ethiopia. It was originally named "University College of Addis Ababa" at its founding, then renamed for the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I in 1962, receiving its current name in 1975.Although the university has six of its seven campuses within...

 where he participated in the student movement against the ruling Derg
Derg
The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...

 government in his freshman year. When the government acted against political dissidents in 1977, Berhanu with other radical student activists fled to Mount Asimba in northern Ethiopia. After a division within the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party
Founded in April 1972, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party was a prominent Marxist-Leninist organization in Ethiopia during the 1970s. It is also known as "Ihapa" from the acronym in Amharic...

 (EPRP), he was detained for openly criticizing killings within the EPRP. After a few months, he was released by his captors and crossed into the Sudan where he lived for two years until he was granted political asylum in the United States.

He did his undergraduate degree in economics at the State University of New York
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...

 and got his PhD in economics from the New School for Social Research, in New York City. During that time, he became one of the organizers of an annual conference on the "Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...

" that debated and analyzed the political, social and economic conditions in the sub-region. For over five years, it served as a forum for intellectual dialogue among political leaders, policy analysts and researchers interested in developments in that part of Africa.

Having completed his PhD studies, he joined the faculty of economics at Bucknell University
Bucknell University
Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...

, where he became a lecturer in economics for three years. Later he founded Imbilta, a bi-monthly magazine focusing on economic, political, social and current affairs in Ethiopia and he was the founding chairman of Ethiopian Economic Association. In 1989, Berhanu married Dr. Nardos Minasse.

Return to Ethiopia

Intending to contribute to the betterment of their homeland, Dr Berhanu, with his wife and his two children, Noah
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

 and Iyassu
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, returned to Ethiopia in 1994. Berhanu became an entrepreneur and founded the Ethiopian Agro-Maize, a fertilizer producing company, and Addis Village Family Home Builders. Berhanu has also served as a lecturer at the Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa University is a university in Ethiopia. It was originally named "University College of Addis Ababa" at its founding, then renamed for the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I in 1962, receiving its current name in 1975.Although the university has six of its seven campuses within...

, Department of Economics. From 1996 to 2000, he served as the president of the Ethiopian Economic Association. He has also served as the head of the Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute, a non-profit organization that he helped to establish. He also did consulting work for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa was established in 1958 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to encourage economic cooperation among its member states following a recommendation of the United Nations General Assembly.It is one of five regional commissions.The ECA...

.

In response to a student petition, on 8 April 2001 Dr. Berhanu and Professor Mesfin Woldemariam
Mesfin Woldemariam
Mesfin Woldemariam is an Ethiopian peace activist and philosopher, who has been actively engaged in a peaceful movement to bring justice, equality and peace for all the people in his country...

 held a day-long panel discussion at the hall of the National Lottery on academic freedom
Academic freedom
Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...

. They were arrested on the allegations that this panel incited a student protest at Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa University is a university in Ethiopia. It was originally named "University College of Addis Ababa" at its founding, then renamed for the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I in 1962, receiving its current name in 1975.Although the university has six of its seven campuses within...

 the next day, but released on bail 5 June and neither were ever tried.

The 2005 general election

During the 2005 elections, Dr Berhanu contributed to the opposition movement against Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi Asres is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Since 1985, he has been chairman of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front , and is currently head of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front .Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from...

 with remarkable performances at the pre-election debates with the ruling party.

Despite the post-election political impasse, CUD met on 20 August and elected Dr Berhanu mayor of Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

. Dr. Admasu Gebeyehu and Assefa Habtewold were elected Deputy Mayor and Speaker of the city assembly respectively at the same meeting. Had the CUD taken over the task of running the city, Dr. Berhanu would have been the first elected mayor in Ethiopia.

However, the October riots led to the imprisonment of Dr Berhanu, along with CUD
Cud
Cud is a portion of food that returns from a ruminant's stomach in the mouth to be chewed for the second time. More accurately, it is a bolus of semi-degraded food regurgitated from the reticulorumen of a ruminant. Cud is produced during the physical digestive process of rumination, or "chewing the...

 chairman Hailu Shawul
Hailu Shawul
Hailu Shawul is an Ethiopian engineer and the chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy . He was born in Northern Shewa....

, Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, and Former Senior UN Prosecutor Dr. Yacob Haile-Mariam and other leaders of the CUD, as well as a number of civil rights activists and independent journalists. They were charged with genocide and treason. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 and the European Union recognized the prisoners as political prisoners and requested immediate and unconditional release. The Ethiopian Supreme Court, however, sentenced all of this group to life sentence. After the intervention of the international community and Ethiopian elderly, majority of the leaders were pardoned after 21 months of prison on July 20, 2007.

While in Kaliti prison, Dr. Berhanu wrote and published a book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

 Yenetsanet Goh Siked ("The Dawn of Freedom"), which was published in Kampala, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

 by MM Publishers May 2006. The book, over 600 pages long, included an account of his time with the EPRP The first publication of about 10,000 books were sold in Ethiopia in secret some fetching hundreds of Ethiopian birr and was sold out the weekend it went to market. The book is considered a must read for Ethiopians. Berhanu Nega works tirelessly to spread his ideals in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. One way he does this is by distributing signed copies of his book to friends of Noah and Iyassu; namely: Adam Rosenberg
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

, Matthew Challman
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

, and Andrew Fox
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...

.

After imprisonment

Berhanu, who was elected to Addis Ababa City Council and was destined to become a mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005 before his imprisonment, has called for armed struggle to oust Zenawi. He left Ethiopia after his release from prison in 2007 to teach at Bucknell University
Bucknell University
Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...

 in Pennsylvania. He announced the founding of a new political group, Ginbot 7, which has formed an underground network inside Ethiopia with the goal of overthrowing Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. The underground network include top army members. After his release from prison, Dr. Berhanu found himself in a rivalry with Chairman Hailu Shawel when the CUD split into two.

On May 14, 2008 Dr. Berhanu, along with other former members of the CUD, founded a political movement called Ginbot 7, dedicated to justice, freedom and democracy in Ethiopia, and to oppose the administration of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

On September 11, 2008 Dr. Berhanu delivered a speech on the opening of the Ginbot 7 Radio station and the celebration of the first Ethiopian New Year after the Ethiopian Millennium
Ethiopian calendar
The Ethiopian calendar , also called the Ge'ez calendar, is the principal calendar used in Ethiopia and also serves as the liturgical calendar for Christians in Eritrea belonging to the Eritrean Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic Church and Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea...

. In this speech, Dr. Berhanu recalled the events of the 2005 Ethiopian election, and promised to continue with his struggle. His speech is believed by some Ethiopians to be the most successful speech he ever made, a call to all Ethiopians to a common goal and addressing the questions that had been raised about him.

On December 10, 2008 Dr. Berhanu stated on Ginbot 7 radio that Ginbot 7 is ready to tackle TPLF by any means possible since the current regime had no legitimacy and usurped power after losing the 2005 election.

The ruling government announced 24 April 2009 that it had foiled a coup attempt led by members of Ginbot 7 to overthrow the government, arresting 35 people they claimed were part of the plot. Those arrested included General Tefera Mamo, Dr Berhanu's cousin Getu Worku, and Tsige Habte-Mariam, the 80-year-old father of another well-known opposition figure at the time in exile, Andargachew Tsige.

In late 2009 the Ethiopian government revoked the pardon for Berhanu Nega, and on December 22, 2009, an Ethiopian court sentenced him to death, in absentia, along with four others (who were also also sentenced in absentia), while 33 were sentenced to life in prison.

Berhanu Nega is currently an assistant professor at Bucknell University.

External links

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