Draft:Hailemariam Redda

File:Blatta Hailemariam Redda.jpg

Hailemariam Redda (Blatta), commander of the 1943 Woyane rebellion.

Blatta Hailemariam Redda (5 July 1909- 1 March 1995) was one of the leaders of the Woyane rebellion against the regime of Haile Selassie.

Early Life

Hailemariam Redda was born on 5 July 1909 to a peasant family in Dandéra (about seventeen kilometers southeast of Mekelle), in the former Inderta awrajja. Haile Mariam’s father, Grazmach Redda Gebru, though he was was a peasant, gave service to Dejazmach Kassa Mercha (later Emperor Yohannes IV) and Redda's father, Gebru Aska (Hailemariam's grandfather) served as chiqa shum (village chief) of Dandéra. As such Redda grew to be a member of the ruling circles of the Emperor. His mother, Bisrat Weldye, was the daughter of Dejazmach Weldye, who belonged to the Mekwanint (nobility) of Tigray and ‘claimed descend from Sabagadis Woldu, chief of Agame warlords in the nineteenth century.

Life as shifta

Hailemariam himself claimed that he joined Shiftennet by declining the offer by Ras Seyoum to take over the position of his late father. He became shifta because he despised the ruling family of Tigray, including Ras Seyyum, for their exploitative administration and ‘submission’ to the Shoans. He was also sympathetic to the peasants and their exploitation by the nobilities of Tigray and later by Shewa. Was he thus the Robin Hood of Tigray, as Gebru Tareke portrays him? As he later claimed, he also became a shifta because he was opposed to the centralization policy of Emperor Haile Sellasé and the overall policies that the Emperor was enforcing on Tigray. He accused the Shoan nobility, especially the Emperor, of dividing the Tigray people among two rival leaders, namely Ras Seyyum Mengesha and Dajjazmach Haile Selassie Gugsa; the former ruling the districts of Adwa, Shire and Tembien and the latter governing Kilitte Awla'lo, Inderta and Raya. This, according to Haile Mariam, was a deliberate move of the Shoans to divide and weaken the Tigray people so as to make Tigray vulnerable to foreign invaders.

During the Italian Occupation

From their colony, in the Mereb Mellash, the Italians were able to swiftly occupy Tigray in 1935. Blatta Haile Mariam blamed Haile Selassié for his failure to assist the Tigrayans in their heroic resistance against the aggressors. According to him, from September 1935 to April 1936 there was fierce resistance against the Italians in Tigray. During these eight months of resistance, Haile Mariam accused the Emperor’s government of its failure to assist the anticolonial resistance in Tigray. To quote his words:

"For eight months, eight months! We [the Tigray people] had fought the Italians alone without any assistance and leadership from the [Haile Selassié’s] government. The government being stationed in Amba Aradom, Maichew and Korem was a mere observer to the cause ..."

After eight months of defiance, to refer to Haile Mariam’s own words, Emperor Haile Selassié faced the Italian forces in Maichew. The battle was not able to deter the advancement of the latter. On the contrary, the Emperor fled to London. For the patriots, the defeat at the battle of Maichew and the flight of the Emperor did not make them stop their resistance; rather they gave the Italians a hard time by engaging in guerrilla warfare. Like their other Ethiopian patriots, the Tigrayans relentlessly resumed their resistance, and one of these was Hailemariam.