What A Life! The Autobiography of Dawit Wolde Giorgis

Maps
Africa
Ethiopia’s provinces (pre-1992)
Ethiopia’s administrative regions (post-1992)
Eritrea

Glossary of Ethiopian Words (Amharic unless otherwise indicated)
Titles Under the Empire
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgements

Chapter One - My Early Life
Woldegiorgis Woldeyohanis: His Extraordinary Life
My Mother and Our Home Life
Brothers and Sisters
TMS (Teferi Mekonnen School)

Chapter Two - An Officer in His Imperial Majesty’s Armed Forces
Haile Selassie I Military Academy (HSMA)
2nd Infantry Division in Eritrea
Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Knox, Kentucky
The Mission That Almost Killed Me
Haile Selassie I University: Law School
Columbia University, New York; SMU, Dallas, Texas

Chapter Three - The 1974 Ethiopian Revolution
Mengistu the Psychopath
Development Through Cooperation
Deputy Commissioner of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ethio-Somali War (1977-8)
The Independence of Djibouti, and Other Missions
The Afro-Arab Conference
The Victory of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua
Liberia: President Samuel Doe
Fidel Castro
A Whirlwind of Visits
Ethiopia and Zimbabwe\'s Independence
Ethiopia and Namibia\'s Independence
Tanzania: Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere
Mozambique: Samora Machel
Sudan: Jafaar Muhammad an-Nimeiry
Burkina Faso: Thomas Sankara
My Contact with the World Outside Africa
Governor of Eritrea and Commissioner of the RRC

Chapter Four - Life in Exile Application for Asylum
Princeton University
The Attempted Coup of 1989. The Executions
Planning a Second Coup
The Demise of the Dergue Looking for a Job: Study of Homelessness

Chapter Five - Ethiopia and Eritrea
The EPRDF/ TPLF Take Over
Meles Zenawi
The Question of Ethnicity
Eritrea’s Long Road to Independence
Setting the Stage for Secession
A Look Backward to the Federation
The Question of Access to the Sea
Why Did the Federation Fail? The Abrogation of the Federal Act
The Referendum for Independence: Was It Legal?
Eritrea: A Non-pluralistic Politcal System
War Again: Badme and the G15
Reflections on My Governorship of Eritrea
The Way Forward for Eritrea and Ethiopia
Truth and Reconciliation with Eritrea
Did Ethiopia Colonize Eritrea?
The Italian Creation of Eritrea
Eritrea and the Issue of Self-Determination
Response to My Comment on Awate
Oromay by Bealu Girma

Chapter Six - Operation Moses, Operation Solomon, and Ambassador Kassa Kebede
Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy Toward Israel in the 1970s
Operation Moses
Who is Kassa Kebede?
Operation Solomon
It Was all About the Money
The End of the Long Saga

Chapter Seven - Life as an International Consultant
Angola: Opulence and Destitution
A Classic Proxy War
Jonas Savimbi and UNITA
Namibia: A Model of Stability and Democracy
My Work and My Life in Namibia
Namibian Politics
Ups and Downs in Namibia
Off-road Driving with the “Maestro, ”Mr. Werner Schaap
Rwanda: the 1994 Genocide
A Brief Background
The Genocide 228
Accepting Responsibility: The US and the UN
Arriving at the “Killing Field”
The NGO-Industrial Complex
Rwandan Stories
Tanzania: A Nation at Peace with Itself
Ujamaa
Uganda: The Pearl of Africa
The Jewish Homeland?
Uganda\'s Troubled Governance Since Independence
Illicit Firearms Trafficking
The Lord\'s Resistance Army (LRA)
Madagascar: People with Passive Endurance
South Africa and the Legacies of Apartheid: Visiting Fellow at the University of Cape Town (UCT), Center for Africa Studies (CAS)
The Struggle against Apartheid: Nelson Mandela
Cape Town: Apartheid Architecture
Anecdotes: On Being Black in an Exclusively White Community
Sudan: Enigmatic (2004-2008)
Humanitarian Agencies in Sudan
The Conflicts of Identity: Africans or Arabs?
The Darfur Crisis
South Sudan: The Most Victimized People
The Flow of Migrants through Sudan
What Surprised Me Most about Sudan
Islam and the Culture of Sudan
Liberia: the Colony of Freed Slaves
The Beginnings
Ex-Slaves and New Slaves
Enter Sergeant Samuel Doe
The 14-Year War: The Rise of Charles Taylor
The Killers
Post-War Challenges
The Central African Republic (CAR): The Phantom State

Chapter Eight - Complicity with Evil: United Nations Peacekeeping and the Human Rights Commission
The UN and Peacekeeping
A Brief Case Analysis of 11 UN Missions in Africa
Terrorism
Improving Peacekeeping Operations
Strategic Factors
Operational Factors
The UN and Human Rights
Migration and Organ Trafficking

Chapter Nine — Truth and Reconciliation: South Africa, Liberia, Rwanda, the USA, and Ethiopia
The Failure of the TRC in South Africa
Truth and Reconciliation in Liberia
Truth and Reconciliation in Rwanda
TRC in Other Parts of the World
The Need for Truth and Reconciliation in the USA
The United States Was Born with a Split Personality
Ethiopians and Truth “for” Reconciliation

Chapter Ten - Concerns for Africa\'s Future: Colorism and African Youth
Colorism
Black is Beautiful in the Ancient World
My First Experience of Racism in the US
The Color of Jesus
The Rastafarian (Rasta) Movement and Ethiopianism
The Background to Rasta and Ethiopianism
Dark Skin vs. Light Skin in the USA
Colorism and My Experience in Africa
Colorism: A New Form of Bondage
The Next Generation
Chilling Statistics
The Legacy of the 1960s and 70s The Youth Problem
Pan-Africanism: the Vision of Our Forefathers
Where Are We Now?

Chapter Eleven - The Wahhabi Invasion of Africa and the New African Security Challenge
Abd al-Wahab and the Saudi Family Islam in Africa
Sufism: A Part of African Religious Tradition
Across the Middle East and Africa Wahhabism is on the Offensive
The Role of the USA
Do Morals Matter Anymore?

Chapter Twelve - My Struggle With Faith and Suffering
Suffering in the War in Eritrea and the Great Famine
More Death and Suffering in Africa
The Warlord Preachers
The Church: Preaching or Business?
The Killers in Rwanda and the Church
Doubting My Faith
“Why Do We Suffer, God?”
Is Suffering Part of God\'s Plan That We Will Never Understand and Must Accept?
Faith in Humanity: My Experience with Mother (Saint) Teresa

Chapter Thirteen - The Great Impostor
How We Got to this Point: The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) Rewrites History
Abiy Ahmed\'s Deceptions
The Difference Between Good Leaders and Bad Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity
Attacks Against Ethnic Amhara Population in Benishangul-Gumuz
Military Action in Tigray Against the TPLF

Epilogue - Ethiopia Forever Changed
Post Scriptum May, 2021

Afterword - What Will the Future Bring?

Appendix A - On the Creation of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Federation and its Abrogation
The Potsdam Conference
Second Meeting of the Council of Ministers The Treaty of Peace with Italy
The Four Power Commission
Recommendations by the Deputies of the Foreign Ministers for the Former Italian Colonies of the Council of Foreign Ministers: London, August 31, 1948
Eritrea and the United Nations UN Commission in Eritrea
The Legality of the Abrogation of the Federation
Cameroon
Libya

Appendix B - Professor Haile M. Larebo\'s Address to the Oromo Intellectuals\' Misrepresentation of, Fabrication of, and Attack on Ethiopian History

Notes
Index