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The History Hour
Ethiopian history
The History Hour
Sep 13, 2024

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.

We’re looking at key moments in Ethiopian history, as it’s 50 years since Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in a military coup.

We start our programme looking at the moment a military junta called the Derg who ousted the monarchy in September 1974.

Then, we hear how, before this, the Emperor lived in exile in Bath, in the west of England.

Our expert guest is Hewan Semon Marye, who is junior professor at the University of Hamburg in Germany.

Then, Abebech Gobena who founded an orphanage and was known as Africa’s Mother Teresa.

Following that, the oldest skeleton of a human ancestor, discovered in 1994.

Finally, the Axum Obelisk, returned to Ethiopia in 2005, after being looted by Italy’s fascist dictator.

Contributors: Lij Mulugeta Asseratte Kassa – relative of Haile Selassie.

Professor Shawn-Naphtali Sobers – University of the West of England, Bristol.

Professor Hewan Semon Marye – Ethiopian Studies and Contemporary North-East African Studies at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

Hannah Merkana – raised in Abebech Gobena’s orphanage.

Professor Yohannes Haile Selassie – Paleoanthropologist.

Michele Daniele – Architect.

(Photo: Haile Selassie in his study. Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

More Episodes


Aug 15, 2026
The Mau Mau uprising and man-eating lions

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya.

We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms.

Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the conflict between Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army, the British and Kenyan loyalists.

Next, when Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park.

In 1997, scientists travelled to Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898.

Plus, we hear how Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed an unprecedented power-sharing deal to end a wave of violence that left more than 1,200 people dead.

And the heartwarming story of the friendship between a baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise.

Finally for our Sporting Witness story, we head to the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1983.

Contributors: Caroline Elkins - Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Muthoni Kirima - Field Marshall in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. Frank Gillard - BBC correspondent. Thomas Gnoske - Scientist. Alan Patterson - British Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson's grandson. Maina Kiai - Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in 2008. Maini Schildt - Swedish Ultimate Frisbee player.

(Photo: Mau Mau suspects are rounded up by police outside the camp in Manyani, Kenya, 1955. Credit: Getty Images/Authenticated News)


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Ethiopian history

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