The origins of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), at its inception, was grounded in an ethno-nationalist consciousness generated by the cumulative grievances of Tigrayans against successive central governments of Ethiopia. An association of Tigrayan elites, the urban-based Tigrayan National Organization (TNO), prepared the groundwork for the formation of the TPLF. The TPLF, for its part, utilized class and ethnonationalist ideologies to mobilize Tigrayans until it ousted the Mengistu government in 1991. This article analyzes how this ethno-nationalist organization emerged, grew and finally came to dominate Ethiopia — a state with an emerging multi-national character.