Introduction

It is easier to date the beginning of revolutions than their endings. The dismissal of the Derg from Tigray in 1989 marked an ending of sorts, but the war went on until the overthrow of the Derg and the EPRDF's capture of the entire country in 1991. That date served as another important marker, although struggles within the state and for development continued unabated, albeit under the very different conditions of peace and with the TPLF in a leading position in which to influence the political agenda of all Ethiopia. It is these new conditions and the challenges they pose in Tigray in the period from 1991 to 1996 that will be outlined in the first part of this concluding chapter. The second part of the chapter will summarily examine political developments at the Ethiopia-wide level during this period, and in particular, link the revolutionary struggle for Tigayran national self-determination with the EPRDF's efforts to reconstruct the Ethiopian state.

Tigray: from revolutionary struggles to peace-time struggles

Although the overthrow of the Derg brought much-desired peace, Tigray's transition from a regime of virtual independence to one of measured autonomy in post-1991 Ethiopia has not always been easy. In spite of the widely held assumption outside Tigray that the province was the beneficiary of enormous funds from a government dominated by Tigrayans, development, and even emergency, funds for war-affected areas in the province were slow to materialise.