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 Tables and Figures

Tables

3.1 Area and Population of Regional States 60

6.1 Final Results of the 2005 Election 133

Figures

1.1 Political Map of Ethiopia 2

3.1 Ethiopia’s Provinces Under Haile Selassie 58
6.1 Size of Regional Party Central Committees 148
6.2 Popular Representation in Regional Party
Central Committees 149
6.3 New Membership in Regional Party Central Committees 150

vii

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 Acknowledgments

I owe many people my sincere thanks for helping me along the way. I
As with all books that are years—decades—in the making,

first went to Ethiopia in 1986 and have been back dozens of times since
then. It sometimes seems as if I have had an ongoing conversation about
Ethiopian politics, whether during my fieldwork in the country, talking
with Ethiopian students and others living in the diaspora, or meeting
colleagues at academic conferences. In this book I try to summarize that
conversation at a particular point in time and reflect what I have learned
from hundreds of people over the decades.
I would like to thank Leonardo R. Arriola, Mark Bradbury, Christo-
pher Clapham, Dereje Feyissa, Frew Yirgalem, Brian Gilchrest, Hallelu-
jah Lulie, Laura Hammond, John Harbeson, Sally Healy, Edmond J.
Keller, Lealem Mersha, Lulsegged Abebe, Harold Marcus, Jim McCann,
Ken Menkhaus, Christopher Mitchell, Marina Ottaway, Angela Raven-
Roberts, John Ryle, David H. Shinn, Lahra Smith, Kjetil Tronvoll, Steve
Tucker, Solomon Dersso, Michael Woldemariam, Josef Woldense, and
Terje Østebø. Awetu Simmeso, who passed away before I could share this
book with him, was the first person I always sought out whenever I was
in Addis Ababa and is greatly missed. In particular I want to recognize the
years of discussions and invaluable research assistance of Seife Asfaw.
I have benefited from my students and colleagues at Addis Ababa
University and Bahir Dar University, and thank the Fulbright program for
sponsoring my time at those two universities. The Rift Valley Institute has
provided me opportunities to engage with a wide range of scholars and
policy analysts studying the Horn of Africa. At the School for Conflict
Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, I would like to thank
Dean Kevin Avruch and the students in my graduate seminars on civil

ix

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 x Acknowledgments

wars. My colleagues Thomas Flores, Agnieszka Paczyńska, Seife Asfaw,

and Felegebirhan Belesti read the full draft manuscript and made many
suggestions that I know improved the book.
Lynne Rienner encouraged me to write (and finally finish) this book
for many years, and I could not ask for a kinder publisher.
I wrote the first draft of the book before the 2018 political changes
in Ethiopia and the heartening opening of political space. Because most
of my interviews took place when anonymity was necessary for frank
discussions, I do not name any of those who agreed to be interviewed or
with whom I have spent many hours discussing Ethiopian politics.
I thank all of these people and others for helping me make fewer
mistakes in my quest to understand Ethiopian politics. All remaining
errors are my own.
I dedicate this book with love to Agnieszka and Nell for all their
support over the years. None of this would have happened without them.

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 1
The Puzzle of
Ethiopian Politics

The TPLF started in February 1975 as a small guerrilla band in the

northern region of Ethiopia and eventually grew to provide the core
of the Ethiopian government.
—Aregawi Berhe, TPLF founding member1

Down! Down! Woyane!

—Protesters at Irreecha celebrations in Bishoftu, October 20162

The coming time in Ethiopia will be a time of love and forgiveness.

—Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Inaugural Address, April 20183

only the third prime minister since the ruling Ethiopian People’s Rev-
On April 2, 2018, Abiy Ahmed, gave his inaugural speech as

olutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took power in 1991. Abiy came

from the Oromo wing of the ruling party rather than the long-dominant
Tigray leadership. He rose to power at a tumultuous time. The EPRDF
and its affiliated parties won 100 percent of the seats in the 2015 elec-
tions and put in place development policies that created a period of
sustained economic growth. By 2016, however, ongoing and some-
times violent protests resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and ten-
sions that did not end with the proclamation of a state of emergency.
In contrast to past patterns of mass arrests and condemnation of dissi-
dents as “antipeace” elements working in league with ruling party
enemies, the new prime minister emphasized the opposite in 2018:
“The coming time in Ethiopia will be a time of love and forgiveness.
We desire our country to be one of justice, peace and freedom and
where its citizens are interconnected with the unbreakable chord of
humanity and brotherhood.” 4

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 2 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics
Political Map of Ethiopia’s Nine Regions and Two City
Figure 1.1 A
Political Map of Ethiopia

On May 28, 1991, nearly thirty years before Prime Minister Abiy
Ahmed’s inauguration, rebel soldiers from the northern Ethiopian
region of Tigray entered Addis Ababa from four sides and, after a brief
fight around the presidential palace, occupied the capital.5 Mengistu
Haile Mariam, leader of the brutal military junta that had ruled since it
deposed Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, had fled to Zimbabwe a week
earlier, and his army had collapsed. As described by a Reuters corre-
spondent who traveled with the rebels, the “piles of uniforms and boots
dumped along the road” told the story of the breakdown of Mengistu’s
army and the rapid march of the insurgents. 6 While negotiations with
the rump government took place with US mediation in London, the
insurgent force moved into the capital, waving the movement’s red flag
emblazoned with an AK-47 rifle. What had started as a small group of
Tigrayan nationalist students in 1974 transformed into the EPRDF, a

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 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics 3

battle-hardened, Marxist-Leninist, rebel movement that defeated one of

Africa’s largest militaries. But the EPRDF now faced the daunting chal-
lenges of ruling a war-torn country of extraordinary diversity.
In this book I connect these two moments in Ethiopian political his-
tory. I argue that the structures and contradictions within the EPRDF are
key to understanding the puzzle of Ethiopian politics. This party—actu-
ally a coalition of four different parties, as we will see—operates and
is structured in ways that reflect the legacies of the armed struggle and
the imperatives of the war-to-peace transition. The institutions created
in response to the challenges of the late 1980s and early 1990s continue
to shape Ethiopian politics today; thus, understanding the EPRDF helps
us to comprehend both the stability of the regime and the ways in which
it faced crisis and rebalanced itself in 2018.
In the chapters that follow, I trace how the legacies of the protracted
armed struggle and the exigencies of the war-to-peace transition shaped
the postwar political order in Ethiopia. The militarily victorious EPRDF
put in place a political system based upon two contradictory logics. On
the one hand, the ruling party exemplified a disciplined, authoritarian,
vanguard party organized around the principles of democratic central-
ism. At the same time, to expand beyond their Tigray base, the winning
rebels built a ruling coalition from four diverse, ethnically based parties
and wrote a constitution that emphasized ethno-federalism and conse-
quently generated centrifugal force. From 1991 to 2016, this system
remained steady because the center was sufficiently strong and the new
regional states sufficiently weak to balance the ethno-federal institu-
tions. The demonstrations in 2016 disrupted this balance and provided
the opportunity for new leadership to emerge. The EPRDF as a power-
ful party, however, persisted and continued to dominate politics.

Ethiopia in a Comparative Context:

The literature on Ethiopian politics is abundant, although perhaps less

The Importance of Institutions

prolific than might be expected given the country’s size and regional
importance. Scholarship has often emphasized the importance of political
culture and the historical process of state building in highland Ethiopia.7
Smith and others emphasize how citizenship, gender, and other categories
contribute to hierarchical social structures that go beyond formal political
organizations.8 Ethnicity and Ethiopian identity have an extensive schol-
arship and are key parts of contemporary Ethiopian politics, as I will
explore in this book.9 Scholarship assessing the quality of democracy and
advocacy work on human rights has received considerable attention.10

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 4 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics

The historical role of longtime prime minister Meles Zenawi, leader of

the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) insurgency and founder of
the EPRDF, has led some to emphasize his personal influence and world-
view.11 The borderlands and center-periphery relationships are another
key theme in the literature.12
In this book I build on these insights but argue that Ethiopian politics
is shaped by a fundamental tension at the core of the EPRDF. On the one
hand, drawing from the party’s origins as a Marxist insurgency, the EPRDF
built a new order based on hierarchy, discipline, and top-down control. On
the other hand, driven by the need to transform the Tigrayan rebel move-
ment into a larger coalition to administer the entire state, the EPRDF cre-
ated new institutions that emphasized ethno-federalism and institutionalized
ethnically defined regional states and political parties. The contradictions
between these two logics of governing remained in check until 2016, as
a strong center checked the initially weak regions and ethnic parties.
In addition to arguments that help explain the puzzle of Ethiopian
politics, in this book I contribute to a number of debates within the more
general comparative politics and conflict resolution literatures. The schol-
arship by Staniland, Mampilly, and Arjona on rebel organizations and
governance provide useful frames through which to understand the lega-
cies of the Ethiopian civil wars.13 The Ethiopian regime is in many ways
the epitome of an authoritarian system with a strong political party, as
suggested by Levitsky and Way, along with electoral authoritarianism, as
analyzed by Schedler.14 The ruling party has been in power since 1991,
suggesting resilience and mechanisms to manage intraparty competition,
as studied by Svolik.15 It also provides an important case on the specific
characteristics of war-to-peace transitions following rebel victory, as sug-
gested by Lyons.16 The transformation of the TPLF rebel group into the
EPRDF political party, which included constituencies not involved in the
armed struggle, demonstrates an important mechanism in the war-to-
peace transition that links the insurgency to the strong authoritarian party.

Ethiopian politics for nearly thirty years have been shaped by how the
The Legacies of the War and Dynamics of Transition

TPLF won the protracted civil war in 1991 and how the legacies of that
war were linked to the mechanisms through which the EPRDF ruled.17
Civil wars that end in rebel victory generally follow distinct war-to-
peace transitions. The transition in Ethiopia, as well as in cases such as
Uganda and Rwanda, emphasized power consolidation rather than
power sharing and focused on transforming the armed insurgent group
into an authoritarian political party.18 In Ethiopia, the EPRDF used the

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 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics 5

war-to-peace transition to transform its armed insurgent movement into

such a party and to consolidate power. These legacies continue to shape
reform efforts in 2018.
The transition in Ethiopia began with military victory, not a negoti-
ated peace settlement. The EPRDF, along with the insurgent Eritrean Peo-
ple’s Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), met with
the remnants of the old regime in London in May 1991, but military facts
on the ground rather than negotiations or external powers determined the
outcome. Instead of building the conditions for more democratic regimes,
this kind of path dependency leads victorious insurgents to build on the
successful models that contributed to their victory and to seize opportu-
nities during the war-to-peace transition to consolidate power.19
In Ethiopia the legacies of war included high levels of solidarity and
leadership coherence forged during the protracted armed struggle along
with the precedents and organizational structures developed by the rebels
to administer liberated territory. The mechanisms by which the TPLF as
an insurgent movement organized and administered areas it occupied
during the war were linked to how the TPLF-led EPRDF organized and
governed as a ruling party. In addition, the imperative to broaden its
political base and incorporate constituencies that had not participated in
the armed struggle led the TPLF to create a multiethnic coalition and
construct a series of ethnically defined regional states. Finally, transi-
tional processes such as postconflict elections, transitional justice, and
demobilization served as effective instruments of power consolidation.
During the protracted civil war, the TPLF developed a cohesive
leadership and a disciplined, hierarchical organization that practiced
decisionmaking through strict democratic centralism.20 As I will explore
in more detail in Chapter 2, the TPLF emerged out of the Ethiopian stu-
dent movement in the early 1970s, and, according to its founding story,
began with fewer than a hundred fighters.21 Meles and a small group in
the leadership formed the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray (MLLT) in
the mid-1980s, a tightly integrated vanguard within the TPLF, and this
coterie led the movement to victory. For much of the armed struggle,
the TPLF fought in a relatively confined area in the highlands of Tigray,
with relatively limited external support, which reinforced the consoli-
dation of its leadership. The challenges of the protracted struggle
resulted in a cohesive leadership, hierarchical lines of decisionmaking,
and a disciplined core within the organization.
Although the insurgents developed connections in the countryside in
northern Ethiopia, the war did not come to areas inhabited by Oromos
and others in southern Ethiopia until the final months of the struggle.

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 6 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics

The Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Southern

Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM), two other member
parties in the ruling coalition, lacked coherence and experience compa-
rable to those of the TPLF.22 The EPRDF therefore transitioned from a
largely Tigrayan insurgency into a strong multiethnic coalition with a
strong and coherent core but dissimilar constituent parties.
Victorious rebels are more likely to have experience in administer-
ing liberated territory. Therefore they develop trained, effective, and
disciplined cadres with the capacity to govern civilians and with rela-
tionships with civilian constituencies and international actors.23 In
Ethiopia, this governance of liberated territory during the armed strug-
gle often created nondemocratic norms and precedents that shaped how
the party subsequently operated during peacetime. Wartime administra-
tion emphasized discipline and building connections so that the civilian
population could support the military strategy. Civilians were not con-
stituents to whom the military leadership must answer but rather auxil-
iaries who must be indoctrinated and mobilized by the insurgents to
meet the goals of the rebellion. Relationship models developed during
the civil war between rebel leadership and the population are sustained
in postconflict authoritarian systems.
In northern Ethiopia, the TPLF saw itself as a classic, Maoist-style
guerrilla army that would win by forging relationships with the peasants
of Tigray. The rebels deployed political cadres with their military units
and created local baitos (people’s councils) to assist the TPLF in admin-
istering liberated zones. The movement had its own impressive humani-
tarian wing, the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), which coordinated
large-scale operations with international assistance, and the Tigray
Development Association (TDA), which raised significant money in the
diaspora. The insurgent army played other state-like diplomatic roles,
including having extensive (and often contentious) relationships with
neighboring insurgents in Eritrea along with international actors and
organizations.24 The TPLF therefore had extensive local administrative
structures and foreign relations in place prior to gaining power, and these
models developed during wartime shaped the design of postwar institu-
tions. The rebels began the transition in 1991 with not only a large and
battle-hardened military but also cadres in nearly every village in Tigray,
well integrated into a regionwide political network experienced in man-
aging top-down relationships with the peasants.
Alongside the wartime legacies of organizational coherence and mod-
els of military administration, the imperatives of war-to-peace transitions
following rebel victory help explain the Ethiopian transition. Victorious

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 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics 7

rebels are more likely to derive significant legitimacy from the costs
endured in defeating the old order and ending the violence—“We rule
because we sacrificed!” Rebel tanks on the streets of Addis Ababa pro-
vided ample evidence of the effective transfer of power. The war-to-peace
transition provides processes such as elections, transitional justice, and
demobilization used by the rebel movement to strengthen its authoritarian
power. However, victory often allows the winners to break with the past
and launch a new vision. They take power with an extraordinary mandate
and can use the fear of a return to the old order as a rationale to renounce
or abnegate opposition. The EPRDF quickly established a transitional
charter, helped establish new political parties in southern Ethiopia, chal-
lenged preexisting conceptions of Ethiopian nationalism, and redrew the
political map of Ethiopia to create new ethnically defined regions.
In addition to the rebels’ specific claims of legitimacy born of sacri-
fice and victory, the process of transition from war to peace offered many
opportunities to consolidate their power. The EPRDF quickly demobi-
lized the Derg’s military and reorganized its own armed forces. As the
insurgent army transformed itself into the postwar Ethiopian National
Defense Forces, it sought to decrease the number of soldiers from Tigray,
the core of the rebel movement, and recruit more soldiers from southern
Ethiopia so that the national army more closely reflected the country’s
diversity and looked less like an army of occupation. Although expanding
membership among the rank and file, the TPLF’s experienced military
leaders retained top positions and dominated the officer corps. Transi-
tional justice mechanisms remained under the control of the victorious
rebels as well, who organized special prosecutor trials that convicted
many high officials of the old regime of war crimes and sentenced
Mengistu, the defeated leader of the Derg, to death in absentia.25
The legitimacy that comes from winning the war and the experi-
ences of wartime governance are particularly powerful in the immedi-
ate aftermath of war termination. Over time, however, these claims and
capacities begin to fade. Nearly thirty years after the transition, the
majority of the population has no direct memories of the grim years
under the Derg, the sacrifices and martyrs of the armed struggle, or the
dramatic events of 1991. The ruling party, of course, takes measures to
remind the population of its role as liberator. “Derg Downfall Day” is
a national holiday celebrated every May 28. 26 But it is not surprising
that over time the resonance of these events fades, and different forms
of legitimacy are necessary. The protests of 2016 and the new leader-
ship of 2018 are in part the outcome of this decline in the legitimacy
earned through military victory.

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 8 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics

Despite its military accomplishments, the EPRDF faced a significant

War-to-Peace Transition: Creating a Ruling Coalition

challenge upon seizing power. Large national constituencies played

little or no role in the armed struggle. The civil war was fought in the
north, and numerous communities in the south knew little about the
insurgents prior to the regime change in 1991. Some Amhara had
direct experience in the armed struggle, but many of them prioritized
a pan-Ethiopian identity. The OLF mobilized the key Oromo con-
stituency, but the OLF and TPLF had generally contentious relations.
Others in rural provinces in southern Ethiopia such as southern Omo,
or Gamo-Gofa (today the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peo-
ple’s Region, or SNNPR) were subject to the Derg’s compulsory
recruitment into military service but otherwise had limited roles in the
civil war and never experienced living in liberated territory. Most
Ethiopians had little contact with the rebel movement during the war.
Because of this, the leadership of the EPRDF rapidly created local
affiliates in these areas to serve as its interlocutors with populations
outside of its wartime networks. These affiliated parties often emerged
virtually overnight, and many had only tenuous links to the often quite
isolated communities in question.
For the EPRDF, creating a national political party on the basis of an
ethnoregional rebel group that could make appeals across Ethiopia’s
many diverse communities was a fundamental challenge and an essen-
tial step to consolidating its power. In 1991, the organization was over-
whelmingly Tigrayan, with some Amhara and few Oromo members. As
the TPLF created the EPRDF, it formed a coalition of ethnonational par-
ties so that, in the same way the TPLF ruled Tigray, the OPDO would
rule Oromia, and similar parties would rule each group in the SNNPR.
The insurgent national liberation organizational model was replicated in
other regions regardless of whether they had the historical sense of
identity or experience of wartime solidarity that characterized Tigray.
The EPRDF organized elections and in other ways used political
processes to consolidate and sustain its rule. Political parties in author-
itarian states can serve a bargaining function in that they broker rela-
tionships among elites and create systems for distributing power and
authority across both individuals and constituencies. In Ethiopia, for
example, intraparty processes rather than public campaigns or violence
determined who would occupy the key decisionmaking positions in the
EPRDF’s Executive Committee, Council of Ministers, and regional
state offices. The party used elections not to provide opportunities for
meaningful competition but rather to demonstrate power, reshuffle lead-

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 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics 9

ership, sometimes co-opt rivals, and, perhaps most importantly, create

incentives for party loyalty, thus consolidating power.
Elections following rebel victory in Ethiopia therefore had little to
do with determining who would rule but played key functions in power
consolidation and the creation of the strong, authoritarian EPRDF party.
These polls are typically noncompetitive, as was the case in Ethiopia’s
elections of 1995, 2000, 2010, and 2015. The exception, as I discuss in
Chapter 6, was the contentious 2005 election. In the 2010 and 2015
national elections, however, the EPRDF and its affiliates won 99.6 and
100 percent of the seats, respectively. These overwhelming victories
sent a message that the authoritarian party remained dominant and was
not about to surrender power and that acquiescence to it was necessary
for political survival. The question of whether the 2020 elections can
provide an opportunity for Ethiopians to meaningfully participate in the
selection of their leaders remains a matter of contention among key
Ethiopian actors and analysts.
The successful transition from rebel victory to a postwar authori-
tarian political party was therefore related to the nature of the victori-
ous insurgent group—its leadership cohesion and the legacies of its
wartime administration—along with the imperatives of war-to-peace
transitions. The exigencies of transforming an insurgent group based in
a particular small community into a larger, multiethnic political party
able to govern all of Ethiopia led to a coalition of diverse constituent
members acting in coordination.
In this book I explain Ethiopian politics from 1991 to 2018 by tracing
the legacies of the armed struggle and the war-to-peace transition of polit-
ical institutions and the ruling party in particular. I argue that these two
forces created a strong and centralized ruling party that held together a
clamorous coalition built upon ethnically defined parties and autonomous
regional states. These two contradictory logics balanced centrifugal
forces with a strong center. In 2018, however, after a period of sustained
protests indicated that the old balance had been disrupted, a new leader,
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, seeks to realign power among the political
elites and reconsolidate the EPRDF’s power. Although the consequences
of the leadership change are difficult to predict, the EPRDF remains the
dominant party at this writing and seems likely to remain so.

This book builds on research that I have conducted since my first trip to
A Note on Sources

Ethiopia in 1986 to carry out doctoral dissertation research. In the ensu-

ing thirty-three years I have been back several dozen times for varying

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 10 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics

lengths of time and in a variety of roles. In this book I draw on my

experiences in observing elections in 1992, serving as the leader of the
Donor Election Unit (DEU) in 1995, and serving as a senior adviser to
the Carter Center’s election observation mission in 2005.27 I have also
consulted with a range of international nongovernmental organizations
regarding their programs in Ethiopia.28 These occasions allowed me to
travel throughout the country and to conduct hundreds of interviews
with the diplomatic community, government officials, opposition party
activists, civil society leaders, and Ethiopians in numerous small towns
and rural villages in virtually every region.29 I have engaged in hun-
dreds of interviews and less formal conversations with a wide variety of
Ethiopians over the decades, both in Ethiopia and in the diaspora.30 I
have participated in dozens of discussions and briefings convened by
various research institutes.31 I have taught at Addis Ababa University
and Bahir Dar University.
In this book I build on this prior research and on the work of many
scholars and colleagues who have helped me gain a better understand-
ing of Ethiopia and to make fewer mistakes. I cite secondary and pri-
mary sources throughout this book. Given uncertain conditions within
Ethiopia, I cite only year and location to identify interviews.

In this book I explain the puzzle of contemporary postwar Ethiopian pol-

Outline of the Book

itics by highlighting the institutional legacies of the civil war and the
mechanisms of transitioning from a regionally based national liberation
movement into a diverse ruling party. In Chapter 1 I frame the mecha-
nisms that link insurgent victory and strong authoritarian political party
and the process of war-to-peace transition. In Chapter 2 I focus on the
period of violent conflict and how the different actors engaged in con-
temporary Ethiopian politics experienced and were transformed by that
period of struggle. In Chapter 3 I emphasize the logic behind a postcon-
flict dispensation that organized politics around ethnically defined regions
and noncompetitive elections. These two aspects of these new rules high-
light the central contradiction of a political system with significant levels
of federalism and a party simultaneously centralized and hierarchical.
In Chapter 4 I examine the EPRDF and the significant differences
among the member parties that compose the ruling coalition. The lega-
cies of the civil war in battle-scared Tigray bear little resemblance to
large areas of Oromia and the South in general, and the TPLF is not like
the OPDO or the SEPDM. This variation is significant and helps explain
many intraparty dynamics. In this chapter I also look at the degree to

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 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics 11

which these four parties have put in place four distinct political systems
in their respective regions. In Chapter 5 I shift the focus to the Ethiopian
opposition. Understanding the limitations on political opposition is
essential to comprehending how the ruling party operates as a strong
authoritarian party. In Chapter 6 I trace political developments from the
2005 electoral crisis and subsequent crackdown to the 2015 election, in
which the EPRDF and its affiliates won 100 percent of the seats, and I
demonstrate how intraparty dynamics shaped Ethiopian politics. In that
chapter I also analyze the different patterns of central committee appoint-
ments across the four member parties of the EPRDF to understand both
the early dominance of the TPLF and the leadership change within the
party in 2018. In Chapter 7 I emphasize the political implications of the
regime’s economic policies and its commitment to a “developmental
state” model. In Chapter 8 I look at the 2016 demonstrations and how
they challenged parts of the EPRDF’s legitimacy but, at the same time,
provided space for Oromo and Amhara reformers to align with the
demands of the populace while seeking to consolidate power within the
party. In Chapter 9 I examine patterns of behavior visible within the
EPRDF over decades to explain how new leadership took power in 2018.
In Chapter 10 I draw together the implications of the argument both for
our understanding of Ethiopia and for the comparative literatures on
authoritarian parties and war-to-peace transitions.

1. Aregawi Berhe, “The Origins of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front,”

Notes
African Affairs 103, no. 413 (2004): 569.
2. Woyane is a reference to the TPLF guerrilla forces. The Irreecha celebra-
tion led to a deadly stampede following security forces’ efforts to disperse a
crowd of Oromos.
3. Hassen Hussein, “Full [sic] English Transcript of Ethiopian Prime Minis-
ter Abiy Ahmed’s Inaugural Address,” Opride.com, April 3, 2018, https://www
.opride.com/2018/04/03/english-partial-transcript-of-ethiopian-prime-minister
-abiy-ahmeds-inaugural-address/.
4. Hussein, “Full [sic] English Transcript of Abiy Ahmed’s Inaugural Address.”
5. Peter Biles, “Addis Ababa Falls to Dawn Onslaught,” Guardian, May
29, 1991.
6. Aidan Hartley, “Ethiopian Rebels Swept Past Demoralized Government
Forces,” Reuters, May 27, 1991. Hartley describes this scene in his memoir,
The Zanzibar Chest: The Story of Life, Love, and Death in Foreign Lands (New
York: Grove, 2004).
7. Christopher Clapham, Haile Selassie’s Government (London: Longman,
1969); Clapham, Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988); René Lefort, “Powers—
Mengist—and Peasants in Rural Ethiopia: The May 2005 Elections,” Journal of

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Ethiopian Politics
 12 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics

Modern African Studies 45, no. 2 (2007): 253–276; Lefort, “Power—Mengist—

and Peasants in Rural Ethiopia: The Post 2005 Interlude,” Journal of Modern
African Studies 48, no. 3 (2010): 435–460; Kjetil Tronvoll, “Ambiguous Elections:
The Influence of Non-electoral Politics in Ethiopian Democratisation,” Journal of
Modern African Studies 47, no. 3 (September 2009): 449–474.
8. Lahra Smith, Making Citizens in Africa: Ethnicity, Gender, and National
Identity in Ethiopia (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
9. Lovise Aalen, The Politics of Ethnicity in Ethiopia: Actors, Power, and
Mobilisation Under Ethnic Federalism (Leiden: Brill, 2011); Sarah Vaughan
and Kjetil Tronvoll, The Culture of Power in Contemporary Ethiopian Political
Life, SIDA Studies No. 10 (Stockholm: Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency, 2003); Asnake Kefale, Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in
Ethiopia: A Comparative Regional Study (London: Routledge, 2013); Leonardo
R. Arriola, “Protesting and Policing in a Multiethnic Authoritarian State,” Com-
parative Politics 45, no. 2 (January 2013).
10. Kjetil Tronvoll and Tobias Hagmann, eds., Contested Power in Ethiopia:
Traditional Authorities and Multi-party Elections (Leiden: Brill, 2012); Siegfried
Pausewang, Kjetil Tronvoll, and Lovise Aalen, eds., Ethiopia Since the Derg: A
Decade of Democratic Pretension and Performance (London: Zed, 2002);
Leonardo R. Arriola and Terrence Lyons, “Ethiopia’s 100% Election,” Journal
of Democracy 27, no. 1 (January 2016): 76–88. On human rights, see the docu-
mentation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Council and Human Rights Watch.
11. Gérard Prunier, “The Meles Zenawi Era: From Revolutionary Marxism
to State Developmentalism,” in Gérard Prunier and Éloi Ficquet, eds., Under-
standing Contemporary Ethiopia: Monarchy, Revolution, and the Legacy of
Meles Zenawi (London: Hurst, 2015); Alex de Waal, “The Theory and Practice
of Meles Zenawi,” African Affairs 112, no. 446 (January 2013): 148–155.
12. Dereje Feyissa and Markus Virgil Hoehn, eds., Borders and Borderlands
as Resources in the Horn of Africa (London: James Currey, 2010); Dereje
Feyissa, Playing Different Games: The Paradox of Anywaa and Nuer Identifi-
cation in the Gambella Region, Ethiopia (New York: Berghahn, 2011); Tobias
Hagmann, “Punishing the Periphery: Legacies of State Repression in the
Ethiopian Ogaden,” Journal of Eastern African Studies 8, no. 4 (2014): 725–
739; John Markakis, Ethiopia: The Last Two Frontiers (Oxford, UK: James
Currey, 2011).
13. Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and
Civilian Life During War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011); Paul
Staniland, Networks of Rebellion: Explaining Insurgent Cohesion and Collapse
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014); Ana Arjona, Rebelocracy: Social
Order in the Colombian Civil War (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 2016). See also Ana Arjona, Nelson Kasfir, and Zachariah Cherian
Mampilly, eds., Rebel Governance in Civil Wars (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 2015).
14. Steven R. Levitsky and Lucan A. Way, Competitive Authoritarianism:
Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 2010); Levitsky and Way, “Beyond Patronage: Violent Struggle, Ruling
Party Cohesion, and Authoritarian Durability,” Perspectives on Politics 10, no.
4 (December 2012): 869–889; Andreas Schedler, ed., Electoral Authoritarian-
ism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006).

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Ethiopian Politics
 The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics 13

15. Milan W. Svolik, The Politics of Authoritarian Rule (Cambridge, UK:

Cambridge University Press, 2012). See also Jennifer Gandhi, Political Institu-
tions Under Dictatorship (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
16. Terrence Lyons, “The Importance of Winning: Victorious Insurgent
Groups and Authoritarian Politics,” Comparative Politics 48, no. 2 (January
2016): 167–184.
17. For war-to-peace transitions in general, see Stephen John Stedman,
Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M. Cousens, eds., Ending Civil Wars: The
Implementation of Peace Agreements (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002);
Philip G. Roeder and Donald Rothchild, eds., Sustainable Peace: Power and
Democracy After Civil Wars (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005); Anna
K. Jarstad and Timothy D. Sisk, eds., From War to Democracy: Dilemmas of
Peacebuilding (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008); Charles T.
Call, Why Peace Fails: The Causes and Prevention of Civil War Recurrence
(Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2012); Christoph Zürcher,
Carrie Manning, Kristie D. Evenson, Rachel Hayman, Sarah Riese, and Nora
Roehner, Costly Democracy: Peacebuilding and Democratization After War
(Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013).
18. For a comparative examination of this process, see Terrence Lyons,
“Victorious Rebels and Postwar Politics,” Civil Wars 18, no. 2 (2016): 160–
174. Côte d’Ivoire serves as another similar case, although with much more
substantial international peacebuilding engagement. See Giulia Piccolino,
“Peacebuilding and Statebuilding in Post-2011 Côte d’Ivoire: A Victor’s
Peace?” African Affairs 117, no. 468 (July 2018): 485–508.
19. Levitsky and Way, Competitive Authoritarianism; Beatriz Magaloni, Vot-
ing for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and Its Demise in Mexico (Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006); Gandhi, Political Institutions
Under Dictatorship; Jason Brownlee, Authoritarianism in an Age of Democra-
tization (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007). For a review of
the literature see Beatriz Magaloni and Ruth Krischeli, “Political Order and
One-party Rule,” Annual Review of Political Science 3 (2010): 123–143.
20. John Young, Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia: The Tigray People’s Liber-
ation Front, 1975–1991 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997);
Jenny Hammond, Fire from the Ashes: A Chronicle of the Revolution in Tigray,
Ethiopia (Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea, 1999). For a general discussion of dem-
ocratic centralism, see Michael Waller, Democratic Centralism: An Historical
Commentary (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1981).
21. Aregawi Berhe, A Political History of the Tigray People’s Liberation
Front (1975–1991): Revolt, Ideology, and Mobilisation in Ethiopia (Los Ange-
les: Teshai, 2009).
22. Vaughan, “Revolutionary Democratic State-Building.” The SEPDM
evolved out of the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Front (SEPDF),
formed by the EPRDF in 1992 after the war ended.
23. Mampilly, Rebel Rulers; Staniland, Networks of Rebellion.
24. Barbara Hendrie, “The Politics of Repatriation: The Tigrayan Refugee
Repatriation, 1985–1987,” Journal of Refugee Studies 4, no. 2 (June 1991):
200–218; John Prendergast and Mark Duffield, Without Troops and Tanks: The
Emergency Relief Desk and the Cross Border Operation in Eritrea and Tigray
(Trenton, NJ: Red Sea, 1994).

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Ethiopian Politics
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Title: Derrière les vieux murs en ruines: roman marocain

Author: A. R. de Lens

Release date: July 15, 2022 [eBook #68528]

Language: French

Original publication: France: Calmann Lévy, 1922

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DERRIÈRE

LES VIEUX MURS EN RUINES: ROMAN MAROCAIN ***
 A. R. DE LENS

———

Derrière
les vieux murs
en ruines
—Roman marocain—

PARIS
CALMANN-LÉVY, ÉDITEURS
3, RUE AUBER, 3
—
1922
Prix: 6 fr. 75 c.
 DERRIÈRE
LES VIEUX MURS EN RUINES

CALMANN-LÉVY, ÉDITEURS

——

DU MÊME AUTEUR
Format in-18.
LE HAREM ENTR’OUVERT 1 vol.
En préparation:
OUM EL GHIT OU L’OMBRE DU HAREM, roman. 1—
OUM EL GHIT OU LA CHOUETTE AU SOLEIL, roman 1 —

Droits de traduction et de reproduction réservés

pour tous les pays.

Copyright 1922, by Calmann-Lévy.

 A. R. DE LENS
——

DERRIÈRE
LES VIEUX MURS
EN RUINES
ROMAN MAROCAIN

PARIS
CALMANN-LÉVY, ÉDITEURS
3, RUE AUBER, 3
——
1922
 A JEAN REVEILLAUD

DERRIÈRE
LES VIEUX MURS EN RUINES

20 novembre 1915.
De Meknès on ne voit d’abord que des remparts et des ruines.
Les remparts déroulent, durant des heures, une ceinture farouche derrière
laquelle on ne devine rien.
Parfois un palmier incline sa tête au-dessus des murailles, un olivier gris
surgit dans une crevasse, quelques figuiers s’agrippent entre les cailloux.
Il semble que l’on soit destiné, comme en un conte, à longer
inlassablement une cité mystérieuse et morte...
Puis, sur la colline, apparaissent les ruines. Ce sont de très vieux murs
aux tons fauves, des palais à demi détruits, dont quelques arcades attestent
encore les dimensions colossales; un enchevêtrement de terrasses vétustes,
de treilles, de logis abandonnés, de pierres qui ne tiennent plus et que la
végétation envahit... Seuls des minarets émaillés de vert, sveltes et luisants,
dominent, intacts, l’immense écroulement de la ville.
A cette heure tardive où nous arrivons, la chaîne du Zerhoun est revêtue
d’une brume violette, striée de grandes ombres bleues, et les ruines,
subitement, se dorent, flamboient et s’éteignent avec le crépuscule, plus
grises, plus tragiques d’avoir été si lumineuses il y a quelques minutes à
peine.
Le Chérif[1] nous a envoyé des esclaves et des mules. Un négrillon nous
précède à travers les ruelles qui se croisent, se multiplient, s’engouffrent
sous des voûtes aux ténèbres profondes. Puis elles reviennent à la faible
lueur nocturne, pour nous mieux révéler l’infinie vieillesse et la mélancolie
des bâtisses qui s’effondrent.
Combien de temps devrons-nous circuler dans cet impressionnant
dédale, où les rares passants, enveloppés de leurs burnous, semblent des
fantômes? Ils glissent le long des murs, sans plus de bruit que le halo de
leurs lanternes, dont les sautillements jaunâtres exécutent une danse de feux
follets.
Le ruelle se resserre, se fait plus noire et désolée, elle descend, à présent,
au fond de l’ombre, par un grossier escalier de pierres, dans lequel nos
mules butent à chaque pas. Le négrillon s’arrête... C’est ici?... Cette porte
derrière laquelle on aperçoit un vestibule misérable?... Ici, la demeure du
noble et richissime Chérif Mouley Hassan?...
Le voici qui s’avance, tout de blanc drapé, avec cet air altier dont il ne se
départ jamais. Des esclaves noirs l’accompagnent, car il ne se déplace qu’en
grande pompe, comme le Sultan que son orgueil voudrait égaler. Mais un
sourire adoucit, pour nous, la fierté de ses allures. Le Chérif nous honore
d’une amitié particulière depuis que mon mari eut, au Maghzen[2],
l’occasion de débrouiller une affaire de faux dont il avait été victime.
—Soyez les bienvenus chez moi! Soyez les bienvenus! répète-t-il.
Après mille congratulations et politesses, nous le suivons dans le
vestibule aux angles brusques. Plusieurs portes, massives, blindées de fer,
hérissées de clous, se succèdent avec des airs hostiles. La dernière s’ouvre...
Le patio nous apparaît tout à coup, sous la caresse bleue des rayons
lunaires, tandis que les salles flamboient, toutes dorées dans l’illumination
des cierges de cire qui s’alignent sur les tapis.
Enchantement exquis et mystérieux de cette demeure, auquel on n’est
pas préparé. Des reflets miroitent sur les murs revêtus de mosaïques, sur les
ors des plafonds ciselés et peints, sur les dalles de marbre, si polies qu’elles
semblent mouillées. Ils dansent en étincelles opalines au sommet du jet
d’eau. Chaque gouttelette est piquée d’un reflet vert par la lune, et d’un
reflet orange par la lumière des flambeaux.
Une foule d’esclaves s’empresse à nous servir. Elles apportent le thé à la
menthe et les parfums, avec un luxe princier d’argenterie. D’énormes plats
de Fès, aux bleus rares, des coupes de Chine et d’autres en cristal, remplies
de gâteaux, de noix, de dattes, sont disposés sur une mida[3] que recouvre
une soie émeraude brochée d’or. Et l’on nous verse aussi du lait d’amandes,
du sirop de grenades et du café à la cannelle.
Le Chérif, nonchalamment accroupi parmi les coussins, dirige les
négresses d’un signe ou d’un clignement d’œil. Elles ne passent devant lui
qu’humbles, les bras collés au corps, la tête basse, dans une attitude de
respect infini et de crainte. Mais leurs croupes rebondies, ondulant sous le
caftan, leurs faces rondes et luisantes, leurs bras vigoureux, attestent la
richesse d’une maison où l’abondance règne...
Toutes choses de ce palais, comme en un conte des Mille et Une Nuits,
sont d’une incomparable somptuosité. En nulle autre demeure je ne vis une
décoration si luxueuse, des tapis si épais, des sofas si moelleux, ni pareille
abondance de coussins... L’air est embaumé par les vapeurs légères et
précieuses qui s’échappent des brûle-parfums; des esclaves nous aspergent
d’eau de rose, avec les mrechs d’argent au col effilé; d’autres, agitant
devant nous des mouchoirs de soie, chassent d’invisibles mouches.
Indolent et majestueux, le Chérif jouit de notre admiration, à laquelle
nous savons, comme il sied, donner un tour flatteur, mais discret.
—Oui, nous dit-il, cette demeure est agréable... j’en ai bien d’autres à
Fès, à Tanger, à Marrakech, cent fois plus belles, où vous serez mes hôtes
un jour, s’il plaît à Dieu!...
Son orgueil est immense et magnifique. Il rivalise de faste avec le
Sultan, son cousin, qu’il surpasse par la largesse de son hospitalité et l’éclat
de son train.
Chacun se souvient encore du brigandage de ses ancêtres toujours en
dissidence, et dont Mouley Abder Rahman[4] ne se concilia l’amitié qu’en
accordant sa fille, Lella Aïcha Mbarka, au père de notre hôte.
—C’était un homme! nous dit-il, un guerrier valeureux que nul n’a pu
vaincre... Nous ne sommes point efféminés comme ces citadins aux cœurs
de poules... et nous descendons, par les mâles, plus directement du Prophète
que par notre alliance avec les Alaouïine[5]... Je me souviens des séjours
que je fis, en mon enfance, dans nos tribus de l’Atlas... Nous partions dès
l’aube à la chasse aux fauves, précédés par des centaines de rabatteurs. Il y
avait de nombreuses victimes parmi eux, cela compte peu, et nous
revenions chargés de trophées importants. Au reste, mes cousins, les
Chorfa, qui vivent encore à Ifrane, ne recouvrent pas leurs couches avec des
brocarts, mais avec des peaux de lions...
 Ses yeux flambent en évoquant de tels souvenirs, sa taille se redresse, sa
belle tête à barbe blanche est celle d’un chef, d’un conquérant. Mouley
Hassan a raison, un sang plus brûlant court en ses veines qu’en celles des
paisibles amis avec lesquels, d’habitude, nous devisons. Il ne parle guère
que de lui, de ses aïeux, de ses chevaux, de ses biens et de ses exploits.
Mais sa vanité devient superbe d’atteindre de telles proportions en un tel
cadre! Il veut éblouir et ne ménage rien à cet effet. Un respect émerveillé
l’entoure à cause de ses richesses, des tribus qu’il domine encore dans la
montagne et de l’influence extrême qu’il possède sur son impérial cousin.
L’agitation grandit parmi les esclaves, leur nombre se multiplie. A
présent le patio est envahi de nègres portant les plats de cuivre coiffés de
couvercles coniques. Ils les alignent à l’entrée de la salle, tandis qu’une
fillette purifie nos mains sous l’eau tiède et parfumée d’une aiguière. Le
Chérif s’accroupit avec nous autour de la table ronde et basse; il rompt lui-
même les pains à l’anis dont il distribue abondamment les morceaux.
—Allons! Au nom d’Allah!
Les plats succèdent aux plats, succulents et formidables: ce sont des
tagines[6] de mouton aux oignons, aux raisins secs, aux épices variées, et
d’autres contenant cinq poulets rôtis, farcis ou à diverses sauces. Quelle
basse-cour tout entière a-t-on sacrifiée pour notre dîner de ce soir!...
Notre accoutumance aux mœurs arabes est telle que nous ne nous
étonnons plus d’un pareil repas, et savons, très correctement, selon les
règles, retirer la viande entre le pouce et l’index de la main droite, ou rouler,
d’un petit mouvement saccadé de la paume, les boulettes de couscous, que
l’on porte à sa bouche, rondes et luisantes comme des œufs.
Mais l’excellence des mets nous surprend agréablement, habitués que
nous sommes à la cuisine moins raffinée des Rbati[7].
—C’est que, nous dit notre hôte, ils n’emploient pas ainsi que nous le
beurre et l’huile fine. Ces «marchands» se contentent de l’abondance, leurs
gosiers n’ont point la délicatesse des nôtres... Au reste, on ne cuit bien que
dans nos maisons du Maghzen et j’ai fait venir de Tétouan plusieurs
négresses expertes aux tagines et à la pâtisserie... Vous ne trouverez nulle
part au Maroc, pas même à Fès, une cuisine comparable à celle-ci.
La mida se couvre à présent de coupes en cristal contenant d’étranges
petites salades qui témoignent d’une imagination culinaire très inventive:
oranges assaisonnées de vinaigre et d’eau de rose; persil haché dans une
sauce huileuse; patates douces relevées de piments; rondelles de carottes à
la fleur d’oranger... Par le Prophète! ce n’est point mauvais et quelques-uns
de ces mélanges ont même une succulence inattendue... Ils sont destinés à
ranimer, pour la fin du repas, nos appétits défaillants. Car il convient encore
de faire honneur à une dizaine de nouveaux poulets, au couscous, et à ce
très délectable «turban du Cadi», qui recèle, en une pâte croustillante et
mince, des amandes pilées avec du sucre. Et comme aucune boisson
n’accompagne un tel festin, le thé à la menthe, dont ensuite on prend trois
tasses, est le très bien venu. Mais il s’accompagne de pâtisseries auxquelles,
malgré l’insistance de notre hôte, nous ne saurions toucher...
Je laisse Mouley Hassan décrire à mon mari, avec son habituelle
emphase, l’étendue de ses domaines et le nombre de ses serviteurs, et, sans
prononcer une parole, je me lève pour aller rendre visite à l’invisible
«maîtresse des choses».
Une négresse a compris mon désir. Elle me précède à travers le patio.
Quatre massifs piliers soutiennent, au premier étage, une galerie
rectangulaire précieusement dorée, peinte et sculptée. Quelques femmes
chuchotent dans l’ombre, et je les sais, tapies derrière les balustrades en
bois tourné, pour épier les hommes qu’elles ne doivent pas approcher...
Mais ce n’est point là-haut que nous allons. L’esclave me fait parcourir
des couloirs sinueux et sombres aboutissant à un «riadh[8]» irréel dans
l’enchantement azuré de la lune: les orangers, chargés de fruits, forment des
masses noires, au-dessus desquelles les bananiers balancent leurs larges
feuilles déchiquetées. Quelques roses tardives, étrangement blafardes,
surgissent dans la verdure; un jasmin recouvre une allée, d’une tonnelle si
parfumée que l’on ne saurait s’attarder à son ombre. Des bassins étroits et
profonds, affleurant le sol au milieu des mosaïques, se moirent de larges
reflets, et l’on n’entend, dans le recueillement nocturne, que les petits cris
étouffés des oiseaux rêvant de l’épervier ou du serpent, et le bruit cristallin
d’une fontaine...
Lella Fatima Zohra m’attend, accroupie en une salle étincelant à la
lumière des flambeaux. C’est une femme assez âgée, au visage grave et
bon, aux gestes sobres, dont on devine, dès l’abord, la haute naissance.
Pourtant elle n’a point la morgue de Mouley Hassan, et les esclaves, autour
d’elle, perdent leur air de servilité craintive; quelques-unes, même,
s’adossent familières aux montants de la porte et mettent leur mot à la
conversation.
La Cherifa me reçoit avec une réelle bienveillance, quoiqu’elle ne me
connaisse pas encore... Et certes je suis sensible à cet accueil, car je sais les
vieilles dames marocaines beaucoup plus farouches aux Nazaréens[9] que
leurs époux, et souvent même hostiles.
—Sois la bienvenue chez nous, dit-elle, tu honores notre maison.
—Sur toi, la bénédiction d’Allah. C’est nous qui sommes honorés d’être
reçus dans une si noble famille et une si magnifique demeure!
—Nos tapis sont indignes d’être foulés par tes pieds; si je le pouvais, je
te porterais sur mes épaules... O le grand jour chez nous, de vous avoir pour
hôtes!
—Plus grande encore est notre réjouissance, ô Lella[10]!
—C’est la première fois que tu viens à Meknès? Que t’en semble?
—Je n’ai rien aperçu dans les ténèbres, mais il ne me reste plus quoi que
ce soit à admirer, puisque j’ai vu ta maison.
—Elle est belle, et semble méprisable à qui n’en sort jamais...
—Le regretterais-tu?
—Certes, je refuserais de franchir la porte si on me le proposait!... Telle
est notre coutume,—et nous, gens du Maghzen, devons la suivre plus
strictement que les autres. Mais je pense parfois qu’il y a des rues, des
souks, des arsas[11], des montagnes... et je ne connais que ces murs...
—Ils sont d’une splendeur sans égale, et tu possèdes un riadh plein de
verdure pour rafraîchir tes yeux...
—Louange à Dieu!... Je te montrerai toute la maison lorsque les hommes
en seront partis. Mais ce soir tu sembles fatiguée, ô ma fille, et, malgré la
joie que me donne ta compagnie, je ne veux pas, après ce long voyage,
t’empêcher de prendre du repos.
—Dieu te bénisse, ô Lella! tu n’as pas «raccourci[12]» avec moi.
—Qu’Allah te fasse dormir en son contentement!
—Puisses-tu te réveiller au matin avec le bien!
A travers les couloirs en labyrinthe, je regagne la salle des hôtes que
nous occupons.
 Et, sur une couche de brocart violet ramagé d’or, je perçois encore, en un
demi-sommeil, le clapotis clair du jet d’eau, le glissement des pieds nus
dans le patio, puis, angoissante et sublime, la clameur dont le muezzin
déchire la nuit:

La prière sur toi, ô Prophète de Dieu!

La prière sur toi, ô l’Aimé de Dieu!
La prière sur toi, ô Seigneur Mohammed!...

21 novembre.
Meknès dans la lumière du matin... Ce sont toujours des ruines, mais des
ruines avenantes, chargées de vignes dont les treilles s’étendent au-dessus
des patios.
Il y a des ruelles aux sinuosités inattendues, des voûtes très noires au
bout desquelles éclate tout à coup l’ensoleillement d’une muraille; de
petites places, provinciales et paisibles sous l’ombre d’un énorme mûrier,
où des Marocains se reposent et boivent le thé, en calculant les coups d’une
partie de dames.
Les marchands somnolent en leurs échoppes, au milieu des babouches,
des lanternes ou des soies éclatantes, sans aucun souci d’attirer le client.
Les menuisiers rabotent les planches de cèdre, qu’ils creusent patiemment
de décors géométriques et compliqués. Une bonne odeur résineuse flotte sur
leur quartier. La cadence des marteaux domine en celui des forgerons. Nul
ne se presse, car le temps appartient à Dieu...
Des herbes garnissent les murs branlants et la crête des terrasses; une vie
douce, ralentie, semble palpiter à peine en la vieille cité.
Mais elle a aussi de larges rues lumineuses qui s’encombrent de
bourricots et de piétons; des souks mouvementés; des places immenses,
brûlées de soleil, où se tiennent les marchés. La foule grouillante des
Berbères; des vendeurs d’œufs, de poulets et de légumes; des vieilles
bédouines aux visages osseux; des jongleurs, des musiciens, des charmeurs
de serpents, des Arabes pouilleux, des gamins et des esclaves, s’agite et
semble minuscule dans un cadre trop colossal pour des humains. Les
remparts, les portes et les palais de Mouley Ismaïl[13] imposent à l’entour
leurs écrasantes silhouettes.
 Le mauvais rêve de Rabat et de sa civilisation est loin!... Loin de toute la
distance qui sépare la vie européenne de celle-ci, plus encore que de cet
interminable bled désert et de ces montagnes qu’il nous fallut traverser.
Ici, je sens que je pourrai reprendre mon existence demi-musulmane et
que d’invisibles amies m’attendent en leurs demeures, derrière les vieux
murs en ruines.

23 novembre.
Lella Fatima Zohra me fait appeler chaque matin, et je la trouve
invariablement accroupie au milieu de la salle qui donne sur le riadh. Elle
se soulève à peine pour m’accueillir, car sa corpulence répugne au moindre
mouvement. Toute une vie de réclusion appesantit ses membres. La Cherifa
ne bouge guère de sa place favorite, d’où elle aperçoit le jardin, un coin de
ciel, et surveille les allées et venues des esclaves. Son existence s’écoule sur
un sofa, dans l’amoncellement des coussins; c’est là qu’elle dort, s’habille,
boit le thé, prend ses repas. Ses nobles mains, qui ne connurent jamais le
travail, reposent blanches et potelées parmi les étoffes. Depuis que l’âge et
les soucis ont ravagé sa beauté, Lella Fatima Zohra ne porte plus que les
vêtements sévères qui conviennent aux matrones: des caftans de drap,
voilés par une simple tfina de mousseline; une sebenia, tissée dans le pays,
à rayures oranges et jaunes, alors que les jeunes femmes se coiffent des
soyeux foulards à ramages venus d’Europe.
Haute et rigide, une ceinture de Fès enroule autour de sa taille des
arabesques éblouissantes. C’est le seul luxe qu’elle garde, bien que la mode
en soit passée.
—Car, dit-elle, je ne saurais, sans cela, me soutenir. J’y fus habituée dès
l’enfance, mes os n’auraient pas la force de supporter mon corps.
Elle a renoncé à tout autre ornement, ses joues ne se relèvent d’aucun
fard; c’est à peine si elle noircit ses yeux de kohol et colore ses mains au
henné. Pour qui du reste se parerait-elle?... L’indiscrétion des négresses m’a
déjà révélé que le Chérif ne va plus jamais la rejoindre en sa chambre...
Lella Fatima-Zohra m’apparaît femme de grand sens, prudente et avisée.
Elle accepte, avec une résignation très digne, les désordres de son époux,
les innombrables favorites dont il emplit la maison. C’est elle-même, dit-on,
qui lui ferma sa porte, après trop de scandales, et obtint cette séparation à
l’amiable, si rare chez les Musulmans. Mouley Hassan ne la répudia pas,
son orgueil dut plier devant les exigences de la Cherifa. Il ne fut pas non
plus sans peser la grande fortune que l’épouse ajoutait à la sienne, ni cette
luxueuse demeure, héritée de son beau-père.
Et, qu’a-t-il à regretter d’une femme flétrie, alors qu’il peut se procurer
si facilement toutes ces jeunes négresses à la peau lisse, aux reins
mouvants, et à la forte odeur capiteuse?...
Lella Fatima Zohra reprit donc sa liberté, si l’on peut appeler liberté
l’obligation de vivre entre les murs, dans la stricte observance des coutumes
musulmanes.
Malgré le détachement du maître, elle jouit d’un réel prestige dans la
maison, car elle est de noble race, riche et considérée, outre l’entendement
qu’Allah lui dispensa. Les esclaves semblent la vénérer; les concubines,
dont le nombre augmente chaque jour, lui témoignent une humble déférence
et sollicitent même ses conseils dans les circonstances graves. Un essaim de
négrillons et de négrillonnes, aux teints plus ou moins foncés, bourdonnent
sans cesse autour d’elle, et roulent sur les tapis, bousculent les coussins
avec l’exubérance animale de leur âge. Progéniture du Chérif—qui
témoigne un goût particulier pour les négresses,—et qu’elle traite presque
maternellement.
—Tu n’as pas d’enfant? lui ai-je demandé.
—J’en ai perdu huit, mais,—louange à Dieu!—il me reste un fils,
Mouley Abdallah, marié depuis le mois de Chabane. Sa demeure est toute
proche. Il faudra que tu ailles voir ma belle-fille, Lella Meryem, une gazelle
aux yeux langoureux...
—Elle sera mon amie, puisqu’elle paraît si chère à ton cœur.
—S’il plaît à Dieu!... Mouley Abdallah en a l’esprit perdu. Il la comble
de présents et lui a même promis de ne prendre aucune autre femme.
—Crois-tu qu’il tiendra sa parole?
—Dieu seul connaît le cœur des hommes. Il est le plus savant.
—Les Meknassi[14] ont-ils toujours plusieurs épouses?
—Rare, ô ma fille! celui qui peut se contenter d’une... Généralement ils
en prennent deux ou trois, parfois quatre, selon la permission du Livre, et
combien d’esclaves!...
—Toi, du moins, tu n’as pas de co-épouse?
 —Détrompe-toi, Mouley Hassan a trois femmes légitimes, l’une à la
Mecque, fille du Mufti des quatre rites, l’autre à Marrakech, dont le père est
un Caïd des Sgharna, et moi-même... Il songe à présent à en épouser une
quatrième...
Lella Fatima Zohra n’en dit pas davantage, et, malgré sa sérénité, je
n’osai l’interroger sur ce sujet délicat.

24 novembre.
—Je suis lasse et ne puis encore te faire visiter la maison, me répète la
Cherifa toutes les fois que je me rends auprès d’elle.
Je n’imagine guère, du reste, sa lourde personne errant à travers les cours
et les couloirs. C’est à peine si je la vis faire quelques pas dans les allées du
jardin, vite essoufflée par cet effort.
—Aïcheta te guidera, me dit-elle aujourd’hui, en désignant une esclave.
Pardonne-moi, ô ma fille, de ne t’accompagner comme je le voudrais, car
mes membres affaiblis se refusent à moi.
La négresse m’entraîne dans le palais, dont je ne connais encore qu’une
partie, et, consciencieusement, elle m’en fait visiter tous les recoins: les
cuisines sombres, noircies de fumée, où flotte un relent d’huile et de
graisse; les chambres à provisions, pleines d’énormes jarres ventrues; les
escaliers étroits, les couloirs innombrables; le «menzeh»[15], dans lequel le
Chérif aime à recevoir ses amis, et qui a, sur le premier vestibule, son entrée
indépendante; les salles immenses, étincelantes d’ors, de peintures et de
mosaïques, toutes garnies de sofas et de coussins en brocart; et les cinq
patios, différents d’âge et de style, mais également admirables. Ils furent
construits par les ancêtres de Lella Fatima Zohra, à mesure qu’augmentaient
l’opulence de la famille et le nombre des épouses. Les galeries du premier
étage sont soutenues par des piliers sur lesquels repose l’entablement. Dans
chaque patio l’eau scintille, telle la gemme précieuse au milieu de l’écrin.
Elle fuse des grandes coupes de marbre, en jets minces et brillants; ruisselle
des vasques très basses posées à même le sol; s’étale paresseusement dans
les bassins, azurée, changeante, selon les caprices du ciel.
Des esclaves viennent aux fontaines remplir leurs amphores et les
aiguières de cuivre destinées aux ablutions. Une extraordinaire population
féminine s’agite dans le palais, cuit les aliments sur des canoun[16], lave le
sol à grande eau, boit du thé, file de la laine. De belles négresses, aux
croupes arrondies, se vautrent parmi les coussins. Leur indolence, le luxe de
leurs parures multicolores, et certain air de bestiale satisfaction
épanouissant leurs faces, dénoncent les favorites du moment.
Mais il y a aussi de minces fillettes à peine nubiles, dont le Chérif ne
dédaigne pas le charme aigrelet, et des matrones effrontément fardées qui
savent, parfois encore, l’ensorceler de leurs attraits vieillissants.
—Du reste, me confie Aïcheta, il a connu, ne fût-ce qu’une fois, chaque
femme de sa maison. Quand il achète une nouvelle esclave, on la fait bien
reposer, manger avec abondance, aller au hammam et revêtir des vêtements
neufs. Puis, le maître l’appelle un soir. Celle qui sait plaire reçoit des
bijoux, des caftans, des servantes; elle habite une belle chambre et n’a rien à
faire de tout le jour. Les autres, les pauvres! retournent avec les esclaves et
travaillent comme des ânes.
—Et toi, Aïcheta? demandai-je curieuse.
—O mon malheur! Le Seigneur ne m’avait pas désignée pour être une
«maîtresse des choses». Je ne passai, chez Mouley Hassan, qu’une seule
nuit...
Aïcheta est noire et simiesque. Je m’étonne même que notre hôte n’ait
pas jugé à propos de faire une infraction à sa coutume.
—As-tu vu ces vieilles qui filaient dans l’autre cour? continue la
négresse, elles ont eu des jours heureux, lorsque le Chérif était jeune... A
présent, qui songerait à les regarder? Allah seul reste immuable...
—Certes! qu’Il soit exalté. Mais, dis-moi ce que devient une favorite
quand elle a cessé de plaire?
—Si ton vêtement de soie est abîmé, tu en fais un chiffon pour nettoyer
les plateaux...
—Ainsi, elle retourne parmi les esclaves?
—En vérité! et nous nous moquons d’elle ce jour-là.
La face de guenon grimace d’un rire mauvais.
—Il ne tardera pas à luire pour Messaouda, la fière, ajoute-t-elle, en
désignant une négresse qui allaite un nouveau-né. Un sein noir et luisant
sort d’une large manche de son caftan, où disparaît la tête de l’enfant.
—Mais, dis-je, elle a donné un fils au Chérif.
—Et qu’importe?... Il sera Chérif lui-même, si Dieu lui accorde
l’existence... sa mère n’en reste pas moins une esclave comme moi! Nous
autres sommes faites pour servir et manger du bâton...
Aïcheta parle sans amertume. Elle envie le sort des favorites qui goûtent
pendant quelques mois, ou quelques années, aux délices de la richesse et de
l’oisiveté, mais elle est parfaitement résignée à son sort qu’elle juge normal
et dispensé par Allah.
—Ne répète rien de ce que je t’ai raconté à Lella Fatima Zohra, me
recommande-t-elle au retour.
—N’aie pas de crainte, ô ma fille, murmurai-je en lui glissant une pièce
d’argent dans la main; mon cœur est fermé sur les secrets par un cadenas.

25 novembre.
Une chanson: