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In this country, some aristocratic families automatically categorize persons with dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair as "Barias" [Amharic for slave]... let it be clear to everybody that I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!

— Mengistu Haile Mariam

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More quotes by Mengistu Haile Mariam

I am a revolutionary; my life is dedicated to freeing the people.

David A. Korn (1986)

If I had resigned on my own accord, to whom would I have transferred the reigns of power?

We fought them when they sought to dismember the nation. Is this why I should seek exoneration?

We thought that the proletariat would eventually run the world. But it is the Americans who have assumed that position... The American people have changed.

Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Mengistu Haile Mariam (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.