Agents of War, Agents of Change: A Revised History of Female Combatants in the TPLF

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This project analyses the extent of women's involvement in the armed insurgency of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in Ethiopia during the civil war between 1974 and 1991 and their post-conflict experiences. In doing so, it will assess the gendered nature of conflict and insurgency in Ethiopia, and Eastern Africa more broadly. This would deliver the first major historical analysis of women in the TPFL and would make a substantive contribution to knowledge of women's roles in African conflict and in Ethiopian society and post-conflict reconstruction. Official histories and existing academic analysis has marginalized or ignored women's involvement in Ethiopia's civil conflict, as in many other wars, underestimating its impact as a key feature which affects our understanding about populist engagement in social and political violence. Current estimates suggest that Tigrayan women made up a substantial part of the TPFL numbers - they formed 25-30% of TPLF soldiers by 1982 - but their contribution to the movement's success and commitment to its ideological goals have so far been overlooked. This doctoral project will combine archival and oral history research with an interdisciplinary gendered analysis of the conflict to recover the voices and analyse the experiences of Tigrayan female combatants, contributing to wider discussions surrounding Ethiopian women's role in the formation of their state and society.