Freed by God’s love to say the truth and change the world!

The story of EECMY young people during the Ethiopia revolution

His name was Guddinaa Dinsaa, he was a young man  attending for the first time in 1965 the LWF organised Africa Lutheran Conference in Madagascar, holding the banner of the Ethiopian delegation. The fate and witness of Guddinaa Tumsaa describe him today as the “Dietrich Bohnhoeffer of Africa”.

He was a very passionate young man, freed by God’s love to stand for the truth. He was unfortunate to live in Addis Ababa during the red terror. Then General Secretary of the EECMY he was arrested late in the afternoon of 11 October 1978 as he was working in the central office of the church. He was taken to the police station in Addis Abeba and then to a prison in Asallaa. After being held for more than three week,s he was released on 7 November. No official reason for his arrest was given, the government suspected him of creation opposition. “Mengistu wanted me to go on a tour in Europe. He wanted me to appear in media and confirm that there was religious freedom in Ethioipia. I have never done anything wrong as to political involvement, just followed development”.

On 1 June 1979, Qes Guddinaa was arrested a second time and held until 23 June by the People’s Militia in Addis Abeba. His daughter Leensaa was arrested and kept in a neighbouring house. Massive interrogation followed, attempting to label him as a counter-revolutionary and as a political agent. According to Leensaa:

“they threatened to torture both us as as well as my mother. They were shocked when my father answered them that such a torture could make no difference. He could only tell the truth”. The second time he was under arrest, he was extremely interrogated and mentally tortured. They said they would bring his wife and daughter and kill them in front of him. “we have all your manuscripts” they said. But he answered: I have nothing to hide”.

We know that the third time he wouldn’t get out.

The circumstances leading to his release were dramatic and revealed the greatest witness of the man. Oberkirchenrat Christian Krause called to become the LWF president at the 1997 LWF Assembly in Hong Kong, played a crucial role in the developments. Hearing of the arrest, he immediately understood the danger posed to Qes Guddinaa’s life. Talking to Bishop Kibira, then LWF president, at the Kirchentag in Nuremberg in 1979, they decided to go to Dar es Salaam were they managed to get an immediate appointment with President Nyerere of Tanzania. Krause reported:

“Nyerere turned to me and asked: “what do you want?”

I told him the story. I asked if there was any possibility to have Guddinaa Tumsaa released.

Nyerere answered: “the day after tomorrow I am going on a state visit to Sudan. Instead of refuelling in Nairobi, I will have the plane refuelled in Addis. Passing through Addis Ababa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will greet me. Then I will whisper to them“.

Before we went, Bishop Kibira asked Nyerere: “Should he be free, would you allow him to be taken to Tanzania?” Nyerere answered: “Yes, we are ready.” Nyerere then arranged the programme.

Krause then recollected: “I managed to get to Ethiopia and the next morning I went to Heinrich Scheffer, pastor for the German-speaking congregation in Addis Ababa. In a matter of hours, Qes Guddinaa was released. He told the horrible story about the way they pressurized him, led him to the wall to have him shot, led him back. He told us that he was not afraid if they wanted to kill him, but torture was horrible. I said: “Guddinaa your life is at stake. Our time is brief.” I then told him the plan. What now followed had never happened before in our friendship…"

He yelled at me and said:

“Here is my church and my congregation. How can I as a church leader, leave my flock at this moment of trial? I have again and again pleaded with my pastors to stay on”. He then quoted 2 Cor 5:15: Christ died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. This had become the key sentence for him in prison. “Never ever will I escape”.

Then he turned to me and said: ”Should anything happen to me, see (pointing to his wife) there is your wife and there are your children. His wife’s face was like stone. When we said farewell, it was very clear to me that we were separating for good.

Bishop Krause added: “Guddinaa Tumsaa drew all his motivation from Scripture. In my opinion, he is only comparable to Bonhoeffer”

A week before he was arrested for the third time, he had admitted: “if they arrest me the third time, I know it’s the end.” On the evening of 28 July 1979, after a church meeting where Guddinaa had preached on the text of Luke 14:25, armed men in civilian dress stopped hi and his wife on their way home and ordered them into two separate cars. His wife was driven to the outskirts of Addis Ababa where she was subsequently released, while the whereabouts of her husband were not known. The abductors did not identify themselves and did not explain their motives for the abduction and the government never admitted that they killed him.

In the weeks before his death, Guddinaa tumsaa worked intensely on his testament “The role of a Christian in a given society”. The persecutions of the Ethioipian youth continued after the death of Qes Guddinaa. The pattern of harassment of the Evangelical churches was almost the same all over Ethiopia, consisting of the closing of churches, confiscation of properties, imprisonment of workers and elders, severe restrictions imposed on young people…

Extracts from Revolution and Religion in Ethiopia, 1974-1985, by Prof. Oyvind Eide, theological director and former head of the department for practical theology at the School of Mission and Theology, in Norway, himself a missionary in Ethiopia during several years.

LWF Series “Young Reformers in the history of the LWF Communion”

This story was researched and provided by Beatrice Bengtsson, LWF Archives