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Well, since Nelson Mandela is trending these days...from the archives: Mandela's Ethiopian passport. In 1962, Mandela toured Africa in search of support for the anti apartheid armed wing of the African National Congress. In Ethiopia, he completed 2 months of a course in guerrilla fighting & military leadership. Granted Ethiopian citizenship under his bogus identity as "David Motsamayi," Mandela masqueraded as a journalist. His fake profession is indicated on his passport in Amharic (ጋዜጠኛ). 2 comments
General Tadesse Birru assigned four paratroopers to serve as bodyguards during Mandela's stay in Ethiopia. One of them was this man, Captain Guta Dinka, 90 years young today. Captain Guta foiled a plot to assassinate Mandela in Ethiopia. He had been approached by a turncoat, who introduced him to agents of South Africa's apartheid government in Ethiopia, who offered him 2,000£ (worth about 53k£ today) and a comfortable life in the UK if he murdered Mandela & provided photo evidence of the act. |
Gregory's Server
Here's Mandela in Ethiopia (right) in 1962. Standing with him is Ethiopian army General Tadesse Birru, a veteran of the Ethiopian resistance wars during the Italian colonial army's 1935 invasion and subsequent occupation of Ethiopia ordered by fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
General Tadesse Birru oversaw the entirety Mandela's military training.