Excerpt from A History of African Fascism by Paul Gilroy
. . . Iyasu is widely considered the father of modern Black Fascism, forming an entirely new ideological spectrum within the broad boundaries of "Third Positionism" (1) as he established Africa's first Fascist regime during the mid-1920s following the Ethiopian Civil War's chaos and forged a new State on the basis of Ambagenenawinet (2) thought by the mid-1930s. Other men central to Ambagenenawinet's creation included Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagn, Tafari Makonnen, Mikael Tessema, Deressa Amante and other members of the Black Lions Society (3) who assisted in forming the Addis Mengist (4) while also laying the foundations for Africa's most powerful country to exist by the time of this book's writing as well as an ideology that touched all corners of the Continent during the Cold War. Since Iyasu's death in 1973, the Ethiopian government has followed those ideological guidelines as outlined in the doctrine of the Tewahedo Party (5) and continues to adhere to them as they play an influential role in Ethiopian government under Atse Girma Yohannes Iyasu who proves successful in making a return to Ambagenenawinet's roots - this is also called Iyasuism by those in the Party. Despite being able to proudly proclaim that it is Africa's first and thus oldest Black Fascist State, the Empire of Ethiopia certainly isn't the only one - the Republic of Liberia is a notable example.
Although William Tubman is often seen as the modern father of the Liberian Republic, Marcus Garvey (6) was the real power behind his Presidency in leading the Universal Negro Improvement Association (7) during Tubman's tenure as the UNIA replaced the True Whig Party in the 1940s and came to power with popular support attained not only from the dominant Americo-Liberian classes but the indigenous ethnic groups as well. Promoting values considered to be key tenets of Italian-style Fascism and inspired by translated Ethiopian Fascist literature brought to the USA by Ethiopian students sent abroad to be educated, Marcus Garvey proclaimed Fascism as the only means to uplift the Black man and pointed to Ethiopia's successes in that particular field while Fascism spread like wildfire amongst African-American organizations similar to the UNIA in the purpose of desiring a better life for Blacks (8). Thanks to the profits yielded by the Black Star Line and Negro Factories Corporation, Garvey was able to extend the UNIA's offices further into West Africa during the 1930s and reorganized them into a network that was centered around UNIA bases located in Liberia which were the African arm of the UNIA's official base of operations at Harlem, New York - this network proved invaluable to the competing nations funneling aid to African independence movements via Liberia during the Cold War.
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1) Third Positionism is a term used to refer to the ideological camp that rejects capitalism and communism, presenting itself as an alternative ideological system to the aforementioned systems while being inclusive of synthetic tenets from each side of the political spectrum.
2) Ambagenenawinet (Totalism) is the ideology of the Tewahedo Party.
3) The Black Lions Society was an organization consisting of members all across the Ethiopian intelligentsia, serving to facilitate a spread of Fascist thought in the ranks of educated Ethiopians and eventually to Ethiopian government when Iyasu appointed figures such as Gebre-Hiwot and Tafari Makonnen to prominent positions in government as apart of his modernization policies in the early to mid-1920s.
4) Translates to New State, often synonymous with the Third Aksumite Civilization mentioned in Ethiopian propaganda.
5) The Tewahedo (Unity) Party is the sole political party in the Empire of Ethiopia.
6) Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born politician, entrepreneur and Liberian statesman as well as the President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. He is seen as one of the fathers of Black Fascism.
7) The Universal Negro Improvement Association, now the Universal Liberian Party, was a Black nationalist organization dedicated to advancing the Black African race.
8) An example is the Japanese-influenced Ethiopian Peace Movement in the United States of America.
