Paper short abstract:

Memorial Museums as the nation's lieux de mémoire with the responsibility to educate, commemorate and unite according to an elite's agreement on what is to be remembered - and how.

Paper long abstract:

Opened in 2010 and located right beside the historic Meskal Square, the Red Terror' Martyrs' Memorial Museum in Addis Abeba is a destination for citizens as well as international tourists, whose purposes of visit and reception depends on the individuals' relation to the presented issue. Unlike history museums, which claim objectivity, memorial museums are subjects to the imperative of commemoration, of emotional involvement and identification with the exhibited.

In the multiethnic state of Ethiopia, the presence of the Derg's socialist regime, which found its violent peak in the Red Terror in 1977/78, is significant in the townscape of the major cities.

In an empirical research conducted in 2017, the effect of three significant 'lieux de mémoire' on different groups of recipients was compared cross-sectionally, taking into account domestic politics and Ethiopia's role in the Horn of Africa.

This contribution aims to highlight the museum's double role as an institution, which follows an educational function, but also reproduces the country's liberation narrative. This appears to have have the goal to create a national memory which seeks to enhance the identification of the heterogeneous population with the state of Ethiopia as well as the legitimation of the political elite, which rose to power after it had overthrown the Mengistu-Regime in 1991.