The Truth About Emperor Haile Selassie's Legacy*
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| Emperor Haile Selassie I and Le'ul-Ras Asserate Kassa © Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo. All Rights Reserved. Licensed and used with permission. |
Explaining the counterpoints to each accusation made in the article will help readers who don’t have immediate access to the resources required to verify these allegations not only grasp the extent of the inaccuracies portrayed but also question the motives behind them.
Ethiopian Identity Politics
One of the first points of contention in the article comes in the third sentence as the title “Lord of Lords” was omitted from “Haile Selassie’s full official title”.² This is significant because Emperor Haile Selassie’s political titles are the justification for the acceptance of his divinity as they are biblical references with significant theological implications.
Early on we realize that Woldemariam’s gripe is not necessarily with Emperor Haile Selassie’s portrayal as a “fatherly benevolent ruler and a champion of blacks” but rather the current climate in Ethiopian “identity politics.” Woldemariam writes, “The romantic rewriting of Selassie’s legacy, and the distorted history of other Ethiopian monarchs have significant relevance for current Ethiopian politics.” For many Ethiopians, especially those educated in Ethiopia, the Emperor represents “Amharization” and oppression of their ethnicity, culture and language but this, to a large extent, is an exaggerated and false narrative promoted by political activists and anti-monarchists which is then parroted by the misinformed.³
Marcus Garvey's Misinformed Criticism
Dr. Woldemariam states that “Garvey exhibited no admiration for Selassie. He condemned him as a ‘great coward’ for fleeing Mussolini’s troops in 1935, when Italy invaded Ethiopia. He also criticised Selassie’s practice of slavery, which was not abolished until 1942.” The criticism did factually occur but how accurate are Garvey’s assessments? Was the Emperor actually a coward who abandoned his nation during the war with the fascist Italians? Did Haile Selassie really practice slavery and intentionally postpone its abolition?
It’s a common misconception that Emperor Haile Selassie fled in cowardice during the war. In actuality, after suffering heavy losses, His Majesty’s broken armies couldn’t continue with his suicidal guerilla campaign against the Italians. Haile Selassie had fought in the trenches bravely alongside his soldiers for seven months and planned to continue the resistance at all costs but his chieftain advisors forced the Emperor to seek help from the international community because he was the only one qualified to articulate all of their injustices at the League of Nations as their leader.⁴ The late British Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Asmara in Eritrea Richard Greenfield⁵ recounted:
That afternoon the Council of Ministers voted 21 to 3 (Blatten-guetta Hiroy Woldé Sellassié, Dejazmatch Yigezu and Blatta Takelé) that Hailé Selassié should accompany his family and leave for Djibouti. The image painted by radical and ‘subversive’ pamphleteers of Addis Ababa’s underground movements in 1961 and ‘62, of the Emperor hastening at once to save himself is not accurate. He ordered the drums to be beaten and tried to call out armies to defend the city or at least to cover a westward retreat. The soldiers cheered but the great chiefs refused to lead them. It was only then that the Emperor gave way to Leul-Ras Kassa. Woldé Giorgis was sent to inform the British Embassy that he would board their vessel.⁶
Haile Selassie I was also the one responsible for submitting Ethiopia’s application for membership to the League of Nations on 1 August 1923, and negotiating its admission which was accepted by unanimous decision on 28 September 1923.⁷ The terms of the international agreement stated that Ethiopia must “observe the St. Germain Arms Convention of 1919, provide the council with information on slavery, and consider league recommendations on obligations under the covenant.”⁸ It also included the abolition law as one of the conditions for membership.⁹ Emperor Menelik II, whose twenty-four year reign ended seventeen years before Haile Selassie became Emperor, was indirectly Ethiopia’s greatest slave entrepreneur during his time as sovereign.¹⁰
Speaking of slaves, it is worth remembering that the Ethiopian chiefs still possess an impressive number of them. From a survey I made during my stay in Abyssinia on the number of slaves owned by the court of Addis Ababa and by the great chiefs, I was able to deduce that Menelik and Taitu have no less than 20,000 within the walls of the Gebi. And another 50,000 slaves belonging to the imperial family work, certainly not subject to a regime of doleza, on the properties that Menelik has in the Conso, in the Wallega and in other parts of the empire. Ras Tesamma has 6,000 slaves, of whom 150 are women. Habte Georgis has only 500, Ras Wolde Georgis on the other hand competes with the emperor in wealth of human flesh. He has 20,000. Tafari Makonnen has 7,000 slaves and Mikael, Oliè and Ras Ailiù have almost as many in the Gojjam. The position of the Abyssinian slave is certainly not the same as that which existed in Central Africa before European occupation. The slaves who live in Ethiopia are neither beaten nor subjected to inhumane work, and their master must in a certain way answer before the Fetha Negast (the Abyssinian law) for the life of his slave. But these wretches who perform all the most arduous tasks have neither family, nor property, nor rights, and the question of slavery in Abyssinia, which the civil powers have tacitly promised not to raise, constitutes an outrage that shows no signs of diminishing. It is enough to move away from the coast towards the south or towards the west by a few days' sea to be convinced that the internal trade in slaves is flourishing and that they still arrive from the Nile, from Lake Rudolf, from Uganda. I cannot confirm that there are still slave markets because I have not seen them and because the shameful trade is carried on secretly; but ask a Nagadi trader who travels in the southern regions what the current price of slaves is in that part and he will tell you that a young girl costs fifty thalers, a boy twenty-five and a vigorous man up to sixty. However, since the sources supplied to the slaves are becoming more scarce every day, given the surveillance exercised by the governments of the neighbouring colonies, the Abyssinian chiefs have had to set up a kind of slave farm. A certain number of men and women are gathered in the points most favorable to this production and relieved of any work that could harm the human reproductive function. Thus, in each great internal potentate, the products of these unions become slaves in their turn, contributing to maintaining the plague of slavery flourishing in Abyssinia in all its most shocking forms. Everyone knows that Menelik adhered to the Brussels conference for the abolition of slavery and anyone who has been in Abyssinia also knows that it is absolutely forbidden to show that one knows that slavery is in bloom.¹¹
According to Richard Pankhurst:
Slave owning immediately prior to World War I was, according to Merab, still widespread, and was practiced even by Greeks and Armenians as well as by the Ahuna, the Egyptian head of the Church, and the Nebura Ed, or ecclesiastical governor of Aksum. Even poor people would possess at least one slave, while no person who considered himself of any importance, be he peasant, priest, or artisan, would be without two or three; every small chief or proprietor of substance had twenty or even thirty; nobles had infinitely more, often employing a superintendent to direct them. The slave, Merab remarked, was thus almost a complement to the free man, it being customary in describing a person's wealth or status to refer to the number of his slaves. One Ras was said to have as many as 20,000 though Merab believed that the Emperor Menilek and his consort did not have so many. Cipolla, whose figures may be somewhat exaggerated, nevertheless states that Menilek and Taytu owned 20,000 slaves at the palace in Addis Ababa and a further 50,000 elsewhere, while Ras Walda Giyorgis had 20,000, Ras Tassama 6,000 and Ras Mikael 3,000. Ras Wale of Semen also had a large number, but Ras Habta Giyorgis was a poor man with only 500. A generation later Ras Tafari Makonnen was said to have 7,000 and Ras Haylu also very many.¹²
Her Imperial Majesty Empress Menen was also accused of participating in the slave trade directly:
His wife, Waizero Menen, was said to have given the Shaykh 30,000 Maria Theresa dollars to pay for 600 'young blacks' who were taken into the residence of Tafari and his relations. These were rumours, but the fact that Tafari had not freed his own slaves seemed to give them credence. In his autobiography he claims that Shaykh Khojali told him that these were slaves who had been freed and that when they arrived in Addis Ababa he gave them certificates of freedom and sent them to military school. This is very likely true. The British minister reported seeing fifty 'small boys with absolutely black faces in khaki' marching past in a review of troops and being told that they were liberated slaves.¹³
On the other hand, it was always Haile Selassie’s desire to abolish the institution of slavery in the Empire.¹⁴ In fact as early as 15 September 1923 Haile Selassie issued a proclamation against slavery followed by a law on 31 March 1924 which abolished the slave trade and threatened slave traders with the death penalty. In order to not risk alienating his followers and to avoid an instant economic crisis the possession of slaves who had already been traded before the promulgation of the law was allowed.¹⁵ On his coronation as Emperor, seven articles were promulgated in the Ethiopian Penal Code of 1930 which punished kidnapping and forced labor as well.¹⁶ His Majesty then issued a decree which emancipated the children of enslaved persons and all people enslaved upon their owner’s death in 1931.¹⁷ The freed children were enrolled in a new school to prepare them for services in the modern state.¹⁸ By 1934 His Majesty had established sixty-two local bureaus to control slavery.¹⁹
In a calculated move Haile Selassie planned to phase out the ancient Ethiopian institution of slavery gradually to prevent the chaos that ensued in the United States immediately after mass emancipation as he feared that a sudden end to slavery would’ve created an impoverished class of two million destitute people overnight with no means to support themselves. “His reasoning on this is sound, too,” explained British-American national news commentator Boake Carter in 1935.²⁰ His intention was to ensure that every person freed would have immediate employment so that they could be fully integrated into society and not become a bandit or a charge on the nation.²¹ Carter said, “In this he is using merely common sense.”²² It was a policy that was in stark contrast to the intentions of his uncrowned predecessor, Lij Iyasu, and even his cousin Dejazmatch Tayye Tekle Maryam of Benesso-Gurafarda who were both heavily involved in the slave markets in the early 1900s.²³ Slavery was officially abolished in Ethiopia on 26 August 1942, ten years ahead of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society’s schedule.²⁴ It must also be considered that for at least five years “Haile Selassie’s reforms were interrupted by the Italian invasion.”²⁵
“When Italy prepared for conflict with Ethiopia, writers started to publish on slavery in Ethiopia. This provided propaganda for the argument that Ethiopia was not ‘a civilized nation’ as demanded by the League’s charter, and therefore, by implication, did not enjoy the same rights as other members. This seems to have weakened international support for Ethiopia, when the Italian War broke out (1935–1936).”²⁶
Mussolini tried to justify his colonial adventure in Ethiopia by citing the 5,000 year old institution of slavery as his official excuse and, according to some historians, Italy started an “effective campaign” against slavery in Ethiopia. However, during that period, slave trading was performed primarily at sea off the coasts of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland by the Arabs under the direct supervision of the colonial Italians.²⁷
The Emperor would later explain:
The most exaggerated accusation against Ethiopia was the issue of slavery. For this reason, when We began laying the foundations for rehabilitating the country, We immediately issued a proclamation to abolish the master-slave relationship. This proclamation stated that Our pre-war proclamation had come to fruition. The institution of slavery was deeply rooted in tradition... [and] it was impossible to uproot such an ancient institution simply by writing laws. It should not have been held against us as a strange phenomenon either. Since far hack in history, slavery has been practiced in the whole world; it was not an institution unique to Ethiopia. It is recorded history that this practice has posed problems world-wide.²⁸
In Garvey’s defense he died on 10 June 1940 before the end of the war and wasn’t able to acquire all the necessary information needed at the time in order to construct an informed opinion about the Emperor’s exile or emancipation plan.²⁹
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| Haile Selassie I addressing Parliament on the 40th anniversary of his coronation © Marion Kaplan / Alamy Stock Photo. All Rights Reserved. Licensed and used with permission. |
Debunking False Claims by Dr. Yohannes Woldemariam
Dr. Woldemariam claims: “Selassie often took undeserved credit for others’ contributions... A famous speech delivered by Selassie, famed for developing his aura as statesman and defender of his people, at the League of Nations in 1936, is widely believed to have been written by Taezaz.”
Before the war Lorenzo Taezaz, an Eritrean, was appointed Private Secretary to Emperor Haile Selassie and accompanied him in exile.³⁰ Professor Emeritus Bahru Zewde, who taught history at Addis Ababa University, writes that Lorenzo Taezaz “reportedly drafted the emperor’s famous speech to the League.”³¹
The Emperor’s American legal advisor, John Spencer, who was close friends with Lorenzo, corroborated this fact during an interview stating, “He helped draft Haile Selassie’s 1936 address to the League of Nations, translated his speeches and led the Ethiopian delegation to Geneva.”³² Historically it’s not unordinary for heads of state to have senior executives and speechwriters assist them with drafting important speeches. Governments commonly employ speechwriters for this task—this is nothing new and isn’t a legitimate example of Haile Selassie taking undeserved credit by any stretch of the imagination. Taffara Deguefé stated:
[His Majesty] meticulously revised his speeches personally. They were adapted to the circumstances of the occasion. He ‘combined Christian piety with politics’ and invoked often God’s name in his speeches and public actions. His speeches were solemn and uniform in style. There was never such levity as humor, irony or polemic to lower the imperial dignity. To my mind, there was always majesty and greatness in his public utterances made in clear and measured Amharic. Linguists like Ullendorff say that ‘Amharic was used by him with consummate skill.’³³
Furthermore the Emperor not only respected but also codified literary and artistic ownership.³⁴
Dr. Woldemariam wrote, “The emperor eventually repaid Taezaz by demoting him from his position as Foreign Minister.”
This is historically inaccurate because, after the war with Italy, Lorenzo Taezaz was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and served from 1941–1942, Minister of Posts, Telephones and Telegrams from 1942–1943, President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1943–1944, Ambassador to the USSR in 1944–1946 and Delegate to the Paris Peace Conference in May 1946.³⁵ According to Bahru Zewde, after the Minister of the Pen Walda-Giyorgis Walda-Yohannes had a dispute with Lorenzo Taezaz he transferred him to be the Ambassador to the Soviet Union.³⁶
Dr. Woldemariam stated, “He died soon after in 1947 in suspicious circumstances.”
Daniel Kendie writes about Lorenzo’s death:
“The rumor mills in Ethiopia have been grinding out conflicting stories about his death. It is strongly alleged by many Ethiopians that Lorenzo was poisoned by Wolde Giorgis Wolde Yohannes, Haile Selassie’s powerful Minister of the Pen, who deeply resented Lorenzo’s wide popularity with Haile Selassie. Spencer for one is convinced that he died a natural death. He claims that Lorenzo suffered from intestinal adhesions.”³⁷
His death is reported to have occurred on 23 June 1946 in Stockholm, Sweden; not 1947.³⁸ Lorenzo’s mission to Ethiopia and the report which he brought back to England in March 1940 during the Emperor’s exile was so successful and encouraging that Haile Selassie proclaimed him to be the seed of his loins and a cherished member of the Imperial family.³⁹ An excerpt from a 2013 article written by Ghirmay Yeibio states:
“Blaten Geta Lorenzo Taezaz... was buried in Addis Ababa with full honors at the grounds of Holy Trinity Cathedral reserved for the royal family of Ethiopia and high ranking officials. A Street in Addis Ababa another street in Asmara and a Junior Secondary School in his birth place Adi Keyih were named after Lorenzo Taezaz.”⁴⁰
Woldemariam continues, “it is well-established that [Haile Selassie] spent $35 million for celebrating his 80th birthday during the Wollo famine.” A month before His Majesty’s eightieth birthday in 1972 the nineteenth assembly of the Organization of African Unity was held in Rabat, Morocco. The leaders at the meeting declared that His Majesty’s birthday should be celebrated throughout the entire African continent and they acknowledged that Haile Selassie had been a father, wise counselor and toiled greatly to form the OAU.⁴¹
Local organizations, enterprises, state and government officials all gave gifts and donations to the Emperor while many foreign ambassadors presented gifts on behalf of their country’s governments. On his eightieth birthday Haile Selassie not only pardoned 483 prisoners who had been charged with theft, looting or murder but he also ordered that all the gifts he had received for the occasion be estimated, sold at auction and donated to charity.⁴²
However it was suggested that the items had significant historical value and should be preserved in a museum as a symbol of pride, wealth, and heritage; as a memory for the Ethiopian people. His Majesty eventually agreed and a committee was formed which carefully itemized and estimated the total value of all the gifts and donations of bronze, diamonds, parchment paper, engraved marble etc. to be valued at about $80 million Ethiopian birr which was equivalent to $35 million U.S. dollars in 1972.⁴³
The committee’s appraisal of the gifts received has been misconstrued as the amount spent on the celebration. As a result the Emperor has been wrongfully accused of excessive spending for the event.⁴⁴ The gifts were to be kept in the Jubilee Palace until a room was constructed to house the museum but just two years later, in 1974, the communist Dergue (lit. “Council” or “Committee”) plundered the collection. They traded the USSR 300,000 troy ounces of gold and three million Maria Teresa silver bullion coins from Ethiopia’s national bank and national treasury for artillery.⁴⁵
The Dergue also financed a purchase of arms from the United States in 1975 using foreign reserves and liquidity from a sale of the national gold reserve.⁴⁶ Ethiopia’s total combined GDP from 1971–1975 was roughly $10 billion USD or Eth. $21 billion birr.⁴⁷ Yet, brazenly and without any evidence, during the revolution the Dergue falsely accused the Emperor of embezzling billions of dollars through foreign bank accounts.⁴⁸
The Emperor reacted sharply to this affront: “How much money did you say We have in foreign banks? Billions? . . . Fourteen billion dollars! From where would all this money have come from? And for what purpose would We keep it abroad? To live in exile? We have seen and experienced exile...” We all fell silent and cast our eyes to the ground at this painful mention of exile. While still in the yard, as they were getting out at the close of the meeting with the Emperor, the Dergue members were shaking their heads in disbelief. I heard them muttering among themselves, “That old man is taking us for a ride. Where did all the gold from Adola mines disappear if it was not hidden in foreign banks in his name?” I laughed at these baseless statements and misconceptions. These were now the people leading Ethiopia’s affairs?⁴⁹
In 1959 the Emperor’s private secretary, Teffera-Work Kidane-Wold, informed Haile Selassie that his entire net worth was £22,000.00 (an amount equivalent to $609,067.84 USD in 2022).⁵⁰ His Majesty had been falsely accused of amassing a fortune in British, Swiss and American banks as early as 1960 during the failed coup attempt.⁵¹ “Haile Selassie and his family lived a rather modest private life, as those who were around him have attested.”⁵² The Emperor never trusted banks enough to store any large sums of money in them after the accounts he had locally and abroad were seized and paid to fascist Italy because of the de facto recognition of their partial occupation of Ethiopia before Haile Selassie could withdraw anything during his exile in the 1930s.⁵³ In their effort to discredit His Majesty with propaganda and turn public opinion against him the Dergue also lied about the Emperor owning and embezzling funds through the publicly owned Anbessa Bus Company, and the St. George’s Brewery.⁵⁴ He leveraged debt to purchase the brewery when it was a small company on 22 December 1952 and ultimately donated it entirely to the Prize Trust charity organization on 29 June 1972.⁵⁵ The Dergue’s propaganda about the Emperor’s alleged financial corruption conveniently omitted the fact that he borrowed money to buy the brewery.⁵⁶
Share dividends and profits from both companies went to support many charities including St. Paul’s Hospital for the poor, the school for the blind and other social services because The Haile Selassie I Foundation and Haile Selassie Prize Trust owned a majority of the shares. The Emperor merely held a ceremonial role in the Haile Selassie Prize Trust as it was a fully independent organization. These accounts were also audited by one of the world's most prestigious accounting firms, Price Waterhouse.⁵⁷
Similarly in the late 1960s some of the Emperor’s political opponents who served in Ethiopia’s Parliament accused Haile Selassie’s cabinet of excessive spending and squandering loans. A motion to launch an investigation into the utilization of every foreign loan since 1941 was approved. The findings revealed that the loans had been insufficient and that the government was covering the deficit. Instead of embezzling the loans the Emperor’s administration was actually subsidizing the shortfalls of government programs that needed additional funding out of its own budget.⁵⁸
In an official declaration which was reported after Haile Selassie was deposed the Dergue stated that during a search of the Emperor’s bedroom, office and briefcase they seized a sum of Ethiopian birr $979,506.00⁵⁹ (an amount roughly equivalent to $2.7 million USD in 2022) allegedly hoarded by Haile Selassie.⁶⁰ This too is a demonstrably false allegation as it’s well documented that the Emperor had unsuccessfully asked the Ethiopian Treasurer, Taffara Deguefé, for a loan of “half a million birr to be donated to the relief of Wollo famine” in mid-August of 1974 and even went as far as offering all the gifts he had received for his eightieth birthday as collateral for the loan.⁶¹ Income from the Emperor’s private domain or bette-rist (lit. “house-inheritance”) was reserved for persons in straitened circumstances who petitioned him, families of veterans who died at war in foreclosure, families of government employees in foreclosure, newlyweds, alms for the poor, financing schools, promoting his country’s interests abroad, funding development projects, funding the imperial household and medical treatment for those who couldn’t afford it.⁶²
After being detained and interrogated by the Dergue concerning the whereabouts of his rumored wealth and retirement accounts Haile Selassie said:
“It is clear that you don’t know your own country’s history. Our subjects can put aside money for their retirement. For an Emperor there is no retirement. He must look after Ethiopia and Ethiopia must look after him; nor can he put anything aside since Ethiopia is everything for him. Either he has everything or he has nothing. Having not provided for Our retirement, We have nothing.”⁶³
His Majesty therefore wasn’t aware of any cash reserves hidden throughout the palace.⁶⁴ “Besides, he was innately a conservative man and his private treasurer handled all transactions on a cash basis,” to quote the Minister of Finance Taffara Deguefé.⁶⁵
After members of the Imperial government had been detained a member of the Dergue named Petros Gebre robbed the Treasurer of the Royal Archive, Seyfe Selassie Liben,⁶⁶ of his key and looted at least 100 gold coins from Crown Prince Asfa Wossen’s personal safe.⁶⁷ Haile Selassie considered Asfa Wossen to be unworthy of the throne.⁶⁸ Perhaps the money that the Dergue allegedly found hidden throughout the palace belonged to the untrustworthy Crown Prince whose treasonous and questionable business dealings can be traced all the way back to the royal family’s exile when he made secret arrangements for the surrender of Ethiopia with fascist Italy in 1939.⁶⁹ Even the Italian government was aware of the disharmony between Emperor Haile Selassie and his eldest son Asfa Wossen as early as 19 May 1937 and approached him with offers to submit to Italian vassalage.⁷⁰
During the Dergue’s financial investigation in October 1974 it was revealed that Haile Selassie was the trustee and guardian of trust accounts in the National City Bank in New York and the National Westminster Bank in London that belonged to five of the Emperor’s grandchildren. The amounts in the trust accounts between U.S. dollars and British pounds sterling were modest totaling less than $400,000 USD combined (an amount roughly equivalent to $2 million USD in 2022).⁷¹
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| Haile Selassie I © Art Directors & TRIP / Alamy Stock Photo. All Rights Reserved. Licensed and used with permission. |
Although none of Haile Selassie’s rumored wealth was ever discovered the Emperor signed an inheritance document under the supervision of the Dergue in 1974 which ordered that all of his personal and family’s financial investments and fortunes in local and foreign banks be withdrawn, donated to the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission and “spent on alleviating the suffering caused by drought.”⁷²
The second part of Dr. Woldemariam’s accusation begs the question: Was Haile Selassie cynically aware of the famine taking place and purposefully ignoring it during his birthday celebration in 1972? “According to his faithful servant, Haile Selassie at first knew nothing of the famine. ‘The emperor was shocked and deeply saddened. I went with him to Wollo. He had no idea his people were suffering like this.’” This was stated by Mamo Haile in 2005 who began working for the Emperor when he was seventeen years old.⁷³ Yacob Aklilu testifies that Haile Selassie’s son Asfa Wossen and other government officials attempted to hide the famine from him:
Although blamed for hiding the famine, Emperor Haile Selassie was initially unaware of the famine, in part because government officials were reluctant to pass on bad news. Upon discovering the famine in 1973, the Emperor rebuked Crown Prince Asfa Wossen (the Duke of Wollo) for not informing him of the famine earlier, to which the prince replied that the Emperor only listened to his officials and not to him (the Prince). The prince was so stressed by this allegation that he had a stroke that evening and was hospitalised in the UK. Personal communication, Yacob Aklilu, 15 October 2008, Addis Ababa.⁷⁴
Many expected that the Emperor would announce his abdication and name his eldest son Asfa Wossen to be his successor on his eightieth birthday.⁷⁵ When this didn’t occur Crown Prince Asfa Wossen continued to hide the famine in the Wollo region which he was in charge of seemingly in an effort to further sabotage his father’s reign. Maybe he believed that he could eventually usurp the throne by using the crisis to diminish political support for his father’s rule. The Dergue even proclaimed him to be the new “King” on the same day they deposed Haile Selassie on 12 September 1974.⁷⁶
That same year, once Haile Selassie was deposed, Asfa Wossen also admitted in an interview with German news magazine Stern that he participated in organizing the failed coup d’état of 1960 against His Majesty who was on a state visit in Brazil at the time in which the Crown Prince pronounced himself to be the new emperor on national radio. Before then the Crown Prince had always claimed that he was forced to make the announcement under duress.⁷⁷ The coup lasted four days and at least 300 people including civilians caught in the street fighting were killed.⁷⁸ While he was still living abroad the Dergue announced the annulment of Asfa Wossen’s nomination as King-designate on 22 March 1975. Then on 27 August 1975 they announced the sudden death of Haile Selassie.⁷⁹ The former Crown Prince publicly demanded that an autopsy be performed on his father but the Dergue ignored the request.⁸⁰ His Highness Crown Prince Asfa Wossen never returned to Ethiopia to sit on the throne but in 1989 he crowned himself Emperor Amha Selassie while in exile and died about eight years later.⁸¹
The Crown Prince's anouncement during the coup is translated as follows:
This is the voice of the Crown Prince of Ethiopia, Merid Azmatch Asfa Wossen: Declaration: The Ethiopian people have a history of more than 3000 years, but in that long history no progress was made in agriculture, commerce or industry. The basis of [Haile Selase] government administration is law, and it should have been used to safeguard the rights of the people, but, instead, it was used to gain personal ends and to oppress the people. The Ethiopian people manifested patience, such patience as is unknown in any other nation, and they waited in the hope that betterment would come from day to day. Nevertheless, there is no nation which, in time, would not extirpate ignorance from among its people and not aim at improving the standard of living. While the newly formed independent African nations are making progress, Ethiopia is lagging behind, and this fact is now realized. Ethiopia has always been lulled by vain promises. This realization resulted, during the past two years, in an active movement among farmers, merchants, government officials, the armed forces, and the educated class. Many attempts have been made to destroy this movement, but these attempts failed to keep the determined Ethiopian nation in serfdom. It is due to this determination that today the people's movement assumes power to emancipate the nation and open a new era of progress. Up to today, the obstacles to the nation were only a few people who pursued their own selfish and personal ends by dividing the nation and scrambling for power. Realizing this, I have heartily agreed to serve the nation as a salaried official. The newly formed Ethiopian government is supported by myself, the armed forces, the educated students, and the Ethiopian people, and as such the appointments and dispositions made by this new government will be valid and effective.⁸²
Some sources have even implicated the Empress as the actual mastermind behind the 1960 coup:
Amazingly, after the Emperor's return and the failed coup d'etat, not only the Crown Prince and other high-ranking family members were imprisoned, but also Empress Menen herself. Knowing the answers to the background questions, there's no need to ask why the Emperor also imprisoned his Empress, along with all the other 'conspirators.' Even more astonishing is that the official version states that the Crown Prince was forced to make this declaration to the Ethiopian people with a gun to his head, making deliberate involvement 'extremely unlikely.' Later, however, the Crown Prince admitted that he was indeed involved in this coup, even playing a key role in its planning, preparation, and execution. Several Amharic and other sources also reveal that the Empress probably played just as much of a role as her son, and that the Empress herself was even the source of inspiration behind this 'conspiracy.' Among other things, it was known that her son was much more liberal than his father and she considered him the better choice for the throne and the country. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Crown Prince and his mother, the Empress, were arrested immediately after the failed coup. Among other things, she was accused of having gone with her son the day before the coup 'to show their presence among the Imperial Guards at the urging of the security forces,' as an alleged "decline in morale during the Emperor's abstinence" seemed to be spreading among them. Just imagine: Haile Selassie imprisoned his wife, Empress of Ethiopia and mother of his children, on the (rightfully) accusation that she and her son commissioned this coup, and by visiting the Guards (the Empress wanted to visit the Guards and allegedly asked the Crown Prince to come with her, and not the other way around), she was sending the 'signal' to the coup leaders and encouraging them to carry out their mission. It's not surprising that the Empress died about a year later.⁸³
Many high ranking officers lost their lives in the 1960 coup attempt which inevitably led to the illegal overthrow of the monarchy. British journalist Jonathan Dimbleby stated that the Dergue created effective propaganda by editing his documentary about the famine:
“To guard against public backlash in favour of Haile Selassie (who was still widely revered), they contrived to obtain a copy of The Unknown Famine which they intercut with images of Africa’s grand old man presiding at a wedding feast in the grounds of his palace. Retitled The Hidden Hunger, this film noir was shown round the clock on Ethiopian television to coincide with the day that they finally summoned the nerve to seize the Emperor himself. As propaganda, The Hidden Hunger had precisely the required effect.”⁸⁴
Peter Gill wrote that Haile Selassie, “certainly expressed sorrowful astonishment on his first visit to the region in November 1973.” Greatly disturbed and overwhelmed by what he saw he rushed back to the capital in complete disarray and an emergency meeting was called to coordinate famine aid.⁸⁵ “The responsible officials —Legesse Bezu, Kassa Wolde Mariam and Mulatu Debebe — were ‘hauled over the coals’ by the sovereign.”⁸⁶ With regards to the famine Dimbleby told Gill, “I believe Haile Selassie was simply not informed.”⁸⁷
“One of the most significant events related to the so-called Wello Famine was the Emperor’s visit to Wello in November 1972. Two things make this event significant: first, the Emperor returned from Wello without realizing the extremely ripe famine situation in Wello. The people of Wello were not allowed to present a petition to the Emperor. Even the letter written to him by the parliamentarians from Wello prior to his departure apparently never reached him. The Emperor was efficiently and effectively protected from any displeasure that might result from the realization of so serious a problem as famine.”⁸⁸
During Haile Selassie’s 1972 visit to the region the Enderassé of Wollo, Dejazmatch Solomon Abraham, was careful to conceal the needs of the people and he made sure to distract the Emperor from the reality of the situation with pomp and ceremony.⁸⁹ In April 1973 students peacefully protested the government’s mishandling of the Wollo famine in Dessie. To quell the revolt the students’ leaders were detained but the protest continued. Dejazmatch Solomon Abraham ordered the Chief of Police Gerneral Girma Yohannes to use force to disperse the crowds, eight students were shot and killed.⁹⁰
When the news reached Haile Selassie, the Emperor immediately ordered, “Do not shoot my students!”⁹¹ This all took place in the morning, at noon bystanders witnessed the Enderassé drive nonchalantly over the blood of the slain students as if nothing had happened on his way home.⁹² Dejazmatch Solomon Abraham was removed from his post in May 1973 because of this incident. In 1974 his role in the cover-up of the Wollo famine was investigated by the Commission of Inquiry. He was summarily executed without a trial by the Dergue along with Girma Yohannes, Legesse Bezu, Mulatu Debebe and forty-four other imprisoned former government officials at Kerchele Prison on 23 November 1974 during the Black Saturday Massacre; sixty officials were killed in total that day (about half were military and half were civilian).⁹³ Kassa Wolde Mariam was executed without a trial in July 1978.⁹⁴
On 23 July 1974 during His Majesty’s eighty-second birthday he delivered his last speech:
“I am still today, as I have always been in the past, at the service of my people. My fondest wish is that peace should continue to reign in the empire. The recent measures that we have been obliged to adopt are in the people’s interest, the same interest that guides our actions. The famine that has killed many thousands of our beloved children has deeply saddened us. We will intensify the aid going out to the poor unfortunates who are depending on it. If anyone has committed any mistakes, their punishment will not be long in coming.”⁹⁵
Documented correspondences and reports prove that government officials were aware of the famine as early as August 1971 yet they guarded the Emperor from the information well into 1973 and beyond.⁹⁶ “In their desire not to displease the Emperor, the Ministers often presented the problem of famine with extreme caution and understatement.”⁹⁷ In 1957 the Emperor had established a maximum sentence of ten years rigorous imprisonment and strict confinement for anyone who creates distress or famine intentionally or through neglect of his obligations.⁹⁸ The misconstrued overestimation of the cost of His Majesty’s eightieth birthday celebration in conjunction with accusations about his alleged indifference and supposed negative attitude towards famine victims is nothing more than just another falsified myth about the Emperor.⁹⁹
Preparations for the Emperor’s 80th birthday celebration dated 23 July 1972:¹⁰⁰
Actual footage of Haile Selassie’s 80th birthday party dated 23 July 1972:¹⁰¹
“Perhaps less well-known are Selassie’s crimes and his associates, such as Asserate Kassa in Eritrea. These are too numerous and ghastly for the scope of this piece. For further reading on this, I recommend Michela Wrong’s book titled I Didn’t Do it For You. How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation.”
In 1961 a political movement called the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) openly declared an armed struggle for independence. Its founding members who were Italian Ascaris (native colonial soldiers) and career outlaws were labeled as “terrorist bandits” by the Ethiopian government.¹⁰² During a political rally on 12 July 1962 in Agordat a grenade killed eight people including Eritrea’s Minister of Justice Omar Mohammed Hassan and it wounded ninety-two including Lieutenant General Abiye Abebe, the President of the Eritrean Assembly Hamid Faraj, Assistant to the Imperial representative in Eritrea Qumlachew Belete, Vice-President of the Eritrean Assembly Melake-Selam Dimetros, and both Chief Administrators of Keren and Agordat.¹⁰³ Four months later the Eritrean Parliament voted unanimously to join the Empire of Ethiopia on 15 November 1962; protests and violent political dissent escalated in the years that followed as ELF membership grew.¹⁰⁴ While Ras Kassa’s endeavors in Eritrea during the late 1960s and early 1970s may warrant a discussion the book cited by Dr. Woldemariam about this is at best dubious, Ras Asserate Kassa’s name isn’t even mentioned in Michela Wrong’s book.¹⁰⁵ In reference to some of the more well-known civilian massacres Michela Wrong states, “Besik-Dira and Ona were not dreadful aberrations, the work of army units which momentarily lost control. This was policy.”
However this is incorrect as the specific provisions which comprised the Emperor’s policy towards Eritrea were namely Proclamation No. 1 of 1955¹⁰⁶ also known as Security Prosecutions Proclamation 1947 (E.C.),¹⁰⁷ the Penal Law (Amendment) Act of 1956, the Banditry Act of 1957 (amended twice in 1959), the Penal Code (Extension) Act of 1959, the Collective Liability Act of 1960, Mesfin Tesfaye et al. v. Public Prosecutor Criminal Appeal No. 21/1964, Warassi Ekubegabr Tesfamicheal et al. v. Public Prosecutor Criminal Appeal No. 36/64, Gebregzi Gebre Muse et al. v. Public Prosecutor Criminal Appeal No. 61/67 and Bahta Tewolde Berhan et al. v. Public Prosecutor Criminal Appeal No. 74/63 (1971).¹⁰⁸
On 20 November 1970 Ethiopian forces were ambushed by the pro-independent guerilla fighters and Major General Teshome Ergetu was assassinated by Nezareab Azazi which forced the Emperor to declare martial law in the region; the declaration went into effect on 16 December 1970.¹⁰⁹ According to its preamble, the purpose of the Declaration of a State of Emergency in Certain Areas of the Teklay Gizat of Eritrea Order No. 66 of 1970 was to “assure public security and to maintain law and order within the Emergency Area, and to protect the persons and property of the inhabitants thereof.”¹¹⁰ Official policy also included The State of Emergency in Certain Areas of the Teklay Gizat of Eritrea Regulations Legal Notice No. 390 of 1970:
Article eight required that members of the “Security Forces assigned to duty within the Emergency Area may, within said Area, use force, to the extent but only to the extent that such use is reasonably justified, taking into consideration all of the circumstances of the case, to maintain law and order, to effect a lawful arrest, and to protect the persons and property of the inhabitants and other persons within said Area.”¹¹¹
Ras Asserate Kassa, who had been the Governor-General of Eritrea since 1964, resigned on 9 January 1971 and the Emperor replaced him with General Debebe Hailemariam.¹¹²
Michela Wrong writes, “The Ethiopian military . . . fell into the trap that awaits any army sent to subjugate a land where every rebel looks like a peasant farmer.”¹¹³ In 2019 the late Eritrean author Tesfaye Gebreab discussed in an interview how the current authoritative text about the military campaign against the ELF bandits in Eritrea is a Tigrinyan book called Gfei (“Atrocity”) written by Solomon Berhe Gilamichael, Hienok Tesfabruk Tekle and Tesfalem Yemane Kibrom.¹¹⁴ Gebreab’s Amharic translation was published in 2018 under the title The Emperor & the Derg: Untold Stories of Atrocity but his English version of Gfei may never be published as Gebreab passed away in December 2021.¹¹⁵ Many people have blamed the Eritrean conflict on ethnic discrimination and charge the Imperial government with ethnic cleansing. Yet, according to Gebreab and the authors of Gfei, heretofore it wasn’t known that many of the atrocities of rape, looting, arson and extrajudicial killings committed in Eritrea were perpetrated by ethnic Eritreans, such as Lieutenant Colonel Kassaye and Lieutenant General Negash Drar who served in the Ethiopian Army, as every ethnicity was represented in the Imperial armed forces and in government.¹¹⁶
Although heavily amended throughout the years due to Eritrea’s changing legal status part eighty-nine of the Teklay Ghizat Administration Decree No. 1 of 1942 always stated, “Every officer of the army must be responsible that his soldiers do not commit illegalities such as pillaging and all deeds of oppressing the peoples.”¹¹⁷ During the thirty-third anniversary of the liberation of Addis Ababa from Italian occupation on 5 May 1974 the Emperor addressed his soldiers in a speech broadcast over the radio.
“In that address, while recognizing their contribution to the political and social development of the nation and the courage with which they had fought so brilliantly in the Ogaden and in Eritrea, he still leveled weighty accusations against those members of the army who broke the ranks of military discipline and became dissidents toward their sovereign and the Ethiopian people. This point had to be made clear so that they could become aware of their responsibilities and, by respecting the orders of the emperor, act as guarantors of the peace and the protectors of Ethiopia.”¹¹⁸
During his last speech on 23 July 1974 His Majesty said:
“This army, which is our own creation, must today face the challenge of a difficult situation in Eritrea and Ogaden. For that reason it has the right to all our support, all our faith. The Ethiopian army must remain, however, that same tranquil and disciplined force that has allowed it to gain so many victories in the past.”¹¹⁹
While touring Eritrea on 6 September 1974 Defense Minister Aman Mikael Andom promised to create a committee to investigate reports of atrocities and he arrested some members of the police force.¹²⁰ The committee was chaired by Colonel Regassa Jimma and it included Mese Gebretensae who was a member of the Police and Legal Advisers while the commanding officers were Defense Minister Aman Mikael Andom, Lieutenant General Debebe Hailemariam and Major General Gizaw Belayneh.¹²¹
Six days later the Imperial regime collapsed when the Emperor was deposed; shortly thereafter Andom was killed by the Dergue in a shootout on 23 November 1974.¹²² To suggest that brutal acts of barbarism that were performed by those who unlawfully abused their authority in order to vent their frustrations¹²³ during a state of emergency were somehow exercising official discriminatory policies of Emperor Haile Selassie is a gross mischaracterization and erroneous fallacy which must be corrected. The records show that Haile Selassie rebuked those accused of wrongdoing in the region and that his administration’s defense minister began an investigation into reports of atrocities while apprehending certain officials.¹²⁴ Emperor Haile Selassie was indeed the first Ethiopian ruler to ever define and criminalize genocide as well as war crimes against civilian populations and hostile acts against international humanitarian organizations.¹²⁵
Despite the fact that Michela Wrong cites some academic sources throughout her publication there’s a disclaimer at the end of the book (e-Book version only) on the copyright page that reads: “This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.”¹²⁶ Berihun Kebede eloquently explained in chapter thirty-five of his Amharic book that “Emperor Haile Selassie’s only crime was to liberate the Eritrean people.”¹²⁷ Leul-Ras Asserate Kassa and General Debebe Hailemariam were executed without a trial on 23 November 1974 during the Black Saturday Massacre.¹²⁸ “The conflict escalated, developing into a bloody civil war that was only brought to a provisional conclusion in 1993 with the independence of Eritrea.”¹²⁹
Dr. Woldemariam stated, “Similarly, the autocrat is remembered in Tigray for inviting the British Royal Air Force to bomb the region in 1943 to quell what came to be known as the first Woyane Rebellion.”
This armed rebellion which lasted for three months is often used by many political activists to depict Haile Selassie as a violent tyrant who invited foreign colonialists to kill his own people. However when this situation is examined in its proper context it becomes apparent that the insurgents were unjustified secessionists. Some of the surviving participants attributed the fighting to the social confusion in the region which permeated after the Italian war.¹³⁰
Countless government forces and British officers were killed including Lieutenant Colonel F. H. Black by the armed rebels’ militant uprising when they launched an offensive against government military camps.¹³¹ Their slogan was, "There is no government, let's organize and govern ourselves."¹³² The rebellion was started by peasants and bandits who used 33,000 arms given to them by the Italians to demand autonomy, the administration of Tigrayan customary laws, appointment of their own leaders not subject to the Shoan imperial elite and they refused to pay taxes to His Majesty's government. One of the customs that they wanted to preserve was their ritualistic initiations of raiding and looting neighboring villages (known as “gaz” or “karim”).¹³³
The first Woyane Rebellion is also regarded to be the Azebo and Raya’s last stand against the centralized government.¹³⁴ The Raya and Azebo assisted Ras Gugsa Welle during his failed rebellion against Ras Tafari Makonnen in 1928–1930; they accepted Italian bribes to fight against the Ethiopian government during the Second Italo-Ethiopian war and even attacked the Ethiopian armies before and after the battle of Maichew so severely that Emperor Haile Selassie refused to retreat through the region after the battle.¹³⁵ Many of the leaders in the region who benefited from the Italian occupation resented the fact that the Emperor refused to recognize the titles given to them by the Italians, they opposed the perceived reversal of power in the country after the war and they were bitter that their fortunes which had been accumulated in Italian lire were now considered worthless.¹³⁶
Each successive victory over the inadequately trained government forces who were only familiar with guerilla warfare allowed the rebels to acquire more modern weapons which then helped them attract many more peasants and bandits to join the rebellion eventually numbering more than 20,000 men. In between the fighting at Alage, for instance, while the armies and rebels regrouped the Woyane “pillaged the country for some fifteen miles around the area leaving no village unburnt.”¹³⁷ Those captured by the rebels were said to have been mutilated and even castrated.¹³⁸ Peasant households who refused to comply with the rebels’ demands of money and food were sadistically punished. Their faces were burned with boiling water, their hands bound with salted ropes, and women’s heads were shaved.¹³⁹
In an effort to resolve the situation peacefully, leaflets with messages from the Emperor and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church were dropped urging the rebels to surrender or suffer the consequences of the deployment of the air force and the Etchege (administrative head of the church, lit. “Head of Monks”) threatened excommunication. At one point the government forces faced an ammunition shortage so critical the British Foreign Office was convinced that retreating would cause the Emperor to fall.¹⁴⁰ Many believe that without British intervention the Emperor’s troops would’ve been completely defeated before 28 September 1943.¹⁴¹ Aerial bombardment was reluctantly used, albeit justifiably, as a last resort to preserve the integrity of the state and to protect innocent civilians.¹⁴²
Nevertheless, Dr. Woldemariam wrote: “Belay Zeleke, a national war hero was hung on his orders.”
Born in 1912, Belay Zeleke was a vengeful outlaw and bandit turned war hero who led the arbegnoch (“patriots”) in Gojam against the Italians.¹⁴³ In 1927 he avenged his father’s death “and, later, looted cattle, captured firearms and defeated local officials.''¹⁴⁴ In April 1935 he was elected leader of his rebellious group which consisted of “brigands, criminals and outlaws who sought refuge in the bush.”¹⁴⁵ At 5:00 AM on 3 October 1935, fascist Italian General Emilio De Bono crossed the Mareb River from Eritrea and invaded Ethiopia.¹⁴⁶
“The invasion of Ethiopia by fascist Italy changed the precarious situation in Goǧǧam. Bälay and his followers, who numbered some 50 at that time, got an opportunity to fight for a good cause and legitimize their rebellion. They tried to mobilize and recruit the local people, both peacefully and forcefully. They ambushed the Italians and attacked them in their fortifications, capturing numerous firearms. Italian attempts to subdue Bälay Zälläqä through persuasion failed. Bälay soon emerged as a prominent patriot leader; between 1937 and 1939 most of the districts in Eastern Goǧǧam were gradually brought under his control; he was communicating with patriots in other regions, particularly with Ras Abäbä Arägay in Šäwa.”¹⁴⁷
After succeeding in over twenty-three significant battles in the regions of Gojam, Wollo and Shoa,¹⁴⁸ Emperor Haile Selassie bestowed the title of Dejazmatch on him and appointed him governor of Bichena in 1941.¹⁴⁹ According to the late Italian historian Angelo Del Boca:
“Balay Zallaka, whom the British considered to be the most skillful among the leaders of the campaigns of guerrilla warfare; appointed Dajjach and governor of the Bechana district, in the Gojjam, the ex-partisan immediately showed that he was happy neither with his new title nor his new job, which he felt were not in keeping with the services he had rendered to his country. He therefore ignored the orders that came from Debra Markos and from the capital, stating clearly that he refused to serve a monarch who had deserted the battlefield in 1936, at the height of his nation’s need. This accusation, leveled by a chief who enjoyed an extraordinary level of popularity in the Gojjam, along with the discovery that Balay Zallaka had been conspiring with Mammo Haylu to bring back his father Ras Haylu Takla-Haymanot as the leader of the region, led the emperor to react with extreme promptness and severity.”¹⁵⁰
The Italians bestowed the title dejazmatch upon Mammo Haylu during the war.¹⁵¹ Although many sources including Del Boca state that he was his “father,” Ras Haylu Tekle-Haymanot was actually Mammo Haylu’s grandfather.¹⁵² Ras Haylu Tekle-Haymanot was convicted of forgery in 1902 and spent about seven years in prison during the reign of Emperor Menelik II. He gave his fourteen year old daughter to Lij Iyasu for marriage in 1911 at Negus Mikael’s request (Lij Iyasu’s father).¹⁵³
With the support of the Italians he helped his son-in-law Lij Iyasu escape detention in 1932. He also engaged in deceitful propaganda activities with the Italians who paid him significant subsidies during their partial occupation of Ethiopia.¹⁵⁴ After Ras Haylu Tekle-Haymanot was unanimously found guilty of mendacity, corruption, tax evasion and sentenced to death for treason Haile Selassie commuted the verdict to life imprisonment, confiscated most of his property and imposed a fine of $300,000 Maria Theresa dollars. However, “his Swiss bank accounts . . . could not be touched,” and the fascist Italians released him in 1936; in February 1941 they restored his ownership of Gojam.¹⁵⁵ On 6 April 1941 in Debre Markos he surrendered on the return of Haile Selassie from exile but was immediately pardoned along with all of his followers.¹⁵⁶ That day in Debre Markos, “Bälay reportedly had 40,000–45,000 combatants, who presented themselves in a military parade in front of the emperor, singing war songs and heroic recitals. Haylä Sǝllase was impressed and rewarded Bälay with 12,000 Thalers, and then invited him for a private talk.”¹⁵⁷
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| Haile Selassie I © MARKA / Alamy Stock Photo. All Rights Reserved. Licensed and used with permission. |
In 1942 Dejazmatch Belay Zeleke attempted to designate his military comrades to subordinate positions in Bichena but his superiors wanted to nominate the local judges and other officials themselves. When Zeleke refused his superiors reported him to Haile Selassie for insubordination and they alleged that he was revolting against the Emperor. Haile Selassie then ordered both parties to appear in Addis Ababa to settle the matter but Belay Zeleke remained defiant.¹⁵⁸ In February 1943 an army of over 3,000 men led by Bitwoded Mengesha was dispatched to arrest him, but he resisted and fought government forces with his followers for three months from a fortress on Somma Mountain.¹⁵⁹ Haile Selassie lost many men as there were casualties on both sides of the fighting.¹⁶⁰ Eventually, “Belai found himself deserted and was forced to surrender.”¹⁶¹
After his trial Emperor Haile Selassie commuted his death sentence to life in prison but a few years later he escaped with four others including his brother (Ejigu) and the Italian collaborator Mammo Haylu during which several people were killed in the process. They were all recaptured after three days on their way to Gojam, tried and sentenced to death in accordance with the law by a unanimous court decision.¹⁶² To maintain fairness in the trial, Haile Selassie respectfully obliged Ras Haylu Tekle-Haymanot’s request to sit in as one of the judges in the case because Mammo Haylu, Kebede Haylu Mikael and Gebeya Abaineh were his grandsons who were three of the defendants facing the death penalty for sedition.¹⁶³ Mammo Haylu had even managed to escape prison twice, once in early 1944 but was caught when he arrived in Gojam.¹⁶⁴
The ultimate goal of the rebellion led by Dejazmatch Belay Zeleke and Mammo Haylu was “to take over the central government itself” after the war.¹⁶⁵ A total of sixteen conspirators were hanged in Tekle-Haymanot Square on the Saturday morning of 13 January 1945 at sunrise.¹⁶⁶ The execution of Belay Zeleke also demonstrates Haile Selassie’s devotion and implementation of the principles he moralized to others specifically that no man is above the law regardless of rank, status or position.¹⁶⁷
“The Emperor’s religious values were tested daily in many ways, one of which was approving death sentences. Those who advised him on cases attest that he ‘agonized’ in deciding on death sentences because the teaching of his faith for mercy weighed heavily on him. As Head of State, he was duty-bound to sign off on death sentences after they have been processed through the judicial process. He often and repeatedly asked involved officials to assure him that the trial was fair and thoroughly conducted to justify so final an action. He struggled between his duty to sanction such recommendations and his own concern about reaching just decisions.”¹⁶⁸
Ras Haylu Tekle-Haymanot died after suffering from a long illness on 2 May 1951 at the age of eighty-three. “The imperial family went to the airport to honor the departure of his body for Debre Markos, where it was buried.”¹⁶⁹ The fictitious narrative of His Majesty hanging a war hero for no good reason out of emotion, jealousy and envy has been promoted by authors such as Gaitachew Bekele and Gebru Tareke.¹⁷⁰ However the life and death of Belay Zeleke, once placed into proper context, can never be used as a political tool to discredit or vilify Emperor Haile Selassie.
Dr. Woldemariam tells us, “The parable of Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski: The Emperor, Downfall of an Autocrat is an accurate depiction of the real Selassie.”
The only thing accurate about this accusation is that the text is a parable. In an interview with Carl Tighe in 1990, Kapuściński explained that his 1978 book The Emperor was a sly Aesopian fable directed at Edward Gierek (the de facto leader of the Polish communist party from 1970–1980) and isn’t a historically accurate depiction of Haile Selassie at all.¹⁷¹ In order to bypass communist censorship Kapuściński’s book was first published in small pieces in Kultura (a Polish-émigré literary-political magazine). By the time the censors and Central Committee realized that the writing was a fictional arrangement criticizing the communist party’s leader it was too late. Kapuściński threatened to report anyone who removed his text to the Party Control Bureau saying, “there is somebody who dares to compare this [fictional] corrupt fascist dictatorship of Haile Salassie with the excellent leadership of Comrade Gierek. Who could say such a thing? Who could dare to see the text in this way?”
During the interview Kapuściński said, “When the book appeared, of course, there was an outcry: 'How did such a thing happen?' It's a good example of how we turned these handicaps to our own advantage. We used the distortion of language. These are tricks you can work when you know the system.”¹⁷² Numerous sources have discussed the problems with Kapuściński’s writing style as well.¹⁷³ Some of the most outlandish falsehoods in Kapuściński’s book include Haile Selassie never reading, writing or signing anything on his own, ordering his favorite lions to be shot after the 1960 coup attempt “because instead of defending the Palace they had admitted the traitors,” hoarding millions in secret Swiss bank accounts and ordering the decapitation of Tekele Walda Hawariat;¹⁷⁴ none of which ever occurred.
Dejazmatch Tekele Walda Hawariat was a former Afenegus¹⁷⁵ and was one of the three dignitaries in the Council of Ministers to vote against Haile Selassie’s exile in 1936; he was implicated in a conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor using an explosive roadside bomb. When authorities came to arrest him on 17 November 1969 he barricaded himself inside his home, had a shootout with authorities and committed suicide the next day.¹⁷⁶ He had been imprisoned at least three other times for plotting against the Emperor as early as 1942 but Haile Selassie would always pardon him each time and later promote him.¹⁷⁷ In 2013 at the Sixth Annual Kosciuszko Chair Lecture at the Institute of World Politics Emperor Haile Selassie’s grandson, Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, gave a lecture about Kapuściński’s blurring of fiction and non-fiction in his writings.
His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias’ lecture on Kapuściński:
Conclusion
We wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Woldemariam that the romantic rewriting of Haile Selassie’s legacy should stop, however the misinformation and propaganda that’s spread about his life should also cease.¹⁷⁸ “A historical reconstruction of his reign, his life and times would be an arduous task requiring much research and weighing of circumstantial evidence.”¹⁷⁹ The rewriting of the Emperor's legacy is unnecessary as the Unitarian Rastafarian Zufan Chilot Church has scientifically proven the Emperor's natural divinity through its intensive research and scholarship.
The historical facts speak for themselves. Therefore, no amount of fabricated literature or narratives—for better or for worse—can change reality. His Majesty prophetically cautioned everyone against such practices when he stated, “Some people have written the story of my life representing as truth what in fact derives from ignorance, error or envy; but they cannot shake the truth from its place, even if they attempt to make others believe it.”¹⁸⁰ Woldemariam’s article has even inspired others to write negatively about the Emperor as many new articles are spun off of his misinformation.¹⁸¹
At the time of the original publication of this article the Rastafari Coalition reached out to Dr. Yohannes Woldemariam for comment but never received a response.
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1. Woldemariam, Yohannes. “The Romantic Rewriting of Haile Selassie’s Legacy Must Stop.” Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2019, www.blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2019/02/04/the-romantic-rewriting-of-haile-selassies-legacy-must-stop. Accessed 26 October 2021.
2. Vukotic, Petar. "Newly Discovered Documents Reveal: Ras Tafari Crowned ‘Lord of Lords’ in 1917*." The Order of Primus St. Croix, 30 Aug. 2019, www.zufanchilot.blogspot.com/2025/03/newly-discovered-documents-reveal-ras.html. Accessed 12 July 2025.
3. See Bender, M. L. and Cooper, Robert L. et al. Language in Ethiopia, Oxford University Press, London, 1976, pp. 187–190, for an explanation of the Imperial Ethiopian government’s often misconstrued language policies. See Art. 1492, Civil Code of Ethiopia, 1960, Negarit Gazeta, Proclamation No. 165, year 19, no. 2, p. 245; Gebre-Egzy, Tesfaye. Important Utterances of H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I, Ministry of Information, Addis Ababa, 1972, pp. 497–498; Ambatchew, Abebe. A Glimpse of Greatness Emperor Haile Selassie I: The Person, Trafford Publishing, Canada, 2010, pp. 100–108, 124, for brief examples about His Majesty’s intolerance towards discrimination based on ethnicity, race, tribe, language, pigmentation, religion, sex and social condition. See also Greenfield, Richard. Ethiopia: A New Political History, Frederick A. Praeger Inc. Publishers, United States of America, 1965, pp. 147–148; Woodward, Peter and Forsyth, Murray et al. Conflict and Peace in the Horn of Africa: Federalism and its Alternatives, Dartmouth Publishing Company Limited, Great Britain, 1994, p. 29; Henze, Paul B. Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia, Macmillan Press, New York, 2000, p. 189; Kasuka, Bridgette. Prominent African Leaders Since Independence, New Africa Press, Tanzania, 2013, p. 19; Ryle, John. “Burying the Emperor.” Granta Magazine, April 2016, www.johnryle.com/?article=burying-the-emperor. Accessed 8 March 2022, for details about Haile Selassie’s own mixed ethnic background. “There also are some concerns regarding his treatment of the Oromo population and the accusation that he deconstructed Ethiopian civilization, but the Emperor declared, 'Misguided people sometimes create misguided ideas. Some of my ancestors were Oromo. How can I colonize myself?'” Tobijah, Omar. Seventy Years Accomplished: The Second Coming, Divine Child Publications, U.S.A., 2013, pp. 71–72.
4. Fascist Invasion on Film – Lion of Judah. Documentary film edited by David Mingay; directed and produced by Lutz Becker. Polytel International (Hamburg) with Leemill Ltd./Plus International Productions (London) 1981, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ILueKshJEQ&t=4924s. Accessed 8 March 2022; Del Boca, Angelo. The Negus: The Life and Death of the Last King of Kings, Arada Books, Addis Ababa, 2015, pp. 359–360n3. For some examples of the Emperor’s heroism and bravery in combat during the war see also Emeny, Stuart et al. Abyssinian Stop Press, Purnell and Sons LTD Paulton (Somerset) and London, Great Britain, 1936, pp. 186–190; “Resurrecting The ‘Brown Condor’ H.I.M. Haile Selassie’s Pilot.” RasTafari TV Network Inc., 5 March 2016, www.rastafari.tv/resurrecting-the-brown-condor-h-i-m-haile-selassies-pilot. Accessed 8 March 2022.
5. Pateman, Roy. “Professor Richard Greenfield: Historian.” The Independent, 12 June 2008, www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-richard-greenfield-historian-845068.html. Accessed 8 March 2022.
6. Greenfield, Richard. Ethiopia: A New Political History, Frederick A. Praeger Inc. Publishers, United States of America, 1965, pp. 222–223.
7. Ibid., pp. 157–159; Iadarola, Antoinette. “Ethiopia's Admission into the League of Nations: An Assessment of Motives.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, 1975, pp. 601, 616, 620.
8. Iadarola, Antoinette. “Ethiopia's Admission into the League of Nations: An Assessment of Motives.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, 1975, p. 620.
9. Smidt, Wolbert. “Slavery.” Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, edited by Siegbert Uhlig, vol. 4, Harrassowitz Verlag Wiesbaden, Germany, 2010, p. 681.
10. Marcus, Harold G. The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia 1844–1913, The Red Sea Press, New Jersey, 1995. pp. 53, 73.
About the Author
His Eminence Liqa Wambar Petar Vukotic is the Archbishop of the Zufan Chilot Church and the Secretary for the Global Alliance of Justice for the Ethiopian Cause (GAJEC), he's a member of the International Society for the Imperial Ethiopian Orders and is the world's leading authority for interpreting Imperial Ethiopian case law. He's also Moa Anbessa's Imperial Ethiopian Constitutional Law Expert.
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