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On July 23, 1892, Haile Selassie [Ras Tafari Makonnen], Emperor of Ethiopia (1930-74), was born in Ejersa Goro, Ethiopian Empire (d. 1975). From the article:
"Haile Selassie I (Ge'ez: ቀዳማዊ ኃይለ ሥላሴ, qädamawi haylä səllasé,[nb 1] Amharic pronunciation: [ˈhaɪlə sɨlˈlase] (About this sound listen);[nb 2] 23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975), born Ras Tafari Makonnen,[4] was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and emperor from 1930 to 1974. He also served as Chairperson of the Organisation of African Unity from 25 May 1963 to 17 July 1964 and 5 November 1966 to 11 September 1967. He was a member of the Solomonic Dynasty who traced his lineage to Emperor Menelik I via his Shewan Amhara royal ancestors as a great-grandson of king Sahle Selassie.
At the League of Nations in 1936, the emperor condemned the use of chemical weapons by Italy against his people during the Second Italo–Ethiopian War.[5] His internationalist views led to Ethiopia becoming a charter member of the United Nations, and his political thought and experience in promoting multilateralism and collective security have proved seminal and enduring.[6] His suppression of rebellions among the landed aristocracy (the mesafint), which consistently opposed his reforms, as well as what some critics perceived to be Ethiopia's failure to modernize rapidly enough,[7] earned him criticism among some contemporaries and historians.[8] During his rule the Harari people were ethnically cleansed from the Harari Region.[9][10] His regime was also criticized by human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, as autocratic and illiberal.[8][11]
Among the Rastafari movement, whose followers are estimated to number between 700,000 and one million, Haile Selassie is revered as the returned messiah of the Bible, God incarnate.[12][13] Beginning in Jamaica in the 1930s, the Rastafari movement perceives Haile Selassie as a messianic figure who will lead a future golden age of eternal peace, righteousness, and prosperity.[14] Haile Selassie was an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian throughout his life. He is a defining figure in Ethiopian history.[15][16]
The 1973 famine in Ethiopia led to Haile Selassie's eventual removal from the throne.[17] He died on 27 August 1975 at the age of 83, following a coup d'état."
"Haile Selassie I (Ge'ez: ቀዳማዊ ኃይለ ሥላሴ, qädamawi haylä səllasé,[nb 1] Amharic pronunciation: [ˈhaɪlə sɨlˈlase] (About this sound listen);[nb 2] 23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975), born Ras Tafari Makonnen,[4] was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and emperor from 1930 to 1974. He also served as Chairperson of the Organisation of African Unity from 25 May 1963 to 17 July 1964 and 5 November 1966 to 11 September 1967. He was a member of the Solomonic Dynasty who traced his lineage to Emperor Menelik I via his Shewan Amhara royal ancestors as a great-grandson of king Sahle Selassie.
At the League of Nations in 1936, the emperor condemned the use of chemical weapons by Italy against his people during the Second Italo–Ethiopian War.[5] His internationalist views led to Ethiopia becoming a charter member of the United Nations, and his political thought and experience in promoting multilateralism and collective security have proved seminal and enduring.[6] His suppression of rebellions among the landed aristocracy (the mesafint), which consistently opposed his reforms, as well as what some critics perceived to be Ethiopia's failure to modernize rapidly enough,[7] earned him criticism among some contemporaries and historians.[8] During his rule the Harari people were ethnically cleansed from the Harari Region.[9][10] His regime was also criticized by human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, as autocratic and illiberal.[8][11]
Among the Rastafari movement, whose followers are estimated to number between 700,000 and one million, Haile Selassie is revered as the returned messiah of the Bible, God incarnate.[12][13] Beginning in Jamaica in the 1930s, the Rastafari movement perceives Haile Selassie as a messianic figure who will lead a future golden age of eternal peace, righteousness, and prosperity.[14] Haile Selassie was an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian throughout his life. He is a defining figure in Ethiopian history.[15][16]
The 1973 famine in Ethiopia led to Haile Selassie's eventual removal from the throne.[17] He died on 27 August 1975 at the age of 83, following a coup d'état."
Haile Selassie - Wikipedia
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Faces Of Africa - Haile Selassie: The Pillar of a Modern Ethiopia, part 1 & 2
Though he died almost four decades ago, Haile Selassie's legacy remains strong and valid. "Faces of Africa" sought to unearth the events and memories of the ...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that July 23 is the anniversary of the birth of Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie [Ras Tafari Makonnen].
He was Emperor when the Italians invaded in the second Italo–Ethiopian War in 1936.
Yes Rastafarians consider him to be God incarnate especially when the imbibe in the ganga smoking ritual sacraments they hold dear :-)
Images: June 1936. Haile SELASSIE, emperor of Ethiopia (left), speaking at the League of Nations; Haile Selassie manning anti-aircraft gun at Battle of Maychew, 31 Mar 1936; 'Haile Selassie' greets Italian peasant children at Rickmansworth gymkhana in 1936; Haile Selassie I, Negus Negesti, the Chosen of God, the Invincible Lion from the Tribe of Judah
Background from
" King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia by Asfa-Wossen Asserate – review
At last, a dignified biography of one of the 20th century’s most misunderstood figures by Ian Thomson
Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, in Geneva in 1935. Photograph: Lucien Aigner/Corbis
Haile Selassie is one of the most bizarre and misunderstood figures in 20th-century history, alternately worshipped and mocked, idolised and marginalised. This magnificent biography by the German-Ethiopian historian Asfa-Wossen Asserate (a distant relation of Selassie), and translated by Peter Lewis, is diligently researched and fair-minded; he is at last accorded a proper dignity. The book is manifestly a riposte to Ryszard Kapuscinski’s The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat, which portrayed the emperor, and indeed Addis Ababa’s entire Amharic elite, as a comic-opera laughing stock.
Selassie came to power as regent of Abyssinia, later Ethiopia, in 1916, but many of the myths around him originated with Mussolini’s invasion of the country in 1935. Selassie and his armies resisted, but he was eventually forced into exile. In 1941, after six years of brutal occupation, the Italians were defeated by British and South African forces and Selassie was allowed to return to his throne in Addis Ababa, where he remained in power until 1974.
One unexpected side-effect of the plunder of Selassie’s sub-Saharan state by a fascist power was to give Jamaica’s fledgling Rastafari movement impetus and a cause. The invasion became a dominant event in the Rastafarian narrative of black martyrdom. Selassie was seen as a manifestation of the one true God and a bulwark against “Babylon” (oppressive colonial society). The movement took its name from Selassie’s pre-coronation title, Ras Tafari Makonnen.
The Rastafarian movement was not the only radical current in Jamaica to co-opt Selassie. Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican apostle of black liberation, had condemned the ruler as a “great coward” for fleeing Mussolini’s troops in 1935, yet went on to dub him the “black Christ” of his Back to Africa movement. Inspired by Garvey, and believing in Ethiopia as the one true “Zion”, during the 50s and 60s some 2,500 West Indians and African Americans went to live in the vicinity of Addis Ababa, in what is now Shashamane village. Only 300 of their number are believed to remain today.
There is a wonderful chapter on Jamaica here, in which Asserate recreates Selassie’s historic visit to Kingston in April 1966. A large crowd of Rastafarians swarmed the airport and banners showing the Ethiopian Lion of Judah rippled amid clouds of ganja smoke. Converging around the Ethiopian plane even as the propellers were turning, they sang praise to their god in human form, who they believed had come to redeem his Jamaican brethren. The impact of Selassie’s four-day state visit endured for many years, inspiring poems and songs – one of which, “Rasta Shook Them Up”, by Peter Tosh, contained introductory words in Amharic, the Ethiopian language. Bob Marley, like Tosh, his fellow Wailer, believed that Selassie was a reborn messiah. The irony was that the emphasis placed by Rastafari on dietary laws and ganja-inspired “reasoning” of Old Testament scriptures was quite alien to the conservative Selassie, who was at pains to deny his status as the Rastafari Pope Almighty.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian royal family promoted myths of its own, particularly its vaunted descent from King Solomon, the legendary third king of Israel. Selassie proclaimed himself a collateral descendent of Solomon’s wife, the Queen of Sheba (who may or may not have come from present day Yemen). Yet for all the dizzying Semitic connections, Asserate reminds us, Ethiopia converted to Christianity in the fourth century AD, when the Ark of the Covenant was allegedly transferred there from southern Egypt. The Old Testament casket, lined with gold to accommodate the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, is said to reside today in the church of St Mary of Zion, near the Eritrean border. The evidence for Ethiopia’s Semitic past is far from watertight (Rider Haggard made much of it in his schoolboy hokum, King Solomon’s Mines). But some believed that Selassie was the saviour whose coming had been foretold in the Old Testament. The belief was aided, Asserate notes, by the emperor’s “pure Semitic” features and “sphinx-like dignity”.
Selassie projected an image of himself as a paternalistic ruler. His ambition was to found a dynasty and “modernise” his country’s feudal system through a forward-looking (if paradoxially absolute) monarchy. His coronation in 1930 – attended by Evelyn Waugh, who Asserate describes as a “notorious sneerer” – drew ridicule for its display of sumptuously plumed and gold-braided uniforms and other regalia. Yet in lampooning Selassie as a tinpot Caesar, Waugh and other critics rather missed the point. The Napoleonic hats and gowns were part of Selassie’s vision of a parallel world equal to that of the white man. Why should the European powers have all the pomp and ceremony?
More contentious was Selassie’s tolerance of slavery. Most people-traffickers under his regime were Muslims, who converted their captives to Islam. As a condition of Ethiopia’s entry into the League of Nations, Selassie was required to eradicate the trade. He did what he could, and Ethiopia was admitted in 1923. Yet chattel servitude was not entirely eradicated. Bondsmen employed at the Addis Ababa palace were often actually “proud” of their position, writes Asserate. Slavery had long been a part of such African nation states as Dahomey, Oyo, and the Niger city-states.
With his unbending antipathy to any kind of social reform, from the 1950s onwards Selassie became out of touch and indifferent to the suffering of his people. When his 60-year rule ended, the subsequent “Red Terror” under President Mengistu, combined with Ethiopia’s border dispute with Eritrea, has left the African nation state depleted and corrupt."
This is a biased in favor account of Haile Selassie which is typical of state-run media documentaries.
Faces Of Africa - Haile Selassie: The Pillar of a Modern Ethiopia, part 1 & 2
"Though he died almost four decades ago, Haile Selassie's legacy remains strong and valid.
"Faces of Africa" sought to unearth the events and memories of the man who dared to confront The League of Nations, now UN, pleading for their support in conquering the Italians who were preparing to attack Ethiopia."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVki9t3anJU
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SSG John Ross SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins Cpl Gabriel F. CW5 Jack Cardwell
He was Emperor when the Italians invaded in the second Italo–Ethiopian War in 1936.
Yes Rastafarians consider him to be God incarnate especially when the imbibe in the ganga smoking ritual sacraments they hold dear :-)
Images: June 1936. Haile SELASSIE, emperor of Ethiopia (left), speaking at the League of Nations; Haile Selassie manning anti-aircraft gun at Battle of Maychew, 31 Mar 1936; 'Haile Selassie' greets Italian peasant children at Rickmansworth gymkhana in 1936; Haile Selassie I, Negus Negesti, the Chosen of God, the Invincible Lion from the Tribe of Judah
Background from
" King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia by Asfa-Wossen Asserate – review
At last, a dignified biography of one of the 20th century’s most misunderstood figures by Ian Thomson
Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, in Geneva in 1935. Photograph: Lucien Aigner/Corbis
Haile Selassie is one of the most bizarre and misunderstood figures in 20th-century history, alternately worshipped and mocked, idolised and marginalised. This magnificent biography by the German-Ethiopian historian Asfa-Wossen Asserate (a distant relation of Selassie), and translated by Peter Lewis, is diligently researched and fair-minded; he is at last accorded a proper dignity. The book is manifestly a riposte to Ryszard Kapuscinski’s The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat, which portrayed the emperor, and indeed Addis Ababa’s entire Amharic elite, as a comic-opera laughing stock.
Selassie came to power as regent of Abyssinia, later Ethiopia, in 1916, but many of the myths around him originated with Mussolini’s invasion of the country in 1935. Selassie and his armies resisted, but he was eventually forced into exile. In 1941, after six years of brutal occupation, the Italians were defeated by British and South African forces and Selassie was allowed to return to his throne in Addis Ababa, where he remained in power until 1974.
One unexpected side-effect of the plunder of Selassie’s sub-Saharan state by a fascist power was to give Jamaica’s fledgling Rastafari movement impetus and a cause. The invasion became a dominant event in the Rastafarian narrative of black martyrdom. Selassie was seen as a manifestation of the one true God and a bulwark against “Babylon” (oppressive colonial society). The movement took its name from Selassie’s pre-coronation title, Ras Tafari Makonnen.
The Rastafarian movement was not the only radical current in Jamaica to co-opt Selassie. Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican apostle of black liberation, had condemned the ruler as a “great coward” for fleeing Mussolini’s troops in 1935, yet went on to dub him the “black Christ” of his Back to Africa movement. Inspired by Garvey, and believing in Ethiopia as the one true “Zion”, during the 50s and 60s some 2,500 West Indians and African Americans went to live in the vicinity of Addis Ababa, in what is now Shashamane village. Only 300 of their number are believed to remain today.
There is a wonderful chapter on Jamaica here, in which Asserate recreates Selassie’s historic visit to Kingston in April 1966. A large crowd of Rastafarians swarmed the airport and banners showing the Ethiopian Lion of Judah rippled amid clouds of ganja smoke. Converging around the Ethiopian plane even as the propellers were turning, they sang praise to their god in human form, who they believed had come to redeem his Jamaican brethren. The impact of Selassie’s four-day state visit endured for many years, inspiring poems and songs – one of which, “Rasta Shook Them Up”, by Peter Tosh, contained introductory words in Amharic, the Ethiopian language. Bob Marley, like Tosh, his fellow Wailer, believed that Selassie was a reborn messiah. The irony was that the emphasis placed by Rastafari on dietary laws and ganja-inspired “reasoning” of Old Testament scriptures was quite alien to the conservative Selassie, who was at pains to deny his status as the Rastafari Pope Almighty.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian royal family promoted myths of its own, particularly its vaunted descent from King Solomon, the legendary third king of Israel. Selassie proclaimed himself a collateral descendent of Solomon’s wife, the Queen of Sheba (who may or may not have come from present day Yemen). Yet for all the dizzying Semitic connections, Asserate reminds us, Ethiopia converted to Christianity in the fourth century AD, when the Ark of the Covenant was allegedly transferred there from southern Egypt. The Old Testament casket, lined with gold to accommodate the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, is said to reside today in the church of St Mary of Zion, near the Eritrean border. The evidence for Ethiopia’s Semitic past is far from watertight (Rider Haggard made much of it in his schoolboy hokum, King Solomon’s Mines). But some believed that Selassie was the saviour whose coming had been foretold in the Old Testament. The belief was aided, Asserate notes, by the emperor’s “pure Semitic” features and “sphinx-like dignity”.
Selassie projected an image of himself as a paternalistic ruler. His ambition was to found a dynasty and “modernise” his country’s feudal system through a forward-looking (if paradoxially absolute) monarchy. His coronation in 1930 – attended by Evelyn Waugh, who Asserate describes as a “notorious sneerer” – drew ridicule for its display of sumptuously plumed and gold-braided uniforms and other regalia. Yet in lampooning Selassie as a tinpot Caesar, Waugh and other critics rather missed the point. The Napoleonic hats and gowns were part of Selassie’s vision of a parallel world equal to that of the white man. Why should the European powers have all the pomp and ceremony?
More contentious was Selassie’s tolerance of slavery. Most people-traffickers under his regime were Muslims, who converted their captives to Islam. As a condition of Ethiopia’s entry into the League of Nations, Selassie was required to eradicate the trade. He did what he could, and Ethiopia was admitted in 1923. Yet chattel servitude was not entirely eradicated. Bondsmen employed at the Addis Ababa palace were often actually “proud” of their position, writes Asserate. Slavery had long been a part of such African nation states as Dahomey, Oyo, and the Niger city-states.
With his unbending antipathy to any kind of social reform, from the 1950s onwards Selassie became out of touch and indifferent to the suffering of his people. When his 60-year rule ended, the subsequent “Red Terror” under President Mengistu, combined with Ethiopia’s border dispute with Eritrea, has left the African nation state depleted and corrupt."
This is a biased in favor account of Haile Selassie which is typical of state-run media documentaries.
Faces Of Africa - Haile Selassie: The Pillar of a Modern Ethiopia, part 1 & 2
"Though he died almost four decades ago, Haile Selassie's legacy remains strong and valid.
"Faces of Africa" sought to unearth the events and memories of the man who dared to confront The League of Nations, now UN, pleading for their support in conquering the Italians who were preparing to attack Ethiopia."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVki9t3anJU
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SSG John Ross SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins Cpl Gabriel F. CW5 Jack Cardwell
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SGT (Join to see) Conflicted legacy for his people. Life is still very hard in this part of the world.
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Great share, I'm not sure what to think about him. He seemed to love his country but his excesses allowed his country to fall into a famine that eventually led to his downfall.
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