In his songs, Teddy Afro proclaims unity and love for all Ethiopians. It is worth asking how Ethiopian unity is served by his praise for these monarchs.
A selective reading of history does little to build a strong national foundation. Rather, a new social contract is desperately needed which respects the pluralism and diversity of the country. Historical accounts of the reign of Menelik II show him as contemptuous of blackness, an expansionist, an enslaver and cruel.
As a case in point, Eritreans made important, though little-acknowledged contributions to the Ethiopian victory over the Italian colonisers in Adwa in by gathering crucial intelligence on Italian war strategy.
Emperor Menelik II returned the favour by savagely amputating the arms and legs of Eritrean war prisoners. Never mind that these poor Eritrean peasants were violently forced to fight under Italy, just as other European colonialists used Africans, Indians and other colonial subjects as cannon fodder for their wars of conquest everywhere.
For instance, his state of mind was revealed through a comment to a Haitian dignitary that he did not consider himself to be a black man. Invoking Selassie or Menelik II as Teddy Afro does polarises communities because it insults those who do not share this interpretation of history and the terrible legacy of these monarchs. These clients maintained power through repression and the murder and silencing of true patriots.
Yet, efforts are underway to depict Selassie as a pan-Africanist and a visionary. Some have campaigned vigorously for his statue to be erected in front of the African Union building in Addis Ababa. Sadly, the African Union has acceded to the request. While the emperor was in exile in Bath, England, Taezaz secretly slipped into Ethiopia and organised the Arbeghoch patriots.
He recruited 2, or so Eritreans who had fled Italian colonial rule to fight for Ethiopia from their refugee settlements in Kenya. He also smuggled weapons for the Arbegnoch. A famous speech delivered by Selassie, famed for developing his aura as statesman and defender of his people, at the League of Nations in , is widely believed to have been written by Taezaz. The emperor eventually repaid Taezaz by demoting him from his position as Foreign Minister. He died soon after in in suspicious circumstances.
Does Selassie deserve to be depicted as a dictator? The historical record provides a decisive answer. He travelled widely, visiting the United States many times, only stopping once in Jamaica in These are too numerous and ghastly for the scope of this piece. Similarly, the autocrat is remembered in Tigray for inviting the British Royal Air Force to bomb the region in to quell what came to be known as the first Woyane Rebellion.
He was also harsh towards those Ethiopian patriots who fought against the Italians while he fled to Britain. For example, Belay Zeleke, a national war hero was hung on his orders. It seems unconscionable to praise a murderous traitor and his victim, too. Music heightens and releases endorphins creating a sense of belonging among people with shared sentiments which can lead to collective action.
The misplaced form of black nationalism created by Rastafarians, in giving reverence to a man who never deserved it, is therefore harmful. It is often said that the victors or the powerful are the ones who write history. History is ill served when popular celebrities and musicians motivated by religion or some kind of hyper-nationalism misrepresent the past. This is offensive to the victims and divisive for communities who need genuine solidarity.
Like this post? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Dr Yohannes Woldemariam is an academic who attended high school in Ethiopia. He can be reached at: yohannes99 hotmail. Because God is the the final judge, we should consider abandoning our own opinions, as that is the only way Truth can be seen. Furthermore, had it not been for the monarchy, Ethiopia not Eritrea would have their Orthodox Christian Faith.
A carefully hidden secret! Do we have Muslims in the country? Only 2. What are you? Nope you are the one lying here. Official sources stated that Ethiopian Muslim population in Haile Selassie came to power by staging a coup and accusing the legitimate heir of the throne Iyasu of apostasy.
He was assisted in this by the Orthodox Showan nobility. His life was characterized by intrigue and betrayal. Even his own son Asfa Wossen was a victim of his own father. If we wait for God to give us the verdict, I fear we may have to wait for eternity. Humans right history.
He spent millions of dollars to celebrate his 80th birthday while the Wollo famine was killing millions. Your observation is brilliant dear Getachew and your desire for facts admirable. But I feel you missed the message that the author was trying to communicate.
I got the impression that he would agree with you that the world was and is full of devilish politicians and very short on angels and democrats. That is, not to misrepresent historical memory in order to construct revisionist narrative with the sinister intention of continuing the oppression. The fact is Germans and Italians are ashamed of this legacy to the most part except for some lunatics.
To my knowledge very few want to remember them much less construct statues for them. The message is to relegate these tyrants including the despicable Haile Selassie to the dust bin of history and not make fabricated history out of their legacies.
Dear Getachew, while your passion and engagement is appreciated, please read what is written and not respond to what was not written. Facts and truth should not be adulterated to serve a fantastical political or religious agenda. Otherwise we will lose the baby with the bath water.
Thank you for your input. BUT this is where I differ with this current narration of nations and nationalities or to that matter, related ideas. Haile Selassie, Minilik are not saints they are leaders who lead Ethiopia in the past, and tried their best. What we as Ethiopians need to realize is our country, just like others, had its own ups and downs.
Our history books are filled with war stories. Wars are bad, people die. The Oromos died the Amharas died and so forth. During the civil war in America the Unionist destroyed towns and killed a lot of Americans, but history takes the good that came out of it. Great Britain saw several blood baths before it emerged as a nation, again they take the good that came out of the carnage.
In Ethiopia, in more recent times, Tewodros massacred left and right, Yohannes II did the same, Minilik had his share. Do you get the gist…. Let us focus on the positive aspect, the bad side of our history can be revealed later when we are in a more stable situation. And even then, let the professionals historians deal with it. On a final not, let us not forget that there are close to 80 ethnic groups in Ethiopia.
Not just Oromos, Amharas and Tigrians. Your propaganda is widespread, your words are as smooth as silk, but your agenda is obvious to those of us who are truly vigilant as His Majesty instructed us to stay. The Socialist collapse of Ethiopia was orchestrated by the same insidious group of apostates that engineered the collapse of Russia, the collapse of the World Trade Center, and is presently hard at work to collapse the World Economy and yes, even our biosphere.
But your plan shall fail. Your works of evil shall doom you to your final judgment. One thing that we Ethiopians need to understand with regards to our history is that history is not perfect, it has its ups and downs.
As mentioned, past world leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, Colonial Britain…etc were bad actors because they were venturing out to conquer other countries and destroy other cultures. Past Ethiopian leaders were defending their way of life and culture.
It would have been ideally nice if the whole expansion was carried out using persuasive means like Minilik did with Abba Jiffar, but unfortunately, life is not always as simple.
In short, our leaders had faults we should not ignore, however, the bigger picture is, it is part of the long history of Ethiopia that is unparalleled.. There is no nation on earth that has a clean slate. By comparison, ours, as a country, is way better. In retrospect, and with calm contemplation, we will realize that the bad aspect in our history is actually the price we paid for being an independent nation.
When we say, we are the only country in Africa that was never colonized, there was a price that was paid by our leaders and common Ethiopians. Never forget that the most costly price we paid though, was the internal fighting amongst ourselves that continues even today. The root cause of these internal conflicts where to a large extent is the poison that was placed by external historical enemies of Ethiopia.
Oromos, the overwhelming majority nation in Ethiopia, whose cultural norms, language rights his Imperial reign destroyed had a politically democratic self-governance called Gada System. He actually destroyed that and converted it into a Feudal exploitation with Amharanization forced Amhara identity and language imposition if one is to survive in Ethiopi policy to suppress and thwart their socio-cultural proliferation. And yes, even the Western autocratic systems of his time were better.
Haile Selassie, long after Europe and the Americans outlawed it, kept the horrible practice of black Slavery in Ethiopia. He was threatened with an invasion by European powers and expulsion from the League of Nations unless he ended Slavery in his own empire which enslaved non-Amhara groups like Oromos, Gumus, Anyuak, etc.
Only then, and even that gradually did he move to stop the practice in Ethiopia. Just imagine, the irony of a black leader being forced by European and White powers to end slavery of blacks. What a Shame! Thank you for that enlightening comment. Yes, Haile Selassie was the ultimate crook par excellence. To describe such a self hating and corrupt ruler as a pan Africanist is misrepresent history and tell the young generation a cruel fiction.
He was ashamed of being identified as an African. In Eritrea, he massacred women, children, farmers and peasants. And as you eloquently put it, he destroyed an advanced Oromo indigenous democracy the Gadda system to replace it with his archaic feudal order.
Very sad indeed! His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I had a Constitution written within the first decade of His reign, enshrining into modern Ethiopian law the illegitimacy of slavery in the Kingdom. The author clearly does not know that His Imperial Majesty was aware of the interaction between African Americans and Ethiopians and the affinity of those in the West for the African kingdom and the moral theocratic reign of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I.
I sense an entitled Ethiopian who is forgetting how much money the Imperial family contributed to the education of Ethiopians. I sense a frustration with localized tribal warring that continues through this day for lack of wisdom. I am gathering that in essence the people who were not in position to see the complexity of the swiftly modernizing world around them being frustrated by the pace of change, or an elite who feels his family did not gain of the spoils of victory post-Italian invasion.
The irony even of going to reside and study in one Kingdom to utilize the post to throw shots at the elders of old to be for the usage of disparaging African royalty is not missed. Was it not His Imperial Majesty who moved throughout the Earth as one who left an irrevocable imprint in the minds of the leaders He met around the world by the way He carried himself and the principles for which He stood?
This article is pure folly and only one thing I will put forth what Emperor Haile. When we finished praying, we opened our eyes, the White man had our land and we were left with the Bible.
Bishop Desmond Tutu said something to that effect. Now Sandra wants to play similar trick here. She uses Haile Selassie to sound and concerned about Africa. We know! Please spare us your shenanigans Sandy! Slavery existed in Ethiopia and Eritrea before he was born, and Haile Sellassie finally got rid of it. Compared to many third world rulers, he was not corrupt.
He did not destroy the Gadda system, the Gadda system was being abandoned by Oromos as they settled down, and became either Christians or Moslems. He was a modernizer, but with limitations. He did not modernize the political space…this makes him in line with many third world rulers-nothing unique here. He was not ashamed of being identified as African, and in fact the introduced Pan Africanism to Ethiopia, and he is a founding member of the OAU.
One does not bribe western academics, dont be silly. Some admired him, some did not. He did not practice extreme tyranny. Extreme tyranny is Isias Afeworki, or Stalin. He was an absolute monarch but he was not brutal and mostly forgave his opponents. The civil war with Eritrea was tragic and many died on both sides. Not excusing it at all. For the most part, he was very popular and loved by the older generation of Eritreans middle class.
He gave them key posts in the govt, and Eritrea thrived under Haile Sellassie. Look at Eritrea now. In other words, Haile Sellassie has a mixed record, but for the most part, he was a good person who was king at the wrong time in history.
Christ and Haile Selassie coming from the same lineage of David. Proof to the world that the king is dead, you forget to inform your readers that from up until this day no man not even a family member see the body of the king. Then it is a shame you were not one of the many people he murdered. It sounds like you would have enjoyed and thanked him for that. This is something that the Romanized Jesus Hebrews people could not do.
Now, today you and most of the world are Romanized and going down. I think if anything was misrepresented in this was your interpretation of highly suggest first whether he might have plenty of downfalls in his life he is human just like men are like the second and everyone before him.
Why did the Head of the Catholic Church in Rome approve the invasion of another Christian Kingdom or country in Africa who start this blackness issue when African are brown or dark brown skin.???
I would appreciate your reply. Menelik the 2nd was nowhere near Adwa when the war was going on. It was the poor Oromo patriots who defeated the Italians.
But as usual, George is in denial about Oromo heroism. Actually Chaltu, it was the Tegaru who did the lions share of the fighting in Adowa. The misinformation is so strong, few people gave them credit.
To be fair, the Oromo contributed but Menelik was such a con man who was able to take the credit. He was hiding miles away from Adwa. Just like Trump, Menelik was a loud mouth too. It was not Tegaru who stopped the Italians. It was not Oromo who stopped the Italians.
It was not Amhara who stopped the Italians. It was a nationality called Ethiopia which you all managed to destroy! But neither he nor Haile Selassie were good chemists. After over a hundred years of war, brutality and resistance, we now have an Ethiopia which exists only in a map. Ethiopia is a figment of your imagination. Your fabricated version of history is incorrect.
You need to read more books and stop watching less of Jawar and those radicals. No doubt Menelik massacred Oromos. It is inexcusable. But those who deny history and make light of past sufferings must take at least partial blame. Denying history only fuels the hatred. There is no doubt that Menelik was an imperialist and cruel.
Haile Selassie was a backstabbing slimy tyrant who killed heroes and Arbegnoch. He massacred Eritreans to annex and violate an international agreement and to deny fundamental rights of the Eritrean people. No amount of sugar coating will erase that history. The people taken by Mossad to Israel were the Bete Israel. It began to happen after Haile Selassie was overthrown during the rule of the brutal Mengistu Hailemariam and after. Although during that time he tried to raise awareness for the Ethiopian cause in Europe, Selassie spent five years away from his country.
Marcus Garvey heavily criticised him for leaving his own countrymen at the mercy of Italy. Haile Selassie reinstituted his powers as emperor in , with support from Britain. On April 21, , Haile Selassie visited Jamaica. This was years after his coronation and the enthusiasm of Rastas was undimmed.
There was now a new generation of Rastas, many of whom still harboured the vision of an African exodus. Haile Selassie was overwhelmed by the rapturous reception. He did nothing to dispel thoughts of his divine status. By this time, Garvey had died and his criticism of Haile Selassie forgotten in Jamaica. But around the world, the jury was not unanimous. Although he wanted to project the image of a progressive emperor, he faced accusations of being a greedy dictator.
Among the rapturous crowds who turned out to honour their redeemer was the wife of a year-old Jamaican musician. He had just formed a band called the Wailers and his name was Robert Nesta Marley. Bob Marley was arguably the most influential Rasta in history. He never claimed to be a prophet, though his songs had a prophetic character; and he was never a leader, though his many followers treated him as one. Marley and his band the Wailers, in , released their album Catch a Fire.
Two years later the album Natty Dread sold well internationally. Both records were loaded with Rasta symbols and motifs, prompting music fans to ask questions about their meanings.
By the time of the release of Rastaman Vibration in , there were Rastas in practically every British city and in many parts of North America. Young black people had fashioned their hair into the long coiled dreadlocks, as worn by Marley, were carrying what were called prayer sticks i. Tafari seemed like a possible candidate when, following his father's death in , he was taken under the wing of Menelik.
In , however, after the passing of Menelik II, it was the emperor's grandson, Lij Yasu, not Tafari, who was appointed as emperor. But Yasu, who maintained a close association with Islam, never gained favor with Ethiopia's majority Christian population.
As a result Tafari became the face of the opposition, and in he took power from Lij Yasu and imprisoned him for life. The following year Menelik II's daughter, Zauditu, became empress, and Tafari was named regent and heir apparent to the throne. For a country trying to gain its foothold in the young century and curry favor with the West, the progressive Tafari came to symbolize the hopes and dreams of Ethiopia's younger population.
In he led Ethiopia into the League of Nations. The following year, he traveled to Europe, becoming the first Ethiopian ruler to go abroad. His power only grew. In he appointed himself king, and two years later, after the death of Zauditu, he was made emperor and assumed the name Haile Selassie "Might of the Trinity". Over the next four decades, Haile Selassie presided over a country and government that was an expression of his personal authority.
His reforms greatly strengthened schools and the police, and he instituted a new constitution and centralized his own power.
Skip to content. Haile Selassie Haile Selassie was one of the most famous leaders in Ethiopian history. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Background Info Vocabulary.
Ethiopia is often acknowledge d as the only nation in Africa never to have been colonize d, and Selassie emerge d as a powerful international figure as other African countries sought independence in the 20th century.
His long reign and enduring policies such as support for African unity and the abolition of slavery in Ethiopia earned him a privileged position at international summit s. For instance, Selassie was one of the highest-ranking diplomat s at the funeral of U. President John Kennedy. Jamaican religious leaders adopt ed a version of his birth name, Tafari Ras was an official title and Rastafarian s regard Selassie as a god.
Selassie himself remained a Christian throughout his life. Selassie may have been more popular abroad than he was in Ethiopia.
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