Moderniser and anti-fascist icon who never touched the land order that finally undid his dynasty
In 1936 he told the League of Nations, 'God and history will remember your judgment.'
Descended from the Solomonic dynasty, Haile Selassie I was the 20th-century emperor who modernised Ethiopia and, with his 1936 speech to the League of Nations, became a global symbol of anti-fascism. From his regency he drove reform through the 1931 constitution and the abolition of slavery, and after exile under Italian occupation he returned with British forces in 1941 to restore the throne. But his modernisation, which left the northern rist and gult tenures and the southern land-grant system intact through compromise with the nobility and clergy, never freed the peasantry from tenancy, and the 1972 Wollo famine turned opinion against him. Deposed by the Derg in September 1974, he was strangled on the junta's orders the following August, months after the proclamation that nationalised the land system his reign had preserved.
Also known as: Ras Tafari Makonnen · Lij Tafari
Activities and affiliations
-
1930–1974
Ethiopia state institutionsEmperorMain
Monarchs and royalty
Career Timeline
- 1916Regent Plenipotentiary and heir apparent, de facto ruler
- 1917Crowned Le'ul-Ras (duke)
- 1928Crowned Negus (king)
- 1930Crowned Emperor (Negusa Nagast)
- 1936–1941Exiled in Britain during the Italian occupation
- 1941Returned and restored the imperial throne
- 1963Presided over the OAU's founding, first chairman
- 1974Deposed by the Derg in September
Related historical events
Pan-African diplomacy and the founding of the OAU
In the early 1960s Haile Selassie I emerged as a central figure of anti-colonial diplomacy as African colonies won independence. In December 1960 the Imperial Guard staged a coup while he was on a state visit to Brazil; the regular army and police crushed it, and the attempt spurred him to accelerate reform. He remained an ally of the West while exercising influence in the non-aligned camp in Africa.
In 1963 he invited the two opposing camps to Addis Ababa and presided over the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The Casablanca group led by Kwame Nkrumah demanded a federation of all Africa, that is political integration; the Monrovia group led by Léopold Senghor argued for gradual unity through economic cooperation. Selassie mediated between them, secured the charter's signature by 32 independent states, established the headquarters in Addis Ababa, and was elected the first chairperson. His mediation is credited both with building a united front for African national liberation and with channelling the demand for radical integration by anti-imperialist forces into an institutional consultative body.