Hailé Sélassié Ier

Hailé Sélassié Ier , (born the July 23rd 1892 with Ejersa Goro in Ethiopia and deceased the August 27th 1975 with Addis-Abeba, Ethiopia), was the last emperor of Ethiopia of 1930 with 1936 and of 1941 with 1974. He is regarded by the majority of the Rasta S as being “the leading legal one of the Earth” ( Earth' S rightful ruler ) and in addition the Messie, because of his ascent which, according to the Ethiopian tradition Christian orthodoxe, would go up to the kings Solomon and David.

Childhood with regency

Hailé Sélassié was born in the village from Ejersa Goro in Ethiopia (province of Harrar) under the name of Täfäri Mäkonnen . His/her father is Ras Makonnen, governor of Harar and his/her mother is Woyzero ( wäyzäro , Madam) Yäshimabät Ali. He did not know his mother, died of the Choléra the March 14th 1894. His/her father, large craftsman of the victory of Adwa against the Italians (March 1st 1896), died on March 21st, 1906, leaving Tafari to the good care of the emperor Ménélik II ( Dägmawi Ménilek ).

In July 1911, it married Woyzero Menen Asfaw, girl of Jantirar Asfaw d' Ambassel and maternal grand-daughter of king Mikael of Wollo ( Wällo ). The emperor Hailé Sélassié and the Menen empress had six children: Tenagnework princess, prince crowned Asfaw Wossen, Tsehay princess, Zenebeworq princess, prince Makonnen duke of Harrar, and prince Sahle Sélassié. Hailé Sélassié also had a girl of an old marriage, the Romaneworq princess.

The accession with the capacity

The September 27th 1916, an assembly the noble ones with the agreement of the orthodoxe Église of Ethiopia deposited the emperor Lij Yassou (Yassou V), grandson and heir to the emperor Ménélik II, for suspicion of conversion to the Islam. The girl of Ménélik, Zaoditou ( Zäwditu ) was then proclaimed empress of Ethiopia and her cousin the Ras (duke) Tafari, Crown prince ( alga-werash ) and Regent to the crown ( ïnderassié ). As Close-cropped Tafari ( that which is dreaded in Amharique), he exerted the reality of the capacity under the reign of its cousin the Zaoditou empress then as king ( nïgus ) of 1928 (October 7th) until in 1930. With died of Zaoditou the April 2nd 1930, it took the title of Empereur. It was crowned the November 2nd 1930 under the name of “Hailé Sélassié Ier (to be able of the Trinity), King of Kings d' Ethiopie, Seigneur of the Lords, conquering Lion of the tribe of Juda, Lumière of the World, elected official of God”: Gärmawi Qädamawi Haylä Sellassé, negusä nägäst zä' Ityopya, moa anbessa zä' emnägädä yehuda, berhanä aläm, seyumä Egziabhér (into amharic).

Hailé Sélassié developed the policy of progressive modernization launched by the emperor Ménélik II, thus allowing the admission of Ethiopia in the Société of the Nations in 1923 and issuing the first constitution of the country in 1931. It also removed a very old practice, slavery, in the Empire by decrees of 1918 and 1923.

The Second italo-Ethiopian war and the return of exile

The failure of SDN to stop the second war between Italy and Ethiopia with the Italian invasion of 1935 forced it at five years of exile, during which he lived with Bath in England (May 5th 1936 May -5 1941). Thanks to a fast reconquest of the country with the assistance of the British and the French (taken along by the Commander Monnier), Hailé Sélassié recovered a total sovereignty on the Empire and took again its policy of modernization and development.

A African leader

Maintaining a good agreement with the US president Franklin Roosevelt and also with the others Allied, the Emperor obtains the entry of Ethiopia in UNO as of its foundation. Adopting a position of non-aligned country for the period of Cold war, by its participation in the Conference of Bandung, Sélassié also worked with the independence of the African continent and its unification. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded in 1963 at its instigation and establishes its seat with Addis Ababa.

Modernization and crisis

Following an coup attempt of State in December 1960, with which the crown prince Asfaw Wossen was mixed, it continued a more preserving policy, aligning Ethiopia with the Occident against the more radical African governments. Increasing dissatisfactions among the students and part of the elites involved its inversion the September 12th 1974, consequence of a military coup d'etat carried out by a group of soldiers, among whom Mengistu Hailé Maryam. The media relayed the news of its death in prison the August 27th 1975, following an operation of the Prostate, but a death by Strangulation or smothering is much more probable. Its skin was buried in old a oubliette, under the office of the Mengistu dictator who was demolishes in 1991. The late emperor, which one found the remainders in 1992, accepted popular funeral the November 5th 2000 in the cathedral of the Trinity of Addis Ababa.

RasTafari

Among the followers of the Movement Rastafari, a spiritual movement which developed in the Années 1930 in Jamaica under the influence of the movement “Back to Africa” ( Retour towards Africa ) of Marcus Garvey and of the sermons of Leonard Percival Howell, Hailé Sélassié is regarded as a black Messie which will carry out the diaspora and the African people towards the Liberté. Much Rastas thinks that Sélassié is still alive and that the setting in media scene of its death belongs to a plot aiming at discrediting their spirituality. Others affirm that Jah, i.e. God, is always alive, when well even the terrestrial presence of Sélassié would not be visible any more.

A speech made by Hailé Sélassié in the United Nations in 1963 became one of the songs worships of Bob Marley: War , on the album Rastaman Vibration . The emperor spoke primarily about peace and hope, of pain also but always of non-violence. Hailé Sélassié, Christian practitioner, relativized the beliefs of the Rastafari proclaiming it like Messiah. A visit of State in Jamaica in 1966, where Sélassié was greeted by a very many crowd as of her arrival with the airport, marked the monarch deeply. After his visit, the emperor entrusted to an Ethiopian clerk, Abuna Yesehaq: “There is a problem in Jamaica… Please help these people. They include/understand badly, they do not include/understand our culture… They need an established Church and you are designated to go there”. The orthodoxe Ethiopian Église settled then in Jamaica to convert the rastas with the Christianity '' tewahedo ''.

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