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Translating the Emperor's Words: Volume II of Haile Sellassie's My Life and Ethiopia's Progress
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2014
Extract
The second volume of Haile Sellassie's autobiography had scarcely been out a few months when it fell into oblivion with the emperor's deposition in September 1974. For Ethiopia Haile Sellassie's removal was a defining event, and the accompanying tattoo sought to characterize the emperor's reign, indeed all prior history, as a failure. As Haile Sellassie became an unperson in the Ethiopia of the 1970s and 1980s, his policies remained unstudied as the background to the unfolding political events. There was much that confused me: it was obvious that life had been more satisfactory in Ethiopia during his regime than later, and that educated Ethiopians during the last fifteen years of the emperor's reign had talked optimistically about the future, a quality lost in the mayhem of the period from 1974 to 1978. As Mengistu Haile Mariam lurched from crisis to crisis without solving the country's many problems, I concluded that thoughtful people would want to know why and how Haile Sellassie had been able to keep the country relatively peaceful, while providing a statesmanlike leadership that had been creative and reassuring. This certainty led me to undertake a biography of the emperor.
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1993
References
Notes
1. Ullendorff, Edward, translator, The Autobiography of Emperor Sellassis I, My Life and Ethiopia's Progress, 1892-1937 (Oxford, 1976).Google Scholar
2. Marcus, Harold G., Haile Sellassie I: The Formative Years, 1892-1936 (Berkeley, 1987).Google Scholar
3. Ullendorff, Edward, “Haile Sellassie at Bath,” Journal of Semitic Studies 24, 2 (1979), 251ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Unique to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the tabot is a symbolic representation of the Ark of the Covenant and is housed in the inner precinct of the church or chapel it sanctifies. More often made of wood, a tabot may, however, be carved from stone. It carries the names of the Trinity, Mary, or of a saint, depending on the designation of the church. A tabot is consecrated over a three-day period by a bishop and then may not be destroyed. It nonetheless may be retired to “sleep” for a time in another church until needed once again.
5. I wish to thank Deacon Abebe Tessema of Medhane Alem Church for his gracious cooperation.
6. Interview with Ato Tekle Tsadik Makuria, Addis Abeba, 21 November 1992.
7. Interview with Dr. Berhanu Abebe, Addis Abeba, 21 November 1992.
8. Interview with Mamo Wubneh, Addis Abeba, 13 November 1992.
9. Lush, the brother-in-law of Brigadier Sandford, was the chief political officer in the Sudan Defence Force. He was seconded to Sir Philip Mitchell, who headed up the “Occupied Enemy Territory Administration.” Lush was given the title of Deputy Chief Political Officer for Ethiopia. Christopher Sykes, Orde Wingate (Cleveland, 1959), 263, 265, 301.
10. As a young gunnery subaltern of 25, Sandford came to Ethiopia in 1909 en route to Sudan. He was so entranced by the country that he joined the Sudan political service, which appointed him liaison officer to the British legation in Addis Abeba. After World War I he resigned from the army and returned to Ethiopia, where he held a variety of advisory positions in the imperial government. He left Ethiopia when the Italians defeated Haile Sellassie and rejoined the British army on the outbreak of hostilities with Rome. In August 1940 he headed Mission 101 from Sudan to Ethiopia, to reconnoiter and assess the fighting ability of the patriots. His positive report helped the British Government decide to invade Ethiopia and assist Haile Sellassie. After the war Sandford settled in Ethiopia at Mulu Farm, where he died on 22 January 1972. SirWright, Denis, “Daniel Arthur Sandford,” Ethiopia Observer 15 (1973), 202–03.Google Scholar
11. Born in 1879, Nasi's career was as a colonial officer and governor. In Ethiopia he became vice governor-general in May 1939. He held the Eastern Sector command in August 1940, when the Italians pushed into British Somaliland, and was given the Western Sector in February 1941. In 1948 Ethiopia formally indicted him for war crimes. Cannistraro, Philip V., Historical Dictionary of Fascist Italy (Westport, 1982), 366.Google Scholar
12. He was the top patriot leader in southern Ethiopia and proved himself utterly loyal to Haile Sellassie. He was for a long time the governor of Gore. Greenfield, Richard, Ethiopia (London, 1965), 230, 245, 261. 263, 277, 294–95.Google Scholar
13. There is nothing in the War Office or Foreign Office Archives about this.
14. Born in 1904, Ras Abebe was the son of Afenegus Aregai and WoizerO Ascale, a daughter of Ras Gobena. After a church education he was tutored in Amharic and Ethiopian law and administration. In Addis Abeba he went to the Tafari Makonnen school and worked in the regent's gibbi. In 1930 he joined the newly-organized police and quickly rose through the ranks. At the outbreak of the war, he was police chief of Addis Abeba with civil authority over the city. When the emperor left for exile and law and order broke down, Abebe went to northern Shewa, where he became the most important patriot leader of the war. His people acclaimed him as ras, a status confirmed by Haile Sellassie. After the war Ras Abebe had a brilliant career: Governor of Addis Abeba in 1941; of Sidamo, 1941-42; of Tigray, 1943-47; Minister of War, 1947-49; Minister of Interior, 1949-55; Minister of Defence, 1955-60; and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, 1957-60. He was killed on 16 December 1960 along with other hostages in a failed coup attempt against Haile Sellassie's regime. Egziabher, Salome Gebre, “The Ethiopian Patriots, 1936-1941,” Ethiopia Observer 12(1969), 73Google Scholar; Clapham, Christopher, Haile Selassie's Government (London, 1969), 193.Google Scholar
15. A captain named Hollier. See GOCEA to WO, 16 August 1941. Ministry of Defence (London), WO 193/879.
16. I have been unable to find this man's name.
17. The emperor's plans for the immediate reconstruction of Ethiopia had relied on a fair division of the booty. He was very bitter about Britain's preemption of the spoils. Courlander, Harold, “The Emperor Wore Clothes: Visiting Haile Sellassie in 1943,” American Scholar 58(1959), 277.Google Scholar
18. Marcus, , Haile Sellassie, 167–68.Google Scholar
19. He was sent to the Seychelles, but the emperor never stopped agitating for his extradition, and in 1946 Haile Sellassie Gugsa was returned to Ethiopia. He stood trial in 1947, threw himself on Haile Sellassie's mercy, and his death sentence of August 1947 was commuted to life imprisonment. He was transported to Gore, where he suffered solitary confinement for 28 years. In early 1974, on the advice of Dej. Zewde Gebre Sellassie, then the Minister of Justice, the dejazmatch was freed but detained in Ambo, a disposition continued by Mengistu Haile Marian's government until Haile Sellassie Gugsa's death in 1985. Interview with Dej. Zewde Gebre Sellassie, Addis Abeba, 1 December 1992; cf. Tareke, Gebru, Ethiopia: Power and Protest (Cambridge, 1991). 97Google Scholar; Ethiopian Herald, 4 August 1947.
20. Proclamation N. 22 of 1942, “A Proclamation to Provide for the Abolition of the Legal Status of Slavery:” “Whereas it has always been Our desire to abolish the institution of slavery throughout Our Empire.…Now therefore We…provide for the abolition of the legal status of slavery throughout Our Empire.” Negarit Gazeta 1/6 (27 August 1942).Google Scholar