As he stepped forward to the microphone, a noisy disturbance broke out in the chamber as unsympathetic quarters voiced their disapproval. But Selassie didn\u2019t falter. He offered a considered and reasoned appraisal of why the League had to unite against Mussolini and his expansionist actions.<\/p>\n
To Selassie\u2019s eyes, the League\u2019s 50-plus member states had, eight months previously, promised assistance. But none had come. \u201cWhat answer shall I take back to my people?\u201d he asked the congregation of ministers and statesmen, before making a chillingly prophetic declaration. \u201cIt is us today. It will be you tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
- Afua Hirsch: \u201cThe prejudice still surrounding Africa is absolutely rooted in a racist past\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Despite Ethiopia having been a member of the League since 1923, Selassie received sympathetic applause and little else. Instead, the League actually decided to lift the sanctions imposed on Italy.<\/p>\n
But, while he failed to mobilise the Western world against Mussolini, Selassie\u2019s appearance in Geneva did make him known worldwide. Named as TIME<\/em> magazine\u2019s Man Of The Year, he would become one of the 20th century\u2019s most recognisable African leaders and a man still revered \u2013 even, worshipped \u2013 in certain parts of the world today.<\/p>\n
Who was Haile Selassie?<\/h3>\n
Selassie had been Ethiopia\u2019s sovereign for half a decade when Italy launched its invasion. Born in a mud-and-wattle hut in 1892, his birthplace belied his genealogy and pedigree. His given name was Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael and he was a member of the Solomonic dynasty descended from King Solomon of Israel.<\/p>\n
He married the niece of the heir to the throne and, after notable depositions, by 1916 Tafari Makonnen had worked his way up to the position of Crown Prince. Appealing to both traditional and modern quarters in high-ranking Ethiopian society, he was now heir to the throne. On the death of Empress Zewditu in 1930, Tafari became Emperor, taking the name Haile Selassie.<\/p>\n
In rising to power, Selassie had shown his political agility when outflanking his opponents. He was undeniably ruthless, too \u2013 a characteristic that his short, wiry frame seemed to disguise. One political enemy described him thus: \u201cHe creeps like a mouse, but has the jaws of a lion.\u201d Operating many years before the phrase came into circulation, here was a fighter who very much punched above his weight.<\/p>\n
The 225th Emperor in a lineage stretching back three millennia, Selassie was its most worldly. As Crown Prince, in 1923, he had signed Ethiopia up to membership of the newly formed League Of Nations.<\/p>\n
His thinking behind the decision was clear-eyed and pragmatic: \u201cWe need European progress only because we are surrounded by it.\u201d Where his many imperial forebears had stayed insular, Selassie was a true internationalist, one confirmed by his later adoption of the ideals of pan-Africanism.<\/p>\n
While still a believer in the divine right of kings, Selassie attempted to reduce the iniquities in Ethiopian society that were highly conspicuous in the early years of his rule. The capital, Addis Ababa, was described, in the year of his coronation, as resembling \u201cA shanty town with wedding-cake trimmings\u201d \u2013 the trappings of the monarchy were very much at odds with everyday existence on the streets of the capital.<\/p>\n
In 1931, he introduced the country\u2019s first written constitution, before embarking on a programme to establish schools across the country. Ethiopia had taken its first steps on the road to modernity when Mussolini\u2019s troops landed in the autumn of 1935.<\/p>\n
Churchill and Mr Strong<\/h3>\n
Forced into exile as the Italians approached Addis Ababa the following spring, Selassie travelled to Britain, initially staying in London and Worthing before spending four years in Bath. By 1940, though, Mussolini\u2019s grand ambitions in East Africa had been thwarted.<\/p>\n
When the Italians attacked British Somaliland, a devastating counter-offensive pushed them back. Ethiopia was now under British control and British Prime Minister<\/a> Winston Churchill<\/a> authorised Selassie\u2019s return to Africa, flying the Emperor to Egypt incognito, under the pseudonym of Mr Strong.<\/p>\n
Selassie arrived back in Addis Ababa on 5 May 1941, in the back of an Alfa Romeo, exactly five years to the day since the Italians had entered the capital. There, he received a cable from Churchill: \u201cIt is with deep pleasure that the British nation and Empire have learned of Your Imperial Majesty\u2019s welcome home. Your Majesty was the first of the lawful sovereigns to be driven from his throne and country by the Fascist-Nazi criminals, and you are the first to return in triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethiopia remained under British administration for a few months, before having its sovereignty returned the following January. Back on the throne, Selassie wasted no time in continuing Ethiopia\u2019s \u2013 albeit slow \u2013 march towards modernity.<\/p>\n
In 1942, he abolished any legal basis for slavery, making several slave-related offences punishable by death. At the end of the Second World War<\/a>, he continued his commitment to collective security \u2013 despite the disappointment of Geneva in 1936 \u2013 by signing his country up to the new United Nations. He even sent troops to aid the United Nations Command in the Korean War<\/a> (1950-53).<\/p>\n
Selassie continued to advance Ethiopia domestically too. In 1955, a second constitution extended voting rights to every citizen, making the Ethiopian parliament\u2019s lower house an elected chamber. However, the emperor\u2019s critics would suggest these were piecemeal reforms that actually solidified the status quo while offering the veneer of progress.<\/p>\n
After all, the wording of the constitution itself reiterated that \u201cThe person of the Emperor is sacred. His dignity is inviolable and His Power indisputable.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1963, Selassie helped found the Organisation of African Unity, drawing up its charter and successfully persuading 31 other independent African nations to join. The political agility that had originally brought him to power seemingly knew no bounds; at the very height of the Cold War, he was even able to secure foreign aid from both the US and the USSR.<\/p>\n
- Read more about how the Cold War wreaked havoc in post-colonial Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Haile Selassie and Rastafarianism<\/h3>\n
Despite being the subject of a failed coup in 1960 while in Brazil, Selassie continued his state visits. In 1966, he made his most symbolic overseas appearance since his appeal to the League Of Nations 30 years before when he visited Jamaica.<\/p>\n
In 1916, the Jamaican black nationalist activist Marcus Garvey had instructed his followers to \u201clook to Africa for the crowning of a black king. He shall be the redeemer.\u201d So, when Selassie ascended the Ethiopian throne in 1930, to many Jamaicans, he was the redeemer Garvey had spoken of, the black messiah. A new religion that took its name from Selassie\u2019s birth name \u2013 Rastafarianism \u2013 was born.<\/p>\n
Even so, as his plane landed at Palisadoes Airport in Kingston on 21 April 1966, Selassie couldn\u2019t have been prepared for the scenes. The island\u2019s Rastafarians \u2013 instantly recognisable for their dreadlocks and unkempt beards, in marked sartorial contrast to Selassie\u2019s full military garb \u2013 had convened in their tens of thousands. \u201cThey broke police lines and swarmed around the Emperor\u2019s DC-6,\u201d reported a correspondent from LIFE magazine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey kept touching his plane, yelling \u2018God is here!\u2019\u2026 But Selassie seemed to love the attention these strange, wild-eyed, lawless and feared Jamaicans gave him.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\""Haile\"]( "\\"\"Haile\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Haile Selassie in full dress uniform in the 1970s (Photo by Photo12\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n On the wane<\/h3>\n
As symbolic as the trip had been, back in Ethiopia Selassie\u2019s star was on the wane. Having encouraged the education of his subjects, often at schools and universities overseas, the emperor was now open to criticism from these same citizens who could measure the slow speed of social and economic progress in their homeland. And, now well into his 70s, Selassie\u2019s sharp political brain was losing its edge.<\/p>\n
A famine between 1972 and 1974, with estimated losses of life into the hundreds of thousands, gravely damaged Selassie\u2019s popularity and destabilised his regime. In February 1974, Addis Ababa saw four days of rioting, followed by an extended general strike the following month.<\/p>\n
Members of the military were among the most angry. Voicing their dissent about low pay \u2013 and not placated by Selassie\u2019s promises of a 33 per cent rise in salaries \u2013 they deposed the Emperor in September 1974, placing him under house arrest.<\/p>\n
- Read more about how the Cold War wreaked havoc in post-colonial Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
![\""Haile\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1139706011-dd699d6-e1634308094298.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Haile\\"")
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