Tag: haile selassie

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Haile Selassie I - Anecdotes

The Request of Ras Asserate (1972)

“In the summer of 1972, festivities were held to mark the emperor’s eightieth birthday. My father told me that he and my mother went to the palace first thing in the morning to offer their congratulations. Haile Selassie received them in the drawing room that adjoined his bedroom. For his birthday present, Ras Asserate gave His Majesty a bespoke leather travel writing case specially designed by Algernon Asprey in London, which the emperor was evidently delighted with. Then my father suddenly fell at the emperor’s feet. Alarmed, Haile Selassie asked him: ‘What on earth has happened?’ The prince replied:

‘Your Majesty! In the name of my father, your loyal friend and servant Ras Kassa, I beseech you to grant me one great favour. Today is the day when Your Majesty has it in his power to give Ethiopia its greatest gift ever. When you go before the Ethiopian people presently to address them, please say this to vour subjects: <<My beloved people of Ethiopia. I have served you for almost sixty years. Now the time has come for me to retire and hand the reins of power to a new generation. Here is my son, into whose care I commend you. Serve him as faithfully as you have served me and be as loyal to him as you have been to your Emperor during all these years.>> If you do this, I guarantee that you will go down in history as the greatest emperor.’

The emperor was visibly moved and said nothing for a while. Then he told my father to get up and answered him: ‘Tell me, did King David abdicate? Or can you think of any other Ethiopian ruler who has done so? We shall reign as long as the Almighty allows Us to. And when the time has come for Us to depart, He will know what is best for Ethiopia’.“

(Taken from “King of Kings”, Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Haus Publishing, 2015 p. 275)

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Ge'ez ግእዝ Mysteries Haile Selassie I - Testimonies

The Testimony of Aleqa Desta Tekle Weld

ዘንሙ ፡ ዝናማት ፡ ፊደላተ ፡ ሮማይስጥ ፤ ወመጽኡ ፡ ወሓይዝት ፡ ትምህርታት ፡ ካልኣን ፤ ወነፍኁ ፡ ነፋሳት ፡ ልሳናተ ፡ አፍኣ ፤ ወገፍዕዎ ፡ ለውእቱ ፡ ቤት ፡ ልሳን ፡ ግእዝ ፡ ወዐምሐራ ፤ ወኢወድቀ ፤ እስመ ፡ ዲበ ፡ ኰኵሕ ፡ ኀይለ ፡ ሥላሴ ፡ ተመሥረተ ።

Zenmu Z(e)nnamat Fidelate Romaystt ; WeMetzu WeHayzt T(e)mhrtat Kalan ; WeNeffhu Nefasat Lesanate Affa ; WeGef'(e)wo LeW(e)tu Biet L(e)san G(e)(e)z WeA’mhara ; Weiwed(e)q ; (E)sme Dibe Kwekw(e)h Hayle Selassie Temesrete ::

“Rains rained of roman alphabets; and flowings came, other teachings; and the winds of the tongues of outside blowed; and they oppressed this house of the tongue of Geez and Amhara; and it didn’t fall; because upon the rock, Hayle Sellasie, it was founded.”

Taken from ዐዲስ፡ያማርኛ፡መዝገበ፡ቃላት። / Addis Yamaregna Mezgebe Qalat (New Amharic Dictionary), by አለቃ፡ደስታ፡ተክለ፡ወልድ። / Aleqa Desta Tekle Weld, 1962 E.C., pag. በ (2nd)

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Haile Selassie I - Anecdotes

The Chosen One (1955)

“The title ‘Elect of God’ carried by the Ethiopian emperor was much more than simply an expression of godliness. In any event, right up to the very end, Haile Selassie was steadfast in his belief that he really had been chosed by God to be king. Accordingly, this title was affirmed in the two Ethiopian constitutions that Haile Selassie enacted in 1931 and 1955. The consultations on the renewed constitution of 1955 saw lively debate on this passage among members of the constitutional commission. In particular, the American advisor John H. Spencer, who had been called in to help draft the new constitution, saw it as an anachronism. He spoke to the secretary of the constituent assembly, Lij Imru Zelleke, and asked him to prevail upon the emperor to have this clause dropped. But when Lij Imru approached the emperor with this request, Haile Selassie reacted furiously: ‘How can you presume to doubt it ?’ he shouted at Imru Zelleke, ‘Where would We be if We weren’t elected by God’. And not just the emperor himself, also his retainers and the majority of Ethiopians believed he was the Chosen One; this fact also went a long way towards explaining the unconditional loyalty that many people showed him right up to the end – while a new generation of Ethiopian intellectuals bridled at the very idea.”
(Taken from “King of Kings”, Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Haus Publishing, 2015 p. 93)
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Haile Selassie I - Anecdotes

Tekle Hawariat’s Provocation

“On the day when Ras Tafari was introduced to us as the emperor’s successor, I was standing behind the minister of war’s chair. Ras Tafari entered the room, dressed in his official robes and with a prince’s crown on his head. He walked up to the war minister and kissed his feet. To try and provoke Ras Tafari, I asked: ‘Do you really think those narrow shoulders of yours will be strong enough to support such a great land as Ethiopia?’ Ras Tafari just smiled benignly and replied; ‘I’ll find everything easy with masters like you to guide me.’.”

(from “Autobiography – Yehiwot Tarik”, Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariam, Addis Ababa 2006, p.304)

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Haile Selassie I - Anecdotes

The Pool Game

“As a child, I found it hard to understand: on the one hand the emperor was part of our extended family – my grandfather, Ras Kassa Hailu, was his cousin and one of his most loyal companions from childhood to old age – yet at the same time he was unapproachable; he was the King of Kings, Abbaba Janhoy, the Great Father of the Nation, and everyone around him would bow and prostrate themselves as a sign of their great reverence for him. I, too, always found him to be surrounded by this imperial aura except for one single occasion. This encounter took place in the 1960s in Eritrea. The emperor had come to Asmara and taken up residence during his visit at the Viceroy’s palace, my father’s official seat of administration as governor-general of the then-province of Eritrea. When Haile Selassie and his cousin Ras Imru came to call on us one afternoon at my father’s private residence in the palace grounds, the emperor’s interest was piqued by the pool room. Evidently he felt inclined to have a game of pool. He slapped Ras Imru – who was actually several years younger than his cousin but looked somewhat older – on the shoulder and said: ‘Come on, old man! Can you still remember how we used to play in Lij Iyasu’s house when we were boys ? Let’s see if you’re still up to it !’. Ras Imru laughed, and the emperor took off his suit jacket and handed it to my father. ‘Come on, Asserate, you too!’, Ras Imru challenged my father. His Majesty’s jacket was duly passed to me, and the emperor broke off. Even after just a few shots, it was apparent that Haile Selassie was markedly superior to his cousin and his kinsman – though none of us or any of our acquaintances had ever seen the emperor with a pool cue in his hand. This was the first and only time I ever saw the emperor in shirt sleeves. All the gravitas of his office had fallen away from him, and at this moment he was just an ordinary person enjoying a game. I stood there rooted to the spot. Holding the emperor’s jacket in my outstretched hand, I watched enthralled as the emperor potted ball after ball. After the final one, the black eight-ball, had also disappeared into one of the pockets, he laid his cue aside and I passed him his suit jacket. He slipped into it, and in a trice he was transformed back into the Emperor of Ethiopia.”

(Taken from “King of Kings”, Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Haus Publishing, 2015 p. xx)

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Haile Selassie I - Anecdotes

The Ice Cream Treat

“My first memories of the Ethiopian emperor take me back to my childhood, in 1956. I was eight years old at the time and had come down with mumps, which stubbornly refused to clear up even after treatment with a course of drugs. The doctors in the Haile Selassie Hospital in Addis Ababa decided to operate on me, removing parts of my parotid gland that had become infected. To this day, I can clearly remember this procedure: being anaesthetised with ether and the intense nausea that subsequently overcame me. But above all I recall the moment when I woke up from the anaesthetic: as I slowly came to, the first person my gaze focused upon was none than the Negusa Negast, the King of Kings. He was wearing his field marshal’s uniform, over which he had draped his kabba, the traditional cloak of the Ethiopian nobility. Next to him stood my grandfather Ras Kassa and my father Ras Asserate, both looking worried. The emperor laid his hand on my forehead and said: ‘Now wait just a moment, my boy, and there will be ice cream as a treat !’. Saying this, he took his leave in French of Professor Leutze, the hospital’s German clinical director, and of the German surgeon who had performed the operation, thanking them for their splendid work. I later learned that the doctor who had operated on me was given a gold coin in gratitude by the emperor, while my parents sent him a set of gold cufflinks. I lived the next few days in a world of make-believe. For a whole week, as I lay in my sick bed, I received daily deliveries of a large Thermos flask, emblazoned with a golden imperial lion and filled with the most diverse and wonderful flavours of ice cream. The delicacies were specially prepared for me from fresh ingredients by the emperor’s Swiss head chef in the nearby Genete-Leul Palace.”

(Taken from “King of Kings”, Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Haus Publishing, 2015 p. xvii)

Categories
Ethiopia - Land, People and Customs

Tiqur Anbessa Statue – Addis Abeba

Tiqur Anbessa (ጥቁር አንበሳ) is a “Black Lion” of stone, a large ten-meter-high statue depicting the crowned Lion of Judah, located in Addis Ababa near to the National Theater.
It was built on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the reign of Haile Selassie I (25 years from 1930, therefore in 1955), and was realized by the great French sculptor Maurice Calka, according to avant-garde aesthetic lines.
Categories
Haile Selassie I - Testimonies

Charles University of Prague – Doctor of Law – 1959

Prague, July 15 1959

“The Faculty of Law of the Charles University in Prague being aware, noble Emperor, of the fact that you waged courageous and persevering struggle for the defence of your country and its liberation from foreign aggressors and that you have always been a vigilant guardian of its independence,

that you as an outstanding expert on politics and law, have accomplished a great and durable work of a reformer and builder of your country for the benefit of its people,

that you have untiringly worked for the preservation of international peace and understanding and for the promotion of independence and equality of all nations thereby deserving eminently the welfare of mankind, has unanimously decided to confer on you the honorary degree of the Doctor of Law.

After this decision of our Faculty had been approved by the Scientific Council of the Charles University and confirmed by the Government of the Czechoslovak Republic, we requested you, noble Emperor, to accept in this Assembly the highest honour which this University can bestow on you.

To follow an ancient custom you have first to make a solemn pledge.

Therefore, you will pledge:

First, that you will always keep this University where you are receiving the highest degree in Law, in good memory and that you will always give assistance to it by all your power, advice and help.

Second, that you will continue to devote yourself to science as you have done so far in order that truth be spread all over and that its light which preserves the welfare of mankind may radiate in the world.

Do you pledge so from the bottom of your heart ?

The conferee: – I do (Spondeo ac polliceor).“