“Much of His Majesty’s success was due to an extraordinary ability to attend to the myriad of administrative details, the most minor of appointments to offices in remote localities, the most insignificant of expenditures, each trip abroad of every official, including (thanks to discreet observers) details as to persons visited, every authorization to provincial officials to come to Addis Ababa, to extend their stays in the capital, every directive to return to the provinces, the most minor of ministerial disputes, and the peccadilloes of his entourage.
None of this would have been possible without instant recollection of names, faces, and conversations, of the particularities of the most remote localities in Ethiopia and of events however distant in time or significance. Once, following the Liberation in 1941, while passing out gifts to his followers, a man came forward to protest that he had been overlooked. His Majesty turned sharply on him: ‘You lie!’ he growled, and, calling him by name, reminded him of the exact time and place at which the Emperor had rewarded him for obtaining urgently needed mules for the Army.
That same powerful memory, constantly nourished by intelligence sources, supported him in the delicate task of imposing his appointments, dismissals, incarcerations and banishments. Able to recall in detail long-forgotten errors, indiscretions, or admissions, Haile Selassie would coldly hang before the protesting dignitary the intricate tapestry of that official’s past life and conduct from which the latter could only avert his embarassed gaze.”
(Taken from “Ethiopia At Bay, John H. Spencer, 1987)
