Testimony of the German scholar and librarian Hans Wilhelm Lockot, who for many years was head of the Ethiopian National Library, about His Majesty:
“As well as a vast quantity of administrative detail, he stored personal information about thousands of individuals away in his brain: he knew the names, faces, positions, functions, tribal connections and family relationships of officials, military officers or students. All of them he had personally appointed, promoted, transferred or dismissed, or he had supported their education; and reports on all of them had been submitted to him. It was said he never forgot any conversation he had ever had and indeed from his early youth he had been trained to store everything in his memory. He avoided leaving any written records of his actions and never took notes: only his final decisions went into the files. For the population it was a matter of course that the Elect of God should have supernatural qualities, but for officials it was deeply portentous, and it kept them constantly in a state of apprehension. Even when unexpected situations arose, the Emperor would be able quickly and effortlessly to recall accurate detail of events which had taken place many years before without consulting files or asking his aides.”
Taken from Hans Wilhelm Lockot, “The Mission. The Life, Reign and Character of Haile Selassie I”, London 1989, p.53
