"Seen in this light,Rastafarianism is the spiritual expression of the dreams of Africans in the diaspora to come back and live as free and progressive souls in a land where equality, mental and physical powers are appreciated and put into productive use for the benefit of all."
By Mohamed Boye Jallo Jamboria, Bergen, Norway.
Slavery and the colonial system were hated by Africans and were institutions that the Pan-African movement arose to combat. Pan-Africanism also developed to overcome the obstacles facing the African Diaspora-a scattered, diverse, and often disadvantaged population of people of African descent. Pan-African thinkers would maintain that, although they were dispersed throughout the world, African people and people of African descent were a unified people and should try to work together for the good of all.
The growth of the Black Nationalist movement of Marcus Garvey came as a vehicle for the masses that did not belong to the elitist class of the Du Bois’, William Blydens. The Garvey movement was important in the United States as a popular expression of the sentiments of African unity and redemption among working-class blacks.
His followers contrasted with the more elite black groups cultivated by Du Bois. Garvey, a Jamaican, founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914 to promote black pride, political and economic improvements for blacks everywhere, and the repatriation of blacks to Africa (often called the “Back to Africa” movement).
The institutional growth of the Garvey movement was swift and international in scope. Garvey’s newspaper, the Negro World, achieved wide distribution, and chapters of UNIA sprung up all over the Americas, as well as in Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Garvey also established a steamship company, the Black Star Line, with which he hoped both to enter international trade and to transport blacks to Africa.
Garvey hoped to oversee the repatriation of tens of thousands of American blacks to the West African nation of Liberia, which had been founded by freed American slaves in the early 19th century.
The Garvey movement declined when Garvey was arrested and imprisoned in 1925 on charges of mail fraud relating to the operation of the Black Star Line, and his repatriation scheme was never fulfilled.
Influenced by Garvey’s ideas, young working class West Indians at the time started a cultural movement of almost religious proportions. Using the Bible and especially the old testaments, this new cultural movement defied the Emperorship of Ethiopia a ruling class that is historically connected to the line of Biblical King Solomon through the offspring the Queen of Sheba had with Solomon and the links of this emperorship to the Coptic church.
RELIGIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
According to the Ethiopian legend, best represented in the Kebra Negest, the Queen of Sheba was tricked by King Solomon into sleeping with him, resulting in a child, named Ebn Melek (later Emperor Menelik I). When he was of age, Menelik returned to Israel to see his father, who sent with him the son of Zadok to accompany him with a replica of the Ark of the Covenant (Ethiosemitic: tabot).
On his return with some of the Israelite priests, however, he found that Zadok’s son had stolen the real Ark of the Covenant. Some believe the Ark is still being preserved today at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia.
The tradition that the biblical Queen of Sheba was a ruler of Ethiopia who visited King Solomon in Jerusalem in ancient Israel is supported by the 1st century ad Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who identified Solomon’s visitor as a queen of Egypt and Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has often been mentioned in the Bible. A great example of this is the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch as written in Acts, Chapter 8, and verse 27: "Then the angels of the Lord said to Philip, Start out and go south to the road that leads down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he set out and was on his way when he caught sight of an Ethiopian.
This man was a eunuch, a high official of the Kandake (Candace) Queen of Ethiopia in charge of all her treasure."
The passage continues by describing how Philip helped the Ethiopian understand one passage of Isaiah that the Ethiopian was reading.
After the Ethiopian received an explanation of the passage and came to believe in Jesus as the "Son of God", he requested that Philip baptize him, which Philip obliged. Queen Gersamot Hendeke VII (very similar to Kandake) was the Queen of Ethiopia from the year 42 to 52. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church was founded in the fourth century by Syrian monks.
This is one of some ideological reasons for this deification of the emperorship and more over Ethiopia is one of the seats of the “Coptic” churches on earth. The first Christians in Egypt were mainly Greeks and Jews in Alexandria, and according to tradition the church there was founded by St. Mark. In the second century
Christianity began to spread to the rural areas, and scriptures were translated into local languages. In the third century, during the persecution of Decius, some Christians fled to the desert, and remained there to pray after the persecutions abated. This was the beginning of the monastic movement, which was reorganised by St. Anthony and St. Pachomius in the 4th century. It attracted the attention of Christians in other parts of the world, and many came to Egypt to see what was happening, and took monastic ideas back home with them, so monasticism spread throughout the Christian world. It was an indigenous movement of Egyptian Christians.
In the 4th century a theological dispute about the nature of Christ started by an Alexandrian priest called Arius spread throughout the Christian world as well. The First Council of Nicaea (AD 325) was called to resolve the dispute, and eventually led to the formulation of the Symbol of Faith, also known as the Nicene Creed. Another theological dispute in the 5th century led to the calling of the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451), but many Egyptian Christians including many monks, were unhappy with the decisions of the council, and pro-Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian parties formed in the church, and tried to get their candidates appointed as the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, who was the chief bishop of the church in north-eastern Africa. Eventually the two parties split. Those who supported the Chalcedonian definition remained in communion with the other leading churches of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch and Jerusalem. The non-
Chalcedonian group called them "Melchites", meaning "the king’s men", because their party was supported by the Emperor in Constantinople. The non-Chalcedonian party became what is today called the Coptic Orthodox Church, and the Ethiopian Church followed their lead. Ever since then there have been two Popes in Alexandria. The Coptic Orthodox Pope today is Pope Shenouda III, while the Greek Orthodox Pope is Pope Petros VII.
The Chalcedonians sometimes called the non-Chalcedonians "monophysites", though the Coptic Church denies that it teaches monophysitism, which it regards as a heresy. They have sometimes called the Chalcedonian group "dyophysites". A term that comes closer to Coptic doctrine is "miaphysite", which refers to a conjoined nature for Christ, both human and divine, united indivisibility in the Incarnation.
By some accounts there are approximately 50 million Coptic Christians, primarily in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, and in significant numbers in Sudan and Israel, and in diaspora throughout the world.
In about 1270, a new dynasty established the Abyssinian highlands as their realm in person of Yekuno Amlak who deposed the last of the Zagwe kings and married one of their daughters. According to legends the new dynasty were male-line descendants of Axumite monarchs, now recognized as the continuing Solomonic dynasty (the kingdom being thus restored to the biblical royal house).
Under the Solomonic dynasty, the chief provinces became Tigray (northern), Amhara (central) and Shewa (southern). The seat of government, or rather of overlordship, has usually been in Amhara or Shewa, the ruler of which, calling himself [nəgusä nägäst] (king of kings, or Emperor of Ethiopia), has exacted tribute, when he could, from the other provinces. The title of |[nəgusä nägäst] has been to a considerable extent based on their direct descent from Solomon and the queen of Sheba; but it is needless to say that in many, if not in most, cases their success has been due more to the force of their arms than to the purity of their lineage.
RECENT POLITICAL HISTORY OF ETHOPIA
The son of Negus Haile Melekot of Shewa, prince Sahle Maryam was born in Ankober, Shewa. Upon the death of his father in 1855 he, just named as his successor as king of Shewa by his father, was taken prisoner by Emperor Tewodros II, a former minor noble originally named Kassa of Qwara, who had usurped the Imperial throne from the last Emperor of the elder Gondar branch of the Solomonic dynasty, Emperor Yohannes III or from emperor Sahle Dengel.
Young Sahle Maryam of Shewa was imprisoned on Tewodros’ mountain stronghold of Magdala, but was treated well by the Emperor, even marrying Tewodros’s daughter Alitash. Upon his imprisonment, his uncle, Haile Mikael had been made ruler of Shewa by Emperor Tewodros II with the title of Merid Azmatch. However, Merid Asmatch Haile Mikael rebelled against Tewodros, resulting in his being replaced by the non-royal Ato Bezabih as governor of Shewa.
Ato Bezabih also promptly rebelled against the Emperor and proclaimed himself King of Shewa. Although the Shewan royals imprisoned at Magdalla by Emperor Tewodros had been largely complacent as long as a member of their family ruled over Shewa, this usurpation by a commoner was not palatable to them. They ploted the escape of Sahle Maryam from Magdala, and he eventually succeeded at escaping from Magdala and abandoned his wife, returning to Shewa.
Upon his return Bezabih’s attempt to raise an army against the Prince failed miserably when thousands of Shewans rallied to the flag of the son of Haile Melekot and even Bezabih’s own soldiers deserted him for the returning Prince. Sahle Maryam entered Ankober and proclaimed himself Nigus (King) with the name of Menelik. Not only did he reclaim his ancestral crown, but at once claimed the Imperial throne for himself as well as a direct male line descendant of Emperor Libne Dengil. He launched several attacks against Emperor Tewodros II, particularly against the citadel of Magdala.
These campaigns were unsuccessful, and he turned his arms to the west, east and south, and annexed much territory to his kingdom, still, however, maintaining his claims to the Imperial Crown of Ethiopia in addition to the royal one of Shewa.
In 1883, Negus Menelik married Taytu Betul, a noblewoman of Imperial blood, and a member of one of the leading families of the regions of Semien, Yejju in modern Wollo, and Begemder. Her paternal uncle Dejazmatch Wube Haile Maryam of Semien had been the ruler of Tigray and much of northern Ethiopia. She had been married four times previously and exercised considerable influence. Menelik and Taytu would have no children. Menelik had, previous to this marriage, sired not only Zauditu (eventually Empress of Ethiopia), but also another daughter, Shoaregga (who married Ras Mikael of Wollo), and a son, Prince Wossen Seged who died in childhood.
After the suicide of Tewodros II in 1868 following his defeat at the hands of the British at Magdalla, Menelek continued to struggle against the various other claimants to the Imperial throne. The eventual successor, the Emperor Yohannes IV was able to better exert his claims with the large number of weapons left to him by the British, whom he had aided against Tewodros. Being again unsuccessful, Menelek resolved to await a more propitious occasion; so, acknowledging the supremacy of Yohannes. In 1886 Menelik married his daughter Zauditu to the Emperor’s son, the Ras Araya Selassie. Ras Araya Selassie died in May 1888 without any issue by Zauditu of Shewa, and the Emperor Yohannis IV was killed in a war against the dervishes at the battle of Gallabat (Matemma) on May 10, 1889.
The succession now lay between the late emperor’s natural son, Ras Mengesha, and Menelik of Shewa, but the latter was able to obtain the allegiance of a large majority of the nobility on November 4, and consecrated and crowned as Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia shortly afterwards. Menelek argued that while the family of Yohannes IV claimed descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba through females of the dynasty, his own claim was based on uninterrupted direct male lineage which made the claims of the House of Shewa equal to those of the elder Gondar line of the dynasty.
He and later his daughter Zewditu would be the last Ethiopian monarchs who could claim uninterrupted direct male decent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (both Lij Eyasu and Emperor Haile Selassie were in the female line, Eyasu through his mother Shewarega Menelik, and Haile Selassie through his paternal grandmother, Tenagnework Sahle Selassie).
In 1889, at the time when he was claiming the throne against Mengesha, Menelek signed at Wuchale in Wollo province (Uccialli in Italian), a treaty with Italy acknowledging the establishment of the new Italian Colony of Eritrea with its seat at Asmara.
This colony had previously been part of the northern Tigrayan territories from which Ras Mangasha and his allies such as Ras Alula generated support, and the establishment of the Italian colony weakened the northern Rases.
However, it was soon found that the Italian version of one of the articles of the treaty placed the Ethiopian Empire under an Italian protectorate, while the Amharic version did not.
Emperor Menelik denounced it and demanded that the Italian version be changed, and after negotiations failed, abrogated it, leading Italy to declare war and invade from Eritrea.
After defeating the Italians at Amba Alagi and Mekele, Menelik inflicted an even greater defeat on them, at the Battle of Adowa on March 1, 1896, forcing them to capitulate. A treaty was signed at Addis Ababa recognizing the absolute sovereign independence of Ethiopia.
Menelek II’s French sympathies were shown in a reported official offer of treasure towards payment of the indemnity at the close of the Franco-Prussian War, and in February 1897 he concluded a commercial treaty with France on very favorable terms. He also gave assistance to French officers who sought to reach the upper Nile from Ethiopia, there to join forces with the Marchand Mission; and Ethiopian armies were sent towards the Nile, but withdrew when the Fashoda Crisis between France and the United Kingdom cooled off. A British mission under Sir Rennell Rodd in May 1897, however, was cordially received, and Menelek agreed to a settlement of the Somali boundaries, to keep open to British commerce the caravan route between Zaila and Harrar, and to prevent the transit of munitions of war to the Mahdists, whom he proclaimed enemies of Ethiopia.
In the following year the Sudan was reconquered by an Anglo-Egyptian army and thereafter cordial relations between Menelik and the British authorities were established.
In 1889 and subsequent years, Menelek sent forces to co-operate with the British troops engaged against a Somali leader, Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan.
Menelik had in 1898 crushed a rebellion by Ras Mangasha (who died in 1906) and he directed his efforts henceforth to the consolidation of his authority, and in a certain degree, to the opening up of his country to western civilization.
Menelik’s clemency to Ras Mangasha, whom he compelled to submit and then made hereditary Prince of his native Tigray, was ill repaid by a long series of revolts by that prince. Menelek focused much of his energy on development and modernization of his country after this threat to his throne was firmly ended.
He had granted in 1894 a concession for the building of a railway to his capital from the French port of Djibouti, but, alarmed by a claim made by France in 1902 to the control of the line in Ethiopian territory, he stopped for four years the extension of the railway beyond Dire Dawa. When in 1906 France, the United Kingdom and Italy came to an agreement on the subject, granting control to a joint venture corporation, Menelek officially reiterated his full sovereign rights over the whole of his empire.
Menelik II was fascinated by modernity, and like Tewodros II before him, had a keen ambition to introduce the technological and administrative advances of the west into Ethiopia. Following the rush by the major powers to establish diplomatic relations following the Ethiopian victory at Adowa, more and more westerners began to travel to Ethiopia looking for trade, farming, hunting and mineral exploration concessions.
Menelik II founded the first modern bank in Ethiopia, the Bank of Abyssinia, introduced the first modern postal system, signed the agreement and initiated work that established the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway with the French, introduced electricity to Addis Ababa, as well as the telephone, telegraph, the motor car as well as modern plumbing. During a particularly devastating famine caused by the decimation of plowing and burden cattle by Rinderpest early in his reign, Menelik II personally went out with a hand held hoe to furrow the fields to show that there was no shame in plowing feilds by hand without oxen, something Ethiopian highlanders had been too proud to consider previously. He also forgave taxes during this particularly severe famine.
Later in his reign, he established the first Cabinet of Ministers to help in the administration of the Empire, appointing trusted and widely respected nobles and retainers to the first Ministries. These ministers would remain in place long after his death, serving in their posts through the brief reign of Lij Iyasu and into the reign of Empress Zewditu. They would in fact play a key role in the deposing of Lij Iyasu.
Rumored natural children of the Emperor include Ras Birru Wolde Gabriel and Dejazmach Kebede Tessema. The latter is often in turn rumored to be the natural grandfather of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, the communist leader of the Derg who would eventually depose the monarchy and assume power in Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991.
However, the only children that Melelek II acknowledged publicly were Zauditu, Shoaregga and Wossen Seged. Of these three, only Shoaregga has present day descendants.
During the 1890s, Menelek heard about the modern method of executing criminals using electric chairs, and he ordered 3 for his kingdom. When the chairs arrived, Menelik learned they would not work, as Ethiopia did not yet have an electrical power industry. Rather than waste his investment, Menelik used one of the chairs as his throne, sending another to Lique Mequas Abate.
Menelek was known for saying "We must resist the powers, to keep our independence."
Two days later Iyasu was publicly proclaimed at Addis Ababa as Menelek’s successor. At that time the emperor was seriously ill and as his ill-health continued a council of regency - from which the empress was excluded - was formed in March 1910.
Lij Iyasu’s marriage to Romanework Mangasha was dissolved, and he married Seble Wongel Hailu, daughter of Ras Hailu, and granddaughter of Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam.
On December 12, 1913 Emperor Menelek II died of a stroke and was buried secretly at the Se’el Bet Kidane Meheret Church on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. Official news of his death was kept from the public for several years by order of Lij Iyasu, although it was soon widely known.
Following the deposing of Lij Iyasu in 1917, and the crowning of Menelik’s daughter Zewditu as Empress of Ethiopia, Menelik II was reburied in the specialy built Baeta Le Mariam Monastery Church of Addis Ababa.
Baptised as Askala Maryam, the future Zewditu eldest daughter of Menelek II took the reigns of power and became the first woman head of an internationally-recognized state in Africa in modern times (Next being present Eileen Shearleaf-Johnson of Liberia, another of Africa’s nation-states that have never been under direct colonial rule). She was also noted for opposing the reforms of Ras Tafari Makonnen (later Emperor Haile Selassie) and for her strong religious devotion.
Her mother, Weyziro (Lady) Abechi, was a Shewan noblewoman and a brief companion of Menelek. Her mother had died when Askala Maryam was very young, and so the future empress was raised mainly by her father. Negus Menelik later married Taytu Betul, but had no children by this wife.
Menelik had three acknowledged children: Zewditu herself, a son Asfaw Wossen who died in infancy, and another daughter Shewa Regga, the mother of Lij Iyasu, Menelik’s eventual heir.
However, the Emperor remained closest to Zauditu, who also had good relations with her step-mother Empress Taytu, and was part of her father’s household for most of her life.
In 1882, the six-year-old Zewditu was married to Ras Araya Selassie Yohannes, son and heir of Emperor Yohannis IV. The marriage was political, having been arranged when Menelik agreed to submit to Yohannes’ rule.
Yohannes and Menelik eventually fell into conflict again, however, with Menelik launching a rebellion against Yohannes’ rule. Zewditu’s marriage was childless, being very young during her marriage, although her husband had fathered a son by another woman.
When Araya Selassie died in 1888, she left Mekele and returned to her father’s court in Shewa. Despite the hostility between Menelik and Yohannes, Zewditu managed throughout the conflict to maintain good relations with both.
Zewditu had two further marriages, both brief, before marrying Ras Gugsa Welle.
Upon the death of Emperor Yohannis IV at the Battle of Metemma against the Mahdists of the Sudan, Negus Menelek of Shewa assumed power and become Emperor of Ethiopia in 1889.
This restored the direct male succession of the dynasty, as Emperor Yohannis’s claim to the throne was through a female link to the line. As the daughter of Menelek II, Zauditu would be the last monarch in direct agnatic descent in the Solomonic dynasty.
Her successor Haile Selassie was also linked in the female line. In 1913, Menelek died. Lij Iyasu, the son of Zewditu’s half-sister Shewa Regga, had been declared heir apparent in 1909. Iyasu considered Zewditu a potential threat to his rule, and exiled her and her husband to the countryside.
Iyasu was officially proclaimed as Emperor Iyasu V, but quickly encountered problems with his rule. He was widely disliked by the nobility for his unstable behavior, and the church held him in suspicion for his alleged Muslim sympathies. He was never officially crowned. After a troubled few years, Iyasu was removed from power.
Zewditu was summoned to the capital, and on September 27, 1916, the Council of State and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church officially deposed Iyasu in favour of Zewditu. Zewditu’s official title was Negiste Negest (Queen of Kings), a modification of the traditional title Negus Negest (King of Kings).
Initially, Zewditu was not permitted to exercise power herself. Instead, her cousin Ras Tafari Makonnen was appointed regent, and her father’s old loyal general, Fitawrari Hapte Giorgis Dinagde was made commander in chief of the army.
Ras Tafari Makonen was also made heir apparent to Zewditu - none of Zewditu’s children had survived to adulthood. In 1928, after an attempt to remove Ras Tafari Makonnen from power failed, the Empress was compelled to crown her cousin Negus.
In an attempt to limit her influence, the aristocracy arranged for her nephew (Zauditu’s husband Ras Gugsa Welle) to be appointed to a remote governorship, removing him from court.
This move, while intended as a strike against Taytu rather than against Zewditu, is believed to have upset Zewditu considerably. Zewditu also suffered guilt for taking the throne from Lij Iyasu, who her father had wanted to succeed him - while she believed that Iyasu’s overthrow was necessary, she had admired her father greatly, and was unhappy at having to disobey his wishes.
Her separation from her husband and her guilt about Iyasu’s overthrow combined to make Zauditu not particularly happy as Empress. Interestingly, even though he had treated her abominably, she held much personal affection for her nephew Iyasu, and is said to have wept bitterly for him when told that she was being made Empress as her nephew had been excommunicated for apostasy.
Increasingly, the Empress retreated from state responsibility into a world of fasting and prayer, as the progressive elements that surrounded the heir, Ras Tafari Makonnen gained in strength and influence at court.
The early period of Zewditu’s reign was marked by a war against Lij Iyasu, who had escaped captivity. Backed by his father, Negus Mikael of Welo, a powerful northern leader, Iyasu attempted to regain the throne. The two failed to effectively coordinate their efforts however, and after some initial victories Iyasu’s father was defeated and captured at the Battle of Segelle.
The King of Wollo was paraded through the streets of Addis Ababa in chains, carrying a rock of repentance on his shoulders, before entering the throne room and kissing the Empress’s shoes to beg for her mercy.
The heir to the throne, Ras Tafari Makonnen was not present at this spectacle out of consideration for the feelings of his wife, who was the granddaughter of King Mikael of Wollo. Upon hearing of his father’s defeat and humiliation, Iyasu himself fled to Afar.
After years on the run, Iyasu was later captured by Dejazmach Gugsa Araya, the son who Zewditu’s first husband had fathered by another woman. Gugsa Araya was rewarded with the title of Ras from his former step-mother, and Princess Yeshashework Yilma, the niece of Tafari Makonnen, as his bride. When Iyasu was captured, a tearful Empress Zewditu pleaded that he be kept in a special house on the grounds of the palace where she would see to his care and he could receive religious counsel.
She found Ras Tafari and Fitawrari Hapte Giorgis to be unbendingly opposed, and so gave up. She did however make sure that special favorite foods and a constant supply of clothing and small luxuries reached Lij Iyasu at his place of arrest in Sellale. To the end of her life, she referred to her deposed nephew as "my lord Iyasu".
Rise of Ras Tafari Makonen (HAILIE SELASIE, last king of kings of Ethiopia)
As Zewditu’s reign progressed, the difference in outlook gradually widened between her and her appointed heir, Ras Tafari Makonnen.
Ras Tafari was a moderniser, believing that Ethiopia needed to open itself to the world in order to survive. In this, he had the backing of many younger nobles.
Zewditu, however, was a conservative, believing in the preservation of Ethiopian tradition. She had the strong backing of the church in this belief. Slowly, however, Zewditu began to withdraw from active politics, leaving more and more power to Tafari.
Under Tafari’s direction, Ethiopia entered the League of Nations, and abolished slavery, another of the reasons for his deification by the Rastafarians.
In 1928, there was a small conservative uprising against Tafari’s reforms, but it was unsuccessful. Zewditu was compelled to grant Tafari, who now controlled most of the Ethiopian government, the title of Negus. While Negus Tafari remained under the nominal rule of Zewditu (who was still Negeste Negest, Queen of Kings), Tafari was now effectively the ruler of Ethiopia.
A number of attempts were made to displace him, but they were all unsuccessful. In 1930, Zewditu’s husband Gugsa Welle led a rebellion against Tafari in Begemder, hoping to end the regency, but was defeated and killed in battle by the modernised Ethiopian army at the Battle of Anchem on March 31, 1930.
Death of Zewditu and the succession of Ras Tafari Makonen
On April 2, 1930, two days after Ras Gugsa Welle was killed in battle, Empress Zewditu died. It is known today that Zewditu suffered from diabetes, and was seriously ill, but it is not universally agreed that this was the cause of her death.
According to some popular histories, Zewditu died of shock and grief at hearing of her husband’s death, but other accounts contradict this, claiming that Zewditu was not informed of the battle’s outcome before her sudden death. The timing of her death immediately after news of the outcome of the battle reached Addis Ababa has caused considerable speculation as to her cause of death.
Some, particularly conservative critics of her successor, Emperor Haile Selassie, allege that once the rebellion had been decisively defeated, he or his supporters felt safe in poisoning Zewditu. Speculation as to the cause of Zewditu’s death continues today.
Empress Zewditu was succeeded on the throne by Negus Ras Tafari Makonen, who took the name of Emperor Haile Selassie.
Haile Selassie I was born Tafari Makonnen on July 23, 1892, in the village of Ejersa Goro, in the Harar province of Ethiopia, as Lij (literally "child", usually bestowed upon nobility). His father was Ras Makonnen Woldemikael Gudessa, the governor of Harar, and his mother was Weyziro (Lady) Yeshimebet Ali Abajifar.
Tafari became Dejazmach at the age of thirteen. Shortly thereafter, his father Ras Makonnen died at Kulibi.
Although it seems that his father had wanted him to inherit his position of governor of Harar, Emperor Menelik found it imprudent to appoint such a young boy to such an important position. Dejazmach Tafari’s older half-brother, Dejazmach Yilma Makonnen was made governor of Harar instead.
Regency of Ras Tafari
Although Dejazmach Tafari played only a minor role in the movement that deposed Lij Iyasu on 27 September 1916, he was its ultimate beneficiary. The primary powers behind the move were the conservatives led by Fitawrari Habte Giorgis Dinagde, Menelik II’s long time war minister.
Dejazmach Tafari was included in order to get the progressive elements of the nobility behind the movement, as Lij Iyasu was no longer regarded as the progressives’ best hope for change. However, Iyasu’s increasing flirtation with Islam, his disrespectful attitude to the nobles of his grandfather Menelik II, as well as his scandalous behavior in general, not only outraged the conservative power-brokers of the Empire, but alienated the progressive elements as well.
This led to the deposition of Iyasu on grounds of conversion to Islam, and the proclamation of Menelik II’s daughter (Iyasu’s aunt) as Empress Zewditu. Dejazmach Tafari Makonnen was elevated to the rank of Ras, and was made heir apparent. In the power arrangement that followed, Tafari accepted the role of Regent (Inderase), and became the de facto ruler of the Ethiopian Empire.
As regent, the new Crown Prince developed the policy of careful modernisation initiated by Menelik II, securing Ethiopia’s admission to the League of Nations in 1923, re-abolishing slavery in the empire in 1924 (it had already been declared illegal several times by all the Emperors beginning with Tewodros, but with little practical result).
He engaged in a tour of Europe that same year, inspecting schools, hospitals, factories, and churches; this left such an impression on the future emperor that he devoted over forty pages of his autobiography to the details of his European journey. Also on this trip, while visiting the Armenian monastery in Jerusalem, the Crown Prince met 40 Armenian orphans (Arba Lijoch, "forty children") who had escaped from the Armenian genocide in Turkey.
They impressed him so much that he received permission from the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem to adopt and bring them to Ethiopia, where he arranged for them to receive musical instruction, and they formed the Imperial brass band. The 40 teenagers arrived in Addis Ababa on September 6, 1924, and along with their bandleader Kevork Nalbandian became the first official orchestra of the nation. Nalbandian composed the music for the Imperial National Anthem, Marsh Teferi (words by Yoftahé Negusé), which was official in Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974.
King and Emperor
Empress Zewditu crowned him as negus ("king", in Amharic) in 1928, under pressure from the progressive party, following a failed attempt to remove him from power by the conservative elements. The crowning of Tafari Makonnen was very controversial, as he occupied the same immediate territory as the Empress, rather than going off to one of the regional areas traditionally known as Kingdoms within the Empire. Two monarchs, even with one being the vassal and the other the Emperor (in this case Empress), had never occupied the same location as their seat in Ethiopian history. Attempts to redress this "insult" to the dignity of the Empress’ crown were attempted by conservatives including Dejazmach Balcha and others. The rebellion of Ras Gugsa Wele, husband of the Empress, was also in this spirit. He marched from his governorate at Gondar towards Addis Ababa but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Anchiem on March 31, 1930. News of Ras Gugsa’s defeat and death had hardly spread through Addis Ababa, when the Empress died suddenly on April 2, 1930. Although it was long rumored that the Empress was poisoned upon the defeat of her husband, or alternately, that she collapsed upon hearing of his death and died herself, it has since been documented that the Empress had succumbed to an intense flu-like fever and complications from diabetes.
Following the Empress Zewditu’s sudden death, Tafari Makonnen was made Emperor and proclaimed Neguse Negest ze-’Ityopp’ya ("King of Kings of Ethiopia").
He was crowned on November 2 as Emperor Haile Selassie I at Addis Ababa’s Cathedral of St. George, in front of representatives from 12 countries. (Haile Selassie had been the baptismal name given to Tafari at his christening as an infant meaning "Power of the Holy Trinity.") The representatives included Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (son of British King George V, and brother to Kings Edward VIII, and George VI), Marshal Franchet d’Esperey of France, and the Prince of Udine representing Italy.
Upon his coronation as emperor and in keeping with the traditions of the Solomonic dynasty that had reigned in highland Ethiopia since 1297, Haile Selassie’s throne name and title were joined to the imperial motto, so that all court documents and seals bore the inscription: "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has conquered! Haile Selassie I, Elect of God King of Kings of Ethiopia". The use of this formula dates to the dynasty’s Solomonic origins, as well as to the Christianized throne from the period of Ezana; all monarchs being required to trace their lineage back to Menelik I, who in the Ethiopian tradition was the offspring of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
By Empress Menen, the Emperor had six children: Princess Tenagnework, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen, Princess Tsehai, Princess Zenebework, Prince Makonnen and Prince Sahle Selassie.
Emperor Haile Selassie I also had an older daughter, Princess Romanework Haile Selassie, who was born from an earlier alleged union to Woizero Altayech. Little is known about his relationship with Altayech beyond that it allegedly occurred when the Emperor was in his late teens. His Majesty never once mentioned any previous marriage, either in his Autobiography or in any other writings. The Princess is listed among the Emperor’s children in the official Imperial Family Tree published after his coronation, and in every version since. She was granted the title of Princess and given the dignity of "Imperial Highness" upon the Emperor’s coronation along with his other children, not something that would have been granted an illegitimate or adopted child.
The Emperor introduced Ethiopia’s first written constitution on July 16, 1931, providing for an appointed bicameral legislature. It was the first time that non-noble subjects had any role in official government policy. However, the League’s failure to stop Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 led him to five years in exile. The constitution also limited the succession to the throne to the descendants of Emperor Haile Selassie — a detail that caused considerable unhappiness with other dynastic princes, such as the princes of Tigrai, and even his loyal cousin Ras Kassa Hailu.
With this historical background and the fact that Ethiopia has been one of the only geo-political units that had never been colonised, though it was occupied by Italy for a very short period gave impetus to the new movements acceptance of the Emperor, Haile Salisie, the descendant of the line of Solomon and political head of the Coptic church of Ethiopia to be recognised as the “Lion of Judah” and both political and spiritual head of all black people in Africa and the diaspora.
Tafari, who got the title Ras was not a son of emperor Menelek but had claims to the thrown he inherited his imperial blood through his paternal grandmother, Princess Tenagnework Sahle Selassie, who was an aunt of Emperor Menelik II, and as such, claimed to be a direct descendant of Makeda, the queen of Sheba, and King Solomon of ancient Israel. Emperor Haile Selassie had an elder half-brother, Dejazmach Yilma Makonnen, who preceded him as governor of Harar, but died not long after taking office.
As can be seen from the recent history of Ethopia, Rastafarianism is an offspring of the aspiration for relative political and religious stability and modern drives by People of African descent in the Diaspora.
This they see and deify in the reign of Haile Selasie the African ruler who abolished slavery in an African land and continued the modernisation drives started by the emperor Menelek on a more grand scale.
His abolishment of slavery in Ethiopia is of very serious significance to this group as it is seen as the beginning of ultimate freedom from within the continent.
The dread for the Rastafarians is a symbol of Nazarines, a group that are biblically considered to be of pure mental and physical strength.Theyare mostly, like Rastas vegetarians having little or nothing to do with artificial foods and drinks. This is the basic reason why most Rastafarians use the Indian hemp instead of drink alcoholic drinks.
However of late there has been great modifications following the internationalisation of this movement in the 1970s reggae stars of which Robert Nesta Marley (Bob) and Peter Mackintosh (Peter Tosh) both of whom started along with Bunny Livingstone, Jimmy Cliff and other notable stars, took the lead.
Seen in this light ,Rastafarianism is the spiritual expression of the dreams of Africans in the diaspora to come back and live as free and progressive souls in a land where equality, mental and physical powers are appreciated and put into productive use for the benefit of all.
That dreamland is Ethiopia and already there is a colony of Rastas there and this is growing by the day.
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