Haile Selassie I
Last emperor of Ethiopia
- Birth name
- Tafari Makonnen
- Born
- 23 July 1892, near Harar, Ethiopia
- Reign
- Emperor 1930–1974
- Died
- 27 August 1975, Addis Ababa
- Dynasty
- Solomonic, claiming descent from Solomon and Sheba
Ethiopia's last emperor, deposed in 1974, whose dynasty traced its line to Solomon and the Queen of Sheba through the Kebra Nagast.
What is Haile Selassie I known for?
Haile Selassie, born Tafari Makonnen in 1892 near Harar, became regent of Ethiopia in 1916 and emperor in 1930. He worked to modernize the country, brought it into the League of Nations and later the United Nations, and made Addis Ababa a center of African diplomacy. He went into exile during the Italian occupation of 1936 to 1941 and returned to power after it.
He was deposed by a military committee in 1974 and died in custody in Addis Ababa in 1975.
As emperor he belonged to the Solomonic dynasty, which took power in 1270 and claimed descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba through their son Menelik I. That claim rests on the Kebra Nagast, the 14th-century Ethiopian epic, and was written into Ethiopia's 1931 and 1955 constitutions. The Rastafari movement, which arose in Jamaica in the 1930s, regards him as a divine figure.
His deposition in 1974 ended the Solomonic dynasty whose legitimacy rested on the Kebra Nagast.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeKebra Nagast
- PersonMenelik I
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Haile Selassie I'Reference
- Wikipedia, 'Haile Selassie'Reference
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