Haile Selassie

HAILE SELASSIE d1975. Emperor of Ethiopia between 1930 and 1974. He had been Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia from 1916. He is a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history and a member of the Solominic dynasty who traced his lineage to Emperor Menelik I. He attempted to modernize the country through a series of political and social reforms, including the introduction of Ethiopia's first written constitution and the abolition of slavery. He led the failed efforts to defend Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and spent the period of Italian occupation in exile in England. He returned to lead Ethiopia in 1941 after the British Empire defeated the Italian occupiers in the East African campaign. He dissolved the Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea which was established by the UN General Assembly in 1950 and integrated Eritrea as a province of Ethiopia while fighting to prevent their independence. His internationalist views led to Ethiopia becoming a charter member of the United Nations. In 1963, he presided over the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, the precursor of the African Union and served as its first chairman. He was overthrown in a military coup following the 1973 famine in Ethiopia and died aged 83 in Addis Ababa on August 27th 1975. Among some members of the Rastafari movement (which was founded in Ethiopia) and later adapted into Jamaica in the 1930s and whose followers are now estimated to number between 700,000 and One million, Haile Selassie is referred to as the returned messiah of the Bible, God incarnate