   |
|
afrol.com, 6 November - 25 years after his mysterious death, Ethiopia's last emperor was finally laid to rest in Addis Ababa's Trinity Cathedral on Sunday. The legendary Ras Tafari (1892-1975), who has been praised as a "living God" and was a symbol of African independence, ruled Ethiopia with a heavy hand for 45 years. - It was a small dog of Japanese breeding. It was called Lulu. It was allowed to sleep in the Emperor's big bed. During the different ceremonies, it used to jump down from the Emperor's knee and pee on the shoes of the Dignitaries. The important men were not allowed to raise their eyebrows or even move a finger when they noted that their legs got wet. I was supposed to go between these Dignitaries and wipe the urine off their shoes with a sateen rag. That was my job for ten years. (from "The Emperor" by Ryszard Kapuscinski, 1978). Haile Selassie, born Ras Tafari Makonnen in 1892, was grandnephew of Emperor Menelik II. In 1916, he forced the abdication of Lij Yasu, a Muslim convert, and placed Menelik's daughter, Zauditu, on the throne. In 1928 he himself was crowned king, and after Zauditu's mysterious death in 1930, he became emperor. The Ethiopian royal saga claims that he descended from the Biblical King Solomon of Israel and the queen of Sheba. Historians reject this. Yesterday, Ethiopian Orthodox priests, old warriors and dread-locked Rastafarians joined the 10 km funeral procession route from Ba'ata Mariam Geda Church to Addis Ababa's Trinity Cathedral. The Emperor's body had been kept in the Ba'ata Mariam Geda Church since it was found from its humiliating hiding in the Royal Palace toilet in 1992. Now, his body has joined the buried remains of other members of the Ethiopian Imperial family in the Cathedral. The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Paulos, paid tribute to the emperor, noting his "remarkable contribution to Ethiopia, the church, Africa and the entire world," according to the BBC. But the crowds were much smaller than expected, several thousand-strong, not the hundreds of thousands predicted by the organisers. And the Ethiopian Government denied its blessing of the event, reminding Ethiopians of the Emperor's "oppression and brutality". Usurping to a throne of medieval format, given the total powers of a divine ruler, Haile Selassie however headed several important reforms in his early years. In 1942-44 he approved a major land reform, and also in 1942, he legally abolished slavery in Ethiopia. In 1955, the divine Emperor introduced a National Assembly with universal suffrage. In the long run, however, the Emperor failed to modernise Ethiopia and its institutions, and as the neighbour colonies became independent States, with a seemingly great future, modern visions, hope and plans to enter the industrialised world, it became more and more evident that Ethiopia was lagging behind. The institutions didn't need reform, they needed to be reconstructed. Haile Selassie lost much of his legitimacy when he failed to address the widespread corruption, starvation and drought that his country suffered from. Thus, in many ways, he paved the way for the brutal tyranny of the Marxist dictator Menghistu Haile Mariam, which overthrew him in 1974. The then 81-year-old emperor was detained in his palace by Menghistu's soldiers. Under mysterious circumstances, he dies while in custody a year later. Most believe he was murdered by his captors. Haile Selassie's importance has been greater as a symbol than as a ruler. Ethiopia's independence, while the rest of Africa was colonized, demonstrated to both colonized and colonizers that African autodetermination was an option. Ethiopia had a seat in the League of Nations (the predecessor of the UN, before WW2), where Selassie was able to speak for Africa. This, he did as the Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1935, thus starting WW2. His dramatic speech to the League was widely ignored by the European powers, but several decades later, his speech was used by the Jamaican singer Bob Marley in his song "War". Haile Selassie, or Ras Tafari, had managed to become a symbol of oppressed Africans and Afro-Americans, and on Jamaica a Rastafarian person cult grew up around the "living God". Even though Haile Selassie himself never really understood how important his influence was to to black Americans, he grew a popular symbol of black unity - as opposed to the intellectual movement of Negritude. Rastafarians believe that he lives on in their spirits, and he is the everlasting God, or JAH as he is referred to by believers.
|
