Haile Selassie I (born Ras Tafari Makonnen or Lij Tafari; 23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (Enderase) under Empress Zewditu between 1916 and 1930.
Widely considered to be a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history, he is accorded divine importance in Rastafari, an Abrahamic religion that emerged in the 1930s. A few years before he began his reign over the Ethiopian Empire, Selassie defeated Ethiopian army commander Ras Gugsa Welle Bitul, nephew of Empress Taytu Betul, at the Battle of Anchem. He belonged to the Solomonic dynasty, founded by Emperor Yekuno Amlak in 1270.
Selassie, seeking to modernise Ethiopia, introduced political and social reforms including the 1931 constitution and the abolition of slavery in 1942. He led the empire during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, and after its defeat was exiled to the United Kingdom. When the Italian occupation of East Africa began, he traveled to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to coordinate the Ethiopian struggle against Fascist Italy; he returned home after the East African campaign of World War II. He dissolved the Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1950, and annexed Eritrea as one of Ethiopia's provinces, while also fighting to prevent Eritrean secession. As an internationalist, Selassie led Ethiopia's accession to 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. By the early 1960s, prominent African socialists such as Kwame Nkrumah envisioned the creation of a "United States of Africa". Their rhetoric was anti-Western; Selassie saw this as a threat to his alliances. He attempted to influence a more moderate posture within the group.
Amidst popular uprisings, Selassie was overthrown by the Derg, a military junta, in the 1974 coup d'état. With support from the Soviet Union, the Derg began governing Ethiopia as a Marxist–Leninist state. In 1994, three years after the fall of the Derg regime, it was revealed to the public that the Derg had assassinated Selassie at the Jubilee Palace in Addis Ababa on 27 August 1975. On 5 November 2000, his excavated remains were buried at the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Addis Ababa.
Among adherents of Rastafari, Selassie is called the returned Jesus, although he was an adherent of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church himself. He has been criticised for his suppression of rebellions among the landed aristocracy (Mesafint), which consistently opposed his changes. Others have criticised Ethiopia's failure to modernise rapidly enough. During his reign, the Harari people were persecuted and many left their homes. His administration was criticised as autocratic and illiberal by groups such as Human Rights Watch. According to some sources, late into Selassie's administration, the Oromo language was banned from education, public speaking and use in administration, though there was never a law that criminalised any language. His government relocated many Amhara people into southern Ethiopia.
Haile Selassie was known as a child as Lij Tafari Makonnen (Amharic: ልጅ ተፈሪ መኮንን, romanized: Ləj Täfäri Mäkonnən). Lij is translated as "child" and serves to indicate that a youth is of noble blood. His given name Tafari means "one who is respected or feared". Like most Ethiopians, his personal name "Tafari" is followed by that of his father Makonnen and that of his grandfather Woldemikael. His name Haile Selassie was given to him at his infant baptism and adopted again as part of his regnal name in 1930.
On 1 November 1905, at the age of 13, Tafari was appointed by his father as the Dejazmatch of Gara Mulatta (a region some 20 miles southwest of Harar). The literal translation of Dejazmatch is "keeper of the door"; it is a title of nobility equivalent to a count. On 27 September 1916, he was proclaimed Crown Prince and heir apparent to the throne (Alga Worrach), and appointed Regent Plenipotentiary (Balemulu Silt'an Enderase). On 11 February 1917, he was crowned Le'ul-Ras and became known as Ras Tafari Makonnen . Ras is translated as "head" and is a rank of nobility equivalent to a duke, though it is often rendered in translation as "prince". Originally the title Le'ul, which means "Your Highness", was only ever used as a form of address; however, in 1916 the title Le'ul-Ras replaced the senior office of Ras Bitwoded and so became the equivalent of a royal duke. In 1928, Empress Zewditu planned on granting him the throne of Shewa; however, at the last moment opposition from certain provincial rulers caused a change and his title Negus or "King" was conferred without geographical qualification or definition.
On 2 November 1930, after the death of Empress Zewditu, Tafari was crowned Negusa Nagast, literally "King of Kings", rendered in English as "Emperor". Upon his ascension, he took as his regnal name Haile Selassie I. Haile means in Ge'ez "Power of" and Selassie means trinity – therefore Haile Selassie roughly translates to "Power of the Trinity". Selassie's full title in office was "By the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, King of Kings of Ethiopia, Lord of Lords, Elect of God". This title reflects Ethiopian dynastic traditions, which hold that all monarchs must trace their lineage to Menelik I, who is described by the Kebra Nagast (a 14th-century CE national epic) as the son of the tenth-century BCE King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
To Ethiopians, Selassie has been known by many names, including Janhoy ("His Majesty") Talaqu Meri ("Great Leader") and Abba Tekel ("Father of Tekel", his horse name). Rastafari employs many of these appellations, also referring to him as Jah, Jah Jah, Jah Rastafari, and HIM (the abbreviation of "His Imperial Majesty").
Tafari's royal line (through his paternal grandmother) descended from the Shewan Amhara Solomonic king, Sahle Selassie. He was born on 23 July 1892, in the village of Ejersa Goro, in the Hararghe province of Ethiopia. Tafari's mother, Woizero ("Lady") Yeshimebet Ali Abba Jifar, was paternally of Oromo descent and maternally of Silte heritage, while his father, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael, was maternally of Amhara descent but his paternal lineage remains disputed. Tafari's paternal grandfather belonged to a noble family from Shewa and was the governor of the districts of Menz and Doba, which are located in Semien Shewa. Tafari's mother was the daughter of a ruling chief from Were Ilu in Wollo province, Dejazmach Ali Abba Jifar.
Ras Makonnen was the grandson of King Sahle Selassie who was once the ruler of Shewa. He served as a general in the First Italo–Ethiopian War, playing a key role at the Battle of Adwa; Selassie was thus able to ascend to the imperial throne through his paternal grandmother, Woizero Tenagnework Sahle Selassie, who was an aunt of Emperor Menelik II and daughter of the Solomonic Amhara King of Shewa, Negus Sahle Selassie. As such, Selassie claimed direct descent from Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, and King Solomon of ancient Israel.
Ras Makonnen arranged for Tafari as well as his first cousin, Imru Haile Selassie, to receive instruction in Harar from Abba Samuel Wolde Kahin, an Ethiopian Capuchin friar, and from Dr. Vitalien, a surgeon from Guadeloupe. Tafari was named Dejazmach (literally "commander of the gate", roughly equivalent to "count") at the age of 13, on 1 November 1905. Shortly thereafter, his father Makonnen died at Kulibi, in 1906.
Tafari assumed the titular governorship of Selale in 1906, a realm of marginal importance, but one that enabled him to continue his studies. In 1907, he was appointed governor over part of the province of Sidamo. It is alleged that during his late teens, Selassie was married to Woizero Altayech, and that from this union, his daughter Princess Romanework was born.
Following the death of his brother Yelma in 1907, the governorate of Harar was left vacant, and its administration was left to Menelik's loyal general, Dejazmach Balcha Safo. Balcha Safo's administration of Harar was ineffective, and so during the last illness of Menelik II, and the brief reign of Empress Taytu Betul, Tafari was made governor of Harar in 1910 or 1911.