Haile Selassie was born in Ejersa Goro, Ethiopia, Africa, on July 23, 1892. The son of Ras Makonnen, advisor and cousin of Emperor Menilek II, he was baptized with the name Tafari Makonnen. With great skills, in 1909, he was appointed governor of the Sidamo province. In 1911, he became the governor general of Harrar.
In 1911, he married Wayzaro Menen, great-granddaughter of Emperor Menilek II, thus becoming Ras. In 1913, when Menilek II died, his grandson Lij Yasu succeeded to the throne, but his close relationship with Islam made him unpopular with the majority of Ethiopia’s Christian population. As a result, in 1916, the Assembly of Nobles along with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church deposed Emperor Lij Yasu.
In 1917, Zauditu, daughter of Emperor Menilek II, became empress and Ras Tafari was appointed regent and heir to the throne. In 1923, Ethiopia was admitted to the League of Nations.
In 1928, at the age of 36, Ras Tafari received the title of negus. In 1930, he was crowned the 225th Ethiopian emperor, who, according to belief, descends from the dynasty of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. From then on, he changed his name to Haile Selassie. In 1931, the first Constitution of Ethiopia was enacted.
On June 30, 1936, at the League of Nations, now the UN, in Geneva, Switzerland, Haile Selassie delivered a memorable speech: “As long as the philosophy which claims one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, as long as there are no first and second class citizens of any nation, as long as the color of a person’s skin is not more important than the color of their eyes, as long as basic human rights are not guaranteed to all equally, regardless of race, until that day, the dreams of lasting peace, global citizenship, and government of international morality will continue to be a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained. And likewise, as long as the unhappy and ignoble regimes that suppress our brothers, in subhuman conditions, are not overcome and destroyed, as long as fanaticism, prejudice, malice, and inhumane interests are not replaced by understanding, tolerance, and goodwill, as long as all Africans do not rise and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men as they are in Heaven, until that day, the African Continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know we will win, for we are confident in the victory of good over evil.”
Haile Selassie organized social, economic, and educational reforms in an attempt to modernize the country. In 1955, he enacted a new Constitution that concentrated power in his hands.
In 1974, a segment of the Army organized a coup and the dynasty led by Haile Selassie was deposed. Selassie was kept under house arrest in his palace, where he spent his last days until August 1975 when he passed away.
Source: www.ebiografia.com, by Dilva Frazão