What was the importance of Haile Selassie I to the Re-africanization of Ethiopia in the 20th century
[Note: I wrote this as a senior in high school.]
ii Methods
The scope of this investigation is to discover Haile Selassie’s role in the Re-africanization movement[1] in Ethiopia in the 20th century. To carry out this investigation I will use primary and secondary sources. In addition a bibliography will be assembled and attached at the end of the investigation. A considerable amount of research for the bibliography will be carried out using the internet. I have also used an African history book about decolonisation in my research and a speech given by Selassie at a Pan-African meeting. An analysis of these sections will indicate the significance of Selassie’s contribution to the movement and a conclusion will be reached based on what has been derived from the evidence.
PART B
Haile Selassie I[2] became emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Throughout his reign Haile Selassie worked on various economic and social reforms for the progress of his country and people, however Selassie´s most significant work was his actions in helping to achieve a Re-africanization of Ethiopia. He gave Ethiopia its first written constitution in 1931. Nevertheless before he officially was crowned emperor of Ethiopia, he had started to begin re-Africanizing the country.[3]
In 1923 he abolished slavery in all of Ethiopia (at the time called Abyssinia).[4] Moreover when at age 24 when he was made chief advisor and heir apparent to the throne of Ethiopia he used his power to reorganize his country.
During this period Selassie undertook vast educational reforms throughout the whole of Ethiopia by building more schools and by sending Ethiopians abroad to study and learn in prestigious universities. Traditionally the people of Ethiopia were opposed to educational reforms as they viewed it as a way of life of the ferengi (foreigners) who they wished to avoid.[5] Education had also been kept from the people because once a people learned to read and write they would then be able to think. The rejection of education was a strategy of those in control most commonly the Ras (nobles), and keeping it from the people ensured their power.[6]
Haile Selassie then worked to keep the various ethnic groups of the country together. Ethiopia had a wide cultural, religious and hereditary foundation therefore much of the country was separated with different beliefs and opinions. Haile Selassie worked to unite the various races and religious groups into a greater African state. One way he achieved this was with his abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself in Ethiopia.[7]
A year after his coronation as King of Kings of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I began to take initial major steps in the progress of Re-africanization in Ethiopia. In 1931 he began the use of a rule of law in Ethiopia and made the people of Ethiopia citizens of a state and gave them a constitution. Haile Selassie additionally worked to improve healthcare and social services by building more hospitals, and introduced new medical care. An educated Ethiopia further advanced the movement of Re-africanization and nationalism in Ethiopia. Moreover he also pressed for this nationality to be a unified African one as Ethiopia was favored more as an Arab nation.[8]
Haile Selassie also set up a Parliament in Ethiopia so that his people could gain more experience in the ways of running the country, yet the head authority still remained as the emperor. Nevertheless the constitution’s main purpose was to give Ethiopia a sense of nationality. Furthermore in the government judicial systems were reformed, the power of the Rases was controlled by the government, a State Police Force was formed and the army was modernized. Economically Haile Selassie advanced Ethiopia by developing its own currency, held by the State Bank of Ethiopia.
In 1935, Ethiopia was taken over by Fascist Italy and Haile Selassie lived in exile in England until 1941. British forces were called upon to liberate Ethiopia during the Second World War and he was then restored to the throne. After the Second World War, Emperor Haile Selassie was restored back to the throne after he had been in exile to England until 1941. Upon this time Haile Selassie I took it upon himself to bring worldwide media attention to Ethiopia and Africa and its prospects for the future. Selassie´s efforts in this cause encouraged him to form the Organization of African Unity in 1963. Haile Selassie was instrumental in the creation of the Organization of African Unity. He concerned himself with African unification whilst promoting African unity within Ethiopia and made Addis Ababa the capital of the unified Africa.
PART C
Nationalism and New States in Africa was published in 1984 and it is written by two African history historians named Ali A. Mazrui and Michael Tidy. This is an African history book about nationalism and the pan-African movement in Africa during the 20th century. Historians Ali A. Mazrui and Michael Tidy purpose for the book was to write a “comprehensive political history of Africa’s period of decolonization and of the first two decades of independence.”[9] The source itself is a rather useful source for my investigation. Historians will have access to new information about Ethiopia which might not have been available before. The source is also valuable because the historians have hindsight so they can more accurately express the validity of their claims. Lastly this source also provides another interpretation of Selassie’s importance in the Re-africanization of Ethiopia and this is valuable because the more viewpoints in the source the more profound a valid analysis can be for the investigation. Nevertheless this source also possesses limitations in that historians have political opinions and they select the areas of history they wish to be presented. In addition this source is written over 20 years ago and since history is being constantly revised this book might not be the most valid source for such an investigation.
The second source which I will evaluate is a political speech by Haile Selassie at the PAFMECA (Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa) conference in Addis Ababa on the 2nd of February 1962. Selassie’s purpose in this speech was to promote African unity across the whole continent and for the remaining African countries under colonial rule to become free nations. As so his speech was directed mainly to the people of Africa. In his speech he highlights his own country as an example of the oldest independent African state and denotes that this process is a struggle. Haile Selassie also takes the speech as an opportunity to introduce his proposed plans for an Organization of African States (OAU) which highlighted Ethiopia’s full identification with the Re-africanization movement. This source has value in the fact that it partially reveals the mentality of Haile Selassie of the time. In addition it helps us to understand the personalities, politics and priorities of the time. On the other hand this source has limitations because it may not have been Selassie’s personal opinion. Furthermore the information presented in the speech could be misleading as political speeches often hold high propaganda content and are very influenced by biased factors.
PART D
During the 20th century Haile Selassie was one of the world’s greatest political leaders and his works for the unification of Africa, equal rights and justice were in the eyes of many unprecedented. The Emperor of Ethiopia brought worldwide media attention not just to his own country but to Africa and its prospects for the future. Additionally Selassie´s domestic reforms and schemes in his home country of Ethiopia became a model for other African countries to follow. Haile Selassie transformed Ethiopia into a nation of pride and power in the eyes of the world over.
Selassie connected and worked together with other African leaders to promote independence and a greater Africa. In a wider historical context Selassie was important not only in his own country’s Re-africanization movement but also in the pan-African movement of Africa itself. Apart from the modernization process of his own country Haile Selassie helped to form the OAU, an organisation keen on issues of decolonization, nationalism and re-Africanization across the African continent. This further highlighted his Re-africanization process and his internal policies within Ethiopia emphasised this.
Haile Selassie renamed Abyssinia, giving it the name Ethiopia that referred to the whole of Africa. This subtle change from a more Arabic name to an Africanized one sums up Selassie´s Re-africanization movement in Ethiopia. Selassie concentrated on internal concerns of Ethiopia, whilst continuing modernization projects undertaken by Menelik II and adding a few of his own such as the establishment of newspapers, although, they were forbidden to include anything critical of him. Before Haile Selassie´s education reforms there was an illiteracy rate of 99.9% then when he came to power to figure was transformed into a 10% literacy rate. Although not a tremendous increase, his reforms helped to shape Ethiopia for the coming years. Selassie stood up to the stubborn opposition of the powerful Ethiopian church and most members of the nobility who did wish for such reforms to take place.[10]
Nonetheless as in the case with all governments, there laid some corruption in the works of Haile Selassie which went against his Re-africanization movement. In his educational reforms their were faults in the allocation of places in universities and secondary schools due to certain geographical positions in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, Eritrea, Showa, and other main urban areas took most of the students.[11] As a result this led to unequal distribution of students and this resulted in a very low level of enrolment in modern schools. Similarly, the budget allotted to education by the imperial government was low. This affected the quality of teaching with overcrowded classrooms and ill trained teachers.
Despite Haile Selassies’s efforts to create a more modern and united nation, greed and negligence plague his reputation. In Ethiopia there is a one true need which is land and property.[12] Since Haile Selassie wished for his nation’s lower class to improve their standard of living he would have needed to share the land with them, however the land only stayed with the rich.[13] The rest of the land was distributed amongst the church, Ras (nobles), and government officials. This was emphasized by Haile Selassie’s autocratic and imperial superiority nature where frequently he used his power for personal gains and benefits instead of using that money for the betterment of his people.
Although Haile Selassie encouraged social and economic development he was essentially an autocrat who relied on his power to preserve the Ethiopian state. Nevertheless his initiations of a number of fundamental reforms which changed Ethiopia forever, made him significantly important to some extent to the Re-Africanization movement of Ethiopia.
PART E
As this is not a topic heavily researched, some of my internet findings were sources from Rastafarian influenced websites. However I did try to make selections which maintained an acceptable degree of reliability and how often they were updated and revised. While Selassie was Emperor of Ethiopia he introduced a Re-africanization process which stimulated a kind of intellectual archaeology in the nation, whilst recovering and reconstructing African values. Selassie was concerned with the modernization of his country and the betterment of his people especially the establishment of a productive education system which gave benefits to the people of his country. He brought Ethiopia to a world stage in world opinion and effectively made Ethiopia recognizable as a strong African state. Haile Selassie I wanted to pull Ethiopia out of its dark ages by modernizing the country.[14]
Yet in conclusion Haile Selassie´s Re-africanization process had a lasting impact on Ethiopia and the world. Unquestionably he did more for Ethiopia then any Emperor or person for that matter had done before. He reformed the government, education and the economics of the nation and most importantly kept Ethiopia free. To this day Ethiopia remains the only African country that has always been under its own rule and for this Haile Selassie must be credited as he kept it a free state whilst enforcing a Re-africanization movement in the process.
[1] Re-africanization is to make African in culture meaning to regain African heritage. Re-Africanization is defined as a movement of the recovery and reconstruction of Africa as a continent and world community depending on the recovery and reconstruction of African culture and the use of it as a foundation and framework to improve the African people’s current condition and to enhance their future.
Intellectuals and the future of Africa: Some Preliminary Observations, 2003 September 21-22, Dr. Maulana Karenga at a New York Conference on the Contribution of African Diasporan Intellectuals to the African Union and the new partnership for Africa’s Development
[2] Meaning Power of the Trinity in Amharic
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 5:620:1b and 17:826:2b
[3] Africanization is generally seen to signal a (renewed) focus on Africa, on reclamation of what has been taken from Africa, and, as such, it forms part of post-colonialist, anti-racist discourse. With regard to knowledge, it comprises a focus on indigenous African knowledge and concerns simultaneously ‘legitimation’ and ‘protection from exploitation’ of this knowledge. With regard to education, the focus is on Africanization of institutions, curricula, syllabi and criteria for excellence (in research, performance, etc.). Re-africanization is thus a return to traditional African values and institutions among their citizens.
Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 38, Number 4, November 2004, pp. 571-587 by Kai Horsthemke
[4] Haile Selassie issued a new proclamation outlawing slavery in August 26, 1942. Slavery was first outlawed in 1984
Important Dates in Modern Ethiopian History, www.nazret.com/history
[5] As a result over 99% of the Ethiopian population at that time were illiterate. http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/cardillo.html
[6] Ras (“head”) is one of the most powerful non-imperial ranks in Ethiopia; Harold G. Marcus equates this to a duke or a noble. Ras is the highest noble rank, sometimes borne by minor princes of the Solomonic blood. Ras was usually hereditary and as Ethiopia had been an aristocratic state until the end of the monarchy in 1974, they held power throughout the history of the Ethiopian state.
Ethiopia’s Aristocracy, www.imperialethiopia.org/aristocracy
[7] Ethiopia still had hundreds of thousands of slaves and this was a way to increase African unity within Ethiopia as a land of free peoples. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/text/selassie.html
[8] Haile Selassie encouraged a joint Arab and African unity as he had wants that hoped for a united Africa. The World Book Encyclopedia, YEAR 1978
[9] Ali A. Mazrui often refers to his own personal background in his writing which is a combination of Kenyan culture, Islamic law and a Western education. He shapes his background as a reflection of the triple heritage that has shaped modern Africa, which can be seen in this source. Additionally Michael Tidy is also an African historian from Africa yet his beliefs are less radical in his views on African nationalism. www.alimazrui.com
[10] These structural reforms in education did not occur under favourable conditions with powerful conservative forces and those who did not wish to see vast sums of money educating the poor of the nation.
The Roots and Fallouts of Haile Selassie’s Educational Policy, UNESCO Forum occasional paper, Series paper no. 10, Messay Kebede
[11] II The Drawbacks of Ethiopia’s Modern Education. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001473/147348E.pdf
[12] Haile Selassie’s reign
[13] While Selassie was in power he handed out over 5 million hectares of land to his people, yet only 21 percent was given to poor peasants who had no land.
Haile Selassie, King of Kings, Conquering Lion of Judah, Joseph Cardillo April 1998
The Dread Library http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/cardillo.html
[14] In 1931 and 1958 Haile Selassie drafted Ethiopia´s two constitutions, holding his people in regard while doing so. Nonetheless in some aspects of his rule he did not enforce his Re-africanization movement and instead opted for a more autocratic approach to ruling the nation.
Emperor Haile Selassie I, Part 3, http://www.angelfire.com/ny/ethiocrown/HaileIII.html
