Haile Selassie I Crowned as Emperor of Ethiopia

Haile Selassie I Crowned as Emperor of Ethiopia On this day, 3 April 1930, Haile Selassie I, born Tafari Makonnen on 23 July 1892, was crowned as Emperor of Ethiopia. He was raised to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (Enderase) for Empress Zewditu from 1916. Haile Selassie is widely considered a defining figure in modern Ethiopian and African history, and the key figure of Rastafari, a religious movement in Jamaica, which emerged shortly after he became emperor in the 1930s. 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 regal 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”. Haile 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, Lord of Lords, Elect of God”. This title reflected Ethiopian dynastic traditions, which held that all monarchs should trace their lineage to Menelik I, who is described by the Kebra Nagast (a 14th-century national epic) as the son of the 10th-century King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Haile Selassie’s internationalist views led to Ethiopia becoming a charter member of the United Nations. Ethiopia became the target of renewed Italian imperialist designs in the 1930s. Benito Mussolin