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His Majesty Emperor Haile-Selassie speaking at the African Union Hall (1963)
Introduction
The need for some kind of Union among African countries reached its pick in the 1960s and led to the creation of the Casablanca and Monrovian blocs. In 1962, the independent African states had a meeting in Addis Ababa. Following the meeting Ethiopia took the initiative to establish a Union which include all Africans. In May 1963, the astute Emperor Haile Selassie convoked a meeting of African leaders in Addis Ababa which most came (32 head of States or representatives) and signed the historical charter. The signing of the Treaty of the Organization of African Union was the greatest event in the annals of African History. Ethiopia has played a pivotal role for the foundation of the Union and Emperor Haile Selassie received the highest accolade he could have imagined. Ethiopia’s contribution has been well acknowledged by historians and many Africans too.
Last year prior to the inauguration of the newly built African Hall in Addis Ababa, a proposal to erect His majesty Emperor Haile Selassie statue in the Hall was presented before the union floor but the then Ethiopian prime minster declined the offer. On one hand Melse expounded Ethiopia’s leading role in the foundation of the union and on the other hand he argued most cogently denying the person who played the pivotal role was Nkrumah not Emperor Haile Selassie. This self conflicting statement did not go down well by many Ethiopians or Africans. People with the right frame of mind would not budged on this kind of vicious calumny on the most respected leader who was acknowledge as the father of Africa and defender of the faith. This kind of negative remark by Melse made him a laughing stock! His behaviour was contemptible. Although he was flayed for his folly comments, he was adamant to change his position and as a result Nkrumah’s statue was erected in the African Union Hall instead of Emperor Haile Selassie.
It is heartbreaking to see our own history being denied by the very people leading the country whereas other countries sometime aggrandize their history although they do not have enough evidence to support their claim. Melse and his party have hatred towards the Emperor and can deny the Emperor a spot in the African Hall but they cannot re-write the true history. Actually denying our own history and promoting foreigners is a trend since the usurpation of power by the woyane. As I mentioned in my previous article (back to Ethiopia with love – http://ethioview.com/back2ethiowithlove.pdf) there are a number of new squares and roundabouts named after some foreigners such as Pushkin, Bob Marley, etc. The actual statues have not been erected yet but only the plinth. The most heart breaking thing is that we have our own numerous heroes who did a great deal for our beloved country and those are the ones who deserve a spot for their contribution. What has Pushkin done for Ethiopia? So I am not surprised with the late prime ministers’ action.
I just would like to share one interesting story how nations are sensitive when it comes to history. As we all know the famous musical composer George Frederic Handel was a German born but later on in his life he became a British national. In the late ninetieth the ex-prime minster Sir Edward Heath addressed an audience “… our English George Frederic Handel …†and the response from the German government was so harsh and reiterated Handel was German. This is how a civilized nation stands up to defend its heritage.
In the past we have leaders who acknowledged the contributions of their predecessors. For instances Emperor Amade Tsion ordered the life and work of the previous emperors to be written which is became known as the Kibre Negest. Emperor Beide Mariam collected the remains of many monarchs from various churches and brought to Atronese Mariam to rest but later on were destroyed by Gran Ahmed. And most of the other leaders were proud to refer in their speech “our former Emperors and fathers etc…â€. We have amazing history which we true Ethiopians are proud of and even other nations and people look up to us. We should promote our own heritage and encourage our society to study our own history. Otherwise people will scoff at us when we are desperate to learn about other countries’ history before we know our own. Many African countries acknowledge Ethiopia’s role in the foundation of the African union and the struggle for their freedom. That is why some countries in Africa have taken our national flag in one form or another to be their flags after they became independent.
Recently, the president of Ethiopia has exhorted the prime minster to erect a statue for Emperor Haile Selassie at the new African Union Hall and this has created excitement not only in Ethiopia but around the globe. In particular historians are enthused with this recent gesture. I hope the prime minister will take this matter seriously and pursue to fulfil the request from the president which is the desire of true Ethiopians; and at last His Majesty’s contribution properly acknowledged in the very Union Hall he has established.
Who really should take the credit for the foundation of the African Union?
During the 50th anniversary of the African Union celebration, I was gathering more information about the Union initial principles, who were the founding members, who took the initiative and played the pivotal role for establishing the union. I have read a few books and articles and came across one book (Ethiopia, The modernization of Autocracy, Robert L.Hess, Cornell University Press, 1970) which has been written in chronological way. My initial intention was to write a good article based on all the references I reviewed; however, I found the section from this book well written and wanted to share with the rest of you who would like to know the real history and our countries’ leading role to establish the African Union. So the text below paragraph and so forth has been copied from this book and I have not modified any of the remarks but excluded a couple of sentences where I found not relevant or necessary. I have also added some pictures in between paragraphs.      Â
Ethiopia has seen the necessity of playing a major role in Africa. Ethiopia’s emergence has been rapid but not entirely unexpected. Haile Selassie has long been openly admired by Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya, as a great figure in modern African history. Kwame Nkrumah, one-time president of Ghana and a founder of modern Pan-Africanism, mentions in his autobiography the great respect he had for the last independent nation in Africa, as Ethiopia was often called in the 1930’s. Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria and others in their writings poured out their grief at the Italian invasion of 1935, and Ethiopia become a symbol of Africa’s struggle for independence. In the post war years Ethiopia has skilfully played on this reservoir of African sentiments and maintained its prestige, despite its aloofness from the cause of African nationalism and anti-colonialism. Nevertheless, until 1955, Ethiopia was isolated from African affairs and did not participate forcefully at the Bandung Conference of Asian and African states. The revolutionary aspect of much of Pan-Africanism disturbed the Emperor, who held back from actively supporting the movement.
Kwame Nkrumah speaking at the African Union Hall
Only gradually did Ethiopian policy change. In 1958, the Ethiopian government accepted an invitation to attend the first conference of independent African States at Accra, capital of Ghana; the Emperor sent his youngest son, Prince Sahle Selassie, to represent Ethiopia and end Ethiopia’s isolation from the rest of Africa. That same year the Emperor proposed the establishment of an African Development bank, marking one of the earliest attempts to shift the focus of African independence from the real of revolutionary politics to realistic economic planning. Perhaps Haile Selassie had been alarmed by the condemnation of Ethiopia for its lack of democracy voiced by delegates to the organizing conference of the Pan African freedom movement of East and central Africa held at Mwanza, Tanganyika (Tanzania), in September 1958. By the end of that year the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa had been formed, and the awakened Ethiopia interest was rewarded by the location of the commission’s permanent headquarters in Addis Ababa. At this time too the Emperor made available a number of scholarships for African students to study at the university college of Addis Ababa. There is also evidence that the emperor privately began to support African political refugees from South Africa and elsewhere, a number of whom were on scholarship at secondary schools in Ethiopia and, later, at the university. Further recognition of the emergence of Ethiopia in African affairs came in 1960 after the Third conference of independent African states, still less than a dozen in number, was held in Ethiopian capital.
After 1960, as the number of independent African states rapidly grew, the Ethiopians quietly stepped up their activities. The Ethiopian delegation to the United nations strongly supported the condemnation of South African apartheid, the investigation of conditions in South-West Africa, the limitation of French nuclear tests in the Sahara , and the cause of the Algerian nationalists. Late in 1962, Haile Selassie finally took the initiative and invited the heads of State of all independent African countries to Addis Ababa for a conference on the subject of African unity. No African leader could refuse such a general invitation. What Nasser or Nkrumah or the Casablanca or Monrovia or Brazzaville grouping could not do, Haile Selassie accomplished with little difficulty.
The conference, held in May 1963, was a complete success. The Emperor presented his guests with well-organized and uncontroversial agenda, and the one African state that had operated free of regional or ideological alignments achieved practical results. The Emperor served as an honorary president of the conference, an Ethiopia became provisional secretary-general, and by midsummer Addis Ababa was chosen as the headquarters of the newly formed organization of African Unity.Â
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Prime Minster Aklilu Habete-Weld speaking at the African Union Hall
The conference had several significant results:
First, Haile Selassie eclipsed the more extreme leaders of Africa and gave the Pan-African movement a new and more moderate direction.
Second, Ethiopia committed itself to Africa, thus, ending its traditional isolation; contacts with Africa had come only after increased contact with Middle East, Europe, the United States and Asia.
Third, the Ethiopian government has become an important spokesman for Africa not only in the United Nations, but also in diplomatic exchanges with the United States and other countries.
There is no indication that Ethiopia’s roll will diminish in the near future. On the contrary, the creation in Khartoum in August, 1963 of an African Development bank, a pet project of the Emperor, and the extension of Ethiopian Airlines service across the continent to West Africa are evidences of increasing leadership. ….
Equally important has been the impact of the African “summit conference†of may , 1963 on Ethiopia. It enabled the Emperor effectively to undercut the opposition of those modernizing elements who had criticized his aloofness from the main stream of continental politics. The new emphasis on African unity also served to broaden the horizons of loyalty of Ethiopians, who are asked to think of themselves as Africans and Ethiopians, not as Shoans Tigreans or Amhara. Admittedly, this appeal does not reach the peasant masses, but it does affect the educated elite and the nobility. The emperor has acquired new prestige in the view of many who otherwise might have condemned him, and his role as a leader of his people and the continent, now recognized by all Africa, has enabled him to strengthen his own position in Ethiopia…..
Since the Addis Ababa conference, Ethiopia has vigorously maintained leadership in African Affairs. The Emperor, with his great experience as arbiter of domestic politics, has particularly relished his role as mediator in international politics. From his sudden and successful intervention in the Moroccan-Algerian border dispute of 1963 to his attempt reconcile the differences between Ghana and Guinea after the fall of Nkrumah and those between Nigeria and Biafra since 1968, the Emperor has put to use his political skills. The Ethiopian delegation to the organization of African Unity has also places itself in the forefront of the African attack on colonialism, though most often as a force for moderation. Thus, Haile Selassie urged other African States not to break relations with Great Britain over the Rhodesian crisis in 1965. Yet at that same time the South African Supreme Court sentenced MacDonald Musela to eleven years imprisonment on charges of having undergone military (guerrilla) training in Ethiopia in order to aid the banned African National Congress.
In November, 1960, Ethiopia and Liberia, the only two African members of the League of Nations, instituted separate proceedings against the Republic of South Africa in the International Court of Justice at the Hague. The two states contested the validity of South Africa’s presence in South West Africa, as a mandatory power under the defunct League of Nations in a highly legalistic attempt to force South Africa to surrender control over South West Africa. Although in December, 1962 the court rejected preliminary objections by South Africa and thereby upheld its jurisdiction in the matter, the case dragged on for years. Finally, on July 18, 1966, the court ruled that Ethiopia and Liberia had not established any legal right or interest to speak on behalf of the League of nations, and the Court rejected their claims – but not on the basis of whether or not the South African mandate was still valid. The status of the South West Africa is still questioned by the African bloc, but the African states are powerless to act against South Africa in this or apparently any other matter. As a rear-guard nuisance action the General assembly of the United Nations, with Ethiopian support, and under the prodding of the African states, adopted a resolution in June , 1968, that proclaimed that henceforth South West Africa would be known as Namibia and recommended, to no avail, that the security council ensure the immediate removal of South Africa from Namibia and secure its independence.
In other African matters, not only has Ethiopia publicly attacked white racism in Rhodesia, the Republic of South Africa, and Portuguese Africa, but Haile Selassie has extended an offer of brotherhood to the twenty million Americans of African descent, praising them in their struggle for freedom and urging them to lend their talents and skills in Africa’s struggle for dignity and progress. Lastly, Haile Selassie has toured African capitals, from Rabat, Cairo, and Khartoum to Nairobi, Kampala, and Dar es Salaam, from Zambia and Malawi to the Congo, Nigeria, and Niger. Certainly he has travelled more widely about Africa than any other African head of State, indefatigably promoting Ethiopia’s new and important part in African Affairs. Haile Selassie’s search for a major role in world diplomacy has made Addis Ababa the capital of Africa.
Please follow the link to read the speeches made by the then leaders and to have a look at various pictures of the historical event in Addis Ababa. Â http://ethioview.com/images/The%20African%20Union.pdf
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