Haile Selassie

About Haile Selassie

The last Emperor of Ethiopia, reigning from 1930 to 1974, with a gap during Italian occupation from 1936 to 1941. Haile Selassie modernized Ethiopia with a constitution, schools, and the African Union headquarters. His passionate speech to the League of Nations in 1936 after the Italian invasion was ignored but became historic. Rastafarians consider Haile Selassie a divine figure, the second coming of Christ, though he himself denied this. He was overthrown in a 1974 military coup and died the following year, allegedly murdered. His legacy divides Ethiopians between admiration for his modernization and criticism of his autocratic rule.