Saturday, January 28, 2006
Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1935 and then after the occupation of the Italians ended, from 1941 until 1974. His name means “power of Trinity”, though his name by birth was Tafari Makonnenin. We did not meet Haile Selassie on our trip – he died in 1975 (or thereabouts…heard conflicting stories about whether he actually died 2 years before his official death, but who knows!) However we did see his former palace in Bahir Dar. The palace was a modern looking architect designed building from 1960s or similar and had a commanding view over Bahir Dar, the Blue Nile and Lake Tana. The entrance is via a long avenue of Jacaranda trees… a pity they weren’t in flower when we were there. I have no photograph of the palace – we were told that we could only take one from inside the bus for security reasons (and there were guards with big guns at the gate…)
One item of reading material that I reviewed before the trip was Evelyn Waugh’s “The Conronation of Haile Selassie” (Pocket Penguin, 2005). An interesting read, but must go through it again now after I’ve been there – I’m sure it will mean more!
One item of reading material that I reviewed before the trip was Evelyn Waugh’s “The Conronation of Haile Selassie” (Pocket Penguin, 2005). An interesting read, but must go through it again now after I’ve been there – I’m sure it will mean more!
// posted by rachelle @ 4:13 PM 
