Ethiopia: Re-Burial Ceremony Of The Late Emperor Haile Selassie 25 Years After His Death

Record ID: 4240

  • Title: Ethiopia: Re-Burial Ceremony Of The Late Emperor Haile Selassie 25 Years After His Death
  • Date: 5th November 2000
  • Summary: The chant of morning prayers echoed out over the city from dawn on November 5 and hundreds wept as Selassie's coffin was taken from the place where he had lain for the last eight years. The Orthodox Church still considers Selassie its head and his reburial was a showcase of Ethiopian culture. Dressed in brilliantly coloured robes and bearing intricate silver crosses, the patriarch and bishops of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church said a special mass for Selassie as his coffin was removed from a mausoleum in central Addis Ababa. "Although they killed you and threw your body in an unmarked grave, they could not tarnish your image. You are a great leader, you have done so much for your nation and Africa," an Orthodox priest said at the mass outside Menelik's mausoleum. Old warriors sporting lions' manes on their heads and carrying shields and spears formed a guard of honour for Selassie as his funeral procession weaved across the city. His coffin was draped in the red, gold and green of the national flag and embroidered with Selassie's personal standard, showing on one side Ethiopia's patron St. George slaying a dragon and, on the other, the Lion of Judah. The patriarch, bishops and high priests of the Orthodox Church took shade from the sun under velvet umbrellas intricately embroidered with flowers and religious scenes. Although there were emotional scenes at Sunday's mass, few people lined the route of the funeral procession and only a few thousand gathered in the huge Meskel Square to see the coffin. Many of those who did turn out conceded that the emperor had made mistakes and perhaps stayed in power for too long, but all said he had been a gentle man who tried to help his subjects. Family members of the late emperor including Winnie Mengesha, his great great granddaughter were present at the ceremony. Following the ceremony his body was lowered into a tomb next to an identical one holding his wife, Empress Menen. Selassie, who is considered a god by Rastafarians across the world, died aged eighty-three in 1975, allegedly murdered by the Marxist military officers who had seized power a year earlier. Rita Marley -- the widow of reggae legend Bob Marley -- was among the Rastafarians in Ethiopia to attend Sunday's funeral, even though many believe Selassie cannot die and the remains to be buried belonged to someone else. "There was no end of his reign, so, whatever the physical is saying, the spirit is higher and this is where we are in the spiritual realms, so he's managed to live," she said, adding, "Long live his imperial majesty Rasta Farai. " His body had been buried in dirt and covered with concrete near a latrine, an insult to a man who had enjoyed almost total power. After the regime that toppled him was itself ousted in 1991, his remains were put in the mausoleum holding another emperor, Menelik II, and three other members of the dynasty. But he had wanted to lie in the tomb he had ordered in the Trinity Cathedral and so his family, most in exile, worked with the Orthodox Church to plan his reburial in a granite tomb next to an identical one holding his wife, Empress Menen. Legend has it that Selassie was the 225th monarch in a line that stretches back well over 2,000 years, a direct descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Westerners remember the slight emperor addressing the League of Nations after Mussolini's fascist forces invaded his country. But his rule was based on a feudal system that kept the vast majority of Ethiopians in abject poverty. Famine killed hundreds of thousands in the early 1970s and his authority was undermined by images of him feeding his pet lions and dogs prime meat while his subjects starved. Ethiopia's current government attacked Selassie's legacy this week, accusing him of oppression and brutality. Supporters remember him as a moderniser who promoted education and became a figurehead for African independence. Rastafarians take their name from Ras (Prince) Tafari, Selassie's title before being crowned emperor in 1930. He gloried in the title "King of Kings, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah" but neither he nor his family ever claimed he was a divine being, as Rastafarians believe.
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  • Location: ETHIOPIA ADDIS ABABA
  • Reuters ID: LDL0012E2MVQZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
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  • Copyright Holder: Reuters Archive
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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