Amha Selassie

Amha Selassie (Amharic: አምሃ ሥላሴ; Āmiha Šilasē; born Asfaw Wossen Tafari; 29 July 191417 January 1997) was Emperor-in-exile of Ethiopia.

As son of Haile Selassie, he was Crown Prince and was proclaimed monarch three times.

He was born Asfaw Wossen Tafari, in the walled city of Harar, to Dejazmach Tafari Makonnen, then the governor of Harar and future Emperor of Ethiopia, and his wife Menen Asfaw, on 29 July 1914.

Amha Selassie became Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen of Ethiopia when his father was crowned Emperor on 2 November 1930.

Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen was granted the title of Meridazmach and the province (former kingdom) of Wollo to rule as his fief.

He was married to Princess Wolete Israel Seyoum, great-granddaughter of Emperor Yohannes IV, and had a daughter, Princess Ijigayehu.

Following the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936, the Crown Prince and Princess went into exile with the rest of the Imperial family.

They separated around 1938, and eventually divorced in 1941.

Following Emperor Haile Selassie's restoration in 1941, the Crown Prince returned to Ethiopia, and participated in the campaign to drive the Italian forces out of the city of Gondar, the last town they held in Ethiopia.

He briefly served as acting governor of the provinces of Begemder and Tigray, retaining Wollo the entire time.

He was eventually remarried to Princess Medferiashwork Abebe, and would father three more daughters, Princesses Mariam Senna, Sefrash, Sehin, and a son Prince Zera Yacob.

He was first proclaimed Emperor during an unsuccessful coup attempt against his father in December 1960, during which he alleged that he was detained and compelled to accept the title.

On the evening of 13 December 1960, the commander of the Imperial Guard, Mengistu Neway, with his brother Germame Neway launched a coup d'état and seized power in Ethiopia while the Emperor was on a visit to Brazil.

The coup leaders allegedly detained Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen in the Imperial Palace, and the following morning, having secured control over most of the capital, then allegedly compelled the Crown Prince to read a radio statement, in which he accepted the crown in his father's place and announced a government of reform.

However, the regular Army, led by Dejazmach Asrate Medhin Kassa and Chief of Staff, Major General Mared Mangesha, spent the following day gaining control of other military formations, as well as the Air Force; later that day Patriarch Abuna Basilios of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, issued an anathema against all those who cooperated with the rebels.

On 15 December fighting broke out in the city, and the rebels were driven out of Addis Ababa; before retreating the rebels slaughtered many members of the government and the nobility held hostage in the Green Salon of the palace.

Among the dead were Abebe Aregai and Seyum Mangasha.

The Emperor returned to Ethiopia, entering the capital on 17 December.

Although it was alleged that the Crown Prince had acted under duress, his outlook had long been regarded as considerably more liberal than that of his father, and so he would always be suspected of having been a willing participant in the coup attempt.

By contrast, Medferiashwork Abebe, the wife of the Crown Prince, is credited with playing a role against the coup attempt.

At the age of 58 in late 1972, after his father Emperor Haile Selassie blamed him for hiding the realities of the famine in the region which he presided over as Duke (Wollo) from him, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen suffered a massive stroke and was evacuated for medical treatment to London and Switzerland.

He was accompanied by his wife and daughters.

The stroke left him permanently paralyzed on one side and unable to walk, and also affected his speech.

As Prince Asfaw Wossen was not expected to live, his son, Prince Zera Yacob, a student at Oxford at the time, was named "Acting Crown Prince" and "Heir Presumptive".

After his father was deposed in a later coup, he was proclaimed King (not Emperor) in absentia by the Derg on 12 September 1974 in an act which he never accepted as legitimate and that ended in the abolition of the Ethiopian monarchy on 21 March 1975.

In 1974 the Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen said that he "undoubtedly not only knew about the revolution ahead of time, he was also part of the people who had organized it."

The so-called "short reign" of Amha Selassie in 1974 was in name only between the dethronement of his father on 12 September 1974 until the abolition of the monarchy in March 1975.

Amha Selassie had been out of the country for medical treatment when the coup occurred, and he never returned during his lifetime.

Haile Selassie had never signed an abdication or renounced his status as Emperor.

The military junta declared the Crown Prince "King" instead of "Emperor", but he never acknowledged the title nor accepted his father's dethronement.

When the new government massacred 61 ex-officials of the Imperial government, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen issued a strong denunciation that was broadcast on the BBC.

The statement was issued in the name of "Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen" which indicated that he did not recognize the Derg's declaration of him as monarch in his father's place.

He continued to use the title of Crown Prince during his exile until April 1989, when he finally assumed the title of Emperor with the regnal name of Amha Selassie I. His succession was back-dated, not to 12 September 1974, when his father was deposed, but to 27 August 1975, when his father died.

He reiterated his view that all of the Derg regime's acts were illegitimate and illegal.

On 12 September 1974, the Derg military junta deposed Emperor Haile Selassie and declared that Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen would be anointed "King" upon his return from medical treatment in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Derg stated that it intended for Asfaw to rule as a constitutional monarch.

However, the prince did not recognize this proclamation and did not return to Ethiopia.

He was again proclaimed Emperor in exile on 8 April 1989.

This time he sanctioned the proclamation and accepted its legitimacy.

After his accession, his full reign name was His Imperial Majesty Emperor Amha Selassie I, Elect of God, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah and King of Kings of Ethiopia.