By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
We saw last week that the period after World War I had witnessed a
number of reforms, as well as difficult relations with both Britain and
France. Now read on:
Reforms of the 1920s
Contacts between Ethiopia and the outside world were nevertheless
strengthened by the establishment of an Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, and by the setting up of Ethiopian Legations in Paris, Rome and
London. Talks with the Coptic Church of Egypt were also initiated, with
a view to reducing Ethiopia’s age-old subordination to the Church of
Alexandria. The Egyptians insisted that Ethiopia should continue to have
an Egyptian Abun, but agreed, in 1929, to the appointment of five
Ethiopian bishops. This was two more than Emperor Yohannes had succeeded
in procuring half a century earlier, but two less than the Zagwe King
Yemrahana had unsuccessfully tried to obtain in earlier medieval times.
Reforms were also undertaken in several other fields. The soldiers’
requisitioning, or looting, of supplies from the peasantry was
forbidden. The practice whereby a murderer would be handed over to his
victim’s family for punishment was abolished, and replaced by
institution of government executioners. Usurious rates of interest were
forbidden.
Tafari, throughout this period, was steadily outmaneuvering his
rivals, for the most part Menilek’s courtiers, who were by then becoming
weak and elderly men. The Regent’s enhanced position was recognized by
Empress Zawditu, on 6 October 1928, when she accorded him the
prestigious title of Negus. In the following year he established an
Ethiopian airforce. This helped him further consolidate his power, and
that of the central government, over the provinces, and their
potentially rebellious lords. Aviation was in particular decisive at the
battle of Anchem, in March 1930. In that engagement Zawditu’s
ex-husband, Ras Gugsa Wale, the ruler of Bagemder, from whom she had
been parted when she assumed the imperial throne, was defeated and
killed. Only a few days later the Empress, a sick woman, herself passed
away. Tafari thereupon assumed the imperial throne, as Emperor Haile
Sellassie I.
Haile Sellassie’s Coronation
The new Emperor’s first success, after his accession, was the
conclusion of an arms agreement, with Britain, France, and Italy. Signed
on 29 August 1930, it proclaimed the need to ensure “effective
supervision over the trade in arms and munitions in Ethiopia”, but
specified that the Emperor should be allowed “to obtain all the arms and
munitions necessary for the defence of his territories from external
aggression and the preservation of internal order”. Haile Sellassie’s
coronation, on 2 November 1930, was a colourful event, for which Addis
Ababa was considerably beautified, and some street lighting installed.
The ceremony was attended by the Duke of Gloucester for Britain, the
Prince of Udine for Italy, and Marshal Franchet d’Esperey for France.
Representatives also came from Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Germany,
Poland, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, the United States, and Japan. The
celebrations attracted considerable international media coverage, for
both the monarch and the country. One of those attending was the British
novelist Evelyn Waugh, who described the event in a journalistic
account, and later also wrote a satirical novel, Black Mischief, set in
Ethiopia of the time.
The Country’s First Written Constitution
In the following year the Emperor introduced the country’s first
written constitution. It was drafted after study of those of many other
countries, including Japan, and was based on considerable debate between
the nobles and the bureaucracy, which consisted largely of commoners.
The Constitution was promulgated on 16 July 1931. In it the monarch, who
was officially described as a descendant of King Solomon and the
Ethiopian Queen of Sheba, was accorded virtually absolute powers, and
his body was declared sacred. A two-house Parliament was established as a
kind of political sounding board. It consisted of a Senate, nominated
by the Emperor from among the princes and nobles, and a Chamber of
Deputies to be elected on the basis of fairly restrictive property
qualifications. A line of imperial succession was also, for the first
time, laid down, sovereignty being , it was stated, permanently based on
descent from Haile Sellassie.
Anti-Slavery Decree, and Bank Nationalisation
The Emperor that year also promulgated a second, anti-slavery decree.
More comprehensive than its predecessor, it provided for the gradual,
but systematic, emancipation of slaves. No less than 62 anti-slavery
offices were established in various parts of the country. Decrees were
likewise issued for the curtailment of labour service, and for the
reform, and monetarisation, of land taxes. Menilek’s old Bank of
Abyssinia, a private institution, was nationalised, also in 1931, and
replaced by a state institution, the Bank of Ethiopia. A new national
currency, bearing the effigy of the new monarch, was established, and
supplemented by a sizeable issue of gold-backed paper money. New postage
stamps were likewise inaugurated.
Other developments, no less important from the point of state
building, also took place. Ras Haylu Takla Haymanot, the traditional
ruler of Gojjam, was fined for tax evasion and other offences, and
arrested in 1932, for conspiring to assist Lej Iyasu’s escape from
detention. The semi-autonomous status of Jemma was terminated in the
following year. Parts of Charchar and Bale were established as areas of
model administration. As a result of such acts, some dating back to the
period of Tafari’s regency, most of the country was brought under
centralised rule, perhaps for the first time since the reign of Emperor
Zar’a Ya’qob.
New Ministries, Schools, and Hospitals
The process of creating Ministries meanwhile continued, with the
establishment of a Ministry of Education, in 1930, and a Ministry of
Public Works in the following year. A number of modern schools and
hospitals were likewise established. The former included the first
girls’ school, founded in Addis Ababa by, and named after, Haile
Sellassie’s consort, Empress Manan, opened in 1931. Ethiopian women, a
result, began for the first time to be prepared for the professions. A
number of schools in the provinces were also inaugurated. Some, situated
near British possessions, gave instruction in English; the others in
French. The Empress Zawditu Memorial Hospital, ran by Seventh Day
Adventist missionaries, was set up in Addis Ababa in 1934. Further
students were sent for study abroad, in the Middle East, Europe, and
America. Several of them became military cadets.
Road-Building
Road-building continued, with the result that Addis Ababa became the
nub of a not unimpressive embryonic road network. A road to the north
led as far as Dase, in Wallo, with an extension under construction to
Addegrat, in Tegray. There were also three roads to the west. One went
to Dabra Libanos, with work in progress as far as Dabra Marqos, in
Gojjam; the second ran up to the Gibe river, with construction going on
as far as Laqamti, in Wallaga; the third extended to Jemma. To the east
and south of the capital a track led to the railway town of Mojjo, and
thence southwards, through the Rift Valley, to Yirgalam, far away in
Sidamo.
Foreign Advisers
The Emperor throughout this time employed, and made effective use of,
a number of foreign advisers. Several of them played a notable role in
policy making. The three most important comprised a Swede, Eric Virgin,
in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; a Swiss, Jacques Auberson, in the
Ministry of Justice; and an American, E.A. Colson, in the Ministry of
Finance. Three other advisers may also be noticed: C.S. Collier, a
Canadian, who served as governor of the Bank of Ethiopia; Ernest Work, a
black American, in the Ministry of Education; and Frank de Halpert, an
Englishman, who was employed to advise with the abolition of slavery, in
the Ministry of Interior. With the exception of the latter, who was
appointed mainly to appease British complaints about slavery, and had
virtually no influence, none of the advisers came from the neighbouring
colonial powers, Britain, France or Italy.
Military Training in the Last Years of Peace
The last years of Ethiopian independence prior to the Italian fascist
invasion, also witnessed several other significant developments. The
country’s first radio station was established, in 1931, and later
replaced by more powerful installations, which enabled the Emperor to
address a “message to the world” in January 1935. Military
reorganisation was also intensified. A Belgian military mission arrived,
in 1930, to train the Imperial Bodyguard, and a Swedish mission, in
1934, to establish a Military College. It was situated at Holata, west
of the capital, in one of Menilek’s former palaces. The first cadets,
however, had not graduated before the country was engulfed in an
invasion of unprecedented ferocity.
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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