Tonight, we celebrate a great statesman who made monumental contributions to the liberation of Africa and the establishment of African unity, the late Emperor Haile Selassie (applause). There is no need to remind those of us in this room about the monumental contributions of Emperor Haile Selassie… He had at the time shared that our awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and identity as Africans…. I want to take this opportunity to thank the African Union for recognizing His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie’s efforts in the liberation struggle and for fostering Pan Africanism (applause)… H.E. Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, February 8, 2019.
“It is only Nkrumah who is remembered whenever, we talk about Pan-Africanism. It is a shame not to accept his role”, the late Meles Zenawi adamantly arguing the African Union should not erect a statute for H.I.M. Haile Selassie and dismissing his role in Pan – African unity, February 12, 2012.
The commemorative statue of Emperor Haile Selassie is an important recognition of the Emperor’s contribution to Africa’s liberation and unity leading up to the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.
We should all be happy and proud to
have Nkrumah’s statue on the grounds of the AU in Ethiopia. H.I.M. Haile Selassie will no doubt get his statue in time because “truth cannot remain forever on the scaffold nor wrong remain forever on the throne.” Alemayehu G. Mariam, “Ethiopia Shall Rise”, May 26, 2012, on the occasion of the erection of Kwame Nkrumah’s statute on the grounds of the African Union.
Thank you, P.M. Abiy for restoring H.I.M. Haile Selassie to a place of honor in the AU. I want to publicly thank H.E. Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed for fulfilling one of my fondest dreams today!
For years, I have called for an official recognition of H.I.M. Haile Selassie’s monumental contributions to African diplomacy with a monument on the grounds of the African Union.
In May 2012, in a commentary entitled “Ethiopia Shall Rise”, I pleaded for the erection of a commemorative statute for H.I.M, the first chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), alongside Kwame Nkrumah’s, Ghana’s first president and principal founder of the OAU.
But, the late Meles Zenawi would not allow it.
Meles Zenawi was not only adamantly opposed to the erection of a commemorative statute, he was also contemptuously dismissive of H.I.M. and his achievements as the “Father of African Unity”.
On February 12, 2012, Meles Zenawi argued, “It is only Nkrumah who is remembered whenever we talk about Pan- Africanism. It is a shame not to accept his role.”
Meles Zenawi piped his hateful message against honoring H.I.M.’s through his ignorant flunkeys. Meles believed he could outshine H.I.M. and become the leader of the “new generation” of African leaders. The only thing Meles Zenawi could lead is a band of blood thirsty and corrupt thugs.
I have often asked myself why Meles Zenawi and his gang of thugs hated H.I.M. so much? I have come to the conclusion that only a man who deeply hates himself and is afflicted by inferiority complex is capable of such blind hate!
The fact of the matter is that H.I.M. Haile Selassie tirelessly worked for African unity and peace. He never, never tried to sell out Africa. But Meles Zenawi did! At the Copenhagen G-77 conference on climate change, Meles Zenawi sold out Africa cold.
Lumumba Di-Aping, the chief negotiator of the G-77 bloc of countries, representing some 130 nations, mauled Zenawi for selling out Africa to the rich countries:
Meles [Zenawi] agrees with the EU perspective and the EU perspective accepts the destruction of a whole continent plus dozens of other states… The EU’s very moral foundation is deeply questionable because she accepts that a large section of the human family should suffer in order for her to continue to thrive and prosper… The African Union has not accepted this. Meles is not the author of this proposal, the EU definitely is, along with the UK and France. (Emphasis added.)
Suffice it to say, in his opposition to the erection of a simple statute for King Haile Selassie, Meles Zenawi proved to me he was indeed the Prince of Darkness. The irony of history is that today Meles Zenawi lies six feet under and H.I.M. stands nine feet tall!
I don’t mean to rag on the late Meles Zenawi. To me he is only a woyane avatar. The hate that coursed in his blood when he was alive today courses in the blood of every woyane thug in hideout or sitting silently gnashing his/her teeth among us.
Perhaps I should be more charitable to Meles Zenawi. After all, he and his gang of thugs came from the bush, untutored in the ways of civilization. It is said one cannot squeeze blood from turnip. That is, you can’t get gold from iron ore. But from Meles and his gang of thugs, Ethiopia got nothing but bloodshed. Meles and his gang are today in the trash bin of history just like I prophesied to them for over a decade!
But let there be NO MISTAKE. Everything I said about Meles Zenawi applies to that gruesome monster Mengistu Hailemariam who murdered H.I.M. An old and broken down Mengistu Hailemariam today suffers Macbeth’s fate (Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 2) enduring endless mental torture and harrowing sleep deprivation thinking about those he killed hoping to get peace of mind.
Today, H.I.M., whom Mengistu murdered, is resting and standing in peace rising nine feet tall. Today, Mengistu lives as a miserable, godforsaken refugee in Zimbabwe in his own private hell. Damn him!
The piece was taken from the writer’s web Al-mariam Commentaries posted on February 10, 2019. Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino. His teaching areas include American constitutional law, civil rights law, judicial process, American and California state governments, and African politics. He has published two volumes on American constitutional law, including American Constitutional Law: Structures and Process (1994) and American Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights (1998). He is the Senior Editor of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, a leading scholarly journal on Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Herald February 23/2011
BY ALEMAYEHU G. MARIAM (PROFESSOR)
