Haile Selassie

Haile Selassie (1892-1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 until he was deposed in 1974. He appealed personally to the League of Nations after Fascist Italy invaded and occupied Ethiopia in 1935-36, spending several years in exile in Britain before returning to the throne after Ethiopia's liberation in 1941. He was a founding figure and first chairman of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, and pursued gradual modernization of Ethiopia's government, military and education system over his long reign. He is also venerated as a messianic figure within the Rastafari movement, which emerged in Jamaica during his lifetime. In 1974 he was deposed by the Derg, a military committee, amid famine and widespread unrest, and he died in custody the following year under circumstances that remained disputed for decades afterward.