African leaders unveil statue of Ethiopia’s last emperor

AIN DDIS ABABA, Ethiopia A statue of Ethiopia’s Emperor Haileselassie has been unveiled at the headquarters of the African Union on Sunday. The statue is the second to be erected inside the continental body’s offices in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, after one of Ghana’s first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who championed pan-Africanism.

A statue of Ethiopia’s last Emperor, Haile Selassie, after its unveiling at the African Union in Addis Ababa, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019. The statue is the second to be erected inside the continental body’s offices in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, after one of Ghana’s first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who championed pan-Africanism.

Several African leaders at the current African Union summit and relatives of the emperor attended the statue unveiling ceremony. Ethiopians have cheered the statue’s erection, the first on Ethiopian soil since Haileselassie was mysteriously killed at the age of 83 in 1975 when a military junta called the Derg overthrew the imperial dynasty that existed in Ethiopia for 3,000 years.

Emperor Haileselassie is among the key African leaders who founded the Organization of African Unity, which became the African Union. He oversaw the maiden meeting of the continental body in 1963. Ethiopia was never colonized and Haileselassie is credited for helping a number of African countries to gain independence.