The Mortal Monarch: Haile Selassie's Murder and Natural Divintity
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| Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Asfaw murdered His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I on August 26, 1975. |
Grave Discovery After Decades
His Majesty's physical death is a controversial topic because of the traditional Rastafarians' long held belief that the Emperor is physically immortal, however His Majesty's divinity isn't based on physical immortality at all for the flesh profits nothing (John 6:63). It's based on his political titles (and his character to an extent) only.¹
The Derg announced the Emperor's death on August 27, 1975.² From abroad, His Majesty's eldest son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, publicly demanded that an autopsy be performed on his late father but the Communist Dergue ignored his request.³ No funeral was arranged and His Majesty's remains were first discovered on February 15, 1992:
On 12 February 1992, in compliance with the urgent demands of the Moa Ambessa (Conquering Lion) monarchic movement, the Ethiopian provisional government under the leadership of President Meles Zenawi authorized a search for the remains of Emperor Hayla-Sellase inside the compound of the Old Gebbi, which had been the headquarters and the symbol of the imperial power as far back as the time of Menilek's reign. In an explanation of the reasoning behind that decision, the chief of protocol for President Zenawi, Fesseha Afawarq, stated that “national reconciliation is one of the objectives of the new government and we cannot therefore fail to take into account the demands of all groups,” including, therefore, the demands of the Committee for the Restoration of a Constitutional Monarchy in Ethiopia, under the chairmanship of Fantaye Walda-Maryam. With the fall of the authoritarian and pro-Soviet regime of Colonel Mangestu Hayla-Maryam, the time had finally come to unveil a secret that the military junta (Derg) had jealously kept for seventeen years. Unearthing the remains of the Negus might lead to the solution of yet another mystery: did Hayla-Sellase die a natural death or rather, as had been conjectured by many observers, was he assassinated? With the flight of Mangestu and the collapse of his Marxist-Leninist regime, the conspiracy of silence was broken. Three individuals who had been involved in different capacities in the burial of the emperor stepped forward to assist in the investigation. They were, respectively, the engineer Telahun Kidane, in charge of maintenance of the buildings of the Old Gebbi, an officer serving under Mangestu, and the worker who dug the graves. In fact, not just one but three graves had been dug, in three separate spots, at a substantial distance one from the other, in order to confuse the curious. Several officers of the Derg had been in charge of burying the remains, without witnesses and in great secret. Concerning the discovery of the remains of the Negus we have the account of the secretary general of the Moa Ambessa, Fantaye Walda-Maryam:
“We worked for three days to find the grave and in the end we were successful. We dug up all three graves, but two were empty. It was only in the third grave that we found, at a depth of four meters (thirteen feet), beneath a kitchen and a bathroom, across from the window of Mangestu’s office, a cement casket, and this we opened inside we found the bones.”
At the sight of the remains, the women who were present began to weep and moan. Some of them belonged to the imperial family and had spent long years in prison in conditions that the British conservative MP David Harris called “frightful.” According to state radio, Colonel Mangestu had chosen to bury the remains of the Negus outside the office of his aide de camp Mangestu Gemachaw “to make sure that the dead man would not come back from the afterlife.” Those were also rumors that had circulated among the poorer and more superstitious classes of the populace of Addis Ababa. It was, however, far more plausible that the decision to bury the Negus in such an unusual and well-protected place was made by the top officers of the Derg in order to keep the grave from becoming the object of a popular cult. Even though the military officers did their best to destroy the emperor's image with a campaign of denigration that lasted for more than a year, there were still a great many Ethiopians, especially in rural zones, who venerated the Negus. And that's not to mention the Rastafarians, the Jamaican “rastas” who considered the Negus to be a veritable deity. The remains of the sovereign were temporarily entombed in a crypt of the church of Bata Maryam, hidden among the olive trees, at the entrance to the Old Gebbi. It was planned that on 23 July 1992, exactly one hundred years to the day from the birth of Hayla-Sellase, the remains of the emperor would be moved to the large stone church, built to a Latin cross plan, of Enda Sellase (Holy Trinity). For unknown reasons, however, the transfer of the emperor's remains was postponed indefinitely, prompting the protests of the 2,000 rastas who had traveled especially from Jamaica to venerate the “Black God” in his final resting place. Once the mystery shrouding the burial site of the Negus had been cleared up, the cause of his death remained to be identified. A finding had never been issued by the Ethiopian authorities. Hayla-Sellase had undergone a prostate operation on 31 May 1975. The operation, done in the hospital of the former Imperial Guard, lasted 85 minutes and was performed by the emperor's personal surgeon, Asrata Waldeyes, with the assistance of two other Ethiopian doctors and Professor Charles Leithead, an English doctor. Despite his advanced age—in July he would turn 83—the operation went smoothly and in just a few weeks he was fully recovered and able to leave the hospital to return to live a few yards from the palace of Menilek, in the wooden hut where the soldiers had confined him. According to government sources, the emperor's condition took a sharp turn for the worse in the second half of August. So grave was his state of health that the military junta authorized the Negus' daughter, Tanagnawarq, and his granddaughter Aida, both prisoners in the penitentiary of Akaki, to visit the patient. The meeting between Hayla-Sellase and his two female relatives took place on 23 August. Two days later, the emperor received some medical treatment, but on the 26th his condition worsened sharply. On 27 August 1975, with a brief and ambiguous communiqué, the Derg announced to the world that the Negus had been found dead in his bed, at dawn, by a household domestic.⁴
Twenty-five years later the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Ethiopia gave him an official funeral on November 5, 2000 but it wasn't recognized by the Ethiopian government at the time for political reasons and, therefore, was not a state funeral.⁵
The Hidden Murder
A letter addressed to Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Asfaw instructing him to kill the Emperor has been uncovered. Lt. Col. Daniel Asfa was not only the driver of the infamous blue Volkswagen Beatle that drove the Emperor away from the Palace after he was deposed on September 12, 1974, but he was also the one who led the deadly siege against Leiutenant General Aman Mikael Andom. Later, he personally killed Brigadier General Tafari Banti in January 1977, then he himself was murdered just a few minutes afterwards.
Ato Eshetu Tekale-Mariam was the Emperor's personal caretaker and he testified that he saw Haile Selassie's frozen corpse during an interview.⁶
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| Salvano, Tadese Tele. የደርግ አነሳስና የኤርትራ እና ትግራይ እንቆቅልሽ ጦርነት (“The Derg Uprising and the Mysterious War between Eritrea and Tigray”), Addis Ababa, 2010, p. 97. |
The English translation of the letter is as follows:
To Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Asfaw
Derg Campaign and Protection Officer
Addis Abeba
Subject: Revolutionary action taken against Emperor Haile Selassie.
For a long era, Emperor Haile Selassie has been ruling Ethiopia under cruel Feudal rulership. But as of Meskerm 2, 1967 (September 12, 1974), it is known that the Emperor is no longer in power and has been under arrest.
However, after the Emperor has stepped off from power his son Asfa Wosen (successor), who has migrated to England and has been trying to get Emperor Haile Selassie out the country through his diplomatic relations with England, France and Germany saying it was for medication. The questions being raised from the Embassies of the countries has clearly shown this.
Hence the Derg Permanent Committee by the urgent meeting it had, has decided the Emperor’s death (end) to be on Nehase 17, 1968 (23rd of August 1976). While doing so there will be no burial in the church and gathering for grieving is restricted. The burial will take place where the government officials have decided it to be.
Ethiopia First.
We will assist regarding the order.
Lt. Col. Daniel Asfaw and Lt. Col. Atnafu Abate dug the grave and buried His Majesty's body in secret.⁷
The Emperor's Own Thoughts About Death
His Majesty spoke about death and the inevitability of his own death on many occasions:
"In this world there lives no man, however prudent or zealous, who can escape death."⁸
"I cannot dictate what happens when I die."⁹
"Man is mortal, each one of Us here will, one day, face his Maker and answer for his actions."¹⁰
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Empeor Haile Selassie's Assassin: Lt. Col. Daniel Asfaw. Salvano, Tadese Tele. የደርግ አነሳስና የኤርትራ እና ትግራይ እንቆቅልሽ ጦርነት (“The Derg Uprising and the Mysterious War between Eritrea and Tigray”), Addis Ababa, 2010, p. 81. |
Further, it was against the law to claim that anyone was still alive after ten years have elapsed since they went missing in Imperial Ethiopia:
"When ten years have elapsed since the date of the last news, established by the judgment of declaration of absence, the proof that the absentee did not die on the day of the last news may no longer be made except by the absentee himself or by his special attorney appointed after the date of judgment declaring the absence."¹²
"But the hour of the judgement of death decided upon by the power of God cannot be postponed, even by the love of many let alone by the love of one father and son."¹³
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| "Ex-Rulers of Ethiopia Charged With Strangling Haile Selassie." The New York Times, vol. 144, no. 49, 15 December, 1994, p. A8. |
The fact that Haile Sellassie I is dead perplexes some regarding the validity of the Rastafarian claim towards his divinity but that can be easily answered if we adhere to what His Majesty told us. God’s law dictates that death is a fundamental part of life, no one can live forever in the flesh; we therefore must leave behind a legacy of righteousness for the future generations to emulate, if we wish to be eternal. Haile Sellassie I said, “To free the human race from superstition and fear that originate from ignorance; to enable him to transcend the apparent obstacles of race and religion; and to help him recognize the blood-ties of the whole human race, Your Excellency has labored. To this generation, so tormented between modern knowledge and ancient faith, your scrupulous studies have pointed the way by which man may be saved from traditional superstition and modern skepticism.” We should no longer adhere to false supernatural myths such as the concept of a fountain of youth, or going back in time, or living forever in the flesh for this all derives from ignorance and superstition; God did not create the universe in that manner. No one can physically die and come back to life, or be reincarnated, these beliefs are all false and contrary to the laws of nature which the Lord established. Haile Sellassie I was the Most High before he appeared on earth in a bodily form and he is the same after the flesh passed away; he always was and always will be God. We cannot base the validity of his divinity upon fictional ideologies such as being physically immortal or mystical. The message of Christ is the renunciation of idolatry.¹⁴
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10. Selected Speeches of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I 1918–1967, One Drop Books, New York, NY, 2000, p. 416.
11. CBC interview with Bill McNeil and Emperor Haile Selassie I, 29 April 1967, The Order of Primus St. Croix, www.cbcroyaltraininterview.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-order-of-primus-st.html. Accessed 22 April 2025.
12. Art. 172, Civil Code of Ethiopia, 1960, Negarit Gazeta, Proclamation No. 165, year 19, no. 2, p. 31.
His Eminence Liqa Wambar Petar Vukotic is the Archbishop of the Zufan Chilot Church and the Secretary for the Global Alliance of Justice for the Ethiopian Cause (GAJEC), he's a member of the International Society for the Imperial Ethiopian Orders and is the world's leading authority for interpreting Imperial Ethiopian case law. He's also Moa Anbessa's Imperial Ethiopian Constitutional Law Expert.
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