Haile Selassie I and Pan-African Diplomacy

Perhaps a latecomer to ​​pan-African ideology, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I was nevertheless unique in his contribution to pan-Africanism. Employing an inherited imperial legacy of strong diplomatic policy to encourage intra-development and conflict resolution, he urged all those working for a united global Africa to consider pan-Africanism as not an end unto itself, but an indispensable means toward a broader horizon of a new humanity free from imperialism and exploitation.

Emperor Menelik I and his consort, Empress Taitu, were perhaps the first to fully embrace the idea that the imperial nation must ‘stretch out her hands’ to Africans everywhere, that a united front was imperative to face the increasing pressure of European expansion. Moreover, there was a substantial contribution of diasporans particularly during Menelik I’s reign. During the Battle of Adwa (1896) in which Ethiopia first defeated Italy's imperialist advances, Menelik I and Empress Taitu were accompanied by the Haitian politician and diplomat, Benito Sylvain. Syvlain’s service to Ethiopia was a strategic move for pan-Africanism as an intermediary between W.E.B. Du Bois and Menelik I. Indeed, Sylvain would represent both Ethiopia and Haiti at the 1900 Pan-African Conference in England partly organized by Du Bois. Through this evolving connectivity between the continent and diaspora, the Battle of Adwa further crystallized Ethiopia in the pan-African consciousness as an eternal promise of prophetic liberation: ‘princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God.’ Pan-Africanism would lie dormant but nevertheless ever-present in post-Menelik Ethiopia, leaving his successor, Emperor Haile Selassie I, to directly inherit the vision and power of a united Africa. Approaching the coronation of Haile Selassie I in 1930, Du Bois himself sat with Melaku Bayen, an important official in Selassie I’s government, to discuss the potential of a new era of global African relations within Selassie I’s regime...