Ethiopia at Bay: A Personal Account of the Haile Selassie Years

From the days of Prester John and the later Portuguese mission in the 16th Century, Ethiopia has been an important country in terms of regional and European strategies. Her strategic position on the shores of the Red Sea and at its entrance at the Straits of Bob el Mandeb, her remarkable climate and fertile soil, and her rivers tributary to the Nile, have seen to that. Unresolved rivalry among European powers assured her continuing independence. Valuable and independent, Ethiopia inevitably became expendable in terms of broader objectives and, consequently, a pawn in European and world politics. The history of the past 40 years demonstrates the striking persistence of interests and forces that make possible the compassion between the crises which Ethiopia faced in 1934-1937 and in 1974-1977 however dissimilar they might appear at first glance. External forces and crises were the primary cause of Haile Sellassie s defeat and exile in 1936 and his downfall and death in 1974. The experience of Ethiopia during the past half century holds a warning for the future of other small states in the closing years of the 20th century.