SELASSE, BLATTENGETA HERUY WALDA

Blattengeta Heruy Walda Selasse (May 8, 1878-September 19, 1938) was an author and historian. He also had a career as a government official and diplomat and served both Emperor Menilek II [reigned 1889-1913], and Emperor Haile Selassie [reigned 1930-74].

PHOTO CAPTION: Heruy Walda Selasse. SOURCE: EA Library

He was born at Gabra Giyorgis, Marehabété. Shawa. He studied Qené (church poetry), Zema (church music), and European languages, and served in the church of Raguél at Entoto, 3 mi (5 km) north of Addis Ababa. He began public life as secretary in the Imperial Chancellery of Menilek II, and soon gained rapid promotion to positions of high responsibility. He was for some time director of the municipality of Addis Ababa, and in 1921, with the title of Blatta, presided over the special tribunal appointed to settle differences between Ethiopians and foreigners.

In the course of his career he visited the United States of America, Jayan, and almost every European country. He was a member of the Ethiopian delegation to the United Kingdom for the coronation of King George V in 1911, the 1919 mission sent to congratulate the victorious Allied powers after World War I, the 1923 delegation sent to Geneva on the occasion of Ethiopia’s admission to the League of Nations, and the party which in 1924 toured foreign capitals with the Regent, Ras Tafari, later Emperor Haile Selassie. In 1929 Heruy was appointed director-general of the Foreign Office, and in 1930 became minister of foreign affairs. In 1931 he became ambassador extraordinary to Japan.
He edited the civil and ecclesiastical Code, and translated the New Testament into Amharic. He wrote some 28 books, many of which were printed on his own printing press in Addis Ababa. They included travel books, histories, poetry, novels, and translations. Several of his works analyse the social and religious responsibilities of Ethiopians.

His Goha Tsebah (“Dawn Has Come”), a journal he produced in 1917, of which only the first issue was published, Addis Alam (“New World”), and Yaheywat Tarik (“Information For the Generations to Come”), are all excellent as contemporary history. His last work was in the press when the Italian invasion began in 1935.
Honored throughout his career with many decorations from the Ethiopian government and from foreign governments, Heruy had followed Haile Selassie into exile in England. After several months of illness, he died at the emperor’s residence in Bath in 1938. His remains were brought home to Ethiopia in 1942.

AMSALU AKLILU