DASTA, GABRU
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Gabru Dasta (1855-January 1950) was one of the few foreign-educated Ethiopians living during the reign of Emperor Menilek II [reigned 1889-1913]. He served the emperor as counselor, interpreter, and chief of protocol.
PHOTO CAPTION: Gabru Dasta. SOURCE: EA Library.
He came from a peasant family of Bagemder. He was first educated in a mission school, and then in Switzerland, where he studied German, French, English, and Arabic. On his return home, he was appointed chief of the prison in Harar. He spent much of his time helping Menilek in Addis Ababa, however.
He was a member of the Ethiopian delegations to the coronations in London of the British monarchs Edward VII (1902), and George V (1911). He was appointed Kantiba (mayor) of Gondar in 1911, but his foreign education, his Protestant faith, and, probably, his peasant background, made him unpopular, and he returned to Addis Ababa.
In 1919, he was a member of the Ethiopian delegation which went to Europe to plead for Ethiopia’s admission to the League of Nations. On his return he became Nagadras (Director of Customs) in Walaga.
He frequently attempted, although unsuccessfully, to convince influential people that Ethiopia needed education and modernisation. He sided with the progressive faction in the struggle for power from 1910-17, and narrowly escaped after his life had been threatened by reactionaries. He was the first to sign the 1931 Constitution.
In 1937, the Italians imprisoned him on Asinara Island, off the coast of Sardinia, in the Mediterranean, but later sent him back to Addis Ababa, where he remained until his death in January 1950.
BAIRU TAFLA
