Who was Emperor Haile Selassie’s mother?” is the title of this Amharic article. This is a controversial topic that many Ethiopians feel uncomfortable to talk about due to its political heaviness. The article discusses how the Emperor and writers of his biography never revealed his mother’s full name or her photograph in public during or after his reign, deliberately due to the sensitivity of the issue. Why was it sensitive and why was the mother’s identity hidden from the public unlike the Emperor’s father? Simple answer: Because her religious and ethnic identities would have been obstacles to Haile Selassie’s ascent to power. In addition, the Emperor’s mother had no royal lineage, but his father Ras Makonnen was a general and governor himself whose parents, though they had mixed heritage, were descended from nobility, which helped the Emperor claim the throne. read more