An Ethiopian Emperor at the League of Nations

In June 1936, Haile Selassie (1892-1975) gave a historic, premonitory speech at the tribune of the League of Nations (LN). He had fled Ethiopia in order to, from Geneva, call on the whole world for help in the face of the Italian colonial invasion perpetrated with devastating military means. The king asked for international law against the use of force to be respected, for Ethiopia was an independent state, a member of the LN. He announced an end to global stability if his country was left to the aggressor. Numerous support committees were then set up, but his call was in vain: Mussolini (1883-1945) wanted vengeance for the Adwa (Ethiopia) defeat in 1896, which remained a blow to Italy’s pride. Faced with the rise of Nazism, Europe would not dare oppose the dictator of a remote country. Haile Selassie would not return to Addis-Ababa and his throne until five years later, in 1941, with the help of the British. He became an international figure of the fight against colonization and the father of independences in Africa.