Reggae · September 21, 2015
Haile Selassie in Brazil!
Did you know that His Imperial Majesty Hailé Selassié I has already come to Brazil? And do you know who he is, and what this personality rep
Did you know that His Imperial Majesty Hailé Selassié I has already come to Brazil? And do you know who he is, and what this personality represents for reggae, for religion and for the world?
The much talked about JAH that we hear in several roots reggae lyrics around the world, is the great Hailé Selassie I, considered the symbol of "God incarnate" among Rastafarian followers. Born Tafari Makonnen and later known as Ras Tafari, Selassie was regent of Etiópia from 1916 to 1930 and emperor of that country from 1930 to 1974. He was also called H.I.M., an acronym in English for "His Majesty Imperial" (His Imperial Majesty).
December 12th: Hailé Selassié I disembarks at Recife on a Ethiopian Airlines aircraft, accompanied by his granddaughter Aida Desta and the twenty-five members of his entourage.
December 13th: Selassié leaves for Brasília for an audience at Palácio da Alvorada with the president Juscelino Kubitschek (photo below). Then visit Congresso Nacional and STF (Superior Tribunal Federal).
(Selassie and Kubitschek. Photo: José Pereira Rocha)
December 14th: He flies over the capital in the company of Juscelino Kubitschek and then embarks for São Paulo for an audience with the governor Carvalho Pinto. There is also a meeting with popular leaders at ABC. Still on the 14th, news began to receive about a military coup that was taking place in Etiópia.
December 15th: The emperor is forced to return to his country to control the coup. The imperial plane takes off at dawn.
In 1966 he would make the famous official visit to Jamaica. In 1974 Haile Selassie I would be overthrown by Cambodian-inspired military personnel who plunged the country into a bloodthirsty regime, only overthrown in 1991. According to reports from family members heard after the fall of the regime, the emperor was murdered on August 27, 1975, asphyxiated with his own pillow.
Ethiopian authorities confirmed that the bones found in the former imperial palace were Hailé Selassié I, but other versions state that his body would never have been found, raising doubts about his death.
Find out more about Hailé Selassié in the chapter made especially about it in our section RAS CULTURA: "Haile Selassie, a voz da África."
THE VISIT TO BRAZIL
Hailé Selassié I visited Brazil on a diplomatic mission in December 1960. See below the steps of His Imperial Majesty in Brazilian lands: December 12th: Hailé Selassié I disembarks at Recife on a Ethiopian Airlines aircraft, accompanied by his granddaughter Aida Desta and the twenty-five members of his entourage.
December 13th: Selassié leaves for Brasília for an audience at Palácio da Alvorada with the president Juscelino Kubitschek (photo below). Then visit Congresso Nacional and STF (Superior Tribunal Federal).
(Selassie and Kubitschek. Photo: José Pereira Rocha)
December 14th: He flies over the capital in the company of Juscelino Kubitschek and then embarks for São Paulo for an audience with the governor Carvalho Pinto. There is also a meeting with popular leaders at ABC. Still on the 14th, news began to receive about a military coup that was taking place in Etiópia.
December 15th: The emperor is forced to return to his country to control the coup. The imperial plane takes off at dawn.
INTERRUPTED TRIP
Hailé Selassié I's agenda also included a visit to Rio de Janeiro, where he would offer a grand reception to the president JK at Copacabana Palace, the same hotel in which twenty years later Bob Marley would stay. The rebellion in Etiópia would be controlled in less than two days. After three years he would sponsor the first meeting of the African Unity organization, in Addis-Abeba, the Ethiopian capital.
(Selassié in his palace on Etiópia)
MAIS INFOMAÇÕES
Find out more about Hailé Selassié in the chapter made especially about it in our section RAS CULTURA: "Haile Selassie, a voz da África."Category
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