''
Ras Betwoded'' Mekonnen Endelkachew (16 February 1890 – 27 February 1963) was an Ethiopian aristocrat and
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
under Emperor
Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...
. Mekonnen was born in Addisge, the nephew of the noted
Shewa
Shewa ( am, ሸዋ; , om, Shawaa), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa (''Scioà'' in Italian language, Italian), is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous monarchy, kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The ...
n general and politician ''Ras Betwoded''
Tessema Nadew
'' Ras Bitwoded'' Tessema Nadew (died 10 April 1911) horse name Abba Qamaw was an Ethiopian military commander and a government official who on 28 October 1909 was proclaimed as Ethiopia's future ''Balemulu Enderase'' (Regent Plenipotentiary)''B ...
, who introduced him to Emperor
Menilek II
, spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"''
, alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.)
Menelik II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ ; horse name Abba Dagnew ( Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 ...
. He was a member of the alpha class of the
Menelik II School
Menelik II School ( Amharic: ዳግማዊ ምኒሊክ ትምህርት ቤት) comprises primary (elementary) and secondary (high school) institutions. The primary school was established in 1908 by the order of Emperor Menelik II, being the first ...
in
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
when it opened in 1908.
[Bahru Zewde, ''Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia'' (Oxford: ]James Currey
James Currey is a former academic publisher specialising in African Studies which since 2008 has been an imprint of Boydell & Brewer. It is named after its founder who established the company in 1984. It publishes on a full spectrum of topics ...
, 2002), p. 78
He was a published author, having written a novel, ''
Yayne Abäba'', and a booklet on the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Itali ...
and Fascist atrocities.
[Spencer, ''Ethiopia at Bay: A personal account of the Haile Selassie years'' (Algonac: Reference Publications, 1984), p. 161]
Life
He was married twice. His second marriage, to the Emperor's niece, Princess
Yeshashework Yilma
Princess Yeshashework Yilma (died 1982) was the daughter of Dejazmatch Yilma Makonnen, governor of Harar and niece of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Her mother Woizero Aselefech Wolde Hanna was the niece of Empress Taitu Bitul, consort of ...
, followed Makonnen's affair with the woman, who was married to the Tigrayan noble ''Ras''
Gugsa Araya Selassie
Gugsa Araya Selassie (1885 – 28 April 1932) was an army commander and a member of the royal family of the Ethiopian Empire.
Biography
''Leul'' Gugsa Araya Selassie was the legitimate son of ''Ras'' Araya Selassie Yohannes. Araya Selas ...
at time. The affair threatened to destroy the accord Emperor Haile Selassie had carefully crafted, and led to Makonnen's recall from his post as Minister to Great Britain in 1932.
[ Princess Yeshashwork was married to Bitwoded Makonnen Demissew after the death of her first husband, and would not marry Makonnen Endalkachew until after she was widowed for a second time during the Italian occupation, and her return from exile in 1941.
Makonnen accompanied Haile Selassie during his tour of ]Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
from 16 April to 4 September 1924. Following his recall from London, he served as Minister of the Interior, then governor of Illubabor Province
Illubabor (Amharic: ኢሉባቦር) was a province in the south-western part of Ethiopia, along the border with Sudan. The name Illubabor is said to come from two Oromo words, "Illu" and "Abba Bor(a)". "Illu" is a name of a clan, and "Abba Bor ...
; while governor, he led the troops of that province against the Italian invasion on the Ogaden
Ogaden (pronounced and often spelled ''Ogadēn''; so, Ogaadeen, am, ውጋዴ/ውጋዴን) is one of the historical names given to the modern Somali Region, the territory comprising the eastern portion of Ethiopia formerly part of the Harargh ...
front, afterwards going into exile from 1936 to 1941 in Jerusalem, and accompanying the Emperor back into Ethiopia upon the liberation of the country.[ Emperor Haile Selassie appointed him Minister of the Interior in March 1941, as part of the cabinet Haile Selassie established to re-assert Ethiopia's existence as an independent state against the views of the British ]War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
that, since Ethiopia had previously been Italian territory, the Emperor "cannot fully reassume his status and powers as Emperor until a peace treaty has been signed with Italy". However, as John Spencer points out, Ethiopia was able to rely on the principle of postliminium
The principle of postliminium, as a part of public international law, is a specific version of the maxim '' ex injuria jus non oritur'', providing for the invalidity of all illegitimate acts that an occupant may have performed on a given territory ...
—that is, once enemy occupation is terminated, a state may act as if its existence had survived without interruption. "Having withdrawn its recognition of the Italian conquest," Spencer points out, "Britain was in no position to contest Ethiopia's application of the doctrine of postliminium." The conflict between Ethiopia and the United Kingdom over the former's sovereignty dominated their relations for the next several years.
From 29 January 1943, when the Emperor created the position, Makonnen served as Ethiopia's first Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
, until his retirement on 1 November 1957. Bahre Zewde notes, however, that Makonnen "was a mere ceremonial figure, given more to intellectual pursuits than to political machinations. The ''de facto'' prime minister uring Makonnen's tenurewas '' Tsahafe T'ezaz'' Walda-Giyorgis Walda-Yohannes."[Bahru Zewde, ''A History of Modern Ethiopia'', second edition (Oxford: ]James Currey
James Currey is a former academic publisher specialising in African Studies which since 2008 has been an imprint of Boydell & Brewer. It is named after its founder who established the company in 1984. It publishes on a full spectrum of topics ...
, 2001), p. 204. Spencer notes that his fellow ministers considered him "as a lightweight."[ Makonnen then became the president of ]Ethiopian Senate
The Imperial Parliament of Ethiopia () was the bicameral legislature of the Ethiopian Empire from 1931 to 1974. It consisted of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and the upper house, Senate. The legislature was established in the 1931 Co ...
from 1957 to 1961.
Although Makonnen led the delegation that represented Ethiopia at the summit in San Francisco that created the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
, because he was not fluent in either French or English he took no part in the debates.[
]
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Makonnen Endelkachew
1890 births
1963 deaths
20th-century Ethiopian politicians
Prime Ministers of Ethiopia
Amharic-language writers
Ethiopian novelists
20th-century novelists
Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany