''Ras'' Mesfin Sileshi (

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

: መስፍን ስለሺ; 5 July 1905 – 23 November 1974) was an Ethiopian Major General and politician.

Biography

He was born in 1905, in Lafto

kebele A ward ( am, ቀበሌ; om, Araddaa; ) is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia: a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. It is part of a district, itself usually part of a zone, which in turn are grouped into ...

in Webera

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Hararghe Hararghe ( am, ሐረርጌ ''Harärge''; Harari language, Harari: ሀረርጌይ ''Harärgeyi'', Oromo language, Oromo: Harargee, so, Xararge) was a provinces of Ethiopia, province of eastern Ethiopia with its capital in Harar. History Hararg ...

. His father was ''

Dejazmach Until the end of the Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Mesafint ( gez, መሳፍንት , modern , singular መስፍን , modern , "prince"), the hereditary nobility, ...

'' Sileshi Woldesemayat and his mother was '' Woyzero'' Askale Garedew. His brother was ''Dejazmach'' Bezabeh Sileshi. At the outbreak of the Italian invasion in 1935, he was a major in the Ethiopian Army. During the occupation, he joined the resistance and became one of its leaders in

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 ...

. After liberation, he was appointed Governor-General of Illubabor from 1942 to 1946 and then of Kaffa from 1946 to 1955. During his tenure in Kaffa he encouraged aristocrats and the merchants to adopt modern coffee planting methods, and he had a special interest in coffee planting himself. He was briefly

Mayor of Addis Ababa The Mayor of Addis Ababa ( am, የአዲስ አበባ ከንቲባ) is head of the executive branch of Addis Ababa's municipal government. The mayor's office is located in Addis Ababa City Hall. Adanech Abebe is the first woman mayor and 32nd m ...

in 1947. In 1955 he joined the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

as Minister of Interior, serving until 1957, when he was appointed Vice-Governor-General of Shewa. ''Ras'' Mesfin was enormously wealthy and widely considered the largest individual landowner in Ethiopia, and his estates were claimed to reach up to 50,000 ''gasha''s (2,000,000 ha) in Illubabor and Kaffa alone, in addition to large estates in Shewa and Hararghe. These claims, however, should viewed with skepticism as they are primarily sourced from hostile sources disseminated following the 1974 coup. He was head of the Patriots' Association, the national association of veterans of the resistance and a fiercely pro-monarchy group. He was arrested by the

Derg The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " c ...

in August 1974 during the "creeping coup" and was among those summarily executed in the

Massacre of the Sixty The Massacre of the Sixty, or Black Saturday ( am, ጥቁሩ ቅዳሜ, ''tikuru kidami''), was an execution that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia commissioned by the Derg government against 60 imprisoned former government officials at Kerche ...

References

{{Authority control 20th-century Ethiopian politicians Mayors of Addis Ababa Assassinated Ethiopian politicians 1905 births 1974 deaths