Sn# ET C86-C88
On February 1st, 1965 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip embarked on a two week journey to Africa on official state visits to Ethiopia and Sudan. Ethiopia was first on the list with the official state visit to occur on February 1st through 8th. This was to be Elizabeth II’s first state trip to East Africa since she assumed the throne when her father King George VI died while Elizabeth was on a visit to Kenya in 1952 (Time Magazine, 1965). On an official note, the visit was made in return of Haile Selassie’s visit to London in 1955.
For Haile Selassie, the visit was important. His reign is unique on the African continent as he represents the only monarchy in Africa with an indigenous head of state (Raphaeli, 422). However, unlike Elizabeth II, who is the head of state for a constitutional monarchy, Selassie is the embodiment of the state and government. He was the ruler and had divine status as legitimized by the church and his alleged ancestry derived from Solomonic dynasty from King David himself. Although Selassie by 1965 had taken great steps towards modernizing the country, especially through education, he was still the center of political and cultural attention (Raphaeli, 428). The visit by Elizabeth II would legitimize Selassie’s regime and assert his position as one of the great world monarchs.
Selassie’s preparations ahead of the visit were relentless. Every pot hole on the route from the airport to the reception had been filled. The streets had been lined with trees, and he had an entire wing added to his Jubilee Palace in order to house Elizabeth II’s 31 person entourage. When Selassie’s Rolls Royce broke down on the way from the airport, Selassie’s green and scarlet imperial coach pulled by six Lippizaner horses stepped in as a replacement (Time Magazine, 1965).
The dinner that night consisted of lamb and watt, Ethiopia’s national meat and lentil stew dish, tedj (honey wine), and Tatinger champagne (Time Magazine, 1965). At the dinner, Selassie held a welcoming speech in which he profoundly expressed his gratitude towards Great Britain for the assistance 25 years earlier in getting his kingdom back while under occupation by Mussulini’s Italy (1936- 1941).
The Ethiopian and British peoples and Governments are old friends. Contacts between us stretch back many years. Our friendship was cemented and rendered indissoluble during the unhappy years in which Ethiopians, abandoned to the aggressor, struggled against overwhelming odds, first, to preserve their nation’s independence, and later, to free it from the despot’s heel. We personally cherish mixed emotions concerning those years. From 1936 to 1941, separated from Our people, exiled in a strange land while We laboured to muster sympathy and support for Ethiopia’s cause, We were received by the British people with a warmth which nourished and strengthened Our will. And when, finally, the just God called the tyrant aggressor to account, soldiers of many lands marching under the British flag, fought side by side with Our patriots for the liberation of the subjugated and the triumph of justice and liberty over tyranny and oppression.
(Selassie, p. 127)
The importance of the speech should not be understated and the expression of gratitude is highly visible in the airmail stamps that were issued on the same day on February 1st, 1965. Just the fact that these were airmail stamps showed that this was something the nation of Ethiopia wanted to show off for the rest of the world. But what is it that they wanted to show off?
The stamp features two equal sized portraits, one of Elizbeth II looking right on the left side wearing a tiara and the blue ribbon of the Order of the Garter. On the right side we find Emperor Haile Selassie I wearing his field marshal uniform looking left. The two monarchs are thus facing each other. In the middle between we see the text “STATE VISIT OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II” written in both English and Amharic. Underneath we see the date February 1965 spelled out and crested with a a ribbon of the Ethiopian state colors of green, yellow, and red. Behind their respective portraits we find the equal sized flags of Great Britain an Ethiopia and above the portraits the shields of Haile Selassie I and Elizabeth II are displayed, again of equal size and detail.
Although it is not the only time Ethiopia issued stamps depicting a monarch with equal real estate space on the image, the 2nd time being the state visit of the Emperor of Iran on June 3rd, 1968, it is the first and also the one that has been issued with such great care and attention to detail. For Haile Selassie, the stamp becomes a symbol of legitimization of his regime and a re-assertion of his space in the world as Emperor of Ethiopia. Like Elizabeth II, he is a head of state but also anointed by the grace of God to lead his people forward. As a developing nation, being legitimized by Great Britain by a state visit puts him forth as an equal among one of the longest continuous monarchies in the world.
On a personal note Haile Selassie I has much to thank the British for. When Ethiopia was invaded by Italy in 1936, Selassie found himself escaping and living in Bath, England for five years until in 1941 a joint British-Ethiopian comprised of many of Britain’s colonial subjects liberated Ethiopia from the aggressors. Upon liberation, Haile Selassie was restored as Emperor over the country. The stamp therefore also becomes a symbol of gratitude towards Great Britain for helping in getting his country back, a country that he is nothing without and sees himself an embodiment of the same.
Bibliography:
Raphaeli, Nimrod. “Ethiopia: Emperor, Elites and Modernization.” Civilisations 17, no. 4 (1967): 422-434
Selassie I, Haile. Selected Speeches of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I 1918-1967. Addis Ababa: Imperial Ethiopian Ministry of Information, 1967.
Time Magazine. “Ethiopia: A Wing on the Palace.” Time Magazine, February 12, 1965.
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