Widely considered to be a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history , he is accorded divine importance in Rastafari , an Abrahamic religion that emerged in the s. Historians regard the Solomonic lineage claim as unfounded, created by Amlak to justify wresting power from the Zagwe Dynasty. Selassie, seeking to modernise Ethiopia, introduced political and social reforms including the constitution and the abolition of slavery in He dissolved the Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea , established by the United Nations General Assembly in , and annexed Eritrea as one of Ethiopia's provinces , while also fighting to prevent Eritrean secession.
By the early s, prominent African socialists such as Kwame Nkrumah envisioned the creation of a " United States of Africa ". Their rhetoric was anti-Western ; Selassie saw this as a threat to his alliances. He attempted to influence a more moderate posture within the group.
In , three years after the fall of the Derg military junta , it was revealed to the public that the Derg had assassinated Selassie at the Jubilee Palace in Addis Ababa on 27 August Among adherents of Rastafari , Selassie is called the returned Jesus.
He was a Christian and adhered to the tenets of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Others have criticised Ethiopia's failure to modernise rapidly enough. Lij is translated as "child" and serves to indicate that a youth is of noble blood. His given name Tafari means "one who is respected or feared". Like most Ethiopians, his personal name "Tafari" is followed by that of his father Makonnen and that of his grandfather Woldemikael.
His name Haile Selassie was given to him at his infant baptism and adopted again as part of his regnal name in On 1 November , at the age of 13, Tafari was appointed by his father as the Dejazmatch of Gara Mulatta a region some twenty miles southwest of Harar.
