By government edict, red lights replaced the crosses. The boom is a significant symptom of change. Its cause: the influx of foreigners into the city for an endless series of conferences, all part of a determined attempt by His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Conquering Lion of Judah, Elect of God, King of Kings, and Emperor of Ethiopia, to put his land in the vanguard of African nationalism.
The Emperor hopes that such hospitality will further his campaign for African leadership. The press is rigidly controlled, and informers and secret police agents are everywhere. Hangings are held in public, and public flogging was recently authorized in lieu of jail sentences, both to cut down the jail population and to keep dissenters in line.
Government corruption is so widespread that one-third of the taxes levied never reach the national treasury. So large is the bureaucracy that two-thirds of the annual budget goes for government salaries. At Gunpoint. Realizing the impression that Ethiopia makes on visiting Africans, Haile Selassie has embarked on an industrial development program, is shrewdly using foreign investment from both East and West to build dams, refineries, port facilities, factories. But the Emperor has ignored advice on civil service and parliamentary reforms that might curtail his absolute power, has made only token attempts to redistribute his own vast land holdings among the poverty-stricken peasants.
Though plots against the government proliferate, they are mostly talk, for no one can agree what to do and when to do it. Much popular affection remains for the Emperor, who at 69 still seems as vigorous as the man who 26 years ago protested before the world against the conquest of his country by the Italians. But with his wife and four of his six children dead, he is an increasingly isolated figure. Heir apparent Asfa Wossen, 45, is more liberal than his father, but mild and retiring.
But if the succession is too long delayed, the gun aimed at the old order may well go off. Contact us at letters time. Join Us. Customer Care. Reach Out. Connect with Us. Fires Show Reality of 1. Home U. All Rights Reserved. TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.
