The Haile Sellassie I Prize Trust

The Haile Sellassie I Prize TrustAuthor(s): Berhanu AbebeSource: Northeast African Studies, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 3 (1995), pp. 53-66Published by: Michigan State University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41931113 .

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The Haïle Sellassie I Prize Dust*

Berhanu Abebe Addis Ababa University

The objective of the Haile Sellassie Prize Trust as defined in the origi- nal Charter of 1963, consisted of the promotion of excellence in such diverse fields as African and Ethiopian Studies, Amharic Literature, the Fine Arts, Industry, Agriculture and Humanitarian Activities. The re- vised Charter of 1969 added Education as a new field of merit.1

The structure of the Prize Trust was highly hierarchical. It could not be otherwise, given the very status of the personalities to whom various tasks were entrusted within the institution:

a) The board of trustees appointed by the emperor to direct the

policy of the Prize Trust under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold comprises Ato Yilma Deressa, minister of finance; Commodore Iskander Desta, head of the

Imperial Navy and grandson of the emperor; Lij Kassa Wolde- Mariam, president of the Haile Sellassie University, and Ato Wondwossen Mangasha, deputy governor of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.2

b) The executive council made up of the last two trustees above, and three other members: Dr. Seyum Haregot, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office3; Ato Abebe Kebede, manager general of the Haile Sellassie Foundation; and Mr. W. J. Pile from the Ministry of Finance.

*This paper was presented at the 12th annual International Conference of Ethio- pian Studies, Michigan State University, September 5-10, 1994.

® Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 2, No. 3 (New Series) 1995, pp. 53-66

53



54 Berhanu Abebe

c) Selection committees for each of the Awards enumerated above, the members of which were recruited among educators, ex-

perts, and other highly qualified professionals in their respec- tive fields.

One-third of the membership of the committees initially appointed by the executive council was replaced every two years, with the new members being chosen by the remaining two-thirds. A significant fea- ture of this practice was that the outgoing members were the oldest in

age and length of service.

d) The director was designated by the executive council and presented for official appointment to the emperor by the president of the board of trustees. He was responsible for the management of the Prize Trust and, more importantly, was the perma- nent secretary of each of the selection committees, with the

right to vote only in case of a tie.

The process of selection was subject to a number of strict procedures which should be noted here:

None of the criteria for eligibility or selection took into considera- tion the favor or acquiescence of the Emperor.

At the end of the selection process, the names of the winners were communicated both to the Trustees and to the Emperor at a date so close to the actual Award Ceremony that any possibility for the Trustees to propose alternative candidates^ or for the Commit- tees to go back on their decisions, was virtually precluded. That is to say that the Committees took precautions of such a "tech- nical" nature as would protect their decisions and preempt any possibility of interference.

Even then, matters did not, of course, always go smoothly. It would indeed have been unnatural if the Prize Trust had not shown the im-

perfections inherent in any such institution. I will limit myself to just three instances to illustrate this.



The Haïle Sellassie I Prize 1 Yust 55

The first case relates to that of Ato Kebede Mikael. The latter refused to accept the Award for Ethiopian Literature believing, quite wrongly as it happened, that he had been nominated by the Trustees. "The likes of Aklilu and Company cannot sit in judgment over my work," was his scornful objection.5 The other party responded in like manner when they had an article published on the pages of Addis Zemen in which the author questioned whether the Award for Literature should be given to a mere translator. In strict truth, Kebede was the least contentious of the recipients of 1964, as he had to his credit four major works on the theme of Civilization and Modernity in addition to his other distinguished writings.

It took the personal intervention of the Emperor to convince Kebede that, contrary to his belief, he had been nominated by a Committee working in total independence of the Trustees. In fact, whatever may or may not have been the reasons for this first incident, a sound - if obvi- ous - conclusion is that the Prize Trust had to undergo a probation period before its own ideals and working methods became plausible in the eyes of the public.6

In a final twist of irony, it fell to Aklilu Habte-Wold, in his capacity as chairman of the Trustees, to go to Kebede's residence, while he was in bed for a minor illness, to present to him the gold medal of the Prize Trust. I will not burden you with the outpouring of snide remarks and public sarcasm that these events provoked, but the reputation and integrity of the Prize Trust emerged highly enhanced after all this.

The second case concerns that of the late scholar Enrico Cerulli whose nomination for the Award for Ethiopian Studies (1966) was blocked by the trustees. The objection evidently arose out of an old antagonism between Cerulli, the "Colonizer," and Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold, the "Resistant," who was then chairman of the board of trustees. It seems that the latter had forced the exclusion of Cerulli from the Italian Delegation to the Peace Treaty of 1947 on the grounds of his fascist past and his role as vice governor-general of occu- pied Ethiopia. On this occasion again, the chairman was adamant in his opposition. The Prize Trust in its turn, insisted, vainly as it turned out, that only scholarly merit should be taken into account. It could not, however, resort to the Charter since there was no provision whatsoever on this point.



56 Berhanu Abebe

Because article 3 paragraph 3 of the Charter imposed upon the members of the secretariat to subscribe to solemnly undertake to exercise their duties in all discretion etc., and out of deference to the feelings of the nominee, the Prize Trust was thoroughly dedicated to keep the ver- dict secret. However, finding the opportunity to resurrect the triumph of their boss, ministerial circles took pleasure in publicizing the story. Regarding the role of the emperor in this matter, I recall nothing to make me doubt his distant and silent neutrality.

The Prize Trust registered its protest later, during the revision of the Charter in 1969, in which the old provision: "The Trustees may in their absolute discretion withhold an award or awards in any subject or subjects, if in their opinion no candidate is deserving of award." (emphasis author's) was changed to read:

In any year the Trustees shall inform the National and Interna- tional Award Committees through the Director if they have with- held an award in any subject or subjects if no candidate is deserv-

ing of award for deficiency of merit [emphasis added]. The new

provision deprived the trustees of their discretionary power. Fur- thermore the very notion of deficiency of merit was so vague it became virtually inoperative in the subsequent years.

The third case, that of Ato Addis Alemayehu (1969), is even more in- structive. At the time of his election for the Award, the latter had re- signed his office as minister of the planning commission and was in a state of semi-disgrace at court. In spite of this, the committee nominated his last novel, Fikir Eske Meqabir (Love to the Grave) as the best Amharic novel of all time, though it was a veritable diatribe against the feudal order.

In this case, however, it was the nominee who was reluctant to accept the Prize on the suspicion that his nomination had the hand of the emperor behind it. He assumed that this was intended as compensation for the unspoken offense which had led to his resignation. I had to call on the influence of one of Addis's closest personal friends, Ato Abebe Retta, to prove the contrary to him and to convince him that his nomination had come from a Committee composed of young intellectuals. His pride and skepticism were eventually won over by my explanation and by the pressure of Ato Abebe's personal friendship.



The Haile Sellassie I Prize TYust 57

All the same, Ato Addis could not resist the following comment in his acceptance speech: "Your Maj- esty, from the beginning of time the

pen and the sword have never ceased to make war on each other" - a

thinly veiled allusion to the conflict between "knowledge" and "power." Such a public challenge to the em-

peror, who saw himself not only as the source of all power, but also as the very fountain of enlightenment and education was, at the time, an

unprecedented act of defiance. This, however, did not prevent the em-

peror from personally congratulat- ing Ato Addis during the reception held later at Africa Hall.

Figure 1

In 1971, when Haile Sellassie University celebrated its tenth anniversary, the then-young artist, Tekola Worke Hagos, whom the organizers commissioned to illustrate the event, represented "Alma Mater" in the form of a virile and warlike pen (see Fig. 1). More than 20 years later, on the front covers of two Addis Ababa magazines, appeared two car- toons. The first one shows a boxing match between the Kalashnikov and the Pen, where the latter scores a point (see Fig. 2). The second weighs the two presidents: Meles, with the Pen of history on his back, and Mengistu, with a skeleton symbolizing the victims of his repression (see Fig. 3).

These are only a few vivid cases of the great many which can be sim- ilarly cited, and which certainly do not lend themselves to the charac- terization of the Prize Trust as an institution devoted to the projection of imperial power as such. That there was a calculation of such self- interest behind the act of generosity that inspired the foundation of the Prize Trust is, of course, a point that cannot be denied a priori. But in view of what was accomplished by the Prize Trust during the years of its existence, the argument that it was primarily concerned with the emperor's image simply does not hold up. This becomes more evident



58 Berhanu Abebe

Figuře 2

when one examines the circumstances that surrounded the foundation of the institution.

The life span of the Prize Trust coincided, in effect, with the last decade of the emperor's reign.

In the Preamble to its Charter, the Prize Trust was charged: "to encourage the activities and proficiencies of our people... and also to strengthen spiritually and culturally the bands between our people and the people of the African Continent and the whole world; recalling also the splendid example of the Nobel foundation for the education and enlightenment of all mankind."



The Haile Sellassie I Prize Trust 59

At the inauguration of the Trust, on 14 May 1963, the emperor stated: the "desire to encourage outstanding contributions transcends the boundaries of our Empire. The advancement of Ethiopia is not our sole interest. The African Research Award and the Empress Menen Award are therefore intended to provide strong incentives throughout the continent of Africa and the world at large."

After the first year of the Trust's existence, its first director, Dr. Abebe Ambachew, spelled out the definitive direction in which he intended to apply the Charter for the purpose of educating a dynamic Ethiopian elite: "The purpose of the Prize Trust is not only to make awards for outstanding performance but to encourage Ethiopian schol-

Figure 3



60 Berhanu Abebe

ars of promise to elevate the level of their formal training so that by the proper observance of their individual disciplines they can be in a posi- tion to produce works of excellence and distinction."7

Whatever imperfection may be seen in the Charter or in the unspoken motives of its founder, the one thread that runs throughout the Prize Trust in its ideals as well as in its practical operation is the cult of progress.

In the long voyage that had brought the Emperor from autocracy to the naive internationalism of the era of the League of Nations, and then to liberalism, he always saw himself as an educator, as a mover of a "civi- lizing mission." A contemporary - Teklehawariat - whom one cannot suspect of favoring the emperor says the following in the Introduction of his Tinish Mafatanna Sile Ersha Temhert (1930), (A Short Essay on the Teaching of Agriculture): "The protection of science, the modernization of the country and the civilization of the people that you are determined to achieve carry their inspiration from your father's noble tradition."

This idea so profoundly entered the emperor's every thought that when he sought to put all his experiences in the form of an autobiography while in exile in 1937, he gave it the title of Heywotenna y a Etyopia Ermijja (My Life and Ethiopia's Progress). The Amharic irmijja is likely to convey more than the English progress, since it suggests the beginning of a course of thought or action for the change of old to new. This title was retained when the autobiography was eventually published 35 years later. It was in pursuit of this vision that he led his people to flirt, successively, with the perceived ideal of the Japanese transformation, then with the slavish imitation of Europe, and finally with the glitter of American technocratic efficiency.

And all of a sudden, here he was in the last decade of his reign with his personal glory established beyond any doubt but with the progress of Ethiopia having been materially negligible. Half a century of striving power had left a gaping hole between the solitary personal glory he had achieved and the dream that had animated his youth. How was this gap to be bridged?

When it was proposed to him that a statue be erected in his name, the emperor chose instead to use the money collected for this purpose for the establishment of a university on the premises of his old palace. This intention marked the beginning of a return to his first love, which was later to be even more fully expressed by the conscious emulation of



The Haile Sellassie I Prize 7 Yust 61

the example of Alfred Nobel, i.e., the creation of a system which would disseminate the ideal of progress among his people by inspiring the

Ethiopian nation to rise to the same heights of heroic self-sacrifice that had distinguished the earlier struggle for independence. The mechanism for putting into effect this ideal was to be none other than the Haile Sel- lassie Prize Trust, which was to be financed entirely by the Emperor's personal fortune.8 The Prize Trust devoted its resources9 toward chan-

neling the energies of the Nation to pursue excellence in fields consid- ered most important to national needs and aspirations. By honoring and publicizing these achievements as models, its aim was to urge the Nation toward modernity.

The Prize Trust was fully conscious, however, of the perils of an

undiscriminating commitment to foreign ideas of progress. They might deny national self-identity, and/or negate and clash with traditional national pride and independence. It was also aware of the fact that intellectuals of the early part of the century had seen this very danger. Thus to scholar Gebra-Egziabher Gilay's observation that one has to: "exam- ine every possibility in order to be able to choose the best,"10 his contem-

porary Heruy W. Sellassie remarks that "examining everything and dis-

cerning good from evil is a science by itself."11 More recently, Dasta Takla-Wold humorously retorted that: "one does not glitter with bor- rowed jewelry."12

The Prize Trust consciously strove to adopt as its driving force a new

concept of progress which would avoid ready-made models, encourage self-reliance and, above all, resist fickleness and retreat when con- fronted by a discouraging challenge. These were all qualities conspicu- ously absent in the efforts of the emperor.

No doubt the emperor expected the Prize Trust to respond to his own preference. But to his great surprise and to the astonishment of the

trustees, it went on to operate according to its own logic. Now, there was no conflict on the commitment to the idea of progress to which

we, too - the directors as well as committees - had given our undivided

loyalty. What we did have in common, in glaring contrast with the

trustees, was our refusal to be manipulated and our determination to make the organization run in the interest of the Ethiopia of our vision. In other words, the Charter, shorn of its grandiose language, became an instrument for advancing new ideas of progress in open defiance of es-



62 Berhanu Abebe

tablished views and expectations. So irreverent and cosmopolitan was the mood of the Trust that it was hardly conscious of the difficult artic- ulation between our attitude and the political realities of the time. It is not certain whether we were aware of the consequences of "the rise in expectations" we provoked and how these would eventually tarnish our euphoria for progress.

Here, I would particularly like to mention - not without a sense of acute personal loss - the inestimable intelligence, experience, and artic- ulateness which Kassa Wolde-Mariam, then president of the Haile Sellassie 1st University, brought to our effort as the chairman of the executive council of the Prize Trust. He went out of his way to assist us in every detail of our activities, revealing the apprehensive solicitude of a man who knew too much about the concealed imminence of the class struggle which would preside over the tragedies of the years ahead. I would also be guilty of omission if I did not confess my easy complacency with regard to the dangers of Marxism which, I believed, had absolutely no chance of taking root on Ethiopian soil, where private land ownership and a long-standing tradition of individuality would be strong bulwarks against its establishment. What innocence!

All this is evident enough. But still it might be said that the group of "new progressives" was more gullible than others and that, drawn by the allure of imperial-hero worship, it bent itself to the demeaning task of image-making. I believe I retain a sufficient balance of mind not to fall into the temptation of special pleading or to delude myself with any expectation of leniency for having served what I believe was a great idea.

Be that as it may, if the emperor had any hidden motive of self- glorification over and above the stated aims of the Charter, then one can confidently say that the management and the committees of the Prize Trust certainly did not lend him a helping hand. The long list of recipients of the prize as well as the evolution of the Charter itself, tes- tify to their jealously guarded independence.

All this notwithstanding, the emperor did, indeed, consider the Prize Trust his favorite child, at least during my tenure as director. This did not, however, prevent the institution from behaving like an enfant terri- ble. As heir to intellectual antecedents from the beginning of the century, it made a virtue of the same qualities of "openness, independence



The Haile Sellassie I Prize Trust 63

of judgment, an aggressive patriotism, pride and boldness," which have just been evocatively recalled by Joseph Tubiana in his preface to Alain Rouaud's recently published biography of Afa-Warq Gabra- Iyassus.13 With respect to economic development, our objective was mainly to loosen the vice of necessity, to abolish the dictatorship of neediness, so that members of our society, with few opportunities, might share in the benefits of advancement. The difference in approach between our generation and the previous one is that they proposed ex- emplary virtues, while we were looking for models of concrete achieve- ment. We did not despise past humanity, and we did not seek to pave a shortcut to Paradise through revolutionary turmoil, as was the case with the following generation. Unfortunately, the elders did not per- ceive the difference.

In fact, far from expecting the glorification of the emperor's image, the trustees were concerned that the institution would go out of control and become a dangerous center of subversion. This was true, in particular, after 1969, when Ato Addis Alemayehu received the award. For example, in November 1971, President Nimeri of the Sudan, who happened to be in Addis Ababa on an official visit, was invited to attend the award ceremony. While we were waiting for him in the lobby of Africa Hall, the Chairman of the Trustees abruptly asked me my opinion on the visitor. I told him that the recent killing of Al-Shafi Muham- mad al-Sheh was shocking. He replied, with an air of visible agitation, that this was a clear philo-communist reaction. As it happened, he could not have been more in error in entertaining such a suspicion. But in view of the then-current perception of the Prize Trust in court circles, I must admit his accusation was hardly unexpected. There were, indeed, a number of coincidences that served to feed the suspicions of the emperor and the trustees. In particular, I would point to the seem- ing complicity of the citations made by the Prize Trust and the acceptance speeches of the winners of awards, which both instinctively and repeatedly shunned the language of flattery and obsequiousness that court tradition expected. Let me cite just a few examples.

Professor Wolf Leslau was awarded the Prize for Ethiopian Studies (1965) in recognition of his work in linguistic and cultural studies. His acceptance speech was entirely devoted to the subject of the intellectual

maturity of the people at large:



64 Berhanu Abebe

It is a sign of intellectual maturity that the Award for Ethiopian Studies was given to a non-national for his contribution to Ethio-

pian Studies.... To illustrate from my experience the attitude of the non-intellectual towards his own culture: in my investigation of the various languages of Ethiopia I often come upon a non- intellectual who was curious about my reasons for giving attention to languages such as Thaha, Selti and Argobba. And when I said I did it 'latarik,' that is for history, for research, he understood this reason and gave me his full cooperation.

There was a similar occurrence when the Prize Trust honored Theodore Monod (1967) for his pioneering work in establishing the sig- nificance of the Saharan region for Africa. His speech drew attention to the extraordinary interest that Ethiopia had as "a crossroads" for various geographical trends; as "the home of various endemic species," both of animal and plant forms; and as the origin point of "human creativity and civilization." Here again, emphasis is given to the country and not to the ruler.

Last, here is another set of examples showing the convergence of so- cial aims from two different points of departure. A young aristocrat, Lij Merid Birru, who had won the Prize for Agriculture (1971), was presented as follows in the citation:

Agriculture has ceased to be a field of encounter between the interest of landlord and the labour of the serf. Today, it has become an honourable profession, ennobled by the vigour and enthusiasm brought to it by the dedication of a young elite. The presence of Lij Merid Birru among these meritorious farmers is a shining il- lustration of the emergence of Agriculture as a noble occupation in our country and of the determination of the young generation to seek its dignity in labour.

To this citation, which was made as an affirmation of faith, the winner

replied in the following terms:

As the saying goes "As the father, so the child." Our fathers, conditions permitting, have fulfilled their obligations by protecting



The Haile Sellassie I Prize TYust 65

boundaries, exploring the country, administering the people; and the responsibility of our generation being to safeguard this legacy every one ought to work according to his ability

If the remarkable convergence of these thoughts - a convergence, it must be emphasized, that came about without any forethought or coor- dination - reflects on the projection of an image, then it reflects the image of Ethiopia, and certainly not that of the emperor. That the latter may have been in the background is a point that I will readily concede. But then, was there one single innovation of the Ethiopia of the time where such was not the case?

Toward the end, when the Student Movement, despairing of the seemingly interminable reign of the emperor, launched its campaign of opposition, the unhappy privilege of giving public expression to the general malaise fell to Aleka Tiberu Gemme, who was awarded the Educa- tion Prize (1970) for 60 years of service in teaching qene.

"Fortunate he who meets a happy end." These few words, delivered in the traditional cadence of Ge'ez, constituted his entire acceptance speech preceded only by a declamation of the emperor's name repeated three times. "Haile Sellassie! Haile Sellassie! Haile Sellassie!"

From this time onward, the traces of the Emperor's growing decay became evermore boldly imprinted on the background of a crumbling Empire - the decline of the one fast accelerating and re-enforcing that of the other.

The reason given by the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces - alias, the Derg - on Pagume 6, 1966 (1974) for closing down the Prize Trust, was that the sole purpose of the institution was: "to glorify in Africa and the rest of the world the name of one individual above that of Ethiopia and its people." I will simply say that I find this assertion thoroughly repugnant. You will therefore not be surprised if I should not feel impelled to challenge a provision that not only sets out to erase a name, but also to discredit an institution whose aim and task have been the encouragement and recognition of a national and international elite in the service of Ethiopia and Africa. Suffice it to say that the suppression of the Prize Trust is one typical example of the Derg's shortsightedness and pernicious vandalism.



66 Berhanu Abebe

Notes

1. Charter article 17.E. 2. After the 1972 Award, Ato Bekele Beshah, manager general of the

St. George Brewery, was appointed as a fifth trustee. 3. After the 1969 Award, he replaced Lij Kassa W. Mariam as a trustee

and as the chairman of the executive council. 4. Charter article 15. 5. Though he had accepted the award, his opinion still remains un-

changed after 20 years. 6. The Staff Regulations of the Prize Trust (article 3, par. 2) spelled

out, in 1968, that "integrity, independence and impartiality" were required of all personnel in the performance of their duties.

7. "The Haile Sellassie Prize Trust," a booklet published in 1965, p. 4. 8. The donation includes 153 gashas of land located in Hararge; 60

gashas in Arsi; 3,382 m2 in Addis Ababa, and an annual contribution of Birr 400,000 from the net profit of the St. George Brewery. In 1972, Ato Bekele Beshah officially informed me that the Brewery had made no profit. As of July 1973, the Brewery was totally trans- ferred to the Prize Trust. Cf. Annex of the Charter and Album published on the 10th Anniversary of the P.T.

9. For the period 1963-1973, the Album published on the 10th An- niversary gives the following financial statement. National and International Awards: Birr 1,544,301; income: Birr 8,743,724; ex- penditures: Birr 6,221,175; properties and investments: Birr 643, 541; money invested on development farms: Birr 887,447.

10. Booklet first printed in 1924. 11. Heruy W. Sellassie, "Goha Sebah" (1924 Eth.) preface p. 1, par. 2. 12. Desta Takla-Wald, Amharic Dictionary 1970 , 63. 13. Alain Rouaud, Afa-Warq ( 1868-1947 ), with a preface by Joseph

Tubiana (Paris: Edition du Centre national de la recherche scien- tifique, Diffusion, Presses du CNRS, 1991), 13.



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