The Autobiography of the Emperor Haile Selassie I: « My Life and Ethiopia’s Progress » 1892-1937.

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Emperor Haile Sellassie, as Regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor from then till 1974, was the dominant influence in Ethiopia throughout the twentieth century. He dictated this autobiography during his sojourn at Bath, in 1937, while his country was under Fascist occupation, but it was not published until the Amharic original appeared early in 1973. In its political and intellectual texture this is the product of the 1930s and belongs to a world that is wholly disparate from the atmosphere of the last quarter of this century.

The present translation is literal rather than literary and intended to reflect the thought categories and flavour of the Amharic original. The annotation seeks to provide purely factual background information; it deals with matters of substance only and is not meant to offer either a critical commentary or divergent views. As no comparably sizable piece of Amharic has been rendered into English, this version will also be of interest to students of Ethiopia’s national language.

[1976] Edward Ullendorff is Professor Emeritus of Ethiopian studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a winner of the Haile Sellassie International Prize for Ethiopian Studies. His books include:

• The Ethiopians
• An Amharic Chrestomathy
• Ethiopia and the Bible
• Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library
• The Challenge of Amharic

Biblethiophile, 21.08.2026