The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Book Club - King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate
Tuesday 19th April 2016
7:30pm, National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX - all welcome
The Society's book club will discuss Asfa-Wossen Asserate's biography King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.
Haile Selassie I, the last emperor of Ethiopia, was a descendant of King Solomon and an early proponent of African unity and independence. He fought with the Allies against the Axis powers during World War II and was a messianic figure for the Jamaican Rastafarians. But the final years of his empire saw turmoil and revolution, and he was ultimately overthrown and assassinated in a communist coup.
Prince Dr Asfa-Wossen Asserate is the great-nephew of Haile Selassie and spent his childhood and adolescence in Ethiopia before fleeing the revolution of 1974. He knew Haile Selassie personally and gained intimate insights into life at the imperial court. Using his own personal experiences and painstaking research in family and public archives, the author introduces Haile Selassie as a reformer and an autocrat whose personal history - with all of its upheavals, promises, and horrors - reflects in many ways the history of the twentieth century itself.
King of Kings is available in hardback (ISBN 9781910376140).
We will meet in The Long Bar on the ground floor of the National Theatre.
If you would like to attend, or want further information, please email the Book Club.
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King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia by Asfa-Wossen Asserate. Publisher: Haus Publishing, 2015. Hardcover: ISBN:9781910376140 Price: £20.00 |