PREFACE
For many years, the gates of the Ethiopian National Palace were closed. Only officials and employees, members of the government and a few distinguished guests could enter. General Fresenteb Amde, administrator and later director of the palace, from 1965 until 2009, was nevertheless keen to open the gates to all those who could contribute to safeguarding and promoting the heritage preserved there. In 2006, he invited Denis Gérard, one of the authors of this book, to digitise the photographic albums of Haile Selassie, which were discovered over several years by the palace team in various rooms of the Jubilee Palace. This spectacular collection comprises several thousand images, and it was a great privilege to select about a hundred photographs presented in this book.
The selection process was an arduous one: the number of images, as well as the varying time periods and narratives were a major challenge. As the collection is mainly devoted to the figure of Haile Selassie, the Ethiopian nation and their links with the world, we organised the selected images in seven themes: family, rise to power, war and exile, portraits, home affairs, and international affairs, with the world and with Africa. The predominance of images relating to international relations, both in the album collection and in this selection, reflects the unique place occupied by Ethiopia in the 20th century-world. We felt it was important to conclude the album with a chapter devoted to relations with the African continent at the time of independence.
Several ideas guided our selection. We sought to make visible the places of Haile Selassie, the Jubilee Palace, of course, but also the Guenet Leul Palace, located in Sidist Kilo, which today houses the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University. Some of the iconographs are classics, others are already well known, but most of them have never been shown to the public before. During the selection process, we have kept a few portraits of photographers, these images showing us some of the equipment used to produce the documents we have before us. All the photographs have been captioned with the limited information available to us; we have sometimes added elements of context to help interpret them. A simplified Amharic transliteration system was used to meet the challenges of a trilingual work.
A number of articles accompany the photographs: a historical introduction to the reign of Haile Selassie by Shiferaw Bekele, an interview with Denis Gérard who explains his mission to digitise the photographs, a presentation of the collection of albums of the Jubilee Palace by Estelle Sohier, Haile Selassie’s speech at the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 and, finally, a reflection on the legacies of Haile Selassie by Giulia Bonacci. These texts provide context for the photographs. They evoke the conditions of production and the political uses of these albums, which we consider to be historical sources as well as collections representing Ethiopian heritage. As such, even if this selection of photographs shows only a tiny part of a magnificent collection, we are delighted that they will be made available to the public, alongside the opening of the new museums of the Jubilee Palace.
A book is always the fruit of long-term work and the support of many people. It would not exist without the trust placed in Denis Gérard by the late General Fresenteb Amde (1925–2009), to whom he opened the doors of the palace and this collection. We would like to thank the team who then facilitated access to the albums: Ketzna Mitikie, Yebaka Mckonnen and Getachew Assefa. The support given to this publication by Mitiku Deressa, Director General of the Palace Administration, by Minnestot Tiku, Director of the Palace Museum and by Myriam Said, Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office, was invaluable and we are very lucky to thank them all. We are indebted to Shiferaw Bekele, whose generosity greatly contributed to this book, and we warmly thank him for his keen eyes, his sympathetic attention and his professional selectivity. We are profoundly grateful to Guenet Abraham for her generous attention to the graphics of this book. Working closely with Assefa Tesfaye and the whole team at Shama Books was a real pleasure. We have benefitted from the advice of Professor Fasil Giorghis, Jacques Dubois, Jan Jackers, Bruno Leclerc, Jean Schneider and Anna Roy, as well as the attention of Prince Bedane Mariam and Princess Mariam Sema. Thanks to whom many questions were completed. Friends and colleagues agreed to respond to our numerous requests to identify a place, confirm the identity of a face, or refine text. Thank you to Amanou Baturi Yabara, Marie Audé Fouré, Alema Gray, Jake Homiak, Erin McLeod, Vanessa Marion, Bérénice Morizeau and Julian Niaah. They have all contributed to the beautiful book you are holding in your hands, and we take responsibility for any remaining error or omission.
Giulia Bonacci, Denis Gérard, Estelle Sohier |
