Haile Selassie: Controversial Ethiopian Emperor Turned Rastafarian Messiah

Haile Selassie I was the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 who holds, in the eyes of many, a polarising legacy. Covered in this biopic of Selassie’s life is his path to power, his Western-style modernization programme and securement of Ethiopia to be one of the first non-western nations in the League of Nations, as well as the Second Italo-Ethiopian war and the events that led to his four-year long exile in the city of Bath, England. In the second half of the documentary we hear about Selassie’s reinstatement of power, the eventual abolition of slavery in Ethiopia in 1942, the Eritrean War of Independence and the rise of Rastafarianism that viewed Selassie as a Messiah, based on Ethiopia being one of the few African countries which was not colonized by the Europeans. The last 20 years of Selassie’s reign, however, saw a decline in his popularity as his regime turned increasingly authoritarian. From Elizabeth II to Cleopatra, Real Royalty peels back the curtain to give a glimpse into the lives of some of the most influential families in the world, with new full length documentaries posted every week covering the monarchies of today and all throughout history.