His Majesty’s teachings also include the following (often SELECTIVELY IGNORED) and had NO ISSUES with AFRIKAN IDENTITY, Awareness, Consciousness and Experience:
So long as one African lives in subjugation, none of us is more than half free."
"- Haile Selassie I ቀ;ዳ;ማ;ዊ; ኃ;ይ;ለ; ሥ;ላ;ሴ;
"An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as Africans.”
And until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained...
Africa is our nation and is in spiritual and physical bondage because her leaders are turning to outside forces for solutions to African problems when everything Africa needs is within her. When African righteous people come together, the world will come together. This is our divine destiny.
"That is why I decided to come myself to bear witness against the crime perpetrated against MY PEOPLE and give EUROPE a WARNING of the DOOM that awaits it, if it should bow before the accomplished fact.
In greater measure, Ethiopia will continue to support the campaign to end colonialism and will continue to do so until all dependent territories in Africa and elsewhere breathe the clean air of freedom and independence.
"Our liberty is meaningless unless all Africans are free"
Racial discrimination constitutes a negation of the spiritual and psychological equality which we have fought to achieve and a denial of the personality and dignity which we have struggled to establish for ourselves as Africans.
Those men who refused to accept the judgment passed upon them by the colonisers, who held unswervingly through the darkest hours to a vision of an Africa emancipated from political, economic, and spiritual domination, will be remembered and revered wherever Africans meet. Many of them never set foot on this continent. Others were born and died here. What we may utter today can add little to the heroic struggle of those who, by their example, have shown us how precious are freedom and human dignity and of how little value is life without them. Their deeds are written in history.
Haile Selassie
Towards African Unity - 1963
Let Us say, first of all, that Ethiopia considers herself a member of ONE GROUP ONLY - the AFRICAN group. We will join in any deliberations, we will consider any plan, we will debate any proposal anywhere, and at any time, provided that it contributes to the maintenance of world peace, the development of Africa's human and material resources, and the protection of this continent's legitimate interests."
Haile Selassie - 1961
(Selected Speeches 215)
TEACHINGS OF HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY...Ethiopia is a country with her own cultures and mores.These, our cultures and customs, more than being the legacy of our historical past, are characteristics of our Ethiopianness. We do not want our legacies and traditions to be lost. Our wish and desire is that education develop, enrich, and modify them.May the Almighty God be with you in the fulfillment of your duties. Sep. 23, 1963
Africa has struggled long and determinedly to rid itself of the yoke of oppression and exploitation. Africans now, with the end of the struggle in view, with this long-desired goal in sight, will not willingly see victory wrenched at the last moment from their grasp. Do not seek to perpetrate, in some different guise, the old forms of economic and political exploitation and oppression. If, in truth, the basic struggle in the world today is for the minds of men, then that nation or group of nations which seeks to impose its will upon any African people will most assuredly be vanquished in this struggle. Africa needs and desires and welcomes the help of others, both physical and moral, but Africa must nevertheless be left to develop herself, her people, her resources, as Africans determine. Leave to us, freely and without qualm, the choice between good and evil, between injustice and justice, between oppression and liberty. Our choice will be the right one, and History will judge us, and you, the better for it.
There are those who claim that African unity is impossible. That the forces which pull us, some in this direction, others in that, are too strong to be overcome. Let us confound them. And, by our deeds, disperse them in confusion." - Haile Selassie I
We are meeting here today to lay the basis for African unity. Let us, here and now, agree upon the basic instrument which will constitute the foundation for the future growth in peace and harmony and oneness of this continent. Let our meetings henceforth proceed from solid accomplishments. Let us not put off, to later consideration and study, the single act, the one decision, which must emerge from this gathering if it is to have real meaning. This Conference cannot close without adopting a single African Charter. We cannot leave here without having created a single African organisation possessed of the attributes We have described. If we fail in this, we will have shirked our responsibility to Africa and to the peoples we leawd. If we succeed, then, and only then, will we have justified our presence here.
Let us act as befits the dignity which we claim for ourselves as Africans, proud of our own special qualities, distinctions, and abilities. We must speak out on major issues, courageously, openly and honestly, and in blunt terms of right and wrong.
H.I.M
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