In 1931, Mr. Addison E. Southard was in his third year serving as the United States Ambassador to the country of Ethiopia. This country in northeastern Africa was ready to crown a new king. In "Modern Ethiopia: Haile Selassie the First, Formerly Ras Tafari, Succeeds to the World's Oldest Continuously Soverign Throne", he makes us acquainted with the new king and the country for which he has much admiration (
National Geographic Magazine, June, 1931).
Imagine: this new king was descended from "the dynasty of Menelik the First, who was born of
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, a dynasty perpetuated without interruption from that time to King Schale Selassie and to our times" (p. 681). King Haile Selassie was "the 334th of all the Kings of Ethiopia and the 134th of the
Christian Kings of the Empire" (p. 683).
The land of Ethiopia includes "more than 350,000 square miles of the rich and productive northeastern African plateau. It is mainly a mountainous region, much broken by deep valleys. Arid, semidesert country surrounds it on every side. It does not touch the sea" (p. 687). In 1931 there were 5,000,000 Christian Ethiopians, the long-ruling people, and 7,000,000 Moslems and Pagans.
The particular dominant religion is called "Coptic Christian," and the country claims to be the oldest Christian State. The teachings of Jesus Christ, the son of God, was brought to the country in the 4th century by two shipwrecked Phoenician youths, Frumentius and Acdesius. The Coptic Church "has always been the educational force of Ethiopia" (photo caption, p. 714).
Very little of any part of Ethiopia was modern, compared to America, the European countries, and the large cities of the world in 1931. Ethiopia was still a feudal society with multiple princes and tribes. Much of the army rode horseback. There were only a few automobiles, American, and approximately fifty miles of passable roads in the capital city, Addis Ababa.
There was one railroad, 500 miles long, built by the French from their city, Dijbouti to Addis Ababa. The trains ran two days per week - only in the daytime due to the attacks by natives in the wilderness at night, their practice of blocking tracks to cause derailments (because it amused them), and large herds of animals roaming the country at night which also, the case of rhinoceri, caused derailments. It took three days to travel the 500 miles. Mr. Southard reports, "No third-class coach on this railway is complete without a
rack from which to hang the rifles and SPEARS of the passengers. Windows and doors are rarely, if ever, closed. The problem of ventilation, which in these much-crowded cars would be one of importance, thus solves itself" (p. 699).
At night, the train stopped and passengers slept in train station buildings. "Food and accomodations are simple. The most essential thing is a good mosquito net" (p. 714). During a period of twenty minutes one day, the author counted seven passing herds of gazelles and antelopes and one rhino.
There must have been an incredible number of free-running lions in 1931. The article's section of color photographs showed many men, including the new King himself, wearing lion manes either around the shoulders or as a tall hat. "When an Ethiopian kills a lion, he has the right to demand a special audience from the Emperor during which to declaim and act out the feat. Afterwards he is privileged to wear the mane and skin as part of his warrior dress" (p. 706). The new King would give endangered animals legal protection.
No wonder leopards also came to be an endangered species: "Many a leopard skin involuntarily contributes his skin to American feminine fashion. As many
as 100,000 of these spotted skins of European origin have gone to American furriers in a
single year" (p. 731). Monkey furs were also exported from Ethiopia by the thousands in 1931.
In addition to the animal hides and skins, elephant tusks were also exported at that time, highly prized as ivory. These also would come to be legally protected.
The Ethiopians were fierce fighters, never conquered by a European colonial power, as were the other African nations.
FYI: One ostrich egg took the place of
24 chicken eggs (photo caption, p. 705).
Although the soil of Ethiopia was extremely fertile, agricultural methods were highly primitive. The new King would begin to make many improvements in this industry, and asked for American help. Ethiopia is the country of origin of the coffee plant. In 1931, there were areas of native wild coffee plants and also cultivated coffee plants.
Mr. Southard writes,"An outstanding impression which I have of this country during the fourteen years I have known it first hand is the feeling of friendship and admiration for the United States and its citizens freely expressed by all classes of the dominating Ethiopian element of the population. American visitors to the country, who fortunately are becoming more frequent, are received with courtesy and cordiality" (p. 737).
He concludes, "My friend the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs says: "We are the only purely native-governed State in Africa. We have a culture as old as any, with our own literature and our own grammatical language. Our country has the longest continuous history of stable sovereignty in the world" (p. 738).
In these visits to another country in the pages of
National Geographic Magazine, I always must research the year 2013 with questions: what is the land called now? What is the government? How large is the population? Tragically, when King Haile Selassie died in 1974,
the Communists took over the country! Where were their friends, the United States? What mass deaths and cruelties were inflicted on the people such as happened in many Communist takeovers? The Communists were ousted in the early '90s and now the country is a republic. 2012 population estimate was 91 million. I will look forward to answers to my questions in future articles about Ethiopia.