Aklilu Habte-Wold

Tsehafi Ta'izaz Aklilu Habte-Wold ( Amharic ጸሐፌ ትዕዛዝ አክሊሉ ሀብተወልድ ; * March 12, 1912 in Addis Ababa ; † November 23, 1974 there ) was the first Prime Minister of the State of Ethiopia from 1961 to 1974 .

He was born the son of an Ethiopian Orthodox priest. Because the young emperor Haile Selassie wanted to modernize the country, he and other young compatriots were sent to Europe for training. Thanks to the support of the highest royal advisor at the time ( Tsehafi Ta'izaz = royal scribe) Wolde Giorgis Wolde Yohannes received positions at court and rose to the Negus's advisory staff. During the Italian occupation of his homeland, he went into exile in Paris. There he met his wife Colette and married her in 1941. During his exile, he also became a close companion of the exiled emperor and, after the Second World War, Foreign Minister of Ethiopia. In 1958 he replaced the disgraced mentor Wolde Giorgis Wolde Yohannes in the office of Tsehafe Taezaz. In 1961 Habte-Wold became his country's first prime minister. He held this post until March 1, 1974.

During his reign he tried to modernize the country with the support of progressive-minded technocrats. But it failed due to resistance from traditionalists from the ranks of the royal family, the nobility and the Negus advisory board. After unrest in the early 1970s, he came under strong political pressure and resignedly resigned. After the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie, he was arrested, sentenced to death without trial and executed .

Web links

• africadatabase.org ( Memento from August 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
• Teshafi Teezaz Aklilu Abte-Wold in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)