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December 19, 2015

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Untold story of Selassie's wife

Published:Sunday
| April 15, 2012 | 12:00 AM

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Christopher Serju, Sunday Gleaner Writer

"It doesn't matter who
did it, but people find it interesting that it is me."

This admission from Anjahli
Parnell has to do with the publication of her first book The Biography of Empress Menen Afsaw, The Mother of
the Ethiopian Nation, which is considered quite an achievement in and
of itself, documenting as it does the life of a matriarch of the Ethiopian
royal family.

Parnell, a white woman born
in Anchorage, Alaska undertook voluminous research, travelled to South Africa,
and Ethiopia and spent hours talking with people who know the royal family in
order to get an accurate representation of a woman respected the world over
for her unflinching commitment to the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, and
the people of that nation.

The journey which started in
2009 with a trip to South Africa, culminated with the book launch at the Bob
Marley Museum, St Andrew on Tuesday, April 3 the 121st anniversary of Empress
Menen's 'earthday' (birthday).

It adds much substance to the
meagre body of personal information about the woman who was crowned alongside
the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, whose official title was King of
Kings and Lord of Lords on Sunday, November 2, 1930, spending 47 years together
before predeceasing him in 1962. The most notable work on Empress Menen's life
prior to Parnell's book is the 50-page document by Yared Gebre Michael. With
240 pages inclusive of 62 historic photographs Empress
Menen Afsaw, the Mother of the Ethiopian Nation offers much more than a
glimpse into the everyday life of this remarkable woman.

It records how while husband
Haile Selassie was engaged on the battlefield, among other things the empress
established childcare centres and handicraft schools, and pursued successful
business ventures while always attending to the needs of her family. Empress
Menen also experienced a great deal of sorrow and personal hardship, including
the loss of seven of her 10 children, spent five years in exile during the
Italian occupation of Ethiopia and coped with the everyday struggle of
on-going health problems.

For the author, who is
married to a Rastafarian and lives in Jamaica but is herself not Rastafarian,
the gruelling hours spent on the road and other hardships encountered trying
to verify information which in most cases had to be translated first from the
original Ge'ez to Amharic and then English, it was a difficult task. Still,
she is proud of what is still a work in progress and there are some errors
such as the misspelling of the Empress' name, Asfaw which appears as Afsaw on
the cover. This, however, in no way detracts from what is definitely a
well-needed and timed delivery, which was as much a joy in the
conceptualization as gestation for Parnell, who admits as much.

"This entire project has
felt like a gift from God, and so it is offered to the world with that in
mind. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to highlight such an
extraordinary woman, Empress Menen. May her good works be remembered and
treasured," she shared with The Sunday
Gleaner.

In his endorsement of the
text, His Imperial Highness, Sahle Selassie, the Empress' grandson who is also
president of the Ethiopian Crown Council wrote:

"The rich, complex and
challenging life of Empress Menen has remained obscure for decades. With the
first-time translation and publication of this new volume, I trust readers
will once again become reacquainted with the life of the Empress and her great
contribution to her faith, her country and her family. There were many details
about Empress Menen's life in the book that I learned about through this
biography."

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