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Last Updated: Thursday, 12 May, 2005,
10:35 GMT 11:35 UK

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The last of the Ethiopian emperors

By Daniel Dickinson

BBC News, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Thirty years ago, Haile Selassie, Ethiopia's last emperor died
after a rule of 45 years. Daniel Dickinson travels to Addis Ababa to
visit the emperor's former palace and meets one of his servants.

Mamo Haile began working for the emperor when
he was
17

Seventy-eight-year-old
Mamo Haile is a man with stories to tell about British royalty,
international diplomacy, famine, film stars and a coup d'etat.

He used to be one of Emperor Haile Selassie's personal servants,
a man who was once too scared even to look the emperor in the eye,
but who was later trusted with serving Queen Elizabeth II orange
juice.

You will find him shuffling around the first floor of Ethiopia's
Ethnographic Museum, Emperor Salassie's one-time palace.

He keeps dust from settling on his former employer's regal but
not so king-size double bed.

'Trusted servant'

He shows tourists into the once off-limits dressing room and
royal marbled bathroom, complete with light blue Italian porcelain
bath and his-and-hers washbasin.

The fading black and white photographs
now lining the halls of the museum reveal a ruler who saw
himself at the centre of international politics

These
days, the grey-haired Mr Mamo cuts a solitary and serious figure in
his threadbare jumper and white porter's coat, but it was not always
like that.

His life as one of Haile Selassie's most trusted servants began
when he was 17 after the emperor was helped back into Ethiopia by
British forces, who had driven away the Italian colonisers.

"I was a poor soldier from the countryside and following the
emperor's triumphant return to Addis, he picked me out of a parade
to serve him," Mr Mamo told me.

"The emperor told me I was handsome and would work in his palace,
but I was very scared of working for him and couldn't even look at
him."

Foreign dignitaries

Mr Mamo soon graduated from messenger boy to bed maker, and
finally became the man responsible for serving drinks to foreign
dignitaries, a position he held for many of the 30 years he spent
working at the palace.

And there were plenty of foreign dignitaries.

The fading black and white photographs now lining the halls of
the museum reveal a ruler who saw himself at the centre of
international politics.

They show him as a man who, during the Cold War, was willing to
court both East and West.

Haile Selassie with Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, with Nikita
Khrushchev of the then Soviet Union, with Richard Nixon, the former
US president.

There are also pictures of a young Queen Elizabeth II on a visit
to Addis Ababa as well as one of the American film star Robert
Wagner, of whom the emperor was apparently a big fan.

"My job was to keep these foreign guests happy by serving them
whatever drink they wanted," Mr Mamo said.

"I remember Queen Elizabeth, who came with her husband. She
wanted orange juice. Marshal Tito wanted hard liquor, whisky I
think."

Mr Mamo cannot remember what Nikita Khrushchev ordered, but does
say he was a friendly man.

Famine

It is difficult to imagine Mr Mamo
voicing any criticism of Haile Selassie, perhaps that is not
surprising given his length of service

Mr
Mamo talks proudly about just how popular Haile Selassie was, not
just with the visitors from overseas, but also his own people, many
of whom lived in extreme poverty.

That popularity did not last.

In 1973, an estimated 200,000 Ethiopians died in Wollo province
as a result of a famine, a famine which was famously brought to the
world's attention by the BBC's Jonathan Dimbleby.

According to his faithful servant, Haile Selassie at first knew
nothing of the famine.

"The emperor was shocked and deeply saddened. I went with him to
Wollo. He had no idea his people were suffering like this," he said.

It is difficult to imagine Mr Mamo voicing any criticism of Haile
Selassie, perhaps that is not surprising given his length of
service.

It is also difficult to imagine just how he felt when a group of
army officers with a Marxist agenda, calling themselves the Derg,
overthrew Haile Selassie in a military coup. It was 1974.

"The emperor took it calmly and as his servant I did the same. It
was my duty," Mr Mamo said.

"He wanted to avoid bloodshed, so he gave up power for the good
of his people and without fighting."

Preservation

The last emperor of Ethiopia died a few months later from natural
causes, according to the Derg who had had him under house arrest
ever since he was overthrown.

No-one it seems, including Mr Mamo, knows the real story.

The emperor's loyal servant now wanders the rooms of the
palace-cum-museum, surrounded by mementoes of a royal past.

He has worked here for the last 14 years on a meagre salary,
remembering better days.

He insists on showing me the life-size tapestry of Haile Selassie
as well as his military uniform and collection of medals.

He points proudly to the bed, saying he saved it from being
destroyed by the Derg.

As I left the palace, I asked Mr Mamo how Ethiopia would be now
if the emperor was back on his throne.

It was the only time he broke into a smile during our meeting.

"I would be more than happy to see him back in his palace," was
what he told me.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Thursday, 12 May,
2005 at 1100 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme
schedules for World Service transmission times.

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SEE ALSO:

Country
profile: Ethiopia
05 May 05 |
Country profiles

Haile
Selassie funeral moves closer
03 Oct
00 |  Africa

RELATED BBC LINKS:

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This Day: 1954: Ethiopian emperor visits UK

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