This refers to Farouk Luqman’ article, “Emperor Selassie of Ethiopia, a descendant of Queen Sheba,” published on Nov. 30.
I enjoy reading his articles about famous personalities whom he has interviewed, and the way he narrates interesting, and sometimes funny, things about them. This latest article about the ex-emperor of Ethiopia is a case in point.
However, in that article Luqman made a grave misstatement when he said that Haile Selassie liberated Eritrea when the historical fact is that he did exactly the opposite. It is a known fact that Eritreans had been fighting against Haile Selassie and then the Dergue or Derg (a short form of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army), the military junta, that had earlier toppled Sellasie. Eritreans engaged in a fight with them that went on for more than three decades until they liberated their country from Ethiopian occupation.
If Haile Selassie was the liberator of Eritrea why were the Eritreans fighting against him? The case being so, I feel that you owe Eritreans an apology for making them indebted to Haile Selassie whom you considered as their liberator when he was in fact their exterminator. This request stands valid unless you feel at ease with someone who may tell you that Aden was liberated by Imam Ahmed! — Abdulgadir Ismail, By email
