Hailu Tekle Haymanot - Biography - Hailu During and After The Occupation

Hailu During and After The Occupation

On 2 May 1936, at the very end of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Hailu Tekle Haymanot was still considered enough of a threat that, on his way into exile, Haile Selassie had him removed from prison, bound, and loaded onto his train leaving Addis Ababa. Haile Selassie must have reconsidered and Hailu Tekle Haymanot was released at Dire Dawa. He was released with fellow prisoner Ras Balcha Safo. But, while Balcha Safo went into the hills to fight against Italian occupation, Hailu Tekle Haymanot boarded a train back to Addis Ababa and approached the Italian invaders in submission.

During the occupation, Hailu was treated with respect and given honors few other Ethiopian nobles received from the Italians. He retained his pre-occupation titles of Leul and Ras, and the Italian government awarded him the Star of Italy and the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and restored his lands which had been confiscated from him in 1935. Graziani himself exempted him and his family from the repercussions of Yekatit 12. which led to the deaths or imprisonment of many respectable Ethiopians. The Italians dangled the title of Negus in front of Hailu but never actually granted it to him. The Italian Intelligence Service reported in 1939 that once he was granted that title, Hailu planned to provoke an uprising, drive out the Italians, and assume control of Ethiopia for himself.

In July 1936, a number of surviving Ethiopian soldiers staged an unsuccessful attack on Addis Ababa to wrest control of the capital from the Italian occupiers. Hailu Tekle Haymanot played a part in the surrender of two of the commanders of the attacking forces. Both commanders were sons of Ras Kassa Haile Darge, Aberra Kassa and Asfawossen Kassa. Along with others, both had taken part in the attack and, like most, they attempted to escape capture after the attack failed. Hailu assured Aberra and Asfawossen that, if they surrendered, they would not be harmed. On 21 December, both Aberra and Asfawossen turned themselves in at Fiche. However, once in Italian captivity, they were both executed as rebels.

By 27 September 1939, during the Feast of Maskal in Addis Ababa, Ras Hailu Tekle Haymanot, Ras Seyum Mangasha, and Ras Haile Selassie Gugsa sat with Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta, the Viceroy and Governor General of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI). All three Ethiopian leaders had submitted to Italian control of what had been their homeland and what was now the AOI colony. The Italians eventually returned Hailu to power in Gojjam at the very final stage of their occupation and as their rule began to collapse under the onslaught of British, Commonwealth, and exiled Ethiopian forces.

In 1941, after Emperor Haile Selassie returned to power in Ethiopia, Ras Hailu Tekle Haymanot again switched sides and handed Gojjam over to the Emperor. However, he first made sure that Italian forces had safely evacuated Gojjam. Hailu returned to Addis Ababa with Haile Selassie. He was forbidden from leaving Addis Ababa, but was accorded all the dignities of a senior prince of the Imperial dynasty and head of the House of Gojjam. In the words of Gebru Tareke, he "languished in well-merited obscurity until his death in 1950," which "put the final nail in the coffin of the provincial ruling elite, who had been grudgingly yielding ground to the centralists since the closing decade of the nineteenth century." His funeral was attended by the Emperor and his family and he was accorded a state funeral.