Haile Selassie Speaks

Haile Selassie I Calls For Union Of Africans

Below are extracts from His Majesty's
Address unto the Historic Conference of
Independent African States held in Addis
Ababa from May 25, 1963...

... WE STAND TODAY ON THE STAGE OF world affairs, before the audience of world opinion. We have come together to assert our role in the direction of world affairs and to discharge our duty to the great continent whose two hundred and fifty million people we lead. Africa is today at mid?course, in transition from the Africa of Yesterday to the Africa of Tomorrow. Even as we stand here, we move from the past into the future. The task on which we have embarked, the making of Africa, will not wait. We must act, to shape and mould the future and leave our imprint on events as they slip past into history.

"...We seek, at this meeting, to determine whither we are going and to chart the course of our destiny. It is no less important that we know whence we came. An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as Africans...

Fettered And Bound

"...The events of the past hundred and fifty years require no extended recitation from Us. The period of colonialism into which we were plunged culminated with our continent fettered and bound; with our once proud and free peoples reduced to humiliation and slavery; with Africa's terrain cross?hatched and checker?boarded by artificial and arbitrary boundaries... Africa was a physical resource to be exploited and Africans were chattels to be purchased bodily or, at best, peoples to be reduced to vassalage and lackeyhood. Africa was the market for the produce of other nations and the source of the raw materials with which their factories were fed.

Today, Africa has emerged from this dark passage. Our Armageddon is past. Africa has been reborn as a free continent and Africans have been reborn as free men. The blood that was shed and the sufferings that were endured are today Africa's advocates for freedom and unity...

Free And United

"Today, we look to the future calmly, confidently and courageously. We look to the vision of an Africa not merely free but united. In facing this new challenge we can take comfort and encouragement from the lessons of the past. We know that there are differences among us. Africans enjoy different cultures, distinctive values, special attributes. But we also know that unity can be and has been attained among men of the most disparate origins; that differences of race, of religion, of culture, of tradition, are no insuperable obstacle to the coming together of peoples...

The road of African unity is already lined with landmarks. The last years are crowded with meetings, with conferences with declarations and pronouncements. Regional organizations have been established. Local groupings based on common interests, backgrounds and traditions have been created.

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