Haile Selassie

Haile Selassie, born Tafari Makonnen, became regent and then emperor of Ethiopia, presenting himself as a moderniser and centraliser. His appeal to the League of Nations after Italy's 1935 invasion, and his return from exile in 1941, made him a symbol of resistance to colonial conquest, and the Rastafari movement came to revere him as a divine figure. His long reign grew increasingly autocratic and out of touch, and famine and discontent led to his overthrow by the Marxist Derg in 1974. He died in custody in 1975; the circumstances of his death are widely believed to have been murder, though this has never been fully established.