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19.09.2018 Feature Article

Nkrumah’s Success Story And The Failure Of Haile Selassie In Egypt

Emperor Haile Selassie and Kwame NkrumahEmperor Haile Selassie and Kwame Nkrumah
19.09.2018 LISTEN

Both Kwame Nkrumah and Emperor Haile Selassie made headlines in Egypt but the success and impact of Nkrumah's stories overshadowed that of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Even while Nkrumah's marriage with Fathia blossomed, Haile Selassie's own was a failure.

Once in an Egyptian stadium with President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a young man who was sitting on one of the upper row seats had wanted to have a glimpse of Nkrumah and he plunged deep and tumbled below.

Nkrumah witnessed the fall and quickly rushed to the scene to see if the young man sustained any injuries. He survived but Nkrumah did something people weren't expecting in a foreign country.

Right at the stadium, he pulled out a couple of notes from his pocket and arranged for the young man to be transported to the hospital. Nkrumah had many remarkable stories making him the most famous African leader.

In Egypt, Nkrumah successfully married Fathia but Emperor Haile Selassie's plan to marry a beautiful woman called Jamila Tawfiq Andraus, born in 1939, the eldest daughter of a famous Coptic Christian and a friend of Egyptian leader, Saad Zaghloul, failed.

The Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie attended the opening ceremony of the Diocese Cathedral in Abbasid. During the visit, he asked the Coptic family in Egypt if he could marry Jamila.

Sources from a published article revealed that Jamila Tawfiq had refused to marry Emperor Haile Selassie because of her desire to stay with her family in Luxor. She was afraid to live in Ethiopia, which was then desolate.

Haile Selassie who was crowned king in 1928, and Emperor in 1930, was overthrown in 1974, by a Communist revolution led by Mengistu Haile Meriam. The communists announced his death, but it turned out that the allegation was false. Haile Selassie died in 2008, after his disappearance from the public's sight for many years.

Jamila lived without marriage with her two sisters, who also did not marry in their palace in Luxor, far from the lights, in keeping with the traditions of the conservative family, and merely managing their vast property.

This explains her refusal to appear in media interviews and the scarcity of her personal pictures. As at the time of writing this article, I searched for Jamila's photographs in the best way one could easily get someone's photograph but I couldn't get one.

Jamila died in 2011, after suffering a fever and was transferred to Luxor International Hospital. A simple funeral ceremony was held for her and buried in the tombs of the family near the temple Karnak east of Luxor.

That closes the story on the life of a wealthy Egyptian queen who refused to marry the Emperor of Ethiopia.

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