The Annual Victory of Adwa Dinner for 2024 was held 23 March 2024 in Washington, DC.
Proceeds from the sale of photographs on this website – which also includes photos from the 2019-2023 Victory of Adwa Dinners – will go to support The Crown Council of Ethiopia.
Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie would like to thank his good friend and colleague Paul du Quenoy of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute for his ongoing commitment to supporting the work of the Ethiopian Crown Council generally and its Holy Trinity Cathedral renovation campaign specifically.
CHERISHED SYMBOL: Members and friends of the Ethiopian community in the nation’s capital joined visitors from the Palm Beach Freedom Institute to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, constructed by the late Emperor Haile Selassie to commemorate the liberation of his country from Italian forces during World War II. The final resting place of the Emperor, other members of the Imperial Family and national patriots, the Cathedral is considered the “crown jewel of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church,” the late monarch’s grandson and gala patron, Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, told guests before a concert of traditional music, dinner and dancing to the sounds of the Alex Donner Orchestra. After noting that his country sadly remains better known for famine, oppression and civil war — “a legacy that is still rearing its ugly head” — the Prince said he hoped the Cathedral would continue to “symbolize a new Ethiopia and a new Africa” in the years to come.
CHAMPIONS OF LIBERTY: “We oppose the horrors of communism in all its forms,” Freedom Gala chairman Paul du Quenoy noted, “and are proud to honor our stalwart Ethiopian friends as they emerge from its tyranny.”
[Source: Washington Life Magazine – https://washingtonlife.com/digital-edition/#nov2023_1]
Last month, representatives of the Ethiopian Crown Council traveled to Panama for an official visit hosted by the Panamanian government. HIH Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie, President of the Crown Council, led the delegation, which included his wife HIH Princess Saba Kebede and advisors to the Crown Council representing the Moa Anbessa Institute. The trip, organized by the Tourism Authority of Panama, included meetings and events with Panama’s ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture, and Tourism. These activities were part of a larger event on the theme of reunion between Africa and the African diaspora. Other guests included Her Majesty Queen Diambi of Congo’s Bakwa Luntu people; His Royal Highness Doctor Rilwan Sulaiman, Emir of Bauchi (Nigeria); and His Royal Highness Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the ooni of Ife (Nigeria).
On May 19, Prince Ermias gave a speech on the subject of colonialism and “The Unfinished Road to Freedom.” He described Ethiopia’s unique role in African history as the continent’s sole unconquered country and stressed the role that the Ethiopian monarchy played in unifying Ethiopia in the face of European aggression. He suggested that the final step in the liberation process was to “decolonize our minds.” He invited the audience to consider Africa’s wars over ethnicity, ideology, and natural resources, and asked “whether these are really our own values, or whether they have been imposed on us from the outside.” In his concluding remarks, he argued that “Africa’s traditional monarchies are a symbol of Africa’s freedom,” and called upon all Africans to “build a new generation of Africans proud of our traditions.”
On May 24, Prince Ermias joined the leadership of the Rastafarian community of Panama at an event hosted with the Ministry of Culture and the National Secretariat for the Development of Afro-Panamanians. Leading Rasta intellectuals presented on the topic of Rastafarians as a nation without a state. Prince Ermias gave a speech exploring the connections between the Rasta movement, Ethiopia’s church, and Ethiopia’s crown. He recorded the long history of support the African diaspora and the Rasta movement have given the Ethiopian crown, particularly during World War II and the years since the revolution of 1974.
In this speech, Prince Ermias invited the Rasta community to build closer ties to Ethiopia and to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. “The church gives me a goal and a guide,” he said in his concluding remarks, “the inspiration we can find in the humility, love, and forgiveness of Jesus and his ultimate sacrifice. The crown gives me a burden to carry, the obligation I owe to my cousins, my uncle, my grandfather, and to all of our ancestors, the duty I have to preserve the memory of my family and its role in the history of my culture and my people. So I have both a burden and a guide. The Rastas who have grown ever closer to our church and the Rastas who stand loyal to our crown have carried the same burden with me, following the same guide.”
Coverage of the Crown Council trip to Panama in the press and in social media has been extensive, and Prince Ermias’s speech to the Rasta community received live televised coverage. Ethiopian news site Borkena published a statement about the trip by the Moa Anbessa Institute on June 7. That statement read, in part:
It is our belief that the process of healing and reconciliation for the purposes of promoting and fostering peace and unity on the basis of a common history and identity starts with education, understanding and an open heart to learn and to forgive. Thus, it is only when we understand, forgive past injustices and reconcile with our history that we can begin to chart a path forward built on mutual trust, confidence and partnership beneficial to all people including the environment in which we live.
The Crown Council is grateful to support from the Moa Anbessa Institute and for the presence of its representatives on this trip. The Moa Anbessa statement makes an important point. Education and understanding are crucial for peace and reconciliation, both in Ethiopia specifically and Africa more generally. The Crown Council invites all Ethiopians to join in this journey, and invites everyone to remember the crucial role that Africa’s traditional institutions have to play in building bridges of peace and reconciliation, and in building Africa’s future.
His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie met on May 20, 2021, in Rome with His Holiness Pope Francis I.
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Interview with Australia’s SBS broadcasting system and its Amharic channel with HIH Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie Haile Selassie, President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia.
New York (TADIAS) — Mr. Aklilu Demessie, a Board member and Vice President of the Menelik Foundation in Cleveland, and one of the founders of the Society of Ethiopians Established in the community Diaspora (SEED), has been honored by Ethiopian Crown Council for his lifetime achievements in community service. The announcement notes that Mr. Demessie is “an active member of the core group that has helped establish a Sister Cities agreement between the city of Cleveland and Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.”
Mr. Demessie received the prestigious Knight Grand Cross from Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, who is the grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie, during the annual Victory of Adwa Commemoration dinner & award ceremony held at the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C. on February 29th.
Mr. Demessie is “one of the select group of holders of the Knight Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Star of Ethiopia — one of the most venerated decorations of the Solomonic gift,” the announcement stated. “The honor is one of the highest Ethiopian rankings and included the formality of a dubbing with Imperial Court Sword on both shoulders by Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie.”
The press release added that Mr. Demessie is also “a member and Vice President of the board of the International Community Council and Worldwide International Network (ICC-WIN) of Cleveland Ohio in which 121 countries are represented. He has served as the President of the Northeast Ohio Ethiopian Community Association (NEOECA) as well as President of the Ethiopian Cleveland Connection (ECC) in the 1990s. Mr. Demessie is one of the founding Board members of The Society of Ethiopians Established in the Diaspora (SEED) which gives scholarships to outstanding high school graduates and identifies future leaders among American-born kids of Ethiopian heritage, and encourages good citizenship and community service in addition to honoring and awarding their adult role models on the same stage annually.”
Aklilu Demessie holds an MS in Engineering Mechanics and BS in Civil Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to that he spent a year as an American Field Service, AFS scholar in the USA and graduated from Oberlin High School in Oberlin, Ohio in 1971.
Per the announcement Mr. Demessie “started his professional career at Cleveland Pneumatic Company as a Stress Analyst and progressed to a Supervisory position in the Engineering Department over the years. Mr. Demessie worked as a Senior Engineer/Group Leader at the former Goodrich Landing Gear with over 40 years of experience as a professional in this area. Currently, he is retired but works part time at Collins Aerospace in the Landing Gear Division in Independence, Ohio.”
Mr. Demessie, who lives in Hudson, Ohio is married and has two adult children, Menna Demessie, PhD, Nebyat Demessie, MHSA (both graduates of WRA) and his wife of 42 years, Zufan L. Demessie, RN, BAcy.
Interview today with Australia’s SBS broadcasting system and its Amharic channel. Discussion on the Ethiopian Crown and Ethiopian Government, including Nobel Prize Winner Dr Abiy Ahmed Ali.
“Emperor Haile Selassie followed the model of Emperor Menelik ensuring that Ethiopia should remain independent and dignified country.” – Gregory Copley, President of ISSA, and its Zahedi Center for the Study of Monarchy, Traditional Governance, and Sovereignty
Ethiopian Crown Council President His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie was the focus of a major report in the national US magazine, Vanity Fair, which appeared on newsstands on May 1, 2018. Full text of the article can be seen on the magazine’s website.
A Statement from the Crown Council of Ethiopia by its President, His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie
We wish all Ethiopian People, at home and in the Diaspora, a blessed Ethiopian Christmas (Melkam Genna).
There is strength in forgiveness, so may this wondrous holiday season usher in an era of peace and reconciliation amongst all our people, remembering that what we share in our three millennia of collective history — our bond — is greater than anything which could temporarily divide us.
We are all at a crucial crossroads in our great nation. Where there were mistakes and miscalculations we need an earnest reform and corrections. These require of us a courageous commitment of action: Sincere applications and concrete steps to fulfill promises of words. Inevitably, challenges will emerge, but the key is to reflect with patience and magnanimity in seeking tolerant outcomes.
We are all encouraged by the spirit of reconciliation. True reconciliation cannot exist in the absence of justice and it must include an affirmation to correct inequalities, real or perceived. It is a journey as well as a destination.
Let us embark on this path with open hearts and vigilance. We are all stakeholders, and which outcomes we choose will determine our collective destiny. Ethiopians are an ancient and wise people, confident in their faith and humanity. Let us pray that sanity and magnanimity will prevail over hatred and violence.
Let us all embrace challenges as opportunities. Let us all commit ourselves to work for peace not only amongst ourselves with all our neighbors within Ethiopia’s boundaries and within a region peopled by our cousins. We have known each other, and shared with each other, for many millennia. We can, and will, resolve any obstacles, and build a great future together.
May the Almighty continue to guide and bless our People and Country. Let us chart together a peaceful and prosperous Nation, confident in itself and its future.Ethiopian Samson Berhane, 27, reads a previous month’s Ethiopian Business Review, featuring Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, at his office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
