President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia
3 Puagme 2015 / 12 September 2023
To the greatly respected and loved people of Ethiopia and people of Ethiopian heritage, I wish to extend my good wishes as our benevolent creator crosses us over from the Ethiopian year 2015 into the new year of 2016.
This holiday, which we have celebrated as “Enqutatash” for many centuries, is rooted in culture, history and faith. In the Old Testament of the Bible it is related that the ancient Queen of Sheba traveled to Jerusalem to see for herself and learn about the great wisdom granted to Solomon by God. To show that this deed was a blessed one, the New Testament Gospel of St. Matthew praises her, saying “The Queen of the South shall rise up at the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it.” This holiday is called “Enqutatash” because the Queen returned to her country Ethiopia at this time of year, and her nobles presented her with a tribute of jewels or “Enqu” to celebrate her return. When this great queen returned to her homeland at the start of the new year, she was also approaching the date at which she would give birth to her son Emperor Menelik I, who was fathered by King Solomon. So the new year holiday is also connected to the establishment of the Solomonic Dynasty which reigned in our homeland for 3000 years and was the pride of our country. For this reason all who love their country and their history have celebrated this holiday through the ages.
Over the past 49 years, there has been an effort by successive regimes to belittle our history, to erode our native culture, traditions and philosophies ,and replace them with foreign and alien philosophies and false histories. They have worked to create separation and clashes between our people who have long intermarried and lived together for centuries, in order to divide and rule, and have caused untold misery to the country. In recent years we have seen wars and displacement caused by ethnic division at a level we have never seen before in our history. We have also seen assaults on Churches, Mosques and religious leadership in an unprecedented and shocking manner. In these past 49 years the tribulations that have descended upon our country are unequaled in our history. The answer to these troubles is not division but togetherness. His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I gave a speech to parliament on the 25th Anniversary of his coronation and the presenting of a new constitution in which he said “It has been our desire that all born citizens of our Empire be represented in parliament in proportion to their numbers, and that irrespective of ethnicity or religion that there be no distinction between them in their rights. That all Ethiopians have equal rights and that our beloved people live as one great family in brotherhood has been our constant aim and goal.” Even now, we have far more that unites us than separates us and ties us together. Therefore we should raise the goals of His Majesty once more and choose the path of peace, unity, equality and brotherhood, which I believe most of our people recognize is the only path forward out of this crisis.
I ask that all of us pray that the new year be one in which the spirit of love and brotherhood is brought down and spread across our country by our Creator. May His mercy and His Peace be upon us all.
May Ethiopia Live Forever in Glory
Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie Haile Selassie
President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia
