Mesfin Sileshi

Ras Mesfin Sileshi (Ge'ez: መስፍን ስለሺ; 5 July 1905 – 23 November 1974) was an Ethiopian aristocrat and politician.

Lieutenant General Ras

Mesfin Sileshi
መስፍን ስለሺ
Ras Mesfin at a 1967 state dinner
Personal details
Born(1905-07-05)5 July 1905
Lafto, Webera, Hararghe
Died23 November 1974(1974-11-23) (aged 69)
Addis Ababa
Cause of deathExecuted
Spouse(s)W/o Yeshimebet Gunna

Biography

He was born in 1905, in Lafto kebele in Webera awrajja in Hararghe. His father was Dejazmach Sileshi Woldesemayat and his mother was Woyzero Askale Garedew. His brother was Dejazmach Bezabeh Sileshi. At the outbreak of the Italian invasion in 1935, he was a major in the Ethiopian Army. During the occupation, he joined the resistance and became one of its leaders in Shewa.

After liberation, he was appointed Governor-General of Illubabor from 1942 to 1946 and then of Kaffa from 1946 to 1955. During his tenure in Kaffa he encouraged aristocrats and the merchants to adopt modern coffee planting methods, and he had a special interest in coffee planting himself.[1]

He was briefly Mayor of Addis Ababa in 1947. In 1955 he joined the cabinet as Minister of Interior, serving until 1957, when he was appointed Vice-Governor-General of Shewa.

Ras Mesfin was enormously wealthy and widely considered the largest individual landowner in Ethiopia, and his estates were claimed to reach up to 50,000 gashas (2,000,000 ha) in Illubabor and Kaffa alone, in addition to large estates in Shewa and Hararghe.[2] These claims, however, should viewed with skepticism as they are primarily sourced from hostile sources disseminated following the 1974 coup.

He was head of the Patriots' Association, the national association of veterans of the resistance and a fiercely pro-monarchy group.[3] He was arrested by the Derg in August 1974 during the "creeping coup" and was among those summarily executed in the Massacre of the Sixty.

References
  1. New trends in Ethiopian studies : Ethiopia 94 : papers of the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Michigan State University, 5-10 September 1994. Marcus, Harold G., Hudson, Grover., Michigan State University., Thomas Leiper Kane Collection (Library of Congress. Hebraic Section). Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press. 1994. p. 736. ISBN 1569020159. OCLC 31121185.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. Okbazghi, Yohannes (2019). The United States and the Horn of Africa : an analytical study of pattern and process. London: Routledge. p. 121. ISBN 0429315732. OCLC 1105941187.
  3. "Ethiopia in change". Africa (34). 1974. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
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