''Ras'' Mesfin Sileshi (

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

: መስፍን ስለሺ; 5 July 1905 – 23 November 1974) was an Ethiopian Major General and politician.

Biography

He was born in 1905, in Lafto

kebele A ward (; ; ) is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia: a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. Somali word that has meaning of collected people where water is fairly sufficient and available to prolongue thei ...

in Webera

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Hararghe Hararghe ( ''Harärge''; Harari language, Harari: ሀረርጌ፞ይ, هَرَرْݘٛىيْ,''Harargêy'', Oromo language, Oromo: Harargee, ) was a provinces of Ethiopia, province of eastern Ethiopia with its capital in Harar. Etymology Harargh ...

. His father was ''

Dejazmach Until the end of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Mesafint ( , modern transcription , singular መስፍን , modern , "prince"), the hereditary royal nobility, formed the upper ...

'' 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 Shewa (; ; Somali: Shawa; , ), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa, is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is located at it ...

. 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. He was briefly

Mayor of Addis Ababa The Mayor of Addis Ababa () is head of the executive branch of Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 c ...

in 1947. In 1955 he joined the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

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 ''gasha''s (2,000,000 ha) in Illubabor and Kaffa alone, in addition to large estates in Shewa and Hararghe. 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 A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot(s) or The Patriot(s) may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American R ...

' Association, the national association of veterans of the resistance and a fiercely pro-monarchy group. He was arrested by the

Derg The Derg or Dergue (, ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when they formally "Civil government, civilianized" the ...

in August 1974 during the "creeping coup" and was among those summarily executed in the

Massacre of the Sixty The Massacre of the Sixty, or Black Saturday (, ''tikuru kidami''), was an execution that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia commissioned by the Derg Government of the Derg, government against 60 imprisoned former government officials at Kerche ...

References

{{Authority control 20th-century Ethiopian politicians Mayors of Addis Ababa Assassinated Ethiopian military personnel Assassinated Ethiopian politicians 1905 births 1974 deaths African politicians assassinated in the 1970s People executed by Ethiopia by firing squad Politicians assassinated in 1974