Abstract

The History of Ethiopia’s Imperial Constitutions (1931-1974)

Wondwosen Teshome B.
(Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna)

The major aim of this paper is to critically examine the 1931 and 1955 imperial constitutions of Ethiopia, one of the oldest nations of Africa. The paper also attempts to study the contributions of the imperial constitutions to the general constitutional development in the country.
The first written, modern constitution of Ethiopia was promulgated in 1931.
Though it has been always said that Ethiopia got the first written constitution in 1931, in actual fact, the country had a “traditional constitution” known as Fetha Nagast since the 14th century.
Theoretically, the underlying function of any constitution is limiting the power of government’s executive. Though constitution is principally aimed to curb the power of rulers, ironically, Emperor Haile Selassie introduced the 1931 constitution to curb his opponents’ power in the provinces and strengthen the central government’s power which was fully in his hands as absolute ruler. Haile Selassie introduced the 1931 constitution to portray his government in the international arena as modern, and to give a solution to the usual problem of political succession. He wanted to create a smooth constitutionally based transition of political power, contrary to the earlier traditional succession problem in the country where the new king end up imprisoning and confining his kin and kit to eliminate his potential rivals.