Ailé Selassié, 2007 (digital coloured pencil drawing)

AILÉ SELASSIÉ (ras Tafarì Maconnèn, 23 July 1892 - 27 August 1975) Negus (King) and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, pursued an enlightened policy for his country, both internally and in international relations. He countered the invasion of fascist Italy by pleading the cause of Ethiopia at the League of Nations, however unsuccessfully he decided to take the battle to the military but was defeated, despite having participated and directed the actions himself. To conquer the Ethiopian territories, the Italian air force resorted to the use of chemical weapons against population, land and livestock, poisoning pastures and water. Forced into exile, the emperor managed to return home only in 1941, participating in the reconquest of Ethiopia in collaboration with the local resistance, defeating Italian East Africa, simultaneously with the fall of Fascism at the hands of the Allied forces, at the end of the Second World War. Portrait, illustration by Dariush Radpour, digital colored pencil drawing, 2007.