Haile Selasse, whose name was Tafari Mekonnen prior to becoming emperor, was a great-grandson of Sahle Selassie of Shewa and a son of Ras Makonnen, a chief adviser to Emperor Menilek II and he was married to Empress Menen, a great-granddaughter of Menilek II.

Haile Selassie was progressive and modernist who sought to modernize his country and who steered Ethiopia into the mainstream of post-World War II African politics. He engineered Ethiopia's entry into the League of Nations in 1923, reasoning that collective security would protect Ethiopia from colonial aggression.  Upon the end of World War II in 1945, Haile Selassie made Ethiopia one of the founding members of the United Nations.

And most importantly, Haile Selassie presided over the establishment of the Organization of African Unity in 1963 and made Addis Ababa the major center for this organization, which gave him the name 'the father of Africa'.