Photo courtesy of The Morrab Library Penzance.
Celeste Aida, forma divina,
Mistico serto di luce e fior,
Del mio pensiero tu sei regina,
Tu di mia vita sei lo splendor.
Il tuo bel cielo vorrei ridarti,
Le dolci brezze del patrio suol…
From ‘Aida’ by Guiseppe Verdi. Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni.
When I was a kid we lived next door to a man whose claim to fame was that during WW2 he had extracted one of the Emperor Haile Selassie’s teeth. Our neighbour was graphic artist not a dentist, so how did this come about? I have no idea and all these years later there is no one left to ask. The consequence of my hanging on to this bit of extreme trivia for virtually my whole life, has been a weird feeling that somehow I had a connection with Ethiopian royalty. A bit like that song from the 1920's - I danced with a man who danced with a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales. The man who taught me to draw trees once had his hands in an Emperor's mouth.
The extraordinary photograph above was taken in the grounds of St Clare School Penzance probably in September 1937. Standing beside His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Elect of God, is his eldest granddaughter the ten year old Princess Aida Desta, her eyes demurely looking at the ground. A year earlier Ethiopia had been occupied by Mussolini’s Fascists, Haile Selassie had been banished from his kingdom and Aida’s father executed for being part of the resistance. The Emperor settled in Bath and Princess Aida started her education in Penzance, then in Malvern and in 1942 at Newnham College Cambridge where she read history. A devout Christian she attended the chapel at Selwyn College every day. The Princess was only two or three years younger than the novelist Rosamund Pilcher who also went to St Clare School. I suspect that Rosamund left as Aida arrived, but wouldn’t it be fun to think they met! Here is Aida at Cambridge, I love how smiling and elegant she is - she’s come a long way in a few years.
After the war was over and the royal dynasty of Ethiopia restored, the Princess continued to support her grandfather in royal duties. In 1949 she married Mengasha Seyoum a Prince of Tigray and they had five children. Her life may have moved quietly onwards in the same way for years but fate had another twist. In 1974 there was a Soviet backed coup d’état in Ethiopia. The Emperor, whose ancestral line led back to King Soloman and the Kingdom of Sheba was deposed and he died a year later.
Initially Prince Aida was held prisoner in the castle that she lived in in Tigray but eventually she was moved to Addis Ababa and together with her elderly mother and other female members of the royal household, she was kept prisoner for fourteen years. Conditions were dreadful. The storeroom of the Akaki prison where the women were kept was constantly lit. They shared one mattress on the floor, the room was infested with vermin, there was no medical provision and one of the princesses died.
In the UK a campaign was started for the release of the Royal Ladies of Ethiopia. David Harris the MP for Bath was a stalwart supporter. Humanitarian organisations and the United Nations got involved but sadly the women were not liberated until 1988.
Aida’s husband had escaped the coup and after being in hiding in the mountains of Ethiopia he made his way to the US where the princess eventually joined him. She died in 2013. Her husband Ras Mengasha is now the senior surviving member of the Royal Dynasty of Ethiopia and still lives in Addis Ababa aged 96.
I make this recipe for Berbère spice mix from the suggestion on the Great British Chefs website. I use it when I make sticky chicken and sometimes in meatballs. It is the traditional flavouring in Ethiopian food.
BERBERE SPICE
2 tbsp of dried chillies
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp cardamom pod
2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp flaky sea salt
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
Grind the first seven ingredients together, then add the rest and grind again. Store in a cold dark place and use within a month or so.
Heavenly Aida, divine form,
Mystical garland of light and flowers,
You are queen of my thoughts,
You are the splendour of my life.
I want to give you back your beautiful sky,
The sweet breezes of your native land…
Translation of the above.
What a fascinating and sad story!
Well I never. I knew you were special, but nothing like this! I hope Aida Desta liked Penzance, and that people were kind to her there. I just had a look at some contemporary newspapers, and found an item in the Cornishman in 1942, saying that she had been placed in the first class in a national competition sponsored by the Royal Drawing Society. There’s quite a few other articles (which I haven’t read) but she seems to have been at St Clare’s for at least five years.