Four Haile Selassie facts

1. Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia from 1916 until a year before his death on August 27 1975. For the first ten years he was acting ruler under Empress Zawditu, from 1926 he was in charge of the army and considered the king, then finally in April 1930, the death of Zawditu brought him the title of negasa negast – king of kings.

2. He was thought to be a direct descendent of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. This gave him great personal respect in the Christian country.

3. He became known as Ras Tafari in his early days. In the 1930s, a belief arose in Jamaica that Tafari was a god and would return black people to their homeland. These people became known as Rastafarians, the religion popularised by the likes of Bob Marley.

4. He spent the final year of his life under house arrest after resigning from his role on 13 September 1974. He died 11 months later.