Empress Zewditu of Ethiopia: A Biography

Jun 13, 2025 0

Zewditu (Ge'ez: ዘውዲቱ, born Askala Maryam; 29 April 1876 - 2 April 1930) was Empress of Ethiopia from 1916 until her death in 1930. She was officially renamed Zewditu at the beginning of her reign as Empress of Ethiopia. Once she succeeded the throne after Lij Yasu in 1916, she was described as the first modern-era female head of a nation in Africa. Her official coronation was on February 11, 1917, held in the Cathedral of St. George.

Empress Zewditu of Ethiopia

Zewditu was the Empress of Ethiopia from 1916-1930. She was the last monarch to rule Ethiopia before it became a republic.

Zewditu was born to Negus (King) Menelik of Shewa and Abechi, a noblewoman of Wollo. Zewditu was born on April 29, 1876 as Askala Maryam in the city of Harrar in Enjersa Goro Province, Ethiopia.

Zewditu was raised by her father and his future consort Baffana, and married to Araya Selassie Yohannes, the son and heir of the Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV, plausibly before 1886. Due to her young age and Yohannes’ early death in 1888, no children were produced from this union. Upon the death of Yohannes IV in 1889, the throne passed to Zewditu’s father, Menelik.

Menelik II agreed to submit to Emperor Yohannes’s rule with the stipulation that his daughter, Zewditu, would marry Yohanne’s son and future heir Araya Selassie Yohannes.

In 1902 Zauditu married Ras Gugsa (Gugsa Wolie).

Succession and Rise to Power

When Menelik died in 1913, his grandson through Zewditu’s half-sister Shewa Regga, Iyasu, took the throne, though he was never crowned or publicly proclaimed as king. Upon the death of Menelik II in 1913, Lij Iyasu, the son of Zewditu’s half-sister Shewa Regga, assumed power. The new emperor viewed Zewditu as a threat and ordered her and her husband be taken to the countryside (Falle Province).

Because Menelik had no sons and was reluctant to name a woman to succeed him, he had named his grandson, Lij Iyasu, as his heir, but the heir apparent refused to ready himself for the position. He refused all schooling after the age of fifteen. When Menelik died in 1913, despite Taitu’s objections in favor of her stepdaughter, Iyasu V became emperor. Three years later, he announced his conversion to Islam (1916).

As he had not yet been officially crowned, the Ethiopian Church and the local chiefs removed him and, with Taitu as her champion, named Menelik’s daughter Zauditu as empress, with Ras Tafari Makonnen (later to be known as Haile Selassie) as her regent and heir.

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Reign and Key Events

Zewditu was initially restricted in exercising power, with her cousin Tafari Makonnen appointed as regent and heir apparent, as Zewditu had no surviving children.

Since it was considered unseemly for a woman to serve in her own right, Ras Tafari, the son of Ras Makonnen and a cousin of Menilek, served as Zauditu’s regent and heir apparent.

The early years of her reign were marked by warfare against Iyasu, who was eventually captured and arrested.

Her reign was marked by turmoil between the conservative pro-church group, led by war minister Hapta Giorgis, and the liberal, pro-Western group, led by Ras Tafari.

Gradually, Zauditu became concerned about Ras Tafari’s usurping more and more power.

Haile Selassie I

In 1923 Ethiopia joined the League of Nations, which later authorized an Ethiopian protest against Britain’s plan for division. In 1924 slavery was abolished in Ethiopia. Eventually the country regained access to the sea that had been lost along both the Red Sea coast and the Gulf of Aden.

In 1928, a conservative uprising took place against Tafari’s reforms, but failed to instigate change. Zewditu was forced to grant the title of king to Tafari, and though he remained under Zewditu’s rule he was effectively ruler of Ethiopia.

Emperor Haile Selassie I, Empress Zewditu Freeing Slaves

Death and Legacy

Two years later, Zaudita’s estranged husband, Ras Gugsa, who had been made governor-general of the northern provinces, organized a revolt.

In 1930 Zewditu’s husband rebelled against Tafari to restore his wife’s power, but he was defeated and killed. On the day that she heard the news of Ras Gugsa’s death, Empress Zauditu died (1930), and Ras Tafari was immediately crowned emperor with the title of Haile Selassi I.

Zewditu died two days later, on 2 April 1930.

Zewditu's Rank Among Notable Figures

Zewditu's biography is available in 45 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 41 in 2019). Zewditu is the 788th most popular politician (up from 965th in 2019), the 3rd most popular biography from Ethiopia and the 2nd most popular Ethiopian Politician.

Contemporaries of Zewditu

Among people born in 1876, Zewditu ranks 6. Before her are Pope Pius XII, Jack London, Konrad Adenauer, Mata Hari, and Erich Raeder. After her are Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, Wilhelm Pieck, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Constantin Brâncuși, Pablo Casals, and Alexander I of Serbia.

Among people deceased in 1930, Zewditu ranks 5. Before her are Arthur Conan Doyle, Fridtjof Nansen, Alfred Wegener, and Ilya Repin. After her are Vladimir Mayakovsky, William Howard Taft, Allvar Gullstrand, Joan Gamper, Christiaan Eijkman, Fritz Pregl, and Miguel Primo de Rivera.

Zewditu's Rank in Ethiopia

Among people born in Ethiopia, Zewditu ranks 3 out of 105. Before her are Abebe Bikila (1932), and Haile Selassie (1892). After her are Abraha (600), Menelik II (1844), Mengistu Haile Mariam (1937), Menelik I (-954), Onuphrius (320), Lij Iyasu of Ethiopia (1895), Ismaïl Omar Guelleh (1946), Gebre Mesqel Lalibela (1200), and Sahle-Work Zewde (1950).

Zewditu's Rank Among Politicians

Among politicians, Zewditu ranks 788 out of 19,576. Before her are Viktor Yushchenko, Philip the Arab, Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, Amr ibn Hishām, Sariputta, and Vladislaus II of Hungary. After her are William III of the Netherlands, Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, İsmet İnönü, Enrico Dandolo, Robert the Bruce, and Tony Blair.

Zewditu's Rank Among Ethiopian Politicians

Among politicians born in Ethiopia, Zewditu ranks 2. Before her is Haile Selassie (1892).