Former Ethiopian Head of State, Emperor Haile Selassie
"We must look,
first, to Almighty God, who has raised man above the animals and endowed him
with intelligence and reason. We must put our faith in Him, that He will not
desert us or permit us to destroy humanity which He created in His
image."- Emperor Haile Selassie.
"Haile Selassie’s address to the United
Nations on October 6, 1963, including the ‘War Speech’ which became one of Bob
Marley’s hits."
An Awareness
Of Our Past Is Essential To The Establishment Of Our Personality And Identity
As Africans - Emperor Haile Selassie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loFDn94oZJ0
Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum in
Geneva, Switzerland, to address the League of Nations and to appeal for relief
from the destruction which had been unleashed against my defenseless nation by
the Fascist invader. I spoke then both to and for the conscience of the world. My
words went unheeded, but history testifies to the accuracy of the warning that
I gave in 1936.
Today, I stand before the world
organization that has succeeded to the mantle discarded by its discredited
predecessor. In this body is enshrined the principle of collective security, which I unsuccessfully invoked at Geneva. Here, in this Assembly, responds the
best - perhaps the last - hope for the peaceful survival of mankind.
In 1936, I declared that it was not the Covenant of the League that was at stake, but international morality.
Undertakings, I said then, are of little worth if the will to keep them is
lacking. The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of
man: abjuration of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the
assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction
as to race, sex, language, or religion; the safeguarding of international peace
and security.
But these, too, as were the phrases of
the Covenant, are only words; their value depends wholly on our will to observe
and honor them and give them content and meaning. The preservation of peace and
the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal
vigilance: the courage to speak and act - and if necessary, to suffer and die - for
truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of
international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied.
These lessons must be learned anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed which
learns from other than its own bitter experience. This Organization and each of
its members bear a crushing and awesome responsibility: to absorb the wisdom of
history and to apply it to the problems of the present, in order that future
generations may be born, and live, and die, in peace.
The record of the United Nations
during the few short years of its life affords mankind a solid basis for
encouragement and hope for the future. The United Nations has dared to act when the League dared not in Palestine, in Korea, in Suez, in the Congo. There
is no one among us today who does not conjecture upon the reaction of this
body when motives and actions are called into question.
The opinion of this Organization today acts as a powerful influence on the decisions of its members. The spotlight of
world opinion, focused by the United Nations upon the transgressions of the
renegades of human society, has thus far proved an effective safeguard against
unchecked aggression and unrestricted violation of human rights.
The United Nations continues to serve as the forum where nations whose interests clash may lay their cases before
world opinion. It still provides the essential escape valve without which a slow build-up of pressure would have long since resulted in
a catastrophic explosion.
Its actions and decisions have sped the achievement of freedom by many
people on the continents of Africa and Asia. Its efforts have contributed to
the advancement of the standard of living of people in all corners of the
world.
For this, all men must give thanks. As I stand here today, how faint, how remote are the memories of 1936. How
different in 1963 are the attitudes of men? We then existed in an atmosphere of
suffocating pessimism. Today, cautious yet buoyant optimism is the prevailing
spirit.
But each one of us here knows that what has been accomplished is not enough. The United Nations judgments have
been and continue to be subject to frustration, as individual member-states
have ignored its pronouncements and disregarded its recommendations.
The Organization's sinews have been weakened, as member-states have shirked
their obligations to it. The authority of the Organization has been mocked, as
individual member-states have proceeded, in violation of its commands, to
pursue their own aims and ends.
The troubles that continue to plague
us virtually all arise among member states of the Organization, but the Organization remains impotent to enforce acceptable solutions. As the maker and enforcer of international law, what the United Nations has achieved still
falls regrettably short of our goal of an international community of nations.
This does not mean that the United Nations has failed. I have lived too long to cherish many illusions about the
essential high-mindedness of men when brought into stark confrontation with the
issue of control over their security and their property interests. Not even
now, when so much is at hazard, would many nations willingly entrust their
destinies to other hands.
Yet, this is the ultimatum presented to us: secure the conditions whereby men will entrust their security to a larger entity, or risk annihilation; persuade men that their salvation rests in the subordination of national and local interests to the interests of humanity,
or endanger man's future. These are the objectives, yesterday unattainable,
today essential, which we must labor to achieve.
Until this is accomplished, mankind's future remains hazardous, and permanent peace a matter for speculation. There is
no single magic formula, no one simple step, no words, whether written into the
Organization's Charter or into a treaty between states, which can automatically
guarantee to us what we seek. Peace is a day-to-day problem, the product of a
multitude of events and judgments. Peace is not an "is", it is a
"becoming." We cannot escape the dreadful possibility of catastrophe
by miscalculation.
But we can reach the right decisions
on the myriad subordinate problems which each new day poses, and we can thereby
make our contribution and perhaps the most that can be reasonably expected of
us in 1963 to the preservation of peace. It is here that the United Nations has
served us - not perfectly, but well. And in enhancing the possibilities that
the Organization may serve us better, we serve and bring closer our most
cherished goals.
Emperor Haile Selassie, right, and the former Ghanaian leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
I would mention briefly today two particular issues which are of deep concern to all men: disarmament and the
establishment of true equality among men. Disarmament has become an urgent
imperative of our time.
I do not say this because I equate the absence of arms to peace, or because I
believe that bringing an end to the nuclear arms race automatically guarantees peace, or because the elimination of nuclear warheads from the arsenals of
the world will bring in its wake that change in attitude requisite to the
peaceful settlement of disputes between nations.
Disarmament is vital today, quite simply, because of the immense destructive capacity which men dispose of.
Ethiopia supports the atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty as a step towards this goal, even though only a partial
step. Nations can still perfect weapons of mass destruction by underground
testing. There is no guarantee against the sudden, unannounced resumption of
testing in the atmosphere.
The real significance of the treaty is that it admits of a tacit stalemate between the nations which negotiated it, a
stalemate which recognizes the blunt, unavoidable fact that none would emerge
from the destruction which would be the lot of all in a nuclear war, a
stalemate which affords us and the United Nations a breathing space in which to
act.
Here is our opportunity and our challenge. If the nuclear powers are prepared to declare a truce, let us seize
the moment to strengthen the institutions and procedures which will serve as
the means for the pacific settlement of disputes among men. Conflicts between
nations will continue to arise.
The real issue is whether they are to be resolved by force or by resort to peaceful methods and procedures,
administered by impartial institutions. This very Organization itself is the
greatest such institution, and it is in a more powerful United Nations that we
seek, and it is here that we shall find, the assurance of a peaceful future.
A real and effective disarmament has been achieved, and the funds now spent in the arms race devoted to the amelioration
of man's state; were we to concentrate only on the peaceful uses of nuclear
knowledge, how vastly and in how short a time might we change the conditions of
mankind? This should be our goal.
When we talk of the equality of man, we find, also, a challenge and an opportunity; a challenge to breathe new life
into the ideals enshrined in the Charter, an opportunity to bring men closer to
freedom and true equality. And thus, closer to a love of peace.
The goal of the equality of man, which we seek, is the antithesis of the exploitation of one people by another, with
which the pages of history, and in particular those written of the African and
Asian continents, speak at such length. Exploitation, thus viewed, has many
faces.
But whatever guise it assumes, this evil is to be shunned where it does not exist and crushed where it does. It is
the sacred duty of this Organization to ensure that the dream of equality is
finally realized for all men to whom it is still denied, to guarantee that
exploitation is not reincarnated in other forms in places whence it has already
been banished.
As a free Africa has emerged during the past decade, a fresh attack has been launched against exploitation,
wherever it still exists. And in that interaction so common to history, this,
in turn, has stimulated and encouraged the remaining dependent peoples to
renewed efforts to throw off the yoke which has oppressed them and its claim as
their birthright the twin ideals of liberty and equality.
This very struggle is a struggle to establish peace, and until victory is assured, that brotherhood and
understanding which nourishes and gives life to peace can be but partial and
incomplete.
In the United States of America, the administration of President Kennedy is leading a vigorous attack to eradicate
the remaining vestiges of racial discrimination from this country. We know that
this conflict will be won and that right will triumph. In this time of trial,
these efforts should be encouraged and assisted, and we should lend our
sympathy and support to the American Government today.
Last May, in Addis Ababa, I convened a meeting of Heads of African States and Governments. In three days, the
thirty-two nations represented at that Conference demonstrated to the world
that when the will and the determination exist, nations and peoples of diverse
backgrounds can and will work together. In unity, to the achievement of common
goals and the assurance of that equality and brotherhood which we desire.
On the question of racial discrimination, the Addis Ababa Conference taught, to those who will
learn, this further lesson: that until the philosophy which holds one race
superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and
abandoned; that until there are no longer first-class and second-class
citizens of any nation.
That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his
eyes; that until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all
without regard to race; that until that day, the dream of lasting peace
and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a
fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.
And until the
ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique,
and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and
destroyed; until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman
self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and
goodwill; until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the
eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven; until that day, the
African continent will not know peace.
We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the
victory of good over evil.
The United Nations has done much, both directly and indirectly, to speed the disappearance of discrimination and
oppression from the earth. Without the opportunity to focus world opinion on
Africa and Asia, which this Organization provides, the goal, for many, might
still lie ahead, and the struggle would have taken far longer. For this, we are
truly grateful.
But more can be done. The basis of racial discrimination and colonialism has been economic, and it is with
economic weapons that these evils have been and can be overcome. In pursuance
of resolutions adopted at the Addis Ababa Summit Conference, African States
have undertaken certain measures in the economic field which, if adopted by all
member states of the United Nations, would soon reduce intransigence to
reason.
I ask, today, for adherence to these measures by every nation represented here, which is truly devoted to the
principles enunciated in the Charter. I do not believe that Portugal and
South Africa are prepared to commit economic or physical suicide if honorable
and reasonable alternatives exist.
I believe that such alternatives can be found. But I also know that unless peaceful solutions are devised, counsels
of moderation and temperance will avail for naught, and another blow will have
been dealt with this Organization which will hamper and weaken still
further its usefulness in the struggle to ensure the victory of peace and
liberty over the forces of strife and oppression.
Here, then, is the opportunity presented to us. We must act while we can, while the occasion exists to exert
those legitimate pressures available to us, lest time run out and resort be had
to less happy means.
Does this Organization today possess the authority and the will to act? And if it does not, are we prepared to
clothe it with the power to create and enforce the rule of law? Or is the
Charter a mere collection of words, without content and substance, because the
essential spirit is lacking?
The time in which to ponder these questions is all too short. The pages of history are full of instances in which
the unwanted and the shunned nonetheless occurred because men waited to act
until too late. We can brook no such delay.
If we are to survive, this organization must survive. To survive, it must be strengthened. Its executive
must be vested with great authority. The means for the enforcement of its
decisions must be fortified, and, if they do not exist, they must be devised.
Procedures must be established to protect the small and the weak when threatened by the strong and the mighty.
All nations that fulfill the conditions of membership must be admitted and allowed
to sit in this assemblage.
Equality of representation must be assured in each of its organs. The possibilities which exist in the United
Nations to provide the medium whereby the hungry may be fed, the naked clothed,
the ignorant instructed, must be seized on and exploited, for the flower of
peace is not sustained by poverty and want.
To achieve this requires courage and confidence. The courage, I believe, we possess. The confidence must be created,
and to create confidence, we must act courageously.
The great nations of the world would do well to remember that in the modern age, even their own fates are not wholly
in their hands. Peace demands the united efforts of us all. Who can foresee
what spark might ignite the fuse? It is not only the small and the weak who
must scrupulously observe their obligations to the United Nations and to each
other.
Unless the smaller nations are accorded their proper voice in the settlement of the world's problems, unless
the equality which Africa and Asia have struggled to attain is reflected in
expanded membership in the institutions which make up the United Nations,
confidence will come just that much harder. Unless the rights of the least of
men are as assiduously protected as those of the greatest, the seeds of
confidence will fall on barren soil.
The stake of each one of us is identical - life or death. We all wish to live. We all seek a world in
which men are freed of the burdens of ignorance, poverty, hunger, and disease.
And we shall all be hard-pressed to escape the deadly rain of nuclear fallout should catastrophe overtake us.
When I spoke at Geneva in 1936, there was no precedent for a head of state addressing the League of Nations. I am
neither the first nor will I be the last head of state to address the United
Nations, but only I have addressed both the League and this Organization in
this capacity.
The problems which confront us today
are, equally, unprecedented. They have no counterparts in human experience. Men
search the pages of history for solutions, for precedents, but there are none.
This, then, is the ultimate challenge.
Where are we to look for our survival, for the answers to the questions which
have never before been posed?
We must look, first, to Almighty God, who has raised man above the animals and endowed him
with intelligence and reason. We must put our faith in Him, that He will not
desert us or permit us to destroy humanity which He created in His image.
And we must look into ourselves, into the depths of our souls. We must become something we have never been and for
which our education and experience, and environment have ill-prepared us. We
must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit,
larger in outlook.
We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing to our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to
our fellow men within the human community.
